May 31, 2014
At Endgame, had a tentative meetup with Al S. but I haven't heard from him. Hence, setting up Situation #6 for a second solo play.
In the first Situation #6 game, the Germans forgot to bring their halftracks. This game, the Germans have the correct OOB.
House rule: halftrack elimination does not produce a wreck counter. As will be noted in the After Action, this is actually a blunder with respect to the rules, which clearly state that destroyed halftracks result in a wreck counter placed at the site of destruction.
The first game of Situation #6 I did not understand why it might be benficial for the Germans to set up second, but move first. I get it now.
Germans first move is to get some infantry over to the pass between hills 104 & 126 to deny the Russians theroad movement through the pass.
Russians can't do much more than road march into the teeth of the much smaller German force, which is hoding some tactically valuable positions.
Germans consolidating positions around the pass.
Russians made a mistake by putting all the truck-mounted SMG units at the rear. A few of these should be up at the front to spot, close assault, and soak up fire without producing wrecks.
Germans took out a field gun which the Russians probably didn't need to sacrifice. It was placed to put some pressure om the Jgpz IV.
Russians are going to have to really put some pressure on now, because they are bottleneck on Board 1 in a big way. Attempting to encircle the Germans.
Germans mounting up to pull back.
Russians encircled units on pass.
Germans in major retreat!
Al S. showed up about right here, so I played everything out solo, narrating my reasoning to Al as I went.
Looks pretty close, will have to count pieces to see if the Germans have enough to squeak out a marginal victory and claim a draw.
Final result: Russians take 7 German units, Germans take 15 Russian units, marginal victory for Germans. Russian move 11 units on to Board 3, marginal Russian victory. Hence, a draw.
Not using halftracks as sacrificial pieces to slow Russian advance. I've playing that halftrack elimination does not place a wreck, which is counter to the rules. Using halftracks as wrecks allows saving the "real" AFVs for shooting.
Germans still don't know how to employ the long range artillery. The Wespe and Hummel got off one shot each.
Situation #6 as played in these two games feels relatively well-balanced. On the one hand, it's tough for the Germans to get the long range SPA effectively employed, and difficult to acquire other kills, on the other hand, with a bit of care, the Germans can generally stay well out of reach from the Russians, choosing when and where to sacrifice units.
But the Russians have so many units, which puts a lot of pressure on the Germans. Any German standing to fight risks being swarmed by T-34s.
It wasn't apparent the first game why the Germans need to get first move. Since they're limited to Board 2 for set up, this move lets the Germans quickly emplace to slow the Russians from leaving Board 1. The Germans probably don't need to move first, but they do need to make the Russians pay to leave Board 1, which means moving towards the advancing Russian column immediately.
There is an official variant of this scenario distributed by Avalon Hill in some printings of the game which allow the Germans to place a mines and blocks. This could make it very, very difficult for the Russians to win, depending on the skill of the German player to emplace the impediments.