AAR - Abandon Ship! - G44

[Major Issues]

I recently changed jobs, and thought that I would give some job hunting advice to you. Inform them that you only want to be paid in Bitcoins. Tell them that you already have a safe deposit box full of them.

Let them know that you are searching for a job because you recently stepped down from your position in the British Monarchy. Suggest that you know scandalous details about the Queen, which you will only share once hired.

Late AAR – Gunny Thompson and I played this months ago. At one point, I was working only 30 minutes from his house. But I am no longer working there, at least until my trial comes up, where I expect to be exonerated.

This may have been the last scenario that I played with Gunny. He moved to Maryland, because “It will make it so much easier to stalk Perry.” In an obvious oversight, he has not given me his new address.

We played Abandon Ship!


Gunny took the Americans. American paratroopers are defending a town (board 24) when the Germans show up. The Americans win by having 4 points more than the Germans. Points are given for exit, and for control of the roadblock. Germans get points for getting units past the gully at the far end of the board.

Americans have 11-1/2 squads and a 10-2. The Germans enter with only 12 squads, which makes it a totally unfair fight, but they do get two tanks. Two more squads and two AFVs enter later.

My plan was to try to sneak a tank or two down the right side, where they could interdict any Americans trying to exit. I'm not ruling out plowing through woods like a monster truck, either. 4 bazookas mean I have to find and bash them first.

The bulk of my force, and the two tanks, run up to assault the quaint Belgian farmhouse in Z9. The squad and leader in it are quickly broken, and some dishes are smashed. A few 447s move up behind the BB hedgerow.

The next two turns are a hard slog. Every concealed stack I encounter seems to be two 747s, or two 747s with a MMG. My hedgerow 447s are shot up. I can’t hurt the broken guys who were in Z9, though I am trying to pursue them. We end up duking it out at one or two hex range, with the paratroopers in V3, U6 and U9. My tanks are taking shots at U9. The Panther is only two hexes away, and Jim tries to DI me with a bazooka several times, but with no luck.



I get lucky in my battle for the center woods, and break a couple squads. The bazookaman on the left is also routed. But all of this has taken time. The game is only 7 turns. I may not have enough time to get to the roadblock or the gully.

After chasing the broken squad and 8-1 down the south edge for several turns, I eliminated the 8-1 when he failed an interdiction check, but then the squad rolled snakes, rallied, and created a leader.

My now-rallied 447s, with the help of the reinforcements, break an 8-1 and squad holding the high ground on the north edge. The reinforcement tanks swoop in to eliminate them for failure to rout.

The main reason it has been such slow going for the Germans is that the Americans are not withdrawing. There is a concealed unit back to defend the roadblock, but no one else is trying to fall back to the roadblock or the board edge. While the paratroopers can get a win this way, (they need 2 more points than the Germans, and control of the roadblock will give them 4), it is a dicey strategy.

While most of my infantry and two tanks get into position to attack buildings P4, S7, and S8, the reinforcement tank and SP gun try to make a run for it down the north edge. There is one HS with a bazooka standing in my way. I have to trust to luck. Jim rolls a 12, loses the bazooka, and immediately concedes. He now has no way to stop two of my AFVs from getting to the other side of the gully.

This is a hard one to grok for both sides. The German infantry has less FP and leadership drms than the defending paratroopers. Trying to get local superiority and good use of the tanks are the best way to reduce positions. Even so, many of the broken paratroopers could just rout back and rally. Push too hard, and you risk losing tanks, or having the infantry break and run the wrong direction.

The paratroopers, if they drop back too fast, may give the Germans enough time to pursue and potentially fire on them trying to exit. If they lose the roadblock, that’s 4 points, and if they lose it early and the Germans have time to attempt to clear it, that could allow tanks to cross the gully via the road. How many guys make a run for it? How many defend the town? How many defend the roadblock? Will Esther agree to marry Lord Nigel, even though she secretly desires Thom, the strikingly handsome, but poor, village blacksmith???

This is even on ROAR.

If you think that this favors the Germans, I suggest giving the Americans an additional four lifeboats.

 

[MajorDomo]

Played this once as the Germans. Amis used a fallback defense, with a few blocking squads.

Rushed the initial German positions very hard and isolated several broken fallback squads in the single hex building behind the center woods cluster. Panther was fortunate to survive a side bazooka 6 to hit shot.

Broke the 10-2 in the buildings on the German left. Then ran a tank behind him for FTR, got greedy and ESBed one MP to stop (for retreating baz attacks) and immobilized.

