Hatten CG I

Gunner Scott

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Hi all-

My buddy Randy Shurtz and I have been plowing through the Hatten module with me taking the Americans and Randy taking the mean old bad guy germans. We did try CG I earlier last week but I screwed up as the Germans really bad due to my poor attack on the village of Hatten. In our initial try at CG I I tried to enter as the Germans on a wide front, that did not work and got clobbered in the process. So to that end we restarted CG I with Randy taking the Germans this time around.

This time Randy purchased a bombardment and his drift ended up perfectly on the Church, after two boxcar rolls and other failed MC's his bombardment broke the back of my upper left corner church defense. So here comes the blue wave to crash upon my bewildered and broken Americans lol. I was half expecting Randy to attack from the east but instead he sent a small force to take the cemetery which he did initially. I had purchased two infantry companies, two armored platoons and an 80mm OBA module. I think Randy purchased the same equivalent of what I had purchased.

The first CG day was as can be imagined fairly bloody as the Germans cleared out the initial American on board forces, one thing I need to stress is really look at the LOS on the map when you move units into position, I missed a couple of LOS and lost two tanks unnecessarily. There are some really odd LOS you have to be careful of on this map. The four OB given hellcats were all lost on this CG day as I used them to stem his attack near the cemetary. I think the cost to the Germans was higher in infantry in dealing with my Hellcats and even though I could have just held them back, I wanted to cause as much casualties as I could on the German infantry. Plus I get alot more tanks during this CG then he does so I can afford the losses or I have been playing too much RB and am thinking like a Russian commander and not an American one lol.

By CG days end, I had incurred 46 CVP's and the Germans 30 CVP's which included one Mk IV and one HT. I did retake the cemetary and thus denied the Germans a victory for the initial CG day. So far my initial thoughts are this is an ok CG, it does not have that epic feel like KGP or RB have in my POV. The amount of American armor is seriously going to slow each turn down to a crawl and both Randy and I are fast players, the slow players will probably take forever with their armor assets to move around. Anyway, we just finished the Refit phase for day two with the German launching a day assault but once more I think the amount of firepower the Americans have will make it very difficult for the Germans to really take the required CG VC and all the Americans have to is just sit back and wait with alot of stuff to blunt the German attack.

Scott
 

Robin Reeve

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Thanks for the AAR, Scott!
This is whetting my appetite - as I haven't received my copy yet.
 

macrobo

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Scott - Your just the dude!
(a) Your always a great player to read AAR on campagins - your a dog with a bone it seems! so you provide no early towel throwing
(b) You write well both in AARs and the articles I come across with your authorship
(c) Your a machine - most of us have not even got the box OPEN let alone bloodied

Just the dude.....

Cheers Mate and keep it going

Rob :clap:
 

Gunner Scott

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Randy and I finally got together sunday night to hammer out a turn in our Hatten CG. As I said before, we are both fast players but due to the numerous AFV's in our respective OB's, it has slowed our turns down considerably. During German turn we see once more Randy's bombardment land perfectly and take out three American squads (Sometimes the utter randomness of this game can really be irritating) My two Shermans that were isolated near the grave yard almost survived the several PF shots made against them but the PSK's were able to finish off my two Shermans with ease. I also had purchased a Bombardment but it was useless as it flew far and away from any meaningful targets. On the Bright side, my 150mm OBA koncked out a couple of German Squads near the cemetery and even took out a 548 in CC. During my turn 1, I brought on my Armored reinforcements what a pain that was lol. So far this is an ok CG, the amount of armor really makes play somewhat painful at times.
 

Vinnie

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Not really looked too far into this but I thought there was something about armoured reinforcements not coming on until turn 3?
 

Doug Kirk

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Randy is a gluten for Hatten! I spent most of the weekend with him doing Hatten face to face. So after I left, he hit it again Sunday night. I will post some details of our weekend later tonight when I have more time.
 

