Author	NBGB (Britain)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	Germany
Participants	treadasaurusrex (AAR)
Play Date	2022-07-10
Language	English
Scenario	DeRa029

See Treadasaurus's review for some of the rules used, and other recommendations for this scenario.

I had a great time playing against Felipe. He mopped up the floor with me on this one. I usually play pretty aggressively in PG, as games can really go long if you don't use FOW. Using FOW would help to balance this scenario out some as perfect command and control allows for a completely methodical, chess match type of game. I was outclassed this time in that department.

These are my notes from the first part of the game:

First Vassal play in a long time. We are not using fog which is unusual for me. I also don’t play much in the sand recently. You need to be flexible and open to other ways. I setup with a forward defense. I had my right flank lightly protected by Bren’s and my left had some Crusaders. I held (2) platoons of Crusaders in reserve. The Crusaders on the left were to use their leader to help bring in the wandering maintenance unit tanks from the north. This area was the high ground and I also wanted to guard against an attack from this advantageous position. I get 12 platoons of Stuart’s to enter from the south (right) flank on a die roll of 6. I figure I may never see them so plan on a pretty static defense. My units will dig in immediately because of the strong German artillery. My infantry occupies road hexes in individual platoons to force as many tough rooting out attacks as possible. I’m guessing that Treadasaurus will bring in motorcycle scouts to spot for artillery and soften me up as much as possible. Without Fog he can always be sure of his plan being able to unfold slowly and methodically.

Turn 1-Scouts were brought up and artillery called in. I am already suffering demoralization on my 2lb. AT gun. His AT guns appear to be being set up to guard against a middle and rear infiltration to get to road hexes late in the game. PzIV’s are being brought forward and Pzlll’s are layered behind.

Turn 2- Lost my AT gun and demoralized a digging in infantry closest to the line. Brought in a Matilda from the North. A segway here. My interpretation of leaderless armor is that nothing can see or hurt it so it should be able to have freedom of movement as long as that condition exists. My opponent said that the Matilda could not move from its enter spot without a leader. That put a big crimp in my plan but that’s the way we played it. That allowed him to not have any units in the northern area to prevent me from moving forward without a leader. I managed to get dug in with most of my units. No Stuarts yet. He is setting up AT guns and tanks in a layered defense using his advantage of longer range to help in defense if needed. He is moving a recon by force with the motorcycles and an MG unit. 2 Crusader platoons and a Bren are blocking and 2 Matildas have joined 2 Crusaders in the North to help pressure the recon.

Turn 3- Here come the Stuarts. The game is afoot. I decide to be very aggressive and try a north-south pincer movement with the Stuarts and Crusaders forming crossfires on the PzlV’s. The Stuarts can keep moving and turn NW to meet the Crusaders coming from the North and hopefully cause some losses to eliminate armor efficiency. Also, to completely blow apart his forward positions and force the recon units back. He is also moving adroitly and has xfires setup on my Stuarts. He also has a 2 point initiative advantage going in to turn 4. This next turn will be critical as I may lose a lot of steps. I also may cause a lot of havoc.

Turns 4-7 Turns 4-6 went very badly for me. Turn 7 saw some slowing of the bleeding. Tread’s crossfire on my marauding Stuarts was very effective. It could have been worse, but I decided to turn tail and run back to my defensive lines. He is in pursuit and done some more damage, but I believe I have managed to save a chunk of my force to fight another time. On the northern side of the road I am bogged down in an assault with 3 armor units against a cycle unit. I am slowly winning this and I could get 2 more step losses on him. His artillery continues to hit my dug in units on the road with about average effectiveness. He made his first medium mistake bringing a PzIV into a questionable assault. This allowed me to set up a crossfire with Crusaders and I was able to knock out a step. He is trying to keep his recon forces re-inforced with infantry to go around the north and take any advantage that artillery may open up. Also fixing the front line with dug in units and his advancing armor which is chasing my Stuarts. That’s about done as my units are coming under friendly fire cover. I am going to go over completely to the defensive now and dig in my armor to support the infantry on the road and be able to reinforce any attempted assaults. My ace in the hole are the northern maintenance units that are gathering in force. I have 7 platoons of tanks up there right now. They can either help on the defensive or stay out of the fray and swing around to his rear. I need him to commit as much to the front as possible to really strike hard there. I expect a well-coordinated, methodical attack that will put me to the test. I need to stay flexible and patient. I’m down 25-4 in losses. Losses don’t count against me except initiative which I’m down -3 right now.

Those notes were my on the fly thoughts. Felipe gave an excellent review. That covers the rest of the battle.

Things I would change:

• Hold back the Stuarts and use more for infantry support. They suck for tank battles.
• Use the tank leaders more creatively. I was easy to predict.
• Find more effective xfires to eliminate German armor efficiency.
• Stay further away from infantry even when it seems necessary to violate this rule.