Tearing Down Games (And putting them back together!)

A while back, I mentioned there was a system Mike and I used to tear down and set up OCS games in progress. As we're currently hip deep in a Red Star Rising game, now's a good time to explain the system. Having it at your disposal may help you tackle longer games, as you won't have as much need to keep the game set up over time.

I found it in an old issue of Operations. I think it was the Gaming Techniques article in Operations #30, but I honestly can't recall.

This technique will work for any game that consists of 1/2” counters (only) and a map that has easily referenced hexes (or areas, or spaces, or whatever.)

The key to the system is a specific kind of ice cube tray that makes 1/2” ice cubes. These are referred to as “mini ice cube trays” or Pro Cocktail Mini Ice Cube Trays, or something like that. You'll also need some sort of recording device such as a notebook or piece of paper or Notepad or Excel on your computer.

Each tray has 90 spaces in it. You can see examples of what I'm talking about here. I've got four of these trays. The last time Mike and I tore down Sicily, it took 2 1/3 trays to hold everything. They're usually sold in packs of two for $5-7 or so.

To tear down the game, you do the following:

Take a stack of counters at a particular hex. (note the hex location) and put the stack into the top-left space of the ice cube tray. Orient the stack such that the bottom points away from you, and counters sit so you can read them. (This will have the edges of the counters pointing up as if you're laying the stack on its side.) Keep doing this until you finish the first row of six spots in the tray. You should also now have a row of six hex references noted down.

Go to the next hex on the map, and the next row in the tray. You should now be moving typewriter-like along your notation as well as the ice cube tray. If you fill up the first tray, go on to another sheet of paper (or whatever notation method you care about) and continue on into another tray. Labeling the trays wouldn't hurt.

You'll develop your own take on this system relatively quickly. I use the “readability” orientation of the counters to know which side of the tray is the “front” and can then match up the top-left of the tray to the beginning of my notes rather easily. It also helps keep track of which is the top of the stack.

There's a few tips/tricks I've discovered after having done this a couple times.

1. Photograph the board before tearing down. You won't be able to verify anything but the top counter in a stack, but it will help you confirm “odd” placements when you're setting the game back up. Even the most meticulous record-keeping can be off by a hex here and there.
   


2. Don't overfill the spaces in the tray. I think they can hold about seven or eight normal counters. If you need to, move on to a second space for tall stacks. You'll have a devil of a time getting them back out again.
   


3. Having separate trays for each side can split the work and make teardown go even faster. It can even keep the fog of war in place if you care about that.
   


4. Occasionally, there will be a counter that slips down and lodges itself into the tray. Save it for when you get the rest of the counters out of the tray and then work on it with nothing else in the tray to disturb. It's possible to damage counters that get stuck this way, so take care. Consider having some blank ½ counters around to put behind counters going into a slot on their own.
   


5. Use tweezers. Don't even consider doing this without them.
   


6. The system works better on games that have a fair amount of stacking, as it's easier to have four or six counters in a slot than one.
   


7. I work across the short end of the tray, as it's easier to have fifteen rows of six columns than the reverse.

It took me about 30 minutes to tear down Sicily the last time and there were counters in something around 200 hexes. Setting the board back up took slightly less time as Mike took one tray and I took another. Once you get into the swing, it goes rather quickly.

I haven't looked around for solutions that will handle games with 5/8” or larger counters. It would be quite handy for games like Panzer Grenadier or similar that have larger counters.

OCS learnings

I've played a few OCS games now, and here are a few thoughts on what I've learned, especially after the Sicily game.

1. Use reserves

For the defender, this is critical, especially artillery. Sure, it burns supply, but it forces the attacker to call off the combats or attack at low odds. And throwing more units into a hex that's had a stack lose a step to a freak barrage result can be the difference. For the attacker this is also critical. You never know when you're going to get that freak set of results that opens up the defenders, and throwing in the reserves can be crucial. Anther point is that your opponent cannot put units in a ZoC into reserve, so using your reserves to move adjacent cuts down the defender's flexibility, perhaps allowing an even better exploitation next turn.

2. Attack reserves

Attacking the defender's flexibility is critical, so using barrages to attack reserves can be a good tactic, even with the big negative column shift for unspotted barrages.

3. Keep up the attack!

Sometimes you've just got to burn the supply (and units) and keep attacking. That means an overrun in the movement phase, followed by a combat, then an overrun and more combat with released reserves (or, if you're lucky in the combat, exploitation units) in the exploitation phase. Keep the defender on the run!

4. Defend in depth

To counter the above, you have to defend in depth, to ensure that the attacker isn't exploiting in your back field. Nothing is going to ruin your day more than an armored division breaking through and cutting supply to everyone.

5. Be aware of Spotting rules

(This one is related to Sicily) Keep a mix of Italian and German troops together, as the one nationality cannot perform barrage spotting for the other. Keeping them mixed means more flexibility when performing barrages, especially when your opponent has air superiority, and you don't know which of your artillery reserves will be the target.

There, an exercise in teaching granny to suck eggs.

Sicily Post-Mortem

So, after all's said and done, what are my thoughts on Sicily? I'm likely rambling below, so bear with me. Mike posted a link in his last post to all the game images, so if you want to follow the progress, you've got the source material right there.

I was pretty happy when Mike suggested returning it to the table after a long layoff. The point at which we'd left the game looked pretty ambiguous as to the final victor (at least to my untrained eye) and I hate leaving things in uncertain states. That said, I knew it wasn't going to be very interesting from Mike's perspective, as the majority of his game from that point on was going to be figuring out when to flip the switch from defending to evacuating. The rest was playing defense in rough terrain while maintaining supply lines. Not all that exciting.

First off, we were rather ambitious, er, naïve, er, something in tackling the landings in our first attempt. I can pretty much guarantee rules were botched during that. There are some unique features in nearly every OCS game, but the amphibious assault rules are by far the most extensive, and cause repercussions throughout the remainder of the campaign. Get off to a slow start, and you'll have trouble winning.

That said, running the landings was very instructive from my side as the Allies. I attempted to use the historical setup and initial goals as much as possible. Of course no plan survives first contact with the enemy and this was no exception. This game will certainly teach you how to keep separation in your multi-unit formations. I'd have to go back and look at some of the pictures, but my recollection was that I spent a turn or even three early on doing a lot of reorganization work separating my divisions that had been jumbled during the landings.

I had general “this is this group's first objective” strategies, but more detail would have been better. I'd even recommend printing out a copy of the map (extracted from the Vassal module) and drawing out planned advances for each division after the landings. In fact, I'd recommend doing that before starting any OCS campaign as the attacker. Not only does it make the game go faster (as you know what you're attempting to do) but it forces you to learn your available forces early.

The quickest way to lose a wargame is to not have a plan. Even a bad plan is better than no plan.

It is amazing to me how much more I felt like I knew OCS after Mike and I restarted than when we first began this venture. The intervening plays of DAK2 and Case Blue cemented a lot of things into my mind. Plus, in Sicily, you'll feel like you can try anything because you actually have supply to pull off many of your plans. Case Blue? Not so much... That's a game that'll teach you how to run an offensive on fumes, duct tape, and silly putty.

How is Sicily as an OCS game? Well, it's unique in a couple respects – it's the only amphibious invasion in the system, and it's the only game set on an island. (At least until the Crimea add-on comes for Case Blue.) There's no edge-of-the-world issues, no worrying about off-map movement, etc. The game really highlights the competitive nature of the US vs. Commonwealth forces, and the US Air Force vs. Army as well. What you can do is frequently hampered by one of those dysfunctional relationships.

However, after the landings are settled, and the drives north and west have commenced, it's not a very interesting game for the Axis. You fight with whatever Italians don't immediately surrender, use the Germans in required amounts until the window opens to begin evacuations and then bug out. Harass when you can, find an new defensive line when you can't. Deny, delay. There aren't all that many opportunities to attack after the first quarter of the game or so.

There simply aren't many WWII campaigns where both sides get attack possibilities. At least of short duration. The exceptions are probably North Africa and Burma. In nearly every other theatre, it was one side hammering on the other until the other side recovered and returned the blows (East Front) or the other side capitulated (France '40 AND '44, Italy, etc.)

Sicily's been unavailable at retail for a long time, now. As a result, prices have started to climb. It's worth the money if:

• You're an OCS nut and don't have it yet


• You've got a defensive specialist in your gaming group


• Sicily is particularly interesting to you.

