"Von Kummerbund, just the man," the oberst gestured to the map, "what do you make of this?"
"If I had to guess sir, I'd say that you misplaced your folding map table again and rather than organise your headquarters more efficiently you're sticking pins into Junior Officer's back, again."
Von Kattelrussler shook his head impatiently, or at least the continual shaking of his head took on an impatient demeanour.
"I meant the situation, honestly von Kummerbund try and be a little professional."
Von Kummerbund clenched his teeth so tightly that splinters flew and crossed to the map. After a few minutes study he tapped one of the pins gently. Junior Officer whimpered.
"If I were you sir I wouldn't go this way. I know it looks clear but I've been over that ground and its a complete trap for vehicles. If you turn a little earlier," he pointed to a spot on the map and von Kattelrussler eagerly slammed in a pin, "If you turn a little earlier," repeated von Kummerbund raising his voice to drown Junior Officer's hysterical weeping, "you can avoid the traffic on the autobahn and be home in time to watch Dancing With the Stars or whatever the German equivalent is."
"Excellent work von Kummerbund, I knew I kept you around for some reason. Now, to our latest assignment." Von Kattelrussler ripped the map, pins and all, off Junior Officer's back and tossed it in a corner. "There's a huge mass of Poles heading towards this sadly undermanned village preparing to land on us like a wave breaking on the tide."
"Actually that was a previous scenario sir."
"Oh, really? I thought it looked familiar. Anyway, they really have us at sword point as it were."
"Previous scenario," sighed von Kummerbund wearily.
Von Kattelrussler stopped abruptly, "Have you ever noticed how a lot of our job seems to involve defending villages from Polish attack? I thought we invaded them. Why are we defending so much?"
"If I had to take a guess I'd go with gross tactical incompetence," replied von Kummerbund. "It probably didn't help that you gave three quarters of the regiment the weekend off."
"Don't worry," replied von Kattelrussler, "I've asked HQ for reinforcements. Told them my life may depend on it."
"I'm sure that will draw an enthusiastic response."
"In the meantime I've fleshed out our numbers by positioning a large collection of straw dummies with great big question marks painted on them. Speaking of which, I'd better go and give them a pep talk."
Von Kattelrussler strode out and von Kummerbund helped Junior Officer to his feet.
"You know Junior Officer you don't actually have to put up with that. Even in the German army we take a dim view of using subordinates as pin cushions. You could put in a complaint."
"I would," replied Junior Officer, "but the last time he did it it cured my arthritis."
Has anybody else noticed that these introductions are getting longer and longer? Anyway, Ivan Kent and my latest foray into Poland in Flames is BFP 128 - The Devils Armpit. No I don't know why it's called that. Here a relatively small force of Germans, commanded by Ivan as an avatar of Oberst von Kattelrussler, plus a ridiculously large number of concealment counters are defending a village from a marauding mass of Poles commanded by Yours Truly. I have twenty first line squads, three elite squads of assault engineers backed up by a trio of medium machine guns, two flamethrowers, two heavy machine guns, a pair of 81mm mortars and a pair of 46mm mortars. Ivan has a mere nine and a half squads on the board at game start but gets successive waves of reinforcements starting on turn two. The job for the Poles is obviously to make serious gains early, hopefully without too much in the way of casualties in preparation for a more serious grind as the German reinforcements start to make their presence felt.
Smoke would be a vital component of my attack. The two big mortars have a generous smoke allotment and a ROF of three. I envisaged advancing swiftly behind barrages of smoke to get up close and personal with Ivan's defenders. Since I'm already using the past tense you can probably guess that that didn't work.
The above is the starting set up. I planned two main thrusts, one in the centre making use of available cover and the other on the right which I hoped would be blanketed by smoke. Sadly one of my mortars spat out one smoke shell and ran out while the other didn't have any smoke at all. I had to recast my plan on the fly. I decided the best way was to close the gap between us as swiftly as possible and hopefully use numbers to bull my way through. Not exactly overflowing with finesse I will agree.
 |
| End of German turn 1 |
I made as much use of my single smoke hex as I could and recklessly charged half squads forward to draw fire. It was a measure of my desperation that I started the game actively seeking close combat opportunities. Over on the right I built up a fire base with a death stack consisting of three squads, mmgs and the 9-2 to try and help my flankers forward. In the centre I moved somewhat more circumspectly but edged towards the centre buildings. A small force on my left eased forward with antitank rifles (to protect my flank from Ivan's armour when it arrived).
Things went well at first, my troops moved swiftly forward sweeping aside stacks of concealment counters with the contempt they deserved. In the centre a DC toting 7-0 led the way while on my right squads tiptoed through the forest while a halfsquad charged blindly towards the nearest enemy. However a broken squad was the first harbinger of what would develop into a major problem. I had precisely three leaders for twenty three squads worth of troops. That's not exactly conducive to tight command and control. As I pushed forward and met the bulk of Ivan's defence my trail could be marked by the litter of broken squads and halfsquads left in my wake.
For the first couple of turns I stormed forward like gangbusters. On the right my half squad plunged into CC with a mortar crew while the remainder of my flankers tiptoed through the woods towards the target buildings. Up on the only hill this scenario provided my kill stack broke his hmg team and started to pick away at his other defenders. In the centre I pushed through the village taking some losses but bouncing him out of defensive positions along the way. Over on the left I tied up one of his squads in close combat and filtered other troops past them.
 |
| Impressive gains on the left but the first of Ivan's reinforcements have arrived |
The left flank was looking good for me. I was pushing through the village and my mmg kill stack had taken out his hmg team in the steeple. When I broke his other hmg squad I thought I was on the edge of a breakthrough. I would think I was on the edge of a breakthrough for the next couple of turns. Ivan brought his first batch of reinforcements up to bolster his wavering centre. They couldn't retake any lost ground but they did solidify the defence. Meanwhile on the left my troops were an army looking for a war. Ivan sat back and let me come to him.
