ASL Red Barricades CG III

Gunner Scott

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Hi all-

Well, I decided to do a bit of a write up on my ftf RB CG I am playing with my buddy Bob. Not sure how long this one will last but hopefully past at least 20 CG days. Then again who knows. So why RB when there are so many other CG's out there? Well, Bob and I at the beginning of the year did do Hell's Bridgehead and KGP, so we figured, lets do another great CG that is fun and balanced. So we decided on RB the best of the best indeed. Hells Bridgehead and KGP are great CG's in their own right and we will probably do another HB CG next year but RB we thought should be played again. We did try RB a few years back using Melvins House rules, but we both did not like those house rules, those house rules just seemed to really stick it to bothsides as far limiting FP and a very unfun CG experience. So with this CG, we are playing it straight up. And boy is it a blast.

So last week on the spur of the moment, we decided to give RB CGIII a go, which in itself was not a good idea for me as the Russians since I should have been more prudent in my set up and was not. It took me about 15 minutes to set up my Russians for the initial CG and the dice were rolling.

In the initial CG date, Bob attacked in force along my left flank (towards the commissar's House), at first I laughed at such a move, but after turn 1 I was crying. My Phone with 80mm melfed, my ATG in the chemists house melfed, my HMG in the Chemists house melfed, are you getting the idea? So instead of making him pay for such a bold move, Bob's Germans were able to overtake my guys and take the Commissar's House on Day 1. But the moral victory went to me, because even though I was down and out on my left flank, I did score a NMC on Bobs 10-3 leader, who proceeded to roll boxcars and a 5 dr, so the 10-3 was out of the game.I also managed to stuff his right flank attack and cause him a lot of casualties. So the first days butchers bill was pretty rough on bothsides, don't have the numbers infront of me at the moment.

my buys for the first day:
Two militia companies 3 points in reserve
1 70mm OBA
1 80mm OBA.
One militia company depleted and received no SW (I rolled a 4 and higher)

So today Bob rolled by and this time I had a week to prepare a better defense, Bob's attack was mainly out of the Commssar's house area and into the factorys as can be seen by the pics. I still burns me up that I lost the commissars house, so on this day, I through rockets and mortar OBA at it............with no real effect other then disrupting Bob's attack slightly. But to make up for my shoddy luck and generalship, I did manage to take out three Pz III's with MOL's. Gotta respect the MOL lol. But Bob has also done a number on my lads with me losing close to 12 squads so far. We are currently on turn 4 with Bob coming by wed. to finish up this CG date.

So far lots of whining from both Von Paulas and Chiewkov lol. But we are having a ton of fun.

Scottred barri 003.jpg red barri 002.jpg red barri 001.jpg
 

xenovin

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Wow - the old armored blitz actually worked?! Granted all your stuff Xed out. I look forward to seeing how this plays out - whether the Germans get pinched out or it totally screws the Russians by having the Germans behind them.
 

Gunner Scott

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Howdy-

Red Barricades is a lot like chess, there are several opening moves for the Germans as well as several opening defenses for the Russians, I don't think there is any other CG that can boast such a feat at this time.

Scott
 

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The secrete RGs also makes the game. Sometime you have a good idea of what's coming but other times you get a curve ball and it really gets interesting!
 

Gunner Scott

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Hi all-

Bob and I finished up day 2 of our RBCGIII game today and will be heading into day 3 sunday. This was just really rough on the Russians today and coupled with the first days game really tested my resolve to continue on. The Rockets I had purchased in hopes of destroying the commissars house failed miserably, my other oba just spent three turns going out of my LOS, I kept rolling the same direction on a consistent basis. The tons of flames were more detrimental to me then the Germans just because there were heavy winds, so no smoke existed and just the Germans could fire through "blaze" hexes with impunity.

As for our game, Bob once more tried to force his way south in the commissars house area, but I held fast and slowly lost ground, this time there would be no major breakthrough for the Germans. Several really bad things did happen to the Russians (bad things did happen to the Germans but that was more in the refit phase then now), the 45LL melfed, four of my squads rolled boxcars, a few of my squads got caught in bad positions when they failed to take out Bob's Pz III, I had three chances at MOL's and all three failed to destroy his tank, instead, I had to scramble to get out of the path of his oncoming blue wave. Fortunately his stuka's did not do too much damage other then paralyzing my movement just about. He had three stuka's this day and that is just plain brutal on the Russian defenders. When it was all said and done, I had lost 57 CVP's vs Bob's 45 or so CVP's. His major losses were three tanks from MOL, so his infantry was around 21 or 24 CVP's. The really funny part was in the refit phase where all but one tank went home. So perhaps this next time around, I will not need to buy MOL and can actually by more cool stuff, like another Rocket mission!!

