Valor & Victory - 1918 (German v. French Megagame)

The battle between veterans British rifles (Princess Charlotte of Wales’ Royal Berkshire Regiment – 53rd Brigade, 18th Division – III Corps – Fourth Army) and a hardened kompanie of German stosstruppen continues, somewhere in no-man’s land, near Villers-Brettoneaux … Both sides have orders to probe this village, seize and hold it if possible setting up a defensible forward outpost for their respective regiments and divisions.  However, these two company-sized patrols have run into each other, sparking a surprise, furious firefight.

Continuing on the British Turn 2:

The British push back in the north.  This doesn’t start well, however, as mortar and MG fire from Goddard’s weapon section fail to inflict further damage or pinning on the remains of Werner’s platoon.  Then, Flynn’s Owen Gun team makes a rush to try and take the building formerly occupied by Werner’s platoon, but a very lucky roll (finally the Germans catch a break) from Steiner’s powerful position positively chops this British fire team to bits as they enter the abandoned building.  If the British want that extra building hex, they’ll have to pay for it.

Meanwhile, Flynn has to assault Werner’s position (note: all British pinned units automatically rally at the beginning of the British turn).  Lea’s and McCabe’s positions have also failed to inflict further “softening up” damage, but fortunately Flynn has numbers on his side.  He rolls well enough to kill / capture the rest of Werner’s platoon, while taking four casualty points himself (2 for the German units in the hex, 2 for the terrain bonus of the wooded hex).  He drops another squad to half (accounting for 3 casualty points), then pins a half squad to account for the fourth, which again he fails to rally.

More success for the British comes in the south, where Lieutenant Wheeler forms a “fire group” between his platoon’s position and the adjacent hex with an additional half-squad of his, plus one of Goddard’s Vickers HMG positions.  They target the MG 08 position in the German center, commanded by Hauptmann Bothi.  It’s a high amount of fire (only through the “fire group” rules can units from different hexes combine like this into really devastating attacks), and the Wheeler rolls well, completely eliminating the MG 08 position and leaving Bothi alone in the hex.

(see the yellow fire lines and explosion markers, I took this photo after these counter has been removed and moved).

As much as I would love to leave that MG 08 in the hex and let Bothi command it against a charge of British infantry, in Valor & Victory that just isn’t allowed with “H” class weapons.  Also, when a unit is eliminated, any support units it was carrying go with it.

For the record, more complex games like Advanced Squad Leader (the spiritual forebear of this game, by the way) absolute do allow this, leading to savage assaults and counter-assaults over possession of key support weapons like this.

TURN 03

The Germans, in typical fashion when hit with a battlefield setback, manage to consolidate, fall back, and hit back, all at once.  To the north, Steiner’s platoon divides, with Steiner himself taking a half squad up to that northern building.  Again, if the British want that building, they’ll have to pay for it.  German MG fire and mortar fire, however, fail to inflict further damage on Flynn’s platoon.  Bothi falls back to the central building, while in the south, Ritter’s platoon opens a devastating fire on the Vickers pit that just helped Lt. Wheeler take out the German MG 08.  The Germans roll a 3 on 2d6 (very good roll), enough to completely wipe out the Vickers, its crew, and the half squad from Wheeler’s platoon that was dug in beside them.  They then use the assault move phase to actually fall back, fading into the smoky, splintered trees, daring Wheeler’s platoon to come in after them.

Score is currently British 36 to German 28.

The British could theoretically sit back and run out the clock, either taking the win they already have or letting the Germans try to assault them again (and we saw how well that worked out).

But that would be a boring game, so Wheeler gets the order to mount a reinforced right hook around the south, pressing Ritter’s position.  Captain Lea takes command of the southern building, sending McCabe and half of his platoon after Wheeler to reinforce.  The rest of McCabe’s platoon is kept behind so Lea has some weight with which to hold that southern building, just in case.

TURN 04

Ritter’s platoon falls back the rest of the way to the small stone house, deep in the woods.  The German 7.58mm mortar team repositions to where Bothi can call in fire missions … remember the “no-radio” rules for indirect fire here – the mortar team can use indirect fire, but only if it has LOS with the spotter unit.  Basically this reflects the spotter units yelling back to to the mortar crew for adjustments, or perhaps using hand signals.

Upon entering the woods in front of the Ritter’s house, Wheeler calls is a smoke barrage from Goddard’s mortar team, impacting between Wheeler and Ritter’s house.  Once the smoke mission lands, Wheeler then edges his platoon around the woods and into some craters facing Ritter’s house.  McCabe’s squad and a half are right behind.  The Germans try opportunity fire (heavy penalties due to crater cover, smoke, and light woods) but roll boxcars on 2d6 – the worst roll imaginable!

This “summons” a British sniper, I have to use an American sniper counter as a proxy as I don’t even have British snipers made up!

The sniper takes its shot at Ritters platoon, but rolls only a 3 (-3 for the building’s cover bonus = 0, so no effect).

TURN 05

Germans manage to pin some of Wheeler’s men, and Neuman’s mortar team manages to pin two fire teams under Lea in the south building.  Captain Lea is quick to rally them, however, thanks in part to his -2 difficulty Leadership rating.

The British, meanwhile, hope to pin some of Ritter’s platoon on Turn 05 with mass rifle fire from Wheeler and McCabe’s platoons, then assault on Turn 06.  These fire phases fail however, and no damage is done.

On the last turn, the German fire does basically nothing.  The British assault is actually quite foolhardy, but the British have already won and I’m just trying to test these new units, counters, and WW1 rules. Let’s say that Lieutenant Wheeler and Captain Lea don’t want to order this assault, but have been overruled by a brutal and incompetent regimental commander (Colonel Johnson, Lord of Oriskany).  😀

Reinforced by McCabe’s squads, Wheeler “blows the whistle” and the assault goes in again Ritter’s platoon, but he basically has no chance.  Ritter has more firepower, more grenades, and a fortified position.  To minimize his casualties, Wheeler makes the most of “pinning” rules rather than eliminating his men.  To their credit, Ritter’s platoon is also weakened.

Technically the remains of McCabe’s platoon could follow up with a second assault, but unless they rolled snake eyes it would be practical suicide.

In any event, the British wave won the day.

The final score:

German 26 (four building hexes = 16, ten half squads remaining = 10)

British 31 (five building hexes = 20, eleven half squads remaining = 11)

This scenario is a little wonky (again, slapped together for playtesting) but not beyond repair.  I might try reducing the award for building hexes to 3 points per hex, and change the points awarded for enemy units killed rather than friendly units surviving.  This would give both sides more options for victory rather than assaulting these buildings.

Or, a special rule that says “all these buildings are heavily shelled ruins, only give a +2 cover bonus rather than usual +3.”  That would reduce a little of the suicidal nature of these assaults.

As always, a work in progress.  Thoughts?

Next I might try my French units.  And then who knows?  Some tanks and infantry?