This is a classic 'quantity vs. quality' scenario. Austrian government troops are attempting to hold three towns (6, 7 and 1 hexes) against Schutzbund communist militias. The government will have the assistance of a reinforcing right-wing Heimwehr militia unit halfway through.

Most of the government troops set up in the 6-hex town on the western board, since the Schutzbund will enter from the west. They leave a small contingent in the 7-hex town on the eastern board.

The Schutzbund divide into two equal groups to attack the western town from both sides. A third group goes around the town and heads east to occupy the undefended 1-hex village on the eastern board, and block the reinforcements from reaching the western town. Most of the action takes place in and around the western town.

With no artillery support and very weak units, the militia has no choice but to attempt assaults to capture the town. The government troops are higher quality and have higher morale, so they try to hold as many town hexes as possible.

The Schutzbund occupy an undefended town hex, and assault into three more. The assaults become stalemates. The army has only one or two units in each hex, but the militia units are too weak to get a decisive result despite having three units in each assault. Eventually, a Schutzbund assault force with two HMG platoons manages to clear one town hex, but by then it's too late.

The militia holds only two town hexes, with four more contested. The government keeps seven town hexes and wins a major victory.

This was an enjoyable, fast-playing infantry-only scenario, but if you don't like working with weak units, you won't like this one.

Austrian army has to hold as many town hexes as possible on boards 3 and 24 and kill more than they lose if possible. They get reinforcements on turn 8 from the East edge but they would take help much on the western board where the enemy Schutzbund enter. Auxtrians are strong positive but they e Schutzbund outnumber them and have a lot of leaders, giving them some flexibility. I defended the western town with 4 infantry, an umbrella, the commander and two other leaders, putting the remaining troops in the large eastern town, sacrificing the single bed town in the South ridge on board 24. I figured it would take any Schutzbund troops enough time to get to the East town they the Austrian reinforcements would probably get there in time. As the Schutzbund entered the table, the split into two forces, the larger attacking directly to try to take as much of the eastern town hexes as possible while the slightly smaller force bypassed that town and headed for the bridge and the eastern board as quickly as possible. Quality of troops started telling immediately as Schutzbund took casualties to long range and then point blank fire. The forces that did make it into assaults lost as well. The force heading around the western town lost troops to long range fire from the town they were bypassing, leaving one stack stuck in place trying to regroup. As anticipated the reinforcing Heimwehr troops mad it into the eastern town just as the Schutzbund got there. In 13 turns, the Austrians inflicted 20 steps of casualties to no losses of their own. The Schutzbund managed to take just 2 town hexes with one contested. Ponts at that time were 39 to 4 for the Austrian Army and Conti using the blood bath just didn't seem sporting. Great game.

Este escenario es cronológicamente el primero en el inmenso océano de escenarios de PG. En efecto, reproduce los combates que tuvieron lugar el 12 de febrero de 1934 entre el ejército regular austriaco, apoyado por las milicias conservadoras del "Heimwehr", y las fuerzas marxistas irregulares del "Schutzbund".

Cerca de cinco compañías marxistas se enfrentan a dos compañías del ejército regular y una compañía reforzada del "Heimwehr" (que entra en el turno octavo como refuerzo). Los marxistas luchan por ocupar dos ciudades medianas (cinco y siete hexes) y una pequeña (un hex). El ejército regular despliega cinco unidades en la ciudad occidental, ocupándola completamente, y tres unidades en ciudad oriental. El "Schutzbund" despliega un grupo principal para acosar a la ciudad occidental, un segundo grupo (seis pelotones) para atacar la ciudad oriental y un tercero de sólo dos unidades para ocupar la ciudad pequeña, que se encuentra desguarnecida.

Los marxistas rodean a prudente distancia la ciudad occidental sin pensar en asaltarla, dada su menor moral y reducida capacidad de fuego. Su objetivo es fijar a las unidades regulares para impedir que apoyen a la reducida guarnición de la ciudad oriental, que va a sufrir el ataque principal de "Schutzbund". En una rápida marcha, unidades del "Schutzbund" ocupan tres hexes de la ciudad oriental y la pequeña ciudad justo antes de la entrada de refuerzos del "Heimwehr". Cuando llegan éstos se intensifica la lucha y consiguen desalojar a los marxistas de uno de los hexes de ciudad. En la ciudad occidental el "Schutzbund" ataca ahora decididamente para asaltar y neutralizar al menos dos hexes. Al final el ejército regular y las milicias conservadoras consiguen aniquilar a cinco "steps" enemigos y controlar ocho hexes de ciudad. Los marxistas sólo logran controlar dos hexes de ciudad y no eliminan ni un sólo "step" enemigo.