So far its not going too bad, I am unhappy with the dice more or less just because way too many bad things seem to have occurred which might nominally might not happen. Still, Bob has 35 or so squads to my 46 or so squads, so it might be interesting too see what the Germans purchase next. I am a 100% sure i'll be upping my booby-traps to 11 and 12 for the third days battle (its at 11 right now). Posted below are pics of the carnage and a map of the perimeter.

Scottday 3..jpg day 3 001.jpg day 3 002.jpg day 3 003.jpg
 

CTKnudsen

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I had one of those at one time too, and a lot of my stuff was similarly decorated. She's a bit older now, and much better at keeping her art onto paper and canvas. She never got any of my gaming stuff, although when she is a bit older still, she'll help me sand and refinish a fine table that belonged to her great-grandmother.

But enough of kids and their tendencies to express themselves! What do you expect your opponent to do next CG day? Clear the Apothoke and Kindergarten buildings in the east? Push further into the central factories? Or a push along the western railroad embankment, into the Firehall and Garages?
 

Bob Miller

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I'm open to ideas as to what part of Holst's anatomy is best to be kicked. Key territory captured is good but casualties are better. I did kill about 22 of his squads in the second battle date. I am fearful of fighting the factories but eventually that needs to be done. It makes his Conscripts 4-2-7s where at most we shoot at 3 hex ranges.

I was relieved that Scott bought those militias in reserve instead of on map for free. If he had 24 more squads to counter attack things could have gotten scary for me. Instead in reserve the Germans can choose to keep those out of the fight until I wanted.

We each have 16 points to buy. I need to start fortifying the commies house to make my second level shooting perch more comfy. Only one bloody tank left after platoon withdraw and 6's on repair attempts. At least the ones MOL'd to death died with their boots on.

Hmmmmm
 

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The most effective way to winkle the Russkies out of those factories that we've found is to put the squeeze on 'em. That is to say, capture the C13 building & start pushing south along the western part of the RR. A foray into the Therm & Deburring Hall might also be considered but you'll more than likely need AEs for this (ours usually look like a flour sifter with so many breaches after an engagement there). By the time Ivan realizes he's being encircled, either he leaves the AO or you can use rockets to beat the bast#@% down. The northern factories seem to be the most difficult to smash into, so once he's given them up your job is (albeit) a little easier, not to mention you should be getting your guys in along the west edge in the south fairly soon anyway. If you can put pressure along the Volga, so much the better as it starts to limit his off-board entering reinf's. Gosh, always like this child the best!:)
 

Gunner Scott

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rb day 3 c.jpg rb day 3 b.jpg rb day 3 b.jpg Hi all-

Bob and I did hook up wed so he could set up his Germans and then play a turn. So after one turn, the way it is looking is that Bob is making a big push into the Factories and along the Russian western flank. Bob's set up was spread out due to the threat of a possible rocket OBA attack plus the way I was set up near the commissars house (everybody either in cellers or HIP) gave Bob the impression that I might have rockets ready to throw at his guys. This of course was not the case, what I did have on that side was an 80mm module which I would use to smoke in the commissars house along with his killstacks. So with our first turn, we saw a couple of CC's that did not go the Russians way. Bobs last tank tried to do the board edge creep along my western flank, he was successful in placing smoke to cover his entering infantry, but he did not go BU and moved adjacent to a concealed 426, I think thought they either might be dummies of a squad but probably scoffed at the possibility of said squad rolling well, but I did roll well and caused a 2MC on his tank crew which stunned. During my turn I brought out a couple of HIPsters near the commissars house but my my fire attacks failed me. on the other hand my sniper, which is at a 6, broke a couple of German squads, so that was not bad.

Below are pics of the first turns battle.
 

