Java 10 Our Hopes are Alpini on you

[Vrosso]

Ted and I dove into one of the Java packs, ASL for Fun, and naturally I gravitated towards the Italian side on this one.

Looking at the scenario, it is quite apparent that there will be some things that really suck for Alpini in this game. Lots of open ground to cross to get to the objective (although I do have some smoke making capacity). Airplanes, with bombs for my opponent and nary a weapon to use against them, although during play I realized that a captured HMG was my best hope for an AA defense.

In terms of picking my forces to enter the board, the selection was fairly straight forward, I wanted the guns and the mortars on quickly as well as the OBA spotter, so these 3 were selected. The 6th would be my shock troops and they would go up the main road, the 2nd was my other selection as they had the small mortars. My intent was to swap the mortars out with HS from the 6th, but I kind of fumbled that (i.e. forgot during play) and the little hs would serve out the game as mini banzai units.

Two of the Animal pack mortars would set up early in the rear to fire smoke and onto the HMG nests that were expected to be out there. Two 45 AT guns went up the road on wagons and I kind of messed up by sending two up the railroad tracks not realizing how expensive this was in terms of MP.

The 1st and the 3rd would follow on along with the two Stugs.

Going into this I wasn’t sure which of the two VC I’d go for (either taking the RR station which is closer or exiting 40 VP off the far edge). Although for the exit VC, the guns really have to be on the road.

Below is an illustration of where we were after 3 turns to provide an idea of where the different units were. The Russian reinforcements came on in T3 with the T-34 platoon materializing right in front of the 2nd platoon. The Stugs are marked with green stars.


At some point during these 3 initial turns (where there wasn’t much shooting going on), the Alpini where asked to name the form of their destructor, Ghostbusters style, and of course some of the obvious chooses are T-34’s, Sporatic air support, even Human Waves, but instead they choose something benign, Wind Weather Die Roll, this resulted in the removal of wind from the game which would then in turn impact the tricks one could do with smoke.

More to follow….., and if interested tune in to take a peak on Monday nights EST....

 

[Vrosso]

The next session covered turn 4 and Italian turn 5 to get to the following point:



On the left, the 2nd stopped, their best move was to stay concealed in the woods and hope the T-34's didn't maul them. The radio operator is hovering with them in the wood line and offers one of my best hopes for AT activity. The two 47 AT guns in the back unmounted so as to fire down the tracks and the Stug in this area parked on the tracks in F15 hoping to shoot up any T-34 brave enough to cross over the RR tracks. In turn 4 on did, it fired at the side and missed, then the T-34 showed a glimpse of it's tail (rear AF) so the Stug couldn't resist firing another round and boxcar'd the roll shredding the gun (recall).

In the center, nobody wanted to play there (it seems there is a double HMG stack up in the upper level of H28, so there are a few HS creeping forward in the brush here. The main action these turns was on the left, where the 6th took the strategy of charging forward into stacks until they proved they were real. In doing so, they progressed well into the wood in the area of N22, where things will start to get serious. Also on this side my 7-0 leader is starting to distinguish himself by showing his true colors.

In his mind, 6th company was chosen to lead the attack in this area as he is the best leader, a 10-3, his troops know better though. So he led his squads smack dab into the middle of a minefield resulting in ELR's on both himself as well as the first line squad with him. The squads around him also stumbled into minefields, all breaking, and this whole group is about to surge forward into the teeth of the defense on this side.

On the strategic level the 1st and the 3rd are now coming in behind the 6th into this area of battle. The 3rd mortar which progressed further than the other pair is being unpacked in K22.

Also notice the way the Italians are set up trying to avoid nice lines of 4 units everywhere, their strategy is to hope the Russians don't have a successful roll for Sporatic Air Support and as we all know, a strategy that revolves around hope is no strategy at all.........

As this is being composed, we are presently going into Russian T9, each posting is covering the events of one Monday night session, more to follow........

 

[Vrosso]

The next session we completed the full turn 6 and got in the Italian T7



After shredding the gun on a Stug in the prior session, it ended with a spotting round down (the very first spotting round landed off the board). I then had a chance to move the SR into the area of the tanks (shown on the prior post), all we had to do was make radio contact and then I'd have a 60-40 chance or so of landing the FFE on at least one tank (and a bunch of infantry in the area). Instead, we boxcar the radio contact roll. It was starting to look like I had nothing for T-34's. However, in the ensuing rally phase, we managed to fix the radio and then get the FFE to fall on the infantry on the right side, causing great distress.

On the left side, during Turn 6, the Italians managed to take the HMG next in the Sangar of O24 by assault moving one concealed unit adjacent (as well as several non-assualt movement units). Fire from the MG nest was ineffective and it was swept up in CC. Also managed to smoke the HMG in T28 which allowed a lot of freedom of movement on that side.

