TS2 - Pavlov's House

[Jamie S.]

AAR—Squad Leader 2012 Tournament
Round 1
Scenario: Pavlov’s House (TS2)

Russians: Marco B.
Germans: Jamie S.

By way of introduction, I recently returned to the Squad Leader universe having battled through numerous scenarios as a teenager. However, my long years of retirement have taken their toll, so I’ve been getting reacquainted with the system and picked up COI to expand my horizons, and welcomed the chance to play in the 2012 tournament.

SITUATION

My honourable opponent for the first round was Marco B., who agreed to use COI rules and play Pavlov’s House, published in The General back in the halcyon days of yore when critics accused “Tron” of cheating at movie special effects by using computers. This scenario is another one of those urban slugfests from that burning, shell-blasted and rubble-strewn corner of Stalingrad we all know well: Map 1, the final resting place of many a cardboard German 467.

For those unfamiliar with this scenario, an overview follows.

The Russians are holed up entirely within the title structure, building Z7 (hereafter referred to as “the House”), consisting of a pair of 447 squads, a single 628, and three 237 crews along with a 9-1 and 8-1, pretty decent leadership for a Russian force of this size. They have liberally availed themselves of the COI armory—two LMGs, an MMG, an ATR, a 50mm mortar and a 57LL ATG—and somewhere in the windows a -3 sniper lurks as well. Hex Z6 of the House is rubbled, and the deployment options for the Russians are somewhat limited. To alleviate this, they’re equipped with a thick blanket of concealment counters, allowing for some potential dummy stacks and the usual tricks within tricks which are the meat and potatoes of this game. Last but definitely not least, all Russian units are considered Fanatic regardless of location, making them tougher than a cheap steak. This is Stalingrad, folks.

The Germans, for once, actually outnumber the Russians. It’s enough to make a guy feel drunk with power: nine squads, three leaders (9-2, 9-1 and 8-0), four LMGs and an MMG. There are no special weapons, although they do enjoy the luxury of two supporting MKIVF2 panzers, with an 8-1 armour leader to boot, which enter on Turn 1. I’m particularly rusty when it comes to vehicles and new to COI, so I looked forward to learning, or re-learning, some of the relevant rules.

There’s also a pre-game 200mm German artillery barrage on buildings U2 and Q4, presumably to enhance replay value by destroying potential second-floor firing positions, I suppose (the scenario description mentions poor co-ordination by the Germans in the historical battle). For the life of me, I fail to see how this would impact the scenario, since these buildings are rather removed from the action and I’m hardly going to have anyone cooling their heels back there while their buddies are busy earning medals storming Mr. Pavlov’s place of residence.

As such, victory is achieved by having more unbroken squads (not crews) in any hex of building Z7 at the end of seven turns. Complicating things is the conversion of building X4 to clear terrain, creating Lenin Square, a nice, big killing zone to the northeast of the House. Building X7 right next door is also treated as clear terrain, removing another covered approach and possible access point for the German assault group, which starts north of hexrow Q.

DEPLOYMENT

Marco’s Russian units set up concealed, with the ATG and sniper using HIP (since I’m writing from the German perspective, I’ll reveal Russian deployments as I discovered them).

Following the artillery barrage, which only rubbled hex T2, I chose to divvy up the squads into three platoons of three squads each plus a leader, as illustrated below (Fig.1). The MMG and two LMGs were issued to the 9-2 to create a kill stack that could deliver 20FP (-2) out to range 6; the other two LMGs went with the 9-1.

Fig. 1: situation at game start.

[Jamie S.]

My initial attack strategy was to try to strip Russian concealment on the north side of the House using the two firebases—assisted by parking the tanks somewhere safe with LOS to the second floor of the building and blasting away with 75mm HE—and then attempt to assault the house using the 9-1 platoon via either V7 or W9 as the situation warranted, with the 8-0 platoon in reserve. Let’s see how long this brilliant plan survived…

DEVELOPMENT

Opening turns

I spent the opening turns of the scenario maneuvering into position and taking the objective building under fire with small arms, MGs and the AFVs.

The Russian sniper shot a cigarette out of the mouth of the 9-1 with a DFPh attack in Turn 1 as he led his squads forward into building T7, resulting in a sniper check on AA7—the three-level hex of the House—that came up empty. I did manage to strip concealment off a machinegun position on the upper floor of Y7 with a DFPh shot led by the 9-1, revealing the Russian 9-1, a 447, and the MMG… plus the sniper, who broke and routed into AA7.

