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I got together Wednesday with Rob Stai to play The Island. We had been planning on this scenario for a while and finally made it happen. Island is “classic ” ASL ; Deluxe boards E F G H , bocage rules,12 turns !,37 squads total, 12 AFVs and a 150mm rocket attack to start the show!
Rob played the Germans which consisted of 21 squads [15 x4-6-7, 6x 4-6-8] 13 SW and 4 Tiger 1's. My defending Brits were made up of 4 x4-5-8 ,12 x4-5-7 10 SW ,4 Sextons and 2x 17 lbr AT guns.
My set up was as far forward as possible with the idea being to
inflict as much damage as possible to slow down the assault,
and , at the same time integrate skulking and slow withdrawal
to burn up the clock. I placed a few squads [ and a dummy stack] in the stone buildings on bd H a sqd and lmg at F H 2
lt mtr in F I 5 other infantry were in the bocage in the area of
FL1 and north of the sunken road. On the east,I had a few units
stacked a bit to the rear to act as firemen,same to west side.
The guns and armor were well to the rear in the victory area .The guns as part of my strategy ,the Sextons to keep out of harms way and also to bolster defense in case of break through.The Play : Rob started off with the rocket attack, the FFE landing at F G 4,this took out a carefully placed truck[mimicing a SPG] and broke a couple squads,not too bad,it also created a few shellholes which came in handy later. The infantry entered
en masse in the center[there are entry restrictions] with a screening force to the west. Robs aim, in my estimation, was to push hard along the road as much as possible and maintain a skirmish line to keep my units stretched out as much as possible.Two Tigers started up along the road net , the other two venturing into the bocage as support via the brush in row M.The first two turns saw much sniper activity, some serious rate tear by my hmg and strong German attack on the board H buildings. The upshot was a dead German squad or two,a field promotion of my 9-2 into a heroic 10-2 and the breaking of
the building garrison.The next 2 turns saw me start my retreat
to the next defensive line with yet more casualties on both sides, less sniper activity , and Rob making gains to the west.I had some amazing smoke placement rolls that helped supress
several key shots Rob wished to make, and enabling me to disengage a few units. By the time turn 5 was over the game was
tranformed.Rob gained a foothold to the east [by the sunken road] and was stretching my western flank with aggressive movement and kill stacks preparing the way.Turn 6 was dramatic,a nasty HTH CC resulted in 2 dead squads each,opening a hole in my right flank, all i had was a leader,2 squads and one Sexton to make a last stand there.In thecenter and left,Rob had pushed me out of all my defensive positions and also managed to KIA my 10-2 leader! The HORROR!
Rob also made his way to a HIP 17 lbr,which after losing its crew to box cars , was crewed by an 1/2 sqd which holed the turret of a Tiger,another Tiger was immobilized after trying to unbog. A second Tiger was bogged in the bocage on board F,effectively out of the game.
With my reinforcements pending and no immediate armor support, Rob calculated his available EVP and decided that to continue would be fruitless. The VC are : German player wins at game end ifequal or more than 25 VP on or north of a specific
angled hex row,the number of needed VP is increased by twice the number of turn of entry of Brit reinfoecements. Ergo, the loss /mission kill of the Tigers cost Rob the game.Comclusion:First off . this is one hell of a scenario.It is a grind of course being a bocage game and can go long,but i am glad I finally got round to it. I reccomend The Island , good fun , will test your mettle. If you decide to play Island, be advised, there is errata.the North Arrow must be be turned 90 degrees clockwise so that the North edge is along the roiw 5 hex row. this will greatly effect play if you neglect this.
Lessons Learned:Rob played an extremely aggressive game.
This made each decision I had to make more and more important as the game progressed. This may have been
somewhat risky but I feel that had he NOT been so aggressive
he may have stalled off and been in a precarious position. Rob also drove hard to gain the lone road leading to his target.