The Sporatic air support had shown up and was mostly ineffective (breaking a couple of squads) but doing no serious damage before going away (some of this was due to poor sighting TC rolls).

Our brave 6+1 leader in the minefield managed to rally not only himself but the unit that was stuck in the minefield with him. During Russian 6. the crew manning the HMG in R24 would break and rout away, the 6+1 then made a bee line for this AA weapon along with his HS, however, they would take a PTC in the final hex which resulted in the MMC pinning (they knew better than to follow this guy!), the 6+1 would advance and take possession of the HMG. In the next turn, the crew would rally and return with the 9-1 leader, my leader did fire the weapon at this and managed to malf it. The advance into cc against the pinned 6+1 and that's where this story would end, during play, I was thinking there'd be a bigger story line on this guy, but he went down in cc without causing any further damage.

As we close into the Russian T7, we have a HUGE reinforcement DR for the allies coming up. The T-34's have spread out on the front now, causing some unease for me. My strategy at the moment is to drive hard on the left side such that both VC options are on the table and see where things go. Things have gone pretty well in this session for me and I'm getting massive FG shots on the left side, the right side is starting to crack as more defensive units have shifted towards the center and the FFE is starting to become effective.

More to follow.....

 

[thedrake]

Just now reading is,great AAR. Will have to give this one a go soon.

 

[Vrosso]

In the next installment, we played Russian 7/Italian 8. This started with a huge roll for Reinforcements which missed high followed by the sporatic air support which was successful.

Below is where this turn ended.



A few things that happened, I drew a red card on the artillery and had to start over with a new SR in my turn. The tank on the right side malf'd the MA, improving my odds on that side also.

In the end of my 8th turn, I left a premium target on the road with my Stug, 4 hexes in a row of targets including a wagon towing an AT gun. Two planes came in on this, the wagon was made out of Teflon, so no hits stuck to it. The Stug however took a stun result on the last attack.

My attack in the area of T28 was blunted harshly with the 9-1 putting up a lot of effective fire into the attacking units of 1st company breaking at least 3 squads over here.

Another key development was my AT guns on the rr tracks in the back, first started firing on the HMG next in H28, and after rolling Snakes on a TH, we then added things up and turned out there were 6 hindrances, i.e., no LOS (when you play fast, sometimes you make errors like this, but I'll take speed any day). So they shifted fire onto the T-34 on the RR tracks and low and behold, one got a CH which was enough to wreck the vehicle. So now we're playing 4 T-34's vs 1 Stug and oodles of infantry.

On error I made on the VC, a couple turns back when clearing the MG nest in the Sangar, I invoked no quarter, so now to achieve the CVP tally off the lower board edge, I will need a very strong exit force of my units. Not invoking NQ, I'd be able to scoop up prisoners near the board edge to achieve the 40 CP much easier. Another aspect of the game that I'm struggling with is not hitting the broken squads with enough FP to cause DM, I keep forgetting details like snow hindrance which puts me out of range on shots I try to take at them. Small details like this come back and bite one later in the game.

for this session we are end of Axis 8 expecting 2 companies of reinforcements on the lower board edge for Ted in his next turn......

 

[Vrosso]

Here we are now, all caught up as this week. In this session we played Russian 8/Italian 9

One thing I forgot in prior posts, one of the T-34's drove across the board, exposing it's side armor to the Stug in P21 which was remaining in place since it had become an extraordinarily valuable asset to me (could not risk moving it forward into the unknown). The Stug did it's job and destroyed the T-34 in Turn 7 in hex P27.


In Russian 8 the reinforcements came in, completely shutting down my exit strategy, again, if I could take prisoners, maybe this would work, but at this point I don't think there is any way to get the bulk of my forces off the board intact in this area (also note Russian OBA has not surfaced yet). A total of two squads made a break to get into the buildings and the remaining forces are split between the two wood masses flanking the open exit area.

In my turn, the Italian masses surged forward as far as possible on the left. A key unit breaking was in L27, which was supposed to adv next to the broken 458 (J28) and DM it, Ted did a great job conserving FP for this particular shot.

My Stug finally felt comfortable moving forward only to come under fire (on the side armor) from a still hidden 45 AT behind my lines. Lucky for me the first shot missed, but rate was conserved, I did the only thing I could do with my next MP which was to pivot the front armor to the gun, and now a miss occurred and no rate. Since I could not risk a side shot vs. an Intensive Fire, The Stug moved forward to T26 and stopped, while a 447 CX'd to the gun. It advanced, was ambushed, but the roll was high. The counter roll was low enough to force CR eliminating the crew. (my next move will be the squad pushing this gun forward, while the MTR crew from back on the hill who had malf'd the mtr and failed the repair attempt comes charging forward to man the gun in a couple of turns).

