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A Moment in ASL: LMG vs Tankette

Type 94 TK tankette captured at Battle of Okinawa

Type 94 TK tankette captured at Battle of Okinawa (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

So I perched on the side of a skating rink today, returning a PBeM log on BoF01 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident.

Two IJA (Imperial Japanese Army) tin cans drove down the bridge on Turn 3 to stop the Chinese from threatening their rear. As the lead tin cans drove around the woods, a Chinese squad unconcealed and started up with their light machine gun (LMG).

The range was 6 hexes.  I needed to roll a 10 to hit. Moving target and the brief appearance added 4 to the dice roll (Case J), the size of the tiny Type 94 tank added 2 (Case P) .. I needed a 4 and I rolled 2,2!  PPOONGGGGGGGGG!!!

So I got a hull side hit where the armour’s zero. I needed another 4 or less to kill it (2 rolls of 4 or less is a 2.9% probability).

It was a 1,2 – BOOM!  The Chinese LMG took out a Japanese tankette!!

JUST HOW COOL IS TTTHATTTT?

SP7 Delayed on Tiger Route – “Not One Shall Be Forgotten”

http://www.historyofwar.com

Operation Market Garden: British 1st Airborne Division, 17-21 September 1944 from “Military History Encyclopedia on the Web”

Heelsum to Arnhem

On September 17 1944, the first day of Operation Market Garden, the British dropped 3 battalions of the 1st Parachute Infantry near Arnhem.  Their approach routes were designated “Leopard”, “Lion” and “Tiger”.

The 3rd Battalion ran into Major Sepp Krafft’s SS Panzer Grenadier Depot and Reserve Battalion 16 (a training battalion) on the “Tiger” route.  Krafft quickly organised and met the British paratroopers with a defensive block immediately.

This scenario uses board 42.   The British are to move west to east through the length of the board.  The top (northern) half of the board is woods, breaking into orchards about 2/3 of the way to the east.  The bottom (southern) half is a small town.  There’s a road that runs from west to east and cuts between the woods and the town.

The Germans setup hidden (Hidden Initial Placement).  They have half the number of soldiers the paratroopers have but they also have a StuG IIIG(L).  The British has a 6-Pounder towed by a jeep.  The British win by getting a number of people and hardware off the board.  The Germans win by delaying / stopping this travel and by raising the British victory conditions by withdrawing up to the north preferably with British prisoners starting Turn 4.  SP7 Allied Turn 1 Start

This is the German setup.  There are two routes that the British can use – one down the middle of the board and one to the north through the woods.  The temptation is to focus on the intersection and that’s where I would expect the Germans to be.  I took a gamble and decided to put my units in an ambush configuration in the woods.  The StuG’s hidden in the brushes around the center of the board.  If anything should come down this road, it would be able to shoot it once it cleared the bend.  The singular half squad in the southern was nothing more than a speed bump to keep my opponent respectful should I guessed wrong.  Being in the north also allowed me to withdraw faster, raising the victory conditions for the British.SP7 Allied Turn 2 AFPh

The paras stepped into the woods.  They were ALL in the woods!  SP7 Allied Turn 3 MPh 1st Ambush-proc

A para squad bumped into a hidden German half squad and the trap was sprung!  One of the para squads fought back valiantly and captured the German half squad.SP7 Allied Turn 3 RtPh Cutting Rout-proc

A broken para squad routed straight into a hidden German half squad who took them all prisoners.The hidden German 7-0 turned tail and routed away to avoid close combat. SP7 Axis Turn 3 RtPh Taking More Prisoner-proc

In the following Axis turn, the Germans trapped and captured more British paras in the woods.SP7 Allied Turn 4 MPh 2nd Ambush

In the north side of the woods, the other group of paras sped on.  The lone SS squad let the first stack go by and ambushed the second squad.  The third squad rushed in to help but were ineffective.SP7 Axis Turn 4 MPh Leader appear cut rout-proc

A hidden 8-0 sprung up to cut rout paths again and took more prisoners.  The jeep & gun was now around the bend, all 5 victory points worth!!SP7 Allied Turn 6 MPh Stug

It was the last round for the British and they decided to make an end to end dash across the board.  It sped by the Germans holding a captured Piat in the woods but that shot went wide.  The squad then opened up with their light machine gun and immobilized the jeep.  For a moment there they were, gun and jeep in the middle of the road.

