von Marwitz
Forum Guru
FrF89 Red Tears Shed On Gray - AAR
Note that Hexrow R is NOT in play - it was added because otherwise the LOS tool of VASL was offset.
An early East front scenario that pits the Romanians vs. the Russians. The Romanians have a pretty good force of 16 squads, 4 of which are Assault Engineers which are supported by 3 Czech-built Pz35s. Goodies are 2 DCs and a FT and plenty of MGs. The only thing lacking is leaders of which there are only 3. The Russians have a mostly Consript force which is additionally burdened with an ELR of 2 (which did not have a large impact in our game, though). Only 2 MGs an ATG and an ART piece without AP supported by one Commissar and one leader presage which side is going to be pushed. On the bright side, the Russians defend in good TEM and do receive powerful reinforcements in the form of 4.5 squads, a 9-1 and 2 BA-6 armored trucks.
Basically, there are two (or arguably three) ways to tackle this scenario as the Romanians: Concentrate on the western flank or the eastern flank to go all the way or attempt a broad approach to go half the way.
It is rather decisive for the Romanians to capture and secure the victory locations in their 4th turn before the Russian reinforcements come in. With their reinforcements, the Russians then need to mount a counterattack, which is one of the attractions of this good scenario design.
In our game in which I played the Romanians, I elected to attack down the western flank. There was some indication by the way my opponent had placed one of his rubble counters that he wanted me to do just that, but it appeared the better choice nevertheless. A small force attacked towards the middle-east to tie down some Russians there and to mess up a possible shift of forces towards the west.
I did not find the guns nor the HIP unit where I expected them, which helped the middle-east attack to good progress. Instead, I found the Russian strong point the "hard way". Once discovered, I decided to attack it viciously at once and to swamp it immediately, as there is no time for the Romanians to lose a turn. Fortunately, this worked out at some cost (one tank among the losses) and the Russians managed to pull back better than hoped.
My Romanians pursued immediately and the two remaining tanks tried to impede the Russians retreating across the streets, one of them dodging the ATG when it popped up. Yet, the Russian Commissar managed to retreat back to the 1H7 building, where he and an accompanying squad met a gruesome death by FT. I had the necessary VC locations captured by the end of Romanian turn 4, though some Russian survivors had unfortunately escaped destruction back in the middle and managed to delay some units there.
The 1F6 building and 1H7 area was tightly secured though, when the Russian reinforcements came on. These, I was not quite able to harm when they moved into position. On top of that, my FT went empty on the 3rd shot when the reinforcements closed in. Three defensive fire attacks cowered on the last Russian turn which denied some fire opportunities and RFP to me. This allowed the Russians to close in and reinforce.
In the end, it were the few survivors in the back that proved to be my undoing - I could not kill a Russian HS in a 2:1 CC despite Ambush and thus not regain control of a location he had grabbed back to me. And I could not prevent him moving into another one of the back locations because the unit appointed to the task was stuck in melee and the squad covering the approach cowered and could not place a FL with its MG. Romanian loss.
Altogether a very good and fun game. I can recommend this scenario.
von Marwitz
Note that Hexrow R is NOT in play - it was added because otherwise the LOS tool of VASL was offset.
An early East front scenario that pits the Romanians vs. the Russians. The Romanians have a pretty good force of 16 squads, 4 of which are Assault Engineers which are supported by 3 Czech-built Pz35s. Goodies are 2 DCs and a FT and plenty of MGs. The only thing lacking is leaders of which there are only 3. The Russians have a mostly Consript force which is additionally burdened with an ELR of 2 (which did not have a large impact in our game, though). Only 2 MGs an ATG and an ART piece without AP supported by one Commissar and one leader presage which side is going to be pushed. On the bright side, the Russians defend in good TEM and do receive powerful reinforcements in the form of 4.5 squads, a 9-1 and 2 BA-6 armored trucks.
Basically, there are two (or arguably three) ways to tackle this scenario as the Romanians: Concentrate on the western flank or the eastern flank to go all the way or attempt a broad approach to go half the way.
It is rather decisive for the Romanians to capture and secure the victory locations in their 4th turn before the Russian reinforcements come in. With their reinforcements, the Russians then need to mount a counterattack, which is one of the attractions of this good scenario design.
In our game in which I played the Romanians, I elected to attack down the western flank. There was some indication by the way my opponent had placed one of his rubble counters that he wanted me to do just that, but it appeared the better choice nevertheless. A small force attacked towards the middle-east to tie down some Russians there and to mess up a possible shift of forces towards the west.
I did not find the guns nor the HIP unit where I expected them, which helped the middle-east attack to good progress. Instead, I found the Russian strong point the "hard way". Once discovered, I decided to attack it viciously at once and to swamp it immediately, as there is no time for the Romanians to lose a turn. Fortunately, this worked out at some cost (one tank among the losses) and the Russians managed to pull back better than hoped.
My Romanians pursued immediately and the two remaining tanks tried to impede the Russians retreating across the streets, one of them dodging the ATG when it popped up. Yet, the Russian Commissar managed to retreat back to the 1H7 building, where he and an accompanying squad met a gruesome death by FT. I had the necessary VC locations captured by the end of Romanian turn 4, though some Russian survivors had unfortunately escaped destruction back in the middle and managed to delay some units there.
The 1F6 building and 1H7 area was tightly secured though, when the Russian reinforcements came on. These, I was not quite able to harm when they moved into position. On top of that, my FT went empty on the 3rd shot when the reinforcements closed in. Three defensive fire attacks cowered on the last Russian turn which denied some fire opportunities and RFP to me. This allowed the Russians to close in and reinforce.
In the end, it were the few survivors in the back that proved to be my undoing - I could not kill a Russian HS in a 2:1 CC despite Ambush and thus not regain control of a location he had grabbed back to me. And I could not prevent him moving into another one of the back locations because the unit appointed to the task was stuck in melee and the squad covering the approach cowered and could not place a FL with its MG. Romanian loss.
Altogether a very good and fun game. I can recommend this scenario.
von Marwitz