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Wednesday, April 1, 2020

Tigers at Minsk - Takes 2-5

Following my first attempt at Tigers at Minsk, (see: Tigers at Minsk - First Play) and having given force placement and plans of attack some thought, I returned to the table.

While the Germans came close to reaching the French baseline, the last-gasp, German section was cut down before it could make a successful exit from the board.  With that close call, I figured the German player might have a good chance of winning the scenario.

With only a handful of units in the game, initial deployments are critical and loss minimization paramount.  Given the small size of the game and lack of covering terrain, few viable options present themselves for force set up.

For the French, I see only one real option for deployment.  The wire must go in the hex on the far left of the French line to block a German section from sneaking to the baseline under the cover of the scrub.  Each village hex gets one HMG and one infantry section.  No other option seems reasonable.  The village provides cover and the infantry sections provide support for the HMGs.  With this deployment, all French troops are in command every turn.

For the Germans, set up must be in and behind the three woods hexes.  How the German forces are deployed is up to the player.  One force could represent a main attack and the other secondary with troops deployed accordingly.  However the Germans deploy, if in two groups centered on the woods, only one group will be in automatic command each turn.  The other group will need initiative to act.

Given the French have the First Turn, the German player cannot afford to stack his troops within LOF at start.   In this game, I deployed the Germans as two and five with the bulk of the Germans on the right.
Initial deployments
German right with two sections in reserve and out of LOS
 On to the game!
French opens up on the German HMG
 pinning the supporting infantry
German HMG provides covering fire as infantry advances
 on the right under the cover of smoke.
French infantry is pinned in the village.
Under cover of smoke,
advance on the German right continues.
  French pour fire into the HMG hex, pinning the gun while
a German section moves up in support.
The smoke clears and French fire opens up.
One German section KIA and a second pinned.
German HMG returns fire into the village
 hoping to weaken the defenders 
The firefight continues as one section in the woods is KIA.
Infantry section advancing under cover of smoke escapes,
 for now.
With smoke gone, the advancing Germans
are cut down in the open.
Coming up to support the HMG,
 another German section is KIA.
With four units destroyed, the German morale breaks and the remnants of this dismal affair withdraw.

This was a quick battle and barely consumed 30 minutes on the game clock.  With the French hunkered down in the two villages and clear lines of supporting fire to the German positions, the German attack seems doomed.

Was it the dice?  Die rolls were average with few extremes.  Given French firepower, almost two hits per turn can be expected even when firing into cover.  I set up the game again with same starting positions.  The result?  The same.  This time, the Germans broke in about 15 minutes.

I tried two more games, all ended in the same result.  I tried putting more force on the German left.  I tried reinforcing the woods hexes at the outset.  All ended in brutal German defeats. 
A different German deployment
With the French commanding the central position, intersecting Lines of Fire, and the First Player turn, this scenario seems very difficult for the Germans.  Perhaps since the Germans are attacking, they should be awarded the First Player turn?   Still, an engaging action. 

Thoughts?

34 comments:

  1. Very good study. Now, I really am going to have to play it.
    The game clock - with an effect on the narrative with regard to how long things actually take, is a powerful mechanic, I feel.

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    1. Glad you enjoyed it! The game clock is an interesting facet of the game. Sometimes, the clock speeds along, other times it slows to a crawl.

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  2. Hi Jonathan, I think as the German player that I would be tempted to make more use of the available time on the game clock to spend time firing at one of the hamlets. Also leaving at least one of the spare German sections directly behind the woods, so that if the French cause pins on the German infantry in the woods, instead of taking a turn attempting to attempt an unpin, they would instead pull back out of the wood and rotate with the fresh unit behind, this way, on the balance of probabilities, the French will come off worse, finding it harder to keep pace in the race to recover from pins, which, with a lot of fire coming in will quickly lead to losses.

    An early advance under smoke is fraught with the problems that the smoke can easily dissipate and the German player may run out of smoke laying capacity, leaving them highly exposed in the open.

    If the HMG becomes pinned and particulary if it also opportunity fires while pinned, it will in effect close the HMG down for at least two turns, as it will take one turn to recover from the Op Fire marker and then as many turns as it takes to recover from the pin.

    The Germans do need a bit of luck, but then they are up against 2 HMG's! if only they had a half track! :-)

    EDIT - don't forget, smoke can be placed in an adjacent hex and it not only gives cover, but blocks LOS, so the Germans may want to move behind any smoke they create, rather than through it. Also, important for this tactic is that units can move TWO hexes, if the first hex is open but out of enemy LOS.

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    1. Hi Norm. Thanks for the excellent reply!

      If you look at the diagrams and captions you will see I did much of what you suggest. I kept extra sections in a supporting role behind the woods and rotated them into the woods when one section became pinned. The pinned unit fell back behind the woods to recover. Rotating a fresh unit up also silences that unit for the turn so firepower from the hex is reduced for that turn of rotation.

      As for the taking advantage of smoke to move up out of LOS, the Germans did that more than once on the right. That is one reason they made it as close to the French line as they did. I utilized the two-hex move more than once too!

      As for the Germans burning down the Time Clock, in the five games played, the Germans simply cannot go toe-to-toe with the French HMGS and supports especially when the French get to fire first.

