3.27.23: RO3 Defenders of Stalingrad
Played via VASL
Players:
Me: (Germans)
Opponent: Rusty Shields (Russians)
Result: German WIN
To me, this scenario is a lot closer that ROAR would make it appear. It is rated as strongly pro-Russian. I would argue a few rate of fire tears, coupled with well-timed skulking, can make the difference. The Russian SAN is a menace. His sniper eliminated my 9-2 on the first turn, and in the late game wounded the 8-0 and broke the 8-3-8 manning the HMG in my key defensive position in the victory building. These were later eliminated for FTR. Later, my sniper went on a tear and eliminated his 9-1.
By turn five, I still had 6.5 SEs in the field, with my Alamo position in the back of the building staffed with 4.5 SEs, 2 MMGs, and an 8-1 and 8-0The very tail end of the building contained a concealed 2-4-7 HS and Rusty would have had to fight through the rest of my troops to root him out. I had not eliminated very many Russians outright, but I was able to break key squads when I needed to do so, punting them back to his Commissar for a quick rally.
The final straw turned out to be a broken, DM’ed 4-6-7. He took a shot on it, and I rolled snake eyes on the MC. HOB DR turned the squad Berserk. Said berserk squad sat directly in his path inside the victory building to my Alamo position. At that point, Rusty conceded, as there simply was not enough time left to deal with the berserker and press home the attack.
Both our dice ran hot and cold. The Russians have a bunch of ground to cover with the bulk of his troops, and Rusty admitted he could have been more aggressive in the first couple of turns, especially considering the scenario is only 5.5 turns long. One more game turn and he would have overwhelmed me.
Whenever I tried to get aggressive with my fire attacks, inevitably I triggered his sniper. Oh, and on one attack, I fired a squad and an MMG at a 4-5-8 basically in the open, and not only had no effect, I malfed the MMG. Fortunately, I was able to repair it.
One thing I struggled with was the inclusion of a pair of 2-2-8 crews. I didn’t know what to do with them, honestly. Looking back, I think one of them should have had the OB-given FT and another should have had a DC. Instead, they went to squads. At one point, an 8-0 had to take over the FT because the squad that had possession broke, and I wanted to leave the weapon in place. The 8-0 recovered it and used it exactly ONCE before it broke.
Style points: I had positioned an 8-3-8 on the roof, and it broke on the second turn. I was able to self-rally it in Turn 4, then had it throw a DC into a hex at the ground floor of an adjacent building. The attack on a concealed Russian stack stripped concealment, broke one squad, and blunted the edge of his move on my right flank. Iron crosses and brandy all around boys, well done.
Neither of us had played in a long time, but both of us were satisfied with how we handled the rules and what we were able to remember, given this was an infantry-only scenario.
Next up: AP107 from AP 11
