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Thursday 5 September 2013

Tunisian Scrap

After a while without playing BKCII, Dave and I got together to have a go at a conflict in Tunisia in early 1943. We played the counter-attack scenario, 3000 points of Germans vs 2000 points of Allies.

I based the German battlegroup on Kampfgruppe Irkens - (some background here - http://aleadodyssey.blogspot.com.au/2013/08/tunisia-1943-germans-6mm-bkcii.html ).

We were very rusty and got a few things wrong..   first shock for me was the complete Allied Air Superiority, so Dave rolls d6 +2 vs my d6 -1..  ouch, -2 to my chances of calling in an air strike, and any attack subject to 6 Anti-Air attacks. I didn't get to even try as my Forward Air Controller didn't manage to get into position.

Secondly, we got the rules wrong for reconnaissance units. So be it. The battlefield was pretty random, with plenty of dune/hills to break up line of sight. Dave kept his armour back, and infantry forward, with half-tracks (M3 with 75mm guns) in support.

After the first move, from the German right flank.
Close(r)-up

Quote of the night.. "you could win with a bunch of pygmies armed with fruit-peelers if you had high enough command values".

BKCII uses a mechanism like Warmaster, roll under the command value (CV) to issue an order - roll again at -1 with additional minuses for units depending on distance from the command unit. The German Kampfgruppe had a CO with CV = 10 and HQ = 9. Very good command and control, the Allied side was 8's and 7's.  I haven't done the maths, but with 2 dice, I would guess I was averaging at least twice as many moves as the Allies. A huge advantage. 

Allied infantry is isolated and lacking AT capability
Dave's infantry had no answer to advancing armour, and his artillery that might have helped, just kept failing command rolls.

From the German base edge

It was good to blow the dust off, and we talked a bit after the game, raw Allied troops up against the heaviest armoured assault were always going to struggle.

So after this as a practice, cobwebs gone, we are going to try another one. Next time I will use my British & Commonwealth Western Desert force. Dave gets to pick date and scenario. We shall see if I can do better vs the Panzers...

4 comments:

  1. Your pictures get me thinking I should look at this scale for BKC, rather than the 15mm scale I am developing.

    Ah, the CV rolls - lots of fun!

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    Replies
    1. Use the 15mm for bolt action or Chain of Command.

      Nice to find another blogger interested in BKCII

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  2. The 6mm stuff is very nice, paints up quickly, and lets you put decent sized forces on a reasonable table without having to offend visually by having ridiculously short ranges. It means by various eBay purchases and sale pricing from CinC and GHQ, I have more 6mm vehicles and infantry than I could ever use.

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  3. I also have more 6mm vehicles and infantry than I could ever use too ... but I am going to use them :-)

    Nice write-up mate. Tempted to put aside the current project and blow the dust off the early war Russians.

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