Ron and I finally finished our game of CAtP (cat pee?) last night. We are still getting used to armor, and we aren't fast players. Seeing how we usually get together every other week, this game took us longer to play than it probably takes some people to play Red Barricades. But in a frenzy of point blank fire last Wednesday, we decided to get together last night and finish the monster off. Ron had to leave no later than eight o'clock. By ten thirty, we rolled the final shot ....
Started a couple of months ago, when I asked Ron to come up with our next scenario to play. We'd been carefully choosing them up until now to introduce different aspects of the game. Still haven't braved OBA, but we're to a point where instead of learning the basic basics, we're starting to experiment and push the envelope a bit on the basics. It's that wide-eyed moment in life when you realize you may not be an adolescent anymore. Amongst a list of three or four scenarios that Ron found, he suggested this one. I latched on with a mania that got Ron more than a little concerned.
1943, Operation Citadel. The scenario uses three desert boards, and a bunch of overlays. Steppe Terrain is in effect, and some SSRs bring in dust. So we were trying "Desert Lite" rules. We had hillocks and wadis. After I battened down all the overlays, the board was just beautiful to look at. In the Steppes, sand was now considered grain. Hammadas became Brush, and Scrub became Woods -- both inherent in the hex. I hate SSR inherent terrain (sorry, all you PTO fans). It's completely counter-intuitive for me, and the number of times I trace a LOS by eye only to have to find it blocked because the terrain isn't what the map says it is ... grrrrr. The only odd rule that really concerned me with Steppe Terrain, though, was the grain fields. If you were on a Hillock, could you see over it or would you be Hindered? Took a while to find, but you have to be a full level above Hindrance to ignore the effects -- and Hillocks aren't high enough.
All the sudden, the board stopped looking so empty. Lots and lots of hindrances between the grain and the brush were out there, and the EC had a mild breeze blowing -- ideal conditions for smoke-chuckers. The Hillocks offered a few limited opportunities for hull-down positions, and the wadis neatly framed the sides of the playing area, encouraging both of us to read about trying to get HD in a Wadi. There just wasn't a lot of terrain to hide behind. Ended up that some of our best cover was the wreckage of the tanks that proceeded us.
The scenario is unlike anything I've played before. Both sides enter from their respecive board edge, with a significant number of MPs already spent. Nobody got the advantage of setting up in defensive terrain -- in turn one, we probably wouldn't even drive close enough to threaten each other. The OB is impressive -- the Germans get 22 tanks, the Russians get 38. No infantry or guns, and some SSRs that make it hard for crews to even exist. No snipers either. This is a tank battle. Germans get an assortment of 1943 PzIII and PzIVs, a couple of StuGs, and four Tiger I tanks. The Russians get twenty T-34s, some SU-122s, and a bunch of lighter tanks. What an absolutely terrific indoctrination into how to use your tanks!
The balance between the tanks is great. Germans get the best guns Krupp ever produced, but most their tanks have nothing but cheezy armor. Russian T-34's are nearly impervious with their great armor, but their cannon are ignorable. You end up with a lot of TK rolls in the 6-7-8 range, which always makes me nervous. The Tigers are nearly unstoppable from the front, but these are the early models that have to roll for immobilization every time they start. And the light Russian tanks sported 45L and 76L guns -- nothing to laugh at if you're in an outdated Panzer.
One odd SSR said that Acquisition was NA. This alone changes the flavor of gun battles quite a bit -- no longer do you pick a target and wax him, you can just spontaneously look for other opportunities if the current one bores you. I think this might make it more balanced -- the first person to stop to shoot wouldn't get quite the advantage you'd expect, so you lose some of the desire to stop. What better way to portray a sideshow of Kursk?
Ron chose Russians (quantity over quality), giving me the tanks that would worry most about smoke rules and such. Each side enters in "waves", and the last of the Russian tanks don't even enter the board until turn four. The game is seven turns long, and the Germans win by amassing 116 VP. Russians instanly win if they score 54 VP. The Germans also get VP for their tanks if they are alive and if they cross to the other half of the board by the end of the game. This is one of the few scenarios I can think of that both players can get a draw in, and the record shows quite a few of them.
