Last night at our club, I ran a Combat Patrol(TM): WWII South Pacific game using the rules from the soon-to-be-released supplement.  It was a chance for a final play test of some of the rules before the release of the supplement in a couple of weeks.  In particular, I wanted to test the vehicle-mounted flamethrower rules.

In this scenario, the Japanese held a string of bunkers in a jungle area.  A U.S. Army platoon with a man-pack flamethrower and a Stuart flamethrower tank attacked to seize as many of the three bunkers as possible.  The Japanese had a slightly under-strength platoon with an attached anti-tank gun and a medium machine-gun.  They also occupied three bunkers and two sand-bagged emplacements.

The Americans wisely decided that they should mass on one flank or the other, rather than attacking on a broad front.  This left the Japanese anti-tank gun with few targets during the game.  They might have gotten off a shot later in the game as the Americans advanced across the open area, but by then the Stuart had been knocked out.

The Americans reached the edge of the jungle and were preparing to dash across an open area toward one of the Japanese positions.  The first unit at the edge of the wood line was an American .30 cal machine-gun team, but before they could get it set up, they began taking effective fire from Japanese infantrymen in their right-most bunker.

Seeing that they were being flanked, another Japanese team advanced from their original positions into a small jungle area in the middle of the table.

At this point the Stuart reached the edge of the wood line and fired on the Japanese machine-gun team in the sandbagged position.  This was extreme range for the flamethrower.  Two members of the machine-gun crew were killed in this attack.

The Japanese infantry team that advanced in the previous picture was equipped with a lunge mine.  The South Pacific supplement includes a rule for Japanese suicide anti-tank attacks.  The soldier with the lunge mine and another solider charged out and attacked the Stuart.  The attack was successful.  The player drew a card to determine where the tank was hit (the side of the hull) and the amount of penetration.  Receiving a penetrating hit, the Japanese drew one more card to determine if the vehicle brewed up.  It did.  So after just one shot, the flame thrower tank was knocked out.  Because this was an intentional suicide anti-tank attack, the Japanese figure became incapacitated immediately, but his unit did not accrue a morale marker.

As the flamethrower tank was their most important weapon for reducing the Japanese-held bunkers, things began to look grim for the Americans.  Fortunately they still had a man-packed flamethrower and some hand grenades.

The remaining member of the machine-gun team fired a few shot before running out of ammunition.  Although the Stuart was knocked out early, the fact that it suppressed the machine-gun team enabled the Americans to cross the open area with few casualties.  The remaining member of the machine-gun team put up a good fight for a couple of activations, but eventually the Americans incapacitated him and moved past this position to get behind a Japanese bunker.

About this time the Japanese realized they were out of position and needed to close with the Americans to slow their advance and keep them away from the bunkers.  They declared a Banzai charge.  In Combat Patrol(TM), there is a nice balance in Banzai charges so that they are interesting and effective without being too powerful.  Once the charge begins, the Japanese draw two action cards for movement rather than one, giving them much greater speed; however, they do not receive any benefit of cover.  The charge continues until a card is drawn from the Activation deck ending it.  This could occur in the next turn or several turns later.  The Japanese accrue morale markers, but they do not resolve them until the Banzai charge ends.  In this game, the card ending the charge was drawn as the first card of the next turn, ending the charge earlier than expected.  Still, it had the desired effect:  the Japanese had closed with the Americans and slowed their advance on the bunkers.

In the meantime, the man-packed flamethrower advanced on the rightmost Japanese bunker, but when his team was taken under small arms fire, the operator was incapacitated.  The Americans then made an attempt to drop a grenade into the bunker, but failed.

At this point it was getting late, and the American attack had been spent.  I declared the game a Japanese victory.  It was a very fun scenario, and all agreed we need to try it again soon.

We had four HAWKs win awards at Historicon 2017.  Geoff won an award for this Lego pirate game for kids.  Chris Johnson won an award for his American Civil War game for kids.  Don won an award for his Battleground WWII game on our French village table.  Eric won an award for his American Civil War game for kids.

Congratulations!

There were several Combat Patrol(TM) games run at Historicon 2017.

French vs. Italians 1940

The first was a Thursday game run by Eric Schlegel set in southern France in 1940.  It involved the Italians attacking the French.  I only managed to get one poor picture of this game.  You can see that the Italians had to advance across open ground to get to the French positions or slog through the woods.  Despite some success on the Italian right flank, the game was judge a French victory.

