Raid on Rodimtsev AAR Part 1

 We finished Raid on Rodimtsev from the new journal a few weekends ago. The Russians held off the German onslaught with 4+ stone hexes to spare.

  Jim posted an AAR on Gamesquad here.

   For my German attack, I decided that my concentration should be in the south. The southern edge is the only place on the map where the Germans can attack from two sides. It's also the furthest point from the majority of Russian reinforcements. Logic=Awesome.

   The caveat is this: setup restrictions for this scenario force you to be widely spread out at start. The real decisions are about where to place your big weapons. I place both my HMGs, and two of my three flamethrowers in the southern third of the map area.

  My thought in the north was just make some effort, and hope to get lucky. A successful attack along the north edge (i.e., capturing building W1) could be a spectacular development, as it would greatly threaten the Russian reinforcements. Losing ground there would be devastating for the Russians.

  Trouble is, I knew from experience that attacking in the shadow of Pavlov's house was more than a little difficult. Jim had the proper precautions taken, with wire, mines, a MMG, and a 45L covering the German axis of advance. I managed early on to breach a fortified location of the flour mill, and get a squad in the building.

  That would be the high water mark of the attack in the north. Eventually, the well placed Russian weapons and relative lack of cover would wear the German force down.

 In the middle, I wanted to have just enough of a threat to make the Russians play an honest defense. As the game moved along, I hedged on this strategy. I kept the middle elements largely in place, when I would have been better off moving 2-3 squads further south to participate in the main thrust.

  More to come.....

Raid on Rodimtsev photos

Jim and I made through 5 grueling turns on the banks of the Volga on Saturday. This, so far, is a top notch scenario that could still go either way. Jim is writing up an AAR here. Since we aren't finished yet, I don't want to say too much and possibly provide valuable intel to my opponent.

Here's the math: I currently have 17 stone hexes. There is one Russian reinforcement group still to enter as we begin turn six. This means the number I am shooting for will be at least 26 and as many as 28 stone hexes. I can reduce that number by one for every 2 CVP  I can exit off the east edge.

Hope to finish this weekend. Here are some photos.

Back to the Volga

  I've been talked into a monster.

Raid on Rodimtsev, from the new journal, is an old fashioned all infantry Stalingrad brawl. Including reinforcement groups there are roughly 50 squads on a side. There are some -2 and -3 leaders, and enough flamethrowers and DC's that the Germans troops could have sold their extras on eBay.

The VC are complicated. The Germans need to capture 20 stone hexes, but that number will change up or down depending on in game events and circumstance. Not sure we will be able to finish it in one day.

The Number of That Truck

I got together with JRV last weekend to play WO5 Astride Hell's Highway.  Despite our relative proximity, JR and I don't play each other very often. Playing JR is a double edged knife: I always learn something (good) / I rarely win (bad).  I had intended to do the full AAR, but I forgot my camera, and anyway, it's just too painful. This one was a very one sided affair.

Astride Hell's Highway is a very interesting, complicated scenario. The Germans have two ways to win, and fifty ways to lose. (I'm not sure what I mean by 'fifty ways to lose', but it seemed like a nice turn of phrase. I'm keeping it. ) The Germans (my side) start out attacking American paratroopers in a village, but the Americans get big reinforcement groups on turns three and four, turning the tables on the Germans.

Now, as previously stated, JR is a decidedly better player then me. When he also has hot dice, it can be a bit overwhelming. Late in the game, around turn five or six, an American half squad was eliminated on a double break. To my horror, JR sheepishly announced it was "the first American casualties of the game."

So, I've decided to focus on the positive. There are two important lessons of this game I will endeavor not to forget.

1:  Effective SMOKE usage.

    The Germans have to cross some open ground to get into the village, and are equipped with two Smoke Monster StuGs to help. Sure, I smoked in his MG team in the steeple, and his bazooka crew, but that ground was still open to other units. The lesson here is that you don't necessarily have to fire the smoke into the enemy hexes, but into a location where it will it hinder LOS. In this case, simply firing Smoke IN/ADJACENT to the open ground hex that needs to be crossed would effectively hinder LOS from all American units.

2: Setting up a defense. 

   The Germans in this one must set up in a fairly limited area. Knowing that the biggest wave of American reinforcements would be coming in from the north, I set up a defense to around my 88s and MGs to get ready for an attack from that direction.
   As JR pointed out after the game, that was too limiting. The American reinforcement group does not come on until turn three. You don't have to be in position at the start of the game.The Germans have two turns to move out of their setup area and into better position to cover open ground, etc. Seems so obvious, and yet never occurred to me.

So, given the way this went, it's hard for me to say whether the scenario is good, bad or indifferent. It certainly is complicated and interesting, and that's probably reason enough to recommend it.

AAR DB077 Speed, Shock and Surprise.

Trying to prepare for an air drop scenario is a little like planning how you're going to spend your lottery winnings. You can plan all you like, but the chances that you'll ever get to carry it out are slim to none.

The Drop

And so, the troops of SS Fallschirmjager Bataillon 500 jumped from low altitude, hoping to land on or near their assigned drop point. A few did, most did not.

The drop was not horribly bad. The wings that missed their drop points, generally all fell in a decent concentration around the east and southeast part of the map. More importantly, none(!) drifted off the map. (My greatest fear going in was that one or more wings might drift far off map and be essentially out of the war).

The one piece of bad luck on the drop was that three sticks fell onto occupied building locations. Between taking -2 ground fire and the 1MC required for landing in a building hex, two of the three sticks were broken before they hit ground. Unfortunately, these sticks contained, respectively the 10-2 and a 9-2. They, and the squads that accompanied them were easily dispatched during close combat.

