Blood & Valor First Action

Blood & Valor First Action:

Brits vs Germans WW1 late war

It has been almost 2 years since Kati and I got a game in to blog.  Not to say we haven't been playing miniatures we just have been doing a lot of fantasy and not recording our games.  For some reason we just do not have the drive to record our fantasy games.  Which is reality doesn't make a lot of sense because they are just as interesting and can be wrapped into a nice story but I digress....
The good folks over at Firelock Games have been developing a new rule set that is for ww1.  Based on my previous post it should be well known that we enjoy Firelock games rule set blood and plunder a lot and we also love ww1 war gaming so picking up Blood and Valor was a no brainier.

 When I got the email that the rules had shipped I immediately dug out all the WW1 terrain and figures and set to making up a table.  The day the rules arrived I dove right in.

No surprise the book its self is great and well made.  The rules themselves are clean and easy to understand especially if you have played Blood and Plunder.  Now upon reading the rules I have to admit I was a little worried. Like I already mentioned if you had played B&P you would have a good idea of the rules because they look at first glance like a direct port of B&P to another period.  B&P are a solid set of rules that use a d10 system with range bands and stat lines and a fatigue system that represents the morale of your troops.  There are differences and I figured I should play before I pass judgement(I am glad I did).  Run tokens and an interesting bidding systems are a couple of the changes that looked promising.

The last section of the book is of course the army lists which I was excited to read.  I do not like being negative when discussing rules and a company that I adore but I am pretty honest and this is my/our blog.  The army lists were very disappointing, Blood and Plunder's army list are a rich and exciting adventure.  Full of unique stats and lots a flavor that make each nation diverse and very different.  Blood and valor is the opposite the stats are generic and each nation has a unique rule but beyond that a riflemen is a riflemen with the same stat-line for each faction etc. Now one could argue that in this period most armies were trained about the same, while I disagree that a German storm trooper and a Ottoman trench raider are not equal, I will let that slide.   You could do that and use the different squad layouts to make each nation feel different.  In the rules as written your rifle squads all can be up to 12 men and get an LMG and grenades upgrades.   American rifle squads were up to 17 men and french added two LMGs to squads for example.  This could have added a rich and unique feel to each faction and since its a point based system it should in theory be balanced.  Bolt Action of ww2 has a very similar point system but limits and expands squads based on historic unit sizes.  

Anyway enough about the rules before we played lets get into the game.

  The game is meant to be played on a 3x3 or 3x4 which felt weird as I set it up but as we played it honestly felt perfect for the amount of figures.  I set up a table and because it had been awhile I put as much terrain as I could to capture the feel of ww1. 

The game uses a point system that suggests 150pts so Kati and I built using this amount.  She as usual played the Germans and I went with the Brits.  We both went with a Captain which is the 2nd tier of leaders.  you are required to take 2 core units of riflemen as well which we both gave LMGs and grenades too.  We both took HMGs as support  I took trench raiders and a third rifle squad with rifle grenades and Kati took a sniper and a barrage.  Based on the units that you take they grant you initiative points for the bidding system.  I ended up with a starting initiative of 13 and Kati with a 14.  As you can see from the pics this is a small action game representing trench raids and small scale fighting.

We rolled off for scenario and got conquest which is an objective based scenario with a objective in the center and 2 in each deployment zones.  The interesting thing to note about the scenario system is that it is a 6 round game and you get points at the end of the game for holding objectives. one point for objectives in your own zone 2 points for the center and 3 points for the opponents zone. So its all scored at the end of game and scoring off your own means you can score off of a stationary HMG.

Turn one started with us learning the bidding system.  The system is pretty strait forward, you have a pool of initiative points that based off the units you have at the start of each turn.  before each activation you bid up to 6 points and whoever bids the most goes first.  this drains your pool and if you bid 0 points the unit only gets one action compared to the normal 2.
Kati went first and used her officer which can use command points to give units actions out of turn.  She advanced out of her trench with about half of her force.