Marco’s response was to shoot the daylights out of the woods in T9 containing the 8-0 and the entire platoon conveniently stacked with him, breaking the leader which sent two squads into a face-clawing, sobbing paroxysm of terror (Fig. 2). Kids, don’t stack your squads with leaders who have morale of less than 9.

Fig. 2: Situation at end of Turn 1, prior to German routs. Note that my acquisition counters in Y8, resulting from MA fire by the tanks, were placed in error as concealed targets cannot be acquired. I deliberately exposed tank “A” to the ground level of Y8 in an effort to potentially draw out the Russian ATG. Yes, I don’t always do dumb things by accident.

By the end of the second turn, I had managed to break the Russian 9-1 and eliminate the 447, only to have Marco replace it with a 237 crew dispatched from the depths of the House; the broken leader crawled away to safety and immediately pulled himself back together in the subsequent Rally Phase.

More importantly, two full turns of letting loose at the House with everything I had was enough to make me realize that my original plan was, in fact, a turkey of a plan. I had plumb forgotten how tough it can be to crack units under concealment in excellent defensive terrain, which stone buildings are. The halving of FP, including the IFE of the 75mm hits from the tanks—which are subject to concealment disadvantages on the TH Table as well—are enough to turn aside shot after shot from anything except a flamethrower with little to show for it.

Meanwhile, I was declining Marco’s polite suggestions that I move my tanks closer to the House for a better look. Instead I watched his pitiless MMG feed a diet of hot lead to my broken squads who fled to a nearby shack with the now-rallied 8-0, double-breaking one and keeping the other under DM. I could perhaps win a battle of attrition, but that would take time, and time was ticking away.

Like any good, tenacious vacuum salesman, I had to find a way to get into the House despite the efforts of the hostile tenants and clean up the joint as quickly and efficiently as possible. How? Well, how do you deal with enemy concealment? You strip it. How do you strip concealment? By inflicting MCs, or by getting adjacent with your own units. How do get your units adjacent without getting them shot or blown to bits? Smoke. But I didn’t have any smoke. I wrung my hands and bit my knuckles in fury. What I wouldn’t give for an 838 assault engineer squad, or something else that could place smo…

[Jamie S.]

Midgame

Turn 3: new plan. First order of business is to disrupt the Russian MMG. Under the direction of my crack 9-2 leader, the firebase in S5 unleashes a thunderbolt of MG and small arms Prep Fire on Y7—a 20FP(+1) shot. I roll boxcars and malf all three MGs to the sound of Russian guffaws. Fortunately, the nearby 9-1 follows up with slightly more success, breaking the 237 manning the MMG.

Next, MKIVF2 “B” with my armour leader repositions to R5, exposing itself to LOS from Y7 and a possible ATG shot. Then MKIVF2 “A” successfully places smoke in X8, and in the ensuing Movement Phase the 467 in the woods at T9 double times into the smoke hex. (I tip my hat to Marco here; we had not discussed prior to play whether to allow Double Timing in the scenario, but he very graciously allowed it.)

At this point, Marco understandably ended the mystery of the Russian ATG placement by revealing it at ground level in Y7. Rightly ignoring my puny 467 sprinting past him, he took two shots at the tank in R5 while I took one shot of Forty Creek Whisky to calm my nerves; he missed but gained acquisition, and I gained a slight buzz. The German squad in the smoke hex took no defensive fire from the concealed Russian stack adjacent to them, which was revealed at the end of the phase to be the 628 on the second level, packing an LMG and the ATR (I would suggest here that holding fire was an oversight—it would’ve been a 16FP shot, and the 628 was losing its concealment anyway).

My armour leader in tank “B” attempted to place a smoke shell in X6 to safely screen the ATG, but to my chagrin I blew the roll, leaving him out of smoke ammo and sitting dead in the sights of the Russian gun crew with -1 acquisition and their Prep Fire coming up. The probing German squad was ineligible for AdvFire due to being CX from the double timing, and they withdrew to building W9 to end the top half of the turn (Fig. 3).

Fig. 3: Start of Russian Turn 3, after Rally Phase. Whoever forgot to bring the extra MG ammo in S5 will be peeling potatoes for a month if they survive this.

[Jamie S.]

I had a rather bad moment as the Russian Prep Fire phase arrived and Marco’s ATG commenced blasting at tank “B”; incredibly, he scored two hits but both rounds banged off the hull. The 628 subsequently relocated to the MMG position upstairs in Y7 and the sniper set up shop in the third level of AA7. A new Russian unit also entered the action—the 50mm mortar and crew exited the south end of the House and headed across the street toward building AA5 where it would have a clear LOS all the way to S5.