Set-up was a bit disappointing. The counter-mix doesn't have enough T-34 M41's or T-70's, so we substituted in T-34 M40's and T-50's. Both are near simularcums to the ones we needed, but subtle differences caused a lot of confusion during the game. There isn't a Vehicle Data Card for the PzIII N either -- I love using the data cards, and it pains me when I'm reminded that the set is still incomplete.
The game's afoot.
I ran for the HD positions behind my near Hillock, and sent probes off to the sides. The game would mature as time passed, and I had no clear strategy in mind. Push and look for weakness ... yeah yeah yeah. Ron entered, and all our preliminary shots were ineffective. Too far to matter.
I drove forward some more, dropping one of my PzIV F2's in a Wadi to get HD. Looked great -- commanding view over one flank, packing a great gun. The Tigers were piling up further back, looking for HD positions that would see across the board. One Tiger, trying to move from a good position to a better one, rolled boxcars on start-up and threw a track. Ouch -- he was stuck for the game, but his position was pretty good. He was HD and had a clear field of view for a big chunk of the mapboard, and would go on to be one of my high-scoring tank killers of the game. Ron was hugging the sparse woods, blocking LOS between him and the 88's. My position was good -- I'd driven forward and parked, and started shooting at Ron as he moved for position. I began to score kills. Caused a couple of burning tanks, who's smoke began to add to the hindrances on the board.
The rhythm of Guns is unusual in ASL. When you play Infantry, there's a definite pattern of I-move-you-shoot-you-move-I-shoot. With guns, though, you get your DFPh and then your PFPh before your opponent gets to fire back (exceptions excluded, of course). Mix in the higher risk of intensive fire, and it's possible for defending tanks to rip apart a huge number of charging tanks. Not necessarily likely, but the possiblility is daunting. Makes it really tough to charge a set position.
The Russian tanks mostly had to be BU to fire. I popped the hatches, and got most my crews CE. At ranges greater than six hexes, the Russian guns (red numbers) are basically +1 TH compared to the Germans. With Ron having to stay BU, he was now +2 TH when we were exchanging shots. I thought this was justification enough to let my crews hang out.
The Russian tanks mostly had to be BU to fire. I popped the hatches, and got most my crews CE. At ranges greater than six hexes, the Russian guns (red numbers) are basically +1 TH compared to the Germans. With Ron having to stay BU, he was now +2 TH when we were exchanging shots. I thought this was justification enough to let my crews hang out.
On turn four, light dust was suddenly in play by SSR. Now we added a dr/2 (FRD) to our TH rolls for additional hindrance. Most my tanks that weren't CE yet flipped open their hatches -- I was willing to gamble that Ron wouldn't hit anything anymore (bad guess), and if he did hit the tank would probably burn long before the crew had to worry about Collateral Attacks (good guess). And then I got to dish out my turn from hell onto Ron -- all the sudden, his T-34's stopped bouncing the shells off their fronts and started bursting into flames. One of my hits was on his HD tank in his wadi -- both of us began to look at wadis a little more suspiciously.
I had a great time throwing smoke. One tank would drive by and pop sD's to screw with LOS to other thanks that hadn't started up yet, tanks would throw smoke just to watch it drift onto Ron's positions. I never found a good opportunity for my PzIII N's to shoot a smoke round (i.e. I never found much to do with them)(but draw fire), and Ron once shot my Tiger with a smoke round to bless me with a +4 to shoot back. This, mixed with flaming wreckage, was putting quite a strain on my counter mix. I was running out of the grey +2 Smoke counters.
The board had gotten ugly. On the flank that my now deceased PzIV thought would be the road to victory, there were a lot of wrecks -- mostly German. In the center, we had two crescents of guns taking turns blowing away the other side, and neither of us was making much headway. On the right, what used to be the scariest Russian defense (three tanks all pointing at the only avenue of approach) now looked the most inviting (hey, there's only three of 'em over there). I thought I'd try something different.
