O Group Scenario- Crossing the Rapido

 36th Texan Division vs the 15th Panzer Grenadier Division

I've been working on some scenarios for O Group centred on battles in the Italian Campaign. The first one is base don the crossing the the Rapdio by the 36th Texan Divison in January 1944. 

Background

By January 1944 the US 5th Army under General Mark Clark had reached the German ‘Gustav-Line’ defences along the line of the Garigliano river.

In the stalemate which followed the Allies sought to establish a bridgehead on the north side of the river and force a way through the German defences. The Germans were in well prepared defensive positions on high ground overlooking the Americans and believed that they had an excellent opportunity of inflicting a telling blow upon the Allies.  

21 January 1944

On the night of the 20-21^st of January the 141^st and 143^rd regiments of the 36^th (Texas) division attempted to cross the Rapido river and establish a bridgehead on the northern bank near the town of San Angelo.

The attacks started with the 36th Infantry Division firing an artillery barrage of 31,000 rounds on German positions which resulted in only negligible damage. Feint attacks were conducted by the 34th Infantry Division were conducted further to the north near Monte Cassino to divert attention from the main advance. 

Mission

The Americans must establish a bridgehead across the Rapido river.  To do so they must have at least an infantry company firmly established on the northern side of the river at the end of the game of have inflicted 3 FUBARs on the Germans and forced them to retreat off the table.   

·       If the Americans capture both sections of San Angelo they automatically win the game.

·       Capture of each farm counts as 2 casualties towards breaking the German force.

The defender wins if they inflict 3 FUBARs or prevent the Americans from achieving their mission objectives.

The game ends after a maximum of 16 turns

Deployment

The Americans start on the southern bank of the Rapido. Armour and vehicles cannot cross the river.

Infantry are assumed to cross in assault boats (can use actual models if available in your model collection).

Initial US combat patrols and company HQs must start on the southern side of the river.

Once a company HQ is established on the northern bank of the Rapido combat patrols can be deployed within 18” of the company HQ as per normal rules.

My table 

Orders of Battle

American OOB

The Americans start with 23 point force based on a rifle battalion.  They can include vehicles and AFVs but these may not cross the Rapido River (tanks can offer fire support from the southern bank of the river).  The American’s can have a maximum of two Sherman and/or M10 platoons. US equipment chosen must be appropriate for January 1944.

German OOB

The Germans start with a 10 pt infantry or panzer grenadier battalion. The Germans may field a worn battalion and if they do so then they get 2 free hasty minefields.  

The only armour available to the Germans is a platoon of panzer IVs which are in reserve and can only arrive on table when dawn arrives on the battlefield (these are not included in the initial German force of 10 pts).

Special Rules

Battalion O Group dice: The Americans start the game with 9 O Group dice, the Germans start with 8.

Opening barrage: If running a worn battalion the Germans ignore any opening barrage casualties.

German Panzer Reserve: A panzer IV platoon is available from first light and must deploy/start the game in San Angelo.

Night Attack: The river initial American assault takes place at night.

At night all targets count as obscured no matter if they are in cover/terrain or not. Units that did not fire can only be seen a maximum of 20” unless they fired in their previous turn. 

Spotting dice	Units are spotted on a following: 0-10”      4+ 10-20 “   5+ 20”+       6+
Obscured	At night all targets count as obscured no matter if they are in cover/terrain or not.
Max range	Units that did not fire can only be seen a maximum of 20” unless they fired in their previous turn.
Direct fire to hit penalties	-1 to hit target at night with direct fire
Artillery HE penalties	-1d6 firing at night (represents not being able to see target accurately)

Dawn: From turn 6 onwards roll to see if dawn arrives. On a 4+ it has and normal visibility rules apply.

The Rapido River: The river is impassable to all vehicles and gun teams such as antitank guns. Ther is no penalty for infantry teams crossing the river (they are assumed to be sing assault boats).

Defences

The Germans can start with 1 platoon and 1 weapons team section dug in. These dug in positions cannot be placed within a BUA. If a dug in/entrenched platoon is placed in ambush the trench is also concealed.

