AAR - FT213 Up The Liri Valley

[von Marwitz]

AAR - FT213 Up The Liri Valley



Background:

Set in May 1944 in Italy, this action pits a solid German force consisting of a mix of Elite and 1st Line units with decent Leadership and light support weapons against a slightly smaller Free French force of similar composition. The Germans set up first and are helped by 8 Concealment counters, a Foxhole and a Fortified Building Location. Three squads, a Leader and LMG of the Germans enter in Turn 2, while the rest set up on board or enter on Turn 1. The Free French set up on board, but a bit less than half of their force is TI in their first Player Turn.

The objective of the scenario for the Germans is to gain a specified number of VP for the Control of a number of Locations, most of which are buildings, which are cumulatively counted at the end of each German turn. There is also the option for both sides to win by inflicting quite a steep number of CVP on the opposing side.

Board 55 is a „Bocage Board“ with compartmented fields, a sunken road and a gully. However, there is no Bocage whatsoever, but only „normal“ Heges. Being set in May, Grain is Plowed Fields. Rout Terrain is relatively scarce in the contested center of the board, the hedges limit long lines of sight to a few.


Tactical Assessment:

Both sides will get to attack and to defend in this scenario, which is part of its attraction and likely the reason why it has seen quite a number of plays (ROAR: Free French 40 / Germans 33) with a very high Excitement Rating of 7.24 as of June 2025. The scenario design seems to encourage the Free French to make an early attack against the Germans in order to wrest one of the Victory buildings from them and to hold it in order to deny the Germans to gain VP. But soon enough, the Free French will be forced to fall back as the Germans have the option to enter their Turn 1 and Turn 2 reinforcements in the flank and back of some of the Free French. If the Germans make good progress with regard of gaining/holding VC Locations early in the game, they can force the Free French to counter-attack. This is what the Free French want to avoid – it is better for them to have the Germans charge their defenses under pressure to gain VP.

The first great conundrum for the Free French is that if they press their initial attack vs. the Germans, they might find the remainder of their force threatened of being overrun in the rear. The Fortified Building Location the Germans have can be a real PITA for the Free French because if it turns out to be the building the Free French want to assault, they only have a single DC to breach it, while rooting out Elite German troops from a Fortified Stone Building Location without Breaching it in short order is a tall challenge. If the Free French do not wrest a VC building from the Germans only – and hold it to deny the Germans VPs, then they will have to prevent them from taking control of any other VC Locations because otherwise the cumulative VP count scales will tip in favor of the Germans. The bad thing for the Free French is that VPs are only gained at the end of each German Player turn, which means simply grabbing a VC Location is not enough – the Free French need to at least hold it for one German turn to deny the latter the VP.

The second conundrum for the Free French is that their central setup zone either allows them to set up very exposed to German Advancing Fire if they want to deny the Germans an early quick gain of ground. Or they can opt for more cover at the price of having the Germans get forward easier.

The third conundrum for the Free French is that the Germans are moving second and are able to chose the point of entry for their reinforcements and thus their Schwerpunkt after seeing the French dispositions.

So the Free French are burdened by a number of tactical disadvantages. These disadvantages are supposed to be counterbalanced by the difficult terrain the Germans have to attack across. Basically, the Free French can lurk behind hedges and wait for the Germans to move up behind another hedge two hexes away or have them cross into the open.

(To be continued.)

 

[von Marwitz]

How the game played out:

I played the Free French in this one.


Turn 1:

My first inital attacks did not have any effect except for a Pin result – something which would haunt me like a red thread through this scenario. Without approaches being pried open to penetrate them with follow up troops, I deployed some units which were not under initial TI to mess up the German entry option from the flank.

The Germans, having the choice of choosing the „long safe path“ from the back or the „short hazardous path“ from the flank opted for an „all in“ from the flank during their first Turn. They entered in a quite confined area, but except for a K/1 which CR'ed a squad and another HS pinning, my definsive fire had no effect in the center. Nor had his Advancing Fire because my firing positions had cover. Mainly unscathed, the Germans advanced around half of their flannking force boldly into the open and into my sights.


Turn 2:


(Center - End of Free French Turn 2)

I wanted to take advantage of my good firing positions in the center to break some Germans in order to take out the steam out of their attack. Things seemed to start well with me rolling snakes to have a 6+1 attack cower to 3+1, which was unfortunately countered by the Germans rolling snakes as well battle hardening one of their Elite squads to Fanatics.

