Small skirmish with Battleground WWII

I haven't been able to do a WWII battle in a little while, so a friend and myself decided to do a small skirmish today with Easy Eight's Battleground WWII.

The skirmish was a US platoon moving forward to capture a french farmhouse. 

The US had 3 8 man squad(1 Squad Leader, 1 Assistant, 1 BAR and 5 rifle), with a Lt. and Sgt aid.  All were regular.
The Germans were defending with 2 6 man squads.  Each with an MG34 and loader, 1 NCO with SMG and 3 riflemen.  They were elite.

I ran the U.S., and have to say that luck was on my side this day.

I could deploy my troops on either one of the two sides away from the barn.  I decided to deploy everyone on the same side.  I send 2 squads up the middle, and one on the right flank with the platoon command.  The Germans decided not to deploy inside of the barn, but instead to put one squad in the hedge row in front, and one on their far right defending against that board.  They deployed in ambush.


1st Turn.
U.S. forces move to the first set of hedge rows and stop.  They make spotting rolls but don't see any movement.

2nd Turn.
(Since the Germans were all on ambush, I just activated one squad at a time without drawing cards)
U.S. 1st squad splits.  The ASL along with BAR and loader stay behind to give cover.  They spot, but don't see anything.  The rest of squad uses one action to cross hedge, and second to move forward.

1st squad moves out

US 2nd squad goes on Ambush.

2nd Squad crosses the hedge

US 3rd squad does the same as 1st Squad.

Germans open up!

The German 1st squad now sees the U.S. troops running across the field.  The MG opens fire, but disaster strikes when they roll a 20 and jam.  None of their dice were good enough to hit!  The riflemen decide to wait for a better target.










The US second squad who were on ambush see the incoming fire, and open up.  A hail of rifle bullets and BAR rounds fly at the hedge miraculously scoring a hit.  The loader for the German MG is heavily wounded and out of action.

3rd Turn
The U.S. first squad activates.  The BAR team opens fire and scores 1 KIA and 1 Light Wound.  The KIA is on the MG gunner, and the Lt. Wound is on a rifleman.  The German MG team is out of action already!  Things not looking good for Germans.  The rest of the squad rush across the field.

U.S. 2nd squad activates.  The BAR team fires but does no effect.  The infantry team moves out across the field.

U.S. 3rd squad activates, and continues across the field.  The platoon leader joins them.

German 2nd squad activates, and judging by the sound of gunfire to their left, realizes that they are in a bad position.  They come off of ambush and move to the hedge row facing the road.

Back to the barn!

German 1st squad finally activates.  For their first action they fire on the advancing Americans, and they all miss!  They then fall back towards the barn.










4th Turn

U.S. 3rd squad activates and moves forward to the hedge in front of them.  They make a spotting roll but see nothing.

GE. 1st squad activates and falls back into barn.

U.S. 1st squad activates and moves to the hedge.  The BAR team moves to join.

U.S. Closing in!

U.S. 2nd squad activates and moves forward.

GE 2nd squad activates and reaches their new hiding place.  They spot, but see nothing.

5th Turn.
German 2nd squad activates first.  They spot and see 2nd squad advancing, and so the 3 rifle men open up fire, they wound 1 U.S. troop who then panics and runs screaming (1st U.S. casualty!).

U.S. squad 1 activates and spends all actions firing (BAR team uses one action to move into position before firing).  The hail of fire is too much, and one of the German soldiers who was previously wounded takes another wound and goes down.

GE 1 activates and fires at the U.S. troops in the hedge, but have no effect.

U.S. 3rd Squad activates and moves to the hedge.  The GE MG team spots them and activates it's ambush.  They wound one soldier who breaks and runs.

U.S. casualties on left flank.

Both U.S. wounded can be seen.

6th Turn.
U.S. Squad 2 activates first.  The broken soldier continues to flee despite everyone's effort to stop him.  Everyone else moves forward.  The rifle team up front reaches the hedge and fires at the German rifles who had fired at them, but miss.

GE squad 1 and commander activate.  They fire, but have no effect.  The one rifle and 2 SMGs just won't penetrate the hedge rows!

Rushing the barn!

U.S squad 1 decides to rush the building.  The BAR plus ASL and loader give covering fire, but has no effect.  The assault team crosses hedge and moves towards the building.









GE squad 2 activates.  The MG team continues to unload.  They force 2 morale checks but both are passed.  The rifle men fire at U.S. squad 2 but miss.

US squad 3 opens up on the German MG.  The first action the BAR team moves to the hedge while rifles fire to no effect.  The second action, the hail of fire strikes the loader for the MG team heavily wounding him and taking him out of action.

