HOW9 - A Perfect Match

Paul Venard and I just finished our PBEM of HOW9 A Perfect Match. This is a five-turn Bulge scenario which depicts US recon elements attempting to dig a similar German force out of a town. Deluxe boards are used; the US player attacks from north to south, setting up part of his force on a hill overlooking the center. To win, the Amis need to get at least 40 CVP, and 23 more than the Germans. I'd attacked the last time we played (Fort McGregor, an utter howler), so Paul got the US and all those toys. Note: Paul’s correct on the details.

PV comment: HOW9, *A Perfect Match*, is the type of scenario that, for me, if I can get my side set up and underway, that's a victory in itself! I'm a pbem/Internet player--not accustomed to large scenarios and/or a lot of vehicles, because usually I don't want to work the keyboard that hard. If you're faint of heart about vehicular rules, well...this scenario might teach you tons, if it doesn't drive you nuts, first!

For the American player, A Perfect Match starts out simply enough: 7 vehicles, 5 half-squads, an 8-1 leader, a bazooka and a 60mm Lmtr, all required to set up concealed _in any terrain type_ on hill 108 of deluxe board e, (where all hedges are removed.). Yup. Looks easy. But then ya look at ther rest of your OB, only to discover that everything else sets up to enter as PRC, (vehicles with only 1/3 MP allotted), on Turn 1, and that means 21 more vehicles, 12 half-squads, 3 leaders, 2 bazookas, and 2 more 60mm Lmtrs! Let me be honest: My head was swimming! I knew I had to get 23 CVP more than Carl, with a minimum of 40 CVP, but my first thoughts tended to be along very mechanical, ASLer, pragmatic lines. (I didn't want to have long lines of vehicles offboard. I hate stringing things out offboard, especially when playing VASL without benefit of real mapboards to use for the offboard stuff.) My solution was to string things out along the entirety of the lengths of boards e and BF1, with 3 or 4 columns 2 or 3 vehicles long, but no more than that.

As you'd expect, both sides have a lot of thinly armored popguns. The Americans have half a dozen Greyhounds along with some Stuarts, a couple of M8 HMC, and a bunch of halftracks and armed Jeeps. So they've got beaucoup MMG and .50s as well as Canister and all the AT capability they need. By comparison, the German armor's pretty weak--four Pumas, a Wespe, a few gun-toting halftracks and a 250/SMG along with some plain ol' 250/1s. They also sport a 50L AT.

The biggest problem for the US is that they're short on time, and their second is a lack of infantry. They have a total of 17 elite HS to the Germans' 12 first-liners, in tight wooden-building terrain that greatly favors the defender. So the US player clearly needs plenty of production from his overwatch positions, but he's also going to have to drive some of those open-topped vehicles into town, taking on the enemy from 'faust range and subjecting himself to street fighting. Makes for plenty of ATMM rolls.

PV comment: I left-off writing how I wanted to avoid offboard gridlock --so much for the pragmatic approach to ASL scenarios! But what about tactics? What about a PLAN, fer cryin' outloud?! Ya, I had one of those. SBR (Special Battle Rule) 4 allows the Ami player to set up the units on hill 108 with PRC dismounted and manning Mgs already assembled, so I had 2 Mmgs and 2 .50-cals manned by HS and crews, [Carl: or did the crew(s) help Later? Did I only use HS and leave the crews in the Jeeps?!! I think I did!] up there on Lev2, along with the 2 M8 Greyhounds, (both of which succeeded at HD attempts), but the Jeeps and HTs were kept out of sight in case German ordnance ripped-off a bunch of ROF. Carl put a Puma in HD status behind the wall in cM4, so I put a baz347 two hexes away on eM1/Lev1. (You could say that's where the front of the front line was at.)

So my plan was to use the hill 108 force to shoot at everything they could, of course, and then bring in a strong right fist to hit the German left in the vicinity of the _four corners_ intersection of the mapboards -- hopefully to smash the flank, roll it up. Concentrate force and unleash it, (that's what I was thinking, though I soon found out it would be harder than I'd thought). Pick on a point with an overwhelming advantage and hopefully proceed toward a critical mass (of Germans cornered and either going down, or surrendering). The center and the hill 108 forces would be opportunists as the battle unfolded, (although I started out a bit aggressively with a gyro-equipped Stuart charging right up the middle of board e to the edge of board c), while the left would hopefully be strong enough to serve to inhibit any idea Carl might have had about getting behind me and wreaking havoc. I really had no idea what Carl was going to do, (we'd played only 3 pbem matches previously), but I could see that his force, waiting behind the cover he had given it in the corners of board c, was likely to draw more than a little blood out of the Amis, as soon as we rode around a curve or stepped out from behind a building. Anything that shot at us would have to pay with their lives or spend the rest of the war picking beets in Colorado, and whatever they were protecting, we'd have to find them, also. Or the Amis would lose.

When I first looked at the scenario, I had this delusion of playing Jeb Stuart with the Pumas, slashing into the rear, cutting rout paths, beating up on the halftracks, and generally raising hell. As fun as that would be, though, it just doesn't look doable--hull-down Greyhounds on the heights are a powerful deterrent. I decided to duke it out with those guys from the town.

