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As mentioned last time, Mark and I are working our way through the Operation Dauntless tutorial scenarios. The third one is fairly simple and very quick, while the fourth one got into one of the rules sections that really had me puzzled when I went through the rule book. Not that it was actually confusing or poorly written, it was just different enough that I knew I’d need to see it in action to ‘get it’.

T3 “Recon Roundup” basically shows off the capabilities of the British Universal Carrier platoons. They start with two full battalions, plus three recon platoons (note that each battalion also has an organic carrier platoon), and a third battalion enters on turn 1. They have three turns to wipe out the four starting German units (three platoons and a MG section), and occupy Rauray (three of four hexes) against three German companies (and associated MG sections) that enter on turn 1. There’s some restrictions on where the British can move, that enforces this as two separate fights; the carrier platoons can go wherever, but everyone else is limited.

The order of the day is movement, and the carriers finally get their full movement allowance, instead of being special ruled as just ‘leg infantry’ for movement, as in the first two scenarios. This brings in tracked movement, which is naturally more sensitive to terrain (leg movement is surprisingly simple: 1 for everything except woods [2], and 0.5 for roads), and an allowance of 15 (as opposed to 6 for the very fastest normal infantry).

First turn moves. Yes, there is ZOC in this game, but armored units ignore it.

The initial goal of running around and cutting off the German units is easy to do, and concentric attacks are also an odds shift, which helped for an otherwise weak attack against 0606—attacking out of a field is deadly, and the doubled MG factors meant it was a 2:1 (I had also neglected two include a third hex while concentrating on getting the concentric bonus), which caused one loss, which the Germans took on their platoon. 0807 took a full 5:1 and four losses, which was all retreat, with one platoon being eliminated for retreating through a zone of control.

The remaining German platoon got all the way to 0520 (road net, and the retreat got him a good head start), while new units approached Rauray. The MG sections couldn’t get up on the first turn, but the three companies managed a 4:1 attack (lowered to 2:1 for dense terrain and armor), and rolled a ’12’ to send a platoon reeling four hexes back, and occupy a hex of the village.

On the second turn, my main two carrier platoons were able to catch up to and surround the retreated German survivor, while the Kensington battalion hurried forward in case they were needed. In the east, the main column continued to Rauray, but still couldn’t get there, while the scout platoon moved back into the village. Both combats went well, finishing off the initial German forces.

The German MG sections caught up to everyone else, and Mark did a 5:1 attack against 1417 (3:1 after close terrain and armor bonus), forcing a one hex retreat, and taking a second hex of the village. However, for my last turn, the infantry finally came up, and the carriers moved around for encircling attacks against the Germans now in the village. The two carrier platoons that had hunted down the surviving Germans last turn also had an easy time moving up to help.

That still only added up to a 3:2 and 1:1 (both then shifted up one odds column) against the big German units, and both results were 0/1, and Mark flipped a unit each time to stay in place and win by occupying two hexes of Rauray.

T4, “PIAT and Panzerfaust” is a really tough scenario for the British. It’s only two turns, and the Brits must clear the north side of a stream in that time, without losing any units. Like in T2, heavy fog is in effect, limiting everything to movement and assault. This time, the ‘tactical advantage’ system is used, which inserts a short anti-tank action before the main part of an assault. Surprisingly, considering the armor tutorial starts at scenario T6, both sides get some armor platoons.

Interestingly, regular infantry units pretty much all have an anti-tank factor, with a range of 0. These are for short-range LATW like Panzerfausts and PIATs, and only come into play in an assault. When there’s armor and AT-factors on opposite sides of an assault, you figure out the tactical advantage to determine what kind of AT fire (if any!) happens before the assault itself happens. The Brits have three Firefly platoons and one of regular Shermans (along with two brigades, an extra MG section, and no carriers), while the Germans have a SdKfz 251 platoon, plus three more that include some 251/10s (the 37mm gun version), and one Pz IV platoon (along with four each reduced infantry companies and MG sections).

The German set up is fixed, in four hexes on the north bank of the Bordel, and the scenario recommends the British set up in four groups, with each one set to do an assault. That part was easy, figuring out how to do good assaults was a bit harder.

