ITR14 Between Rockets and a Hard Place After Action Report (AAR) Advanced Squad Leader scenario

Victory Conditions

I played this scenario wrong. 

I misread the victory conditions and played this scenario incorrectly as a defender. However, it’s still an epic scenario.  Just note that I essentially defended while short one tank and two guns.  This is Stalingrad around the Tractor Works. The Germans win by capturing all the (Russian) buildings on the right half of the map AND have 24 “Exit VP” of Good Order Germans on the left half of the map. The Germans also get double EVP’s for leaving the left edge. I was thrown off by the use of the term “Exit VP”, as I thought the Germans HAD to exit. They didn’t. All the Germans had to do was be in Good Order on the left half of the map. The railway in the middle of the map (horizontal) is an Embanked Railway (half height), we put in the ‘funky’ overlay to make it more visible.

Both sides can declare Hand to Hand.  The Russians are Fanatic in Factories and Rooftop are in effect for Factories.  The Germans have a Stuka and the Russians have 120mm Rocket OBA with error DR halved.  

After Action Report

The Germans led with an abundance of Half Squads. They did a lot of searching for HIP’d guns and dug-in tanks, and threatened Hand to Hand with full Russian squads. On the German left, they hit us with a larger-than-expected force (I expected them to have to exit, but they didn’t), and were channeled by the placement of two 8-factor AP mines (which don’t go boom if you come through another building hex). On the German right, the Russian MMG & mortars were laying down long range fire on the attackers, but soon one of the squads in the factory went berserk!  We really couldn’t afford to have our manpower running off.  A particularly good tactic the Germans used was to have Half Squads on the roofs, which stopped most of our concealment. This of course worked well with the Stuka circling overhead.

As more German tanks approached, the Russian HMG stack on the Embanked Railway retreated, but was pinned by the Stuka and later broken by a tank. This left the Russians free to move around the rest of the map in an attempt earlier to draw them away. In an effort to NOT get into HtH with German Half Squads, we kept Vol Breaking and routing away on the Russian right. The Commissar ELR’d half the squads we had him work on, but rallied the rest to keep the fight going. The HIP’d ATR team on the Russian right thought they caught a marauding German HS in the open, but failed to fish out a Molotov! The HIP’d ATR team in the middle had the right idea, but only saw their round bounce off the side of a German tank on the Embanked Railway. If only I had read the VC rules correctly and got my AFVs and guns in front! The MMG in the back field also came into play to protect the Russian right flank.

The Russian MMG on the left broke for a while, but was fixed. Then position was smoked and the MMG Squad went berserk! The mortar crew had to drop their toys and move over, as did one of the squads on the Russian left. All the while, the Russians moved back to cause the Germans more delay. The Vol Breaking with your “friendly” Commissar tactic somehow worked on the Russian left, but we had to feed the Stuka tempting targets before the rest of the team could move freely. My HIP’d (and Dug-In) tank forgo’d some infantry targets (and I shouldn’t have) – see green dotted arrow. Meanwhile, the Germans were in no hurry, trundling slowly towards the left half of the board. The Russians held back their famously inaccurate rocket OBA until they had less to lose than the Germans (and kept the Germans honest).

Since our HIP’d Dug-In tank forgo’d a couple of juicy infantry targets, a German tank came down the road on the Russian right to FTR our guys.  “AH HA!” the Russian tank crew went, looking at the side shot and the Russian tank promptly malf’d its gun.  The ATR a Russian 7-0 held onto did nothing with the Point Blank shot either.  Seeing that, the Russians threw their DC at the German 8-1 stack but succeeded in breaking itself instead.  (Story of my life.)  The Russian right still had a line but was obviously letting too many Germans on the left half of the board (once again, read the VC wrong).  We spotted a big German 9-2 stack in the open and we decided to chuck in the Rocket OBA.  It didn’t land on us but it didn’t land on too many Germans on the left half of the map either.  We broke the 9-2 stack and killed a tank (the other Bogged a while back).

We couldn’t fix that tank gun whilst the German tank still had its side to us!  We went into CC, now that we realised our VC mistake and that we had less to lose in HtH.  The concealed Russians on the Russian left advanced into a big German stack happily and got Ambushed and killed instead!  The folks on the Russian right fared better but didn’t kill enough Germans to make a difference.

As we look at the start of the last German turn, there were too many Good Order Germans sitting on the left half of the map for the Russians to make a difference.  We conceded.  This picture is just to show the other HIP’d Russian units we took out of the game because we read the VC wrong.  I bet Germans would be in more of a rush and won’t search concealed terrain so thoroughly as they exit towards that latter part of game.  Of course, they didn’t need to exit.  Anyway, will read VCs better going forward.