Gunner Scott
Forum Guru
Hi all-
A few days ago, Randy and I started CG I from KGS. I am playing the embattled Kampfgruppe Scherer trying to hold back the Russian hoards. For the Red Army's part, they are attacking from all sides but fortunately it is in a piecemeal fashion. The Russians in this CG are very hard pressed to accomplish their objectives and for the initial scenario the Russians have to control 10 more blocks than they control, I think they control two or three initially. The CG ended on turn 5 with me rolling a one on the game ending roll and the Russians only being able to gain 9 blocks, they were one building short of controlling a 10th block for a win.
My purchases for the initial CG day were one fighter bomber group, one Stuka group and a 100mm OBA. I think Randy purchased as much infantry as possible but with a very serious shortage of leaders, this can seriously handicap the Russian attack. This can be made much worse if his units deplete (more on this later). The Russians also get 6 free T-70's to support the Russian drive into the village but are limited to entering from the west side of the map. At start the Germans are suffering Ammo shortage level 2 and extreme winter condition, if not in a building, trench or pillbox, their B# is at 9, in a building the B# is a 10, so yes, the Germans ended up losing two HMG's, 5 MMG's, tow 81mm Mortars and other stuff, the Germans also suffered over a dozen reductions in quality due to numerous boxcars rolled, so that was painful too. But all in all, the Germans ended up losing 17 points total which included Infantry and one leader (an 8-0). The Russians ended up losing 39 CVP's which included one T-70, two leaders and lots of infantry. So a very brutal day for the Russians as far as infantry getting whacked, but for the Germans, the loss of equipment was also very painful.
As for our game in general, the Russian OBA really could not getting any traction, with only one fire mission being used, the Germans had the same problem in trying to get their arty going, but I think I did get one fire mission off before the red cards started to fill up the deck. So basically, Arty is very fickle in this CG. My Air support was just about a complete failure, my FB's could only stay on map for one turn (there is a table that tells you the duration of your air support) and to add insult to injury, one of my FB did a mistaken attack on my own guys. My Stukas on the other hand were able to stay for four turns but one stuka malfed its MG, so it had to drop its bomb and then fly off. I used my other two stukas to strafe the T-70's since all I need to do was get a 5 or less to effect them IE a 5 is a big STUN so it would recall those one man turreted AFV's. But as usual I failed to get any traction out of my air support, this was made much worse by the fact that I had rolled a one to end the game on turn 5 and I had two stukas with bombs I had not used. That my freinds is real bull shit right there.
Edit: I forgot to mention the axis of the main Russian attack, In an old issue of VftT, one player mentioned that the Russians might be better served attacking from the east rather than the west, it is a good plan if your opponent has never played this CG before and leaves his defense light east of the Lovet, but it can also be disastrous if your opponent is well prepared for any attack west of the Lovat river. I was prepared and my forces repelled the Russian attack towards the blocks west of the Lovat. I believe the Russians best course of actions is to maybe build up his forces west of the Lovet, maybe buy some fortifications, then perhaops on the 3rd or last day launch an attack on perhaps a much more weakened German defense. Still, like Red Barricades, both sides have plenty of options for both attack and defense opportunities I think.
Oh ya, did I mention I did not get squat from from my A7 Canisters RG? I rolled an 11 on the drop canister table, and guess what? My ELR is now 2 and my Ammo shortage level is at 3, thankfully during the refit phase my ELR did not drop to a 1 because I rolled low. Good times for the Germans indeed.
So we went through the refit phase and I have a few suggestions for LFT, for the luv of gawd, just put the rules from RB, VotG and PB into the gawd damn rule booklet, going between three different rules sets really sucked. Also on the ELR loss gain table, did the designer mean 3 RG's purchased? It is impossible for the Russians to purchase four RG's. A couple of things we did ignore, CG 17 makes no sense, so we threw it out. The depletion rolls are NA for the Russians, the the Germans are starting out with almost 90 squads where as the Russians with out depletion will have 46 squads with an additional three companies which can total maybe 30 odd squads more, so we figured that the the Russians might need some help in trying to deal with the lack of numbers, what is worse is that the Russian leadership is horrible, so trying get conscripts moving can be daunting.
So with those slight niggling complaints, we are still very impressed by KGS and with our little modifications, the CG is one hell of a great experience. Sure the chrome is slightly high but it is not as bad when you actually read through the rules and it actually comes together in a logical way. Anyway, hopefully others will give this fantastic CG a go, it is very different, very unique and very fun.
