From: Christopher Downes-Ward <Christopher_Downes-Ward@a...>
Date: Fri, 2 Mar 2001 09:55:39 -0000
Subject: [DS] AAR (or what I did in my Holidays) [Long]
Well, inspired by Frits I'm writing up a couple of games I had over Christmas. As my youngest has now reached the age where instructions to "leave daddy and uncle Bill's toys alone" now has an effect, we decided to have a day's gaming. We took the cover of my youngest daughters bed as its a) green, b) marked with handy 6" squares, c) about 6' x 6'. We then draped this over books to get the hills and dug out the scenery. In the end we managed to get in two battles both using the same scenery. Both battles were attack/defense games pitting forces with roughly equal numbers but different technological bases. Looking at it from the defenders' base line the main feature was a wooded ridge on the left side which crossed half the play area. In the middle stretching from the attackers baseline to the defenders was an autobahn with a two level junction slap in the middle of the play area connecting it to a smaller road network crisscrossing the entire area. To the right of the autobahn and closer to the defenders baseline was a major urban area with a railway connecting it to the defenders baseline. To the right of that was a wooded river valley stretching from one baseline to the other. There were two other built up areas, a small village on the slope of the ridge on the left nearest the attackers baseline and a farm complex near the river between the major town and the attacker. In both cases the objective was to clear the autobahn of any unit that could bring direct fire on it or of any unit that could observe for off-table artillery. In practice this would mean clearing about half the town, the village and the wooded ridge. Objective markers were placed in the village, the autobahn junction, the railway station and the part of the town closest to the autobahn. I made up a map and recorded the movements of each platoon as we went. Comments about Bill's intentions come from the after battle discussions. I still have the maps and have stuck them through my scanner so they are available if any one is interested. In the first battle Bill was attacking and I was defending. The attacker's were GW eldar figures, some of which, like the CBR vehicle were conversions. They are the old style plastic Eldar that are IIRC no longer available. I was using Irregular human forces with GW plastic space marines as my infantry although we did not count this as Powered Armour. Bill's Forces (All Grav mobile, except walkers, primarily HEL equipped with Superior ECM, Superior Firecons with some DFFG or MDC and most with PDS (SUP)) Battle group HQ of 2 command vehicles 1 Infantry Company of 1 IFV and 1 AEV and 3 platoons of 4 IFV and 8 line infantry teams 1 Heavy tank platoon (3 vehicles) 1 SPG battery of 4 medium artillery + 1 CBR vehicle 1 Recon platoon of 4 grav bikes 1 Walker platoon of 4 walkers (2 with GMS/H (SUP), 2 with DFFG/2) My forces (All GEV mobile with Enhanced Firecons, Enhanced ECM, RFAC or HKP and some PDS) Battle group HQ of 2 command vehicles and 2 hover jeeps 1 Infantry company of 2 vehicle HQ and 3 platoons of 4 IFV and 8 line infantry teams 1 medium tank platoon of 4 vehicles 1 SPG battery of 4 medium artillery 1 recon platoon of 2 'armored cars' and 2 GMS carriers. Quality wise the forces were much of a muchness with the chits being pulled at random out of a cup. I deployed my tank platoon in the wooded ridge and my best infantry platoon (Elites with a 1 leader) in the village just to their right. The rest of the infantry deployed in the town. The recon unit was set up in the woods by the river. The artillery and BG HQ set up in the marshaling yards by the railway station. First Turn The action opened with the heavy grav tanks approaching the wooded ridge where my tanks were lurking, when the firing stopped one grav tank had taken a mobility hit and two of my tanks were history. The infantry company swooped onto the play area and took up positions on three sides of the village with the infantry dismounted and ready for an attack. The defending platoon let rip with every thing they had and called down an open sheaf artillery barrage on one of the platoons. All the attacking infantry now had under fire markers and one IFV had been taken out by MAK rounds. The missiles fired by my IFV's had all been chopped out of the air by the PDS on the grav IFV's. Bill's artillery parked itself on the baseline and the walkers appeared heading