7th Turn
GE 2nd squad activates 1st.  The MG team (or man) fires on the U.S. 3rd squad.  The U.S. squad leader was exposed as he tried to give his men orders, and is cut down.  But then, the MG jams!  The riflemen fire at U.S. 2nd squad, but no effect.

German 2nd squad faltering.

GE 1st squad activates.  The commander joins them.  2 SMGs and one rifle pour lead on the advancing assault squad.  1 man is filled with holes from multiple hits.  Another falls before him, but it is not enough!

Assaulting the barn.

U.S. 1st squad comes up and finishes their assault.  The reach the building on their first action, and for their second action, all 3 of the survivors toss a grenade through the door or windows.  The German 1st squad leader is shredded, and everyone else breaks.  The lone German gunman is screaming in a corner for mercy, and the German commander is so shaken that he drops his gun and yells for mercy.

Time to go home!

U.S 2nd squad activates.  They open fire at the German 2nd squad riflemen.  Both of the 2 riflemen are cut down.  The German gunner and squad leader fail their morale check, and decide that there are better places to be.












Aftermath.
This game was a lot more one sided than I would have expected.  The Germans had bad dice rolls, and jams at the worst possible times. 

The US had 2 men wounded who broke and ran for cover.  They had ___ other men killed, including a squad leader.

The Germans had much worse casualties, including the two POWs

Some more 15mm ACW

Here are some more 15mm ACW.

These are some of my Union troops lead by their illustrious captain.  They are gearing up for their clash against their rebel advesaries.

Most of the figs are Battle Honors, available through Old Glory.

Some 15mm ACW/VSF figs

I have been working on some figs for GASLIGHT and Brother Versus Brother.  They are both great skirmish games, and I have been building up forces.  I already have about 100 infantry each for Union and Confederates, but I needed to add some cavalry.

This is my first test run with some cavalry.


Here are some of my martians.  These figs are from Black Hat Miniatures, Martian Empires Range Black Hat

Here are some Confederates with a couple of my Union Battlesuits

Defense of Orn's Crossing - Battlesystem Report

Here is a battle that I did with Battlesystem today.  It wasn't a large battle, but it was to recreate a battle that happened in my game world.

The situation:
Orn's Crossing is part of the newly formed Khulzad Alliance.  The Khulzad Alliance was formed between the dwarves of Khulzad, and the humans of the surrounding lands who have been caught in a struggle between surrounding kingdoms.

The kingdom of Herinoch decides to take back part of the lands and sends a force to capture the strategic fords at the town of Orn's Crossing.  They send a force composed of some heavy infantry, and a large number of mercenary infantry.

The forces

Herinoch Army
Army Commander
20 Heavy Pikemen
40 Light Infantry (2 units)
10 Light Cavalry
3 sergeants for the light infantry and cavalry

Khulzad Alliance

12 Medium Infantry
10 Medium Archers
8 Medium Cavalry
A dispatch was sent to the dwarves who have dispatched a unit of 20 Heavy Dwarves along with the regional commander.  (They will arrive on turn 4)

The Battle
Turn 1
Both sides enter.  The Khulzad medium infantry are in the village, and the archers and cavalry are arriving.  The Herinoch army enters and starts moving towards the fords.

Defenders deploying

Infantry and cavalry moving in at the top.

Archers moving in

Herinoch army approaches

Turn 2
Everyone keeps moving.  The Khulzad Medium Infantry deploys near the ford.

Cavalry charges into village.  (Archers in village)

Turn 3
The defenders all reach the village and deploy.  The defenders decide to be bold and deploy their cavalry on the other side of the river.  They are hoping to charge some of the attackers and delay them long enough for the dwarves to arrive.

Cavalry charging to ford

Herinoch is closing in!

Turn 4
The Khulzad cavalry charge the Herinoch cavalry.  The Herinoch cavalry attempt to countercharge but are not able to motivate themselves.  The fight is fierce and 4 of the Herinoch cavalry fall, but they manage to bring down 1 of their attackers.

Cavalry charge!

To the north, the dwarves sound their horns letting their allies know that they have arrived.

Finally the dwarves arrives.

Turn 5
The Khulzad cavalry try to disengage, but the light cavalry stays with them, but it costs them a lot as 4 more of the light cavalry fall, but they kill one of the Khulzad cavalry.  They also hold the cavalry down while the heavy infantry move forward to engage them.

Cavlary fight

Overview of the battle

From another angle

The Khulzad archers fire on the light infantry who are nearing the river, killing one.  The dwarves continue to march towards the crossroads.

Dwarves moving as fast as they can!

