Thursday, March 28, 2013

Normandy 44, Invasion Phase

 

Game starts with a special Allied phase to deal with the invasion. No many strategic decisions to be made and just a serie of die rolls.

First the Allied must roll for each Airborne unit in the map and referencing the result in a special Airborne Scatter Table. Then at each landing hex he must roll in the Invasion CRT to decide the invasion result. Losses are taken from infantry units as DD tanks must roll an independent result in its own table. Omaha and Rangers at Pointe du Hoc had special rules.

These are the results:

Utah Beach.

All the Paratroopers are scattered and had suffered heavy losses. Two of the Regiments are reduced to cadre, other three have lost one step and the only Regiment at full strength was the 501/101.  At the beaches the situation was much better without any step loss for the infantry but 70 DD Tank Battalion suffered one step loss. American paratroopers will have a few difficult turns to survive German reaction as they can not take replacements until Turn 2 and only one per Division/turn.

Normandy_Utah_sc

Omaha Beach.

Excellent invasion for the Rangers that have taken Pointe du Hoc without losses. At Charlie/Dog Omaha, the American 29th Inf Division performed a good landing with only one step lost. Things were not so good for the 1st in Division at Easy/Fox. They rolled a ‘1’ leading to Bloody Omaha results. This meant taking a step loss and rolling again. They succeeded to land in this second roll but taking more losses. At the end the result is one infantry regiment reduced to cadre and one step loss for the 743 Tank Battalion.

Normandy_Omaha

British Beaches.

Airborne units performed quite well with the only exception being at Pegasus Bridge were 5/6 Regiment was scattered and suffered one step loss.

At Sword British achieve to stablish a nice beachhead, aiming to connect with 6 AB Division.

At Juno, Canadiens remove the resistance at Courselles and begin to move inland. Losses are not heavy (only one inf step) in this sector but both DD tanks are reduced.

At Gold, British 50th Infantry Division found more resistance than expected and took severe damage as three of its regiments are reduced. Tanks battalions on the contrary have landed perfectly.

Normandy_BR_sc

After this initial invasion phase, play resumes to the normal sequence and German must play his reaction turn with some restrictions on movement to simulate the reaction delay.

WWII: BtB, Turn 2, Summer 41

 

This is the first normal turn in the game so the first thing to do is to roll for Orders.

Allied should make an offensive in Africa to relief some pressure from the russians.

And German got Orders directly from the Führer to pay attention to the South Front. So, Odessa and Yassi had Stand Fasts markers.The last Stand Fast marker goes to Hellfire Pass.

The beginning of the summer began with German concentrated in the operations of Army Group North. 3 Pz Army took Riga and penetrated deep into Narva, menacing  Leningrad. 4 Pz Army conquered Minsk and stopped there. Russian called from reinforcements in an attempt to establish some kind of front line. Fronts are deployed in Smolensk, Kiev and Leningrad.

German Infantry Armies continued to clean the lines of Russian weak Armies, specially in the roads to Leningrad but also around Pinsk whereas Panzer Armies wait for delayed infantry formations to follow the push. Russians are using any calm in the offensive to prepare replacements of their heavily damaged units.

Situation after Round 3:

Turn_2_R3

German commander decided not to attack Leningrad and played Nordlicht card for Ops. 3 Pz Army is relocated at Vitebsk to lead the attack against Smolensk. German North flank remained guarded by infantry formations. Russian redeployed some small Armies at Kalinin to avoid being outflanked and protect Moscow from the North.

The German attack on Smolensk was finally conducted by 3 and 4 Pz Armies with the support of 16th Inf Army. In spite of the odds advantage for Germans (14-6), Russian presented stiff resistance and were able to hold the position. Also in the Center, Germans began to prepare an offensive at Gomel. In the South 1st Pz Army did not encountered any opposition to reach Kirovograd.

As Germans are not directly menacing Kiev, Stalin ordered to move SW Mechanized Front to hold the lines at Smolensk.

Siberians troops have been freed and may be redeployed in a near future.

British attacked Gazala from Tobruk bu without any significant result.

In his last action, German reinforced his lines, adding 2 Pz Army to the Battle of Smolensk, and sieging Kiev. Not being menaced by any imminent outbreak, Russian expended his effort in more replacements.

This is the final situation before Russian replacements.

Turn_2_R6

Summary of losses:

Soviet: 1 LCU eliminated, 6 SCU eliminated, 1 SCU reduced (to avoid retreat). Total: 19 steps

German: 1 LCU reduced. Total: 3 steps.

Replacements: 7 Russian points, 3 British points.

British points are used to bring back to full strength 3 scu: 1.5 points.

Russian replacements are used to rebuild 2 LCU at Moscow and 1 at Tula at full strength. Last point placed 1 reduced SCU at RB and bring back to full strength the reduced SCU at Smolensk.

