21st Brackin Basement Bash (long)

[JR Brackin]

Actually at this point it is a prequel to the AARs. Tomorrow is the day of battle with 14 plus me battling it out. The group is a little lower with some poor excuses like visiting California, my daughter is getting married, my kids are leaving for college, and I think there was a court case or something like that also. As you can see all on the weak side.

This is not a tournament at all - jut some fun ASL with a of kibitzing (mandatory) and good natured jabbing. This year there is return to ASL Bingo (obligatory thanks to Tom Repetti). All in all there should be some fun gaming going on.

Here are the initial matches that we will be reporting - there will be others as players finish and pair off.

In a Playtest we have Vince Lewonski (Polish) vs Ron Duenskie (Germans) battling in The Escape

DB-130 Tigers and Flames will feature Steve Kyle (Germans) vs Vince Maresca (Russians)

WaRs Private Venture features Paul Sidhu (Germans) vs Bret Johnson (American)

AP-11 Swamp Cats features Vic Rosso (Germans) vs John Haughey (Russians)

FT-201 Communication Breakdown features Rob Schoenen (Japanese) vs Kevin Meyer (Ghurka)

FRF-89 features JR VanMechelen (Romanian) vs Jonathan Kapleau (Germans)

#171 Retaking the VTK Line features Jeff Miller (Finnish) vs Randy Rossi (Russians)

Tonight I will get in a game vs Randy Rossi with me as the Americans and Randy as the Russians in HF-1 Black Day in Hatten

I will post updates on Sunday or Monday for the results and all other matches.

JRB

 

[Major Issues]

Psalm 56:2

 

[Tom Morin]

Looks like a blast, have fun guys!

Tom

 

[Major Issues]

 

[JR Brackin]

I am up early getting ready to pick up breakfast which is a tray of pretzel nuggets with some cheese dips. Later my wife will pick up the Primo's Hoagie tray consisting of several varieties of Hoagies for lunch/dinner.

The game for last night fell through though due to Randy having unforseen vehicular issues, but he will make this morning.

Countdown is right now at 3 hours until the games begin.

 

[JR Brackin]

I know it is late, and maybe I might make a couple of mistakes - but here are the results from todays matches - note all are already in ROAR (for sides see post above):

The Escape - playtest - Ron Duenskie bested Vince Lewonski

Tigers and Flames - Steve Kyle bested Vince Maresca (it was Epic)

Private Venture - in somewhat of an upset - Bret Johnson bested Paul Sidhu

Swamp Cats - Vic Rosso bested John Haughey

Communication Breakdown - Rob Schoenen bested Kevin Meyer

Red Tears Shed on Gray - JR VanMechelen bested Jonathan Kapleau

Retaking the VTK Line - Randy Rossi bested Jeff Miller

In the only additional match:

HF 6 Jackpot Jones - Jim Brackin (Germans) bested Rob Schoenen (only player to play two matches) (Americans)

I seemed to me that all had a good time. Most of the Hoagie tray was devoured as was some other specialties brought by JRV and Vince Lewonski.

 

[Vrosso]

First off, many thanks to Jim for hosting yet again another excellent event. Always good to get out and see folks in the local area.

In our game, John and I picked something old that neither of us has played, it was AP11, swamp cats, with the coin flip giving me the defense on this one.

Overall strategy was to hold on to the overlay building tightly, have the defenders on board 46 rush forward and either provide flank support for the overlay building or fall back to the two rear buildings forcing the Russian infantry to focus on taking two buildings (and really hope the bomber does not wipe out the overlay building).

This is more or less how it went down by the various units involved.



For me the prime piece was the Panther, it set up in the overlay building and waited out turn 1. In DFF T2, it opened up and took out an easy target (a Sherman on the hill - no hindrances), got rate and then burned one of the 122 monsters thru 3 hindrences. Upon opening up, it had many targets in LOS, but also many hindrances making return fire very difficult to hit. By T3, most targets for it were covered in smoke and out of LOS, so it held position, survived a miss from the Bomber (had to evacuate most of the infantry from that hex in T4). It would then go on to destroy the other 122 monstrosity while it was moving. Post game, it would get the last Sherman also. A HIP 248/shrek was on it's flank to protect the side armor.

The tigers had a tougher game (not starting in a building I guess). One came in and stopped on the elevated road in the first hex, thought I had a LOS to a stopped sherman, but I was wrong about that. Next turn it started up and moved down the road, being a big target limited LOS didn't help me enough and the 122 that the panther didn't get right away knocked out this one. The crew did get out and brought their handy dandy PF with them and would eventually get a sherman (* more later) that parked on the bridge.

