AAR - 129 - Slamming Of The Door

Major Issues

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Played Slamming of the Door against Walt Harrar, with him taking the Russians. I had played the original version, A7, a million years ago as the Russians. I know I won, but time and large quantities of good beer in the years since have erased the details from my mind.

I think most Germans will set up a defense based around the wood buildings in the center of the board. Instead, as proof of my defensive genius, I decided to set up based around the eastern hedgerows. This did have a couple advantages. It would take the Russian tanks longer to get to the infantry. There was more open ground, so I could keep the infantry out of normal range. And I could put the Stugs behind the hedge when they came in to get some TEM.

My infantry set up strung out, in more ways than one, behind the hedge, with two wood buildings occupied in the setup area. I had my 9-1, HMG, 467 in one wooden building. Walt set up a kill stack with all of his MGs and his 8-1 to fire at them. First roll of the game, he rolls a 10 on a 12 +1 shot, for no result. My return fire broke and ELRed the 8-1 and his MMG squad, and broke one of the LMG squads. Proof that there is a dark cloud over Walt.

First couple turns, not much happened. I broke the HMG on my third shot, never to return. I couldn't get radio contact the first turn, got a SR down, then the radioman broke, and failed to rally the rest of the game. Fire from Walt was long range, so my infantry wasn't getting hurt. I was breaking a few of his squads, mostly with my light mortar.

Turn 3 was when the T-26s got into it. Two of them got in my face and chased me out of two wooden buildings. I attempted a counterattack - I could get three squads and an 8-1 into a wood building adjacent to the two of them. But his tank fire broke the 8-1 and pinned all three squads, so I couldn't go in for CC. One other T-26 was immobilized by my ATR. My light mortar went on a 10 shot tear, wrecking three hexes. I think at one point, Walt was down to 4 unbroken squads.

Turn 4 was a mixed bag. I started to have significant numbers of broken troops, some of whom were captured or eliminated for failure to rout. Two T-26s started overrunning troops behind the hedge. The game went from Slamming Of The Door to Body Slam.
body-slam-2.jpg

The bottom of turn 4, my Stugs finally came in. I rolled them up adjacent to his overrunning T-26s. Since they were in Motion, I couldn't hit them in Advancing Fire. Walt finally got his light mortar back in action, after self rallying a conscript HS that then survived a couple shots to pick up the mortar. He had a LOS to my rally woods hex, and shells began to fall.

Top of 5, the Stugs get the two overrunning T-26s. The conscript HS manning the light mortar won Hero of The Soviet Union by tearing up my broken guys in the woods. Bottom of 5, I immobilized a T-26, whose crew bailed out. Walt broke the gun of another T-26. But his last good order T-26 killed my Stug with the armor leader with a 4, to put him over for the win. When you added in the points for the prisoners, he had 31 points. He needed 22.

This was a lot of fun. I think the hedgerow defense can be viable, but losing the HMG, getting no OBA, and having the Stugs come in the last available turn hurt me. Until the Stugs come in, the T-26s rule, and even then, with AP7, it's no guarantee the Germans can deal with them. Walt was disappointed that, though he won, it wasn't according to his plan. Basically, his infantry crumbled, but his tanks won it for him.
But, as Sun Tzu often said, "Hey, a W is a W!!!"

t-26 thMAQMAPVZ.jpg
 

sunoftzu

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Digging foxholes that 'link' isolated terrain helps.

I've always thought that this can be a 'trap scenario' for the Germans; losing StuGs and surrendering prisoners to the Russians is about the quickest way for the Russians to win. But if the StuGs avoid the fight and leave the infantry to their own, they run the risk of surrender. A very good little scenario about getting the balance of commitment right.

http://twasler.666forum.com/t45-asl-129-slamming-of-the-door-john-vs-robin

John.
 
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