And there's a lot of reason for that final point. It's the largest amphibious invasion of all time in terms of men landed and frontage assaulted. It's the subject of Rick Atkinson's latest book Day of Battle. (Which I still need to read, btw.) It's the 2nd major test of the US army in the war after Operation Torch, and the lessons learned on Sicily would be carried forth to Normandy a year later.

Plus, Sicily and Hube's Pocket are probably the shortest campaign games in the series so far. So it's VERY playable. I think we spent a total of 50 hours on the campaign, and we're not the fastest players on the planet. One more evening likely would have gotten us to the full campaign end.

Plus, it's one of only four 2-map OCS games. (Tunisia, Hube's Pocket, and Burma being the others.)

So, if those points do it for you, see if you can grab a copy for a reasonable price. Just remember that the Axis game isn't entirely interesting in this one unless you really like defense.

OCS Tips

I've put a couple tactical tips into my last two posts, and I'll certainly be coming up with more over time. A few that come to mind right now are:

If you're attacking, and you're comfortable with your supply situation, you're not being aggressive enough.

While pacing an offensive to match your supply lines is what the overall commanders typically want, it's not the way the most effective commanders operated in WWII. Look at Patton's drive across France, Rommel's desert operations, and Guderian on the Eastern Front. These guys pushed HARD and forced the action when they got there – the supplies eventually arrived in enough quantity to support the advance (well, with the possible exception of Rommel).

Use reserve mode frequently.

I'll admit right up front that this is my weakest part of OCS play. I'd love to see an article in Operations (hint hint) that details a variety of effective uses of Reserve Mode. My tip last week was Mike's putting artillery in reserve to slow likely attacks from me once a solid front line developed. If you've got your forces organized properly, putting armor in the back line on reserve for use in the exploitation phase is obvious primary use.

If you've got off-map box resources, use them. Every turn.

These resources usually have no supply cost and can't be touched by the enemy, so use them heavily. Don't neglect them just because they're out of the main field of vision.

That's a few for now - I'll have more over time. Keep your eyes peeled :)

One-sided Sicily

OK, it took over a year, but we have played the OCS Sicily: Triumph and Folly campaign game to a conclusion. We both blogged the first part of the game (Eric's take, my take part 1, part 2, part 3, thoughts), and then put it away for a while. We had another weekend session, which we didn't blog, after which I wasn't overly interested in continuing it. Having got past the initial landings and the counter-attacks, it had settled down to the grind, with the Allies doing all the advancing and attacking, and the Axis forces defending and just taking it.

After coming back from the WBC-W event Eric and I discussed what we wanted to do with this blog, and what games we wanted to do it with. It was then that I proposed that we get Sicily back on the table and play it to a conclusion. My motivation was more so that we could say we had played the whole game, start to finish, than I was really looking forward to actually playing it. Don't get me wrong, however, and interpret this as any disillusionment with OCS; it firmly remains my favorite game system of all time. Period. No ifs or buts.

Before much more ado, though, a quick discussion on the game end and victory conditions. The game ends as soon as the Allies capture Messina, Palermo and Syracuse, and is won or lost from VPs in three areas. First, the Axis player scores 1VP for each turn beyond the August 8th turn until the game ends, i.e. the longer they can hold out the more VPs scored. The game automatically ends on the August 29th turn, so there are a maximum of 12 VPs to be earned here.

Second, the Axis player also scores points for extricating German combat units from Sicily, to Italy and then off the board, in a range from -7Vps to +7VPs. The former is achieved if only 12 or fewer German units are evacuated by the end of the game. From 13 units onwards, stepping in increments of 2 units and 2 VPs, the Axis player moves up the chart, with 19-20 units scoring 0VPs, 21-22 scoring +1, etc. And units can't be evacuated before August 10th. Note it's combat units only - artillery units and HQs don't count. This is kinda surprising, as I would have thought that being able to escape with equipment would be a good thing.

Third, the Axis player scores 1VP for each ship damaged, or 2VPs for each ship sunk, but this is relatively hard to achieve, as a ship can only get a single DG in a player turn, and it requires 2 DG results to score a damage. When Eric took a double turn late in the game I focussed my air units on his ships in my turn, putting two into DG, and then got the initiative roll to attack them again, getting the second DG required for damage.

A minor Axis win is a net 10-12 VPs, a major win, 13+VPs, and a draw 6-9VPs. Anything less is an Allied win, of one sort or another, but I'm not interested in them, because I'm the Axis and we don't talk about no dirty, stinking Allied win.

So the Axis game is one of balance. Too much emphasis on a strong line to keep the Allies out of Messina (likely the last city to fall) means not enough units are evacuated, and a large negative modifier. Evacuating too much too soon means risking an Allied breakthrough. Either one leads to an Allied win.

When we last left our intrepid gamers, 7 turns of the game had gone by. The Allies were landed in strength, had stabilized their beach heads and were pushing forward. The deployment had followed history, with the Brits pushing up the east coast and the Americans doing the big end-around to capture the western end of the island. The Brits had started the grind towards Mt. Etna and the north east.

The landings had gone fairly well for the Commonwealth forces, but the Americans had a tough time. I had concentrated most of my force on the Americans, and for a short time entertained thoughts of throwing them off the beach at Gela. Concentrating on the Americans did mean I gave the Commonwealth an easier time, but they didn't feel to be pressing too hard. So, by the time he was getting off the beaches and linking up, Eric was behind schedule. The story continues....

Then we hit the middle game, where the Commonwealth forces were driving over the relatively open terrain, before hitting the constricting paths around Mt. Etna. It was here, if anywhere, that I feel I played my poorest. I defended too often in open terrain, and could have been subject to a lot of losses. I should have been falling back to the rougher terrain more quickly, rather than defending in the open. I pfaffed around with my defenses, and didn't have a coherent plan. However, and fortunately for me, this is where I feel Eric also played his poorest, as he had an opportunity to take advantage of my weak defensive positions and really press the attack with the Brits. Some concentrated attacks, with lots of reserves to back them up, could have been just the ticket to blow a hole in my lines and start bagging some serious German losses. Perhaps having just set the game up, we were both getting to grips with the position. Perhaps he hadn't enough supply. But this was the time when I was most subject to a breakthrough.

Meanwhile the Americans were making slow, but steady, progress in the west. Trouble is, the Allies can't afford slow and steady. More dramatic action was needed, and a few times Eric declined to attack when at low odds, despite having large AR modifiers. On more than one occasion I was surprised to be handed the turn, expecting the Americans to keep up the tempo.

As it was, I was able to fall back in good order on all fronts without suffering much in the way of German losses, keeping a solid depth of units. I managed to get a few replacements, which helped, but I don't think I was over the average roll.

The latter part of the game became pretty much a grind. Eric came around both sides of Mt. Etna, but didn't achieve a breakthrough on either side, although with only a 2- or 3-hex path there wasn't huge chance of that. On the coast there were some good successes with barrages, taking out steps, but often the follow-up attack rolled weakly and was unable to take advantage. Several times having reserves would have allowed advantage of the few successes, pressing onto my second line, but Eric didn't make great use of his available reserve markers. It was here that I used most of my reserves, either with artillery units to break up his attacking stacks, or to add fresh steps to the defenders of likely combats. Mostly both.

The other side of Mt. Etna saw Eric's attacks implode on a series of weak rolls late on in the game, although they were fairly low odds attacks against some strong defense. However, by this time the game was well advanced and Eric really had to start pressing, taking the risks that bit him in the butt big time. After that, this front was quiet, and I was able to shift forces to the coast, although I'd been starting to do that before his attacks failed, as he was now attacking up a single road, with mountains to each side, and I was confident that I had enough strength to hold him at bay.

Over on the other side, the Americans finally took Palermo and had started driving along the northern coast, having cut the island in two, although with only a 1-hex path of usable terrain it was more of a walk than a drive. Some more distinctly average rolls didn't allow for much progress, especially as I had a procession of units to choke him up with.

And so it went until we had got far enough that we had a winner. The victory, in the end, went the way of the Axis forces, as we stopped the game when about to start the August 22nd turn, 4 turns from the end, and declared a major Axis victory. At that point I had scored 7VPs from game turns and I had 3VPs from damaged ships. I had 15 units exited, with 3 more to move off-map that turn, and another 4 ready to cross the straits. That means in 2 more turns I would have had 21 units off, for 1VP, 9VPs from turns and 3VPs from ships, for a total of 13VPs, enough for a major Axis victory, and there was no way that Eric was going to break through and end the game before that happened. In fact it was looking increasingly unlikely that he'd get to Messina before the game ended, and it's possible that I could have ended the game with 15-20VPs.

