Chris Milne
Member
Hi everyone.
This will be an ongoing AAR on the scenario Husum Hotfoot, from the eighth Schwerpunkt offering. By ongoing, I mean that I'll be posting regular updates as the game goes, along with the VASL logfiles that my opponent (Mark Warren) has graciously agreed to let me put up.
For the record, Mark states that this is only his third scenario with vehicles, so he may make a few 'unusual' decisions. We'll see. We're also bound to make some rules errors along the line, so if you see anything amiss, just ask (or point out to the world at large what a pair of idiots we are)
I'm also conscious that some of you reading this will not own this scenario, so I'm going to post some background details on what you're looking at.
The Situation
It's nearing the end of the war in Europe (8 April 1945, to be precise), and the British 11th Armoured Division is rolling across the North German plain towards the Elbe. A mixed grouping of marines and Hitlerjugend troops are in the way of the Black Bull, at a village called Husum.
After initial probes meet with some resistance, the 4th KSLI are sent in to clear the town, supported by some Comets and Wasp flamethrowers.
The Setup
I've got the Germans, who are present in approximately company strength, but have no armoured backup, so I'm going to have to hope my 'fausts and 'schrecks are enough to hold the Brits off.
My main advantage is time. This scenario is only 5.5 turns long, and the Brits have to clear the board 10 village of Germans by the end of it to win. My biggest headache are the two Wasps that Mark gets. Essentially, they're mobile, hard-to-hit flamethrowers. Aptly named. Being super-small, they're nigh on impossible to hit with regular AT weapons - an adjacent Wasp in motion would be hit on a 4 or less with a PF. Their weakness is their vulnerability to small-arms fire. The crew of a Wasp can't button up, which means I can suppress them happily with rifle fire et al.
Schwerpunkt scenarios come with a scenario analysis, in this case by Eustace Haney. His opinion is that the key to the battle are the chokepoints that the armour must pass through on bd 37 to reach the village. Others disagree. I do as well, since I think it's an invitation for me to lose a quarter of my OB in relatively open terrain. We'll see if I'm right!
So, my defence is predicated on the village. The big disadvantage of this is that I'm letting Mark get to the critical point of action without a fight. Also, all those buildings do not make good PF and PSK firing grounds. Mark has a wide variety of possible approaches, so I need to be able to shift my forces around. The village should provide sufficient cover for me to do that. However, I expect Mark to attack all along the perimeter, looking for a weak point so that his Wasps can rush into my backfield and cause havoc. I'm not going to try to hold the perimeter for long - just hope to give him a bloody nose before falling back through the village
One slight advantage that I have is that my mortar, HMG and MMG can boresight hexes, since I am the scenario Defender (all Mark's forces are entering from off-board).
The setup logfile below has all of my units revealed, along with the boresighted hexes (which Mark won't know about until he stumbles into them!). The mortar is also hidden, but Mark knows that it's up-front since a SSR prevents me from setting it up HIP if it's too far back in the village. I can only presume that this is because players might be tempted to hide it in an out-of-the-way place and hope the British don't stumble across it before the scenario ends. The concealment counters you can see are my dummies. I'm not sure that he'll fall for the big kill stack in W1, since it's a very exposed spot, but you never know!
I've got my 'schrecks placed pretty centrally - Z0 has a good field of fire from where I might be able to hit some incautious Comets. My MGs are set up to cover all three approaches, with the LMG in Y5 sited to lay a fire lane up the Y hexgrain. EE1 is a screamingly obvious mortar position for covering the treeline, but it's probably better there than in the village where its LOS is so limited.
This will be an ongoing AAR on the scenario Husum Hotfoot, from the eighth Schwerpunkt offering. By ongoing, I mean that I'll be posting regular updates as the game goes, along with the VASL logfiles that my opponent (Mark Warren) has graciously agreed to let me put up.
For the record, Mark states that this is only his third scenario with vehicles, so he may make a few 'unusual' decisions. We'll see. We're also bound to make some rules errors along the line, so if you see anything amiss, just ask (or point out to the world at large what a pair of idiots we are)
I'm also conscious that some of you reading this will not own this scenario, so I'm going to post some background details on what you're looking at.
The Situation
It's nearing the end of the war in Europe (8 April 1945, to be precise), and the British 11th Armoured Division is rolling across the North German plain towards the Elbe. A mixed grouping of marines and Hitlerjugend troops are in the way of the Black Bull, at a village called Husum.
After initial probes meet with some resistance, the 4th KSLI are sent in to clear the town, supported by some Comets and Wasp flamethrowers.
The Setup
I've got the Germans, who are present in approximately company strength, but have no armoured backup, so I'm going to have to hope my 'fausts and 'schrecks are enough to hold the Brits off.
My main advantage is time. This scenario is only 5.5 turns long, and the Brits have to clear the board 10 village of Germans by the end of it to win. My biggest headache are the two Wasps that Mark gets. Essentially, they're mobile, hard-to-hit flamethrowers. Aptly named. Being super-small, they're nigh on impossible to hit with regular AT weapons - an adjacent Wasp in motion would be hit on a 4 or less with a PF. Their weakness is their vulnerability to small-arms fire. The crew of a Wasp can't button up, which means I can suppress them happily with rifle fire et al.
Schwerpunkt scenarios come with a scenario analysis, in this case by Eustace Haney. His opinion is that the key to the battle are the chokepoints that the armour must pass through on bd 37 to reach the village. Others disagree. I do as well, since I think it's an invitation for me to lose a quarter of my OB in relatively open terrain. We'll see if I'm right!
So, my defence is predicated on the village. The big disadvantage of this is that I'm letting Mark get to the critical point of action without a fight. Also, all those buildings do not make good PF and PSK firing grounds. Mark has a wide variety of possible approaches, so I need to be able to shift my forces around. The village should provide sufficient cover for me to do that. However, I expect Mark to attack all along the perimeter, looking for a weak point so that his Wasps can rush into my backfield and cause havoc. I'm not going to try to hold the perimeter for long - just hope to give him a bloody nose before falling back through the village
One slight advantage that I have is that my mortar, HMG and MMG can boresight hexes, since I am the scenario Defender (all Mark's forces are entering from off-board).
The setup logfile below has all of my units revealed, along with the boresighted hexes (which Mark won't know about until he stumbles into them!). The mortar is also hidden, but Mark knows that it's up-front since a SSR prevents me from setting it up HIP if it's too far back in the village. I can only presume that this is because players might be tempted to hide it in an out-of-the-way place and hope the British don't stumble across it before the scenario ends. The concealment counters you can see are my dummies. I'm not sure that he'll fall for the big kill stack in W1, since it's a very exposed spot, but you never know!
I've got my 'schrecks placed pretty centrally - Z0 has a good field of fire from where I might be able to hit some incautious Comets. My MGs are set up to cover all three approaches, with the LMG in Y5 sited to lay a fire lane up the Y hexgrain. EE1 is a screamingly obvious mortar position for covering the treeline, but it's probably better there than in the village where its LOS is so limited.