J109 – BREAK FOR HUNGARY
JP attacking as the Croatian 1st light Para
Legion defending as the Partisans
ROAR (P:C – 5:6) – 30th August, 2007
INITIAL THOUGHTS
This seems easy enough, my 9.5 squads plus 2 crew have to break through his 12 squads and I need to get 8 or more VP’s off west edge of the board by games end. Everything seems to be in my favour, I have 7 movement phases (the game is 6.5 turns long and I go first) to travel the required 17 hexes. We both have ammo shortage so he will not be able to lay fire lanes and the terrain is studded with cover and/or FFMO negating territory such as orchards and grain. He has no leaders with negative modifiers while I have two –1 leaders. I setup concealed regardless of terrain and also have 10 dummy counters although he has 2 squads HIP. That said, he can not lose more than 8CVP’s more than me so he can’t afford to be too aggressive or launch hastily thought out counter attacks either.
SETUP
I have setup in a rough U shape with squads along the north, west and south edges of my setup area. My MMG and a 9-1 is in the centre of the board at 38P5 where it can prep fire or move west along the trees or north through the grain. I have left a half squad exposed in 38P8 to stop him setting up concealed and thus hopefully make him think twice about setting up in the centre of the board. (at any rate it means I don’t have to expose other troops to stop him concealing).
THE PLAN
I will spend the 1st turn or 2 moving west, north and south just stretching his defence, Legion will try to trade land for time but we are playing across 3 boards so if I can expand my perimeter 6-7 hexes in all directions he will then have to cover over two dozen hexes and once I get a break then holes will appear and I can pour through. Basically I want to stretch his defence until it breaks and then dash for the board edge as I only need to get 4 squads off board.
TURN 1
I could not have asked for a better set up, he has set himself quite a distance away at least 6 hexes and in a rough line running north to south, more importantly he only has his Mortar on the hills to my south at 2Y6, I was concerned about his MMG being up there and thus forcing me to head north and assault him on board 42 where he has a number of stone buildings and I would have at best a +1 for woods. I sent a few CX units (8CVP’s worth – enough to win the game) up north and moved cautiously west with my other troops as I don’t want to outpace my flanking attacks. In the south I moved a concealed crew in such a way that his Mortar stripped it of concealment and I then moved two dummy stacks south but kept them out of his LOS, this is just a big ruse and hopefully he will react to it and send a squad or two to take care of them. On the western side I want to get my MMG to 38U4 where it can help stop him from re-enforcing to the south.
In his turn he reacted to my movement but was cautious and did not want to risk losing concealment.
TURN 2
Now things are starting in earnest, I will alter the western attack and swing it diagonally to the south west as there seems to be less defenders there and move a LMG into the U4 position while the MMG and 9-1 leader push into his defence. He has got at least 3 squads around and in the woods at 2U10 and these 3 guys are the only defence other than the MTR. A half squad trying to link up with these troops was hit but HOB-ed into a fanatic and also created a hero. In the north I have moved my squads along the path and will be in a position to do some damage next turn. The ruse in the south moved through the mountain pass at 2L5 to get onto the reverse slope of the hill.
In his turn his Mortar fired and fired and fired etc. etc. at one of my squads supporting the U4 position obviously trying to break it so he can re-enforce southwards, it fired for about a week and even scored a CH which only resulted in CR’ing the squad and pinning the surviving HS while creating a SAN that broke one of his half squads. He exposed his HIP MMG at 38V8 which is trying to join the action and I was glad I altered the direction of my attack or it could have been a slaughter. The other HIP squad also exposed itself in an ambush position at 2P6 but as it tried to climb over the hill 621 ridge to put fire on my southern ruse it took fire from a squad and LMG joining up with my main attack and was broken. He assault moved a concealed stack adjacent to my squad, MMG and 9-1 but in defensive fire I pinned it thus saving me from a potentially disastrous CC encounter.