Victoria mayor austriaca (antimarxista).

This one is a good lesson in the concept of concentration. By providing a strong VP incentive for the Schutzbund to take town hexes, the scenario creates the illusion that the job of the regulars is to hold onto as many town hexes as they can, forcing them to spread themselves thinly throughout the dozen or so hexes on the board. Instead of doing this, I set up my regulars in only four hexes. Two in the western town near the Schutzbund entry and two in reserve in the large town to the east.

This concentration formed hexes that the Schutzbund could not assault successfully and the combat settled into a series of fire group actions which stalemated the Schutzbund. by controlling the western town hexes the Austrian regulars forced the Schutzbund to go off road towards the second town providing the Heimwehr reinforcements time to arrive and bolster the defense. On the other hand a passive defense is likely to generate merely a draw so the Heimwehr moved into assaults with the Schutzbund on the flanks and after disruption or demoralization from the regulars direct fire, were able to send them packing.

This is a relatively straightforward scenario which clearly depicts the inability of political troops to move regulars from a defensible position. The Schutzbund did not have the mass or firepower to cause any significant degradation in the regular's defense. The result, then is a bit of a foregone conclusion but fun to play with anyway. The Schutzbund should forget about taking defended hexes and search out those which are undefended and establish defenses there against the eventual counterattack. Anything else is just wishful thinking on their part.

Still a fun scenario in that you rarely have troops like these when you include the regulars, Heimwehr and Schutzbund all in the same fight. I give it a "3" for the novelty.

This game was played ftf with my English bud from Belgium, Banglajowls. He was back in England for the England v Australia Test at Lords, but as usual, we found time to play a game. PG is something he is looking to venture into on a Skype level and is something he has already invested in. So this was to serve as a walk through. We've been gaming with each other in Sports replays many many years.

Unlike Matt's AAR, I went for a forward defence with the Austrian regulars. Placing 2 platoons in the forward town as this would mean the Schutzbund would need a fair force to capture any points here. Even if they did, they would never gain them all unless a full effort was used.

Bangla went for a 'northern sweep' where I presume he desired to capture the inner most towns further on where there were more points. But I had also placed the remaining regulars in positions where they could fast respond against such a move. As the Schutzbund went north, Austrian regulars followed in order to delay them. The Austrian reg.HMG's also positioned themselves to sweep any prospective river crossings.

The long and short of it all was that the Austrian regulars contained the Schutzbund advance and when the Heimwehr arrived on turn 8 it was a done deal.

Point was, this was a walk through scenario for a new player that had played one solo game. From that angle, there was much that Bangla learnt. The use of leaders, activations. The direction of shots and best use of fire points and all the other finer points of the PG system. It looked as if he enjoyed it and I am really hoping this will be the start of a new PG career and potential opponent for the more regular skype players.

Casualties were a single INF step for the Austrian Army. The Schutzbund lost 7 INF steps and a Zugfuhrer and a Komp.Kom. No town hexes were captured by the Schutzbund so it was a bit lop-sided. But as the title suggests, there is no kudos here. Previous results show many Austrian wins and none for the Commies and it was also a veteran player versus a newbie.

BUT >>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Post game, it was off to the pub and a well MERRY evening spent by all and a look forward to many more encounters !

This was my first real game of PG. I had tried to play out "Insecurities" from EFD but realised during this session with Vince that I'd missed some of the basic rules, such as extended spotting from hills and towns, hills themselves being limiting terrain, etc, etc. But most illuminating in this session was a demonstration of the importance of leaders, subordinate activations, and basically making sure everything is thought through and in the right place before "jumping off". Vince also helped by dropping hints here and there which helped illustrate other elements of the rules that i may want to take advantage of here and there. All in all, it was a great trtaining session for me.

As to the action itself, after Vince set up in the town near the western edge, I decided to concentrate my forces north and go for a river crossing hoping to break out into the open ground beyond from where I could try for the eastern board town with its greater # of victory hexes. However, judicious use of road movement by the regulars and my poor planning in terms of mass activations (see above) meant that the regulars were able to seal off a safe northern passage before I could cross the river.

