“First Moves” (World at War, 1st Edition)

[Whiterook]

SCENARIO 1 FIRST MOVES May 14th, 1985, and the Soviet 1st Tank Army enters the Eisenbach Gap; their goal is to capture Bergengipfel and Eisenbach and open the way for the follow on forces.

SOVIETS: All units of the 1st Tank Battalion, 10 x T-72 Platoons, 1 X HQ, 1 x 1st Tank Formation Marker. Morale = 6; 4 x 3/4 HE fire missions, and one smoke fire mission. Set up second within three hexes of C3.

AMERICANS: All units of Team Yankee, 2 x Abrams Platoons, 1 x M-113 Platoons, 1 x Infantry Platoons, 1 x Dragon, 1 x ITV Platoons, 1 x HQ (Abrams), 2 x Formation Markers. Morale = 7. Set up first on, or east of, hex row “J”.

• Playable Area: Hex row “V” and west to the map’s edge and all hexes north of “xx12” inclusive.
  
• Turns: Eight turns. Use two End Turn counters in the cup.
  
• Victory Conditions: Soviet must control all playable hexes of Bergengipfel and Eisenbach to win. Any other result is an American victory.
  
• Special Scenario Rule: Due to surprise, the Soviet player may activate the 1st Tank to begin play. He need not pull a formation marker from the cup to do this. After the 1st Tank’s initial activation play continues normally. Note that this might allow the First Tank to activate twice in the first turn.
  

This is a challenging scenario, in having to control both towns… the Americans start with control of every hex in both, so the Soviets need to cross a lot of open ground and, take and hold every town hex. Fortunately, there are 8 Turns to do so. The Americans are outgunned for sure, so it’s a matter of best defensive positioning as the battle rages.

I chose to setup the Americans forward, with Eisenbach at their back; that Abrams platoon at North, on the hill has it’s work cut out for it, but with the main force setup just south of it, and a fallback possible from Eisenbach , if things get hairy, it’s a stopgap measure to delay the Soviets as much as possible from closing in unopposed.

The Soviets on the other hand are in a reserved deployment, nose to the front, and placed to be able to maneuver the spearhead of three tank platoons, with HQ at front for added punch; with lots of armor bringing up the rear in a 2nd wave.



The problem is getting to Eisenbach and it’s five Voctory hexes, all while maintains control of Bergengipfel with a rear-guard… I’ve lost count at how many scenarios I lost because a lone enemy unit maneuvered back behind to snag a hex and deny victory to the enemy!

[Whiterook]

Turn 1

The Soviets get a Surprise Attack so, they activate without having to draw a chit! I tried firing with the lower T-72 tank platoon from Schlafendbauer on the American Abrams platoon and scored a Disruption. That allowed the other T-72 platoon to thread the needle between a zig zag course forward, moving atop the northern hill Behind woods. A risky position, as the Americans may rally, in which they could then assault me! It’s literally a roll of the dice!!! Everyone else repositioned to the large hill at center, to prepare a major push coming up.



…The Americans in fact did not rally, so having the forst chit draw being the Soviets, the forst thing that T-72 platoon in hiding did was assault the Abrams platoon… the Soviets didn;t score any further damage too reduce the American platoon, but it did push it out of the woods and left the T-72’s adjacent in cover. From there, the Soviets moved out and forward, the Americans needing to fall back…



A pretty angry turn!