Ever look at Bounding First Fire? At first, your assumption is that you can't hit anything if you ain't parked and waiting for a shot. But now that we were getting close to each other, I looked through the numbers. TH Case C4 (the one where you double the lower die of your DR) only applies if you are in Motion or Non-stopped. But if you are moving and spend a MP to stop, then C4 doesn't apply. Likewise, Case L Point Blank Fire applies if you are stopped. So look at the math. I'm CE, and I drive up to, say, the arse end of a T-34. At that range it's 10 TH, +4 for Cases B and C (Bounding Fire), but then -2 for Case L (Point Blank). I need an 8 to hit the armor aspect of my choice. Hmm. If you come up on the blind side of his turret, his turning to shoot at you might push his modifiers lower than you driving up to shoot him. All the sudden, the 50Ls of my PzIII L's have a chance of wreaking some revenge.
I drove forward. Saved the Tigers until Ron had already shot his wad, and had them pull up to dish out the real damage. Sounded great, but with lackluster die rolling and the damned unpredictable Light Dust, I only hit a few tanks. Of the ones that were hit, none died. Four were Shocked, the rest just needed new paint. But Ron was spooked, and that's almost worth a lot of mediocre DRs. His defensive fire had been alright, and I had a few more wrecks to drive around. One of my tanks got immobilized one hex away from the border I had to cross to be on the winning side of the board.
Unfortunately, I hadn't scored a lot of hits. Ron eventually shrugged off every one of his Shocks, and I was now in an awkward position. He shifted a few more tanks my way (now that I was committed to driving up the right flank), and shot the tanks I'd so courteously left parked all over him. I shot back, we both added up more points.
On turn 6, the dust rises to Moderate (dr/2, FRU). The accumulated smoke from all the wrecks just about choked the middle of the board. I pushed more, doing more BFF all over him, and I began to wreak some serous damage. He shot back, began doing some ugly BFF to me, and got his kills in too. It was close enough to the end that we were counting points to win -- if ALL my tanks stayed alive, or if I killed one of him for each one of me he got, I could win. Ron needed to shoot four more tanks to pull an instant victory. I had thrown the tracks on two Tigers doing my BFF tricks (okay, one of them had been from trying ESB for just one more MP), and Ron had scored a rear hit and a flaming kill on my other Tiger. My first stranded Tiger (the one that was behind the hillock) was still picking at targets, and they were beginning to swoop in for the kill. Looking a little closer at the VC's we found out that my tanks had to be mobile to count for points on Ron's side of the map. My two stranded Tigers were now not worth points for me, but worth points for Ron if he could kill them.
The game ended in a dice-fest. Lots of lousy shots, with the Moderate Dust thrown in to make point-blank shots miss and IF shots almost impossibe to score. Both of us pulled miracles, both of us missed easy shots. Final score -- I won with a two tank lead, Ron missed his win by three tanks. I only had six tanks that were still rolling. Ron had something like a dozen tanks left, but a lot of them were the light disposable ones. It was tense to the very end.
I recomend the scenario highly, especially for those that are still wobbling on their feet when it comes to armored battles. Repeated trips through the TH tables beat the modifiers into my skull, and we're both much more confident in commanding our armor. There's enough firing that you see all sorts of weird DR results. My Tiger hit a T-34 against all odds on a spin-and-IF shot, only to roll a TK dud. My PzIII L bounced three ROF shots off the back armor of a T-34, and finally IF'ed to kill it. I had a Unconfirmed Killed tank that Ron wanted _dead_. He BFFed it with two tanks just to make sure, but one tank broke it's MA. I rolled and woke the boys up, missed my sD DR, fired up the engines, and watched Ron miss as I drove away. Incredible stuff happened, but the scenario was so big that no streak of luck was big enough to make the other player throw in the towel.
e waded through the rulebook many many times, but by the end of the game we were playing pretty confidently. A couple of questions came up, though:
Can a Bounding Fire tank use IF? Seems legal, but the flavor of the rules makes it seem like this is a case they meant to make illegal.
How does VCA work? It seems you can turn your tank (say for Defensive First Fire) even though you aren't in motion. Seems you could turn your stopped tank instead of firing it at the end of a friendly fire phase. With all that, I did see you can't turn it when you are immobilized, and it almost seemed inconsistent. Realistic, yes, but not really consistent.
Tanks are great. Tanks are good. Let us thank them for our brain food.