Here's the ending position:



(And here's a page of turn by turn pics for those interested.)

So, how did my game pan out? Rather unsurprisingly, my aim was to defend strongly initially, and then switch over to a gradually collapsing front towards Messina. As always with this sort of strategy, the timing of the switch is the critical factor, and her I think I got it mostly right. Overall, I'd say I achieved my objectives, although I did hang around too long in the open terrain in the east. There were a couple times there that I had to scramble to form a line, but mostly things went to plan. I was most concerned about an early drive by the Americans to split the island in two, isolating my Fallschirmjaeger division, and a lot of units that wouldn't be evacuated. However, it never materialized, and they were able to dash for safety.

As usual in these sorts of games, there was a certain amount of dice wackiness going on. Like the puny Italian fighter that took on the might of the Allied air forces and emerged victorious. Eric's seemingly unerring ability to make his flak rolls, and my total lack of same. A coastal unit managing to fend off a couple of American armored battalions. (A whole bunch of snake eyes on combat will do that for you.) In our evening sessions my artillery was either on (never rolled less than an 8) or off (couldn't even roll a 6). Overall, though, I don't think either of us really rolled against the curve, but in certain areas it did add up. e.g. I think Eric's replacement rolls were a full pip (or was it two?) below average. (I should really start recording these things.)

Overall I'm in two minds over Sicily as a game. Sure it's an interesting situation, and using the landing rules certainly makes for a different OCS game. However, this is a rather one-sided gaming situation after the first few turns. In fact over the second weekend session and all the 5 or 6 evenings it took to get to completion I performed not a single ground combat. Not one. I bobbed; I weaved; I used some artillery; I stood my ground; I got beat up; I retreated. But no ground combats. Now, whilst there is a certain challenge in executing a good defense (which can sometimes be harder than attacking), I certainly prefer a game where the defending side has some opportunity for offensive operations. (In this vein MMP's A Victory Lost (BGG entry) is a good example. Even though the Axis are heavily on the defensive, they still have some decent punch, and are very able to deliver a good blow if the Soviet player stretches a little too far.) However, all that said, I think I'd do it again, as at least I'd know what to expect.

I'll post a few thoughts on OCS separately. Meanwhile, onto the next game!

Implementing Operation Husky

So, Mike and I have been cruising through our Sicily campaign these last few weeks, and I finally found some time to begin blogging the sessions.

When we last left Sicily, we had just started August, and the Allies were behind schedule. Historically, the battle of Primosole Bridge started on July 12. I didn't cross it until the Aug 1 turn, right before we took the game down. So, I've got some ground to make up.

Our sessions picked things up with the August 3 turn. Time is on the Axis side, so I need to try to be aggressive. Here's the situation at the point we restarted.






Over these last few nights, we've been getting in 2 or 2.5 turns per night.

I won the initiative on Aug 3, and went first. (This is becoming a rarity.) All barrages failed on this turn – didn't score a single DG. No variable replacements, either. I did manage to bag 3 HQs on the turn, however, though this is becoming less and less of an issue for Mike as the territory he's needing to command begins to shrink markedly as the game continues.

In the west, I'm starting to move units in on Palermo, and cleaning up the Southern Coast. In the east, I'm moving in force on Catania while holding in the center.






On the Aug 5 turn, Mike won initiative and had me go first. This is going to become a theme as Mike is determined to not allow me a potentially disastrous (for him) double turn. Again, nothing on the replacements roll.

In the east, I'm pushing harder on Catania. In the west, I've cleared the southern coast, Mike has abandoned Marsala, and Trapani's in my sights. My goal here (as Trapani is lightly garrisoned) is send the bulk of the 2nd armored division north to Palermo, but send a contingent over to take the port at Trapani.




Now it's August 7. Mike wins initiative again, I go first. Again, nothing on the replacements roll. (FWIW, I need a 7 or higher on two dice to get something.) An eventful turn this time, however. I take the first Palermo hex, Catania and Marsala. Also managed to have two tank battalions bounced by a single Italian artillery unit in Trapani. Not good. (I think the die roll was something like surprise of two columns for Mike with either snake eyes or a 3 on the combat roll. Horrendous, but still not the dreaded 4 ones and a 6.)






On to the next day. Mike (again) wins initiative, and I go first. Big replacements roll, though. Boxcars. Sorta makes up for the last three turns. Only managed minor progress in the east. Basically cleaned up the lines. In the west, I've cleaned up everything but Palermo and the handful of units there are the only Axis units in the west part of the island.





August 10 sees Mike win initiative (again) and I go first. Again. I get an equipment replacement this time. This turn began a run of highly successful barrages. If I'm not mistaken, pretty much all the barrages for the next two turns are successful. Maybe one or two that don't at least cause a DG.

This turned into an expensive turn for me. I lost five units and only killed one unit along with taking most of Palermo. There's very little left for Mike in the west, but Mike's only giving up a hex or two a turn in the East. Not fast enough for me.




August 10 also sees the beginning of the turns where Mike gains 1 VP every turn I don't take Messina. And I'm not getting there any time soon.

I guess this is a good time to talk about the victory conditions.

The Axis get 1 VP for every turn from August 10 on that the Allies haven't captured Palermo, Augusta, Syracuse, Marsala, and Messina. They also get 1 VP for every step loss of naval units they can inflict. Finally, they get VP for removing German combat units from the island on August 10 or later. They lose 7 VP if they get 12 or less off, 5 VP if 13 or 14, and it gets better for them every two units up to 7 VP for removing 40 units from the island.

10 VP = a minor Axis victory, and 13 is a major Axis victory.

Given that I'm nowhere close to Messina, the game's going to hinge on how many units Mike can get off the map while still holding me back.

OCS Technique #1

Here's a rather effective technique Mike has developed.

On the eastern half of the map, he's putting artillery units in reserve. These units are typically at their maximum range, so I can't get adjacent to them in the cramped quarters. He then waits to see what I do on my air barrages and goes after the units likely to attack any hexes where I've caused a DG result. He releases the artillery from reserve in his reaction phase and hopes to DG my attacking units. Under the circumstances, this has really slowed down my advance up the eastern coast of the island.

It's been effective because I've been unable to win initiative. If I can get a double turn, he won't be able to do this on the 2nd turn of that sequence. It doesn't work if I can DG his artillery with air barrages (since this pulls a unit out of reserve), but as those have a 3-column leftward shift due to a lack of adjacent spotters, it's not all that easy to pull off. Also, it adds more targets for the air and naval barrages, forcing me to use on-map (and supply-expensive) artillery to target the hexes I'm actually trying to attack.

More to come. Tonight (as I write this) we're entering the Allied half of the August 17 turn, and it wouldn't surprise me if we determine tonight the victory level we're going to achieve. Though I might be able to push it out another night or two.

Sorry, Germany, No Oil for You.

Okay, so when I said the character of the blog was going to change over these last few weeks, I really didn't mean for it to go dark... life intervenes sometimes, and I've had a devil of a time finding the mental bandwidth to get this post finished.

That doesn't mean Mike and I weren't playing during the downtime, though. In fact, we got most of the way through an OCS scenario, and we've started The Mighty Endeavor's campaign game. Mike and I will be talking about TME in our next posts, but this one is about the Edge of the World scenario Mike and I played over three evenings.

This is the first scenario listed in the Case Blue scenario book. 25 turns, one map. The engagement starts small and builds over time as the Germans (and Russians to some extent) keep feeding units into the battle for Grozny and the oil fields nearby.



The black circles indicate the Axis victory areas.

We chose this scenario as a warmup as it's essentially the Drive for Oil scenario we'll be playing at WBC-W in miniature. The Germans are coming in from the northwest, and to win are trying to take Grozny, the oil fields next to Grozny, and Ordzhonikidzi in the south. The Russians win by denying the Germans and at least contesting Grozny. Anything else is a draw.

Originally, we'd chosen sides on the assumption that I'd be defending in Drive for Oil, and attacking in TME. As it turns out, I'm not going to be able to make it out to WBC-W as early as expected, so our TME game at WBC-W is off. But it's certainly educational to be defending against a strong, but resource-starved, enemy.

Mike and my experience with OCS to this point has been Sicily, DAK2, and Tunisia. All somewhat older games in the system and supply in those games is a bit more plentiful than it is in Case Blue. The first thing we realized is that it's a severe adjustment getting used to the restricted supply in this game.

