Second ACW after action report - Camp Pollack

[Skrapwelder]

Leadfool and I set up a game last night to work out some of the house rules we had established as well as check the force composition guidelines for our campaign rules.

Sacramento, California - July 2nd. Nationalist troops bivouacked at the Camp Pollack Boy Scout campground came under fire by Communist forces in an early morning raid. The Communists inflicted minor losses to the Nationalist garrison and little property damage before being driven off with heavy losses of their own by the troops of the 11th Cavalry Regiment. This newspaper was fortunate enough to have a photographer on the scene.

Setup for the game:

The Nationalist forces started with all their units in and around two buildings. The Communist forces approached from the opposite end of the table. The Communists had one group made up of 2 armored cars and a squad of infantry and a second unit of three infantry squads. The vehicles came up the road while the infantry worked their way up the right flank. The Nationalists had one armored car and a light tank supported by two squads of infantry, a Lewis gun team and an off table mortar team using the armored car as its forward observer. The Nationalist forces started the game hidden. We added a couple of dummy markers in with the Nationalist markers to confuse things a bit for the Communists.

Photos of the battle:


The Nationalist buildings. The armored car was parked behind the large cabin and the tank was behind the woodpile.


The Communist force approaches.


Communist vehicles on the road. The lead AC is the overall commander for the Communists.


Communist infantry on the right flank.


More Reds.


On its first action the Nationalist AC backs around the building with its machine guns trained on the approaching infantry.


The tank fires from behind the woodpile scoring a hit on the Red AC.


With its machine destroyed and gunner dead the Communist armored car moves off the road trying to get out of further harm's way. The Communist Commander hops out of the wounded vehicle and makes his way to the other armored car to take command there.


Once the observers had observed the enemy approach line they called in a mortar attack with devastating effectiveness. The Communists lost several men from two units and found themselves in a tight spot.


The Nationalist tank moves out from behind the woodpile to engage the second armored car.


Red troops crest the hill across from the main cabin and come under fire from the Nationalist AC and troops in the cabin itself.


Communist recruits(read Raw Troops) charge the log house where the Lewis gun has been firing from.


The other Nationalist infantry squad comes out on the left flank and takes heavy losses from the machine gun on the AC and rifle fire from the flanking Red rifle squad. Nationalist hero Major Steuban moves up to help the pinned Lewis gun with a little pinning fire from his Mauser machine pistols.


The Nationalist AC calls in another mortar strike.


Another picture from the Communist lines showing the Nationalist Tank moving in to support the infantry.


The Communist recruits just before all Heck breaks loose.


The FO had called the mortar round to land where he thought the Red troops would be. Unfortunately the Communists moved early in the turn and got out from under where the hit was called. Unfortunately for them the round missed the call spot and drifted right on top of the unit of recruits.


Major Steuban was quick to come around the corner and mop up what was left of the black clad Communists. By then however the Lewis gun position was lost.

 A this time the Communists had had enough and the table edge beckoned. All in all it was a great game. We both came to the conclusion fairly early that the defensive position gave a far greater advantage than we anticipated and our campaign rules will be changed to allow for a greater number of Attackers in encounter such as this.

We used a slightly modified Tragedy & Triumph with the campaign rules heavily modified from Flagship Games Gunfight! rules.

Thanks for looking.

[Cory]

Looks like fun, though that second commie car looks like a bit of an anachronism

Can you give us an overview of the campaign rules?

[Skrapwelder]

Looks like fun, though that second commie car looks like a bit of an anachronism

Can you give us an overview of the campaign rules?

I'm working on that AC thing.

The campaign rules are about a 10 step turn on their own with the actual encounter between factions taking place in the middle. Each Faction has a Reputation score that can be raised and lowered by the encounter as well as some of the events that occur in the campaign turn. Every campaign turn goes kind of like this:
A Turn Leader is determined each turn by die roll. The Turn Leader runs the campaign turn, overseeing all the dice rolling and what not. More importantly he will be the Leader of one side in the encounter to come.

There is a random event chart that we roll on that can effect one or more facet of everyone's campaign turn. Whether it is an overall shortage of men or supplies. Maybe the availability of a small mercenary force that can be hired for a turn.

