"So, we're fighting Greeks, allied with other Greeks in an attempt to capture Athens from the Greeks and give it back to the Greeks. Is that a reasonable assessment of the situation?" Captain Roderick Forster-Children looked at the written orders in his hand with a certain amount of distaste. The colonel sighed,
"I don't know if its a reasonable assessment but its pretty much accurate," he replied. "Just get on with it will you? A bunch of paras are holed up in a building and if we don't move now the Greeks will overrun them. Don't worry about reinforcements, I'm giving you some Greeks."
"Which Greeks?"
"Those Greeks," said the colonel pointing. A body of men, definitely Greek, were gathering outside.
"Are they on our side?" asked Foster-Children nervously.
"In a fast moving war like this who can tell."
Dave and I have been playing a few scenarios from Hazardous Movement "Uncivil Wars" pack. This one pits British troops (and a few Greek hangers on) against the Communist (but definitely Greek) ELAS as they attempt to liberate Greece, for the right type of Greeks of course. A bunch of British paratroopers (assault engineers and commandos but subject to ammo shortage) are trapped in a few buildings while with ELAS fighters attempt to convince them of the error of their ways in supporting the imperialist, capitalist running dogs. Meanwhile another group of British (along with some of the aforementioned running dogs) are ploughing through stone buildings in a rescue attempt hampered by another group of ELAS fighters who are tripping them up and generally making a nuisance of themselves. I have the Greeks (ie ELAS) in this one and Dave has the predominantly British but slightly Greek.
Set up is sequential. First I set up my para busters. I have sixteen partisan squads (eight 527s and eight 337s) with two medium machine guns (Russian and so heavy they can barely move), two light machine guns, a pair of demo charges, an antitank rifle and two Mol projectors carted by crews. Leadership is provided by three officers led by a 9-1. Then Dave set up his beleaguered paratroopers; six 648 squads, a mighty 10-2 leader, two light machine guns and a borrowed American bazooka. Sixteen concealment counters aid in misdirection. Third I set up my blocking force, tasked with holding off the British (and Greek, don't forget the Greek) reinforcements. This force has another eleven squads (eight 337s and three 527s), a medium machine gun, two light machine guns, a 50mm mortar, a demo charge and another Mol projector. Three more officers command including a 10-0 commissar. They also have eight concealment counters and a roadblock. Finally Dave's remaining forces set up. Nine first line squads, three British leaders headed by a 9-1 collectively equipped with a hmg, mmg and three lmgs. Eager to show they're helping the not necessarily Communist Greeks have contributed three and a half squads with a demo charge and a leader of their very own. On turn three a pair of Sherman tanks roll on to give some added firepower to Dave's attack. Dave can deploy all of his paras and I can HIP three squads. We each forgot these particular wrinkles. Finally each side can fortify one building location. This at least we did remember.
So my job was to overrun the British paras while my blocking force heroically fended off his reinforcements. My assault units had to set up in buildings. There was literally nowhere for them to go except directly into the face of his fire. I duly fortified a building location I thought would be useful and packed it with troops, I put a crew with a mol projector on the roof in the hopes of shooting down onto a Sherman.
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| End of turn 1 |
My first turn went about as well as one could expect. My brave partisans charged forward and were broken but in the process revealed Dave's troops. His forgetting to deploy meant that his front line was thinner than it should be and over the next couple of turns I was able to wangle his paras out of their forward defensive line. Over in rescue city Dave's reinforcements eased slowly forward, breaking any partisans to foolish to run the moment they came into view. Still my main line of resistance hadn't been reached yet although my mortar crew had been terrified into abandoning their weapon and hiding in some nearby trees.
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| End of Allied turn 2 - check out the turn counter :) |
Dave's neglecting to deploy had allowed me to get into the forward building of his defensive zone but it also meant that I was facing full 648 squads as I attempted to get further. With his rescuers getting closer I felt the pressure of time. I also found his fortified position, a pair of squads and an lmg guided by the 10-2. Over the next couple of turns Dave's reinforcements essentially dismantled my defences with the exception of my fortified location. The only reason for his delay was his disinclination to go past it while a mmg, lmg and a mol projector were still sitting there to cause him grief.
Down in para central I pressed my forces recklessly forward entering into hand to hand close combat and successfully killed a couple of para squads, closing in on his fortified building. And there I stopped. I assembled an awesome amount of firepower but partisans can't firegroup so my attacks degenerated into a series of 12+4 shots that required good luck to get a result. Things were made worse when in response to one such shot Dave's leader battle hardened and became an heroic 10-3. Attempts to breach the fortified building with DCs came to nought.
Dave's Shermans rolled on and to my absolute delight my mol projector team on the roof put a bottle of flaming liquid through a Sherman sending it up in flames. Sadly the other managed to drop a WP round into the building effectively neutralising my toughest remaining force.
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| A Sherman burns merrily and his paras are surrounded. This is about as good as it got for me |
A word about my commissar "Useless bastard". Ok that's two words which is two more than he deserves. His principle contribution to the game was to casualty reduce two squads in rally attempts. Other than that he might as well have not been present. Frankly I wished he wasn't. With the units in my fortified building attempting to wash white phosphorous out of their eyes Dave's remaining Sherman and surviving reinforcements rushed past to bring succour to his paratroopers who in the meantime had simply stood in their fortified building and taken pretty much every shot I could make against them.
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| It took six turns but Dave has relieved his paratroopers and I am screwed |
I gave Dave the concession with my remaining troops on the brink of disaster. There were a couple of high points. Frying the Sherman was one and the fact that not one of the Greek allied troops survived was another but I have to admit I didn't really enjoy this game. The only way of getting the paras out of that fortified building is to continually bash your head against a brick wall and hope it gives way before your head does. If it doesn't you're stuck. Once you've closed the ring around the paras there is nothing left to do except hope the dice will be kind. Dave did enjoy this game but as the British he had more to do. He needed to cling onto the paras original defensive position and also co-ordinate the relief attack. Meanwhile I bashed my head against brick and hoped.
"Well done Forster-Child," said the colonel approvingly. "The Greeks have suffered a serious blow today. Have you told the Greeks?"
"I can't," replied Forster-Child, "they're all dead." The colonel completely failed to look disappointed. "Excellent, carry on."
"Where?"
The colonel waved vaguely, "Over there somewhere."
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