On top, I should have allocated at least six units and leaders to assault the town to pin down those regulars stationed there so those that did move north could be isolated by my northern flanking movement. I did have units in the woods facing the town, but again a lack of confidence in the assault rules plus a silly desire to win locally everywhere instead of sacrificing those assaulting the town, meant that the assault was delayed several turns until it was too late.

During the leader selection process it was apparent the Socialists had not allocated their best leaders to the Steyr Works attack. This became crucial as more and more units were disrupted or demoralised under the more potent fire from the regulars. I did succeed in two units achieving "heroic status", at least in my eyes, when they pressed home their attack across the river despite their leaders running away. But it was a local success that couldn't last as the rest of my insurgents melted away. A sign of my novice status, we halted the action at about turn 9 or 10.

If I were to play this scenario as the insurgents again, I would try to spread my units into fire goups right across the western edge, threatening the nearby town, but also looking to stretch the regular units so they couldn't remain in stacks with vastly superior firepower. I'd also hope for some better leaders that could enable firegroups to combine to ensure we could achive local superiority where it was needed. Otherwise, an easy regular victory is always on the cards.

Played solo in about 3 hours.

You can view the SA setup in post 1 of this thread .

As all 7 prior recorded plays ended in an Austrian, I turned to the AARs for inspiration. I noticed Matt and Vince set up 4 and 6 units respectively in the western town and thus decided to be a contrarian and set up 5 units there. But not entirely a contrarian, I wanted to explore Matt’s suggestion that a passive defense would likely lead to a draw.

The Austrian troops located in the western town are to use fire opportunities if the Schutzbund rush the town, and to split up 1 unit per town hex should the Schutzbund be more patient. The assumption is the Austrians will have a much easier time in assault and will never suffer more than an assault on the 9 column if they remain in town. With 8/7 morale and +1 morale for recovery in town, full strength unit will be very hard to dislodge. The Austrians on the eastern town are just there to slow down any Schutzbund incursion until reinforcement arrive should the Schutzbund cross the river.

The Schutzbund show patience. They surround the town and send 2 leaders and 4 platoons east, hoping to take the 1 hex village and to threaten the larger town.

The Schutzbund start their assault on the western town on turn 5 but no side suffers any casualty by turn 8 when the Heimwehr reinforcements arrive. Meanwhi;le, the group going east split into 2 subgroups of 1 officer and 2 INF each. One group heads for the bridge and dugs out there to delay the reinforcements from joining the battle too quickly. The other group heads for the unoccupied village.

At the end of turn 9, all Austrian units are in good order and the Austrians decide the reinforcements are best used as a blocking force to prevent the Schutzbund from quickly shifting their attention east; in other words, they would rather not fight. This seemed a good idea by the end of turn 10 because all Austrian units were now in good order. With only 6 turns to go, an Austrian victory seems inevitable.

On turn 11, the Schutzbund renewed their assault and lost 2 steps of Infantry to the Austrians. But they also managed to disrupt one enemy and to demoralize another. The demoralized unit failed to recover and lost a step fleeing. Not too worrisome for the Austrians as they were still were far ahead.

On turn 12, the Schutzbund assaulted the fleeing Austrian on the 1 column and destroyed it! The Austrians are still very much in the lead but having seen the Schutzbund roll three “6” in a row introduces an element of discomfort. They want to take no chance and send the four Heimwehr INF units to retake the village.

Turn 13 saw the Schutzbund roll another “6” and caused another casualty in the assault and, like the first unit, this one is also eliminated in a subsequent assault. With casualties now 4 to 2 in favor of the Schutzbund, one more town hex and the Schutzbund may earn a draw.

Turn 14 and the Schutzbund roll another “6” but the reduced Austrian unit survives in good order. One Schutzbund assault fails miserable when they suffer 1 step loss and the 3 units are disrupted. The Austrians counter-attack but miss.

Turn 15 saw the Schutzbund recovering their units for a last turn assault and the Heimwehr getting 2 units in good order adjacent to the village.

The Schutzbund win the initiative by 4 on the last turn. They conduct two assaults and shoot at the Heimwehr at point blank range; all misses. The Heimwehr assault the village and contest it.

Victory point totals are Schutzbund 9 (2 town hexes x 2, 5 step losses), Austrians 17 (7 town hexes x 2, 3 step losses).

Austrian Minor Victory!

