Brian Knoll
United States
Orlando
Florida
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I almost felt sorry for the Germans after playing this scenario. Just sad really.
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The Partisans, with their knowledge of the woods, ran circles around the Germans, using wire, mines, foxholes, and satchel charges to wreak all kinds of havoc. Just their conniving-ness infuriated Biermann -- the way they moved out of gun and melee range, dancing around the Germans, laying traps. The Germans, usually deadly efficient, were like an adult in a child's playground -- unwieldy -- or an awkward, goofy teenager on a first date -- highly ineffective and just embarrassing to watch.
Schrader never even got into the fight -- he'd headed north to scout and taken shots at a militia squad across the tracks. But then Biermann called him for support in the south woods. "I'm having a hell of a time getting any traction down here, Schrader -- I could use your help."
The entire fight really occurred in the S-SEast woods. The Germans had entered the area here, bunched up in a line. They pushed west until they met Bulganin's force.
The Partisans, as expected, were all over the place. Maisky and Bulganin, hearing the Germans were in the area, ran around the forests, like modern day Robbin Hood's, rousing and organizing troops, weapons, checking fortifications.
To put it mildly, Biermann was not having a good day. Usually an effective leader, he and his squad got mired in the woods in wire -- "Damn, Partisans!" -- and had a satchel charge dropped on them by a green unit. Biermann, a credit to his military strength, reorganized his troops, but to no avail. The Partisans sat, just out of reach, mocking him, refusing to engage, knowing they had the advantage and the that time was on their side.
When Biermann had to report back that no real progress had been made -- that an effective method of routing the enemy had not been found -- his only semi-positive report was that he'd eliminated two militia squads ("You call THAT an accomplishment, Sergeant?!") and a team of green soldiers ("OUT OF MY SIGHT!").
What Biermann DIDN'T tell his boss was that one of the militia squads and the green soldiers were actually killed by snipers in the area, and not his men -- he had to try and save a little face. But his failure would haunt him -- whenever he felt frustrated, like he wasn't making progress -- the sweaty, dirt-streaked face of Cpt. Bulganin -- this country hick (although he did have a glint of hard intelligence in his eyes) -- whom he's only glimpsed once, smirking, through the trees -- would return to him.
On the Partisan side, because the reports were that Bulganin was doing so well keeping the Germans busy -- crazy bastard reported that he was having fun! -- Sgt. Maisky was able to turn his attention elsewhere -- to a key length of railroad the Partisans planned on destroying to further disrupt German supply lines. It was key because they'd easily be able to pick off any repair groups, being that this was, after all, their woods.
So Maisky strolled over and sat on the secret objective (5), where he and his men smoked cigarettes, told dirty jokes, pined over not seeing their families and women.
Meanwhile, to the east, Bulganin continued to playfully peck at the Germans. The Germans gave them a scare twice: once, when the Partisans saw another German group stumbling its way through the woods. But their confidence returned when they realized the support group couldn't get at them either. "We're just too good," smiled Bulganin. Well, prepared, really -- with the mines they'd laid and the wire they were able to hastily setup in the Germans path. The other time was when the Germans actually did corner a squad and advanced into melee -- where everyone died.
Time ran out for the Germans -- they hadn't made progress and needed to get back to base. As the Germans retreated, they could hear -- out of sight -- the Partisans haranguing them and cheering their retreat. "Look at the Nazi Dogs leaving, their tails between their legs like beaten pups!" Every German leaving the engagement did so with their pride in tatters.
On the upside, their loses were few, only two VG squads. "Next time," Biermann thought. "Next time..."
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Quick rules question:
While Biermann was trapped in the wire in the woods, I pulled a suppressing fire event. While Biermann DID have a squad with an LMG and those pesky partisans were in an adjacent hex, I determined that I COULD NOT suppress them, because suppressing fire came from the machine guns, which couldn't be used in the wire.
Did I play it right?
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Observations:
- The Partisan move bonus is insane -- allowed me to do all kinds of fun things to the Germans. That said, only having one order per turn was scary.
- Really like this scenario and the random distribution of Partisan forces -- this scenario felt WAY different than others, having to run around and gather troops and the fight mainly woods-hex to woods-hex.
- Now I've GOT to sift through the forums to see how this resolved for others. Have the Germans won? If so, HOW?
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Always a cinematic experience -- can't wait for Velikiye-Luki!!
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Jeff Thompson
United States
Homewood
Illinois
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One way is for the Partisan leaders to end up far from any units and on the same side of the map. Without leaders, the single action allowed the Partisans can make it real tough to "run circles around" anything.