I responded by cracking a joke about how she was as naive as a captain in 1914 sending her men over the top in front of a HMG.  Of course fate rewarded me with a complete miss on the roll.

My trench raiders would gain the reward of first causalities of the game from the German HMG that was better crewed then my own.  2 men gone out of 4 rendered them pretty useless.

I ran my rifle grenade squad out into the cover of crater.

The end of turn one saw the Germans aggressively advancing through the gap in their wire line and my Brits doing a more caution advance.

I bid 6 points in the first activation to get my HMG firing and it paid off hitting the advancing squad hard.

The rest of the turn was spent with both sides advancing and exchanging fire. The run markers which we used  purple chips grant a unit a small bonus to being hit. It worked well.

End of turn 2 left us both feeling pretty worried that we would be ripped to bits before we could gain any objectives.

Turn 3 sees my men jump the wire after a successful wire check.

I advanced a firing line that scored a pretty good hit one her advanced guard.

End of turn stalemate

Turn 4 sees us both lose a unit of riflemen

Kati loses another rifle unit in turn 5

End of turn 5 we both realize this game would be decided by who controlled the center objective.

Kati used her commander to try to advance her last rifle unit of the wire.  They failed their wire check and got hung.  

We both got our squad to the center.

The game ended with both of us holding the center and the two objectives in our own zone making it a tie. If the game ends in a tie then it comes down to points killed giving the game to Kati and her Germans.


So what did we think?  After the game my worries that it wouldn't feel like ww1 were gone.  The game played fast and intense.  We felt like it played well and after the first turn the bidding system was a fun addition to the game.   We are interested to try it again as we were finally in the swing of the game as it ended.  We felt like the sniper and barrage under performed but we also kinda forgot about the barrage and the sniper missed a lot of easy shots due to bad rolls.
We usually use Chain of Command for our ww1 and we love chain of command but it can feel a little slow at times so we will see if the speed of play out ways the the historical feel of CoC



  

G company's attack on the heights of Bois de Grand Fontaine

G company's attack on the heights of Bois de Grand Fontaine

To mark the 100 year anniversary of the US entering ww1 Kati and I decided to do something special(at least to us).

Obviously, we decided to to a ww1 scenario, and we wanted to use our Americans. But to add a personal touch to it we did something I have been throwing around a long time: we built a scenario around a battle my great-grandfather, Ronald Cleland was in.

First, while I never met my great-grandfather my grandfather talked about him quite often.  He was obviously in ww1 and his unit was:

5th division

The Red Diamond Division

9th brigade  

61st regiment 

2nd battalion

G company

we have his helmet and it still has the red diamond on it.

A while back I shifted through the 5th division's official history of ww1 and found a section on the battle of  Saint-Mihiel in September 1918. Saint-Mihiel is an interesting battle in itself as it was the first American planned offensive of the war(not the first battle just the first offensive that Perishing planned and was the commander of)  As I read on I found an account fro.m the battle of that actually referenced my great grandfather's unit down to the company! It was a short passage about an event that happened on September 16th, 1918.  I will go ahead and quote it, the highlighted section is about his company:

Orders were issued for the relief of the Sixth and Eleventh by

the Ninth Brigade on the night of the l5-16th. At 7 o'clock Major

Bankhead (11/61) and Major Baldwin (11/60) advanced from their

support positions in rear of Bois Gerard to take over the outpost

lines of Major Mahin's (I/ll) and Major Leonard's (III/6) battalions.

The Army Objective Line, or main line of resistance, through

Bois Gerard and Hill 361.4, was taken by Major Henley (1/61) on

the right. Lieutenant Colonel McClure (III/61) in the center, and

Major Davis (III'60) on the left. Major Palen took over the Intermediate

Position with the first battalion of the Sixtieth. The

troops of the Tenth Brigade moved back to the old positions north of the Metz highway.