The Fight

As expected, several squads failed their landing 1TC and deployed. Turn two was spent mostly gathering up the LMGs and trying to recombine squads while moving east into the town. One wing had landed north of the town and was moving south with the cover of the blazing buildings. On turn two I lost the other 9-2(!) on a 2 flat residual shot that resulted in a wound, followed by another snakes on a 3 flat Final fire shot and a failed wound severity dr. The Germans have a lot of good leaders in this scenario, but my three best were gone, and at this rate Sgt Schultz would soon be leading the assault.

The factory (overlay) on the south edge was firmly in German hands.

Through turns three and four, progress continued. The German troops kept pushing in from two directions. The commissar and his squads were holding onto the buildings in row P. The partisans in the partially rubbles row R factory were falling back. The partisans' tank platoons came rolling up from behind the assault.

  By turn five things were on the edge. On the plus side, the commissar and two squads were broken trying to pull back across the row Q street. Even better, when the leader in the factory location they routed to tried to rally them the commissar went Berserk! He soon took everyone out on a mad charge where they would be vaporized by a 30-3 shot.
  Two of the little Italian tanks had been flipped (one by a LMG shot, the other in CC), but two were still roaming about.
  On the downside, my first attempt to cross the street into the buildings in Q4-Q5 had been beaten back, and now would come the wave of partisan reinforcements.

Through five and six the partisan reinforcements entered from the logical point on the south edge and attacked up both sides of the row Q road. Those on the east side were stopped, but those on the west side were easily able to reinforce the three stone locations in Q3, Q5, and R4.


  

Meanwhile I absent-mindedly walked a half squad into bypass directly in front of one of the remaining tanks.

A lone partisan squad on the southern edge of the row P factory overlay heroically overcame the odds to kill one of the two SS squads facing him in CC, and keep the other tied up. In my impatience and with a morale advantage, I decided to fire into the melee. Want to guess how that went? It was unraveling.

There was a futile last ditch charge on turn seven, that never really had much chance.

Although I certainly could have used a few -2 leaders in the endgame, I really can't complain about the drop, which really left me in as good a position as could be expected. The reinforcements that the partisans get on turn five is a seriously strong force, and the SS really have to have almost all of their work done before they enter. I fell behind schedule at some point.



Definitely a fun scenario with high reply value. Jim enjoyed it as well. I hope to play the next in Tom Morin's Operation Rosselsprung series, the somewhat smaller Demolition Men, sometime soon.

Imagine A Jump

Might As Well Jump.

Brushing up on the chapter E Airdrop rules for DB077 Speed, Shock & Surprise, has brought to light a few things I either forgot or never knew in the first place.

First off, until they land, parachute sticks are Aerial targets. (Not Ariel targets. Relax. No one is shooting at The Little Mermaid.) Range is always doubled for Aerial targets, and PBF/TPBF do not apply. Though the partisans will still get some -2 shots, this will help the Germans considerably in DB077, as the partisans have a pretty limited range to begin with. That one's easy.

Hurting the Germans a bit, is the fact that Aerial parachute sticks always check morale as a 7 morale unit, regardless of the morale of the elite SS Fallschirmjagers they represent.

Ground units always have LOS to an Aerial stick unless they are in a blind hex formed by an Adjacent obstacle.

The only possible LOS hindrance affecting fire at an Aerial target is SMOKE. (LV Hindrances may still apply) However, level 2 Smoke (the kind we will have from the Blazing Rubble in DB077), only affects the shot if ground level firer is IN the hex with the Smoke. Even if the parachute ITSELF is in the Smoke hex, fire is unaffected if the firer is not IN Smoke.

In the example, (after all drift has been resolved and during Defensive First Fire) the 337 w/LMG in J6 can fire on stick A with 2FP -2. The Aerial range is six hexes, making it long range for both the inherit firepower and the LMG. (E.5) There is a -2 mod for Hazardous Movement. The level 2 Smoke does not affect the shot, because it is not In the same hex as the ground level unit.(E.6)

In addition, if the squad was concealed, they would remain so after firing, because the stick is treated as "Broken" for LOS purposes. (9.6) Even if the LMG should get ROF, it could not fire again at this time, because "No Aerial target can be attacked twice in the same hex by the same firer." (9.3)

The 337 in J8 can not fire on stick A because the Aerial range is 10 (5x2). It does have a LOS to stick A. The obstacle in K7 creates only one Blind Hex (7.25). This squad can fire on stick 'B' with 1FP (3 / 2 for long range) -2.

The 337 in G8 can fire on stick 'B' with 3FP -2.  TPBF/PBF is NA vs Aerial targets (.5). After Defensive First Fire, stick 'B' will take a NMC as it's landing DR, because it has landed in a building hex. The squad then MUST fire TPBF at the stick (9.43). Assuming the squad is already marked First Fire, this attack is 4FP +2. If the squad is already marked Final Fire due to Cowering in First Fire, this would be a Final Protective Fire shot.

At the end of First Fire all German parachutes land in their current hex. Non-German paratroops would would be able to move one hex just prior to landing. (9.4). All must take a landing DR. If landing in a building or woods hex (plus many other terrain types listed in E9.42), this is a NMC, still using the 7 morale printed on the parachute counter. Otherwise, it a NTC, failure of which results in any squad deploying, and one HS drifting one hex downwind. (9.42) During a Mild Breeze, as we have in this scenario, these become 1TC and 1MC. Could be ugly.