Heretical Gaming is my blog about my gaming life, featuring small skirmishes and big battles from many historical periods (and some in the mythic past or the far future too). The focus is on battle reports using a wide variety of rules, with the occasional rules review, book review and odd musing about the gaming and history. Most of the battles use 6mm-sized figures and vehicles, but occasionally 15mm and 28mm figures appear too.

Monday 27 March 2023

Nuts! Patrol in Poland, 1939

I wasn't sure what I wanted to get on the table - and then would actually play - so I picked Nuts! 

 


This comes after two 'failed' games: another attempt at White Mountain, and then a WW2 company action.  So just to feel the excitement of the dice in the hand, and wanting something different than another One Hour Wargame scenario, I decided it was high time I got my 15mm WW2 Poles on the table.  I set up a 'patrol' scenario, with the Poles attempting to recce through some woods and hills and scattered farm buildings

For those, who know Nuts! Polish investment level in this sector was '2' and '4' for the Germans.  Since it has been a while since I played, I just used very generic ratings: the Polish were led by Sierzant Suszczyk (5) and consisted of him, an LMG gunner(4) and 7 riflemen(three (4), four (3).

n.b. I didn't take too many pictures here, it has been a while since I played Nuts! and I wanted to focus on recalling exactly how the rules worked.

The Polish squad stacks by an empty house.

A wider shot: the German PEFs (potential enemy forces) are on the far side of the hill, with one in the woods in the centre.

The Polish LMG team occupy the farmhouse, with a sentry left outside, while Sierzant Suszczyk leads the others into the woods (right); however, just as they have entered the wood, a German AFV (a StugIIIB) arrives in the rear of the Polish position...and proceeds to kill the sentry with machinegun fire, then demolish the house with the Polish LMG team inside it.

Meanwhile, a German MG34 team wanders into the sights of the Polish patrol...

And a particularly deadly volley of rifle fire kills two and incapacitates the other...

The patrol continues on, carrying out the rest of its mission

Avoiding the Stug, the Polish skirt back through the woods...


Well, despite the heavy Polish losses (4 killed and the squad machinegun lost!) the mission was in fact a success.  Very luckily, only one of the PEFs resolved into an actual contact with the Germans, and they walked straight into an ambush.  Obviously there was pretty much nothing the Polish could do about the StuG turning up...but that it is the beauty(?!?) of Nuts! you can be over-matched and a simple mission can get hairy very quickly.  The game actually worked fine, but I was a bit rusty with the 'flow' of the game, Nuts! goes a lot quicker if you intuitively understand which table you need to be looking at at any given moment.  It was generally fine, I really like Nuts! I have never been totally convinced by the wording of the In-Sight tests, but as long as I play it the way I like it, not much harm done...

I can't now remember who made the 15mm buildings. I think the Polish figures are Forged in Battle, the Germans were Battlefront.  The StuG...Zvezda, possibly?



7 comments:

  1. Great to see you getting a game in JWH! I really must look at my Polish force this year...

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    1. Thanks! Feeling very interested in early WW2 at the moment

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  2. Great looking game. Clearly engrossing with plenty of tension and decisions.
    I liked Nuts! on reading them several years ago, but am still yet to try them. Your post is another 'jog' to change that.
    Regards, James

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    1. Thanks very much James, appreciate it. There are a new set of Nuts! campaign books out so you can situate Nuts! games more exactly into your preferred theatre.https://www.wargamevault.com/browse/pub/2562/2-Hour-Wargames

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  3. Great stuff, I like NUTS (and Chain Reaction III) and they are perfect for a low level, solo game like this one!

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    1. Thanks Ross. I don't know if you have seen, there is a set of new Nuts! campaign books out, e.g.: https://www.wargamevault.com/product/435875/NUTS-Western-Front

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  4. Great stuff, I like NUTS (and Chain Reaction III) and they are perfect for a low level, solo game like this one!

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