ASL Red Barricades CG III

[Gunner Scott]

Yup as you can see I still have that table cover you made for me years ago, of course Alice has added a ton of artwork to it in the last couple of years lol. oh and that's Bob's sweat shirt hanging over it.

Scott

 

[Gunner Scott]

Day 12 turns 3 to 5:

Good times and bad times I think I really have had my share. Today was another day of total death and destruction at Stalingrad as both sides tried to push the envelope and have paid the price in buckets of cardboard blood. From turns 1 to 5 the Germans relentlessly have tried to push the Russians back on the western flank but the Russians just wont budge but at the same time have both inflicted casualties on the Germans and received heavy casualties in return. The German Stug near my 10-2's pillbox has managed to smoke in my pillbox thus making almost impossible for me now to knock off his MG nest on my west flank. The Germans are also trying to gain a foothold in the weed building on my west flank also but I have a berserk HS ready to charge to his death to try and disrupt his attack. And that damn tank is just giving me a ton of grief.

In the middle, the Germans are now realizing that I am thin on my eastern flank and with all my OBA now petered out, Bob is now trying to shift his forces in a easterly direction so as to gain some headway into the rubbled areas of my east flank. Well at least for the first few turns I did keep him smoked in with my OBA but with that smoke now about to completely disappear I will be facing some nasty MG death stars, to that end, I am abandoning all attempts at trying to hold my gains on my eastern flank and basically trying to withdraw back. In the middle, I am making some progress and taking advantage of Bobs shift to the east by slowly creeping forward, but without any DC's or FT left for my guys, I cant really put the screws on his remaining units to my front.

So far casualties are horrendous with the Russians clocking in at 50 odd CVP's and the Germans hovering around 39CVP's. All infantry, so essentially whole companies are being destroyed in the ruined city of Stalingrad. But I see the light at the end of the tunnel as the 13th day approaches the Germans will be hurting on the historical mods table, just gotta hang in there.

Scott

 

[Gunner Scott]

Day 12 end Day 13 Idle start Day 14:

Hi all-

Another RB CG date is now in the can with our game ending on turn 5. It kind of sadden me in a way because I wanted to boot the germans out of a few locations but oh well. The casualties as usual were terribly high with the Russians suffering around 57 CVP which includes the loss of two low level leaders. The German losses were pretty harsh too as their losses came to around 45 or 46 CVP's including 4 or 5 SMC's I think three of which were in the -2 category. The Russians did win this CG date since the Germans were only able to retake 10 or 12 stone locations. On the other hand, the loss also takes away from the Russians the CG balance. The Germans might be planning to try and do the old lets get the CG balance trick. Good move indeed.

So on day 13 Bob decides to take an Idle day and boy was I tempted to do a night attack, but I wanted to wait a just a few more days, at one point in the CG I will get a -2 which will help me get some good stuff to help prepare for a counter stroke. posted below is the perimeter for the 14th day and as can be seen, the Germans did gain some ground, not a lot but they are chipping away nonetheless.

Scott

 

[Gunner Scott]

As we approach the halfway mark of our RB CG here are some thoughts as the Russian commander on how to survive the first 15 days. First and foremost, RB CGIII is a serious time commitment, there is no way around this and both players should recognize this fact. The chances of playing anything else will be nonexistent if players are serious about playing this CG. Sometimes there might be a really bad day for one side or the other, I would highly recommend in such situations is to give your opponent a break and end the CG date on turn 5. No need to be cut throat when playing RB, this is not a tourney scenario we are playing but an exercise in the historical battle for Stalingrad. Be patient with your opponents actions, this is after all a lot of very complicated situations across the battlefield, especially at the mid point of this CG.

As the Russian player, try to buy as much infantry as possible because on average you will lose two companies each day but with more infantry waiting in the wings, you will come back each day with a solid line of defense. OBA is very important for the Russians, but do not piss away your 80mm OBA early on. Try to save a couple of those 80 RG's for the end game. Basically switch it up by purchasing 70's on a few days and maybe 80's on another day and so. Purchase Rocket OBA when you fail to burn down an important building, this way you have a good chance to rubble such a building and possibly burn it. Your heavier Arty IE 120's should be used along side your Rockets to further disrupt the German attack, basically 120's can be used as a poor mans rockets IE use it as harassing fire at 8FP per a hex is not a bad deal.

