Taking the town on map 2

[larry marak]

Just finished playing PG scenario 2, solo, and achieved the Soviet victory conditions.  I've never taken that town before..its a whole Lotta hexes, and takes a whole lot of assault.  
     The only way this worked out was through role playing the scenario.  Its a nighttime assault on a German column advancing into the Caucuses.  I set up most of the Wehrmacht forces on the East map, and had only a few units near the town on board 2.  By treating the situation as a night time ambush on an advancing enemy the defenders weren't set to defend from turn one, and the naval support on the major river was within range of the enemy.  In a two player game, the German player would set up an unbreakable defense in metropolis. The luck of the die allowed German initiative to consistently fall beneath the Russian initiative, and by turn 19 the two holdouts were retreated from the metropolis on board 2.
     I picked out the scenario to try the 2016 PG riverine combat rules in a historical scenario.  I assumed a current speed of 2 (high river from snow melt) and a north to south river direction. Those boats can be nasty little buggers.

[larry marak]

IThis scenario is a good example of the early PG unbalanced scenarios. The Russians have the only victory condition...control the towns on both boards. The German commander need only set up his entire force in the large town on board 2. The Russians have no infantry, and a modest cavalry force, a few tanks (malfunctioning) and a river gunboat. The gunboat of course is limited to the major river. The Wehrmacht has a large infantry force and oba once the sun rises.

The scenario gets the relative numbers of forces and unit types correct. But it doesn't model the battle its supposed to represent. Historically the Cossacks savaged German infantry columns and the disappeared into the woods. The Germans continued their drive off the south edge of the board.

I'm a tinkerer and and so I remodeled this battle. I changed the set up instructions to have the Axis player set up first, southbound, in columns (2) within 3 hexes of each town. I gave the Russians one cavalry leader character with the rural assault skill (from Campaigns and Commanders), used the optional rule for cavalry overrun twice, and of course tried out the guns of the Azov flotilla using the River Fleets rules expansion to fourth edition PG. These changes and and the luck of the dice allowed the Russians to pull off more casualties among the Germans than they took in turn. Two reduced German infantry platoons retreated to the big town but were forced to flee by turn 19.

Still, this scenario needs better victory conditions. Any suggestions?

And of course it might be fun to give the Russians a couple of penal cavalry units and one NKVD squad to keep them honest.

[plloyd1010]

Isn't PG scenario 2 "Infantry Attacks"? There is only map. It looks a lot like EFD version. When I did that one, the Russians got ratter shot-up. It was a Russian attack on a panzer division already in a town. Are you sure it wasn't scenario 14, Night Ride through the Caucasus? It matches your description better.

Assuming it is, the scenario was recreated as EFD 105. The Russians are going to get clobbered. Digging superior infantry out of a town takes a lot of warm bodies. You might balace it by requiring the Germans to spread out. Restricted German movement ability comes to mind too. Something like German INF/HMG/CAV units may not start any closer than 2 hexes from each other, one gun or mortar may stack with one other unit. German units & leaders may not move until the turn after they spot a Soviet unit or a leader comes to activate them.

[larry marak]

Yes, don't know how that slipped by...corrected it now, sc 14.

[Shad]

Great to see you starting to play frequently, Larry!