CapnJim's WW2 Stuff: Spring '45 Scenario #1 AAR...Page 17...27 Jul 25).

[CapnJim]

Thanks for the info about the spreadsheets.

You're welcome!

We did play this scenario today.  Here's the set-up (please refer to the map below):

The scenario takes place at night (technically early morning...), so we used the Night and Stealth and Raising the Alarm rules.  Furthermore, it takes place on 06 June 1944.  That date ring any bells? 

We used the Fog of War rules, which stated that if any unit failed an activation check, the offending player would roll on the relevant chart in the book, with the results being applied immediately and appropriately.  This so-called Fog of War would have a dramatic effect on our little affair here (cue dramatic music)...   

Ted played the Germans.  He had 2 5-man patrols out (both rifle groups), at the points marked "P".  Using the stealth rules, he had to do activation tests for them until the alarm was raised.  The German HQ group (with its dastardly Gestapo Chief and cowardly collaborator...boo, hiss...) was in building "A" (the target building).  A 3rd rifle group and a MG group were in building "1".  A MG group each was in building "2" and "3".  The German units in the buildings had to wait for the alarm to be raised before they could act, and (as reinforcements) they had to roll their activation on their 1st turn after the alarm was raised.

I played the Paras.  My weapons group deployed on the west side of the church.  My rifle groups deployed in the SW corner, and my Command Group (led by one Maj. Dodsworth, 3rd Earl of Neavher-on-Thyme and a fine specimen of soldierly virtue...) started in the woods just south of the target building.  My cunning plan was for Maj. Dodsworth and his group to get in and grab their quarry, supported by the rifle groups.  The weapons group would keep on eye on things from across the street by the SW corner of the church.  Then the lot of them would melt away in the night.  That was the plan, anyway.  Quick and easy, right?  What could go wrong?....

[CapnJim]

And now, on with the show.  And what a show it was!

Getting in Should Be the Easy Part...

And it certainly started out that way.  Maj. Dodsworth's Resistance Guide had informed him about the 2 patrols the Germans had out.  One was on the street next to the church heading north, while the other was standing around near the shops on the corner of the road heading out of town to the southeast.  After the jump, he had collected about 20 men, including himself and their Resistance friend.  He had himself, his Sergeant Major, radio man, and batman, and that Resistance chap in his little command group.  He also had 2 5-man rifle groups led by Sergeants, who would support his approach on the target building from the woods south of town.  He also had a weapons group, led by a Sergeant and with a Bren team and a PIAT team.  He sent them around the west of the Village, to set up at the southwest corner of the church to watch over the target building and their quarry's vehicles parked outside it.

It all started out well enough.  His group, with the rifle groups to his left, moved cautiously up through the woods and the back gardens of the target building and some houses next to it.  He hoped his weapons group was getting into place.  They were.  So far so good.  What the Good Major didn't know was that the German patrol by the church was heading north, away from them, and the patrol to their east was confused as to what to do, unsettled perhaps by all the aircraft and Flak noise (Fog of War). At this rate, he should be upon the target building without his lads being spotted.  Oh well.  If only that were the case...

Out of nowhere...well, out of the church, actually...gunfire erupted, disturbing the steady drone of aircraft overhead and the distant booms of Flak (and alerting the Germans that something was afoot...).  That gunfire, coming from either a confused band or Resistance fighters, or perhaps some ne'er-do-well collaborators, rang out from the church windows and was directed at the British weapons group.  Well, that gunfire was inconsequential, except in incurring the wrath of said weapons group.  After they returned fire, nothing more was heard from whoever desecrated that church by firing from it.

But the damage had been done.  The Germans would now be aware that something untoward was going on and Maj. Dodsworth's plan was scuppered.  The fight was on!  And what a fight it would prove to be...as you'll see in Part 2:  Achtung!  Fallschirmjagern!... - coming soon...

[Digits]

Nice map, great set up fella.

[Pattus Magnus]

Yeah, that’s a great looking table for the game! It should be quite an immersive experience.

[CapnJim]

Thanks, Fellas.  Here's....

Part 2:  Achtung!  Fallschirmjagern!"

Once the cat was out of the bag, the first German contact was in the back garden of the houses just west of the target building.  A German MG group stumbled out the back door, right in front of some Paras.  Of course, frenzied shooting took place, wounding Germans and Brits alike.