The other tiger came in and parked in the brush in 46W2 to help with the flank, it got off a couple shots but never connected, then retreated in T4, and was menaced by the FB, being strafed two turns in a row, would eventually finish the game out a little worse for the wear, it also survived a DI attempt from a sherman, (put a nasty scratch on the turret) and took a couple shots at the enemy 9-2.

The SPW 251/10 of course started the game with a 248 loaded who jumped out with the PSK, it would then go on and harass the flanks, only to become bogged, mired, freed and then move back to support the last buildings.

One of my SPW 251/1's was carelessly thrown away, I parked it in CC6 to hinder infantry movement, but I didn't have the support it needed and it was burned in CC (after malfing the AAMG with intensive fire). the other one had a heck of a game, and it was greatly hated by my opponent. It started parked in a wheatfield behind 13K8, initially I thought the crew would jump out and provide a LMG nest in the adjacent building to help guard the bridge. Instead the MMG nest in the steeple had broken a lot of units on the approach, so it came out in the heat of the Panther vs. many tanks battle, drove thru the area of enemy tanks and actually passed an ESB to get adjacent to the broken stack, just to DM them deep in the Russian starting area and essentially kept 3 squads out of the game for a couple of turns. On the return trip to the bridge, it had caused so much consternation, that it got a sherman to rotate it's turret (dropping an Aq on the building) and miss, followed by an IF from said sherman to malf the MA!!. It would survive the game.

The MG nest in the building also did well, I didn't put the 9-2 up there as there was a concern that it would not get out (and could have taken a lot of 122 rounds in the early game). The 8-1 was up there and did a lot of damage.

The enemy flame tank came on and rolled snakes on the first FT shot to take out a full 468/LMG. It would then go into the village, and Xout the flame on the next shot, the SPW 251/10 passenger with the shrek would get this tank as well as a sherman before being overwhelmed in CC.

So overall a very exciting game with an intense battle in the village and lots of heavy metal trading shots thru many hindrances that kept us entertained for a solid 6 hours or so.

Many thanks to my opponent John H. for a well played game and to Jim for hosting the event.

Vic

 

[JR Brackin]

Here is my AAR for Jackpot Jones:

This is my first foray into Hatten and I was not disappointed. Although I made some bad decisions and forgot to bring on 2 of my 548's and the 8-0 (graciously my opponent allowed me to bring them on turn 2, however it was not until T3 that I discovered I was missing my 8-0), my opponent forgot to use his foxholes. So we both started a little poorly.

Basically in the scenario the Germans have to Control 9 of 10 building hexes within 2 squares of K1unless they have more vehicles with functioning MA than the US which reduces that number to 8.

I looked the way I had the map set and decided I wanted my forces to enter from the north since it was in front of me as opposed to my side. This was a bad decision as by the end of T2 I lost both PzIVJ's and 2 of my HTs. However, I had only lost one 1/2 squad of infantry which was crucial.

So despite my attack going through the orchards I did have a flank attack coming from the East which I decided to reinforce with 1 of the aforementioned 548s and another squad or so from the north group. The eastern group was accompanied by the Panther and I decided that the remaining HT needed to stay with big brother for a while until I could use him.

Over the mid-game turns I was able to gain control of the one end of the main paved road with the Panther moving up slowly towards the VC locations. There was a kill stack consisting of a medium, heavy and 2 squads for 20FP with a 8-1 leading. This threat forced the US to skulk and move back. By T4 I was able to breach "The Fort" and start pushing into the main area of VC buildings on the south side of the street and start a back and forth battle over the VC buildings on the north side of the road.

By this time 1 of the US TD had a broken MA and the other was protecting itself. My opponent decided since I presented the third TD with a good target that they would stay HIP so that I had to take 9 buildings instead of 8. The US also was able to rally t squads with snakes creating 2 heroes, 1 667 went Fanatic, but the third decided to Surrender.

The end game was very topsy turvy. On the south side of the street I controlled "The Fort" and was able to use my HT to tie up forces to take all but one of the VC buildings. Unfortunately the Americans used a hero to come into CC with a 467 which resulted in (Grrr) a melee meaning he would not be able to shoot his way into the last building on that side of the street. He also reinforced that building with a leader and squad with a MMG.

