Kerrik13
02 Jun 08, 05:53 PM
Now that I've had enough time to sleep and get back to normal life, I suppose I should post an AAR :)
Thanks for everyone who came out on Saturday (and the handful on Sunday). We had 8 Germans, 4 Russians, and 3 Partisans who came out to participate in the battles on Saturday and 2 Russians, 2 Germans, and 3 Partisans on Sunday. Not enormous numbers, but just enough to really get the WW2 bug planted on the Fairchild locals and playtest my campaign rules.
I learned a lot from this weekend and hope everyone enjoyed the rules. I've already got ideas on how to tweak them a bit, and I look forward to improving on them to make them more enjoyable. I was pretty happy with how everything turned out, such as the respawns and the different classes. I know some people may not care for the classes, but I'm hoping that some participants will take ownership in different classes and bring equipment and kits that reflect their class. I played the German medic for several games, and I really liked the ace bandage rules. The bloodied soldiers that started to spring up after some fighting seemed to add to the game, and crawling through brush to patch up the wounded assault troops was a lot of fun. I need to balance the medic though, because they can add a LOT of power to a team... they can pretty much double the amount of "lives" a player has on the field, which can easily influence a game between winning and losing. Fielding a weapon weapons crewman (Garrick) on the Pak during the defense of the German occupied town was amazing and a ton of fun. I loved hearing Garrick yell "Fire!" and then "FWOOMP!" of the Pak firing at the incoming Russians. Sunday I ended up playing an SMG gunner for several baattles, and it was a ton of fun charging in and assaulting while chucking hand grenades.
Although I realize that some people wondered why I had the respawn right by "the objective" (we established during Springtime in Porkov that this game style is frustrating), the reality is that I wanted to test and see how it would work. During the battles that played out, the only objective was to crush the enemy... by doing so you have to kill them, or occupy their fieldpost so they have to use resources (respawns) to come back into the game. The whole idea was to make sure the defenders stayed in the area, so that you didn't have to spend the 1 hour time limit hunting through every bush for the last couple enemies. If I had coordinated a full fledged event with missionss that spanned hours and had multiple objectives, I would not have put objectives right next to enemy respawns. These attack/defend campaign battles were entirely different, so the idea was to get the teams to slug it out and find a winner within the time limit of one hour. What I never realized was that the missions would become very challenging for the teams that were attacking during the campaign... a surprising number of battles were lost because the attackers could not defeat the entrenched defenders. I'm adding in some sort of variable to help overcome this, but it will take some thinking to really come up with a solution.
The tactical side of this campaign is fairly solid and I'm happy with it so far. I'll post some maps showing the turn-by-turn movements of the units across the battlefield in the near future. The Germans set up their HQ and initial territories and moved south to conquer more land, fielding a Mechanized unit and an Artillery unit. The Russians set up their HQ North of the Germans, fielded an Infantry unit and a Recon unit, and then pushed south directly into German occupied territory. Once all the attacks were made by the two teams, I rolled randomly on a chart to see what the units encountered (if they were attacking neutral territory) or else the fighting was straight German VS Russian if they attacked each other. The following battles were commenced on Saturday...
Map Turn 1
Germans
3rd Panzer Grenadiers attack the village of Malyye Budki and WIN with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,800.
3rd Panzer Grenadiers attack the city of Romny and LOSE with a resource total starting at 9,800 and ending at 9,000.
3rd Division Artillery attacks the village of Velikiye Bubny and WIN with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,800.
Russians
198th Rifle Infantry attacks the German controlled city of Konotop, purchasing the battlefield perk REINFORCEMENTS, and LOSE with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,040.
198th Recon attacks the village of Khizhki, purchasing the battlefield perk SUPERIOR NUMBERS, and LOSE with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,100.
And the following battles were played on Sunday...
Map Turn 2
Germans
3rd Division Artillery attacks the village of Bolotnitsi and WIN with a resource total starting at 9,800 and ending at 9,725.
3rd Division Artillery attacks the village of Khar'Kovo, purchasing the battlefield perk SUPERIOR NUMBERS, and WIN with a resource total starting at 9,725 and ending at 9,575.
