River Fleets: scenario #10: Music to My Ears

Ok, first let me state, I can tell a lot of effort went into this supplement but for me it was like having to learn a whole new set of rules and I didn’t really enjoy the sequence of play or tracking current/drifts in the river but since I have own this for a while, I had to give it a try and decided on playing the larger scenario.

The Austro-Hungarian side starts with a small detachment of Infantry in Belgrade and much larger force of ground units that will on the other side of the river, their Naval support flotilla enters on the far western edge of the map if they roll a 4, 5, or 6 but the Serbian Navy with loaded ground units enter on the Sava River, right by Belgrade on rolls of 4, 5, or 6. The Romanian Naval units enter on the Eastern edge of the map by rolling a 5 or 6 on turn 5 or later.

The Serbian force by dice roll enter on turn one, and off loaded their ground troops right away in the Belgrade area and by turn three were attacking the smaller detachment of the Novi Sad Marines while the larger one sat across the river helpless waiting on their fleet to carry them across but they didn’t even enter the map until turn three.

As the victory conditions are all about controlling the most Belgrade city hexes, the Serbian player moves his naval units west to intercept the Austro-Hungarian Navy and sacrifice themselves against the stronger ships/boats of the Austro-Hungarian Navy while their larger Marines force destroy the Novi Sad Marines and conquered Belgrade.

By turn 6 and 7 the two naval unit slugged it out and the Romanian Naval units arrived to help out their Serbian Allies. The naval fight went on for a long while with both sides taking heavy losses but Austro-Hungarian Navy had the better of it, but not by much but had no time with what little shipping they had left to transport their Marines on the North side of the river over to the now Serbian controlled Belgrade. The Serbians/Romanians win this one even those they lost most of the naval forces, as Belgrade was all that mattered.

The River Fleets was ok but not the rules for it. I felt it could have been simpler and more in line with the existing Panzer Grenadier rules. Maybe too much chrome for a river battle but that is just my opinion, so take it with a grain of salt. At least I gave a large scenario a try.