The victory had to be one or lost in the back and forth battle north of the street. The US TD malted his gun on an intensive fir shot at my Panther which came up to support the attack. At this point I controlled one of the 2 buildings with a wounded 8-1 and a 247. The US had successfully entered the Panther hex with a 8-1 leaders and a Fanatic 667 which resulted in an immobilization to the Panther and the 667 being broken by that weapon that I cannot pronounce ( I think that in almost 30 years of playing ASL this was my first use of the Sn). This meant no more support from the point blank fire from the Panther. As luck would have it my reinforcements for the CC that I needed were destroyed, an 8-1 and a 247 were broken coming across through the orchards by a 546 and a 467 was broken by the stout defenders of the last VC building. However I was able to Pin the 1/2 squad in the VC building. So for CC I had the 8-1 wounded leader and the 1/2 squad enter versus a Pinned 1/2 squad and a 666 squad. The dr of the game for me here as I rolled a 1 on the Ambush dr and the US rolled a 5 +1 for a 6 - Ambush. I attacked at 1:4 with a -1 using HtH (part of Hatten SSR) and was able to roll low enough ( I do not know what it was now, but had two kibitzing witnesses) to snatch the victory.

This is a fun and good scenario that will provide others who do not make our mistakes a good fun tight game.

 

[Major Issues]

I was glad to see that Jim was able to play a game. I would feel bad if he wasn't able to play at all at his own event due to an odd number of people.

Or, a number of odd people...

 

[JR Brackin]

I was glad to see that Jim was able to play a game. I would feel bad if he wasn't able to play at all at his own event due to an odd number of people.

Or, a number of odd people...

View attachment 5371

I thought we had a no pictures policy.

 

[Paul S NJ]

Had a fun game with Bret Johnson of Private Venture, #6 from the Canadian 'Wacht on Rhine' pack. It has a mixed bag of 12 squads of Bulge FJ 838/548/447 with two 81 MTR for support attacking down hill into the board 24 valley village towards 9(!) shermans with two 57L and 4 546 in support. The germans get 3 548 and two StuG from one flank or the other flank on a variable entry dr. The german infantry are AT studs between one FT, two Psk, 3 DC, and of course inherent PF and ATMM. By SSR the 838's have an ELR of 3 and turn into 436s (ouch). It's no joke though approaching tanks parked in stone buildings with 10 MG factors, with six of the Shermans being 105's with C7, S7, WP9, sM8 and Heat9 (good for both StuG's and a '2nd roll' against infantry too).

I had played this a few months ago with Ron Duenskie and got crushed as the Germans. Ron had just parked the shermans hub to hub in the village and plastered me when I tried to engage from across the street.

I wanted to try it again so I asked Bret to play this with me as the Germans (it's now pro-US 18 vs 7 in ROAR). I need to take all the stone buildings without hitting the 24 CVP cap.

Bret set up with four tanks forward and the rest in the village. This gave me hope of taking those out early and then cautiously entering the village to take out the remaining tanks one at a time. I set up to use the 81's for turn 1 smoke and got three placements, including two right on the forward tanks on my center/right.

This allowed me to rush forward (losing one 548 to a 105 KIA shot through smoke). I took out one tank with a FT advfire shot through smoke (yes I know the FT vs tank rules are messed up).
US turn 1 Bret has multiple 105 shots miss by one pip. He freely used intensive fire (about a dozen times in the scenario) and never broke a gun, but usually without effect. One 75 went on a ROF tear to wound a 8-0 and reduce a 548. a 105 shot narrowly missed getting an improbable hit on my Hill 621 mortar until i remembered the shot was above the intervening smoke, resulting in a regular CH and elimination of the crew and tube. I managed to use the FT for a 2nd kill and a pinned ask for a third.
GT2 No reinforcement joy (needed a 1 dr). I used smoke Bret placed to approach the tank in the right flank stone building and safely place a DC which exploded against the side armor to kill it. I had broken a 546 with a mortar CH and ran three squads up to it. In advfire I missed on the 24+1 shot so I decided to try three PF shots since I was in the open and the broke was in a building, why not? The worst I can do is pin, right? Nope the worst is rolling a 12 on the TH so I CR another 548. meanwhile Bret is beating up on my left flank group causing another squad in losses. In this game I tried to position my psk's to protect me from sorties by the tanks.
USt2 Bret sorties a tank forward to re-dm a bunch of brokies and I hot it with a 3 hex psk shot (5 down, 4 to go).
GT3 I get my reinforcements and bring them on the left flank. I figure there's a nasty 57L in the brush or woods near the 2 hex building so I set up to move to minimize exposure to it. In movement two of my 838 AE fail to find smoke to cover the ft road crossing so it sits tight. My remaining 81 MTR tries to entrench (to get a bingo box!). I bring one Stug up to 2H1 and park behind gate wall, intending to cover the infantry advance on the left flank 2 hex building with smoke. I notice there might be an LOS to the sherman in the building but am not sure so I don't fire in adv fire so as to not give away the possible LOS. I also find a gun crew in the village protecting Bret's left flank.

