[Also known around here as "Like Cattle, They Ran"]
Darrell Wright and I got together last Monday evening at Gamer's Armory and decided to play Scenario 14: Silence That Gun. This D-Day scenario tasks seven US Paratrooper squads, well led and supported to attack a somewhat prepared German position. The Germans [me] defend with six 2nd Line squads and six conscript squads, decently led and supported by an HMG, an MMG and two LMGs, plus the AT Gun mentioned in the title. the Americans win by destroying the AT Gun, or by taking a fortified building placed along the south edge of the board 3 town without taking more casualties than the Germans. Oh, and the Germans are ELR2, so those conscripts are pretty much speed bumps before they get disrupted.
By SSR, all hill hexes are considered marsh. This means the American are pretty much required to advance through the town - it will take them a long time to go around on either flank. Given anchored flanks, I wanted to restrict the avenues of advance as much as possible. Many of the placement options for the fortified building leave it exposed, but placing the building in 3M5 and the gun in 2N10 let me anchor the flanks on the large marshes. Here's the whole defense
Darrell Wright and I got together last Monday evening at Gamer's Armory and decided to play Scenario 14: Silence That Gun. This D-Day scenario tasks seven US Paratrooper squads, well led and supported to attack a somewhat prepared German position. The Germans [me] defend with six 2nd Line squads and six conscript squads, decently led and supported by an HMG, an MMG and two LMGs, plus the AT Gun mentioned in the title. the Americans win by destroying the AT Gun, or by taking a fortified building placed along the south edge of the board 3 town without taking more casualties than the Germans. Oh, and the Germans are ELR2, so those conscripts are pretty much speed bumps before they get disrupted.
By SSR, all hill hexes are considered marsh. This means the American are pretty much required to advance through the town - it will take them a long time to go around on either flank. Given anchored flanks, I wanted to restrict the avenues of advance as much as possible. Many of the placement options for the fortified building leave it exposed, but placing the building in 3M5 and the gun in 2N10 let me anchor the flanks on the large marshes. Here's the whole defense
Turn 1 went quite well. The kill stack in R3 traded fire with my own stack in N2, neither doing much to the other. The rest of the American slowly worked their way through the town. By a stroke of luck, I managed to break one of the squads in R1, which routed back to S1, where a conscript squad shooting at long range kept it DM for most of the rest of the game.
Turn 2 was much of the same. German squads started breaking - in particular one of the squads in N2. the Americans were making decent headway, but casualties were running about even.
Turn 3 was when everything began to fall apart. The second squad in N2 broke during the American Prep Fire phase. The conscript squads in the area were drawn out shooting at squads moving across the road. That left the American Hero [Sgt. Rock] free to move across the road, hop over the wall and end up in the ground floor of N2 - directly under the HMG. The Germans routed away, and Sgt Rock moved up the stairwell to take the precious HMG. [Map note: There is actually no stairwell in N2, so Sgt Rock couldn't make that advance. Overlooking that probably cost me the scenario].
But wait, it gets better. By the end of Turn 4, Sgt Rock was herding 4 German squads away - everything that started in N2, the conscript that started in O1, plus a squad from M4 that tried to help. That's right, one American hero was herding 40 Germans away [and keeping them under DM so they couldn't rally]. Plus on Turn 5 he set the demo charge he was carrying to destroy the gun and win the scenario. If that didn't give him the Congressional Medal of Honor, I'd be really disappointed.
Despite the escapades of Sgt. Rock, this was a good run of an interesting scenario. The Americans have limited forces to attack a German position that is brittle and can not be defended in depth. An interesting tactical problem on both sides.
Turn 2 was much of the same. German squads started breaking - in particular one of the squads in N2. the Americans were making decent headway, but casualties were running about even.
Turn 3 was when everything began to fall apart. The second squad in N2 broke during the American Prep Fire phase. The conscript squads in the area were drawn out shooting at squads moving across the road. That left the American Hero [Sgt. Rock] free to move across the road, hop over the wall and end up in the ground floor of N2 - directly under the HMG. The Germans routed away, and Sgt Rock moved up the stairwell to take the precious HMG. [Map note: There is actually no stairwell in N2, so Sgt Rock couldn't make that advance. Overlooking that probably cost me the scenario].
But wait, it gets better. By the end of Turn 4, Sgt Rock was herding 4 German squads away - everything that started in N2, the conscript that started in O1, plus a squad from M4 that tried to help. That's right, one American hero was herding 40 Germans away [and keeping them under DM so they couldn't rally]. Plus on Turn 5 he set the demo charge he was carrying to destroy the gun and win the scenario. If that didn't give him the Congressional Medal of Honor, I'd be really disappointed.
Despite the escapades of Sgt. Rock, this was a good run of an interesting scenario. The Americans have limited forces to attack a German position that is brittle and can not be defended in depth. An interesting tactical problem on both sides.