TURN 3
Only my MMG stack Prep fired and I was lucky enough to break the unit he had moved adjacent last turn. My northern troops pushed him back and are now in row ‘T’ not much of an advance when you consider they started in row ‘P’ but he has at least 3 squads up there trying to hold them off. Meanwhile my 2 dummy stacks in the south have crossed the hill and are now on the road at the very southern edge. I sent the crew that was with them to knock off the broken squad at 2P6 and also sent a squad, LMG and the 7-0 onto the hill just to keep stretching his defence out and to give me an advantageous firing position where I can put his Mortar under fire next turn. In the woods at 2U10 I have pushed him back with a combination of guile and sheer guts, at one stage I had an exposed squad in one hex and a dummy stack in a another, both were adjacent to his squad and LMG but he chose to pull back – phew… At the vital U4 holding position I have re-enforced the LMG squad with my mortar. I also tried to collect 2 other broken units as FTR but took a pair of breaks for my trouble, however, they are re-DM’ed now so they wont be back in action until at least his turn 4.
He tried to extricate his squads at 2U10 but one got broken by my defensive fire. He also tried to draw the 38U4 squads fire by dashing first one, then a second squad across the V4-Y6 road but both were broken with one squad being CR’ed and the other pinning and eventually ELR’ing in defensive. My LMG had retained ROF so he did not risk moving his MMG across, besides, if he did there would be nothing to stop my U4 squad and the MTR crew from running off board anyway. In the north he pulled back to row ‘X” but now that my half squad and hero are nearby I am sure I can draw some fire and scoot a squad through his overstretched defence which will make him react to me – which is all good. Down in the south he sent one of his few squads left down the V5-V3 road and stopped him in V2 where I can now isolate him with the 7-0 squad and LMG. Overall my dummy stacks down here have caused one squad to expose itself and get broken and a second has pulled out of the weakened front line to defend against their imaginary threat. Sadly my MMG broke down in defensive but that is to be expected with ammo shortage.
We stopped the game there and currently he has 3.5 squads broken, 1 squad KIA and another squad prisoner so I am now only facing 6.5 squads. In comparison I have lost a half squad and have 2 other half squads broken. I will have to be a fool to lose this game from this point, I am able to put all 3.5 of his broken troops DM through fire next turn and the gaps in his line are huge.
After a few days break we continued the game, have you ever been watching a sports game where one team dominates the other and then the half-time bell sounds and the losing team come out and fight their way back into the game and eventually win by a point? – Well, that’s what happened to me…
TURN 4
My only Prep was my 7-0, squad and LMG which failed to break his Mortar on the next hill, I decided to charge the Mortar anyway as it was only manned by a Half squad and I would be below the Mortars minimum range anyway. My first squad got broken by his 1 FP which was to be expected but when I moved my second squad I forgot his 337 at the bottom of the board and as my man bypassed some trees it too got broken. I now only have a dummy stack and my 9-1 leader with squad and MMG that can take offensive options here but if the 9-1 and his squad was broken then I would be in a world of trouble as he could counterattack, so I chose to park them in 2X8 where they could advance fire at the broken squads across the road and re-DM them while still being out of LOS of his MTR. I put my dummy stack in 2X7 in the hope that he would fire the MTR at them instead of my now somewhat exposed 7-0 and squad. At the top of the board I ran my men up to 1 hex away from his front line which had pulled back a good 3-4 hexes in his turn. His defensive saw him break my Mortar squad in the centre of the board as well as my squad and LMG which had been doing such a great job of holding up the centre and stopping him from reinforcing the southern edge.
His Mortar fired at my dummy stack in 2X7 which made me breathe a sigh of relief (he had previously worked out that the 2 stacks at the bottom of the board were dummies and had asked if we could remove the dummy stacks. I didn’t want to say “yes” as it would imply that they were all gone but similarly I didn’t want to say “you haven’t found them all yet” so I gave him some rubbish about possibly recombining with a concealed squad and then splitting up etc.) He ran an 8-0 leader into a building with 3 broken squads for rally purposes and slowly pulled back his last good order squad at the road near my 9-1 at the top of the board he pulled back only one hex which will give my concealed squad a chance to assault move adjacent and then CC him.
