Hi all, by coincidence a friend and I were just about to play High Danger when this dicussion surfaced so I've decided to do an AAR of it...
Well, unfortunately my opponent (playing the Aussies) packed it in after three turns complaining of bad dice having malf'd both his 2 pdrs though he had already taken out one of my Mk3's (BTW, I never take bad dice as an excuse and I believe he was a bit pre-mature in his assessment of the situation).
Anyway, I decided to play it solo to prove to myself that desert scenarios are not simply dice games and to provide you all with a reasonably interesting AAR.
Aussie Set-up and Strategy:
First a little aside about my modus operandae. I like to set up my large support weapons first, then my fortifications and then build a setup around them as I see guns and fortifications as the anchor points of a defence.
I avoided the temptation of placing my guns in the trenches as I wanted them for the infantry defence of the hillock (Note: were I to setup my guns in any terrain but scrub or sand they would not be able to set-up emplaced unless I set them up in trenches). Two of the guns were going to the flanks, one on either side in the scrub so they could be emplaced and remain HIP, I chose hexes, 27F3 for a 2pdr and 27DD9 for the mtr. The 2pdr would provide enfilading fire while the mtr would hammer enemy infantry as they assaulted the hillock. I placed another 2pdr in 27R6 to provide close in support of the infantry posi's on the hillock and to disuade enemy tanks outflanking and surrounding that position.
The trenches went directly on the hillock one on the summit one directly behind for reverse slope defence and another to its right, hexes oS4, oS5, oT4 respectively. One foxhole went in 27U5 providing a hidden position from a left flanking attack. The other went out on its own in 27O1 where I intended to place the ATR and HS to provide enfilading fire against any close assaulting half-tracks.
The 9-1, 2* lmg/squads were positioned on the hillock summit as my fire base. The 8-0 went with two squads in the reverse slope posi in oS5 as rally-point and reserve. The other two squads went in the remaining trench and foxhole. Trenches are great in the desert because concealed units can happily move through connecting trenches without losing concealment. Very important in these concealment terrain starved environs. I grouped just about all my infantry on the hillock for mutual support, better leader control, and to provide significant grouped fire power for the defence of the objective.
Boresighted hexes were aimed at the choke points on board 26. Because the hamada and sand and the adjacent hexes are all potential bog terrain (EXC AFV's are not effected by moving adjacent to hamada) the Germans are very restricted in their approaches, especially the half-tracks. I chose 26F5 for the mtr, 26E5 for the 2pdr in 27R6 and 26V6 for the other.
German Set-up and Strategy:
Firstly I decided to launch my attack against the Aussie right flank. In terms of accessiblity through board 26 there was no difference what approach you used. But the deir on their right flank is closer to the German's approach than the one on the left and could provide some much needed cover for the final on-slaught onto the hillock. Also the summit is slightly closer to the northern edge than the southern.
I split my armour into two platoons. The left most would be led by the Mk4 with two Mk3's. There objective was to secure the extreme left flank of the armoured assault, outflanking any hidden guns on the Aussie right flank and then providing fire support and reserves for the hillock assault. The second platoon would lead the mounted panzer grenadiers for a direct assault on the northern side of the hillock. This would consist of two Mk3's. The Marder would peal off at the board 26/28 edge to provide fire support against the hillock and act as over-watch against the British armoured counter-attack later on.
I did not employ platoon movement. My reason is that it is too slow with all this bog congested terrain(?!:-)). Moving through the choke points would require the vehicles to negotiate each other's dust which requires the expenditure of 2 MP's. With only six game turns and the threat of the Valentines on turn three, speed is of the essence. With the light dust, extreme heat haze, long range, motion, and, for the half-tracks, small size the vehicles are difficult targets as they are without the need of a large dust screen.
Pre-Game Bombardment:
The only casualty was the mtr crew which broke thus giving away the position of their weapon.
