Orerekya Breakout.

[Tim Niesen]

Last Thursday, we finally started this long delayed campaign game. I was the umpire but proved incompetent. I am used to regular ASL scenarios, which usually do not have esoteric units such as airplanes, mine fields, and large distances in terms of hexes. My only major error was in the not doubling of the cost of pushing Guns. We have agreed to pull them back to where they could have been. Col. Bill Smith picked an unusual assortment of men and weapons. He rolled poorly on his depletion. He choose a Rifle company, a MG company, a Stuart tank platoon, and two airplane groups, a fighter and a fighter-bomber. The rifle company, the MG company, and the fighter bomber depleted. Mitigating this somewhat was that his infantry rifle company became 458s. And he rolled snake eyes on his leaders for that company. Getting a 9-2 leader.

 

[Tim Niesen]

On the other hand, Don Deibler rolled some of the best dice and die rolls that I have seen. None of his units depleted! A rifle company, a MG company. an 81 mortar platoon, and a fighter group. Also rolled well for rest, leaders, 447s, etc. Leaders are usually bad for Rumanians but the rolls produced three 9-1s and an 8-0. Seem unfair. But those were the rolls. Part of it is the Soviets deplete on a roll of nine or more while the Rumanians deplete on a roll of ten or more. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

Opps, I forgot Col. Smith selection of the 45L platoon. This remained full. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

We have finished two turns. I hope that Don can put photographs of mapboard. On the first turn, the Rumanian mortars with spotters broke a lot of Russians but killed nothing with direct fire. Only a single Russian 8-0 leader died from a sniper attack. On the second turn, the results were more bloody. A Russian Stuart tank was immobilized by a 60mm Rumanian mortar. Two Russian 527s were also killed by Rumanian mortar fire. And a lot of Russian 458s were broken. The only Rumanian loss was a wounding of a 9-1 leader by a sniper. However, the key Rumanian position on the road has been broken by two Russian 45Ls, and I expect a Russian charge against the abandoned position. Meanwhile, a Russian tank platoon backed by infantry has sucessfuly breached a row of Rumanian mines in the woods on the left flank and is approached a series of HIP Rumanian foxholes with a pair of ATRs which should get Adjacent side shots on turn three. However, once again Don Deibler rolled very well on his TP purchases, and poor and unlucky Col. Smith rolled badly. Bill got only a single fighter bomber on turn two, and Don got three fighter. The rally phase of Russian turn three will determine if Bill gets more air support to combat Rumanian air superiority. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

Well we ended the campaign game with a resignation by the Soviet player on turn five of the first session. Most of the Soviet tanks were KIA. Col. Smith also lost his 9-2 and an 8-1.

 

[Tim Niesen]

In retrospect, I have never seen such a dichotomy in dice rolling. For example, four of the Soviet purchases were depleted. None of the Axis purchases were depleted. The Soviet player purchased two plane modules. He rolled one on both die rolls, getting two planes. The Rumanian player rolled once, got a six. Therefore, got three planes. Turn five was a slaughter. Don rolled the result of three on right dice rolls out of about twenty rolls or less! Unbelievable. The Soviets did not even take the bridge. The string of 6 factor mines along the entire woods of Soviet left the worked very well for the Rumanians. We are starting over and switching sides. This time we will understand the air vs tank rules as well as the conceptual flaws of walking the tanks through the woods. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

opps., eight dice roll out of about twenty.

 

[Tim Niesen]

The rules of this campaign game state that units that survive the sessions become "Veterans." What does this mean? Tim

 

[Vinnie]

I don't think it means anything other than they have been bought in a previous CG date. They are eligible for battlefield promotions.

