Orerekya Breakout: No Three.

[Tim Niesen]

Well after illness of a wife and s breakdown of a car caused a two week delay. Uncle Bill came on a special Monday edition. Steve was working. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

There were more 2s and 12s than 7s rolled. Odd day. We started out well. Steve had ordered his heroic 227, which had survived so many attacks before the unit broke, to assault move into a woods hex Adjacent to the abandoned 37L AT gun. I roll a high number yielding a NMC on the 12 plus 1 by my red 628 ( we are using red Squad Leader Berserker 628s to represent promoted 527s). Uncle Bill rolls boxcars. Dead crew! Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

Not to get too involved in the detail but the stubborn Cauldron loaded with elite Rumanians and a special crew finally succumbed to a series of decent DRs from high and low attacks. Starting with Don's 22 plus 2 on the stubborn Western end of the Cauldron. Ending with a 12 plus 3 by two Russian HMGs on the last 447. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

The Soviets have two of our 105 howitzers left. The third was broken some phases ago, and it will be resurrected in the intersession unless a six is rolled at that time. To risk fixing it during play seems to much risk. A six and it is gone forever. These powerful guns proved their worth again and again. First, a critical hit on the ATT occurred against two units a 247 with a MMG and a 537 engineer. The engineer half squaded and the 247 suffered a K4. Uncle Bill rolled double 5s on the Tie Die. Second, the other 105 hit the nearest 20L to the Factory. The 10 plus 2 result in a Pin Check which it failed. This would prove critical. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

The turn ended with a climax. First Don's two fighters failed their sighting checks. We made errors in the AA resolution, but there was no consequence, for Uncle Bill could hit nothing. We did not know that only AA with a IFE number could strike aircraft with the IFT. The allies have no 88s yet, and all the Rumanian HMGs were either in the Cauldron or in HIP situations. (A good question is can HIP HMGs be in AA mode?) Likely they are in buildings, however, for we are entering the non- wooded area of the large board. Anyway the 20L pinned by the 105 ATT shot had no rate of fire, and the other two 20Ls failed. Don rolled an eight on the ATT bomb drop. And snakes eyes. 8-1 leader and three engineer squads. One of Uncle Bill's squad roles snakes. And on the HOB roll snakes again, but this was not all good because the Elite status of the Rumanian Engineer and the plus three only combined to equal four. No fantic. In fact, since these units were out of LOS of all enemy units any other roll would have produced a fantic. In this campaign game, heroes are forever, while the fanaticism counters go away at the end of the session. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

The Cauldron finally fell, the only slim chance is that the Rumanian 447 rolls a HOB producing snakes eyes in the Berserker's advancing fire after he enters the broken unit's hex. Having the berserker not shoot at the broken 447 seems gamey. We will capture two HMGs, two MMGs, an ATR, and another 37L AT gun. Quite a booty. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

This adds to the 60mm mortar, HMG. MMG, LMG, ATR, and 37L AT captured in the first session. Since the Axis Allies should have air superiority for a few sessions ahead, I value those Rumanian HMGs highly for their AA capacity. Tim

 

[jrv]

In this campaign game, heroes are forever, while the fanaticism counters go away at the end of the session.

In many CGs heroes are removed in exchange for battle-hardening a unit. See O11.6112 in Red Barricades, for example. It would surprise me (but only mildly) if heroes were allowed to accumulate. If a side builds up a collection, the heroes can be brought together and given MGs to operate as pairs (full FP, down two DRM per hero-operated MG), then form killer firegroups that vaporize all before them.

JR

 

[Tim Niesen]

I will have to send Don back into the rules again. Given the WP SSR and it's non observation. The SSRs are in small print. Thanks JR and Timmy B for reading my After Action Accounts. They have been fun to write. I hope my narrative is not too turgid. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

I should add that Don believes that giving Russian HMG an AA capacity is ahistorical. Only two thousand or so were made out of three hundred thousand plus. Tim

 

[jrv]

I should add that Don believes that giving Russian HMG an AA capacity is ahistorical. Only two thousand or so were made out of three hundred thousand plus. Tim

While possibly literally true, you can think of HMG AA as an abstract representation of "non-AA ground fire." Because HMGs can't firegroup [EXC: mandatory FG; E7.5] HMGs are not all that effective AA weapons against mid- and late-war aircraft anyway.

JR

 

[Paul M. Weir]

I should add that Don believes that giving Russian HMG an AA capacity is ahistorical. Only two thousand or so were made out of three hundred thousand plus. Tim

He might be thinking of the quad Maxims that had a very heavy conical base and in ASL is mounted on the GAZ-4M-AA (SVN 43). However the Sokolov wheeled mount could have a pair of legs attached at the front (in front of any attached shield) and that transformed that mount into an AA mount. The Sokolov mount and variants was used for both the PM 1910 Maxim and the later SK-43. The distinction between HMG and MMG is quite arbitrary in ASL, think of a HMG as a MMG but with all its accessories, gewgaws and more ammo.

