Thursday, August 29, 2019

Assault on Hastee House Crossroads

The 60 Minute War, as it has come to be known, is over.

The captioned photos illustrate the flow of the battle while the rest of this article will be dedicated to comments by our technical advisor.

The Government First Brigade begins an assault on Hastee House Crossroads. Rebel reinforcements are rushing to reinforce their outpost.
This battle was actually the second attempt by the Government forces to sieze the crossroads. In the morning both armies, well versed in Developed Portable Warfare, were quickly going to ground under effective fire with very few units choosing to retire to a safe position. Once again, as we saw two years ago, in close terrain opposing troops would close in then take cover and could not be persuaded to even stick their heads up once in a while to shoot at an enemy in cover or to retreat but held on waiting to be rescued. Eventually at the end of the day the government forces pulled back after light casualties and no success.

The ruins of the village has been cleared but much time has been lost due to the stubborn defemce.
Once the troops had been fed and rested they were given a pep talk and ordered to forget their developed training and go back to their original, basic Portable Warfare training. The Rebels must have had a similar pep talk as the ensuing fight was fast paced and free flowing with much manouvring and hard fighting. By the time the UN team imposed a cease fire, both sides were near exhaustion after heavy casualties.

An attempt to turn the enemy's left flank has been driven back by accurate artillery and small arms fire but the armoured assault against the rebels has been forcing them steadily back.
Observers in the press corps all agree that the Government forces fought well and inflicted more harm than they received. The new upgunned tanks were disappointing though as they seemed to be unable to knock out the  enemy armour though they did manage to drive them back into the hills. Initially the enemy fire was just as ineffective but in the end their last tank was left guarding the crucial road while our wrecks were scattered across the field.

Some say though, that the fault wasn't with the tanks but that our crews were too brave and refused to pull back regardless of how effective the enemy fire was while the tricksy rebels would quickly retreat when fired on.
Both armies were nearing exhaustion when a UN observer intervened to inform the command on both sides that a new Ceasefire had been signed.  The Government controls the Crossroad but the battered remnant of the stubborn Rebel tank company still holds the East Road. 
Well, perhaps one of the shortest wars in history but who knows how long this ceasefire will last? A week? A Year?  We will have to wait and see.

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Technical Footnote: This game was played using the original Portable Wargame. Once again, (to my chagrin since I was one of those urging Bob to include a Pin rule) the Pin rule in the Developed Portable Wargame detracted rather than added to my enjoyment of the game, partly because it took yet more decision making power from me, something I used to applaud but now have reservations about from a gaming point of view but also because the game started to stall as more and more units were pinned and unable ro recover.

It was also played using my now usual system of an initiative deck with colour indicating who was to go first each turn.  I have gone from being an advocate of activation methods to being a critic of many such systems for a long list of reasons some of which were mentioned in an article in Miniature Wargames a few years ago when Henry was editor (or was it in Battlegames?  oh well).  Bob's card system works fairly well although I would be inclined to be more lenient and have it start with a chance of everyone acting but I didn't want to abandon my turn record and intitiative deck or go with multiple decks. So, I decided to try something different.

Since I have no idea what the activation deck really represents I decided it could include factors that apply to both sides. Therefore when I pulled the turn card, it not only showed who was going first but the number showed how many units each side could activate that turn with Court Cards and Aces allowing all units to act. Worked like a charm to occasionally have quiet spells and force difficult decisions to be made without slowing the game or being lopsided or having excessive effect on the game.

As of now the original PW and this Initiative and Activation deck will be my standard for this collection. Being organized, based and ready to go means that from now on it'll be easier to get this collection out when I'm in the mood.

20 comments:

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    1. Of course it will, just not sure how long....a week? a month?

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  2. Love the charming toy soldier look of the game: I think many readers of a certain age will remember having similar models and toy soldiers at one time or another.

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    1. A few of these are originals from my childhood, others joined them out fits of nostalgia.

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  3. Ross Mac,

    Funnily enough, I've been considering whether or not to revert to using my original PW rules rather than the ones in DPW for my Eastern Front/Great Patriotic War project ... and your latest battle report has convinced me to do just that,

    The battle sounds as if it was great fun, and the report certainly converts that. With your permission, I'd like to mention it on my blog.

    All the best,

    Bob

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    1. You are always more than welcome to do so Bob.

      The Pin sounded like such a good idea but I couldn't think of a way to "fix" it to my satisfaction and the it seems to me now the effects are below the grain of the game. When I played without it, there were still times when units stopped moving to fire back rather than pressing forward and assaulting or when they didn't get activated at all. That's when the narrative comes in to explain it.

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  4. A wonderful looking battle! I particularly enjoy how well it illustrates the relatively low count of figures and vehicles necessary to have an enjoyable game.

    Regarding pinning units, that was one of the first things I dropped from my own rules in my attempt to streamline them. It makes sense, if the goal is to simulate warfare in some way, to have a mechanism for pinning the enemy (it's a useful tactical approach), but as a game, it can leave something to be desired in the way it slows the apparent action, particularly in low unit count games where it doesn't take much for the majority of both sides to be pinned.

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    1. I think it depends partly on the level of the game (what are units? squads? platoons? companies?) and partly on how much detail you want to show and how much control you want over the narrative.

      and on how fast paced you like your games I suppose.

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  5. Great looking game Ross, l look forward to seeing what will happen next...

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    1. Arguments over the shape of the negotiating table probably. Might be back on this table again later this fall.

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  6. The table and troops look great with an entertaining write up. I do hope that peace can be maintained!

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    1. Pretty well guaranteed, at least for a while, they troops are already back in barracks in the cupboard under the eaves.

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  7. A good looking game and as always it is interesting hearing about the rules.

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    1. Thanks. The look is important but the rules are even more important to how the game plays.

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  8. Splendid looking game with some familiar figures and some that are new to me. Interesting that you got bogged down with the Pin/Unpin rules; I keep meaning to try them and forget.

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  9. Another great idea and game Ross.

    I do think that C20 games need to have some method to pin units. I was pondering adding a pin dice when firing so a unit could be pinned without taking a hit. Pinned units being unable to retreat of course but not having to take a casualty (if throwing 3 plus). Something to play with over the weekend.

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    1. I think it partly depends on what units represent and on how the individual rules in a set interact. 3 guys on a base assaulting a big house look more like a squad than a company and at that level a pin result seems appropriate but in my head the units were companies and the low level of detail and the way the rules work means that parts of those companies may well have been pinned while other parts were still able fight effectively. All we can see back at HQ is that A Company has lost 2SP's and not made any progress.

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  10. I quite like the 'Army Men' look of the thing - maybe something I should look more closely at for my own. I liked the look of Tim Gow's 'Little Cold Wars', too, but never got round to doing anything quite the same. Dunno why...

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