Followers

Friday 30 November 2012

Big Board Portable Wargame: Modern - Early Days

So I've finally finished applying static grass to my 10mm Pendraken WW2 British units and can now put them to the test against their Wermacht foes in a solo playtest of the Big Board Portable Wargame: Modern rules (Hex version) by Bob Cordery.

http://www.users.dircon.co.uk/~warden/portable_wargame/downloads.html


A simple 12 x 8 hex board was made up featuring an isolated church near a fork in the road all setup in otherwise rolling countryside with a few small woods.


The British were tasked with the defence of this road junction from the advancing Germans. Actually the Germans were retreating hoping to break through the Britsh defenders and join their comrades further east.

The British force was made up from 3 sections of infantry (a platoon) supported by a Commander, a heavy machine gun, 2 anti-tank guns, 2 mortars and a further platoon of infantry.


The German force was made up from a platoon of infantry (3 sections), 3 Panzer IVs, a mortar, a Commander, a heavy machine gun and another platoon of infantry.

The apparant mismatch in force ratios was covered by the scenario in that the Germans would be judged by how much of their force could escape across the table bearing in mind that the tanks were low in petrol and could be halted at any time. The rolling countryside was also exceedingly muddy and armoured vehicles could easily be bogged down.


The dice requirement for this game is both simple and complicated. The large dice are unit ACTIVATION DICE and are effectively blank dice with stick on numbers. They have 0,1,1,2,2,3 on them. The medium sized dice are normal D6s and the small dice are for casualty marking.

Action will commence as soon as possible.

4 comments:

  1. Jim,

    This looks like a very nice set-up ... and I look forward to reading your ballte report.

    All the best,

    Bob

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Thanks Bob

      I have started the playtest although I only had time for one move. I also hope to improve the scenic side soon.

      I am keeping notes for my after action report and I've come across one question (at least) for you already.

      It's late so it will have to wait until tomorrow.

      Jim

      Delete
  2. Preparations are looking good and I await the game with interest .By the way are we going to see the Peter Laing Crimeans in action soon?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Alan

      I should get some more moves played this afternoon/evening as well as during Sunday.

      As for the Crimeans, 'Yes', they will be appearing sometime during 2013.

      I am currently reading Neil Thomas' Ancient and Medieval Wargaming book having already read his Napoleonic and Nineteenth Century Europe offerings. I will certainly want to playtest some these rules and I am thinking of my 25mm Classical Greek collection as well as the club 15mm Peter Laing Crimean collection. I'm also considering his Medieval rules using my Kallistra 12mm Norman and Teutonic Order collections.

      So you can see I have many options to choose from already as well as both a 6mm and a 15mm Napoleonic collection, more 10mm WW2 by Pendraken to scale up for Bob Cordery's rules and many others besides.

      Jim

      Delete