A109 - Scouts Out

Got to hook up with His Nemesis, John Slotwinski, for some Quality ASL Product earlier this week. We picked Scouts Out, one of those challenging "US combined-arms attacks over open ground" type dealies. And to sweeten the tension, we had both played it once before and were both fore-armed with the Scouts Out Scenario Replay from Journal #1. In short, No Excuses ASL.

I had the Germans and failed my pre-game Convince The Other Guy To Give Up The Balance Task Check which would have given the US one less .50 cal. Didn't bother me too much, as I was hoping John would try to set up a good-in-theory but-suboptimal-in-reality twin-50 firebase on the bd40 hill, but he was too smart for that. Really, the US has an embarassment of MG firepower in this one, and I think a better balance provision might be to give the Germans a bit more staying power - maybe battle-hardening one or two 447's into 467's or adding another LMG or halfsquad. Seems like the Germans are just a tad too brittle in this one, and I think it'd be a better game if they could do more than just skulk for the first 5 turns.

Anyway. The Journal #1 SR has a lot of good advice, so I won't do a full-blown analysis here. What I wanted to concentrate on most with the bd40 Germans was to preserve them well into the game, hoping to be a thorn in the US player's side as long as possible. Many people just don't feel comfortable with the thought of enemy troops in their rear area, even if they are generally suppressed and, in this case, can put very little firepower onto the bridge. The bigger thing, of course, is to keep those Germans around for the threat of breaking rout paths once the US gets across the bridge and starts fighting for the large hill around 41N8. Again, I had figured that most US players wouldn't think too far past the bridge crossing in their pregame plans, so I concentrated on winning the post-bridge-crossing half of the game.

To this end, I put the 7-0, 447/LMG, and a 237 in the stone building on top of the hill in 40I8. Sure, they weren't doing much to oppose the initial US push across bd 40, but they were planning on showing themselves just as the US started to cross the bridge around turn 3. And they seemed to be in a good defensive position should the US try to set up a firebase on the hill. The second halfsquad went in 40H6 with the PSK, covering the roads connecting to 40H4 and supporting the other guys if need be. I kind of wanted the PSK out of the way to keep it from being captured and used against me.

Wacky Ideas for Board 40 included putting the 7-0 in 40CC8 to screw up rout paths late in the game, and also to start the 7-0 in 40Q4 with the PSK, planning on self-breaking and routing across the bridge back to bd 41 in order to get that precious second PSK and third leader into the end-game. Would have been nice, but it seemed too easy for the US to interdict this guy as he routed across the bridge. Ah well.

The Plan on bd 41 was to get whatever shots presented themselves, but mainly to preserve my strength for the end game, particularly with the HMG around 41N8. Sure, the US has lots of smoke and firepower, but controlling the VC buildings is going to depend on the US infantry, and in that up-close battle on the hill, I expected the German HMG to shine. The Heavy started in 41N8 but skulked around to N7 and O8, repeatedly changing hands between squads who took turns gaining concealment in N7. It also started US turn 2 in Crest status in 41M8, but that was before the US MTR's were onboard and ready to turn that woods hex into a death trap.

The PSK squad was HIP in N6, hoping for a nice shot against a marauding VBM-Freezing US AFV, but in retrospect I think O6 would have been better for this purpose. I toyed around with the idea of digging a foxhole in N5, the better to shoot the PSK from while covering 41P8, but it didn't seem like I had enough men to spare for the job.

41V7 Level 1 contained the 7-0, 447/LMG, who had a few tasks in mind. First was to get whatever cheesy long-range shots presented themselves on turn 1, while masquerading as perhaps the 8-0, 447/HMG during setup. On German turn 1, the squad deployed and the 7-0 and LMG halfsquad CX'd over to the center of the board, eventually landing in 41Q6 to lay the de-rigeur firelane down the bridge. The other halfer remained in 41V7, popping up and down the stairs, from where he could throw 1 FP out ot the bridge exit hex while, more importantly, presenting a problem for US units trying to rout away from the end-game battle around 41O8.

The remainder of the German squads and Dummies were scattered about in predictable fashion. Three squads were detailed to the 41O8 hill. A ?, ?, 447, 447 stack started in 41Q6, again masquerading as a leader-led MG during setup while giving me a little bit of wiggle-room for deciding exactly how many squads to send to either side of the Q7-Q10 road.

John's attack covered all of the bases just as JR's attack did in the Journal SR. Scouted ahead with the Turn 1 infantry, then brought on the AFV's and started Reconning-By-Fire-And-WP all of the Concealment Terrain in the area. The PSK in 40H6 did get his chance to shine against a US halftrack as it moved down the I10 road toward H4, but his shot sailed wide from 1-hex range. Sigh.

