Bruno L'Archeveque and I have decided to do a few night scenarios. I had the first choice. I chose
MM31 SEVASTAPOL BY SEA. This scenario by Dan Best has the added fun of assault boats.
The attacking German force of 19 squads and a crew start entirely in assault boats in the water of board 8. They can reach the shore on their first turn. A few hexes allow them to disembark immediately; most need to disembark in the advance phase. Being in assault boats means the Germans lose the advantage of Cloaking that the attacker normally has at night.
The Russians have 18 squad equivalents made up of 628, 458 and 248 units. There are 8 half squads that help the Russians to spread out the defence and make up a bit for the No Move counters. The Russians set up on board 58. They can use the entire board 58, but their 7 trenches and 8 foxholes must be on hill hexes. The Russians came with one 8+1 commissar and I swapped out a leader for a second commissar. The Russians can HIP five squad equivalents per the night rules. I placed my trenches to allow some skulking on each hill.
The NVR is a generous five, but it does not give the Russians much opportunity to fire at the assault boats in the water. I had only one or two shots before everyone beached.
Bruno had not played a night scenario in many years. He forgot how difficult it can be to lose the No Move counters. Had he remembered, he would have focussed on only the larger hill, which has just enough level 3 hexes to satisfy the VC. Instead, the Germans landed from one end of the map to the other. Of course it took time to build some fire groups and send the troops forwad. The Russians were aided by the open ground that the Germans needed to cross, and by rolling starshells in reasonable quantities. The Germans took a fair number of casualties approaching the mountains. Their 82mm MTR started behind buildings for its IR capability. After Bruno brought it forward to try to lay smoke, it malfunctioned. The Germans took their first level three hex during their fifth turn. The Russian sniper had taken out the 9-2, which cause the infantry manning the HMG to break. By the beginning of the sixth German turn, the Russian casualties had almost caught up to the German casualties. Bruno felt that his Germans did not have enough manpower to win.
The image below is at the end of turn three.