Firepower: WW3 - First Probe

I've been playing quite a bit of Firepower lately (and badly, I might add - I still don't have a great grasp of the advanced rules) and it's been a lot of fun.  After my first few forays into the game with the Soviet-Sino border clashes, I decided to have a good series of matches between the Soviets and NATO set in LnLP's "World at War" universe.

If you're familiar at all with "Heroes of the Gap", you'll know of a nice little scenario called "First Probe", which features a mostly infantry fight between the Americans and Russians in the tiny West German town of Bergengipfel.  After playing the LnL game earlier today for some inspiration, I decided to set a Firepower scenario in the same battle, zoomed in on the actions of just two squads and a handful of buildings on the outskirts of the town.

I had actually played through this scenario a few times, with wildly varying results.  This is just one of those sessions which I think will amply demonstrate how deadly and unforgiving this game can be.  So...without further ado, here we go:

The Americans start out this LnL scenario with their location "hidden" from the Soviets.  I have tried to do the same way by rolling for US soldier locations in each building after the Soviets come into view.  If you're playing 2-player, then just have the American player secretly write down his various unit locations on a beverage-stained napkin.  The Soviets get a couple of smoke artillery missions to start the scenario, so I've decided to just roll 1d10 and let the Soviets place that number of smoke markers anywhere on the southern board.


Here's the map.  It's based very loosely on the terrain near Bergengifel.  The Americans write down their setup locations in any of the buildings on the northern board (or, since I'm playing solo, we'll just roll randomly for it).  The Soviets will approach from the south.  Their objective is to take 3 buildings.


The Soviets get 6 smoke markers to start off with. They will last for two turns before dissipating.


The Soviet Motorized Rifle squad is well trained and well led, with 3 leaders.  It gets 4 activation chits (dark green) while the Americans only get 3.



The Soviets split up into 3-man teams and approach the buildings.  One squad comes straight up the middle with the smoke blocking LOS of the advance.  The squad leader (Sgt. Buryshkin) and two men stand near a tree at the edge of the smoke.



The other two teams approach along the east side of the map.  Their plan is to go over the hill and try to take the American-held buildings using coordination and close assault.



The American positions are revealed!  Boone (7), Curtis (6) and Tanaka (26) stand in the windows of the building closest to the Soviet advance, waiting to kill any approaching Russians.  Sgt. York (2) stands at the window in the building to their left.


The other buildings to the side and in the rear have three US soldiers each, ready to lay on the hurt.


Pvt. Tanaka sees shapes moving through the smoke and throws a hand grenade at Buryshin and his team.  Luckily for them, the grenade disappears in the smoke and explodes about 12 yards away, harmlessly.


York opens up with his M-16A1 at the Soviets on the hillside.  He suppresses them and wounds one of the Russians in the arm.  Pvt. Cherkesov (18) lays prone and stunned from the wound.  Will poor Pvt. Cherkesov ever catch a break?


Buryskin fires back at Tanaka, standing in the nearest window, and hits him in the chest.  Tanaka falls dead to the floor.


Pvt. Cherlin  (19) and Kuzmin (5 - stacked below him) approach the house and crouch around the corner.


Cpl. Coleman (25) fires his grenade launcher at another team of Soviets on the hillside to the south.


The round lands right in the middle of them, killing Dmitriev and Vasiliev.  The remaining Russian soldier is stunned and prone.


Curtis (6) moves to the nearest window and steps over Tanaka's body, spraying the crouching Soviets and killing Kuzmin!


Coleman lets loose with the M203 grenade launcher again, hitting the other team of Soviets on the hillside.  The grenade doesn't kill anyone but it manages to start a fire in the hex.  The nearby tree goes up in flames.




Coleman quickly chambers another grenade and fires off the last one at the Soviets who lay prone and stunned near the burning tree.  It misses by a wide margin.  Unfortunately, the Russians are pinned and cannot move.  The fire spreads very quickly and Smirnov and Cherkesov die.


 Cherlin (19) spins around and see Curtis in the window, letting off two shots.  Both rounds hit the rifleman, killing him instantly.


Buryshkin (6) decides to try and help infiltrate the nearby building with only one American left inside.


Unfortunately, the Americans get their command chit pulled twice (the Soviets have lost two chits already thanks to taking so many casualties) and Lee (5) moves from the building to the north to melee the prone Sgt. Buryshkin.  Lee kills him.


