Paul S NJ
Senior Member
Draconian Measures - D6 features a strong combined arms 1943 germans fighting the width of a deluxe city board. They have a choice of achieving one of three VC, while not losing too many AFV. I played my buddy Ron Duenskie in this classic deluxe scenario to prepare for a match with Dan Stanhagen in the all-day opening round of the Albany 2019 tournament. Dan beat me badly in WO1 French Toast and Bacon in the DC Human Wave tourney in June. We used the Pleva bid system with me bidding G4 and Dan bidding G7. I added a 447 w/ lmg and upgraded my SAN to 6 and my 9-1 to a 10-2. In my game with Ron, I gave him G4 and he chose to upgrade the SAN and take the 447/lmg. with Ron I had the germans and lost a fun, close game on the AFV VC.
Here’s a scenario analysis and AAR of the game with Dan.
Russian Strengths:
- Variable Victory Conditions mean that the Russian has to guess whether the clearance or 4 GO squad VC is in effect. The exit VC is a non-starter.
I expect Dan to push hard in the A-E hex rows with most of his troops (12-16 squads). My guns will try to kill supporting AFV’s, smoke kill stacks, and the 10-2 HMG/MMG stack will try to clear the dA2-B2-C3-D2 road. The 5 squads in dB3 building will try to hold fire, keep concealment and rotate fresh troops forward to keep the building for 3-4 turns.
I expect a secondary attack through I4-J4 back by tanks/Pz4 smoke.
By turns 5 or 6 I hope to have my 628’s (with any board d survivors) established in aC2 backed by T-34’s in aA5, aC5 and aI4 to protect rally points from marauding HT’s and tanks.
Endgame will have degraded infantry of both sides fighting for the factory and aC2. Whoever can erode the enemy tanks and infantry the best will win.
Hex(level) Units Top unit and counters underneath
aI1 76L->dH4 HIP (with crew)
dI5 57LL->dG5 HIP (with crew)
aG2(2) ? 458/ATR ?+2
dA4 ? 458/lmg ?+2
dC4 ? 458/lmg ?+2
dC4(1) ? 8-0, 447x2 ?+3
dC4(2) ? 458/ATR ?+2
dE4 ? 7-0 458/lmg ?+3
dF4 ? 447/ATR ?+2
dI4 ? 458/MMG ?+2
dI4(2) ? x 3 ?+2
dI5 458, 10-2/HMG 458+2
dJ4 447 447
dm5 447 447
dN4 ?x2, 447x2 ?+3
dO4 ?x3, 447 ?+3
Setup and Turn 1:
Dan put a 9-1 with two 237’s and his HMG and MMG in the central stone building with the rest of his infantry ready to push in the A-E hexrows. Turn 1 he ran his Pz4’s into the central area of board C ready to place fire or smoke on my upper levels locations. His infantry ran into the dC2 building.
Turn 2: Dan moved his HT”s with 838’s and toys to my right and unloaded in the J-K area. One Tiger with a 838 rider ate a 8+1/+3 with the tiger crew stunning and the 838 reducing. Dan was pretty aggressive with his Pz4’s running them up to the orchards in the board D. One died to street fighting. Another Pz4 was immobilized on my left and I opened up on it with my 57L from dI5. In my T2 my 10-2 broke most of the three squads in dC2 but one 468/MMG survived to hit the 10-2/HMG/57L stack with an 8+2. That broke the 10-2 and gun crew. My 8-0 went berserk, taking a 458 with him, while Dan’s SAN2 killed my 7-0. Down to no GO leaders, uh-oh! In my turn the berserkers ran into the immobilized pz4 hex reducing the 458 and wounding the 8-0. In my turn I threw another 458 into the street to take on the tank. Of course he missed the 6 close combat roll to kill it, then broke to german fire. In trying to kill him off Dan fired into the hex with the 458 rolling a snakes (yeah!), followed by boxcars (crap!) to surrender. Meanwhile my 10-2 wounded after boxcarring his rally and the 57L crew decided to also roll boxcars to end his suffering.