The German patrol by the church took position by a car parked nearby, and traded fire with the Paras' weapons group.  Those Germans would take the worst of it.  The other patrol collected their wits, and headed west through the back gardens.  And more Germans showed up.  A rifle group came out into the street from the buildings just west of the target building, while another MG group came out the back door of the commercial buildings by the target building (unfortunately for the Germans, an officer from a different German unit burst out of the woods, and ordered them off to the south to deal with some other threat (Fog of War)).

Meanwhile (unbeknownst to anyone else, and a Fog of War event), another group of fighters (perhaps a less-than-stalwart group of resistance fighters) gathered their weapons  in the uppermost floor of the buildings west of the target building.  They then looked out the windows, saw all those Germans, put their weapons back away, and went back to bed...

Meanwhile, outside, as the one Para rifle group dealt with the first German unit contacted, the other Para rifle group headed down the alley next to the target building toward the Germans HQ vehicles, while Maj. Dodsworth and his chaps skirted around the east side of said building.  On the German side, an MG group had come out the back door of the residence catty-corner from the target building, and was making their way toward the church.  And another came out the front door of that building, and headed west down the street toward the fight.  And the German HQ men had come out onto the street, and headed east up the street, away from the fight toward the MG group heading toward them.

Stay tuned for Part 3:  There he is!  Get him!.....
 

[CapnJim]

And now,....

Part 3:  There he is!  Get him!

By now, our brave Para lads had gotten themselves into quite a pickle...

Both sides have taken casualties, and one German rifle group had been grabbed and taken away by some other German officer.  As the German HQ guys cowered - er, I mean led from - behind an MG group up the street from the target building, the Germans were slowly pressing our lads into a defensive position in the street out in front of the target building.  Too bad for the Germans that they were driving the Paras right toward the German HQ group.....

Things got very confusing.  Men went down, shot dead in the street in the dead of night.  Bayonet crossed with rifle butt, and in the middle of it all, a Der Spiegel reporter appeared from a the commercial building across from the target building to record what would surely be a brilliant Nazi victory (Fog of War).

By now, the German HQ men had retreated through an alley to the back gardens at the northeast corner of our little village.  Maj. Dodsworth had temporarily taken refuge behind a car parked at the curb, trading shots with a MG group shielding the German HQ group.  But at this point it looked grim for our Brave Para chaps.  They were losing good men, and were stuck in an ever-lessening perimeter out in the street.  And it looked like their quarry was getting away.  But isn't it darkest just before the dawn?

Indeed it is.  Maj. Dodsworth dropped several Germans from behind the car where he had taken cover, and one of his rifle Sergeants exercised some personal initiative, improvised and kicked some ass.  He spotted their quarry in that back yard across from the target building, order his lads to fix bayonets, leapt across the garden wall, and charged screaming into the German HQ group.  By now, that Der Spiegel reporter was near enough to witness this spectacle.  But what he saw dismayed him.  The German Hauptmann grabbed the Gestapo Chief, threw him at the charging British Sergeant and riflemen, and stepped back to the fence at his rear.  Then he heard that sickening "click!" when you step on a booby trap (Fog of War).  The good Hauptmann froze.  He was in quite the spot.  He had just sacrificed the Gestapo Chief to save his own ass, right in front of a German reporter.  And he had just stepped on a booby trap that his own men had probably set.  Again right in front of that reporter.  He froze, indeed, trying desperately to figure out how not to get blown up...   

Meanwhile, the Paras could see the body of the collaborator lying on the ground, inert and already apparently lifeless.  Oh well...at least they had one of their targets, and now they had to make their escape...Maj. Dodsworth, who could make out the gist of what happened looking down the alley from his position at that car, yelled at his men to "Run!  Get that man out of here!  I'll catch up!"...

Stay tuned for Part 4:  "Maj. Dodsworth Runs Into Infamy", the final part of our AAR.  You'll get the answers to these questions:

1.  Will that Para Sergeant and his riflemen bundle their prisoner off to safety?
2.  Will Maj. Dodsworth indeed "catch up"?
3.  Will the German Hauptmann get out of his sticky wicket?   

[Pattus Magnus]

What an awesome and visually appealing after action report! It sounds like it was a fun game!

