Players:
Filthy Huns: Rob "Where does it say that?" Seulowitz
Strengths:
Home field advantage (game resides on my table).
Weaknesses: Stares at
boards for hours without formulating intelligent plans.
Plucky ANZACs: Scott "You Got Anything to Eat?" Butler
Strengths: Has no weaknesses.
Weaknesses: Has no strengths.
Overview:
This campaign is set in North Africa in April of 1941, while the Germans were still agressively chasing the under-armed Brits (mostly Indians and ANZACs, actually, with a few token Scotsmen). Here the Germans have to take out an Aussie "Strong Point" - a 1+3+5 PB and two trenches - and a HQ building in 6 scenarios - the first 3 are at night, the fourth at dawn with Sun Blindness in effect.
The terrain features a large hillock in the southwest, another in the northest, a Deir in the central/southern area, another in central/northern area, a few pockets of sand and a "hidden" wadi with a 5-hex tank-trap that only gets placed on board when the Germans have LOS to it.
In addition to 6x 468 and some MGs, the Germans start with a Pz III H, 2 75* INFs (with trucks) and 3x 838 Assualt Engineers with 2x Dcs and a FT (and can buy another platoon of the same). They can also buy up to 8 more Pz III H and 1x 88L AA Gun, but only a total of 4x OBA modules (75mm or 105mm with IR) and Air Support.
The ANZACs start with a half-dozen 458s and a fistful of FPP, but can only buy Trenches and AT ditches before the first two scenarios. They get plenty of OBA modules (with a -1 DRM on ammo DRs) and up to 4x 2-pdrs and 4x 25-pdrs (88's). They can also get Air Support and a pair of 20mm AA Guns.
German tank platoons are 2x PzIII H, Brits get only 1x Matilda II. On the other hand, it's early war, so the Germans are automatically "Lax" at night despite being elite. ANZACs are, of course, "Stealthy" (unless drunk).
The key to the German assault is to grab the two hillocks during the three night scenarios to get the dawn Sun Blindness advantage when the PB is finally revealed in the fourth scenario (everyone will have LOS to everything by then). The key to the Aussie defense is to slow the Germans down, stay hidden and go for the CC Ambush dr as much as possible (if the Germans are concealed, it's a straight up dr, and the night ATTACKER only needs a -2 advantage to Ambush). Placing the wadi is at least half the battle.
Scenario 1: A careful approach nearly results in disaster.
After a bad stumble through the opening scenario, in which neither Scott nor I paid attention to the Objective Hex rule and discovered to our horror that the ENTIRE BOARD was now No Man's Land, we decided to start from scratch.
Lesson #1: Do not attempt this campaign without a thorough understanding of Objective Hexes.
We also decided that the leadership assignment table for Platoon Leader was fundamentally flawed - here we were with 8-morale elites (in my case including 3 838's) lead by 2 7-0s and a 6+1. Pfa. We decided to give both sides a -1 DRM for Infantry Platoons and and an unmodified Leadership DR for MG and Mtr Platoons if a dr was <=3.
Lesson #2: Expect to lose a lot of Leaders in night scenarios.
Based on our previous runthrough, I expected Scott to take a more conservative approach - digging lots of foxholes and maybe having some 80mm OBA on call. I bought 3x Inf. Platoon (3x 468 + 1x LMG) and 2x MG Platoons (3x 248 + 1x HMG, 2x MMG) and a Mtr Platoon (2x 248 +2x 50mm Mtr) - all reserves - and raised my SAN. I would keep both 75* INFs and 2 of my 3 838s out of play and give the one 838 in play a DC. The 1x Pz III H would be available as reinforcements. With all those Inf. Reserves I had a lovely list of Objective Hexes that created two rows of nearly contiguous control zones - a minimal advance line and an aggressive advance line. My hope was that I could sneak my handful of squads on, get to my Objectives and shut the hell up.
Much to my surprise, Scott set up a very aggressive forward line, with scads of reserve counters in his rear. Despite moving as quietly as possible, I managed to get my 838 broken on the southern hillock, and then all hell hit the fan. With that broken unit illuminated, his ENTIRE force got FoM, and soon little tan ?'s were swarming all over the place. He was counter-attacking!!! He revealed an 88 in row J and I thought it was all over.
My men broke, and a few CR'd, but I ELRd and even K'd a few of his HSs before making one last surge for the hillock - I brought on the tank to overrun a dangerous 458 trying to encircle me and rolled it up to the hillock to take on that damned 88 from the relative comfort of a HD position. The gun missed wildly, his troops shot in the air, and I knocked them off the Objectives just as the scenario ended.
He won the scenario - 6 DVP to 2 - but I had my foothold across the southern hillock and the edge of the southern deir (O deir!); it was a nailbiter.
Lesson #3: An aggressive defensive always makes a scenario more chaotic, and chaos favors the defender.
Scenario 2: The Germans get serious.
After licking my wounds, I saw that the next scenario promised to be quite a polka party. I now had 19 squads, 6 leaders (one 9-2!), 60 FP worth of MGs and a pair of 75mm guns (I had limited emplacement options - you can't emplace a gun in open ground in the desert but I had a few scrub hexes to work with and could always get a cheap Sanger). Plus that tank. So I bought another Inf. reserve and another Pz III Platoon for later and spent the rest on fortifications, SAN and the Attack chit.