Gunner Scott

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Hi ya-

Well another day of classic Stalingrad Action came to an end as we closed out Day 3 of our CG. Both sides took a beating with the Russian taking 50 odd CVP's vs the Germans taking 40odd CVP (including Bob's last tank) As much as I feel I'm getting my teeth kicked in, I have managed to cause some good casualties on Bob but on the other hand I have also conceded real-estate to the west but have pushed the Germans back on the eastern part of the map.

As can be seen in the pic posted, there is a blaze in M17 and in the non gutted factory, we rolled for wind and came up with heavy winds, so those blazes will be spreading real quick. So on this 4th day of battle, my plan is to continue to put pressure on the commissars house while at the same time doing a fall back defense in the middle and hopefully grind down the Germans. my purchases for day 3 (16CPP) are as follows:
2 full Rifle companies in res.
FPPx4
70mm OBA which went belly up after only 1 fire mission
80mm OBA which went 4 fire missions

Scottrb day 4 copy.jpg
 

Gunner Scott

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Howdy-

Over newyears weekend Bob and I commenced are day 4 scenario of Red Barricades and the utmost savagery was once more a very common place. The battle commenced with the Germans trying to blast their way through the middle of the map into factory P21, but accurate 50mm mortar fire kinda put a crimp in Bob's Attack, in factory L16, Bod through back a local counter attack and is now trying to press his attack forward to boot the Russians out of factory L16. The Commissars house took a beating as the Russian landed a 200mm rocket OBA attack on it. Surprisingly both his kill stack and Pz IV survived, every thing else got buried under rubble.So now we are going into Russian turn 3 with bothsides throwing OBA into the ranks attacking / counter attacking. In one pic, I have red circles, those are where I had HIP guys initially in our game.rb day 4 1.jpg rb day 4 2.jpg rb day 4 3.jpg rb day 4 4.jpg rb day 4 2.jpg rb day 4 3.jpg rb day 4 4.jpg
 

Bob Miller

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"Accurate 50mm mortar fire" Why don't you say three critical Hits with the damn things the first turn. Geez Almighty.

day four purchase for my Jerries were; Early Stuka (just one on turn one), PzIVF1's that entered and a Rifle company in reserve. I had a 100mm OBA left over from the previous battle that crapped out with two red cards. This is the first infantry purchased in reserve for me. Early battles in CG I/III the German infantry can enter right from off the board and get into battle.

I lost about 3 squads and a leader in the Rockets Red Glare and Rubble Flying High In Air. Except for the MMG/HMG kill stack hex which was spared.

Depending on how this turn works I should have ripped 2 of 3 MMGs and 2 of 4 HMGs away from the Russians which is a great accomplishment. It would have been 3 HMGs and his 10-2 leader if the damn Stuka could have rolled a 10 or less on the sighting check in turn 3.

My Germans have lost 4 leaders so far this date with another 3 wounded (Boobies and Crit Hits) Plus an 8-0 may die after spiking a Russian HMG. I only lost one leader in the three previous dates. Previous infantry loss ratios were between 3:2 and 2:1 in favor of my Germans dishing out more than they took but this dates 1:1 is discerning.
 

Gunner Scott

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Hi all-

Another RB day came to an end with heavy losses on both sides. The butchers bill came out to:
35 German CVP's in infantry including SMC's (roughly 5 or 6 smc's) .
2 Pz IVf1's which equaled a grand total of 47 CVP's.
MG losses: 2 MMG's, Two LMGs

Russian losses:
36 CVP's in infantry including the loss of three leaders (one was wounded from last CG day and got his ticket home)
MG losses: 2 HMG's and two MMG's and one LMG.

As can be see by the map, the lines really have not moved much over the last two days with very small gains for both sides. The Germans did push the Russians out of their bulge near the commissars house but on the other hand, the Russians managed to foil a German push in the middle with timely critical hits with 50mm MTR fire and booby traps activation. The Russian 200mm Rockets did a nice job on the Germans occupying the commissars house leaving just one hex left with a level two location, still that was where Bob's main kill stack was and I really was not able to noodle those units out. I wished I could have because the east flank building was empty by turn 5 but I did not want to risk casualties from his remain kill stack in an attempt to recapture that building.

