J45 – THE LAST ROADBLOCK
JP defending as the Germans
Legion attacking as the Allies
ROAR (A:G – 25:23) – 21st June, 2007
INITIAL THOUGHTS
This is a tough one, I don’t hold a lot of hope for the win but stranger things have happened. I have 2x 4-6-8 and 4x 4-4-7, an 81mm MTR and a HMG located on the level 3 and 4 hill top (Hill 740 Bd 9). I also get 8x 4-6-8’s and 2 LMG’s that enter on turn 1 on my right flank.
He has 8 Norwegians and a DM MMG located 9 hexes away on my extreme left flank, 3 French squads with a LMG located only 4 hexes away in front of my left flank (9CC9), 5 French squads a MMG 5 hexes away from my centre (9i8) and 4 more French squads a MMG only 2 hexes away from the level 3 hill on my right flank (9U9). With another squad arriving from the other end of the board on turn 3. That gives me 14 squads to his 21 – he needs to take the level 3 and 4 hill hexes from me, now, that would not be too hard to defend BUT he also has an 81mm MTR at start and 70mm OBA arriving on turn 3.
POSITIVES AND NEGATIVES
His broken morale for French troops is increased by 1
His French troops have an underlined morale and ELR 5.
My 4-4-7 and his Norwegians have ELR 3
My 4-6-8 are ELR 4
His SAN is 2 my SAN is 5
His MG all have a breakdown #11
I can use captured MG without captured use penalties.
Mud is in effect helping to slow him down.
Mud is in effect giving me a +1 DRM for entrenchments.
MY PLAN
I am setting up with my HMG, MTR, a squad and LMG on my extreme left flank in positions where his MMG’s at the centre or right flank do not have LOS (9EE4 and 9Z5). I will fire smoke at the LMG (9CC9) and then at the DM Norwegian MMG if possible and my HMG and squad will try to break/eliminate the other squads immediately in front of my position, that will allow me to shift fire on to his Norwegians as they attempt to cross the open ground in front of the hill. Basically I am trying to destroy one flanking attack before relocating to the centre to take on the other 2 groups. My 8 squads that enter on turn 1 will spread out and not put themselves in the line of fire until the advance phase when they can advance still concealed into positions on the level 3 hill on my extreme right flank (9S7) and also the level 1 hill located at 18P8. Meanwhile the remaining 4 squads on hill 740 are dispersed thusly: 1 HS on the level 4 peak at 9Y6 to stop him from gaining concealment, this guy will move off the hill in movement, the other HS is with the HMG group to make their fire up to 12 factors and the last 3x 4-4-7’s are at 9AA4 along with the 7-0 leader where they will get concealment after setup and then move and eventually advance into 9Y7, W7 and X7 to hold the front of the hill and hopefully absorb some prep fire. His 4 squads on my right flank will have men firing at them from the left (18P8 and 9) and right (9W7 and X7 – encircling fire in fact..) and from their front 9S6 and 9S7. I would have liked to have dug some foxholes for when the OBA arrives but I need to gain some kind of fire superiority otherwise his troops will be unstoppable.
4 squads from my right flank force will attempt to push their way across the front of hill 740 as the initial defence of the hill, I will keep my troops well spaced out so his OBA can only hit one at a time so I am going to need lots of squads and interlocking fields of fire. The big “Ifs” are: Will I lose SMOKE 1st shot like the last 3 times I have tried SMOKE? And where is his MTR? It can setup anywhere on board 18, currently it is HIP so must be in trees as there is no other terrain feature they can fire from and be HIP. His Mortar can win or lose this game for him and without a doubt I am concerned about it; it will get a lot of fire when it has become exposed. (especially from my MTR which suffers a +1 for fire effect on open ground due to mud but will still have a –1 airburst against his tree bound MTR, I hope I survive his 1st 2 shots).
TURN 1
Everything went according to plan!! I SMOKEd the LMG in 9CC9 and then SMOKEd the DM MMG in 18C8. My Mortar still had ROF and then broke a squad in DD8 where I wanted to leave my Acquired as it was the only non-open hex his SMOKEd LMG could go to other than the trees. My HMG broke a HS in the open at BB8 and my LMG turned a HS in CC8 into a Beserker which subsequently died in its next movement phase by, of all things, failing a MC. I moved my 3 squads on the hill to their pre-designated positions ready to advance concealed into 9Y7,W7 and X7.
My reinforcements entered from off board and none moved into his LOS, but all are ready to advance into positions where they can put fire on his troops on my right flank.
