Panzer Grenadier Battles on May 4th:
Panzer Lion #6 - Kalmu - Hill 256
Advance Australia, but quicker next time!
Author patman
Method Solo
Victor Draw
Play Date 2020-05-08
Language English
Scenario AfKo016

This scenario requires the Australians (with a few British counters including a bit 'o armo(u)r) to take three hills (four hexes in all) that are covered in and surrounded by Entrenchments, which themselves are manned by several Italian infantry/artillery formations. The forces given the Australians are certainly powerful and morale-favored enough to wrest control of the entrenchments from the Italians given enough time. But there's the catch: Only 16 turns are available to do this, with the last 3 suffering from diminishing visibility. Minimal transport is available, so most of the infantry will be hoofing it across one of those big-ass 22x34 Afrika Korps "carpet" maps to get to the last hill. And the thing is, those Bren carriers are sooooooo useful as extra firepower in the Entrenchment assaults, so you don't want them in ferry mode all game.

To win, the Australians have to take all 4 hill hexes. The first 3 are fairly certain IMO, but getting to the fourth is the issue that the Australian player has to bend their plan around. They will have to give up a hammer-like certainty to get forces to the mid-board early, to reduce the second two-hex hill (which happens to have the best troops too: no surrender rule for these) and get to the third. Which means you have to more or less use minimal force to grab the first hill, probably minimal enough that it won't be reduced until near the end of the game.

Note that this is all hindsight. I went for the "sequential hammer" approach to just reduce each hill in turn with overwhelming force. Which guarantees that the Italian cannot reach their Victory Condition (10 Aus step losses (tanks double)), but also guarantees that the Australian cannot reach Hill hex 4 before the end of the game. I realized this partway in, but kept on going because of one virtue of the scenario: it's like a tutorial in taking Entrenched areas, teaching the balance of Direct Fire, Bombardment, and Assault that gives the best results. It's a bit "easy mode" since the Australians will usually get +2 on assaults automatically (higher morale, leader, the occasional engineer) that offsets the -2 Entrenchment shift, and the first fire is usually not on a high column so its survivable (and get that 2-morale-modifier Australian LT in there!). And Surrender is your friend (except on the middle hill complex). Although as the Attacker I did kind of pine for the old less volatile 1-die Assault chart...

Overall, I can't rate this more than a 3. I learned (or re-learned stuff forgotten from the 'aughts?) a few things about assaulting entrenchments, but to make this scenario exciting victory condition-wise the Australian player has to have a certain kind of plan from the get go. And I can't imagine it's very fun opposed for the Italian player. So a good solitaire exercise, I would say. Opposed, I might suggest biding for extra (daylight) turns, the low bidder getting the Australians.

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