The Perils of Modern Wargaming

Consider the following scenario - you show up to a game, the table has beautiful buildings and scenery and fantastically detailed miniatures. It is set in the Baltics during WWII and your command consists of elements of the III SS Germanic Armored Corps deployed North of Narva preparing for the Battle of the Narva Bridgehead. No one complains and everyone enjoys the game.

Now consider this scenario - you show up to a game, the table has beautiful buildings and scenery and fantastically detailed miniatures. It is set in Afghanistan in 2006 and your command consists of Taliban attempting to recover a downed UAV against a British QRF in an action that actually happened. Some people complain that it is too soon and it is hard to rouse enthusiasm for the game.

The problem? The closer you get to contemporary events the less stomach most gamers have for the game. The reasons are varied. At large conventions you can find enough people interested in them but not always. Even though the quality of the game is the same in both look, rules and so forth it is the fact that politics and sensitivies can make one really uninterested in this sort of gaming.

However, I've been more than just dabbling with modern combat and I believe I've found the best solution to the problem. Mainly, you simply don't include actual units, politics and situations. You replace national or non-state actor names with Red Force, Blue Force, Green Force and Tan Force. You keep all of the tactics and make all of the weapons generic (an AK-74 and an M4 are treated equally and simply called Assault Rifle.)

The benefits are many - one set of rules can be used for any conflict in the modern period with any world power. You don't get involved in discussions justifying a real world action, political stance, foreign policy and so forth and you don't offend people sensitive to the portrayal of certain groups.

What I am trying to do is portray modern asymmetric warfare tactics without getting into questions if current wars are just or not. Oddly enough when you have exactly the same situation on the table as some contemporary battle but have disguised the whole mess with different names, uniforms, etc. you end up with people becoming much more engaged and thinking tactically rather than politically.

I've gone so far as to propose doing fictional games such as the Ape Uprising from one of the Planet of the Apes movies but using and actual modern battle as a guide for the troop placements and the pacing of the battle. The apes are easy enough to get from Eureka Miniatures. It is such a doable game. People will shoot up apes in boiler suits without a problem. But if you put down figures that represent a real battle and represent real situation some people lose their stomach for it. I even understand this. After 9/11 I didn't play a wargame until the following April.

Understanding these kinds of sensitivies is important. Expediant and easy to implement changes are the best way to examine modern warfare. As my game gets closer to completion I will write more about my experience in both designing it and the reactions I get from players.

Blitzkrieg Commander

By David Raybin
We played Blitzkrieg Commander at Uncle Bob's mancave. Mike put on the game and a fine game it was. Here is the Intro

Gentlemen,

On the 7th there will be a 15mm WWII game at the Man Cave in Columbia. It will be France 1940 and we will be using Blitzkrieg Commander. The setting will be SW of Sedan.

The Germans arrived quickly at Sedan on the 12th of May and the French blew the bridges. The 147th Fortress Regiment manned the river side defenses (113 pillboxes) and in depth was the 55th Infantry Division (a Grade "B" reserve formation) to prevent and contain any German penetrations of the defenses along the river. The Germans were strung out from Sedan all the way back to Germany in the sparse road network of the Ardennes, traffic jams abounded. The French, knowing of the traffic jams, felt the Germans were not going to attack until sufficient artillery arrived to support a river crossing. They estimated that it would take five days for the Germans to be ready. The Germans attacked the next day with three Divisions, the 1st, 2nd and 10th Panzer Divisions to try and create three crossings.

Lacking artillery, the Germans relied upon the Luftwaffe. The entire Luftflotte 3, with support from Luftflotte 2, was committed to support the crossing attempts, and included two Stuka Geschwanders (there are only 300 Stukas in the entire German Luftwaffe). Luftflotte 3 flew over 3,940 sortie's that day with the Stuka's flying 300 of those. Much of the airpower hit elements of the 55th Infantry Division near the town of Bulson. Two of the initial attempts to cross were thrown back, but the Germans managed to get infantry and engineers (about 6 platoons) of the Gross Deutschland Regiment across in the center and quickly started to reduce the strong points of the French Fortress Regiment. By midnight, the French command was in disarray, the 295th Regiment and Divisional Artillery of the 55th Inf. Division (hit unmercifully by the carpet bombings of the Luftwaffe) had routed out of the Bulson area and other troops, rife with rumors of German penetrations with tanks and now without artillery support, started to fall back. The Germans pushed more troops across in the dark and worked to get bridges built so the panzers could cross.