Turns 3-5 Dan pushed my troops off of board D and his engineers pushed into the factory area, heavily supported by Tigers and Pz4’s . One HT was recalled by the sniper and my sniper (who had been very quiet for a SAN6) finally woke up to kill the german 9-2 and breaking his escorting 838s. My 76L crew were heroic in placing key smoke, breaking infantry, keeping the tanks honest, and even ambushing and killing an intruding 338. Twice I advanced squads into street fighting with Pz4’s and rolled 12’s to eat crew small arms. Dan ran a berserk squad into my squad’s hex in dI5 and then placed a DC to rubble that building and kill them both. Dan also risked falling into a basement by moving his Tiger into a wooden building, resulting in rubbling the building.
Russia turn 4 my reinforcements showed and moved to reinforce the factory.
German turn 7 - As predicted the game came down to surviving dregs of both sides trying to find each other in the heaps of dead bodies. The end game had about 8 surviving german squads, with two heroes, one HT, two tigers and two Pz4’s facing 3 T34’s and 7 squads. All Dan had to do was make 3 russian squads non-GO anytime to win. He killed one T34 with a Tiger in prep and then threw a tiger into my rear, only to lose him to the wounded 10-2/628 in street fighting. Then he ran his two Pz4’s up to my T34’s who managed to each roll 5’s on their APCR5 rolls for the win based on losing/recalling 7 of 9 AFV. Dan still had four player turns left and had me on the ropes, but just got a little impatient and went of the win. I was fortunate to pull out some good rolls to save my bacon! A great scenario and very fun game. I heard the new deluxe pack will add a leader, squad and lmg to the defense, which I think is a good tweak. I'd highly recommend this classic.
Paul
Here’s a scenario analysis and AAR of the game with Dan.
Russian Strengths:
- almost a 1:1 squad ratio (20 to 19 with the PBS 447 and assuming four 628’s as reinforcements)
- 5 guns/tanks with good TK #’s vs the Pz4’s and able to DI Tigers
- 76L smoke
- 3 ATR’s which can kill halftracks and DI Pz4’s
- the 76L ART has an almost mandatory placement in aI1 due to the factory status
- only 4 leaders, which forces them to man rally points
- Reinforcement variable entry- Turns 1 or 2 means too few 628’s; while turns 5 or 6 may make them late to the party
- few options to neutralize german kill stacks in level 2, or for Pz4’s in the rear firing on upper level defensive locations
- Variable Victory Conditions mean that the Russian has to guess whether the clearance or 4 GO squad VC is in effect. The exit VC is a non-starter.
- Tiger frontal armor can usually stand up to any threat while Tiger/Pz4 MA can kill T-34’s and all MA’s and MG’s are dangerous to infantry
- Firepower (including the flamethrower and MG’s) is roughly double the defender’s fp.
- four 838’s plus a FT and DC’s can create a powerful focus of an attack
- Lots of time in a 8.5 turn game where the advance only needs to go 8 or so hexes
- Smoke from Pz4’s and 838/468’s to cover open ground
- The initiative allows concentration of 16 squads or so in the A-E hex rows.
- Leadership, while six leaders isn’t much for 20 squads (especially with a SAN 5 or 6), a total -5 leader DRM is significant
- 6 tanks and 3 halftracks give lots of mobility in the endgame, after the guns and atr’s have been neutralized
- AFC VC (loss/recall/immobilization of all 6 tanks or 7 of 9 AFV) prevents aggressive early play. DI vs the tanks and ATR/LMG shots vs the HT’s are quite dangerous.
- Piecemeal entry over two turns means the attack takes some time to concentrate
- 10 squad exit VC is impossible, don’t consider it
- hex rows A-D can use turn 1 reinforcements quickly and have good rally and prep spots but have to cross open ground and are subject to fire from dI5
- E gully below most LOS but can be hit from E4 and C4
- H-K stone building has orchard to avoid FFMO, opportunity for Pz4 smoke from safety, can use point blank tank fire and DC’s to unlock the defense
- M-N has orchard to avoid FFMO, poor Russian rally points. However it has poor fire support points and it’s far from Turn 1 and 2 entry points, so likely not much more than a secondary axis
I expect Dan to push hard in the A-E hex rows with most of his troops (12-16 squads). My guns will try to kill supporting AFV’s, smoke kill stacks, and the 10-2 HMG/MMG stack will try to clear the dA2-B2-C3-D2 road. The 5 squads in dB3 building will try to hold fire, keep concealment and rotate fresh troops forward to keep the building for 3-4 turns.
