[SG2] PBEM AAR - Valley of Death - NSL Report

This was the report from Roger West, the NSL player.

On Mon, 28 Oct 2002 10:00:43 +0000, Roger Burton West
<roger@firedrake.org> wrote:

Well, now that I've got the acronyms out of the way...

I haven't yet read the AARs that have been posted, so that we can all have the
maximum possible embarrassment.

My force: two NSL platoons plus company command, with the third platoon
in reserve (and not available to me); plus a DFFG/1 team and a VTOL
gunship. Each platoon consisted of a command squad, three panzergrenadier
squads, a PA squad and a medic unit.

Primary objective: take the NW ridge.

Secondary objective: locate and/or destroy the minefields.

My onsiderations: power armour to go first to locate minefields; try to keep
the IFed contained on the NW ridge as far as possible, for the benefit of my
mortars.

Turn 1: squads advance to the northern treeline on ridge 141b. Platoon 2 is
westernmost, then platoon 1, then the command group. Mortar fire on the
bunkers, since I have no visible enemy. Using command activations, PA advances
to ridge 122; one unit found a minefield while crossing the ridge. 23 moves
under the bridge and gets sniped at; 21 counterfires with some success.

"It's a sand-bellied sniper! Them's good eatin'!"

23 gets fired on from the bunker, and (turn 2) hit by artillery. They're in
the open and not IP, since they didn't quite make the bridge. Oops. But the
sniper unit gets wiped out by further fire, so that's something.

PA starts coming under IFed missile fire, spots the missile team and a wheeled
APC. Other infantry units start to move up across the river,
towards the western end of ridge 122 - but far too slowly. An early
company-command activation gets the PA out of trouble. Medics get to 23
by the bridge and carry the survivors underneath it. ('I assume they look like
"obvious medics"...')

The gunship comes on table and lurks behind ridge 122.

Turn 3: IFed medics are spotted near ridge 111. Allan explains in detail how I
can shoot them with opportunity fire. "We do not fire on medics." Second
platoon, by the end of ridge 122, trades fire with IFed units.

Second platoon's PA keeps moving around, in and out of the minefield atop 122.
"One day we're going to plot this minefield... it's been laid out by Combat
Engineer Alhazred, hasn't it?" (They'd been crossing the edges of it, I
think.) First platoon PA takes heavy fire from a hidden unit (with IAVRS) and
significant casualties. Not IP...

Gunship activates, intending to hit the easternmost bunker. Instead, it spots
an APC and a missile team, which becomes the priority target (since we know
where it is now, and we can always find the bunker later). All it gets is a
suppression; but command reactivates it and... suppresses again.

PA continues to fire on spotted IFed units. At this point we're feeling
reasonably confident about things.

The unit under the bridge has two guys in it - one wounded, one OK. The
wounded guy gets left, with the intention of giving him an APC pickup later.

Gunship moves west, aiming to scour the southern side of ridge 121. Spots a
hidden IFed soldier, but only manages to suppress him. The APC which I expect
to find there isn't visible. Hmm.

More PA fire on the IFed troops around the base of 111. Infantry units finally
start getting up onto the back of 122.

Allan: (Okay, you're getting pretty scary with those combat moves! You make
far more of them than you miss...).

Me: "Blood-sausage and sauerkraut."
"What, you feed them on that and it gives them strength and stamina?" "No, we
feed them on that and they're desperate to capture the enemy's
rations..."

Unit 22, which the survivor from 23 under the bridge was planning to hook up
with, takes heavy IFed infantry fire. Their buddies in 21 return fire, and
miss. At this point, IFed offers a ceasefire, but we're
feeling reasonably confident - 22 and 23 are basically gone, but 21's
more or less intact, and the first platoon is coming up the ridge. We don't
have sufficient information to justify withdrawing at this point.

Then 21 takes fire, and we're spotting units on the edge of ridge 121 -
near the wounded guy under the bridge. Not good. 21 gets pretty much
wiped out. OK, that'll do - second platoon has basically been reduced to
the PA and the command squad, and first platoon PA has taken heavy losses.
Unknown numbers of units are still out on the ridges. Casualty levels are
going to be unacceptable. Ceasefire accepted.

Roger