@the-protozoan
Forum Replies Created
-
Posts
-
I think Hervorst Hell is a truly underrated scenario. Don Petros and I had a barn-burner of a playing of the scenario when it first came out; perhaps the most enjoyable he and I have ever played together (and that's a lot of games over the last 25 years!) I really enjoyed watching your playing of “Gift of Time”. I almost forgot how cool desert scenarios can be.
To Everyone: was great to see you all and get to roll some dice!
To Robert…..here was the PLAN!
The Japanese were set up pretty beach heavy as expected. The beak was a hedgehog with basically internal trenches, wire covering everything and pillboxes pointing in all directions with Bombproofs in the middle. Very similar setup along Red Beaches Two and Three with some extra ordnance on the far eastern part of the map to side-shot the LVTs east of the pier. It was a grim looking defense with 8 tetrahedrons along the pier to keep the two landing forces separated on RB2 and RB3.
When we looked at this, the Marines decided two things. First, we weren’t going to go for the combined attack on the pier…we were just going straight in. Second, we were going to stick Hawkins with my forces over on the beak. My compatriots had rolled a pair of 10-3s each and I had only a 10-2…plus, I wanted to see if I could get the guy onto the beach with his bully-boys and flamethrower something for fun.
We set up the waves as follows:
Assault Wave 1: Turn 1: (All in LVTs)
Red Beach Three (Geoff Coward): 2 rifle companies w/2 MG Platoons and Ldrs attached. That’s about 30 squads, 10 leaders and 10 MGs. 10 LVT(A)2, 10 LVT(2)m
Red Beach Two (Mike Cirrincione): 2 rifle companies w/2 MG Platoons and Ldrs attached. That’s about 30 squads, 10 leaders and 10 MGs. 10 LVT(A)2, 10 LVT(2)m
Red Beach Three (Matt Cicero): 2 rifle companies w/2 MG Platoons and Ldrs attached AND Hawkins Scout Snipers. That’s about 33 squads, 11 leaders and 10 MGs. 20 LVT(2)m
Assault Wave 2: Turn 3: (All Wading)
Red Beach Three (Geoff Coward): 1 rifle company w/MG Platoon and Ldr attached. Assault company. That’s about 24 squads, 9 leaders and 5 MGs.
Red Beach Two (Mike Cirrincione): 1 rifle company w/MG Platoon and Ldr attached. Assault company. That’s about 24 squads, 9 leaders and 5 MGs.
Red Beach Three (Matt Cicero): 1 rifle company w/MG Platoon and Ldr attached. Assault company. That’s about 24 squads, 9 leaders and 5 MGs.
Assault Wave 3: Turn 5: (Pathfinders leading the way…)
Red Beach Three (Geoff Coward): 6 Light Tanks, 7 Medium Tanks
Red Beach Two (Mike Cirrincione): 6 Light Tanks, 7 Medium Tanks
Red Beach Three (Matt Cicero): 6 Light Tanks, 7 Medium Tanks
TURN 1:
Well, we stepped off and the killing began. Our bombardments went in with a 3-hex hitting dead on the middle of RB2 and RB3. The 2-Hex shots hit just east and west of that one. My 3-hex shot scattered in the one way possible to leave the beach unscathed. Sigh. Overall, the smoke helped a little and we did kill a few things but really the bombardments were not that great.
We got FB support on Turn 1 which the Japs promptly reduced from 3 planes to 2 with heavy AA fire.
RB3 took a beating from ROF. Burning and wrecked LVTs began appearing early as Geoff tried to crab close to the pier and make it to dry land. Lots of dead marines inside their iron boxes. RB2 also took a beating despite good smoke cover, though not as bad. RB1 came away with a few immobilizes and only three wrecks despite the ring of guns around the lagoon. The extra range had made up for the lack of smoke. Also, my run in had avoided the tip of the beak cutting down on the casualties and guns able to actually shoot me. I should mention that while RB2 and RB3 were running basically straight in, I was trying to move in along RB1 towards the Island Command Bunker then cut to the beach at the end of the sea wall. However, I did manage to get one 1/2-squa with a MTR onto the beach!
Jap Turn 1 and the slaughter continued. About half the LVTs over on RB3 are dead. Less than that on RB2 and RB1 lost about 1/4 of theirs basically all in a row. The immobilized LVTs are pouring heavy MG fire into the defenses with an occasional stripe here and there. The Marine sniper is hot, though and I think the one near the beak killed four leaders over the course of the first two turns. So as the smoke of the bombardment was starting to lift, the marine FBs drove in on a particularly nasty gun position…and both missed their sighting task checks. The Marines promptly told the Navy flyers to piss off and they left.
TURN 2:
Well, the marines plunged forward! All three groups made it to the beach this turn, though casualties were again horrific! Japanese guns were going down to melted barrels and some were coming back on line. Marine firepower was striping or clearing some guns. But point blank firepower on the beaches was devastating. Lots of marine losses amidst the toehold troops. I stopped looking at RB2 and RB3…the carnage was too much for me. Meanwhile, on RB1, I had driven a number of LVTs onto the beach and kicked out a bunch more troops. Waders were almost on the beach and the dead and burning LVTs in the lagoon had formed a nice barrier between me and the remaining guns still firing. I was lucky in that I had killed or de-crewed a couple close guns and the range and hindrances were helping to keep things alive. Still, Eric managed a nice shot into a hex with 2 full LVTs and about 3 squads of marines…it hurt a bit. All along, Hawkins was sneaking through the surf, slowly approaching the beach, hidden from view.
Jap Turn 2 saw more LVT’s blow up everywhere and more Marines die on the beaches. Despite some progress in reducing the defenders, RB3 and RB2 were looking a bit thin. RB1 was in better shape but not great. The lousy Navy flyers decided to appear again on Turn 2 despite our strident desire for them to return to their carriers. This time, they managed to hit their targets and did some striping and minor damage. The marine firepower on the beach managed to half melt everything in range on RB1. Pillboxes, crews, the kill stack Eric had been hosing me with…all took a pounding and suddenly the beach looked holdable after D-Fire.
But time ran out….
We had completed two turns and the waders were about ready to join the fun but we were out of time. So we did some counting and all felt that the RB3 and RB2 areas were a bit behind the 8-ball. Just too many casualties. The waders would be hitting reinforced beaches, though they’d have lots of cover on the walk in. RB1 had a solid lodgement. A lot of forces were still available in some active LVTs too. Probably about where they needed to be but it was the beak…not exactly able to lend help to the struggles on the other beaches. If it were a CG, I’d have said that the Marines were on their way to win a crushing victory.
I have pics..I’ll post them when I download them!
And again, thank you Eric for the incredible effort to set this up and to the four other gents for rolling dice and making this a fun day of ASL!
And the winner is… Rob Feinstein! Rob defeated Chad Cummins in a down-to-the-last-CC win in “Happy Valley”. Congratulations to Rob as this year's WCM Champion, and to Chad for his 2nd place finish. It was an exciting ending to a great event!
-Jim
Awesome AAR; easily the best CG AAR I've read. I think it would be worth publishing in a future Journal.
-Jim
I like “Mountain Hunters” also. I've played it three times (twice as the Romanians, once as the Russians) and I'd take either side.
Another scenario I've recently played and enjoyed is Schwerepunkt's “Last Full Measure”. Late war Marines assaulting a ridge against some pretty tough Japanese. Short and fun, lots of action.
I'm sorry to hear that ROAR has it as a dog. It sure looked like a cool scenario. Early war and night… what's not to like?
