Glennbo
Elder Member
The East Side Gamers played "Shattered and Tattered" designed by Chris Olden from the upcoming Total Axis Pack 2 due for release in October. This scenario features Slovakians attacking Germans in September of '44, and uses three half-boards bisected by two stream overlays that run lengthwise near the edge. Victory Conditions require the Slovaks to take a lot of stone buildings in 8 turns.
Eric is part Slovakian, so he insisted on playing them. Scott and I took the Germans. David Lamb popped in later to control the Slovakian reinforcements.
The Slovakian attack is mostly a head on affair, but their reinforcements present a real dilemma for the German player. They enter on turn 4, but they get to choose one of two entry areas way behind the German lines, so the German player must keep a force back to deal with these troops. The reinforcements consist of four little 37L Chek tanks and 8 squads.
The main Slovakian attack consists of 14 squads, a Marder, two PZIIIN(g) with the 75* gun, and one 75 AT gun. At first I thought the scenario was pro-German because they get 14 squads (a mix of 1st & 2nd line). But the main German asset is their armor: a King Tiger, three PZIVs, and a StuG. The King Tiger suffers from the Porshe turret (SSR) with only 14 armor, but it still kicks butt around the whole board.
Scott is a "less contemplative" player than I am, so he set up the forward defence with the stuG and two PZs so he could get down and dirty from the get-go. I took the King Tiger and another PZIV in an overwatch position. I also took the best MG post. I set up in the middle of the playing area with my super MG post in an upper level stone building (41 FF3), and my King Tiger got to start Hull Down on two hexsides on the 2nd level hill #497. I decided that this force could cover our whole left flank while Scott set up forward on the right flank, and I was proved correct. Eric never broke through on the left.
The game began well for us Germans. Even though we lost our StuG on turn one to the AT gun, my King Tiger had a field day blowing up the Marder and eventually chasing away the AT gun's crew. These Slovak assets had set up on the board 42 hill/orchard in clear sight where even the Marder's HD condition couldn't save it.
The streams were flooded with only a small footbridge as a way out, so Scott only put one squad over there to help interdict Slovak movement on turn one. I would have put an MG there to make a fire lane, but Scott didn't really "grok" the purpose of the stream and I don't like to tell my teamates how to set up. So Eric managed to bully his way accross board 42 and onto 41 where the real battle began. He ground his way onto hill 513 where him and Scott fought back and forth for several turns over the hill's stone buildings in a stalemate that lasted the rest of the game. It was going to be up to Dave's reinforcements.
I had a platoon (7-0, 3 squads, PSK, LMG) and PZIV in reserve. I felt bad just letting them sit around for three turns, but if I had sent them forward to help Scott, then the reinforcements would have a walk-on victory dance. So I hung around the middle for a while in case of a breakthrough, then sent them back to the board 46 village to stop the reinforcements. I couldn't be sure which area they were coming in, so I had to cover them both which stretched my line too thin to do the job.
When a fresh David Lamb brought these troops on (in the area closest to the front line) I had pulled my super MG post back to join the King Tiger on the hill, where they held out just fine. However, by using bounding first fire with his crappy little 37L Chek tanks Dave wiped out my PZIV, PSK and covering squads and burst through my line like it was tissue. Scott fed back another platoon and tank to me since he was holding his own, but I was pretty depressed at this point. Dave's gloating didn't improve my mood. He had gotten his entire force on without casualties, and roughed me up quite a bit. The four little, small target tanks seemed invincible!
But I still had fight in me, and I was desperate. Time to take some chances. On our next turn I took advantage of Dave bunching up his tanks by swinging the King Tiger around down off the hill and blowing up one tank point blank with a Bounding First Fire critical hit (my first shot missed...but I got rate!). Then I made a Chek tank sandwich by driving my last PZIV point blank from the opposite side and flamed another tank with BFF. I just love BFF! Trapped between a KT and PZIV, the Chek tanks died horribly. Although one did manage to pass a start-up roll and get away, it was corralled by infantry with panzerfausts and couldn't get anywhere.
In the meantime I expertly (if I do say so myself) shuffled my remaining infantry (they had been covering the other entry area) and completely sealed off the rest of Dave's reinforcing infantry which were now suffering casualties from tank MGs and my MG post on the hill. I now had a new defence line that, without tanks to support them, the Slovaks couldn't breach.
Eric conceded on turn 6. He really couldn't continue to take ground anymore, and the King Tiger was free to roam at will.
This was an excellent scenario. I give it an 8. Scott and Eric liked it even more than I did (but they didn't have to fight Dave Lamb). It had many aspects that I like in a scenario: No Fortifications, no OBA, no paperwork or recordkeeping, rare vehicle match-up, interesting fog of war for the reinforcement's entry, great terrain, good multi-player potential, lot's of maneuver for both attacker and defender (tons of Bounding First Fire)...even the title was good.
The only bad points were that the stream overlay on board 46 was totally unneccessary, and even in the front line the other stream overlay didn't really matter too much. That's a lot of SSR for very little kick (and I hate overlays in general), but it didn't detract from our enjoyment. Also it's annoying to have the reinforcements enter right in your face without some few hexes as a buffer, but I'm sure that my having to defend against them colors my opinion.
The see-saw nature of this scenario is perhaps it's best point of all. At first I thought it was pro-German, then pro-Slovak, then German...etc. For every set-back there was a potential for recovery, the hallmark of an excellent design.
