Silly After Action Report - Huns of Steel

 Captain Ilych Gettintimeov stepped into his command post and looked around in some confusion.  The junior officer he expected to see was nowhere to be found and instead there was a crisply uniformed commissar gazing around with some disfavour.  "Some disfavour" was one of a range of expressions that no soldier wanted to see on the face of a commissar.  Gettintimeov saluted hopefully, he knew better than to ask what had happened to the other officer.

"Comrade captain," announced the newcomer, "I am Commissar Pettisukhol, I have come to see to the political welfare of this unit."

There wasn't much the captain could say to this.  "We don't need you," would get him shot.  "Thank god you're here" would lead to a situation where shooting would be a release.  The captain settled for,

"Welcome comrade."  Seeing that the look of disfavour hadn't dissipated Gettintimeov seized on what he hoped was a positive topic.  "I see you've been decorated."

The commissar glowed, "Indeed," he presented the medal for closer inspection, "this is the Lavrenti Beria Award for Ten Commanders Purged."

"Well done," murmured Gettintimeov faintly wondering if there was time to write to his family.  A shout from outside possibly saved his life.

"The Hungarians are coming!"

"Ah, I will take a squad up to the first floor with the medium machine gun, " announced Pettisukhol.

"Actually I wanted that positioned..." the captain voice trailed off.  "Good idea, couldn't have thought of better myself.  I will join the rest of the men," he fled suddenly much happier about being surrounded by heavily armed Hungarians.  Outside he bumped into his most experienced sergeant.

"Where's the medium machine team?" asked the sergeant.

"Going up to the first floor."

"But wouldn't it be better if..."

"With the commissar."

"The man's a military genius."

So here is our next game.  ASL Scenario 115 - Huns of Steel.  Here I shall command a bunch of politically motivated Soviets attempting to fend off the Axis Second XI from a bridgehead over the Don River.  To do the fending I have eighteen squads of doughty Soviet troops, fourteen first line and four conscript (ok those last four may be more doughy than doughty).  These stalwart defenders of the Rodina have a HMG, an MMG, two LMGs plus a pair of 50mm mortars and three antitank rifles.  Two officers (or rather one officer and one 9-0 commissar) command.  Providing supporting fire is a 76mm antitank gun.  Fortifications in the form of two roadblocks and eight wire counters will hopefully help to delay or channel the Hungarian attack.

To reinforce my defenders I get nine tanks of various quality.  Two Valentines (slow but sturdy) and four Stuarts (fast but fragile) turn up on turn two.  A trio of T34s (home grown and much better by far) arrive on turn five.

Dave Wilson commands the Hungarians who have given him their somewhat eclectic best.  A dozen elite squads gallop onto the battlefield on horses just as if this was 1842.  A further eight first line squads turn up on motorcycles like a deeply second rate bikie gang (think the Black Widows from Every Which Way but Loose).  These guys are led by a trio of leaders none of whom are spectacularly good (and all of whom would turn out to be vulnerable to sniper fire) and carry dismantled medium machine guns and 50mm mortars.  For completeness they also carry three fully mantled light machine guns.

Clattering and lurching on to support what, for want of a better term, I will call the Hungarian infantry are a collection of armoured vehicles that make the infantry look like a model of conformity.  Leading the charge are a trio of Panzer IVFs with the German markings painted over.  Also present are three Czech built LT vz 38Es.  Finally in an attempt to make the Czech tanks look good there are three Hungarian Toldi Is.  As if this wasn't enough on turn three another seven tanks arrive.  Another pair of the impressive PzIVFs, three somewhat seedy PzIVCs and two Nimrod whatever the hell they ares.

To win I need either a good order squad or AFV with functioning MA on or adjacent to one of six victory hexes which are grouped in clumps of three around the pontoon bridges in my rear.  I also win if I amass 90CVP a rule I can only assume was inserted just in case a Hungarian player parked his entire tank force in front of the 76mm and simply left them there.