[CapnJim]

What an awesome and visually appealing after action report! It sounds like it was a fun game!

It was a fun game.  And thanks for your comment - but wait, there's more!  And with that, it's time for:

Part 4:  Maj. Dodsworth Runs Into Infamy" (the final part).

Our hero, Maj. Dodsworth, crouched behind the car with his  Sten Gun at the ready.  Those Germans blokes they were there after had slinked away down that alley across the street from him.  Next to him, his Sgt. Maj, radio man and batman were down on the sidewalk next to him (their resistance friend had been shot several minutes earlier).  He was still trading fire with a few Germans in the street in front of their target building and a couple more in that alley, and he could see bodies lying in the streets, both his men and the enemy...things had gotten a bit dicey...

Just then, from the back of that alley across the street, he saw what he was sure was a scuffle and a few shots.  He then heard Sgt. Lyckett-Upham's booming voice "We 'ave 'im, Sir!".  The good Major shouted back:  "Run!  Get that bugger out of 'ere!  I'll be along shortly, lads!"...

And run Sgt. Lyckett-Upham and Lance Cpl. Gridley did.  They headed west, through the back gardens toward the street.  They ducked north along the sidewalk behind a big lorrie parked their.  And they needed that lorrie.  For cover.  Several Germans at the head end of the street, as well as one on the other side of that lorrie, opened fire on them as they ran.  They could hear rounds hitting steel and glass, but they kept going.  The Germans would fire a few rounds, and then chase after them a bit, fire a bit more, and so on - always seemingly hot on our boys' heels.  And just as it looked like the Germans were on them, they got away, slipping off into a nearby woods in the night, dragging their prize along with them.  Those intel chaps should be able to have a chat with him, for sure...

But what of Maj. Dodsworth?  With the Germans out in the streets now distracted by going after Lyckett-Upham and their Gestapo Chief, Dodsworth could have easily slipped away toward the southeast, and circled north to link up with his lads.  But that was not the sort of man Maj. Dodsworth considered himself to be.  He decided he had to make a break for it alright, but he would follow along after Sgt. Lyckett-Upham, and catch up to them in those woods north of the village.  So, he put a fresh magazine in his Sten Gun, pulled the bolt back, adjusted his helmet just so and steeled his nerves, and took off north across the street toward that alley, zig-zagging as he went.

As he entered the alley, he could see 2 Germans waiting for him.   He must have surprised them, as they fired wildly into the night at very close range.  Maj. Dodsworth did not fire wildly.  At point blank range, he leveled his Tommy Gun, and squeezed the trigger.  One German went down.  He butt-stroked the other on his way up the alley, and when he emerged into the back garden, he saw the German Hauptmann and a civilian standing in the corner next to the loo.  He never even lifted up his Schmeisser.  Why?, Maj. Dodsworth would never know...

Maj. Dodsworth also cut west, out toward the street by the church.  Right out into a street full or the Germans who were chasing Lyckett-Upham.  They saw him, and a new chase was on.

Dodsworth deked along the sidewalk, keeping that lorrie between him and the Germans.  He then ducked back east through a machine shop area.  By then, the German Hauptmann had grown a pair, and had thrown himself and that reporter off and away from that booby trap.  And absolutely nothing happened.  A dud!  The Hauptmann got up, brushed himself off, and headed toward the sound of the chase.  The reporter followed along behind him.

It now looked as though Maj. Dodsworth had made a mistake ducking into that machine shop yard.  He could hear German footsteps getting very close.  He wheeled around, just as some Germans were on him.  He fired...which must have surprised the Germans, as they backed off just a bit.  And just enough.  Maj. Dodsworth got around the corner of the shop building, hoping to see a gate in the yard wall....

....and he didn't see any.  He turned around, his back to the wall now, and there were several Germans closing in on him all just several feet away.  And he could hear what he presumed to be that Hauptmann, barking orders in German.  And with that, it appeared as if Maj. Dodsworth would spend the rest of the war in a German POW camp. Or worse.  But would he?

No!  Our good Major pointed with his index finger, screamed "Look over there!", and scrambled over the wall at his back.  He dashed into the woods just north of town not looking back.   