Russians
198th Recon attacks the village of Kucherovka and WIN with a resource total starting at 9,100 and ending at 9,025.
198th Recon attacks the village of Khur-Kevla and LOSE with a resource total starting at 9,025 and ending at 8,725.
As you can see, the Germans are faring far better in the campaign so far, but the major obstacle for the Russians were that during the random encounter rolls they were running into full German soldiers instead of civilians and Partisans far more often than the Germans. This is the reality of randomness and will continue to play a major part in the future of the campaign... but I felt was a nice touch to the campaign. Yeah, it means you may be facing a force of veteran soldiers twice your size, but it also means you can be facing a bunch of disorganized civilians with no reloads and no respawns half your size.
The resource pools for the campaign will play a major part as well, and the number and types of players that show up will play a huge factor in this. When people show up in full German or Russian impressions, they lend more fighting power to battles their units are involvved in. If players come out as Partisans or Partisans with modern guns, they contribute far less fighting power. Losing a battle to 5 partisans means your unit would be hit for roughly 250-500 points, but losing to 5 full Germans/Russians means you get socked for 750-1000 points. I'm hoping this will be a common ground that allows newbies to WW2 to come out and play and give it a try, and encourage those who are interested in come out and build a full German/Russian impression.
Glad to see some familiar faces and a few new ones, get the WW2 games kick offed at the ABZ field, playtest my ongoing campaign rules, and introduce the WW2 games to a few more players that I normally play with. Overall, except for the heat and the ridiculous amount of mosquitos and ticks, it was a pretty good weekend :)
Here are some photos of the event...
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r244/Lisanders/May31st/
http://www.airsoftbattlezone.com/ww2airsoftgame.html
Here is a mini video that Wellnitz put together (he is the guy with the camo painted german helmet with the netting on it)
http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/jj270/mwellnitz/?action=view¤t=RevisedOstfrontMovie.flv
And another video put together by Alban (his girlfriend filmed on Saturday)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YSGnB9wfU
Thanks for everyone who came out on Saturday (and the handful on Sunday). We had 8 Germans, 4 Russians, and 3 Partisans who came out to participate in the battles on Saturday and 2 Russians, 2 Germans, and 3 Partisans on Sunday. Not enormous numbers, but just enough to really get the WW2 bug planted on the Fairchild locals and playtest my campaign rules.
I learned a lot from this weekend and hope everyone enjoyed the rules. I've already got ideas on how to tweak them a bit, and I look forward to improving on them to make them more enjoyable. I was pretty happy with how everything turned out, such as the respawns and the different classes. I know some people may not care for the classes, but I'm hoping that some participants will take ownership in different classes and bring equipment and kits that reflect their class. I played the German medic for several games, and I really liked the ace bandage rules. The bloodied soldiers that started to spring up after some fighting seemed to add to the game, and crawling through brush to patch up the wounded assault troops was a lot of fun. I need to balance the medic though, because they can add a LOT of power to a team... they can pretty much double the amount of "lives" a player has on the field, which can easily influence a game between winning and losing. Fielding a weapon weapons crewman (Garrick) on the Pak during the defense of the German occupied town was amazing and a ton of fun. I loved hearing Garrick yell "Fire!" and then "FWOOMP!" of the Pak firing at the incoming Russians. Sunday I ended up playing an SMG gunner for several baattles, and it was a ton of fun charging in and assaulting while chucking hand grenades.
Although I realize that some people wondered why I had the respawn right by "the objective" (we established during Springtime in Porkov that this game style is frustrating), the reality is that I wanted to test and see how it would work. During the battles that played out, the only objective was to crush the enemy... by doing so you have to kill them, or occupy their fieldpost so they have to use resources (respawns) to come back into the game. The whole idea was to make sure the defenders stayed in the area, so that you didn't have to spend the 1 hour time limit hunting through every bush for the last couple enemies. If I had coordinated a full fledged event with missionss that spanned hours and had multiple objectives, I would not have put objectives right next to enemy respawns. These attack/defend campaign battles were entirely different, so the idea was to get the teams to slug it out and find a winner within the time limit of one hour. What I never realized was that the missions would become very challenging for the teams that were attacking during the campaign... a surprising number of battles were lost because the attackers could not defeat the entrenched defenders. I'm adding in some sort of variable to help overcome this, but it will take some thinking to really come up with a solution.