This was a big scenario and in deference to its size and importance I actually came up with a plan.  Dave effectively had to capture (or at least drive me away from) the two bridge crossings.  On my left a gully covered the bulk of the approach to one bridge.  I wired off both ends of the gully and placed a roadblock on the nearby street.  In the gully I put a trio of squads (one armed with an lmg) and behind them another squad with a 50mm mortar.  Behind these forward defenders were a handful of dummy stacks and a couple of squads (one with an atr) conveniently placed to retreat to the bridge adjacent victory hexes.  This was largely bluff, I didn't expect Dave to make his main push in this direction what with all of the space available on the right.  In the village I placed a trio of thoroughly expendable conscripts plus another couple of squads with an atr to essentially act as speed bumps.  The remainder of the force including both officers and the hmg and mmg I used to garrison the farm complex near the other bridge.  A quick glance at the map will show that my right flank is very exposed but I was hoping to use the Stuarts and their machine guns to cover that on their arrival.  The 76mm gun I placed on the other side of the river where it had a decent line of site to both crossings.

My intention was to make Dave commit the bulk of his force to capturing the crossing on the right, fight ferociously for every inch of ground and hopefully leave him short of time to get across and drive me away from the left.

At start set up

Have you ever had a plan work too well?  Me neither but this came close.  Dave poured virtually his entire force down the right side of the board, his horsemen eating up the ground their noble steeds apparently untroubled by the clanking monsters roaring alongside them.  His motorcycle troops headed for the village with impressive armoured support while over on the left... a trio of Toldis undertook what could best be described as a forlorn hope against my gully dwellers.  Just to add to the entire impression of intending doom Dave played recordings of tanks moving and horses galloping to remind me of what I was in for.

End Hungarian turn 1

They say "be careful what you wish for" mind you "they" say a lot of things and you can't listen to them all.  Firing was minimal in the first couple of turns as half the population of Hungary poured down the right side of the board while my triumphant smile turned into a rictus of death.  Over on the left though my 50mm mortar team decided to match points with the finest Hungary's military industrial complex (more of a military industrial simple really) could provide. 

The rate of fire was plentiful and in my first turn a Toldi was immobilised and the crew fled shrieking from their suddenly immobile vehicle (they would get back in later).  In the next turn the same mortar would immobilise another Toldi and the threat, such as it was, to my left was over for the time being.

 

End of Soviet turn 1, a Toldi immobilised but not much else to report

By the end of the Hungarian second turn Dave's troops on the right were pushing forwards.  To the rear squads with dismantled mortars and medium machine guns got out their allen keys and started putting their weapons together.  I looked nervously at the large amount of undefended space on the right and listened desperately for the sound of lend-lease tank engines in my rear.  Over on the right I took my first casualties as the surviving Toldi broke a squad before making itself scarce.  I in turn attempted to shuffle my gully dwellers to the right but it has to be admitted this didn't go so well.

End Hungarian turn 2.

A word about our dice.  My dice were average and so were Dave's.  However Dave achieved his average by rolling either ridiculously low or ridiculously high.  It is for this reason that virtually no Soviet infantry survived the game and also why Dave broke virtually every MA he possessed at one point or other.

My second turn arrived and with it my armoured reinforcements. A pair of Valentines and a pair of Stuarts.  Keen readers of the scenario card may note that I was entitled to four Stuarts.  However I only brought on two.  Why?  Jaw dropping incompetence, that's why.  Neither Dave or I realised at the time I had short changed myself a pair of Stuarts and I didn't realise until I started writing this AAR.  The two Stuarts I did remember I sent over to guard the right (now being menaced by a significant number of Hungarians of both cavalry and armoured variety.  I sent a Valentine to guard the road to the bridge near the farm complex (That's a lie.  That just happened to be where the slow moving Valentine ran out of MP).  And the second Valentine?  I sent it over to the bridge on the left.  There were a couple of immobilised Toldis up that way and destroying a pair of sitting ducks would add to my CVP.  I didn't seriously expect to hit the 90 CVP cap but it wasn't a bad thing to keep in Dave's mind.  Dave's good rolling activated my sniper who managed to kill the Hungarian officer trying to motivate his mmg kill stack.  My sniper would kill another officer trying to motivate that stack and eventually kill one of the squads as well.  It has to be said the mmg stack was a bit of a disappointment for Dave.  As for me my sniper was for a long time the sole contributor to my CVP total.

