One Hour Wargames WWII

Although I've had 'One Hour Wargames' for years now, there are a few periods I've barely tried with it, and some I've not tried at all. One of the latter is the WWII set so I thought I'd give them a try. I'm somewhat let down in that respect by actually having no WWII troops in my collections (aside from the figures in Memoir '44), so I resorted to making some top-down counters using stuff from Junior General. after all, if I decide that the rules are good enough I can use them as the basis (literally) of some 6mm forces.

I made the counters 40mm x 30mm and used my 16" square board. This makes a 6" infantry move about 2 1/2" - almost 1/6th of the width of the board. Shooting has a 5" range.

As with all OHW rules, the WWII set has four troop types. In this case they are Infantry, Mortars, AT Guns and Tanks. The combat is all shooting (no melee) and there is a cross-reference table to show how effective the shooting of one type is against another. For example AT Guns are good against Tanks and poor against everything else whilst Mortars are OK against AT Guns and Mortars, excellent against Infantry and poor against Tanks. Firing is by line of sight only, except for Mortars, which can shoot at anything that can be observed by a friendly unit.

Anyway, the gist of it is that the WWII rules are as stripped-down and simplistic as all of the other sets in the book

I used my own combat resolution method with 1D6/2D6/3D6 replacing the 1D6-2/1D6/1D6+2 of the original rules. A 4+ hits and covers gives a 4+ save on each hit. A unit can take 5 hits. This does change the dynamics of the game a little, since it's possible to consistently score no hits on something, whereas the original rules give a constant and partially predictable attrition effect. 

As for the forces I made up ten counters for each side, to cover all of the possible options. I went with 1940s Germans and French, mostly because I couldn't find the tanks an AT guns I wanted for the British. The actual nature of the tanks is unimportant in these rules - a tank is a tank. I used Panzer IIs and Somuas because I liked the art and they fit on the counters.

I rolled a scenario and two random forces. I got Scenario 14 - the Static Defence, and the Germans were attacking. They had four Infantry, a Mortar and a Tank. The defending French had three Infantry, two Tanks and an AT Gun. They had to defend a hill and a village against the German attack, with each objective being assigned two units that couldn't move more than a certain distance from it. The Germans simply had to take one of the objectives. 

The French defended the hill with the AT Gun and a Tank (tanks get a hull-down defence bonus in these rules). They defended the village with Infantry, since they are the only type that can stop in a village. The remaining Infantry and Tanks were in reserve.

The Germans decided to go for the village, massing Infantry and a tank for the assault, and covering the flank with some Infantry and their Mortar.

A couple of moves in. The attack on the village had seen casualties on both sides. The French had swung the armour round to threaten the German mortar, which was also under fire from French infantry in the wood.

The attack continued. Units can either move or shoot, so once inside an effective range you tend to get a static firefight. The first line of assaulting German infantry was looking a little vulnerable, but so were some of the French defenders, thanks to fire from the mortar. However the mortar was now taking plenty of fire as well.

One of the defending French units was eliminated.

The mortar was close to being lost, but the French opted to switch the infantry in the wood into a position where it could rush to occupy the village if the second defending unit was lost. The Germans lost one of their attacking units.

The second unit of French defenders was lost, but the Germans shifted their tanks into the gap between the village and the wood to stop the French reinforcements from rushing in. The German mortar clung on, now on its last hit.

With no reason to defend the mortar, the Germans advanced all of their infantry towards the village. Trapped in the wood by the tanks, the French could do little to stop it.

They did swing their tank over to attack the Germans. The Germans occupied the village.

The tanks exchanged fire, whilst the French infantry shot at the German tank. Its die-rolling was terrible and it inflicted no hits over several turns.

The French tank was eliminated. Whilst the German tank was on its last hit, there was now no longer enough time left for the French to take the village. The Germans had won.

The Germans consolidate their position.

I rolled a new scenario, and got 16 - Encounter. This has the two forces advancing down a road towards each other, with another village as the objective. The French got three Infantry, two Tanks and an AT Gun. The Germans got four Infantry, an AT Gun and a Mortar.

Initial advances. Both sides have to move along the road until one side occupies the village.

The Germans moved into the village from the north. The French pushed in from the south, Villages block line of sight, but I assumed units within them could engage at contact (or near enough. The French spread out their forces to engage the Germans.

The Germans set up their mortars behind the village to support the fighting there. Infantry spread out to cover the mortars and their AT gun was positioned to oppose the French tanks to the east. The French had sent their tanks east and west so the one of them would be able to avoid the AT gun. The French held an infantry unit in reserve ready to advance into the village.

The next couple of turns saw some fierce fighting, with the Germans to the east suffering badly. In the village both units had taken plenty of hits.

The AT gun eliminated the French tanks to the east, whilst the French tanks to the west took out one of the German infantry units. In the village both units were on their last hit.

The French lost their unit in the village, but threw in their reserves. The German unit there clung on, still on its last hit.

The French advanced their infantry and attacked the German mortars. Meanwhile the French lost the last of their tanks, and the Germans their AT guns.

The French reserves didn't last long, leaving the Germans sole occupants of the village.

The French threw their last infantry unit into the attack, whilst the Germans advanced their reserve infantry into a position where it could occupy the village.

The initial German attackers were finally eliminated, but the Germans advanced their last infantry unit in to replace it. The Germans were still supported by their mortars, whilst the French had the less effective support of their AT guns.

The mortars were eventually eliminated, but at the end of the game both sides had infantry in the village, so it was a draw.

I'll need to play some more of the scenarios using these rules, but on the whole I liked them. As expected the non-attritional combat allowed some units to cling on against the odds, but the use of cover saves instead of a fixed 50% reduction on casualties also has an effect, sometimes rendering cover completely ineffective if you get a run of bad save-rolls.