Sharp Practice 2 British v French - Guerillas in the Midst

Another skirmish intro game at South London Warlords - this time Sharp Practice 2 from TooFatLardies. This week I took control of Captain Boxer-Crabbs's Light Company of the 28th North Gloucesters and their supporting KGL hussars trying to find a Spanish guerilla leader on the run from the French in the small hamlet of San Benito near the Portuguese border.

The quiet hamlet of San Benito.

British Skirmishers move forwards to find the enemy.

The dastardly French appear!

The Gloucesters started the game out well, I advanced them up in column down the road into San Benito at a good pace and sent some skirmishers ahead to search for the guerilla leader. However things rapidly went downhill from there. The skirmishers found that the gates of the walled hamlet were firmly locked shut (they took several turns to open it), the KGL hussars I brought on to prevent the French flanking around my right ended up being unopposed but completely out of position (they'd spend the entire game thundering pointlessly around trying to rejoin the fight), and my column of infantry were apparently far from fighting fit as they suddenly slowed down to a snails pace and struggled to get into position as the french started to bear down on them.

My skirmishers attempt to break down the gate of San Benito.

The KGL Hussars start a glorious charge across an empty field.

Boxer-Crabbs' men inch their way towards the enemy.

Snapping out into a neat line formation just in the nick of time my men were able to let off a fairly ineffective volley that saw only a few French fusiliers fall but did shake the nerves of their surviving comrades. Wish marshal spirit in his heart (and realising that it was getting pretty late and we should all be going home soon) the French captain bravely ordered his men into attack column and charged as my men were reloading. The bloody melee that followed saw heavy casualties on both sides with the Gloucester taking the worst of it and falling back. However my trend of rolling only 1s and 2s all game finally paid off and on this occasion it meant that my men miraculously maintained perfect order as they retreated. With the French having nothing left to give the Gloucesters poured a second volley into them at point blank range with my skirmishers abandoning the gate they'd only just managed to open to let off yet more shots into the faltering column's flank. To the credit of the French they did not break, even with their brave captain knocked unconscious and so with time running short we called it a night with a slight British victory and honoured maintained on both sides. Probably a good thing for me as my cavalry was off doing nothing on the far side of the board while the French cavalry was setting up on my flank for a charge.

Boxer-Crabbs forces his men into line as French skirmishers start taking potshots.

Vive l'Empereur! The fusiliers atttack.

A bloody melee begins.

All in all it was a really fun intro and Sharp Practice is definitely a game I intend to play more of in the future (as I write this AAR 2 weeks later I already have a box of Perry Miniatures British Infantry glued together and ready to be painted up). Before this my only previous experience of TooFatLardies rules was a game of Chain of Command which I didn't really enjoy at all at the time. Having recently watched Rich from TFL playing several of their games on the OnTableTop youtube channel I really want to give them another try as it seems I probably went into it with the wrong mindset. I definitely appreciate what they're trying to achieve with their rules (i.e. added the dreaded "friction") even if some of their mechanics can requires a painful adjustment period to get used to and learn to love. Rolling to see how far you move each turn, I'm looking at you. Kiss Me Hardy, Bag the Hun, and What a Tanker are all now firmly on my "to play" list.

A brief memorial to Drummer Podrick, cut down in his prime by the French attack.

So, what did I learn from my first game of Sharp Practice 2, what went well, and what will I try differently in my next game:

• Spanish hamlet gates are surprisingly sturdy.
• Even if it doesn't cause casualties, getting fire down on the enemy is key as building up shock is the real killer in TFL games.
• The key to Sharp Practice seemed to be good leadership from your officers, when I write my own list I'll try to them have them at its core.

Skirmish Sangin - Elheim British Infantry

Cold War Turns Hot, Scenario 2 - The Anvil

Shortly before 0930 radio contact with Colonel Marsh's HQ was lost.The Soviets' determined attack has finally overwhelmed 3rd Bn and its survivors have broken contact with the enemy and fallen back into the Harz forest to carry out stay-behind operations. Polish armoured units have been brought to the front and Colonel Rybakov begins his push to Blankenburg. Across swathes of West Germany thousands of Soviet paratroopers have been dropping behind NATO lines to disrupt supply and communications. But the brief period of PACT air supremacy is over and anti-aircraft positions are becoming operational again as NATO planes scramble to cover the advance of relief columns which are dashing to blunt the Soviet spearheads. One of these columns, led by the American 26th Mechanised, has met Rybakov's column on the outskirts of Blankenburg and now attempts to halt their advance.

Miller's Abrams heads to Blankenburg through the early morning fog¹.

1030 11/11/1983, Eastern suburbs of Blankenburg, Harz District, West Germany.