Hurray, my tanks have arrived, those I remembered

The preliminaries having been dispensed with the real battle now commenced as Dave pushed forward on the right and also sent troops to challenge my conscripts somewhat nervously defending the village.  His armoured reinforcements arrived and the PzIVCs were sent to deal with the village troops while his IVFs added their weight to the cavalcade of steel pouring down on the right.  My outer line of infantry crumbled as tanks and horsemen pressed them.  In the village my conscripts lurked heroically under concealment counters and defied the Hungarians to evict them.  I also managed to street fight and immobilise an LT 38 leaving it sitting in the street.  Over on the right two Stuarts looked and the monstrous force swarming towards them and wondered where their two comrades were.

Now the Hungarians are starting to press and my troops are starting to crumble

First blood (or bloods) went to my Stuarts who managed to take out a pair of the Czech crap boxes against the run of play while my infantry whimpered and died.  Dave howled in despair but the Stuarts were about to fall victim to PzIV vengeance.  On the left my Valentine limped towards to Toldis who despite being immobilised were only marginally slower thank the Valentine.  Dave sent a PzIVC over to assist but I trusted my Valentines tough armour to face off the short barrelled 75 (a correct judgement just for once).

A couple of Czech tanks go down but the Stuart's celebration will be brief

Have I mentioned that I'm not particularly good with armour?  What happened next demonstrates that.  Dave's cavalry had been pushing forward under the protection of a PzIV and an LT 38.  A Stuart had killed the LT 38 and I thought I saw an opportunity to take out or at least menace the PzIV.  The Stuarts would have difficulty penetrating the frontal armour of the PzIV but the side was another matter.  I sacrificed a Stuart firing frontally and inviting the PzIV to fire back.  With the return shot taken (and the Stuart killed) I moved my other Stuart across the front of the PzIV to line up a side shot.  Whereupon Dave cheerfully used the machine gun fire capacity of the tank to rotate his turret to line up a perfect shot at point blank range.  In the next Hungarian prep fire phase the Stuart was toast and my sole armour consisted of a pair of Valentines one of whom was so far away from the main battle that the war would be over by the time he arrived.

Speaking of said Valentine Dave had remanned both immobilised Toldis and was bouncing small calibre shells off the Valentine's armour.  The Valentine in turn had failed to hit the nearest Toldi but promised to do better next time.

Back in the real world a swarm of tanks, Nimrods and Hungarian soldiers had presented themselves at the farm complex covered by judiciously placed smoke dischargers and the fact that the worthless commissar commanding the mmg team proved incapable of hitting a barn from the inside.  Freed of the threat, however theoretical, of the Stuarts Dave's infantry tiptoed around the barbed wire and squirmed through the woods to menace my sole remaining Valentine.

My poor Stuarts are doomed and the farm complex isn't looking safe either

It has to be said that while the smoke helped Dave's troops arrive unmolested in then proved a nuisance to him as he wasn't quite able to beat up my troops in the stone building due to the hindrances.  One of his tanks managed to immobilise itself on some wire and then broke its MA before it could slaughter the Valentine.   My commissar proved his utter worthlessness by first reducing a broken squad to conscript status then failing his own morale check and finally dying by which point I was quite glad to get rid of him.

Things are bad and getting worse

As my troops in the farm complex crumbled I pulled back the survivors to the rear buildings, and closer to the victory locations.  This was only a temporary solution because it allowed Dave to swarm around me which he promptly did.