The Bocage

I then ran two bocage games on Friday.  Don and I set up the bocage table and then ran three games on it.  I ran Combat Patrol(TM) in the morning and evening.  In the afternoon Don used to table to run a game using “brand X” rules (Battleground WWII).  In both of my scenarios the Germans were allowed hidden setup, and the Americans were tasked to clear the road.  Unfortunately I was busy running the game and didn’t remember to take very many pictures.  The ones I have don’t tell a coherent narrative, but you can at least see some eye candy.

After the first scenario, every US vehicle had been knocked out, and the Germans had taken few casualties, so it was a decisive German victory.

The first running of this scenario was a decisive victory for the Germans.  The Americans attacked across a wide front, weren’t very aggressive, and never were able to mass on a decisive point.  The second instance was much closer.  The Americans massed on the German right flank and enjoyed initial success.  Then they got bogged down fighting for the farm house in the center of the table rather than bypassing it.  The game was a marginal German victory.

Action around Pomme du Terre

We then set up a French village, called Pomme du Terre, and ran four games on it to amortize the effort of laying out all the buildings.  We ran three Combat Patrol(TM) games on the terrain and one with “brand X.”

1918

Duncan used the town for Germans vs. Americans in 1918.  I was running one of the bocage games while this game was going on, so I only snapped two quick pictures.  Apparently the American platoon was pretty badly shot up trying to take the town from the Germans.

In these pictures you can see that Duncan uses flat disks from Fantasy Flight Games to mark morale checks.  You can also see that Duncan printed unit cards with colored circles on them.  These circles corresponded to colors on the figures’ bases and made it easier for players to figure out which troops were theirs when the fighting got close.

1940

Saturday morning I ran a German assault to capture Pomme du Terre from the French in 1940.  The French were supported by an AT gun and three FT-17s, only one of which was equipped with a gun rather than a machine-gun.  There Germans were supported by two Pz. II’s

The Germans advanced steadily through the town but then got bogged down trying to clear the town square.  Had they advanced around either flank, rather than right up the middle, they might have gotten to the French AT gun and cleared the road.  The result was a French victory.  All the players seemed to really enjoy themselves.

1944

My second game in Pomme du Terre was an American attack on the town.  It was more of a meeting engagement as the Germans weren’t prepositioned in the town, but the onus remained with the attacker to clear the road.  The Germans had a Panzergrenadier platoon with halftracks, two Pz. IV’s and a Marder.  The Americans had an armored infantry platoon with halftracks, a Sherman, an M-10, and a Stuart.  The Americans had a bazooka as well as several captured Panzerfausts.  The forces were of roughly equal size.

The Germans lost a Pz IV early in the game from a shot from the M-10.  The Marder was knocked out by a long-range bazooka shot.  On the other side of the table, the Germans got THREE shots off at the Sherman but rolled very poorly and didn’t knock it out.  They did damage the main gun, turning it into a mobile machine-gun platform.  The Americans handled their vehicles aggressively.  The combination of the Sherman, M-10, and Stuart kept the remaining German Pz. IV busy but didn’t knock it out by the time the game ended.

Both the American and German infantry advanced into the town and got into close quarters combat in and around the town square.  Despite heavy casualties, neither side managed to get a clear upper hand.

A funny moment came when, after the left-flank Pz. IV was knocked out, an American halftrack dashed around the flank, dodging Panzerfaust shots, and circled behind the Germans.  Big surprise for Herman as their infantry started taking fire from three directions.

Though the Germans didn’t knock out any US vehicles, they did knock out the 75mm gun not he Sherman.  The objective was for the Americans to control the road through town.  They didn’t manage to do this by the time the game ended, so we called it a marginal German victory.

We had one player who struggled to get his head around the card mechanics of Combat Patrol(TM) and another who wanted to argue the ratings of guns and armor for some of the vehicles, but otherwise the weekend was a big success.  Many new players had a chance to try Combat Patrol(TM), and several went down and bought copies from the dealer hall — or at least said they did.   I also had quite a few players who came back from either previous conventions or from previous games this weekend.  Every one of my games was completely full, and I even added a couple of extra players who really wanted to try the rules.

 

As usual, the Harford Area Weekly Kriegspielsers ran several games focusing on kids at Historicon.  Below is a quick rundown on some of them.

Navies for Kids Giveaway

Buck Surdu ran a game in which a group of kids were given a box full of boats and other materials.  They then chose sales for a stack of patterns and colored them.  Then we helped them hot glue the sails to the masts.  With a set of rules designed for this game, we ran a naval action pitting side A against side B.  When the game was over, the kids took hope their two decorated boats, two more the assemble, rules, dice, measuring sticks, a sea cloth, and everything they would need to run the game at home for their buddies.

