My Albany AAR - Round 3

Jacometti

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Reinvigorated by my win in Round 2 (and with a few hours to spare for lunch and shopping, since many of the players in that round spent some more time in the Mormal Forest than I spent dismantling Buckley's Block) I was paired up with Ron Duenskie, an excellent player who went down to Bill Cirillo in Tigers and Flames as I was being dismantled by Sean Deller at the same table the day before.

Our scenario selection resulted in Crickets In Spring and I got the attacking Germans, with no Balance Bids on either side. I had never played this before, but prepared a setup for the Russian defense and seen a few games in passing on VASL. Three things that stood out for me from the start as the German attacker were:

1) there are only a few spots where the Russian ART guns can set up HIP with reasonable lines of sight, so play the game AS IF each of them has a gun until you find them
2) DO NOT loose AFV, especially the poorly armored halftracks and self-propelled guns, since the CVP count will quickly damn your chances to win.
3) The Panthers are the key asset to break open defense, but need to be covered on all sides by PF-capable infantry (preferably in non-building hexes) and Street Fighting capable MMC (hopefully with ATMM) to keep the Russian T-34/85s from swarming and killing them.

This may have been only the second scenario I ever played in Mud conditions (the first was Buckley's Block, which had no vehicles on my side) so it was quite a revelation to find out how vehicular offroad movement works and more importantly, how terribly slow your infantry is when every open ground hex is 1.5 MF.

Without going into too much detail.....this was one of those memorable games where I just played a really solid game, as if I knew what I was doing all the time, against a very strong opponent who eventually just collapsed. The VC in this scenario are superb, since the German cannot afford to rush forward or leave any conquered multihex building unoccupied for fear of a Russian counterattack. The CVP count should be slow on both sides, while the ART guns placement and results should be important every time.

My Panthers moved around well, avoiding side and rear shots from any of the possible ART locations - including even reverse moving down the paved roads in CE status. My infantry ground forward on a wide front, trying to extend the few Russian infantry, which worked well. My 10-2 leader was dropped off safely on Turn 2 by a halftrack, and was used to push into the central hill buildings.

My self-propelled guns all arrived safely, taking positions on the hill away from LOS to the two-hex orchard hill in the Russian left, which I expected to have a gun. I did make a sneaky move, putting on of the 150* vehicles in LOS of one T34, which Ron had parked on the central hill. As I had hoped, he did not see the LOS (about 12 hexes) and I did not fire for Acquisition in AFPh as I did not want him to have a full Prep Fire shooting back. This tank did nothing in the next Prep, so I fired a HEAT round (21 TK I believe), which immobilized it on 10. Ron got one AFPh return shot, before I Prep fired Smoke from two guns to blind his shots. That T34 was then taken out in CC by the 10-2 and 6-5-8, using ATMM against the immobilized monster. A very satisfying way to destroy his tank, of course.

I lured another T34 (who was a bit lonely) into a First Fire MG shot against infantry, then moved up a Panther for the kill. His fire managed to immobilize my Panther, but in a decent spot and the crew took the TC well - destroying the T34 in the next fire phase. Ron revealed his 3 ART guns over a few turns, all of them in places where I had expected them - and they did no real damage partly due some lousy rolling - but I also did not give away much.

It was getting towards midnight and we did a quick CVP count - which I was clearly winning since I had only taken a few CVP as casualties, while he had already lost well over 10 points of vehicles and I was about to take out (and Capture) one of his ART guns. Ron conceded at this point.

I think Crickets in Spring was my best game of the tournament and I managed to beat a very strong opponent in a very thorough way. This is a superb scenario - the German player needs to exercise extreme self-control, as it is easy to misjudge how fast you must capture buildings and expose yourself to Russian shots. If you go well behind in the CVP count in the first 3-4 Turns due to the loss of a Panther or two of the soft-skinned AFVs, I think you are toast.

I thoroughly enjoyed playing Ron, who is a colorful character and played the game well.

Going 2-1, my confidence restored after two good showings on Friday, I slept a peaceful few hours of sleep.
 
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Eagle4ty

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Just sitting down to play this one but as the Russkies, some good thoughts here. My opponent is also quite methodical so it should be a good showdown.Thanks for the AAR.
 

Smedley

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"Ron got one AFPh return shot, before I Prep fired Smoke from two guns to blind his shots."

Hmmm. This is the second reference to using smoke in this scenario. I was under the impression that smoke was not allowed during mud conditions. I sure could have used some against Bill Cirillo!

Rob
 

Jacometti

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...and I should have read the rulebook better (edit)
 
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tallin

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24.6 WEATHER: SMOKE has no effect where vision is already Hindered
by fog (E3.31). SMOKE is removed immediately for Rain or
Heavy Wind and has no effect in Mud (E3.6) or Deep Snow (E3.73)
[EXC: SMOKE placed inside a building from either the same Location
or an ADJACENT Location of the same building across a hexside of that
building or completely within a factory; EJ .8].


Just saying
 

Jacometti

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24.6 WEATHER: SMOKE has no effect where vision is already Hindered
by fog (E3.31). SMOKE is removed immediately for Rain or
Heavy Wind and has no effect in Mud (E3.6) or Deep Snow (E3.73)
[EXC: SMOKE placed inside a building from either the same Location
or an ADJACENT Location of the same building across a hexside of that
building or completely within a factory; EJ .8].


Just saying
ouch, really messed that up.
 

Bill Cirillo

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"Ron got one AFPh return shot, before I Prep fired Smoke from two guns to blind his shots."

Hmmm. This is the second reference to using smoke in this scenario. I was under the impression that smoke was not allowed during mud conditions. I sure could have used some against Bill Cirillo!

