No Retreat: The Russian Front

Played No Retreat: The Russian Front yesterday, two blowouts and then a third game started that is more balanced - took that many tries to figure out the Russian strategy (or get good cards...).

Start of Game.

End of German turn 1, Two VPs captured.

End of German turn 1.  VP hexes are the greyish ones with German armor on them at the top of the map.

End of Russian turn 1.

Russians send reinforcements to Odessa and Kiev.  Pull back in the north.

End of German turn 2.

A strong push on Leningrad, Kiev defenders are caught off and put OOS and Odessa is surrounded but has sea supply.  Smolensk also falls.

End of Russian turn 2.

Kiev falls since it is OOS the defender dies.  The Russians did put up a strong fight to free the city but it was rebuffed.

End of German turn 3.  One VP away from sudden victory.

Moscow and Leningrad both taken.  The Russians had to burn through cards to get their units back and so concede the game.  Germany was in an excellent position to get to the win through VPs or taking another objective hex (Stalingrad, Sevastopol, or the Caucasus oil field).

Game reset (takes all of 5 minutes, very nice!)

End of German turn 1.  Things very much like last game (almost always turns out the same).

Looking familiar.

End of Russian Turn 1.

Odessa was forced by card play to attack the adjacent stack - EX result leaves Odessa open.  Lesson learned - rail the unit out of Odessa and back in at end of turn.

End of German turn 2.

Odessa being open creates a huge hole that the Germans exploit.  Kiev is taken and two Russian armies are put OOS.  If they can not be freed they die at the end of the turn and are worth 1VP each.

End of Russian turn 2.

Ack - forgot the end game photo - this is the NEARLY the end game photo.  The two arrows pointing at each other symbol near Smolensk is a spoiler attack marker - meaning the Russians have to attack.  The Germans play a CA result card (automatically allows the opponent to Counter Attack ignoring terrain) and take the city.  In addition to the losses for the OOS units it becomes a 20 point VP win.  We reset the board once again for round 3.

Map is reset and game restarted for our third playing in one day.  End of German turn 1 looks familiar...

Yup, seen this before...

End of Russian turn 1 and things start getting interesting.

Odessa defenders rail in and out - no way to force them to attack to their doom.  Kiev is also left undefended so it cannot be forced to counterattack to death either.

End of German turn 2.  Things are not going well.

Odessa is still holding out.  Kiev is taken but Smolensk is holding still too.  Two Russian armies are put OOS and the Germans are salivating at those much needed VPs!

End of Russian turn 2.

The Russian plays an Emergency Withdrawal card that allows the OOS units to get away, the German pincers have encircled nothing...  Odessa still holds out and Smolensk is still under Russian control.

End of German turn 3.  The mud has put a damper on operations.  Movement reduced to 3 or less and no extended advances.

Smolensk and Odessa have fallen and the Germans are outside Moscow!  Can they take it?

End of Russian turn 3.

A Russian counterattack pushing the panzers away from Moscow, another attack north of the city destroys a German Infantry army while in the south the Russian attack ends up a counterblow (two arrows on top of the unit near the center).  The snow starts to fall and the Germans have to decide on pushing their luck or hunkering down for the winter.  Not much of a choice really - they would need a miracle to win by turn 6 (end of winter) and so will have to regroup for a win by turn 9 (end of Summer) or 12 (end of winter 43).  Either of those are still within reach but not if losses are great during the winter.  If those fail the only German chance is to ride out the Russian counteroffensive.

Next playing for this is set for the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving.

ASL 79: Bridge of the Seven Planets

Another ASL Highlights summary.  This is from scenario 79, Bridge of the Seven Planets.

Germans have to capture the VC hex across the river in 9 turns and take less than 25cvp doing so.  They get a bunch of trucks and all of them go into hiding!

End of German turn 1, they come on the map on the top right, a big 9-2 led stack rolls snakes and breaks the MMG!  A 467 fires and breaks an enemy HS...  Ya plays the odds but ya never know...

Germans through everything they have at the enemy HS in the second half of turn 2, No Effect!

German half of Turn 2, the HS finally breaks and general shooting breaks out all along the front.

