Iron Tigers - Computer Moderated WWII Rules

Gents,

 

Clinton the Computer Strategies rules bloke came around on Saturday and I put on a fairly simple 15mm Western Desert game. First time I’ve used the WWII stuff for a while.

Basing not quite finished but all good enough for a game. Did my bit for wargames by rescuing 70% of the Flames of War figures from eBay. A few touch ups* and some rebasing and they can forget their previous shameful use. Used my very special (read: cheap n’easy) felt mat from Spotlight…

 

The photos more or less show that the game is a very neat one. Perhaps the tidiest WWII game I’ve ever played. Next time I will use smoke  markers and dead figures to show that units are getting hit, gotta have some fun for the 12 year old in me.

1mm=1 metre so you can work out how many stands per unit you want. Each infantry unit was a company and each armoured unit was a squadron. Each infantry stand was a half platoon.

You could get away with 1 stand/model per unit if you wanted.

Basic scenario was that during the lull after the first phase of El Alamein the 8^th Army started stripping the front line of units to create a reserve for the next push. The local DAK commander saw an opportunity to counter-attack with a strong little force. The British commander had learned through patrolling and prisoners that an attack was imminent. So the British commander put alerts for both divisional artillery and local armoured units to offer support if requested. They entered the table in staggered turns over the game.

 

The DAK commander never got a chance to use their good stuff and the game never really got going. Saying that, the rules themselves were excellent. Very suited for WWII and makes a potentially complicated period quite straight forward. I will definitely use them again.

 

I sent him a small list of suggestions that I think would be improvements to the functionality of the rules but haven’t heard back. He might have filed them in the round filing cabinet.

 

*Tip of the week – I use something called MIG Washes. Paint the tank or figure, put on the decals, then slap on the wash. After 10-15 mins wipe it off the raised surfaces with paper towel and cotton buds and then estapol/dullcoat when dry. Quick and easy for WW2.

Mick

Turn 1 movement. DAK attack begins.

Dug in 8^th army infantry and AT guns in position. More special felt as soft sand.

Recon group enters the escarpment road.

Will they be seen again?

A couple of nice little Marder models. Perhaps crucial in that they were left off the Army list and had to be removed…!

Motorised infantry transports lead the way with the armour close behind.

What the shooting screen looks like. Select the firing unit and the target, range in metres, add any factors and number of elements firing. The order of the firing unit is decided by the programme by Order of Initiative. The initiative takes into account all sort of things like morale, training and casualties.

Infantry dismounting just before the soft sand

2pdr portee unit starts popping off a few rounds

Panzers move into a column and go for the centre. Infantry slog ahead on foot taking hits from off-table artillery and HMGs

Mobile reserve carrier-borne infantry scoot around in support

Brits looking comfortable in their defensive position (annoyed this pic is blurry)

Armoured reserve squadrons arrive and race into positions – causing some serious hits on the panzers

Lined up for some nasty flank shots

Carriers bristling with brens and ATRs shore up the British left flank

Stuka strike on the British armour – caused damage but not enough to change momentum

Engineers never got a chance to get in and blow stuff up

Confident Brits on the right…

…And the left

DAK infantry taking hits over open ground and about to fall back – along with the 2^nd panzer column

Victorious British hold the line in generally good shape



Iron Duke Computer Moderated Rules – Demo Game report

Last Sunday at Hall of Heroes, Clinton, the author/programmer of Computer Strategies, showed Richard and I how to play the rules. We did a highly historical 1814 Prussian vs 1809 Bavarian and Wurttemberg game. 30 year old paintjobs vs 30 day old paintjobs. It went a bit like this…

I forgot to take photos until turn 3. It’s simultaneous movement so we got some reasonable distances in during the move phase. The Bav/Wurt army decided to attack and are pressing against the strong Prussian position on the hill thingy. Each turn/bound is 10mins real time. That can be changed if desired.

Humble Landwehr units screened by some annoying shutzen.

Richard the Bavarian moves his battalions forward and puts out some skirmishers.

Wurttemberg Chevauleger and Mtd Jaegers  sitting on some high ground.

Black Uhlans and some Hussars move ahead.

Overall situation – no markers, dice or cards. Clean looking table. It’s one of those GW tables that has skulls and crap in the cracks.

Hussars charge and the Black Uhlans are taking a lot of fire. The system calculates casualties to the man. I think this round inflicted over 100 casualties to the Uhlans.

Artillery enjoying their work. Crews will soon tire from constant firing and their effectiveness gradually goes down.

I get stuck into the Prussians on the hill and my light battalion moves on a flank. The Prussian skirmishers are taking chunks out of my troops. Causing 30-60 casualties a round.

The light battalion moving on the hill as the Bavarians hold their ground.

Overall picture. Clinton is using a tablet to run the whole game.

The Prussian cavalry routing – leaving a general behind. Despite routing, they have good training and nearly got ralllied.

Solid lines stare at each other. I didn’t take any other photos from this point but you get the idea.

I eventually rolled up the Prussians on the hill and the game was called at that point. I think we played 11 turns in 2 and a bit hours. It was a learning experience and not an exercise in being the best at playing soldiers so it succeeded. As you can see from the images, the game looks nice and takes away the fiddly-ness of having to place and remove markers and roll dice for each event. Not having markers also adds to the fog of war (called “pea soup of war” in Iron Duke) so you can only really guess at how the other side is reacting – unless it is forced to withdraw or retreat.

Because we were there to learn, it was a bit slow. But then again, we managed 11 turns in relatively quick time. One person entering the info and giving the results does seem to bottleneck the process. But on the other hand, no dice rolls, no charts to look up, no calculations required, no looking up indexes, no cocked dice, no forgetting rules (or getting them wrong). A dedicated GM/Umpire is the go. Each unit gets allocated a number so remembering what’s what speeds things up. Standing around while the GM does his thing and not having much else to do is probably the strangest part. Richard went for a few walks during the lulls.

As far as the system itself, it seemed excellent and does what it says on the box. It allows for the things that seem important (troop numbers, training, experience, morale, weapons, fatigue, casualties) and does all the calculations and spits out the results. The effects are then automatically applied to the unit/army roster which then influences what you can (or can’t) do next turn. It means you concentrate on the battle and you have limited control of how your troops react once you commit them. That makes you feel more like a commander than a micromanager. Each turn only has 4 phases which are simultaneous. Surprising how well that works and how well the system tallies up all the events in a turn.

If someone develops a way of allowing at least 1 tablet/pc/phone per side and each tablet/pc/phone putting out info specific to each side, that could be a winner.

More Info: http://computerstrategies.bigpondhosting.com/

Cheers,

Mick