Then the brushes rustled and the StuG appeared.

And they were blown sky high.

Copyright Alfred Robert Saak http://www.saak.nl

British 1st Parachute Battalion at Arnhem 17 S...

British 1st Parachute Battalion at Arnhem 17 September 1944 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

English: Four Waffen SS troopers taken prisone...

English: Four Waffen SS troopers taken prisoner from 9th SS Reconnaissance Battalion at Arnhem Bridge, one is a seventeen years old. All of them are wearing the camouflage uniforms that were peculiar to the Waffen SS; these are not ‘snipers Nederlands: Vier Waffen-SSers van het 9th SS Bataljon zijn gevangen genomen bij een brug in Arnhem. Een van hen is nog maar 17 jaar. Allen dragen een camouflage uniform van de Waffen SS, het zijn geen scherpschutters zoals de titel verondersteld. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Sturmgeschütz III

Sturmgeschütz III (Photo credit: Peer.Gynt)

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ASL102 Point of the Sword

ASL 102.Setup-procGoogle Map : Juno, Sword, Langrune-sur-mer & Caen

This is a Normandy scenario, dated 6 June 1944, D-Day. The 4th Commando Brigade moved towards Langrune-sur-Mer and into elements of a Panzer division. They radioed the French Canadians nearby for help and they joined the fight on Turn 4.

On the far north (left on-screen) of this board is a big patch of woods. As you move towards the south it’s vast tracts of open ground with little patches of grain and orchards. There’s a village on the south (right) with a lot of rowhouses and stone walls.

The commandos setup on the left at the edge of the woods. The Germans setup in the village. The commandos are assault engineers and so they get smoke grenades at 4 or less. They get some demolition charges and a 51” mortar. The French Canadians bring in a couple more mortars and heavy machine guns later on, also from the north.  The Germans get a heavy machine gun, a medium machine gun and a few light machine guns plus a 50” mortar.

The Germans have 3 fortified hexes in 3 different stone buildings. The Commonwealth wins immediately when they control 2 or more buildings that contain fortified hexes. Takezo played the Germans while I played the Commonwealth.ASL 102.1AlliedDFPh-proc

This is Allied Turn 1 :  the commandos started making the trek over the divide.  The mortar fired off a smoke round down the road where the German HMG pointed at.  I hoped to feint a left (east) and head right (west) when the French Canadians show up on Turn 4.  I made the mistake of putting the mortar too far back though.  Later on in the game it was unable to support the push.ASL 102.2AlliedMPh - -proc

Allied Turn 2 : My hero rushed up with a demolition charge to draw some fire away from his brothers.  He got than that.  He ran into a hidden German half squad in the woods and got shot by the Germans holed up in the buildings from the middle of the board.  The British sniper was very active as well, hitting the same stack of Germans at the top of the map multiple times!ASL 102.4AlliedDFPh-proc

Allied Turn 4 and the French Canadians arrived at the scene.  There were a number of German MG and a mortar (in that roundabout) to content with, hence the entry was crowded and disorganised.  The commandos threw smoke grenades to cover their approach the best they could.  The British mortar was embarrassingly out-of-place.  By this time it was quite clear that the schwerpunkt was coming from the right (bottom).ASL 102.5AxisMPh-proc

Axis Turn 5 : the Germans were moving back and to the west (bottom).  The lead Commonwealth troops moved fast enough to harassing the retreating Germans.  ASL 102.7AlliedAFPh-proc

Allied Turn 7: there was a bit of drama with the Germans holed up on level 1 of a stone building.  Earlier shots pushed them towards being fanatic.  Rounds after rounds of fire couldn’t touch them.  The French Canadians figured they would give it a last try with a feeble little 50″ mortar.  Guess what?  They rolled snake eyes and got a critical hit!!  The crowd went wild (to the extend PBeM could..).  As the dice gods would have it : they then rolled boxcars for the IFC resolution …. I swore I heard my British counters groan from their boxes.