Doug Kirk

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I got together with Randy over the weekend to give the Hatten CG 1 a try. Randy took the Americans and set up a defense, leaving the cemetery completely undefended other than a slew of 60mm mortars in over watch position from way in the back on the railroad. I took the Germans and bought I1, I2, A3, A4, and A5 on day one. I was forgoing the Panthers in order to have maximum smoke making capability and maximum tubes on target. I think I rolled one sN and placed one smoke shot the entire first day. I broke some MAs attempting to shoot smoke, missed some smoke shots or had no smoke rounds and missed several sNs…so much for the plan. However, it largely didn’t matter on day 1 as Randy did not stand and fight. He decided to preserve his force and fall back in an orderly manner. My broken MAs allowed some localized counter attacks, i.e. “drive by shootings” by the Hellcats so I lost a few tanks. Day one saw me lose 3 tanks in total and 3.5 squads and two leaders. Randy lost no tanks and the same infantry total basically, give or take a HS. Given Randy’s fall back plan, I took all 4 of the initial day victory areas so things were looking good and overall I was happy with the results, except for losing three tanks, which was probably two too many.

However after the good start, day 2 was an unmitigated disaster. Part of it due to my poor plan and part due to bad luck and they snowballed together. My mistake in planning was not buying an OBA module to help punch thru the American lines. My plan was to buy OBA the last three days, specifically on day 3 to hit really hard in conjunction with the flame tanks and then have OBA on the last two days to blunt the inevitable American counterattacks. The bad luck with the tanks in day one carried over into day 2. I could not buy a DR in the tank battle. Here is a microcosm of day 2 and the tank battle, with similar situations (and results) happening elsewhere on the map. Turn 1, I roll up a Stug and two JgPz IVs to hexes AA7, AA8, and AA9 to cover the main road diagonally across the board (hexes Y10 to T17). Come turn two I attempt to shoot smoke with Stug to cover the coming assault on the train station. But I roll a 12 to break the MA on the Stug. I leave the two JgPz IVs to cover the Stug. Randy’s part of turn two, I can’t fix the Stug MA. One of the 60mm mortars manages to immobilize one of the JgPz Ivs. So here comes Randy, swinging a Hellcat and 76L Sherman out into the fields in front of the cemetery outside my CA around CC9 and CC10. I have 4 or 5 HS in the cemetery for PF shots, no effect. I try to spin the one good JzPv IV but Randy declares the gun duel. We have same modifiers so low roll takes effect first. Randy rolled lower and killed me. The 76L Sherman missed the other immobilized JgPz. The Stug went in motion and popped sN. Randy stayed there and killed the Stug and the immobile JgPz IV the next turn. My HS force was covered in smoke or missed the PF shots and Randy escaped the Hellcat and Sherman back behind his lines again. In the tank battle, nothing went my way and everything want Randy’s way. I just could not roll a TH. Don’t get me wrong, I rolled some good dice in the infantry battle, lots of 3s. In fact Randy’s sniper was very hot, killing several leaders and eliminating my sniper entirely. But without an OBA module I could not break thru and take the train station as anticipated. My main attack up the middle with the reinforcing engineering zug and flamethrower was brought to a screeching halt by some perfectly placed OBA from Randy. Late in the scenario I broke thru and captured K13, but likewise, late I lost D13 to a small counterattack from Randy. So day 2 ended with me still holding 4 areas, gaining K13, but losing D13. The killer was CVP. Randy lost in the mid 20s for CVP and I lost in the mid 80s for CVP. I lost lots of tanks and halftracks. At the end of the day I had one Stug, one JgPz IV and two PzIVJs left vs Randy’s 14 tanks of various flavors. I just got absolutely pummeled in this scenario. I should have bought OBA, could have attacked a little differently, played smarter, but needed just a little help from the dice gods in the tank battle.

I started day 3 knowing it was probably over since I had lost so much and Randy had lost so little, but wanted to bring on the flame tanks and get some OBA in the game. A bombardment followed by some OBA cleared the railroad station. My flame tanks pushed up the middle while a sweep of the other board edge by PzIVJs and mounted infantry quickly cleared the D13 area again. This game was much more balanced on the dice in the tank battle, perhaps even favoring me a bit. For the first time, the American casualties were really mounting up and outpacing the German casualties (we didn't count, but Randy's pile was bigger than mine). I was pushing hard on the J17 area on turns 3 and 4. My OBA was now falling around the J20 area. But by turn 4 the American tanks and reinforcements were firmly settled into their defense line. The shear amount of American firepower had began to take its toll and brought the German advance to a halt. Midway thru turn turn I conceded after drawing red on the OBA and getting all the flame tanks killed. Randy had all his HMGs/MMG kill stacks going and even managed to roll some KIAs on my 5-4-8s in the stone buildings. I think I could have held onto the 6 areas I owned and needed for victory for the rest of day 3, but it certainly was not a given. But the writing was on the wall for the whole CG, my days of attacking were over. Going forward the Americans were going to seriously outnumber me in squads and vehicles and the firepower differential was going to be huge. No way to hold those 6 areas over the next two days.