Casualties: The Schutzbund lost 3 steps of infantry (all in failed assaults). The Austrian lost 5 steps (4 in Schutzbund assault, 1 when a reduced, demoralized unit attempted to leave an assault hex).

I gave this scenario a “3” because there were a number of interesting decision points. I would have rated it one point higher if it was more balanced. I believe the Schutzbund can draw with some luck but I don’t see how they can win. May be best played solitaire.

This scenario pits a mob of Austrian Schutzbund against Austrian Federal troops during the Austrian Civil War of 1934. The Schutzbund entered from the western edge and took two turns to contact the Austrians (who wisely took that time to dig in). The Schutzbund had a very ominous start in that upon first contact, two of their platoons were demoralized by well placed Federal fire. The Schutzbund sent the majority of their troops (4 companies worth) to invest the Federals in the larger town, and 2 companies against the smaller outpost down the road. Right from the start, the Schutzbund had difficulty in coordinating attacks with the routing on one of their officers (demoralized during a fire attack and then rolling a 12 to rally). This would repeat itself twice more during the scenario as a total of 3x Schutzbund officers deserted, leaving below average troops leaderless. A fourth officer would be KIA later on in the scenario.

Attempts to position themselves for assaults were thwarted at every turn. Nearly every assault was stopped in its tracks and those that did succeed in closing with the Federals were subsequently driven back. When I say every assault was thwarted, I mean EVERY single assault. The Schutzbund did not register a single success in this scenario. Once the Heimwehr arrived and released the Federals from holding the towns, it was good night for the Schutzbund, as the Federals went over on to the offensive against a largely demoralized force.

Schutzbund Slaughter is the title of this AAR. The Schutzbund lost 21 steps of troops and 4x Officers in their repeated assaults. Not a single Austrian Federal step loss occurred. Even the Heimwehr were unscathed in this scenario. A lack of artillery and heavy weapons made assaults against dug in troops a suicidal proposition, which the Schutzbund learned the hard way.

Author	Greyfox
Method	Solo
Victor	Austria
Play Date	2021-04-20
Language	English
Scenario	HbnS001

Unless the Austrians roll horribly, and the Shutzbund are on fire, I can't see the Austrians losing.

In this scenario, I the Austrians positioned a company (3 x INF and 1 HMG) on the west side of the western town, and then the second company in the western side of the major Easter town on board 24. The Schutzbund drew some good to very good leaders along with a host of mediocre ones. Every one had a morale above 8 and about four of them had either a morale modifier, a combat modifier, or both.

The Shutzbund, organized into 5 three platoon companies, with a Heavy weapons company of three HMGs platoons, and an Infantry Platoon. My thoughts were that if I had to attempt to take a town hex, I wanted to mass fires of my three machine gun platoons, plus Infantry Platoon, and a Combat Modified from one of my leaders (22 column) on the direct fire table, rather than 11 or 16 Columns (3 info platoons, 1 HMG, and maybe a combat modifier if available). I thought the Heavy Weapons Company could blast a way into town, either attriting the Austrians, or causing their morale to collapse, prior to that assault.

The tactic turned out to be flawed. The Shutzbund rarely got the results desired... in ten turns they only killed 3 steps. and after the first turn, the company in the east moved rapidly to reinforce the town, while leaving a HMG on the Bridge (the chokepoint) to prevent the Shutzbund from bypassing the western town for the Easter town hexes. Since the Shutzbund couldn't attempt a river crossing, the one bridge hex could prove crucial to the Austrian defense - preventing easy access to eight town hexes on the eastern map. The heavily reinforced town (6x INF and 1 HMG) proved to tough a nut for the Shutzbund to crack. By the end of turn 10, the Shutzbund had only captured two town hexes, were contesting control of two others, and lost eight steps.

I called the game because the motorized Heimwehr militia reinforcements (4x INF, and 2 HMG) had just entered the western town, and where in a position to start destroying the Shutzbund (still mostly outside of the town) via direct fire or assault. The Shutzbund high water mark had been reached. While I am sure the Austrians/Heimwehr would have sustained more loses in the process, I am confident that they wold have kicked the Shutzbund out of the town hexes they had entered destroying more of them in the process.

This was a major victory for the Austrians- 30 victory points, Shutzbund 7 victory points. While my tactic could potential work in the future, if the Shutzbund has better rolls, it definitely did not this time. While it was fun, the scenario was way off balance. Shutzbund doesn't have much of a chance.