Turn 1
The Germans enter their force with the tanks in line abreast from Z0 to U1 with the mounted panzer grenadiers bring up the rear. All make it to board 26 without bogging or blowing up. The Aussies hold their fire so as not to give away their positions too early.
Turn 2
Marder fires area HE onto hillock summit in prelude of smoke, runs out of HE. The mtr crew rallies and starts popping off shots at the Mk4. It stops and returns fire, the Mk 3's retain motion ready to overrun or outflank. The central platoon runs directly up to the hillock retaining motion the half tracks head for the deir to unload, screened from the Aussie left by the tanks and their dust. Atr takes a shot at them but misses. 2 pdr on Aussie left opens up but also misses. 2pdr behind hillock fires at Mk4 threatening Aussie right flank, hit and blows its track off, immobilized, crew jumps out.
Turn 3
The Marder fails to get smoke but sits and waits for the British armour. Mk4 crew hops back in. Mtr malf's. Two Mk3's zoom past the mtr and position themselves to the right and rear of the Aussie hillock position in hexes 27Z7,Z8 one stops acting as overwatch the other retains motion ready to pounce. 2 pdr behind hillock attempts to open up on them but also malf's. The central platoon of tanks begin their assault on the hillock from the north using it as cover from the 2pdr in 27F3, but to no avail. The 2 pdr crit hits the HD Mk3 which automatically hits it in the turret if HD. It burns. The other attacks the foxhole on the north side of the hillock. It moves in. The concealed squad wants to remain that way and passes his PAATC. The tank stops in there to keep them busy while the grenadiers move up. In the meantime they have dismounted and under the cover of all the dust and smoke that has been kicked up, move slowly towards the Aussie's dug in positions on the hillock. The fire group on the summit opens up but its fire is ineffective. They can hardly see a thing. 2 pdr repairs, mtr fails. At last the cavalry arrives. I bring them on at the extreme southern side of the eastern edge to avoid the 75mm guns of the marder and Mk4, to eventually reinforce the infantry from the southern side of the hillock. One moves into the deir and stops for a HD overwatch position. From there the platoon's commander pokes his head out for a better look at the situation. A lot of ineffective fire comes from the 2pdrs directed at the Mk3 to the right rear of the Aussie position. Infantry fire at the slowly advancing panzer grenadiers is also in-efective. German return fire is wayward. The concealed squad with the Mk3 breaks cover from their foxhole and close assaults the tank blowing away one of its tracks.
Turn 4
The mtr still not repaired. An awful lot of German prep fire does absolutely nothing except malfs the Mk4's MA. 2pdr fire manages to shock the mk3 on overwatch. The German infantry advanced into the infantry/tank melee on the northern side and annihilates the Aussie squad. The german 8-0 and another squad advance into the first trench on the hillocks northern side containing a concealed squad. The Aussies manage to ambush them and prudently withdraws up the hillock, through the trenches, onto the summit thus retaining its concealment.
The mtr is still out of the show. Mk4's MA completely buggers up. Shocked Mk3 was only pretending. Aussie prep ineffective. On comes the Valentines advancing towards the hillock. Marder low ammos. One valentine crests the hillock. WHAMMO! crit hit by the immobilized Mk3 on the other side. It burns bad. The other prudently goes HD behind the hillock and stops to lend fire support to the summit. The Valentine platoon's leader is still sitting in the deir taking ineffectual shots at anything, pretending he's doing something useful. Time for something Aussies are really good at. A counter attack from the trenches. A concealed squad sneaks into the trench occupied by the 8-0 and squad. They ambush and casualty reduces the squad. A wild melee ensues.
Turn 5
Mk3 on overwatch to NE of hillock malfs gun. Time for half-tracks to kick into action. Send three around eastern side of hillock in platoon movement to use dust to strip acq on Mk3 and create diversion. Doesn't work as 2pdr by hillock continues to keep rate and takes out the lead half-track (crew survives and advances towards the hillock). I send in the Mk3 against the annoyance. Survives an awful lot of hits and near misses to land in 2pdr's hex. Misses bounding fire, not enough MP's for overrun, stays in motion. Move Marder up as machine-gun platform. Remaining squad armour assaults up hillock with half-track. 8-1 plus two squads advance into the melee in trench. Rolls eyes.
