DIVISIONAL LEVEL WW2 Fast Play rules By Tommi Atkins

Introduction

“Hello Brigadier, Cigar? Caught me at a dashed bad time, Jerry’s not playing the game, typical really. Never trust the Hun what what? Ahh yes, I want you to take the Northants east of Ville-sur-la-Fromage, concentrate them and assault the village from Lapin woods, take them down a peg or two. You shall have Snells heavy guns to support you, kick off is 13:00. The Best of British old boy.” Schwerepunkt is a set of WW2 Fast play rules at the Division level. It is suitable for 15mm or 1/300 scale. Have a crack with 20mm if you like. Each move represents about 30 minutes of real time. 1” is =to 200 meters. You can re-fight the real battles of 1920-1947 with these rules, not just some little skirmish. Operation Market Garden is playable in a day. (Possibly: I never tried it) You Will Need.

1 A WW2 force. In 6, 15, or 20mm. I’m hazarding a guess that since you bought, (or photocopied these rules on works photocopier), that you have such a force. Base sizes are whatever you have based your units up as. Hopefully your mate has the same sizes. If not, hacksaw his down to meet yours.

2 D6. These are small cubes used to randomly generate numbers. Caesar apparently once said “The die is cast”, but then he rolled a 1 and his troops routed. Hey, it’s a six sided dice.

3 A tape measure measuring Inches. 4 A Table, an opponent, some scenery…look, the idea is that I dispense with all the

stuff that you already know, that way I save my ink and you save your money. Let’s chop to the bit where you have two Forces set up on table. Sheesh, what do you want? Army lists or something?

In these rules all measurement are in inches all fractions round down.

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Unit Classification TYPE: Units in Schwerpunkt represent a battalion of infantry, tanks or of artillery. Also their supporting detached companies such as signallers, independent mortar companies and Reccy companies.

A Battalion of infantry usually consists of 3 stands, (companies) the stand is 4 figures on a base about 150 men all arms.

A Battalion of tanks will consist of three models (Squadrons) each

representing about 16 tanks, The tanks don’t require separate bases. Don’t worry if they aren’t based, it’s really no big deal.

A battery of artillery consists of 3 guns (Troops) with any limber’s etc..

The guns don’t require separate bases. A detached company consists of one company of infantry, of tanks or a

Troop of artillery. One stand represents the unit. Don’t provide separate detached companies for each infantry battalion, I know that battalions had integral companies of mortars, antitank rifles etc, and their firepower is already factored into their battalion stats. These are Divisional or Brigade assets outside of the battalions influence.

Here is 504 Pz Abt. No particular reason, I’m not a closet Nazi, but everyone likes nice pictures. It’s even got the original E-bay watermark in the bottom left corner and everyone likes Tigers..! One question though; if everyone is so intent on buying late war Germans, then who are they going to fight?

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TRAINING: Units are further classified as:

Conscript: French, Russian & Italian rifle units, any poor quality troops. Veteran: Some free French, Brits & Yanks. Better trained, more experienced

units. Elite: Para’s, Marines, SS, Regular units noted for their experience and

fighting prowess. Training represents a combination of a units experience and the quality of its NCOs’ and Officers, as well as the actual field craft taught. A unit such as UK 7th armoured Division, whilst veteran in the desert, was a shadow of its former self in 1944, badly led and full of raw recruits. Players should classify their units appropriately.

SMITH 70 SAYS “Hi I’m Smith 70 from the 1970’s Battle Action comic and I have an almost unlimited thirst for science. Facts old chap, that’s what it’s all about. I will be your guide through these rules explaining why things are happening and clarifying rules. Which to be honest, I wouldn’t have to do if the writer had any skillz”. Morale: Units are classified as Shaky, Steady or Gritty. Morale is a

reflection of a unit’s inherent steadiness to enemy presence and enemy fire. Since in Schwerepunkt battalions are rarely destroyed but often pushed back morale is perhaps the most vital characteristic for a unit.

Shaky: Troops who are acknowledged as wanting to get the hell outta here. Italians in Greece, French in 1940.Yanks in the desert…..

Steady: Troops, who are willing to fight, but have a good sense of self preservation. Brits pretty much everywhere, Italian folgore division…..

Gritty: Brave, determined, or stubborn troops. 12th SS panzer, 101 airborne at Bastone, Japanese pretty much everywhere…..

Fanatical: Japs on a bad day. Russians in Stalingrad…

ROLE: Infantry must be Motorized Mechanised or Light. They may be Engineers, Heavy weapons, Supply, Signals, Airborne, Marine, Military police or Recon they may be Motorcycle Bicycle Horse or Jeep mounted. Tanks are Recon, Light, Medium, Heavy they may be Assault gun/S.P.G/Supply/open top Artillery is Towed or SP, light medium or heavy. They May be Antiaircraft, Antitank or Rockets. So for example 504th Heavy Panzer Battalion consists of 3 Tiger troops rated Tanks, Elite Gritty Heavy Terror. The 670th Rumanian antiaircraft company is 1 truck stand with a 20mm on the back rated Artillery, Conscript shaky, SP, Light, Antiaircraft

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ATTRIBUTES: Any unit may be classed as Terror: Especially frightening unit or effect. A rare attribute only available to Flamethrower units, Stukas King Tigers, P40 Tomahawks with shark mouths, Neblewerfers, that kind of thing. Slow: Units noted to be slower than their type, such as Matilda Infantry Tanks, who although are medium tanks have a reduced speed. Fast: Units which are renowned for their speed in comparison with their type, such as Hellcat Tank destroyers.

