Author	Greyfox
Method	Solo
Victor	Austria
Play Date	2021-04-20
Language	English
Scenario	HbnS001

Unless the Austrians roll horribly, and the Shutzbund are on fire, I can't see the Austrians losing.

In this scenario, I the Austrians positioned a company (3 x INF and 1 HMG) on the west side of the western town, and then the second company in the western side of the major Easter town on board 24. The Schutzbund drew some good to very good leaders along with a host of mediocre ones. Every one had a morale above 8 and about four of them had either a morale modifier, a combat modifier, or both.

The Shutzbund, organized into 5 three platoon companies, with a Heavy weapons company of three HMGs platoons, and an Infantry Platoon. My thoughts were that if I had to attempt to take a town hex, I wanted to mass fires of my three machine gun platoons, plus Infantry Platoon, and a Combat Modified from one of my leaders (22 column) on the direct fire table, rather than 11 or 16 Columns (3 info platoons, 1 HMG, and maybe a combat modifier if available). I thought the Heavy Weapons Company could blast a way into town, either attriting the Austrians, or causing their morale to collapse, prior to that assault.

The tactic turned out to be flawed. The Shutzbund rarely got the results desired... in ten turns they only killed 3 steps. and after the first turn, the company in the east moved rapidly to reinforce the town, while leaving a HMG on the Bridge (the chokepoint) to prevent the Shutzbund from bypassing the western town for the Easter town hexes. Since the Shutzbund couldn't attempt a river crossing, the one bridge hex could prove crucial to the Austrian defense - preventing easy access to eight town hexes on the eastern map. The heavily reinforced town (6x INF and 1 HMG) proved to tough a nut for the Shutzbund to crack. By the end of turn 10, the Shutzbund had only captured two town hexes, were contesting control of two others, and lost eight steps.

I called the game because the motorized Heimwehr militia reinforcements (4x INF, and 2 HMG) had just entered the western town, and where in a position to start destroying the Shutzbund (still mostly outside of the town) via direct fire or assault. The Shutzbund high water mark had been reached. While I am sure the Austrians/Heimwehr would have sustained more loses in the process, I am confident that they wold have kicked the Shutzbund out of the town hexes they had entered destroying more of them in the process.

This was a major victory for the Austrians- 30 victory points, Shutzbund 7 victory points. While my tactic could potential work in the future, if the Shutzbund has better rolls, it definitely did not this time. While it was fun, the scenario was way off balance. Shutzbund doesn't have much of a chance.