Still time was slowly ticking away.  Behind the main action my sniper was gradually reducing his mmg stack to impotence and a combination of dummies and the occasional conscript squad were at least occupying the attention of a few squads and a pair of PzIVCs.  I say a pair, the third had decided to help out the two immobilised Toldis still sitting under a rain of badly aimed 40mm shells from my Valentine.  The PzIVC's method of doing this was to plunge into the gully and roll to where my Valentine had finally managed to kill one sitting duck and had acquired the other.  Once in the gully however Dave realised it is just as difficult to shoot out of it as it is to shoot in.

The swarm approaches

My T-34s arrived on turn five just in time to demonstrate that I know nothing about armour as I had completely forgotten that they don't get their radios for a few more months.  This resulted in a whole platoon (rather than the intended one) roaring up the road on the left side of the board quite a way from the main action.  In better news my 76mm joined the fight as Dave's tanks had now finally come within range.  Despite being CE my right hand Valentine sat under a hail of machine gun fire and gently dissuaded the Hungarian infantry on that side from advancing.  Unfortunately other infantry was advancing from the top.

The heroics, such as they were, of my right hand Valentine came to an abrupt end as I proved to Dave that he wasn't the only one who could roll boxcars.  Which was a bit of a shame as Dave had driven two PzIVs right up next to it and now there was virtually no reason.  In a fit of pique Dave destroyed the Valentine anyway but my 76mm fried one of his precious PzIVFs on the other side of the complex and caused a slight reevaluation of Hungarian tactics.

Farewell my Valentine

 Dave was systematically dismantling my defences in the farm complex but it was all taking time.  Time I used over on the left to move the couple of units that weren't dummies to the victory locations and started digging foxholes, something I should probably have done about four turns ago but better late than never.  A pair of my T-34s abandoned their comrade to guard the road and did a quick U-turn to return to the victory locations.  Time was running out. 

Having finally cleared the village Dave roared a PzIVC forward and directly behind my outpost T-34.  I cringed in fear but the Germans obviously hadn't trusted their Hungarian colleagues with any AP shells because Dave was reduced to bouncing HE 75mm shells off my armour which didn't work very well, or at all really.

Oops, this could be awkward

Dave had finally cleared the farm complex, the last broken Soviet troops fleeing over the pontoon bridge.  When some Hungarians tried to follow my 76mm evaporated them.  Yes, one position was down but it had taken seven turns, only two remained.

Over on the far left the one surviving member of my first tank group finally destroyed the second Toldi and turned to leave whereupon Dave's PzIVC roared up out of the gully right behind it.  Valentines move at a speed normally associated with glaciers so there was no chance of outrunning it.  I would just have to lumber for the rear and trust to my armour.  Strangely this trust was not misplaced.  

With only two turns to go Dave parked a pair of PzIVFs in the grainfield on the right and attempted to shoot my defenders on the left out of their victory locations.  I had parked a T-34 right on top of one of them.  A critical hit sent it up in sheets of flame but the ensuing blaze made it even harder to hit my infantry now snuggled at the very bottom of some rapidly dug foxholes.

The end is nigh

At the end of Hungarian turn eight Dave gave the concession.  I had troops nestled on the victory locations who were more in danger of cancer from all the smoke than Dave's fire.  My 76mm was cheerfully carving up any infantry who dared approach.  This was a long game played over three sessions but in the end a rare victory for yours truly.

Dave selected this one so next time we will be playing my choice, Phoenix Rising where I will command a ridiculous amount of Chinese presenting themselves for destruction in front of a bunch of Japanese support weapons.

A pair of smoke stained Soviet soldiers stared as the enemy tanks withdrew.

"They're pulling back," shouted one and promptly had a severe coughing fit.  Eyes streaming the two of them stumbled from the foxhole into relatively fresh air.

"Victory," croaked the first soldier between wheezes.  He peered around with reddened eyes, "where is everyone?"

"Dead," replied his colleague.

"Including the commissar?"

"Yep."

"Victory," repeated the first soldier even more enthusiastically.  His comrade made a mental note to denounce him at the first opportunity.