Kampfgruppe Heller, Poland 1939: A Retrospective

 Apart from a general liking for WW2 games - for variety and tactical complexity, they are hard to beat - I wanted a few things. Firstly, I wanted to test out John's new* WW2 rules which are aimed at the one base = one section, one model = one vehicle scale of wargames. Secondly, to add a little more narrative and continuity to some of my games. I had played through the collection of One-Hour Wargames' scenarios, which are absolutely great, but they are more aimed at indidividual battles. Now I did add a little bit of continuous narrative in there, but it was a pretty small element, and I wanted more. Now, the high priest of adding narrative in my part of the wargames blogosphere is Just Jack, who almost never plays a one-off: continuous narrative and interplay between background and game is his starting point. His campaigns might be 'real' in the sense that there are strategic decisions being made, or they might be entirely narrative scaffolding. Both are useful though, especially for the solo gamer, since they frame the immediate tactical situation with over-arching objectives. So in any case, I had been planning on visiting Just Jack's Kampfgruppe von Klink campaigns - a series of campaigns of an imaginary German Kampfgruppe in WW2 - in some form or other. They didn't require vast amounts of models, so I was able to acquire sufficient Polish forces quite cheaply from Scotia and Heroics and Ros. If I have the choice I normally prefer Baccus, but it is unlikely that Baccus will get around to this theatre anytime soon. The H&R stuff is very nice - especially the new stuff, which is very useful for some of the Polish infantry support weapons -  and if the Scotia models are a little bigger and simpler, they are still pretty good. Plus, although the infantry does look pretty French and they could proxy for each other in a pinch, the Polish AFV camouflage is both fun to paint and quite distinctive.

 

The position at the beginning of the first KG Heller battle - the 'look' (types of terrain, size of board etc.) has been pretty consistent!

 

The battles themselves were really good fun. They were generally well-balanced, although well-balanced for the Five Core Company Command rules. John's rules do concentrate on different elements, with observation and support fire from mortars and artillery being apparently much more important, whereas the orders of battle for some of these scenarios were quite light on support weapons, especially HE weapons. I added some of these anyway (so, for example, both the German and Polish infantry tended to bring their platoon mortars with them, although they weren't included in the scenarios) but quite often the Germans were in need of an artillery battery, or at least a couple of sections of medium or heavy mortars, to try and neutralize Polish positions before the assault. Judging by Just Jack's reports and tactics, I infer that taking more direct risks could often be rewarded in Company Command, whereas the chances of such attacks resulting in dead infantrymen (or especially, recce troops) was just much higher in John's rules.

 

I won't say too much about John's rules, since they are still being developed and playtested. They look reasonably close to completion to me but it isn't for me to say. You can definitely tell that they have been written by someone who is familiar with the WRG rules, but equally they are somewhat different. There is more emphasis on indirect fire and engineering than is typical in wargame rules. The observation rules are more detailed than most but still elegant. Morale effects tend to be built-in to various other rules rather than being a distinct stage, but are none the worse for that. The hit/penetration for vehicle combat is simple but rather brilliant - John can reasonably claim to be one of the gamers who has studied the issues involved in representing this the most over the years. The interplay between command, weapon effect and observation really affects infantry combat in a way that is perhaps the best representation at this size of battle that I have seen. All of this is supported by comprehensive equipment and OoB information, but presented in the 'necessary information' format of WRG rather than the 'fluff' version of Flames of War handbooks and suchlike. So, lots and lots to really interest the gamer looking at tactical company to battalion plus actions for the 'long' WW2 period.

 

I should mention that John is looking to publish a different set of WW2 tactical rules: these are the ones I had some involvement in playtesting in 2023, the missing link WRG-inspired rules (i.e. if a 2nd edition of the WRG WW2 rules had been released at the same time as the 2nd edition WRG modern rules).

Going forward, I am looking to continue with KG Heller's adventures. Their forebears of KG Klink moved to the Low Countries and France next, although I am wondering if a Scandinavian campaign might be interesting. I am also wondering whether to add in some additional aspects. These might include:

1 - More genuinely campaign framing, with myself or PBEM commanders exercising some control on events and force allocation.

2 - Incorporating additional scenarios and perhaps pint-sized campaigns into the narrative, e.g. inserting KG Heller into Taking the Gembloux Gap and Caesar's Camp.

