Silly After Action Report - Peak Hour at the Golf Hotel

 The hotel sat in its grounds, mute testimony to a happier time.  Here people had laughed, played and cheated on their wives all in a comfortable setting of peach trees and lush greenery.  Now the halls which had once played host to the infidelity of France's elite echoed to the crash of boots on the tiled floors and in place of laughter, music and the occasional screech of outrage when a spouse returned unexpectedly was badly accented German and some linguistically perfect Armenian.

Sous lieutenant Outlebarrel shook his head sadly.  It genuinely hurt him to see how low this magnificent building had fallen.  

"I remember this in the good times," he murmured nostalgically.  "Oh the balls they had and the food, it was exquisite.  All was perfect."

"Did you stay here often?" asked a sergeant currently engaged in pouring lighter fluid into a flamethrower.

"No I was a parking valet."

"We're ready," announced the sergeant.

"Let's try to do as little damage as possible."

Right on cue an artillery barrage slammed down on the hotel.

"That'll help," replied the sergeant.

This is the fourth scenario in the Provence Pack - PP4 Peak Hour at the Golf Hotel.  Keen observers will note that there has not been an AAR for the third scenario.  Nor shall there be.  Suffice it to say that I never want to hear the name of that scenario again.

This one looked a little more promising.  As the Free French desperate to liberate their nation's beach resorts I have a pretty impressive force with which to seize the aforementioned hotel currently playing host to a bunch of Armenian gastarbeiter.

To do the seizing I have a force of twelve elite 648 squads urged into battle by a mighty 10-2 a pair of pretty nifty 9-1s and an 8-1 making up the numbers.  These heroes have seven lmgs and two mmgs between them.  Backing them up is a thinly armoured motorised force consisting of a trio of halftracks, a scout car and an armed jeep supported by a pair of M-10 tank destroyers.  A squad and a half of elite troops come along for the ride.  On turn two I get six more 648 assault engineers with four DCs, a pair of flamethrowers and a pair of lmgs into the bargain.  I also get bespoke artillery support with a preregistered hex in the form of OBA which manages to combine HE and WP into a glistening storm of low visibility pain.

Preparing to die to maintain their hold on southern France's vital room service assets were Dave's troops of the 4th (Armenian) Battalion of Grenadier regiment 917.  Since they were based in Provence rather that the Soviet Union these troops have already won the most important battle.  Anything else will be jam.  Holding the three story hotel itself are two first line and four second line squads (not exactly Germany's finest but definitely in Armenia's top three).  These reluctant heroes have a pair of light machine guns, a heavy machine gun and a 75mm AT gun.  They also have two officers, a 9-2 and a 6+1 on balance you can say their leadership is average.  Defending the grounds are another eight squads evenly divided between first and second line, another hmg, two medium machine guns and a second 75mm gun.  Possibly of greater importance are the twelve wire counters, ten foxhole counters and sixty minefield factors scattered about the place to add a little emphasis to the "No Trespassing" signs.  There are also twenty four concealment counters just in case my job looked too easy.

To win I had to clear the Germans out of both the hotel and a secret tunnel that officially was there to allow troops to sneak into the building but which I suspect the Armenians dug to give themselves surreptitious access to the hotel's wine cellar.  Below is my set up.  The armour and their hangers on have to enter via hex Y1 on the east (top) side of the board.  The turn two assault engineer reinforcements have to enter on the west (bottom) edge of the board.  

At start

 I decided the main attack would come from the west while a smaller force in the east would perform a diversionary task and hopefully split his defences.  Since my armour had to enter via a woods line road I was certain (correctly for a change) that one of his 75mm guns would be in building X5 to cover the road.  I led with the halftracks hoping Dave might disdain to fire on them in the hopes of bagging an M-10 instead.  I would roar up next to the building, unload troops and hopefully give his gunners something else to think about.  My diversionary troops in the east would push into the woods and from there to the outbuildings making scary noises while the bulk of my force pushed through the orchards, captured the outlying building and prepared a launchpad for my assault engineers.  Sounds good doesn't it.  Read on for the sad reality.

