Today I played mission 1 from the Nuts! rulebook which has a small squad attacking a house with another slightly larger squad in the vicinity. As I only have FOW 15mm WW2 figures these were what I have used. This was more about learning the rules than anything else so I didn’t mind that the minis weren’t individually based for skirmish but more on this at the end of my report. When I play more games, other than the first couple of missions, I will be playing the Germans as I have more Russians and US forces (both infantry and vehicles) as opposed to Germans so, it would provide more options for opponents.
I don’t have anything individually based but I believe that I have more than enough Russians and US infantry to be able to take spares to base individually but I am not sure about Germans. I did just recently come into a first edition FOW Panzergrenadier box set from North Arica, so I might just use them. I don’t really care about how authentic the uniforms are etc.
Any way on to the batrep.
The first pictures are of the set up. For anyone reading this that has read the mission, I have swapped the US names out and placed in the first 4 German names and then replaced the German names out with Russian names.
Just for ease of writing, each base will just be referred to by squad name. The German troops are Arnold (Ldr rep 5, armed with a medium calibre SMG. The mission states a Large calibre but as I couldn’t find the stats, I just used medium), Conrad and Dorfman (rep 4 armed with Semi-auto rifles) and Engles (rep 3 also armed with semi-auto rifle).
The Russians are Pieter (Ldr rep 4 armed with med cal smg), Johan (rep 4 armed with LMG), Gustav, Ivan and Boris (all rep 3, armed with bolt action rifles)
The Germans walked onto the board as 1 group and after moving in 2 inches, Ivan and Boris (who were the only Russians on currently on board) attempted to make in-sight tests and were obviously more intent of showing each other photos of their families, as they were both going home in a couple of days, as they passed 0d6. As there were no shouts or gunfire, the German group moved forward to the edge of the woods and raised their weapons and fired. I rolled for Arnold first and he managed a lucky hit (needing 5+ to hit), due to the cover. Ivan goes OOF and Boris seeing the group leader go down passes 0d6 his Leader down roll and retires further into the building.
The gunfire draws the attention of Gustav and Johan in the building and Pieter who was obviously looking for truffles in the woods to the left of the building.
Turn 2 G6: R4
There is no German movement.
Pieter, realising that he going to be outgunned by himself, decides to leave the woods and as he starts to sprint to the building, is cut down by Arnold, as he passes his insight test. He gives a quick flick of his wrist and Pieter drops to the ground dead with a hole in his head (Arnold rolls a 6 for his shooting and then rolls a 1 for impact). Due to everyone being in the building, I deemed that know one else had LOS and no further Leader down tests were made.
Johan moves to the front of the building ready to set up the LMG but due to Gustav rallying Boris, is unable to set it up. I decided that as he hadn’t shot yet, he wasn’t yet visible for insight tests. Boris managed to roll snake eyes for his rally test and I thought I had my first heroes all result but then found out that rallying wasn’t on the list.
Turn 3 G2:R1
The Germans advance cautiously as no Russians are yet visible.
The Russians set up the LMG and as Johan is about to fire, Arnold opens fire again as the group passes 1d6 their insight test. Once again Arnold’s skill (or luck) come to the fore and Johan is hit and knocked back but unfortunately lands awkwardly and goes OOF. (I wasn’t sure whether Johan got to fire first or that insight tests were made, so went with insight.) Gustav and Boris pass their leader down rolls 2d6 and prepare to fire. Again, Arnold fires from the hip at the two Russians and with double 6s being rolled, Gustav goes OOF and Boris is knocked down and then OOF. Game over.
My thoughts on the game.
The game was over in 3 turns but this was more down to the fantastic shooting of Arnold as opposed to anything else. I am sure that the game would have been quite different with different die rolls as no other German got to shot either.
Definitely have to find enough German figures to individually base and I should have enough for the Russians and US forces. The good thing is that I don’t need to rebase tanks etc so I can still use them for Nuts! and FOW. It just means that I will be painting up double up on painting (at least it is only 15mm, so shouldn’t be a problem).
Any way I enjoyed the game and look forward to using PEFs and vehicles. I will also enquire on the THW yahoo group concerning the answer to the above question.
Comments etc welcome as always.
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Nice...I am into THW and have RRtK along with CR 3.0 and have been undecided whether to go with Nuts or 5150 next. Given that I have more WW2 stuff it will probably be Nuts after all - things like your AAR and others help swing it too, mate - thanks!
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Monty
Monty, I have 5150 as well and it was a battle just deciding whether I played Nuts or a 5150 game using my Starship Troopers miniatures.
ReplyDeleteThis was just what I needed to find! I got Nuts! yesterday, read the rules and played this very scenario. I had to use paper chits because I don't have anything but FoW Americans. Anyway, I might have been doing something wrong, but I literally spent one hour constantly rolling dice. Shoot, reaction test,return fire, reaction test, return fire,reaction test,.....etc. No one could kill anyone! It seemed turns went on forever. I was encouraged by your report, but I didn't see you doing all those reaction tests. Maybe your Germans were just too good at shooting. Keep posting on Nuts!. It's very interesting!
ReplyDelete@Jerry - Turns can definitely vary in length depending on die rolls. In this game any reaction rolls were over very quickly as it never got passed the rep 5 squad leader. I always managed to roll at least 1 '6' and then rolled low enough to either achieve an OD or OOF result.
ReplyDeleteRemember that you roll the number of dice as per target number for the weapon (so for example the american leader should have been rolling 3 dice if I remember correctly) add rep to each die, look at ranged combat table then any hits are then rolled on the impact table, then you have reaction test and then depending on that result and so forth.
Your rolls must have been quite bad (mine are normally horendous) so I can understand any frustration.
Keep playing though :)
Thanks Graham! I definitely will keep trying. I'll post my own write up (without) pictures of my experience on my blog. But you are quite right, rolls were horrible and both sides were in cover. So it was just endless dice rolling!
ReplyDeleteLooking forward to reading it. :)
ReplyDelete