NEIN! NEIN! YOU DUMKOPFT! I Said Depress 5 degrees!

Sequence of play Player 1: Player is now considered to be the active player. Player two is passive. 1. All players units, passive and active, may carry out Engage actions. 2. Active players units may carry out Movement actions & Supplementary actions.

Player 2: Player is now considered to be the active player. Player one is passive. 3. All players units, passive and active, may carry out Engage actions 4. Active players units may carry out Movement actions & Supplementary actions. Drink Beer. Repeat.

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UNIT ACTIONS

So for example an unengaged Stuart light tank unit might make an engage action against a target, then Reface (movement) then attempt to remove a cohesion counter (supplementary) that it received in the engagement. Or it might make a cohesion removal attempt, no engagement, move to a hill crest then reorder into concentrated. I could continue with examples but that’s the idea. Let’s save my precious time.

SPOTTING Units may only be engaged if spotted. Spotting may be checked for at any point in the turn. A Unit is spotted if it:

1. Has been spotted by a friendly unit at some point in the game or 2. Fires at a friendly unit using direct fire or 3. Is at any point within its own threat range of an enemy. AND

A Line of sight must be drawn. Now lines of sight are the single most annoying thing in a wargame, but in SCHWERPUNKT- no problem. Simply put, the only thing that blocks line of sight is crests of Hills or at least 1” of Towns and Woods. Only part of a stand in a unit has to have LOS to part of a target to spot the unit. Now I can put good hard cash on a bet that there are people out there who will argue that a tree is in the way, that the LOS is a millimetre out of a frontal arc or that your ruler isn’t straight. I have formulated a table to deal with these situations. Line of Sight Table

Line of Sight Query situation Result Arc of line of sight is slightly out Opponent is a geeky whiney loser, Avoid next game Beer glass was in the way of his AT guns Drink contents of glass, hand to opponent for refill.

Once a unit is spotted it remains spotted until LOS is broken.

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THREAT RANGES Infantry 4” Unlimbered Artillery 6” Motorized Infantry, Assault guns and other vehicles 8” Tanks and Mechanized Infantry 12”

Target Concentrated +1 Open terrain or steppe. +4 Spotter is Tanks -1 Spotter in deploy or assault moving -1 Dug in/ edge of urban or wood: Half total Target moving faster than probe +2 Spotting by a recon unit +4 Flat Desert terrain +8 All Halving of totals is done after other modifiers Night Fighting

Spotting is half final total for units not firing.

All morale tests are at -1

All orders are at -1 All engage rolls are -1

ENGAGE ACTIONS A unit is engaged when either it or its supporting unit take an engage action or an opponent takes an engage action against it or its supporting unit. Units become disengaged with that unit when:

They are destroyed! LOL. The enemy engaging them is destroyed They lose LOS to the enemy and the enemy is not indirect artillery. Neither they nor the enemy took an engage action against each other last turn. They did not engage this turn & make a voluntary withdrawal move away

from the enemy that has them engaged. Designate targets All Targets must be pre-designated. The target must be in range of the units’ relevant weaponry i.e. AT/AP. The target unit does not have to be in the firer’s frontal arc, but its going to help. A targeted unit may respond to only one opponent’s fire in a turn. It doesn’t have to engage the first unit that fires at it. For example a unit of Panzer grenadiers are designated this turn to be engaged by a unit of tanks and infantry. They can respond to either the tanks or the infantry.

PHASES 1. Resolve ambushes 2. Resolve other Direct Fire 3. Resolve Fire Missions

Within combat steps resolution is considered simultaneous. E.G: The actual order of which ambushing units roll first is irrelevant. At the end of each step carry out any relevant morale tests, apply cohesion, dispersing and movement due to morale. Engage Actions come in two types. Direct fire and Fire missions.

DIRECT FIRE Definitions AMBUSH: Units stationary in their last movement phase that have a spotted enemy,

that has not spotted them OR units that fire at an enemy which made an assault move in their last turn into base contact against them achieve AMBUSH. They fire in the Ambush fire step. An Ambushed unit returns its fire in the non-artillery step. Units in Deploying formation cannot ambush.

Non-Artillery Combat: This is all other fire including field artillery guns firing over open sights as a non-fire mission. (Note that such artillery cannot then carry out fire missions this turn)

FIRE MISSIONS This is indirect artillery engaging a target with either Bombardment or Harassing fire. An

artillery unit doesn’t have to personally have a line of sight to them but one of your units must have. Fire missions have no effect against Tanks that are not open top unless it is harassing fire.