As an example, it takes 1SP to fuel a panzer division until the end of your turn. It costs 1/4 SP (1T) for each step that attacks. The Germans start with 1SP on the map, and can expect to get about 2SP/turn. (each turn you roll two dice, < 4 you get 1SP, > 10 you get 3SP, otherwise 2SP. Which you have to truck into position.) Over the course of the scenario, the Germans get 5SP on full trucks as well. That's 56 SP or so for the entire game. Better be careful how you spend it.

In contrast, the Russians start with 5SP, have the same odds on arriving supplies, and don't get any with reinforcements. So, they should end up with 55SP during the game. About equal. They'll probably spend 6-8 SP building hedgehogs to protect Grozny and Ordzho, but don't have much armor at all that requires fueling. Defending is also cheaper (max 1/2 SP, or 2T in defense). So, the onus is definitely on the Germans to time their fights well and make sure they've got supply when and where they need it.

In our game, Mike sent the 23rd Panzer Division south to take Ordzho. I early on decided that attempting to do anything with Pyatigorsk in the west was a waste of time and let Mike spend the supply taking the town. If I recall, he basically surrounded the town and let them starve which they eventually did. Sort of a non-event, but still it tied up his units for a while. And time lets me build up defenses.

The general flow of the game went something like this:

After the panzers reached Ordzho, there was a fair amount of bickering over the Russian supply line extending south. At one point, I'd mistakenly let him block the supply line and I rolled extremely poorly for out-of-supply attrition. The roll would have eliminated the entire garrison. Mike let me reroll as this was a learning game and that would have caused major problems for me early on. Thinking back, though, I don't believe I'd checked for eating off the map, and I believe I had enough supply in the town to do so.

The remainder of Mike's forces headed further east to try to take Grozny. He mostly funneled the reinforcements that came from the north this direction as well. My goal here was to create a defensive line north of Grozny using the rivers where possible, but avoiding encirclement. The rail line east is a major supply route for the Russians and must be protected. Fortunately, the Terek river is impassable near Grozny except at the two road bridges and the one rail bridge at Gudermes. ZOCs do cross rivers, though, so the stretch where the rail line comes close to the south bank of the Terek must be protected.

During the middle section of the game, Mike repeatedly failed at taking Ordzho (in significant part because my bombers kept getting DG results on possible key attacking stacks, and in part due to bad die rolling) and pushed all the way down to just above the north bank of the Terek at one point. I had been rather frugal with my supply, though, and managed some (rather expensive) counter-attacks to push him back to Chervlennaya and further. This relieved the pressure on the rail line to Grozny and put him in a severe bind.

As we moved into the second half of the game, things were turning my way. While I still felt I was hanging on by a thread, Mike was getting some pretty bad die rolls trying to take Ordzho, and spent a large amount of supply to no real effect. He was starting to see that it was taking him nearly 3 turns to recover from a failed assault on the city enough to attempt again. Time was running short for him.

Meanwhile, there wasn't a whole lot happening over at Grozny as Mike was using most of his supply trying to take Ordzho. I was fortifying my defensive line when possible trying to create the best defensive position I could. I'd also placed hedgehogs in Grozny and Ordzho to help out with the defense.

We called the game at the end of September. (That was after 16 turns, with the full month of October – 9 more turns – to play.) It was pretty clear at this point that there was no way Mike was going to be able to reach the Axis objectives given my defensive position and his supply situation. He probably had, at best, three more attempts at Ordzho before even getting to Grozny, and I was able to fly in enough supply to keep the garrison there eating off the map, thus alleviating any severe supply issues.

So, what did we learn?

First, I'm not sure Mike should have sent the Panzer Division as the primary assault force on Ordzho. They're 1/2 strength attacking the city, and cost supply to maneuver back into position should an assault fail. (Which they inevitably will given the likely hedgehog being built there.) Granted, the Axis doesn't have much non-armored attack strength in this scenario, but I think it needs to be sent down there when available. Even if it takes 10 turns. In fact, I'd probably take Ordzho last – screen it with whatever is available and concentrate on Grozny.

The Axis armor is better used, in my opinion, in forcing the Russians to stretch out their defensive line north of Grozny. They can reposition VERY quickly and the Russians must protect the rail line heading southeast to Makhachkala. One Panzer Division can head east, while the other either heads down the road north of Ordzho threatening both cities or heads to the north edge of Grozny looking for weakened spots caused by the defensive line being stretched east to protect supply.

The Russians, meanwhile, need to fortify with hedgehogs and use their air superiority as much as possible. Protect the supply lines and fly supply into Ordzho every turn. You'll be trucking supply up from the South Box as much as possible, and shipping the rest via rail. Counter-attacks are going to be expensive due to the number of multi-step infantry divisions you've got, but you'll need to pull a few off to relieve pressure on critical points. The bridge crossings over the Terek cannot be lost or you're in for a world of supply hurt. Finally, do whatever you can to delay and bleed supply from the Axis. He's got a tighter budget than you and time's on your side

We did play one rule wrong that I can recall. Units can either enter or leave the South Box in a single turn, but not both. That slows down the amount of supply the Russians can truck north from what I was doing early on, and pretty much guarantees using rail cap every turn to get supplies into Grozny.

Over those three nights of play, I estimate we put in 9 or 10 hours of real play time. The first night was broken up by a bit of teaching session for Chris and Doug who'd stopped by to watch, and it always takes a little bit to get back into the flow of play after being away for a week. This scenario does give you a real feel for the issues the two sides are facing in the overall campaign, however – long distances to be covered by the Axis with little fuel, and loads of Russians to slog through once you get there. The Russians are making do with poor-quality, limited mobility troops (some have only 1 movement point in combat mode) but there's certainly a lot of them.

As the scenario starts with a small number of troops on the map and builds up, it's a great way to get your feet wet with Case Blue. I'd estimate 10-12 hours of play time if done in a single sitting, and possibly less once you get to the point of knowing how it'll end up a few turns early as we did.

More OCS

Eric and I continued our WBC-W warm-up with more OCS. This time it was the Edge of the World scenario from Case Blue, which sees the Axis charging forward with 3 panzer divisions and, pretty much, no supply. This makes it really hard to use those panzer divisions as they can't even move without supply.

In order to win the Axis have to capture Ordzhonikidze, and some oil fields near Grozny. If the Russians control any of those and still control Grozny, then they win. Any other result is a draw. The big limitation for the Axis player is supply, with only 2SP per turn (normally), so he has to run an offensive on little more than fumes. Of course, the Russian is defending a couple of cities, and the one thing you need to take these is supply. Hmm, a conundrum, indeed.

I started by dashing forward in an almost reckless manner, pushing past the first unit or two, heading one panzer division towards Ordzhonikidze, the others along the northern route towards Grozny. I got to Ordzhonikidze in the third turn or so, and immediately found that I had nowhere near enough strength to do much about it. Eric had added several units to the defenses, and I just bounced off.

However, I did manage to cut his supply line and forgetting about the attrition part of trace supply, Eric didn't move units forward to give them a supply line. Come the supply phase, when they couldn't trace, and not eat SPs on the map, he had to roll on the attrition table. He rolled, and it came up '12', killing all the steps. At this point I suggested that he change his move , and move his reinforcements to give a trace supply route to Ordzhonikidze, rather than move them into the town, which he did. I managed to cut his supply line once more, but he was able to force me back once again to re-open it.

From this point on the game kind of stagnated as I waited for strength, in the form of an infantry division, to arrive. I tried another attack, but lost out again, so decided on building up a bit first. I rebuilt my infantry division, more artillery and built up supply, and commenced the attacks. Which all went horrible wrong. I missed the artillery roll (needed a 6+), rolled defender surprise in the attack (with +1 modifier, I needed 6-8 to avoid surprise, 9+ to gain) and a 4 in the attack. My follow on attack to cut him off again also failed. Eric's counterattack rolled well, gaining surprise and his artillery managed to kill another step. I'd spent 4SP, and lost 3 steps, for no gain, something the Axis player just can't afford.

Elsewhere I tried to cut off Grozny, but Eric was easily able to gain trace supply again, as I'd very little in the way of supply to move my panzer units again. (At this point I had 2T of supply left on the map.)

The next few turns were building up for me, recovering steps and SPs, as Eric started to push forward. He left an infantry division out by itself near Grozny, so I tried an overrun, but even with a +3 modifier I couldn't roll the 9 required (i.e. needed to roll 6+) to get surprise, and I was forced back again. Another 1SP for nothing. He's starting to roll forward, threatening to wrap around my flank, so it was time to start considering falling back.

