AP171 Possl's Posse

Tuomo

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Dave Ramsey and I capped off our best-of-three Illuminating Rounds Tournament play-in-series with a go at AP171 Possl's Posse, from the new Action Pack 16. This Andy Rogers design features some bread-and-butter Ost Front ASL on the new board 15a, so we figured no one could fault us for missing a tricky LOS that doomed our squads while providing us with a ready excuse for failure. Thus fortified with a safety net, we pressed on into the void.

It's July 1944, and a combined-arms Russian force needs to control at least 10 buildings on board 15a between hexrows E and J (marked with yellow V's, below). The bulk of their infantry set up on/east of the red dashed lines below, while two SU76's arrive on turn 1 along the north edge of board 1a and four tanks (two T34/85s and two M4/76s) with Riders come in on the East edge on turn 2.

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The Soviet at-start force has four 628s, four 458s, and three 248s, along with your standard leaders and SW, including a DC. Interesting wrinkle, those 248s - gives the Russians a ready-made scouting (and DC-Delivery) force that they normally lack. Being Guards, the Russian vehicles get +1 on their Special Ammo availability.

For their part, the at-start Germans are pretty standard, with their own wrinkles to keep things interesting. Seven 467's and a 548, along with two middling leaders, a 75L ATG, three Foxholes, a Marder, and six ? to go along with being able to set up Concealed in Concealment Terrain. They have to set up within 2 hexes of the hill on board 15a. On their turn 2, they get five 548s (plus Infantry Stuff), along with two PzIVJ's as reinforcements along the south/west edges as shown above, but the infantry can't CX on their turn of entry while the AFV's have already spent 7 MP. THIS IS REALLY IMPORTANT AND AS THE GERMAN PLAYER YOU SHOULD UNDERSTAND WHAT THIS MEANS IN TERMS OF HOW MUCH "RELIEF" THIS FORCE CAN REALLY PROVIDE ON TURN 2! Nuff said.

The armor-vs-armor matchup works out like this: everybody can basicaly kill the thin-skinned vehicles (Marder and SU-76's). In the heavier-weight division, the German guns will have TK #'s of 6/9 (AP/APCR) against the fronts of the Russian tanks (both T-34/85s and M4/76s) while the Russians will have 9/12 against the PzIVs. APCR availability numbers hover between 4-6 all around.

For the German defense, I felt pretty comfortable playing it straight and assuming a frontal assault from the nearest area that the Russians could set up. Therefore, the bulk of the German infantry went in the buildings around 15D16; starting concealed and in +2 terrain behind some hindrances, they didn't need to overthink this. The overthinking was reserved for the single 5/8" Dummy stack that I wanted to create, as I wanted the Marder to help out with the turn 1 defense without being so close to it that he couldn't back off if needed. B14 seemed like a good spot, while a dummy in B16 seemed plausible. As all good players do, Dave didn't let this faze him, as he just ran forward and through B16 without so much as a By Your Leave. Humph.
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Still, I wasn't 100% sure the Russians wouldn't start farther back on board 1 (aiming for the wide side of the hill), so I put the 8-0 and 467/MMG in C14 where they could throw a firelane out to that flank if needed, while still providing some support to the north side as well. One nice thing about this spot is that they can reposition on turn 2 with relative ease, as the Orchards block LOS to the hill crest in D13.

Rounding out the defense was a LMG in E11, threatening a shot out toward 1C7 if the Russians came that way, and a lone squad under four dummy counters in D4. This guy's job was to advance to the 1C16 area on German turn 1, ready to meet the Russian reinforcements on turn 2.

The 75L ATG would have loved to find a great spot, but really it came down to risk vs reward. The two Woods hexes in 15C10-C11 would seem to be perfectly positioned against the Russians if they come across board 1, but they don't really HAVE to, and I just didn't want to take the chance that the ATG would miss out on the fun. So he went in 15H9, ready to participate in the infantry fight while Dave hopefully stressed about finding him behind every corner.