The 12.7mm DShK HMG is another beast all together. While the US .50" M2 was regarded as both an AA MG and as a heavy-heavy MG, the DShK was primarily, indeed almost exclusively, an AA weapon in WW2. The few Soviet TO&E that I have read have the DShK in AA units, often in brother platoons/companies with their 37mm AA guns. While you might see some in an Infantry Regiment AA platoon, you would not see any in Infantry Companies, unlike in the USA/USMC where you might find one in an Infantry Company. That's not to say that you might not see a DShK parcelled out to infantry, but that was not its intended role.

 

[Tim Niesen]

JR, Certainly true. A shot in the dark. But we are desperate. You were right about the heroes, for they are not retained. I finally got a copy of the rules for the campaign game, which I had lost. I am seeing other things wrong too. For instance, the promotion of leaders is done by a "random selection" table rather than who that the player would want to promote. Initially, the rules were too much for my limited attention span, but now that I am very interested, there is a difference. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

Paul, I will have him read your depth of detail concerning Russian MGs and if he wants to retort, I will print it. Thanks for your in depth analysis, perhaps he will allow us to use our numerous Russian HMGs in AA mode. I dread Axis air superiority in the coming sessions, and the three potential Rumanian HMGs have a breakdown number of 9. Tim

 

[Paul M. Weir]

Paul, I will have him read your depth of detail concerning Russian MGs and if he wants to retort, I will print it. Thanks for your in depth analysis, perhaps he will allow us to use our numerous Russian HMGs in AA mode. I dread Axis air superiority in the coming sessions, and the three potential Rumanian HMGs have a breakdown number of 9. Tim

Don't forget that it's only HMG, whether standard HMG or 12.7mm/.50", not MMG. It's all a bit of ASL abstraction. Whether the crew had the pair of extra legs or just had a bit of initiative and found a convenient barrel/stump/big rock doesn't really matter, it's whether they managed enough elevation that does. The Soviets, due to their relative lack of proper light AA guns, encouraged the use of any and all forms of AA fire, no matter how ineffective it was most times. Rifles, ATR, LMGs (DP-28), even SMG. So limiting AA fire to HMG could be considered to reflect the limited effectiveness of such a multitude of weapons.

However regardless of realism arguments, by E7.51 infantry manned HMG (and a few others) are always allowed AA fire. See also Chapter E footnote 21. So Don will have to allow AA fire by Soviet (or any other nationality) HMG. Dem's de rules!

 

[Tim Niesen]

Paul, He's a contrary cus. I obey. His spouse feeds me. We understand that the 50 cal can use its AA mode. It's the standard Russian HMG (5pp) which he objects too.

 

[Eagle4ty]

Paul, He's a contrary cus. I obey. His spouse feeds me. We understand that the 50 cal can use its AA mode. It's the standard Russian HMG (5pp) which he objects too.

.50-cal or .51-cal. it's a mute point. If he thinks that a Ma Duce (or equivalent thereof) should be less than 5PP, he's probably never had to man-pack the bugger with tripod, spare barrle, T&E not to mention sufficient ammo to warrant a ROF. Not a small undertaking for an entire squad or section loaded down with their own equipment to boot. If he's a Col. as you intimated, he'd probably never had to hump that bugger, it was always up to us earth pigs to do the heavy lifting for the officers, they just told us where to put it-changed their minds-repositioned it a couple of times and went on their merry way.

 

[Tim Niesen]

Eagle. You are mixing the two men. Uncle Bill was the Major in Vietnam, and it was a 81mortar that he dragged 30 feet because he did not trust his South Vietnamese Rangers to under his orders. Sorry for your confusion. Don is the person who is objecting to the regular Russian HMG to have an AA mode. He asserts that there were only a few thousand of them with that capacity. In contrast with the several hundred thousand regular Russian HMGs that were manufactured. Paul seems to disagree. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

Addendum to my reply. Understand his order to move the 81 mortar. Although there was a nominal South Vietnamese commander, he as the American commander really gave the orders for his battalion.

 

[Tim Niesen]

Thursday saw turn three end and turn four begin. Only Steve attended. His dice rolling was atrocious, and mine was just bad. The Berserker survived, but we saw the first loss of the session when a 527 rolled boxcars on a self rally attempt. It was really a turn of movement for us. Don had edged out of the woods on the left flank in front of the attack. Tim