Line of Fire #7: Down by the River, 5/22/85

Another game of WaW with the injured Kurt Mericli this morning ended in a Warsaw Pact victory. We played Scenario 7, from the first issue of Line of Fire magazine. It was Kurt's turn to take the offense, with his tough U.S. team trying to force elements of the 33rd Motor Rifle out of Tanenhause.

Looking at the map, you can see that the battlefield is divided by an unfordable river running north to south. NATO enters from the western (left) map edge. The Soviets set up in the town of Tanenhause or in the large forest west of the river.

I debated deploying infantry in the forest, but decided I needed to be able to fall back over the bridge in an emergency, so I kept everything except a BMP platoon and two infantry platoons east of the river. I deployed my headquarters well out of sight in the southern end of town, and parked my second platoon of BMP's in the lone farmhouse and orchard north of the bridge. Team Bravo sent its platoon of Abrams tanks into the northern woods, where they were disrupted by fire from the western edge of Tanenhause. His infantry force moved into Brikhause, and were also disrupted (one of the M113's, along with its embarked troops were reduced in the process). Kurt had a number of single-activation turns, which negated the force-multiplier effect of his two activation chits. On the other hand, the scenario doesn't seem to have a turn limit, so there's no need for the U.S. to rush forward (correction: the scenario ends after 9 turns). Kurt began systematically bombarding my outlying forces. He reduced the BMP and infantry units on his side of the river (I revealed my Sagger to be the platoon west of the bridge), and I was the victim of several out-of-ammo situations. Eventually, after I pulled all of my vehicle units back over the bridge, he moved to the south of the large forest by the river and began taking up positions to approach the bridge from that protected route. I had three rifle platoons stacked west of the river though, and they assaulted, in waves, a hex containing Bravos' headquarters, M-1 and an infantry platoon. The first assault was 6 soviet dice to 7 US dice. He took two hits, I took three and fell back. The third platoon assaulted as well, wiping out the US infantry and killing his headquarters. My tanks drove over the bridge and occupied their jumping-off point as back-up. We called the game at that point because real-life intruded. It was a hell of a scenario, I thought. The attack, again, proved to be a tough proposition, even for nimble NATO forces. If Kurt had had a few more double-activations, it could have been much uglier for me. It's a good, tight little scenario. One I'd like to play again.

Gamer's Guide #1: Clearing Hell's Highway, 5/22/1985

We played a scenario from the World at War Gamer's Guide that used the map and units from Death of First Panzer. Soviet resupply convoys are being hit by German raiders as they push toward the Rhine. The Red Army's 33rd Motorized Regiment has been ordered to clear some woods where the raiders have been coming from. When their T-62's advance, late in the afternoon on the 22nd, it turns out the 1/172nd Panzergrenadier Regiment is waiting in ambush.

Kurt and I played at Uptown Coffee, and it was a really close game. My soviets nearly cleared the forest... the only Germans Kurt had left were his headquarters and a Marder platoon. The tensest moment for me was a period around turn 3-4 when I had my units out in the open, advancing on the woods, and the Germans got four activations in a row. I had to sit and watch my platoons methodically being annihilated, with no ability to run away, hide, respond... very demoralizing. I managed to weather it, but it felt like my capacity to hit home with a strong assault had been cut away. As it turned out, I was right, but it was a close game. Another turn might have seen the Soviets victorious.

Playing the Red Army in this game is a tricky thing, demanding a blend of aggression and caution. You only get brief windows of activity, and at the end of those windows, there's the possibility of an extended exposure to enemy attack. So it's a balance between getting your units forward, into positions where they can assault, pin down and kill the enemy, while avoiding being trapped for what feels like an eternity under enemy fire. A very cool game system that, similar to my experience with Combat Commander, takes repeated playings to master, particularly as the attacker.