At Ordzhonikidze I've at least managed to cut him off, but we've identified that he's flying in 2T of supply per turn, less than he needs to eat off the map, so I have no way to force him out via attrition. 4 turns after the disastrous attack turn I'm still rebuilding (each infantry division step requires 2 Pax, and at an average of 1/turn, plus movement), but he's now threatening my flank, looking to cut off the units over the river to the east of Ordzhonikidze. I attack, but once more roll like crap and lose the combat.

As this point I call the game, as it's clear I'm not going to get anywhere near the victory conditions, and I am, in fact, going backwards, as the Russians get stronger and stronger. We've completed 16 of the 25 game turns, taking 3 evening sessions, around 9 hours or so.

This one seems to be a real hard row to hoe for the Germans. Other than the availability of 3 panzer divisions, all the advantages are with the Russians. The Germans have no supply, no air and all the work to do. The Russians just sit there and accumulate steps, SPs, reinforcements, sniping at the Axis forces with their air units as opportunities present themselves to prevent the Axis attacks. All the while they're building up their hedgehogs, just to make things harder. So, how does the Axis crack this one?

Eric suggested that building an airfield near the front might be an idea, as that would allow the sole Axis fighter to project a patrol zone over the leading attacking units, rather than skulking at the rear. This would have the double benefit of preventing the Russian bombers from having free rein to DG the Axis troops, and also threaten the air resupply of Ordzhonikidze. However, I'm not sure how much difference that would make, as with several Russian fighters it just requires one good roll and the Axis fighter would go inactive and he could then pound away, but it wouldn't hurt to try.

Perhaps only making really big attacks is the way to go, but with only the two full infantry divisions it's still going to be hard work, and that takes more time to organize, although time doesn't seem to be too much of an issue for the axis. These units are also very easy to hit by air, so will spend most of their time in DG status.

We really need to have another go at it, but that's the downside of these big games, it's a lot harder to get them to the table to play them often enough to figure out how to approach it. I might have to try it solo. If nothing else I need to figure out how to attack these Russian cities for WBC-W, which isn't too far away now.

Crossing the Chir in Slow Motion

Once a year, the wargame fans in our gaming group head over to Doug's place in Sunriver for a week long gaming gathering hat is referred to as WBC-West. It's our own little version of WBC. Minus the hundreds of attendees. And the competitions. And trophies.

But it's got lots of wargaming. So that's good.

This year, we're trying an experiment and having WBC-W in May. August was proving problematic for a variety of reasons.

One thing most of the attendees do before heading over is lock down a schedule. Which games, against whom, and when. Practice games are held to get the rules cemented in our head and verify that, yes, we do actually want to play this for real. After all, if you only get to do this once a year, you don't want to waste a full day playing a substandard game or botching critical rules. And you certainly don't want to be stuck as odd-man-out when everyone else is playing eight-hour games.

So, at this point the character of Two Sides will be changing a tad until late May. Mike and I have entered practice mode. We're planning a “monster” game this year to finish off the week – four of us will be playing the Drive for Oil scenario of Case Blue, the OCS game covering the 1941-1943 adventures of Army Group South. Mike and I will also be playing The Mighty Endeavor earlier in the week.

So, our schedule for a while is pretty locked in. This week, we played the Case Blue version of the Chir River Battles scenario that originally appeared in Enemy at the Gates. It was a nice refresher – 3 turns, and you're playing on less than a letter-sized portion of the map. In fact, it's small enough that we played it twice (once from each side) in around 3 hours.

The next couple weeks, we'll be tackling the Edge of the World scenario, also from Case Blue. It's the “intro” version of the scenario we're playing at WBC-W, so it's a perfect lead-up. We're also going to be using the sessions as an OCS trainer/refresher for anyone else in the group interested in OCS. I'm also going to try to write up an OCS instructional manual as a post on here in a couple weeks.

After that, Mike and I will spend a session going over the first few turns of The Mighty Endeavor to get an idea of how we want to approach that. So, for those of you following along at home, here's what we'll be covering on the blog for a while:

This week - Case Blue, Chir River
Next week - Case Blue, Edge of the World
Apr 1 - Case Blue, Edge of the World part 2.
Apr 8 - Either Edge of the World, the Finale, or The Mighty Endeavor.
Apr 15 - Either The Mighty Endeavor (if we didn't play the week before), or something else we haven't decided on yet.
Apr 22 - No gaming – I'm at Disneyland all week for our daughter's 5th birthday party. (though Vassal's always a possibility.)
Apr 29 – Unknown game to hit the table.
May 6 - No gaming this week as WBC-W is the entire next week, so I don't get a night away the week before :)
May 13 – WBC-W.

Besides Case Blue and The Mighty Endeavor, games it's looking like I have a shot at playing that week include Friedrich; some large 3-player game which could be Clash of Monarchs, Here I Stand, Savannah, or something else; Through the Ages; Combat Commander; Command & Colors: Ancients; and a host more possibilities. I intend to post session reports on most, if not all the games I play either here or on my personal blog.

Okay, enough context. We played the Chir River Battles mini-scenario last week. How did it play out?

First time through, Mike took the Russians, who are on the attack. The initial setup is illustrated here:



The brown circle indicates the Russian supply source, and the blue circle the German. The red circle is the hex the Russians must occupy by the end of the third turn.

You can't see the contents, but you can definitely tell the Russians have two large stacks – right next to the supply source, and another stack in a salient just NW of Nizhne-Chirskaya. That's also where the bulk of the Russian artillery is stationed. You can also see that the Germans are rather weak in the NW sector, and that right next to the German supply source is the 11th Panzer Division, waiting to counter attack.

Mike worked from the position of Russian strength, and pushed hard straight south with the idea of breaking through, then shooting west. I used the 11th Pz Div to counter attack exposed points and pulled back the survivors of the initial onslaught. I ended up creating a defensive line on the west side of the Tsinla river and points north. Mike nearly had enough to get to the goal, but wouldn't have been able to fight off the garrison once he got there. So, a minor German victory here.

We turned it around and I took the Russians. My idea was to attack west through the German weakness, then push south. I was slightly hampered by warm weather in the first turn keeping the Chir from freezing. I wasn't as committed as I should have been, and ended up not being able to reach the goal. Another German victory.

Mike differed in his approach with the Germans and took a forward defense, forcing me to fight through his troops early – something I wasn't consistently able to do. His approach gave me the opportunity for overruns where mine specifically avoided them. It will be interesting to see which defense works better once we figure out the Russian offensive plan.

When we talked about it afterwards, we realized that with the supply structure in place, there were two things neither of us did that look to be necessary to win this scenario as the Russians. First, you have to blow through the German lines at the rail bridge just south of Oblivsk. That's the only way you're going to be able to create a supply line long enough to pull off an attack on the VP hex. Second, neither of us used what might be the best Russian unit on the board – the 8th Gd Tank Brigade stationed in the middle of the line. (It's the 8-4-8 red unit you can see in the middle of the setup.) That's the key unit, I believe, as it's got a 16 MP move mode that can project strength pretty much anywhere on the map.

So, Mike attacked too far south, and I attacked too far north. This scenario is a nice little puzzle, however, and a great refresher or learning scenario for OCS. There's no air units or other strangeness – just straightforward give and take.

So, if you've got that Case Blue sitting around and you're wondering how you're going to tackle it, head over to The Gamers Archive and snag the Chir River Battles scenario and give it a go. It'll be a well-spent evening.

No cheer at the Chir

One of the sessions in our upcoming WBC-W game-athon will be a 2-day, 4-player 'monster' game. After some discussion, we settled on one of the games from the MMP/Gamers OCS line, and choose the 'Drive for Oil' scenario from Case Blue (BGG entry). (OK, that's not such a huge monster in the grand scheme of things, but it's a start for us.)

So, as part of our preparations for WBC-W, and Case Blue specifically, Eric and I will be spending the next few weeks getting back into OCS. Last night saw our first foray into Case Blue, with the Chir River training scenario. This was a scenario that was a part of the original Enemy at the Gates OCS game, and which (along with a lot of others) was not included with the enlarged version of the campaign, Case Blue. (I've never understood why they weren't converted and included with CB.) Anyway, several devotees of OCS have started converting these old scenarios to Case Blue, so, it seemed a good place for Eric and I to start, as it's only 3 turns long, with a small group of units and portion of the map.

