Eisenhower - Operation Epsom

[fred]

I've recently played a couple of games of Sam Mustafa's new rules Eisenhower. These rules take the Rommel rules up a level, so each base is now a battalion, giving you around a couple of Corps / an Army on the table!

It shares a lot of mechanisms with Rommel (grids, ops, limited unit types) but simplifies a number of things, combat resolution is much simpler, and the complex Ops Board is replaced with a small number of cards per side. Overall we like it, it gives a good game.

On to Operation Epsom



This is 1 activation into turn 1. The table is aligned so the camera is looking SE, with Caen off table to the left, the various hedges represent Bocage in game terms, and historically are a mix of small villages, bocage, copses etc. Basically good terrain for infantry. There are several rivers represented these are all fordable.

British forces are nearest the camera, with 15th Scottish division (on the left) having being able to cross the first river line un-opposed. The rest of the British are crammed into their deployment zone (my troops just fitted in the space given to them). They are 43rd infantry Div, 11th Armoured and 49th Infantry, in reserve are 3rd Canadian Div, they are classed as Veteran in this scenario, and I have left them in reserve to exploit a break through). So lots of infantry for the British, with some Tank support, including some Infantry Support Tanks with 15th Div.

Facing them are the remaining components of 8 Panzer Divisions!! For the scenario 3 are deployed as individual divisions (1st, 9th and 10th SS), with the remaining ones combined into 2 KampfGruppe (Bayerlin and Meyer) for activation purposes. 9th and 10th SS are off table in reserve and will arrive on the second night. The Germans have a lot of armour, about half of which is classified as Superior (the Tigers and Panthers), and quite a bit of their infantry is in half-tracks.

A scenario setup rule is that at least 25% of each German formation must deploy in the back 3 rows of the table. This could really slow down their deployment, but they have a couple of factors that can help them, firstly when activated any unit that is at least 1 box away from the enemy can do a transit move that lets them move 4 boxes (rather than the normal 1 or 2) as long as they stay at least 1 box away from the enemy. In this scenario one of the cards the Germans hold is KampfGruppe which allows units from different formations to be activated together. So whilst there is a clump of Germans in the back field, they can deploy forward pretty quickly.

The British cards give them 2 air strikes, and artillery barrage, and the ability to re-use their artillery dice once (all of these are once per turn).

On the first turn the air force was grounded (I've not worked out the exact percentages but the air strikes have around 85% chance of turning up - 1d6 vs 1d6+2 with draws in the British favour). But if you roll a one and your opponent rolls a 6 it's never good news!

The initial German defence is spread quite thin, but all are Prepared - this means the defender gets to 'shoot' first in combat meaning they can damage the attackers before the attackers roll their dice, which will likely reduce the effectiveness of the attack.

The objectives are the red tokens - the attacker places two of these, the defender one. In the night phase of each turn, any the attacker holds can be repositioned 1 square by the defender - reflecting the need for the attack to push on.



End of day 1

Each side gets a number of Operations dice and 1-3 of these are assigned to formations at the start  of the day, allowing you to activate some formations multiple times. Both sides get 2 dice per active formation, the attacker discards any that are rolled as 1s, the defender any that roll 1s or 2s. Generally giving the attacker more mobility.

15th Scottish have made limited progress into open ground - they probably should have had an extra activation.

43rd Div have assaulted across the river, causing some damage to the defenders, the hexagon tokens are hit markers, the brown side is 1 hit taking a unit to worn which reduces its too hit roll by 1. The coloured side is 2 hits, taking a unit to Exhausted, this only reduces their to hit chance when attacking, but if they take another hit the unit is Eliminated.

11th AD in the centre where the focus of my attack, and have made decent progress, but suffered a lot of hits. Over on the right 49th Div cleared the bocage of defenders and captured the objective.

The Germans have taken a lot of hits, but have got their on table reserves into the line

[fred]

Operation Epsom Day 2 and 3

I was too involved in the game to take photos of day 2 (oops!)

Day 2 was very attritional with British attacks continuing, but struggling to make much head way against concentrated German defence. The Germans moved the two captured objectives back in the night phase of Day 1, and then defended them with Prepared Superior Armour - this gave them 3 attack dice per superior armour, vs 1 for attacking infantry or 2 for attacking Armour. And the Germans were rolling first - so the attackers were beaten back.

Each side gets a number of stockpile counters (4 for the attacker, 2 for the defender) one of the most useful things for these is you can reinforce your Exhausted units, moving them to worn. Which both sides did on both the first and second nights - but the Germans have now used up all their stockpiles.

This turn ended with the Germans holding 3 objectives, so leading 4 - 2 on VPs.

End of day 3 / start of day 4


On the left 15th Scottish supported by Infantry Support Tanks were successful in capturing the objective in the bocage, and driving forwards. But in the night phase the Germans had moved 10th SS out of reserve on this flank, and an initial attack just by 1 superior armour with artillery had done enough to drive their flanking troops back. The next turn 10th SS were reinforced, and that night phase the objective moved to where they are massed. The British have this unit with attackers on 2 sides, but I think it will still be tough to break them. As they are on the edge of the table, which is a German edge, I can't even cut them off to cause them loss by isolation.