The German has two full board widths from which to select his positions. I set everything up on board c (the southeast), avoiding that board's deathtrap central building. All the non-gunned halftracks were set up out of sight and abandoned in the first turn, giving me a bunch of additional self-rallying infantry. This is essential--it doubles the number of targets the US has to deal with, and provides a potent anti-armor resource.

Paul's dice started hot, and three of the four Pumas were knocked out immediately, followed by the Wespe in Turn 2. In retrospect, it was a mistake for me to challenge the vultures on the hill with my armor--I should've hung back in the shadows with those guys and blasted anything that came close.

PV comment: Of the 3 Pumas knocked out in the opening phases, one was brewed-up by the 2-range bazooka shot, (got that scw over the wall for the upper superstructure hit), and another was a Stop & Delay BF shot by the gyro-equipped, c.e. Stuart that charged up the center, (and he died soon thereafter, thanks to a 250/10 and his 37mm). One M8 on 108 got the other Puma.

The duel between the MG nests was a different story, though, and this may have been the single biggest factor in the game. PV had put two .50s on the hill manned by HS, but wasn't able to do any good with them; my HMGs kept breaking the guys remanning those positions, despite one of them going fanatic. Seems important for the US to devote as much manpower as necessary to keep the .50s hammering away.

I think what I did was put the HS on the Mgs, because they have a ML:7 (I assumed dismounted crews were 126s, hope that's right.) However, crews can self-rally. And let's not forget that my At Start 8-1, the boss-on-the-hill, was killed, along with a mmg HS, by a sniper early in the game, before he could rally more mg people, and of my other 3 leaders, the 8-1 on our left was WIA and out of the game relatively quickly, (a silly move forward with only a crew for support), and the 9-1 and 7-0 were preoccupied with the -right fist- plan.

US armor was in the town in force in turn 3, and it was time for the 50L to speak up. From a forward position in cE4, the AT gunners blew away one of the Greyhounds on the heights and two halftracks at close range before malfing on an IF shot. This more or less evened up the CVP counts, making it tough on the Amis from there on out.

PV comment: That kayoed Greyhound was one that'd moved up out of the gridlock in the -right fist- by using its 36 MPs to move all the way back through town and up the road and up onto the hilltop of 108....where they discovered the 50mm Greeting Card. The main problem with the -right fist- tactic was gridlock. I had stuff VBMing and in Motion, but there was a temporary, real threat of Psk or PF attack, and not everyone could eyeball the Germans in question. There's a long wall in the corner of board b that slows things down, also, and I didn't have any Stuarts in that group, to plow through it.

Paul hung in, though-shrugged off a couple of malfs and started using VBM freeze, and I couldn't buy a PAATC so he was getting away with it. Things got very grim in the center in turn 4; the Amis cut off the escape route and squeezed a 'schreck squad, a leader, and a bunch of brokies into a single building. It was eat backblast or die, but things ended up even worse-missed, and only the squad broke from the backblast, so everyone's prisoners and Paul's got an 18 CVP margin all of a sudden. It was the high water mark for the US.

PV was trying to penetrate simultaneously in the east, though, and I made him pay. The other PSK took out a Greyhound, one Jeep went down to a MG shot and another to CC, and I finally passed a PAATC and slapped an ATMM on a halftrack. That forced Paul into a death ride in turn 5; he did finally take out the last Puma, but lost another Greyhound to a butt shot from a LMG. Final score 61-48 US, giving the Germans the win.

One man's opinion on tactics: Dismount everybody from the halftracks and Jeeps on both sides. As the US, isolate one section of the German defense and try to take everyone in that section prisoner. Put a lot of firepower on the hill and punish the German armor with it. As the German, hide the vehicles, street fight, and use your MGs on the US armor.

PV comment: That attack in the east, with the Rat Patrols and simultaneous loss of halftracks and another M8, was due to Panic. I momentarily lost sight of the fact that POWs can bring up the score fairly quickly, so instead of letting the -right fist- do the job, the drivers over by the wounded 8-1 lost their collective heads, so to speak, and pushed for more points, faster.

For much of the game, I was thinking of the scenario as one-sided in favor of the German. If I hadn't exposed my armor to the hot-shooting Greyhounds in turn 1, Paul would only have had about half a dozen CVP by midgame. OTOH, though, if the US halftrack crews had dismounted for the attack--not just the inherent passengers as was done here-the German ATG wouldn't have done so much damage, and the US would've had more infantry in support. And the Rat Patrol tactics with the Jeeps, while mighty cool, did end up being a waste of those vehicles. Taking all that into account, I'd have to say this one's reasonably well balanced. I can only give it a Slight Recommend in ROAR, though; I think the best German defense is ultra-passive, which isn't really to my taste. [Paul gives it a Recommend, having learned a few vehicle tricks.]

PV comment: I agree with Carl -- if he had kept those Pumas behind cover, it would have been much more difficult. Also, the HTs could indeed have safely debarked their crews behind the wall and hill in the southeast corner of board e and put a lot more pressure on that side, perhaps reaching the 50L before it could do a lot of damage. Perhaps. But only the At Start HTs/Jeeps were allowed to set up their Mgs, on the ground, in assembled condition, so the others would've had to spend a turn taking them out and getting under the HTs, and reassembling them would take away a shooting phase, also. (So just leave them?) I would recommend this scenario as a great way to learn more about vehicles, but it would be much, much easier in a ftf match.

I’d still look strongly at dismounting as the US. Better to have the MGs in place late than not at all.