This scenario places a Soviet convoy on the road from the east to west ends of the board with T-34/85s, Su-101s and T-44s defending from the flank. The US sets up either in the woods adjacent to the road or at least 3 hexes away, and board 22 has a lot of woods and light woods along with a good hill to set up with. The only downside with those areas are that they are very near the edge the Soviets need to exit from. The US force is part of an armored cavalry regiment with M-4/76s, M-18s, and 2 companies of mechanized infantry with supporting HMGs and Mortars. Since the US gets a +5 to initiative on turn 1, it is most likely they will go first and can start as though they were hidden in ambush. No aircraft in this one, and the US has 3 18-factor OBA, and the Soviets may have 2 18-factor OBAs if the roll them up. Soviets may also get 4 more T-44 units for reinfocements entering from the east edge. Visibility starts at 3 hexes and increases by 1 each turn with a roll of 4 or more. For my game, the Soviets got the OBA from the start, visibility increased marginally to 7 by the end of turn 9 when the last of the Soviets who were able to left the board, leaving only 1 disrupted unit behind and surrounded. The Soviet reinforcements also never arrived. I set up the majority of Soviet infantry in the leading trucks where they might unload to assist in assaults, with leaders interspersed so that 3 truck hexes had a leader in the middle until the convoy got to the mortars and towed guns further back. The US troops I set up with the M-18s in the edge of light woods where they could use their shoot-and-scoot capability to try to take out Soviet tanks while preserving their own strength. US infantry were set up in stacks with either 2 INF or 1 INF and 1 HMG, along with a leader and their halftracks to either side of the road in the woods for some initial shootint at trucks loaded with troops and then to be in position to fight in assaults that were sure to come. The mortars and their halftracks were in light woods on the hilltop where they could spot for themselves and also spot for the OBA using an LT I stacked with them, and I placed the US commander next to the mortars where he could support them, spot things they might not see, or move forward to assist in regrouping. Things started out with a bang as US got the initiative with 6 activations, allowing the troops in the woods to shoot up trucks, and for the US tanks and M-18s to shoot at tanks. The armor was nowhere as successful as the infantry was, and only one or two steps of Soviet armor was lost, but the leading 4 hexes of trucks were destroyed quickly. The US troops moved forward and after an initial dash of 3 or 4 trucks running off the board, blocked the road in the woods to prevent any more from going that way. This stalled the Soviets and allowed mortars and OBA to destroy or damage several more trucks loaded with guns and mortars, while the surviving Soviet infantry at the front bailed from their trucks and moved forward. The Soviet armor had moved forward as quickly as possible and engaged in assaults with the US infantry, ill-advised in those early stages, and lost several steps of T-34s and T-44s in the process. Things bogged down to a slug fest of assaults and tank fire, with few OBA shots possible because all the leaders were involved somewhere in an assault or were unable to see a target due to the limited visibility. Soviets not engaged found a way around the south of the woods after Soviet armor cleard the light woods of US tanks on that side of the road. In the end, Soviets took 34 step losses, including the double losses for tanks, and left one unit on the board, surrounded and disrupted, for 34 points, while the US lost 20 steps, for a difference of 15 steps, or a major US victory.

Author	treadasaurusrex (United States)
Method	VASSAL
Victor	United States
Participants	OldPueblo
Play Date	2024-04-09
Language	English
Scenario	HaSi003

Others have described this ambush scenario in detail so this will be a shortish recap of this 16-turn battle. We played it over 5-sessions of fun online, with me leading the attacking GIs and Old Pueblo ably-playing the defending Russian convoy commander. This was an armor-piercing and close assault carnival from virtual start to finish. Lots of cover & concealment for the Americans to use to get into decisive range. We played using the FOW (starting on the 8th game turn), extended assault, consolidation, excess initiative and smoke/illum. In addition, the 3 house rules used were: 1) Tank Leader Forward Observation Full strength, efficient tank leaders may spot for ALL artillery & air strikes in accordance with the normal spotting rules (8.0, page 19). Just as leader units may spot, this action does not require an activation. Nonefficient tank leaders may also attempt to spot for ON BOARD ARTILLERY ONLY by throwing a single die per attempt to spot a target. This action does require an activation. They spot the intended target on a die roll of 4-6, 2) Road Movement for Mechanized & Foot Units All FOOT & MECHANIZED units may move on roads at the rate of 1/2 a Movement Point (MP) per road hex, just like MOTORIZED units, and 3) Standardized Movement for Mechanized Units All mechanized units may move through clear hexes at a movement cost of only 1 movement point (MP) per hex, instead of 1 1/2. Add one to this cost if moving up, across, or down slopes hexes. We both felt that this was a rule set that enhanced playability and reduced unnecessary complexity.

The M-18s were a delight to use in shoot-and-scoot mode during the bulk of this play-through. These vehicles made setting up cross fires much easier to arrange for the hapless Soviet AFVs -- along with the steady set of consecutive US initiative activations -- and the infantry & supporting weapons did great execution among the loaded trucks. US ground troops fearlessly engaged in repeated adjacent-hex firefights and close assault against the strong Soviet AFV force. In spite of the slow increase in visibility as the fight progressed, American OBA managed a number of key demoralizations & unit losses, once the Soviet were out of their vehicles.

The final Soviet step losses were 41 steps and 5 leaders. The US step loss was only 17 and 2 leaders, resulting in a major US victory.

This is a fast, fairly high counter density scenario of a US armored cavalry ambush of a Soviet combined arms column. I set up my US tanks to try to get first-turn hits on as many Soviet tanks as possible, but their rolls were horrible. Within 2 turns all the US tanks were destroyed. Luckily, the US infantry was tough and caused significant losses to Soviet infantry and quite a few tanks in assault. The US just achieved a minor victory on losses.

I forgot that I had played this scenario 10 years ago, but in reviewing my old AAR it looks like almost the same thing happened again. The US Armored Cavalry sprang another ambush, which initially looked like it might go poorly. The US tanks and tank destroyers again shot very poorly and were nearly wiped out. But their fortunes changed as the Soviets failed to finish them off. Ultimately, the speed of the M18s saved them, and the US infantry were very effective at mauling the Soviet infantry as they filtered forward to try to break the roadblock. This time around it was a major US victory.