Tom Huntington
My regular FtF partner, Kevin, and I completed Clash Along the Psel last night. Both of us have had a hankering to complete larger scenarios, that probably could not be done in one evening. Also we have both noticed that our playing speed has actually slowed down somewhat. Neither one of us have the room to devote exclusivly to gaming, so Kevin built a box that will hold three boards and can be covered to protect the game.
Last Friday we completed the first 3 game turns and last night we played unitl German turn 6. The box stayed on Kevin's dinning room table, with stuff stacked on top of it during the interum. It protected the game, so it worked out just like we both hoped.
Clash along the Psel uses about 3.57 * 10^45 overlays, so it's a bit of a pain to setup. 28 German tanks (could be wrong here, but I am close) battle it out against 40 Russian tanks. Germans win when they have 116 casulty/"exit" vps (exit is defined past row Q). Russian win upon getting 54 casulty vps. Steppe terrain is in effect.
I really like the Steppe terrrain. There is some cover, some hinderences, and some very long LOS. Very fun to play an armor battle in, and I am no fan of the desert.
Kevin and I both felt this rated as a "Must Play". The terrain is great, hidden movement for the first turn is always fun, and the ablility to choose what reinforcement group enters on a particular turn also leads to an interesting scenario. What really makes this a winner though is the trade offs that each of the tanks have.
The Russians have t-34m40,and m43s, SU122s, T-70s and a small open top spgun with a 76L and ROF of 2. Both of the t34 have great armor and movment. The 40s have red mps which is a bit of a disadvantage. The trouble is that they are not assured a kill. With kill numbers of 13 and 14 for APDS its pretty easy for the Germans to shrug off hits. The small sp gun sport the same gun, but the real advantage is the ROF of 2. These guys could be real killers. The T-70s are useless for anything but rear shots, and cannon fodder for the Germans. The SU122s have a good to kill number with HEAT, but you have an ammo depleation of 10, and an inferior turret which makes you very vunerable to German tanks.
The Germans have 4 tigers that rule the battle field, but suffer from mechanical relaiablity. Nothing, save a critical hit can kill one. They have a to kill number of 20, which can save a t34 or su122 with a hull hit. They also have 75L, 50L and 75* guns. The 50Ls can only go after the lighter armored tanks, and the 75L need a 5 or less to kill a t34 from the front. THe 75*'s can only use heat to kill and have a depletion number of 10.
Now game play.....
During these meeting engament type scenarios, I feel it is very important to gain key terrain to have the advantage.
As the Russsians I led with my t34s, brought the 43s on first then the 40s. They were to engage the intial German elements. I then Brought on the SU122s and 76L spguns. The SU122s would plug any holes in my skirmish line, and the spguns would take postion to engage units comming across row Q. I would bring the t-70s on last which would attempt to get into the German back field and engage units from the rear (the only way they can score a kill).
The t-34s came on, and during turn 2, I got scored first, creating a flaming wreck along my right flank. With this newly created smoke screen, and Kevin leaving some tanks in motion, there was an opening along the right. The rest of my line was holding pretty well, so I decided to send 5 t-34s to exploit it.
He only had one tank between me and his backfield, I killed it during turn 4, and I started rolling him up. Turn 5 Kevin moves a tiger to block my advances, and all I could do was turn tail and run-no explotation.
During the first 3 turns I killed 3 tanks, and Kevin had none, by turn 3 we started trading 2 of my tanks for one of his, and truthfully I could afford to do that all day long. Turn 5 I scored a CH on a Tiger which was my 7th tank (9 tanks and I win), and we both felt it was pretty much over.
Three of Kevin's 75* tanks were in a position were they had to move somewhere, and no matter where they went they would be fired upon. One fell too my little 76L sp gun, and another to a t34, game over.
I think Kevin had only 65 cvps at game end so it was not very close. Dice made a bit of a difference I had 2 CHs, and only one busted gun. Kevin had 1 CH, and 4 busted guns, 3 of those were recalled. This was also a situation, in which once I started gaining the upper hand, things just slid in my favor. My t70s never came into play which would have given Kevin some easy VPs. Had I been force to use them thing would have been much closer. Excellent scenario, play this one. What is next? Storm of Steel.