A28 - The Professionals

Listers,

Continuing with our COW from the '96 Annual, my regular ftf, Roger Petronzio and I got together for a game of The Professionals, from the '91 Annual. This scenario provided confirmation that playing the COW is a great way to expand one's ASL horizons. This is a scenario which we would normally have passed over. But it turned out to be one of the most
exiting scenarios we've played recently.

The scenario depicts a small German infantry force (eight 1st line squads, 4 LMG, 9-1, 8-0), supported by 4 PzKw IVE's and two SPW's, attempting to work their way through board 6 and across the board 7 bridge. To win, all the German has to do is get one AFV and one Squad equivalent across the river. Easier said than done! The Yugos have ten well led (9-2, 8-1) green squads, LMG, MMG and two 47mm AT guns. What makes this scenario so challenging is that all Yugo units set up HIP.

RS gave me the Yugos. After going over a couple of differet setup options, I chose to keep both of the guns back near the bridge. My main concern was that Roger would, after exhausting my Def Fire, run a HT/squad across the bridge for the win. I wanted to have both guns there to make it as tough as possible for him to do this. Since board 6 has such limited LOS possibilities, I wanted to take advantage of Roger's entry onto the board and maybe get a long range shot at some of his moving infantry. So I put the 9-2, squad, MMG in the chateau on level 2, with a good LOS to the German entry area. I wanted to keep most of my infantry back, to keep them from being taken out, one by one, as Roger advanced toward the bridge. This would assure that I had as much FP as possible where I needed them- at the bridge. The one exception was a squad I placed up front, covering the road which the German enters on.  This squad was to accomplish two things- Hopefully, he might take out some German infantry and also lead Roger to believe that he had "friends" nearby, slowing his approach to the bridge. I placed a few more squads in the chateau, one in the woods which border board 7, on the Yugo left; and one in the other level 2 building, in case Roger tried to move to my right flank. I placed the 8-1, two squads/LMG in the house right next to the bridge. Another squad covered one of the guns, which was placed in a clump of woods; having LOS to the bridge and its approaches.

Roger came on with most of his infantry moving in stacks, using Armored Assault. But one stack, consisting of three squads/LMG, 8-0 moved into an exposed location so the 9-2/MMG opened up at range 16. 2 FP -4; I rolled a "4" for a 2 KIA. RS selected two of the squads. My turn consisted of skulking the 9-2 and friends back, out of Roger's LOS. Rog Smoked the hex they had been in so they advanced into another equally good location. During Roger's next turn, he began to move into the area where I had the "up front" squad located. He seemed to know that something was there, as he moved a PzKw IV up and aquired the squad's hex in Adv Fire. It didn't take long before the squad was uncovered and broken. Meanwhile my sniper recalled one of the panzers and also hit his still broken 8-0, 467/LMG, CRing the squad. Already outnumbered in infantry and now down 2.5 more squads and a panzer, it seemed Roger's chances of victory were fading fast. But somehow I wasn't able to convince Roger of that.

For the next few turns, Roger made his way forward, toward the bridge, coming down the Yugo left; searching for the enemy along the way. The 9-2/squad/MMG were still the only units I had on board, which made my turns go quickly and the game moved along at a good pace. Eventually, Roger gave up on trying to Smoke them, as I had a few ways to skulk back and return to a new firing position. With his infantry weakened, he wanted to get the Panzers into the front line fighting, so prep firing them every turn wasn't going to work for him. As he moved into the "courtyard" area, he started probing for Yugos. Eventually, I uncovered the one squad I had in that area for a 2 -2 shot on one of his squads, but got no effect. This drew one of the panzers over which took up position to harrass the newly discovered enemy, but also brought it into the sights of the gun I had placed nearby. The first shot managed to shock the panzer, with ROF. But the second shot malf'd the gun! More German infantry moved up to pressure the gun and impose CC on the Yugo squad. One of these was the CR'd HS/LMG and 8-0- the first victims of the 9-2. Roger also decided to make a bid to get a HT across the bridge but it was knocked out by point blank LMG fire from the 8-1 and friends. Meanwhile, he had moved a HS up and through the woods on the Yugo left, near the border with board 7. The squad I had there fired but got no effect. Roger advanced the HS into CC, resulting in mutual CR. The other CC became a melee. During the next RPh the shocked panzer flipped to an Unknown Kill.

During my turn, I revealed some of the other squads in the chateau, which fired on the infantry which were making their way through the courtyard. The result was negligible. One squad moved out of the chateau to reinforce the melee. I needed to get some help to the crew manning the malf'd gun as they were about to be CC'd by the 8-0, HS/LMG in the next German turn. I ran the 9-2, squad/MMG out of the chateau (they were already downstairs) and into the hex with the gun and crew, ADJACENT to the 8-0, HS/LMG. Roger held his fire. I ran my recently CR'd HS out of the woods and directly at a PzKw IV, which was shrouded in its own Smoke. I was hoping to draw some fire away from the 9-2, plus I thought the tank's VCA was turned away from my men. Wrong. He hit me with 16 FP flat. They died. During his Def Fire, he fires the HS/LMG at the 9-2.  Snakes! K/1! RS got both the 9-2 (wounded) and the gun crew and the squad broke! The now wounded leader took over the MMG. Suddenly I didn't feel so confident about keeping him off the bridge. After reinforcing the existing melee, I was able to whack the German squad/LMG. By this time, Roger was down to about 3 SE's, 2 Panzers and a HT. I still had one gun, near the bridge, the 8-1 and friends and a few more squads covering the approach to the bridge.

In the next RPh the UK panzer died. Roger ran his remaining infantry up, with a 9-1 leader. He also moved the tank, which had just blown away my HS, up to the wall, very close to the bridge and hull down to my remaining gun, which was still hidden. In my Def Fire, the gun hit the tank with a turret shot, knocking it out. His advancing fire broke the crew. Rather than rout them away, I kept them with the gun. Roger had only one more turn. He advanced the 8-0, HS/LMG into CC with the wounded leader, who succumbed to the assault. At the end of his turn, Roger announced that he couldn't win. His 9-1-led stack had moved one hex too short and couldn't possibly make it all the way across the bridge. If he had moved one more hex closer, which he could've, they would've had a chance. Of course, they would have had to survive some pretty tough defensive fire, but it would have been possible. I had no more guns and he still had a panzer and a HT, (which was bogged in the woods).

This was a tense and exciting game. I highly reccomend this scenario to everyone. Do yourself a favor and play it soon.

Roll low!

Bruce Kirkaldy