Artillery engaging is not automatic; their engage action must be rolled for on the action table. They may fire as

Dedicated fire support: This basically means they are assigned to respond to a pre-

designated brigades’ call for fire throughout the game. This brigade may be changed to another one by a successful reorder roll by the artillery.

Requested Fire support: is another brigade or independent unit asking for some stonks.

It’s harder to achieve as the artillery have to often alter their position slightly or be convinced that the fire is more urgent than their current supporting mission. It’s all politics….bah.

Towed artillery that moved last turn must reorder (unlimber) before firing. As with dismounting, the guns may reface during unlimbering for free.

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Bombardment fire: Each side is allocated a number of Fire mission tokens which it may distribute amongst its artillery units. Players also are allocated Interdiction tokens. Prior to play they may place these interdiction tokens anywhere on the battlefield. They may attempt to change the position of a token once per turn by rolling a 6. No modifiers apply. To carry out a fire mission, it must be “called in”. To call in a mission on a target within 3” of an interdiction token simply remove a fire mission token. Example: So a Battery of 25lbrs firing at an engineer company, spotted by a friendly unit in its dedicated Brigade, next to a Crossroads which has an Interdiction token 2” away removes a fire token and rolls for effect. To call in a mission on a target more than 3” from an interdiction token, roll equal or greater than the number required on the order table and if successful remove a Fire mission token. Harassing Fire: A Unit may carry out harassing fire as follows. Call in the fire support successfully then classify the target unit as engaged. Do not roll for fire effect. Do not remove fire mission tokens. This is sporadic shelling designed to interfere with a target’s activities rather than cause many casualties.

Example: The Japanese player has four units, it’s his turn. Phase 1: Ambush. He fires with his detached company of machineguns against the Chinese bicycle company that assaulted into base contact last turn. The Chinese suffer a 7 result that gives them a cohesion loss and disperses them; the following morale check withdraws them away in a fighting withdrawal. Phase 2: NON ARTILLERY. The bicycles find that they are just in range to return fire and so do, their fire giving a cohesion loss to the machineguns. The Japanese now engage with his infantry company at the withdrawing Bikes with cohesion loss & the Bikes cannot respond having already fired. The Result is the company taking another cohesion loss and it routs, fleeing away again. Phase 3: FIRE MISSION. He now attempts to engage with his 120mm artillery. The infantry company is used to spot for the artillery the bikes are >3” from a interdiction token but they manage to call it in and remove a fire token. The resulting stonk destroys the bikes.

Combat Resolution: Give ‘em some stick chaps! The firer and the target (if responding) roll D6 and adds their basic AP or AT number to any relevant modifiers to produce a total FIREPOWER. This is then applied to the results table and the result read to the victim’s player.

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FIREPOWER Description: AP is Antipersonnel. This is the firepower factor used when firing at Soft targets. I know that AP could stand for armour piercing, but it just doesn’t. You’ll soon get used to it. I did, after two freaking months and I wrote these bloody rules. Its Small arms, machine guns, flamethrowers, bayonets, mortars, shells, grenades… AT is Antitank. This is the firepower factor used when firing at hard targets. Hard targets are targets that are not soft. There, you saw that one coming didn’t you? Its Tank guns firing armour piercing shells, Anti-tank guns, magnetic mines, flamethrowers, antitank rifles, bazookas all that stuff SMITH 70 SAYS “What the blazes chum? I want to use my favourite troop types! How can you

possibly classify the M4’s 75mm gun as rating the same as the PzKpFwIVMkFII’s KWK L/70001? Are you nuts? Well yes I am a little unhinged but hear me out. When medium tanks clashed together, Jerry used to usually win because they were veterans, had better command and morale and just outmanoeuvred and outfought their opponents. In real life a Tiger tank was a “heavy”,& so was a Comet. The Tiger was a much better tank, but in the battalion scale that we are dealing with, the 3200 fps muzzle velocity of a PAK 41 is not as relevant as the ability to use the tactical situation to win the battle. Hey, guess

what Mr Anorak? Tiger tanks were knocked out in droves in WW2.Just fight as the better commander and you will win, not because you think you have some indestructible piece of kit. There may be some situations where you have things like a battery of Breda 90mm guns on the back of trucks. “Now this is surely a soft target, but fires like a Heavy antitank,” I hear you say. Ok, Ok! Fine, that’s the way to use them then. Use your common sense to define your forces. A Cv33 tankette squadron is obviously Recon Tank, but what about a squadron of flame throwing Cv33’s? Well they just fire like engineers

Unit Statistics

AP AT Firepower Range Firepower Range

DEF Special

Mechanised Infantry 2 3 3 CQB 1 or Soft -1 Light Infantry 1 3 3 CQB Soft Engineers 2* 3 6 CQB Soft Heavy Weapons 3 6 1 3 Soft Recon Tank 1 5 1 5 1 Light Tank 1 6 3 6 2 Medium Tank

2* 7 4 7 3

Heavy Tank 3* 9 6 9 4 Trucks MC Jeeps 0 5 n/a n/a Soft Light artillery 1* 20 1 3 Soft ** Medium Artillery 2* 35 1 4 Soft ** Heavy Artillery 3* 60 2 5 Soft ** Light Antitank 1* 6 3 6 Soft Medium Antitank 2* 8 4 8 Soft Heavy Antitank 3* 12 5 10 Soft

*Area effect weapons ** AT value only in direct fire.

