Panzer Grenadier Battles on November 21st:
Desert Rats #16 - The Panzers Pull Back Desert Rats #19 - The Panzers Return
Desert Rats #17 - The Tomb Of Sidi Rezegh Jungle Fighting #7 - Line Of Departure
Desert Rats #18 - A Pibroch's Skirl South Africa's War #5 - Irish Eyes
A Stroll in the woods...Not
Author waynebaumber
Method Solo
Victor Germany
Play Date 2013-12-09
Language English
Scenario SiLi010

Played solo over three sessions. It's always disappointing having picked a scenario which looks to be an exciting tussle with an interesting mix of units to discover as you begin to set up there is a flaw in the scenario. In this case the flaw is in the VC. Which state that the US player has to free a majority of hill/town hexes of German non-demoralized units on boards 10,23 and 31 the problem being that the US player starts on board 10 which is 75% hill and town the German player starts on the other three boards. Playing with the VC's as printed would have meant the US player who heavily outnumbers and outguns the Germans has 26 turns to capture ten more hill/town hexes and not lose 15 steps in the process to gain a minor victory. This did not seem right so I played that it was boards 11,23 and 31 that needed to be cleared. This seemed better but as the result was a German victory I am not 100% sure that my interpretation is correct. To the battle itself, initially the Americans attack in three groups of equal numbers and with a strong reserve ready to reinforce success. Each group would advance onto a different board with the units marching towards board 11 having the option to reinforce the attack on the towns on board 31 or just threaten the large town/hill complex on board 11. The German's set up, with 20/20 hindsight, was poor with too large a force trying to hold the hills and towns on board 31. I think that if I played this one again I would just hold the large hill on board 11 sending forward observers to lay down artillery on the advancing US forces. The US attack swatted away the small German roadblock on board 23 and that board was cleared of German units by GT3 however the mud and terrain slowed the US movement to a crawl (plus FOW) which meant that those American units never fired another shot for the rest of the battle. On board 31 there was another German collapse and after two hours of fighting it looked like an easy US victory would be had as only three US steps where lost compared to 12 German steps. However the German defense stiffened around the large town on board 31 and US losses began to mount, over the next 60 minutes the US lost another 8 steps however they had wiped out the German defenders and now had a majority if hill/town hexes for a minor victory. A German counter attack was repulsed but the German officer leading the attack was in a position to call artillery down on a number of demoralized US units who had been sheltering out of sight until then. This was the cue for some extremely accurate fire from both the off board and on board artillery, this resulted in further step losses so the Germans too had fulfilled their minor victory conditions. The US commander perhaps then should have just dug his troops in and called it quits and taken the draw, if this had been a FtF I would have done that, however the brave GI's attacked the forbidding hills around Gey and promptly lost 6 steps in two turns changing the outcome from a draw to a German victory. I did not play this one very well, the German set up was poor and the final US attack was also poorly handled ( I risked a platoon of Sherman's against an adjacent and disrupted 50mm A/T even though I knew a single step loss would mean a US loss the 50mm rolled a 12 DOH). I would have rated this a 3 but for the issue with the VC's. A very average scenario.

2 Comments
2013-12-09 07:57

Give me more of this "poor" play (to use your words) in our encounters please :-)

2013-12-11 03:07

I will do my best dear boy

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