All in all, don't expect to win the CG on the first date. Be patient and take your lumps. By the 30th of October you will find the Germans are hurting too and taking more idle days due to the +1 historical drm.

Scott

 

[Gunner Scott]

Day 14 turn 1 and 2 (Ger)

Howdy all-

Well another RB CG date has commenced and within a span of 1 1/2 turns 4 Russian Squads plus an 8-1 leader are dead along with an immobilized T-70 from Bob's 150mm OBA. For the Germans, their losses are from having set DC's going off with falling rubble killing 4 of the German squads. Had a forth set DC in building G33 but my plunger squad failed to pass a TC to detonate his Set-DC. And of course once these guys did come out of hiding, Bob's kill stacks instantly zerged right on them, fortunately I managed to get some smoke out there to cover their withdraw back, but with 10-2 and 10-3 leaders out there leading FG's, I ended up taking a few casualtires, but thankfully the smoke helped minimized those casualties.

Bob's OBA was spot on with as he took advantage of my T-70 having stopped adjacent to his pre-reg hex of F42 and whacked my HIP MMG FG with 150mm OBA as well as immobilizing my T-70 in the process with out having to draw an extra card for concealment. Bob's air support also arrived on turn 1! But sadly Goaring could only muster 1 Stuka for the Germans. It was kind of funny too, Bob's rolls a 1 for entry (he had early entry option) so he jumps up and down with joy, than he rolls a 1 on the subsequent dr only to get one stuka, talk about going from happy to sad in a span of 10 seconds.

In the middle of the map among the factories, a bit of cat and mouse game is being played out as Bob brings in OBA with his spotter Plane to try a disperse any possible Russian troop concentrations which when you look at the pic, seems to be working. On my east flank, I am currently trying to smoke in building GG22 but my OBA smoke was slightly off. Yes I am going try and retake both the commissars house and building GG22 for the 9th or 10th time lol.

So after the initial turns, it looks like Bob is going play defense in both the middle and eastern flank today and is making a major effort to noodle out the Russians in the Bread Factory area. So this will be a very interesting battle that is for sure.

Scott

 

[Bob Miller]

1/36 chance that a level-1 wood building would have falling rubble take out the hex that my other 3 squads were waiting out the set DC detonation game. 1/36 Joys of RB

I did predict exactly where Scott would have a kill stack (F42 level 1) and got a "3" 3KIA on the OBA roll for that hex. But my 1/3 chance at rubbling the building didn't pan out. That would have been 3 MMGs ripped from the Ruskies. The first few scenarios of this CG I was able to rip most of Holst's MGs away from him due to broking his guys and having them rout away as I advance into the MGs hex. However this front line has been so static lately that I have not been able to remove Holst from his MGs.

One bloody Stuka again. The last three Stuka purchases have been just one.

 

[Gunner Scott]

Day 14 turns 2(rus) 3 4 5

A day of incompetency, failed Observation plane, failed human waves and so much more. Well another 3 1/2 turns played on Saturday with lots the usual death and destruction that can only happen in a Stalingrad CG. So on Russian turn 2, I do get my OBA going for both my 70mm and 80mm. I put an OBA smoke on building GG22 (or whats left of it) and than put the 80mm OBA near the bread factory to slow down Bob's attack. The 80mm works wonderfully by immobilizing one stug and breaking up his attack towards the bread factory. The only bad thing to happen for the Russians in the Bread factory area was the loss of their T-70 which was in bypass of a couple of 548's in CC. Still, I was fairly strong in that area and with a couple of squads led by my commissar, managed to further cause the Germans some grief. Bob did try to shift more armor to support his attack into the Bread Factory area, but that really did not help. He really did not put a lot of strength behind his infantry attack and by turn 4 was withdrawing his guys off map top avoid further casualties.

The MVP for the game though has to go to Bob's 150mm OBA which ravaged my kill group and eliminating three MMG's with fire and rubbling. His 150mm caused the loss of close to 10 Russian Squads, especially my rooftop mortar units with a miracle whip around and a 1 accuracy dr. Even though his infantry attack was weak into the Bread factory, his OBA came out of the gates like hell itself onto my lads. Thankfully I caused enough losses on the Germans so as they could not really push the attack into the Bread Factory area.