Mtr finally in action. Starts to zero in on German infantry on hillock. Aussie prep fire, breaks 8-1 and squad in adjacent trench. They're thrown back down the hillock to cower behind the immobilized Mk3.
Turn 6
Final turn. Only an 8-0, squad and HS in the trench adjacent to the summit are in a position to win it for the Germans. 8-1 misses SR so he and a squad are out of it. Decide I need to smoke the summit to get my men on it. Marder advances towards it. POP KABOOM, ATR finally does something and reduces it to a burning wreck on the hillock adjacent to the summit. Next the Mk3 in the 2pdrs hex has a go. Moves onto the hillock. Attracts a huge volume of fire from the Valentines and 2 pdrs. all miss. It moves another hex closer. They intensive fire. The 2 pdr malfs, the valentine malfs, more misses. Gets onto the summit, rolls for bog and passes, rolls for sD........5 yesssss, ssssssmoooookinnnnnn'. It then parks adjacent in motion with its dust trail adding to the smoke. The Aussies don't reaction fire, saving their attention for the infantry. The half-tracks move in creating as much dust as possible in crucial hexes to cover the final attack (Remember half-tracks cannot enter trench hexes though). The surviving half-track crew makes a dash into the German held trench and draws no fire. The mtr continues to pound the German held trench, but to no avail. In another attempt to dislodge this foot-hold the fire base on the summit joins in, 24FP +5 + dust dr, they roll 6 (4 for dust dr), just enought for a PTC. A few bad rolls here and this could sow up the game... outcome, only the half-track crew is pinned.
Advance Phase. The 8-0, squad and HS advance into th summit trench containg a 9-1 two lmg toting squads and a concealed squad. Close Combat. Ambush rolls, German 4, Aussies (-3) 3, result, Aussie ambush. All the Aussies attack all the Germans, 3-2 (-2) DR 9...a miss! Germans attack back, its all or nothing, 1-2 (+1) DR...6. ITS A MELEE!!!
All else is inconsequential except the final Advance and Close combat phases. I advance the concealed 8-0 and squad from the reverse slope position into the melee. This is the moment they've been waiting for the whole game. I defer to attracting overstacking penalties in order to offer a larger force for the German's to deal with to gain control of the hex.
Aussie attack. 18-7 = 2-1 +0 DR...4 they're dead. For the books the German attack. 7-18 =1-4 (-1) DR...10. Game over and an Aussie victory.
Concluding Remarks:
I felt the Aussie defensive set-up was very strong, especially upon the summit itself. The Germans just couldn't bring the full force of their infantry to bear. Any loss of German infantry prior to reaching the hillock could very well spell doom for the final assault. It must, due to all the hindrances, come down to close combat in the end and for that you need shear weight of numbers. Both sides had there fair share of malfunctions and really it came down to the Australians good, solid defensive set-up that won the day All-in-all an excellent scenario and a good intro to the desert, illustrating many of its unique facets.
BTW try Simmon's Rebuff in the same magazine. It too is an excellent short, sharp scenario that can come down to the wire.
Hope you've enjoyed this, cheers
Frank.
>Because the hamada and sand and the adjacent hexes are all potential bog
>terrain
(EXC AFV's are not effected by moving adjacent to hamada) the
>Germans
are very restricted in their approaches, especially the half-tracks.
This isn't quite correct, at least regarding hammada. For one, failure of the hammada DR causes Immobilization, not Bog. Second, fully-tracked vehicles are not effected at all by hammada, and half-tracks can escape the DR when passing through hexes adjacent to hammada by expending 2x the normal MP.
I don't mean to nit-pick, though. Excellent AAR. This looks like the intro desert scenario we've always needed. Not too big, simple rules, exciting and balanced. Sounds like you've done it justice. I can't wait to play it!
Nice heads-up defense, BTW. I agree with almost all of your comments, even though I haven't checked out the boards.
Matt Romey
Yes, I actually got through my first desert scenario; thanks to all on the list who helped wash away the dust of ignorance.
British setup:
The MTR in the right-hand deir where it can get a few pops at the approaching (small) horde, then perhaps intervene in the struggle for the Hillock. Bad idea, as we shall see.
One 40L AT gun in 27G3, for side shots, with a HS + ATR for support, since the ATR has little hope against the front of the German tanks and is unlikely to be around for the halftracks. Better idea, but the ATR guy should have been over helping the MTR.
Everybody else on the Hillock, with the other 40L in a trench directly on the Hillock Summit (the victory hex). All boresighting on the middle of board 26 where the clearest terrain is, but it never mattered: horrible dust rolls made every boresighted shot a miss.
The discussion on the list convinced me that a mad dash onto the Hillock was the German's best bet, but I hedged my bets by sending the PzIV at the British right and the Marder at the left, each hoping to at best encircle the main position and at worst set up to receive the 3 Valentines that enter on turn 3. Everybody else goes straight down the middle of the board, with the halftracks directly behind the PzIIIJs covered by vehicular dust.
There's a real art to leaving vehicular dust (one that I have yet to master), especially when the dust is supposed to cover not the moving platoon itself but other vehicles following behind and the possibility of side shots exist.
The pre-game bombardment did very little, since most of the British OB was entrenched. It did Pin and thereby reveal the AT gun on the British left.
Turn 1: The Germans approach down the middle as described in a big ball of roiling dust looking not unlike the Tasmanian Devil in full cry. The combo of Intense Heat Haze, Light Dust, and Motion make shots at range prohibitive, so not much happens.
Turn 2: The HTs hold up the parade a bit by needing to ease around the hammada, so some of the vehicles have to hold back so as cover the HTs but not end up close enough to the British position to give half-decent shots. (BTW, one's definition of "half-decent shot" is transformed in the desert: "Well, 4 To Hit's not too bad if I can get lucky on the Dust dr.") The MTR opens up on its boresighted hex to no avail and the one AT gun starts collecting acquisition.
Turn 3: The biggie. The frontline German tanks make their overruns. The Pz IV takes out the MTR in the deir with a KIA to start the festivities, then goes HD in the deir to support the Hillock assault and await the Valentines. Then the lead PzIII rolls right into the Hillock position. The 40L drops concealment at 2-hex range, misses and loses rate. IF's at adjacent, misses even worse. Fires OVR protection and waxes the tank, which conducts its overrun at half FP. Then the gun crew and its supporting 458 each proceed to roll boxcars, fatally compromising the British position. The PzIII crew survives and dives under the tank.
This presents the British player with a dilemma. The Germans now have a unit on the victory hex (the DMed 248 HS will be history shortly) who, if allowed, will no doubt slide into the trench and see if they can get the 2-pounder into action. If the copious infantry fires at the crew, there's a pretty good chance he'll die. On the other hand, there are several more overruns to go (the rest of the tanks on the other trenches and the HTs on the foxholes), and staying concealed and unmarked with FF counters helps their chances of survival a lot. That's what they decide to do, although it's a pretty shaky decision.
The rest of the overruns proceed, resulting in Melees, since the tanks don't have enough MPs to leave the hexes. The halftracks with the infantry move adjacent to the Hillock.
Meanwhile, on the British left, the Marder and the 40L have been having their own private little war at 5 hexes which, in the British turn 3, results in an immobilized Marder. The Marder returns the favor with a Direct Hit in Def. Fire, leaving the still-concealed ATR guy wondering what exactly anybody was thinking when putting him out there.
The British on the Hillock are locked up, so the Valentines move onto the board and ponder how their 40Ls are going to be any more effective than the AT Guns. They stop and hope for a good (great) Turn 4.
