Scenario 9 : Rush To Contact, third time lucky

Scenario 9 : Rush To Contact

Place : near Hitdorf, Germany
Date  : April 6th, 1945

A  description of scenario 9 : Rush To Contact  from the GMT Games board game Combat Commander : Europe

www.gmt.games


Setup

Lt.Wray and his men entered the area on the high ground just behind objective 1. The plan was to swiftly claim objectives 1, 2 and 3, overwhelming any light German resistance that  they may encounter.

There were no Germans in sight, but an LMG team, one German squad and an officer were known to be occupying objective 3, one building of a small farmhouse complex hidden from view in the valley below. Mines were in the area protecting the farmhouse, in the house on the hill looking down into the farm house as well as in front of objective 2 and in the woods beside objective 3



Move Out!

Wray moved up with 5 of the six squads  and made it to the ridge without much  incident. A concealed  mine field delayed one squad  a  but they swiftly recovered their composure. The first objective (1) , a small farmhouse, fell to the Americans in this early advance.
Wray got busy organizing  a firing line along the ridge , looking down in to the farmhouse.

Reinforcements already ?

To Lt. Wray's  dismay, almost as he began firing, more Germans came into view in the distance; a German HMG  established itself on the hill off to the right, with a view that  dominated the entire battle field. Some German volks grenadier squads appeared directly to their front, some in the clear and some concealed in some brush, blocking an easy exit.

But then to remedy the situation American reinforcements rapidly arrived  to back up Wray, so many and so fast that it was getting quite crowded in the rear area. And finally a US 105mm artillery battery was assigned! All seemingly at once, much to the Germans chagrin. All the American reinforcements came in on the left edge of the map, ready to back up Wray in the attack on objectives 3/4.

Hubbard started pushing up through the brush on the left, to cause a distraction and to get a little cover from the German HMG over to the right, and to spread out the concentrated U.S. forces that were all now in plain view of the German HMG.

Wray and his men formed a line along the ridge and started pounding the central  farmhouse complex, (objectives 2 and 3). The Germans ran squads up the road to try and reinforce the area. One squad did not make it, one squad and a LMG team did.

The German HMG  kept up a harassing fire that pinned down groups of paras but they soon came back into action. One exception was Sgt. Smith; running up the road from the rear to try and join the medium MG team in order to direct it more effectively, he was cut down.

The US 105mm battery attempted to drop smoke on the German HMG but the rounds  just fell short, not hindering  the HMG on the higher elevation  at all.

German mortar fire was called in on the Americans; they were packed into a small area and so were hard to miss. On this occasion it was largely ineffective as the American swiftly recovered. However the potential for causing the paratroops extreme discomfort was there, particularly in combination with the incoming HMG fire. Fortunately for the Americans, German communications with the mortar team were  not good, and the mortar was not much of a factor for the entire battle.

Shooting Gallery

The massed American fire power on the ridge was beginning to have some effect on the Germans in the farmhouses below. The German squad in the building to the American left (objective 2) was quickly broken. The arrival of a German Hero rallied the men, but not for long. Some sniper activity in the area combined with more massed US firepower eliminated  the squad, as well as the LMG weapons team that had setup in the minefield to the right of objective 3. Objective 3 was of particular interest to the Americans (hidden objective) and news had come down from above that all the objectives were considered to be of extreme value (open objective drawn added 2 more VPs to each building for a total of 5 per building).

Lt.Wray Leads The Way

Time was moving along fast, all the reinforcements from both sides had arrived, but most of the objectives remained in German hands. Simply shooting down the German units was taking too long and something had to be done to grab the farmhouse complex before night fell. Wray gave the signal and advanced to the wall outside the farmhouse, along with a team carrying a satchel charge. They successfully exiting the minefield, and were now just a stone wall away from the farmhouse defenders. The satchel charge was hurled at the German squad but did not do any good. Return fire from the Germans wounded Lt. Wray, but despite this he led his men into a melee in the left most farmhouse (objective 2). Wray and his men rapidly dealt with the German hero and the German officer they found lurking in the building.  But even though Lt. Wray was now in the cover of the building, more fire from the Germans in the  adjacent building found a mark, and the gallant Lt. Wray died from his wounds.  

At this point events stagnated for a while on the US side, as two of their best leaders had been killed , and the other leaders on the ridge were all wounded, or pinned down by increasingly effective HMG  fire. There was a lot of disjointed shooting from the Americans, waiting for their leaders to recover. But it was largely ineffective, with the exception of driving one Volksgrenadier squad into full retreat off the map. The German HMG  squad was broken with some sharpshooting from the US medium MG team, but another German Hero sprang up and rallied the team.

Hubbard moved his men up on the left and further into the brush, threatening the Volksgrenadier squads on the map edge, to further distract the Geman HMG from finishing off the stricken leaders and men that were becoming a common site on the ridge.

Then Lt. Blenkinship broke the impasse by rushing up the road from the rear area with a fresh squad. He ran right up to the farmhouse (objective 3) with no reaction from the German occupiers. Presumably they were still celebrating the death of Lt.Wray. Wasting no time, Blenkinship  and his men  stormed the building,  using multiple ambushes. The surprised Germans had no response to this daring move and were gunned down.