UST3 both of my center 838's elr to 436s. The FT x's out firing a threatening concealed us unit. In d-fire I check the LOS from the stud to the sherman with the AAMG and roll a 3. The LOS is clear! then i shoot the MA and roll a 12 (doh!). I kill a tank with a PF.
GT4 I capture the one gun crew and advance my infantry concealed next to the left flank VC building.
UST4 Bret remembers his gun HIP gun crew is in the hex where I advanced so we push him over a hex into the brush. I take out another tank with the psk and Bret sorties a tank forward to go after my helpless StUG, which goes into motion and finds its sD. Bret moves his HIP 7-0/546/BAZ team forward to go after the other Stug but I manage to break them after pivoting several hex spines.
GT5 I fix my MA and go into HD position but bog in the woods (didn't even get a bingo box as i had to pass, not fail a bog check). I send a 548 into CC with a 546 but it gets itself killed. I advance a 447 next to the rear of the aggressive Sherman. I K/ the 2nd gun crew.
In UST5 bret fails to bring 105 heat but gets the IF HE CH on the StuG to kill it and push me over the CVP cap for the win. For giggles I see if the 447 would have found a PF and it did and would have killed the offending Sherman. That would have left one sherman and two squads for me to deal with by my six or so squads and one stug in two german player turns. Doable, but certainly close.

All in all this was a fun, close game. I got a bit lucky at the start and Bret thought the C7P meant no canister in ETO so that helped me some. Overall I think it's pretty tough on the germans. It's an interesting situation but personally I'd take away the CVP cap, the 105 canister and a couple 75 shermans to balance it.

Thanks to Bret for a very fun game and to Jim for being an awesome host!

Paul

 

[JR Brackin]

OK - I am going to to try an post pictures. This the full room,

 

[JR Brackin]

Vic Rosso vs John Haughey in the foreground

 

[JR Brackin]

JRV trying to avoid the spotlight, back table right Kevin Meyer, to his left Jeff Miller, across from Kevin is Rob Schoenen, and in the corner is a person who prefer not to be named.

 

[JR Brackin]

The long table - here we have in the forward position Bret Johnson in the cap vs Paul Sidhu; next up is Steve Kyle on the left vs Vince Maresca; on the right of Vince is Jonathan Lapleau (JRV is missing; the last group is Ron Duenskie vs Vince Lewonski.

 

[Juzek]

DB 130 Tigers and Flames - German vs Russian (Vince Maresca)
Elements of a Panzer Grenadier division, reinforced by elements of a Tiger Kompanie, try to stop the advance of elements of the Soviet 4th Guards Army in November 1943.

The main defensive line is a small town, defended by a company of infantry with a PaK 38 ATG and a StuG IIIG. Rear guard elements of two infantry platoons, one with a Pak 40 ATG and the other with a StuG IIIG, are your basic speedbump in front of 16 squads, 6 T-34 M43 tanks and a SU-122 AG. The two German rear guard groups must set up on separate boards no less than five hexes from the Russian front line. The Russian attack is reinforced on turn 2 with 8 more squads, plus three OT-34 Flame-thrower tanks and a SU-152 AG. Units of Grossdeutchland show up on German turn 3 with 6 Elite squads and three Pz VIE heavy tanks.

To say the rear guard exceeded expectations does not do those fellas justice. With liberal use of firelanes, residual FP, SFF and FPF, the speedbump took its toll on the Russian forces as these units proved to be tougher for the Russians to brush aside than I expected. The rear guard proved to be very "sticky," causing the Russians to spend their most critical asset, time, to rid themselves of those troublesome units. I had assumed that by the end of my 2nd turn I'd be trying to salvage a few broken HS, if anything, but they held on in various ways to mess up the attack. In a true "epic" sequence, a lone 8-1 took a Russian squad apart in CC, CRing it first and doing the same to its surviving HS a turn later, earning the nickname Rambo. Rambo fell victim to a big kill stack before he could do any damage with a HMG.

Everything wasn't working for the Germans, however. Both StuGs broke their MA on their first shot in the first turn, and neither vehicle had any influence after that. Two shots, two StuGs with broken MA, and no mobile AT weapons with the OT-34s lurking off board to enter on the next Russian turn.

