The Sharp End Gaming

This is a quick battle I setup last night. A reduced infantry company has been charged with knocking out a Flak battery that a reconnaissance plane spotted northwest of the British advance.  Some Sicilian refugees have said they saw the Germans moving it into position atop the hill in the ruin of a vineyard. A look at the British jumpoff point once I finished setup.  I am going to send my sniper section first into that line of tree to the west.  They will cover a scout patrol as it makes its way cautiously up the rutted road/streambed towards the Junction objective.  The rest of 11 Platoon will cover them.  Dog Coy HQ and a squad and mortar detachment from Platoon 11 will occupy the stone wall just out of sight to cover the advance of  Plt 10 which will work a switch back up to the top of the hill on the extreme edge of the map. Plt 10's advance should be out of sight until they crest the hill. There is a scene in the movie Zulu Dawn where ...

There is a scene in the Audie Murphy bio pic " Hell and Back Again " where he joins in an assault against some German 88s behind a farmhouse.  Or at least that's how I remember it. I am not sure where that fight took place and I don't remember the exact composition of the forces involved but I've used that scene as the inspiration for a small scenario I am working on in Combat Mission Italy. Background : An Italian army deserter has warned the Americans that there are Germans nearby. Overnight a German platoon has moved into a farm house and barn less than a half a mile away from the American lines.  They've taken up a strong position in between 2 of their own self propelled guns and the American patrols nearby. The Americans can hear digging so they know the Germans will be prepared for them in the morning. Two American platoons from Able company have been assigned the task of neutralizing the Germans in the farmhouse and destroying the guns behind i...

Tonight I started a 2 hour quick battle to probe a point in the German lines that's being held by a company of Pioneers and some infantry guns. Screenshots below. My company of paras with 3 supporting armored cars is moving forward towards both my objectives simultaneously when we hit a line of two German bunkers. I send scout detachments forward to make certain there isn't any more to the German defense than I am seeing.  The cover is good and I am able to knock out one bunker with an armored car and the other is captured by a detached assault squad which blasts the door and then follows up with grenades. I knocked out both bunkers and now I am going to use that river bed to move up on the German positions. My scouts (just past the house) are moving along the road to get a better view of the Road Junction objective in the distance.  Those foxholes were abandoned early on or never used. This Scout car is making life difficult for the German units defending...

Inspired by Doug's recent Combat Mission Fortress Italy post on his blog, I decided to take command of a German tank platoon as it looked to score some kills tonight against American armor across the valley.  The result wasn't pretty because I am awful with tanks.  I managed to get off two shots from my platoon in total before all four tanks were knocked out of commission. My tanks flowed like water across the battlefield until I was forced to crest this ridge. This game is unforgiving.

When you play an operational game for so long (Command Ops), and then try to shift gears and take on small units in a game like Combat Mission Fortress Italy you are most likely going to get your clock cleaned. Inspired by JC's post about Darby's Rangers at Gela and Doug's foray into Operation Husky  inspired scenarios I tried out a quick custom battle of my own using Battlefront's Combat Mission Fortress Italy last night (unfortunately no screenshots). The situation and Allies plan: Elements of a German reconnaissance battalion are probing an important road junction in rural Italy with two companies of Fusiliers. To meet them, British paratroopers have dug in on the opposite slope of a stream to provide direct fire on the objective.  I've also deployed paratroopers inside the vineyard on the slope above the objective.  They are dug in around some stone barns which lie next to the objective. There are a number of small stands of trees that will give the Germ...

I love the quick battles editor in Combat Mission Fortress Italy and Gustav Line.  There are so many maps and units to choose from.  This morning I played a quick battle pitting a German Parachute company from the 1st Parachute Division vs. two reinforced platoons of Red Devils from British 1st Airborne.  The Brits, played by me, held the high ground around a hilltop objective.  I set a thirty minute time limit and watched world war 2 play out once again before me. Having time to prepare foxholes around the objective the Brits dug in with one platoon on the hilltop.  The deployment zone was huge though and I was worried about the rough terrain hiding movement, so I deployed a platoon on the valley floor in case the Germans tried a flanking maneuver.  That was mistake #1.  No one from this platoon made it back up the hill... The battle begins.  The "Lost Platoon" can be clearly seen in the valley with the remainder of my infantry dug in on bo...

Calling in a barrage of smoke on the hilltop German defenses. The Germans are on every ridge from here to Berlin... The Germans are well trained, entrenched and fighting from the top of every hill.  The Italy/Sicily campaign is a bear...more to come.

I am really enjoying Wargame Airland Battle.  It vastly improves on the original Eugen Systems Cold War title European Escalation and is something I will continue to play for quite awhile.  That said, it lacks one thing that I was reminded of while playing a Battlefront Fortress Italy scenario this morning:  unit value. By that I mean a combination of the unit's tactical importance to the scenario and your ability to impact the units fate and therefore develop some sort of emotional attachment with the unit.  In Airland Battle, you almost never see the unit you deploy again.  And frankly that's okay because chances are you have a few more variants of that unit in your virtual deck.  With limits on the number of aircraft you can deploy, they are the only unit you are forced to use "wisely."  Every other unit is basically free to do whatever crazy thing you need them to do and you will order them to do crazy things because they will do it without a tho...