Now the central farmhouse complex was in US hands. The value of each objective had increased and this, along with the German melee casualties gave the US a sizeable lead.

At this point, as if things had not been going badly enough for the Germans, a series of events occurred stripping the Germans of their heavy weapons;  accurate smoke from the US artillery caused the German HMG to move down from its commanding position on the ridge. Someone was careless in the move as shortly thereafter  the  German HMG broke down irreparably (jammed by an Event and then eliminated) , and the German mortar support was lost (radio broken twice).

The Germans were one unit away from their surrender level. The US losses were limited to two officers. With no more heavy weapons supporting his volksgrenadiers  the German player resigned.

The Other Point Of View

The following is an excerpt from the intelligence debriefing of an Axis leader, captured during the Allied assault on Objectives 2 and 3)

"The Axis plan was to defend objectives 2 and 3 tenaciously, firing as often as possible, so as to reach the first time trigger. This part of the plan worked to perfection.

The objective scoring made it essential to either hold objectives 2 or 3, or cause enough Allied casualties to compensate for their loss. The first time trigger occurred quite early, and massive German reinforcements entered the southern edge of the board. So far, so good. However, the plan was ultimately defeated by superior Allied logistics, a common problem for us during 1945.

Within a single day, it seems, three additional time triggers were hit, resulting in a flood of elite Allied reinforcements, who also showed the mobility to sweep to the ridge line running from H3 southeast to L5. This enabled the Allies to set up a powerful and persistent bombardment of both objectives 2 and 3, which soon resulted in serious Axis casualties. The casualty track started to fill. The combination of superior numbers, firepower, and the terrain advantage of shooting downhill onto the troops in the plain below began to tell. However, this need not have been decisive.

The Axis set up a powerful HMG position on the high ridge just to the northeast of objective 5, and for a long time had a powerful combined firing position on Objectives 2 and 3. This HMG, supported by the best Axis leader, combined with the 1-2 punch of the firing position on the objectives, should have been able to inflict heavy, if not decisive casualties on the exposed Allied positions to the north east of objectives 2 and 3, and to make it prohibitively expensive for the Allies to move across the rather open terrain.

However, Axis logistics failed us. There was hardly a time from time trigger turn 3, until long after time trigger turn 6, that Axis units could fire more than one time per turn. This included the poorly supplied Axis artillery, which only fired for effect a single time during the entire game, before being routed by consecutive 'artillery denied' effects. So, superior Allied logistics defeated us. Only careful analysis may tell if there is, or is not, a better Axis plan."

Conclusion

So another victory for me. But not so fast! We actually played this scenario three times , this AAR  being the report of the third time through. The first two times I played the Germans, setting  up way too close to the US on the first occasion, and in objectives 2 and 3 on the second . Not pulling a Time card for the (short ) duration of the battles, the US closed in with satchel charges and, well, that was that.

The third time through we switched sides, and is the subject of this AAR.  Time! events rained down one after another, to the initial delight of the German player, but then they kept on coming. Faced with overwhelming numbers of US troops  plus artillery, it was in my mind a foregone conclusion. 

So although any game of CC is a good game, I would not rank this as my favorite scenario, simply because of the huge swings in balance the Time events can bring to the game.  

The breaking of the German HMG, causing its subsequent elimination was quite humorous, well at least I  thought so. Smoke landed on the HMG  forcing it to move down slope and a hex or two closer to the action. The German player pulled an event  that caused a weapon to break closest to a random hex. Because the HMG had moved, it was the closest.   This was a catastrophic loss  for the Germans.

Scenario 8 : Breakout Dance

Scenario 8 : Breakout Dance

Russia, January 1943.
A  description of scenario 8 : Breakout Dance  from the GMT Games board game Combat Commander : Europe

www.gmt.games


Lt.Schrader and his men had spent the day concealed in their slit trenches, trying to keep warm while staying out of sight of Russian patrols. The men knew that the Russians were very close by, partially hidden in the brush. Orders had come through to effect a breakout that night. The good news was that reports received indicated that there were no heavy weapons to their immediate front and no officers had been observed . The nearest medium machine gun was positioned on the hill to the German left and had no view into their slit trenches. That was also where the nearest Russian officer was located. The Germans were facing a line of Russian rifle squads, one group with a light machine gun.  So the Russians Schrader and his men were facing were leaderless for the time being.

Recon reports also indicated that the Russians were spread in a line extending all the way to the left of the German position. The bad news was that there were no gaps in the line, but the good news was that once the Germans were through the Russians  lying immediately to their front the route to safety would be open. More good news was that the bulk of the Russians were therefore quite far away from where the action was about to occur.

The plan was  that after darkness fell, fire would be focused on the Russian squads immediately facing the Germans. The Russians would be broken or eliminated, clearing the way for movement through the Russian lines and off to safety. This had to happen fast, before any  Russian heavy weapons, reinforcements and leaders arrived from the (German) left flank, and before dawn.




Setup

FIRE!


