Yesterday,
@Matt Boehland and I returned from a break to play
ASL 227 Danica Air. This provided the pleasant opportunity for me to finally put my copy of Armies of Oblivion on the table after sitting around gathering dust for nearly a year.
I commanded elements of the Croatian 1st Light Infantry Parachute Company,
@Matt Boehland commanded elements of the 2nd "Kalnik" Partisan Brigade.
ASL227 and J108
Danica Air was originally published in Journal 7 as J108, and it's had a few revisions for its reissue in Armies of Oblivion. First, it's now 6 ½ turns instead of 5 ½. Second, the Partisans' 50mm mortars must enter dm. Finally, wordings of VC, SSRs, etc. have been clarified. Together, these changes tend to favor the Partisans-- a necessary boost as the original scenario is 12-8 (Croatian) on ROAR as of August 2019.
Setup and Initial Thoughts
As the Croatians, my job is to defend ammunition dumps and buildings on the board 38 airfield. The airfield is very much a double edged sword.
On the one hand, there's a lot of open ground for the Partisans to cross, and the Croatians get two squad equivalents HIP, two pillboxes, three trenches, and some foxholes to play with.
On the other, the Croatians don't really have the capability to create a defense in depth-- there just isn't any place to retreat to. This is complicated by the Croatians lack of leaders (a 9-1 and an 8-1) and an SSR which prevents placement of pillboxes within 4 hexes of each other.
My general defense plan was to take advantage as much as possible of the killing zone presented by the airfield. Each building would be garrisoned by a squad or crew with a machine gun. The mortars would be concentrated in a foxhole near the center of the airstrip where they had clear fields of fire to the woodlines. The majority of my men, along with all of the trenches and one pillbox, would be deployed in the woods South of the airfield to take advantage of one of the few places in my deployment area where I had good route paths. The Northern approach would be covered by a screen of HIP half squads tucked into the thickets at the edge of my deployment area.
The Fighting
The affair almost immediately got off to a bad start for the Partisans. The good news was that they found my HIP traps on Turn 1. The bad news was that they found these traps by running headlong into them while CX. In each case, Croatians won the ambush rolls-- not a particular surprise given the net -3 modifier. Where it looked like I could win (1-1 [-2] or better), I fought. Where it didn't, I withdrew behind the Partisans to interfere with their future rout paths.
Then the mortars opened up. Two ROF 3 mortars together give an average of four attacks per turn, and these were pumping out a lot more than that. One of the first shots landed a critical hit on a large (2x squad, 2x SW, Leader) Partisan stack on the Northern flank, scoring a KIA and killing the rest for failure to route. This knocked the teeth out of the Northern thrust at a stroke.
This sort of occurrence defined the course of the fighting.
To the South, the Partisans simply didn't have the manpower to fight their way through the woods. An initial thrust made its way as far as the trench line before being ambushed and annihilated.
On the West, the attack was broken up by machine gun and mortar fire from the airfield.
The Partisans enjoyed some limited success in the Southwest, but without any sort of local support, they were not bound to get very far.
By the end of Turn 3, the Partisan attack was not merely broken up, but substantial elements were obliterated. Realizing that they lacked the manpower to press home an attack against the Croatians' fairly intact defense, the Partisans withdrew.
Conclusions
Even at 6 ½ turns, I think the Partisans have a hard time of it. The requirement that they enter from three sides as separate groups inhibits the creation of a large force capable of rooting the Croatians out from their positions. This is especially important because they lack any sort of SMOKE assets, which means that their best option to get near the buildings or ammo dumps is to first break defending Croatians by fire.
Their best option may be to enter their main force from the North, with a supporting force entering from the West in 42V4, which then proceeds East to link up with the main force. A token group, including both mortars, should enter from the South, then take up firing positions on level 2 hill hexes to provide supporting fire and, if practical, advance North through the woods to keep the Croatians honest.
And of Course....
Thanks as always to
@Matt Boehland for a wonderful game! And thanks especially for his patience in the face of my incredibly hot dice.