Wednesday, March 27, 2013

WWII: BtB, Turn 1, June 41

This game begins with an special turn of only one Action Round. German must decide if playing Barbarossa or Von Paulus Pause Events.
Here German has decided to go with Barbarossa offensive. Now, he had the opportunity to put combat markers in five different hexes. Barbarossa event also cancels Russian Trench advantages and gives +1DRM to the attacker.
Here is the opening German movement:
Ge_Turn_1 Army Group North had the mission to attack from Memel to Kaunas and move to Vilna.  4 Pz Army  is the main formation of the northern arm which will try to envelop Russian troops at Bialystok.
The pocket should be closed by the 2nd Pz Army which, attacking from Warsaw, must overrun Russian weak units at Brest Litovsk and achieve Baranovich.
The rest of the Army Group Center will concentrate in eliminating Russian units at Kovel.
In the South, German and Romanian Armies had the task to capture Odessa and defeat the resistance at Chernovitsi.


All the German attacks have been succesful and Russian units had only inflicted minor losses (1 scu step) at Werchmacht units.
Russian expended his reaction round trying to save as many units as possible.
In spite of Stalin orders, Russian SW Front abandoned its trenched position at Lwow and retreated to Kiev. 
Also the other two Russian units that risked to be envelopped in the next turn by Germans, at Kolonyja and Tarnopol-Rovno  were deployed at Kiev and Vinnitsa. 
Courland SCU was called to protect the route towards Leningrad and it was placed at Pskov. 
Finally, Russian commander begun to deploy a defensive line behind the Dnieper river and called the Reserve at Mozhaisk to reinforce positions at the forest in Gomel. 


Ge_Turn_1_SO

German losses: 1 SCU step (1 step)
Soviet losses: 1 LCU, 4 SCU (14 steps)
The Soviets unit pocketed at Bialystok can not be saved and it is eliminated : 8 steps (LCU+SCU).

Tuesday, March 26, 2013

TURN 4 spring 1862 "For the people"

Card1. First card play for USA is obvious, to demote poor McDowell and place in chargeof Army of Potomac Mr. McLlelan. It is the moment to do it, as Stoneman cavalry brigade gives a +2 for interception and negates the "-2" in all leader ratios. So now AoP defences with +3 and intercepts with 4/6. It affects USA SW with a -5 (McDowell political rating) but gives a bonus of +5 for placing in charge McLellan (special rule). With his first activation confederacy retreats AoNV to West Virginia leaving Van Dorn with a 15000 troops corp it Chambersburg (Pa) allowing to close Senandoah valley and threatening a raid in Pennsylvania.

Card2. USA places a fort in Grafton (WV) seeing the obvious threat of a raid through Pittsburgh. CSA creates AoW at Richmond with Lee in charge. This is a serious problem for the union, Defensive rating of the union armies depends on the difference of the CSA leader in command and the USA leader, if CSA leader is best, then just two leaders are added to the total of the army, on the other way round, grey's armies always uses three leaders. It means, AoW attacking AoP is a +6 vs +3, but if it's AoNV who attacks then it would be +4 vs +4.

Card3. USA places a fort at harrisburg to avoid Van Dorn corps to raid Pennsylvania easily. Then CSA begins a political offensive to join Misouri to the confederacy. <<First move of my buddy I don't like, more troops for reinforcement each turn, and 10 sw for political value of Mo, but very difficult for the greys to defend it.¿?.>>

Card4. Active AoP to recover Chambesburg, to close Frederick with enough troops and to stay in Harper Ferry. Now with new AoP intercepting with a 66% of the times willl respond to an attack from Virgina or from Senandoah. CSA continues with political war at Mo and places three more flags there.

Card5. usa places a fort in H.F. (north of Va) and south moves AoW to Strasburg. A good place to stop any advance from AoP and even to launch a final turn offensive through WV, Senandoah or Manassas.

Card6. For the people lets with some events to steal a card from your enemy hand, this time union plays now in order to steal a very good card (usually players left the best of their cards hand for the end of the turn), and that way then play the last card of the turn a powerfull one. With an incredible luck, USA steals the best possible card from south's hand "major campaign". It is typical to leave a major campaign for yor last card play in order to do three uncontested activation, ...but this can happen!!!. Now, without his  best card, south must play his last card leaving north to seize the last card play (this time). Michael decides to ativate Van Dorn and spreads all over West Virginia in order to place a lot of political markers, but Rosecrans intercepts VD with a "1" (just a 16% to get it 1 /6) stoping them.Very lucky again.

Card7. No cards on CSA hand, this is the last card payed this turn, and it's a campaign too (minor), so two activations for the blues. 1st one: is an amphibous assault from WDC to Fort Fisher (North Carolina). it closes North Atlantic blockade zone but easily greys will reopen it later due to the lack of troops to to defende Morehead city (Nc).
2nd one: Bank's corp move to seize the oportunity to secure Kentucky and even to assault Nashville to burst it's depot and enters Murfreesboro.
Situation in the east at the begining of turn 5. Two armies waiting for the opportunity to raid north

Situation in the west at the begining of turn 5. Kentucky and Nashville in north control but Missippi firmly defended by Johnny Rebs.