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NO! That wasn’t a roll! It dropped on the Table!

FIREPOWER MODIFIERS Target Conscripts +1 Firing through targets Rear

arc +3@ Firing unit Elite +1 Self Dispersed or all-round-

defence -1@ Supported +1@ Target Assaulting +1 ^^

Target Dispersed -1* Self Cohesion loss-1 ^^ Target in Deployment

formation +2* ^^ Close Quarter Battle +1 Engineers vs. target in

woods, dug in, fortified or Urban +2

Self in deployment -2 Target Hull down or dug in -

1 Target in Strongpoint -2 Light Infantry in Urban -1 ^^ AT vs. hard targets in Close

Quarter Battle +1 Infantry vs. unsupported Hard in urban +1 Tanks assaulting soft in close

or open +1 Self concentrated +1@ Concentrated Target +1 ^^ AT vs. hard - targets DEF

Firing through targets Flank +2@

^^ CAS *Area fire only @ Not applicable for Fire Missions

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FIRE RESULT TABLE. 5 or less= We Are Heavily Engaged. No effect. The battalion take’s a few casualties but the outcome is undecided. 6= Battalion HQ reports Holding on uncomfortably. Cohesion loss: Unit receives a Cohesion counter. The Battalion receives some losses and is thrown into some confusion. 7= Kommissar reports losses light, situation excellent! Za Rodina! Cohesion loss & Morale check. (Detached Company also disperses) Hard pressed, the battalion wavers. 8= Himmel! Der Schweinhunds! B company has collapsed! Cohesion loss, Morale check, Unit Disperses (Detached company destroyed) the effect of the fire is devastating. $ 9= We Can’t Hold Em Sir! We MUST Withdraw! 2 X Cohesion loss, Morale check, Unit Disperses. Unit starts to break apart, some desert, some hide. $ 10= Colonel Steinmann’s compliments sir, his battalion has been smashed. 3 X Cohesion loss Morale check, Unit Disperses, Unit is shattered by the fight, dozens of casualties $ 11= Sorry sir. Battalion HQ won’t answer. Remove the whole unit. Unit takes about 30% casualties and rout’s surrenders or are killed. $ $ Result not available to detached companies; treat as result of 8

SMITH 70 SAYS “Its time for a look at how that works in practice!” Example: A Unit of Australian engineers assaults a Japanese Concrete Bunker fortified trench line under favourable conditions. Engineers AP is “2” Roll is 2 Modifiers:

Firing through targets Flank +2 Self concentrated +1 Target in Fortified strongpoint -2 Engineers vs. target in woods, dug in or Urban +2 Close Quarter Battle +1=6 Battalion HQ reports Holding on uncomfortably Example: A Squadron of Pz Mk 4’s shoots at a Squadron of Lee’s Pz Mk 4 is Medium Tank, AT value=“4” Roll is 3 Modifiers: Self concentrated +1 AT vs. hard -3 DEF =5 We Are Heavily Engaged Example: A Battery of PAK43’s of the 1st SS fires point-blank at <1” into the back of some Vickers MK6 Light tanks. LOL! LOL! LOL! They are sooooooooo stuffed! PAK’s are Heavy Antitank AT value = “5” Roll is 1 Modifiers: Elite +1 Targets rear +3 AT vs. hard targets Close Quarter Battle +1 Close Quarter Battle +1 AT vs. hard -1 DEF =11 Colonel Steinmann’s compliments sir, his battalion has been smashed.

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““Well, Smith thanks,” you say “Hey, it’s no bother, it’s my job. One other point is what’s actually happening to these units? It may seem hard to actually kill a unit and that’s because in several hours of fighting a battalion would probably lose about 40 men killed and 170 wounded, casualties are not the issue here, its how the enemy’s morale and ability to fight is affected by your actions. A dispersed retreating unit may have taken few casualties, but its abandoning the ground it was to hold and is no longer effective in the fight. Cohesion in these rules doesn’t just mean keeping

someone’s head down, these represent fatigue, casualties, shock and disorder. It’s a measure of how a unit’s ability to move fight and work together as a team is affected by enemy action and the fog of war. A unit may try to remove a counter as a supplementary action, but as you can see, a unit in combat will get less and less effective until it is pulled out of the engagement and rests and reconstitutes itself by removing all the tokens. ” OrdersA unit in order to carry out a unit action must pass an Orders roll. This roll varies in difficulty to the task you intend it to perform and are listed on the orders table below. The roll is modified by various factors from table 2 Order modifiers. Failure to roll the required amount means that unit can’t do that action this turn. Boo-hoo. Units may carry out one engage order then one move order & one or two supplementary orders in their turn. Only Unengaged units may perform two supplementary orders. ORDERS Task Roll Task Roll MOVEMENT ORDERS Engage a enemy AutomaticMove a unit which is engaged 2 SUPPLEMENTARY ORDERS Reface 2 Remove cohesion counter 5 Voluntary Withdrawal move Automatic Reorder 3 ENGAGE ORDERS Dig in Light infantry 5 Dedicated fire mission (artillery) 3 Dig in other 6 Requested Fire mission (artillery) 5 Engineers building bailey bridge/