In the centre the Germans withdrew from the river to reinforce around the objective, 1st SS Panzer has suffered heavy casualties with having lost 4 units out of 6. But KG Bayerlin is still very strong in the centre. But many of its units are Exhausted (including the 2 Tiger battalions at the rear (their markers hiding from the camera). So the next turn will probably see a lot of losses to them - especially as the redeployment has meant they are no longer prepared.

On the right 11th AD are struggling to make much headway - they have a thrust between the defenders, but I'm not sure if they have the remaining strength to exploit this. Behind them 3rd Canadian Div is traffic jammed, and is struggling to get into the action.

On the far right 49th Div is facing some strong opposition with KG Meyer reinforced by the newly arrived 9th SS. Given that the objectives have moved more to the centre, this may be a holding flank.

At this stage it is 6-3 to the Germans on VPs, but they are behind 1-8 on units lost.

This is where we ran out of time. But one of the advantages of a gridded game, is that it is fairly easy to accurately record the game state, so it can be cleared away, but can then be reinstated next week!

Overhead view - with front line drawn in



One thing I'm not sure of is the number of turns, the scenario says 4-5 days, but within the rules, where this scenario is used as an example it says 5-7 days. I know as the attacker, who is behind on VPs but ahead on attrition, I'd like longer!

[boywundyrx]

Thanks for sharing, I'm hoping to get a trial game going in December and may use this scenario too.

[fred]

Cheers

This is a pretty big scenario - we played the Across the Mius intro scenario first - and it is much more playable in an evening. Epsom suggests its for 2 players a side (or as we are doing 2 nights!)

[robh]

I am a huge fan of Rommel but have not yet managed to get Eisenhower onto the table.
It looks pretty much as I expected.

With Rommel we found the table vastly improves (at least for Eastern and Western front games) with some elevation changes, irrelevant to the rules but much better on the eye. We play in 6mm so even a 3 or 4mm riser under the cloth is sufficient. Yours are 10mm?

How does the game feel compared to Rommel?  Is it just "figures for figures sake" on a game better suited to chits (which is how the guys here view it) or do you actually get a feeling for the troop types represented by the models?

[fred]

We have thought about adding some scatter terrain to improve the look, and this game is on my oldest plainest cloth, which I marked up for grids some time ago. But I do like the idea of adding some small hills to break up the flatness - which is much more apparent in photos, than when playing. And yes these are 10mm figures.

I think Eisenhower could be described as Rommel lite - but in most ways this is a good thing, as the game flows smoother. Combat is quicker as there are no tactics (and counter tactics) to play, and no column shifts to worry about, nor consulting the table. It’s just work out how many dice and what target numbers and roll.

The cards work well as a replacement for tactics - but are quicker to use as they often have a specific point to be played (barrage and air strikes) And you only have 3-4 per side so less checking what they all do.

I think the figures work, perhaps more so than Rommel, as the stats are directly tied to the model (eg a Superior Tank gets 3 attacks in the open) there is no need for the little label telling you its strength, you can just see its a Tiger.

I’d liked Rommel, but so far I’m enjoying Eisenhower a lot, and have been able to really get into the game, as the rules are straight forward and you can simply remember nearly all of them after a couple of turns, so you focus on the game play not remembering the rules.

[fred]

Operation Epsom Day 4+

Despite having had to put away the game last week, to make the table available for general use, resetting up the game was surprisingly straight forward - perhaps helped by having left the figures and terrain on trays rather than putting them back in storage boxes.

Day 4


The morning sequence started with the roll for weather - a 1 indicating bad weather! Meaning the allied airforces were grounded. This was annoying as their attacks against the dug in German armour would have been useful.

As the Germans had momentum (from holding 3 objectives last turn) they also went first, which allowed reinforcement of positions.

The British attack started on the left flank with a series of wearing down attacks on the dug in 10th SS Panzer Division - these where very unsuccessful with the worn attackers being degraded to Exhausted in most cases. 

In the centre 11th AD attacked, causing some attrition to the defenders on the two objectives

Later day 4



In the centre 3rd Canadians, fresh troops and Veterans finally get through the log jam, and manage to capture the centre objective. Here numbers helped the British as they could now surround the German defenders, meaning any retreat caused elimination of their troops.

I also had 1 stockpile left, so at this stage was willing to move lots of units to Exhausted knowing they could be recovered overnight.

Day 5 / 6



The final few German infantry reinforcements arrive - but probably too little too late, as the weather has cleared. The allied air strikes damage the armour on the two objectives in German hands.

On the left the surrounded defenders finally capitulate. On the right 11th AD is battered, and I am struggling to get fresh troops into position.

The German forces at this stage are down to less than 10 units


The end - British have taken all the objectives - have destroyed huge amounts of German forces, so they can’t effectively counter attack - even though the 10th SS infantry had a game attempt on the left.

The dead pile


1 destroyed Sherman vs many many dead Germans!

This was a good conclusion to the game - in the mid game the Germans were very strong having got their reinforcements into position. But as time went on they were steadily ground down by the superior British numbers, and then the game was only going one way.

The length of the game really matters in this scenario - 5 -6 days feels about right - the scenario suggests 4-5, but the conversion notes in the book suggests up to 7 days.

We’ve both enjoyed Eisenhower as a game - the rules are straight forward so you concentrate on what you want to do, the decision making feels that it matters.

As with any attack/defence scenario at times the defender is rather static - but always has the choice to jump into a counter attack - if they dare!

Looking at maps to make a Sedan 1940 scenario, and thinking about how the rules would work for WWI!