A few days ago, Randy and I started CG I from KGS. I am playing the embattled Kampfgruppe Scherer trying to hold back the Russian hoards. For the Red Army's part, they are attacking from all sides but fortunately it is in a piecemeal fashion. The Russians in this CG are very hard pressed to accomplish their objectives and for the initial scenario the Russians have to control 10 more blocks than they control, I think they control two or three initially. The CG ended on turn 5 with me rolling a one on the game ending roll and the Russians only being able to gain 9 blocks, they were one building short of controlling a 10th block for a win.
My purchases for the initial CG day were one fighter bomber group, one Stuka group and a 100mm OBA. I think Randy purchased as much infantry as possible but with a very serious shortage of leaders, this can seriously handicap the Russian attack. This can be made much worse if his units deplete (more on this later). The Russians also get 6 free T-70's to support the Russian drive into the village but are limited to entering from the west side of the map. At start the Germans are suffering Ammo shortage level 2 and extreme winter condition, if not in a building, trench or pillbox, their B# is at 9, in a building the B# is a 10, so yes, the Germans ended up losing two HMG's, 5 MMG's, tow 81mm Mortars and other stuff, the Germans also suffered over a dozen reductions in quality due to numerous boxcars rolled, so that was painful too. But all in all, the Germans ended up losing 17 points total which included Infantry and one leader (an 8-0). The Russians ended up losing 39 CVP's which included one T-70, two leaders and lots of infantry. So a very brutal day for the Russians as far as infantry getting whacked, but for the Germans, the loss of equipment was also very painful.
As for our game in general, the Russian OBA really could not getting any traction, with only one fire mission being used, the Germans had the same problem in trying to get their arty going, but I think I did get one fire mission off before the red cards started to fill up the deck. So basically, Arty is very fickle in this CG. My Air support was just about a complete failure, my FB's could only stay on map for one turn (there is a table that tells you the duration of your air support) and to add insult to injury, one of my FB did a mistaken attack on my own guys. My Stukas on the other hand were able to stay for four turns but one stuka malfed its MG, so it had to drop its bomb and then fly off. I used my other two stukas to strafe the T-70's since all I need to do was get a 5 or less to effect them IE a 5 is a big STUN so it would recall those one man turreted AFV's. But as usual I failed to get any traction out of my air support, this was made much worse by the fact that I had rolled a one to end the game on turn 5 and I had two stukas with bombs I had not used. That my freinds is real bull shit right there.
Edit: I forgot to mention the axis of the main Russian attack, In an old issue of VftT, one player mentioned that the Russians might be better served attacking from the east rather than the west, it is a good plan if your opponent has never played this CG before and leaves his defense light east of the Lovet, but it can also be disastrous if your opponent is well prepared for any attack west of the Lovat river. I was prepared and my forces repelled the Russian attack towards the blocks west of the Lovat. I believe the Russians best course of actions is to maybe build up his forces west of the Lovet, maybe buy some fortifications, then perhaops on the 3rd or last day launch an attack on perhaps a much more weakened German defense. Still, like Red Barricades, both sides have plenty of options for both attack and defense opportunities I think.
Oh ya, did I mention I did not get squat from from my A7 Canisters RG? I rolled an 11 on the drop canister table, and guess what? My ELR is now 2 and my Ammo shortage level is at 3, thankfully during the refit phase my ELR did not drop to a 1 because I rolled low. Good times for the Germans indeed.
So we went through the refit phase and I have a few suggestions for LFT, for the luv of gawd, just put the rules from RB, VotG and PB into the gawd damn rule booklet, going between three different rules sets really sucked. Also on the ELR loss gain table, did the designer mean 3 RG's purchased? It is impossible for the Russians to purchase four RG's. A couple of things we did ignore, CG 17 makes no sense, so we threw it out. The depletion rolls are NA for the Russians, the the Germans are starting out with almost 90 squads where as the Russians with out depletion will have 46 squads with an additional three companies which can total maybe 30 odd squads more, so we figured that the the Russians might need some help in trying to deal with the lack of numbers, what is worse is that the Russian leadership is horrible, so trying get conscripts moving can be daunting.
So with those slight niggling complaints, we are still very impressed by KGS and with our little modifications, the CG is one hell of a great experience. Sure the chrome is slightly high but it is not as bad when you actually read through the rules and it actually comes together in a logical way. Anyway, hopefully others will give this fantastic CG a go, it is very different, very unique and very fun.
Last edited:
