Two for the Price of One |
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This is really two different battles. In one, a terrible morale (6/4) Slovak force is attempting to exit the 5 lengthwise boards while being attacked by the Luftwaffe and slowly increasing ground forces. In the second, a high morale partisan ground stiffened by Omsbon and NKVD HMGs attempts to block a strong German force from breaking through to pursue said lowly Slovaks. This is also a long scenario (36 turns) which gives the Slovaks plenty of time to try to hide from the Luftwaffe but they are constantly concerned with their partisan friends who are being ground into dust back at the entry zone for the Germans. There is a lot going on in this one and both players have to bounce back and forth between the running Slovaks and the fight against the partisans. In my play of this one the Slovaks running got a great start as the Luftwaffe missed its first several shots but eventually they started getting hit and disrupted/demoralized. The retreat began to look like the retreat out of Kuwait with red and black covered Slovak units scattered along the road. Still a large force was able to exit onto the final board and prepare to exit. Suddenly, however, a single armored car was able to get onto the final board and subject the retreating Slovaks to Op Fire which delayed their retreat. After two turns they were joined by 10 PZ IVs which pretty much shut the retreat off. At the point that the armored cars arrived there were 8 steps of Slovaks in the area and 13 had exited. To get a 15 point bonus the Germans had to keep the number of Slovaks retreating to 14 or less. The poor morale of the Slovaks ensured that they were unable to pass through the armored car screen. Back on the entry board the partisans were trying to kill enough Germans to counterbalance the dying Slovaks but were unable to as they continued to get slammed by the German artillery and they were basically reduced to scraps by the seventh hour of fighting and the ability to continuing causing losses was basically done. The Germans made some early mistakes as they ran their armored cars into some partisans who gleefully used can openers on the terrified occupants thus reducing the German chances of stopping the fleeing Slovaks but also had monster dice with their artillery so I guess it evens out. There is so much going on in so many different locations on the board that it is impossible to produce a coherent AAR. This is one you just have to experience. It was a ton of fun. I give it a "5". |
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