NATO situation:

Major Miller was woken up at 3am and has yet to have his morning coffee. Colonel Powell, his commanding officer, left late last night to receive an important briefing from General Pruitt at brigade headquarters and has not been seen since. Until he reappears Miller finds himself the acting commander of the 26th. It appears that last night General Pruitt gave orders for the unit to move immediately to Blankenburg and rendezvous with several other NATO units forming a QRF in the town in preparation for a counterattack against a suspected Soviet invasion. As his column of Bradleys and Abrams tanks rumbled towards Blankenburg in the dark many of his men found this scenario unlikely, another sign of high command’s paranoia, but when dawn broke the distant rumble of artillery fire in the East and the flights of Harriers and Tornados that passed overhead put paid to their disbelief. He has now met with an English colonel shouting orders from the back of his chieftain in Blankenburg town square and who, in light of Miller’s rank, has happily assumed command of the hastily assembled force. “Our boys up ahead just went silent. We’ve not heard from them for about thirty minutes and that means Ivan’s on his way and we’ve no time to be pissing about. My CO wants us down this road ASAP so my lads will lead us in. I’ve already got my recce troop out in front of us. You back me up. Watch our flanks and those Jerries will form our rearguard. We were promised some choppers from the French but I’ve heard no word from them so we’ll have to crack on regardless. Mount up!”

PACT situation:

Rybakov has reorganised his regiment and was met half an hour ago by his Polish reinforcements. With the dense forests clearing around him and the risk of further ambushes reducing his men have been able to advance several miles at an impressive pace singing patriotic tunes which the Poles don't seem to fully appreciate. A few minutes ago one of his officers spotted the church spire of Blankenburg on the horizon and he was momentarily relieved at the realisation that if resistance continued to be this light he was on course to take the town by midday and maybe even Brunswick by nightfall as planned. However, another radio message from his scouts has just put this plan in jeopardy - a small NATO reconnaissance tank has been spotted to the West. He must make contact with any enemy forces ahead, fight them off and follow through to Blankenburg.
The Game:

The initial plan was to play this game as a counter-attack scenario with NATO on the offensive to account for there being only 2 PACT players vs 3 from NATO. However (even with the train of one of the German players being delayed so that he had to come on as reinforcements halfway through the game) the scenario seemed horribly unbalanced against the Russians and Poles who only got 12,000 points to NATO's 18,000 and were tasked with destroying 6,000 points of the enemy's troops while NATO only had to destroy 4,000 points of theirs. So instead we decided that when the German player turned up both sides would bring on reinforcements and we'd play it as a good old fashioned meeting engagement with equal points on each side.

The terrifying PACT deployment.

The opening turn of the game saw two American Bradleys knocked out by long range missiles from across the board as Jason pushed up to deploy his infantry into a supermarket which could cover our left flank. Both sides also pushed infantry up into the hedgerows and woods that dominated the centre of the table. With large amounts of open ground on both flanks both sides were unwilling to push up too far but I tried to move my chieftains towards a small wood where they'd have some cover when the inevitable Soviet assault came.

Both sides tried to use artillery to suppress each other but not a single round managed to land on target. Apart from two critical occasions, this theme would continue for much of the game.

Welsh infantry push forward.

American infantry cover the NATO left flank as Abrams tanks push up.

In turn two the PACT players picked their poison and decided they'd rather push into my Chieftains on the right than Jason's Abrams tanks on the left. I felt offended. However Edd's Polish tanks started to come under artillery fire and while it wasn't enough to knock any of them out it did succeed in causing some of the Poor quality rated Poles to bail out (or maybe drive off, not sure bailing out of a tank into artillery fire is a good idea).

The Poles learn that artillery adds dignity to what would otherwise be an ugly brawl.

In the centre a bloody infantry battle began with both sides lining up along the hedges to fire small arms and heavy weapons at each other. My wily Scimitar recce tank at one point found itself outflanked as the large building it was hiding behind was suddenly occupied by a unit of Soviet infantry that promptly popped an RPG into it.

British and Russian infantry trade fire in the centre of the table.

My Centurion AVRE fires an HE round at Soviet infantry occupying a building (note Edd treacherously enjoying the sweet fizzy nectar of capitalism in the background!).

While all this was going on a great tragedy occurred. I'd hidden my two tracked Rapier anti-aircraft vehicles behind the town confident that this would keep them safe from harm. No such luck as Russian artillery intended to suppress chieftains on the right flank landed way off target and knocked them both out.

But it was quickly forgotten as it was turn 3 and Idries' Germans had arrived! This came as a great surprise to all as he'd previously never owned or painted a miniature in his life and had only recently gotten into his first wargame - Star Wars Armada. To prove a point about how quickly you can put a 6mm army together we'd ordered everything from Heroics & Ros a month before and assembled and painted it in its entirety over the course of two Sunday afternoons.