destroying barricades etc 6

Order Modifiers

Sit-rep Mod Sit-rep Mod Conscript -1 Political commissar with unit/ MP +2 Elite +1 Signaller unit within 30” +1 National modifier + X Dig in /woods/urban/close/soft terrain or supported by

/engineers or self engineers +1

Movement order from dug-in to open

-1 Brigade HQ KIA -1

Divisional HQ KIA -2

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SMITH 70 SAYS “So what’s all this about then? Well, apparently in some rules you can just move any

bleedin’ unit you like any time you like. Not so here. My old mate Ginger Nutt once said to me “If you can find a better fox’ole....go to it”, and he spoke a lot of sense. It’s harder to get troops to move if they’re engaged, it’s also harder to do what your commander wants if the BHQ has caught a stonking. Some Nations, such as the Jerry’s, taught their chaps to act independently whilst others like Ivan and the Froggies were more centralised. Some didn’t have many or had poor quality radios and so National differences are, technically speaking, for the win!”

Re-order: Units in Schwerpunkt are considered to be in one of 5 formations. Their formation is defined by marking the unit with counters or whatever you want to use, fag butts, tiddlywinks etc. A Unit may change formation either as a result of morale or as a re-order command.

All about Unit Formations

Unless otherwise stated a Battalion covers the same area of ground. Stands must be within a 4” diameter. Don’t confuse front arc with a fire arc. Units can fire all around, its just they are better at firing through the front. Each Stands front arc is 90 degrees to front, flank arc is 90 Degrees to flank, and rear is 90 degrees to rear unless otherwise stated. The unit takes its facing from the sum of its stands, so if an enemy stand draws its line of sight through at least one flank arc of your unit, your unit is flanked. A formation is subject to flank or rear attack if at least one stand of the attacking unit can trace a LOS through at least one of its stands flank or rear arc. Sweet. A formation may on occasions be confronted by terrain that baffles the player. How can you get that dispersed formation over that bridge? The answer is you can’t. I’m not writing reams and reams of rules to cover every situation like “My unit has half its stands on clear & half on woods, which movement value should I use?” Simply sort it out amongst yourselves and get on. You wanna spend your afternoon arguing or wargaming?

FORMATIONS:

Battle formation: The standard formation. Units are drawn up in a self supporting formation that can move adequately through most terrains and deliver firepower effectively whilst absorbing incoming fire. All round defence: This formation is broken if the unit moves and if the unit doesn’t Re-order first, they will automatically become dispersed. The unit is formed to cover all approaches, and adopt the best defensive positions to the detriment of their firepower. All round defence formation has no flanks or rear. Move the models to face outwards. Concentrated: The unit is drawn up in a narrow frontage. They are optimised for attacking, but suffer from being more vulnerable to fire and easier to spot. All stands must be in a 3” diameter. Artillery may not form concentrated. Dispersed: the Unit is deployed to enable them to be mobile through the roughest terrain

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but be the least vulnerable to fire. Dispersed troops are a little harder to control and their firepower suXxorz the big oneoneone. All stands must be in a 6” diameter. Deploying: They are formed up for rapid movement along clear terrain like; sheesh let me think…..roads, yeah roads! You can imagine what this does to their defensive ability and their firepower. If you cant then just accept that it’s really really bad. Only deploying units may use road movement. All stands must be nose to tail, almost like they were on a road Support: Units within 1” of another friendly unit are considered supporting that unit. They gain a bonus to attack. Detached Companies neither receive nor give support except for engineers assisting with digging in. Digging In: Units performing a digging in action that succeeds are, much to your surprise, dug in. They lose this status if they move at all, even to reface or reform.

Movement Actions Movement is carried out in the action phase; activate a unit by giving it a movement order in one of three modes. Probing is half the Battle movement speed of the unit. It is used by reconnaissance

units mainly to, errm reconnoitre…., they may also make a special out of turn order evade move if engaged.

Battle movement: The hum drum standard speed, with the unit assumed to be conducting over-watch fire and movement and making the best use of available terrain. Nothing special to see here people…..move along.

Assault movement: This is 150% of Battle movement, it’s a full blooded charge with S.M.G’s blazing, bayonets (LMAO!!!) fixed and no doubt a few yells of “Banzai” or perhaps “Seig heil”. Pretty much all my War picture Library comics in the mid ‘70’s had the krauts bayonet charging shouting “Seig heil”, so it’s gotta be right. The unit is attempting to get into Close Quarter Battle with the bally foe, and is making themselves ruddy good targets as they do so.

