Friday, January 02, 2009

AAR: J110 Prelude to Spring

Steven Miller

Germans: Steven Miller
Russians: Randy Garlington

Randy Garlington and I tried this one. I was the Germans and he was the Russians. It is a relatively small scenario; eight turns and four half boards put sideways. The Germans have seven first line squads, three tanks (a Panther and two MK-IV's), three leaders (9-1 the best), a 50mm mtr and a 75 AT gun. The Russians have eight elite squads, five tanks (two IS-II's, two T34-85's and a SU-100), three leaders (9-2 the best and an 8-1 armor leader) and a 50 cal. MG. The Russians have to travel the width of three boards to exit the equivilant of three tanks off the board or have 15 more CVP than the Germans. The German tanks and two and 1/2 of the squads do not enter until turn three. That leaves the German with four and 1/2 squads and an AT gun to hold the Russians off until help arrives.
The game began on an auspicious note when my first roll was a "12" I broke a LMG and my squad and leader were then swarmed by several Russian squads. Of course they broke in the next fire phase...but then in a later MC the squad battle hardened, created a hero but the leader wounded. By that time however, the squad and hero were jumped by several Russian squads and promptly died in CC. One minute your up, then your down. My wounded leader did manage to take out a half squad in CC. Not being of much use after that he wandered around in a grain field out of harms way. My other front line troops were slowly ground down. One rather cowardly half-squad surrendered and revealed under interrogation that the AT gun was not hidden anywhere near him, which pretty much narrowed it down to where it was located. Thats okay, the Gestapo is investigating their families. My lt mtr KIA'd one squad and caused one to go fanatic. The fanatic squad then jumped my second remaining squad and after a couple of melee rounds eliminated it. So I'm not sure if the mtr helped me or hurt me.
Prior to getting jumped by the fanatic squad my squad made four, count 'em four, attempts at a PF and came up dry each time. Oh yeah, did I mention it was against a T34 from one hex away and at it's rear facing? My last "stronghold" (a squad, 9-1 and a MMG) got itself surrounded by tanks and 458's. In an attempt to pull off an escape of legendary proportions I charged a T34-85. If it pulled off I'd have gotten a tank and escaped the jaws of death. However, the broken half squad and the broken 9-1 routed back to the Alamo.
At that point the game turned in my favor. I can safely say after that I got just about everything I needed in dice rolls. The 9-1 rallied, got a PF (needed a "1") and took out the T34 with the 8-1 armor leader. But that wasn't the end. By this time the German tanks were on the board. A MK-IV took out a T34 with a CH using APCR. The Panther took out two IS-II's and a SU-100 without taking a hit. On one of the IS-II's the Panther got four ROF shots before getting the hull hit it needed to have a good chance of the kill. Lastly, the AT gun finally revealed itself and busted up the last Russian infantry assault on a German position. At this point the Russians were incapable of offensive action and we ended the game on turn six with a German victory. I have to admit I was embarrassed by the way my dice rolls were so good in the last half of the game. They more than made up for what happened in the first half.

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