Tiger's Bark
We got together, Mr. Repetti and I, last night to play "The Tiger's Roar" from CH's OAF Pack. Looking at the scenario card, we saw a Russian vs German scenario, where the Germans have to grab some central buildings out of the village on Board 3 to win. Both sides have elite infantry, some armor, and potent toys. The Russians get reinforcements a few turns into the game, and in a flash of dynamic battlefield planning they get to pick and choose from three different options for their reserves. Germans get Tiger tanks as reserves on the second-to-last turn. The whole scenario is only five turns long, both sides come armed for bear, we get to use overlays (yes, I'm a junky). It looked like fun.
Knowing by nature that Mr. Repetti would be burning the midnight oil, I started studying the maps and TO&E's beforehand. One of the SSR's turns a hill on Board 3 into level 0 woods, or optionally you can use the old SL overlay A. I have the overlay, never been used, and we opted. Update the "replace with woods" to "replace with mostly woods", and you get the idea. The CH OAF overlay also comes into play. It measures about nine hexes across, and unfortunately the hexes were a little undersized. Spread out that far, the distortion on either extreme of the overlay is noticeably off the printed hex grid.
First let's look at the map. To win, the Germans have to grab five out of the nine buildings in the middle of the frequently visited village of Board 3. The north approach is complicated by the old SL overlay -- the woods are too deep and too far in to quickly pass through, and are solid enough to really limit the options any armor would have to break through. The central approach passes through a lot of open ground. Even though this approach is the only way infantry can make it into the victory area on turn 1, they would have to pass through the focus point of most overlapping fields of fire to get there. The southern approach to the village is complicated by the CH OAF overlay, which sports a gully and one bridge far away from the German entry area. Armor could get lost in the gully on Turn 1, or run for the bridge (and thereby outrun any infantry support). Feeling pressed for time, I thought the north and central approaches were best. Unfortunately, each of them have a narrow choke-point, and not only do the Russians get some mines, but they've also got lots of Russians. The victory buildings are all inside a road nexus, which gives the Russians all sorts of wonderful opportunities for fire lanes, interdiction, and all those ugly things that open ground and lines of sight can do to an attack. Unfortunately, time is of the essence, and the Germans would be hard-pressed to clear out these flanking threats AND still secure the victory area in the time allowed.
Looking at the troops for each side, the Germans are stocked with some delightful toys. They get 12 468 elite troops, a decent number of LMGs and a MMG, a DC, and a FT. They also get three Pz III's -- one IIIJ (long 50mm cannon, but not long enough for the front of a T-34), one IIIN (short 75mm, big HE chucker), and one III(Fl) (turret FT). I've got an amazingly lifelong streak of bad luck with FT's, and have *never* in my ASL career done anything damaging to my opponent with one. But now being given two FT's to try, maybe just maybe I'd get to shoot somebody and watch them die. There is a Damocles' Sword using a FT to try and burn an opponent out of a building you want to keep for victory conditions, but war is hell. Right?
The Russians also come with some amazing toys. They get 8 628 elite troops -- the finest street-fighting troops the game knows until later in the war. They also get 3 leaders, a MMG and a .50 cal HMG, 16 minefield factors, and 3 45mm cannon. This is a lot of stuff for the Russians, but we are playing part of the battle for Kursk, after all. On turn 3 the Russians can choose from one of three groups of reinforcements. It isn't clear whether they have to choose before or during the game, and we agreed that during the game would be just fine. Their choices are: 6 T-34 M43's, or 4 T-34 M43's and a SU-57(a) (an assault gun which sports a 57mm cannon with a 3 ROF), or finally 4 T-34 M43's and four squads of 447's and a leader. The victory area is an easy stroll for infantry entering from the Russian side, and I thought the added infantry would be a natural choice.
Okay, let's compare the forces. Ignoring the toys, just the infantry have exactly the same FP. It's hard enough to pry ML 8 troops out of a town, and this looked ominous. If we add in the SW, the Germans get 104 points (it's a stretch here to include 30 FP for the one-shot DC) and the Russians get 68. Still pretty damn close. The Germans get three tanks, the Russians get three Guns. It sounds pro-Russian already to me, but doggedly I kept thinking there must be some sense of balance here. Then I began looking at the Russian 45mm. On a front shot against the German armor, the gun didn't stand much of a chance. But on a flank shot, the German tanks would go down on a DR of 7 or less. But the scary part is that the 45mm has a ROF of 3. In other words, if the cannon gets a flank shot opportunity, it's pretty certain the German tank is going down. 45mm rates as a 5 FP (or 4 FP if you use the IFT), and with it's ROF all the sudden it becomes an incredibly effective anti-infantry weapon. You may not be able to lay a fire lane, but if you catch infantry moving in the open, the -2 FFNAM/FFMO make Infantry Critical Hits a very real risk.
Normally I don't put a lot of merit in forecasting long long term strategy, but in a game this short I thought there'd be some value in planning what each turn should be like. Look at where you want to be on turn 5, then look at what you need to accomplish each turn to get there. Just for a twist, let's look at it backwards ...