We took the opportunity to rush the German panzergrenadiers up to reinforce my Welsh infantry in the centre while the Leopards were sent to the left flank to prepare a counter-charge if Sam and Edd threw everything at me on the right.

Then the fire nation attacked came the PACT turn...

Idries gets a warm welcome to the wonderful of hobby of wargaming.

Massed Russian and Polish rocket artillery smashed Idries' advancing infantry in the open and tore through my infantry further forward. The survivors continued on but he'd lost almost half his Marders. With our reinforcements bloodied and the Welsh starting to falter things looked bleak.

The Soviet hammer blow.

On the right flank things looked even worse. Even though I'd knocked out most of Sam's original tank force and Edd's Poles were bogged down on the left, their reinforcements had arrived. With several cheiftains already knocked out, missiles flying through their firing position and outnumbered more than two to one my dragoons had little hope of holding out and were completely destroyed. With the centre and right both almost gone NATO desperately needed to find a way to blunt the Soviets' attack.

The full might of NATO air power hits the Russians and Poles.

Having seen the British tanks destroyed in front of them Idries' German scouts called down everything they could on the Soviet attack. All German, American and British artillery groups were called in as well as 2 American A-10 Warthogs and a German F-4 Peace Rhine. Annoyingly a lot of the artillery units requested weren't available, one of the A-10s was hit by heavy Russian anti-aircraft fire and the same fire caused the Peace Rhine to wave off before reaching its target. But enough got through to make the Soviet attack a bit less terrifying.

With trains to catch and more food waiting to be eaten the final stages of the battle played out very quickly. In the centre a stalemate was declared to speed things along as both sides had almost mutually annihilated each other. On the left Idries' Leopards charged into Edd's surviving Polish units and mopped most of them up while taking losses from Polish infantry that boldly moved up to face him from the woods on his right.

The charge of the Rohirim Leopards.

Finally on the right Jason's Abrams tanks redeployed to counter the faultering Soviet push which was brought to a stop before promptly being hit by Soviet artillery in response which knocked most of them out. A very expensive final turn for NATO.

Jason's Abrams join the NATO graveyard on the right flank.

The final result was a very clear draw. With both sides bringing 18,000 points to the table and losing 12,000 each including almost every senior officer on both sides it had been horrendously bloody.

The view from NATO's left flank at the end of the game.

So, its that point in the battle-report where we ask ourselves: what went well?

• Overall I really love how FfoT plays. At no point in the game did I have one of those moments you might sometimes get where you find yourself finding things a bit implausible. I don't tend to enjoy games that try too hard to be a simulation but I do like them to have a feel of authenticity. There were surprises and fortune's favour swung from side to side over the course of the game but each play that was made felt like it ended with a believable result.

And what did we learn?

• The predominant issue facing PACT in this scenario was that the odds seemed stacked against them regardless of which avenue of attack they chose. The centre had no hope of being a viable route as it channelled their forces down one single road past dug-in NATO infantry. Both the left and the right were just far too open. I think there were 3 big things that contributed to this that I'm going to try to learn from when writing FfoT scenarios in the future. Firstly, in our post Cold War Commander search for a game that played well at 1:1 scale we'd taken the advice from the FfoT rules and halved the ground scale. This meant that most tanks could fire all the way across the board and my chieftains in particular could hit Sam from across the table and still consider it a close range shot. Secondly, I'd sprinkled areas of forest across the board as cover for units to defend from but hadn't really provided any to break up lines of sight which really compounded the first issue. Finally, in an attempt to get everyone involved and let everyone use all the 6mm miniatures they'd put a lot of effort into getting ready I definitely set the points limit too high. 36,000 points of units on a 6'x4' was just too much. If I had to play a similar size game again in the future I think I'd maybe try playing an attack scenario (I've never been a fan of meeting engagements) along the length of a longer table with the forces broken up into waves that come on as reinforcements as each side gets worn down. As I write this report a week after the game, Sam and Jason have already played another weekend of test games at the FfoT's intended ground scale and with 6,000 points a side and from what I can gather they're having a lot of fun.
• Another thing to note was that airpower proved to be a bit overhyped. While in theory it seemed to have a lot of potential, in reality neither side was able to eliminate the enemy's anti-aircraft units that really reduced their effectiveness and made them a bit underwhelming for their points cost.

Next time, Space Battles!

¹US Department of Defence:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DA-SD-06-06823.jpg

The Cold War Turns Hot, Scenario 1 - The Hammer

Operation Ustinov has begun. Overnight Spetsnaz infiltration teams have been sabotaging key NATO infrastructure deep within West Germany and now as dawn breaks Russian, Polish, German and Czech armoured columns are streaming across the border between East and West in a great coordinated push that aims to sweep aside NATO resistance and reach the Rhine in only one week. A key part of this ambitious plan centres around splitting NATO’s Northern Army Group (NORTHAG) from its Central Army Group (CENTAG) to prevent the two forces from reinforcing and supporting each other. If the Soviets and their allies can achieve this then it may prove difficult for NATO’s isolated forces to halt the Communist juggernaut, even with the help of fresh American reinforcements which are already hurriedly mobilising and boarding planes and ships bound for Europe.