Turn losses               casualties.                attrition.
USA                                    15000                       15000
CSA                                     10000 +fort              5000

War  losses:  (casualties +  attrition)
USA                       125000
CSA                          75000

SW
USA 111(+)                        Blockade level=2 
CSA  96(-)



Thursday, March 21, 2013

Normandy 44, GMT Games

 

It looks like the game of  Hearts and Minds played by Molina and Jordi has been blocked and they can not continue with their vassal match.

So, at our gaming club last week, we meet all of us and I proposed to play Normandy’44 by GMT games by vassal. This departs from our other vassal games as it is a classical hex-and-counter game and not a CDG. However, counter density and map size are reasonably small to manage in laptop screens, so it could be a good choice for vassal PBEM. Jordi and I have played a couple of turns once a few months ago in FTF and have found the game really excellent.

As usual, both of them agreed and we will play as me as the Germans against Molina as Brit and Jordi with US. Fortunately Vassal module is ready to be played with 2-3-4 players so it will be easy to handle the game.

As it is a typical i-go-you-go game, no much interaction is needed and we may advance in the game relatively fast (depending on family&job’s schedules).

We will try to report after every half turn.

pic766300_md

Saturday, March 16, 2013

TURN 3 fall 1861 "For the people"

This turn, card hand rises to 6 cards, the rest of the game will be  7 cards turn.

Interphase stuff: This is a special interphase due to 90 days enlistement. No reinforcement this time, just the possibility to move troops by railroad and two new leaders for CSA.

Card 1. Union begins redeploying leaders, and confederacy moves AoNV against Frederick, hard battle there (poor old Beauregard dies) but a southern victory, political control placed in Frederick, next card could bring a first attempt to reach Washington (WDC).

Card 2. Union has a +4 (+2 McLellan +2 fort) at WDC but AoMV is also a +4, so a bad dr could mean WDC falling. So union decides to counter attack, active AoP (just a +1 army) from Culpepper  against Hanover in order to cut supply line of AoNV and to theraten Richmond. Gambit works and AoNV comes back to south to reestablish a supply line and fights against AoP, Hanover battle is another smashing victory of the south, but WDC is relived.

                                           ... no LOC for AoNV so gets back and crushes AoP!!

Card 3. AoP backs to Frederick and reinforces with troops from WDC, then AoNV strikes again against AoP at Frederick, but this time AoP stands (with lots of luck) and  wins a soft  battle.

Card 4. Fort placed again at frederick, this gives AoP +3 against +4 of AoNV . AoNV gets an elite unit (a future +1 for any hard battle to come)

Card 5. then Union arises blockade level by one (to two) and CSA reorganized his leaders

Card 6. Union plays a campaing card (wich let TWO moves) allowing to close Senandoah gate with halleck corps (15000 men) detached from WDC  and Banks moves his men to get Kentucky for the union. (Very good hand card for union this turn 3)...but now another campaign card for the CSA!!. First move: AoNV backs for the other side this time against Halleck at Harper Ferry (AoP haven't cavalry yet, so just a 1 to intercept), another voctory for the south, and halleck retreats to Chambersburg (Pa) with 5000 men. Then for the second activation Van Dorn ("1" leader, it means all cards activate him) takes advantage of the AoNV work and goes to strike Chambersburg. Not enough troops to do a raid, but he could have close WDC rail connection with north in order to reduce reinforcement rate,...but fails the battle and Halleck is new hero of the union.

Turn losses (bloody one):    casualties.                attrition.
USA                                    45000                      5000
CSA                                    30000                      5000

War  losses:  (casualties +  attrition)
USA                       95000
CSA                       60000

SW
USA 104(-) +10 Kentucky joins the union -5war weariness.                   Blockade level=2
CSA  95(-)

Saturday, March 9, 2013

Soviet Disaster, WWII:Barbarossa to Berlin


Ok, for the last weeks, we have been playing our first game of WWII: Barbarossa to Berlin.
We have done some mistakes at the beginning, mainly concerning Stalin orders and Combat Cards but not too critical.
Germans (Molina)  sent all their forces to crush the Russians before winter arrives. Russians (myself) did not understand quite well the advance rules and were outflanked by the mobile panzer formations. I think that the game does not deserve a full AAR unless anybody wants to laugh on russian mistakes.
At the end of turn Three (just before winter) Russian played a 5-point card for replacements, running out of cards for the last action. German succeeded to envelop Moscow (with Stalin inside) and with just 1-ops to play I couldn`t save the Red Army and i surrendered.
Here is the final situation of the overwhelming Nazi victory:

image
We are going to see if Russian has learned anything from this hard lesson and we will begin again with same sides.