Boone (7), the lone American left in the building comes out of the window, sneaks around the corner and kills Cherlin (19).


What a mess!  Only two Soviets are left at the end of the turn.  The Russians decide to call it quits.

Epilogue:

A couple of things went disastrously wrong for the Russians.  First, the command chit pulls heavily favored the Americans, who seemed to find the Soviets vulnerable at the start of every turn.  Second, and this cannot be stressed enough, the Soviets bunched up in groups to make movement and command easier.  Unfotunately, this left them open to attack from area-effect weapons.  Bad luck hampered them too.  Being stuck in a fire hex while being too stunned to move led to the loss of an entire 3 man team.  Careless movement near a building without good coordination led to the end of another.

A recent play of this scenario led to some very interesting results in the form of a Soviet sweep to victory.  The Russians bunched up and charged into the buildings after some lucky chit-pulls.  Once they get into the buildings, the Americans have a hard time focusing their heavy weapons on them.  I'll be playing through this one again with different tactics to demonstrate the various results from the game.

Comments

  1. Once again, great stuff.

    I like it in the LnL-verse. I have played the First Probe scenario a couple times in HotG and I think you have captured it pretty well.

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    Replies
    1. Thanks Dustin! Did you get your copy yet, by the way?

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    2. Unfortunately I'm still waiting on my copy to arrive. I am hoping this week, but I'm not holding my breath.

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    3. Unfortunately I havent received mine yet, I was hoping it would be here this week but things arent looking good.

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    4. Sorry to hear it, man. Not to worry! I'll probably be updating again this weekend with more Firepower AARs. Enjoy!

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    5. Ha, thanks I appreciate your blog.

      And besides, its not like I dont have a multitude of other games waiting to be played. I just picked up Next War: Korea last week so I have been working my way through the rules and hope to set up a scenario this weekend.

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    6. Awesome! I was thinking of buying that game. Let us know how it goes.

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  2. Great AAR, Brad. Firepower used to be one of my favorite games. Jim werbaneth turned me on to it. Have you read his magazine, Line of Departure? Has a good amount of Firepower stuff.

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    1. Thanks Mark! I haven't read the magazine but thanks for letting me know about it. I'll certainly be looking into those back issues. I'm hoping LnLP produces a man-to-man wargame at some point too!

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    2. Now that would be something great, if LnLP created a Man to Man game ala Firepower. I could just imagine the fantastic art and quality of components.

      Incidently I didn't end up playing Next War: Korea on the weekend, I am struggling with the rules, for some reason the just aren't clicking for me. I did however play some Band of Heroes, and had a blast.

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  3. Well I am pleased to say that I finally received my copy of Firepower today! (Along with Open Fire). Although the box is pretty beat up, the contents look unplayed and the chits are unpunched (besides a few that fell out). I will post some pics later tonight on hextherapy.blogspot.ca

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  4. Hi Brad, this post has me excited for a couple of reasons. I've been wanting to play Heroes of the Gap for months, but I'm a newbie. I recently played Tank on Tank at militarywargaming.com (formerly the Tin Can General), and now I'm playing Nuklear Winter '68 at that site. So I'm getting a feel for how chit wargaming works, and I love it.

    HotG is now sold out, just in time for Christmas. I wanted to put something on a Christmas list for my relatives, so I found Firepower. I like the man-to-man scale even better than what HotG offers, and I like the flexibility and the basic rules that may even let me play with other newbies. And now that I've seen an HotG scenario played out using Firepower, well, I see the possibilities are endless. Firepower is now what I want the most.

    The second reason I'm excited is that you would be a perfect addition to our group of gamers at militarywargaming.com. We play PbP games really slowly, but we have a lot of fun. Your expertise at these games would be very beneficial to us, and on a personal level, I'd love to have you there because most of the other wargamers there are stuck in WWII, while I'm more interested in more recent settings.

    If you and I both have Firepower, we could have identical set-ups at our locations--could be cool. I'm also learning how to use Vassal, so that's an option. Let me know if you're interested.

    Scott

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    Replies
    1. Hey Scott,

      Thanks for your kind words! I'm glad you like Firepower. I always have a good time with it, especially incorporating the advanced rules. As for your other comments, I'll definitely check out your group. Thanks again for the invite!

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