BKC II - Down By The Sea

Scenario 3 of the series, Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time, written by Andrew Rolph and recently published by Miniature Wargames with Battlegames.

Rules used are Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.
Notes on BKC II Optional Rules and Scenario Rules used are at the end of this Post.

Most figures and models are Pendraken.

UP FRONT
I should say straight away this didn’t work out very well for the Soviets. I tried a few options for the Soviet attacks but they were very fragmented and all crossing open ground against dug-in Germans. There was a lot of artillery which was fine at the beginning when the Soviets were bombarding the German positions, but very messy when the German FAOs were able to bring their artillery to bear on the Russians in the open.
So, with that in mind, I’ll keep this fairly short.

Background
It’s early in 1942 and the Soviets are trying a counter-offensive on the Crimean coastline

This scenario features an assortment of Soviet forces trying to combine arms in an attack against a mixed German Battlegroup defending a coastal position.

Layout
The initial layout.
The table is just 4ft square including the coastal area.

The Soviets are attacking from the east (this end), and the south (the coast) and … oh yes … and they have a paratroop drop.

Objectives
Victory Points are awarded for each town sector or airfield installation held – five in total. So really the Russians have to take the town to stand any chance of winning.

BKC II - The Stalin Line

Scenario 2 of the series, Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time, written by Andrew Rolph and recently published by Miniature Wargames with Battlegames.

Rules used are Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.
Notes on BKC II Optional Rules and Scenario Rules used are at the end of this Post.

Most figures and models are Pendraken.

It’s still early in Operation Barbarossa in July 1941 and the Germans have come up against The Stalin Line running along the original Russian border before the Russians moved into Poland in 1939. The original defences have been neglected and stripped of armaments and now hasty defences have been set up.

Layout
The initial layout.
The long hedge on the right is the edge of the world, as is the sharp cut off of terrain and clutter in the foreground.

The Germans are attacking from the west (this end) and the Soviets are defending in the east (far end).

The river is impassable to vehicles and infantry treat it as an obstacle on each bank and difficult terrain wading through it. The bridge is broken.

Objectives
Germans – exit beyond the river from the far end and to the right of the single tree in the centre of that edge.
Soviets - to stop the German advance. In the scenario, Russian formations (that have been at least under fire) can exit by the same route and gain Victory Points. I forgot (or ignored) that. No retreat!

OOBs
Details are in the downloads mentioned in my previous Post - Blitzkrieg Commander II revival.

Germans:

• 1/4th Pz btn
• 1/52nd Motorised Battalion
• 23rd Motorcycle Battalion with Bridging Engineer detachment attached
• Air Support (3 Stuka missions)

Soviets:

• 4 x Rifle Battalions of 47th Brigade plus supports (see note below)
• 1 x KV-2 attached to one of the Rifle Btns
• 2 x 122mm Artillery Support (in place of the 120mm mortars in the scenario) attached to one of the Rifle Btns
• 4 x T-26 of 57th Tank btn – the scenario doesn’t specify which model so I assumed with 37mm gun

BKC II - The Red Empire Strikes Back

Here goes with first of the scenarios written by Andrew Rolph and recently published by Miniature Wargames with Battlegames under the banner of Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time.

Rules used are Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.
Notes on BKC II Optional Rules and Scenario Rules used are at the end of this Post.

This scenario is set at the beginning of Operation Barbarossa in June 1941 and is a Soviet counterattack against a German position with German reinforcements on the way. Standard stuff.

Layout
Here's the initial layout.
The Germans are defending in the west and the Soviets are attacking from the east.

The woods, hills, village and hedges are treated as normal.
The rough ground in the foreground I treated as Low Area terrain for visibilty, Impassable to vehicles and guns and Soft Cover.

Objectives
Soviets - to breakthrough and exit the table along the west edge which is held by the Germans. They must also contest the village, which means occupying at least one sector, so they can't just ignore everything and charge off.
Germans - to destroy any enemy that attack your sector.

