Tuesday 1 October 2019

More WW2 playtesting. At last!

I tried out a WW2 game a few years ago ( see here) and though it had promise I was far from satisfied with the playtest game. Despite revisiting it a few times I didn’t seem able to progress it. Until now. Well maybe.
Having made a few notes while on holiday I realised that much of my dissatisfaction was due to my wanting the game to do too much. Once I realised this I focused on the tabletop game for use at home and on club nights and immediately began to feel I was making progress.
Armed with several pages of scribbled notes I set up my six by three and a half foot table and added a few toys. The usual mix of 1/32 figures and 1/50ish scale vehicles bravely endured the assortment of terrain items and battle commenced.
A word on representation is appropriate at this point. A group of half a dozen figures represents an infantry section (or possibly platoon, depending on the scenario) and a AFV model a single such vehicle (or platoon of 3-4).
I ran the game twice, firstly with a British force of an HQ, 3 Shermans, 3 motorised infantry sections, a mortar section and an armoured car. Second time round I removed the armoured car and added two more Shermans and an off-table artillery piece. The Germans had an HQ, 3 3-man half sections, a towed AT gun and an SP AT gun.
The Germans await the arrival of the Brits. The German figures were all hard plastic - Tamiya and the like. 

In game two the Brits sent three tanks on the right flank and two on the left. AT gun fire soon killed one (left) and immobilised another (right).
The Brits soon had only one tank still on the move and half on their infantry were down.  A third of the German infantry were gone and the Marder was immobilised by a lucky mortar hit. This felt like a reasonable outcome.
As well as having a decent ‘feel’, I think it also looks OK. What do you think?
More news on this when I’ve run more games. And remembered to take enough photos....

7 comments:

John Y said...

Looks great! I’m quite excited about this as I have been going to that linked post (and the other two in that series) for inspiration ever since you first posted them!

tradgardmastare said...

The look of the thing is so important and this looks great to me. I will be interested to see where you go next with the idea.

Reese Crawford said...

What brand is your AT gun? Is it durable? I use a Tamiya pak 40 and am afraid that particular kit might be too fragile for gaming if others join me at the table. Any suggestions?

Tim Gow said...

John Y
That's interesting - your Company Fire project has been the catalyst for me resurrecting this idea!

Tim Gow said...

Tradgardmastare
Thanks Alan - stay tuned and if nothing appears feel free to remind me!

Tim Gow said...

Reese Crawford
The PAK-40 is a plastic kit (probably Tamiya or Italeri). I also have diecast (firing!) versions from Britains and Dinky. I try to take a philosophical view of breakages - war is after all, hell.

Martin Rapier said...

Looking forward to trying this at the club Tim:) That burning tank marker looks very familiar, did you make some of your own?