I continued to use up a month’s worth of luck with German DF, breaking the 628 in Y7 which then routed to Z7 to receive a pep talk from the 9-1 at the start of Turn 4 that rallied the crew already there (Fig. 4).

Fig. 4: Situation after German Turn 4 Rally Phase; hex Y8 and, crucially, the ground floor of Z7 are vacant.

[Jamie S.]

The sudden fact that both hex Y8 and the ground floor of Z7 were now temporarily vacant was fortunately not lost on me, and after taking a crack at the Russian mortar crew using my now-functioning MMG in S5, the Germans made their move. Tank “A” advanced around the corner of the building into LOS of the ATG, while the armour leader repositioned to hex V1 on the east edge of Lenin Square, also exposed to the ATG but flanking it outside its covered arc. At the same time, four German squads stormed the building (Fig. 5). I’ll certainly never claim to be an expert at Squad Leader, but for anyone learning the game, this is arguably one of its golden rules regarding attacking: when you break cover, do so everywhere at once and give your opponent too many things to shoot at. And hope he doesn’t roll snakes.

Fig. 5: the Germans launch their attempt to crash Pavlov’s party in the Turn 4 Movement Phase.

Nothing could save the ATG crew now from the inevitable CC, but they went down fighting. Their first DF shot blew a 57mm hole in the closer tank, destroying it; the crew miraculously survived—yet another bit of luck for me—and took cover under the wreck. The ATG crew then pivoted the gun and fired at the armour leader’s tank, but his charmed life and the TH modifiers saved his bacon once again.

[Jamie S.]

Endgame

The successful German entry of the objective building now triggered a dance of death between the opposing infantry units inside it which unfolded over the remainder of the scenario. Admittedly, things were looking grim for the Russians, but the game was far from won for the Germans.

With four German squads inside the House after rushing the ATG and eliminating its crew, my victory conditions were fulfilled and I was now on the defensive. The key element was that this particular rules level permits infantry in the Advance Phase to advance into a staircase hex from an adjacent hex and immediately use the staircase to enter the upper or lower level… which, if this destination contains an enemy unit, enables them to enter CC without being subjected to PBF from it in the Defensive Fire Phase.

The ramifications of this situation resulted in much gnawing of my fingernails and beading of sweat upon my brow. The mighty Russian 628 was successfully rallied and stomping around on the second floor with a leader, Fanatic morale bonus and access to an LMG, along with a 447 still on the loose somewhere. If I made a blunder in squad placement, I had no doubts that Marco would be quite happy to avenge his fallen comrades and make mincemeat out of any Germans he could lay his hands on in CC.

The Russian half of Turn 4 and all of Turn 5 were played in a live session on the Vassal server, and I neglected to log it, so I’m forced to rely on my memory for the events that took place during that time.

After trading blows back and forth, I was helped considerably when the remaining Russian 237 in the House took a routine MC from external fire and went Berserk, charging downstairs to its death in CC at the hands of two German squads who captured an LMG in the deal. In the meantime, the German armour leader managed to hit and break the mortar crew in AA5, effectively taking them out of the game. In Turn 6, with a mob of Russians in Y8 and their 9-1 broken, I consolidated the Germans in AA7, securing the stairs at both ends with two squads and two LMGs on ground level and two squads on the second floor. As insurance, the armour leader roared up and parked right outside the window in AA8 (Fig. 6).

Fig. 6: getting crowded in the House, but with the tank now covering them from the street, the Germans in AA7 will be harder to kick out than a bunch of relatives visiting for the holidays.

[Jamie S.]

Ultimately, the Russian 628 took an LMG and the 8-1 into Z7 in a serious last-ditch rush on the second-level German squads. The Germans hooched their defensive fire in the clutch, but a 75mm HE round pumped into the building from the street did the job; it was laughed at by the rock-jawed leader but broke the 628, which was the death gong for the Russians.

The leader accompanied the squad as it routed to join the still-broken 9-1 in Y7, and they were subsequently finished off en masse in CC by the Germans in the top half of Turn 7 (Fig. 7); this may appear to have been redundant and a bit overzealous, but a Russian win in the bottom of the final turn was still mathematically possible as long as the 628 was around for it and I’ve seen crazier things happen.

Fig. 7: final positions. German squad in V5 was eliminated by a “12” result during a rally attempt; the crew of the destroyed MKIVF2 is manning the LMG in W9. The Russian sniper was eliminated in CC on the third level of AA7 in Turn 7.

[Jamie S.]

THOUGHTS

First and foremost, Marco is a super guy and a worthy opponent, and I would play with him again any day (hopefully soon).