The Commonwealth troops, close behind the retreating Germans, moved to have them encircled.
ASL 102.8AlliedMPh-proc

Allied Turn 8 DFPh and I was out of time : Tazeko revealed where the Fortified hexes were after the last Allied Movement Phase.  The Commonwealth troops would end up advancing into 1 out of 3 of the fortified buildings as opposed to the 2 required by the victory conditions.

For those of you who played this before, you are right, there’s a slight mistake here.  The 3 fortified hexes should be in 3 different stone buildings.  Oh well, a game is a game!

Going forward there are a few things I will do differently as the attacker :

  • move forward more aggressively, seek to push the boundaries and set the tempo as opposed to having the tempo dictated to by the defence.
  • have the mortars move up together with the troops.
  • if I am to play this scenario as the attacker again, my commandos will seek to push up a lot further to allow the French Canadians space and cover to get on the board easier

Any thoughts and/or advice, please comment!

Resources : Joss Attridge’s “Point of the Sword (ASL102)” in HullDown.Org

Eglise de Langrune sur Mer, Calvados, France

Eglise de Langrune sur Mer, Calvados, France (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A German prisoner captured by Canadian troops ...

A German prisoner captured by Canadian troops at Langrune sur Mer, 7 June 1944. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Headquarters, 4th Special Service Brigade, mak...

Headquarters, 4th Special Service Brigade, making their way from LCI(S)s (Landing Craft Infantry Small) onto ‘Nan Red’ Beach, JUNO Area, at St Aubin-sur-Mer at about 9 am on 6 June 1944 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Unboxing the “RISING SUN”!!

The Rising Sun is the latest reprint module from Multi-Man Publishing.  It’s an impressive combination of the out-of-print modules Code of Bushido and Gung Ho!.  The counter artwork was redone, the rules updated and the scenarios rebalanced, giving ASL‘rs everything he/she needs to get into the Pacific Theater of Operations (PTO).  While a lot of our American compatriots have gotten their copies already, I suspect the rest of the world is only starting to get theirs.

Here’s the unboxing of a copy that hit the PTO today!

IMG_6555IMG_6556IMG_6557IMG_6558IMG_6560IMG_6559IMG_6562IMG_6561IMG_6563IMG_6564

 

Resources :

 

A110 Shanghai In Flames

West wall of Sihang Warehouse, Shanghai, China, late Oct or early Nov 1937

Chinese soldiers on the roof of Sihang Warehouse, Shanghai, China, late Oct 1937

It was October 27 1937. The Imperial Japanese Army had already been in China for years. Manchuria and Beijing were already under Japanese control. Chiang Kai-Shek, the leader of the Chinese Nationalist Party and a graduate of the Imperial Japanese Army Academy had been until then, conceding to Japan’s demands at every turn while building up an army with the Germans (see the German helmets in the photo? The Tripartite Pact wasn’t signed until 1940.) The 88th Division was the elite of the Nationalist Chinese forces. Its 524th Regiment held out against IJA’s 3rd Divison at Sihang warehouse situated across the Whampoa River from the “foreign concessions” long enough to sway western opinions about IJA’s aggression on Chinese soil. (Here’s a GamesSquad Forum thread with a great writeup about the battle.)

I am playing another scenario around this battle at the same time – AP54 800 Heroes. You will certainly see an AAR here once that’s done. By the way, there was only 423 men and 16 officers defending the warehouse but they reported their numbers to be 800. Hence this incident is known to the Chinese as “800 Heroes” or “八百壯士”.

The interesting bit about A110 Shanghai in Flames is that the Blaze is the 3rd player. Both players need to work around it and even with it, as you will see.