Counting the VC buildings, the Russians really didn't have to take all that much of the hill - there's 9 to be had in the "nearer" blocks of the village, and they only need 10 (11 if the German has more CT AFVs at game end than the Russians). So it kinda feels like the Germans need to bend-not-break in the beginning of the game, but definitely need to hold a line once the reinforcements come on.

The area that will feature all the Hugga-Mugga is kinda reminiscent of Hatten - lots of single-hex buildings separated by a road with some Orchards (see below):

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For his part, Dave didn't have a lot of time to set up before the game got going, so he played it straight with the setup shown above. Hard to fault it. In fact, I was kinda worrying about the Russians kicking off a Human Wave here; if some of those ? German stacks in the front line turned out to be Dummies, such a Wave would stand a good chance, I think. That's why NONE of my stacks were Dummies :)

Turn 1 - The Rubber Met The Road, with the Russians advancing to contact. Germans did some self-breaking to avoid dying in CC or getting shot up as they repositioned on their turn 1. The 8-1 accompanied the broken 548/MMG back to the Main Bastion of the turn 2 defense on the hill (E15), but the squad boxcarred its rally roll. The SU76's came on board 15 but hung back in the rear, while the Marder kicked into Motion and repositioned to F15 to bolster that flank. Down south, my concealed 467 did indeed advance to 1C16 to greet the coming Russian reinforcements. Sorry, I failed to take a screen shot or save the logfile here.

Russian Turn 2 - Aha! I DID save a picture of board at the end of Russian turn 2:
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The Russian armor came in along the wide flank, as shown. The 467 took a potshot at a Rider and missed, while a return AFPh shot from the M4's broke him, basically to be irrelevant for the rest of the game. This actually sucked, because a single squad can do a lot to seal off that flank for a turn if he just survives and occupies 1B15 for the Russian turn 3 MPh; I should have forgone losing concealment to take a piddly shot at that Rider. Remember, there was nothing besides a ?+3 Dummy stack backing up this guy on that flank.

In the north, the Russians made it to the lip of the hill while opting to not directly test the Marder. Dave had a nice aggressive move to cut off my retreat from E15, though, as he brought a SU-76 up in to E14. However, the ?+1 in D14 proved to be a concealed HS, who calmly reached for a PF and brewed him up. The Marder kicked into Motion, looking to make his escape. To add insult to injury, my Sniper nailed the other SU-76, Recalling it.

German turn 2 - Wherein I discovered that, no, my reinforcements didn't have all of the MF/MP that I'd hoped they did (see ALL CAPS text above), and was a bit sad for a while. Turns out the reinforcing German infantry can't really get into the battle very much on turn 2 (with the exception of an LMG squad making it to N13, ready to throw an LMG FL out to F13), and the German armor can't get onto the hill at all. EWPS. So with that, my "bend but don't break" strategy on the hill was gonna have to tread water one more turn.

Self-conscious of his unarmored rear turret which was squarely in the sights of two Russian squads next door, the Marder elected to VBM-scoot around the inner edges of the G15/H14 buildings, ending up in J13 and telling himself he was still contributing to The Cause by holding down that flank. Some of which was true; in reality I was just glad to not have him die along the way. But yes, that flank WAS weak, and I didn't want the Russians extending the defense that way, so hopefully the Marder would get some shots off if the Russians pushed through the Orchards around H15.

My PzIV's (Elway and Manning) came in along the south edge, looking to seal off that Very Open Flank while continuing the debate over who was the Greatest Denver Bronco Quarterback Ever. Oh, and I rolled up a Mild Breeze, which drifted smoke from the SU-76 off to the southeast:
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Russian turn 3 - Dave's SU-76 takes a Bounding Fire potshot at my Marder as he starts up to be on his way to Recall; he boxcars the roll. In the north, a Russian 7-0 gets frisky and zooms over to H14, figuring the ?+2 German stack in G15 just HAD to be Dummies; his tragic wrongness resulted in breaking and routing off to oblivion. On the right, the Russian tanks avoided the Orchards and looped around to the hill, one T-34/85 making it up onto the hill itself in E10 before being nailed by yet another Halfsquad Panzerfaust from a supposed Dummy stack next door. In a fit of Russian pique, a M4/76 looped around to C20 just so he could DM that broken German squad in B17; letters to the UN Commission on Human Rights and Fair Play went unanswered.

