AAR - 81 Fratricidal Fighting

Major Issues

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Played this for the first time against Walt Harrar. I was the Evil Vichy French. My defensive strategy was to put all the long range weapons on top of the hill, so they could hit his MMGs on the opposite mountaintop. AT guns were in cover at the edge of the hill, looking for immobilization shots. Had 2 squads in stone buildings and 3 in sangars above the village. All the 437s were around BB8. The idea was to stall for time, and make it so he would have a hard time getting CVPs and hex BB8.

Plans rarely survive contact with the enemy, none more so than these. Walt used two of the tanks to provide TEM for the MMGs and MTRs on the hill. Good idea, and not what I expected. First British turn - two hexes smoked by mortars, then his MMGs went on a tear. One squad was killed, and all three squads in sangars above the village were broken.

First couple turns, he would run in the open, usually successfully. His mortars and MMGs would tear up somebody on the hill, they would rout, then another Vichy squad who drew the short straw would take his place. Hard for the Vichy to rally - only one leader available, as the other two were with the guns, no good terrain, broken morale 5 or 6, depending on if it was a squad or HS. I did immobilize one tank, and managed to get a CH on another. But then the one gun broke, and the other crew died in CC. (which I initiated, since he was CX and I thought it gave me more of a shot.)

Walt definitely had the hot dice. One turn, he got something like 10 hits with one light mortar, including back-to-back CHs. Only thing that saved me was that a 12-1 is survivable if the effects roll isn't good. Twice in the game, he followed up a CH with a 12. I lost count of his CHs. I think it was about 6.

The tanks nailed a couple guys at long range with their CMGs. Breaking on a 2+2 shot. Sad, really. I thought the Vichy had more fight in them. Well, some of them did. I had 3 go berserk during the game. "Let's jump out of our foxholes and go charging across open ground!" The charges ended predictably.

Walt's battle hardening experience was a little different. One squad fanatic, one leader heroic, one leader battle hardened and heroic, and two heroes created. Medals for everyone!!! Mentioned in dispatches!!!

I conceded on turn 7. I still had a couple green squads, but had lost the hilltop and my heavy weapons, and he had a squad and hero in the foxhole with my HMG looking down on me. He had the CVPs, all he needed was BB8.

VCs are written weird. Don't see why they didn't write "...when they control hexes 25BB5, 25Y2, and 25BB8."

Rules oddity - I had a squad with a MMG in a foxhole that broke and disrupted. They can't rout, and no one else can go into it to recover the MMG. Same applies in a sangar.

I did like the scenario. Very difficult terrain to move around, especially for the British.
 

jrv

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Rules oddity - I had a squad with a MMG in a foxhole that broke and disrupted. They can't rout, and no one else can go into it to recover the MMG. Same applies in a sangar.
Only a SMC can recover a SW that is currently possessed by a broken unit, inside or outside a foxhole or sanger. A SMC can join the broken unit IN the foxhole to do it. The SMC can't move a MMG unless it dismantles it (and here the Soviets have a problem), and so getting that MMG away would take some effort. I think that all HMGs can't be moved by SMCs even dismantled. But of course most of the time the SMC is a leader, and the leader could just rally the disrupted unit anyway.

JR
 
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