Converting Rapid Fire scenarios to TacWWII

This is an update of some ideas that I think I presented on the original Land of Counterpane, the website I had back in the time of dial-up Internet.

The following examples come from this book of scenarios by Richard Marsh:

I can't seem to find my copy of the Rapid Fire rules. I suspect I may have sold them at some Bring and Buy as I haven't played RF for years. However, I can remember enough to comment on the RF-to-TacWWII conversion process.

First up we need to convert the maps to the right scale. This is going to be a challenge because RF plays fast and loose with ground scales! Looking at some of the scenarios in the book, we see that the default is an 8'x5' table. However, no scales are shown on the maps. Looking at Google Earth I estimate that for the following scenarios that eight feet corresponds to:

• about 6km (60" for TacWWII) in the Crossing the Bug scenario
• 9-10km (96" for TacWWII) for Nalchik
• about 5km (48" for TacWWII) for Yuzhnaya Ozereika 
• about 2km (20" for TacWWII) in Central Pest. 

I think, then, we're going to have to use the RF maps just to give us a general idea of the location of the battle and use modern (or ideally period) maps to give us our wargames terrain.

The position with orders of battle is a bit more healthy although RF uses a peculiar scaling process. One (usually 20mm scale) figure represents about 15 men, whilst one model gun or vehicle represents five in real life. I therefore convert artillery and vehicles between the two rulesets on a one-to-one basis. Infantry companies are converted as follows:

• 2-4 figures in RF = one platoon in TacWWII
• 5-7 figures in RF = two platoons in TacWWII
• 8-10 figures in RF = three platoons in TacWWII
• and so on.

Let's have a go at an example. This table shows the Soviet forces for the Hill 253.5 and Ponyri scenario from Marsh's book:

The HQ of the 1023rd Rifle Regiment is shown as six figures, which would probably suggest two rifle platoons at TacWWII scale. As they're shown riding in a single car I'd be tempted to simplify this to use one of my Soviet HQ bases motorised by adding a staff car model.

The other HQ assets can be represented by the same number of models in TacWWII (ignore the listed numbers of crew figures). The only question is how to allocate them to companies. Given that the Soviets are all dug into static positions in this scenario, I suggest the following:

HQ Company            1x Command rifle platoon, 1x car, 1x Quad AAHMG, 1x truck

AT Battery                 2x 45mm ATG

Mortar Company      1x 120mm mortar, 1x 76mm infantry gun

Putting the infantry gun and the heavy mortar in the same company gives them a little more robustness from a morale point of view.

For similar reasons I think for the Rifle Battalions I would move the mortar and MG elements into the rifle companies:

Bn HQ                     1x Command rifle platoon

1st Company           2x SMG platoon, 1x MMG platoon

2nd Company         2x Rifle platoon, 1x 82mm mortar platoon

3rd Company         2x Rifle platoon, 1x 50mm mortar platoon

The artillery support doesn't need much organising for TacWWII. Clearly we have two 122mm howitzers and a single Katyusha model. I'd suggest that they be subject to the Obsolete Doctrine rules (can only be called in by units in PD or D modes). I might also insist that the Soviet player allocate particular batteries to particular defending battalions. Remember in TacWWII we don't have separate forward observer elements.

I'd organise the AT Regiment as a single two-gun "company" again for reasons of morale robustness. I'd probably attach it to a defending battalion for command purposes but you could deploy the Regiment as a single-company battalion in a situation where you want to give them unique orders.

The air support presents some interesting questions. The La-5FN is a fighter and contemporary with the Bf-109. I'd be inclined to rate it as "average fighter" in TacWWII terms. I've not seen any reports of them carrying PTAB anti-armour cluster bombs. I'd be inclined to replace it with a Pe-2 if you want to use the latter. In that case I'd probably treat the Pe-2 as "good light bomber" with a +1 to the dice roll when using dropped ordnance against hard targets.

We need to think about Morale and Tac ratings. Rapid Fire just uses Poor, Regular and Elite categories that affect both infantry firepower and morale. By far the majority of troops are rated Regular in most of the scenarios. Occasionally we see the rating split; for example the Soviets in the Stalingrad scenario are rated Elite for morale purposes but Regular for firing. In that case, raise the Morale but leave Tac unchanged. Overall I'd suggest something like:

Rapid Fire Rating                        TacWWII Morale            Tac Rating

Poor                                                Shaky or Poor                    7 or 8

Regular                                           Average                              5 to 7

Elite                                                Good or Excellent              4 or 5

The exact Tac rating will, as usual, depend on your assessment of the army's command flexibility, communications equipment, and any other technological factors like a predominance of archaic vehicles.

Finally we can consider the passage of time. My gut feeling at this stage is that a Rapid Fire game turn probably represents a slightly longer chunk of a typical battle. My tentative suggestion is that you increase the time allowed to achieve an objective by 50%. For example in the scenario above the German have 12 RF turns to penetrate to a designated objective line. With TacWWII I'd be inclined to make that 18 turns.