Squad Bleeder 4 - DISMANTLING 1ST DCR

[Michael R]

I usually avoid scenarios that involve choosing parts of the OB because I don’t need one more thing to get wrong. Marcus Leja was looking for someone to play this, however, and I’ve wanted to have a game with him so I took this opportunity despite needing to choose the ENTIRE order of battle. Another reason for me to like this particular scenario is my like of France 1940 armour battles.

Marcus let me choose my side. The first thing I did was examine the VC. The VC are VP oriented. There are three methods to accumulate VP: exit, occupy and kill. Exiting units through the opponent’s area awards double points. Occupy means to be in the opponent’s setup area and awards normal points. I looked at the OB choices to know what was available and the capabilities of the units involved. Both sides have interesting choices with lots of armour choices. The French armour is thicker, but slower and radio-less and many have weak guns; no surprise there. The Germans have faster tanks with radios, but their guns will have trouble against the French armour. Both sides have gun choices that can eliminate the other side’s tanks. I used VASL to make an image file of all the available vehicles and ordnance. I saw that I could have an exit force of six SMALL tanks. The French tanks must be buttoned to fire, and they used red TH. I decided to play the Germans with a goal of winning by exiting as my first priority.

 

[Michael R]

Our first task is to choose boards from a selection of six. I used VASL and software to display all the boards together.



I’m therefore looking at the boards with the exit idea in mind. One must remember that only half of the chosen board will be in play. After the game, Marcus told me (I think) that he was trying for kill points and occupy points. I chose 16. He chose 4. A dr chose which half of each board we used. Here is what we played on. By SSR, the building have only a ground level.

 

[Michael R]

After figuring out the maps, we chose our order of battle. The map still looked okay for my win-by-exit plan. I wanted a bunch of fast AFV for exiting, a few AFV and guns for smoke and some guns that could eliminate the French armour. I believed that I needed only a small amount of infantry to hold back the French infantry.

Here is a list of the possible German choices.


Here are the units that I chose. The “R” column denotes units that enter on turn two.


The Pz 38 tanks, Pz 2F tanks and halftrack will be my exit force. The Pz 4 tanks will provide smoke cover. The 7.5cm guns can provide smoke and have a chance to eliminate French armour and infantry. The 8.8cm gun and the 10cm gun are my tank killers. I felt I needed the foxholes to be able to spread out my troops a bit. I did not purchase SAN increase because of the luck dependency. I did not spend any purchase points for the side bid because I would lose those points if Marcus outbid me and because I was limited to a maximum of five, versus ten for Marcus since I had first board choice by Marcus deferring after he won first choice by DR. The player going second is awarded one-half VP (wins ties, in other words). I bought the Stuka to be able to go behind the lines, but I didn’t realize that it could barely penetrate the French armour. I purchased the concealment as sniper bait, to conceal some of my troops and to make my starting force look more dangerous than it was.

 

[Michael R]

Marcus spent 6 purchase points to move first and setup second.


This is my first glimpse of the French force. I can see a B1-bis platoon and an S35 platoon. Those 47mm guns are worrisome; they have good penetration. My HIP 75 on the left went on the board concealed once the game started. Marcus announced he increased his SAN to four and his ELR to four.

 

[Michael R]

I did not take notes, so I am trying to describe what occurred based on the end-of-turn save files. The B1-bis platoon fired at Germans. The S35 platoon moved closer and partially behind a wall. Some infantry crept forward. The French sniper hit a dummy in the German building (yay!). End of turn one:

 

[Michael R]

German turn one is fairly quiet on my side. The 75 on the left puts smoke on the units firing at it. Some of my infantry creep closer to the French and hide behind a wall. The units on the right spread out and creep forward to defend against possible French infantry advance. There is also an ATR on the right to try for DI shots.

 

[Michael R]

French turn two sees more AFV enter; one platoon of H39 tanks and one platoon of H39(L) tanks. Marcus tried, but failed, to move one Char B tank independently. The new tanks take positions in the middle board and start shooting whatever they can see.

 

[Michael R]

German turn two has the entry of all of my tanks, preceded by my halftrack moving to distract. The 75 put more smoke during the prep. I even successfully intensive fired that gun for more smoke. I brought my 88 on board to fire at the Char B tanks. I rolled boxcars on its first shot. My 105L came on board for its added smoke. The French tanks had no first shot kills on any of my armour moving to exit. Two of my Pz4 tanks went hull down behind the wall. One of them was shocked by a French tank; I erred in moving that Pz4 there.