Tactical advantage consists of adding up various modifiers, starting with a comparison of the number of infantry steps; heavy fog actually adds one to the total, making assaults a bit easier. If the final number is positive, the attacker draws chits, and if it’s negative, the defender does. In all cases, you draw one more chit than the total, with a ‘0’ being a single defender draw. The person who drew the chits chooses one chit for the assault to use. Each chit gives a sequence of AT fire by either the defender or attacker.

So, in my first move, a combined force of Shermans, Fireflies, and two infantry companies assaulted the left of the German line, with a company, MG section, and 251/10. At this point, the odds would be 17:10, with the halftracks generating an odds shift, and preventing an armor bonus. But heavy fog and four infantry steps to two generates a ‘+3’ tactical advantage, giving me four chit draws, which were DA, No AT Fire, D, and AA. That second one would cause nothing to happen, the first and third would allow Mark (who’s Defending) to do one AT fire against my tanks (followed by one from me with the first chit), while the last one just gives me two anti-tank shots. The chits range from zero to four AT shots (in all sorts of mixes), and at low numbers are unlikely to be what you want.

So I took the ‘AA’ chit, and took out the halftracks, shifting the base odds to 17:8, or 2:1 (which was also the final odds), for a 1/0 result that only flipped my Shermans. The second assault was fairly similar, except that with a MG section instead of a Sherman, I had 5 draws, which allowed me to knock out that 251/10 section, and a better roll got me a 0/3 to knock out the MG section (can only retreat two), and send the company back across the river.

The third assault was against the Pz IV hex in a village, and the penalty for attacking out of a field (-4) generated a 0 tactical advantage, with the chit draw being No AT Fire. This turned into a horrible assault with three left shifts (close terrain, dug in, German combined arms) (we did four, as we missed the ‘normal’ 251 didn’t have an orange combat strength), and a poor roll generated 4/0 results, forcing me to flip a two companies.

I at least learned my lesson, and the fourth group moved down the edge of the active board into 0810 so as to not be penalized on the tactical advantage draw, allowing me to use a AAA chit to kill the 251/10s. Another poor roll gave a 2/1 result to flip both companies, but eliminate the German MG section.

After the first turn.

Mark moved the retreated company into 0710, but frankly it wasn’t needed (though his best move). I needed 0710 to be cleared so I could assault 0610 from there, and not confront his Pz IVs in the open. Clearing it on turn two doesn’t do a lot of good, as the assaulting stack is forced to advance into the hex, blocking anyone else from using it.

But, I gave it a try. 0810 tried again against 0710, and generated one loss, which Mark took, to keep a company sitting there. I swung the stack with the Shermans across to hit 0610, with a TA of -1 (4-2 steps, -4 for coming out of a field, and +1 for the fog), and Mark chose a D chit (the other draw being No Fire), and effectively won the scenario by eliminating the weakened Sherman platoon with his Panzerfausts. The assault itself was 1:1 (or 1:3 after three shifts against me), for a 2/1 that flipped my infantry and eliminated the halftracks.

We did the last two assaults anyway, hitting 0710 again, and forcing the company there to retreat three hexes after a No Fire draw, and then 0410 where I chose a No Fire chit (I could have chosen AAAA or AAA, but I had nothing to fire at) and then a 0/1 result eliminated another MG section, but left a company behind, leaving me with two hexes of Germans north of the river, and having lost a unit.

So, a horrible time for the Brits on the ground, but a really good introduction to an important part of assaults. As the infantry moves into rang, the armor has it out, and what comes out the other end may have a big effect on the assault itself.

The actual AT fire is dominated by a comparison of the AT value to the target’s armor value (though that does max out a +8, which all of ours were well past). Normally, range reduces the 2d10 roll, but of course this was all at range 0. The potentially annoying part is that one of the modifiers (flanking fire) relies on seeing the die roll first. Often, it’s not going to make a difference (at least when the penetration is already high), but it is extra fiddly.