As the Germans, I'd head for the leaders first.
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Brian Knoll
United States
Orlando
Florida
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That makes a lot of sense. If, as the Germans, you can isolate the leaders before they can organize, I can see how that would make Partisan life less than pleasant.
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Chadwik
United States
Santa Rosa
California
Live long, drop dead. Grok on!
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Quote: While Biermann was trapped in the wire in the woods, I pulled a suppressing fire event. While Biermann DID have a squad with an LMG and those pesky partisans were in an adjacent hex, I determined that I COULD NOT suppress them, because suppressing fire came from the machine guns, which couldn't be used in the wire.
Did I play it right?
No. Do not infer or imagine more to a rule than what is written.
For Suppressing Fire (rule E75)the chosen enemy unit must be
1) within range and LOS of an unbroken MG: check
and the MG must be
2) possessed by an unbroken, unsuppressed friendly unit: check.
Both of these conditions were met, so you could have suppressed that enemy unit.
Wire merely prevents a weapon from "Firing," which is a specific game mechanic. It doesn't mean that in real world terms that MG couldn't fire at all -- just not effectively enough to warrant a game-specific fire attack. That machine gun could be firing sporadically enough (below the game's radar, so to speak) to force opposing units to keep their heads down for a short while, though.
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Brian Knoll
United States
Orlando
Florida
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Got it. And it's makes sense. Biermann never did get out of that wire hex with his LMG. He's sitting there now, begging me to put him away and release him from his humiliation.
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Another question about this scenario:
When the partisans call in reinforcements, what is considered a setup hex? Anywhere on the board? Or are the reinforcements also placed in a random hex like the initial setup?
Chad, based on your last response, admonishing me for reading more into the rules than was there, I'm going to guess that they can setup anywhere on the board (anywhere, that is that's not German-occupied).
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Chadwik
United States
Santa Rosa
California
Live long, drop dead. Grok on!
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That's correct. Their setup area is 15 hexes deep, so that is where any reinforcements can arrive.
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David desJardins
United States
Burlingame
California
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brianeknoll wrote: Now I've GOT to sift through the forums to see how this resolved for others. Have the Germans won? If so, HOW?
If you can get any sort of VP lead before the Russians organize themselves, it's pretty easy for the Germans to then just hunker down and dare the Russians to come at them. With only one order per turn, it's almost impossible to organize a successful attack. (You move into my LOS? I fire. You have a Recover card? Too bad, you can't play it now. Spend all next turn recovering if you're still alive. Then I get to fire at you some more. Etc.)
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Brian Knoll
United States
Orlando
Florida
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Yeah, it worked out the opposite when I played it -- Russians had plenty of time to organize and then could wait for the Germans to attack. Part of this was definitely the German setup. Next time, dividing the partisan leaders and/or eliminating one ASAP, as you suggested, will be my German strategy.
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Courage Under Fire
United Kingdom
Warrington
Cheshire
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I love the way the report is written up, congratulations.
brianeknoll wrote: Yeah, it worked out the opposite when I played it -- Russians had plenty of time to organize and then could wait for the Germans to attack. Part of this was definitely the German setup. Next time, dividing the partisan leaders and/or eliminating one ASAP, as you suggested, will be my German strategy.
This was the last scenario I played and The Germans set up in a continuous line but managing to surround 2 of the Russian officers. Luck had it that the Germans also held 2 advance cards and quickly polished off the officers before they knew what was happening to them. At this point I was thinking an easy German victory but it was the Russians who won in the end. The Germans losing a couple of critical and winnable melee's. All German units were reported missing or KIA.
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Courage Under Fire
United Kingdom
Warrington
Cheshire
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I have just played this scenario again and it was a pretty easy German victory. During the deployment stage the Russians seemed to be doing really well. They occupied 3 of the 5 objectives and were adjacent to a 4th. Then the leaders were deployed, I always deploy them last so I can try to get them into some sort of organised group but neither of them were in command radius of any of their units. The Germans deployed in a clump cutting off any hope of the leaders joining up with friendly faces. The opening Russian move was to either move one leader away or let one of the squads fire with their MMGs as well to break one of the German leaders. The latter option was chosen and unfortunately for the Russians this attempt failed. During the game the Germans received 3 lots of Battlefield Integrity at a time when Russian losses were running high. The Russians were clinging onto 4 objectives but slowly and methodically the Germans started taking over these objectives. The final VP count was 40+ for the Germans and thankfully for the Russians the game ended at the first Sudden Death roll.
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