End of French turn 1

So I tried the halftrack end run trick.  This came unstuck when a German squad got a 2+2 shot which managed to pin the passengers and break the crew bringing the vehicle to an undignified halt.  I moved up a second halftrack and Dave had no problem unveiling the gun and turning it into a ball of flame.killing the squad and officer riding in it.  Maintaining rate he managed to shock one of the M-10s.  The only slight trace of relief was when, apparently deciding it had done its duty for the Fatherland, the gun then broke.  My diversionary force diverted quite a lot of bullets into itself.  A squad and an officer plunged into the trees, stepped on some mines and then got shot to pieces by an inconveniently placed hmg which shot a squad to death on a spectacular rate tear.  The 8-1 officer guiding them was made of sterner stuff and battle hardened himself into a 9-1 before immediately breaking and spending the next three turns failing to rally.  I was left with precisely one functional squad on the entire top of the board which understandably did little except hide behind the trees and pray for their lives.

Things went a little better on the southern flank if only because it would have been difficult for them to go worse.  A couple of guys (naturally another 9-1) broke but I swarmed into the building and, eventually, managed to kill the occupants in CC.  Except for the mines, barbed wire and wine primed Armenian defenders the way seemed clear for my assault engineers.  My artillery spotting round had been wayward but I had hopes of correcting it next turn.  At this point Dave asked what happened to my preregistered hex.  My response was "Preregistered what now?".  One of the major difficulties I have with this game can best be summed up with the phrase "shambolic incompetence".

Finally correcting my artillery I brought it down in my second turn.  The twelve firepower factor HE attack followed by the mandatory WP morale check didn't do any harm (inside a stone building I didn't really have any hopes) but now the area was blanketed in smoke.  All I had to do was worm my way through the barbed wire and enter the building while my engineers came up from behind.

That was all I had to do. All I actually did was get hung up on the wire and allow Dave to prove that firing out of WP didn't actually affect him all that much.  My second turn ended with my point troops wrestling with barbed wire while under disturbingly accurate fire from troops that were supposedly blinded.  My engineers were slow moving forward (my fault, I was concerned with mines and was trying to tippy toe around the edges of the set up area).  Things weren't helped when Dave generated a hero in the hotel.

 

End of French turn 2

My armoured force (what was left of it) proved disappointing.  That is I was disappointing.  Dave had a squad with an mmg and a pair of crews with a malfunctioning gun.  This proved quite sufficient to hold off two M-10s, a scout car and a jeep while managing to kill my one remaining halfsquad there into the bargain.  I felt I needed to take them out so that they didn't shoot my M-10s in the back with panzerfausts but in actually fact it took them so long to clear the defenders out that they might as well have done.  The only sensible thing I did was run my surviving halftrack past their position.  This would swing up the drive to the hotel to "menace" from the rear.

End of German turn 2.  I've broken the mg on my jeep.  Also the halfsquad next to the concealed unit used to have a flamethrower until he tried to use it.

The next turn saw me try and improve my position.  Translation the next turn saw me try and wriggle underneath barbed wire while Dave shot at me.  At least my assault engineers were now moving forward.  Dave unveiled his other 75mm gun and blew up my surviving halftrack although for some reason not before the squad they carried had jumped out and plunged into CC with some defenders in a foxhole.  Meanwhile my two M-10s were still in the rear painfully trying to take out a handful of German defenders.  

End of French turn 3.  I like to think I'm making progress

Finally enough of my force squirmed and wriggled through the wire and managed to plunge into close combat with his defenders (well except the ones that got blown up on the minefield that he had placed in the building hex).  I finally thought I was getting somewhere.  I had managed to get a decent sized force into the hex and the hotel itself was short on defenders.  Then Dave ambushed me and cheerfully withdrew.  In the next turn he scattered his forces across the multilevel building to a point where I would move into pretty much each hex in order to drive him out.  I had two turns and the bulk of my force was completely out of position.

As it turns out I was entirely wrong about that making progress thing

I couldn't see any way I could do it.  Dave concurred and I gave what is rapidly becoming a very common concession speech.  Next week we try PP5 Today we take Hyeres.  If there isn't a reversal of fortunes soon I might give the rest of the pack away.

The Commandante peered through the still smoke filled halls of the hotel.

"How did that idiot manage to capture this place?" he wondered.

"He didn't," replied his adjutant.  His attack was cut to ribbons and he led the retreat to the woods.  Fortunately the Armenians broke into the wine cellar and we managed to take the hotel while they were drunk."

The Commandante looked across at where Sous-lieutenant Outlebarrel was being perhaps a little too attentive to an attractive, well dressed woman standing next to him.

"Who on earth is she?"

"She's the wife of the Mayor of Hyeres."

"What was she doing here?"

"Having an affair."