Anyone that has played bocage knows how important control of the roads are.Also, Rob maintained units ready to exploit any break in the defensive bocage lines and played in a manner that
kept pressure on a wide front. this was important in this scenario i think a narrow schwerpunkt is a mistake here.On the defense,bocage is the perfect skulking terrain, you cant have better.I also find that playing in depth , where possible ,pays off.Of course this is the case in many scenarios.
The idea here is to try and contain any breakthroughs with a second line of hard to get at units. and also provide cover for retreating comrades.All in all this was a good learning experience,everytime you play bocage the frustration lessens and you pick up skills.I am happy to play any bocage scenario and look forward to
getting AP4[Matt where is it!]see ya, eric v
Thanks Candice and Jim…
Candice I am sure you will play one of these dinosaurs soon enough, and expect you to prevail! Its funny how the scenario design criteria has changed, one rarely sees lengthy scenarios now. There has been some diswcussion on this among the members now and then.It might make for an interesting feedback poll.Jim, addendum to The Island,The set up can be time consuming -took me about 25
minutes to match set up with my strategic concept. This might be one of those games where you pre arrange play thus allowing defender ample time to play around with the setup. I hope to see an AAR when you get to The Island!ev
This sounds like one that Don Petros would like. He loves designing those intricate defenses. I plan to propose it for our next match.
Jim
I hate heroic leaders! Same thing happened to me when I was
playing Pegasus Bridge CG II (the shorter one that skips the
night part) with Rob – leader went heroic, became 10-2 (or maybe
even 10-3) died shortly thereafter.Bah!
Geoff
When in doubt stick the Tiger in the open and proclaim mastery of the world. Reminds me of the story of that Pzkw VIa that sat in the crossroads and creamed everybody for a couple of days! Well supported by infantry on it's flanks it was quite the nut to crack!
Seems that in my memory is there not a ASL OOB for just that action? BTW has any of you read “German Small Unit Actions”? This is a drop dead killer of a book, mostly Russian front, but crammed full of wild firefights in the wild wild east…
My limited experience with Tigers is that they love me. I seldom need an acquisition counter for one. Yet this love has a dark side – Malfunctions at important times.
In game terms, the Tiger I is a fearsome beast against T-34s and Shermans. That frontal armor is just tough enough to shrug off pathetic small caliber shells while the 88L ventilates nearly anything it hits from any angle.
A shame they are usually outnumbered 3-1.
I'll take a Panther over a Tiger any day in ASL. And both die horribly from side shots. Makes you wanna cry…
Well, IIRC the Tiger I is around far earlier than the PzKfWV, and has a much better situation viz. opposing armor. There isn't much doubt that the Tiger is inferior to the Panther, but that's a whole different situation.
What makes the panther such a fearsome AFV is it's excellent mobility and very good armor design…set the trend well into the 20th century. The M48-M60 series had many of the refinements of the panther, with the Turret design like a JS series Soviet Tank. Sort of the best of the main battle tanks with a Heavy Tank Turret!
The Tiger series should out class the Pzkw V, as it has that evil 88L, on longer shots, but the 75LL more than makes up for any range problems. Granted hitting power is somewhat less, but what the heck it will drill a Sherman or a Cromwell just as easy. The JS series and the KV-85 and T34/85 was made to counter the longer 75mm guns of the Heer. At least they could shoot back! The western answer was the Easy 8 Sherman and the Firefly. 9 times out of 10 however in the real world no Sherman unit would plow into an area inhabited by Tigers. P-47's and 155mm FArty was more than likley called in to deal with the monsters. What is really nasty is the heavy series of the PanzerJagers, like the Jagpanther….a real horror lurking in the woods! Heck a Hertzer with it's small size modifier is bad news. Some of these badboys had 75LL guns, most however had 75L.
One game I had a pair of Nashhorns with a high rate of fire, a 9-2 Armor leader and nice overwatch position. At long range they over 3 turns took out 15 T-34/85's. They then backed off the hill and withdrew to safety…THAT WAS FUN!
Yes the Germans have some fun stuff…..Panthers, Elephants and Tigers…OH MY!
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