Showing posts with label Jersey Shore Battle Games. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Jersey Shore Battle Games. Show all posts

Wednesday, May 18, 2022

Jersey Shore Battle Games

Jersey Shore Battle Games

The rules

Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men

The Jersey Shore Battle Games, also called Sandy Hook Battle Games, by the late Thor Sheil, with whom I kept in contact and exchanged wargaming ideas with, was actually the very first (free) wargame-rules I ever read (but not played before now), and therefore a naturally starting point for these following play-through blogg-posts. 

The rules can be found for free on Thor Sheil's restored webpages with both the basic rules and the period appendix'. I've chosen the Operation Sandtrap with the Advanced Rules for this game.

The scenario

I've placed this skirmish to the United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65, when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement' with force.

Situation:
This skirmish is finding place in fictional place of Lumbaya in the early January of 1963, when the UN during operation 'Grand Slam' are turning their attention to the remaining Katangese strongholds in Southern Katanga after after securing the Katangese capitol of Élisabethville.

Place:
Lumbaya is a very small village located 80km south west of Élisabethville, and are made into a stronghold by a small platoon of Katangese Gendarmes. The village is one of several strongholds in the area to trying to hold the UN off while trying to keep the self-proclaimed president Tshombe by power of the self-proclaimed Katanga state.

Forces:
  • Katangese:
    • 2 rifle-squads each of 10 soldiers, a LMG and and a bazooka/flame thrower. Each squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently. 
    • 1 HMG-detachment of 3 soldiers
    • 1 sniper
    • HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
    • After turn 12: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' armed with assault rifels, a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese forces.
  • UN:
    • 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
    • 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer
    • 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
    • HQ-section with platoon-leader
    • 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers. 
Mission:
  • Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
  • UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.
Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men

AAR

Time to play:    1.5 hours
Turns:                7 (so I wasn't able to bring in the Katangese QRF)
Result:               UN withdrawal 

The UN forces advanced on 3 axis supported by a light mortar and a vehicle mounted HMG. When hitting contact with a Katangese HMG on a nearby rooftop, almost all the UN forces got pinned, and they lost their Jeep with their support weapon. With 10 shots each turn, I think both HMGs and LMGs potentially causes too much damage each turn. One burst can take out a whole squad. The attack carried on, supported only by the UN light mortar, but it didn't hit one single time.

Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men

Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men
The UN troops advanced slowly through the dence vegatation
Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men
But in Lumbaya they're ready and awaiting the UN attack. The Catangese HMG is located on the roof in the background, and the HMG is going to take out a great number of UN troops and their supports before being taken out them selves.
Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men
First the gunner was sniped down, and later the Catangese HMG finished off the whole vehicle
Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men
So the only support-weapon left for the UN was their light Morter-team.
Jersey Shore battle game by Thor Sheil. Free wargame rules for army men
...But they did'nt hit much.
When reaching the outskirts of Lumbaya The UN forces had lost so many troops that according to the advanced rules, the UN had to withdraw. They wouldn't have any chance to take Lumbaya and the remaining Katangese Gendarmerie there.

Pros

  • It's simple and can be played with easily available and cheap army men or toy soldiers from a lot of different periods.
  • Have rules for consequences of mortar, grenades and bombs not hitting their target, as they are going to hit something else instead.
  • Rules for morale.
  • Rules for concealed units and movement.
  • Have more rules on the website for covering other periods

Cons

  • Since you have to roll 2 dice for every shot to determine hits, and there are a greater number of shots for different automatic weapons and at the same time suggested about 30 soldiers for each side, I think it's going to be a lot of dice-rolling. I would actually consider to play this with a D12 dice instead.
  • Even with the advanced rules, there are no rules for using sniper rifles. Since the rules encourages adaptions, I used the same rules as for Infantry rifles; 1 shoot needing a 7 or better to hit, but can throw dice 3 times into the same target and choosing the best of them and giving it a Range 2.
  • Infantry movement is not actually mentioned in the 'Sandpit-rules', so I had to use same rules but  the 'Showdown Wild West' for reference. Infantry movement is a Range 1, which is 12" in this scale.
  • I think the hand-to-hand combat rules seems unclear. Now I didn't get to get close enough to engage my troops in any hand-to-hand-combat, but it it seems like there is no dice-rolling or anything. Just outnumbering.
  • I miss an easy and quick reference board/table in the rules. Now I had jo do a lot of rereading when battling. 

Conclusion

I think the cons outnumber the pros in this game as written. But it surely have some nice aspects other rules doesn't have. Besides Thor wrote on his pages that the rules were to serve as a basis on which to develop your own particular games. He encourages that you can add your own special conditions, such as morale, command, specific attributes for certain weapons, etc. Because as he said; "The rules may be mine, but the game is yours and thus should reflect what you consider essential".