3 - Incorporate some air action into events. I do like WW2 air games!

4 - I should have followed Just Jack and put a little more effort, if not into the narrative exactly but into the personalization, at least for the officers (commissioned and NCOs) for that little bit of extra narrative flavour.

5 - Maybe I should increase the personalization for both sides, to allow for some of the Allied units to re-appear in other scenarios later in the war?

So, a good time was had by all (i.e. me!) and I hope by some of this blog's readers. Many thanks to Just Jack if he ever gets to stop by for creating KG von Klink in the first place, John for the early sight of the rules and to those who have read this, particularly those who have left an encouraging comment here or on one of the forums. I do want to take a little time to think through how I might move this on, but generally speaking, more soon, insha'allah!

*T&Cs apply.

Kampfgruppe Heller: Poland, Battle 16

Okay, the last action in the KG Heller campaign coming up! Following Just Jack's original, this features the Germans trying to mop-up one of the last isolated bastions of somewhat organized Polish resistance. The idea here is that there have already been extensive aerial and artillery prepatory bombardments, and KG Heller is going in to eliminate the last resistance...

The Forces:

Germany:

Company Command + 80mm mortar

2 x Grenadier platoons

1 x PzIII

1 x PzIV

Poland:

Company Command

Entrenched 37mm anti-tank gun

Entrenched 75mm field gun

Entrenched MMG

2 x Rifle platoons

The Germans are aiming to overcome the fixed defences, which would spell doom for the remainder of the Poles whatever. The Poles are fighting for time - but really, there is not much chance of help coming. It is all about glory, and heroism, and making the invader pay...

The Set-Up:

The Polish defensive positions are on the two hills by the crossroads; the Germans are approaching from the bottom

A pair of Panzers prowl on the left

A Grenadier Platooon advancing up the centre (accompanied by the company commander and the 80mm mortar team)

The second Grenadier Platoon is sent on a right-flanking move

The two Polish rifle platoons are deployed in front of the right of the Polish position, protecting from direct attacks up the road and especially protecting the anti-tank gun position (top-left)

A wider shot of the Polish positions

The Battle:

The Grenadier platoon advances then shakes out - the first fire is exchanged between the Polish gun and MMG, and the German mortars. But nothing much is affected.

Whilst this ineffectual exchange of fire continues, the flanking German grenadier platoon makes good progress (top-right), using a mixture of cover and crawling to stay unobserved

And takes position in the wood - they are about to try and advance, but the leading squad is spotted by the MMG position and gunned down. The German grenadier platoon commander takes a cigar moment and re-thinks...

Meanwhile, the Panzer pair have been called from the left flank into the centre to help suppress the Polish positions on the centre hill (top)

A wider shot

A bit of luck for the Germans - the Polish central hill positions are suppressed and the Grenadier platoon smartly disposes of the MMG (see the pall of black smoke rising) - the Poles try and send a squad to stop this threat (top-centre, just above the crossroads)

But some smart shooting from the MG34 gunner in the German Grenadier squad overwatching it (bottom-right) cuts them down as they cross!

Meanwhile, the other German grenadier platoon works its way around the back of the Polish position, capturing the Polish company commander and HQ staff and truck.

It then disposes of the Polish gun position too! Note the change of facing of the Polish infantry - they are mainly engaging at long-range the German base of fire (primarily mortars), without much effect on either side

The German commander leaves the mortars and his staff to carry on the distant firefight (right, in the woods) now his Panzers have got into an enfilading position (top-right on the road), whilst the German Grenadiers begin to go left flanking (centre)

Meanwhile, the other German Grenadier platoon snurgles through the woods to the rear of the Polish position

...you can see them work behind the anti-tank gun (top-left). The remaining German Grenadiers move to a position to engage the re-deploying Polish rifles (bottom, to left)

The Polish anti-tank gun position is destroyed!

The German commander gets his panzers to advance into the centre of the village - the Poles with an easy escape route try and take it (right) - most make it. The Polish ATR team surrenders (top-left) to a combination of the advancing Panzers and German grenadiers

All the remaining visible Poles surrendered at this point, all being disrupted and waiting the inevitable.

