RB6 - Turned Away

Dear Persons who read stuff about playing ASL, like AARs,

Does anybody read this stuff?....

Anyway, Mauricio Moutinho and I just finished playing RB6, *Turned Away*, which even on ROAR has been played about 120+ times, and has a near-even win-loss record. I had the Russians, Mauricio had the Germans. Simply speaking, the German player has to "sniff-out" the Russian HQ building and take control of it, (in 7 German Player turns), and my main question to the ASL readership would be...how did you use your Russian concealments/dummies, and did it work? Secondly, does success in this scenario depend more on the dice than on the strategy? (Is the strategy usually "HQ in center, and fortify!"?)

*Simple Historical Background* The Russians are up against the wall and have to get Jerry to just, you know, BACK OFF!

*Simple Playing Area Description* Southern end of the RB Maps, (hexes numbered >/= 36) -- about as simple as you can get, in ASL Stalingrad.

*Simple OB Description* Elite Germans against a mixed force of Russian elites & 1st liners. All infantry. Only 7 German squads, 6.5 Russian. 8 concealment counters for the Germans, 8 concealment counters for the Russians. Machineguns, both sides. Germans have a (one!) DC. Both sides have a Mr. 9-2.

*Victory Conditions* The Germans win imediately upon controlling the Russian HQ building. (SR2 allows the Russian player to designate 3 fortified Building Locations, which should help the Soviet cause.)

*Location of the Russian HQ building* EE44, DD41, or FF37. Part of the Russian OB starts in the HQ, set up HIP. See if you can fake-out the German player for a while, or, if a German player, how quickly can you start hammering on Real Targets, while figuring out which way to the HQ.

******Russian setup******: DD41, (the centeral HQ option), was my choice for the HIP HQ force of 628, 328, 9-2, 7-0 and Lmg. DD41 was Fortified, as were adjacent Locations behind it in EE42 and EE41, (for "recycling" units to-from the HQ and protecting its flanks.) FF41, behind HQ, was a reserve, or "reaction platoon", of the 7-0 leader and three 447 squads. The idea was to possibly respond to Mauricio's setup by having something in the center that could reach north or south fairly quickly. FF39, 2 hexes north of the Reserve Platoon, was 5 dummy counters to act as either a "ghost reserve" in the same manner as FF41, or at least to give the impression that the north-option HQ Location in FF37 might be the Real Thing. (Now I wish it would have been.) EE38/wood rubble had a Lmg/458 in it, to simply present a check to a flanking move at the Real HQ in the center. DD42/wood rubble, adjacent to the Real HQ on its south side, had the 8-1 and a Hmg/527 in it, my hope being it would use rate and firepower to break and/or kill any German units threatening the HQ from the center and/or south. AA44 was 3 dummies, (or a Concealment + 2 dummies), intended to look like something real overlooking a move along the gulley, as per flanking my force from the south. Probably would've done better to use the dummies as SAN-bait, or concealment prevention, somewhere else.

******German setup******: NORTH FORCE Y38 gulley: ?+6 (9-1/dc238/548/Lmg548) X38 gulley: ?+4 (dummy stack) SOUTH FORCE Y45 gulley: ?+7 (dummy/8-0/Lmg548/Lmg548/238) X44 rubble-gulley: ?+6 (9-2/dmHmg238/238/Lmg548) (After deployment, I think.) W45 gulley: ?+2 (dummy stack)

******ABBREVIATED DESCRIPTION OF PLAY****** The German "North Force" followed the gulley up toward the FF37 "dummy HQ" and into the buildings along the north side of Novoselskaya St, and then AM'd and ADV'd across the street. At the east end of that street, Ammo Shortage resulted in the loss of the Lmg possessed by the Russian 458 in EE38/wood rubble, and then half of that squad was knocked out by a 548 in CC. A Russian 447 reinforced the resultant Melee and a German 238 was lost in the tussle, which went on, unresolved, to the early surrender. The German dc238 was broken by the Russian Hmg/527 firing from the south side of Pereskonskaya St. (The 8-1 and Hmg sqd had, by then, moved into fortified building EE41,away from the German firepower amassing in the center and center-south.) The German "South Force" ended up in what could be described as two main elements: The 8-0's men trying to get across Razdolbnaya St., and the 9-2's force in the wood buildings directly across from the HQ (DD41). Efforts to get across the streets were consistently rebuffed by the Russians, but the Germans did not get shot-up, (they just broke and rallled, broke and rallied again). A formidable German force, (Lmg548/238, I think), finally made it into the DD42 wood rubble adjacent to the south side of the HQ, where they went into Melee with a pinned 447, (and eliminated half of it), but the 7-0/447 in ADJACENT EE42/fortified wood building managed to break both sides' units in the Melee, and then the Melee was attacked, in the following Russian MPh, from HQ, by the 328 that had gone "Berserk!" under fire. (Stopping the Berserk squad from forcing the Germans in DD42 into a bad withdrawal situation absorbed all local German firepower during Russian Turn 3 DFPh, but the last shot finally killed it.) Then, from my Russian point of view, German Turn 4 was a complete disaster. Hard to believe Mauricio and I had been vying for a "world's worst luck" award, and I still blame him for going off to Europe to test-drive AFVs in Switzerland, as it seemed to change his luck. ;-) Hard to believe, because using only the 9-2/Mmg238 in the BB41 wood building Location, Mauricio broke my remaining HQ units, (Mr. 9-2 and Lmg/628). This was done with rate and I think two low rolls, and two high rolls for the Russians. Then, by Assault Moving a Lmg/548 into the open street at CC42, (ADJACENT to the HQ), the Russian side had only one LOS -- the 7-0/447 in EE42 -- that could break it, or at least pin it, but the DD42 rubble hex presented me with the problem of a +2 wood rubble DRM along one hexside, and the DR failed to as much as pin the squad. Checkmate! Game over, as I could not prevent the Lmg/548 from Advance Moving into the HQ with my other units, (8-1/Hmg527 on the other side of the HQ, and a 447 still in Melee way up in EE38.) Mauricio also had a unit moved back into DD42/rubble, which the 7-0/447 would've had to break with 4fp Final Fire, (+2 DRM), in the DFPh. I rated the scenario a "slight recommend" for practice using dummies, while Mauricio gave it a lower rating, ("As many above as below"), for ROAR purposes, adding that the HQ positioning is obvious and then it's just a matter of DRs, (or something like that.) I suppose that could be debated, and I would be interested in some sneaky uses of dummy stacks, if anybody has gotten away with it. But my MAIN problem seemed to be the inability to kill German cardboard, (breaking is not enough).

--Paul "hey, I've lost to Belgian forces, too!" Venard