45 Revenge at Kastelli AAR in Progress

[Rindis]

Excited into a high ASL fervor by the arrival of Doomed Battalions, I advertised for an ASL game... not against Patch. I got two responses, and have started games against both. For the first, I'm playing against Blind Sniper in "Revenge at Kastelli", originally from The Last Hurrah. It's marked as having been updated, but other than reducing the Greeks by a squad, I'm not sure what the changes are. ROAR shows the old version at about 65% pro-Greek, but Blind Sniper volunteered to take the Germans.

It's the invasion of Crete, and the Greeks are defending the town of Kastelli against the German paratroopers. Or they should be; they immediately went to the attack when they found out the Germans had landed. The Greeks need 20 CVP to win in 10 turns, the Germans set up split north and south around the town.

With the Greeks setting up and moving first, I decided to weight my setup to the south, and make my main attack there. With luck, I can smash him there, and then rush to the north, should more CVP be needed (likely). Seeing that his north setup was suitably defensive minded, I shifted a couple more squads south.

At first things went well. Blind Sniper naturally withheld much of his fire until he could try for my leaders. This paid off as a K/2 followed by a K/1 on a ROF shot killed a squad and the leader with them. However, my Sniper activated, yahtzeed the 9-1 and squad stack, killed the 9-1 and got a follow-up '1' to break the squad, so the north side isn't comfortable for either side at the moment. Worse for him, there's no way to rout out of 2Q6 because of the cliff line. He's not in normal range of anything, but he is pretty exposed.

In all, the turn cost me two squads and a leader. Not the best of starts, but workable.


Situation, end of Greek turn 1 MPh. I note I did an illegal move to get to 11I2; missed a brush hex.

[Patch_Bunny]

Ya didn't state, but he pass the LLMC(+1) for the loss of the 9-1?

Losing a leader like that is gonna hurt, but that 8 ML will certainly work in his favor for self-rallying. Of course, you losing one isn't any good either.

[Blind Sniper]

Very nice AAR

ROAR shows the old version at about 65% pro-Greek, but Blind Sniper volunteered to take the Germans.

I think is still pro Greek but I like the German situation, it seems a cat and mouse game.
I believe you made a good setup, to win you have to capture and not to kill my squads, therefore is enough enclose just one side of my troops, I think this is the only situation that I prefer a KIA instead a prisoner

Ya didn't state, but he pass the LLMC(+1) for the loss of the 9-1?

No, I checked the previous logs and I forget it, sorry James
I will roll it in the next log.

[Rindis]

I didn't see it either. A.2 applies by now, so don't worry about it. With all the MCs and sniper rolls going off, it got busy.

[Blind Sniper]

I know the rule but this error is easily reparable, anyhow thanks James and sorry again

[Rindis]

I just noted today that Mark Nixon had a rundown of the Last Hurrah scenarios in Annual '91. He rated this one as 55-45 pro-Greek. I should probably read it and find out what I'm doing wrong.

In case the audience is wondering, the squad blew its roll, and I now have 3 CVP.

Blind Sniper had a couple squads in odd corners start digging foxholes, the one in 2S9 succeeded while 11E8 only got a Labor counter. Considering that my main thrust is onto board 11, that's what I'd rather see, though I'm sure he'll get it long before I get there. Given my disposition he did the logical thing, and advanced on board 2 while pulling back to a defensive line behind the hedges on board 11. I generally didn't have any good shots at him, and the one fire I did have did nothing. I'm not sure that investing this heavily in the south is going to work out well. Assaulting a hill that's all one big plateau is a problem, especially with all the woods taken out. But even with 10 turns, I'd give him way too much time if I tried switching around at this point, so plan A it is.


The war in the north, German Turn 1.


The war in the south, German Turn 1.

[Rindis]

In my rally, I recovered the LMG I forgot about last turn, and the German HS in 2Q6 rallied (no surprise, I'd been unable to spare fire to DM him again). Annoyingly, my leader in 3N2 failed to rally, but at least the squad with him self-rallied. I decided that the best chance I had at the German defenses in on board 11 was to line up at the base of the hill and advance up, hoping to get enough mass to start driving him back. Since I was out of sight, there wasn't much he could do, but he did break (and Disrupt) one of the few squads I had in the north.


The war in the north, Greek Turn 2.


The war in the south, Greek Turn 2.

[Rindis]

I finally got my leader back on his turn. With spraying fire, the Germans were able to hit a fair amount of the line at the edge of the hill, and got better results with that than some follow-up normal fire. In all, two squads and one leader broke in Prep, while two squads were pinned (and third from his Sniper). While he mostly fired at the line of Greeks in the south, he also sent one squad further on a flanking operation, which surprised me a bit, as he was getting a little vulnerable. In the north, he started shifting forward, off the board 2 hills.

This made things slightly easier, as the main problem with the board 11 attack, is that it is easy to interfere with routs as the level 2 and 3 hills can see much of board 11. As it is, I still lost a squad to FtR, since it was in the open with nowhere to go. All my DF managed was to pin a leader and a squad, but his AF did not manage anything.


The war in the north, German Turn 2.


The war in the south, German Turn 2.

[Rindis]

Not much happened on my rally, though my 8-1 in 11J3 rallied, which was a pleasant surprise. The bulk of my movement was towards the idea of taking control of both ends of the long hill on board 11. The end areas have fewer rout problems from board 2, and there's the brush at one end and the building and hedge at the other for cover. I continued getting hammered in the north as my leader broke as I attempted to pull back. Other than that he didn't have a lot of fire, but he did manage to kill the broken squad in 11F2 with two more breaks during the DFPh.

(I note I lost track of what was going on and forgot about green status and ended up going a hex further than I should have with 3O10-3N7. Sorry, Blind Sniper. I think I got confused since they had six with the leader, and forgot they'd go to three—four with the CX you put down—when he broke.)


The war in the north, Greek Turn 3.


The war in the south, Greek Turn 3.

[Rindis]

For his rally, Blind Sniper recombines a squad. My only rally activity is a failed attempt to rally the leader in 3M7; not exactly a surprise. He preps with 11H4 in the south and 2Q2 in the north, with no luck on either.

The bulk of his movement is pressing forward in the north, and pulling out of the middle of the hill in the south, not liking the two pronged approach I've finally got going there. However, he attempts to move 11CC1 out across the plowed fields in full view of the squad on the hill. Naturally, I took the -2 shot and broke him on a NMC. I was a little surprised by the move, since I figured he'd try to keep some sort of cover and concealment against the two squads coming in. Instead, I get to bag a fairly easy capture.

The bad news was that he got a '1' Sniper that zeroed in on my 9-1 leader and killed him. My leader coverage has been a bit sparse, since he broke early and was still trying to catch back up to the fight, and now he's gone.


The war in the north, German Turn 3.


The war in the south, German Turn 3.