We did miss another wrinkle of AT fire: a second draw of a different set of chits. This is purely for infantry (range 0 AT, really) vs armor in an assault. Now, all my fire was with the Shermans, so we just missed it late when Mark’s infantry got my Shermans. You draw chits depending on visibility (4 for day/good visibility, down to 2 in fog or at night). At that point, no modifiers, even the big penetration one, are used unless the chit draw says so, meaning Panzerfausts aren’t that reliable (but the base ‘to kill’ is 14+ on 2d10, so not likely, but far from impossible even without modifiers). A quick draw of two chits gives me Terrain in Assault Hex (+5 for village), and Enemy Infantry+MG Steps (-8 for four steps). With a roll of 14, that’s 11 for my Shermans to actually survive, thanks to all my covering infantry. (Or he could have just used the Pz IV instead, with two less AT/penetration than the infantry [but always uses it], which would have done the job.)

I still wasn’t going to push him out of the hex though.

For the last few weeks, Mark and I have been getting together on Vassal and going through the tutorial scenarios for Operation Dauntless. The first two are (largely) on a supplement card which makes it easy to reference as you go through the basic attack forms. So, “T1” is ‘tutorial 1’, not ‘turn 1’….

And Dauntless is a fairly involved system, which these introduce in pieces. There’s four different ways to do an attack: combat, assault, ranged attack, and anti-tank fire. The first scenario is all combat, and then the second scenario goes to all assaults, which is about the same procedure as combat, but happens during movement, instead of in a separate phase.

In the first, the British attack Fontenay with a couple of battalions (including four companies, a carrier platoon, and a MG section as separate units each), and the Germans defend a few hexes north of there with a mix of infantry and engineer platoons, a MG section, and an IG battery. Victory is awarded for the village, or the Brits losing two units (not steps), or the Germans losing three.

Mark has been taking the Germans for all of these, and went with the recommended set up, though he put the IG in the north, away from the likely action. With the limited rules, turns (of which there are five) are pretty simple, move, then attack. Combats can be any combination of units adjacent to a single enemy location, with an odds-based results table. There’s a few limited things that adjust combat strength, which are marked with colored boxes around the combat strength. Possibly the most common one is MG sections being doubled on defense. The different part, is that all modifiers after that shift the odds column instead of the die roll. A combat represents a moderate to short range fight (perhaps equivalent to a large scenario in a squad-level game), and results in a a number of ‘losses’ on each side, with each ‘loss’ being taken as either a one-hex retreat or a step loss (the attacker must take their first loss as a step).

All the German units are one-step, so their force is brittle, but can generally retreat out of trouble. However, there’s a limit to how far a unit can retreat, and taking more losses than that will force losses to be taken, like in the first combat of our game, where an 8:1 combat was reduced to 5:1 (the max on the chart), and I rolled well to force 4 losses on a unit that could only retreat 3 hexes.

Generally, the Germans have the advantages of being dug-in (an odds shift), in close terrain (woods/village/heavy bocage odds shift), and often, the attack is coming out of a field (one side being in truly open terrain is a shift against it). However, concentrating against a single target is easy, especially when there’s no ranged attacks, and the Germans need to spread out to cover a lot of territory. My other two attacks weren’t nearly so dramatic, but did force retreats.

Mark repositioned to block the center which I was blowing open, and concentrated a stack in 0606. His main problem was 0805, which was in the middle of his ‘hole’, and couldn’t leave without being vulnerable, and couldn’t stay without being surrounded (‘concentric attacks’ are another odds shift). So he stayed, and on my second turn I surrounded him and eliminated the platoon by forcing it to retreat through my ZOC, while a second attack forced his last dug-in unit in the main line to retreat.

The Germans pulled back to the woods (Parc de Boislondel), and started taking positions in Fontenay, with a retreated engineer digging in right outside (they dig in in one turn instead of the usual two). I raced after them (leaving behind a MG section, as they’re slower), for two combats that pushed the engineers out and took one woods hex. Mark went for a counterattack, surrounding two British units, and the first attack was a 5:1 that forced me to take a step as I retreated through his ZOC, while the second was a 3:1 with a poor roll, forcing him to take a loss, and lose the scenario.

In many ways, it’s not much of a scenario, but it does involve a fair amount of maneuver, while giving the combat table a good workout. There’s certainly worse ways to show off the basics of a system. I think he should have pulled his middle unit back on turn one, in hopes of it managing to retreat out of danger, instead of letting it get completely cut off, but it would have been in danger of another excessive loss result in the open.