Thoughts: Germans have to cause casualties early or the math is not in their favor going forward. I really needed OBA on day 2 to cause casualties. It is hard to kill Americans, they just route and rally. I think for the German to win they need to capture at least 7, if not 8 of the victory areas. The Americans are going to have serious firepower to counterattack on day 4 or 5 and will retake some ground. Certainly I see how the German can win it, but I think they need to play perfectly. The Americans can just fall back and wait for the cavalry to arrive and let their numbers and firepower build. And as Scott has remarked there are a ton of vehicles, the American will wonder what to do with them all. The scenarios take a long time to slog thru. We played two full days Friday and Saturday until midnight and didn’t quite finish day 3 before I conceded in the interest of time. And Randy and I are both fast players. It was fun, but it was a grind!
 

Aavar

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Somewhere in the rules it says the sniper cannot go below 2, which begs to ask what happens to a killer sniper that targets the sniper since the sniper cannot go below 2.
 

Gunner Scott

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Randy and I did complete turn 3 of our day 2 Hatten CG1 campaign. Lots of dead American tanks but lots of dead German infantry and too me this is more important then dead armor. Basically I am sacrificing my armor so as to get my infantry into good firing positions and it is paying off as Randy's infantry to taking casualties from both American firepower and firing PF at my tanks. It is my Among the Ruins tactic IE force the Germans to use PF's at the armor and then move the infantry up to cause the Germans further casualties if they broke firing off a PF in a building. The 150mm OBA has been murderous on the Germans in the cemetery area, now it is just a matter of mopping up that area. In the middle, Randy is holding strong with his units but on the flank my Infantry is starting tio gain some ground. The armor losses for the Americans is around 5 or 6 tanks vs the loss one panther, one PZIV and on Jg Pz IV. My losses are replaceable his are not. My over all plan is to hold the Cemetary since this is apart of the over all German CG victory Condition. I have lost 14 CVP in infantry and the Germans have lost 24CVP in infantry.
 

Gunner Scott

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Some thoughts on Hatten, The scenarios them selves are alot of fun but the CG's are not very fun, The amount of 60mm Mortars and AFV's for the Americans makes the CG's very painful to play due to the large number of AFV's the American player must bring on each CG day. On average you can possibly have upwards of 16 or more AFV's to move on map which eats up alot of playing time. On average the Americans will have in upwards of 12 to maybe 16 60mm mortar tubes firing every turn, this is seriously a huge time sink and really bogs game play down each turn. Currently we are towrds the end of CG day 3 of our Hatten campaign with the Americans having no more Armor, I sacroficed my armor to kill as much German infantry as possible which may or may not work, but there is no CVP cap on the Americans, so they can throw their assets at the Germans with impunity. Basically, the Americans must kill as much infantry as possible in this CG, and being that I get bored easily I just could not see myself sitting back with my armored assets nestled in a safe place. There really is nothing unique about this CG, the map is very generic, the forces are not particularly unique with the exception of the Germans have a FT Tank RG. The amount of American leaders in the game is very high, on average I had 1 leader for five squads most of the time. Would I play this again? Probably not, there is really no variation on attacks and defense, too much armor that has to be moved around that hampers play severely and gawd help you if your opponent is a slow one.
 

rdw5150

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Hello!

I am do to start this CG on Saturday. We shall see how it works out. Looking at it on paper, it appears that the Americans have more boots, more AFV (tubes), more leaders, the same amount of OBA and are defending stone buildings. What am I missing? While only two AARs are here, it looks hard on the Germans (on paper at least).

Peace

Roger
 

zgrose

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>> it appears that the Americans have more boots,

The Americans have to walk those boots a long way each day. Germans have tempo each scenario and can quickly cover a lot of ground.
 
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