His most juicy stacks out in the open alas happened only to be faced by to of my halfsquads, the firepower of which I assessed as insufficient to overcome 8 Morale troops with a 9-1 Leader and Assault Fire capability. Thus I slunk out of view.

I did the same with one of my squads cunningly Dashing away behind a hedge, thus halving his firegroup's fire and avoiding FFMO – to no avail, his attack was a 4, my MC a 9, which broke my squad.

Having realized during setup that my chaces to breach and then storm a building quickly were bad, I had put the DC somewhere else. A German squad had tried to squeeze by and now I placed the DC on it successfully.

Furthermore I moved units into position to make the sunken roads a death zone for the Germans. With the enemy squad in western patch of woods close to the Gully soon to be blown to smithereens, the basic way towards the H5 building seemed to be pried open. I did not provide any targets for German Final Fire.

During Advancing Fire, I even managed to despatch a German HS on the far southern flank. Alas, the DC did nothing more than breaking the targetted squad without even ELR'ing it, nor was it harmed any further by more AFPh shots.

My broken squad routed to my 9-1 Leader into a stone building, the DC'ed enemy squad scurried to the rear.

After my Advance Phase, I had no less than six units and three MGs covering the T7, U7, and V6 hexes along with the sunken road which the Germans would have to approach. All was under firm control.



(Center - End of German Turn 2)

The Free French position around the sunken road appeared so strong to the Germans that they had their Turn 2 reinforcements enter on the north edge and not reinforcing this flank. There was no German Prep Fire. He had his reinforcements move in and reorganized behind the gully in the north.

Now came the tricky part on the flank with lots of Free French sights trained on Germans who would dare to show themselves. What followed was an unmitigated disaster: Despite being in a strong favorable position and able to take even shots or shots with negative modifier galore, I could not get a single good result. To add insult to the injury, I malfed one of my MGs and a friggin' halfsquad of his managed to survive some -2 shots, wriggling past my line AND creating a Hero in the process...

So the very occasion designed to counterbalance the tactical burdens of the Free French did not weaken the Germans in the slightest but instead he came out stronger than before. Absurd!

Then he advanced forward. At least in my upcoming turn there was carnage looming for the Germans.

(To be continued.)

 

[von Marwitz]

Turn 3:

My Turn 3 did not start well with breaking a LMG in the repair attempt and losing a self-rallying HS to Fate.

What the heck, Prep Fire – I would deal death on the Germans in the killing grounds at point blank range. It turned out that I killed 1.5 squad equivalents, broke one squad and Pinned another. Not exactly bad but not great either given my position.

At the end of my Turn 3, the Germans in the center had been battered and I had taken away W6 from their Control again. But the cursed German HS plus Hero which had Battle Hardened forced me to garrison both the V1 and R3 buildings with forces I had wanted and needed elsewhere to prevent him from gaining Control of one of these buildings.


(Center - End of Free French Turn 3)

In their Turn 3, the Germans could retake the W6 sunken road crossroads and because it was their turn, they earned VP for it. The cursed Hero with his HS was deterred from trying to go for one of the buildings in my backfield, but they were a PITA by screwing up the Rout Path of my 458+MMG in W5, which their Kameraden had managed to break.

Those two 458+LMGs in the back were now sorely missed more up front, where my firepower was now quite weak. To make things more troublesome, the Germans in the North including their reinforcements were beginning to close in. For good measure, he had rolled yet another snakes on some morale check to make one of his 548s Fanatic.


Turn 4:


(End of Free French Turn 4)

Mainly because of his Hero plus halfsquad, my central defence had been seriously unhinged, forcing me to withdraw valuable troops to deny them the double VC point houses in the rear and because they forced my central MMG squad and another halfsquad to low crawl into a highly undesired direction. This deprived me of crucial firepower where I needed it most. To compound the problem, having battle hardened two Elite squads to Fanatics one of it led by a 9-1, I was looking at enemy troops with a morale of 9 or higher.

Consequently, I had a very hard time to stop the Germans. Stopping was not enough, though. To prevent a win, I would have to push them back to regain and hold W6 for an entire Turn while holding onto P8, R3, and V1 until game end. While I was rather confident about these buildings, W6 was a most serious issue.

