Fanatic Enterprises

AARs
Home
MAKE EASY MONEY!
WW 2 Book List/Reviews/Recommendations
SCENARIO DESIGNER'S CORNER
AARs
WW 2 Books-Armies/Equipment/Vehicles
WW 2 Books NW Europe/France
WW 2 Books- Desert
Designer Notes
Downloads
Customer Comments
Errata & Clarifications
Our Products
Scenario Pack Descriptions
Contact Us

PBP 21 Raiders of the Chaco

I have the defending Paraguayans and get 13 Axis Minor squads, a couple of HMGs, a trench and a road block centered around the board 3 village and the board 3 northern hill masses (hills 547 and 534). I get some mid game reinforcements. The attacking Bolivians get 12 at start Chinese squads along with some MMGs and a DC and are reinforced on turn 1 with 6 elite cavalry squads and a couple of ART guns. The Bolivians have to score CVP and gain control of the roadblock, one specific building (the outpost) trenches and set buildings ablaze.

I setup with 3 primary focuses for the defense including one around the board 3J4 border post building with a few squads, one around the board 3 M2 building with the HMGs and another focus in the woods adjacent to the Hill 547 hill mass. I also have a couple of squads in I10 and m7 to cover the back door from the reinforcing cavalry. The attacking Bolivians setup strong on the 547 hill mass and on turn 1 do some assault moving to the summit after some relatively ineffective prep firing that only broke and ELRd my 7-0 leader in the border post. The Bolivians also have some flanking infantry and reinforcing cavalry skirt the hill 547 to the east into the board 36 forest in the area of Z1. The ART guns come on way to the flank along the board 36 road while a couple of cavalry push onto the western flank across hill 534. My defensive fire is ineffective except for stripping the concealment of and pinning a few squads.

My turn 1 sees me breaking a couple of squads atop hill 547 and causing another one to turn berserk. This berserker would soon be my downfall! My opponents return fire makes me realize I left a couple of squads in a precarious location in a trench in 3J5. They have nowhere to rout when they get broken by some 8+1 ROF shots except through interdiction. They pin during interdiction. One thing I do is send a squad up the board 38 hill 526 mass to slow down his artillery. During the Bolivian turn 2 the MMGs take out the 2 broken squads sitting in open ground and disrupt another squad due to HOB in J5. Not good. His berserker then charges J4 and is at least casualty reduced but then I malf a HMG. Pretty much ineffective fire elsewhere though my squad on hill 526 appears to have slowed down the artillery for a turn as they pretty much stand still. Unfortunately my squad cant eliminate the 1 FP HS in cc. For some reason my opponent stays out of the I10 building that I had vacated. He could easily have entered it and kindled it for a CVP. Perhaps he missed that part of the victory conditions.

My Turn 2 finds me breaking and casualty reducing 3 squads on hill 547. It seems I have slowed this attack down significantly. The primary threat at this point appears to be the board 36 flanking force and the nasty MMGs. Bolivian return fire is negligible but I am still unable to take out the berserker HS in melee, and this being in the high victory point building 3J4! Figure he will try to reinforce this melee to gain the building.

Turn 3 finds the Bolivian firing into the J4 melee where he breaks me leaving the Berserker in good shape. I am unable to get a break against any of his board 36 flanking force and I am suddenly realizing I am down a whole bunch of CVP. My flanking squad holding my right flank fails to break any enemies and then succumbs to a cavalry charging squad! Trampled underfoot in open ground. I do nail a bunch of squads on hill 547 but I am beginning to fear this will not be enough. My opponent runs a squad up next to a disrupted squad in the 3J5 trench.

My Turn 3 finds the Bolivians in control of the J4 building (4 CVP) a trench (2 CVP) 2 captured squads (8 CVP) and 3 dead squad equivalents (6 CVP). Well he is able to nail a couple more squads in k4 rolling snakes on a 8 +1 shots where of course I roll 3 x4s on random selection giving him 3 more CVP. At this point I am in full retreat and will shortly lose a trench as well as the roadblock. I just dont have the horses to hold him so I concede.

After playing this scenario I think it is a bit unbalanced in the Bolivians favor. The victory point locations are primarily up front, there is no good defensive terrain around it and a covered approach to the flank through board 36 woods. Still interesting situation and recommend the scenario.

G35 Going to Church

Ok this is your basic infantry kick those guys out of that building scenario. I have 4.5 SS squads to hold the 23F3 building against a swarm of 9 Britis squads with a lt MTR, DC a couple of LMG and a HMG. I setup your basic defense with a couple of squads in the building a 658 in G6 sure to be isolated but hopefully will hold that flank for a turn or 2. The 9-1 hero mmg squad go into g4. Sure to draw some fire but hopefully he will be able to absorb some pain before breaking and delaying the Brits for a turn.

Well right off the bat my killer stack takes a K/3 attack and I am beginning to regret their setup. Random selection wounds the hero and CRs the Squad with the ldr and HS breaking. This attack followed a perfect smoke strike on the steeple location of the church obscuring my overseeing HS. Ok not starting off to well. The Brits rush a squad up my right flank and G6 fires a cowering 10 shot on a 6+1 shot against a moving stack!!! What a waste and indicative of the early going.

Well from here my opponent runs a HS with a DC up to my broken MMG leader, wounded hero stack. Well some ineffective fire allows him to drop the DC on me. Question arose, does the wall TEM +2 apply or is it +1 vs the DC attack. The British er actually Canadians charge up to the victory building with the rest of their order of battle. My final fire is ineffective. The DC goes off and along with some advance fire takes out the HS and hero and BH then elrs and wounds the 9-1 leader.