On the east half of the sector, Major Bankhead's (11-61) troops

went forward with instructions to occupy the heights of Bois de

Grand Fontaine. Companies G and H on the left advanced without

finding any signs of the enemy and at 7:00 a. m. of the 16th had

almost reached the crest of the ridge in Grand Fontaine before they were discovered. Seven machine guns were captured and their crews killed. Others were routed and the height was won. 

This is a map of the section of the line the 5th division was assigned.

Thanks to google maps I was able to pinpoint the heights referenced in the history and the line of attack they would have taken.

The heights were defended by 123rd Saxon Division A unit that had been in the war since 1915 and had fought on both the western and eastern fronts.  By this point in the war, it was a shell of its former self but I have to assume it still had some core veterans built in

Using this info we put together a very simple ww1 scenario using Chain of Command.  This is such a tiny event in history but seeing as its huge to me I was beyond excited to do it.

we basically built a table with a hill covering the north edge with some trench works but we made it patchy on purpose as the 123rd had only been there 2 days.  the base of the hill was mostly forest but I figured anyone that was building a defense would have cleared some area in front of the works.  We only used small craters as there was no bombardment mentioned in the record.

The objective was simple the American forces had to advance and take 2 points, part of the lower trench and the top most section of trench.

The American platoon from the 5th division was fresh and at full strength for the scenario.  I didn't give them any support as again I didn't know if they had any.

4 squads

1 bomber squad with nco, 5 bombers, and 6 rifles

1 rifle grenade squad with 3 rifle grenades and 4 rifles

1 rifle squad nco, and 17 rifles

1 support section with two teams each of 2 chauchat automatic rifles and 2 rifles.

As the 123rd Saxon Divison was understrength at the time I figured it would be best to make the platoon the same way.  

It had 3 sections 

2 sections were made up of an nco, 6 rifles, and 2 bombers

1 section had a MG team and 5 rifles.

We gave them 2 MMG as support as it is obvious from the record that MMGs were present.

the jump off points were pretty standard Kati(always the Germans) put two in the front trench and 1 in the top section.  Mine were pretty spread out in the woods.

We decided that one of her MMGs should and could start on the table in the sandbag bunker on the far left of her line.

The Germans had first phase and Kati went ahead and deployed everything but her spare mmg.  She had two  units in overwatch.

I started off with my rifle grenade section on the right-hand side of the field.  I was hoping they would wear down the defenses early on.  One of the german sections opened up on them and they lost a man.

I then deployed my Chauchat squad in the center.

The Germans spent their phase firing at the 2 squads.

And the doughboys returned fire from the tree line.

I deployed the almost unwieldy rifle squad on the right behind the grenades who were being pretty beat up.

The Germans pinned down the rifle grenades the next phase.

The rifle squad in classic ww1 American fashion got up and headed right in!

firefight in the center.

Take the MG boys!

the german center pinned down.

the rifle squad takes fire from the MMG.

The rifles jump right in and kill the mg crew to the man!

Katis center breaks...things are looking good for the doughboys.

Kati, ever the tactician begins to regroup and deploys her reserve MMG facing down the exposed rifle squad on her left.

My bomber squad enters on my left.

Kati gets a double phase and rattles my rifles with MG fire and grenades.

the bombers push forward.

The rifle squad breaks,  Kati then uses a CoC point to end the turn driving them from the table.  She also had her LT. clean the shock from her squad to keep them on.

I finally get in and throw grenades into the trench and make short work of the defenders.

they break and run.  not pictured the firefight in the center continued the whole game and at this point, I had rebroken the MG section.  I decided to end the turn and force her to take 2 moral checks that pushed her moral to a 0 and ended the game.

Final shots of the table.  The game ended up being a lot closer than it may appear.  My moral at the end was a 3 and after losing the rifle squad there were a few phases where my assault was losing steam.  

It ended up being a pretty simple scenario but it was a lot of fun and we both hoped it did a homage to both my GG and anyone else that was there that day.