Portable Wargame Battles: 01 - The Battle of Rignay

 For my next Portable Wargame I converted some battles from a mini-campaign of Bob Cordery's he fought a couple of years back.  His battles were situated during the initial stages of Barbarossa but I don't have quite the right mix of Soviet troops to do them justice, so I reset it for the attack on France in 1940.  A corps of one Panzer division and two infantry divisions is attacking two British Territorial Divisions, ill-equipped Line-of-Communications troops plus an improvised armoured division-equivalent, "Bobforce".

 

 

The first battle is a conversion of the first battle in Bob Cordery's mini-campaign. My version features the German 714th Infantry Division attacking the British 21st (Westmoreland) Division on 20th May 1940, as the full extent of the German armoured thrust begins to become known...

Forces:

German Division:

Command & Staff (Good)

7140 Infantry Regiment (4 SP, Average)

7141 Infantry Regiment (4 SP, Average)

7142 Infantry Regiment (4 SP, Average)

714 Artillery Regiment (2 SP, Average)

714 Anti-Tank Battalion (2 SP, Average)

Breakpoint: 6 SPs

British Division:

Command & Staff (Poor)

210 Infantry Brigade (4 SP, Poor)

211 Infantry Brigade (4 SP, Poor)

212 Infantry Brigade (4 SP, Poor)

21 Regt RA (2 SP, Average)

212 Regt RHA (AT) (2 SP, Average)

Breakpoint: 6 SPs 

 

These games used a slightly different set of rules, so they have been modified slightly back to The Portable Wargame standards.  To reflect the different command rules I simply add 1 to the German die roll to see who moves first each turn.

The Set-Up:

The British have been caught by surprise so start in a poor position, with their units scattered.

The divisional artillery, supported by an infantry brigade, with the HQ just behind.  The divisional reconnaissance unit is at the front (bottom)

Another infantry brigade, far in the rear.

As is the anti-tank unit.

The other infantry brigade is astride the road.

The Battle:

The Germans advance: a two-pronged attack on the British Divisional Recce unit

And it is quickly eliminated.

Fire from the German Infantry regiment forces the British brigade back down the road

The German artillery and anti-tank guns pound the British artillery, causing some losses

The British commander moves up units from the rear in support

The British have replaced the artillery in the wood with an infantry brigade, withdrawing the artillery into a supporting position (top)

British infantry fire causes losses amongst the German gunners

The British establish a line on the high ground and around the village: the Germans exchange fire whilst the left-hand regiment attacks across the road...

The British infantry cannot be winkled out of the wood and losses amonst the German gunners continue to mount

The German infantry has successfully taken the British defence line and eliminated the British anti-tank unit, although losses are about equal on both sides; the German Right could make no substantial progress though. However the British have now reached their exhaustion point and can only hold or withdraw.

However, with the central position compromised, the British commander orders a general retreat in order that the forward brigade doesn't get compromised and surrounded

Most of the British forces are able to withdraw successfully: lacking any fast-moving troops, there is nothing to really stop them

Position at the end just as the last British artillery and infantry withdraw

Game Notes:

A good game which rattled along very quickly.  It was quite close because I played the 'full original' version of the Portable Wargame rules which doesn't really allow much chance of quick kills, especially on infantry and armour units.  This probably helped the British in this game, since that allowed them more time to move into a decent position.  That made it a resaonbly balanced scenario: can better German morale and initial position overcome the advantage of the defensive? I don't think I have much argument with the essence of it although I am still exploring what is tactically optimal.  I do have a query about whether close combat is optional or mandatory: the rules don't really say explicitly but I could make a case for it either way.  There is perhaps a marginal call about whether allowing defending troops to deploy close to the attackers entrance points is fair and whether it should be 2,3 or 4 areas back.  Another question relates to retreats, mainly from close combat - although depending on the answer to the close combat question, it might apply to one-area range fire too - whether a retreat is away from the attacker or to the rear of the retreating unit by facing.  Lastly, and this is more of an observation than anything else, any unit can initiate close combat; so a 1 strength point artillery unit can initiate close combat with a 5 strength point unit of elite paratroopers and it would not necessarily be an awful move.  The author takes the approach that Neil Thomas does in Simplicity in Practice, which is to say that losses in strength points do not cause any loss in combat effectiveness. Not necessarily 'wrong' of course but it does have some interesting effects, escpecially in that army morale is effected by individual SP losses.  So at a 'strategic' level it doesn't matter how casualties are distributed in the opposing force, but tactically it is the only thing that matters.  So, much to think over.

Anyway, minor points to think about - more coming soon!

Figures by Baccus 6mm, guns a mixture of Baccus and Heroics and Ros, vehicles a mixture of GHQ and Baccus, buildings mainly by Leven, I think.

The board is 8 x 8 squares, with each square being 6cm x 6xm.

Obviously lots of things are simplified but it all seems to work well.