My boys reacted as I have said above, and the US juggernaut unfolded. The 9-1 and twin-50 firebase landed in 40Q8, from where they could get a nice shot against the German MG laying the firelane down the bridge. I took what shots were there, but with preservation for the end-game in mind, there really wasn't much going on. The only casualty among the US AFV's was a halftrack who boxcarred his Start MP by the riverbank, seemingly bad for John but denying me some much-needed CVP.

First Blood was drawn on German turn 2, as my HIPsters on bd 40 advanced out of their building and started CC'ing the meager US halfsquads guarding the bd 40 hill. I advanced the 447/LMG concealed into 40K7 to oppose the US bridge crossing, looking forward to Encircling 40Q1 from this location and 41V7L1, but John informed me that Encirclement is NA during the MPh. Damn those rules anyway. Still, winning the CC was nice, and I had eyes on capturing the US 60mm MTR in 40L7.

Like I said before, though, the at-start Germans can't do much to oppose the bridge crossing from the bd40 hill, and with all of the Smoke and AFV hindrances at his disposal and the German HMG unwilling to show itself, John had no trouble crossing the bridge on turns 3 and 4. Interestingly, I don't think he even attempted to use infantry smoke at all - either he forgot (doubtful) or he just didn't need it. By the end of US turn 4, they had occupied the stretch from 41S9 to 41O9. Meanwhile, John sent a steely-eyed Security Detail over to the bd40 hill to clean up the mess, which they did with alacrity.

The German turn 4 reinforcements came on in a spread-out fashion. One halfsquad zipped over to the 41V6 area to shore up that side against a US breakout. One squad reinforced the 41O8 hill. One squad CX'd along the road to the bridge in 41U5, hoping on covering the road to 41Q7. The 8-1, 467/MMG didn't commit too heavily, ending up around 41O2, from where they could cover the next US push while being able to reinforce the R5 or N6 hills as needed. The PzIII trundled up to 41R4 and pointed his snout at the open hillside from P7 to O8, doing a nice job of covering the front half of that hill while the HMG in N7 covered the back half.

Turns 5 and 6 were pretty slow-moving, as The Rubber had met The Road and both sides traded blows while scratching for ground. John advanced a squad up to 41O8 and survived the 20+3 Prep shot from the adjacent HMG, but the PzIII saved the day, breaking the squad with its MG's. At this point, the German positioning to deny rout paths began to pay off; with KEU's in 40K7, 41V7L1, and 41N7, John's boys could not rout from 41O8 and they died. Without any CVP from the US AFV's, I really needed to kill as many broken US units as I could, so this was a welcome development. The same thing happened next turn, except I committed a stunning brain-fart and moved the bd 40 rout-breaker out of LOS, enabling John to rout off the hill. I 'm still in shock over that one - the thing which I had planned on doing all game, the thing which I was depending on to give me the CVP I needed, the thing which I exulted over once I broke those US units on top of the bd 41 hill, was the very thing I FORGOT to do. Amazing.

By the end of turn 6, John had pushed me off the front of the two hills on either side of the 41Q8 road, giving him 3 VC buildings out of the 5 he needed. I had racked up something like 12 CVP (24 would give me a win), but my PzIII had been Shocked by the US MTR and flipped to the UK side on German turn 6. I still had a good number of units to defend the remaining buildings, but getting them into position for the end-game rush was going to be problematic, as John was up on the hills now and had LOS to all of the good skulking locations. In addition, he had wheeled an Armored Car around to the back of the 41N7 hill, making it difficult for my HMG to get to where they wanted to go.

And at that point, we called it. John faced a long drive home, and we decided to pack it in and present it to the world as Heisenberg's Game: The Unfinished Version of Scouts Out. The world will never know how this game would have turned out. I kind of suspect that John had the edge, as he only needed two more VC buildings and hald plenty of smoke and VBM Freezing left to do without too much of a CVP burden, and I really needed the PzIII to come back from UK status. Still, smoke works both ways, crossing open ground and advancing uphill to take out units in stone bulidings is not easy, the German HMG was still active, the attack was going to be channeled by broken German bodies, and it was entirely possible to get the 12 or so CVP I needed to win. I'll feel comfortable calling it a 55-45 pro-US split and let it go at that.

Good scenario, solid opponent, nobody lost. Not a bad way to spend a Tuesday in Baltimore.

Tom