Game Notes:

That one went a bit better for KG Heller, no? It was quite neat if you know what I mean - very Brecon/Salisbury plain, although not the worse for that, given the recent prevalence of recce troops trying to overcome infantry platoons in decent defensive positions straight off the line-of-march! Probably an Iron Cross first class for the commander of the 2nd Grenadier platoon too, since his actions unlocked the Polish defence, although of course this was enabled by the supporting fires, which weren't dominant, but were heavy enough to eventually give an opportunity for a successful attack. The only significant German losses were in the squad cut down by the MMG in the first attack - MMGs are *really* hard for infantry to attack in this game, they really need to be at least disrupted by HE fire or any attack is highly risky.  The German attack was helped by the odd bit of decent shooting, but combat is a bit like that, and it isn't if the Poles hadn't had the help fo the rub of the green/the hot hand in recent battles themselves. I think the thing that let the Poles down was probably the quite poor shooting (especially difficulties in bracketing) by the Polish 75mm gun.

Anyway, all good fun and a good way to end the campaign. I think I did miss a trick in that in this game I could probably have done the prepatory bombardment with these rules! The only issue with that I think is that it isn't clear in Just Jack's original how much damage the air strikes and artillery had caused. In any case, I hope readers enjoyed it. I will do a more general campaign round-up soon.

Models are a mixture of Heroics and Ros, Scotia and Baccus. Buildings are by Battlescale I think. Defences by Timecast IIRC.

Kampfgruppe Heller: Poland, Battle 15

The penultimate battle in this campaign, Battle 15, was another attempt by the Germans to snuff out a Polish escape - here a bridgehead position held at the edge of a town. As is something of a running theme, the Germans are aggressively using reconnaissance elements to carry out assaults. Given information that the Poles have armoured vehicles in this bridgehead then the Germans are at least supported by an anti-tank gun.

The Forces

Kampfgruppe Heller:

Company Command element

Motorcycle platoon

Sd231

Two attached engineer squads

37mm anti-tank gun and tow

The Polish Forces:

Company Command element

Two rifle platoons

MMG

Wz.29 armoured car

7TP

I followed the very aggressive orders and tactics prevalent in the original game. This had certain interesting consequences...

The Set-Up:

The Polish troops are mainly around the buildings, with the centre of resistance at top-left, but with elements to the left, centre and top-right too.

The Germans advance, coming from the bottom-right

The Polish MMG in the building bottom-left (for initial clarity, I leave the actual troops adjacent and then remove them from the table, or insert them if possible, once the game starts).

Polish infantry in the ruined building by the junction (near ground), with the force commander and the balance of the two platoons by the buildings and the walls in the town.  The armoured car can just be seen top-left.

The main Polish line, including the armoured car (bottom-left), company and platoon commands (centre-left) and the 7TP (top); you can just pick out some infantry in or near each of the woods, too.

 The Battle:

The action begins quite rapidly: Polish MG fire (from the MMG I picked out above) forces the last m/c section to pull back into cover, the remainder of the platoon have advanced...

...and are approaching the crossroads.

When they were mown down by the rifleman, and particularly the BAR gunner, in the ruined building!

The Sd231 commander cheers himself up by pumping round after round into the ruin - the Polish squad gets its collective head right down into the rubble

The German commander rapdily recasts the strategy, moving the Engineers and anti-tank gun off to the flank; the surviving motorcyclists (from the rear section) provide some protection

Note that more Polish infantry is trickling forward to help out around the ruin

The 7Tp trundles forward from the top and discomfits the leading German Engineer squad

The Polish infantry are being supported by an ATR now too. Or at least 'supported', its gunners are not making much of an impact on the Sd231

A weird kind of stasis has affected the battlefield, with all the elements in contact (Polish infantry and German armoured car; Polish tank and German anti-tank gun and engineers) resolutely failing to hit each other, but resolutely holding onto their positions! Quite a lot of time passed like this, without anything very much happening...

The stand-off is resolved by more Polish troops arriving; at that point the German commander orders a withdrawal - vastly outnumbered and without artillery support, there does not seem any very obvious routes to victory.

Game Notes:

A very interesting game, which is probably the biggest demonstration of the different implications of using the rules I am using for this, versus the rules that Jack originally used. Victory for the Germans was always a fairly doubtful proposition in this one, but rapidly became almost impossible. Small arms fire is rarely decisive against troops in cover here - but OTOH, it can be decisive, occasionally extremely decisive, if you catch troops moving in the open, which is what happened early on. I have a small rules' query I need to iron out with John, not so much about the fire, but about the lead up to it, that might have made a difference to the game - not to the result, but that the Germans might have been stopped with fewer losses.