I am fortunate enough to be playing the Chinese. Here’s the IJA Turn 1.
End of T1 Axis
The Sihang warehouse is the factory on the lower left of the screen. Three hexes within were fortified. I find the row house in front to be incredibly useful in providing blind hexes against IJA machine guns situated in the multilevel buildings at jump-off (top part of the picture). The IJA could slide down the far left, come through the row house (using the big stone building in the middle) or swing around the far right. I made sure that I got fire lanes down some of the streets and the leaders (there are only 2) sited to keep the chaps from cowering. I also made sure approaches to these machine guns were covered even if it’s the inherent firepower of lone squads, FFMO+FFNAM (penalties for moving on open ground and not using assault movement) is a deadly thing.
Axis Turn 2 - Chinese squad volunteered routing on the left to avoid CC
The above was the IJA turn 2. IJA pressed down on the left and the middle. A Chinese squad broke voluntarily to avoid close combat on the far left. The mission was to survive long enough to delay the IJA onslaught for as long as possible! The IJA machine guns from the top of the map were pretty threatening but my opponent had the worst of luck with the dice. They broke repeated and finally knock themselves out of the game!

The best thing I did was to lit the building on the bottom left of the screen above the factory (see the “flame” blow the broken unit?) up early. It soon developed into a blaze that denied the IJA use of a terrific jump off point for the final attack on the factory.
T5 Axis Move-proc
Okay, this is the Axis Turn 5 where the Chinese took the wraps off their heavy machine gun (lower left, “First Fire”) from within the factory and laid a fire lane down the street. Unfortunately it malfunctioned not long after. A light machine gun in the row house did the same joined by the medium machine gun from the bottom right at the end of the long street.

You can also see that the big stone building the middle was pretty much engulfed in flames. The IJA was forced to come through its immediate right. The Chinese was able to put a HS up the wall and laid out some pain as the IJA squads came towards it on open ground.

This is what I mean by the Blaze being the 3rd player. Time and time ahead the Chinese had to rout out of buildings as their hex bursted into flames but it also denied the IJA some really great positions.
T5 Allied AFPh - Sulking-proc
Two more IJA turns to go, the Chinese troops skulked like the best of them. The MMG on the bottom right should have went down to the other side of the row house and prep for the last fire lane but had to scoot upstairs instead to avoid the pesky IJA half squad hanging around the streets. The row house defence line was collapsing at this point.
T6 Axis Move-proc
IJA Turn 6 – the legendary IJA step-reduce steamroller! I was careful about planting each residual fire right but it’s awe-inspiring to see them running through the bullet storm.

The board’s on fire ..

After the Final IJA Movement PhaseThis was the scene immediately after the last IJA Defensive Fire Phase.  The Chinese saw no less than three Banzai attacks after waves of feints from reduced-strengths/half squads.  You can see where they were from the red “Human Wave” markers.  The Chinese heavy machine gun had already malfunctioned and their medium machine gun was out of place, so no fire lanes were possible.  They had to be careful about their shooting so they don’t run out of bullets before the IJA run out of squads.   The focus of course was to build a “wall of fire” in an inverted “v” immediately north of the factory.  The top three factory hexes in that “v” was fortified and was invaluable in stopping two out of three banzai attacks.

You can see the two places where the IJA broke in as well.  The Chinese could only spread out inside the factory so that the IJA couldn’t engage them all in close combat before time ran out.  Oh, stacked underneath the broken squad on the bottom end of the factory right next to the IJA squad was a 8-0 leader holding out his corner with a light machine gun!

Both players had to account for and in the Chinese case, “ally” with the Blaze.  The triangular cluster of houses top left of the factory should be lit up as soon as possible, as should the big stone complex (H2) in the middle of the board, top of the row house in the picture .  Blazes in these locations denied the IJA important jump-off points for attack.  The row house top right of the factory was a terrific defense line that allowed routs back into the factory (especially when the  left cluster of buildings were on fire).

Overall, an awesome scenario and I had an awesome opponent!

Resources :

S1 Retaking Vierville – as the Germans This Time!!

Turn 1 American Movement Phase

Turn 1 American Movement Phase

General Eisenhower speaks with members of the ...

General Eisenhower speaks with members of the 101st Airborne Division on the evening of 5 June 1944 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

A lot of us has played this Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit scenario a few times before.   This infantry only scenario offers a purist’s exercise in fire and manoeuvre.  It also offers both sides the opportunity to attack and to defend.  It is my default warm up scenario with any new PBeM opponent, a chance for us to learn about each other before we embark on more complex scenarios.