Manoeuvring: The unit moves by measuring from any point of any stand and shifting them the move distance. Make sure they’re kept in formation limits. If it is making an assault move to a spotted target, it may move into contact with that target. A unit changes its direction of march by moving the outermost stand in a wheeling motion pivoted from the innermost stand. The stands are then realigned with the new direction. For anyone who’s played a wargame before, you get the idea. Maintain the unit’s area of control relevant to their formation.

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Using the latest in computer graphics here is an example below of a Heroic Battalion of M3 Stuart light tanks zipping along at 6” and wheeling to get flank arc on some horrible Panthers who happen to be dispersed 6” dispersed Movement 6” 4” Battle 4” Battle

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Withdrawal moves: A unit withdrawing an engaged unit may voluntarily do so as described in the morale section. The only difference is the unit receives a Cohesion counter to account for the confusion and casualties taken. Withdrawal movement for unengaged units retains facing and is conducted at half speed. So a unit could pull back at half assault speed, retain its direction of facing and not suffer as long as it is unengaged. Assault Move: An Assault move is the only way to bring a stand to less than 1”of an enemy unit. Combat in base to base contact is considered Close quarter battle. Re-face: The unit redeploys in its current formation to shift its direction of attack or defence or travel. In game terms, rearrange the unit around its centre company to face a different direction. Ignore move limits but retain formation limits.

Movement

To find the Battle movement allowance of a unit in inches, check the unit type with the terrain type to find the Battle movement. Then apply modifiers.

Movement

Unit Clear Urban Woods Rough Soft Mounted Motorised Infantry & Towed artillery

4 4 Imp 2 2

Mechanised Infantry 4 3 1 3 3 Light Infantry 3 3 2 2 2 Recon Tank 7 4 Imp 4 3 Light Tank 6 3 Imp 4 3 Medium Tank 4 3 Imp 3 2

Heavy Tank 4 3 Imp 3 1 Trucks motorbikes jeeps 4 4 Imp 2 1

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Modifiers Deploying +2 Vehicles on road (inc mounted inf)

+3

Dispersed in woods / rough/urban

+1

Imp means impassable. Of course.

Any terrain may be counted as Slow going. Slow going halves all total movement.

SMITH 70 SAYS “Ok, so a little example then. A company of Mechanised Yank Infantry are badly shelled whilst travelling in deployment mode. Their player decides to hit the pedal to the metal and assault moves them down the road. They start on the road. Battle movement is 6”so that’s assault movement 9” + 2 for deployment mode, +3 for Road movement makes 14” movement.” Need another example? A Unit of Light infantry in woods and dispersed: 2”, +1” =3”

Mechanised and Motorized. Motorized infantry Units may mount or dismount as a supplementary order. When they’re mounted replace their stands with trucks or Jeeps or motorcycles or whatever. They are classed as Trucks etc in all respects. When they dismount replace the infantry stands. Dismounted Motorized infantry are basic light infantry in all respects. The player chooses the units facing upon mounting or dismounting. Mechanised infantry are assumed to fight in about and alongside their halftracks with the halftracks providing cover and support as appropriate. So they are neither mounted nor dismounted at any given time/ Mechanized Infantry when fired at may be targeted by AP or AT values as the firer thinks appropriate. AT will target the DEF of 1 & AP the -1, to take into account a lot of the troops will be hiding behind several tons of metal. Light infantry May not mount.

SMITH 70 SAYS “Mechanised Infantry are represented by 3 stands of halftracks, preferably with a few troops scattered around them, but hey, if you haven’t set your models up like that, don’t panic. I’m unlikely to come around your wargames club or dining room with my snorkel parker zipped up tight waving my copy of the rules going “ Errrm…exxxcuse me! That’s not what I wrote…I think you’ll actually very much find that Mechanised infantry should be represented by a mixed stand model…actually .Yes….Hmmmm…yes.” (You have to imagine that bit said in a whiney squeaky

effeminate voice to be honest).

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Next time, I roll the morale dice.

MORALE

When a unit suffers from fire attacks or Close Quarter Battle results it may be asked nicely, to test its morale, unless it’s fanatical who never test morale. To test morale the unit rolls D6. Do the usual adding of mods and then read off the result. A Unit taking multiple morale tests takes the most serious result, obviously. Sit-rep Mod Per Cohesion counter -1 Infantry unsupported by Tanks or Antitank vs. Tanks -1 Self dug in or in cover & engaged by non dug in or in cover enemy +1 Gritty +1 Shaky -1 Engaged to Flank or Rear -1 Brigade HQ destroyed -1 Divisional HQ destroyed -1 Fired at by Terror unit -1 Political commissar or Military Police unit within 10” +1