Maj. Dodsworth, 3rd Earl of Neavher-on-Thyme and a now even-finer specimen of soldierly virtue, had done it.  He and his men had successfully grabbed a Gestapo man in the dead of night an scarpered off with him.  He did find Sgt, Lyckett-Upham, Lance Cpl. Gridley, and their Gestapo prisoner in those woods, and were able to find their battalion CP.  Whereupon the delivered him to the Battalion Intelligence Officer, who likely would give that Gestapo chap a taste of his own medicine.   

Maj. Dodsworth and his hastily-assembled little force had indeed done it.  With some flare and with a vary dramatic ending, as well.  But at a very steep cost.  Maj. Dodsworth started out with himself, 18 more Paras, and that Resistance fellow.  Out of those 20 men, only 3 made it out (Maj. Dodsworth, Sgt, Lyckett-Upham, and Lance Cpl. Gridley.   But they gave better than they got.  Their foes started out with 35 men.  Only 7 remained fit for duty after Maj. Dodsworth made good his escape (and, they had nabbed one of their 2 men).

I will provide out thoughts on how well Xenos Rampant worked for WW2 in my next post, but suffice it to say that we thought that it worked very well, and certainly made for a very entertaining and dramatic little fight....
 

[MaleGriffin]

Impressive! Outstanding figures and terrain! Thank you for sharing!

[carlos marighela]

Yes, that's a rather pretty little village you are shooting up there.

[tomrommel1]

Outstanding pictures and a super report

[Silent Invader]

Great report - looking forward to your insights on how the rules played

[CapnJim]

Yes, that's a rather pretty little village you are shooting up there.

Yes, well, thanks.  But it had to be done...

Outstanding pictures and a super report

Impressive! Outstanding figures and terrain! Thank you for sharing!

Great report - looking forward to your insights on how the rules played

Thanks, fellas.  Our thoughts on using these rules for WW2 area s follows:

Using Xenos Rampant for WW2.

Units

First off, Mr. Mersey and Co. already had rules for pretty much everything up to about 1900.  Despite their groove toward Sci-Fi settings, these rules can indeed be used for engagements from about 1900 up to, well, today. 

These rules provide for several types of units, from "Militia Rabble' to "Elite Infantry".  Each type of infantry has a few inherent traits, and several more that can be "purchased" (especially if if you are using points - we don't, but we figured up the points anyway...).  In addition, there are "Xenos" rules that can be "purchased" to further buff up units.  The myriad of unit types that one can come up with is impressive.  Even ignoring the Sci-Fi stuff, we couldn't think of a unit type that couldn't be represented with these rules.   Heck, even some of the Sci-Fi stuff would have non-Sci-Fi equivalents, with a little imagination applied...

One note here.  Units have an "Armor" value, which dictates how many hits a unit has to take before a figure is KO'd.  This can be adjusted for the firer's range and cover.  We decided that it didn't necessarily indicate the level of their personal armor, but (at least in this period) it was more a function of their tactical competence in terms of movement and their use of available cover and concealment.  In periods where units would have personal armor, that goes into the mix. 
 
There are even vehicle rules, each with their own traits and buffs (one of which is "Flying", so UH-1s, UH-60s and the like can be represented).  As it turned out (since the Paras got between the German HQ dudes and their rides, we ended up not needing to us the vehicle rules.  So, I can sense another run at these rules, WITH vehicles in the mix.

Units have several characteristics, used for movement, firing, HtH combat, defense, and "Courage".  Each unit type has specific scores that need to be equaled or exceeded to activate, but each unit type also has at least een free type of action that doesn't require rolling to activate. In our fight, the Paras (as Heavy Infantry) didn't need to roll to activate to fire their weapons.  The Germans, on the other hand, didn't need to roll to activate to move (unless they were moving into HtH).  That would come into play, and provide some very tense and dramatic moments in the final phase of our fight, as the Paras were hustling their prey off the Board, and our Good Major was making his heroic escape...

All units start out with 10 dice to fire and do HtH.  Once they get below 50% strength, they then use 5 dice.  We only used the base 5-man units.  Larger units (10 men, and is a few cases 15 men), still use the same 10 die/5 die, but their chances of scoring kills increase a bit.  We may toy around with 10-man units, but we think 5-man groups feel right for WW2 - a squad/section would then be a rifle team and an MG team, with the appropriate buffs.  We'll see...

