The situation is quite simple. The Americans hold a town on a hill and the Soviets want to take the town and the surrounding hill. While the Soviets have some armor and a ton of smoke they do not have a morale advantage or a very sizable advantage in mass. As Shad mentioned in his AAR of this one, it is not suited for ftf play. It is far more useful as a solo study with the opportunity to learn about smoke, defensive play and placement of spotters.

My Americans set up primarily in the town with a forward position on the southern hill with infantry and the 40mm platoon. Farther back on the northern hill were the mortars, dug in. The Soviet advance was relatively uneventful, made so by the use of the smoke so that by the time the Americans knew anything the Soviets were right on top of them.

This did not, however, really work to the advantage of the Soviets. The smoke, which hid the Soviets from prying American eyes also blinded the Soviets to the American positions nullifying the Soviet heavy artillery. This meant that any softening of the American positions happened with the Soviets adjacent and subject to friendly fire. With a morale of 7/6 this is a recipe for disaster.

Of course, I failed my lesson as the Soviet commander and rushed my forces forward (the 20 turn limit was foremost in my mind). A somewhat more deliberate advance could have used the smoke to hide the bulk of my forces while a small detachment with a high morale leader could have moved to a flank in order to spot. Poor tactics on my part which may have led to a more convincing American victory than should have occurred.

The Americans rarely used more than 4-5 activations in a turn, two for artillery, one for actions on the southern hill and whatever odd recoveries and direct fire chances occurred. The Soviets, with a trail of units demoralized from the American and self inflicted fire often failed to get all of their recovery attempts in before the fog of war set in.

The Americans on the southern hill provided a spotting point, despite all the smoke, which inhibited the Soviet advance on the town. Well schooled in WW II Soviet tactics I pressed forward towards the town and managed to get the SU-76 and some infantry adjacent at which point I started to get some purchase between artillery, mortar and DF attacks. Two American infantry platoons demoralized and one of the town hexes had only 1 INF defender, disrupted. At this point the Americans still had a substantial lead in VPs (they start with 74 for terrain features and still held most of those points with only 16 moving into the Soviet totals due to control of most of the southern hill) but a break in in the town would also permit the Soviets to mask the town and move onto the northern hill.

At that point, however an artillery strike by the Americans disrupted the SU-76 and the American Lt. Colonel decide that the timing was right for a counterattack. Pulling much of the force from the town up onto the southern hill the Americans destroyed the Soviet armor and managed to demoralize all remaining Soviet officers on turn 12. The Soviets never recovered from the impetuous counterattack and without spotting officers the Soviet artillery was silent, leaving their forces only one option - to run.

I rated this one a "4", not because it is a stunning or thrilling play but because it gives the American player the opportunity to go from stout but static defense to headlong counterattack. The counterattack was NOT necessary to win the scenario but it was the correct tactical solution as the attacking Soviets would require a substantial amount of time to recover. Up to that point, the Soviets had lost 12 steps but retained the tactical initiative despite the fact that they had caused no losses on the Americans (lousy die rolls primarily). In the four turns after the counterattack there were no longer and good order Soviet foot units on the board and they had lost another 9 steps and 2 steps of armor.

I have had some conversations with Daniel about the static nature of some of the desert defense scenarios (build a box and hope that it doesn't get overwhelmed). While there is plenty of fighting and the opportunity for clever reinforcement of threatened areas of the box the defender primarily ends up rolling dice and seeing what rabbits the attacker will pull out of their hat. This is a similar situation with the caveat that there is enough terrain to defend that a "box" defense will lead to a loss if you aren't willing to counterattack. If the Americans only sit in the town they will lose 54-20 in terrain points. The necessary counterattack and the timing of that are very interesting pieces from a study perspective. As a play, it is quick with a limited number of units, one board and 20 turns.

My recent plays:

• 2011-03-03, Desert Rats #47
• 2011-03-05, Jungle Fighting #41
• 2011-03-17, Jungle Fighting #19
• 2012-03-15, Iron Curtain #8

364 days between plays! (it's a leap year) How did that happen? On 2011-05-02 I became a daddy!

Fortunately, as my son approaches one year of age things have settled down a bit at home and I was able to finally play a small scenario at a pace of about a turn a morning as I had my coffee before the rest of the house awoke.

The battle was satisfying, but does not merit a blow-by-blow account. Instead, I'll highlight some points of interest:

• this was my first battle using smoke. As the Soviets are assaulting a town atop a hill, successful use of smoke to blind NATO firing positions is critical to advancing in good order. Smoke went well initially for my Soviets, but that only allowed me to get closer to NATO guns, and when the smoke started failing us we were in prime position to be shot to hell, and we were!
• NATO has one very nice field gun, and the Soviets have one platoon of AFVs. A bombardment-induced demoralization and subsequent failed rally removed the field gun from the game very early, leaving the Soviet AFV basically invulnerable. However, it became demoralized in an early assault action and never recovered to rejoin the battle. This loss of concentrated firepower was a big blow to the Soviet chances.
• Both NATO and Soviets have 7/6 morale, which makes playing the NATO (American) side interesting as one is not used to seeing GIs routinely fail morale checks and rally attempts.
• The incredible Soviet artillery, something like 100+ points of combined on- and off-board firepower, will force NATO to keep their heads down, and prevent them massing to repulse attacks. But, as this AAR's title says, artillery does not capture towns, and ultimately my Soviets simply could not get enough boots into the town to secure it. (Stalin knows we lobbed enough shells in!)

I rated this a 3 because for a 20 turn, 1 map scenario it makes for a satisfying solo game. I wouldn't play it head-to-head unless you're prepared to beef up the Soviet OOB across the board by about 50% and increase the turn count. Otherwise it's just too hard to get up that hill and dislodge the NATO forces. Only very impatient and reckless NATO play should result in a Soviet victory.

Setup: The Americans put their main force in the four-hex town and put forward 3 INF units and a HMG forward to the base of the southern 60-meter hill, dug-in. The Americans also places one INF back on the 80-meter hill as a reserve, dug-in.

Play: The Soviets quickly advance through the woods, and scramble up the hill to the first American positions on the 60-meter hill. The Soviets turn two turns to soften the Americans before assaulting the dug-in Americans. The first round of assaults is a dud, and the fighting at the base of the hill continues for entire hour. However, the Soviets manage to break through and begin heading for the town.

The Soviets send a company of men to take the 80-meter hill hexes on the opposite side of the American held town. Meanwhile the main force approaches the town from the west, suffering through the American OF. The company of Soviets north of the town quickly take out the one INF on the heights, and quickly capture the rest of the high hills.

The Soviets then begin their main attack on the town. They struggle to wrest two of the town hexes from the Americans, and their lower morale begins to take a toll on the Soviets. Finally on turn 19, the Soviets take both hexes from the Americans, ensuring their victory.

Result: Major Soviet Victory. The Victory Point Count stands at 17-69, with the Soviets holding a 52 point lead.