Aggressor in action!: a Portable Wargame: Modern play-test

I finally managed to set up a play-test of my PORTABLE WARGAME: MODERN rules this afternoon. I used my trusty vinyl chessboard as the basis of my terrain, along with some wooden houses, some hills made of cork, and several trees. For troops I used what was closest to hand, namely some Essex Miniatures 15mm-scale US Army figures and some tanks from the range of 1:100th-scale vehicles produced as part of the Axis & Allies Miniatures range.

As the tanks and figures were all American (I counted the Sherman Firefly as a US tank for the purposes of this battle!) I decided to identify one side as being forces from the Aggressor Army and the other as the Defenders. (N.B. Aggressor [or The Circle Trigonists] was the name given to the OPFOR troops used by the US Army for training purposes during the 1950s and 1960s.)

The Aggressor Army

• 3 x Tank Units (all rated ‘Average’)
• 5 x Infantry Units (all rated ‘Average’)
• 1 x Machine Gun Unit (rated ‘Average’)
• 1 x Self-propelled Heavy Artillery Unit (rated ‘Average’)

The Defender Army

• 1 x Tank Unit (rated ‘Elite’)
• 1 x Infantry Unit (rated ‘Elite’)
• 2 x Machine Gun Units (rated ‘Elite’)

The Starting Positions
The Aggressors lined up on their start-line with their Tank Units (each carrying an Infantry Unit) in the centre, flanked on the right by the Self-propelled Heavy Artillery Unit, an Infantry Unit, and the Machine Gun Unit, and on the left by an Infantry Unit.

With the exception of one Machine Gun Unit, which was deployed forward atop a hill, the Defenders were concealed in the local town.

Turn 1
The Aggressor Artillery fired at the opposing Machine Gun Unit on top of the hill … and missed. The Defenders won the initiative, but chose not to do anything, thus allowing the Aggressors to move forward.

Turn 2
The Aggressor Self-propelled Heavy Artillery Unit fired yet again at the Machine Gun Unit … and missed again … and almost hit some of their own troops! The Aggressors won the initiative, and began by opening fire on the Defender Machine Gun Unit with their left-hand Tank Unit’s gun after the latter had moved forward. This time they were on target, and the Defenders were forced to fall back. The remainder of the Aggressor force moved forward.

The Defenders chose to do nothing, as they were waiting until the Aggressors began to move into the built-up area where their superior numbers would count for less.

Turn 3
The Aggressor commander felt that using his Artillery would endanger his own troops, so he refrained for firing. The Aggressors won the initiative again, and began their advance into the town … and into Close Combat with some of the Defenders.

All the Units involved were hit … but the ‘Elite’ status of the Defenders ensured that the survived the encounter (on e Unit was forced to retreat) whereas the Aggressors lost a Tank Unit and the Infantry Unit they were carrying and the other Tank and Infantry Unit were forced to retreat.

Turn 4
The Aggressor Self-propelled Heavy Artillery Unit fired at the Defender Machine Gun Unit in the town, and destroyed it. The Defenders had the initiative this turn and moved their Units into what they hoped would be more advantageous positions.

The Aggressors responded by dismounting their Tank-borne Infantry Units (one of which was immediately engaged in Close Combat was a Defender Infantry Unit) and moving their other Infantry Units forward.

The Close Combat was drawn, and neither Unit had to retreat.

Turn 5
The Aggressor Self-propelled Heavy Artillery Unit had no obvious targets to fire at so the D6 die was thrown to see which side gained the initiative. The Defender won … and engaged the enemy! The Defender’s Tank Unit moved forward and its fire destroyed the Aggressor Infantry Unit on the left-hand flank

The Defender Machine Gun Unit on the hill now attacked the flank of the left-hand Aggressor Infantry Unit in the centre …

… which it destroyed. It then followed this attack up back attacking the other Aggressor Infantry Unit in the town …

… and destroyed that as well!

Not content, it advanced yet again and forced one of the Aggressor Tank Units to retreat!

At this point the Aggressor Army was down to 50% of its original strength, but before it withdrew it tried to fight back. Its two remaining Tank Units fired at the Aggressor Machine Gun Units that had caused so much trouble, and destroyed it.

The Defenders were now also down to 50% of their original strength, and the battle was drawn … although it could be argued that the Aggressors were likely to gain control of the town if the defenders were not reinforced in the very near future.

Comments
This was very much a ‘spur of the moment’ play-test, but it proved that the rules work and produce reasonable results. This battle took longer to photograph and write about than it took to fight … and I look forward to using these rules again in the near future.

One or two tweaks are needed to clarify some of the rules (for example Infantry cannot move and fire in the same turn but this is not obvious when you read the rules), and the ‘house rule’ that I wanted to try out (the use of Tank Units to carry Infantry Units into battle) seemed to work fine.