A month later and the town of Shklov was front and centre for the onrushing Nazi juggernaut. However Shklov proved to be a tough nut to crack. It was defended by Red Army officer cadets colloquially known as "Stalin's Scholars" (because "future purge victims" doesn't roll off the tongue as easily in Russian). After a couple of failed attempts the Germans told their regular infantry to take five and dialled in some crack troops from the Grossdeutschland regiment. This is ASL Scenario T4; Shklovs Labors Lost which also gives you an impression of exactly what counts as a sense of humour amongst ASL players.
This was my first online game playing VASL and I've got to admit I'm a fan. My opponent, Ivan Kent, took the defending Russians while I took command of the Grossdeutschland attackers. My assault force consisted of a pair of early model StuG self propelled guns, nine elite squads of infantry, a pair of medium machine guns, four light machine guns and three highly skilled officers including a mighty 10-3. To hold me off Ivan had seven elite squads of his own, a first line half squad for some reason, a heavy machine gun, medium machine gun, light machine gun and an antitank rifle. Leadership was provided by a well indoctrinated 10-0 commissar and, to take the blame if it all went wrong, his own 10-3 officer. That's a 10-3 leader each, surely such formidable figures would take a prominent part in the action (answer; "No!")
Our troops set up virtually on top of each other. I had to capture five stone buildings, Ivan would win if he could keep a single one of them. Ivan set his troops up with delaying forces in the forward buildings and flanks while keeping a reserve of squads plus both leaders and the hmg in what he obviously intended to be his last stand location. My plan, such as it was, was to deal with the defence in bites. Flanking units would try and sidle to the sides (ugly alliteration I know) while my main firepower hit his forward defences. The StuGs would try and help things along by plastering likely locations with smoke. Below is the map of our set up.
As you can see I have a huge death stack (two squads, both mmgs, 10-3) preparing to punish whatever it can see (not much) while other forces lurk nearby to rush building N5 when its safe to do so. Smaller forces of a couple of squads each with a few lmgs are assigned to the flanks. The StuG to the north is positioned to make smoke immediately while the southern one is detailed to roll nervously forward to position itself to smoke out the rear buildings next turn.
The game started with a bang. Specifically the bang of my northern StuG commander hitting his gunner over the head when the man admits that he's left his smoke rounds in his other tank. So, no smoke in the north. The StuG did its best with high explosive but solid stone walls prevented any harm. Fortunately my kill stack wreaked great execution, smashing his lmg position and clearing the road (as long as I kept away from the mmg). Making use of smoke grenades my assault forces inched out into the road in one of the most circumspect advances in history. To the north my flankers edged carefully forward, nosing towards his flank guards. In the south my guys simply charged forward. Ivan's defending squad broke their commander and pinned a half squad but a squad survived to plunge into close combat. Defensive fire in the north broke one of my assault squads but the remainder tiptoed into the building and tried to look like wainscoting.
With his forward defenses threatened Ivan tried to take out some of my guys in his turn without result but my return fire took down the other squad he had in the building. Meanwhile the close combat in the south raged on. Ivan had lost a half squad in my first attack but evened it up in his own close combat phase so two halfsquads were now locked in melee. His mmg pinned one of my halfsquads but then broke which was a relief.
With the forward building in hand I spent a turn moving my erstwhile kill stack forward and rolling my northern StuG round to hit the north of his rear defence building. For some reason known only to myself my southern StuG attempted to take out the mmg unit with high explosive rather than shrouding it in smoke or firing on the large (and obviously hmg heavy) stack right in front of it. Ivan in his turn slaughtered my guys in close combat in the south leaving us with a half squad each in the building since my other half squad went off on an ill advised and, as it turned out, abortive flanking move on the mmg unit. Trying to take out one of my flankers in the north merely exposed his own flank protection unit and I cheerfully smashed it.
Turn 3 started with another bang followed by a sharp crack. Specifically it was the bang of my smokeless StuG trying another HE shot at defenders in a stone building, this time it worked with a roll of four and his concealment was stripped with ROF promising good things for my second shot. The sharp crack was a reminder that four was Ivan's sniper number. A single shot rang out and my 10-3 went down in a heap. No decent little hole through the head for him, rather it was a dreadful sucking chest wound that left him to drown in his own blood. The soldiers with him gave inexpressive Teutonic shrugs, muttered the German equivalent of c'est la guerre and moved on. The southern StuG having regained sanity dropped a smoke shell (yes I got one) on his hmg position while the surviving bits in the southern building advanced once again into close combat with his atr toting halfsquad; who promptly ambushed them, withdrew from melee and positioned themselves perfectly to shoot my southern StuG in the rear with the atr the next turn.
This he achieved with a critical hit which had shreds of armour plate (and armour crew) flying in all directions. He then moved the halfsquad under the wreck presumably in an attempt to reinforce his beleaguered comrades. This was unwise as outside the protection of stone walls I finally managed to kill him. Ivan repaired his mmg but spoiled the effect by breaking it again almost immediately. Meanwhile I had taken advantage of my northern StuG's battering of his position to ease some squads into his rear building. Suddenly Ivan was reduced to three units, a squad and commissar (hiding under a concealment counter), the 10-3 with a squad and hmg plus a squad manning a now broken mmg to the south. The hmg squad seemed to be a little out of position so I focused on killing the commissar squad through the simple expedient of pouring so many bodies into close combat that it couldn't help but die although it didn't do it immediately causing me more than a little sweat. Meanwhile other forces headed south towards the hmg squad, who promptly broke one of them to remind me that I should really check lines of sight before moving in front of an hmg squad commanded by a 10-3 leader.
Still, I could see the writing on the wall. Taking a deep breath I plunged into the smoke. With stone walls and the smoke I figured I stood at least a chance of surviving even pointblank shots and I would be well positioned to advance into close combat if I survived. Ivan gave me a 20+2 shot as I came in, I survived. The melee was still raging to the north but I had the endgame in sight now. I poured pointblank fire into his hmg hex, breaking and wounding his leader and breaking the squad. Sending my surviving StuG south to the mmg position I sleazed him in place and poured troops south. Finally killing his forces in the north I got 2-1 odds against his mmg position in the south and wiped them out as well. Which left Ivan with nothing but his broken, wounded 10-3 leader. The 10-0 commissar had died in close combat like a man, entrenching tool in hand and a prayer to Stalin on his lips. The army officer finished the game curled up weeping in a pool of his own urine begging not to be killed. Obviously the Red Army needs a little more political instruction.
So victory to me and much thanks to Ivan for his guidance over the vagaries of VASL and his good natured patience as I misdirected stacks, dropped support weapons and continually forgot that he couldn't actually see the unit I was pointing at with my finger.
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