Armies for Kids Giveaway

We worked all year through a series of club painting days and other events to build six complete sets of armies (one French and one Prussian) for a 15mm Franco-Prussian War giveaway.  As in previous years, the kids played the game and then each went home with a French Army, a Prussian Army, terrain, dice, tape measures, and a ground cloth.

Chris Johnson’s Award-Winning ACW Kids’ Game

Chris was presented an award from the convention staff for this kids’ game.

Eric Schlegel’s Award-Winning ACW Kid’s Game

Duncan Adams’ Lionheart Game for Kids

Geoff Graff’s Award-Winning Lego Pirate Game for Kids

This has been a perennial favorite in the HAWKs rooms for many years.  Geoff never fails to keep the kids entertained and engaged!

 

 

Chris Abbey at Sally 4th just published a very nice battle report on a Sea Lion game he ran with Combat Patrol from the Bolt Action scenario book.  See the details here.

More information about the rules can be found on Sally 4th’s page or the rules’ Web page.

I completed a new demonstration video for Combat Patrol(TM) over the weekend.  This one focuses on how to resolve grenades and high explosive attacks.  It is visible on both the Combat Patrol(TM) Web page and on the Combat Patrol(TM) Facebook page.

I hope you find this page useful and interesting.

I have begun to format the cards for the Japanese South Pacific supplement to Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.  The Action Deck is largely the same as the basic rules.  The difference will be in the morale section.  For the Japanese cards, the morale results are more unit type results and fewer individual results.  The graphics look more tropical as well.

The South Pacific set will include three Action Decks.  For those who don’t want to buy the South Pacific set of Acton Decks, they can look up the serial number on the bottom of a card and index the result in a table in the South Pacific supplement.  Other than the cards, the South Pacific supplement will be a free download, like all the other supplements.

Several HAWKs (Duncan, Eric, Chris J., Zeb, and I) went to NJ Con (Fire in the East) this weekend to run and play some games.  To minimize the amount of terrain we needed to carry up there, we ran a series of scenarios in different historical periods on a the same terrain, with minor changes between games.

War of 1812

The first was a War of 1812 game using the free Napoleonic supplement to Combat Patrol(TM).  The scenario involved an American force landing in a small, British-held, port town in the Caribbean.

The Americans landed in small boats and then advanced inland to destroy the British supplies.  While the Americans got to the British supply room and started it on fire a couple of times, the British were able to put it out.

The game was a lot of fun, and I think the scenario was pretty balanced, but in the end, the Americans left the table without successfully destroying the supplies.

Moros in the Philippines

Our second game on this table was a Moro assault on an American-defended village in the Philippines.  For this game, I left the terrain exactly as we had for the War of 1812 game.  Where the Americans attacked British from the beach, the Moros attacked from the opposite edge of the table, swarming out of the jungle.

The Moros had to attack out of the jungle, burn the same supply hut, and capture livestock.  In the lower right of the picture above, you can see that the Americans had a small field gun, but the crew was asleep in one of the buildings when the attack began.  They had to rush to the gun before they could fire it.  The gun was able to knock out the Moro gun by the end of the game.

The American force consisted of two squads of infantry, a squad of Moro Constabulary, and a squad of Filipinos.  The Moros had 12 teams of infantry and a black-powder improvised gun.  The American players felt like the Moros were swarming over them, and there were a number of nail biting moments.  While Eric’s Moros got to the supply hut, they were unsuccessful in lighting the supplies on fire.

For this game, I used Combat Patrol(TM): World War II with few modifications.

The Moros had few rifles, but they were really good in hand-to-hand combat, so the Moro players spent a lot of time trying to close with the Americans.  I also gave the Moros and extra +1 in hand-to-hand when they charged with spears.  The Moros generally did well in hand-to-hand combat, but there were some upside down moments when two Moros ganged up on a single American but lost the combat anyway.

 Wild West

The third game was a wild west shoot-em-up using Zeb Cook’s recently-released Wild West supplement.

For this game we added a few more buildings, replaced the palm trees with cacti, and changed up the “set dressings.”  I think the town looked convincingly southwestern.

In Zeb’s town there was apparently a desperado convention being held.  The figures standing on the poker chips had a price on their head equal to the value of the chip.  There were four teams of bounty hunters competing to collect the most bounties.  In addition, each of us had a price on our head, so there was a lot of incentive to shoot each other as well.  Wild and wooly mayhem ensured.

I think in these pictures you can see that changing up a few items made the town convincing for different historical periods.

Richard Sharpe with Blood and Swash

In addition to our three Combat Patrol(TM) games, Eric ran a Sharpe in the Peninsula game, using Blood and Swash.  A memorable moment came when Harper fired his volley gun and killed both Hakeswell and Sharpe.