I'm a great fan of Thor Sheil, and have a lot of respect for him, and I'm very glad I took the time to play one of his games.


Please follow this blog for more AAR on free wargame-rules to come...



In Memoriam Thor Sheil
Thank you for your service
Thor Sheil






Wednesday, May 11, 2022

Prelude to battle

The beginning

I've been into a lot of different modelling hobbies for a while, but tabletop wargaming was not one of them, until quite recently. Actually it was my very good, and late friend Morten who first gave me the idea and gave it a spark. Unfortunately we didn't get to game together...

Knowing about nothing about this hobby, I turned to the internet in my search for information and wargaming-rules. I was actually put off a little when I saw the complexity, thick books and price on some of the games and miniatures, but I also found some easier ones which could be downloaded and printed for free and played with ordinary affordable army men. 

Since I was new to this and didn't know if this was something for me, I didn't want to spend a lot of money or time reading thick rule-books. Therefore I decided to test-play some of the free rules I found on the internet, to see if I liked it, and what kind of rules I preferred. Fast, very simple, D6-mechanics, 1:1, skirmish, playable and fun rules seemed to be the thing for me. The very first game I ever played was Pete Kautz' '1 Brain Cell Wargame', just using what I had to hand in the household, nothing fancy:

1 brain cell wargame
This is where it all started with my very first game; unpainted army men, Momin's house from my kids' old toys, folding ruler, tape-measure, books and magazines making up the terrain and scenery


Where to find them

After I while I found many different free rules on the internet that I could play with easily available and cheap Army men. My favorite sources for free wargame rules are:

Actually I found more rules on these pages that I'll have ever time to play them all. While trying to obtain even more information and others experience with some of these rules, I was searching the internet again for some battle-reports, AARs, playthroughs and feedbacks on them, but didn't actually find so many. Does anyone play them at all, or is it just seldom that wargamers post AARs on such rules??  Please share your experience in the comments. 

Therefore I plan to play some of  those free, fast, simple, skirmish, playable and fun rules I find most apealing and post a short AAR on them here in this blog, and perhaps someone might find it helpful. To easier to compare the different rulesets with each other, I think it's fair to play them with the same scenario.

The scenario

Unlike the free wargame rules, I did not find as many free and ready skirmish wargame scenarios to base my coming games upon. Some of the rulesets them selves often contain some very easy 'scenarioes' and winning-conditions, but they're just too basic. Therefore I got inspired by one of  The United Nations largest mission in both scale and operational scope during the Congo Crisis 1960-65 (United Nations Operation in the Congo (ONUC)) ,when UN troops 'peacekeeping' was more offensive 'peace enforcement' with use of force and had several clashes with the breakaway state of Katanga.

Situation:
This skirmish is finding place in fictional place of Lumbaya in the early January of 1963, when the UN during operation 'Grand Slam' are turning their attention to the remaining Katangese strongholds in Southern Katanga after after securing the Katangese capitol of Élisabethville.

Place:
Lumbaya is a very small village located 80km south west of Élisabethville, and is made into a stronghold by a small and imrovised platoon of Katangese Gendarmes. The village is one of several strongholds in the area trying to hold the UN off while trying to keep the self-proclaimed president Tshombe by power of the self-proclaimed Katanga state.

Tabletop wargame setup
The road to the fictional village of Lumbaya



Forces:
  • Katangese:
    • 2 rifle-squads each of 10 soldiers, a LMG and and a bazooka/flame thrower. Each squad can operate as 2 fireteams independently. 
    • 1 HMG-detachment of 3 soldiers
    • 1 sniper
    • HQ-section with platoon-leader and 2 medics
    • TheKatangese Gerdarmerie

    • After turn 12 if the rules include vehicles or skilled troops: A QRF consisting of 1 truck with a HMG and a section of 10 'veterans' with assault guns, a LMG and a bazooka arrives from the next village. Only if Lumbaya is still held by Katangese forces though.
    • The QRF
  • UN:
    • 1 Platoon of 3 rifle-squads each of 8 soldiers and a LMG. The squads can operate independently.
    • 1 Light mortar-detachment of  2 soldiers and an observer
    • 1 bazooka-detachment of 3 soldiers
    • HQ-section with platoon-leader
    • 1 Jeep with HMG and 2 soldiers. If rules do not include vehicles, the Jeep must stay stationary with the HMG at the deployment-zone. 

Mission:

  • Katangese: To hold the strongpoint of Lumbaya. Can request QRF-support as mentioned in the force-section from turn 12 if still holding whole or part of the strongpoint.
  • UN: To take and hold the strongpoint of Lumbya, preferably within 12 turns, and take control on as many Katangese gendarms located there as possible.
Tabletop wargame setup


Let the Game(s) begin!



In Memoriam Morten Melsnes

Morten Melsnes




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