This time I play the Germans and we played with Advanced Squad Leader rules (not Starter Kit rules).  In the picture above you see the Germans (blue counters) having returned to the village from the west (top) and the east (bottom).  The American 101st Airborne (green counters) reacted by scattering to the buildings on both sides of the key interaction.  Some of the American reinforcements had already appeared to the north (right).

As the Germans, the mission for the 1058th Grenadiers in the east (bottom) is to use the open ground to delay the American reinforcements as much as possible.  The mission for the 919th Grenadiers is to do the same from the west (top).  They were to buy enough time for the tough 6th Fallshirmjäger (paratroopers) Regiment to arrive from the east and take at least one of the four key buildings (circled in red) in the intersection to fulfil this scenario’s winning requirement.

Turn 3 German Movement Phase

Turn 3 German Movement Phase

Buildings P2 on the top (right) of the map and R7 on the bottom (right) of the map proved to be invaluable in delaying the Americans (both marked in yellow).  At the same time the newly arrived 6th Fallschirmjägers planned to isolate the left side of the battlefield from buildings K6 & K8 (circled in red).  Their  compatriots made the first of three attempts to storm across the street into the key buildings to the right of the intersection.  The Screaming Eagles‘ fearsome firepower would make that an exercise in futility.  The other German paratrooper platoon sped up the woods on the left towards the top of the map.

Turn 4 German Movement Phase

Turn 4 German Movement Phase

Again the German paratroopers on the bottom of the map stormed across the street.  The 1058th Grenadiers to the right of that building cluster provided diversion.  They were still holding the American reinforcements at bay across the open fields though.  The squads in building P1 (top) and R7 (bottom) held strong.  A Fallschirmjäger platoon was making its way to the top of the map where the Americans in the two key buildings on the southwest (top) of the battlefield felt increasingly isolated.

Turn 5 American Movement Phase

Turn 5 American Movement Phase

This is the last Movement Phase in the game.  The Germans paratroopers succeeded in capturing one (red) of the four key buildings on the map in Turn 4, thus already fulfilling the victory conditions.  The American reinforcements on the right went all out.  The German squads in our top and bottom stone buildings fought a desperate fight but were very thankful of their training in the use of spraying fire.

They held on.

There’s a great deal of material on the internet around this scenario:

I am on more than a few PBeM scenarios at the moment.  Some of which has to do with the PTO even, just in time for the release of Rising Sun.  When they finish you’ll be the first to see the AARs.

Take care!  

ge548Sam747S

Should I Stay Or Should I Go? Probabilities in Advanced Squad Leader.

American soldier awaiting German counterattack

American soldier awaiting German counterattack (Photo credit: Za Rodinu)

I still remember my Grade 9 math classes on Probability. Those classes are perhaps one of the most useful ones I ever had. My teacher took all the most common casino games and lotteries schemes and had us calculate the probabilities of different outcomes for each. You can imagine how delightfully interesting that semester was.

One result is that I don’t gamble all my adult life because we proved to ourselves mathematically that the house ALWAYS win.

Probability plays a huge part in Advanced Squad Leader through the use of dice rolls (“DR”). As with life, different decisions carry different levels of risk and are reflected through the use of dice rolls in the ASL world. Grognards I play with have probability tables committed to memory.

So what does this all translate to?

A Light Machine Gun (“LMG”) rate of fire is “1”.  That means LMGs have a 16.67% chance of firing again and a 2.78% chance of firing 3 times. For Heavy Machine Guns (“HMG”) with their rate of fire of “3”, their chances of being able to fire again goes to 50%. There’s a 25% chance of the HMG being to fire the third time.  If you take into the account that HMGs malfunction at a DR of 12, the probability of HMGs being able to fire a third time without malfunctioning is 22.97%.

Think of that the next time your squad face one down.

