Portable Wargame Battles 02: Battling Bobforce

 The next battle in this sequence of games using The Portable Wargame rules for the mid-20th Century features the clash of a German Panzer Division with a British armoured force.  Historically, the British 1st Armoured Division hadn't been brought into action yet, although there was plenty of British armour in action, so I, in the style of the time, have christened the British as 'Bobforce'.  Again, this action is relatively even in terms of strength, so the Germans have to take advantage of the initially scattered British deployment.

 

 

 

The original Bob Cordery scenario which this was adapted from can be found here.

The Forces: 

 

German 101 Panzer Division

Command and Staff (Good)

101 Panzer Regiment (3 SP, Average)

102 Panzer Regiment (3 SP, Average)

101 Panzer Grenadier Regiment (4 SP, Average)

101 Artillery Regiment (2 SP, Average)

101 Recce Regiment (2 SP, Average)

101 Anti-Tank Battalion (2 SP, Average)

 

British 'Bobforce'

Command and Staff (Average)

1st Tank Brigade (3 SP, Average)

2nd Tank Brigade (3 SP, Average)

3rd Tank Brigade (3 SP, Average)

1st Motor Brigade (4 SP, Average)

Reconnaissance Force (2 SP, Average)

The same comments apply as in the previous scenario - I am using the 'vanilla' Portable Wargame rules, so I simply gave the Germans +1 on the dice when rolling for who goes first each turn.

Incidentally, I use one physical vehicle or base of infantry or artillery to represent one strength point, in case that isn't obvious.

The Set-Up:

The battlefield: the British are spread out, but with the main weight of their position hanging on the high ground by the large woods to the right.

Another view: the British infantry occupies the high ground, but the British armour is quite widely spread.

The Battle:

The Germans arrive, bringing their guns on in to the centre and attacking on both flanks

Slightly wider shot

A little difficult to tell, but one of the British tank brigades has counter-attacked in the centre, whilst the Germans are attacking the hill on the right with panzers and panzer grenadiers - this attack succeeds, and the British motor infantry have been pushed back

The fight on the left becomes a more swirling affair, as more British armour is committed but the Panzers are counter-attacking; honours are about even at this stage

Losses on both sides, but the British have had rather the worse of it and pull back slightly to establish a line

In essence, the extra firepower of the German artillery and anti-tank units has told

And then a fortunate shot eliminates the British HQ - added to the losses spread throughout the force, then this has demoralized Bobforce

Further British vehicles are destroyed as they prepare to retire

But the mobility of the force ensures its safety and in any case, the Germans have suffered sufficient losses to discourage an overbold pursuit

The position at the end of the battle - the Germans have pursued quite ineffectively despite the Panzer Grenadiers pushing forward on the right (top-right) and the British escape without further loss

Game Notes:  

This one provided another very interesting game although it is perhaps a little hard to follow visually.  I was using a lot of close combats in the armoured fight which is not really the best way to fight I think, but you are trying to engineer a series of flank attacks, so it ended up as a bit of a swirling, turning fight...until some decent German artillery and anti-tank shooting settled the issue with the lucky shot.  Eliminating a commander is hard to do but if it happens, it is really tough luck on the enemy.  C'est la guerre!  Otherwise it was a very even game.  The British can definitely win this one I think, but they have to balance mobility with avoiding becoming a target of the German artillery. 

This game featured a lot more 'kit' than the earlier games and this is going to be bit where the abstraction of the rules may bother the historical gamer a bit.  The dynamic between British and German forces in 1940 is highly dependent on whether the British have Matilda IIs or Is or A10s, and whether the Germans have Panzer IIIs, Panzer IIs, 37mm anti-tank guns or 88s.  This in turn is going to largely depend on what level of command you are imagining each force to represent.  However, I think this is where the scenario designer is going to come into their own by altering the numbers to fit the situation.  At this stage I was happy to not do that; visually I made the compromise by making the British armoured forces a mixture of the various types.

On that subject, this is why I don't use the 'Pinning' rules from Developing the Portable Wargame: although the rules seem fine as mechanics, I don't associate pinning (or suppression) as an action that has much meaning at a battalion or brigade level.

The vehicles in this one were all Heroics & Ros, as were the guns; the infantry are from Baccus 6mm and the buildings are by Leven.