The scenarios sees the Russians attacking to the SW of Stalingrad in the middle of December in 1942, trying to gain a foothold over the Chir River. The Axis have a lot of crummy units holding the line, but with a full panzer division to provide mobile backup. The Russians win if they break through the Axis lines and capture Morozovsk (to the left from the Axis perspective), and the Axis win if they prevent that. Here's the opening situation from the two perspectives:





I randomly got the Russians, and my plan was to force a gap in the center/right flank area with the two infantry divisions (212th and 93rd Gds), where they only faced a couple of Alert battalions, using 5Mech Corps to drive through the gap. From there, drive to Morozovsk, whilst trying to protect my flank from 11Pz. The second part was to use the existing bulge into the Axis lines, and 1Tk (stacked under the 12-2-2), on the left to also force a gap, threatening to pocket his entire frontline, leaving them out of supply, and forcing him to also protect his right flank of 11Pz as they try to stop my main thrust.

A grand plan, but it went awry from the first roll. I started with an overrun of a minuscule Alert battalion by my 1Tk units in the bulge. However, despite a +1 action rating modifier, I managed to roll a 6 column defender surprise shift (needed 6+ to avoid defender surprise), which meant I lost one of the attacking units, although I did remove the Alert battalion. Further, after moving in, we spotted that this would leave 1Tk unsupplied, as the HQ couldn't throw that far, so it had to pull back. (Frozen march is 6MPs, and a frozen minor river is +3MPs, so it can't throw across the river.) In all my following combats I rolled another couple of defender surprise results, and a single attacker surprise. Fortunately, my combat rolls were generally very good, so things mostly balanced out, as without that things would have looked pretty bleak. However, by the end of the turn I'd surrounded several units, cutting them off from supply.

Then Eric went into action with 11Pz. They came storming forward, and overran the mech unit holding the pocket, gaining surprise for another 6 column shift, and promptly vaporized. So went the rest of the turn, with Eric gaining attacker surprise in 4 out of 5 combats, for 6, 6, 5 and 2 column shifts (4 at +2, i.e. needing 8+, 1 at +1, i.e. needing 9+). By the end of the turn 5M and 1Tk Corps had pretty much ceased to exist, and for no loss to the Axis.

It was pretty clear that there wasn't going to be any Russian win in this game. With there still being a gap in the Axis lines, I pushed my remaining strength forward, attempting to take out part of 11Pz. Once again I didn't have much success, although I did successfully overrun the 11Pz artillery unit that had been left exposed, and managed to clear Surovikino, to create a better line of supply to the units on the left, and once again surround some of the Axis front-line units.

Once more, however, the dice didn't go in my favor as Eric's attrition rolls were 4 and 5, meaning both stacks survived, one with no loss, the other with a single step loss. (The first needed a 8+ to die (AR3, 2-5 no loss, 6-7 1 step, 8+ 2 steps), the second 6+ (AR2, 2-3 no loss, 4-5 1 step, 6+ steps.) Elsewhere, he just rejigged his line, with little (or no?) combat.

In the final turn Eric won initiative, and chose to go first. He started a withdrawal, and pulled everyone back, knowing that with a single turn to go, I had a lot of ground to make up. In the pocket, one of the isolated units still survived, as the AR3 stack only lost a single step, but the AR2 stack lost its final step.

However, there was still a chance! Eric had left one hex in his line protected by a single Alert battalion, and I threw what I had left against it. But it was not to be, as I couldn't muster the '6' required on two dice to get the exploitation result to allow the units to drive through the gap and have a chance of overrunning Morozovsk, although, thinking more about it, I wouldn't have had the MPS to do that, anyway.

This had taken around 1.5 hours, so we set it up again, and switched sides.

This time it was Eric's turn to suffer from the dice, as his very first roll saw the best weather possible, not what the Russian player wants, leaving the rivers unfrozen. (In my version I did well on the weather rolls, having frozen rivers each turn.) He pushed a little in the bulge area of his left, but didn't risk any attacks across the river, settling for setting up for the next turn. I pushed 11Pz forward to blunt his attack in the bulge area, successfully pushing him back, but at the cost of a panzer battalion.

In the next turn the weather became frozen, and Eric pushed forward. He attacked along his right flank, all the way to the end, hoping to turn it and set himself up for the final turn. I moved 11Pz across to protect, and removed his leading units in combat.

In the final turn, I won initiative, and chose to go first. I pushed all my units forward, in what I considered to be a very 'gamey' tactic, taking advantage of a gap in his lines to put all his lead units out of supply. If this had been part of a larger game, rather than a focused scenario, I wouldn't have done this, as I fully expected most of my forward units to get blasted, and wouldn't have been prepared to give up so many units for such a short-term gain. Sure enough, that's exactly what happened, as Eric over-ran all those Alert battalions I'd pushed forward, but they'd done their jobs, as he didn't have anywhere near the range or capability to get close to Morozovsk, so the Axis won, once more.

In the post-game kibitzing we discussed how the Russian player should tackle this puzzle. We agreed that there are a few items that appeared critical, and which we learned through play:

• Rail bridge at 30.31 - without it the Russian HQ can't throw supply far enough to allow an attack on Morozovsk, so removing the LW division protecting it is vital
  
• 8-4-8 armor unit - neither of us used this unit effectively, but with its big movement and combat strength it should be used in the drive/attack on Morozovsk
  
• Get the Katyusha across to the point of attack in the first turn, or at least use it to DG 11Pz
  

OK, it's a very limited scenario, but it served its purpose. We got back into the OCS groove, and very quickly too, with a minimum of rules referencing, as either one or the other of us remembered the specific rule in question. We're planning to do the Edge of the World scenario over the next few weeks, which should have us ready for WBC-W. Not having played OCS for several months now, I'd forgotten how good it was, and how much I liked it.

I am _so_ looking forward to the WBC-W OCS session, the highlight of the week for me.

OCS Sicily - Thoughts

OCS, as a game system, continues to totally impress me. Every time we extend our knowledge of the system the additions fit in without screwing with everything else, and just work. This time it was the whole naval component, from ships to amphibious landings and beach assaults. Pretty straight forward, although with all the landings it does take time.

Mid way through the 8th turn (07/22/1943) (we stopped after the Allied player turn) how was the game progressing? According to the scenario set ups for the next turn (24th), the Allies should have been in Palermo with the US 2nd Arm., and driving through the middle of the island, with the Brits getting as far as the south of Catania. In our game the US had barely pushed west of Porto Empedocle, and only as far as Naro, 15 miles inland. In the east the Brits hadn't got as far as Augusta. Overall, about as far as they'd got by 07/12 in the original campaign, so I was feeling pretty good about that, and my position in general. However, as with a lot of these games, it can all go wrong pretty quickly, and there was still a lot of game to go. Especially with so many weak Italian units around, and even more so when all it would take is a bad surrender roll for complete divisions to disappear.

This is a big game, no doubt about it. Eric felt that perhaps we bit off more than we could chew, but this has been my favorite OCS game so far. Primarily, I think, because we were involved in the whole campaign, and had total control over where and how the battle was fought. In previous games we've had set ups defined, which kind of forced the nature of the game. Here I dictated where and how I defended, and Eric had the choice of where to land, so the game felt less scripted. (OK, we started with the suggestions from Operations Magazine, but I fiddled a little, and there's a few things I'd change for a second go, but I hope you get the point I'm trying to make.)

Yes, there was a lot to think about, but that's fine, and I certainly didn't find time dragging during Eric's turns, although I generally used that time to catch up with my notes on what had happened, and his plans were usually more clear cut so his moves took less time anyway. I must admit that I did rush myself a little in a couple of places (especially in the turn that Eric mentioned, which was turn 7 not 6, where I missed that a couple of units were out of trace supply, with no SP access to eat off the map, which had me totally pissed at my own stupidity), as I was very conscious of taking a long time on my turns. But there was a lot to make decisions on: fall back or hold; where to fall back to; how to fall back; where to place those units in the new line; do I want to reallocate my divisions; what about a reserve; when to commit a reserve; any opportunities to take advantage of, and are they worth the risk; what about supply. All in all a big puzzle, with lots to think about. And I really like that sort of puzzle.

(In fact it reminded me a lot of our attempt to play Drang Nach Osten when at college. I had the map mounted to the wall of my dorm room by Blu-Tak, and would stare at it for hours, planning lines of attack, potential moves, likely responses, and counters to those responses. My opponent, playing the Soviets, would come in and do the same, thinking for ages and moving a few counters. We didn't get too far, but I really enjoyed it.)

