Just completed a PBEM game of TOT23 against Andrew Young.
This is an odd one due to the sequential setup and pre-game breaking of two squad equivalents on each side.
First, as the Brits, I pre-registered X7 for Turn 4 PFPh OBA Smoke, figuring that would give me the most and best smoke on his likely for my endgame sprint off the SW corner of the board, at a time when I might have been deprived of one or both tanks and run out of Smoke for the little MTR.
As the German, distributing the "Battlefield Flotsam," Andy set up one of the AA guns off either end of the train station, the HMG up there as well in a foxhole, and the MMG in a foxhole between the two buildings on his left.
Next, as the Brits, I set up with a half squad to recover and destroy each AA gun, and a full squad to capture and use each of the abandoned MGs. I set up other units to deny him the foxholes and as much of the buildings as possible to start. I planned to Prep Fire a fair amount on the first turn to break as many of his guys as possible, figuring few could rally quickly enough to stop my big fallback starting on turn 2.
He set up strong on his left, surprisingly so to me -- he showed little or no interest in contesting for the AA guns, which I would think would be rather helpful. Rather, he was going to build a single strong firebase to hurt my guys as I tried to leave.
I broke a couple of his squads that threatened to Encircle some of my men on his left, and he broke the squad that would try to retrieve the MMG and one other.
At the outset my prep fire went fairly badly. However, I recovered and destroyed one of the Flak guns, and I rolled the tanks on board just out of range of his PFs and PSK, intending to use them to blanket his firebase with SMOKE (especially the WP from the Cromwell) and fire their MGs at any Germans that tried to get out from under that SMOKE. I kept them CE to avoid that +1 TH.
He, on the other hand, got a CH with his PSK on some of my guys in a building. An inauspicious start for me... I began the game essentially with a significant part of my force Low Crawling across the middle of the map.
On his player turn, I recovered the other Flak gun and destroyed it during DFPh. That phase also contained a painful moment, as I took a 4(-2) shot that killed one of his HS, but also triggered his sniper, which Recalled my CE Cromwell. Bye, bye Smoke Machine. Shortly thereafter, I malfed the MA on the Firefly while taking an HE shot. I opted not to fix it because I still wanted to use that Smoke Mortar.
Not to bore you with the details, but he whittled down my force as I Assault Moved, Low Crawled and Advanced toward primarily the southwest corner. I had a few successful shots, including some Prep Fire with my out-of-Smoke-on-its-second shot mortar that broke a squad with an LMG that would've wreaked absolute havoc. And I got a HoB Battle Hardening/Hero Creation on a rally attempt for one of my leaders, turning him from an 8-0 to a Heroic 8-1. Would I get an extra VP for exiting him?
On the downside, I forgot about his PSK and lost the Firefly driving it up to throw Smoke on an MMG nest 3 hexes away.
There was more downside as it went on. With barely enough GO units left to win at the start of Turn 4, my big Smoke FFE was inaccurate and landed entirely behind the German lines, not hindering the vision of anyone whatsoever. By the time I corrected it, I had so few GO units left that I'd need one hell of a RPh. On Turn 5 at the end of the RPh, I had only exited 4 VP, including the crew of the Recalled Cromwell, and had only 8 left onboard, which would leave me two shy even if he failed to recover the HMG I dropped while routing and blast everyone to kingdom come as they left. So I conceded.
I found Andy to be a good player and very quick to send his moves back -- at one point we did three posts a day each way!
I actually think this scenario is pro-British if you use the correct tactics. In terms of specifics, the tanks should stay BU and out of range of Germans -- their SMOKE is worth more than all their other capabilities combined. I should also have brought on the Smoke during (probably) the DFPh of German Turn 3, so its Dispersed Smoke would be around wherever it landed through Turn 4 the FFE:2 corrected smoke would be full-strength on Turn 4 and Dispersed on Turn 5.
In more general terms, I think the Brit actually needs to fight more than I did -- you can afford to spend two turns in trying to cripple the German force before you make a run for it. As it was, I barely made a dent in him before I started trying to cross all that Open Ground.
This is a fun and above all different-feeling scenario with a very high replay value, IMO. I'd like to hear from others who've played it and hear what worked for you.
John Frazer