ALEXANDROS BI2.0 - Chaeronea

This is the start of my attempt to adapt the "campaign" game Alexandros (that appeared in Extra Impetus Book 4, page 28, by Mike Amore) for use with the Basic Impetus 2.0 rules.

It is designed for two players and needs to be played twice, the players alternating roles to see who can get the furthest as Alexander.

The campaign follows a pre-established sequence and can end with a final victory at Hydaspe or at any previous stage is Alexander is killed and/or his army beaten.  

This sequence comprises a maximum of eight turns and last Wednesday at the club Mark B and myself completed the first one based on the battle of Chaeronea 338 BC.

This is the Scenario used:

Turn 1 Chaeroneia 338 BC

Macedonian Army 3.2 vs Athens 2.2 (minus the cavalry)

The battlefield is essentially open terrain.  There is the river Cephissus on the east with hills behind that and on the west are hills and the town of Chaeroneia.

Special Rule: Alexander is deployed with the Hetairoi and can reroll a “6” on a Cohesion Test (once per test).

Ace in the Hole – Betrayal (maybe the Athenian allies aren’t all that committed)

Hoplites can form large units.

Cavalry wasn’t present at the battle.

Ace in the Hole – Last Stand (which represents the Theban Sacred Band)

Source: WRC Armies of the Macedonian and Punic Wars Page 64; and

https://historycollection.com/this-battle-paved-the-way-for-alexander-the-greats-incredible-career/3/

Please note this is a work in progress and if I ever complete it I will publish it as a whole, but meanwhile on the with games.

Round One

Mark B is Alexander, I am Athens.

Deployment.

There is the wonderful paper Chaeronea on the Athenian left.

made from models on the papermau site.

Previously posted here.

The other thing to note is all the figures are Tin Soldier,

part of my collection that started in the mid 1980s

Both sides advance.

What's Alexander up to?

Contact.

Mixed results, although Alexander has lost two units.

The fighting intensifies

and the Athenians start to crumble.

And break.

Victory to Alexander.

VD loss inflicted by Mark B 15 and lost by him 7 gives him a score of 8.

Round Two

The beauty of Basic Impetus (combined with this simple scenario) is you can easily do two games in one sitting.  Now it was my turn to be Alexander.

Similar deployment.

But this time we have an Athenian shuffle to their right.

Alexander moves his cavalry left.

Not quiet in position...

Alexander pauses the infantry to let the cavalry move up.

Splat!

Much of Alexander's foot do not survive first contact.

Oh dear.

Alexander to the rescue!

And he saves the day.

A much closer outcome this time.

VD loss inflicted 11 and lost 9 gives me a score of 2.

Interestingly, in both rounds Alexander needed to use his special ability to reroll Cohesion Tests when he threw a six.

Don't Mention The War - Part 42 via Facebook

AUSGAME 2023

JUL/AUG 1944 – EOT

AXIS IN TROUBLE ON ALL FRONTS – ONLY ATROCIOUS WEATHER WILL SAVE THE REICH.

This session started with the Axis 3RD impulse of the J/A 44 turn and finished with the 5th impulse for the Allied, weather all fine but storm or rain in the N Monsoon.

Axis Session Summary

Germany took a land and successfully blocked the US on the Western Front – just, but had to pull back on the Eastern Front and Rumania. The Russian attacks on the 4th Allied Impulse mostly failed despite high odds as the Russian rolled a double 1 and a 3 on two +18 attacks – this gave the German a substantial reprieve as much of the front line in AGN and AGS was inverted. This allowed the German to pull back, even OOS units to a defensive line of sorts in Poland and Hungary – the Pripet Marshes are vacated. Rumania is not so pretty, despite leaving some blocking units the Russian advance was successful as they head towards the Rumanian capital and the Ploesti oil fields. Worse the CW rolled well on two attacks in Bulgaria and Yugoslavia and the Germans have few quality units to counter the penetrations into these minors. Rundstedt and a few quality units are now withdrawing out of Rumania as they are desperately needed for the defence of Hungary and Eastern Germany. The Allied bombing was successful, shutting down 5 Factories and all the Rumanian oil. Further success on the Western Front by the US saw the US gain ground and enter Germany, threatening Munich, but at a cost as again low rolls cost the US valuable units and caused inversions. The partly good news is that Germany has 17 pilots in reserve and will retrain some of these as BPs. Italy who will surrender at the end of the turn scrapped all its pilots and a BS and only built BPs so that Germany will now gain all these BPs next turn – a bonus 13 BPs.