You can see from these pictures that swapping out the cacti with some deciduous and palm trees and removing much of the wild west set dressing made the town look like the Peninsula.

There will be many Combat Patrol(TM): WWII games at Historicon.  Make sure you sign up for one of these games and don’t miss the excitement of playing these terrific skirmish rules.

T-184 Late to the Party Theme

World War II; 3 PM; Length: 4 hrs; Hosted by: Eric Schlegel; Scale: 20mm; Rules: Combat Patrol; No. of Players: 7.

12 June 1940. A month after the German invasion of France, the Italians finally declared war and began sending troops through the mountain passes. On the 12th an advance force supported by light armor encountered a French border force near the village of au Coeur des Tanbres. Players under 13 welcome with a playing adult.

F-186 Slogging Through the Bocage

World War II; 9 AM; Length: 3 hrs; Hosted by: Buck Surdu; Scale: 28mm; Rules: Combat Patrol(TM): World War II; No. of Players: 6.

As part of a battalion attack, a platoon of US infantry slogs its way through rows of bocage and fields. Their mission: seize the farmhouse in the distance and open up the road for the advance of the tanks. What is behind the next hedge? What is that diesel sound? Is it a tank? Could it be one of ours or one of theirs?  Combat Patrol(TM) features an intuitive and streamlined, card-based mechanic for resolving combat. Fight the game, not the rules.

F-305 Slogging Through the Bocage, part 2 Theme

World War II; 7 PM; Length: 3 hrs; Hosted by: Buck Surdu; Scale: 28mm; Rules: Combat Patrol(TM): World War II; No. of Players: 6.

As part of a battalion attack, a platoon of US infantry slogs its way through rows of bocage and fields.  Their mission: seize the farmhouse in the distance and open up the road for the advance of the tanks. What is behind the next hedge? What is that diesel sound? Is it a tank? Could it be one of ours or one of theirs? Combat Patrol(TM) features an intuitive and streamlined, card-based mechanic for resolving combat. Fight the game, not the rules.

F-169 First Battle of Pomme du Terre – 1918

World War I; 7 PM; Length: 4 hrs; Hosted by: Duncan Adams; Scale: 25mm; Rules: Combat Patrol; No. of Players: 6.

In the waning days of the Great War retreating German troops fight a rear-guard action in a French village against relentless Americans pursuit.

S-306 Action at Pomme du Terre, 1940

World War II; 9 AM; Length: 3 hrs; Hosted by: Buck Surdu; Scale: 28mm; Rules: Combat Patrol(TM): World War II; No. of Players: 6.

The Nazi juggernaut has pushed across the Meuse River. A platoon of French infantry is cut off in the village of Pomme du Terre. Their last orders before the radio cut out were to hold the village and its important crossroad as long as possible. Lightly armed and under strength, the platoon begins to prepare its defenses when they hear the unmistakable sound of diesel engines in the distance. It won’t be long now! Combat Patrol(TM) features an intuitive and streamlined, card-based mechanic for resolving combat. Fight the game, not the rules.

S-307 Action at Pomme du Terre, 1944

World War II; 1 PM; Length: 3 hrs; Hosted by: Buck Surdu; Scale: 28mm; Rules: Combat Patrol(TM): World War II; No. of Players: 6.

The Allies are advancing across central France. An armored infantry platoon from the Big Red One is ordered to seize the village of Pomme du Terre and its important road junction to prepare the way for a lightning advance by their battalion the next morning. The German Lieutenant has been ordered to hold the road junction as long as possible, and he has been reinforced with assets from his parent Kampfgruppe. Will the Americans dig them out of the town or fail in the attempt.  Combat Patrol(TM) features an intuitive and streamlined, card-based mechanic for resolving combat. Fight the game, not the rules.

NJ Con will be held on 9-10 June in New Jersey.  A number of the HAWKs are going to head up to run a few games.  Among the games we are taking up there are three Combat Patrol(TM) games.

Zeb Cook is running a cowboy game using his under-development Wild West variant of Combat Patrol(TM): World War II.  Various factions battle it out in a wild west town.

Duncan Adams will run a War of 1812 game using his recently released black powder era supplement for Combat Patrol(TM).  This scenario is set in a small Caribbean coastal village.  The Americans land in the village to push out the British.

I will be running a US vs. Moros game, set in a coastal village in the Philippines.

Come and experience the streamlined mechanics of Combat Patrol.   Cards are used to resolve combat, not just manage activation.  A card draw takes the place of calculating a bunch of modifiers, rolling some dice, and then looking up a result on a table.  The result is that you can fight the game, not the rules.  Check out the rules’ Web page for demonstration videos, free downloads, and other information.

See you there!