Personally, this was an appealing scenario to me for several reasons: straightforward victory conditions, seven turns long, relatively small counter density, plenty of toys—it’s a tournament scenario, after all—but it has a couple of odd aspects. As mentioned previously, perhaps I’m missing something but the pre-game German barrage has no bearing on play that I can see, unless you enjoy warming up your dice before the big show. Likewise, the Russian ATR might be useful as a form of punishment by forcing a squad to lug it around the battlefield or perhaps as a prybar for lifting heavy objects. When Marco tried taking a shot at one my tanks with it, the odds of doing any damage to a MKIVF2 from any angle turned out to be practically nil. It can’t be used against infantry targets, although there’s nothing to indicate it couldn’t be used for deliberate immobilization attempts if the Russian player is really desperate. We’re still scratching our heads over that one.

As for lessons learned… hindsight is 20/20 of course, but given the limited options for Russian deployment (his entire OOB starts concealed and crammed into four hexes) it seems to me that the game can be won or lost depending on his choices during setup, over and above the whims of the dice or the German player’s own decisions on how to attack. Marco can perhaps share some thoughts on this; we are considering playing it again and switching sides to get a complete perspective.

For what it’s worth, in my opinion it might be advisable for the Russian player to consider packing as much firepower into hex Z7 as is allowable. Largely shielded from incoming fire, it’s the linchpin of his position and if the Germans eventually gain entry to Pavlov’s House, which is distinctly possible, they would be subject to PBF in any hex of the building from this central location. Marco’s placement of the ATG in Y7 made sense to me, as it permits an excellent field of fire and seems to be the logical place to put it. With respect to the Germans, I should be court-martialed for initially overlooking the smoke capacity of my AFVs. Frankly I cannot believe Marco was robbed of the pleasure of destroying both of them, but it must be acknowledged that Lady Luck was quite drunk and sitting on my lap several times during the scenario. The German player needs to get the tanks firing smoke pronto, send in a squad or two to strip Russian concealment, blast an opening, and then storm the building and hope for the best.

Not all of them are going to make it inside, and whoever does get in is going to have to duke it out with a bunch of Fanatic, well-led and heavily armed Russians. But that’s Stalingrad.

J. Shanks
September 2012

[Scott B]

Jamie,

Nice AAR.  I was perplexed by the reasoning for SSR bombardment and including the ATR in the scenario too - i couldn’t think of an immediate response.  After some thought and a trip through the rulebook, here are some considerations, although all at low probability...

The SSR 200mm bombardment will rubble on a roll of 4 or 17% of the time.  One can expect one or two rubble counters with 7 rolls.  Rubble could have the effect of...

• eliminating a stairwell would limit ascent/descent to 57.9
• COD has ‘Scouts’ to remove concealment, making a second level fire base more practical.
• Allow a AFV to enter a rubble hex for a beneficial TH category.  
• note the Q&A changes 58.2 to ‘non-tracked vehicles’ and allows tracked AFVs to enter both stone and wood rubble.

the ATR has a few benefits too...

• Hitting an AFV will dismount any passengers.
• it may attempt Deliberate Immobilization out to 6 hexes, so it could dissuade an AFV from flanking Pavlov’s House.
• Protect the mortar. Mortars can’t be fired from inside a building/bunker (63.46) so Z6 rubble is the usual spot for it.  An overrunning AFV could be subject to an IM shot from the ATR, depending on AFV facing.

Scott

[billsoz]

Scott

 

Nice observations.  Indeed, the ATR can be most useful to deliberately imobilize an AFV (and/or dismount any passengers) if it can gain a side or rear target facing and don't forget you also need to deterrmine if any 'hit' was against the turret or the hull if the turret and vehicle facings are not the same (as per COI Supplement M or COD 130.1-.4) and is not even possible  should the vehicle be considered as Hull Down (HD) (deliberate or random, see 130.2 & 130.4).  So unless your using COD any hit vs a non-HD vehicle from the side/rear facings will immobilize the AFV.  If the AFV is immobilized, hitting the AFV again (66.4) with the ATG you could then possibly trigger the crew to abandon the AFV allowing other units to eliminate the crew as they exit the AFV (if COD applies you get the -2 DRM see 131.51), and if your using COD rules you could also "Shock" (131.1) the crew thus keeping them at bay for awhile and maybe even get them to abandon the vehicle.  Considering ATR's of that period were actually weapons that fired numerous rounds much like a MG it surprises me that these weapons were not allowed to be used vs infantry targets in SL-GIA rules but were allowed under ASL rules with a 1 FP factor (its possible they missed that point until ASL was written).

 

Bill