Meanwhile Japan juggled between combined and land actions to withdraw units in Manchuria as the Russian slow advance starts to make some progress. The land battle in China is collapsing at the rapid rate as all its units are OOS and with only one HQ upright even emergency supply is no longer an option. Japan did attempt to slip a few convs into the China Sea hopeful that they would not be found – but they were. Chinese are now also emboldened and are looking at opportunities to attack the OOS Japanese – some Communist success combined with additional Partisans will make China untenable – only bad weather will delay the inevitable. Japan’s build has been significantly reduced as only 3 resources are traceable to Japan, and as Chinese factories get captured this will be reduced further. The only good news for Japan is that Truk, Manila, Singapore and Batavia are still in Japanese hands and will distract the US over the next couple of turns as the N Monsoon clears. Japan’s Navy and air-force remain strong as they have had few losses – Japan will look to storms and bad weather to reduce the US air advantage and look for opportunities to attack US shipping, especially CVs, Amphs, Tpts and Convs, and if they can time it well for an end-of-turn attack, they may catch the US out of supply. They will need to adventurous and lucky to regain a temporary advantage.

Allies Session Summary

The Allies were disappointed by the end of the session as the land combat rolls on both Eastern and Western (US) Fronts were very poor. Russia rolled a double one and then rolled a 3 on +18 attacks with an average of 5 attacks being 6! The US did not fair much better rolling poor on most of their assaults. Having said that the current position of the Germans is dire, even with their reinforcements – which will need to be placed judiciously. If the Allies win the initiative and get clear weather the end of the game will be very close as there will be multiple breakthroughs on four or five fronts. The Allies were able to significantly affect the Axis production with Strategic bombing and capturing resources, and the loss of the 3 Oil in Ploiesti will have implications for the Axis. With Italy now ‘out of the war’ the CW will be freed to assault the Germans from Italy, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria whilst still tying up units in N Germany with threats from the Sea and Denmark. Japan’s Production is significantly down and the collapse of the Japanese land army in China imminent. The Japanese has retained its air-force and the bulk of its surface fleet so they can still project air and sea power into one sea zone, but only one, so are still a moderate threat to the US if they become lax or inattentive. So, there are still opportunities to ‘hurt’ the US but with a low production they will struggle to replace losses so suicide attacks by air and sea may be a last resort to save the Japanese homeland.

EOT

J/A EOT – the Russian rolled a 2, ending the turn, much to the relief of the Axis in general and Germany in particular – just in time as another clear Allied impulse would have been the end with little chance of any Axis recovery. The initiative marker moved to the centre with the Axis winning ties, so the Axis have a better than even chance of starting the next S/O turn. Three more partisans turn up in China to add to the Japanese woes there, and IAW the rules with only one Partisan in the ‘cup’ the two others, both 4 factors, were removed from Finland and Vietnam and miraculously teleported into China – this rule needs fixing as it is extremely silly, perhaps additional partisans or maybe at least an exchange where you can remove one but you then trade one for one of your on map partisans. Rebase and reinversions, the Japanese inverted units in China remain face down as they cannot trace supply to Japan. Production, Conquest phase – Italy surrenders to the CW with their capital is now in Ethiopia and Germany takes control of Rome and Northern Italy. Next session reinforcement, initiative and weather – with the Axis hoping to win the initiative and roll bad weather – but not snow!

· ACFT – Aircraft

· LOC – Line of Communications

· TOTT – Top of the table a 23 or more

AGN/AGS German Army Group North and South

Europe - post Italian surrender - Germany gets the North

Western Front - US enter the German homeland.

Italy surrenders J/A 1944 a 3.2 MIL guards Rome

The Eastern Front - far too many holes to be called a front line for the Axis.

AGN - Axis yet to place S/O Reinforcements - 

but acft can be overrun by Russian armour if the Allies win the initiative.

AGS - only the Rumanian HQ is supplying this front!

AGS - Rumania will be lost in S/O 44 - the Axis may start to destroy the oil fields.

The Far East - Japan v Russia, China and the US.

Russian units advancing hex by hex in Manchuria.

China about to reclaim its territory - weather permitting. 

The Japanese Army in China is OOS. 

Japan will have to risk convs every turn to try and keep it in supply 

- bad weather will help hide them from the US.