 

[Tim Niesen]

I really did enjoy this campaign game. The unexpected choice of Col. Smith to go through the woods with his tanks on the left side forced us to come to grips with the rules on bogging tanks in such a situation. If he had decided to simultaneously go directly down the road toward the Rumanian line with his other three Stuart tanks backed by an infantry charge, instead of ineffectively lingering with them on the right side near the edge, the game would have been more interesting. All in all, however, airpower decided the campaign. The 215 to 1 odds against the Soviets getting less airplanes than the Rumanians doomed their attack. We ruled that the Soviet standard HMG could not use AA fire against aircraft. (only 2,000 of these MG out of hundreds of thousands made had an AA capacity.) Perhaps this affected play balance. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

Rethinking the odds, because the Soviet fighter bomber module was depleted, the odds were 6 times 6 times 3. 99 to 1. Still long odds. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

I just had a discussion about this campaign game with my ally. He said at first that he played it because I wanted to and to avoid taking on the Budepest campaign game. In some ways however that game would not present the rules understanding challenges of this very interesting campaign game. Because of the unusual aspects of the terrain and the situation the players are open to using rules that one would not see in normal eight or less turn scenarios, let alone the now more normal shorter scenarios. Mine clearenace, for instance. In normal ASL, you see a minefield, you generally go in another direction. There are other examples, but all in all, this campaign games presents challenges for those of us who normally only play scenarios. Deep and correct interpretation of the air rules are necessary, for instance. Walking tanks through the woods produced another challenge that I was not expecting. And so on. In summation, buy this relatively inexpensive game and learn the rules that are seldom used. You will be a better ASL player for it. Tim

 

[benj]

Reminds me the two times I played this campaign, ending both in a Russian slaughter. The string of mines in the wood + reverse slope defense after the mines would block any Russian attack and the other venues of approach mean too much open ground to cross. Tough on the Russian but I believe this can be done by attacking the bridge with as much infantry as possible and using the stuarts to make hindrance and roll on mines after a preparatory naval bombardment.

 

[Tim Niesen]

We had a forward defense, which we felt was the best option. Col. Smith put his intial NOBA on completely wrong area. He would have taken the bridge but the complete Axis air plane dominance changed the situation. We plan a different tactic, but as the new ally of Col. Smith is computer literate, I cannot reveal the plan. Col. Smith is 80 years old in contrast and had never used the internet. Dennis Rhoades may join the ASL Forum, and since he is to the right of Attla the Hun, he msy well be better liked than my ally and I.

 

[Vinnie]

I've kicked was in this one as the Soviets. You need to use the Stuart's aggressively. Once you get established in the woods with infantry, you can sweep through most defences through the use of searching or, if necessary, lifting the mine belts.
The worst thing to happen for the Soviets is for the one yo set the woods alight.

 

[Tim Niesen]

I suppose that that is one reason not to bring the very large naval OBA down near the key woods area on the left. The right woods seemed impassable to us within the context of the first session not lasting beyond about eight turns, and we did not defend it with more than dummies. Not sure how woods would likely be set afire otherwise than the very powerful NOBA. Say if you put the NOBA down on the little town and in consequence the building with a victory points burns down, does that mean that the points no longer count? Tim

 

[Vinnie]

I think the hex still counts. You surround it with controlled hexes to control it.

Reducing it to rubble would reduce the number of locations in it though.

 

[Tim Niesen]

And we placed an 81 mortar section in the village with spotters in the building. The pre-session NOVA might have been very effective there. But Col Smith picked somewhere without any units in the middle of the map. My ally has found an account of the actual Soviet invasion. The bombardment started at 330AM in the morning. Eight Soviet Stuarts got ashore. Scared the shit out of the Rumanians. My ally is advocating that we simply drop the fire rules, but I think that would be unfair to the new Rumanian player team. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

In some ways I think that the campaign game would be more interesting if the Soviets got the eight tanks amd no more for the entire game. Less TM points at start, however. The addition of two or three more tanks would put far more pressure on the Rumanian defenses. Tim

 

[Tim Niesen]

There were 30 tanks in the invasion. All Stuarts.