TacWWII demo - Blatno

With a load of new players signed up to play TacWWII at Crisis Point in early April, I thought it might be useful to do a bit of a rules run though here.

I set up a table with some typical terrain.

Seen above (from the western end of the table) we have the "main highway" running to the town of Blatno at the far end. At the end of a dirt road is the small settlement of Dobruska next to the yellow wheatfield. 

Czechoslovak 11th Tank Battalion in Cromwell IVs with a couple of recce platoons in M5 Stuarts is attacking from the west. Meanwhile the headquarters unit of a Soviet Division's Forward Detachment in moving through Blatno.

The Soviet HQ starts off with the command platoon (represented by a T-34/85 on a 30mm square base and a ZIS-3 76mm gun towed by a truck. Attached is a company of engineers in trucks. 

With the umpire's agreement the Soviet commander has attached his gun platoon to the engineer company. This serves two purposes. Firstly it gives the engineers some supporting firepower whilst allowing the HQ to manoeuvre freely and secondly a one-element HQ company doesn't need to take company morale tests. A bit game-y perhaps but there you have it.

Each battalion (and the Forward Detachment HQ is treated as one) needs orders. These can be simple enough to be written on the back of a business card.

Note that the orders do not need to specify the Mode(s) in which the battalion's companies are operating.

Our little game is very simple - no artillery or aircraft and all units are Tac 6, Normal Morale. Let's get on with...

Game turn 1

The Czechoslovak battalion starts with the recce company up front on the highway followed by the second tank company and the HQ, all in March Mode. The first company is on the left in Bold Attack Mode.

The Stuarts (Fast Tracked) have an 11cm move increment on roads. In March Mode out of contact with the enemy (no one's in a position to shoot at them) they get five move increments giving them a total road move of 55cm!

The Cromwells of 1st company (also Fast Tracked) get two move increments of 8cm moving cross-country.

Meanwhile in Blatno, the Soviet traffic jam encounters a demolished culvert over an impassible marshy area. 

Ordinarily the HQ, in March Mode, would have to make a minimum of two move increments. however, in this case it encounters the blockage after a single increment. With an unexpected change of direction required we make a Tac roll.

The HQ's Tac score is 6 so we need to roll 6 or higher on a D10. The result is a 2 so the HQ stops in place. Behind the HQ the engineer company also fails its Tac roll so a traffic jam forms behind the HQ.

Game turn 2

Both sides move, Tac rolls are failed all over the place, let's move on.

Game turn 3

Things don't get any better for the Soviets. The HQ unit tries to make a Tac roll to move into Bold Attack Mode. This roll would also cover the option to change direction. Unfortunately another roll of 2 means they automatically go into Confused Mode. Confused Mode allows movement of zero to one increment. This allows the HQ to stay in place in front of the broken culvert.

The engineers also try to go into Bold Attack. This would give them two move increments to move up to the culvert (dismounting from their trucks is free at the start of an increment). Of course the Soviets are unable to roll a six or higher and they go into Confused Mode instead. This gives them one increment. They dismount and start to move forward.

Meanwhile the Czechoslovaks continue to advance. The recce company fails its Tac roll to change mode and is forced into Confused Mode. The rest of the battalion is more fortunate however and starts to deploy either side of the road with the HQ swinging around to the right:

At this point the Czechoslovak Cromwells of 2nd company on the road are about 50cm from the T-34/85 platoon that forms the Forward Detachment HQ. 

A 2nd company Cromwell on the road (far left) faces the T-34/85 platoon
of the Soviet Forward Detachment HQ (right)

Spotting a vehicle unit in the open in clear weather is listed as "80/40" in Section 10 of the rules - Detection and Location. In other words if you pass your Location Phase Tac roll you can spot an enemy vehicle unit up to 80cm range, if you fail you can only see it up to 40cm.

At this point the Tac rolls are crucial. The Czechoslovak company fails its Tac roll (rolling a five when it needed six or better) but the Soviet HQ succeeds (they actually rolled a seven this time)! The Soviets can see the Czechoslovaks but the reverse is not true.

The Soviet HQ is in Confused Mode (the spotting Tac roll was the first it's succeeded with all game!) so it shoots in Fire Phase C. At 50cm range an 85mm tank gun has stats of "10/6". The stats are expressed as "soft/hard" - the 10 is the factor against soft targets, the 6 against armoured targets. So the T-34 needs a 6+ to hit. However, we need to deduct the target's armour of 2 so the Soviets need an 8+ to affect the target. 

The die roll is a 10! How the worm has turned! The target number (N) was 8 and the result is N+2. This gives a kill against an armoured unit. The Cromwell platoon is knocked out!