Bob's 8-0 leader: Ok, this 8-0 leader will need to die next CG date, this guy took out an HMG, a squad and leader with snake eyes as well as harass a few of my broken units. And he escaped isolation to boot!!! Bottom line, lots of heroics preformed by bothsides in this bloody campaign. Conscripts counter attacking and taking out a few Germans, a German hero single handedly taking out a squad. You just cant get this sort of stuff with normal scenarios!

As for day, I think I put the beat down on the Germans, so what I might do is bypass buying infantry and invest in some "heavy stuff" to really make the Germans mad. For day five, I got 15CPP's and the Germans got 14 CPP's. I suspect Bob will continue the attack on day five and once more try to smash his way through the middle. I seriously would not be surprised to see a 150mm rockets coming down on my head as well as more armor. Well will wait and see what Bob does , but what ever he has planed, it will be painful for the Russians no matter how you slice it.

ScottRB day 5 start lines.jpg
 

Gunner Scott

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Hi ya-

Bob came by earlier this week and we worked on the refit phase for day 5 with Bob electing to take an Idle day. A couple of factors played into this, first both of our ELR's went down, his to 3 mine to 2. Bob also wanted to get his Engineers up and going, so I guess he figured take an idle day, by some Elites and Armor then attack on day 6. Also it should be noted that Bob tried to be sneaky too IE when he bought his Elites and with the historical drms, he had something like a -6 to his ELR table where as I had a minuscule -3 I think. Well Bob rolls and rolls an 11, so no ELR gain for him nor me. Good move but bad dice riolling lol.

My purchases for the 5th day of battle were:
Rifle company depleted
MOL
HW Plt
Sniper
FPP 1 RG (40 FPPs)

Bob purchased I think an Engineer plt.

Yes I know buy lots of infantry, but the problem is, I had more then enough infantry to deal with his, and I sorely needed some heavy weapons and heavy MTR's to chuck smoke at his kill stacks, In a way I was lucky Bob did take an idle for day 5 since I did not purchase any OBA to disperse any of his possible attacks. But if he did attack, I would have bit the bullet and fell back a few hexes and forced him to try and dig out my lads from the interior of the factories and most likely have set K22 multi hex building ablaze to keep it from falling into the hitlerites hands.

For the Day 6 battle, I expect Bob to once more to try and drive me out of the center and try to flank me from the West. Trying to attack along the eastern part of the Red Barricades map might not really be feasible due to a lot of open areas the Germans have to traverse over. Lots of surprises await the German Attackers and I'm sure lots of surprises await the Russian defenders of Stalingrad. It will be fun nonetheless. here are pics of my set up.

Scottrb day 6 001.jpg rb day 6 002.jpg rb day 6 003.jpg rb day 6 004.jpg
 

Gunner Scott

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Hi all-

Day 6 Battle begins:
Bob rolled on by yesterday to both set up and also play a turn to get the thunder rolling. The first turn has already drawn blood as the Germans lose two HS in melee and a wounded leader. Bob's artillery 100mm OBA comes through with a nice move on his part, as I am trying to withdraw concealed units out of the medium factory, Bob puts down his artillery request on top of my concealed units, draws the needed extra black card to convert which he does and turns a group of 1st line SMG dudes as well as a 10-0 commissar into lower quality units, they are not dead yet, but it still is going to be rough going for those poor guys. In Building F21 where an isolated 548 was, I tried to break him but that was a no go, so on my turn I jumped on the 548 for CC (reg numbers) and managed to HS him. In addition from another fire attack, I had a 447 battle harden and create a hero, back to back threes do help.

As can be seen from the other pic of the east flank, I am trying to counter attack to retake both whats left of the commissars house and Building GG21 near the Volga. either Bob has left these positions lightly defended or he is geeking me out with the possibility of HIP units and I might be playing into a trap of his. Will find out Saturday. So from this initial turn I can surmise that the Germans are attempting to push me out of the medium factory while at the same time the Russians are trying to collapse the German east flank. it will be interesting and very exciting too.

Scottday 6 attack 001.jpg day 6 attack 002.jpg day 6 attack 003.jpg
 
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Eagle4ty

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By taking an Idle Day, think Bob blinked first. This normally helps the Russians more than the Germans (you didn't say if either of you recovered ELR). Looks as if the Reds did well in the East and I consider this an important piece of territory as it protects the large gorge to the riverfront (read that as a high speed avenue of approach). The fighting to the West is of secondary importance as the Russkies will be forced to give away some territory there anyway as the German entry area expands. A very interesting AAR from my all time favorite game.
 