The triumvirate of Polish tank - German anti-tank gun - German engineers was quite interesting. The Polish tank gun was a bit too small to be very effective against foot troops. It could have advanced to try and get a panic result, but the German engineers, although disrupted, refused to quite. The German anti-tank gun was equally a bit too far away to get an easy hit on the Polish tank! So the Polish tank resorted to machine-gunning the engineers, which was obviously causing a couple of casualties but mainly just cusing the Germans to wiggle further and further down into the dirt. Eventually, the 7TP pulled back, feeling that the balance of chance was probably marginally against it.

Anyway, more good fun. Buildings a mixture of Battlescale and Leven, models a mixture of H&R, Scotia and Baccus.

Kampfgruppe Heller: Battle 14, Poland

Next battle in the Kampfgruppe Heller campaign, which re-creates Just Jack's KG von Klink campaign, is a purely armoured clash between Polish and German tank forces. The Polish Army is at the culmination point of its resistance and it is mainly fighting to avoid encirclements and forced mass surrenders by this point. Here KG von Klink has sent an improvised Panzer company group to stop a Polish armoured breakout.

The Forces:

KG Heller:

1 x Coy Comd group

2 x PzIV

4 x PzIII

2 x PzII

1 x Sd221

1 x Sd231

Polish Forces:

1 x Coy Comd group

5 x 7TP

2 x Vickers

1 x wz34

1 x TKS20

The Battle:

Somehow I can't find the photos of the set-up, and some are also missing from the end of the battle. In any case the Poles are advancing from the West (left), the German from the East (right). From top-to-bottom, the Poles have their tankette and armoured car, then the five 7TPs, then the two Vickers. From top-to-bottom, the Germans have their armoured cars, then two mixed platoons of 2 x PzIII, 1 x PzIV, then the pair of PzII at the bottom. So far, the PzII and 7TP have advanced. The Vickers tried, but one tank was forced back by fire from one of the PzIII/IV platoons.

First blood to Poland: a 7TP brews up a PzII.

One of the mixed Pz platoons has advanced to the base of the central wood, whilst the other remains in support. The remaining PzII has moved to a better firing position (bottom-right).

Fire from the Polish light armour (left) has forced back the German light armour (top-right)

And then everything happened all at once! The Germans felt that they weren't getting anywhere fast with long range shooting, so attacked. But the Poles simply outshot their German opponents, first destroying the lead Pz platoon (burning, centre), and then the remaining PzII from that platoon (bottom). The German light armour still cannot get forward (top).

Lanchester's square law in action??

Not much actually happened after this - worried about being outflanked locally in the centre, the Germans withdrew, and then withdrew some more, feeling that any further panzer losses would be pretty pointless.

Game Notes:

It has been noted by others here that more or less pure armoured clashes in WW2 games are somewhat rarer than might be imagined: I don't think this is my first exactly, but I haven't played many at all. This was my first time doing it with John's rules for certain. In any case, the main feature for me in actually playing this was how ineffective early tank fire actually was, until the range was pretty close! Its main effect in practice seemed to be to 'persuade' advancing tanks to pull back into cover. So the action didn't really hot up until the first tank was destroyed, which started to shift the firepower advantage, which persuaded the German commander to try and get his tanks into really effective range. But the Poles always had superiority of fire at the point of action, and it counted. The rules do allow for some of the shoot-and-scoot skirmish tactics, but they just seemed to make the fire even more ineffective. What worked was a larger number of stationary tanks on watch-and-shoot, and hoping someone got moderately lucky...

Anyway, I apologize for the lack of photos for this game so I haven't done it real justice, but it was a lot of fun, and very interesting! Models all by H&R this time (have I mentioned how much I like the camo patterns for both sides?)

Kampfgruppe Heller: Battle 13, Poland

John D Salt recently sent me the updated draft of his WW2 ruleset, so it was time to finish off the last few battles of my refight of Just Jack's first Kampfgruppe von Klink campaign, set in Poland 1939. This is the refight of Battle 13. A bunch of German recce, infantry and engineer elements are supposed to advance and destroy a Polish pontoon bridge. German intelligence expected light opposition...