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MORALE RESULTS 4+: We got Time for Coffee? Hell yeah! Unit is fine, obeying orders, and thinks that you are the greatest wargamer in history. The poor sods. 3: Cripes, Chalky’s company copped it! Unit is unnerved; it will not commence any movement that will take it towards a known enemy. It halts immediately. If it is assaulting and was in contact it is moved back to 1” away from its target out of Close Quarter battle. 2: Back to the rally point! : The unit will make a Withdrawal move. This is half its Battle speed directly backwards retaining its current facing and formation. Exception; All round defence formation loses formation and becomes dispersed, facing the closest enemy & withdraw from that point. 1: Donner Und Blitzen! Das Americaner schwine kommet: Its time to get out of dodge, the unit makes a Retreat move. This means it retains its facing but disperses and makes an immediate full battle move directly away from the nearest enemy avoiding terrain they find impassable. They then halt and will fight as normal. If the unit cannot withdraw they will surrender. -1 and 0: We’re all Doomed…Doomed! The unit makes a Retreat move; this involves it reversing its facing away from the nearest enemy, it becomes dispersed and makes an immediate full assault move directly away from the nearest enemy avoiding terrain they find impassable. If the unit cannot withdraw they will surrender. Non-self propelled artillery and non-self propelled antitank units are destroyed. The unit continues to retreat until it successfully removes a cohesion marker, and then it halts and fights as normal. -2: For the Glory of Italia! Not an inch backwards! Unit surrenders or routs.(Remove).

Unit Specialities: Airborne These units may be dropped in a area as part of a CAS Airdrop mission. The CAS receives AAA fire as normal and any cohesion counters received are duplicated on the unit it is transporting. At the point that the player wishes to release the paratroops, they drop a dice from that point, at least 14” above the tabletop. Don’t bother with measuring it, just guesstimate. Where the dice lands pop the unit down on that position. They cannot engage that turn and will land in dispersed formation. Units landing in a Forest or urban receive a cohesion counter; Units landing in open water receive two cohesion counters. Artillery (Rockets): Rockets fire at +1 firepower against soft or Mech INF. They take 1 turn stationary to reload. Artillery (Smoke): Artillery may fire smoke at any given point within their range. Smoke is a fire request as normal. On firing an area 1” X 4” smoke screen is created represented on the table by a few balls of cotton wool or a small dead mouse. The screen

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persists till the start of the players next turn. Smoke gives -1 to all fire through it. It DOSNT block LOS. Engineers: Engineers gain bonuses on assaulting targets in fortifications or dug in. Engineers also assist in digging in other units and they may make a bridging attempt at minor rivers and similar. If successful the unit bridges the gap and the terrain is passable as per a road. They can also destroy bridges in a similar manner and make roadblocks which count as 1” square of rough ground. Fast: +1” movement Horse: (Cavalry) These infantry have +2 to their threat range whilst mounted but +1 speed in all areas. Whilst mounted they still count as Light infantry, if engaged mounted they take all fire at +1. Marine and Amphib warfare: These units may dismount from landing craft on a D6 roll of 2 +. Non-marine infantry dismount as a reform order and automatically become dispersed. Beaches are slow going for non-marine infantry. To keep the rules to a minimum, players are invited to make their own sodding stats for Landing craft. Offshore Naval gun artillery is best described as Artillery Heavy with unlimited range and +1 to all attacks but harder to call in. Military Police and similar units add to morale rolls of units nearby. Units on roads with M.P’s within 6”add +1 to movement. Open-top: Open top Tanks may be bombarded. AP=0 regardless of the guns used. Note that this is Tanks not mech infantry. I know mech inf have half-tracks which are “open top” but trust me, that’s all already factored in. Recon: Reconnaissance troops have bonuses for spotting as described above. They may also upon first receiving fire forgo their own fire to make an immediate Withdrawal move. If electing to do this; the unit receives its fire at -1. SPG Self propelled guns: SPG’s move as Tanks and are Tanks in all respects but for firing they use artillery rules. It’s possible to have a SPG which reads as Tank Light (SPG Heavy) Open top Signallers: Signaller units assist in orders. Slow: -1” movement Supply: A Unit which has been engaged in a battle will after 24 turns be counted as out of supply and receive a cohesion (supply) marker which cannot be removed other than being contacted by a friendly supply unit. Artillery units out of supply are at -2 to call in fire missions.

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National Modifiers Country Orders Modifier Tommys and commonwealth

0

Yanks 0 Frenchies -1 Eyties -1 Krauts +1 Various other Europeans (all the same)

-1

Chinese -1 Ivan -1 Nips 0

FLYBOYS What would a WW2 game be without planes eh? A dammed sight simpler, but pfft, we gotta have ‘em at this level of play. Two types of aircraft support are considered: CAS (close air support) and Recon. This is a ruddy ground combat game and I’m not cluttering up my dammed rules with dogfights. If you really want fighter vs. fighter, roll to see who has air superiority and the loser’s air support has a -1 to being successfully called up, cos it got shot down on the way. Close Air Support: CAS: To call CAS you have to have factored it into however you sort your points balance. Choose a target that you have spotted Roll D6 and you will receive it the following turn on a 4+ (or 3 + for the yanks). Order it as an engage action for the air unit. Movement and facing are dispensed with,