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  3. Note re above - pinned units cannot move nearer the enemy baseline and can only move into hexes that give cover. I have always tended to treat cover very strictly, but there may be cause here to say that being behind the woods is cover - though then you are into splitting hairs as to whether such a hex would allow the unit to unpin with the bonus of cover :-)

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    1. Yeah, I treated "behind woods" as a viable move while pinned since the woods block LOS and LOF. Units pinned behind that woods hex, I treated as "In Open" for recovery.

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    2. That is the way that I would jump.

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  4. Excellent gaming and imagery, Jonathan.

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  5. Tricky scenario. Your photos plus arrows and captions make it very easy to follow.

    It seems like the odds are weighted in favour of HMG and/or village versus infantry small arms and/or woods. Without the ability to keep the HMGs in the villages occupied, it looks like the Germans are doomed.

    Hmm! Maybe I should get some of those Russkies on the painting table sooner rather than later.

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    1. It is a toughie for the Germans, for sure.

      Get your Russians painted, onto the table, and give TaM and this scenario a try. Maybe you will experience a different result or discover a solution for a guaranteed German victory?

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  6. Entertaining report, does seem tough for the Germans but I quite like less balanced scenarios sometimes!
    Best Iain

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    1. Thank you, Iain. I look at an unbalanced scenario as a puzzle to be solved. A puzzle perfect for solo play.

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  7. Thank You for a very, very interesting report Jonathan!

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  8. It's amazing how deploying that one French section in a BUA rather than in woods shifted the balance in this scenario. Bearing in mind that the Germans missed winning the first game by a whisker it seems to me that the French have obtained disproportionate benefits by deploying both their sections in the villages as opposed to their deployment in the first game. Would love to hear comments on this point.

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    1. Yes, the French commander realized how to properly deploy the defenders in this one. With four stinging defeats for the Germans in Games 2-5, the French have found their stride.

      In Game 1, the deployment of the French infantry section in the scrub prevented the whole of the French forces from being in command on the same turn. Putting the section on the far French left removed that unit from threatening German attacks on the French right.

      Concentrating the French in the two villages guaranteed converging fire upon the attackers, mutual support, and the entire French force being in command on every turn. Another benefit of having each HMG with an accompanying infantry section allowed the French to soak off up to two hits on the HMGs.

      Now, the Germans need a plan for countering these plucky French. Maybe a mortar mission or first fire to soften up the defenders before attacking?

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  9. I have played this scenario more than any of the other TaM scenarios and out of at least 14 games, I've only seen the Germans win twice. Alot of variables have to come together for a German victory (smoke remaining, Germans pinning an enemy squad with preparatory fire, no German hmg breakdown) and Norm speaks to the tactical problem of advancing in the open.

    Curiously, the "doctrinal approach" of flanking an enemy in contact via the most covered and concealed route has literally never worked in this scenario. I've only been successful with assaults up the right flank. I dont know why that is, but my training from the old days always tells me to go left here! It's a tough one for sure and it's a gut-wrenching attack to make while you see your squads gobbled up by enemy MG fires.

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    1. Thanks for the feedback on your experimental trials with this scenario.

      I am in agreement with your assessment that the Germans must get really lucky or the French very unlucky to see a German victory.

      I also agree that an attack against the French/Russian left is the only viable approach. The hex on the board edge abutting the scrub is the ONLY hex from which a defenders firepower may be blocked.

      Interesting scenario and a terrific solitaire exercise. What you would change to bring play into balance?

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  10. I thought that men dying in droves to machine guns was more of a WWI thing. Have we learned nothing from the previous wars?

    Nice write up and persistence to really try out all the scenario possibilities. Obviously the Germans need a Tiger. It’s the only thing that seems fair. 😀

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    1. In 1940, wasn't it said that generals are always fighting the last war? Attacking two supported machine guns, frontally, seems like fighting the last war.

      Glad you enjoyed the write-up. As you must know by now, I fight a scenario multiples times from every direction. I need more than a singular incident from which to draw meaningful inferences.

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  11. I think this demonstrates that the rules you are using produce a realistic outcome Jonathon...this aptly demonstrates why accepted military doctrine is that an attacker needs to outnumber the defender 3:1. Without fire support to suppress the defenders, it should be very hard indeed to advance across open ground and assault into a built up area...as all the replays seem to have demonstrated...if it's 1940, what the Germans are missing is the Luftwaffe!

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    1. I agree that a frontal assault against machine guns in BUAs seems folly. The Germans have, now, reinforced that notion five times.

      It might be interesting to bring the attackers up to 3:1 odds and see what happens. Will they overwhelm the defenders at that force ratio?

      Adding an airstrike would be fun too! I will need some models...

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  12. Nice write-up but, even from the starting positions you outlined, it looked nearly impossible for the Germans. In reading it I thought the smoke may have provided them some concealment, but it just wasn't there long enough.

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    1. Thank you, Lawrence!

      Having played the scenario a handful of times now and knowing how the rules interact, I conclude the same.

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  13. Nice and interesting report...with effective German HMG!

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  14. Interesting game and nice report Jonathan.

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  15. Your analytical brain may have broken the game, perhaps dice just aren’t random enough ?

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  16. Very interesting and certainly a challenging scenario for the Germans. They need some artillery or air support really to give them a fighting chance it seems.

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    1. This scenario seems very difficult for the attackers. The Germans need a little help or a lot of luck to gain a victory in this one.

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