Game 45 - 5Core Brigade Commander

5 Core Brigade Commander is from Ivan Sorenson, and we have tried the 5Core stable before with skirmish rules. Ivan has a ton of good rulesets out there (try Wargames Vault).

Again the 'Scurry' and 'Firefight' rules mean that sometimes we can see full on fighting and lots of movement, interspersed with selective activation, punctuated by reactive fire...there, that was easy.

The nice thing about these rules is the ability to do larger scale cold war efforts - so there's an immediate advantage. There's a little bit of abstraction - but there needs to be, especially when we compare with the longer games of this ilk, such as Spearhead. We had a result in about 2 hours here, so the system really lends itself to campaign play.

Things we remember...

• Attachments such as recon and AA work particularly well, and can be attached to companies - we used two 1/300 Spearhead sized stands to represent a company, but the game would look great in 2mm or 3mm (some examples on the net).
• We forgot to use the displacement rule - though it means that a spotted unit might not be at the point you think it is - and the unit physically moves, and brings in some very subtle fog of war, where a displaced unit that contacts the enemy is 'ambushed'.
• Reaction fire works well, though there was discussion over the attacker's advantage in assault.
• Unit types that reflect WWII to modern can be discussed - the difference 'relatively' between units is what's important - so M1 rolls 2Kill1Shock vs T72's 1Kill1Shock dice.
• Assets work like 'traits' in other games. Normally I hate these, but work nicely here. US gets additional activation, conversion of scurry/firefight to standard turns etc, while Soviets get 'Wave Attack'. The assets make sense.
• There's a lot more we didn't explore, but these work well in conjunction with the smaller size sets for campaigns (done expertly by Jack on the BlackHawkNet blog).
• We also used hexes as an experiment - 4/5 range, and 3-4 hexes for movement. It worked really well - and we used hex facings for direction.

So, to the action...

The US has some good support assets

 They're going to need them...

There's some cover, but perhaps not enough to stop the long range fire of the M1s (we gave them a bonus)

US could get cover bonus, and used some good positions, commanding the approaches.

ATGMs become an annoyance, but do prevent advances if used properly, effectively dulling the Soviet spearhead in the centre.

...with the help of an Apache.

Soviet push in the centre. We dropped artillery for this game, but US guns/MLRS would have made a mess here.

Aerial recon - I see a problem in the US centre...

'Warthogs bar the door'...(the 'no prize' for guessing where I took that from Steve)

 Oh..maybe not. Some SAMs make it a bad day for the US air.

On the US right flank, overwhelming numbers detached from centre and the Soviet flank thrust make a mess.

Infantry supporting the armour also made an assault on the town, and the US just ran out of numbers.

...and Red Air made an appearance.

 

...then just to add insult to injury, the US right collapsed. It wasn't going to end well at all.


There are some really nice systems at work, and to be honest, I liked the degree of abstraction. These work really well for campaign games. I remember in the 1980s using WRG for extended campaigns in church halls with 20 people over entire weekends - and to be honest, 2 or 3 two hour games with these rules would give the same results for 2 players. Definite food for thought here - and Ivan's smaller scale rules can be used for skirmishes in the wider campaign - which he also touches upon in the rules.

Game 31 - 5 Men & 3 Kings

Time, as ever, has eaten into recent weeks, making for a quick game rather than the lavish extravaganzas that we actually had planned!

So a game of 'Five Men in Normandy', the precursor to the 5Core skirmish rules, was in the offing.

The setup was a five man US and German patrol, bumping into each other in a semi built up area.

HIghlights included:

• There's a real feel for losing control of individuals as they are forced back due to fire.
• Although there were three 'out of action' results, the amount of cover cut down on kill dice and made shock dice and suppression very important. If you can suppress a sniper position say, and prevent his firing during your next turn with reaction fire, you can move freely (duhh ...obvious I guess)
• Real world tactics work. If you don't use your assets to the max (Garands withsuppressive fire), you get punished by accurate and timely fire. If your NCO with SMG gets taken out soon in the game, you'll suffer from close range SMG fire when the opponent gets a flank.
• VERY quick and VERY decisive.
• Worth taking a look at a larger game with the same mechanisms.

Germans have advantageous position, in the surrounding woods...

...and in the buildings.

 Although the US left threatens to be a game-changer, the loss of the US NCO early changes the emphasis of the subsequent firefight.

It proves difficult to get enough rifles to bear in cover at the hedgerow.

As the US rifleman suffer under the weight of fire and 'bail' twice, taking them off the board.

 ...leaving a solitary soldier.

 ...who will ultimately withdraw himself, as the German NCO's SMG uses spray fire.

So in addition to tinkering with the 5Core rules, I’ve also been playing about with my 1689 / 9Years War forces.

