The Commander Series Forum

Hey guys,

I'm currently planning for my first proper game of BKC,

Oops, hit the wrong button!

I'm currently planning my first proper war-game, and I'm looking for some advice from the vets on what to and what not to include. We're no stranger to war-games, and I want to play a historical war-game for, you know, the history so I wanted to jump straight in with a scenario firmly grounded in history.

The setting is Norway, 1940. A simple 'Assault' scenario based on the defence of Otta in the Gudbrandsdal, so the battlefield will be a wooded valley with a river, and a road running down the valley and through the town at one end. The terrain setup will be inspired by the maps on the Hyperwar resource 'The Campaign in Norway' but I'm not going to worry about 100% accuracy as long as the 'feeling' is there. So there'll be a little bit of everything, high area terrain (the woods and BUA), low area terrain (farmland around the town), the high ground of the valley sides, a river and a road. I want to use enough terrain features that it looks realistic but not too much that it's overwhelming.

The battlegroups are fairly basic too, roughly 1000pts of British (actually an 890pt infantry battalion) defending the town against 1500pts of Germans (1555pts, comprising an infantry battalion, a couple of light tanks, some engineers and a recce stand, with a 105mm arty unit with 2 HE assets and a Stuka asset for support). So again, the Germans have a little bit of all the support elements, tanks, artillery, air support, recce and scheduled assets. We'll probably play twice, swapping sides so both players get the cool toys

Should I allow the British to dig in?

How does all that sound for a first game? I've gone for reasonably historical without being overwhelming in detail and rules.


Fletch

This sounds fine. I'd try it with the British being dugin, that encourages some close assaults (can be supported by the tanks).

Cool, thanks Pete. I thought digging in would give the mainly infantry and poorly AT equipped Brits a bit of staying power. And with two scheduled HE and a ground attack asset, and barrages directed by the FAO the Germans have plenty of opportunities to suppress prior to assaulting.

What about wire? Would wire be historical for an impromptu roadblock in an early war British battalion? Not a British account and on the other side of the world, but I've read accounts of US Marines on Peleliu (sp?) setting wire at night when they stopped to rest, is this fairly unique to that theatre or was it a more universal standard practice?

I don't think they used wire in roadblocks, more like trees and rocks.