The Forces:

Kampfgruppe Heller:

 

Company Command

Motorcycle platoon

Grenadier platoon

1 x Sdkfz 221

1 x Sdkfz 231

2 x Engineer squads

Polish Forces:

Infantry Company Command:

2 Rifle platoons with 7 squads between them

1 x 82mm mortar

2 x .30 machine guns

The Set-Up:

The overall battlefield. The temporary bridge to the top-left. The Poles have some elements near the bridge, including the machine guns, a platoon to the top-right and a platoon deployed centre to bottom left. The Germans are approaching on both sides of the river from the bottom right.

Polish infantry, with a light mortar and anti-tank rifle by the strip of trees (bottom-left), with another squad by the edge of the field. There are further infantrymen at the woods at the centre-top, and at the top of the centre (if you follow me!)

Most of the Polish Platoon guarding this side of the river is by the farmhouse (top), but a squad has been thrown forward into the woods (centre-right)

MMG positions on both sides of the bridge provide the main defence here.

The German motorcyle platoon leads the column on the far bank, the Grenadiers lead the column on the near bank.

The Battle:

The German infantry move into the trees to avoid being spotted; the Polish infantry at the edge of the field see no reason to give away their position just yet.

The Polish infantry in the wood have successfully ambushed the lead German motorcycle squad; the Polish mortars by the farmhouse are resolutely failing to bracket the temporarily stunned Germans.

The Germans recover quickly and put in a nifty bayonet charge (aided not a little by the weight of fire put down by the Sd231 in support!) and chase the Polish infantrymen away.

Two somewhat windy Poles run off at the sight of their comrades running back. What a shame that they are the two with the platoon anti-tank rifle!

The Polish strongpoint now distinctly less strong...

The German infantry clear the woods, scattering a Polish ATR team (at the farm) and a Polish Rifle squad (centre-top)

The Polish riflemen are gunned down before they reach safety, but the ATR team moves out-of-sight to a safer position - meanwhile, the Polish infantry squad at the end of the field (bottom-centre) opens up, severely discomforting the German grenadiers

The Sd231 has moved up to keep the Poles' heads down whilst the now dismounted German motorcyclists and their attached engineers move into the woods

But some very good/lucky shooting by the Polish BAR gunners wipes out the last squad! Unfortunately for the Germans, it was one of the Engineer teams!!

The German Grenadier Platoon has sorted itself out and brought its superior firepower to bear on the Poles who were in the field.

The Germans attack the farmhouse, but the Polish platoon opens up on them whilst crossing

The lead German squad is gunned down; the German platoon weapons try to suppress the Poles

Believing themselves to be safe to advance again, the German engineers now attack the farm

But they are gunned down too! This time by the Poles infantry in the wood to the North of the farmhouse

The Sd221 enfilades the Polish platoon HQ and weapons and destroys and disperses them; meanwhile the German platoon mortar drops some smoke to help their retreat

The German dismounted motorcycle platoon and the Sd231 retreat

The Poles have held the bridge - defeat for KG Heller.

Game Notes:

Great to get this campaign back onto the table and great to have John's updated rules to try out. As is common amongst these games, the differences between the rules used originally by Jack and these rules explain a lot about the outcomes - the Germans really did not have sufficient firepower or protected mobility to carry out this operation with much hope of success, whereas the original rules gave them more of a chance. Plus the Polish infantry did shoot very well at some key moments. But nothing happened which felt surprising in the sense of untoward. Having covered escape routes is really important here, as is having command elements handy. I used the deployment that Jack used originally, but the Poles especially were a bit dispersed, you would want everything within a 100-200m of a platoon commander ideally in this game. I think HE fire has become a bit less important in this version, not that it is less effective, but because the bracketing fire is something which has more explicit process in now (and that can fail). Given the small number of HE weapons present in the campaign, that makes a difference. The ability of light armour to cause panic has been toned down in this version too, which is why the German recce vehicles provided more MG covering fire than assault, which they had done previously. Anyway, a very enjoyable game and glad to get this series on the road again!

Germans are a mixture of Baccus and H&R, Poles a mixture of H&R and Scotia (have some cool new H&R Polish light mortar models, very nice indeed!). Buildings a mixture of Baccus, Leven and Battlescale I think.