AAR ATF2, One Eye To The West

[MrP]

Hi all
Played this one from the free downloadable HoB All Time Favourites last night. At first glance, it's a horde of Russians (14 squads and 5 AFVs) attacking over the board 23 bridges to gain a foothold in board 45. The defending Germans get a handful of SS 658s, an 838 and demo charge which can be set on one of the bridges and a 20L AA gun plus a King Tiger, reinforced from offboard by a fire brigade of more SS and a Panther.

I took the Germans and setup light on the right (South) with only an assault engineer HS whose job it would be to set the DC and blow the bridge, plus the King Tiger on the bridge covering. a 658 sat in the rowhouses covering the river. On the left (North), I put the MMG and 9-1 in the upper level of the church and a 658 behind the hedge in front. The 20L sat just down the road covering the bridge.

Steve setup the Russians to rush the Southern bridge and prevent the HS blowing it.

Turn 1A
Russian morphs down the left edge of the board toward the bridge, not many targets presenting themselves, Germans in the church feel rather redundant. M4 presents itself in front of the King Tiger, hoping for an AF shot. Bang. One burning M4. German MMG breaks on first shot.

Turn 1D
Skulk. KT pops his snoogiewoofer on the bridge, reverses back a hex. HS sets the DC, advances backwards in the APh to the cover of the KT.

Turn 2A
The Russians try to pin/break the HS DC boy to no avail. Second M4 comes onto the North bridge and gets PF'd for its troubles, creating some lovely smoke for the Russians.

Turn 2D
HS AM's back to 2 hexes away from the bridge. Everyone else skulks. In the AFPh, bam, no bridge.

Turn 3A
Oh bugger, no bridge, Russians try to redeploy over towards the North bridge, taking a bit of a kicking for their troubles from the 658 in the riverside rowhouse. Still, in position to push over the river next turn.

Turn 3D
Skulk. Acquire bridge with King Tiger.

Turn 4A
Here come the hordes, over the bridge. KT puts 4 resid onto the bridge hex, 20L puts 8 resid into the hex next to the bridge. Russians get an IS-2, 2 squads and a 10-2 over the river, plus about 10 squads broken by either the resid or the MMG/658 in the church. Messy. They all rout back.

Turn 4D
Panther gets up to threaten the bridge. Looking difficult for the Germs. IS2 is flamed by a 658 with PF.

Turn 5A
10-2 and a squad manage to get into CC with the AA gun and capture it. More broken squads on the bridge but a few gain a foothold in the church and lock up a 658 in melee.

Turn 5D
AA gun changes hands again, 658 wins the melee, more broken Russians. Steve fails PMC after being unable to roll <10 and seeing me able to seemingly roll snake-eyes at will, especially with my MMG.

In all, we thought this one is tough on the Russians still, no smoke and bridges to cross. Having said that, it might have been a bit closer if the dice were a little fairer, but I think it's still a tough one IF the Germans can blow one of the bridges. Take that possibility away and the Russians have it easier...... Nice concept and thanks to the HoB boys for providing free scenarios! We were going to play ATF3, but I didn't have Board 5...maybe next time.

Cheers

Ian

 

[Anonymous]

One Eye to the West

Ian, I enjoyed your AAR on OEttW. I recently played the Russians twice and lost both times. While I am still a relatively new ASL player, I too found this bridge crossing scenario very tough for the Russians. This is true despite the changes to the scenario that added a Sherman and two infantry squads to the Russ OB. I could let out a big whine reqarding some superlative dice rolling in my first game, but in the second one, the Russians actually did well with the dice and I still floundered. Your conclusion is correct. It still takes very good play and some luck for the Russians to prevail in this one. It may look easy, given the thin German initial forces, but it sure isn't for the guys with the red star on their caps.
One thing you mentioned toward the end of your AAR got my attention. You noted (or implied) that the Russ are without smoke. This isn't correct (or at least, I don't think it is). The three Russian Shermans show smoke capabilty (S8, as I recall). Am I missing something here? Does the fact that these are lend-lease Shermans cause them to lose that ability? Perhaps something in the weapons notes that I missed? I used them to smoke the north bridge in one game, to little avail as the Germans kicked me snotless with a barrage of "3"s and an 88LL that just kept on shooting (ROF three times on two different occasions). They smoked the south bridge in the second game and came a little closer to winning, but got the worst of the infantry fights and could not reach the objecive line in time.

 

[Stevedeth]

I am glad you at least have fun with this one. It is a great scenario. It was origionaly two full boards, but it makes a nice smaller one. It should be about even now. On the ATF you might have noticed the first page where we talk about what we change.

The key for the Soviets is use the M4 Smoke and don't worry about the blown bridge. The Soviets must plan to cross one bridge with a feint on the other. I have never heard of a case where the Germans actually blew a bridge. With the change in set up areas the Soviets have a shot at the DC crew on either of the bridges.

I do think that the Soviet has to really plan out this one. Which is why I like this scenario so much. There are not too many crossing scenarios. out there. THis scenaro also makes a great training tool for BRV where most of the Soviet players rush the bridges too fast and get wacked. You have to prepare the site!

Steve

 

[FrankH.]

Might it be OK to post the link here for this "free download" scenario?

It sound interesting.

Frank H.

 

[SamB]

Downloadable scenario

The link to download this scenario is http://heatofbattle.com/

Follow the links to downloads and look for "All Time Favorites".

Sam

 

[Anonymous]

I didn't clarify when I was talking about "no smoke". Steve managed one smoke round out of all his Shermans, which sure as hell made it tough on him. Bad luck for sure and he certainly didn't play a bad game from then on in. The key for me was getting the King Tiger to lay down 4 resid from his MGs in the bridge hex at every possible opportunity and making Steve have to run through, break and rout again and again. I think that if the Russians gain a firm footing on the far side of the bridge and are able to stop the Germans taking cheap shots at the bridge exit hexes then then it's almost curtains for the Germans if they can't reinforce quickly enough.

Apologies for the vagueness, it's been a few weeks since I played this one. Late For Mass from ABTF next week methinks.

Cheers

Ian