RM2 Prelude to Bodange
OK, so, this scenario looks like "Prelude to Bondage" which is what the wife and I call my birthday week. HA!
As I continue to work through the Race for the Meuse pack from Lone Canuck, I start RM2, Prelude to Bodange. Here, the Belgians conduct a fighting withdrawal from Wisembach, (RM1) with the rather obstinate help of the first of the machine gun pillbox (covered in special rule 27.)
Again, I look at this scenario and say, "How can the Germans possibly win?" The victory conditions are fairly straightforward--the Belgian must simply cover the road from Wisembach to Bodange with at least 4FP. It appears to be a very easy task, as you simply need to cover the road with the MG pillbox and you are done. The Germans have to crawl through wire and mines to get at the pillbox and then take it out without the benefit of any engineering equipment? Keep in mind that this is a concrete pillbox.
The stage set, allow us, dear reader to commence our play:
The important rules to know are:
1) SSR TM27 Machine Gun Pillbox. This rule represents fortifications created by the Belgians in the 1930s, which consist of a concrete pillbox, a HMG, a 127 crew, and three wire counters. The crew is Fanatic in the pillbox and wire counters must be set up within 3 hexes of the pillbox. Additionally, the HMG, while it can be malfunctioned, is not disabled by a 6 on the repair dr.
2) Pillboxes. What becomes clear is that the Germans are going to have the toughest time with the Belgian pillbox. I'll be checking over Marty Snow's guide to bunker busting in A View from the Trenches (run by the ingenious, if somewhat inebriated, Pete Phillips--who is 0-2 against me!) Also, Zeb Doyle has a really good article in Banzai (the Texas ASL club newsletter) that I cannot find.
Clarification: SSR5 says that the Belgians "must set up a MG Pillbox." I assume that this means that they must set up the MG pillbox given the OB, not an additional MG Pillbox.
So, having examined the above carefully, the Belgians set up to protect the MG Pillbox. The key pillbox is pointed toward the road, though all the foxholes also have LOS to the road as well. However, the main defense is wire and mines. This being a solo, I opt for the the known minefields and place them all around and on top of the pillbox.
So the German task is to get through the units behind the pillbox, through the wire and mines and onto the pillbox without breaking. All the Germans need to do is lock the pillbox in melee.
Again, like RM1, the Belgians have a trap. While all squads can set up entrenched, if you do, the myriad of dummies you get are instantly exposed. Now, it is true that the German starts from offboard, so you don't have to worry about it at setup, like I do here, it will quickly become known who are the dummies if your real units are left unentrenched (although you do (probably) get a number of extra entrenchments based on a pre-setup dr.
The Germans have a choice of entry areas for their left hand group, I wouldn't be enthusiastic about entering toward the right. The Germans have almost a 2:1 in squads. The Belgians have only one leader and knocking that leader out really hurts their ability to get and keep the good order firepower on the road.
The Play's the Thing
This scenario starts off pretty much the way you think it would. A single German half squad scouts ahead to see where the Belgies are hiding and gets disintegrated with a hail of MMG bullets. But line two moves up concealed.
The Belgians shuffle around a bit to get the MMG's pointed directly at the oncoming Germans and the Germans lose the first round of give and take.
On turn two, both sides rally back fairly quickly (the Germans have a -1 leader and 8 broken side morale.)
But, crucially, the HMG is assembled and starts hammering the Belgian front line. The Belgian MMG crews are tough, hardened veterans of whatever massacres they indulged in in Africa, but the leader appears to be a painter of some sort. He boxcars, is wounded and promptly puts the pistol in his mouth. The sound of that tripod mounted MG34 has made him empty the remains of the luncheon Weisbier all over the front of his trousers. Oh, the shame. The Belgians' only leader, out of the game on turn 2.
On turn 3, the Belgians start falling apart and their front line decides to sit out the war in a POW camp. The other MMG remains hot, pinning several times but refusing to go down. Meanwhile, the path is open to the pillbox. Nothing in the way but barbed wire and two belts of tellerminen. Meanwhile, reinforcements, which show up by a dr, are lollygagging, and quite frankly, Lolly is sick of it.
A MMG volley makes the half squad guards crazy, becoming fanatic and creating a hero. So naturally, they advance into the pillbox hex from the blind side. The illegally set up 458 pours fire on them, to no avail. They are hell bent for the Fatherland. On turn four, the reinforcements arrive (at last) and give Mr. Illegal something to worry about--back on the proper side of your set up, pal. The ATR half squad shimmies through the obvious dummies (clearly visible by their red MAGA hats.)
Situation at the end of turn 5. The strongpoint is completely reduced and the last of the Belgians fade away down the road. Maybe they can get lucky and form an Alamo in the northeast?
No, it's not to be. He's pounded by defensive fire in the last part of turn six and the Belgians have no more GO units and no way to rally them. German win with half a turn to spare.
Not exactly the nail biter that the first scenario was, but still very good and defies my expectations. The Germans did get a number of breaks--like the only Belgian leader dying on turn two--and suffered a bit from the illegal setup. But crucially, the group that assaulted over the open ground really lucked out, passing most of their morale checks (except for the 8-0 and 238 that failed and then tried to surrender to the Belgians before being cut down by a hail of MMG fire) getting under the wire in a single assault move and surviving a row of dummy mines followed by a 6 minefield attack.
The Belgians couldn't really complain about their luck (other than the leader rolling boxcars on a 1MC.) But the strongpoint wasn't nearly as formidable as I thought. It simply must have cover from the MMG's or the wire and mines aren't enough to hold back sufficient Germans to prevent a massacre in CC. The Germans have a lot of time and benefit from a reasonably strong amount of infantry smoke to make the three hexes of open ground reasonable to cross--especially after the HMG gets set up and can trade shots with the Belgian MMG.