The tactical side of this campaign is fairly solid and I'm happy with it so far. I'll post some maps showing the turn-by-turn movements of the units across the battlefield in the near future. The Germans set up their HQ and initial territories and moved south to conquer more land, fielding a Mechanized unit and an Artillery unit. The Russians set up their HQ North of the Germans, fielded an Infantry unit and a Recon unit, and then pushed south directly into German occupied territory. Once all the attacks were made by the two teams, I rolled randomly on a chart to see what the units encountered (if they were attacking neutral territory) or else the fighting was straight German VS Russian if they attacked each other. The following battles were commenced on Saturday...
Map Turn 1
Germans
3rd Panzer Grenadiers attack the village of Malyye Budki and WIN with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,800.
3rd Panzer Grenadiers attack the city of Romny and LOSE with a resource total starting at 9,800 and ending at 9,000.
3rd Division Artillery attacks the village of Velikiye Bubny and WIN with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,800.
Russians
198th Rifle Infantry attacks the German controlled city of Konotop, purchasing the battlefield perk REINFORCEMENTS, and LOSE with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,040.
198th Recon attacks the village of Khizhki, purchasing the battlefield perk SUPERIOR NUMBERS, and LOSE with a resource total starting at 10,000 and ending at 9,100.
And the following battles were played on Sunday...
Map Turn 2
Germans
3rd Division Artillery attacks the village of Bolotnitsi and WIN with a resource total starting at 9,800 and ending at 9,725.
3rd Division Artillery attacks the village of Khar'Kovo, purchasing the battlefield perk SUPERIOR NUMBERS, and WIN with a resource total starting at 9,725 and ending at 9,575.
Russians
198th Recon attacks the village of Kucherovka and WIN with a resource total starting at 9,100 and ending at 9,025.
198th Recon attacks the village of Khur-Kevla and LOSE with a resource total starting at 9,025 and ending at 8,725.
As you can see, the Germans are faring far better in the campaign so far, but the major obstacle for the Russians were that during the random encounter rolls they were running into full German soldiers instead of civilians and Partisans far more often than the Germans. This is the reality of randomness and will continue to play a major part in the future of the campaign... but I felt was a nice touch to the campaign. Yeah, it means you may be facing a force of veteran soldiers twice your size, but it also means you can be facing a bunch of disorganized civilians with no reloads and no respawns half your size.
The resource pools for the campaign will play a major part as well, and the number and types of players that show up will play a huge factor in this. When people show up in full German or Russian impressions, they lend more fighting power to battles their units are involvved in. If players come out as Partisans or Partisans with modern guns, they contribute far less fighting power. Losing a battle to 5 partisans means your unit would be hit for roughly 250-500 points, but losing to 5 full Germans/Russians means you get socked for 750-1000 points. I'm hoping this will be a common ground that allows newbies to WW2 to come out and play and give it a try, and encourage those who are interested in come out and build a full German/Russian impression.
Glad to see some familiar faces and a few new ones, get the WW2 games kick offed at the ABZ field, playtest my ongoing campaign rules, and introduce the WW2 games to a few more players that I normally play with. Overall, except for the heat and the ridiculous amount of mosquitos and ticks, it was a pretty good weekend :)
Here are some photos of the event...
http://s146.photobucket.com/albums/r244/Lisanders/May31st/
http://www.airsoftbattlezone.com/ww2airsoftgame.html
Here is a mini video that Wellnitz put together (he is the guy with the camo painted german helmet with the netting on it)
http://s274.photobucket.com/albums/jj270/mwellnitz/?action=view¤t=RevisedOstfrontMovie.flv
And another video put together by Alban (his girlfriend filmed on Saturday)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X2YSGnB9wfU