OOBs
... are long and in the downloads mentioned in my previous Post - Blitzkrieg Commander II revival.
You will get an idea from the piccies.

• Germans start with one infantry battalion, one FlaK battalion and one StuG formation. Reinforcements are on the way.
• Soviets have three infantry battalions, two tank battalions and an off-table artillery battalion. Not all the Soviets listed are guaranteed to turn up.

Deployment
The Soviets start off-table along the east edge, nominating a start point for each formation.

The Germans deploy their starting forces up to about half way from the west edge (I used a 6'x4' table instead of 6'x5' as stated in the scenario).

I put the infantry defending the village and farming area. The StuGs are off to the right behind the rough ground.

The FlaK battalion are around the north hill behind the wood.

Pre-planned Artillery
Playing this solo I hit the problem of having pre-planned artillery for the Soviets while knowing where the Germans were deployed. I came up with a solution which I thought worked quite well.

Blitzkrieg Commander II revival

I'm going to take a short break from the Third Crusade games to have a bash at an old favourite, Blitzkrieg Commander II by Specialist Military Publishing.

Miniature Wargames (with Battlegames, as was at the time) has recently published a series of scenarios under the heading "Fighting the Great Patriotic War one battle at a time", written by Andrew Rolph. The scenarios are based on the WWII Ostfront between 1941 and 1943. I thought some of them might transfer well to BKCII and give me the push I needed to dust off the old rules. I'm looking forward to it.

Although the author of the scenarios has a particular set of rules in mind (I don't know what, let's call them Rules X) he gives lots of help to adapt the scenarios for other rules. After a read through of the first article it looks like firing ranges are far greater in BKCII than Rules X, and there is also a greater restriction on visibility in Rules X. For example in Rules X, unless firing, infantry in the open will only be seen within 9". I'll need to make allowances for that otherwise the Russian attackers (in the first scenario) will probably be mown down at long range. He also recommends using a morale mechanism for each unit* (usually about battalion strength) rather than an overall army breakpoint with some units* fighting to the last man. Something like that can be managed with BKCII.
* Note: I say "unit*" because in BKCII a Unit is just one stand. I will be using BKCII terminology in future.

The scenarios and further information are currently available for download from the Miniature Wargames website (confusingly under the name of Tabletop Gaming):
https://www.tabletopgaming.co.uk/historical-games/information/downloads/
The scenarios are under Issue 404
Further notes on play balance mechanisms are under Issue 400

Third Crusade - Break Up The Column, 25th-26th August, 1191

The Crusader army is advancing south down the coast in three separate divisions. Saladin's son, al-Afdal, attempts to slow the Crusader's rearguard to separate them from the rest. If successful, Saladin's main force could exploit the gap between the Crusader rearguard and the rest of the army.

I used Lion Rampant rules by Daniel Mersey for this game.
It was based on the Scenario D: A Gentle Stroll.

The Crusaders are marching down the coast and only being attacked from one side so I adjusted the initial deployment to suit.
The Crusader Retinue must make it's way down from the North West (top left) of the table and move off in the South West (bottom left) corner. The deployment of the Egyptian Retinue had to be adjusted to suit so that some units came on in the South East corner as the original scenario, but the rest came on along the East side, with 24" of the North East corner.

Crusader Retinue
2 Mounted Men-at-Arms (a "Commanding" Leader included)
1 Mounted Sergeants
1 Foot Sergeants
1 Crossbowmen

Egyptian Retinue
2 Mounted Sergeants + bows (a "Strong" Leader included)
2 Mounted Yeomen
2 Foot Yeomen


The first moves.
While most of the Crusaders sped south down the coast, the Crusader Mounted Sergeants to moved east to counter the Egyptian mounted Yeomen. However the Yeomen left them behind and rode off to engage the Foot Sergeants making their way through some rough ground.