The Untold Stories #2: Sideshow, May 29, 1985

Aaron was the Dutch, I was the Soviets. We played on Map B instead of Map A which made for some interesting choices. I set my Marines and improved positions in Witzhave, south of the east/west river. Aaron attacked across the fields north of Grande, driving half-way in, then coming the rest of the way on foot. My Sagger unit got disrupted by artillery and stayed that way, allowing his forces to close in on the east side of town. He managed to force his way into the improved positions with waves of infantry assaults, until I was left holding the bridge with one dug-in, disrupted Marine platoon. By mid-game the T-80's of the Kiev Guard were arriving from the north and, despite the mild pecking they took from a Dutch F-16, took up position in the northern suburbs. Aaron's Prins Bernhard Stoottroepen stormed over the bridge, suffering heavy fire from lines of T-80's, but managed to get into hand to hand combat with them. In the towns, the lack of infantry told on the Soviet units. All T-80's were forced into the fields north of town and were unable to fight their way back in. At the last moment, Hero of the Soviet Union Sergei Platov launched a desperate charge along the southern bank of the river, breaking into the town just east of the bridge. The Dutch recoiled, and the Soviets began to dig in again.

Great scenario. Really tense, and victory came down to a chit-pull. There were four chits in the cup, one of them would end the game, the others would give Aaron a chance to chuck me out of town and win. The game-end chit was pulled! We pulled again to see what would have happened, and he did push me out, which gives you a sense of how close the scenario was. Infantry vs. unsupported armor is super tough. Awesome.

Death of 1st Panzer #2: Speed Bumps, May 15th, 1985

Solitaired this scenario twice more, trying to settle on a winning Soviet gambit. The Leopard II with HQ is an instant-kill every time it fires, and the rest of the german force can expect four disruption/reductions per activation (against BMP's).

SOVIET STRATEGY: The best I've come up with is to have the infantry enter the map on foot, and march towards Wittburg, accompanied by the HQ and one or more T-62's. That protects them from Milan fire from Talen (the HQ will draw fire, but hopefully it will survive or just be reduced). Second, have the full BMP force enter separately, moving out into the wedge-shaped piece of open country East of Talen. One or two will die, but the rest can sit patiently, threatening all moving german vehicles with a barrage of Saggers.

MID GAME: both Marder platoons will be destroyed, a handful of BMP's wrecked or disrupted, and a bunch of soviet infantry on the hilltop, ready to assault Wittburg. The BMP's will be out of command for most of the game, but they're mainly providing opportunity fire. Over time, a few of them will make their command rolls, so the soviets will have some direct fire.

END GAME: will feature the Leopard II sitting in Talen, plus a german infantry unit in the fields nearby, peppering helpless BMP's with Milans twice a turn. The Soviets will have most of their surviving units disrupted or reduced or both. The BMP force will be only partially in command, and odds are that that part will be unable to rally. Using those unreliable assets, the USSR has to march its infantry into the teeth of the German death-trap, more or less unsupported by what BMP fire there is (the forest to the East of Talen blocking their LOS). The game will end with the Germans holding Talen and the Soviets holding Wittburg.

VARIANT: I've played around with one variant so far: Give the Soviets one BDRM (another option for calling in artillery fire), and one Sagger (allowing soviet infantry to threaten the Leopard in the end-game). In my game, the BDRM drew immediate fire when it poked its head out, but assuming it survives, it can sit quietly, remaining in command, calling in artillery fire. In my game, this was a very minor advantage. The Leopard II shrugged off the infantry's Sagger fire (Sagger is 3 dice hitting on 4's vs. the Leopard in town at 5-6 dice saving on 5's).

RATING: Soviets will lose without some sort of force enhancement. Another idea is to add the 87th Motor Rifle, and get rid of the (admittedly cool) radio jamming SSR.

Death of 1st Panzer #1&2, Blind Sided & Speed Bumps, May 1985

We played the first two scenarios of World at War: Death of 1st Panzer tonight.

BLIND SIDED: Me (USSR) vs. Aaron (Germany). He managed to get his Jaguar up onto the hill in the backfield as I crested the large hill on the other side of the valley. So I charged my tanks into the shadow of Talen and assaulted it. I lost several stacks of T-72's before taking the town, and realized that there was no way for me to reach Walkerburg through his enfilading fire. I fled with two platoons of tanks, conceding the game to Aaron.

