The Next Village - KG1940 AAR

[V]

The first playtest of our army lists for Early War last night and we played 400 points using the 'Next Village' scenario with a French armoured force defending an attack by German motorised infantry.








The French force was tank heavy, but with them all in the reinforcements, the table initially defended by all the infantry. The German force was mainly infantry with armour support.






The game began with the French quickly getting the upper hand. Accurate French artillery fire suppressed and pinned down the recce units and my Panzer IVs that arrived, with one of the Panzer IVs going up in flames as a plunging 155mm shell hit it spot on! Not a great start.






The German attack was then painfully slow as more forces arrived and were fed into the line, all the time holding back until the entire army was on the table, and most importantly the FAO and HQ were in the right positions. All the time French artillery caused merry havoc but the Germans managed to survive, though with several key units suppressed.






However once the command units were in position, the German artillery batteries began to eliminate enemy command units and aupress the anti-tank defence. With some gloriusly lucky shelling, first one FAO then the second French FAO were killed by 105mm shells, follwowed by a well directed salvo of 170mm artillery fire that killed the entire French HQ outright.






Things were going well for the Germans... Then the Char-Bs turned up. Six of them are a nasty sight to be met with. By chance one of the German infantry platoons had scrambled into the  edge of the village, and they took the brunt of the Char-B fire. Although they were virtually wiped out over a long period, they succeeded stopping the Char-Bs from concentrating on the German armour and allowed the 88mm to pop a couple at long range (though on Char-B had two rounds in the same turn from the 88 bounce clean off... A double six got me two hits and each round glanced off the SIDE armour!). A few times the Char-Bs did engage the German tanks they proved reasonably successful, especially as when the German tanks had fired they were far easier to spot than the infantry hiding in the village.






French close range mortar fire only succeeded in scoring two direct hits on one of their own tanks (scatter plus Cyrils only decent dice roll!) and eventually the French morale cracked and the army withdrew. It was a win for the Germans - 20 to 35 in morale points.




But that only gives half the story. Of the 35 points suffered by the French, 20 came from five counters. The Germans took more counters but scored far less. An entire platoon of German infantry became casualties (over 50% of the troops involved) and though the French lost two Char-B tanks, all but one of the German tanks were destroyed. It was  a very costly victory and had lady luck been a little kinda to the French they would have probably minced the Germans...

[theoldschool]

Another great AAR, it has certainly got me thinking about picking up a copy of KGN. As a long time Rapid Fire player they seem to be similar but a bit more detailed.

May I ask about the figures you use. I recognise some AB in there. Tony designs some lovely figures, but the pricing is a bit steep. Do you use other manufacturers?

I have been looking at Valiant, nice price and some good figures, but not a great variety if you want to go beyond the basics. One advantage of the Valiant figures is that they fit better with most of the 1/72 vehicles.

[V]

Personally, I find that Valiant dont fit with anything... They are 25mm figures, true 1/72nd and chunky.


I use figures from virtually all 20mm makers...

Elhiem
AB
Battlefield/Blitz
Early War Miniatures
Grubbytanks/Kellys Heroes
SHQ
Britannia
Sojers
Almogavers
FAA
SHS
Foundry
CP Models
Plastic Soldier Company

...and likely more I cant remember!

[Marine0846]

Thanks V, for another great write up.
Sounds like it was a great game with a little good luck for the Germans.

[Golgotha]

Yet again brilliant... There are tons of really great ready built and painted vehicles now available like Valiant and in the long run, especially given build time, work out cheaper than traditional plastic kits and combining both, the possibilities and vastness of range make 1/72nd WWII wargaming VERY appealing!

[TadPortly]

I really would like to see more pictures of your 20mm WW2 collection - late and early war.  I just love the way you have crewed the vehicles (particularly the halftracks). 

[Galland]

Ah, another exellent AAR, and a beutiful one as well. The early war is allways nice to see on a gaming table, and that goes for both the german and allied forced. As allways, well presented and beutiful terrain and models. Thanks for sharing this, even though you make it harder and harder to stay true to my 28mm project!

[NTM]

Excellent AAR as ever. Also good to see someone creating stats etc for a time period allegedly not covered by their favourite ruleset, rather tham waiting for 'offucial' supplements.

[V]

I really would like to see more pictures of your 20mm WW2 collection - late and early war.  I just love the way you have crewed the vehicles (particularly the halftracks). 

My blog has a few bits on it...

http://ww20mm.blogspot.com/

Not much though... I really should do a photoshoot!

Excellent AAR as ever. Also good to see someone creating stats etc for a time period allegedly not covered by their favourite ruleset, rather tham waiting for 'offucial' supplements.

Yup... We have a few in the works. KG1940 is the nearest to completion. Im also lucky to be in contact with the author of KGN who happily has reviewed the lists and offered comment on them... a big help in balancing them.

[gamer Mac]

Lovely vehicles
I really like the way you have your vehicles like small dioramas.
Makes me want to dig out my 20mm stuff and get a few games in.

[jamesmanto]

  Superb looking game!

Love the EW stuff.

James

[Capt. E.W. Brimmage]

You make me want to play in 20mm so much!

It looks like a pretty fun ruleset, only problem is that I've moved, and the only gamer I know is a cheat when he's down, so it'd best to play 40k and similar games where there's a points system and everything is out in the open, to paraphrase the late Don Chipp (an Australian politician), "keep the bastard honest".

That being said, I know of a couple of modern 20mm players, and I asked one of my mates I play board games with if he'd be interested if he didn't have to buy or paint anything and he said yes, so it's not such a dire situation.

My favourite figs out of those would be the allied armoured cars (Staghounds?) and the blonde Hanomag crewman. Fantastic work!

[Jim French]

Great AAR and fantastic work!

[remmelt55]

I liked the pictures verry much, verry nice models.
But where can we get this ruleset: KG 1940? Is it a private set, 'home made'?
Can you tell something ore about it, it's completely new to me.

Main interest in the early war period 1939-40, and Homeguard.

Greetings Remmelt55

[V]

It is a set of additional lists for Warhammer Historicals Kampfgruppe Normandy.

They will hopefully feature in Wargames Illustrated early next year.