Oh, and I picked up a module of 105mm OBA to use it's IR. I had thought of a Creeping Barrage, but then discovered that if you use OBA exclusively for IR, and it never places an FFE on board, it is retained. That would allow me the IRs now and the insurance of heavy FFE if I needed it, with the added option of upgrading it to a Creeping Barrage later for another 5 CPP.
To protect my 9-2, who's in the rear with a kill stack, I surrounded him with dummy cloaking counters and then deployed everyone out of NVR into HS in my first RPh (also protects the MGs in my HMG/MMG kill stacks from Snipers and MCs). So, of course, his first - his VERY FIRST - SAN is a 1 and it lands right BANG square on top of him. Oy. Down 3 CVP in my Prep. And, of course, everyone breaks.
Then he Searches a 468 with a HS, survives the DF, and Starshells fly every which way. Soon his three (3!) 88s have opened up on my center, and broken HS are running like noses in Idaho in February.
We later realized that Searching is movement, Freedom of Which he lacked at the time. That is one error I am not likely to repeat ever again.
I regroup and pull some sleazy moves. First I bring on a truck with a HS and roar up the west flank to draw fire from his 88s - but he's placed two of them so that they only have LOS to my hillock! One is in the sand hex in the middle of the northern Deir - since emplacement = entrenchment for LOS purposes, he can't see anything beyond the lip of the Deir that isn't on higher terrain. The other is behind/adjacent to the northern hillock, and has the same problem. My truck whips by without drawing a shot from his dummy stacks.
Next I bring up my FT (carried by a Fanataic HS) and DC and some dummy cloaking counters and storrn the southern Deir - he reveals his hidden units too early for some ineffective DFF, and gets a taste of German chemical defoliant. My INFs and my remaining MG stacks break up anything not in a foxhole, and I start thinking that a few well-placed FFEs with finish him off and to hell with the IRs.
But first I gotta get those guns.
I'm down about 7 DVP to 1, so I need a lucky shot (you need a 2-1 ratio of VP to win a scenario). DF of turn 2 is productive - I have the northen hillock illuminated and all his 88s and MGs are marked with gun flashes. I fire on the eastern gun, Area TT; DR=3 so they take a 6FP attack +1 for the Sanger; a PTC for the crew and they are revealed. Next I take a pop at the gun in the Deir with the other 75* INF and come up snakes. Can't beat that; Gun and crew are eliminated. Plus I get ROF and wound a leader on the next shot. I get the lead in VP and one of his four precious 88s is no more. I gloat for a while as Scott glumly gnaws his way through my larder.
Lesson #4: When in doubt, roll snakes (not original but still true).
In my subsequent Prep, I keep that northern hillock under an IR and blast away on the Infantry TT, getting ROF like a madman - the Crew breaks and now he's in trouble. I carefully stalk his Deir (the hart of his defense?); he tries to retreat and I rip him to shreads. 8 broken units sitting in open ground within 6 hexes of 6 manned MGs, 2 INFs and an FT. He pops a hidden HS into CC with the FT - and snags it! I take one shot with the 75* INF on the same location and vaporize him (FT unharmed!).
Lesson #5: Being Fanatic does not help you in CC.
Well, now most of his infantry are broken or far from the front, so the fact that I had to expose most of my units to starshells is irrelevant - they'll all get reconcealed soon. And he's on the run BUT I'm no fool. My plan was to take the deir, expose the wadi and be in position to grab the northern hillock and by Zeus that's what I'm gonna do.
Lesson #6: The fastest way to loose the scenario is to overpersue an apparently broken enemy.
I fire more IR now that the Guns are quiet and find the wadi. Neither of us seem able to rally our broken men - I get lucky again when Scott boxes the self-rally DR on the broken crew! That translates to another silenced gun since he can't really buy replacement crews (seems to me you should be able to convert a 248 HS to a crew if you Battle Harden it in the RePh, but no such rule exists). Scott abandons his rear 88 and slides that crew into his forward gun, but it's too late: I've got the dier, I blow a lot of 12+1 shots but still eliminate half his broken troops and I capture 2 MMGs and Lt MTR (I dropped two German Meatball-flingers in his zone, so I think I'm well up on that trade!). I even get another "1" SAN dr and reduce his SAN to 3/5, eliminating his Sniper advantage (mine is now 4/6).
Lesson #7: The best weapon against a high SAN is your own Sniper counter.
Final score: Germans rack up 21 DVP, ANZACS inflict only 14 - not enough for a victory, but I got what I wanted and now outnumber his (non-reserve) infantry by more than 2-1.
Now we prepare for my third consecutive Attack chit, so I need to buy Infantry to protect my ELR, I need to buy tanks to prepare for the dawn onslaught, and I want to buy a Creeping Barrage to roll over that hillock (there are a half-dozen known minefields in front of it). If all goes well, I might get a few units around the hillock and into the scrub in the NE corner - then I got him!
Lesson #8: CG are way cool!
Dr. Robert