Mein Panzer MMG-style

My gaming group in Los Angeles is working on making the game simpler and quicker to play. We are taking out a number of the modifiers that exist in the game and simplifying other areas. Although we play pretty quickly, MP is still a complicated system. Look for our version in the registered users section of the Download Library. MMG=Miracle Mile Gamers.

Hobby Day in Anaheim

Attended HMGS/PSW's Hobby Day last Saturday, the 12th July.  I brought one of my favorite Euro-games, Formula D.  Played two races, Long Beach and Buenos Aries, and lost handily at both.  Gave to the two-time winner a reader's copy of a book that a friend had given me as a published paperback.  Am seriously looking to prune out the excess books I have on my shelves.  Cannot fit everything any more, and I do not want to rent a storage unit.  Regarding Hobby Day, I will be back to this Anaheim event, probably to run another game, or to play in the games present.  Good turnout, and friendly people.

Am gearing up for another Mein Panzer event in San Diego.  This one will be French vs Germans in 1940.  Lots of interest in running French tanks.  This will be a trial of the new Bonus shot technique, where if you get more than ten of your To-Hit roll, you get a Bonus shot no matter what your Troop Quality.  Needless to say, there will be a bigger difference between TQ's than with the current edition of the game.  Just a test.

Strategicon event — Orccon

This past weekend I attended the local thrice annual Strategicon convention, Orccon. Along with the founding member of Miracle Mile Gamers (MMG), Sacha, we ran a Mein Panzer event on Sunday morning and afternoon. The scenario was largish, and we scaled it down to allow for fewer players than originally intended. The overall result was a German victory, as the Canadians bashed their heads against the defense by elite Fallschirmjaegers.  A lot of casualties on the Canadian side, but few on the German.  Chalked up as a learning exercise by the San Diego group for whom we presented the scenario. Notably, only friends played in this scenario, so it was not a success from the standpoint of introducing new players to the game.

Saturday, I played in my usual Guns at Gettysburg game, and had a good time losing my entire brigade in near record fashion, due to some spectacularly bad die rolling.  Then off to hear a lecture by Lonnie Gill, designer of General Quarters III, on pre-WWII naval and aviation subjects.

As usual, dinner Saturday night was at the Versailles, a Cuban restaurant in Los Angeles, that serves a lot of food, heavy with garlic, inexpensively.  Chowed down on a great pork roast dinner.  Spent Saturday night observing a Fear God & Dreadnought game, run by the San Diego crew.  Still cannot bring myself to again play the Command at Sea-system, on which I cut my teeth as a naval gamer some twelve or thirteen years ago, when it was first released.  It is a worthy system, which is well-supported by its publisher, Clash of Arms games.  Just not my cup o' tea.

Also was introduced to the Glory-series of board games from GMT.  Jury still out on these.  Relatively simple to play, but at a level that I do not particularly like, i.e., brigades.  I prefer their regimental games in the Great Battles of the ACW series.  But will play the game again.

The dealer room was a bit sparse this time round.  Nothing and no one really new.

Overall, Strategicon is what you make of it.  Have to bring your own game in order to have a good time.  There were other historical games, including a General Quarters III game, which is at least some smattering of continued interest in the non-fantasy end of the hobby.

MMG and Hidden Movement

The most complicated spotting method you are likely to see is the one used by the Miracle Mile Gamers, who value subterfuge over everything.  Even though it slows down the game, they are willing to have the referee make judgment calls over every line of sight and hidden unit than to put dummy and real counters on the board.  I am going to try and overturn this convention when next I run a game for the MMG dudes.  I think there will be howls of protest. But I am looking at anything that will speed up the game, and this most certainly will.

Recommended modules

There are many good scenario books available now.  Four publishers in particular sell useful products.  Treadhead Games pitches their scenarios at exactly the scale of Mein Panzer.  They have two scenario books covering lesser known areas of WWII, that are well worth the effort.  First is White Death, covering the Soviet-Finnish war in 1939.  The second is Balkans on Fire, covering Italians vs Greece, then some Commonwealth vs German scenarios.  Another good source for scenarios is the Rapid Fire modules that can be downloaded from the Wargame Vault. These translate into MP fairly simply, although it takes some getting used to the Rapid Fire method of OoB's.  Too Fat Lardies produces a number of huge scenario campaigns available for download.  Finally, Skirmish Campaigns puts out books that are located at a level that might be better for the forthcoming Meine Truppen, but they can be scaled up to a next larger scale without too much problem.  Just try to keep the same number of pieces on the map as the scenarios call for, and you should do all right.

Our group just recently ran a Soviet-Finnish game out of the Treadhead games book, that the Finnish barely won.  They had to kill a lot of the enemy to do it, though.  And I can now legitimately say that I have won at least once in a Mein Panzer game.

Artillery and the ubiquitous deviation

In almost every WWII game, indirect fire artillery fire deviates randomly.  This is patently incorrect, as spotting rounds that came in were invariably corrected and fire brought on target in almost every case.  There were rare cases of short rounds in the war, and they became so infamous that games endeavor to recreate them in every artillery shoot.  A recent discussion on the Forum at the ODGW web site illustrates the confusion over how artillery worked, and works.  The rules for Mein Panzer and certainly for Meine Truppen will be amended to account for this reality.