His Mortar turned up in defensive fire at 18A7 and promptly broke my Mortar squad and killed the squad and LMG stacked with them, it also had enough ROF to acquire my HMG through the smoke – curses, not happy with that. His prep was ineffective with his French squad in 9T8 failing to do any damage to my concealed squad in the adjacent 9T8 and both his MMG’s in the centre and right flank went opportunity fire which surprised me no end. He started moving the Norwegians up where my HMG was only able to score a break. The troops in the centre also charged towards the hill and were put under fire by my 4-4-7’s that had advanced to Y7and X7 but they failed to score a kill or even a break. My defensive resulted in both of his MMG squads and the squad in 9T8 breaking (9T8 and the MMG in 9U9 were both encircled.)
TURN 2
I Prepped a little bit but scored no good result and started moving my reinforcements further into the board with a view to wiping out the right flank troops. Meanwhile a sniper had broken the last of the squads around his other MMG in 18J8 and so I decided to charge at him. I was able to get a HS adjacent to the J8 troops (which died for FTR next turn) but he had enough fire from the hill side to not risk sending a full squad. His defensive broke 2 of my 4-4-7’s and, given that my HMG had a –2 acquired on him I moved them to 9X6 to cover the hill crest as he comes over the top. He shifted the axis of his attack so as to threaten to take the hill line BB4-Z6 and also managed to extricate some of the right flank troops where 3 squads (1 broken) and the leader are in the building L9.
TURN 3
I moved a squad each into 2 adjacent hexes of the L9 building and in Rout the broken squad surrendered. With another squad breaking in the next turns defensive for 2 down and 1 to go. I also sent my 9-2 along with 2 squads and a LMG across the valley and into the position where the HMG is (9X6) and moved the HMG to 9Z4 to cover the hills there, I had also sent a 447 to 9CC4 to cover the open ground in front of the hill and deny him concealment. His OBA ruined my day!!! The spotting round was accurate (needed dr 1) on 9X6 so I split my 9-2 fire group, putting one on the hill top Y7 and the 9-2 and squad on W7. His prep and he converted where the SR was, which broke both my squads with one of them rolling a 6,6 to CR.
We saved the game there and it is at a balance, a lot depends on my next turn, I need to rally some troops as I have 4.5 squads there and very little on the hill (1 crew, 2 HS’s a full squad and HMG and 2 leaders.) Obviously I will have to shift my attack on my right flank and attack his troops waiting at the crest of the level 3 hill area if I want any chance of holding this hill but his OBA is my main problem, he can move it in Prep and take a large chunk of vacated hillside.
TURNS 4 AND 5
Turn 4 was a brilliant one for me and if the impetus had continued I would have won the game except for his OBA!!
I sent my HMG and 8-1 to 9DD2 which has LOS to nearly all of the hill while still being out of LOS of both his OBA observer and his Mortar. (If you are going to play this game I would recommend that you dig a foxhole here and then pull your HMG back to it as the game progresses) I also sent 2.5 squads from my right flank up the hill to take up positions, things are getting so desperate that I cannot afford to stick to my plan and must get men up there quickly. I advanced a crew to CC4 and a HS to Y6 to soak up some Prep fire as I could not afford to have too many squads charging the hill until I have more troops on it and also advanced 2 squads that had rallied into Z3 and Y4. He prepped at the crew, HMG and HS (only to create a hero) and then tried to force the hill through movement but my puny little 2FP-2 and 1FP residuals scored well and he lost a squad KIA and another for FTR as well as breaking 2 more units.
His prep started well, his OBA adjusted to 9V4 and survived the extra black chit draw where it scored a CH against my 9-2 and HS to kill both, then caused MC’s at my rally point W4 where another HS was eliminated for failing a MC and, worse, re-DM the other 2 units there. His troops started taking large tracts of the hill and when my HMG fired it Malfed and now I was in big trouble. His advance fire broke the HMG squad and leader and he advanced into CC against both the Y6 hero and HS and the CC4 crew.
I had no Prep and everyone was rushing to the hill, I managed to get to the HMG and recover it but his prep started well, his OBA adjusted to 9V4 and again survived the extra black chit draw where it scored a CH against my 9-2 and HS to kill both, then caused MC’s at my rally point W4 where another HS was eliminated for failing a MC and, worse, re-DM the other 2 units there he also broke the squad that had just recovered the HMG and at that point I surrendered.
The Germans Surrender
ALLIED VICTORY
FINAL THOUGHTS
Good game but a good allied player will win if he doesn’t red chit his OBA.
If I were to play this again I would want the German play balance of setting up entrenched to provide some cover from the OBA as 12FP +1 (and 8+1 from the MTR) is just too deadly, the German can’t move down the hill towards the attack to give them some breathing space and the VC hill hexes are only 3 hexes across which means you need to stand and fight at some point, having the entrenchments would at least give you a fighting chance.