With support from the flame tanks, the Russian attack reached the first line of the town and the German infantry succumbed to to the OT-34s and other Russian attacks. Fortunately for the Germans, the turn 3 reinforcements made it into town and reinforced the final line of defense to hold off the last-turn rush for a German victory.

This is a well designed scenario. Room to maneuver, interesting units, and the time factor feels about right. The loss of the two StuGs could prove fatal in many scenarios, and it created anxiety for the defense, but there were enough other options to compensate. If the German rear guards had not been so tough and chewed up so much time the game would have turned out quite differently.

One thing I was concerned about was a Human Wave attack. The Russian force seems primed to launch a Wave, and could even use a tank platoon in Armored Assault to support it. HW is a dicey proposition, but I think the German player has to try to be ready for it.

This was a fun game, and Vince was a very challenging opponent. Kudos to Herr and Frau Brackin for hosting (on her birthday, no less. There are a few in this gang who can carry a tune, at least for "Happy Birthday").

Most of my play over the past few years has been on VASL, so its always great to sit down to a real board, real counters, and real dice. Plus the stream of commentary from other games in progress is always entertaining. Thanks, Jim and Lisa!

 

[xenovin]

DB 130 Tigers and Flames - German vs Russian (Vince Maresca)
Elements of a Panzer Grenadier division, reinforced by elements of a Tiger Kompanie, try to stop the advance of elements of the Soviet 4th Guards Army in November 1943.

The main defensive line is a small town, defended by a company of infantry with a PaK 38 ATG and a StuG IIIG. Rear guard elements of two infantry platoons, one with a Pak 40 ATG and the other with a StuG IIIG, are your basic speedbump in front of 16 squads, 6 T-34 M43 tanks and a SU-122 AG. The two German rear guard groups must set up on separate boards no less than five hexes from the Russian front line. The Russian attack is reinforced on turn 2 with 8 more squads, plus three OT-34 Flame-thrower tanks and a SU-152 AG. Units of Grossdeutchland show up on German turn 3 with 6 Elite squads and three Pz VIE heavy tanks.

To say the rear guard exceeded expectations does not do those fellas justice. With liberal use of firelanes, residual FP, SFF and FPF, the speedbump took its toll on the Russian forces as these units proved to be tougher for the Russians to brush aside than I expected. The rear guard proved to be very "sticky," causing the Russians to spend their most critical asset, time, to rid themselves of those troublesome units. I had assumed that by the end of my 2nd turn I'd be trying to salvage a few broken HS, if anything, but they held on in various ways to mess up the attack. In a true "epic" sequence, a lone 8-1 took a Russian squad apart in CC, CRing it first and doing the same to its surviving HS a turn later, earning the nickname Rambo. Rambo fell victim to a big kill stack before he could do any damage with a HMG.

Everything wasn't working for the Germans, however. Both StuGs broke their MA on their first shot in the first turn, and neither vehicle had any influence after that. Two shots, two StuGs with broken MA, and no mobile AT weapons with the OT-34s lurking off board to enter on the next Russian turn.

With support from the flame tanks, the Russian attack reached the first line of the town and the German infantry succumbed to to the OT-34s and other Russian attacks. Fortunately for the Germans, the turn 3 reinforcements made it into town and reinforced the final line of defense to hold off the last-turn rush for a German victory.

This is a well designed scenario. Room to maneuver, interesting units, and the time factor feels about right. The loss of the two StuGs could prove fatal in many scenarios, and it created anxiety for the defense, but there were enough other options to compensate. If the German rear guards had not been so tough and chewed up so much time the game would have turned out quite differently.

One thing I was concerned about was a Human Wave attack. The Russian force seems primed to launch a Wave, and could even use a tank platoon in Armored Assault to support it. HW is a dicey proposition, but I think the German player has to try to be ready for it.

This was a fun game, and Vince was a very challenging opponent. Kudos to Herr and Frau Brackin for hosting (on her birthday, no less. There are a few in this gang who can carry a tune, at least for "Happy Birthday").

Most of my play over the past few years has been on VASL, so its always great to sit down to a real board, real counters, and real dice. Plus the stream of commentary from other games in progress is always entertaining. Thanks, Jim and Lisa!View attachment 5384

Here’s my add to Steve’s AAR above. I chose the attacking Russians as I have been the defender in my previous five scenarios. The Russians have three main avenues of approach with the center almost open and subject to enveloping fire and both the right and left flanks providing decent covered reaches to the objective village. The Russians much control 12 buildings (not building hexes) on Board 1a by the end of Turn 6.5 with an impressive Guards rifle company (24 squads), 6 leaders (wow!), a tank company (6x T-34 M43s, 3x FT T-34s) and assault gun detachment (SU-122 & SU-152).