Turn 4: The halftracks drop their passengers (a Valentine nails one as it stops, although the passenger squad survives), then race around the rear face of the Hillock laying down vehicular dust. Again, the art of vehicular dust comes into play as the higher math of figuring out where and how to dump MPs (and hence no vehicular dust) and still end up in motion with the Hillock Summit screened from the Valentines is one that sorely taxed a brain sizzling from the Heat of Battle.
The Valentines put a serious damper on the flickering British hopes by failing to hit anything (except the one HT) in the DFPh or the ensuing Prep Fire, while one of them malfs his MA. (This game was notable, BTW, for the trend on both sides to get low rolls coupled with favorable Dust DRs and vice-versa. There were some truly horrendous misses, and a big clump of them came at the expense of the Valentines.)
The Valentine with the 9-1 AL dies to the PzIV in the British Turn 4. The infantry remains locked up in melee as the German infantry moves in during their turn 4; in the British half, 2.5 British squads go down, leaving a single leader and two squads locked in melee.
Turn 5: It's all over but the shouting as the British have no hope of getting a unit into the victory hex. The Germans consolidate the position in their turn, killing the leader and a squad, while the orphan tank crew break their new 40L toy. The ponderous Valentines (10 MP) couldn't overrun my grandmother (if she started the turn In Motion, anyway), let alone make it onto the hill with the PzIIIs in waiting. They try anyway, to no avail. German win.
Commentary: Don't take this as any indication of balance or anything. I'm ordinarily a ham-handed armor commander, and I'm sure if I made one rules mistake I made a dozen. BUT: The British don't get much infantry, and if they can't strip away some of the German armor escort or kill a halftrack or so before the fighting gets close in (and the desert low vision and the weak AT guns make that hard to do), they look to me to be in trouble. A better setup would have put the MTR further back (where Frank suggested in his AAR), and a Trench in front of the Summit hex, to prevent the coup-de-main that happened in this one.
Oh, yeah, you probably want to avoid having the troops in the victory hex roll back-to-back boxcars, too, but then you knew that. Besides that disaster, the other key aspects were the inability of the British infantry to get take out the tanks in CC; that denied any possibilty of redeploying to retake the summit. The failure of the Valentines to accomplish much was unfortunate as well, although we never got to test their paltry killing power since they couldn't hit anything.
The terrain layout invites a panzer smash down the center of the board; I wonder what the scenario would be like with another Sand overlay closer to the middle of board 26 to make the PzIIIs maneuver a bit and present more side shots. (High Danger looks not totally unlike A50: . . .And Here We Damned Well Fire Lots of Intensive Fire, which does use the Sand overlays to break up the tank onslaught.)
The desert is lots of fun. On the one hand the paucity of cover makes for enormous LOSs, and units can fire on each other that you'd think were a universe away in the ETO. On the other hand, play can be tighter than anything I've ever seen, what with dust, vehicular dust, AFV hindrances, and smoke of all types. Several times units two hexes apart on the Hillock had nearly impossible shots at each other because of all the dust and smoke.
The rules (for other desert virgins out there) aren't too bad, once you get the Dust dr procedure in your head and once you can visualize the deir/Hillock terrain. I would recommend High Danger as an intro desert scenario. You don't have to worry about too much complicated LOS stuff, since there's only one Hillock. The Sand channels the German approach, but you don't have to deal with it in the close-in fighting. I know other folks recommend Blazin' Chariots and Khamsin, but I don't like all-AFV scenarios solitaire, and you might as well start learning some of the terrain rules. I once played through the series replay of Khamsin, and it was extremely interesting, but it had a "fighting at night in a dark room" feel to it. (I think High Danger has a lower counter density, too). I hope that scenario designers will consider creating more small-to-medium sized desert scenarios like this one to help get us timid souls started.
Misc: OVR in the desert is a bit odd in that (if I'm reading this correctly) the Dust dr applies to OVR attacks (which take place on the IFT), but not to CC Reaction Fire which is, but of course, CC. Puts the OVR unit at a slight disadvantage at times.
Rusty