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Martin and I went back to a mutual project to play through more of the initial Beyond Valor scenarios after I grabbed a hill in Italy from him in Regalbuto Ridge. This time was scenario 9, “To the Square” set during the Russian advance into Warsaw near the end of the war, and is a ten-turn slugfest on four boards, which took us nearly five months of PBEM to get through.

The Germans defend across three boards (1, 20, and 21) with fourteen squads (split between 467 and 447s), good leadership, two 50L ATGs, six hexes of wire, and a roadblock. He also gets 8 “?”, 2 squads can set up HIP, and he gets to place six rubble counters in the forward two boards, and then randomly generate two more hexes of fallen rubble. The Russians attack from board 8 with twenty 447 squads with adequate leadership (not too bad for Russian mixes, actually), four T-34/85s (w/9-1 AL), and a module of 80mm OBA. Oh, and both sides get a HMG, 2xMMG, and 3xLMG. The Russians have 10 turns to take building 20H3, or exit 30 VP off the opposite (west) edge.

Martin had the Germans, and set up a loose line on board 1, all at level 2. There was a noticeable gap in the I-O section, but it was backed up by a second line at the edge of board 21. There was also back up for the south half in 1Z9, 21L8, and 21J5h2. Invisibly, HIP squads went in on the north and south ends of the board 21 line, with the wire protecting the victory building from a front assault, the roadblock at the south edge of 20, and the ATGs near the north edge of 20.

I debated possible courses of action for a while (including rushing into that I-O gap, or setting up on the level 2 portions of board 8 for long-range 85mm, MG, and OBA spotting), but eventually decided to go hard against the south edge, looking for a board exit. Holding the flank with the board edge would be good for the start, but I figured a shift north to cross the board 21 graveyard would probably be a good way to go. In fact, if Martin built up too much in front of my south-edge drive, I would drive NW and assault the victory building. A functioning T-34/85 is worth 7 EVP, and with all four being 28, just shy of the 30 VP goal; the AL brings them up to 29. I hoped to keep them intact and use Riders to carry a squad off-map and bring me over 30, while they could also help with a quick shift in focus, and I set up with one tank having Riders.

I prepped a T-34 at 1X2, and naturally missed, but at least it should start forcing him out of there (Op Fire would have been smarter). Thinking the south gap was a bit large, I did some searching as I prepared to send tanks into unknown territory, and found nothing. I moved into 1Z2 to draw fire… and did, surviving a PTC. A second move to X2 got SFF in X1 for no effect, and another squad got into the building through Y3.

The T-34 with Riders dashed forward to BB6 with exactly enough MP to unload, and to my surprise Z9 did not fire. Presumably he didn’t want to come under accurate fire from the tank, but I felt keeping me out of building Z6 would be worth it. I showed Martin had the right I idea when the MA got a ‘2’ in AFPh, but didn’t manage an Unlikely Hit with a subsequent 5. Overall, the initial turn went very well, as I figured to have at least one broken squad from the rush on 1X2, but that didn’t happen. If only I knew where the AT and HIP were….

Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing the hidden parts of German setup. North is to the left, 20H3 is the one hex with a Level 3 Location. Two T-34 moves (which started in 8CC10 & DD9) are not shown for clarity. AL is with ‘C’ in 1Z3. My Sniper is out of position thanks to forgetting to move him after changing plans.
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My primary reason for asking for a new ASL PBeM game was to get more early scenarios done, so I has specifically asked after scenario 7, “Dash for the Bridge”, from Beyond Valor. A couple people warned of it not being very fun, but DaveH contacted me on GameSquad, willing to give it a go. Neither of us was set on sides, so I did a random roll and took the Germans. Since the record is lopsided, we’d already decided to use the Russian balance.

And… it is an unusual scenario. Two city boards representing Warsaw in September 1944 are set up end-to-end, and the Russians either have to exit three (out of six) tanks off the far end in 11 turns, or get 10 CVP while taking less than twice as much damage as they do. The Germans defend with 8 SS squads, some MGs, a roadblock and two 37mm AT Guns, all HIP, and can’t have more than half their forces on the first (eastern) board (20). The Russians have six 447 squads and six T-70s. And as an extra wrinkle, an SSR allows the Russians to exit a number of vehicles off the north or south edge roads, and make a secret dr. That many turns later, the Russians come back, a number of road entry hexes further west equal to dr. This can result in them having successfully exited while offboard, but if the ‘turn of entry’ is later than the end of the scenario, it doesn’t count. But, the Germans can hold a number squads (or manned Guns) from their opening setup, and modify the secret dr for where they come back (but not when) by one per squad/Gun. The Germans have to keep out a leader for every 2.5 squads/Guns not used, and the Russian balance says that the Germans must sacrifice their best leaders.

