"Seems quiet enough," said the major as he scanned the countryside with those big binoculars that German tank commanders always have in war movies.
"Perhaps a little too quiet," muttered Junior Officer uneasily.
A blood curdling scream echoed through the forest.
"Von Kummerbund help! I'm being attacked by a tree!"
"Is that better?" asked von Kummerbund sardonically? Reluctantly he dragged himself out of the foxhole and went to find his chief.
Junior Officer raised his eyes to heaven and muttered,
"My money's on the tree."
When he lowered his eyes again the ground immediately in front of him was full of Poles.
"Oh shit."
So this is Scenrio BFP 129 - A Bitter Day. Here a bunch of distinctly second rate Germans attempt to defend a scattering of buildings from what seems to be half the Polish army. I commanded the defending Germans while Ivan took responsibility for the vengeful Poles. To win Ivan had to capture all of the buildings on board 7b, some seven in all. If I could hang on to a single one then Ivan would be denied. My onboard forces were scanty; seven second line squads, two half squads, a pair of medium machine guns a couple of lights and fourteen concealment counters the lot commanded by two deeply mediocre officers. On turn 3 I would receive three more second line squads with a couple of lmgs and an 8-1 officer and on turn five I would get six more second liners with a couple more lmgs and a pair of officers. Set up rules demanded that my troops be forward, reasonably close to the Polish storm. For the Germans the first few turns would be all about survival.
Ivan's onboard force consisted of five elite squads, nine first line squads and four green squads making up the numbers. These were bolstered by four machine guns, two medium and two light and commanded by four officers led by a doughty 9-1. On the second turn Ivan would receive three more first line squads with an lmg commanded by an 8-0.
I had a plan, it was a good plan. I would even go so far as to say it was a cunning plan. The buildings Ivan needed to grab came in three distinct clumps; a trio forward on the right, a second trio in the rear, also on the right and one solitary building in splendid isolation on the left rear. I spread my force out to look as though I was trying to cover the entire board but actually my plan was to race troops back to the rear buildings left and right to garrison them while the rest of my force fought a delaying action in the forest and around the forward buildings. When my reinforcements arrived they would reinforce these rear positions and hopefully prevent Ivan from taking those buildings (the forward ones I wrote off as lost). The whole point was to build up a powerful force to defend the left hand building while forcing Ivan to lose a decent amount of time taking the others. Hopefully by the time he turned to the left hand building it would be impregnable.
I positioned an mmg team where he would be well placed to rush to the rear right hand buildings and a squad on the left to do a similar run towards the building on the left. In the forest on the left hand side I set up a cordon of squads and dummies to hopefully slow Ivan down. Over on the right I garrisoned the forward buildings largely with dummies but also placed a couple of squads to give some genuine teeth to the defence. My other mmg team and a squad with an lmg I set up to cover the road through the forest in case Ivan was crazy enough to just try running along it. In response Ivan set up the bulk of his force on the right looking to swiftly snatch the forward buildings and build himself a platform for victory. His reinforcements would push for the forest on the left.
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| Set up |
Things went well for Ivan initially as he pushed his right hand force
towards the forward buildings and I found it difficult to stop him. Not wanting the forward buildings to fall that easily I moved an mmg team and a squad in to support my scanty defenders while my designated retreaters fled for the rear. Over on the left nothing much happened as Ivan cautiously pushed a secondary force towards my defenders. I soon got an indication of how the dice were going to treat both of us as I proved to be incapable of passing a morale check. On Ivan's side he managed to kill an entire squad of his own troops (more than I achieved) by boxcarring first a morale check and then the rally attempt on the surviving half squad. Spreading death and misery with charming evenhandedness Ivan fired into a melee between a squad of mine and a CXed half squad of his (I hadn't managed to kill it in CC natch) and broke both of them. Soon Ivan would be almost embarrassed by the number of German prisoners he was lugging around.