Sniper rules in ASL are interesting. For some, it stops us from firing off every squad on the board when the odds of shots having any effect is low. However, the probability of a DR triggering a SAN and for the sniper to active is actually pretty low. A SAN of 4 gets triggered only 3 out of 36 possible outcomes with two dice. You need a further roll of 1 or 2 on a single die for that sniper to be active.  End result? A SAN of 4  triggers a sniper with some effect only 2.78% of the time.

I read Mr. Robert Medrow’s excellent article “First Impressions – A Introduction to Advanced Squad Leader : Infantry Training” almost a year ago when I first looked to learn the game. It didn’t hit me much at the time. A big stack of games afterwards, it certainly does. It’s in Avalon Hill The General Magazine, Vol 22 Number 6.

Take a look at Mr. Medrow’s Table 5 “Probability that a single unit will survive and attack either unharmed and unpinned or (unharmed and pinned)”. One of the games I am currently playing has SS troopers (Morale level 8) attacking 1st Line Russian squads (Firepower 4). That means if a SS squad run across the open, its chances of survival is 49% (Table c). Those opportunities are hard to come by however, if the squad decides to Assault Move on open ground, its chances of survival is 60%.  If I can’t hit it while on the move but try to shoot at it during my Prep Fire, its chances rise to a whopping 94% sitting in some stone buildings!  However while I have 6% chance of doing anything to it, I have only 0.93% chance of being sniper bait (German SAN 2). I might just go head and take the shot anyway, for lack of better alternatives.

On the contrary, my Russian squads are fine 91% of the time sitting in stone buildings against inherent firepower from the SS squads.  They have a 84% chance against an HMG firing once but a 70.6% against HMG being able to fire twice, which is 50% of the time.  Against HMG firing 3 times (25% probability), their survival dropped to 59.3%.  That is lower odds than squads getting caught in the line of fire while skulking – 64% against inherent firepower.

See how much fun it is? Plus that’s just with one of Mr. Medrow’s probability tables. Every action in ASL carries with it the inherent benefits and risk. It’s the optimisation of these choices that makes Advanced Squad Leader so perpetually engaging!

Resources :

S14 88s at Zon – a real nail biter!!

S14 88s at Zon is a starter kit scenario about the 101st’s run-in to a number of 88mm guns by the Zonsche Forest near the bridges over the Wilhelmina Canal. These bridges were vital to the British tanks that needed to dash through to Arnhem in Operation Market-Garden.

Turn 1 German Setup revealed

This is a 5 and half turn scenario that uses half of board w. There’s a hill in the middle of the board that leans towards the right. The right (east) part of the board is open ground and the left (west) is a little village with a meandering road going from north to south. The Screaming Eagles come in from the north and have to exit a certain number of units to the south (presumably where the bridge was). The Germans have 2 x 1st line squads, 4 x 2nd line squads and 2 x 88mms. I situated the 88mm guns at M2 and H1. The Americans have 11 squads of 7-4-7 firepower goodness, an MMG and 2 x bazookas.

The American push through the village to the west was slow. Time in time again, the use of spraying fire and fire lanes show its effectiveness even at low firepower when coupled with FFMO & FFNAM modifiers. The German tried to skulk as much as possible during their turns but once when they got careless and the Americans shot clean through four buildings (M7 to L3) and broke their HS in the open ground beyond.

The 88s were scary. Most shots they did had a base hit of 8 and when the hits land, it’s a FP16 flat shot all around for the whole squad.

The American did better for the most of the scenario in the open grounds to the right (west). However they found themselves running out of time towards the end and most squads got shot in their rush towards the entrance.

The Most Epic Moment goes to the Close Combat round when a paratrooper squad jumped a German 2nd line squad. The Germans got Ambush so they started cheering their lungs out. Then they rolled boxcars which started the Americans cheering! The Americans figured they were there to clean house so they stayed and looked to kill the German squad once and for all.

Then the Americans rolled boxcars as well. (*gasp*)

The Germans decided that’s already enough fun and so they infiltrated their butts out.

The most True To Real Life award goes to the American 8-1 leader who ran past Subsequent First Fire and through residual fire unscathed only to be shot in the back by a LMG 5 hexes away and broke at the exit hex.