To the left of the target unit is another platoon of Cromwells (by the point of the "BA" marker in the picture above). If they were able to fire in Fire Phase D they would get a return shot (firing units are visible at double range) but in Bold Attack Mode you only get to fire in Fire Phase B. There's therefore no more firing and we come to the Morale Phase.

Having taken a loss, the Czechoslovak second tank company needs to take a company morale test. The only relevant modifier is that the unit has lost one third of its elements: "If 21-40% of unit lost: -2"

The Czechoslovak player roll a d10 and, oh dear, gets a one! This gives a total of -1, which gives a "Retire" result. The second company will need to make a full March Mode move away from the enemy next turn. 

In addition, because the Czechoslovak battalion has a company with a Retire result, they must take a Battalion Morale Test.

The only relevant modifier here is "-1 Company Retiring". A die roll of 8 means the battalion is OK to continue its attack.

Game turn 4

The Soviets continue to be unable to make Tac rolls when it comes to changing Mode! The engineers continue to edge forward in Confused Mode while the T-34 platoon continues to watch over the road.

In the background you can see that the engineers' trucks have pulled off the road to give room for the truck towing the 76mm gun to come through.

The remaining two platoons of the Czechoslovak 2nd tank company have pulled back three move increments as a result of the Retire morale result while 1st company has reached the road to Dobruska.

The Czechoslovak recce company passed its Tac roll to move into Deliberate Attack Mode. This will enable them to make one move up to the hedge and then get off two shots.

The single tree is just for decoration by the way - we ignore it for line-of-sight purposes.

Spotting time - the two M5s are 30cm away from the T-34/85. They see it automatically up to 40cm but being behind the hedge they are spotted as "Vehicle in cover = 40/20". Of course the Soviet commander rolls a 4 and fails but on this occasion it won't matter as I suddenly realise the fire factors of the 37mm gun at this range is "10/-" - it can't hurt an armoured target! They have however, located the enemy unit, which could be helpful next turn.

We now need to make another morale test for the retreating tank company. They're still at -2 for their percentage losses and a die roll of 7 gives a total of 5 = "OK". They will stop retiring and start the new turn in Confused Mode.

Game turn 5

We start off with the Order Transmission Phase and one of my version 1.5 additions to the TacWWII rules. The M5s having located the enemy can attempt to communicate with their headquarters. This takes a Tac roll and having two recce elements they get two rolls. They both pass but you only get one benefit - the tank battalion's HQ goes from Tac 6 to Tac 5 for this turn.

In the movement phase things at last begin to improve for the Soviets. Both mode change Tac rolls succeed. The HQ goes into Deliberate Attack and moves an increment to the right leaving room for the engineers to move onto the culvert. Having made it into Bold Attack Mode they do this with two move increments.

In addition, the 76mm gun is now deployed on the road.

The mode change Tac rolls continued with the recce company moving into Defence Mode.

The recce company can see the Soviet field gun battery deployed in front of Blatno. It's the only unit they have any chance of damaging and even then it's slim chance. They get to shoot first as in Defence Mode they shoot in phases A and C. The target number is 10 vs a soft target so their results of 1 and 7 are ineffective in phase A.

In phase B the T-34/85 shoots. The firepower factor is "9/4" and as the M5 is an armoured target, the 4 applies. The dice roll will be modified by -1 for target in cover and -1 for the M5's armour rating. The T-34 therefore needs a 6 or better. The Soviet player rolls a 7. This "N+1" result means that the M5 is Neutralised. More on this later.

Meanwhile also in phase B the 76mm gun shoots at the other M5. It's rated "9/5" at this range so with the same modifiers it needs a 7. A 5 is rolled for a miss.

We now move on to phase C. In Defence Mode the M5s would be able to shoot again but one of them is Neutralised so doesn't. The remaining M5 rolls a 3 and misses.

In phase D the T-34 (in Deliberate Attack) can fire again, whereas the 76mm (in Bold Attack) can't. Targeting the other M5, the Soviet player rolls an 8 for N+2 and a kill!

We'll now need to make a Company Morale Test for the recce company. The count as 100% lost as Neutralised elements are lost for Morale purposes. That gives a -6 modifier to the roll. The -1 for "in cover" helps slightly for a net -5 modifier. A roll of 6 gives a net result of 1 or "Halt". Could be worse; at least a Battalion Test isn't required as a result.

After the morale test there's a chance for the Neutralised platoon to recover. This requires a successful Tac roll. Sadly a 5 isn't enough so the surviving M5 platoon will remain inactive throughout the next turn.

And we'll stop it there. The Czechoslovak player needs to work out a way to concentrate the fire of his remaining Cromwells to even things up and perhaps get a lucky hit on the T-34.

I hope this was helpful. Let me know if you have any questions.