Another Silly After Action Report

By December 1944 the tide of war had definitely turned on the Russian front.  This could be seen from the fact that Stalin had stopped even pretending to be nice to people and various German generals had stopped praising themselves and started work on their memoirs blaming everything on Hitler.  Further down the command chain German soldiers stopped dreaming of victory and started dreaming of survival while Soviet soldiers stopped dreaming of survival and started dreaming of victory.  Meanwhile behind the lines the SS started a vigorous campaign to murder those people that they had so far unaccountably left alive.

In the north a Soviet offensive had cut off a large pocket of German troops in Courland.  Showing the originality they are famous for military writers have dubbed it "the Courland Pocket".  Of course the Germans could have evacuated by sea and used those troops to defend somewhere more useful such as (to take an example completely at random) Berlin.  Naturally Hitler disagreed.  By keeping the troops there he was tying down Soviet troops that could otherwise he used elsewhere.  The fact that about two million Soviet troops were currently heading towards his location didn't manage to disabuse him.  Still there was a grain of truth to his assumption.  The pocket was too big to ignore so while their colleagues headed towards the "lair of the fascist beast" those who drew the short straw found themselves attacking the Courland Pocket.

This is Scenario J157; Rage Against the Machine which pits a charmingly eclectic group of Germans against onrushing Soviet hordes.  Dave Wilson and I played this one on Saturday and I got to take the Germans attempting to hang on to a largely worthless piece of ground for another five minutes while Dave's Soviets battered at the gates.  The Soviets have to take two of three objectives, a bridge in the south, a building in the centre and a crossroads in the north.  They have an awesome array of firepower to do the job.  Sixteen squads (including six elite), demolition charges, a heavy machine gun, a 9-1 leader plus a few light machine guns and a couple of lesser leaders to make up the numbers.  In close support they have eight terrifying AFVs.  Three T34/85 tanks (fast, well armoured, awesome gun) and five ISU self propelled guns carrying weaponry ranging from 122mm to 152mm in calibre (think of a heavily armoured barn set on tracks).  To defend I got eleven squads of various enthusiasm from elite (ready to die for folk, fuhrer and fatherland), through first line (weary and disillusioned but willing to do their best), second line (looking nervously for the exits) and conscripts (wishing they'd joined the Salvation Army instead).  To back up this all too scanty force was a medium machine gun, a couple of light machine guns, a single 75mm anti tank gun and a panzerschreck (basically a more difficult to pronounce bazooka).  In addition each of my three officers was toting a panzerfaust capable of reducing the most formidable piece of armour to scrap metal with a single shot (which is good because a single shot is all they get).  On turn three reinforcements in the form of a pair of jagdpanthers, a single StuG and a trio of elite squads with an lmg turn up to bolster what will by then no doubt be a frail defence.

So, to design my defence.  The problem was the Soviets had the firepower to smash through pretty much anywhere.  I designed my defence around the concept of delay rather than halt.  A road ran just north of the river to the desired bridge and another road in the north lead directly into the village and the crossroads.  Between these two roads was a mess of forest, orchards, brush, hedges, buildings and the occasional pond until one struck the village itself.  Two small hills, one in the north and the other in the south overlooked their respective roads.  I set up a front line of expendable units, dummy stacks and conscripts with the occasional second line or first line squad as a stiffener.  I trailed units back along the north road in convenient buildings and patches of forest.  Like an idiot I neglected to set anything up on the north hill itself and completely neglected the tiny (but completely open) passage between the north hill and the board edge.  My pseudo defence stretched across the middle of the board but ended temptingly short of the southern river bank.  Partly this was due to a lack of troops but mainly it was because it seemed obvious to me that a hidden schreck unit must be in the trees near the bridge and the AT gun was probably based in a handy patch of woods where it could cover the road approach.  In short I didn't really expect him to try to hard for this one and felt I could deal with him if he did (wrong).  Another squad with an officer was hidden in the small woods behind the northern hill hoping to take out a tank or two should they break through.