End game revealed

The Most Heroic award though goes to the German 7-0 leader who stood his ground, concealed for most of the game pretending to be a squad at O3 (in the building to the lower left where you see him now).

Erwin is a great opponent to play against and I learned a bit more about guns and about laying residual fire in this scenario. 

Now for the next one, any recommendations?

Grognards Speaks : Advanced Squad Leader Articles That Change Their Lives

Detail: Espinoza Tawed Skin/Parchment model

If you are a Advanced Squad Leader player and you are not on online forums such as GameSquad yet, I suggest you do. You will find a terrific community of ASL’ers discussing rules, giving their reviews on scenarios and products. You will find a lot of support and from time to time, a better alternative to eBay in acquiring Advanced Squad Leader modules and Third Party Products.

Lately the grognards discussed ASL training articles that changed their (ASL) lives. This is obviously too good of a thread to pass up, so here it is:

This is the original thread on GameSquad forums.  I hope this helps you as much as it helps me!

Do let me know however of articles that helped you!

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G15 Bone of Contention – Partisans vs Retreating German SS

On 31 August 1944, the SS-Panzer Abteilung 102, Waffen SS’s heavy tank division retreated towards Germany after a 20 day stand at Hill 112 near Caen (see Operation Jupiter).  In the map above the left most marker is Utah, second one from the left is Omaha, Hill 112 is the 2nd from the left and Rouen is the one to the left.

The division was almost destroyed by the heavy fighting and had to abandon their tanks at Rouen by the shore of the Seine.  On the night of August 31, a team of soldiers, mechanics and tankers crossed back to the western shore of the Seine to destroy the abandoned tanks.  Amongst the wrecks they found two abandon Panthers sitting immobile, with  local partisans trying to figure out the mechanical beasts.

The German’s mission was to destroy the two Panther’s and the partisans, the BCRA Maquis de Rouen, were to protect their prizes at all costs.

Witchbottles played the Germans and I the partisans.  We got German conscripts and self rallying crew pitted against partisans who couldn’t form fire groups, has low ammo and tend to break toys easily.

This is the initial setup, and the north is on the right.  The partisans couldn’t stack and couldn’t be more than four hexes away from a specified hex.  I looked to use the gully as a protected passage between the forces to the east (bottom of the map) and their comrades on the south side (left of the map).  The Germans enter from the left and the bottom of our screen.  As it turns out, the Germans from the left took the direct route but the Germans from the bottom took a long detour around the partisans to the north.

As the turns progress, this flanking move would take the northern defenders off their prepared positions.

Over to the south (left), an all out street fight ensured.  The partisans tried to stay concealed for protection but took every opportunity to snapshot the Germans between the one hex buildings.

photo 2-2

To the north (right) the Germans outflanked the partisans and started to make their way to the Panthers, darting between the tombstones.

After the game, Witchbottles observed that he would have rushed forward to occupy the large stone structure to the upper right of the northern partisan forces, to the right of the graveyard (dark green).  That would have secured the partisan’s northern flank, no doubts.

The German unit I marked off with a yellow circle and an arrow was the unit who managed to put a panzerfaust into the side of the Panther.  The partisans I marked off with rough dotted lines in the middle was the partisan squad that killed a German half squad with gunfire but attracted a sniper shot to the Panther on the top right (to the lower left of the dark green graveyard).  The shot that killed the partisan commander stunned the crew and they promptly abandoned their big toy.  One Panther burning, one Panther abandoned.

Turn 6 Axis AFPh - Killed Panther

A partisan squad managed to run to the graveyard walls and took a couple of shots at the approaching tank crew and promptly ran out of ammo.  The mechanics and crew realized they couldn’t get a good shot at the Panther from the graveyard and so they came over the walls.  In the German Turn 6 the game ended at the Advanced Fire Phase when the Germans nailed the second Panther.

In retrospect aside from moving to occupy the big stone building to the north and thus securing my northern flanks like Witchbottles advised, I should make better use of fire lanes and residual fire.  Next time!  You live and learn.

A big THANKYOU to Witchbottles for a very interesting game!

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