The basic infantry unit, at least for the 2 unit types we used, assumes the average soldier is rifle-armed.  For units with a preponderance of pistols/SMGs, we applied the "Close Quarters Doctrine" trait, which reduced their firing range.  And for the MG groups, we used the "Heavy Weapons" trait, which increased their effectiveness.  And for our Paras' Weapons team and their PIAT, we used the "Armor-Piercing" trait (but restricted using it for anti-vehicle fire).

Movement 

This was pretty straightforward.

Combat

Based on the above comments, this was pretty straightforward too.  As would be the case in real life, our groups with MGs fared better in taking out enemy troops, and once groups got below 50% strength, it was harder to kill folks.  Not impossible, however, as Maj. Dodworth demonstrated...

Morale

Again, pretty straightforward.  Both in terms of becoming Suppressed, the effects of being Suppressed, and becoming un-Suppressed.

Optional Stuff

These rules have "National Characteristics" for WW1 and WW2 units.  We used them, as they made sense.  We also used the Fog of War rules, which came into play when a unit failed an activation roll.  Out of almost 20 turns (we lost track...), this only happened 7 times, and 4 of them had a direct impact on the game (one of the German sentry patrols getting spooked early on, the gunmen opening fire on the Para Weapons Group from the church (which raised the alarm), a German MG group getting re-tasked away (taking them out of the fight), and the German Hauptmann stepping on that booby trap).  A 5th one saw a German reporter show up (just in time to see the Paras snatch the Gestapo man, get away with him, and Maj. Dodsworth's escape).  I wonder how he wrote that up? 

The other 2 Fog of War events involved another group of gunmen.  The appeared, and blew their very first activation roll, and wound up getting spooked, taking them right back out of the game.  We're not sure any of the active combatants even knew about them... 

We also used the Night Fighting and the Stealth and Raising the Alarm rules.  Too bad those stupid gunmen in the church mucked things up for the Paras...

All the optional rules we used added to the enjoyability of the game.     

Conclusion

While intended for use if various Sci-Fi settings, Xenos Rampant is a perfectly usable set of rules for small unit combat from about 1900 to now.  Between the myriad of unit types and sizes the game can handle, the ways you can use optional buffs and Xenos Rules to customize units, the movement, combat, and "Courage" rules, and all the available optional rules, one would be hard-pressed to find something not covered by these rules for that period.  Heck, the rules even state that if you can think of a reasonable Xenos rule the authors didn't include, to go ahead and do so (we did that with the Paras' Smoke rule, which was based on one of the included Xenos rules).

Verdict:  These rules will indeed go into our regular rotation.  And not just for WW2...I can see some Vietnam and Modern action being played out with them...

I hope our game, its AAR, and these thoughts on Xenos Rampant being used for a non-Sci-Fi setting are helpful.  It was sure fun providing them...    

[CapnJim]

So, I went to a Menards (a big-box home improvement store here in the States) in Toledo, OH yesterday.  They had a couple aisle-bins with bunches of diecast cars in them.  In one bin, they had a good number of 1/48 US WW2 deuce-and-a-half trucks.  They were $3 each.  So, I got 3 of them.  They actually look pretty good, as you can see from the pics below.  And especially for the price...and they do indeed measure out to 1/48 scale.

I'll eventually tart them up a bit (repaint the winch cables and reels, paint the windshield wipers, repaint the tarps, and weather them up a bit). Once I do that, I'll post pics of them tarted up.

The first pic shows one of the trucks in its package, and the 2nd pic shows the back of that package. 

The 3rd and 4th pics show a truck, out of the box, from a couple angles.

The 5th pic shows the truck with a few of my GIs, for scale comparison.  It works for me...

Now a platoon of my GIs can ride to battle in style...

[carlos marighela]

A Captain in Toledo? Inquiring minds must know.

COLONEL KURTZ "Where are you from Willard ?"
WILLARD "I'm from Ohio, sir."
KURTZ "Were you born there ?"
WILLARD "Yes, sir."
KURTZ "Whereabouts ?"
WILLARD "Toledo, sir."
KURTZ "How far were you from the river ?"
WILLARD "The Ohio river, sir ? About 200 miles." 

Nice looking truck, never knew Bob Denver drove 'em, just boats. Can't have been John, he just flew planes..... not so well as it turned out.