J88 Escape to Wiltz AAR in Progress

[Rindis]

With the end of the yearlong campaign in Sicily, Patch and I started a new scenario tonight. At one point the plan had been to go right into VotG, but we agreed that it would be nice to get away from HASL maps for a game and cleanse the palate a bit. We also realized that we had never used American 666's against each other. There's been a couple with elites, but not any with 1st line troops.

So we started "Escape to Wiltz" from Journal 3 tonight. The Americans are trying to exit the west side of Board 39 after coming on the north side of Board 17 on turns 1 and 2. The Germans come on the east side on turn 1, and another 3 squads come on the south on turn 2. Both sides have a light amount of toys—the Germans get the usual suspects and two PSK, the Americans get the usual suspects plus a M5 Stuart and a M8 Greyhound AC.

Since neither of us showed a particular preference, I rolled randomly and took the Americans. As ROAR shows it 31 to 23 pro-German... and with my record, I took the balance. So Patch went first:


Initial German movement, the American entry area is marked in blue. Green arrows are movement, blue is advance, red is rout.

I had had just enough time to fiddle with the opening before Patch's move arrived, and he ended up about where I figured. This made figuring out my first move a bit faster, as I already had some thoughts about what I didn't like in what I saw.

We thought at first I'd lost my initial HS in the intersection, but Patch realized that he'd forgotten CX, which reduced it from a K/1 to a 1MC—which he promptly failed. But, Patch didn't realize what my plan was yet, and neglected to put down an FL.


Movement in the first American turn.

Patch reacted to my turn about the way I hoped he would. He looked at the firepower that was facing him and went for cover. Sadly, part of his force is marching down the board 39 road, and there's nothing I can do about it. Thankfully, that's true in reverse as well.


German movement with their turn 1 forces. I got my first break of the game in W3.

And the turn 2 platoon took the obvious good routes:


German movement with the turn 2 forces. Exit area is marked for reference.

We finished off the evening partway through my turn 2. Patch is getting very worried that he hasn't been able to stop my movement yet. It's pretty obvious that the main fight is going to be over the area just in front of the woods covering the exit area.

[Whizbang1963]

Awesome AAR...keep up the great work!

[Patch_Bunny]

German Turn 1
An interesting scenario choice. With no one starting on board, the situation is very fluid. I need to move on-board into a position where I can interdict Rindis's forces, which is hampered by the fact that even CX, there's precious little I can interdict. Two platoons go down the board 39 road in an attempt to cut off his entry, one enters mid-board 17, and the other enters towards the north with an eye on the upper levels of 17W3. From 17Y9 I can hit 17P7, and from 17Z10 I can nail 17Q3. Both LOS are not obvious at first glance, and I hope to nail a moving stack that Rindis thinks is safe. Bad news is most of my forces are 447s, so this will be an MG duel for now as the range is 9-12 hexes.

US Turn 1
Rindis enters a bit more into the town that I had anticipated, and like an idiot I forgot to fire at the moving 10-2 in 17Q3. Only a 2 (-2) shot, but still! I nail a 346 moving in the open, but Rindis quickly rallies him.

German Turn 2
Nothing Preps as I need to keep moving into position. I try and get a squad and LMG into the 17W3 upper levels, but a shot from the Stuart puts an end to that plan. I get set to advance the second squad in later. The forces around 17Y8 shuffle to get out of the open and prepare to deal with the 10-2. I can't hang around 17Z10 anymore, and those forces go down the road. My blocking platoon makes a run for the victory area, splitting in two with a small force struggling up the hill. I figure one factor in my favor has to be the level 2 heights allowing for me to hit Rindis heading across Board 17.

US Turn 2
The Turn 2 troops make a collective run for the exit, with little in the way to stop them. The range is too great, and the modifiers too high. I luck out on a '2' for a 2(+2) against the 10-2, but he passes with ease. We end here moving into Advancing Fire.

I like the looks of this scenario. There's an interesting mix of troops and light AFV, and the scenario appears very dynamic. However, I haven't got a handle on a good German strategy yet. There's an awful lot of US firepower present, and it's looking more and more like a close-in fight. I think the 6ML must work in my favor, but I have to get into position first, and that won't be until Turn 3. As it's heavily pro-German, I do hope there's not a key German strategy I'm missing.

[Rindis]

And I just sent off the end of American Turn 2.

Lots of movement. Patch and I are in a race to the exit area. I've got to figure out how to move up the last bit before he can really block things up, or it's a long fight. Which a look at the scenario length suggests is the idea.


Situation at the end of American MPh. It's amazing how far you can get when you have clear terrain and no one shooting at you.

Not a lot of fire this turn. I expect that will change rather dramatically next turn as Patch gets into position.

[Rindis]

Patch's Turn 3 finished up a bit ago. A good turn for me. He preped a little, and the biggest result was Battle Hardening my 10-2 to 10-3. During movement he stayed out of sight or in cover, but I did manage to break a leader on the hillside, and the LLTC he caused generated a Sniper that... lowered Patch's sniper to 2.

My Snipers obviously would rather shoot his Snipers than anyone else.


Situation, German Turn 3. Mostly movement.

Well, I could have wished for a better Turn 3. But that would just be greedy. I would like to apologize to Jason1002, who I can see asking to synch in the on-line log. I never even saw it at the time. Which should be an idea of just how riveting the action has been!

