Friday Night Game - WWII using Two Hour Wargames "Nuts"

 "For many are called but few are chosen (or rather, turn up!)"  

Last night at the end of my first working week (boo, hiss, shame...!), John, Julian and I had a re-introductory game of Nuts by THW. Several others had been invited but for various reasons, were unable to attend. For those who don't know them, here is a brief rundown on the rules from Boardgame Geek: 

The core mechanic of this game is the THW Reaction System. It makes the game feel very realistic. The other pro to the Reaction System is that you only need to learn one set of rules to play every other game that THW offers.

Imagine you're outside of a building ready to enter through the door. When you open the door, you then find two enemy soldiers staring back at you. In most games, when it's your turn you would open the door and shoot at the enemy who is just standing still awaiting a hail of bullets to fly in their direction. With this game, many of the times the enemy just doesn't stand still waiting for you to make a move.

Imagine instead that you open the door and find those very same two enemy soldiers. Here's what could happen and I say could because it all depends on the die rolls:

1) You could fire at the enemy (like most games).
2) You could charge into melee.
3) You could duck back into safety.
4) The enemy could fire at you!!!
5) The enemy could charge into melee and attack you.
6) The enemy could duck back into safety and run away from you!

There are other factors that may pop up from time to time, but as you can see this changes war gaming entirely. Just because it's your turn doesn't mean you get to shoot first.

The main factor in determining whether your side or the enemy side will win "initiative" (for lack of better words) and shoot first also depends on how skilled, or how much of Reputation the solider has. A models Reputation is based on a scale of 3 to 5. A Rep 3 solider is akin to a newly trained troop just out of basic training where a Rep 5 soldier would be a combat hardened veteran.

We played the game as a cooperative contest of we three players, each with 5 or 6 US paratroopers, versus the game AI, the Germans. It really is a great system, particularly if you wish to all play on the same side against the "baddies" (Julian and I used their Chan Reaction Three (TR3) rules a few years back to play "War on Terror" games where we were both coalition forces).

The playing area - US forces started in top right, mid right and bottom left of the table - we had to RV at the farmhouse mid right, then see what developed in the way of "PEF"'s (Possible Enemy Forces)

ALL terrain and figures used were provided by Julian - the figures being from the excellent AB Figures 20mm range.

My squad of five - the NCO was Rep 5, the other four Rep 4 - one of the Rep 4 had a BAR. The other two US squads were similar, and the enemy were all Rep 4, including any leaders.

Julian had a 6-man team including a guy with a bazooka!

The white mist represents a PEF. When rolling for initiative, if a double is rolled, a PEF is generated - you then roll a single D6 for where it appears. In the enemy "turn", 2 D6 are rolled to determine movement - 2 successes = move 8" towards nearest enemy, 1 success = stay put, 0 success =  move 8" away from nearest enemy.  (A success is a roll equal to or less than the Rep of the relevant figure/squad)

My team approaching the RV

Julian's team hugging cover as they also head to the RV

Covering the arcs

Having all met up at the designated RV, we immediately broke up again and headed towards one of the several PEF's that were now on the table (Julian rolled A LOT of doubles!)

Julian moves towards two PEF's in the far woods - this would prove to be a bad tactical decision! (But it was "a learning game"!)

Johns team hunkered down behind the bocage

The first PEF to become an "actual" enemy was on John's front - a D6 roll determined it was a single scout armed with an MP40

He is behind the hedge, corporal!

Next PEF was in front of my unit - a somewhat more substantial enemy!

"Enemy front guys!"

"Scheisse, Amerikanisher Fallschirmjaeger!"

And then there were two! Another PEF transforms into a German squad in the lane adjacent to the woods I was contesting with the first enemy unit to appear.

A successful exchange of fire, one Kraut out of the game and two others have "ducked back" (duck back is the most common outcome of gunfire, which seems pretty realistic)

I mentioned Julian had made a costly tactical error....this is the result! The PEF in the woods to his front moved towards the enemy (him) and the test revealed an NCO with MP40 and 5 infantrymen with KAR98 rifles. The Germans won the "in sight" test and fired first. Being Grade 4 but with the US troops having moved, they required 3 or less to hit - you roll 2 D6 - no success = no effect (rather obviously) 1 success usually = duck back but not always, 2 successes, you add the die scores together, add it to the rep of the firer, and consult a table - anything less than 10 is a duck back of some type, 10 or more, the target is Out of the Game. I rolled for the Germans on this occasion - we took turns to roll for the enemy, so Julian rolled for "my" Germans, I rolled for his etc. I managed to roll a double 3 TWICE in one round of fire, 3+3+Rep 4 =.... you guessed it, the squad leader and bazooka guy were out of the game - OUCH!

The deadly German squad

Julian's casualties

My guys engaged in a firefight with around ten enemy plus a MG team - I was able to hold my own though...the markers are "Duck Backs"

The second German squad in my sector

John had a second PEF resolve into actual troops too - NCO with SMG, MG team and a rifleman.

Take cover!

A one point, to try out the rule, Johns entire squad pelted the enemy with grenades - resulting in - a bucket load of duck backs, but no hits!

Did none of you guys ever play baseball?!

The table as it looked when we called a halt around 1045pm - it took quite a long time to get used to the mechanics and work out how everything worked again - but I think we got there in the end. 

Great fun and nice to get back into these rules - coincidentally, I had just discovered a blog called Atomic Floozie where a lady wargamer has (amongst other things) a few posts of Minairons 20mm SCW - and SHE had used Nuts to play a small SCW patrol scenario - hence when Julian suggested giving these a rerun, I jumped at the chance! Now I have been reminded how it all works, I might try a small solo game of SCW myself :)

Thanks for the visit and please leave a short comment if you enjoyed this episode of Bydand!