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| End of German turn 1. My rear guards are heading to their destination but Ivan is monstering me on the right. |
The right hand buildings, now guarded by precisely one squad and a bunch of concealment counters, were threatened but my relief force (a squad with a lmg) arrived just in time to prolong the death agony a little longer. The mmg team didn't turn up in time to help but instead climbed the hill behind the buildings to deny Ivan an easy path forward. Over on the left Ivan moved up to challenge my defenders using his patented "moving in the open under heavy fire without consequences" tactic which infuriates me. His reinforcements came on and he directed them to the left as well. I was gnawing my fingernails waiting for my reinforcements as it looked as though Ivan might blow past my exiguous defences on the right before they arrived.
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| The forward buildings are almost gone but at least I've got troops in the rear. |
As it happened he didn't, instead he blew past my relatively solid defences on the left while he cautiously consolidated on the right. I tried to maintain a line on the left by retreating back into the forest and pushing forward again. Ivan just ignored me until I shot at him whereupon he broke me. The dummies making up the numbers on the left didn't last long and soon Ivan was moving through the forest assisted by the fact that I moved a lmg toting squad in the wrong direction and then had to move it back again for a sum gain over two turns of nothing. Meanwhile Ivan had filtered troops past the hill on the right and was heading for the rear buildings and my blood pressure rose. It rose higher as my troops on the left seemed incapable of holding Ivan back and he started pushing up the centre as well. From now on I would fight two separate battles, on right and left. The only connection between them would be my reinforcements.
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| Things aren't looking great, where are my reinforcements? |
Finally and not a moment too soon my reinforcements arrived. I sent most of them to garrison the buildings on the right but also committed a squad and lmg to bolster the building on the left now increasingly firming as the only possible holdout. On the left Ivan ran past (and occasionally over) my troops but he had a fair bit of distance ahead of him. I started feeling confident. Ivan had a lot of troops but I felt I was holding solidly now oh Neil you silly, silly fool.
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| Reinforcements at last. Check out my guys on the hill, they're about to do something heroic |
Yes my reinforcements had arrived in the nick of time but Ivan was still moving relentlessly ahead. climbing the hill he sneered (rightly) at my mmg firepower, moved up close and broke the halfsquad manning the weapon (more prisoners). Then he advanced an elite squad into CC with the suddenly isolated leader, naturally he killed it. In return I rolled snake eyes and wiped out the entire squad. That's right 1-4 odds and I killed the lot. For once it was Ivan cursing the CC gods while I admit I simply stared at the screen for a moment in disbelief.
Meanwhile on the lighter side of the news in the forest on the left Ivan had left a single squad to deal with my one surviving squad in the centre of the trees where neither could really hurt anyone else. These two worthies blasted at each other with 8+1 shots for about four fire phases without any result on either side except the occasional pin result. The battle had passed them by and they seem to have decided to live and let live. Finally I got sick of this and advanced in to close combat where, glory to god, I rolled another snakes, wiped him out and generated an 8-1 leader into the bargain. Pity it all happened a long way from where the battle was being decided.
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| Ivan is advancing but I'm feeling confident. This lasted about one more turn. |
Despite my heroics in CC Ivan was menacing my position on the right and slowly closing the building on the left. Still I wasn't feeling too bad. I had two and a half squads with two leaders, a mmg and an lmg on the right. Surely they could hold for a few turns? You know how this goes. My shots all failed to so much as rumple the creases in his uniform and Ivan plunged into CC with my mmg team. Proving this was my day for CC I promptly ambushed him and withdrew. My last batch of reinforcements arrived and I felt like the situation was well in hand. I sent another squad and lmg team to bolster the left while the others came in on the top right to support the building defenders there. Things seemed to be going well.
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| Things look good don't they? |
Ivan managed to break the 7-0 leader guiding the mmg team and took him prisoner but this turned out to be a dreadful mistake. My mmg team managed to break the half squad holding him prisoner and he fought his way clear in CC killing the halfsquad along the way. Ivan responded with maniacal fury and simply shot at the poor, newly liberated 7-0 until he was dead.