My turn 3 started with some Prep Fire around the farmhouse (17I8) to try to suppress the Germans. No such luck. Still, MPh went better than I expected. I actually lost 1 1/2 squads to his fire, but very little other damage. Certainly not the mass of brokies that I tend to worry that this could turn into. I did manage to nail one of his squads in AFPh. Also, I pinned his sniper during MPh.

My Snipers obviously would rather shoot his Snipers than anyone else.


Situation, American Turn 3. Lots of activity.

Patch, for his part skulked and redeployed on his Turn 4. There was no fire all turn, as he parked everybody out of LOS. I assembled the MTR and MMG that were still dm.


Situation, German Turn 4. All movement.

We've just barely begun my turn 4. But, I no longer have any broken troops. The 10-3 performed as you'd expect with a net -4 to the rally DR. The free MMC rally was a '2', generating a new 8-0 leader. And the last one... rolled a '12' removing himself from the battle. Well, overall it's average....

It's being a very interesting game, and both of are finding this to be a very good scenario. We're up in the air about whether the Americans should have the balance, and we're thinking 'no' at this point. But they're definitely tricky to play. Having to move in open ground with 6 morale is challenging. Right now, I have just about what I need to exit right around the 17I8 area, so Patch is getting nervous.... But it could disappear in a couple of bad rolls.

[Cpl Uhl]

You guys really set a new, excellent standard for AAR's.

Please share how you do the arrows and cropping of the VASL screen shots.

[Rindis]

Photoshop.

I take a screenshot with the 'PrintScreen' key (Windows), and then paste it into a new file in Photoshop. From there I crop it down to where the action is.

In something big, like PBr, I then just scale it down to a reasonable size, and then describe the action. In something smaller like this, I step through the log and just hand-draw the arrows as I go. If I'm smart, I remember to do this on another layer, so it's easy to fix mistakes.

If I wanted things to look a little nicer, I'd do the initial crop in Photoshop and then export to CorelDraw, where I could make the lines/arrows much nicer looking.

When I'm done, I 'Save for Web', which keeps the file size down, and then upload it to the little corner of a server I get to use.

Patch uses a somewhat simpler system, but I'm not sure if he's on the Gimp or what.

[Patch_Bunny]

German Turn 3

The problem with American Turn 2 is there's just nothing to shoot at against a good US player. I move what I can to get into position to interdict his Turn 3 movement, and struggle to get both MMG up onto the hill. Despite first looks, there are actualy several nooks and crannies on that wooded monstrosity where you have excellent LOS. I shove MMGs into 39O8 and 39V7 (never spotted 39L8 until later, dangit. Would have been easier on the feet.) I take some fire, but thankfully I keep both MG in action, only losing one leader to a break.

I work several units into the 17M9 woods mass as well, but make a critical mistake when I fail to move an LMG squad into 17O9. Firelanes simply never occurred to me.

US Turn 3

Rindis moves, and for the first time he's extremely vulnerable. I get two K/1s and a K/2, breaking a total of four units, and reassemble the second MMG. The 10-3 moves back through the town, and I never get a clear shot at him in the open. Rindis' defensive fire is very effective when he ELRs a Psk squad in 39CC8 into a 436. Ouch! Just how little I have over there is becoming readily apparent.

German Turn 4

Rindis goes and creates an 8-0 in 1706, creating his second additional VP to counter the 4 that I've claimed. I can't believe he's generating units almost as fast as I'm killing them.

Seems like everyone has LOS to my units on the hill, and after much consideration I abandon the heights. This decision is prompted by the fact that Rindis can win with the forces around 17I8, and I can't stop him from where I am, especially as the 17O8 MMG no longer had good LOS. I skulk heavily, move to interdict anyone trying to leave the town, and reposition in the 17M9 woods. I've little choice now, as I simply cannot get units into a position where I can hit him in Defensive Fire, yet be immune to Prep. With the 60mm Mtr in action and the Stuart up close this may be a major mistake, but at the moment I think it's my best option. Biggest downside for the turn is teh fact that I completely forgot to move the squad in 39O9.

*****

I use screen captures of the map, and hand draw arrows using Photoshop. Rindis apparently has more time on his hands to make things all pretty, so I'm letting him create the maps this time around.

[Thripshaw]

I played this one as the American's against a much better player a few years back (Clayton of the Oregon Berserk Commissars). I gambled trying to get a leader (9-1?) into P9 with a squad and SW to try and hold up the pursuers, but he broke under fire and was swarmed.

We ended up in a protracted battle around I8 with my American's firing both ways to hold off the pursuers and try and open up a path to exit. In the end, I lost my armor to over aggressive play (forced to try and make a push) and that was that. Clayton played very well from my memory, and like I said, I'm much less experienced overall.

From the screenshots I see, it appears the German's are too far Northeast (contesting the American entry point) and not far enough West along the board 39 road and creeping up into the hill. That's just from a quick view, but I could be wrong. The American here looks like things are going his way, but he's still got some work to do. The German better get a Stuart or I think it's over.

Good write up, very enjoyable read and nice VASL graphics. Well done.

[Patch_Bunny]

From the screenshots I see, it appears the German's are too far Northeast (contesting the American entry point) and not far enough West along the board 39 road and creeping up into the hill. That's just from a quick view, but I could be wrong. The American here looks like things are going his way, but he's still got some work to do. The German better get a Stuart or I think it's over.

There are three squads NE of the Board 17 village, composing my 17W4 and 17Z7 blocking forces. Everyone else is around the 17M9 woods mass. I would have liked to have folks further west, but Rindis hit the 17J7 area before I did as I could not interdict his Turn 2 movement at all. With the Americans in the town, there's just no way to do so that I can see.