Steve did a great job concealing his at-start forces even with the restricted setup requirements for his “rear guard” troops on Boards 56 & 57 . My initial assessment was that Steve had his forward MGS in hexes 56G6 and 57Z5 as they were the only hexes with 3 counters so I planned to Smoke both of them on my opening moves with the 82mm mortar and the SU-122. In his backfield it was obvious the StuG was in 1aP5 with a leader and MMG next to it (again the big stacks probably had SW and leaders as was the case).

My initial impression was that my right flank (Board 56) was the better approach route as the many grain fields provided cover to the front of the village and my Turn 2 reinforcements could enter at 56I1. The negatives were the restrictive terrain in the 1a P2 and O6 areas gave advantage to 1-hex German PFs or the PSK spelling quick death to any armored frontal advance or deep envelopment on that flank. The left flank also allows a relatively covered approach to the southern end of the village but would expose my open flank to his Turn 3 Tiger advance. Finally, I assumed he wanted to keep his StuGs together so I thought 56F4 was his stuck (and its reinforcement group) and the concealed stack in 57CC3 was a dummy with the 75L AT gun possibly in the empty BB4 building or BB6 orchard (turns out I was wrong!). Thus my deployment had a relatively weak force on my left flank with most of my 1st line infantry and 2 T-34s preventing that group from falling back and reinforcing the village and my main assault placed on the right flank with my elite infantry and armor plus a kill stack of 9-2, 2x458, 2xMMG in the upper level of 56M6 (set on Op Fire once concealment lifted) and my 8-1 leading a flank assault around the right flank. I was concerned with the forward German MGs putting down fire lanes so I had plans to Smoke them and quickly move against them for CC. Some players don’t like fire lanes but Steve was not one of them as it turned out! I needed to get in quick and take out the German advance guard positions so I could get into the village before the German Turn 3 reinforcement arrived. I didn’t want to use a Human Wave as the Russians actually have elite troops, great leadership, and armor and didn’t want to see them butchered in crossing fire lanes on Turn 1.

Turn 1 I was able to Smoke 57Z5 but not 56G6 and most of my assault troops were broken up trying to get in close to the 2nd line Germans who fought like lions (Steve was below the dice bell curve for attacks and MC checks). At one point a broken half squad HOBed out, found a PF and fried a T-34 while the HIP AT gun blasted another. I lost 3-T-34s and one malfed his MA by the end of Turn 2 . As Steve noted above, at least both his StuGs also broke their MA on their initial shots so our armor recovery crews had their work cut out for them.

The German forward “speed bump” held me up for 2 turns and it was not until the end of Turn 3 that the last members were finally taking out in CC. but at least I had a small attack force fronting the eastern edge of the village and I was able to get a T-34 and an OT-34 with 628 rider into the southern edge of the village placing some fire down the southwestern part of Board 1a if the Tigers chose to enter in that direction. The HIP German 50L AT gun finally turned up shooting my OT-34 in the ass and eventually took him out. While the German 2nd line guys in the eastern end of the village started taking a beating from my flame tanks and infantry, the German Turn 3 Tigers and elite 4-6-8 squads were able to advance unmolested down the 1aI8 road and get into the northwestern edge of the village.

Turn 4 I lost another OT-34 clearing out the eastern end of the village while the Tigers started enveloping the village while my SU-152 Tiger killer decided to MALF his gun (Ugh!). The heat was on now as time was starting to run out as most of my armor was kaput and I had to cross the central street (1aM9-13). Turn 5 the Germans launched a small successful counterattack along the northern end of the village taking back 3 building hexes but I was able to pick up the PSK forcing the withdrawal of a Tiger. Russian Turn 7 I had to make the desperate frontal assault across the street to get into the remaining buildings but didn’t have the formation for a human wave. German fire broke each squad one by one so with no chance of getting into CC for the remaining, I conceded to Steve’s stalwart defenders.

The scenario lived up to its hype as a quality scenario. Lots of toys, attack/defense options, room to maneuver, and both sides get to attack and/or counterattack. It was worth the admission to the BBB- LOL. The only negative was my boards 56 and 57 were slightly miss-cut so needed a creative tape job getting them to line up!