It was in the rushing that I made mistakes. A unit out of position here. Forgetting to move a replacement unit there. Missing an air base refit. Lots of little (and a few not so little!) things, but I'm sure we were both missing little things, so they even out over the game. However, I was getting towards a limit on the size of game that I'd like to address for the time taken. As Eric said, we got through 7.5 turns in around 16-17 hours of gaming, around 2 hours per turn, although that did include a large period of down time discussing how to barrage naval units. I'd say that I occupied way more than 50% of that time, but I think the Axis player has more to think about than the Allied player, so that shouldn't come as a surprise. (Unlike our Race for Tunis game, where the Axis defender has an easier time of it, and the onus is on the attacker, in my view.)

It would be interesting to try one of the Case Blue scenarios to see how that feels in comparison to Sicily. More counters to handle, but would the front lines be denser and more static such that there are actually fewer decisions to make and the game is actually easier/quicker to play? Often those games with fewer units are harder to play because each unit and its position is more critical to your success, but perhaps may be more satisfying. (I think this touches on the same issues we had with Red Vengeance over Defiant Russia.)

Getting back to my preference for Sicily over DAK2-Gazala, it would be really interesting to try the full DAK2 campaign game and see whether I still preferred Sicily. Now that would be an undertaking!

Never go in against a Sicilian when death is on the line!

Last weekend, Mike and I got together for a big project – OCS Sicily, the full campaign including the landings. Our first plan was to play this over a week-long retreat in the summer, but it's not looking like I'm going to be able to attend that. So, as we both had the weekend free thanks to my cashing in some familial karma points, we decided to give it a start. Back when we first decided we were going to embark on this, Mike had volunteered to take the Axis defense, so we each already knew what posture we were going to take.

Back in Operations #43, (which is available on Magweb) a set of articles was published that looked at the historical campaign and translated it to how you might organize it in the game. I sent Mike a copy of the Axis article from that set, and I worked on the Allied. I figured having this base to work from would save a lot of time as planning that invasion is highly complex and we were going to need all the time-saving measures we could manage in order to make significant progress.

We had initially discussed using the scenario that starts immediately after the initial landings, but since part of what we're doing is learning how the system works, it would have been rather silly to skip the landings. We'd never done anything to this point that involved Naval, and the Sicily campaign exercises the naval rules like no other game in the system.

I don't know how closely Mike adhered to the article I sent him, but I did notice that there were some things in the distribution of forces on the Allied side that didn't work in the 4.0 rules, and I didn't actually notice it until after I had begun the invasion. That slowed me down a bit. (The technical issue is that transports and supply cannot be landed in any fashion that requires either a roll on the landing table or a contested beach assault. Essentially, you have to control a port before you can land transports or supplies making it difficult to bring transports on in the initial wave. This is something I'd change next time I play. I may have wasted four or five brigades worth of space on my landing craft in that initial wave by taking transports along.)

Historically, the Allies had heavily bombarded the island ports before landing, and then invaded in two separate, though rather close, sectors. The British and Canadians landed near Punta della Correnti in the far southeastern tip of the island and then north up the eastern coast. The Americans landed along the beaches between Licata and Capo Scaramia on the eastern half of the southern coast. That leaves a gap around 25 miles (about 10 or so hexes) between the two landing forces. Fortunately, this gap is lightly defended, and one of the initial goals of the invasion is to link up the Canadians to the Americans to bridge that gap.

The initial island defense looked something like this (all pictures are taken from the north looking south, and are hotlinks to larger versions. This particular image has callouts.):

(ignore those two tall stacks in the water south of the island. Mike took the picture just after I started moving stacks from the Floating Forces box towards the island.)

The initial British and Canadian landings went well. The Americans, not so much. The 1^st Inf division in particular failed miserably in taking Gela. Historically, this was the location of the strongest Allied counterattack, so I guess it's close to what happened, just a bit early.

The paradrops, however, were just as much of a disaster as they were historically. The British attempted to land five units. Three made it. One landed in the water, and one landed on an enemy unit. The American attempt at landing was intercepted and completely repulsed by an Axis fighter squadron. No American paradrop support arrived.

The end of turn 1 positions can be seen in the east here:

and in the west here:

Turn 2 began the slow process of establishing a beachhead, claiming more space, and getting supplies to the island to fuel the advance. As nearly all the initial landing troops are foot, they didn't need supplies to move, but any combats or defenses had to be paid for. This was aided by two of the Italian Coastal Divisions surrendering on first contact, nearly completely opening up the corner of the island to British and Canadian advances. So, there was a steady cautious move forward.

In the west, not so much. I still hadn't taken Gela, and needed to bring in supplies and reinforcements to secure the beachhead. So progress was small.

End of turn 2 positions are here in the east

and here in the west.

Turn three was more of turn 2. Things weren't progressing as quickly as I would have liked, and I was having a hard time not stepping on my own toes in the east. The path up the coast to Syracuse is narrow and moderately well defended leading to something of a traffic jam, but not quite up to Battle of the Bulge proportions. I also lost half my remaining landing craft during the reinforcement phase of this turn. (They get pulled out to prepare for the Salerno landings.)

End of turn 3 positions are here in the east

and here in the west.

Turn 4 saw the Axis essentially abandon Syracuse. One small unit was left behind in the port. I also decided I had enough supply to land the 2^nd Armored Division west of Licata. I thought quite a bit on the prior turn whether to land them west of Licata (as I decided) or in the gap between Licata and Gela. However, as Mike was slowly abandoning his active defence of the Gela area, I decided to land west and begin threatening the western end of the island. This had the advantage of also taking Porto Empedocle which (after some minor repairs yet to be performed) will give yet another entry port for land supplies and units.

End of turn 4 positions are here in the east

and here in the west.

Turn 5 began the major Commonwealth advance in the gap between landing areas. Mike had begun abandoning the heights and my advances were finally allowing some breathing room down by the coast. In particular I now had full control of the primary road (hwy 115) from Syracuse to Licata. This would help greatly in supply delivery.

End of turn 5 positions are here in the east

and here in the west.

Turn 6 saw one major incident – Mike found and exploited a gap northeast of Gela that allowed him to run a small unit behind the Canadian line and shut down the airbases behind the lines. The remainder of the turn was small steady advances along most of the front. The 2^nd Armored was performing well and was clearing space along the beach.

End of turn 6 positions are here in the east

and here in the west.

Turn 7 was mostly resupply. I finally cleared that small unit out of Syracuse and now have access to that port.

Mike forgot to take photos of the final state before we logged the positions and tore down.

I'm in the process of entering the positions into Vassal, and we'll be able to continue the game at a later date. Which we most definitely will.

After we finished turn 7, Mike looked up Driving to Messina scenario which begins two days later than the point at which we quit. Significantly more territory had been gained in the real campaign than I had been able to carve out so far. I'm probably ½ to 2/3 as far as the Allies had gotten by July 21. I've also got a few more losses than the historical campaign. So, it's not looking great from my point of view, but if I can slow down his retreats off the island, I should do okay.

How did I feel about this session? First, we didn't get any where near as far into the scenario as I had hoped. We ended up averaging around 2.5 hours per turn. There are a few reasons for this. The first two-three turns are going to take a long time because the landings simply take a long time to resolve. There's a lot to do, both in the preparations for the landings, and resolving the landings themselves. Of course, more familiarity with the naval rules would help, but not THAT much.

This was also, by far, the largest OCS scenario we've attempted to date, and may have been a bit more than we were expecting. I know Mike admitted to having problems keeping his brain around the whole thing while not forgetting critical issues. (For example, he accidentally left a couple units out of supply around turn 6 or so and lost them both due to attrition.) His job was pretty tough, though, as he didn't really know where I would be coming from on landings beyond the first wave, and he's got interesting decisions on when to stay and fight and when to pull back to the next defensive line.

It wasn't as bad from my perspective as I had clear-cut objectives. My issues were more tactical in nature. Trying to keep from stepping on my own toes in the east, keeping everyone supplied, etc. I know I wasn't as diligent about doing fighter sweeps and such to keep my air units operating at peak efficiency as I should have been. My primary job from this point in the campaign is to establish my supply net and determine where the next primary offensive should be.