The French frantically tried to organize a counter attack. The 215th Regiment of the 55th Inf. Division would move from its reserve position and join the 3rd DCR, that was en route, and attack in the morning with what ever additional forces could be organized. Plans were made for a major air effort to attack the bridges. (It would fail because of coordination, lack of sufficient numbers of aircraft, a heavy concentration of German Flak and the dedicated fighter support of the 3rd Luftflotte. Half of the attacking bombers, about 90, would not return and the Germans would refer to the day as "The Day of the Fighters".)

So, can the French push their way back to the river or will the German panzers get across in time to help the infantry and continue the advance. Mike

Brief rules highlights for Blitzkrieg Commander

Game scale is 1cm = 10 to 20m. A stand of infantry or a vehicle/gun model represents a platoon. A unit is a stand or model.

The game follows a standard turn progression of first one side moving then the other side but the non-moving side does have the ability to affect the moving side. Determining who goes first is done by a die roll. Each players turn follows the same sequence of play:

Scheduled Support

Initiative (think of this as actions in close proximity to the enemy)

Command

Combat

End of Turn

Scheduled Support is artillery and air support that was plotted to arrive at a specific time and place before the game begins. If you have an FO or FAC that can see the target area, you are allowed to delay/cancel this if desired. Scheduled artillery always lands where it’s plotted to hit (if observed) and when, unless delayed or canceled by a FO.

Initiative: This represents close actions near the enemy and units have the ability to perform limited actions. If you have a unit or units w/i 20cm of the enemy, these units can either: fire, move into close combat, move to support a unit in close combat, evade(i.e. withdraw) or do nothing. The enemy also has the option of counter-initiative to either fire or evade. Fire is based upon LOS and friendly units block LOS. So, if you want one unit to fire while others move to assault make sure you fire the one unit before moving the others.

The Command Phase represents the HQ getting its subordinate units to fire and maneuver on the battlefield (this is in addition to events that occur in Initiative). Each HQ represents a Bn HQ with about a dozen or so units. In order for units to do something the HQ must pass a command roll with 2d6, rolling equal to or less than their modified command rating. The commanding rating can be modified for example by having units over 20cm away or being in dense terrain. A successful roll allows specified units to either move, deploy (load or unload from transport), assault or fire. You do not have to20try to move all of your units. Once you have completed activities for the order, you can attempt to “go again”! Again a command roll must be passed. This can continue until you fail a command roll. Once a command roll is failed, the last thing the player may do with the HQ is to move it. As long as the HQ is never more than a half move away from a friendly unit, it cannot be captured. If approached by the enemy it automatically falls back behind the nearest friendly unit. (So, an infantry unit in halftracks could on the 1^st command roll move, the 2^nd unload, and on a 3^rd fire if every command roll succeeds.)

When moving a unit in the Command Phase, it cannot get closer than 5 cm to the enemy unless you desire to close assault. If you move closer that 5cm to the enemy, they get to shoot at you.

Rolling double 6’s on a command roll creates a Blunder, things like friendly fire or units doing nothing. Likewise, double 1’s create a favorable event allowing all friendly units under orders to execute two actions instead of only one.

Firing: Every unit has a number of attack dice. You designate a target and total all dice to be fired against it. Hits are usually based upon the terrain the target occupies, so open terrain is a 4,5, or 6 on a d6. Total all hits and if the target is allowed any saving throws (usually due to armor) roll those dice and for every successful save, remove one hit. For those successful hits, roll one die each to see if the target is suppressed,( if the hits rolled do not equal or exceed the targets damage capacity). Equaling or exceeding the damage capacity destroys a unit.

HQ’s, FO’s and FAC’s cannot be targeted by direct fire, but they are affected by indirect fire and air attacks. Also, if an HQ is not within a half move of a friendly unit, it is vulnerable to overrun.

A suppressed unit cannot do anything, but the suppression is removed at the end of the friendly turn. Hits are removed at the end of every players turn.

Artillery can be called for by an FO for targets of opportunity but it must pass a command roll and have LOS to the target. For mortars the spotting unit is the assigned HQ, not an FO. An FO only spots for its assigned artillery units. Called artillery always misses the target point by a direction and distance die roll. For mortar fire, it does not deviate if the firing unit has a direct LOS to the target.

Combat: These are British rules, so, in the turn sequence Combat is the resolution of all melee caused by assaults that were initiated during the Command Phase.

End of Turn: Remove suppression markers from all friendly unit’s, remove hits from all units (friendly and enemy).