Rob
Rob,

I'm pretty sure we played it correctly and I thought Steve confirmed the no SMOKE real time during our game. But yes, the Germans could really use some SMOKE, especially early in this game.

Bill
 

Jacometti

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24.6 WEATHER: SMOKE has no effect where vision is already Hindered
by fog (E3.31). SMOKE is removed immediately for Rain or
Heavy Wind and has no effect in Mud (E3.6) or Deep Snow (E3.73)
[EXC: SMOKE placed inside a building from either the same Location
or an ADJACENT Location of the same building across a hexside of that
building or completely within a factory; EJ .8].


Just saying
This entire oversight made me realise again how dreadfully poor Chapter E was written, all those years ago, and how we still suffer because of it.

I will give you two simple examples:

E3.52: Rain automatically causes Mist (3.32).

after already describing the LV hindrance caused by Rain as a Mist LV hindrance.

and

E3.8: Weather is always "Clear" for units in a building viewing/firing to/entering another location of that same building through a building hexside and for units in the same hex (EXC: Bypass/Rooftop)

What does this actually mean?

Another good example is the definition of EC as Mud, which refers you to E3.6. If you read this from start to finish, there is not really a HINT of the secret movement DR for offroad movement. To find that, you have to read D8.23, which is referred to as "vehicular Bog" in Chapter E. In other words, the most important impact that Mud/Deep Snow have on vehicular movement are NOT found in the chapter describing those weather conditions. Disgraceful, really.

Anyway, I do apologise to Ron for this obvious error. I do not think it would have changed the outcome of the scenario, although it could easily have cost me a Cricket for 5 VP.
 

klasmalmstrom

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I am not going to defend the verbiage in Chapter E... :)

Another good example is the definition of EC as Mud, which refers you to E3.6. If you read this from start to finish, there is not really a HINT of the secret movement DR for offroad movement. To find that, you have to read D8.23, which is referred to as "vehicular Bog" in Chapter E. In other words, the most important impact that Mud/Deep Snow have on vehicular movement are NOT found in the chapter describing those weather conditions. Disgraceful, really.
... but it is Weather (E3.) is Mud that cause D8.23 to kick in - not EC are Mud.
 

Jacometti

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I am not going to defend the verbiage in Chapter E... :)


... but it is Weather (E3.) is Mud that cause D8.23 to kick in - not EC are Mud.
Hi Klas,

are you saying that "Weather is Mud" and "EC are Mud" are two different things and that in the one case, there is no secret movement DR for offroad vehicle movement? I have never read or understood it that way, I thought the two were the same.
 

klasmalmstrom

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are you saying that "Weather is Mud" and "EC are Mud" are two different things and that in the one case, there is no secret movement DR for offroad vehicle movement? I have never read or understood it that way, I thought the two were the same.
Correct - they are different concepts.

"EC are Mud" only means that the EC DRM is -3 - per B25.5.

Weather is Mud (E3.6) is what bring those special rules into effect.

D8.23 now says:
"When scenario Weather (E3) is “Mud” or “Deep Snow”,..."

In the 1st edition, however, it said:
"When scenario EC are "Mud" or "Deep Snow", a vehicle...."

Of course "Deep Snow" is not an EC conditions, so someone asked this question:
D8.23 Since Deep Snow is a weather condition (like Ground Snow), not an Environmental
Condition (like Snow), when do the D8.23 conditions for a secret Bog DR apply?
A. When the weather is Deep Snow (or the EC are Mud). [Compil8]
8) 18 September 1998

So under first edition rules, the Secret Bog DR applied if "EC are Mud" - but not the other effects of "Weather is Mud".
But the wording of D8.23 was changed in the 2nd edition, so now Secret Bog DR only applies if "Weather is Mud" (or Deep Snow).
 

Jacometti

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Correct - they are different concepts.

"EC are Mud" only means that the EC DRM is -3 - per B25.5.

Weather is Mud (E3.6) is what bring those special rules into effect.

D8.23 now says:
"When scenario Weather (E3) is “Mud” or “Deep Snow”,..."

In the 1st edition, however, it said:
"When scenario EC are "Mud" or "Deep Snow", a vehicle...."

Of course "Deep Snow" is not an EC conditions, so someone asked this question:
D8.23 Since Deep Snow is a weather condition (like Ground Snow), not an Environmental
Condition (like Snow), when do the D8.23 conditions for a secret Bog DR apply?
A. When the weather is Deep Snow (or the EC are Mud). [Compil8]
8) 18 September 1998

So under first edition rules, the Secret Bog DR applied if "EC are Mud" - but not the other effects of "Weather is Mud".
But the wording of D8.23 was changed in the 2nd edition, so now Secret Bog DR only applies if "Weather is Mud" (or Deep Snow).
Brilliantly clarified, Klas.
 

tallin

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But here in this scenario, where the Weather is mud and the EC is mud, there is no SMOKE and you have Mud movement penalties. Correct?
 

Eagle4ty

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Some times scenario designers will state, " EC are Mud, (etc)... Mud (E3.6)... in effect." [EX: SP61 Desobry Defiant] to invoke all conditions of Mud.
 

klasmalmstrom

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Some times scenario designers will state, " EC are Mud, (etc)... Mud (E3.6)... in effect." [EX: SP61 Desobry Defiant] to invoke all conditions of Mud.
Scenario designers/writers need to be aware of the distinction. I once played a Schwerpunkt scenario where it just said "EC are Mud" - but the accomapnying scenario analysis article made it clear that it was meant to say "Weather is Mud."
 
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