Thought the mission done as I could run squads up my left to take the bridge. Also, would move two AFVs down the right road to exit. There was one baz left.

The Ami paratroopers rallied well in the central building complex. Baz destroyed one right road vehicle before being eliminated. A HS in the woods near back right building eliminated the second bypassing AFV with snakes on reaction fire and the worm had turned.

Both sides rushed the bridge under murderous open ground fire. Came down to a 3-2 versus a 337 next to the bridge. A "2,4" eliminated the 337 to win.

Enjoyable scenario from an excellent scenario pack!

 

[Mister T]

Played this once as the Germans. Amis used a fallback defense, with a few blocking squads.

Rushed the initial German positions very hard and isolated several broken fallback squads in the single hex building behind the center woods cluster. Panther was fortunate to survive a side bazooka 6 to hit shot.

Broke the 10-2 in the buildings on the German left. Then ran a tank behind him for FTR, got greedy and ESBed one MP to stop (for retreating baz attacks) and immobilized.

Thought the mission done as I could run squads up my left to take the bridge. Also, would move two AFVs down the right road to exit. There was one baz left.

The Ami paratroopers rallied well in the central building complex. Baz destroyed one right road vehicle before being eliminated. A HS in the back right building eliminated the second bypassing AFV with snakes on reaction fire and the worm had turned.

Both sides rushed the bridge under murderous open ground fire. Came down to a 3-2 versus a 337 next to the bridge. A "2,4" eliminated the 337 to win.

Enjoyable scenario from an excellent scenario pack!

Stressful scenario for both sides, satisfaction (almost) guaranteed.

 

[von Marwitz]

Another great, classic scenario!

Looking it up, I found that I have played it three times...



AAR of 1st playing vs. Ernst Knauth:

Though at first glance this scenario does not look very special and I do not like board 24 particularly, it seems to be one of the remarkably balanced ones which also has its "twin" G44 of the same name published in AH's General Magazine. Regarding the VC, it is good to know that to count as VP the requirement of being situated west of the gully does not only apply to Infantry but to AFVs as well (looked that up on Gamesquad).

I had the US in this one and obviously the plan is to delay the German as much as possible. As such, I roughly planned about four "lines" of defence to fall back to consecutively (nice plan that for sure would not have stood the test of reality if it had been put to the test).

My first line of defence tried to interfere with the German approaches and/or to scare his infantry to inhibit its movement. This worked out quite well, aided by my opponent moving a bit too much in stacks to gain some ground quickly and by my dice being decent. The German attack came in the form of four stacks, two with Armored Assault, the other two preceded by HS scouts. An effective MTR shot broke one stack and eliminated its leader in German turn 1. A second German stack was broken in US turn 1. The third German stack was caught in the open for a -3 shot during German turn 2 and - broken.

This effectively broke up the German assault and thus my opponent conceded as it would have taken too long to get things back in order and the Germans had not yet reached favorable terrain. Hard to evaluate the scenario as a whole, but I think it one can reasonably argue, that it will be a quite interesting fall-back defence action if it developed "normally".


AAR of 2nd playing vs. Francois Boudrenghien:

I played this as the defending German during a tournament against a very kind and sophisticated opponent.

Basically, the US has to fight a fall-back defense holding up the Germans as long as possible, try to hold a roadblock and exit as many VP as possible while preventing the German from gaining more VP by taking the roadblock or advancing troops and or AFV with functioning MA beyond a certain line.

The German should put some thought in a sound setup because this will have an impact on the amount of delay he can impose on the Germans entering from offboard. In this, my defense seemed to work quite well, as I managed to detour the entry of the US forces by means of fire-lanes, residual FP, bore sighted hexes and a bit of "mind-tricks" with concealed units that were something else they seemed to be. At the same time, it is important to know not to forget to fall back and to correctly judge how many Americans to leave behind to delay the Germans.

My plans were overthrown, when one unit of a stack that was devastated by my MTR battle hardened and went Berserk. By this way, the German would have been able to "freeze" an important Bazooka with squad which would have beeb inevitably then overwhelmed for cheap. To avoid some serious fire, I advanced out of LOS with a second concealed 747+BAZ from all his troops except one single CX HS that remained ADJ and that I planned to take out by Advancing Fire or simply ignore for the time being. Unfortunately, it did not ignore my 747+BAZ and used its cumulative chance of around 5% to fire AND break them. This left the area around Z9 open for exploitation.

