The Spearhead BFP 130 - The 25th scenario in our dive into the PiF scenarios. I knew as soon as I looked at this scenario it was going to take a lot of luck to even get to the last turn. This is certainly the German's Scenario to loose and Tom almost pulled it off for me. To win, the Pole must drive a portion of his initial armor allotment, hell bent for leather, through the German defense and drive to interdict the German reinforcements; while simultaneously using the infantry and remaining armor to roll up the German infantry ensconced in stone buildings. Hopefully, if all goes as planned your infantry an can then cross either the bridge or the deep creek under little opposition to take two more (the only one that count) stone buildings all in 6.5 turns. It will happen, but not often and the German player is going to have to help you out.
I drove my itty little bitty tankettes like I was playing Grand Theft Auto. The first platoon thundered into the stream, Tom's 75 Inf missed, then malf'd, one of my little guys bog, but his platoon mate thundered on, overran the beach'as gun, ignored a hail of ATR and MG fire and kept on a going. He would eventually overrun a 47mm AT still be towed and get credit for that kill, then dodge two 88 shots and overrun it, malfing its MA in the process. Survive more fire from the reinforcing enemy infantry, overrun the second 47mm going up in a ball of flames, in its hex effective blinding it! AND it did this all alone because while Tom struggled to kill my armor, I had absolutely no problem in bogging it! By the time the remainder of the hell bent for leather charge reached the battle field, they were the rode hard and put up wet. Tom's infantry was in the VC and although the AT guns were in no position to offer any assistance to their bruder's on the far side of the creek, it really didn't matter. There was no way the Poles could root them all out. Tom's great tactic here is from advanced chapter of ASL sleeze, but its great, and I need to remember it. Deploy into a half squad and put one on every level and every hex. It would take the poles 3 or 4 turns to clear those buildings.
While the armor attempted its envelopment, the polish infantry and the remainder of the armor attempted to steam roll the Germans. They did succeed in eliminating every German starting MMC leaving them with only a heroic leader and hero. While Tom's dice struggled offensively, he generated more sniper attacks then me. These two heroes certainly gave him a much need boost. Throughout the struggle in village I kept my armor at point blank range and just blasted away or VBM sleezed him and late, to late, in the game some infantry did make it across the bridge join up with the late arriving tankettes and succeed in taking a victory building hex or two.
Overall this was a tense and exciting scenario. The bogs and a failed non-plt movement roll or two and maybe I pull it out but, like I said its up to the German to loose this one. FYI the balance gives the poles all of there armor up front on turn 1. This may or may not make the Polish case better. May because they can simply overwhelm the available defenses and push both AoA to succeed in getting more than one tankette in the German backfield early. May not, because the narrow board and AoA can get clogged quickly and make maneuvering very difficult for the Pole.
Up next Zboiska Heights!