A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict - AAR #1

On the last club meet we had a firts test game for our "A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict" project. The first rules to be tried out was the "Tragedy & Triumph".

As I didn´t realy like the card activation system in the rules I used the one from Muskets and Tomahawks that have proven to work well in multiplayer games, and we where 10 players the other night...

The game was played on a 180x120cm board, all terrain was made by me and all minis was painted and provided by my friend Björn. Please also visit Björns blog and take a chanse to order some inter war Swedish Soldier:)

First we have some scenario notes.

Background 
During the autumn of 1931 the different fractions in Sweden tried to gather resources for the up-coming struggle of power. One of the main issues was to get the hands on a fuel resources, as a response to the increased amount of fuel thefts the Swedish army posted troops as almost every petrol station to protect them and their black gold. But it was a difficult task as so many of the militia and semi military movements wanted to get their hands on the goodies…

Scenario 
This scenario will represent one of several dawn raids to gather resources. This time there is a contry side Petrole station guarded by a section of Swedish regulars that will be assaulted by a unholy alliance between a group of Socialist Youth Movement and a Communist Movement group.

OOB 

Swedish Army 
2xCommanders (Löjtnant Jansson och Fänrik Stål)
4x6 Infantry sections with rifles and bayonets and one section with a BAR.
1x Strv m/21 with one HMG (Light Tank)

Young Eagles (Swedish Socialist Youth Movement)
1xCommander with one (1) grenade (Section leader Tage Erlandsson)
2x6 Eagles with rifles
1x Sniper with "big-game rifle"

Red Action (Swedish Communist Movement)
1xCommander with one (1) grenade (Commissar Hugo Sillén)
2x6 Comrades with rifles

Set-up 
The Swedish Army has 2 infantry sections and one Officer at the filling station in the middle of the gaming area. The rest of the Swedish Army troops and the Tank will enter as reinforcements during the game. The troops at the filling station have to send runners to get the reinforcement, that arrived the activation after the runner has left the gaming board by the friendly short edge.

The Sniper may be deployed as per the Sniper rules.

Objectives 
The winner is the fraction that after the game ended have a unpinned unit within the premises of the petrol station. (The sniper or the light tank can´t be used to claim victory) If there is a draw, count the number of minis in the claiming units, most soldiers left are the winner.

Game Length 
We use random game length. At the end of turn 3 roll 1D3 and play that number of turns and then the game ends, i.e in total 4 to 6 turns.

Second a short AAR of our game:

The Army soldiers guarding the Filling station suspect that something is going to happen and the Second Lieutenant decid to send for some reinforcements...

Private 87 Axelsson where ordered to run for reinforcements...taking his time...

The suspicion was right as several groups of bolsheviks emerge from the forest, seems like reinforcements will be well needed. Just as private 87 Axelsson have left the filling station he is shoot at by a sniper, but as it was at a long range the shoot misses but it get the Private to run faster:)

The red forces advance throught the idyllic Swedish contry side... The Swedish offices at the Filling station tries in wain to get them to stop and retreat, not even warning shoots helps...

The Swedish soldiers open fire with devastating effect amongst the bolsheviks.

Several of the red insurgents fell behind the round pole fence and their comrade tried to respond to the fire from the Swedish soldiers...

Things got worse for the bolsheviks as the army reinforcements arrived with a Tank !

The slow moving tank advanced along the road to the filling station with close support of a squad of Swedish soldiers...

The 2 squads of reinforcing infantry moved out on the flanks to support the deffender of the filling station as the Tank slogged along the road...

The bolsheviks managed to get their grips together and managed to put at least one of the squads at the filling station out of action...HURRRAYYY !!!

The arrogant tank comander was comanding his tank from the open turret hatch to get a better view ordered his tank of the road and in to the front yard of the small homestead in his hunt for insurgents...

As the tank entered the frontyard the Socialist Youth Movement Leader Tage Erlandsson took the chanse to throw his grenad at the tank and especially the comander in teh open hatch. The tanks movement come to an abrupt end in the potato field....

The last Socialist Youth Movement squad gathered enought courage to charge the damaged tank, the dazed crew surrender right away...

Even with the victory over the tank the red side by now had taken to severe losses to be able to put up a fight about the filling station, so they decided to withdraw and analyze what to do different next time...

...as the umpire and scenarion maker I can right away say I need to give them more troops about 3x8 to them each...

Even a bit unbalanced I think all participants had a good and entertaining game. T&T worked ok, some small things that that I have to think about, to use the M&T activation system was step in the right direction and turned out realy well.

More "A Very Moderate Swedish Conflict" to come but next time we might be trying out the TFL rules "Through the Mud and the Blood"...