I managed to break the German 8-0 in the W6 Victory hex they had just retaken, but failed to harm the 467 with it, nor did the said 467 flinch later after an 4FP @ +0 in AFPh The rest of my PrepFire failed once more to have any effects. This is not how it works... In return for a 4FP @ 0 shot where he passed his checks, I received a 4FP @+1 shot, which caused an MC for which I had nothing better to do than to roll boxcars to ELR and reduce my squad guarding the flank against his reinforcements from the north.

It was just frustrating. This is not saying I was always rolling bad. But too many of my good rolls were blemished by causing Cowering, falling just one short of causing a MC, or being countered with good rolls just at the right time. Anyways, in this halfturn so far my IFT roll average was 8.5 and my MC roll average was 9.5. This must not happen in a scenario, where the tactical burden of one's own side is supposed to be counterbalanced by benefitting from advantageous fire positions.

By some insidious movement of my lone 8-1 and 8-0 Leaders in the center and a mischievous way of routing on my part, I was able to force a rout path on his broken 8-0 in W6 that would lead to his destruction by Failure to Rout after dropping my Concealment at the most inopportune time for the Germans and delcaring No Quarter. The same method despatched the German HS which I had broken the previous turn and that had caused me so much trouble in company of the German hero.

Losses so far amounted to four squad equivalents and a 8-0 Leader on the German side plus a Prisoner HS under my control and another Prisoner HS shot by their own Kameraden. My losses amounted to two halfsquads lost to fate, a malfed LMG broken on a repair attempt and a detonated placed DC which had failed to do much harm.

In itself, this did not seem to look bad, but I had also three broken HS and a broken squad with MMG none of whom were in the same location with a Leader. And the disposition of my troops had been severly disrupted by the now late German HS and its accursed battle hardened Hero.



(End of German Turn 4)

In German Turn 4 he realized that it would be impossible for me to reach the three northernmost German held buildings in my upcoming last MPh in Turn 5. Therefore, he did not need to secure them any more and had two turns left to surge to towards the south where my flank-protecting squad had just rolled boxcars.

A shot by my 9-1, 458+MMG merely yielded a Pin result when trying to prevent the running forward of a German 247+MMG. A good DFF roll of mine yielding a 1MC on a 467 and 247 were shrugged off without effect, nor did the subequent first fire attack have any effect.

Knowing that I had to retake W6 AND hold it for an entire turn, the intact German four squads in the center, half of them Fanatic Elites, skulked out of sight, depriving me of targets. I could only hit his Hero, but he shrugged of all three caused MCs without effect while advancing into a blocking position next to W6. In turn, the Germans were able to re-DM two units in Advancing Fire, to cause a PTC, which I failed with a 10 and forced me to volunarily break in order to avoid CC against bad odds in a Pinned state.

Meanwhile, my ITF DR average this since Turn 4 had „improved“ from 8.5 to 6.92, but I just could not effect any results. The Germans' IFT average DR this session was 5.8, his average MC DR 6.0. The Germans advanced into the crucial W6 hex and into positions next to it.

During my last turn, it was now me that would have to run through open ground against point blank fire, survive it, get into CC and win it and hold W6 in the last turn. At the same time, one of my reaward buildings - -maybe unknown to him – was only „held“ by a concealed lone 8-0 Leader, who was in reach of 2.5 German squad equivalents plus a Leader. It was just frustrating.


(To be continued.)

 

[von Marwitz]

Turn 5:

My last MPh to retake W6 while having to hold R3 and W6 against the Germans moving last.

So, it was running the gauntlet for the Free French which meant entring a hex with -2 Mods for FFMO & FFNAM into which he could put 8 Residual FP. I needed to survive unpinned, then advance into CC against a German 467, kill it, and the survivors would need to prevent the Germans from advancing into W6 again. Hopeless.

Well but the Germans had just pulled off about the same thing two turns ago, hadn't they?

Rather than to attempt the CC thing, I decided to spend one of my precious few squads in range to Prep Fire against the 467 in W6 in order to break it an then force it to rout away from my heroes that would arrive unscathed ADJACENT. The breaking of the German 467 worked at the cost of fixing my 457+LMG in place.