Dave's set up wrong footed a goodly portion of my defence as he place almost everything in the north leaving a modest diversionary force to attack through the centre.  All eight of his AFVs were as far away from my AT gun as it was possible to be and remain on the board.  While I was composing my concession speech Dave moved his forces forward.  The bulk of his infantry shuffled circumspectly forward, positioning themselves to crush my frail defences on turn two.  One of his T34s charged into the forest attempting to blaze a path for his comrades.  Instead he bogged.  In turn two he mired.  In turn three he immobilised.  The crew then hopped out and panted after the infantry now some way ahead, keep an eye on those bastards we'll meet them again.  In the centre he probed my defences and inched forward while I decided for the most part that concealment was the better part of valour

In the north another of his tanks dropped a smoke shell into building H6 effectively blinding the hapless conscripts within.  A couple of squads started exchanging fire with a couple of other defenders while the bulk of his force pushed toward the hill, armour lurking modestly behind.  At this point I realised with mounting horror that I had no defences on the hill and Dave could swarm over (and behind) it with impunity.  At the last moment I advanced a concealed squad onto the hilltop just before half the population of Moscow turned up.  I knew that guy was dead before I sent him in and so it proved but before he went down (with a 122mm round to the head I believe) he managed to break four squads and impose a small delay on Dave's main force.  Your iron crosses are in the mail guys.

Eventually Dave swarmed over and around the hill and drove a tank around to bolster his troops whereupon I promptly destroyed it with a panzerfaust from my officer hidden in the woods and committed a grievous rules violation in doing so (I am writing this mea culpa at Dave's insistence).  You remember that the officer was hidden with a squad.  I had revealed the squad earlier to fire at a juicy target moving in the open (and failed completely of course) but return fire had broken the squad.  Since the officer was in the same hex (albeit still hidden) it too should have suffered the attack but I completely forgot to check.  It was possible therefore that Dave's tank was destroyed by an officer who should already have been dead.  We discovered this a turn later when it was too late to do anything about it so we settled for removing the offending officer from play.

Meanwhile in the south Dave had sent a pair of ISUs to support his attack which was working its way through my defences.  With the route apparently clear the metal behemoths rumbled down the road straight into the line of sight of my AT gun.  My gun promptly killed one of them (they're so big its difficult not to hit them) and startled the other.  The rest of his diversionary force was engaged dealing with the remnants of my defence but at that point my idiotic gun crew broke their weapon and Dave felt free to move (they repaired the gun the next turn whereupon one of his squads promptly broke the crew instead).

Feeling unjustifiably confident about the ability of the southern flank to hold I brought my reinforcements on in the north.  The two jagdpanthers went into the village to bolster the defenders struggling with the Soviet attack while the StuG parked itself behind a wall and tried to look menacing (its armour could be penetrated with a can opener so I was trying to keep it out of harms way).  Two of the reinforcing squads went into the village and one with a lmg and leader moved into building 3aK3 which was one of two that had to be taken to command the crossroads.  As my StuG positioned itself one of his tanks (or SP guns I forget) took a low odds shot at it which missed and my StuG returned the favour with the same result but in the next turn it put a round straight through the frontal armour for another kill.  The tank crew from the immobilised vehicle had caught up with the main force now and started its own little flanking movement around the StuG to the north.  Disdaining to fire on such a weakling the StuG targeted a more worthwhile enemy and promptly broke its gun.

Time was now running out and to get things moving Dave drove one of his tanks straight into a building where a melee was raging, right next to a jagdpanther.  He failed to kill my squad (his squad succeeded in doing that all by themselves) but the next turn the jagdpanther reduced his tank to scrap.  Another ISU broke into the village only to be nailed by a panzerfaust from an officer hiding in a building (kids, do not fire a panzerfaust inside a building, the backblast will kill you).  Somehow my officer survived but the ISU didn't.  Despite the armour losses Dave was crawling ever closer to the crossroads.  Down in the south a squad, the crew from the mangled ISU and its surviving comrade rolled towards the bridge.  The hidden half squad with the schreck took out the ISU but the squad and crew waltzed past while it was doing so and suddenly Dave had the bridge and I had no troops that could get there in time to recapture it.

Feeling the centre building to be safe (correct for a change) I focused on trying to hold the crossroads.  I should have focused a little harder.  Dave bled and limped and I think he lost another tank (I'm pretty sure he ended the game with only one) but had managed to get a large force of infantry right next to the building occupied by my reinforcement squad with the machine gun.  I was left with a dilemma, drop concealment and hopefully shoot his best chance to pieces or stay concealed and make it that much harder for him to hit me.  I chose to shoot, completely botched it and watched my guys get reduced to red mist in the defensive fire.  Dave walked into the building on the last turn.

But wait,you cry, didn't you have to occupy two buildings to control the crossroads?  Well that damned tank crew sneaked right around behind my StuG and into the other one while I was looking at the huge masses of infantry to my front.  I realised the danger too late and missed my opportunity to eject them.  Victory to Dave on the last turn congratulations to him and thanks for not hitting me about the head with a dice cup for that panzerfaust cock up earlier on.