For those of you who want a lucid explanation directed at the layman on how artillery works, go here.  It will give you all you really need to know about how artillery works, and how different nations employed this essential arm of combat during the Second World War.

Too much combat?

A recent poster on our playtest site indicated that Mein Panzer and Mein Truppen have excessive dice rolls, and that it takes too much time to resolve combat.  Well now, this is something which occurs when you have a lot of units on the battlefield uncovered and shooting at each other, especially if there are units which have rates of fire of two or more and have Bonus rolls due to being Veteran or Elites.  Our group is as guilty as the next for having too many forces on the battlefield.  When you get up around five or six units per player, you are asking a lot.  It is better to max out around four or five, especially if there are combined arms in action.  For infantry in Mein Panzer, that is two platoons.  In Mein Truppen, it is one.

I am going to start posting some of the very numerous scenarios I have collected over the years to the Download Library for use by MP players.  I hope that some will find them entertaining.  Many of them contain specific rules for incorporating MP.

San Diego road trip

Travelled south to San Diego to host a Mein Panzer engagement yesterday.  My standard training scenario, "Is That You, Sacha?", has small amounts of artillery (mortars), infantry, and light AFV's, which makes it perfect for novices spooling up on the rules.  It pits an American Armored Cav battlegroup against a German Panzer Recon group.  After playing it, most gamers are ready for more involved units and tactics.  Each time I have run it, there has been a dramatically different outcome.  This time the "Amis" won, using a long range gunnery duel with the AFV's to decide the issue.  The infantry in the centrally located town failed to make contact with each other, and did not factor in the fight.  I believe both sides had a good time, which bodes well for more games in the future.

Debuting Mein Panzer

I am scheduled to referee a Mein Panzer game in San Diego for the Gametowne local group on the first weekend in December.  ODGW has a standard scenario which I use for these games, involving light recon forces fighting over a town.  A little armor, a little towed artillery, and a little infantry — just enough to give everyone a taste of how the game is played in combined arms fashion.  These are experienced gamers, so they should pick up the rules quickly.  The scenario is quick and dirty, with no hidden movement or anything else to get in the way of the action.  I suggest it for any game system as a trial run. It is located here for your gaming pleasure.

I worry about doing a good job of presenting the game, so that it is an enjoyable experience for all involved, and that it shows the game in a good light.  It is always good to study up on the rules prior to playing so that there is a high degree of familiarity with the rules when the time for the game comes.  The scenario should be easy, and the level of play required simple.  And mostly, the ref should be ready.

Miracle Mile Gamers

My group of gamers is called the Miracle Mile Gamers (MMG) for its location in Los Angeles.

Despite calling itself a "playtest" group, the players are notoriously resistant to rules changes.  They like the consistency of one set.  We play a full bore version of Mein Panzer exclusively — only WWII, and only 6mm.  The ODGW Lounge on the website has many of our AAR's (after action reports).  Sacha, our host for our battles, is an architect by trade and does a superior job at creating scenery for our tables.  His excellent set-ups create believable villages and terrain for us to fight over.  Fortunately, he has a large amount of Geo-hex 12" terrain that he obtained before the company disappeared and the stuff became terribly overpriced merchandise.

The Meine Truppen rules have been extensively tested by our group, and are literally the only version of the game we play, although we use squads rather than sections.  1" = 25yds is our preferred scale, and lends itself to great infantry actions.  Even without the MT improvements, Mein Panzer is a great infantry game.

Omaha Beach & Meine Truppen

One of my wargame fantasies is to game out the invasion of Omaha Beach. I have done so much research on this assault that I feel I know it backwards and forwards. Sometimes, though, I find books or sites that give me even more information. Such is this site, which goes into the number of troops and even their names at each of the Widerstandsnestern.  Great resource.  Here is another site that gives specific info about each of the German resistance points.  With this kind of detail, constructing a map of the region should be easy to do.  A real labor of love.

Certainly Omaha Beach would use the Meine Truppen rules currently under development.  With the low number of tanks, the use of armored strong points, suppressive fire and close-in tactics, this would be an obvious choice for an infantry-centered game.  Note that MT will be 1 inch = 25yds, which will allow for a great deal of detail, but not be a skirmish game.  We expect the maneuver unit to be the platoon, with each stand a section or team.

Currently I have a campaign in development for MT, which I will not divulge until we release the game itself.

Meine Truppen

The third project your humble narrator is working on is the infantry-centric version of Mein Panzer, to be called Meine Truppen. MP itself is actually an excellent infantry game, so much so that my group has had many very enjoyable infantry only battles. Take a look here for some of the AAR's that the Miracle Mile Gamers (MMG) have posted. But the detail we use really makes for a different game at a different scale. Soon I will do a general call for playtesters of this new game, since the folks who currently have the game seem to be sitting on it. Got to make some progress somehow.

Anyone who is interested, leave a note here and let me know a little bit about yourself.

The Latest Stuff

So, the latest stuff happening from the Old Dominion is updating of the Mein Panzer 2 Databook. Bob continues his encyclopaedic work on the massive tome that is the Databook. I cannot imagine the patience in putting the thing together — really beyond me. And we all await the final work on the WWI Supplement for Fleet Action Imminent. This will give us the French, American, Japanese, and the other smaller navies that could have seen action in WWI.

And there is more in the works...