| 2020-05-05 | (D) X von Marwitz | vs | Miguel Guerrero | Italian win | This is a scenario from Lone Canuck's "Quick 6" pack set in June 1941 in Russia setting up a small Russian infantry force with a single 9-1 leader, 2x 127 Crew, 2x MMG, and 2x 50mm MTRs to defend village from an Italian infantry attack. The attacking Italians need to take most of the Stone Buildings in the village and their initial force has roughly double the number of squad-equivalents than the Russian, a 9-1 and 8-0 leader, 2x126 Crews, 2x LMG, 2x (dm)MMG, 2x 45mm MTR.
The Italians receive reinforcements in their Turn 3 in the form of yet another 4.5 squad equivalents, 2x126 crews, an 8-1 Leader, 2x(dm)MMG, and another 45mm MTR. The Russians receive reinforcements in their Turn 4 consisting of 4.5 squad equivalents, an 8-0, and a MMG.
The problem for the Italians is that they are brittle, their advantage is numbers and that they will be able to flank the Russians with their reinforcements. The Russian advatage is the better TEM in the village, their drawback that they cannot afford losses and must stop as many Italians as possible of the initial force so that they don't get overwhelmed by sheer numbers.
I played the defending Russians in this game. I think my defensive setup was basically sound, though there's not too much complicated stuff to think about.
The Italians moved very cautiously for their first two turns, striving to avoid losses. They didn't need to worry, though. This was one of those games, where you don't believe what the dice are doing to you. My DR average for the first 2.5 turns was above 7.5. I truly kept shooting but could do no damage even to Italians. My problem was, that most of the time I coul not even generate Morale Checks which is usually not the hardest part against attacking Italians - 32 shots with an DR average of more than 7.7! I have to state, though, that the DRs of my opponent were not brilliant either. We both simply could not harm each other during this part of the game. The bad thing for the Russian, though, was that the Italians were closing in and that their number of GO units was not diminishing. I think until the start of Italian Turn 3, all the effects I managed were 2 Pins, 1 Break (by Sniper), and a single 1KIA vs. an Italian HS with those 32 shots (not counting the MTR's TH rolls...). My Russian force was not reduced in number at all but I had a broken squad without leader someplace.
Our second session started basically with Italian Turn 3 and the entry of his reinforcements. As the initial Italian force was now very close and basically at full strength, my defending Russians had more than enough to do dealing with these. Furthermore, 'the Italians in being' did prevent me from moving. Yet, I had to fall back with some of my small force to prevent the Italians just waltzing in from behind. Given the situation, this was impossible, so the Italian reinforcements could move into postion that allowed them to encircle virtually all defending Russians and to set themselves up for pot shots against my reinforcements.
I thought, my DRs could not get worse compared to our first session - and I was right. This time, the Russian's overall DR average was better: 7.58. My 23 IFT DRs were averaging 7.52 so the Italians mostly never needed to roll any of the dreaded MCs. My 6 MC's were averaging 8... The TH average was 8.75 for my MTRs. It wasn't exactly fun, but it was funny. Since the start of this scenario, I couldn't harm a thing turning the Italian attack in to a literal walk-over.
This began to tell, as everything that I had which did break had to surrender thereafter. While losing only a single HS due to Italian fire, I lost 2 squad equivalents, a 127 crew, and my only leader as PoWs and another 447 to CC. The Italian losses to show for it were ridiculously low: He had killed one 126 himself by boxcars on a Rally attempt, one 136 was taken out by my Sniper a second 136 eliminated by a K/2, a third one in CC an one 346 because I had to declare No Quarter to prevent becoming a Guard when Italians were waiting to advance into CC.
The game was so full of hairraising frustrations that it was unbelievable. One of the most eminent ones was the following: After two Italians squads got Pinned by a FL and were stuck together in a hex with another 126+MTR in OG, my 50mm MTR opened up on that stack, needing a 7, 8, and 9 to hit (we used a 3rd die for determining ROF). I kept ROF three times piling up Acquisition, but rolled 10, 10, 11, not even hitting these sons of bit**** much less harming them...
So after 56 IFT rolls averaging 7.64 and managing to kill but two Italian HS, completely surrounded without a leader, I conceded before the entry of my reinforcements at the end of Turn 3. I think I made the best out of the situation, but sometimes it is not to be.
I wonder how this scenario would play if both sides have something like average DRs. Surely more Italians would break and likely not come back within the scope of the game, but this might have also applied to the Russians sometimes which can less afford losses due to their small number initially. What is quite interesting in this Infantry-only setting is the large number of SW and (vehicular) Crews provided to man them. |
