Doug Gibson and I recently completed a game of Cold Crocs. It's not hard to see why this one seems to be on everybody's list of favorites. Neat toys, interesting VC's, good map that allows for both maneuver and close-in fighting. HIP 88's vs flame-belching Crocodiles? Ooh, baby. Doug's comments are in [square brackets].
Doug's German defense was scattered all over the map, a nod to the Brit 80mm OBA and the turn 4 reinforcements who can come in anywhere along the western board edge. Board 24 was defended mainly by ? stacks in U4, S5, and T6, while a menacing ?+3 sat in 23O10 with an all-too-open firelane possibility down hexrow 10.
[I'd played partway through this scenario before, also as the Germans, but we quit after four turns when the Brits realized that they'd been too conservative with their infantry and too aggressive with their tanks. The German force LOOKS wonderful in this one, but it's got some drawbacks. Sure you outnumber the initial British squads, but you have a LOT of frontage to cover. It's hard to put the 88s in places where they have really good fields of fire. The British armor and OBA makes the difference, but the Brits need to be a little aggressive with the infantry; Prep Firing from long range won't cut it. With that in mind, I set up with the following in mind:
With some nimble grepping of the archives, we note that the 88's can't set up on paved roads or in buildings, which nicely cuts down on their possible setup hexes without giving things away completely. Knowing your opponent's psyche sure would help in this one; there's room for conservative and gutsy 88 setups here. Never having played Doug before, I was stuck with my own prejudices and fears, a scary feeling indeed.
[With Guns like these, I didn't see much reason to put them forward; the last thing the Germans want is to have all of their HIP units revealed early unless each one has scored a tank kill, because the threat is often worth more than the actuality. They're also worth a whopping 4 CVP each if captured! The Brits have to get past the middle of board 24 eventually, and I figure I may need the 88s to buy time to regroup at that point. They went in 24I7, facing H8, bore-sighted on I9, and in 24O3, facing P1, bore-sighted in either Q10 or R9 (I forget). These locations give ample fire opportunities in a variety of different directions. Unfortunately, against someone who was as conservative with the tanks as Tom, these locations didn't work terribly well (although the O3 one would have done some damage to infantry at least if not for that #$@&!!! OBA breaking the crew!). The HIP squad goes in 23Q8, hoping to bag an aggressive Brit tank with a PF and/or prevent the weak garrison in the buildings nearby from having its rout paths cut.]
Brit options center around how much to send into the town and how much to send up the canal on bd 23. With hindsight, I lucked into making what I think was the better decision - send the stronger force into the town and try for a general northeasterly sweep through relatively dense terrain rather than go along the canal and encounter the stretch of disturbingly open ground on the western side of the bridge. The area around 23O10 seems to be the key to the building Victory points, but it felt better to approach the area from the wider left flank than to force a wedge along the canal. Given Doug's setup of the 88's and HIP 548, this was the right choice this time.
[I've got to agree. The O10 MMG nest MUST be broken before the Brits can make progress past it if they go along the canal, and that means bringing up the tanks and watching them die to 88 and PF fire, at least given my setup. Smoking it in is okay if you want to get across the bridge, but not to get past it, since even firing out of smoke, an 8-1 and 548 with MMG can do serious harm at point blank. Alternatively, OBA can be used, but a full FFE (1 and 2) landing on O10 failed to break the squad in our game (though it did kill the 8-1). I had put a squad with LMG ready to move across the bridge on turns 1 and 2, which may have been a bit of overkill.]
I think moving the 548/lmg to the eastern side of the canal was good; it would have put a big crimp in the Brit plans if I had made the big push along the canal. Plus that 548 can try to smoke the bridge entrance hex to help the JgPz's across if need be.
The Challengers went on the canal side with piat-toting squads, Cromwells through the village. Infantry searches for HIP units while tanks and OBA blast any Germans who dare to resist. Liberal use of those wonderful Smoke Mortars on the Brit tanks to cover the advance.
A fine plan which lasted approximately until turn 2, when the British attack began to appear like it was choreographed by Python (Monty) Pictures, Ltd. In rapid succession: German sniper takes out the British 9-1 advancing along the canal. 548 roasts a Challenger from 3 hexes. OBA comes up red. Only one Concealed stack in the town is a Dummy, the others have a pulse (and an HMG) and blast the 10-2's attack to smithereens. We leave our MMG in No Man's Land and rout away. The 457 toting the dm 50mm MTR's assembles BOTH of them - ever tried toting 8 PP? The 548 in 24U4 shrugs off everything we can throw at it. The 548/lmg scurries across to the eastern side of the canal, effectively sealing off those VP and covering the western end of the bridge as well. Things look really, really bad.
[I tell ya, I thought I had this one in the bag at that point. It looked like the Brits were going nowhere fast. They didn't have enough infantry firepower, they couldn't get smoke to save their lives, and they didn't DARE bring the tanks up close.]
Heh. At which point Doug mentioned that it looked "interesting" for the Brits. "Interesting" is my code word too; if I ever tell you that it looks "interesting" for you, you can bet I think you're completely hosed :-)
But in the DFPh of German turn 3, Fate decided that the Brits had been shat upon enough. A 548/lmg retreated from 24T6 to prepare for the Brit reinforcements but was gunned down by a cmg firing through an FFE. And the German 9-2, 548/HMG holding the fort in 24S5 went Berserk, which proved to be the turning point of the game with the Crocs were about to come on...
[Yup. My defense was mostly shattered in one fire phase. The Berserking 9-2 was a disaster of epic proportions. I still had hope for my 88s to save the day, though, and there was always that squad in U4 holding on with grim determination...]