towards the farm complex, my recon platoon rushed round to take them in the flank and destroyed one and got a mobility kill on another however then then got completely creamed by the grav bikes which got behind them. Second Turn At this point I realized that I had made a mistake, my tanks were on the forward edge of the wood and thinking like a track head I had assumed that I could now withdraw them through the woods, but of course they were GEV MBT's and woods are "impossible" to GEV's, whoops. They either had to stand and die or risk running in the open across the front of and entire platoon of heavy grav tanks. They stood, they died. All three of Bill's infantry platoons activated together to assault the village. One platoon failed its check but the other two went in, in a close run fight the attackers prevailed and pushed the defenders back into a single building (a church) and destroyed 3 out of 4 IFVs. Bill used his follow through activations to close assault again this time driving the defenders into the woods behind the village and destroying the last IFV, in a final follow through attack one of the two attacking platoons failed its check but by this time the defenders were down to three stands so they went in again. At the end the attacking company was spread out from the village to the top of the wooded ridge with both of the platoons that had attacked being shaken and having taken some losses, the defenders were routed and down to two stands. The rest of the turn was an anti-climax with the grav bikes moving down the river valley and the surviving walkers approaching the town - both in the hope of finding a position from which they could spot for fire. Third Turn The 3 mobile grav tanks moved into a position from which they could bring the railway station under fire and Bill's infantry company reorganized itself into effectively two strong platoons. My artillery and HQ shifted to get out of the line of fire of the grav tanks but not before one SPG had been destroyed. Fourth Turn Bill's artillery dropped a barrage on one of the infantry platoons holding the town and the grav infantry company moved into position to assault it. My artillery dropped a barrage on the infantry as they got out of their IFV's. Lots of chit pulls but very little effect. The Grav bikes moved to a position where they could fire on my artillery. Fifth Turn Bill's infantry assaulted the town but only just managed to get a lodgment. At this point I decided that discression was the better part of valor - I thought the infantry could hold out but their line of retreat was being threatened and next turn would be covered by fire from both the Grav tanks and the Grav bikes - so everyone piled into their IFV's and retreated off the board. This was a definite victory for the attacker but the infantry company was so beat up that it mustered about a platoon of infantry although they had only lost 2 IFVs. I managed to salvage about half my force, 2 platoons of infantry got away along with BG HQ and 3 of the artillery pieces, the two surviving stands from the platoon that defended the village also escaped. I had quickly decided that the grav units were just too mobile for me to use an active defense, I had to try and get Bill to come to me in a situation where I could nullify his advantages, in effect I had to fight an urban battle. In the second battle I was the attacker and I used the same force that I had been defending with in the first battle. Bill took a force taken from a 1980's style lorried National Guard battalion, the figures were mainly Heroics and Ross with some Skytrex mixed in. Unlike the first battle this was an encounter but we both expected the NG to move into position and then wait to be attacked. My forces (All GEV mobile) Enhanced Firecons, Enhanced ECM Battle group HQ of 2 command vehicles and 2 hover jeeps 1 Infantry company of 2 vehicle HQ 3 platoons of 4 IFV and 8 line infantry teams 1 medium tank platoon of 4 vehicles 1 SPG battery of 4 medium artillery 1 recon platoon of 2 'armoured cars' and 2 GMS carriers. Bill's forces Based on a early 1980's lorried National Guard unit, no or basic ECM, Basic firecons Battle group HQ of 2 jeeps 1 Infantry company of HQ of 2 infantry teams and 2 jeeps 3 platoons of 1 infantry team and 1 jeep and 3 lorries each with 2 infantry teams and 1 APSW team and 1 mortar platoon of 3 light artillery stands, 3 lorries and 1 jeep 1 tank platoon of 4 M48's Slow tracked, HVC/4, 3/2 armour, basic firecon 1 recon platoon of 4 jeeps with APSW and 4 jeeps with