I think this campaign is the largest piece of OCS I'd want to attempt as a 2-person, face-to-face venture. If we tried anything bigger (say, one of the mid-sized scenarios from Case Blue) I'd want to run it as a four-player game, minimum. One of the drawbacks of OCS is downtime. There can be significant amounts of time when the other player is moving before you get to your reaction phase. Mike and I briefly talked about doing OCS as a chit-pull kind of mechanism, but I think there would be major integration issues with other parts of the game mostly related to unit and aircraft states (mostly when DG results are cleaned up or how frequently you can reactivate aircraft. There's likely other things as well.)

I'm a big fan of OCS. I love the system and will always be looking for opportunities to play. However, I'll readily admit that this wasn't my favorite session so far. I definitely felt at times that we had bitten off more than we could chew, and by the time we were done playing I was done for a while. It wasn't like the last couple playings where I couldn't wait to get it back on the table. Next OCS may or may not be a continuation of Sicily, but it'll be happening again. I'm thinking maybe something small from Case Blue might be in order. We may just continue Sicily via Vassal once Mike gets comfortable with that system.

OCS Sicily - part 3

Turn 4 - 07/15/1943

Here’s the position at the start of the turn:

East

West

The Allies won the initiative roll, and Eric chooses to go first. He makes a new landing in the US sector to the west of my units, which I was afraid might happen. I'd let the following Italian divisions lag the Germans and had left some coast exposed behind the main German defensive line. Even worse, this gap also separated the KG-Ens units from their HQ, definitely a bad mistake. Sure enough the HQ gets eliminated, and I've got a real bad situation on my hands.

Then things get even worse. I go to use my reserve artillery to barrage the Brits aiming to attack south of Syracuse, but Eric thinks I've already attacked them with air barrage. We must really be getting tired (we've been going for about 8-10 hours) because I've got no clue who I did/didn't attack, so let it ride. (I did my air barrages first, east to west, so by the time I get to the artillery barrage some little time has passed.) This means that he makes a successful attack and gains a foothold over the river. Only after do I figure out that it was the next stack I'd air barraged, but it's too late. The attack gains exploitation, and he also attacks into the outskirts of Syracuse, getting another good result, and I compound the earlier mistakes by losing a unit rather than retreating. (As I decided to fall back in my turn this was an especially bad decision.)

I'd also made the mistake of defending in the rough to the north of Ragusa, thinking it was Very Close terrain, when I should have defended further back in the mountains. That costs me another unit.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East

West

In my turn in the east, on the coast I retire my left flank a little to the low hills along the coast, but keep my right flank on the river. I'm starting to think about falling back to the next river, although I'm going to have to endure a turn or two defending in the open, which I'm not hopeful about. I pull back to the mountains in the middle, and all along the US sector it's time to find a good defensive line.

End of turn 4 position:

East

West

Not a good turn for me. Over on the right, things are looking really scary. KG-Ens is going to have problems keeping in supply with no HQ, and my KG-Flrd HQ is looking very exposed. There are only a scattering of weak Italian coastal divisions holding 2nd Arm. from running around the entire western coast, and as I'm 2 from 2 in my surrender rolls for coastal divisions it could all go pear shaped in very short order. (I've made 6 surrender rolls so far, losing 2 coastal divisions and the Syracuse coastal artillery, winning 3 coastal artillery. I'd have gladly swapped one of the coastal artillery units for one of the divisions.) That landing behind my front line has really put me off balance. Nice move, Eric. (Curse your eyes!)

At this point we call an end to the first day's play. We probably started around 1030, ended around 2200, and broke for lunch and dinner for around 1.5 hours.

Turn 5 - 07/17/1943

The Allies win the initiative and Eric elects to go first. I'm quite happy with that decision as I think a double move could be truly disastrous for my prospects. Eric grinds forward with the Brits, but the US forces don't press as much as I'd expected them to. Perhaps he has more supply issues than I'd expected, which I'm so disappointed to hear, if true. (NOT!)

I get pushed out of the hills on the coast in the east, so I take that as a hint that it's time to start falling back.

In the west he captures Porto Empedocle, and assaults my adjacent unit. The surrender roll for Assta division goes my way, which means that I have some units to hold the west with, although it's one of the smaller coastal divisions. However, he takes an 'o' result and chooses to retreat, leaving the port open and containing 2T.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East

West

My turn sees me move a couple of Italian units to the river at Augusta, ready for falling back next turn. Otherwise I just do a gradual fall back through the mountains, linking up the east and west sectors with HG division. In the west his retreat from Porto Empedocle seems like an invitation, so I march right in and capture 1T. (You have to roll on the Supply Dump capture table, which gives you a percentage of the supply that you capture.) The rest of the Italians are trying to get there, but I don't want to spend a lot of supply on fuel, so they keep walking slowly. Otherwise it's just finding some good defensive terrain to fall back to. Otherwise, I'm just falling back and trying to keep a line.

End of turn 5 position:

East

West

Turn 6 - 07/19/1943

Once again Eric wins the initiative roll and elects to go first. His air barrage roll is another 1, two in a row and he's rolled either 5 or 1 in every turn. On the east coast I DG his units in my reaction phase, so no combat for you, but I lose a unit to a box cars naval barrage roll. In the middle I lose the Italian unit at Chiaramonte Gulfi, as he gets a great roll with exploitation, which he uses to follow up with another great result to remove the HG armor unit behind it. (The 4-4-8 unit in 45.20.) In the west he presses forward, but not too aggressively. He attempts to take Porto Empedocle, but I DG his units on my side of the river, and he decides not to risk the river assault. (With at least a 3-1 and +4 for the Action Rating drm I was expecting him to attack, as attacker surprise was quite likely, and even without it the drm ensures that it would have to be a pretty bad roll to not get a decent result. The likelihood of both rolls being crummy made it worth the risk.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East

West

My turn is fairly simple. I continue to hold along the eastern coast, and air barrage his guys into DG, so he won't be doing much there next turn. Over in the other areas I've got a semi-decent line, so just tweak it to make it as good as possible. To the west I've got a reasonable line behind the river, although it's mostly held by a new Italian coastal division, so I'm risking another bad surrender roll.

End of turn 6 position:

East

West

I'm beginning to consider abandoning the west of the island, focussing on falling back towards Messina in a controlled manner, giving up space for time. I'm thinking of defending along the river line at a3233-3831 as a starting point, and moving back from there, Kind of like a swing door, hinged on the eastern coast. Once I get into the mountainous area around Etna it should help, as his movement will be severely curtailed.

Turn 7 - 07/21/1943

Same as last turn, Eric wins the initiative, elects to go first, and rolls a 1 for his air barrages. (Pretty neat trick, but you still have some way to rival my trick of rolling 1 5 times in a row for my commands in our Clash for a Continent game! :) Once more he presses forward, although the eastern coast is pretty stacked already. He tries to fly in some SPs, but my Italian fighter takes out two fighters flying cover (I rolled 8+ twice in a row!) and the two transports, all for a loss to boot! The same unit then intercepts the sole air barrage, taking out a Spitfire flying cover (-1 drm!) and the rest of the barraging aircraft! Let's hear it for the Italian Air Force, W00T!

However, it's not all going my way, as he barrages, attacks and kills the Tiger unit in the middle, then finally captures Porto Empedocle. Both combats gain exploitation, but he choses not to use the one in the middle. However, the one to the west is a different matter, as 2nd Arm dash forward to attack a unit of Aosta coastal division, which promptly surrenders. Yay, I'm now down 3 out of 4 division surrender rolls, and it's the weakest one that survived. That's going to make defense of the western side of the island even more of a challenge, and giving it up to focus on the east is making even more sense.

Here’s the position at the end of the Allied turn:

East

West

In my turn I continue to try to adjust my lines, falling back on the eastern coast to the next river. However, we've got a hard limit of 1730 to start clearing up, and I rush my turn, not spotting that I've left a couple of units of the Italian Livno division out of supply in the middle. They both fail their rolls, and I lose two precious ground units. Next time I'll not try to go as quickly and make sure my supply lines are safe, and to heck with trying to get another turn in.

As part of the rushing, and annoyance on my part, I forget to take pictures.

Turn 8 - 07/21/1943

Eric once again goes first, and it's more of the same as he presses forward. (I'm working from memory here, so I'm not clear on exactly what happened in this last turn.) We're pretty close to the mandatory clear up time, so I decline to risk another turn like the last one, and we call a halt after his turn. Eric starts recording positions and putting each stack of counters into an ice tray (a trick he learned from somewhere) as we plan to come back to this at a later stage. He's part way through before I think about the camera, so no more pics at all. :(

We intend to get it back on the table for another go, so I'll make sure to take pics before we start. I'll put my thoughts on the game into a separate post.