I expect a secondary attack through I4-J4 back by tanks/Pz4 smoke.
By turns 5 or 6 I hope to have my 628’s (with any board d survivors) established in aC2 backed by T-34’s in aA5, aC5 and aI4 to protect rally points from marauding HT’s and tanks.
Endgame will have degraded infantry of both sides fighting for the factory and aC2. Whoever can erode the enemy tanks and infantry the best will win.
Hex(level) Units Top unit and counters underneath
aI1 76L->dH4 HIP (with crew)
dI5 57LL->dG5 HIP (with crew)
aG2(2) ? 458/ATR ?+2
dA4 ? 458/lmg ?+2
dC4 ? 458/lmg ?+2
dC4(1) ? 8-0, 447x2 ?+3
dC4(2) ? 458/ATR ?+2
dE4 ? 7-0 458/lmg ?+3
dF4 ? 447/ATR ?+2
dI4 ? 458/MMG ?+2
dI4(2) ? x 3 ?+2
dI5 458, 10-2/HMG 458+2
dJ4 447 447
dm5 447 447
dN4 ?x2, 447x2 ?+3
dO4 ?x3, 447 ?+3
Setup and Turn 1:
Dan put a 9-1 with two 237’s and his HMG and MMG in the central stone building with the rest of his infantry ready to push in the A-E hexrows. Turn 1 he ran his Pz4’s into the central area of board C ready to place fire or smoke on my upper levels locations. His infantry ran into the dC2 building.
Turn 2: Dan moved his HT”s with 838’s and toys to my right and unloaded in the J-K area. One Tiger with a 838 rider ate a 8+1/+3 with the tiger crew stunning and the 838 reducing. Dan was pretty aggressive with his Pz4’s running them up to the orchards in the board D. One died to street fighting. Another Pz4 was immobilized on my left and I opened up on it with my 57L from dI5. In my T2 my 10-2 broke most of the three squads in dC2 but one 468/MMG survived to hit the 10-2/HMG/57L stack with an 8+2. That broke the 10-2 and gun crew. My 8-0 went berserk, taking a 458 with him, while Dan’s SAN2 killed my 7-0. Down to no GO leaders, uh-oh! In my turn the berserkers ran into the immobilized pz4 hex reducing the 458 and wounding the 8-0. In my turn I threw another 458 into the street to take on the tank. Of course he missed the 6 close combat roll to kill it, then broke to german fire. In trying to kill him off Dan fired into the hex with the 458 rolling a snakes (yeah!), followed by boxcars (crap!) to surrender. Meanwhile my 10-2 wounded after boxcarring his rally and the 57L crew decided to also roll boxcars to end his suffering.
Turns 3-5 Dan pushed my troops off of board D and his engineers pushed into the factory area, heavily supported by Tigers and Pz4’s . One HT was recalled by the sniper and my sniper (who had been very quiet for a SAN6) finally woke up to kill the german 9-2 and breaking his escorting 838s. My 76L crew were heroic in placing key smoke, breaking infantry, keeping the tanks honest, and even ambushing and killing an intruding 338. Twice I advanced squads into street fighting with Pz4’s and rolled 12’s to eat crew small arms. Dan ran a berserk squad into my squad’s hex in dI5 and then placed a DC to rubble that building and kill them both. Dan also risked falling into a basement by moving his Tiger into a wooden building, resulting in rubbling the building.
Russia turn 4 my reinforcements showed and moved to reinforce the factory.
German turn 7 - As predicted the game came down to surviving dregs of both sides trying to find each other in the heaps of dead bodies. The end game had about 8 surviving german squads, with two heroes, one HT, two tigers and two Pz4’s facing 3 T34’s and 7 squads. All Dan had to do was make 3 russian squads non-GO anytime to win. He killed one T34 with a Tiger in prep and then threw a tiger into my rear, only to lose him to the wounded 10-2/628 in street fighting. Then he ran his two Pz4’s up to my T34’s who managed to each roll 5’s on their APCR5 rolls for the win based on losing/recalling 7 of 9 AFV. Dan still had four player turns left and had me on the ropes, but just got a little impatient and went of the win. I was fortunate to pull out some good rolls to save my bacon! A great scenario and very fun game. I heard the new deluxe pack will add a leader, squad and lmg to the defense, which I think is a good tweak. I'd highly recommend this classic.
Paul