Steve played this scenario in the Mini-Tournament final at the 2011 CASLO, narrowly losing as the Russians to a guy whose name I can’t remember.
He got a chance to play the other side today, since I chose the Russians. We played our ladder game at Legiocon IX in the CFB community centre. Great group of guys, some ex-ASL players, some new. While Steve and I were playing we got a few lookey-loos, a few questions, and a few comments. After we were done, I asked one of the military game club members if he would like to have a Starter Kit match. He agreed, and we played S1 Retaking Vierville in about an hour, with an audience of four guys. This guy played FAST, and had a great grip of tactics. If we bring him over to the good guys (ie. us) he will be a force to be reckoned with.
Back to the ladder match:
The map features a village of 10 buildings, 8 of which Steve needed to capture to fulfill his VC. Half the board (the left for this AAR) was open ground, the right half was woods, with a few paths.
Steve started by deploying a number of his 4-6-7s. This was important since there was going to be some assaulting done, and he wisely wanted to give me as many targets as possible. He set up his 9-2, 2×4-6-7 and MMG into the second level of a stone building to provide a nice overwatch position for his assault. All according to plan. The assault began.
My plan as the Russians was to constantly fall back in the woods, making him close with me as he made his way through the woods on the right, hopefully slowing him down. On the left, I had a HIP 3-2-8 + MMG, and a HIP 8-1, 3-2-8 + HMG behind a hedge waiting for the heinous Huns to charge across open ground. Also behind the hedge was a concealed 50mm mortar.
Steve’s plan worked until the overwatch position discovered that they hadn’t brought a lot of ammo. They decided to chuck their MMG out the window and head for the village, where the REAL action would happen. An imprudent bypass of a woods hex and my mortar fortuitously took out his 9-2 leader and broke a squad. Steve’s FT was the kiss of death, resulting in the demise of at least one half-squad, one leader, and a hero (at seperate times.)
Steve’s troops worked well in the forest, occasionally cutting out and surrounding a Russian unit, but I was working hard to minimize what damage he could do to me. One highlight: Russian hero with DC in stone building. Hero flings DC out at a couple of adjacent German squads. No damage. Germans advance in and whack him in CC. Here’s another highlight: Steve generated no less than 3 heros and an 8-1 leader over the course of the scenario. Tells you how many 2’s he was rolling. As a comparison, my SAN of 3 was rolled 4 times, and activated zero times.
Steve’s second last movement phase – he had taken only two of the eight he needed to win. He was feeling disheartened, but decided to play on. His personal morale broke when I rallied all three of my broken units on my next Rally phase, bringing my entire living OB to Good Order for the turn.
Overall a great scenario, one that I would be happy to play as either side.