Figuring out how to set up the Germans drove me to distraction for a while. Not only do I have to stop the Russians, but I have to deal with the fact that they could end up in my rear at some point. The first thing was the roadblock. The only real chokepoints on these boards are at the board ends, and the far east was out of bounds, and the far west has no proper location for a roadblock. So I put it in 20B5/C5; the only place where there’s one road, and there’s buildings to connect a roadblock to. I wanted some decent long ‘shooting galleries’ for the AT Guns to fire down in the crowded terrain. One went in 21H9 as the final ‘last ditch’ defense: if the Russians re-entered on the last possible road from the south, they’d have to drive through its CA at point blank range, if from the north, they’d go through H1,where I set the Gun’s boresight. If they drove through the H5/H6 traffic circle, I’d probably have had a shot in L7 as well. I eventually put the other Gun in 21FF8, with the boresight in FF2. Other than sending all the tanks offboard, the Russians should have to go through that area sooner or later, and the only real worry was it getting outflanked by an advance along the south edge. Also, a HS was in GG7, who would help push the gun if needed.

In fact, I noticed that the road structure on board 20 naturally flows towards the south as you advance west. So the area near the roadblock turned into the major focus for my resistance, and designed to discourage an advance along the south edge. A forward HS was in V4 (I tended to set up in what woods there are, to aid PF shots), as that was the main avenue of the board, and a squad+LMG with the 8-0 was in N8. The 8-1 was with another squad and the HMG in 20E7h2, with the boresight in J7, as that was nearest cover if he went into the J8-L8 intersection. He could see most of the area, with clear terrain to the south, and with the other group, probably make the Russians decide to go around, to the north. Squads went in 21EE3 and 20A4, to try and surprise the Russians once they did go north. The 7-0 and a squad went in 21EE6 as a final reserve for the main point of resistance. A squad went  in 21X0 to cover the Y1 entry, and would move back to the next couple as needed. One squad and the 9-1 were held offboard to give the re-entry dr a –1.

And if Dave exited off the south edge early (20Y10 or Q10), I could be in a lot of trouble.

To my surprise, Dave organized the radioless T-70s in to three platoons of 2, instead of two of 3, which would make it easy to exit a potentially game-winning force. He probed on a broad front, and only got to the edge of my legal set up area on the first turn.

Situation, Turn 1, showing my full setup (all HIP).
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In February 2012, Patch and I picked up our next ASL scenario. Neither of us had actually played “Mila 18”, from Beyond Valor before, so we decided to go for that.

Dealing with a 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, it is a situation that hits a raw nerve with many people (for good reason), but the scenario itself is interesting. There are no support weapons of any kind. Each side is nearly even in numbers (10 SS squads to 11 Jewish partisan squads; three leaders each). The SS squads have double the firepower, but are fragile (ELR 1, and they go all the way from 658 to 447 upon ELR failure), and all the partisans have HIP. An additional twist is that German units leave their guns behind when eliminated (in the form of labor counters). The partisans can recover these and promote from 337 partisan squads to 447 Russian squads, and they can be promoted to 458s. These promoted squads retain their ELR of 5, and split into HS/Disrupt if they fail ELR instead of reverting to the weaker state.

Feeling a bit lazy for brain-busting setups, and as I pointed out to Patch, I’m usually the one who gets to sweat over them (like in the last night scenario we did), I took the SS, and Patch set up the Partisans.

The Germans win either by getting double the CVP of the partisans (with a minimum of 10), or by Mopping Up 27 of the 33 buildings in hexrows L to Y of board 20 in nine turns. That latter condition requires an average of 3 successful Mopping Up actions a turn, and there is no way to be in position for any until turn three, so it’s closer to four per turn. There’s only eleven units to mop up with (after before-game Deploying; more could be had by Deploying HSs during the game), and anyone who Mops Up is TI, and therefore not in position to Mop Up the following turn. All that makes for a very tight schedule, and it seemed to me the point of it is to keep the partisan player from just hiding in odd corners where he can’t be found, and the Germans can’t generate 10 CVP in time. So my mission was to go in, and round up the partisans more directly.

Thanks to the HIP and German entry from off-board, we had our fastest Game Turn 1 ever, with no Partisans showing.

A quiet patrol, Turn 1. The partisans are somewhere between the light blue bars….
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