With the steeple hmg out of the way my kill stack focussed on taking out the troops directly across from him while the pair of close combats raged on. I would eventually win them both after reinforcing each but it kept three and a half squads tied up in the rear for several turns. Astute viewers will also notice that the litter of broken squads is getting larger.
 |
| Looking about as good as it was going to get. |
The next couple of turns were probably my high water mark. I finally cleared the close combats and was pressing hard on the centre and right. I hosed a defender down with a flamethrower with no result other than generating a hero but still things looked good. Ivan sent his second lot of reinforcements to bolster his disintegrating flank while he tried to hold on in the centre. Seeing the need for more troops on my right (and with no further targets to shoot at) my kill stack moved to bolster my attack. Those troops were needed because my right flankers had reached the end of their elastic. I had swept all before me but any further advance would simply expose the remnants of my troops there to destruction.
In the centre I managed to push forward into the church but Ivan had obviously designated this as his line in the sand. His reinforcements (with their own flamethrower and DC) swarmed forward against my point troops and literally (thanks DC) blew my attackers out of the church. Meanwhile on the left his hero directed squad held firm and at least temporarily stymied my attempts to broaden the point of my attack.
 |
| Ivan is reinforcing the right just in time. |
I managed to get a couple of squads forward on the right but they slammed into Ivan's reinforcements. Suddenly I was terribly outnumbered but I wasn't terribly worried. My kill stack was moving up and all my other troops had to do was hang on for a turn. It was a measure of his concern that Ivan actually sent a pair of his squads into close combat with my point unit. Let me pause for a moment to pay proper tribute to this squad of mine. Over several turns it killed three German squads and a leader in close combat despite always being outnumbered by at least two to one. There will be a Virtuti Militari for each and every one. Posthumously of course as they died in the final close combat. Sadly it didn't make much difference over on the right as Ivan had the troops to filter around the battle and dominate the approaches to the village I needed to take.
But what about my magnificent kill stack you wonder? Yeah, well can I just preface my explanation by pointing out that I'm an imbecile? Eager to get this military mincing machine into the front lines I mistook a foxhole for a wooden building. This meant that what I thought was a safe approach actually involved me waltzing across open ground in full view of machine gun armed Germans. Having all three squads and their leader broken was probably a rather low price to pay for that piece of idiocy. The abandoned medium machine guns sat out in the open ground as a testament to my stupidity.
 |
| I''ve managed to destroy my own right flank |
Meanwhile in the centre things had reached a sort of stasis. Ivan was fighting hard for the church and I was having difficulty bringing sufficient force to bear to move forward. The litter of broken squads was reaching epic proportions and functional Poles were getting thinner and thinner on the ground. I did finally manage to circle around in the woods behind the building with Ivan's hero and eventually make that position untenable. I broke the squad and rather viciously killed the hero in close combat. I again tried for the church and managed to seize a toehold only to have a pair of squads broken by the flamethrower and another sent berserk. That didn't actually go too badly for me as I wiped out an elite squad but I was running out of bodies to back him up. Then Ivan's tanks arrived.
By this stage the presence of tanks was largely superfluous. Ivan sent one to help bolster the defence of the church and the rest to assist his troops on the right mopping up the remnants of my forces there. I would lose all of the buildings I had captured and Ivan was able to send troops back to the centre to help out his forces there. What about the three broken squads? Did I manage to rally them. Yes, I did. If I had just deployed them defensively I might have been able to hang on to a little of what I had gained. Instead I committed barkingly stupid act number two. I had got obsessed by the trio of medium machine guns I had left out in the open and was determined to retrieve them. I sent my troops out to fetch them (cautiously assault moving this time). Ivan rolled a three in his defensive fire and smashed my boys beyond redemption.
 |
| The writing is on the wall |
With little else to do I carried on attacking in the centre and managed to flank the church and grab a building behind it Ivan's supporting tank having obligingly broken its main armament. That was it though. I couldn't go on. I was down to about four functional squads and half the German army was rolling up to wipe out what remained. I conceded at that point. I had a little bad luck and compounded that with some gobsmacking incompetence but Ivan kept his cool and even when he was on the ropes managed to hold on to what was important. I had been hoping to travel to CanCon on a win but instead the stench of defeat would hang around me like a cloud.
 |
| The final picture which actually flatters me somewhat |
Major von Kummerbund heaved a heavy sigh.
"How the hell did we survive that?"
Junior Officer's tunic was soaked with blood but he shook his head,
"It looks like the Poles spent a lot of time bayoneting straw dummies and then pranced about in front of machine gun fire."
"Dear God," muttered von Kummerbund. "Is it possible we don't have the worst military leadership in the world. By the way JO have you been to the aid station? You deserve a wound decoration at least."
Junior Officer grimaced in embarrassment, "Actually that's from the oberst's map pins. I got through the battle without a scratch."
"Put in for a wound decoration anyway. The oberst is going to and he just stubbed his toe as he was running to hide in the church cellar."
UPDATE: On close examination it appears I had five leaders in this scenario not three. I have no idea what happened to the other two.
No comments:
Post a Comment