Stalnie Prostori CG

Bad Dice

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Folks,

Having connived (mostly by asking) Dennis Hess to play the Stalnie Prostori CG with me, I was reminded by him the other day that I was supposed to be composing an AAR of the event. Dennis was good enough to accede to my request to play SP, so I was more or less obligated to follow through in this regard. That said, I missed getting anything for Turn 1. I made up for that in Turn 2.

Starting here 16430
You can maybe see that things have not gone perfectly according to schedule, which is off-putting if you're German. The units to the north under the CX counter are a Heroic 9-1 leader and a squad. Why is the leader Heroic? Because during Russian (Soviet?) DFF a 50mm MTR (under the Acq) hit the hex the 9-1 and the two squads (with a MMG and an HMG) hit the hex they had ended their MPh in, and had scored a 1KIA. The leader -narrowly- missed catching the round. A squad (apparently armed with a baseball mitt) instead caught it for him. They died as a result, and the rest of the stack automatically broke. Evocations and lamentations ensued. The good news is that the leader went Heroic in the RPh thereafter. Still, on T1 I am down 2 CVP. The Germans live and die in this one by, amongst other things, the CVP differential at the end of a scenario. Taking buildings and other Strategic Locations (bridges, buildings, Level 2 hills and higher, etc.) also helps, but getting shot into the negative one T1 does not make for happy faces. To the relative east things go better, which is to say that no sons of former Vikings choose to take a shot.

This changes on T2. The Germans, out for blood, press hard. The Germans also apparently throw caution not just into the wind, but into what could be said to be several winds. See here 16431
Yes, you're reading that right. That's two dead tanks. Why? Because a certain German player who was not Dennis was seeing red for having lost a squad to a bad roll. Note to all, never let your blood override your common sense, even if you don't have any. Especially when you don't have any. I'll mention that Dennis needed what could be called 'good dice' to score a kill, even against a Pz IV. I'll also mention that Dennis' dice were red-hot. The result was two dead tanks.

That brings the CVP tally so far to something-like 12, in the space of two GT. What do I have to show for it?

Yes, that's right.

The good news is that I did in fact break the squad crewing the light mortar. Then I reduced it, scoring a CVP. Hooray. I'm also pushing forward, which has to be taken as a good thing. I'm about on-schedule, insofar as taking terrain is concerned. That's also to be taken as a good thing. I have a Heroic leader, which I will also fail to complain about. Still...

For all that, I've killed a Russian HS. 1 CVP , against the 12 Dennis has scored against me. OK, that's maybe to be expected. 'You have to spend money to make money'. 'For an omelette, you break eggs'. Sure.

I'm doing, in terms of advancing. But I'm taking losses, and my inherited sense of parsimony is not liking it.

BD1643016431
 

Cpl Uhl

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This CG has an interesting concept. Using geoboards, (but it could be done with HASL maps too) the playing area expands as the attack advances. Can't remember exactly but I think you add another "column" (in VASL terms) of boards after the first CG date or two, then another...A refit phase mechanic deals with stuff "left behind".

I always thought it was an elegant solution to deepening the play area while avoiding the 6 foot long hasl map.

Do you know of any designers trying to use this for a hasl? Maybe in other games? It could work for certain battles like the Japanese in Malaysia, Kursk, Bulge, desert battles with deep penetration and exploitation.
 

Bad Dice

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I don't know of anyone who has done something similar, but I cobbled together a kinda-sorta HASL which attempted to recreate/simulate the Soviet drive west post-Kursk. Maps were generated at random, per dr/DR. The OB for both sides was also kinda sorta random as well; but either side could influence that particular aspect through the application of BPP (Battlefield Purchase Points). It was just a thought, but I think it has some life.

BD
 

The Purist

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The SASL charts for generating boards may be of some use in this. Depending on the type of terrain the battle is fought on (city, village, farmland, rural, hills) the boards can be generated randomly. There are independently produced updates that cover boards up to 79 as well as third party offerings.
 

Cpl Uhl

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I'd love to see it with a HASL campaign. A way to get out of the city fights that dominate HASL CGs?
 

boylermaker

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The Advancing Fire HASL "Brevity Assault" uses a similar system: some sites on an operation map have their own ASL map, but many are procedurally generated, IIRC. It's DTO, so there is less terrain to generate, but it's a cool system that I'd like to see more of. Still waiting on Hollow Legions so that I can try it out for myself....
 

Bad Dice

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Welcome back. We're still south of Prokhorovka and the SS are still into the Russians. Here are some screenies.
16781
The Russian line in this sector is in disarray. The SS like that, when Russians are in disarray. It's causing a problem for the collection of Prisoners, however. The SS are apparently allergic to Prisoners, so taking any (and mitigating any possibility that I might spend less time swotting up CVP by this means than is strictly necessary) is a non-starter. It sucks, being ubermensch. Just the same, two OVR have killed one squad and made another take to its heels. Expect to see more of the same, especially since the Russians don't have anything like PF or Baz, etc. I've demonstrated this by OVR him twice, once which netted me two CVP in terms of a squad.

The Russian line in the middle is doing a distressing job of holding fast, however.

16782
That verdammt ATG at the bottom of the shot has already killed two tanks, and I am so gun-shy at this point that I don't want to risk another. Note also that Dennis bought AT mines. I dodged some bad news traipsing into that hex, all nice and traipsingly smug, when Dennis said 'Stop'. The blood chills when your opponent says that. I do in fact dodge the mines, and have arrayed myself as you see. Dennis has wisely pulled back a tad, which of course makes my job harder and lengthier. All those buildings you see, the Germans have to take those, and while on a per-scenario basis I can make myself happy with killing Commies, it's the buildings and the Rubble and the bridges and the L2 (or higher) hills that will determine if the Germans walk away from this one with a 'W'. I'm confident that I can take the Board 10 town, but I also know how tough it can be to dig infantry out of an urbanized setting.

Things look better to the bottom, though.
16784
Russians who were assigned picket duty have been more or less neutralized. So says confidence. The ATG that nailed the tank has itself been silenced. The crew has been driven off, and if I have anything to say in the matter both Gun and crew will become less than footnotes. Still, the Russian pickets are doing their job. I have OVR another Russian squad, but that's not the goal. I've gotten myself into a bit of a predicament, thereby. Subduing the squad will entail OVR it again, which shouldn't be a problem, but the SS want to Drang Nach whatever direction Prokhorovka is in, not overrun Russians. I burn game-clock running down Commies. The SS don't want that.
And there are a company of Russian tanks, plus another company of Riders, entering from just 'off camera'. I expect them to make a lot of unwelcome trouble.
The SS timetable is lagging. The SS can make up for the lag, but no one thinks that the Russians will make it easy for them.
 
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