In the middle of the RB map, Bob's Observation plane continues to screw him over, either the damn thing cant make its radio check, or if it does, Bob ends up rolling boxcars on its spotting check. I could have as the Russian player, converted the mistaken OBA attack to an FFE 1 but declined due to too many of my guys might end up in the blast area. So he just lost his SR instead and had to put a new one out on the map on the next turn. In the long factory, I felt this was my chance to try and evict the last of his guys from that factory, so I decided on launching a human wave. The human wave is pretty awesome if used in the Factory's, not only do you get the fanatic status but also a bump in your ML, so with 7ML guys, I am at ML 9 for my Human wave. Unfortunately, Bob had some heavy hitters HIPed near by and totally ripped my HW elements to shreds and to add insult to injury, most of my broken human wavers found themselves in Failure to rout situations. But there is the next turn and he cant kill everything.

The eastern flank is also turning out to be a sort of a disaster for my Russians, as I cant seem to dislodge his guys from building GG22, so I think I'm just going to have to wait until my engineers are up (I have engineers in reserve) and than I might be able to really corkscrew him out of building GG22.

So far losses for bothsides are horrendous, but more so for the Russians, the 150mm OBA and the failed HW really put the hurt on my boys. But the good news is, I have a ton more bodies to throw at the Germans on the next day. Casualties thus far are 23 Russian squads and I think 14 German squads with the Russians losing one of their 82mm Mortars along with a T-70 and one German stug immobilized. Gotta love RB, attacks, counter attacks, desperate last ditch defenses all in a typical RB CG day. No other CG can come close to such a great CG like RB that is for sure.

Scott

 

[Honza]

great photos....

 

[Bob Miller]

Oct 30th came to an end after six fulls turns. Russians took back the rubble that was the Commisar's house and claimed some territory just to the west of that. That would have given Scott a nice "bridgehead: if the next battle was a night battle as I would have had a lot less controlled area to fall back. But I got lucky on the ELR roll and stayed at a 4. Russians are at 4 as well. Russians had the victory this date as I did not take enough stone locations. With my ELR staying at a 4 I can take the attack chit on the 31st which I did. Russians went Idle.

I purchased no infantry or tanks on Oct 30th. Early Stuka, Spotter, 75L Guns, 150 OBA with a prereg and Offboard Obs. Plus SAN and Forts.

28.5 dead Russian squads, 2 dead crew and 5 leaders. 14.5 dead German squads and 2 dead leaders. 3 Russian MMGs and one of his 3 81mm MTRs were disposed of. This was one of my better kill ratios for a day's work.

Rumor has it that Holst purchased his last 447 Rifle for the 31st. He will have to play the second half of the CG with SMGs and Elite Rifles at 9 CPPs per company instead of the 5 points for the 1st line Rifles.

At the end of Oct 30th the Ruskie has over 80 squads on map for my 60. Somehow over the next 15 dates I need to take all but 5 stone locations to win the CG. The front lines really haven't moved in 8 battle dates. My overall plan is based on the premise that it will be a lot easier to take over a stone location if there are no Russians troops sitting in it. Thus killing Russian troops over territory expanse is the priority. We shall see.

 

[Honza]

Bob how many Pionier Coy have you used so far?

 

[Gunner Scott]

Hi-

Don't really have time to give a full AAR of our game, we did complete day 14 but I'm going to the ASL open, so when I come back I'll give a run down of the days ups and down. As for your question about engineers, I think Bob only purchased one RG so far.

Scott

Bob how many Pionier Coy have you used so far?

 

[Gunner Scott]

End of Day 14
Hi all-

Well I have a little time to post the aftermath and map of our RB game. Oct 31st will be the last day of having commissars on map and is the beginning of several + historical mod days for the Germans. As Bob mentioned in his post above, our game ended on turn 6 with a ton of casualties for the Russians and a few for the Germans. But the key thing here is that the Russians outnumber the Germans in squads IE my 86 or so squads vs his 60 odd squads for the next battle (if I count my reserves it will jack up my total to around 116 squads on map)

We basically had three battles going at once, one around the bread factory area, one in the middle of the map in the factories and one around the rubbled remains of the commissars house. We fought to a standstill in the Breadfactory area and as can be seen on the map, part of the BreadFactory area is ablaze (the orchards caught fire and a building caught fire either by OBA or MOL's cant remember exactly how). Also note that two building in the breadfactory area were brought down by Bob's 150mm OBA. So just another typical day for the fight for Stalingrad.

