Saturday, February 24, 2018

Blitzkrieg Commander II Intro Game

In a special introductory game, three players new to Blitzkrieg Commander II and three experienced but not recently players gathered to get sand in our shoes.  Set as a early 1943 game, we had roughly 4000 points of Germans and Italians against British.  You can read the remarks of Der Alte Fritz on his blog here.  The game was set with four turns of recon so the Germans and Italians dutifully drove armored cars on table looking for trouble.

BKCII uses 2d6 to activate formations and was significantly modified to accommodate our tastes for the game.  Who wants to see their pretty toys just sit and do nothing?  The game was played lengthwise on a 16x6' table.

Such a peaceful arena as the recon drives on table.

My AB-41 armored cars with German SdKfz 222s in the distance.

We engage in a lively duel with Marmon-Herrington armoured cars.
 We had three full turns of recon work, then on the fourth turn each side drove their heavy units on table.  Heavy being a comparative term for the Italians.

Now that's a heavy!  A Tiger heads some Mk. III tanks.

We used dust clouds till spotted.  In this case a formation of M14
tanks followed by Semovente self-propelled guns.

The Germans waste no time coming into action.
Initially things seemed to go our way.  The British armoured cars had to give up ground in the face of all the armor, we didn't find any ambushes, and the Germans started exacting a heavy toll right away.  At first it seemed we were "just" facing Crusader III tanks with 6 pdrs as their main gun.

My M14s were willing to fight Crusaders till the Grants showed
up.  Time to play "chase me, chase me."
Oops.  After some poor shooting on my part and some average to slightly better by the British I could do the math.  Twelve shots to twenty-four, with them having a better gun and needing more hits to kill.  So the Italians beat a hasty retreat back to nearly their starting positions.

Grants seem to be particularly nasty in BKC II.

More Germans I hope.

Back at one of the starting ridges.
 Much like the back and forth movements of Rommel and his adversaries across Africa, so too our forces went forward and back over the same ridges all day.

The Crusaders advance ahead of the Grants while on the other
flank more are being shot to pieces by the Tiger and company.

Too ambitious in the end, engaging without the Grants.  All the
Crusaders are quickly burning.
 I joked about drawing them onto our line of anti-tank guns, not really knowing what was in the German arsenal.  As it turns out I was right.  A pair of 88s and the panzers made short work of the Crusaders, even though they were in a good hull-down position.

You can see the reorganized Italians and formidable array of Germans.

A Stuka appeared and help take out part of the other Crusader batch.

Some Hurricanes returned the favor, I think killing a panzer.

With the Crusaders eliminated the Germans and Italians begin
to pursue.  Germans aided by their superior command ratings
pull ahead.

Over the top boys, charge!

My might Falco CR-42 finally puts in an appearance.

And is promptly shot down.  Can truck mounted Bofors really
fire on the move?

A nasty surprise awaits us.

And promptly takes out a panzer company.

Being smarter than the average rabbit, my Semoventes use the
depression and move to town and our exit path.

So much wreckage strewn across the field.

Axis players are Jim, John and myself; British players Bob, Bill
and Keith.

The Axis mission was to exit along the road next to town (away from the Italians).  At point we wondered, "where did the Tiger go?"  Slipped off table with its escorting Panzers.  So with most of the British armour destroyed and our tanks moved or moving off table, an Axis victory was declared.

There are things about Blitzkrieg Commander that I really like and other aspects that are beyond goofy.  We'll keep tinkering with it and see if something can be created that play to the system strengths and minimize the impact of weaknesses.  So we'll just have to play more often!

6 comments:

  1. I really appreciate your playing Michael, bringing your collection and all the chatter you and I had before and during the game.
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    Your report is spot on and images are good.
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    The back and forth dynamic you mention is one Jim and I particularly like. It gives gamers the experience of success, failure, success. Jim and I have played SYW Lobositz with BAR several times. This battle is a classic for fun back and forth actions for both sides.
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    I think the BKCII game had 14 turns, a top # of turns all time most likely. That's a good thing too.
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    This was a big Axis victory.
    Congratulations.
    Cheerio,
    Bill

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  2. It was really good to read your perspective of the action from the Italian point of view. Good game report.

    You know something, I completely forgot that our mission was to exit off the table and so I chased the remnants of the British only to get completely clobbered by the British artillery.

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  3. Nice lovely terrain and figures, especially this superb Falco CR-42 f...

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  4. I would love to hear what things are goofy and some details on your changes.
    BKC is my favorite set and I like looking at ways to change it up.

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  5. Main Changes:
    (1) Activation down from 4 to 3 max.
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    (2) Non-German CO and HQ officers get one activation do-over throw per turn if they fail to activate.
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    (3) Added different aircraft and AA dice to fire at them.
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    (4) Dice off to spot.
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    (5) Initiative phase removed and placed in activation throws.
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    Intended Consequences:

    (a) Speeds up the game w/o harming combat. Sometimes in WWII games there is way too much to do.

    (b) Aircraft perform better.

    (c) Non-Germans don't get pulverized as much. Germans are still very good but not as much.

    (d) Winning/losing is less dependent on national characteristics. Another way to put it is some people could say previously that game mechanics beat them and not their opponent. We've been playing BKCII since it was introduced. In the desert before the USA enters, non-Germans had a very tough time. Cheaper equipment purchase points meaning more equipment for non-Germans did not matter much. While tactics and player skill play a part in the win/loss column, people were too often beaten by Germans being too good.

    For the most part we are not so-called "simulationist" players. I'm not knocking this if someone is okay with this. We prefer to have a more even playing field.

    I know I'm not done with tinkering.

    Respectfully,
    Bill P.

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