Lots of death and destruction in the casualty pool but it is clear weather and 1944.

Barbarossa - Turn Eighteen

Rumania decides that it will commit only the minimum number of troops to the war.  What do they know?  More importantly is this restriction only in play until with get to the Kiev to Rostov expansion Game Turn?

For 26 and 27 July the weather is Dry in all zones, although there was a storm in the north, but that only effects aircraft readiness.

AGN tightening its grip on Talin.

While trying to get round Pskov.

But AGC is where the most action is.

AGS liquidates the pocket at Korosten

This will open up a line of communications with AGC. 

But the pocket at Vinnista will take some time to reduce.

This blocks vital road and rail links to the south east.

Things even start to move on the southern tip of the front,

although the supply situation makes any serious progress problematic

for at least a few turns.

And then for real excitement, the Soviets actually launch some attacks against AGC.

Three attacks, all meet the mandatory requirements 

although only two were required.

Only the one at the top of the image resulted in losses to the Axis.

The situation at the end of the turn:

                    

                                              

                                                                              

                                                                  

I have tried to get the images to line up.  It's a bit crude, but hopefully shows the spread of the front.  The challenge we have is that AGC, as can be seen in the middle image, has almost reached the edge of the map and so another big move is necessary.  

This next image shows the target (and will be the final) map configuration).

I like this image as it shows a rain storm over AGC and bright sunshine for AGS :-)

Stolberg Corridor - 15 September 1944 - Take Two

For background on this scenario see this post: https://onesidedminiaturewargamingdiscourse.blogspot.com/2023/04/stolberg-corridor-15-september-1944.html

But to help with understanding the game play here is the map created for Rommel using hexes:

Here is Map III from the big book of US Army maps for the ETO in WW2:

And just to help focus on the sector covered by this scenario, here is a snip of the relevant bit:

There is a limit to the magnification, but what I am attempting to show is this scenario is historically based, something that I really enjoy with Rommel and the scenarios provided for it, particularly on the Hexes and Miniatures web site (Note: I am using the scenario from WW2 Squares (Rommel), not the WW2 Hexes which uses different rule systems that I haven't considered).

This time Simon went US while I was the Germans.  We had thought of adding in hidden set up, but ran out of time to perfect appropriate mechanics and tactics/events to reveal etc.  We had also had a big gaming day the day before and needed to keep things simple.

The deployment looking towards the frontline from Stolberg.

There are seven objective locations.

To win the US need to capture five.

9th Pz had set up well forward and came under immediate attack from US 3rd Armoured.

Kornelimunster (an objective) was also attacked.

The 16th RCT was on the US right and made an attack on Zweifal

3rd Armoured pressed its attack on 9th Panzer on the outskirts of Brand.

While 16th RCT made a second assault on Zweifal.

But then the 9th Panzer Division attacked.

Its objective was the US supply dump.

The panzers and panzer grenadiers broke through and cut the US line of communications

But the US had a breakthrough of their own

and attacked Mausbach (another objective location)

3rd Armoured mill around Brand as a counterattack gets underway to reestablish line of communication

The 3rd Armoured now take their attack to the Germans who are busy enjoying the US logistics dump.

The 3rd Armoured also renew their attack on Kornelimunster

Other elements of the same division push home their attack on Mausbach.

Not to be out done, 16th RCT attack Vicht and Zweifal.

Revenge!

3rd Armoured over run the German logistics command 

and the 353rd Infantry Division's artillery park

The Germans continue to hold on to the US logistics base.

The German hold on the US base is almost at an end.

The renewed confidence this gives the US allows them to tackle the Panther

which is on its way to strengthen the defences of Brusbach.

With their lines of communication now restored,

the US launches attacks on Vicht, Kornelimunster and Brand.

All objectives they must capture.

They even try mopping up some German infantry heading for Mausbach.

It's getting late in the day and the US again attack Brand and Vicht,

but switch their attack in the centre to Busbach.

US now try to bring overwhelming force to significant attacks.

While this provides almost guaranteed results it is limited to single attacks.

The US still need to capture four more objectives.

Their attack on Vicht is a success.

Another attack is made against Kornelimunster

this time from the rear as US troops return from successfully storming Busbach.

With three objectives captured, the US need to take two more.

Kornelimunster and Brand are their best chance,

but do they have enough strength? 

Final attacks are made, but the US are too weak to take any more positions.

Phew! 

What an exciting game.