Having recently been reading some of Henry Hyde’s pieces on his imagi-nations campaigns in his wonderful Wargames Compendium, I was intrigued by the idea of how the 1680s troops could fit in.

Then it hit me; Charles II’s death, James II’s accession to the throne. Monmouth’s attempt to take the throne in 1685, and William’s successful attempt in 1688 – with the Irish and European wars that followed.

So, if we compress some of the timeline, and just happen to have one king and two pretenders at the same time – there’s your campaign. All we have to do is reset the British Isles in a quasi-fantasy 1680s war of the kingdoms setting…and so we have ‘Three Kings in Albion’, with Alba (Scotland) and Danu (Ireland) on the sidelines…with ‘Avalon’ as the Albion capital of course. Hmmm, yet another project to think about.

The rebasing is based on 2” x 2” squares - somewhat after ‘Beneath the Lily Banners’ and Clarence Harrison’s excellent Victory Without Quarter.

 

I’ve split the centre base so that (1) I can have ‘pikes forward’ (2) I can form ‘hedgehog’ easily and (3) I can free up some single figures for playing ‘Donnybrook’ scenarios...with pirates (since everything is better with pirates apparently).

All good, bar the fact that I probably didn’t need another project!?!?

So - room for 18 figures - down from the 20-21 that I previously had.

 The new arrangement allows for pikes forward, and hedgehogs, and frees up some loose miniatures for Donnybrook scenarios. It would of course be an inspired decision, were it not for the fact that it gives me more work to do...

On the horizon:

Definite – Playtesting with the new ‘SabreSquadron’ modern rules – with the old West End Games ‘Fire Team’ boardgame scenarios

Definite – playtesting the Charles Grant WWII rules with Steve’s amendments to turn sequence – with Squad Leader scenarios in mind

Definte - more rules exploration with STEINAHHH!

Probable – AWI with Volley & Bayonet, Maurice and…something else

Likely…ish – ‘Three Kings in Albion’…when I get time. (It’s the latest ‘shiny’ after all).

Game 30 - 5 Core...Contracting Trouble

A small interlude between holiday weekends allowed for a quick game.

We'd recently found Ivan Sorenson's '5 Core' rules, so we thought we'd give them a quick go, as time was limited.

The scenario? A couple of contractor teams trying to get back to their 4x4. (Of course the OPFOR didn't even consider sabotaging the engine...)

It was a nice introduction to the rules, which are simple yet subtle, and for me, throw the accepted conventions of skirmish (and otherwise) wargaming away...and start from scratch.

A full review would probably give most of the rules away...suffice to say that there are some key factors which underpin the design.

• Turns can happen in one of three ways: there will be standard fire and movement or vice versa - but only for a third of your force, OR a 'scurry' move where effectives advance for advantageous position OR a cinematic style 'firefight', where everyone engages.
• These different types of turn emerge randomly during play, so inevitably, a plan's chance of surviving contact are, as expected, somewhat diminished.
• Reaction fire can happen (as Force on Force and most other games at this scale), though we probably fluffed a few of the rules. (I could definitely feel shadows of FUBAR and FoF around gameplay, but these rules made it more fluid than those systems - more cinematic perhaps, but to be honest, we were making decisions which echoed what we read in PMC accounts.)
• Firers roll 'kill' and 'shock' dice, with chances of each putting figures down, or similary making them think twice about advancing.
• There are some nice RPG style skill systems which allow for 'characters' in the game to develop along a campaign arc (Ivan does this with all his games).

A great game, but what's really exciting is that Ivan has expanded the core concept into Normandy skirmish (really looking forward to this with my 54mm stuff - I think actually, '5 Men in Normandy' came first), Company level skirmish (for 'Fire Team' style scenarios), and even Brigade level modern command. These DO look interesting

See them here:
 http://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/5701/Nordic-Weasel-Games

Rough view of the battlefield. Note that the teams will have dangerously open flanks combined with a ratnest of buildings and 'sniper corners'.

 

Moving teams to the right, and into cover...before Alpha was almost overwhelmed.

Nice mechanics in the game system here - an overall accurate simulation of firing from cover, combined with reaction fire and a turn sequence which meant that it was difficult to plan for all eventualities. As the OPFOR opened up during a firefight, it almost rendered Alpha immobile for two turns.

Dashing from cover can work with better trained units - in this case the gamble worked as the OPFOR couldn't bring enough men to bear on the developing situation. Had they rolled a 'scurry' action, the weight of numbers would have been telling.

A sniper fires from the buildings during the last minutes.

One element pinned down. One of the strengths here, which we didn't use on the day, would be cause and effect relationship between having to cater for casualties. There's a nice 'plug in' nature to these rules, where adding detail is seamless.

 Most of Bravo get to the vehicle and move toward Alpha. Successful for the teams, but at some cost.


Nice game, nice rules, great potential.

More later...