WW2 Weekend

[Sakura]

A few weekends ago I had the enjoyable task of organising a weekend of WW2 wargaming for ten players.

For the Saturday I drew up five diverse scenarios to suit a 6' x 4' table.  First was Finns vs Soviets in Karelia, 1939; next Germans vs Belgians in the Ardennes, 1940; then British and Commonwealth forces vs Vichy French in Syria, 1941; Soviets vs Germans in Berlin, 1945; and lastly Soviets vs Japanese in Manchukuo, 1945.


Karelia 1939


Ardennes, 1940


Syria, 1941


Berlin, 1945


Manchukuo, 1945

I hoped that each player would be able to play at least 3 different games over the course of the day.  To keep it simple I used Bolt Action rules which everyone was able to pick up fairly quickly.  I started everyone off as a second lieutenant and victory brought a promotion while defeat caused the opposite.  The improved morale modifiers that came with promotion were worth striving for.  It was not possible to fall below second lieutenant - just as well, as I failed to register any victories in my own scenarios.

It is always interesting to see whether scenarios turn out to be balanced or not particularly where unequal forces are used.  Despite the Finns always having been successful in previous games, here they lost every one; the Ardennes and Berlin games had wins for both sides as did Syria which was the only scenario to have roughly equal forces; the Japanese having failed to record a win in testing managed to win all their games.

On Sunday the boards were re-arranged into three 8' x 6' tables representing parts of Normandy.  On the centre table two roughly equal forces fought over a large village.  On one adjacent table Allied troops raced forward in an attempt to capture a German nuclear facility before the Germans could remove equipment and scientists.  On the third table a German counter-attack had broken through into the Allied rear areas in an attempt to find fuel.


The French village


Furthest Allied advance


German scientists


Allied rear areas


Furthest German advance

The Germans failed to reach the fuel and the Allies failed to reach the nuclear facility so it all came down to the centre table where the Allies had managed to achieve complete victory.  Not that anyone was terribly concerned by the result as it was more about having an enjoyable and sociable weekend with lots of toys.

[grant]

Great looking games!

What rules were used?

[von Lucky]

I agree, nice photos and good objectives.

And I think Bot Action were used both days.

[Gothic Line]

Really great pictures!!! The vehicles are great 4 Corgi Bedfords!!!!is that a Victoria Mercedes Benz??? Oldies Goldies!!!

[bill5549]

Yes we used Bolt Action for the games and they worked well - half of the players had not used them previously.  Sakura came up with some unusual scenarios.  Some more photos from the games


British armour ablaze in Syria as Vichy agent looks on....


Herr Klink of the Gestapo and Helga await transport


German armour deep in the Ardennes - where are the plucky Belgians?

Even more photos on flickr at
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bill26048/sets/72157637853325135/