Things went from bad to worse, when an attempt to lay a firelane from T9 to AA10 cowered. Luckily, I still was able to dish out some punishment to the Germans in X9 and T10. The defence of the central woods was going well with relativley few US forces. The German Panther was a true menace in this game. About everything that it attacked suffered. My 8-1, 747+MMG in T9 was broken, and so my plans to withdraw these in GO to O10 were dashed and with it another cornerstone of my defence of that flank. These events proved to be the roots of my undoing as I could not any longer to prevent the Germans from breaching the line there which forced be to pull back from the woods except for a rearguard of 2 squad equivalents which continued to perform well.

Within the village proper I tried my best to slow the US as best as possible, but a lack of 2 BAZ there was telling. I could not harm the German AFV. I managed to pull back strong forces behind hexrow L but could not prevent a trailbreak in L9 (for the lack of a BAZ in the wooded area around it while I held the J5 area strongly. Some units were on their way to the board edge safely out of LOS within the gully.

Due to time constraints, we could not finish the scenario. I would not have given up yet, but the chances to win were now surely way below 50%. I would have given the win to my opponent, but he graciously insisted on a tie. A very good the scenario that is very well balanced on ROAR and lives up to its reputation (WCW5 and G44 are identical).


AAR of 3rd playing vs. Daniel Takai:

Played this as the German this time. My opponent decided not to stand and fight the German entry but rather to retreat in good order early, leaving behind a token force to delay the German advance during German turn 2. Unfornunately, this token force did a (too) good job and continued to bog be down while passing the W6 woods area. I could not seem to get a grip on the US except for causing only small losses even during the chase through the center of the town. Being time and again held up by one or two squads left behind lurking for PB fire opportunities.

Eventually, though, I did manage to rush forward considerable troops on along the southern flank and tried to trailbreak the woods bogging my Panther. I was in dire straits for time and thus partially began to find positions for some German units to interdict the US retreat towards the board edge rather than advancing further. My Panther immobilizing instead of recuperating from Bog and a US 747 recovering the 60mm MTR enabling it to fire at some woods I was planning to rush my troops forward through, made me think this one a lost case. However, I could entice the Americans into final firing a BAZ toting HS, opening an opportunity for a change of flanks with one of the tanks. The Jagdpanzer then managed to create the essential Trailbreak and stopped next to the building close to the roadblock.

Because the area south of the J9 builing was blocked by residual fire, I managed to bring some troops into the path/trailbreak hex and break the US 747 holding that building which subsequently surrendered. Another stack guarding the roadblock which I thought was a BAZ with at least a HS turned out to be a dummy (game was quite drawn over several sessions, so I could not remember). A valiant HS guarding 2.5 enemy squad equivalents charged along the open road and took the roadblock during advance. J9 was occupied by a German squad with an LMG, which could now lay a FL covering the bridge across the gully.

I was now in a position to cover much of the open ground by long range MG fire and a tank and to cover the approaches to the bridge with a FL and two squads. The US was now in a pinch: If he fired at me, he would deal some significant damage but then he would be lacking troops to exit. In any case regaining the roadblock and keeping it seemed improbable for the US. The German on the other hand now had a good chance to drive two tanks into the victory area and be a pain there for the last US movement phase. Some more German infantry would have chances to make a run. Their chances would be rather slim if the Americans would not move but consequently not being able to exit. However, if the Americans would decide to move, these German infantry units would have good fire opportunities against them.

At the start of US turn 6, the Americans conceded.


von Marwitz

 

[bendizoid]

Yes, this is a good scenario. Last time I played it was against Mattias and my Americans were kicking butt and counterattacking everywhere but I forgot to move my exit guys in time so lost even though the Germans were getting annihilated. Best to reread the VC several times during play.
Sometimes there is a opportunity for the Americans to kindle flame in this one. Consider burning down the ‘split level’ building with the 10-2 so the Germans can’t shoot from up there when you retreat.

 

[Cpl Uhl]

I remembered JUST in time as the US to exit guys for the win. Also remembered to roll the required 4 on a bazooka shot to tag a Panzer that was breaking free into the backfield. It's important to remember these things.

 

[Houlie]

One of the best -- yes, even stressful --scenarios I have ever played.

 

[=FC=Gorgon]

One on my most favorite games at a tournament. Played it at a Noreaster many moons ago vs Charlie Hamilton. We played into the wee hours and I lost on the last 1/2 turn. Still, loved the game and would play it again.