Turn 4 - Brit 10-2 rallied nearly everybody available in the town, also creating a Hero. Trying to set up a nasty surprise for the German berserkers, three tanks and a 50mm MTR attempted to fire smoke and WP at 24U4 but NOBODY brought smoke ammo. U4 HAD to go down if we were gonna sweep through the town. In disgust, we took a 2(+3) bmg potshot at the hex, snakes and boxcars, the end of the Great U4 Debacle, and the town was suddenly wide open except for the soon-to-be-dashing-madly-to-their- deaths berserkers in 24S5.
[This REALLY hurt. U4 was basically all I had left in the area.]
Brit reinforcements came in along middle of western edge, throwing smoke and searching everwhere for HIP units but found none, nor did 88 shells fly from suspicious locations. So far, so good. German Berserkers charged a Croc in their turn and miraculously survived the flames and cmg but went down to a 16(-4) shot from a nearby stack of infantry. Preparing the way for next turn's movement, the OBA adjusted a few hexes north and found the 88 in 24O3, breaking the crew and prompting the German commander to revert to unseemly name-calling. Seeking to rally a dm548/lmg holed up in the town, a German 8-0 didn't look both ways before crossing the street and was gunned down by more cmg fire; the only unbroken German unit on board 24 was a 548/lmg in M6. Along the canal on board 23, Brits pushed a 238 out of the stone building in S9 and a Challenger took up position in V6 with turret pointed at the bridge entrance hex. The JgPz's came on and neglected the bridge, ganging up on the Challenger; one AFPh shot killed it and another malf'd the JgPz's MA. Not a good tradeoff for the Brits.
[As for the 8-0, this is why I hate seasonal terrain. I saw the grain between me and the Croc and felt relatively safe. Stupid move on my part.]
Turn 5 - A Croc entered the woods in 24P7 and roasted M6 while ducking two long-range faust shots; Brit infantry swept in to mop up the town, capturing 2.5 squads and 3 more buildings. Still no word on the second 88 or the last HIP 548, but 247's searched every nook and cranny. The known 88 crew on board 24 self-rallied with hopes of re-manning the Gun but immediately broke in a hail of fire from the 10-2's stack. Brits in the town were now able to hit the left flank of the vital crossroads on the western end of the bridge around 23P10. With 3 turns to go, the Germans had 13 of the 22 stone buildings but the prisoners bagged in the village had evened up the Casualty VP count. The Brits were poised to break out of the village into the building-rich northeast section of the map, but needed to find the second 88 and the last HIP squad before rushing too boldly.
[Entering those woods was a somewhat risky but very good move. My defense was set up with the unfounded assumption that Tom wouldn't be willing to take such a risk; every other location from which he could have toasted M6 was covered by the 88s. Them's the breaks, I guess. In retrospect, 24O6 looks like a great place to put an 88 in spite of the doubled CA change DRM; there just isn't any way for conservative Crocs to avoid that unless the Brit infantry can neutralize it, and that will slow them down.]
I agree about 24O6; it can't be hit by OBA either, if I recall.
With both Challengers gone, the Germans had the upper hand in the tank battle and rumbled both JgPz's across the bridge and take up positions around 23Q9. Luckily, an FFE immobilized the one with the working MA. Since the Cromwells refused to come close enough for a faust shot, the HIP 548 finally abandoned bridge sentry duty in 23Q8 and ambushed a 458/piat in R8; the HIPsters could only CR the squad and a Melee ensued.
[If it wasn't for that meddling OBA.... I must say, though, Tom did a wonderful job of getting his tanks into Motion and ducking out of sight of the JgPz IVs before they could get good (non-AFPh) shots.]
urn 6 - FFE continued to rain down on the MMG nest in 23O10, supplemented by fire from the 10-2's stack in the town. The last German leader got wounded and died, but the MMG crew stubbornly refused to go down. The phrase "Die die die you gravy-sucking pig" came to mind. The known 228 self-rallied again but went down again, this time to a well-placed MTR shot; there would be no third rally for these guys. Searchers finally found the last 88 holed up in the brush in the northern section of board 24 (I7); with no HIP units left to worry about, Britishers poured into the gap around 24J3, capturing the broken 228 and penetrating into the "treasure chest" of stone buildings on board 23. A cx 9-1, 457/lmg took up positions in 23J8, seeking to cut off the retreat of the MMG crew from O10 and keep the 548/lmg on the eastern side of the river from crossing the bridge to where the action was. In the German half of the turn, the remaining mobile JgPz could not repair its MA, and the Germans conceded, since any casualties they could cause at that point would have been outweighed by the many buildings available to the Brits in the northeast corner of the board.
[Yup. A working JgPz MA might have killed a couple of tanks, but again, it was not to be. The immobilized one was simply doomed.]
A great scenario, slightly marred in this case by the hot streak of luck which broke down the German defenses on board 24 at a crucial moment. Still, I think I handled the Brit combined-arms attack reasonably well, which is an aspect of the game that has eluded me so far. Doug's defense and play were top-knotch; just nothing you can do when the dice fall so strongly against you.
[Well, when we both play reasonably well, luck sometimes decides it. To some extent, Tom made his own luck; this would have been a very different game if he had taken ANY other approach to knocking out the squad in 24M6 than going into the woods hex. I'd have to agree with his assessment overall. I really blew it by moving the 8-0 out into the open when I thought it was relatively clear, but it didn't have a tremendous impact; that 8-0 wouldn't have accomplished all that much anyway. In retrospect, that was a rotten place to put him initially. He should have been already set up to help rally people in the 24P4 area. Tom's attack was pretty solid, and I think my defense was pretty good too (though I think next time I might put an 88 in 24O6; the only thing my 88s did was to kill an HS). Luck made a difference, but make no mistake; Tom definitely earned the win. It was quite a game and lots of fun. I'd recommend the scenario to anyone.]
Tom Reppetti