The Germans also start with 2 hasty minefields the locations of which are noted by the German player. 

Artillery Missions

·       The Americans have 3 artillery missions

·       The Germans have 1 artillery mission.

Terrain

San Angelo is considered a two section BUA and is elevated.

Farms: The two farms are not considered elevated and count as single storey buildings only.

High ground: Units on the hill/ high ground count as in elevated terrain and is considered higher than woods or buildings below.  

Orchards: LOS passes through but not out of the far side. They are classed as cover.

Rapido River: Is impassable to vehicles and gun teams such as AT gun. Infantry crossing the river roll 2d6 for movement and take the highest dice roll.

Fields: The area consists of a number of fields which are classed as cover but do not block line of sight.

Walls and hedges: Offer cover to units behind them or against them. Vehicle against a wall or hedge can see through to shoot.

Fortifications

Trenches (p47)	-2d6 damage to troops in foxholes and trenches.
Hasty mines (p49)	4” x 1” Not placed on table but location noted by defender. When an enemy unit enters a hastily mined area roll 5d6 for shock. 1 shocker per 4+. Hasty mines only attack once and are removed.

Historic Outcome

143^rd Regiment

On the night of the 20^th of January the 143^rd regiment attacked north of San Angelo on a one battalion frontage and managed to get most of a battalion across the river by morning. However, the 1st  Battalion of the 143^rd regiment found itself in a pocket which was subject to interlocking German machine gun fire with the river to their backs. Enemy tanks began firing on the American positions from San Angelo so to escape being wiped out completely the battalion commander ordered his men back across the river.

A renewed attack on the night of 21^st/22^nd succeeded in getting two and a half companies of 2^nd battalion across the river and a couple of footbridges were established. The Texans were to endure ferocious fire during the 22^nd and tried to hold onto their shallow bridgehead across the river.

Sources

Ellis, J (1984), Cassino The Hollow Victory, Aurum Press

Plowman, J & Rowe, P; (2012); The Battles for Monte Cassino, then and now; Pen and Sword Books ltd

https://www.texasmilitaryforcesmuseum.org/36division/archives/rapido/rapido2.htm

WW2 TV: Sacrifice on the Rapido https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxVaxRPT4d8

LW British infantry battalion for O Group

This week I've painted up a LW British infantry batalion for O Group using Battlefront miniatures. These are some of the first of the plastic BF mini's I've bought and though I quite like them was a tad disapponted by the level of detail of the equipment which seems a lot flatter/ less defined than their odlder metal ranges. Still they look pretty good once finished.

For O Group I am basing my forces on 3cm round bases with 3 figures per stand. A stand representing a section of infantry. 

So far I've painted by 3 companies of infantry (9 stands + HQ in each), 2x MMGs, 3x PIATs and Batttalion HQ. Tonight I also added 9x combat patrols which I use single figures on 2.5cm bases. 

Craig
 

KoW- Orcs vs Kingdoms of Men

 I popped up to Timaru today and had a game of Kings of War vs my old gaming mate Nigel. Nigel hasn’t played since Onslaught IV in 2023 and was using the force he ran then, so no upgrades from the last couple of years of rules/army list churn. Nigel’s army is beautifully painted by Tony Rippin and has am awesome samurai/ Japanese inspired theme. It is truly breathtaking the detail that Tony has brought out in the miniatures and my army felt decidedly shabby lined up against it (which for orcs isn’t such a bad thing)

His list had roughly:

• 2x foot guard regiments
• 1x Pike horde
• 2x regiments of rifles
• 1x Knight regiment
• 2x giants
• 1x war engine
• 2x assassins
• 1x wizard
• 1x captain
• 1x general  

 

I faced him with 2000pts of my newly finished orcs.

• 1x longax horde with blessing of the gods
•  2x greatax regiments
• 1x troll horde
• 1x giant
• 2x wardrums
• 1x Krudger
• Ulpgar the mad
• Gakamak

To keep things simple we played the invade  mission so the objective was to get more units across the enemies side of the table. 

