| 2020-05-22 | (A) Ulric Schwela | vs | Stefano Isella | Italian / German win | Russian got badly whacked, and only got a squad onto board 22 in the last turn. Axis evenly spread out, and bought half the reinforcements possible, including the Pz IV. Russian opened up with two human waves, one up the right flank, another with AFV support going left across the front. These worked well enough and garnered multiple buildings. The left flank then got stopped cold by the Italian HMG, and later on a 50L and the 75L were revealed as well, each taking out a tank (can't do much against a 75L CH). On the right flank the other 50L took out a T-70, and the attack barely got across the lateral road, building into a giant CC charnel house in the 50L hex with both sides feeding in more bodies, until a Pz IV broke everyone. At one point the MMG+9-2 stack broke everything in three hexes and it looked like a breakthrough was on, but followthrough squads broke and it was too little too late. Good defence, dissipated attack. |
| 2014-05-29 | (A) X von Marwitz | vs | David Wallace | Italian / German win | Looking at the Excitement Ratings on ROAR and th possibility to buy some counterattack groups, this appeared to be a promising scenario.
I had the attacking Russians who needs to grab as many of the 65 buildings present on the map of which only 5 are in Russian possession at start and to inflict as many CVP as possible while being careful not to sustain losses. The value of each building is a VP, prisoners do not count double. The more counterattack groups the Italian/German purchases, the more VP the Russian is awarded out right. The Russian can "spend" VP for units entering from the flank. Plus some more details to it...
My opponent chose to get all 9 groups granting the Russian some 30 extra VP from the start. This choice changed to outlook of the scenario fundamentally. Instead of attacking the village with a superior force, the Russians would now be outnumbered 15 to 24 in squads (three quarters of which are Italians of mixed quality, though), they would have 6 leaders vs the Russian 3, and two tanks that could take up the challenge with the Russian T34s along with 2 ACs able to act as an armored squad an to move about fairly quickly despite ground snow. At start, the Italians/Germans had 3 ATGs as well. While the counterattack groups enter through turns 1 through 3, it becomes obvious, that the Russian has to move very aggressively at start while he has still a superiority, hoping to take out some of the initial Italians for good and to grab some ground in forward positions that could be well defended and serve as a base for for further advance.
If the Russian failed in that, the opponent would be able to contain him and delay him just by flooding numerous wooden and stone buildings with units that would be difficult to dislodge even if Italian in a timely manner. At the same time, the Russian could potentially be threatened from a flank if just one or two buggers made it through to reconquer some buildings for which under the given circumstances any unit to hold them would be sorely missed on the attack. Even with the 30 granted points due to the purchases, the Axis was still up 25 VP due to control of 60 of the 65 buildings from the beginning. So it would be an uphill fight for the Russians from the start.
I decided to forego the opportunity for a flanking entry to save CVP, to avoid the bad ground for such an entry and hopefully one of more of his ATGs. Almost all forces were to attack the 49R6-V4-V7-R7 area with the intention to destroy 4 to 5 Italian infantry units in turn 1.
To that end, I set up my infantry there for a Human Wave and all tanks. The tanks were to freeze R6, S6, T5, and R7, force PAATCs that the Italians would hopefully fail to pin them, cause loss of concealment, and to impose target selection limits. Then the Human Wave would follow, hopefully surviving any resid in the road that might have been placed (and if so forcing FPF on defending Italians when entering their hex). In the APh, any Italians were to be broken by TBF and taken prisoner/eliminated by failure to rout due to the tank in S7. With a little luck, the Italian defender in R6 would have died in the process by the attacking 9-2 with 4-5-8+LMG, 4-5-8, which would then be able to advance into CC to R7. Despite it being improbable that everything would work out as planned, it was likely that most of it should. With this area smashed, the Russians would rush to grab the area bordered by the buildings 22P8, N8, L9, X9, and W9, hopefully dishing out more than they got on the numerous Axis reinforcements. So much for the plan.
3 of 4 Italians survived their PAATCs. After placing resid in R5, the crucial one in R6 did so as well and managed to turn a bypassing T34 into a burning wreck against the odds. His hidden units popped up – HMG+squad and 9-1 in V9 to break/pin most of the HW units in T4 scheduled to strom T5. His guys in R7 passed and managed to Shock the freezing T-70, which was soon after taken out by a HIP 50L in U9. Of the three squads/SW and 9-2 HWing from R4 and R3 to R6, only half managed to navigate the 2-2 resid in R5 despite Morale 10 or 9. So of what should have been First Fire to place resid, then a likely failed PAATC for Final Fire, a likely MC failure for the first FPF of the first impulse of HW units entering R6 and yet another likely MC failure tor the second impulse of HW units entering followed by a TBPF 14x3/2 +3 bldg -2 leader = 21+1 attack in the AFPh on a likely brokie if anything and a T34 aiming at R7 all I got was a dead tank, a still GO f****** Italian squad that survived the TBPF 6x3/2 +3 bldg +2 smoke -2 leader = 9+3 with some units of me left behind in R5.
When the smoke cleared at the end of the Russian turn 1 it was one T34 dead, one T70 shocked, 4 squads broken or pinned and two ongoing melees with only 2 Italian dead to show for it. What appeared empty at start (U9, V9, W9) held three HIP 3ROF weapons 2x50L, HMG, Squad, 9-1, where I had reasons to expect only one unit.
During the defending turn, the initially HIP HMG managed a 2KIA killing two squads that had been pinned in T4 by it the previous half-turn. One of the 50L's took out the shocked hull down T-70 after a ROF turret hit. I just could not kill one freaking Italian HS in H7 in CC with vastly superior forces because it was able to withdraw twice after me rolling Boxcars...
So the carefully crafted crucial initial attack with overwhelming strength that factored in some losses was in a shambles. The momentum was lost and some precious time with it. Taking too much time to rally did not help either. Where I should have been in the 22P8, K9, W9 buildings in turn 3 all I could manage was 22P8 in turn 4, in which I was able to dish out decently. But by then it was far too late as the hordes of reinforcements kept pouring in and contained the whole area. So I conceded start of turn 5.
Looking back at the scenario, I think my opponent did exactly the right thing to select every reinforcement he could. The Russian attacker needs to grab an awful lot of buildings first controlled by the Axis. Each tank that the Russian loses will cost him the equivalent of 6 or 7 buildings. Prisoners do not count double and become an increasing problem for the Russians as some units are tied down as guards. It is not prudent to invoke no quarter either, as you want the Italians out of the way better surrendering than low crawling away. One of the Russian's assets, the low ELR of the Axis, should not be risked early by freeing some guards for action by massacring their prisoners. The German ACs are dangerous, too. They are vulnerable and not as quick as one is used to due to Ground Snow, but they can get in the back of the Russians eventually to mess with rout paths or to re-DM brokies. If abandoned by their crew it can reconquer some buildings. To take precaution against that, the Russian has to assign some units to prevent just that. Units which will be much missed if the Russian has to attack against superior numbers.
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