RFAC/2(BAS) The quality of the forces was decided as before by random pull, but I seemed to get the better of it with Bill getting a couple of Green-3's and most of mine been regular 1's and 2's. First Turn Both recon units raced down the Autobahn towards the junction with the intention of using its ramps as cover, mine won - when they fired on Bill's recon unit (which was a green with a 3 leader) it panicked. The Bill's infantry company headed for the town along with the mortar battery, the M48's headed for the wooded ridge. Two of my infantry platoons headed straight for the town and the third moved down the river valley. My Armour headed for the ridge as well. My artillery parked itself near the village along with HQ. Second Turn The recon unit called down a converged sheaf barrage on one of Bill's infantry platoons who had already used their activation and were debussed - there were lots of chits draws (4 guns in a battery, 3 chits per gun, 10 infantry stands and 3 lorries and a jeep in the platoon) and then there was no infantry platoon (2 stands and a jeep survived). My recon unit fired on the survivors Bill's recon unit who fled down the autobahn and off the board. The other two NG platoons had debussed in the center of town and BG HQ had setup in the railway station, however 2 of my infantry platoons had also reached the town. My Armour crossed the ridge and spotted the M48's moving towards them in a flurry of fire they killed 2. My third platoon moved into a position from which it could attack the railway station. Third Turn My recon unit moved into a position where it could support my infantry attacking the town. My Armour killed the last two M'48 then moved into a position where it could fire at any units attempting to withdraw from the town. My two infantry platoons in the town close assaulted two of Bill's platoons counting on the support of their IFV's to counter the fact that they were outnumbered (8 stands vs. 10 stands), this actually worked although one platoon lost all it's IFV's. The third platoon made an attack against the BG HQ, which pushed them back and left possession of the railway station disputed. Bill repositioned one of his NG platoons so that it could support the BG HQ. In all the assualts my attempts to do a follow up failed. Fourth Turn The platoon attacking the railway station attacked both Bill's BG HQ and another platoon, the HQ was pushed back again (considering that 2 stands and 2 jeeps were fighting 4 stands and 2 IFV's they were doing pretty well). Bill's 2 platoons in the town mounted their lorries and tried to escape along with the mortars taking some fire as the went. Fifth turn It was all over bar the shouting - Bill's BG HQ, mortar platoon and the survivors of the other two platoons left the board while my infantry took possession of the town. This one was a bigger win for the attackers, in retrospect we should have let Bill set up in place, in that case he could have used the number of infantry at his disposal to suck me into a mini-Stalingrad (which was what he wanted to do) he just hadn't realized how slow "low mobility wheeled" vehicles would be when moving off road. Possibly another way of doing it would have been to put a road between the town and the defenders base-line to allow units to quickly enter the town. Lessons Learned Neither of us had any specialist artillery observers, VTOLS or Aerospace, when the artillery did work it was pretty spectacular but a barrage that dropped on a large number of elements would lead to a lot of chit pulling. On the other hand neither of us had any extra ammunition and in the first game I was quickly down to harassing fire and one MAK marker for "emergencies". In the second game I don't think the mortars got off a single round. It took them 2 turns to get to a position that was sheltered from my direct fire and then the next turn they were in danger of being overrun by my infantry. I think we'll be using specialist Artillery observers and buying more ammunition. In a fast moving battle on-board artillery is just too vunerable to someting like a grav bike or VTOL getting behind the flanks a forcing it to move. I got pretty frustrated trying to use GMS systems against units equipped with both PDS (SUP) and ECM (SUP). Now if there was an ECCM system. The best way to demoralize a unit is hit it repeatedly in close assault unless you mange to panic a green unit with a bad leader. Systems superiority can be a great multiplier, a tank with a superior firecon and a HEL/4 can be pretty deadly.