Game Of The Week
Dutch (KNIL) and Japanese slug it out
Monday 14th & 21st September 2010..
Two battle reports in one here as it took a while to get my pictures sorted.
For a while we’ve been looking for good set of WW2 rules, not very hard granted as we’ve just got on and played other games. We started years ago on Rapidfire and I bought loads of 20mm stuff but we found the rules just did not motivate us despite the eyecandy. We tried Crossfire which was very good but harder to do for multiplayer and despite the plethora of homemade armour rules on the net we just never really carried on. Then we tried BKC but whilst I really enjoy FWC and find the rules very good I found it hard to marry them to WW2. We then stumbled across Battlegroup Panzer Grenadier just before v2 came out. I read up v1 after a quick ebay purchase and then picked up v2 as soon as it was out. We then waited almost a year as FOG was dominant at the club but finally I was able to get the guys to play a game. Since then we’ve not looked back, all be it one or two are unsure of the activation rules but the rest of us like the rules for that very reason. Details on BGPG can be found here, BGPG Website & Forum. BGPG uses the same level of play as Crossfire and Fire&Fury WW2, one down from Rapidfire, so the lowest level is a rifle squad that is usually represented by a stand of 3 figures.
So, on to the recent battles, click on the links for much larger versions of the pictures.
Game 1
The first was a rush for the village and bridge just to get a better handle on the rules after our first learning session. A company of Japanese with HMG support and some armour attempt to capture the village and bridge whilst the KNIL troops do the same. Students of Dutch involvement in WW2 will note the TOEs and indeed equipment may not be precisely historically correct, but every one had fun and it was a game after all.
Somewhere deep in the jungle…
The KNIL form up….
Japanese armour rushes to hold the village
The KNIL take the other end of the village as the Japanese advance…
We were short of time once the infantry actually sorted themselves into a Mexican Stand-off in the village but in the final turn the Japanese went for an assault to go through the close combat rules. We leant the Banzai charge can be truly devastating as my platoon on the left in the airfix jungle outpost were wiped out leaving just the commander running for his life.
Game 2
This was a bigger affair with the Japanese now attempting to recapture an airfield. The Japanese now had two companies, 1 support platoon of 3 HMGs, 2 CHI-Has with command tankette, 2 air missions, 3 artillery missions and some additional assault engineers with flame throwers. The KNIL sported 1 company with Hvy Weapon support, including
Aerial recon shots… as given to the Japanese
The Japanese officers deploy their troops…to find the recon shot out of date and defences now built-up. The aircraft are just eyecandy…at the moment…
The Japanese try to force their left flank but come under fire from hidden mmgs and a bohler 47mm losing 2 squads and getting a tank damaged.
On the Japanese right they line up for an assault but are suppressed. The Japanese dual FOO/FAC lingers at the back as the Japanese get miserable initiative and activation rolls and they waste activation on other things when they need smoke and air support.
Finally they Japanese force and assault but still no heavy artillery or smoke is used to support the attack, they probably feel comfortable from the first game… The result is a disaster, 4 squads are dispersed as they run in, the remaining attackers pile in to the dugouts with odd in their favour… only to roll rubbish dice whilst the KNIL role awesome. Of the 7 original attacking stands only the company commander and an lmg survive but both suppressed, the KNIL take no losses.
The Japanese assault with armour in the centre proves fruitless as well as once more combined arms and basic tactics are not used, Japanese armour goes up in smoke…
With
that we called time and gave a victory to the KNIL as the Japanese had failed
to even get close to the airfield. Following the
news of the heroic defence of a vital airstrip some where in the far east, the
invasion of Holland by the Japanese has been thwarted and at an exclusive
ceremony held in Amsterdam this morning we can reveal that the three commanding
officers were presented with the "LEGION DE HONOR" (or dutch equiv), and are now on a whistle stop tour of the
country, basking in each others reflected glory.
The defending KNIL
forces lined up at the airfield for a victory parade prior to flying to
The Heavy Weapons company were single out for their heroic actions in taking
out the enemy armour and halting the enemy infantry assault…
This last game was a hoot with 3 players a side and me as umpire. I allowed some leaway with the commands so they could divvy up troops for every one to particiapte, with the Japanese