British troops in West Germany prepare for the Soviet offensive¹.

0730 11/11/1983, several miles East of Blankenburg, Harz District, West Germany:

NATO Situation:

The light infantry of the 3rd Bn Royal Anglians under Colonel Marsh have spent the night hurriedly digging into positions overlooking the main highway to Brunswick. Their brigade commander’s intent is for the Anglians to hold this position for as long as possible to buy time for the defence of the town of Blankenburg to be organised and for relief forces to arrive. No reinforcements are expected, artillery units are currently disorganised and overwhelmed by fire orders, and no air support will be available before the initial Soviet domination of the skies has been challenged.

PACT Situation:

Colonel Rybakov was handed his orders less than 48 hours ago. He has spent the night making final preparations and this morning he gave a speech to his assembled men reminding them of the Motherland’s expectations of them. The motor rifle regiment he commands is providing mechanised infantry support to an armoured thrust which his commanders hope will capture the road leading through Blankenburg. This will allow the rugged highlands of the Harz forest to the South to be bypassed and provide an open corridor through to Brunswick which can be exploited later in the day by followup Polish armoured units. It would be wishful thinking to hope that his orders have been kept secret from the enemy so resistance is expected but should be easily swept aside with the overwhelming firepower available to his commander from divisional artillery and the air force. Rybakov's driver sits up suddenly. He's heard the first shots ring out up ahead - a sudden burst of automatic fire. His scouts further down the road have made their first contact with the enemy.

The Game

We kept our first game relatively small to get a feel for the rules before our larger multiplayer game the following day. I took an understrength battalion of light infantry with a troop of Chieftains for support and Sam brought a battalion of Soviet T-64s and T-72s with the aim of breaking through my lines and exiting via my board edge.

Chieftains and infantry on the British right flank...

More infantry in the centre...

And yet more infantry with Milan missiles on the left.

On my right Sam advanced across open ground with his scouts, I opened up with my Chieftains and managed to score 4 kills on the weaker T-72s. Sam responded with wildly inaccurate missiles but also a deadly barrage of fire from his T-64s. Although they put up a good fight my Chieftains were slowly whittled down. As it turns out I'd accidentally given them the stats for a Centurion so I feel like they did an exceptionally good job given the circumstances.

Sam's T-72s head unaware into the British ambush.

The Soviets' wild attempt at using missiles.

Sam's thrust completely ignored my left which was annoying for me as it was where I'd placed half my Milan missile teams. Instead he threw his poor, poor tanks into what would prove to be the Anglians' meat grinder. What I thought would be a very fragile line proved to be far more effective than I'd ever expected. Sam sent some of his tanks across open ground while his lead troops attacked straight down the main road to Blankenburg. British artillery fire caused his second tank in the column to bail but it was merely an inconvenience as the tank behind rammed it off the road and into a ditch and kept on going. My Anglians from B company opened up with Carl Gustaf recoilless rifles and LAW anti-tank weapons and soon the roads and fields around them were filled with the flaming wrecks of Soviet Tanks. A critical moment came when Sam's Shilka anti-aircraft gun opened up on my hedgeline. It scored a worrying number of hits but miraculously none of my men broke and rather embarrassingly the Shilka had used up all of its ammunition and was left useless for the rest of the game. B company did eventually break under heavy artillery fire and with mechanised infantry assaulting it in the flank but they'd done their job and caused significant Soviet casualties.

Sam surveys the carnage while Jason, in traditional American dress, looks on.

With not much of Sam's force left and the night drawing in we called it a day and went for a Nando's. Colonel Marsh had held the line and performed better than his commanding officers could have expected. But with ammunition running low and more Soviet troops on the way he would certainly have been forced to break contact with the enemy and try to escape South into the dense Harz forest. Maybe we'll see him again later in the campaign.

So, what went well?

• Good quality infantry proved to be remarkably hard to spot and very resilient in a defensive position, I suppose that makes a lot of sense.
• Soviet quantity of fire proved deadly once they got into range.
• The autocannons on IFVs, once they were used, proved to be pretty effective at dealing with infantry.

And what did we learn for next time?

• Troops at less than Average quality in FfoT are an absolute liability. For the points saving the increased chance of running way didn't seem worth it.
• Tanks need infantry support if they're coming up against anything that isn't just another tank.

Onwards to Scenario 2!

¹National Army Museum's Online Collection:
https://collection.nam.ac.uk/detail.php?acc=2005-09-38-101