Either that, or the Brothers in Arms had gotten together once again to fight the good fight. As usual, the tool of choice was the Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kits, where we are at the second installment. We've played the scenarios in order and had now reached S12: Over Open Sights. The first scenario to introduce Guns. As every time before this time, we rolled the dice to select sides. Mats (aka Stende), being a finnish army infantryman got to command the american artillerymen, while I, being a finnsh army artilleryman took the german infantry.
The problem presented to the americans is a very restricted set-up of the guns. All the optimal positions are just outside the set-up zone. Mats set up his cannons just north of the big fields to cover the main clearing in the middle of the warzone. The few present soldiers were sent south and east to give the guests a warm welcome. I stared at the map trying to conjure up a brilliant masterplan. I had to seize or destroy all three Guns within seven turns to claim victory. A victory I desperately needed, being three wins behind Mats in total.
The problem with all Guns being in the middle of the field was that I had to charge them over open ground. Indeed I outmanned the americans by 2 to 1, but I didn't think I could afford much cannon fodder. Even though the flanks looked good - no artillery had line-of-sight - I thought the main attack needed to come from the south. I didn't want to send in troops from the flanks, trying to circle around the Guns from behind, because the americans were expecting reinforcements on turn 4 and I didn't want to find my forward attachments surrounded. I decided to send in small scout troops from each flank and then spread out the army along the south edge, so the american Guns wouldn't concentrate fire anywhere in particular. I thought that now, with these huge cannons delivering massive firepower, it would be more important than ever not to stack a lot of units together.
My entry didn't come without a cost. The house in the center (xP7) was a very attractive firing position, and I decided to place my machine-gun there. Two squads, one of whom was carrying the MMG and accompanied by Cpl Pielhau made a dash for it. Mats made a from-the-hip shot, 2FP - shouldn't be a problem... Except it hit! And one of the squads broke. The rest carried on, and Mats fired again, subsequent fire - 1FP - hit again! I was having a dangerous feeling of Deja-vu... Only the leader made it to the house intact, with one of the broken squads. The other troop eventually died for failure to rout... This did not start very well, and for a short while Mats got that smug expression on his face. It was not, however, to last long.
The west flank was open. I could enter troops completely without ever placing them in any danger of being shot at. In hindsight, maybe I should have taken more advantage over this hole in Mats' defense? One small stack would use this passage and entered the woods trying to harrass the american machine-gun nest covering the south edge. Another small stack came in on the east. This one significantly smaller. Although Mats didn't have many soldiers covering this edge I wasn't too crazy about the open fields any troops had to cross to get to the action. I wanted revenge on the americans in the woods (xL7) who had cost me one unit already, so I put together fireteams in the south woods and laid the hammer down.
The americans survived a while but eventually had to surrender to the massive fire laid upon them. As soon as they broke the germans, now not under any danger advanced with haste into the woods, surrounding the wounded americans and threatening the leader posted to handle rallying of troops. But now the artillery crews finally had something to shoot at, and that they did. Seing his troops fall Mats turned his howitzers around and put the fire down hard in the woods. Seems the germans, though, were heavily dug in, as the cannons didn't do very much damage.
The american MMG crew in the woods found they were about to get seriously surrounded and decided to retrea... sorry... Turn about-face and advance... They managed to make it to the northern house (xI2) were they would spend the rest of the battle harrassing the enemy as best they could. The two broken squads were eliminated for failure to rout, as was the american leader who had sought cover in the woods but was found and severily pounded by german fire. Basically, the entire american west flank had fallen. The east was not very much better. Although there hadn't been any losses there (other than a broken german squad picked off by the artillery), Mats had his units, a few squads and a mortar team, on the run.
Mats probably had realized he had spread out his units too thin and was about to leave his precious guns unprotected without a general retreat of the remaining forces. This gave my units from the east flank an open window to advance, and they quickly crossed the open fields to the cover of the woods. Mats fired his guns as best he could, changing direction whenever he had to, but never managed to get any serious damage with them. He looked like a broken man... Huonolta näyttää, hani, he mumbled to his wife... Looking bad, honey... His wife, the traitor, knew I was trailing by three victories, so she just maliciously said - about time...
Mats was convinced the game was over already, but I was still afraid of the reinforcements scheduled to arrive on the following turn, and decided I had the momentum and was going to make a huge assault on all flanks. Now or never - the americans were weak, their lines were broken, and I was not going to let them reinforce, regroup and protect their guns. The americans in the east had retreated to the northern woods, and although I knew I would pull my troops out from cover by charging them, I wanted to do so before Mats had the chance to turn his cannons around. Again, like in the beginning, Mats managed only a few totally desperate shots, at 2FP, which however broke my initial strike. I sent in more, they broke from the residual 1FP attack. The third squad made it close enough to threat both the units in the woods and the eastmost 105 mm howitzer (xS3).
At the same time I opened fire with my entire line in the south woods (xJ5-M7) and the south house (xP7) on the two remaining artillery pieces. Lo and behold, for the first time in several scenarios - the hopeless shot-in-the-dark actually worked in my favor! Both crews broke! And because their initial rally attempt failed I knew I had once chance... I had one activation before the american reinforcements would show up. The west team laid fire on the american MG nest in the north house (xI2), without result. I had to send out a sacrifical squad to attract their fire, which they did (alhtough Mats did smell the trap...). Another squad dashed the other way to draw fire from the third, still active cannon, which they also did. This way I could now double time enough squads to claim the two deserted howitzers.
I still managed to fire my mortar at the last guncrew, managing to pin them. This greatly aided me in the close combat that would follow, as I advanced onto the practically defenseless crew and eliminated them. The third, and last Gun was mine! My losing streak was over, Mats was broken, and his wife - happy for my victory at last, took the traditional hand-shake photo.
What about the aftermath, then? True, the germans have a lot of dudes! But charging artillery demands it. When I got home the following morning I checked the statistics about this scenario, and it seems the americans are winning more, 11 to 8... So clearly there is a more effective way to defend the artillery positions. The way I see it, I don't think the americans can afford to spread out so thinly. They need the men closer to the cannons. Should they maybe spread out their howitzers more? That I don't know yet. I'm in the beginning of this same scenario, but playing as the americans, by email against my nemesis Alpha, and I can't wait to see how that goes. We're at very early stages, as I haven't been able to play very actively because of a busy work schedule.
Mats also kept shooting Area Target Type, sacrificing effect for accuracy. Against a mobile enemy I think the Infantry Fire Type would be more effective. Constantly changing targets also means you never get the advantage of Acquired Target. If the americans keep their troops close to their cannons, they'll allow the germans to advance on their positions, but the american reinforcements could still manage to deliver a lot of oomph from behind enemy lines if the germans are too eager to attack.
We cleaned up the tables, examined the next scenario, S13: Priority Target, had another beer and hit the sauna before ending the day. I'm back in the race!
After 10 scenarios:
Mats (Coast jaeger sergeant/infantry) 6 victories
Mosse (Fire command corpral/artillery) 4 victories
More pics and stuff at: http://themosse.net/blog/index.php?s=show&i=682
Last edited on 2009-04-30 03:47:29 CST (Total Number of Edits: 1)
Posted Thu Oct 25, 2007 7:48 pm