Under stress, then I made a bad mistake. I had it in mind to attempt Infantry OVR'ing the German Hero in W5 which I wanted to enter in order to advance into W6. But I misremembered that Infantry OVR can only be done by MMC thinking that SMC can pull it off as well. I fired my 458+LMG from W2 at the Hero, which was the bad mistake in any case. Instead, I should have attempted to dryw fire by moving ADJACENT to it across OG with my 8-1+caputured LMG.

Anyway, needless ot say, the MC I inflicted on the Hero (I think it was by now the 5th one) was shrugged off with snake eyes. On the bright side of it, Heroes are exempt from Battle Hardening...

In a desperate attempt to decomission the German 9-1, 548 fanatic+LMG ADJACENT to the open ground hexes I needed to pass through, I committed two precious squads for a 8FP @ +1 shot. As ever so often, the result was „one too low“, causing only PTCs, which the Germans shrugged off, one of them with snake eyes. On the bright side of it, TC's don't trigger Battle Hardening...

So MPh it was. I assault moved into the open killing ground of V6 next to the W6 hex I needed to reconquer and hold. From point blank, the German 9-1, 548 fanatic + LMG fired at my halfsquad, merely using the Leader directed LMG for whatever reason. Even his IFT DR of 9 for a 6FP@ -2 was enough to cause a MC on my elite 248, which it – needless to say – failed by rolling a 6,5.

Continuing to draw from the "desperate moves department", I sent in my 9-1 with a 458 going CX. They reached the 2 Residual FP in V5. The IFT attack was 2FP @ -2, my opponents roll was 1,2 for a 1 KIA killing the 458 and breaking the Leader, and that was that.

My last theoretical chance to reconquer W6 now rested on a 457+Prisoner HS assault moving from Y6 to X6, which lies ADJACENT to W6. The yet unfired 548 fanatics across the Sunken Road in V6 took their shot at 5FP @ +1 Hedge TEM. Their roll was 1,2 for a 2 MC. This killed the German PoWs and in some ironic twist of fate now it was my squad's turn to roll snakes to Battle Harden.
It went Berserk, thus forced to continue its move immediately into W6 into CC with the broken Germans in there. In W6, the ADCACENT German Hero fired FPF three times heroically not harming himself, but despite getting a MC on my zerkers, they stood it. Next, the 467 in W8 fired on the Zerkers a 4FP @-2 even forgetting to impose Encirclement on me. The Zerkers stood the MC. Another 2FP @ -2 rolling a 5, but the Zerkers stood the MC again. Next came the ADJACENT 9-1, 548 fanatic +LMG. The squad decided to fire the LMG as sustained fire for their Final Fire attack which also precluded the Leader from directing it. Their attack roll was a 2,2 to make it cower, but as this attack was at -2 for being FFNO & FFNAM, it was still a Final 2 on the 6 FP column for a 1 KIA on my Berserkers.

The German average of the eight IFT attack roll on my units running the gauntlet through -2 grounds for FFMO & FFNAM was 5.5.

At this point, it was impossible for me to retake W6 much less hold it. I would likely lose R3 giving the Germans another 2 VP in their last turn for 21 while they only needed 19. My only theoretical chance to still win would be to have the Germans be inept enough to somehow contrive to lose 2.5 squad equivalents to me to push up the CVP I inflicted to 18 in his last half turn - while all he needed to do was plain nothing at all. Thus I conceded.


Aftermath:

Well, this sure is an interesting scenario with numerous tactical challenges for both sides.

But I cannot deny the fact that it was frustrating to see all my ventures failing time and again. In this last session, my 18 IFT attacks averaging 6.78 were countered by his 8 MCs averaging 5.5 and 8 TCs averaging 6.62. Opposed to that, his 18 IFT attacks averaged 6.06 which I countered with 9 MC averaging 7.56 and 3 TCs averaging 7.
In our previous session when my position was strongest during Turn 2 and while the Germans were most exposed charging through the Sunken Road, I did not get any meaningful result against them but a Pin or two. With the extra German Battle Hardenings, before all the Hero creation which screwed up my backfield and forced me to assign crucial units to prevent the taking of my rearward buildings, all this broke the Foreign Legion's back.


von Marwitz

 

[Doug Leslie]

It turned out that I killed 1.5 squad equivalents, broke one squad and Pinned another. Not exactly bad but not great either given my position.

Sounds like the PFPh of my dreams!