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just pop a model over the target and scream dakka dakka. Or if you want Stuka sirens, give me a shout, I can do a really uber Stuka noise. Before the attack roll D6 on a 1 your opponent gains control of it and can attack the nearest unit to his in a spate of collateral damage. Prior to attack if the target has an antiaircraft unit within 6” of them they can provide air defence against the CAS attack. The CAS gets a cohesion point & the antiaircraft rolls D6: on a 5+ they deduct a further -1/-2/-3 to the CAS attack roll for Light/Medium and Heavy respectively. Strafing fighters apply AP 2/ AT 0 to the target Rocket firing fighters and Tank busters AP3/AT 4 Dive bombers and dedicated ground attack AP 4 /AT3 Heavy Bombers: AP4 AT4 but attack all units within 8” of the target. Only use modifiers on the chart listed as CAS ^^ Recon: Call as for CAS above, Define a flight path across the table with a piece of string, you may make spot checks all along this string towards any enemy units within 6”. Airdrop: As recon but may drop off Airborne units as described, or supply “crates” which act as static supply units.Air support once used has a 5 turn wait before it can be used again. Fiddle with this length of time if a side has airfields in close proximity or particularly efficient ground crew. Minefields: Minefields cannot be laid during the game. The position and area covered by minefields must be pre-designated as must their type AP AT or Mixed. A Light infantry unit entering an AP minefield will immediately stop its movement. It will on a d6 roll of 4+ receive a cohesion marker. The infantry can attempt to clear the field themselves by moving at a maximum of 1” in the turn and on a roll of 4+ receiving a marker. An Engineer unit may clear a minefield at probe speed with rolls of 5+ causing cohesion loss. Vehicles entering an AT minefield stop their movement, take a cohesion counter and cannot clear the field themselves. Specialist engineer vehicles can clear any minefield at probe speed. The path that a unit takes through a mine field is then cleared and no longer affects units. Mixed minefield affect both Infantry and vehicles but with a DRM of -1 when checking for cohesion loss

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EXAMPLE OF PLAY Turn 1: Brits turn: The British player has 4 units: 1st Btn Warwick’s 2nd Btn Warwick’s 1st/4 RTR and 8Plt (Reconnaissance) Warwick’s. Engage phase No ambushing, therefore phase moves to non-artillery. 2nd Warwick’s have spotted last turn a battalion of Volksturm entrenched on a hill 4” away. As they have them in sight, all British units also have them in sight. 1st/4 RTR are also within AP range and both units fire. RTR goes first. Roll of 3 AP for a battalion of Shermans is 2, Target conscripts +1, Volkys dug in -1 makes result of 5. No effect. The Volksturm is within range to fire at the Warwick’s but not within AT range to reply to the RTR, if they were they could choose who to reply at. Warwick’s AP 1 Target conscripts +1, cohesion counter on the Warwicks, -1 Volkys dug in -1 Warwick’s concentrated +1 = +1 Roll is 5 so the Volksturm get a coherency marker after engage phase is over. Volksturm AP is 1 concentrated target +1 Roll 5. Total 7 = the Warwick’s take a cohesion counter and a morale check. The engage phase is over, coherency counters are placed. Morale is checked & the Warwick’s rolled badly and ends up withdrawing. The Brit player checks for Spotting with the RTR to try and locate a German Panzer 4 battalion 15 “away but the panzers are out of threat range. They try again with the Warwick’s who in their current state fail as well. Movement phase: The RTR, now engaged, use their one supplementary order to reform into concentrated. They roll a 1 and fail. The 2nd Warwick’s are engaged, for their one supplementary order, they roll to remove the cohesion marker they still have. The roll needed is 5+ Scoring 4 (+1 for the Royal Signals unit 12” away) they succeed and get their crap back in order. No more supplementary for the moment …so…. The Recon Company (Warwick’s) is ordered to move. They use a supplementary order to successfully reface towards the Panzers in the woods, and then roll to move. Unengaged need 1+ and they have no problems. They Probe over clear terrain at 4” their Bren gun carriers trundling merrily. They end up 14” from the Panzers and spot them. Threat of jerry’s Panzers is 12” +4 for reccy spotting. 1st Warwick’s now have by default spotted the Panzers who are in close terrain adjacent to a wood impassable to them. They are ordered to concentrate as a supplementary order and then they roll to assault the Panzers in the flank, moving through a wood, which takes them into the Panzers flank. In the German engage phase the germans will have Ambush fire against them. The Warwick’s however will benefit from Close quarter battle modifiers being in base contact and so may use their AT value. The only action available after Movement phase is over is the Recon & 1 Warwick’s have a supplementary order remaining which they pass on using.

Many Thanks to the veterans of Huntingdon Wargamers, West Yorkshire Walruses and Kampfgruppe Kidderminster for their support and play testing, also to Mr D. Flint who’s ceaseless ability to lose has given me much comfort over the years. Rules questions? http://www.freewebs.com/tommiatkins. It’s got forums, army lists, battle reports…

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