WW2 Hook's Farm? | Little Wars Revisited

JohnY
Corporal

Posts: 78

WW2 Hook's Farm? Jun 5, 2017 14:41:16 GMT

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Post by JohnY on Jun 5, 2017 14:41:16 GMT

I was re-reading our most esteemed Little Wars, and thought it might be fun to try my hand at Hook's Farm.

As I don't own any "horse & musket" troops, with the exception of infantry and but two lonely cavalry (all in the 1/72 scale at that), I decided upon WW2, for which I have a reasonable variety of figures and vehicles (in several scales even).

The question is, how might I convert "a compact little force of 3 guns, 48 infantry, and 25 horse" to the period?

Using the number of men roughly in an infantry section/squad, 10, I decided the 48 infantry could be treated as 5 squads (so a reinforced platoon), which in my basing is 5 bases of 3 figures each

Horse, on the other hand, don't directly correspond to tanks and other vehicles. Because the ratio of cavalry to infantry is roughly 1:2, I would supply 1 vehicle for each 2 squads. The result is three vehicles per side.
For variety's sake, I'm thinking a composition determined by d6: 1-4 = tank, 5 = scout vehicle, 6 = personnel transport.

For guns, I am torn.

These could be ATG (of which, at best, I can field 2 per side, and more likely, 1), mortars, HMGs, or off-table artillery even. I may randomize these as with vehicles, something like: 1 = ATG, 2-3 = Mortar, 4-5 = HMG, 6 = FAO). The assignment of results is based upon what my current collection can yield, where mortars and MGs outnumber ATGs 3:1. FAO will either be a lone figure, or just friendly units with LOS to an enemy.

Rules will be Morschauser's Modern rules (undoubtedly my favorite), with or without an added card based activation mechanism. It would also work quite well on a grid I suspect, using Portable Wargame: Modern and as I am very fond of grids, I may give this a try at some point. Visually, the limited number of bases and vehicles will look something like a Neil Thomas One Hour Wargame and I suspect those rules would work.

Thoughts? Suggestions? Am I missing something obvious?

Thanks!

-John

briddy
Lance Corporal

Posts: 34

WW2 Hook's Farm? Jun 18, 2017 23:16:16 GMT

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Post by briddy on Jun 18, 2017 23:16:16 GMT

Ha ha! Bob Cordery has just published his new Portable Wargame book with hex and square maps for Hook's Farm. This got me excited because like you I have a 54mm WW2 set up. At the moment I am preparing the terrain to be able to run this scenario with my existing toys.

dobber
New Recruit

Posts: 1

WW2 Hook's Farm? Oct 3, 2017 12:48:29 GMT via mobile

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Post by dobber on Oct 3, 2017 12:48:29 GMT

I may be a little late to the party, as I just found this site (and my interest in 54mm gaming), but here is what i would suggest:
I should think that, when converting scenarios between periods, you should look at what the arms were intended to do in their period and find analogs, using just a dash of (God forbid) common sense.
Using my theory, the first thing you need to do is identify the "scenario type", meeting engagement, attack defense, et all. This is important because differing periods require differing force strength ratios to work. So, in a Napoleonic era scenario(let's cut that off after, say, the Crimea) the attacker may be able to get away with only having 90%, 80 on the low end, the strength of the defender, and still have a chance. As firepower increases, so does the strength necessary for the attacker.
Anyways, back to the point at hand. Let us say that a reinforced platoon of army blue (using suspiciously American equipment) is tasked with reconoitering, and if possible taking, the area in and around hooks farm. Aside from your platoon, 2nd platoon will be coming up behind you in support. Their2nd squad is directly behind you, and will act under your orders. (You could substitute this for an I&R squad, or some other form of recon asset, foot based) attached will be 2 Sherman tanks (105mm?) And a scout car. ( 25 cavalry. Cavalry had the mission of offensive shock action, screening, and recon. 25=2.5 assets. 2 tanks for 2, and a scout car for 0.5) you will also have avalible 6 fire missions from 81mm mortars (1 gun asset), a preliminary bombardment from a battery of 105mm, (2nd gun asset) and all of your squads have been issued with bazookas. (3rd gun asset. Guns are support assets, so engineers, an airstrike, arty, machine guns, ect.) It could also be interesting to have Red have a tiger tank "broken down" in the vicinity of hooks farm (2-2.5 cavalry rules dependent) that they got running again, but you are trying to capture. (Blue does not know its running though)
Hope that helps,
Joe