Silly After Action Report - Part 1 Defiantish Resistance

Parties of grim faced German infantry moved silently through the trees quietly assembling in their jump off positions for the assault.  Hauptmann von Kummerbund watched in approval as they shook out, deployed and prepared their weapons.  Ahead of them the steeple of a church dominated the Polish village and von Kummerbund stared at it with suspicion; if the enemy commander had any sense he would have eyes up there.  It would be too much to hope for that the enemy commander would be of a calibre similar to their own.

Junior Officer made his way to the forward command post.  No, remembered von Kummerbund, Junior Officer no more.  After his heroics in the last disaster he had been promoted to Oberleutnant and as such had his own name.

"Congratulations oberleutnant," said von Kummerbund holding out his hand.  "What is the name you have been promoted to?"

"I am oberleutnant Hildebrant Wolfgang Rutger Anton Claus Pfefferbracht von und zu Pfordamages," replied the new minted oberleutnant almost bursting with pride.

"Holy shit," replied von Kummerbund faintly.  Before he could say anything more the oberleutnant looked around nervously.

"He's up at the forward position," replied von Kummerbund answering the unasked question.

"Have they managed to remove that Knight's Cross from his larynx yet?"

"No, he's deploying the troops with the assistance of sock puppets."

A sudden, harsh blast on a whistle interrupted them.  All around grim faced figures in field grey were rising to their feet and moving towards the enemy.  Up at the front von Kummerbund could clearly see a sock puppet on a stick leading the way.  Presumably somewhere underneath it was Oberst von Kattelrussler.

"You know oberleutnant," said von Kummerbund wearily, "sometimes having the best disciplined army in the world is a damned nuisance."

So this is ASL Scenario BFP120; Defiant Resistance (you know as opposed to that lackadaisical easy going resistance the kids are into nowadays).  Here I shall command von Kattelrussler's long suffering troops as they attempt to seize a village from its Polish defenders.  There are no vehicles in this one but we each have infantry to burn.  Since we each also have flamethrowers that term could be literal.

There are four victory locations and to win I have to capture them all.  To do the defending Ivan has twelve squads, three heavy machine guns, two light machine guns and two small but irritating mortars.  He also has trenches and pillboxes to form strongpoints with.  On turn four he receives another twelve squads plus a flamethrower and a demo charge.  Finally on turn five he receives another three elite squads of reinforcements.  Apparently half the Polish army has turned up to play.

I start the game with sixteen squads (including three assault engineers), two medium machine guns, six light machine guns, a flamethrower and a demolition charge.  On turn three I get another dozen squads with machine guns and another flamethrower and on turn  five I get ten more squads with yet more machine guns.  Each of us also has a plethora of officers to herd the mob forwards.

As opposed to our usual online games we started this one face to face at the April Bears meeting.  Ivan had prepared a defence and I organised an attack.  We were just about to begin when a fellow gamer walked past, took a quick look and pointed out that we had both misread the setup rules and had set up completely wrongly.  Carefully thought out plans were tossed in the bin and we both cobbled together a new strategy in about five minutes flat.

Ivan had set up strongly garrisoning the church in the centre of the village which was one of my victory targets with a sprinkling of troops in the forward buildings and others hanging on the flanks.  My plan was to divide the village up into chunks.  With loads of reinforcements coming on I figured I could lose a few of my at start force.  So the starting force would push up the centre with a weaker and largely diversionary force on the left (where the other two victory buildings were).  I hoped to grab the two central victory buildings with this force and use my reinforcements to go for the other two on the left.  Hopefully my diverters would have at least revealed some of his defences by the time they arrived.

I deployed like crazy and sent half squads forward on suicide runs to feel out the defences.  This worked at some cost in blood, a cost needlessly increased when I moved a full squad next to one of his and had it vapourised by defensive fire.  They won't find enough of those guys to bury.  As the even worse than usual photo below shows I was taking advantage of such tree cover as I could find in the centre trying to get forward relatively unscathed.  The clutch of Polish troops in the centre of the board are protecting two buildings I need.

I feared he had an hmg in the church steeple but it actually turned out to be a spotter for one of his mortars.  The other was over on the right flank but, in answer to my prayers, broke before it could do any harm.  I have bad memories of Ivan using 46mm mortars and this seemed justified when the other broke my flamethrower squad before it could do any harm but the rest of my troops pushed forward.

Turn two saw my main force pushing forward and gradually closing up with his main defences.  Progress has been slow over on the left with the exception of one half squad that has dashed forward thinking itself impervious to bullets.  Subsequent events would prove it wrong.

Note the shadow of my hand taking the photo.  It's fair to say I'm not great at this

I eased forward in the centre, perhaps not being quite as bold as I intended (the death of an entire squad had made me nervous).  Still with halfsquads leading the way (and catching the bullets) I was gradually gaining ground while Ivan fell back on the left and abandoned his useless mortar on the right and pulled his troops over to reinforce his centre.  There was a squad with an hmg on the ground floor of the church but I overwhelmed it by giving it so many targets that it couldn't kill them all (awesome tactics huh?).

Ivan and I frequently have cause to rave (well I rave) about the dicebot on VASL but this face to face game proved that we're no better at rolling actual dice.  Many troops on both sides survived simply because we proved to be incapable of rolling low enough to hurt them.  I think this worked somewhat in my favour as it allowed me to get in close and finally capture the church (and a heavy machine gun) while taking out the defenders in lopsided close combats.  I had hoped to grab the other centre victory building (the wooden one just behind and to the right of the church) but a single squad with an lmg in a forward building resisted all fire and covered the approach long enough for Ivan to race both his mortar crews in there.  I finally managed to break the damn squad but we're hitting turn five now and I need that building.

Over on the left my diversionary force had taken the bit between its teeth and had found a mess of bunkers and trenches covering the other two victory buildings.  Still my troops had pushed well forward and I decided to bring my first lot of reinforcements on the north (left) edge of the board in the hopes of capturing those buildings before Ivan's reinforcements turned up.  Silly, silly Neil.  Instead Ivan had an awesome firephase and broke pretty much all of my left hand force.  Suddenly my reinforcements were on their own.  In the next turn Ivan brought his reinforcements on directly behind them, I suspect these guys are going to be busy holding off the raving Polish hordes for the next few turns while I try and patch together my left flank and finish the business in the centre.

This is pretty much where we left it for the day.  I'm dominating the centre but my dreams of a rapid seizure of the left hand buildings has died in a welter of broken units and hysterical weeping (me again).  In the north east a private battle is developing as Ivan's reinforcements slam into the rear of my own reinforcements and it looks like my battered flankers are on their own for a while.  In the centre I should be able to clean out the church in the next turn and hopefully push his mortar crews out of the other victory building.  Plus I have another ten squads turning up that I have to find employment for.  I'm hoping to squeak a victory out of this one.  Come on guys, von Kattelrussler needs a win.