Date: Fri, 31 Dec 1999 03:43:07 -0800
From: "Paul J. Venard"
Subject: ASL: AAR: SP 34, *Frankforce*
AAR Fans, Listizens, the curious, etc., Just completed playing a VASL match of SP 34, *Franforce*, with myself as the 21 May, 1940, Matilda-driving British, versus the back-shuffling, Big Gun using Germans commanded by the very able (and sometimes too lucky, ;-) Chris Mazzei. I'm sure you're at least somewhat familiar with the famous British counterattack at Arras, and ya know....I got a kick out of running around in slow, thick-hided beasties with not very impressive firepower.
The British player gets 4 Matilda I tanks and 2 Matilda IIs, and toss-in a Mk IVC with IFE: 6 and cmg: 4. These are in support of a 9-1, 8-0, 7-0, and 11 first line (457) squads, portaging 2 Lmgs, an ATR, and a 51mm Lmtr. They enter on the long (North) side of board 4 and basically have to move across the width of #4 and then across board 43, to exit >/= 26 VP off the middle of the south edge, (on / between 43M1 - 43Y1).
The German player seeks to frustrate this attempt by using 7 first line (467) squads, a Hmg, Lmg, ATR, 50mm Lmtr, and a 228-manned 37L AT gun. Mr. 9-2 and a 8-0 lead this bunch, and to back them up, setting up on board 43 in a hex numbered >/= 2, (i.e., stuck along the south edge somewhere), there are two 88L AA guns. Famous fellows, those 88s. And fierce.
I actually had something of a plan, and a name for it, as follows:
Pitchfork 3.
Instead of attacking a flank, or concentrating force wherever, I decided
to match 3 platoons and their armored support against whatever Chris
decided to do in terms of dealing with each axis of attack. In that
way, I figured perhaps I could beat back the Germans facing the two
"forks" on my left, with the right fork having more of an option, in
terms of going straight ahead or reinforcing the center. (Later I
decided they didn't have time to do much except drive straight ahead.)
There were two Matilda I tanks for each outside "fork", (moving in
platoons, being radioless), while the two Matilda II tanks were assigned
to the center fork, to assist my 9-1 and his platoon. The Mk IVC's IFE:
6 and cmg: 4 (total: 10fp) were assigned to go after Mr. 9-2, but not
before making certain its thick 1 AF skin wasn't going to be getting
plugged in the Early Game. (It helped when the Brits found and
knocked-out an ATR squad, early.)
Chris, in post-game comments, thought maybe he set up his infantry too far forward, but I know I had real trouble taking the central, Lev 1 wooden building on board 4, in the early going, not just because a little small arms fire was breaking my middle "fork", and not only because Mr. 9-1/Hmg/467 sent my 9-1 falling backwards to rally people, but because one of the 9 MP, 4 cmg / 40L-totin', thick-hided Matilda II tanks.....immobilized itself with the Start DR in the second @#$! MPh! (Maybe they should stay in Motion, having those RED MP #s.) So, if I had not broken the so-called cardinal rule about concentration of force, and if I had gone after a flank in force, or a weak spot in force, (as Chris commented, post-game), this would not have to have been as troublesome as it became.
Chris just methodically picked at my boys and picked at'm, and kept falling back, like I've seen time and again in these kinds of matches. He lost a 237 in 2G MPh, a 247 in 2G DFPh, and a 447 in 3B RtPh, and that was it, (except for 4 ELR substitutions). Meanwhile, the German 50mm "meatball thrower" team knocked out a British 247 in 2B DFPh, the 37L Pak ATG got a Crit on a Matilda I and brewed it up in 2B MPh, a 467 rolled a snakes and downed an entire 457 squad in 3B MPh, and right when I was needing smoke, my boys tried to repair their 51mm Lmtr and disabled it, in 3G RPh. When I finally got my Mk IVC moved into position to assist the left "fork's" attack on Mr. 9-2, Mr. 9-2's **HMG** boys shocked it, stopped it, and it ended up a Confirmed Kill. Still, I just had to clear-out Mr. 9-2, so Close Combat ensued in that compound of stone and wooden buildings on board 43 near the board 4 edge, but the 9-2 led his boys on an Ambush, and down went another 457, (5B CCPh), and in the following Melee, (5G CCPh), the other British 457 was killed with a SNAKES, fer cryin' outloud, and the Germans got another (8-1) leader out of the deal. (Ya, like Chris was needin' this help. right.) So I'm VBM / freezing Mr.9-2 /Hmg467 with my mobile Matilda II, and then following him and freezing them again, and sD-ing smoke so my boys from the left "fork", can get around him, but they ran into a 88L's Bore-Sighted hex, whaddya know. A Matilda I could have supported their effort, but it failed 2 TC's in the End Game and was out of the running, so to speak. Just couldn't get untracked...uh, tracked...(whatever).
Some of the center "fork" boys got into it with opposing infantry in the big grainfield center / west on board 43, and I finally got MCs on'm, but it just pinned one unit briefly, and then created a German hero. Gettin' into the End Game, here, and Chris is rolling 3 and 4 with his shots, but nothing low enough for the British, (thus: Breaking! Routing!), and who wouldn't turn and run, 88mm explosions going off at ranges of 4 to 7 hexes? (The guns straddled the exit lane, of course.) Meanwhile, German infantry puts a PTC on my self-rallied 9-1, who is DTing into the Grainfield , he rolls boxcars, (just typifies how this was goin').
In the end, though, the BIG GUNS, (as Chris put it in one logfile, all capital letters, it seemed fitting,} just took over. Says Chris in the post-game mailer, "I think I was quite lucky in some crucial rolls." (cough!) Ya, I guess he could say that. Didn't need to knock out any more tanks, because I didn't have enough points in range to win it, (assuming they could run the gauntlet of firepower, fat chance!)
So, maybe the biggest lesson, here, was an old one: Concentrate Your Force and Hit a Weak Spot. But then, you know....maybe your opponent can make something look weaker than it really is, but that's someone else's AAR. Chris is very competent and seems quite patient and I like playing him, so I hope some more of you get a chance at him. And the HoB be with you!
- --Paul "gimme Matildas, and...well...(phhhtt!)" Venard
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