176 The Only Way Out

Rockford

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I took on ASL returnee Joe Markham in this one yesterday. It features a German infantry column being discovered and attacked by the Finns while retreating up a road between a hill and a river. To win the Germans need to exit at least 10 cvp off the North edge, and have more cvp total than the Finns.

The curve ball in this is that the German setup is somewhat randomized. Each unit must set up on a road hex, but also must make a dr to determine what section of the road they can be on. I could see this going very badly for the Germans. If many units end up on relatively open parts of the road under cover of a Finn HMG, that could be a problem. I was more fortunate in my rolls, as the bulk of my force set up on the southern end of the board 39 road, much of it out of Finn LOS. I had a few forward units in the north who were in trouble.

The Finns get the first move, leaping on the surprised Germans. Joe's Finns did quite a bit of damage. A truck carrying a squad was immediately lost. The northern units were quickly broken and either finished off or taken prisoner. Several other units were broken and forced to rout back towards the river. After two turns the Finns were ahead on CVP 12-0. I think that is probably to be expected, but the early stages are a tough PMC for the Germans.

Joe decided not to push his luck in the south. His southern units pulled back and headed north. He wanted as strong a force as possible blocking the door. This allowed my Germans to rally and regroup, as the German reinforcements arrived on turn three.

My units pushed north slowly. There are some double crest line hexes on board 39 that provide excellent LOS positions despite all of the woods covering the hill. The Finns had their northern HMG set up in one of these, soon to be joined by the other HMG squad arriving from further south. This position was dominating, and I could not see a way to get past it.

Then, in turn 6 things changed. The Finn ammo shortage finally caught up with them as Joe 12'd a 2 HMG-2 squad fire group. One of the HMGs was tossed out of play and one of the squads replaced. When German fire broke that squad soon after, we were back in business. Joe seemed to have an endless stream of squads / leaders / heroes to keep the remaining HMG firing, but I was able to tie it up in CC with a hero of my own, and move in on them.

Late in the game, once the HMG was dealt with, we still had four or five Finn squads on either side of the road to deal with in order to escape. a HOB result sent a berserk German squad charging into one Finn who broke on an FPF shot and surrendered to an ADJACENT German. Unsatisfied, the 'zerker charged and tied up another Finn gate guardian in turn 10. The door, opened, it would now be easy to get off more than the required 10 CVP, and Joe conceded.

The ROAR rating on this is very low, which I think is unfair. It's a little claustrophobic; there's not a lot of room for maneuver. Also, it's 10 turns, which may scare some players away (thought it plays pretty fast.) The big problem is that the random nature of the German setup could really put the Germans up against it early.

So, while I wouldn't want to play it for money, the chaotic nature of the game start is actually pretty fun. There are lots of tactical decision for both sides, especially the Finns. I would give it a "slight recommend," to use ROAR's terminology.
 

sunoftzu

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I play-tested this scenrario about 4x, and the Germans were constantly flattening the Finns comfortably each time. However, last time I checked ROAR, the Finns were ahead.

I relish the chance to play this one again; I think that the forwardmost Finn group needs to fall back, and instead of trying to spring an ambush, the Finns need to fall back faster.

I appreciate that in the above game, the Finn ambush went well, but I've also seen how it goes for them when it doesn't; the Germans get the next 2 fire phases, and can put the Finns on the back foot for the rest of the game...

John.
 
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