J23 - Kampfgruppe At Karachev
Here's a quick rundown of J23 Kampfgruppe at Karachev that Zeke Crater and I played today.
A Russian Perspective: I played the Russians which had to achieve one of three victory conditions. 1. Kill allot of Germans without loosing allot of the good guys 2. Exit nearly your entire force off the opposite board edge 3. Take all the buildings on bd 37 Seems easy enough right, 3 ways to win. The first thing the players will encounter is that the Russians are extremely limited to their avenue of approach. It's basically one road forest road that dumps into a small village and has a hidden AT gun setup somewhere. The Germans also have a couple of Daisy chains to aid in the early game anti tank role. This leads the Russian player with 3 choices (all bad), knowing that if he looses 2 or more tanks VC 2 is nearly impossible. The first is to ignore the AT gun and hope that it won't take out too many tanks before the infantry can find it. Secondly, risk numerous bog rolls in an attempt to skirt around the German forces ( I think the least required number of rolls is 3, and ties up the tanks for at least 3 turns). And lastly, the method I choose, to just wait until the path is clear. My strategy was to try and find the AT gun and clear most of the Germans before their T4 reinforcements arrive. But my bad luck and Zeke's consistent good luck in these turns made my advance too slow. The Russians do have enough firepower to have a good chance at making it to the Village by T4, but not today. Zeke must have had around 7 or 8 rolls of 4 and I broke my 50 and a LMG and probably averaged around a 9 during this time. The Russian mid game showed a little promise by clearing most of the woods to the North of the village, but were held up there as the German reinforcements arrived and stopped the advance. By turn 7 all but a suicidal charge off the board or an incredible series of close combat results could have won it for the Russians. All failed though. I didn't find his AT gun until near the end of the game which was set up to prevent the dash off the board. I expected it to be much more forward and because of that it actually slowed me down considerably as I held my tanks in reserve. In hindsight, I feel that it's necessary for the Russians to be aggressive early in the game and to inflict as many causalities and hopefully find and destroy the AT gun by turn 4. If the Russians aren't in a good position by then, it's all but over. I finally resorted to the VBM sleaze tactic late in the game after I found the AT. Had I done it sooner, it would have giving me much more options for advance (even though the Gerries have ATMMs). I'd say, if your the Russians, go for it. If you loose early, so be it. I think it's very tough to stick with a plan in this game as each VC requires the Russians to take big risks. If you get lucky, you may wind up with enough cvps to exit, but don't plan on it. I now think the most winnable VC to go for is to inflict casualties. Honestly though, I'm not to thrilled with this scenario and wouldn't play it again as either side. I'd also say it's a little pro German (given that I lost and all). It's worth playing once, though I wouldn't recommend it. Is it a dog? No, just a little frustrating as the Russian.
Aloha,
Eric