Sunday Game - 15mm WWII with AS9 Rules

 After our trial run of these rules with Ricks 28mm SCW collection a few weeks ago, Barry put on an early WWII game pitting the Wehrmacht against the French in 1940. This was a bit more of a "trial" (in both meanings of the word!) game than the SCW, which was really a demo to see if other members of the group liked the concepts or not. We had quite a lot of discussion around different facets of the rule mechanisms this time and it felt a bit like additional complexity was creeping in, but after a rather fraught period around turns 2 and 3, we more or less got back to playing the game!

Barry set up the terrain then allowed the French to choose which side of the table they would defend and then set up first. Once the French had made their plan and deployed their forces, Barry covered that half of the table with cloths, so when we Germans came in to make a plan, we could not see their dispositions. The aim for the German forces was to have control of at least two of the three roads exiting the French side of the table. As two roads were very close together (see this end of the table above) our plan was to concentrate most of our forces to attack that area of the French line, and more or less ignore the third road - the French, of course, could not ignore one of the roads, so we banked on them being thinly spread to potentially cover all three....

The above shows initial deployments and then (in very general terms) the subsequent movement of both forces. The very strong Panzer contingent was in the bottom right opposite the two roads we aimed to control, whilst the other two forces were infantry and artillery only. The French had infantry and concealed guns around the buildings in the bottom left with their tanks, as was their wont, spread along the entire front in "penny packets"

The "heavy" infantry force with two battalions of infantry and supporting HMG. Mortars and artillery

The "light" infantry force with only one battalion plus supports.

The Panzer force, mainly PzKfw 38(t) but with a few PzKfw III and IV, plus Stugs and SdKfz 222 recon.

Penny Packets of French armour

As the German advance got underway, the French successfully requested air support from their trans channel allies and two RAF fighter bombers appeared - they targeted the sole 88mm gun on the table, which was not deployed, but fortunately the pilots aim was off!

The "light" force deploys to refuse the German right flank as French forces scramble to react to the unexpected German deployment.

The Germans attack with a left hook, Panzers and the "heavy" infantry unit in unison against an isolated French defence lacking any armoured support.

Atypically, the French command and control in this phase of the battle proved to be superior (they had three initiative cards drawn in a row!) and the French armour managed to get into position to contest the two roads with the more numerous but less well armed and armoured German vehicles.

A solid wall of French tanks now occupied the BUA that was the main focus of the German assault!

On the German right flank, French armoured cars assaulted an infantry company holding a wooded area.

The infantry attached to the Panzer units advanced aggressively towards the French positions.

And the Luftwaffe finally turned up to provide some aerial support!

Mass infantry assaults go in against the Poilus.

As the Panzers gradually whittle down the defending French armour

Even my opponent told me to take an image of this - firing at a disadvantage and required to roll 3 D6 and count the lower two scores - I got this result! Double 6 = double hit, and a French tank was destroyed by German howitzer fire!

The German tank force attack was not without loss, as you can see above.

But the French had the worst of things, as evidenced in the images above and below.

The Panzers grind forward remorselessly as the left hook maneuver develops as planned. 

As the depleted first wave of Wehrmacht Landsers pull back a fresh battalion continues the assault on the wavering French defenders.

With almost all their armour aflame, several AT guns silenced and two companies of infantry driven back, the French defence was on the ropes when we called the game around 1530 after 21 rounds of initiative - 11 to the French and 10 for the Germans

The French force above had spent most of the game redeploying from the extreme French left (where they had no enemy to fight) and thus were effectively nullified by the German strategy of concentration at the opposite end of the battlefield.

A couple of final views of the pivotal area of the battle, with German forces in the ascendancy and the French conceding the field.

Well, that was a good win for we Germans (Nick - Panzers, Andrew - Light Inf and me - Heavy Inf) and a hard day at the office for the two Johns and Mark controlling the French defence. Despite the unfortunate (for us) run of French activations early on, allowing them to get their armour back into the game, our plan worked well in the end. The Luftwaffe were conspicuous by their absence - they turned up once in the whole game, versus three successful raids by the RAF, but this was not critical in the end, and the Blitzkrieg can continue to roll down the French highways towards the Atlantic coast! Andrew and Barry will be having a look at some of the questions and points raised by players during the game and we intend to do another game in a fortnight.

Thanks for your visit and I will be back to the Great Northern War in my next post.