In other cc action, one of my 247's was brave enough to go into CC against the T-34 in T29, got the Passaglia bomb (SR, similar to AT mines), but missed, the T-34 didn't miss. The conscript squad next to the tank thought better than to go into CC against this beast. As noted around the board, my units are now starting to pick up a lot of toys left behind by the defenders.

The right side is making some progress behind a 2nd round of OBA, my masses of infantry are only a few hexes away from the main buildings and this looks like the next few turns are going to be a real slug fest.

The postings on this one are now all caught up to where we are in the current game. Looking forward to the next round.

 

[FanaticTW]

Now if i could just roll under a "9" on any given DR, we'd have a ball game....

 

[=FC=Gorgon]

Now if i could just roll under a "9" on any given DR, we'd have a ball game....

 

[Vrosso]

In our last session we got thru 1 and a half turns starting with Russian 9 and playing a full turn #10 to get to the following point.



I must first admit that the dice were exceedingly in my favor so Ted is owed some good fortune in an upcoming match..

In the first half turn, the T-34 in T29 started up, whereupon two denziens in S29 that had just knocked off the 9-1/crew/HMG (yes rolled a 1 on CD in cc, so no AA weapons for me), tried to street fight the tank and both badly failed their PTC's. The ATR that was hiding under my 8-0 leader (who had to go back and link up with the poor HS lugging this thing around) was finally within 6 hexes of a functioning tank and promptly succeeded in a DI on the start MP (had a couple of captured ATR's with the same shot but at much longer odds.

In my turn, the highlight was a HS in the area of S27 going berserk and leading the charge into the mass of russian infantry (ending in T32, presently an empty hex). There must have been 12 shots against these fools running in the open and when the rolls were low enough, they passed the MC, eventually getting into cc with a squad and achieving mutual destruction, hence the empty hex.

Another full squad 447 with LMG got into the AT gun hex in G26 (also notably empty now) and cc was mutually destructive.

Going into the penultimate turn, we have a large mass of Italian infantry about to storm the RR station with 2 turns to gain full control. I probably used a full turn up moving more to the right side of the board, but this resulted in a lot of reinforcements now away from these key buildings. My units on the right side had their mission change to simply engage and try to prevent reinforcement of the victory area. We will see how the final two turns go, one thing that did go right for Ted was the Sporadic Air Support role which could have something to say about how this game will go.

More to follow..........

 

[Vrosso]

Forgot to mention the final notable item for me, the wagon team with a 47 AT gun also arrived within 6 hexes of the last remaining T-34 (the one that was on the left side failed it's MA repair attempt and exited the area). The AT gun DI'd the last remaining tank, and as in the prior case, the crews bailed. Dice were solidly on my side for the night.

 

[Vrosso]

Ted and I wrapped this one up on Monday night...

Here we're about the storm the factory.



Going into my 11 movement phase, the action started with a strafing run (before the 1st movement point to lay down residuals from J28 to M30. There was a lot, of ineffective defensive fire from the two HMG’s (no rate) as well as the squad on the left flank (in part due to the use of smoke grenades. However, Def Fire was effective in placing enough residual FP that the only unit that got into the factory was a CX’d HS.

After my MP, a plane managed to strafe up the road J29-31, which caused a several of my broken units to be eliminated via FTR (a major source of losses for my elite units).

In this turn, my fire on the berserk squad, crew in g28 managed to break the crew and a HS I managed to eliminate the berserk unit in cc.



Russian Turn 11 consisted mostly of skulking and re-positioning. There was a key rally of a broken 458 in G30.

In my 12, without the sporadic air support, the factory was stormed from 3 sides, leaving only an unbroken 458 to hold out. A couple of reinforcing squads were shot dead trying to get into the building and the final 458 in the building had an ineffective prep fire and it subsequently failed a MC on the first shot in my def fire phase of turn 12 to end the game affording my beleaguered Italians an unexpected, dice assisted victory in the final half turn of a 12 turn monster!



In a final act of savagery, an activated Russian sniper decided to pick on a wagon train (are they eliminated or just immobilized?), so this play will have to reviewed by both rule experts as well as those concerned about cruelty towards cardboard horses.

In the end, below is the disposition of remaining Italian troops (with each stack representing like counters). All of the companies were pretty well intermingled at game end.



Each of the elite company's took some losses, at least half of them occurred due to FTR when storming the RR station in the last turn. The 6th company had the worst of it losing about half of the squads, with an additional quarter being affected by ELR. One stug lost it's MA, the other was stunned during play. The radioman came in key on the left flank turning it from a situation where the company was cowering the woods facing a full company of infantry and the full platoon of T-34's.

During play as the Italian player, one gets a sense of how am I going to deal with these tanks?, what do I do about the airplanes (nothing could be done). My wife even asked me why don't you have airplanes too?

Would like to thank Ted for a great game, it is always a pleasure on Monday's, the Lone Canuck for making this available and all the folks who make VASL/VASSAL run.