TURN 5-6
My prep fire broke his Mortar squad so I now changed the direction of my attack (once again) and slanted south-west across the hill in the hope of using that as a shield against his fire. He rallied a pair of HS’s and sent them down to the other end of the hill to try and cut me off. At the top of the board I did not advance into CC as I was concerned about losing the squad thus giving him a numerical and firepower advantage. He sent his squad, 7-0 and MMG up the board (which surprised me) to 42Y1 where it can now cover the exit of my northern troops. His single squad in 42V2 tried to go around the lake but my hero took it out with a 1FP –2 shot, meanwhile his squad adjacent to my troops took a MC and became berserk and was KIA’ed from 24 TPBF in my next defensive fire phase. I kept moving troops across the board and knew where I wanted them by turn 6 to be able to escape in the last turn. In his turn 5 he sent the 337 which had reacted to my dummy counters moving south out of its woods in 2V2 and along the road to 2Z1 and although I fired 3 squads separately at him none were able to break or even pin it which would be crucial to the game as it then moved to EE7 next turn.
TURN 7
So, here we are, it’s the last movement phase and he has a MMG in the north to stop my leader and 2 squads (6 CVP’s) exiting while in the south he has a 337 at EE7 while he also has a half squad at 2GG7 and a pair of squads on the level 2 hill hex at 2CC8 these guys should not be of concern to me as I have 8 CVPs worth that only have to take the fire from his 337. As back up I also have another 3 CVP’s worth of squads that will have to run the gauntlet from his half squad and 2 squads in CC8 but I hope I wont need them. I send my hero down the road to be adjacent to his MMG so it can not SFF and also did the same with a HS at the north edge where it went adjacent to a 337 which would have had a very low probability shot versus my escaping troops.
My northern troops went for the run first and his MMG fired and resulted in a MC which my 8-1 passed but was pinned which ends that little foray as the 2 squads needed his leadership bonus, the 2 squads with him also pinned which was just adding insult to injury.
Down in the south I sent a squad through my escape route 2EE3-FF2-GG3 but it got pinned by his 337 in EE1 (now I am wishing my dummies in the south had not been so convincing….. or that one of the 3x 4FP -2 shots I had at this guy had done some damage….) I sent a crew through the same path (no choice, any other route will put me in the LOS of the CC2 firegroup) and it survived the residual and the SFF to escape off the board. My 9-1 and squad also escaped the same way with his residual rolling a ‘10’. That’s 6CVP’s off board and I am left with my emergency 7-0 and squad. They will have to run down the 2CC3-2GG6 road to be adjacent board edge at the end of their turn and then advance off. They started charging down and he fired with a LMG which broke the squad thus leaving me 1 CVP short even if my 7-0 gets off the board (he is Pinned and doesn’t).
SO HOW DID I LOSE?
Having 4 squads broken in one turn certainly didn’t help as it gave him the time to collect his breath, rally his troops and get back in the game. I feel I also should have gone into CC in the north to push that end along a bit but my biggest mistake was made earlier in turn 5 when I moved my MMG to 2W5 where it was out of range of his MMG but could cover a small section of board 2 where he would be sending his newly rallied troops, I had thought about putting them into 2Z6 and re-claiming his mortar which certainly would have given me enough firepower to stop his troops from getting down to the southern edge but I was concerned that his MMG would have a 4+1 shot at them and if they broke the game would definitely have been lost and I did not want to risk the entire game on a single DR.
FINAL THOUGHTS
This was not a scenario where your troops move in unison against an objective but rather it is a series of unrelated small attacks across the board. and neither of us enjoyed it overly much. I feel that Legion was too generous setting up as far away as he did as my biggest concern was that he would setup with a view to containing my break out and attacking me from the rear if I chose to attack in only one direction but he scored the dubious win so it all worked out well for him.
Overall I would not play this scenario again as it lacks something, I am just not sure what. Oh, that’s it! Excitement…