Posted on 29 April 2011 at 03:32:59 GMT Last night we played out a WW1 1918 game using BKC2. The figures were all Pendraken 10mm figures and very nice they looked to.
The game was set in the exploitation phase of the German 1918 offensive so the game was played out in open terrain with the (defending) British benefitting from some field fortifications but with no massive lines of trenches. There were also a couple of ruined villages, some hills and a walled park on the table.
The game was played length ways down a standard 6x4 table.
The British deployed 3 short battalions each of a CV 8 HQ and 5 Rifle stands. They also had 3 MGs to attach out together with 2 60lb guns and 3 18lb guns. The scenario permitted 2 of these guns to be deployed on board. The British had 2 CV7 FAO’s on the board but we ruled that they couldn’t issue an order in a turn following a move and that if they did move their CV would drop to 6.
To represent the rigidity of tactical control of artillery the British had to attach particular guns to particular FAOs and FAOs could only issue orders to their attached guns.
The Germans deployed 3 battalions each of CV 9 HQ, 3 Stosstruppen Troopers, 6 Rifles, 1 Maxim 08 MG, 1 Maxim 08/15 and 1 Trench Mortar. They also had 2 Flamethrower teams and were supported by 3 77mm and 2 150mm guns in support. All German guns fired by scheduled fire only but were allowed a notional “off board” FAO to delay or cancel bombardments if required.
Unit stats were largely taken from the standard lists. The Stosstruppen were elite troops with a CA value of 5 but had an AP value of 2/30 as opposed to a standard rifleman’s 3/30. The bipod mounted Maxim 08/15s had an AP value of 3/40 and the Trench Mortar 3/80. The last two were tweaks really because I wanted to use the relevant toys and it seemed sensible to give the Germans extra fire support. I also acknowledge that having Stosstruppen companies attached to line battalions in the way we did also a pretty severe fudge.
We allowed random air support rolling 2 dice each turn giving the Germans 1 mission on a 4, the British 1 mission on a 9 and 2 missions on a 12. As it turned out no airpower appeared.
The British had the option to deploy 2 field guns on the board (they did) and hold 1 battalion off board as a reserve (they didn’t)
I won’t bore you with a narrative of the battle but when time stopped play the German’s were in a much better position than the British. While the British remained ensconced in villages or entrenched hills they suffered few casualties but once the German manoeuvre forced them out into the open superior German numbers and firepower proved decisive. German scheduled artillery fire achieved little but British artillery, both on board and FAO controlled was much more useful. To partially compensate for this all the command blunders on the night were rolled by the British.
As a proof of concept game the night was an entire success. The toys looked good, the table-terrain-troop density ratios seemed about right and a good night was had by all. I don’t think the game says much about BCK as a rule-set for gaming WW1 as we have picked a very particular set of circumstances to game and frankly the scenario and troop values would easily translate to the Spanish Civil War or the Chaco war. However I think it does prove though that you don’t need tanks to have a good time and that 10mm has a great deal to offer as a gaming scale. |