At the signal, the Germans opened up, firing repeatedly at the Russian squads, with spray fire and MG fire bonuses. This had remarkably little effect; the Russians were hard to see through the brush compounded by the  dark of night. Alerted by all the noise the Russians started dragging their machine guns from the far side of the hill  toward the sound of gunfire and moved in Sgt.Maisky  to organize the defenses immediately to the front of the firing Germans.

After pounding the Russian squads relentlessly, Schrader was disappointed to see absolutely no effect. The situation was deteriorating with Maisky directing the Russian light machine gun equipped  squad and bolstering their morale. But the good news was that the Russian return fire had been similarly ineffective. Sniper activity had slowed down the team moving in the Russian machine gun. However a change of tactics was required by the Germans before the Russians were able to concentrate or organize a defense in depth.

Fortune Favors The Brave

Leaving Sgt.Ganz  and a squad in the slit trenches on the left flank to keep on shooting as they had the clearest view, Lt. Schrader and two squads started moving forward. They moved   in to the cover of the brush and toward the Russians. The combination of the darkness and the limited visibility through the brush was too much for effective fire. The range had to be closed. This triggered some opportunity fire  from the Russians, but this was ineffective as the Germans swiftly recovered.

Shooting from closer range and adding in hand grenades to the mix still did not cause the Russians to flinch, but did fortuitously did cause one of the  German squads with Schrader to deploy into two 2 man teams.

With the Russians reinforcements inching toward the area,  Schrader decided to force the issue and  advanced to melee with one full squad and one team. He didn't have time to wait to setup an ambush, but he did have the initiative.

Fortune favored the brave and the Russian squad was not able to organize an ambush. The Germans with a hefty advantage in firepower eliminated the Russian squad, forcing a hole in the Russian line. The German team left out of the melee moved forward into the area of the melee, brushing off some  opportunity fire from the Russians and moved off into the night. The Russian line was broken!

Breakthrough!

The Russian leader Sgt. Maisky  saw that the German  team was escaping. Things were not going well for the Russians. The Russian machine guns had not arrived the German firepower had eliminated on more Russian squad. The Russian line that had stood up to all that intense German firepower in the early stages of the battle was now in tatters.  But then as Schrader and the  victors of the breakthrough melee moved off in their escape attempt through the clear terrain  they were pinned down by Russian opportunity fire and their escape attempt delayed.

Throw in a freak event where the Russian high command rewarded the Russians for the objectives they had in their possession, the fact that  dawn was nearly breaking (one sudden death roll had already occurred)  and no Germans had actually exited the arena, it all meant that the affair hung in the balance  even with the line shattered. If Lt. Schrader and his group could be eliminated before dawn came, perhaps the Russians could snatch victory from the jaws of defeat.

So Maisky  moved his Russians off in pursuit of Schrader. He needed to close the range for fire to be effective, but that was not what he had in mind.  He had a more desperate plan.

Sgt. Ganz, seeing his opportunity, moved out of his slit trench and into the brush recently vacated by the Russians. Some wounded Russians showed up to the rear of Sgt.Ganz but they were to have no impact on the battle.


End Game

Lt. Schrader advanced his men , including the broken team, into the cover of some trees to give the broken squad some relief, and there they lingered as Maisky led his Russians toward them from the night. Sgt. Maisky, knowing that it was not going to go well for him if he had to report the Germans had escaped, advanced on Schrader in a do or die attempt at saving the situation. If he could eliminate Schrader, and if those MGs ever arrived to engage Sgt. Ganz, he could turn this whole thing around. Dawn was about to break and the battle about to end one way or another. Maisky just needed to win this melee. A little under strength compared to the Germans (6 vs 7) but holding the initiative, Maisky gambled.

Neither side had any ambushes set up, and so the dice were rolled. For the Russians it  was not to be. Fortune did not favor the Russian bravery and Maisky died leading his men to their deaths.

This failed gamble opened a huge hole in the Russian line and eliminated the only leader in the area, prompting the Russian side to resign.


Conclusion

Well, this was my first victory in a long  time in CCE  and I was pretty pleased with the way things went.  Things almost went to plan! How often does that happen in CCE? The cards fell quite nicely for me, and I was not really hindered too much by the limited German discard.

The Russian special rule of only playing one command per turn really slows down any response. A  Russian defense  in depth would have been a possibility, allowing for a reserve to counter any German breakthrough, but that would have led to big gaps in the line guaranteeing a German breakthrough. So the Russians are in a tough spot.

The Germans, only having three units, have to be very cautious about engaging the Russians in melees. But I felt that the deployed squad reduced the impact any ambushes would have  and justified the risk of going in not over stacked on the key German breakthrough melee. Something had to be done before the medium MGs and the Russian hordes arrived!

The time marker moved along fairly quickly in this game. At the point of the final melee I  think the Germans were ahead by 4 VPs or so, but the Russians held a German secret objective, albeit only worth 1VP. If Maisky had been victorious and eliminated Schrader in that final melee the VPs would have swung back into Russia's favor. There had already been one sudden death roll, and Maisky would have been well positioned to delay Ganz. The Russian MGs would have finally arrived and ...well that was not to be.

All in all another  fun, tense game and now on to Rush to Contact!