Congratulations to Chris Olden for a great contribution to our hobby. I've criticized an earlier scenario of his from the Journal for being just average (I gave it a 6...he said he designed it a long time ago), but he sure is getting better with time. I can't wait to see his future designs!
Eric is part Slovakian, so he insisted on playing them. Scott and I took the Germans. David Lamb popped in later to control the Slovakian reinforcements.
The Slovakian attack is mostly a head on affair, but their reinforcements present a real dilemma for the German player. They enter on turn 4, but they get to choose one of two entry areas way behind the German lines, so the German player must keep a force back to deal with these troops. The reinforcements consist of four little 37L Chek tanks and 8 squads.
The main Slovakian attack consists of 14 squads, a Marder, two PZIIIN(g) with the 75* gun, and one 75 AT gun. At first I thought the scenario was pro-German because they get 14 squads (a mix of 1st & 2nd line). But the main German asset is their armor: a King Tiger, three PZIVs, and a StuG. The King Tiger suffers from the Porshe turret (SSR) with only 14 armor, but it still kicks butt around the whole board.
Scott is a "less contemplative" player than I am, so he set up the forward defence with the stuG and two PZs so he could get down and dirty from the get-go. I took the King Tiger and another PZIV in an overwatch position. I also took the best MG post. I set up in the middle of the playing area with my super MG post in an upper level stone building (41 FF3), and my King Tiger got to start Hull Down on two hexsides on the 2nd level hill #497. I decided that this force could cover our whole left flank while Scott set up forward on the right flank, and I was proved correct. Eric never broke through on the left.
The game began well for us Germans. Even though we lost our StuG on turn one to the AT gun, my King Tiger had a field day blowing up the Marder and eventually chasing away the AT gun's crew. These Slovak assets had set up on the board 42 hill/orchard in clear sight where even the Marder's HD condition couldn't save it.
The streams were flooded with only a small footbridge as a way out, so Scott only put one squad over there to help interdict Slovak movement on turn one. I would have put an MG there to make a fire lane, but Scott didn't really "grok" the purpose of the stream and I don't like to tell my teamates how to set up. So Eric managed to bully his way accross board 42 and onto 41 where the real battle began. He ground his way onto hill 513 where him and Scott fought back and forth for several turns over the hill's stone buildings in a stalemate that lasted the rest of the game. It was going to be up to Dave's reinforcements.
I had a platoon (7-0, 3 squads, PSK, LMG) and PZIV in reserve. I felt bad just letting them sit around for three turns, but if I had sent them forward to help Scott, then the reinforcements would have a walk-on victory dance. So I hung around the middle for a while in case of a breakthrough, then sent them back to the board 46 village to stop the reinforcements. I couldn't be sure which area they were coming in, so I had to cover them both which stretched my line too thin to do the job.
When a fresh David Lamb brought these troops on (in the area closest to the front line) I had pulled my super MG post back to join the King Tiger on the hill, where they held out just fine. However, by using bounding first fire with his crappy little 37L Chek tanks Dave wiped out my PZIV, PSK and covering squads and burst through my line like it was tissue. Scott fed back another platoon and tank to me since he was holding his own, but I was pretty depressed at this point. Dave's gloating didn't improve my mood. He had gotten his entire force on without casualties, and roughed me up quite a bit. The four little, small target tanks seemed invincible!
But I still had fight in me, and I was desperate. Time to take some chances. On our next turn I took advantage of Dave bunching up his tanks by swinging the King Tiger around down off the hill and blowing up one tank point blank with a Bounding First Fire critical hit (my first shot missed...but I got rate!). Then I made a Chek tank sandwich by driving my last PZIV point blank from the opposite side and flamed another tank with BFF. I just love BFF! Trapped between a KT and PZIV, the Chek tanks died horribly. Although one did manage to pass a start-up roll and get away, it was corralled by infantry with panzerfausts and couldn't get anywhere.
In the meantime I expertly (if I do say so myself) shuffled my remaining infantry (they had been covering the other entry area) and completely sealed off the rest of Dave's reinforcing infantry which were now suffering casualties from tank MGs and my MG post on the hill. I now had a new defence line that, without tanks to support them, the Slovaks couldn't breach.
Eric conceded on turn 6. He really couldn't continue to take ground anymore, and the King Tiger was free to roam at will.
This was an excellent scenario. I give it an 8. Scott and Eric liked it even more than I did (but they didn't have to fight Dave Lamb). It had many aspects that I like in a scenario: No Fortifications, no OBA, no paperwork or recordkeeping, rare vehicle match-up, interesting fog of war for the reinforcement's entry, great terrain, good multi-player potential, lot's of maneuver for both attacker and defender (tons of Bounding First Fire)...even the title was good.
The only bad points were that the stream overlay on board 46 was totally unneccessary, and even in the front line the other stream overlay didn't really matter too much. That's a lot of SSR for very little kick (and I hate overlays in general), but it didn't detract from our enjoyment. Also it's annoying to have the reinforcements enter right in your face without some few hexes as a buffer, but I'm sure that my having to defend against them colors my opinion.
The see-saw nature of this scenario is perhaps it's best point of all. At first I thought it was pro-German, then pro-Slovak, then German...etc. For every set-back there was a potential for recovery, the hallmark of an excellent design.
Congratulations to Chris Olden for a great contribution to our hobby. I've criticized an earlier scenario of his from the Journal for being just average (I gave it a 6...he said he designed it a long time ago), but he sure is getting better with time. I can't wait to see his future designs!
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