SPEED BUMPS: Second up was Kurt (USSR), vs. Aaron's germans. Kurt split his assault on both sides of the east-west river. Aaron dropped mines north of the river and set up a crossfire from Wittburg, Talen and his Leopard II, lurking behind Talen. That fire finished off the BMP-1's. Kurt's half-hearted attempt to rush Wittburg from the reverse of the big hill petered out as well.

GRADE: Both games are good teaching situations, but very difficult for the Soviet player to win without lucky chit-pulls. On the other hand, both were also great examples of what to avoid as the Soviets: exposure in the open, and dispersal of focus. The soviets, on the attack, have to mass overwhelming numbers in a safe spot, and wait for the right moment to perform a wave assault on a portion of the defender's force. I tried to change direction mid-game and instead found myself in a cul-de-sac with fire coming down on me from all sides anytime I tried to move. Kurt divided his forces and watched each of them get picked apart as he approached the german positions. Aaron had teams of Marders and Milan-equipped infantry in advanced positions (in towns) and in both games, they managed to use multiple activations to rip the heart out of the soviet formations.

Eisenbach Gap #4: Maelstrom, May 1985

Solo play of this big scenario

SITUATION: The US is defending the northern edge of the map from a wide soviet assault. To do it, the US gets Alpha and Charlie teams, and Charlie's limited to two Infantry Platoons, an M113 and some Dragon ATGM's. Team Delta will arrive on turn 4 from the north with 3 platoons of M-1's. The soviets get the vaunted 1st Tank, 33rd Motorized Rifle and the 87th Motorized Rifle (both somewhat understrength), and a pair of Hind attack helicopters. Their goal is to exit 6 full units off the north map edge by turn 11. The western edge of the map has the most covered approaches for the USSR. The center is open with commanding hilltops allowing good crossfires for the defender. The east has some cover as you move north, but a wide river cuts off access to the northern map edge except at two bridges.

STRATEGY: US set up with Alpha in the West, contesting the covered approach. A pair of Bradleys and the Chaparal attached (also Alpha), set up on the central hilltop. Charlie guarded the bridges in the east.

1st Tank and 33rd MR attacked in the west, moving into attack positions south of the hill where Alpha waited. 1st tank took a beating from Alpha as it advanced, but managed to knock out both Bradleys and forced the M-1's to fall back to the rear of the hilltop. When Delta arrived, they, with the remaining Alpha platoons, methodically picked apart 1st Tank until it was no longer a threat. Mid-game, Delta drove to the center of the board to support Charlie and two platoons of 1st Tank managed to get off the board with their HQ.

87th MR fought their way over one of the bridges with the help of the Helicopters, but their drive stalled out as Delta arrived, along with Alpha's helicopter and the two soviet helicopters left play.

33rd MR made a dash for the board edge, but were also destroyed by Delta's Abrams platoons, which suffered no losses.

RATING: Balanced. A very good scenario with a lot of interesting terrain and a good force mix. I used the Soviet helos badly.

Death of 1st Panzer #1: Blindsided, 5/14/85

"The Soviet 1st Tank Army is sweeping into West German territory hoping to take as much ground as it can in the opening phase of the war."

Feldmarshall Yandora commanded elements of 1/171 Panzergrenadier Battalion, I took elements of the 1st Tank Army (our confrontation took place after a delicious Lu-Lu's repast of noodles and Tom Kha Kai soup, and some You Tube browsing at the Phantom of the Attic in Oakland).

Jeff sniped one of my tanks as it emerged from behind Eben, then ran full speed for Walkersburg. He set up his units in defensive positions while my tanks made their way onto the hill in the southern map-edge. My plan was simple, get as close as possible to the hill-edge and hope for a good initiative pull to let me rush into close combat with his Marders in the southern tree-line. I knew I'd take heavy losses (that's the life of a Soviet soldier in 1985), but expected I'd wipe him out. Instead I miscalculated and moved into an exposed position along the crest of the hill where the Germans methodically picked me apart over the course of three unanswered activations. I was left with my HQ and 1.5 Tank platoons. The entire southern edge of the board was littered with burning wrecks. Comrade Moellerzovh decided to bug out and get reinforcements.

I love this system. It keeps me wanting more. Just one more crack and I know I can win...

Navia Dratp

Tessa and I played a game of Navia Dratp over the weekend. I'd forgotten what a fun game it is! Way to be Tess, your Navia Dratped with the best of them. It was only due to the awesome power of Hamulus Garuda that Navia Deborah was able to win out in the end.

We both just chose random Masetai this time (my criteria was that I only use painted figures, Tessa's was that hers were cute). Cordrycomp (sp), the immortal assassin and Hamulus Garuda were my star performers.

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.