My turn 1 sees me taking some revenge. My G6 flank squad breaks one of the Canadian flankers. He is very vulnerable to the Canadian kill stack that advanced into K7. My squads in the church do a fine job of knocking down a few squads close to the building. Canadian return fire is ineffective. For the time being the assault is slowed. At some point the Canadian MTR malfs and later Xs. It served its purpose though allowing for that Turn 1 rush.

Things hold off pretty well in turn 2. My flank guard absorbs a K result but passes the resultant MC, however he is unable to break the squad coming up on him. The resultant CC becomes a Melee that I was unable to end in my turn either. I make a major mistake in Defensive Fire when I dont DM his stack of brokies. That is a MAJOR mistake. I try to reinforce the melee with my superfluous 8-0 but he gets pinned in the road. They rally and during his turn 3 they run around the church to start encircling me. He advances a squad in to the F2 orchard. I am unable to break him and instead generate a hero for him. I pin the squad to prevent him from moving into the church for CC. He moves his kill stack up adjacent to the G4 Melee and I am able to break the HMG carrying squad. He does some fancy foot work to have the leader recover the HMG in Rout Phase and transfer it to a squad at the beginning of advance phase and then advances into the melee. The German HS is shortly dispatched. During my turn 3 I still cant break the F2 squad and hero. I advance out of encirclement from e3 to e4, hoping to threaten the d4 stack who is CX. Well they pin him there. My stack in F4 gets mauled during Defensive fire from the kill stack in G4. Killing the wounded 9-1 and causing the 658 to go berserk. Oh yeah I had malfd the MMG.

Well at this point it is not looking good at all. I have 2.5 squads (one of which is berserk) and am surrounded with 3 Turns to go. I am hoping the E4 can stay in GO and break the Canadians in d4 giving me some breathing room. But it looks like it is not going well and I cant see it proceeding too much past turn 4.

I think the Germans have a very tough road. The Canadians have the numbers and a long time to get the job done. They have the smoke from the mortar and decent firepower in the HMG. The Germans if they try to stay forward will likely get mauled and if they hide will find themselves quickly surrounded. Of course ROAR has the Backblast version of this one 118 to 83 in favor of the Germans and I did make some major mistakes, including not protecting my MMG and 9-1 and not keeping his brokies under DM. Note the BB version had one less Canadian 458.

Turn 4 starts with my E4 squad breaking and the HS in F3.1 being encircled. The Defensive Fire is ineffective. My Turn 4 sees the e4 squad rallying after routing to F4. However my prep fire is ineffective as he shrugs off a 12+2 shot. My berserker moves into E4 but the other 2 MMC break and will soon rout. At this point the match becomes moot so I resign.

Scenario was pretty cool. Good infantry learning scenario. My opponent played very solid and a couple of errors on my part cemented his victory.

CH 53 At the Crossroads

This scenario finds my defending Poles trying to hold the board 38 crossroads from 10 assaulting 337 Russian squads with a MMG. To hold the crossroad I get 3 squads and a MMG with 2.5 squads reinforcing at mid-game. A short 4.5 turns is all I need to hold on for. I setup forward along the board 38/43 board edge. The MMG goes in 38Y1 with the remainder of the units (including 5 ? counters) spread on each side to cover any approach.

The 1st turn finds both sides maneuvering to get in position. The Russians enter onboard at 43y1 and move to the grainfield on the west flank. Note the erratum that extends the entrance area to on/adjacent to Y1. This prevents the use of a MMG FL to the entrance hex. I move my units to the woods on the 43/38 border. The MMG and squad advance into 43Z10. This allows me to lay a firelane as the Russians begin moving in turn 2. I quickly break the MMG bearing squad and force a few squads to go around the firelane thereby slowing him down a tad. The Polish Turn 2 sees me skulking out of site and moving my MMG back to the Foxhole at the all important road junction. After no effective fire I advance back into a forward defense, concealed. I am in very good position right now. Two turns down and he is still deep in the grainfield.

Turn 3 sees the Russian assault moving, he is necessarily nervous of my concealed defenders, with the exception of the MMG he doesnt know who is whom. But in a scenario that requires a rapid approach by the Russians he is moving at a snails pace! Well at least for this turn. I do get a PTC on a wide flanking stack but do no damage. This was the time for an effective human wave assault! My Turn 3 sees me falling back slightly to the back end of the woods where I lay in wait. My reinforcements come on board and take up defense of the crossroads. This leaves only 2 Russian Player Turns to push up a half board and push me away from the victory area.

On the Russian player Turn 4 the Russians start a hard push through the woods towards the victory location. Despite a heroic effort a Polish half squad is surrounded and eliminates himself with final protective fire. That grenade Kowalski threw must have hit a branch and fallen back amongst his friends. I am able to break his MMG bearing squad that moved in LOS of my MMG. At the end of this turn he is still a ways from the victory hex and I can see desperation ahead. My turn 4 has me withdrawing and generally hiding from the Russkies setting myself up for the inevitable wave of bodies.

The inevitable occurs and a few breaks here and there leave the Russian with not enough firepower to break me and gives me the win. I think the Russian is hard pressed to win this one given the time constraints and distance to the victory hex. I like the situation an outnumbered poorly armed force against the masses. Give the Russians the balance, that extra turn would come in handy. And the Russian must remember to human wave. There is plenty of grain available to provide hindrances and negate FFMO. All in all could be better but with the balance could be fun.

 

Enter supporting content here