Turn 6
The cavalry battle continues and the Herinoch cavalry looses one more, and they break and run.  Still, the heavy infantry with their long pikes now engage the Khulzad cavalry an kill 2, but their morale holds.
The Khulzad archers send another volley towards the advancing light infantry, and 2 fall.  The others fall back a little to regroup as they decide if they want to advance into the storm of arrows, and the infantry on the other side of the river.
The Khulzad dwarves are moving as quickly as they can go!

Infantry nearing ford

The cavalry gets trapped!

Turn 7
The Khulzad cavalry try to disengage, but the Herinoch pikemen swarm them and butcher all but one rider who routes and manages to get across the river. 

Things are bad for the cavalry!  Infantry nearing ford.  Where are those dwarves ?!?

Rush to capture the fords

The Khulzad infantry and archers see the terrifying slaughter, and both panic and run leaving the fords open!

Routing cavalry!

Everyone runs!

Turn 8
The dwarves quickly move through the village and deploy on the far side facing the river.  The Herinoch light infantry see that the fords are open and rush across as the rest of their army moves up behind them.

The Khulzad archers suddenly realize that the town is about to fall, so they stop and turn to fire a volley at the advancing infantry, and a devastating volley it is!  5 of the infantry fall in the river.

The fords are falling!  Finally dwarves!

The commander of the Khulzad infantry is trying desperately to rally his troops, but they are continuing to run.

Turn 9
The commander of the Khulzad infantry finally calms his troops and gets them to turn so that they can rejoin the fight.  The dwarf commander challenges his troops to charge the infantry who are swarming across the ford, but the dwarves are just too tired to move.
The Herinoch light infantry hold their ground as their allies move up, but the Khulzad archers target them once more, this time killing 2.  This is too much for the infantry who break and run.

The infantry are fleeing, but the fords are in trouble

Turn 10

Crossing the river.  It is harder to cross away from the fords, but still fordable.

More infantry cross the river now.  The Herinoch pikemen advance into the dwarves.  A pitched fight erupts, with the dwarves taking down 3 of the pikemen, but loosing 4 to the longer reach of the pikes.  They fall back to regroup.  As they fall back the Khulzad archers fire on the pikemen to cover their retreat.  They manage to take down 2 of the Herinoch pikemen.

Herinoch is across the river!  The dwarves and pikemen join battle!

Farther down the river the second unit of light infantry cross the river.  The commander of the Khulzad infantry tries to get his troops to charge, but their confidence is still shaken.

Turn 11
The dwarven commander once more is not able to get his tired dwarves to charge.  The Herinoch pikemen advance back into contact and continue to punish the dwarves.  They kill 4 while the dwarves drop 2 of them.

The Khulzad infantry finally realize how desperate their situation is becoming, and charge the light infantry who is now across the river.  Still, their confidence is not great, and they only kill one of the infantry while they loose 3.

Khulzad infantry vs Herinoch light infantry.  Bloody battle!

The situation is looking bad for the Khulazd alliance.

Turn 12
The dwarf commander catches sight of the Herinoch commander and charges him through the swirling battle.  The leader of the Herinoch army smiles and spurs his horse forward.  The two exchange a few blows but can not bring the other down.
The dwarves see their leader fighting and advance back into the pikemen.  4 more dwarves fall, but they kill 3 of the pikemen, and this time they fall back from the fight.  The Khulzad archers take advantage of their withdrawal and fire, killing 2 of the pikemen.

The Khulzad infantry regain their composure and press into the light infantry killing 4 of them.  The light infantry are only able to bring down 1 of the Khulzad infantry.

Turn 13
The two army commanders are still locked in combat, and the dwarf manages to bring down the Herinoch leader's horse.  Now they are on even footing!
The Herinoch infantry regroup to charge but hesitate.  The Khulzad archers fire on them again killing 2 more, and now the pikemen decide that they have had enough and retreat.

Herinoch attack starts to crumble.  The two leaders are locked in battle.

At the same time the Khulzad infantry continue to hammer on the Herinoch light infantry killing 3 more and loosing 1.  Now the light infantry sees their other allies falling back, and they also break and run.

The rest of Herinoch flees.  Khulzad survives!

The commander of the army of Herinoch sees his army fleeing, and realizes that he is in serious danger, so he throws down his weapons and begs for mercy.  The dwarven commander thinks for a moment, and raises his axe, but decides to take him prisoner instead of ending his life.

The survivors of the battle, and the two leaders facing off.

Aftermath
The battle was a tough fought one.  It teetered back and forth at several moments.  The worst was when the Khulzad cavalry broke and cause the archers and infantry both to break.  It looked like it was over then, but the archers were able to rally, and they were the deciding factor in the battle!