In the Middle around the long factory, we see the Russians retake some ground and push the Germans back a bit. I personally feel that maybe the casualties incurred in my little adventure to secure the long factory may have been too high casualty wise. But I do have the bodies to replace my losses and it does buy me time and territory as well as force the Germans to try and retake lost ground. Still, you cant beat using a Human Wave through the factory's that's for sure. Ya it did not work out to well, but it was still a lot of fun and did catch the Germans by surprise.

Around the Rubbled ruins of the commissars house, I slowly worked my way forward with concealed units, with dummies in the first wave and real guys in the second wave. I used both my arty assets (70 and 80mm OBA) to smoke in his kill stacks so as to take more ground from the Germans. Bob's Spotter plane did come to life on this last turn and almost stopped my little counter attack in its tracks, I think if he had used harassing fire vs concentrated fire, that would have really put and end to my counter attack.

Snipers were not as active as I thought they should be, and my booby traps I think went off maybe once or twice during the game. In the refit phase, my sniper did go down to a 5 but my booby's remained at 11's and 12's for activation. All of Bob's armor remained on map, so no recall today for the German panzers.

So with this day in the can, and the start of Day 15 I am now out of Rifle companies to purchase, Bob did geek me out a bit, as he kept going on about maybe taking an idle day, so with me thinking he was going to take an idle day, I purchased my last Rifle company and two Guards SMG companies and upped my sniper back to a 6. So no OBA for the Russkies. With no OBA to cover his kill stacks, I'm going to have to really play the ground hog game IE hide! Once more a fantastic game and loads of fun with Bob causing me a ton of casualties, killing one 82mm MTR and destroying 3 MMG's. Not a bad for the Germans at all.

Scott

 

[Bob Miller]

Bob how many Pionier Coy have you used so far?

I audited my purchases and found I bought one more Rifle Coy than I thought I did.

At the end of Oct 30th which was the 14th date of the CG. Almost halfway. I acquired:
9 of the 14 I1's Rifle Coys
5 of the 9 I2's Sturm Coys
1 of 7 I3 Pioneers (expensive buggers)
1 of 5 I4 HW Platoons

So I am not as better off as I thought than Scott in regards to % of total boots purchased vs the total amount available.

 

[pj norton]

Trent Dobbs and I are just starting day 6. Having a ball.

 

[Gunner Scott]

I ended up surrendering as the Russian on Nov 1st out of frustration. Do not play RB with a badly twisted ankle, it does not bode well for the campaign.

Scott

 

[Eagle4ty]

I ended up surrendering as the Russian on Nov 1st out of frustration. Do not play RB with a badly twisted ankle, it does not bode well for the campaign.

Scott

Hope you're doing better buddy! Too bad you gave it up but usually somewhere from the 28 OCT to 5 NOV CG dates is where real Battle Fatigue sets in (at least in my experience). This is especially true for the Russkies as by then though there seems to be a stalemate, the Commie pukes are taking it on the nose as better and better Germs are appearing in the AO. Perhaps you guys will give it another try when you're feeling up to speed physically. Again, take care & wishing you the best & a fast recovery.

 

[pj norton]

Question...if an OBA module draws two red cards during a CG date before it ever places a FFE:1 is it retained?

 

[Eagle4ty]

Question...if an OBA module draws two red cards during a CG date before it ever places a FFE:1 is it retained?

Yes. And the Draw Pile is reverted back to its original allotment of Red & Black chits/cards. (There's a Q&A in the Romanowski compilation about this matter (See Klas' total Q&A that includes both his and the Romanowski compilation, Chapter O.)

 

[pj norton]

Thanks.

 

[Gunner Scott]

Just a heads up, Bob and I plan to start another RB CG with me taking the heroic Germans this time around.