Deployment

Humans await the orc onslaught

Orcs prepare for war. 

 I won the first turn and with no shooting the orc army surged forward to engage the Samurai.

Nigel threw a giant forward to slow down the trolls, while a combination of rifles, lightning bolt and a war engine pt 8 wounds on the gore riders.  

On the far left flank Nigel sent the footgaurd forward to flank my longax while his pikeblock also advanced. 

In my turn 2 I "closed the door" on the exposed giant with my giant and the Oni giant was destroyed. On the far right of the screen Gakamak has charged the knights, done a few wounds and so prevented them from charging next turn. While in the centre the gore riders charge the rifles and destroy a unit. 

In his turn the second giant charged my giant, rolled maximum number of attacks (+12) so had 20 attacks and did 11 wounds but my giant survived. In the background footguard have attacked the greatax. The assassin and general attack the gore riders near the last surviving rifle regiment. 

Poor Gakamak. The assassin got treble attacks and did 11 wounds before the cavalry got invovled and chpped away with another 4 wounds. The assassin then cut poor Gak's 'ead off.

Turn 4 and things are getting messy. My giant did 6 wounds on Nigel's giant. My longax reformed rather than charge the pike block. My greatax in the centre charged a character (a wizard I think), killed it but ended u half an inch short of slamming into the rifle regiment. My great ax on the right did 5 wounds on the footguard- not enough!

A stunning army! 

A slight mistake here, we forgot the pike were hindered so my longax may have survived without being wavered had we remembered. Oops!

My gore riders get lucky vs the giant when Nigel rolls snake eyes for his nervetest. 

Another close up of Nigel's gorgeous army

Turn 5- the trolls charged the pike block not trealsiing they were pikes and not spears and needed 6s to hit. They caused 2 hits then rolled a double 6 to waver the pikes! In his previous turn Nigel ahd charged the pikes back across half way to do 90 attacks vs a wardrum (lets jsut say we hand waved the dice rolling) and with a waver was now too far out of positon. 

End of trn 6- the great ax have beenw avered agaon, everything else papart from them and the trolls were dead but i had 6 unit strength on Nigel's half. Nigel had 6 US on mine and so it was a draw! 

So there we have it. Nigel's first game in 18 months, my first game with my orcs and a well deserved draw. A very entertaining game and thoroughly enjoyed it. i will try to make it up to Timaru a bit more frequently to give Nigel a game

Craig 

Orcs for Kings of War

 A wee summer project.

I have decided to replace my current orc army with one based n GW models. The initial concept was (is) to run an all mobile Gore Rider force based around 4 regiments of gore riders and some chariots but I  also want to build up my infantry forces as well to run a more balanced combined arms force.

Absolutely love the GW Boar boys models, light years ahead of the mantic gore riders, and have been happily putting together a few infantry regiments as well. I picked up some second hand orcs as well as a boar boys set and have been happily hacking arms off the old monopose 2 hand weapon orcs and adding weapons arms from the orcs boyz mob to make the figures more interesting.

I’ve never actually been a fan of the GW cartoon orcs much preferring the LoTR/Mddle Earth/D&D (1e/2e) orc aesthetics and so wanted to avoid the BAH (boring as hell) Goblin green skinned orc look. Tolkien described orcs as sallow skinned or swarthy so I’ve gone with a a sallow skin tone based on Vallejo Ochre green with a wash of GW Athonian Camoshade to give it a greenish hue which is then  highlighted with yellow ochre. I am quite happy with the way they are turning out

My plan to differentiate infantry units is as follows:

• Great ax- Two hand weapons armed orcs
• Longax: Spear armed orcs
• Ax- axe and shield armed orcs.

 The Gore Rider regiments. The boar boys are large minis and 6 fit on the base comfortably and doesn't look too spares. 

The first infantry regiments- a regiment each of Greatax and Longax. In front are two wardrums which are very importnat for the orcs in KoW to boost their nerve. The wardrum on the left is by Mantic the one of the right made out of some of the second hand mini's I bought for this project. 

A couple of characters on gores lead the gore riders.

The army so far. 

Craig