From: George Bates
Date: Sunday, April 04, 2004 10:38 AM
This is perhaps the sloppiest game I have played since picking up ASL again
about four years ago. Saying this does not take away from Dong-Il's strong
play. He did everything the Russian needs to do to win. Here's a summary
of lessons learned as the German.
VC are control of majority of building hexes (all wood, L0) in the board 46
town. German has 3 choices of approach for attack; through a mix of
orchard, grain fields and scattered woods on the left, over fairly open
ground in the center, or up the woods road on board 42 to strike at the
right flank. Dong-Il spread his forces pretty evenly and in depth across
the center, with an outpost contingent in the board 42 church on the right.
I think everybody in his setup was eligible for concealment at start. The
KV was off alone on the left in a board 42 wheatfield. I choose to send
most of my force up the center right, using the bits of grain and the StuGs
as cover to approach the board 46 outbuildings and the church and use them
as stepping stones into the village. I positioned about 4 squads, an LMG
the 8-1 and an 8-0 adjacent to the board 42 woods road with the idea of
double-timing unhindered deep into the Russian left rear, there linking up
with units coming out of the churchyard and perhaps cutting some rout paths.
Probably this was not a bad idea, although Dong-Il later advocated leaving
at least a token force on the left to keep the Soviets nervous about me
rushing in and grabbing unattended locations on that flank. The problem is,
I wasn't paying attention to the details and thinking about what I'd need to
do when I got where I was going. Somehow, I managed to overlook the 50mm
MTR when pulling my OB. This was badly needed FP, and with 3RoF, almost a
guaranteed CH at some time during the game. I don't know how I did this,
MTRs are my favorite weapon.
On top of that, the ATR should have gone with the group up the woods road.
I thought it would be useful immobilizing the KV, but of course I hadn't
realized that this was impossible. On the other hand, it could have
shredded T60s quite nicely, and since the team heading up the right flank
was going to reach position on Turn 3, it was stupid not to give them some
AT capability. Adding a StuG to that group would have been smart, too.
The attack got off on the right foot as I pushed into the churchyard and
Dong-Il retreated from it. I also got a foothold in the forward
outbuildings with the help of liberal smoke from the StuGs, but things went
very badly from there. The KV chugged over from board 43 to confront the
StuGs, and as I've already noted we missed the fact that the German is not
eligible for HEAT until almost a year later. This led to an attempt to
engage the Russian beast. The AGs danced around the KV, bopping in for BFF
shots and trying for deliberate immobilization, then using motion attempts
and sDs to try and stay out of his sights. By midgame, all I had to show
for this was one burning wreck and another StuG out of AP. People, do not
let yourselves be misled by the scenario prelude and aftermath!!! The
proper approach to ridding yourself of the heavy Ivan is to have a StuG
smoke his hex (either PFPh or a sD7 drive-thru) and rush him with a couple
squads (use 468s to better pass the PAATC; maybe add a leader to make it a
surer kill).
By T4 I was definitely losing momentum. The StuGs split up to hunt more
lightly armored targets and the one the KV followed eventually managed an
immobilization shot, but could not escape the 76mm AP shells as it attempted
a smoky getaway and gave up the ghost. My troops had linked up on the right
but were largely pinned down now that the T60s had arrived. Worse,
casualties were increasing far too quickly, especially in the center.
Dong-Il was playing a smart game of skulk and defensive fire, doing a good
job of rotating unconcealed units out and newly concealed units in. His DFF
shots were picking up K/# results with nagging frequency. At first I my
attacks were also yielding casualties, but when I advanced into CC with a
pinned squad, didn't get ambush and then got wiped out (aaaaarrrrggghh!), I
fell way behind him with 3.5 squads out of the game and no flanking position
to show for it. My remaining StuG used ESB to get behind his T60 platoon
and take out two of the little pests, but because it was immobilized it too
was lost in CC. With losses too high to accomplish the mission, I conceded
at the end of T6(G).
This is a great early war combined arms simulation. I want another shot at
it as the Germans just to get all these things right, but it is clearly an
equal challenge for both sides and I'd be happy in the Soviet seat, too.
George Bates
Yokohama, Japan
This page last updated 4/26/04
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