On the Far left of the map the building there is a Castle, no one enters or exits but it has a leader led MMG.

German turn 3, on the right side most of the troops come pouring in.  French 25LL gun is bumped by a HS and forced to reveal, HS survives and jumps in CC with gun crew.  The Gun crew would eventually lose after a turn or two.

On the left Flank an 81mm mortar comes onboard and is setup.  The crew is promptly broken.

We skip to German turn 5, Resistance on their bank of the river crumbles and is pretty shaky on the other side too.

Left side of the board and the 81MM gets to shooting back.

German turn 6, the first attempt to rush the bridge ends up a disaster...  The AC did manage to get across and into the VC hex, and it survives enemy fire in the hex from the 25LL!

In the end the Germans lost 2 squads and 2 leaders in the attempt.  One HS was lost when the SMC prisoner it was guarding attacked in CC killing it.  The remaining units in the hex with it nearly did not manage to kill it too.  Another HS went berserk...

French Turn 6 saw the end of the AC, German turn 7 ended like you see here.  The 81mm Mortar making has of the French left while the German troops on the right kept pounding the French in the buildings.  Finally the little MTR just above the bridge fired a shot into the VC building getting a CH vs Concealed troops there, notice they aren't there any more.  The Berserk HS went down in a blaze of a CH from the 155 too.  The Germans are down to 2 turns left to get across the bridge and take the VC building and they have 15 CVP so far, 10 more and it is game over.

End of French turn 7.  The Germans try to make a call on the radio and roll boxcars, the 100mm OBA did not manage to do anything the entire game, partly out of bad placement and the rest out of boxcars...  The French 155 crew is broken while the 9-1 on the right moves into position to try and get the MG back in action.  The little mortar that could no longer can (boxcars again). 

Another dash across the bridge ends in disaster on German turn 8.  Two squads made it across to be chopped down in the street by 2 or 1 FP shots (granted with a -2FFMO).  Germans CVP is now at 21.  4 more and it is game over.

End of French turn 8.  They man the 155 gun with a squad and shift forces around.  The Germans can take a max of 3 more CVP and have to get across the bridge and take the building with the dead tank in it.  The French have the Gun, the MG nest in the fortress (off to the left), the 25LL, a 437 and a 237 with MG to the right.

German turn 9, the 81mm fires at the MG nest in the fort and DMs the units there.  Next up the 9-1 on the elevated road to the right fires at the 437 in the foxhole.  He causes and MC which the 437 easily passed - by rolling the German SAN.  SA roll is a 1, and you guessed it - the sniper ends up on the 437...  All that is left of the French now is the MG to the right, the 155 Arty piece and the 25LL gun.  The German squad at the top of the bridge makes his dash for the VC building by going CX.  The 155 fires on him in the first bridge hex and...

(No actual bridges were harmed in the firing of the 155).  Though having a better chance of breaking the Artillery then scoring a hit the French score a hit and the German squad is attacked on the 30fp chart.

The squad passes the MC check and continues on their merry way.

The French MG opens up and causes a 1MC on the German squad.

The German squad passes!

The gun hits but rolls an 11 on the Effect DR and the squad moves into the VC hex for the win. 

A tense game the whole way through.  The plan was to use the arty to smoke the bridge but then it went belly-up with a 12 on the radio communication check.  I also forgot to leave a crew with the German 75 gun so left it behind, the MTRs did great work instead however.  The lack of smoke left a mad dash across the bridge but perhaps I should have assault moved on and then advanced. 

The game came down to the last turn and nearly to the last DR since a killed squad would have left just one more CVP possible and though there was a HS it would have to survive the Defensive Fire Phase in addition to the MPh to make it.  Both of us had wild swings in luck, at the start my 9-2 led stack could not do squat to a Half Squad and then later on the MTRs getting 2 critical hits on units in buildings and then the Sniper taking out the guy who just made his MC check.  The French had a bunch of 1 or 2 FP shots where the rolls ended up threes and fours (and then modified for FFMO) then on the last turn a squad goes through a 30fp shot and a 6fp MG shot (granted no FFMO) unscathed.  Such is ASL.