 

[Michael R]

On French turn three, Marcus took a lot of prep fire shots at the armour that was trying to exit and at my Pz 4 tanks. One of the exiting tanks went down. My shocked Pz4 recovered, but another Pz4 was stunned. During his movement phase, two of the Char B tanks moved forward to get in front of the smoke. One bogged in the woods (a good position) and my 75 destroyed the other. The silly 88 went out on its first repair roll! Marcus revealed an 81mm MTR and pushed it out of the J4 woods. My Stuka attacked the crew and broke them. One of the S35 tanks also moved independently to get closer to the Germans. My infantry on the right took a pounding from a leader directed HMG on a rate tear. The French have 10 VP to the German 6.5

 

[Michael R]

Its now German turn 3 and I am hoping some tanks will get off the board this turn. I prep fire as much smoke as I can manage, including two intensive fires. My halftrack exits with hardly a shot taken at it. Yippee, ten points! I forget the sequence after that, but I am moving the ones who can exit first followed by the ones that will need another turn. Two tanks go down early in their move. I end the turn with three vehicles in motion on the road, near the board edge; two even have a wall to help. I fire sD as the last MP as defence against the tanks, but that allows the infantry to move up for CC. One additional AFV exited after the halftrack. I don’t have a save file at the end of German three. In French four, my three AFV near the exiting board edge all went down. Marcus got the turret hits he needed to take out the two behind the wall. The other was immobilized by infantry in CC. A French 47L AT gun came on board this turn to fire at a Pz4 that I felt I needed to try to exit on German turn four. Since my exiting tanks are no longer a big factor, Marcus moves several French tanks closer to the Germans to try for more VP. I finally have a reason to show my last 75 gun. I moved up some infantry from the wall to the woods because I think I need more VP. I will regret that later. My Pz4 tanks that stayed behind start using their smoke to protect themselves! The French have 31 VP, all by CVP. The Germans have 18 by CVP and 10 by exit for 28.5 .

 

[Michael R]

During French turn five, my infantry that moved up in the middle gets knocked around by French tanks and infantry, and then captured. A Char-B that moved up gets shocked by my 75 on the left, but my Pz4 that was trying to exit was killed, while in smoke, by the 47L AT gun. The French infantry are able to advance on the German right. During the DFPh, the German 105 and 75 on the right take down some French armour. I shoot at French guards to reduce the CVP value of the prisoners by killing them. The Germans have 35 CVP and 10 points exited for 45.5 . The French have 37 CVP and prisoners worth eight points after doubling for 45.

 

[Michael R]

German turn five is all about shooting at each other. My shocked Pz4 recovered. My Pz4 that has smoke puts it on the Pz4 that is in danger. The 105 on the right gets another French tank on the right. The 75 eliminates the nearest squad with intensive fire. The 75 on the left fires on the Char-B again, but only shocks it again. The French HMG team on the German right gets some points by eliminating the broken German infantry in that area. Marcus tries to kill the Pz4 tanks, but the dice don’t cooperate. After the DFPh, he concedes. The Germans have 44 CVP and 10 exit VP for 54.5 points. The French have 39 CVP and prisoners worth four points doubled to 8 for a total of 47. I am pleased and surprised that this scenario format has produced a close game that was exciting to play.

 

[A Lost Canadian]

Amazing AAR.

 

[Steve E7]

This is some nice ASL innovation, I like the concept.
Can you comment on how you felt about the board space/playing area? It seems too small to me, but I'm interested in what you thought ..
thanks

 

[Michael R]

I agree it is small at first glance, but I feel for the available OB and VC combination it was right. The other squad bleeder scenarios in J11 have bigger playing areas.

 

[Paul S NJ]

Nice AAR Michael! I have played a few of these at ASLOK and love the concept. The OOB and unknown VC make for a very fun time. I remember Marty Snow buying FB and completely gutting my surprised troops.
Paul

 

[esprcorn]

I really enjoyed reading your thought process in approaching this one. I tried one of the larger urban one's at Winter Offensive last year and it was not fun. Largely because of a lot of inoptimal decision making. And there was a ton of random rubble (which I never like). I think these can be a blast, but I don't know about when rushed!

 

[clubby]

I love the format. I've been itching to play one of these.

 

[AdrianE]

Great write up
I just played this as the Germans. We ended up with a board 16/59 combination. I bought the OBA, same guns as you, no stuka, more infantry, the PZ38ts and PZIVds.

My plan was to use the OBA to drop a smoke FFE into which I'd drive the tanks and from there go off board.
I ended up going first and used a 8-1 2x467 to push a 75mm forward. The HT towed the other one forward but it broke on its first shot.

I ended up dropping the smoke FFE on a big concentration of French tanks and that let the Ht and 3x38ts get off board. I managed to kill a S35 on the way by. I tried to CC a couple of tanks in the smoke but rolled high. French tanks are helpless in smoke as the have really weak MGs. That meant the French had to attack and each of my guns killed a tank but I lost a PzIVd to a charB.

My opponent also bought OBA and a pre-registered hex but gacked the contact roll and then broke the radio. He also bought the 81mm MTR but broke it too.

 

[Perry]

Great stuff.
My first thought was to buy the six H-39s and run them off under the cover of some Char-Bs and S-35s.
However, I am sure that plan would not survive contact with the enemy.