Probably better to move the MG pillbox back and keep units up front to slow down the Germans as they cross the open ground The flank is quite open (although my waders got pretty far up the river) and it would be tough to go that way under the watchful eye of the pillbox by the flanking group if they arrive too early.
I don't think the illegal setup made a big difference because the Germans weren't approaching the pillbox from that direction anyway. The Germans won the pillbox CC easily with a heroic DRM and an Ambush and the illegal squad got a nasty surprise when trying to get back to the pillbox hex.
Maybe a better scenario than the first one, but a bit longer and definitely a longer set up. Maybe less appropriate for a tournament scenario than RM1. But probably more fun for a good night's gaming when you have a setup ready.
So far, I would say Race for the Meuse is definitely well worth the ASL dollars.
As I continue to work through the Race for the Meuse pack from Lone Canuck, I start RM2, Prelude to Bodange. Here, the Belgians conduct a fighting withdrawal from Wisembach, (RM1) with the rather obstinate help of the first of the machine gun pillbox (covered in special rule 27.)
Again, I look at this scenario and say, "How can the Germans possibly win?" The victory conditions are fairly straightforward--the Belgian must simply cover the road from Wisembach to Bodange with at least 4FP. It appears to be a very easy task, as you simply need to cover the road with the MG pillbox and you are done. The Germans have to crawl through wire and mines to get at the pillbox and then take it out without the benefit of any engineering equipment? Keep in mind that this is a concrete pillbox.
The stage set, allow us, dear reader to commence our play:
The important rules to know are:
1) SSR TM27 Machine Gun Pillbox. This rule represents fortifications created by the Belgians in the 1930s, which consist of a concrete pillbox, a HMG, a 127 crew, and three wire counters. The crew is Fanatic in the pillbox and wire counters must be set up within 3 hexes of the pillbox. Additionally, the HMG, while it can be malfunctioned, is not disabled by a 6 on the repair dr.
2) Pillboxes. What becomes clear is that the Germans are going to have the toughest time with the Belgian pillbox. I'll be checking over Marty Snow's guide to bunker busting in A View from the Trenches (run by the ingenious, if somewhat inebriated, Pete Phillips--who is 0-2 against me!) Also, Zeb Doyle has a really good article in Banzai (the Texas ASL club newsletter) that I cannot find.
Clarification: SSR5 says that the Belgians "must set up a MG Pillbox." I assume that this means that they must set up the MG pillbox given the OB, not an additional MG Pillbox.
So, having examined the above carefully, the Belgians set up to protect the MG Pillbox. The key pillbox is pointed toward the road, though all the foxholes also have LOS to the road as well. However, the main defense is wire and mines. This being a solo, I opt for the the known minefields and place them all around and on top of the pillbox.
 |
| Note the illegal setup. The Belgians should set up north of the stream. |
Again, like RM1, the Belgians have a trap. While all squads can set up entrenched, if you do, the myriad of dummies you get are instantly exposed. Now, it is true that the German starts from offboard, so you don't have to worry about it at setup, like I do here, it will quickly become known who are the dummies if your real units are left unentrenched (although you do (probably) get a number of extra entrenchments based on a pre-setup dr.
The Germans have a choice of entry areas for their left hand group, I wouldn't be enthusiastic about entering toward the right. The Germans have almost a 2:1 in squads. The Belgians have only one leader and knocking that leader out really hurts their ability to get and keep the good order firepower on the road.
The Play's the Thing
This scenario starts off pretty much the way you think it would. A single German half squad scouts ahead to see where the Belgies are hiding and gets disintegrated with a hail of MMG bullets. But line two moves up concealed.
The Belgians shuffle around a bit to get the MMG's pointed directly at the oncoming Germans and the Germans lose the first round of give and take.
On turn two, both sides rally back fairly quickly (the Germans have a -1 leader and 8 broken side morale.)
Not exactly the nail biter that the first scenario was, but still very good and defies my expectations. The Germans did get a number of breaks--like the only Belgian leader dying on turn two--and suffered a bit from the illegal setup. But crucially, the group that assaulted over the open ground really lucked out, passing most of their morale checks (except for the 8-0 and 238 that failed and then tried to surrender to the Belgians before being cut down by a hail of MMG fire) getting under the wire in a single assault move and surviving a row of dummy mines followed by a 6 minefield attack.
The Belgians couldn't really complain about their luck (other than the leader rolling boxcars on a 1MC.) But the strongpoint wasn't nearly as formidable as I thought. It simply must have cover from the MMG's or the wire and mines aren't enough to hold back sufficient Germans to prevent a massacre in CC. The Germans have a lot of time and benefit from a reasonably strong amount of infantry smoke to make the three hexes of open ground reasonable to cross--especially after the HMG gets set up and can trade shots with the Belgian MMG.
Probably better to move the MG pillbox back and keep units up front to slow down the Germans as they cross the open ground The flank is quite open (although my waders got pretty far up the river) and it would be tough to go that way under the watchful eye of the pillbox by the flanking group if they arrive too early.
I don't think the illegal setup made a big difference because the Germans weren't approaching the pillbox from that direction anyway. The Germans won the pillbox CC easily with a heroic DRM and an Ambush and the illegal squad got a nasty surprise when trying to get back to the pillbox hex.
Maybe a better scenario than the first one, but a bit longer and definitely a longer set up. Maybe less appropriate for a tournament scenario than RM1. But probably more fun for a good night's gaming when you have a setup ready.
So far, I would say Race for the Meuse is definitely well worth the ASL dollars.
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