Back at Chris' table for the third and final part of the epic struggle for the port of Salbutumol. In the background Chris has been beavering away, hammering NQM into shape so it can be played without him being there. My old friend Derek and I have been proof reading and commenting on the drafts in between games, which means that it is certainly the case that the rules are changing (refining?) from week to week.
It was mostly all going off down Tim's end of the table. We finally blew the bridge, but that would prove to be less of an obstacle to the Tibians than we'd hoped. Dive bombers pounded the town as artillery roared away in the background. New order markers appeared (see "O" and "A" on the table) to general confusion and cries that they weren't really necessary.
The fight for the crossing over the ruined bridge intensified. We were nearly out of hit markers.
(BTW I am doing things down my end of the table, which mostly involve disrupting Steve's advance and shifting my defensive position closer to the port.)
Phil did an assault river crossing along from the bridge. Those rubber dinghies were putting some miles in. The fight there had resulted in Tim withdrawing into the town, having finally broken the troops opposing them. This refreshed the supply of hit markers, as you can see at the top of the picture.
I continued to frustrate Steve's advance by harassing his columns as they moved up. This plane flew a bit close and took a couple of hits from AA. This was lucky as it meant I could balance one on each wing.
The Tibians pressed on with air and artillery support in large quantities. Tim was holding on. Eventually it looked like Phil would run out of ground troops.
To stop Steve reinforcing the Phil at the port I launched a surprise counter-attack. This was a complete success. Mainly because what Steve and I both thought was a motorized infantry regiment turned out to be a tow for an 88 with a lot of crew packed into it. It had become separated from its gun at some point.
Chris then called game over, as the Tibians retired following their severe mauling at Tim's hands.
The game sequence is bedding in nicely now, and it all hangs together in a logical fashion. Players who were used to just doing whatever they wanted whenever they wanted - a feature of Chris' more relaxed development NQM games when he was trying everything out - are finding it tougher going. For me, with an admin background who thinks operational games are more about getting your logistics and fireplans sorted, it's working as well as it has ever done. It's less anarchic in terms of game management, and Chris really doesn't need to be everywhere at once like he used to have to be.
I'm even beginning to learn to love the hexes. Almost.
That looks like one of those chaotic war games tables that are so, so much fun!
ReplyDeleteThat fight round the port really does look great, doesn't it?
DeleteWhen you get inadvertent "fog of war" something is working - it's very rare to get it in wargames as everything is usually controlled. I've only had it happen twice; once using counters when I led a Soviet armoured column in the attack, with what I would have sworn was a command tank, only to find it was a higher level commander in a Uaz jeep.....or when I straffed some 1/300 infantry, only to find they were mine!
ReplyDeleteNeil
Attacking your own troops is the ultimate fog of war. Our most infamous incident - still referred to now - was the devastating flank attack launched by one of our players on a tempting open flank of troops belonging to a player on his side. Multi-player games are great.
DeleteNice write-up, Graham. Thanks, and thanks also for your and Derek's sterling proofreading efforts. I'm actually happy that people think that markers are an unnecessary addition. We can go back to doing without them. I shall leave them in the rules though. :-)
ReplyDeleteThe artillery slowing and stopping advances mirrored SEVASTOPOL pretty accurately. Happily though, we won't see concentrations of that sort of intensity anywhere else in the campaign for a while.
Regards, Chris.
I like markers when they work (and the clearer the better so they don't get missed) but the order markers just aren't needed. What's this SEVASTAPOL business? Was this game based on a real battle then??
DeleteSe ve genial la mesa, tiene pinta de ser una gran partida.
ReplyDeleteGracias por compartirlo.
MM
Thank you!
DeleteYou will have to explain the mysteries of 'scattering' to me - I read the latest draft of the rules and couldn't make head nor tail of it, as apparently disorganisation and reorganisation are back too, something I always liked in the original NQM. Which was why I shamelessly plagiarised disorg and reorg for my One Hour WW2 rules. Artillery pinning also seems a bit more decisive than my rather wet 'artillery barrages are bad ground' thing. Do arty hits still temporarily disorganise the target? I blagged that bit too.
ReplyDeleteScattering happens when things like Med get contacted. They just bug out. There's a new section in the rules (9.5). Reorg was always in the rules. Disorg is sort of new. Artillery bombardments are now much closer to how they work in FWTDR or IRFI.
DeleteThe idea of bombardment markers is that they create a zone of disorganisation in the hex for both sides from placement in the shooting phase to removal in the next turn after new orders. This gives a window of opportunity for counterattacks in the combat phase between removal and reorganisation during the reorg phase. It was initially unpopular, players seeing it as a penalty that they should be able to lift before combat, but it really is just a convenient marker for all the chaos that surrounds an attack and its aftermath.
ReplyDeleteScattering only happens in open terrain and it is meant to represent the "fox in amongst the chickens" when a base capable of combat gets in amongst higher command and admin bases.
Regards, Chris.