The second scenario imposes the heavy fog rules, which limits LOS to zero, making all forms of attack impossible, except for the assault, which is a move into the enemy’s hex. This uses the same combat chart as a regular attack, but the attacker must take the first two losses as steps instead of retreats, and you only get to use one stack of units moving together. The rules prohibit you from ‘picking up’ units as you do a move, so an assault stack must be ready to go at the start of the turn. The column shifts are a little different between the two, and a few units (…like German engineers, which I think we missed for most of the scenario), create a shift in assaults unless countered by a similar unit on the other side.

This time, there’s fewer units involved, but it’s a longer scenario, and the British are trying to take three of four objective hexes. The British have a battalion to start with, and get another one on turn 6, while the Germans get two reduced companies, a pair platoons (normally just ‘break down’ units), three engineer platoons, a pair of MG sections, and are defending two strongpoints. “Recovery” actions become important, which is an action that can be done instead of moving/assaulting, since the British can assume they’ll take a lot of step losses, and that allows recovery of a lost step (also, the Germans have two reduced units who can Recover). The playing area is only ~4 hexes wide, but heavy fog eliminates ZOC, which means there’s still plenty of chances to maneuver.

Mark pretty much followed the recommended setup again, and my first attack failed, with a 1/0 result. The second one was on the same hex with a larger force and the armor bonus from universal carriers (hey, if they’re the only armored thing around…) for a 1/1 to force him out of the hex. I had one (successful) assault for the second turn, driving the Germans south of the river, while a company headed for the rear to recover, and another tried to recover in place, and I used MG sections to cover my flanks.

I also put together a new full-size stack, and it assaulted over the river on 3, taking another loss, but forcing an engineer to retreat, while one company recovered to full strength. Mark started pulling back to the strongpoints, generating large force concentrations on two tough hexes, and I’d need to take one of them. I rearranged forces, and got a lucky recovery while in contact with the enemy, as well as the other reduced unit.

After British Turn 4.

Mark completed his pull back, and I occupied 0610 with an MG section, and then assaulted to drive him out of 0510. The Germans regrouped into the strongpoints, and finally managed to recover one of their companies to full strength (normally, German units can’t recover because of a +1 to the table, but being in a strongpoint puts them back at a 1-in-6 chance). Turn 6 saw my just-activated units come into range, while I tried physically cutting off 0312, and assaulted 0611, knocking out a platoon (now that he was down to the strongpoints, Mark was eliminating units rather than retreat, because I’d advance in to take it, and then he’d have to assault a strongpoint to avoid a loss—thankfully for him, the strongpoint negated the first loss of a 1/2 result).

Mark thought about a breakout from 0312, since my defending companies could be in a lot of trouble against a full German stack, but if he got me out of the hex (which would have happened), he was obliged to advance into the assault hex… uncovering the victory strongpoint. The next turn, I shifted to surrounding 0611, where I could put two companies into one hex, making that even less likely, and another assault eliminated a weak German MG unit, while I took another step loss.

That led to a purely administrative reshuffle turn, and one of my four reduced units recovered. Turn 9 saw another German unit eliminated, but the next assault went all wrong with a 3/0 result, flipping two units, and forcing a retreat. Units sent off to recover had to move to fill the new gap in the line instead. Mark did a counter attack against a pair of reduced companies, and rolled a ‘2’ (on 2d6) for a 2/1, losing two valuable units, and only forcing me to retreat a hex. I reshuffled and had one unsuccessful (0/1) assault on 0312 (now the weaker hex). My final turn saw the final reduction of 0312… just in the nick of time with two assaults that each managed to cause a loss.

Given how fast I started driving the Germans back, the end was surprisingly tense. Assaults are not an easy way to get the job done, but they can be a fast way, and thanks to the recovery mechanism, as long as you can absorb two losses, they don’t have to wreck your force when they go wrong, either.

Overall, these two scenarios do a good job of introducing some of the basic mechanisms, but are (understandably) a bit one note. Still, just fiddling with them gets one used to terrain types and the main combat table.