Gunner Scott

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Both my ELR and Bob's ELR did not change and remains at ELR 2 for the Russians and 3 for the Germans.

Scott

By taking an Idle Day, think Bob blinked first. This normally helps the Russians more than the Germans (you didn't say if either of you recovered ELR). Looks as if the Reds did well in the East and I consider this an important piece of territory as it protects the large gorge to the riverfront (read that as a high speed avenue of approach). The fighting to the West is of secondary importance as the Russkies will be forced to give away some territory there anyway as the German entry area expands. A very interesting AAR from my all time favorite game.
 

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rb day 6 rus 4 001.jpg rb day 6 rus 4 002.jpg rb day 6 rus 4 003.jpg Hi all-

Continuing our day 6 battle:
Another bloody day in Stalingrad as the CG looked promising for the Russians as they put pressure on the German eastern flank as well as bleeding the Germans both in the middle and west flank but by Russian turn 4 things have seriously gone bad for the Russians in the last three turns. My assault on building GG21 was text book in many cases, laying in smoke with OBA and advancing concealed forward and thus forcing the Germans back so as not to get caught in melee or worse. More on that down stream.

On the western flank, even though my Russians Factory L18 got their teeth kicked in by accurate OBA and some heavy duty firepower, I have still managed to cause some casualties as well as being able to withdraw a remnant of what I had in factory L18 back. But the real hero of my west flank was a lonely 527 in building F21 (single one story job) that has managed to throw back one attack and eliminate two German squads in CC, I should admit though that the timely help of a couple of MMG toting Russian squads did help to keep further German attacks back too.

In the middle, Factory L18 has crumbled under good German firepower and pressure with mild losses for the heros of Stalingrad. In desperation to try to slow down the German advance and harass them with some OBA, I decided on turn 3 to unleash my rockets on a NON PRE-REG hex, but the OBA flew behind the Germans and killed a couple of broken German squads hanging back as well as rubble parts of Factorys L18 and O17. So some casualties for the Germans but not the way I really wanted the rockets to go. On another note, I was able to set a flame in hex J22 (multi hex building) to Bob's chagrin. The Russians need to burn down any possible German perch's for heavy German SW. If this does not happen, the Russians will be getting picked off by level 2 German goons with HMG's.

So lets talk luck, Bob had lots and lots of luck this CG day (ya I caused some hurt and even knocked out 7 German leaders with SAN, Booby's and good old FP) but on my east flank, where I had the majority of my good infantry and SW's, I was hit by 3 or 4 CH by Bob 81mm Mortars, in some ways its more my fault that happened then Bob's dice or 81mm Mortar fire, this is due in part to the fact that I did have the firepower to direct towards these guys and kill them but I was more focused on the commissars house and the surround area then on his mortars and that cost me three crews and two HMG's, on the other hand I should be thankful that RNG did not pick my 10-2 or 50cal guy. So good shooten tex. Now lets talk Building GG21, here I had the Germans on the ropes, even had a chance to blow a tank up with MOL and of course failed, Bob withdrew his guys out of the building with the only loss being an 8-0 who rolled boxcars on a MC and threw himself off the cliff. BUT I poured 12 FP +2 into two german Squads, get a 2MC and I'm thinking ok its over for the Germans on my east flank, but NO! Bob rolls back to back HoB for both squads and fanatizes them [Bullshit I say]. Next he proceeds to roll threees and shreds my guys in building GG21. Oh and my 80mm Phone melfed too with boxcars. And all this is made much worse by the fact that I cant get a toehold back into the commissars house because either I got it moked in or luck plays a part and blows away smoke and exposes my guys to his fire from the commi house.

So now we are on Russian turn 4 and it looks like I might have to fall back again from trying to retake the commi house, basically what this story is telling me is that I really need DC's and FT's to noodle out these german strong points.So far casualties have been heavy:

The Russians have lost 12 squad equivalents, 2 HMG's, 1 MMG and 1 LMG.
The German Losses are 7 1/2 squad equivalents, 7 leaders and one destroyed DC.

So I am taking it on the chin SW wise and the German leader losses are pretty bad, so bothsides are feeling the pain. below are pics of Russian turn 4, we will probably pick up our game during the week sometime.

Scott
 
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