Recruiting troops and buying equipment and vehicles. Each player makes a die roll modified by their Reputation that will indicate the quality levels of troops they can buy. The total number of troops a faction can field and hold in reserve is determined by each of the faction's officers' level of Quality. The number of Officers a faction can have is determined by the Faction Leader's Quality. If your Leader is a Quality 3 he can control up to 4 officers who can in turn, on the field, control units of men equal to their Quality plus 1. They can have the same number of troops held in reserve at the faction's base. Officers of with a particular specialty are required for certain equipment like Tanks or Aircraft.

Property that will effect a faction's income as well as Reputation can be bought.

The encounter for that turn is randomly selected from a list of about 15 basic scenarios that can range from a small fistfight with only two or three figures per faction all the way up to a grand dust up where each Faction brings as many figures as they can control to the field. Sides for the encounter are chosen by each faction rolling a D10 and modifying it by any Feud rating they might have with the Turn Leader as well as any ideological differences that may be between the two of them. The factions that roll highest are the defenders with the highest modified roll being the leader. The lower half are the attackers and they will side with the Turn Leader.

The encounter is played out.

After the encounter the Butcher's bill is tallied. Troops that are wounded will be able to be fielded again after a turn or two's delay.

Officer's and units have the chance to go up in Quality level.

Income from property is paid as well as upkeep on troops and vehicles.

The we start all over for the next turn. When one unit gets to 100 Reputation he gets some nice reinforcements from his national party headquartes and we will play out a large, "Bring all you've got!", battle.

[leadfool]

Skrapwelder,
Great reporting, we need to come up with something more atractive for the suppression markers though.  Those white rings look a little funny, up close.

Cory
The M-3, half track is only a little out of touch, coming as it did in 1940.  There were half tracks in the 20s and 30s but I didn't already one one when we started the campaign.  This way I can field a vehicle that is appropriate and only a little off   It is painted with a red star but retains the american flag.  They are American communists after all.  It is armed with two .50 cal HMGs at great expense. 
My National forces have one as well, painted very spiffy in Black, with a large red L on the front and sides.

[commissarmoody]

For the suppression makers maybe us beads or make makers with casualties on them or some thing

[leadfool]

When it comes to suppression markers, and the way we play, we need "HUNDREDS OF EM"

[commissarmoody]

ok maby some cheap beads it is. Off to Micheals! 

[Westfalia Chris]

One thing I've always wanted to do for Suppression Markers (we've usually used Bjorn's nice stone ones) was small pieces of cotton glued to bases (very small metal discs) to represent puffs of smoke and ricochet. Takes some work, obviously, and "hundreds"...

... let's just say I admire your enthusiasm, although I am certainly worried at the amount of firepower present! Then again, it's an American Civil War, so it's probably justified.

A very nice report, thanks for posting. The game table surface looks very nice and effective. But I want to spank the person who is responsible for that poor Rolls Royce's "crouch"!

[leadfool]

The "crouch" is a shipping problem and poor repair.  Maybe that is why that model seems to always get a tire hit and a gun hit.

I will try to field another model next time.

[Count Winsky]

It looks like it was a very fun game.  Thank you for sharing.

[leadfool]

We had units with more markers then figures, but that had managed to not get pinned.  Maybe we just need to mark the unit until it has that many suppression markers, and then change the marked status to "not pinned but testing", ie with a blood marker or something.  I mean does it really matter if a 10 figure unit has 17 suppression markers or 18? 

[Mahan]

Forgive my ignorance, but may I ask what rules are being used for these games?  I'm really interested in this as a possible gaming topic for our area/club (Minnesota), because it just looks like *fun*, darn it, and am curious if you're using a hombrew set to playtest while waiting for the "official" set to be released?

If not, what ruleset would you recommend?  I have several folks who're eagerly waiting here! :]

[leadfool]

Mahan,
We are using the T&T rules that are in this forum.  However the campaign rules are homebrew based upon the gunfight rules by flagship games. 
Each faction started with 1500 points for officers, troops etc.  But then the games may only allow 1 officer to show up with his respective troops, The game last night was with 4 officers per faction and a total of 5 factions playing,  Potentially that was 12 units per faction, but really there were about 9 per player so a total of 45 units.  That was a BIG game and took too long for the time allocated.

[Mahan]

Thanks for your reply, sir; it is much appreciated!  Especially the campaign rules...if such aren't included already, we here in the Frozen Nort' might have to ste...*ahem*borrow them for our own when it gets going.  With proper credit, of course!