Then things went to hell. Ivan had broken one of my squads in the rear building and rather than
retreat it out of harms way I had moved my 8-1 leader and a squad with
an lmg in to bolster (and hopefully rally) them. Ivan fired an 8+1 shot
at the lot and my heroes laughed it off. Then he final fired a 4+1
shot and everything broke. Suddenly my entire defence on the right consisted of a single halfsquad
with an mmg being menaced by about half of Ivan's force but worse was
to come. In his next turn he moved a leader past my mmg team (I didn't
dare fire on a miserable 6+1) and in behind my brokies. Disinclined to
take prisoners at this point he massacred the whole lot. Next he moved up a halfsquad and captured the other hex of the rear building. Now the only place I still held was the building location my mmg team was sitting in. I'm pleased to recount that they did break a Polish squad before their inevitable death but suddenly I had only the one building on the left in my possession.
Far back in the woods my CC created 8-1 had rallied two broken squads which meant that he now commanded more firepower than any other part of my force. I used him to menace the forward buildings which forced Ivan to keep a couple of squads back there to maintain his hold. When Ivan managed to break a squads worth of my reinforcements on the right as well and lock up another squad in CC for two turns with a half squad I screamed aloud in anguish. Fortunately my neighbour's baby is teething and I'm pretty sure he got the blame.
The dice were still doing silly things to us. Ivan developed an almost compulsive habit of rolling snakeeyes but he only seemed to be able to do it when it caused him to cower off the IFT or at other useless times. I only got two snipers as a result both of which managed to pin the same halfsquad. Then just to prove the dice were fair he boxcarred a morale check as he attempted to push a squad past what he thought was a dummy stack on the left. Meanwhile I kept on with my unimaginative failing of morale checks by just one number and missing with most of my shots by the same amount.
I hadn't given up on the right though. Diverting some of Ivan's firepower I managed to get a reinforcement squad up to the rear building and went into CC with his solitary 6+1. No he didn't kill me but I didn't kill him either (seriously, 4-1 odds) and the melee went on to the end of the game.
Ultimately it all came down to the building on the left. I had built a wall of troops and cheerfully invited Ivan across the open ground to come and take the building. With no options left and in his last movement phase he did just that. I broke one squad and pinned another. Then he moved a halfsquad forward. I had a squad an lmg team just waiting to set up a firelane. I rolled an eleven, broke the lmg and gacked the firelane. Ivan had a half squad in position but naturally he wanted more. There was only one unit within range. He CXed a squad and leader, it took them seven movement points (this is significant) to get them into the hex with the halfsquad where he had to survive a 2-2 residual shot.
Survive it he did. His leader rolled another snakeeyes and went berserk. He then caused his squad and the halfsquad to go berserk as well. But berserk units can't move in the advance phase and he didn't have the movement points left to get into the building. So a slightly ridiculous victory for me at the last courtesy of an inconvenient snakeeyes for Ivan. In fairness I had the troops on hand to retake the building even if Ivan had captured it but after the massive buildup the game ended on a slight anticlimax with Ivan's forces staring berserkly at their target building but unable to enter it.
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| Underneath the 2 residual FP counter is a stack of berserk units and the death of Ivan's hopes |
I think I had the right tactics (although as usual the execution was terribly sloppy). That building on the left should be made as impregnable as possible. Ivan acknowledged that he made an error in leaving this building for his reinforcements instead of making it a priority for his onboard forces. Still this was a great game which kept us both in suspense right until the end.
Major von Kummerbund shook his head sadly and closed Junior Officers eyes. Apparently the young man had been captured and had gone absolutely mad beating his captors to death with his bare hands before catching a stray bullet. Von Kummerbund looked across at one of the Polish soldiers Junior Officer had dispatched, he bore a curious resemblance to oberst von Kattelrussler but von Kummerbund generously wrote that off as a coincidence. In the distance he could hear volleys of rifle fire as von Kattelrussler supervised the execution of trees he considered had collaborated with the enemy. Turning to the gefreiter (yes, there is only one) he gestured to Junior Officer's body.
"Bury him with honours before the chief gets back from tree killing. He'd probably want to make a sock puppet out of him."
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