Turn 5. The Russians move last, which means the Germans have to capture enough buildings that they can afford to lose some victory space. Say, at a minimum, the Germans better end their Turn 5 with at least six victory buildings, and be ready to fight.
Turn 4. The 3 German Tiger reinforcements come onboard, either on the north, west, or east edges. If you look at the map, the Tigers will spend the whole of Turn 4 just moving to get near the victory area (assuming there's nothing in the road to hinder their progress). It would be an extremely lucky Tiger that got a meaningful shot in on Turn 4, and they really wouldn't come into the battle until Turn 5. A moving, buttoned up tank isn't that threatening if you're trying to force infantry out of a building. Just might be that the Tigers are no more than lard frosting on a toy-heavy scenario.
Turn 3. Assume the Russian reinforcements are coming on with infantry, to shove into the battle for the victory area. Ultimately, the Germans should spend turn 3 laying fire lanes of their own, making this infusion more difficult. Erk. Can the Germans really be masters of the victory area by turn 3? No matter what happens, the Russians are going to have better tanks than the Germans on this turn, and that probably means the Germans won't make it across the open roads alive anymore.
Turn 2. If the Germans are going to be setting up a defense next turn, this is the turn where they better be mopping up the remnants of Russians in the victory area, or at least in all the buildings that the Germans plan on holding for victory. Did I say turn 2?
Turn 1. Here you are. You know what's ahead, how demanding the schedule is going to be. In this turn, the Germans need to try and find the Guns and MGs that will be blocking their progress, hopefully not by just following the trail of flaming wreckage and screaming men. When you look at the set-up, double-timing half-squads can penetrate deep enough to search only the most forward positions. Could happen.
We discussed the scenario, in that cagey way opponents do when they don't want to give out any information to their upcoming adversary. Both of us thought there were just far and away too many high-ROF weapons on the Russian side. Tom offered me the balance, but bull-headedly I declined. The scenario must be balanced somehow, I kept telling him. And myself.
Tom set up with his HMG in an overwatch position, in the back of the town. One of the 45mm cannon set up in overwatch, too, up on a hill behind the town. He threw two squads out on the north flank, and one on the south flank. This is only a handful of troops, but both flanks demanded a lot of time just to move through them, and the fact that I'd have to fight anything out there made both of them much more unattractive. His squads set up in interior locations, hoping to gain concealment after I set up. I hoped these interior spots would let me approach the village on turn 1 with him not able to stop me, but I also knew his MGs were ready with fire lanes. And who knew where the rest of his guns were. Well, he did.
In spite of the open terrain, approaching through the center still looked most attractive. Tom did me the courtesy of malf'ing his HMG on it's first shot and not retaining ROF on his overwatch 45mm. His initial firelanes were marginally effective. I searched with my HS, they came up empty-handed. I ran through his mines, startled but unscathed. My FT tank stepped onto the streets, and another 45mm popped into view and missed. I jockeyed for angle, stepped into the sights of the last 45mm cannon, and he opened up on my flank and scored a SHOCK. With his ROF, I didn't expect my FT to make it through the upcoming DFPh. All told, though, the brutality of his opening barrage had been nominal -- the luck I'd hoped for had cost me one tank, but not the battle. Another of my tanks was in the open and would be in trouble next turn, but his firing position was good and his smoke potential before dying was good. I felt I had to run the risks to get my infantry into the village. The rest of my infantry began to advance. The combination of firelanes and minefields made stepping out a bit hairy, but not impossible. But I wasn't making it across the street into the victory area like I'd hoped. Finally, my best leader led the FT-toting squad up towards the action. They got caught by an extremely tight LOS check, caught again by a good die roll, and both KIA'd from the added danger of carrying a FT into battle.
At this point, the scenario card actually barked at me, overbalanced, and toppled onto the table. Turn 1, I'd been luckier than I deserved, and I was still crashing up against the rocks. I wasn't making it into decent cover, I wasn't trimming down his heavy weapons, I wasn't even threatening most of his strong points. IT WASN'T GONNA HAPPEN. Both of us knew it. I hadn't finished the first MPh, but the scenario was over.
I hate to label a scenario a dog. OAF has a rumored history of some good and some bad scenarios, and I'd hoped CH had picked out the cream of the crop for us. But this one just smelled when we began to study it. Playing merely assured us that the smell was indeed foul. We sat back and discussed options, plans, methods of approach, and nothing could make up for the fact that the Germans had too far to travel in too short a time, or that the Russians had elite units in stone buildings, or that the Russians had so many toys that Tom began to set up the extras in disposable positions simply because he had them to spare. Did we just play it wrong? Who can tell -- there aren't any AAR's on this scenario that I could find, and the ASL record doesn't show that anyone has ever even played this scenario before. Ever. Once. And the overlay doesn't fit.
Tom said that bad ASL is like bad sex -- it's still better than nothing. But the whole value of this experience was in studying it and finding holes big enough to drive a salient through. I cannot recommend this as a scenario to try for a good time.
Tom Huntington