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After our last adventure in Korea, Patch and I decided to return to Action Pack 3 for our next ASL game. It’s a couple of weeks after the previous scenarios in that package, and the main part of Gruppo Nord is still encircled, and holding out for rescue as the Soviets launch an attack to wipe them out.

The scenario uses half of boards 22 and 49, and as ever with this set, has some interestingly different bits. There’s a base Italian line up for defense, and then an number of Italian and German reinforcements that can be bought with VPs, and the the Axis player must spend at least 15 VPs (decided before setup). The Russians have a fairly nice force that sets up on board, and can spend VPs to enter some of them from the flank. In addition, both sides track CVP, and get one VP per building hex they control at the end of turn 7. Oh yes, there’s ground snow, and everyone other than non-elite Italians have winter camouflage.

Patch took the Axis defenders, and spent the minimum 15 VP, giving him twelve Italian squads (ranging from elite to conscript), an Italian 75mm AA, and two German 50mm AT (all standard setup), plus a pair of Pz IVF2s on turn 2 (spending another VP to get them a turn early), and a platoon of 467s with MMG & 8-1 entering on turn 3. His initial ‘anchor’ turned out to be the 49W9 (partially rubbled) stone building, with more on both flanks, and a second line on board 22.

The Russians get fifteen squads (mostly 447s, with some 458s), a few SW (including a DC, and 2xATR—oh, and the Italians have two Russian ATRs), two T-70s, and three T-34s. I set up 3×447, 9-2 (best leader), and an ATR to enter from the north (4 VPs for four units). They were to head into his flank forces, with a tank heading over to provide cover, and everything else lined up at the limit of my area, with a south group somewhat detached from the rest (largely thanks to terrain). The initial goal was to seize some forward locations, and then have a few spare squads sweep through taking building hexes; something that caused more trouble than I had hoped.

Patch didn’t interfere at all with my movement (“Just going to it out there: My setup needs work.”), but Patch had noted all the long LOS alleys in the map, and had set up guns for them. A 50mm AT was in 22F6, and immediately hit and killed a T-70 during DFPh. Z9 turned out to be the Italian HMG nest (as I had figured), which failed to do anything with its shot. AFPh teased me with a ‘2’ for an Unlikely Hit on the HMG… which turned out to be no hit at all (subsequent 6).

Situation, Russian Turn 1 showing the full board. North is to the left; note two buildings are factories, and a few hexes start rubbled.
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Patch and I returned to ‘regular’ ASL for our next game. I forget our actual decision process, but I think Patch was wanting to see the Italians again. I remembered Few Returned, an action pack of Italian scenarios, most dealing with the Soviet Little Saturn offensive. It also has a good reputation for interesting and different scenarios, and we went with the first one in the pack, AP17 “The Valley of Death”.

The Russians are defending the board 18 hills (two of them are ignored to make it a single ridgeline) with twelve squads (almost half conscripts), a few machine guns, a pair of ATRs, pair of light mortars, an 82mm MTR and a 76mm ART, and have to put at least one squad and foxhole on each hill. The Axis force is nineteen Italian squads (mostly first line with some elites) and two light mortars, with a German 81mm MTR, 20mm AA, Stug IIIG, and a Panzer IIIJ. The Russians have to set up on or adjacent to the hill hexes, and the Axis wins as soon as there’s no Good Order Russian MMCs on the hill hexes if there’s at least one Italian GO on a hill hex. In addition, there is ground snow, and it is snowing at scenario start. As a final twist, the Italians can use Banzai Charges, as long as at least one MMC participates. The scenario has a pro-Russian record, so we took the Italian balance of extending the scenario a turn, to 6.5 turns, though I recall several people saying that the real problem is that the Axis player needs to know what he’s doing.

Patch had the Axis, and generally knows what he’s doing….

It’s a pity no one told his dice.

I set up with the northernmost (18Z7) hill as my main bastion as it has the only level 2 terrain. The two adjacent level two hexes got a 50mm MTR and the 82mm, while the third level 2 hex got the HMG and 8-1. The only other hill with cover is J2, with a wooden building and a woods hex, and that was my secondary command post with a LMG, MMG and the 8-0. The other 50mm was down at the extreme south in C2, and the rest was a line of positions that I hoped could help each other laterally if Patch concentrated on one at a time. The widest gap between the hills is near the center, and I put the ART in N2 facing the road, figuring that sooner or later a tank would cruise through there (and if not, it could cover my second concentration in K3).

Patch set up in roughly three groups, with the PzIII, and two mortars in the north, the other 42mm MTR, StuG, AA, and best leader in the south, and eight squads strung out in the middle.

The first thing that happened was the snowfall increased to heavy. The second was that his 82mm turned out to have no smoke rounds, and then malfunctioned when it tried to shell my MTR. On the other hand, his AA gun promptly broke my MTR squad in 18C2. His initial advance was fairly cautious, not going CX with anything except an armored assaulting squad in the north. What little fire I had was ineffective (including a ‘2’ on an ATR shot which of course cowered to nothing).

My DFPh went very well, with a CH from my large MTR against the PzIII which immobilized it and caused the crew to bail out. The second shot was another CH which reduced and broke the squad in the hex, while also breaking the crew.

Situation, Axis Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
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