On the hill itself, the Russian infantry swerved south, taking advantage of the drifting Smoke to push south to D12/E13, but got Pinned and stopped by a ragtag 8-0, 467, 238/LMG. Still, nobody's shooting at them during the Advance Phase, and the Russian amoeba spread itself out to the F14 VC building as well:
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In a foreshadowing moment, the Wreck Blaze in E14 spread to the Orchard itself. DUM DUM DAHHHHHH.....

German turn3 - Unable to match Dave during the latter 7 Phases of the game, I decided to try to win it in the Rally Phase, rolling up some Gusts that spread Flames to two more hexes and generally started squeezing the Russians where it hurt. Most people think this game is about Fire or Movement or some such thing, but I have transcended those petty considerations and will now seek to beat you with The Weather. <> ALWAYS THINKIN' <>

Forced to engage with those Petty Seven Phases, I bulked up my defense with the reinforcing infantry while the Marder rediscovered his Will To Fight (it had not been Eradicated) and advanced back onto the hill, anchoring the defense in H13. We had a bit of a scary moment as my 9-1, 548/LMG caught some fire from the Russians in the NW corner of the hill, but a friendly LOS string resolved that worry, and I was able to provide some Warm Bodies to the defense on the south side of the hill.

For their parts, Manning and Elway (my PzIVs) dared each other to make it up onto the hill; Manning made it to F7 but Elway brain-farted the LOS from Dave's tank in B5 and died for his trouble. I brought a 548/PSK around to that side to guard his tombstone from Raiders fans.

Elsewhere, another building (E13) caught a Flame, much to the chagrin of Dave's units therein. I repositioned what I could, taking advantage of some nice rolls on Morale Checks, and the defense actually seemed to be semi-coherent by the end of the turn:
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Russian turn 4 - Dave's Plucky DC-Totin' 248 fulfilled a Personal Victory Condition by actually delivering his Candygram to my boys in F11, sucking up a good amount of dfire in the process. I wasn't delighted, but I would gladly trade that 8-0's stack for not having to worry about that damn DC for the rest of the game. Dave's infantry continued their push along the southern axis through F11, while his remaining T-34 looped around that way. From the hill, the PzIV (Manning) calmly pivoted and squeezed off two shots, but failed to penetrate. Omaha!

To make matters worse, Dave's M4's got into the action, one of them Immobilizing Manning's tank with a Bounding Fire shot, causing PFM to Abandon. Double Omaha! And sure enough, the second M4 brought his Rider around the southern side of the hill, looking to stretch that flank. Luckily, my CX 548 with the PSK (guarding Elway's shrine from the hill in H5) fired off a PSK shot from 3 hexes and nailed it. My luck with LATW was really great in this scenario.

Elsewhere, E13 went from Flame to Blaze, while the German 9-1, 548 wiped out a 628 in CC in F10 and the Russian 9-1 found himself busy with broken units in 15D12. With fewer attacking squads than defenders, and not having found the 75L ATG yet, the Russians called it a day.
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As one might expect, I liked the scenario. The basic push-and-shove along the main avenue on board 15 is easily understood, but the German has to worry about both his northern and southern flanks. The armor matchup is a little more pro-Russian than I was comfortable with, but all one has to do is roll well with one's PF checks and that issue goes away. If there had been an unopposed SU-76 on the hill instead of the unopposed Marder, things would have definitely turned the Russian's way. And it never helps when your advance is being channeled by a line of Blazes.

Thanks to Dave for the well-played game. Always a challenge and a pleasure.
 
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daveramsey

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Thanks Tom, great AAR as usual. It's a tough one to approach as the Russians. I thought, had my thesis of your dummy stack that just had to be dummies, please for the love of god... I was actually doing ok. Especially with the AFV up on the hill ready to cut off all the routing. Of course, your side had something to say about all of that, and I got what I derserved!

Good game, great opponent.

Thanks - and good luck in the next round of the tourney!
 
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