Centennial PoG. Turn 5

After the fall of Belgrade and Warsaw, the main objective of this turn for the CP was to clean the rest of Serbians troops and completely control the Balkans. For this, they achieved to bring Bulgaria into war, releasing some Austrian armies that were fundamental to defend the Alps.

Bulgaria enters the war.

The last day of Serbian troops.

And, in fact, Italy was the center of this turn as Italians launched an offensive against the Austrian defensive positions and were menacing to penetrate into the plains of Hungary.

Italianas have achieved to take Villach, routing the Austrian Corps and were besieging Trieste. An Austrian Army from the Balkans was quickly relocated at Zagreb to stop the Allied. On the other side of the Alps, French attempted to assault Trent but failed.
GE 7th Army abandoned Strasbourg and began to move towards Innsbruck and Villach to help Central Powers in this critical situation.

The German Army forced the Italians to retreat to safer positions. Their last try on taken Trent alsoresulted in big losses for the Italians and an halt to their offensive intentions.
VP=12, WS, CP=6, AP=7

Centennial PoG. Turn 4

The arrival of fresh units in Winter 15 allowed the Austrians to continue their attack on Belgrade. This time, Serbian efforts were not enough and their capital had fallen to the Central Power. At the same time, German Armies continued their invasion in Poland, defeating the garrison at Ivangorod fortress and penetrating into Lublin.
Trying to release some pressure from other fronts, Allied begin a series of operations in North Italy to menace the weak corps guarding the fortress at the Alps.

CP answered by bringing more corps into the mountains.

In Belgium, a strong British force (1st Army and BEF) opposed the weak northern flank of German front line.

After playing Landwher, German were safe at the West and they launched a new offensive against Russia.

But, fortunately there was enough Russian reserves to fill the hole.
In overall a good turn for CPs. They conquered Belgrade and destroyed Serbian Armies that can not be rebuild. In Russia, they have made good advances. Only in Italy has the Allied some place for counterattack.
VP=10, WS, AP=7, CP=4

Centennial PoG. Turn 3

 

After the successful attacks in France during the first months of the war, Central Powers shifted their attention to the Balkans problem. Bringing more Austrian Armies into play, they launched an attack on Belgrade that it was rejected by serbians.

Then, there was a series of maneuvers in France to better place the troops. German was making some retreat to avoid combat with French while gaining terrain in Poland. Latter on the turn, Allied decided to bring Italy into war. This immediately provoked an urgent strategic redeployment by Central Powers:

 

Turn finished with some small attacks by Allied player to obey his Mandatory offensive (French). This is the map at the End of Turn 3:

VP: +11. WS: AP=7, CP=3.

Centennial PoG. Turn 2

 

September 1914 saw more bloody combats in the Western Front. Both sides put more Armies into the Battlefield (Br, Fr and Ge reinforcements cards were played this turn).

German continued the offensive against Verdun fortress and, with a overwhelming victory (again 7 steps), forced the French to retire to Bar-le-Duc. Then German besieged Verdun and the rest of GE Armies were attacking French at Bar-le-Duc and the strong positions at Nancy.

GE attack on Verdun

GE hit Bar-le-Duc and Nancy

French achieved to repel the attack on Nancy (4-7) causing heavy casualties but were routed from Bar-le-Duc  and there was a real critical situation with Central Powers menacing to cut-off the French troops at Nancy and Belfort.

More French Corps were called from the Reserve to fill the gap. Then German offensive went for a rest to replace some of the exhausted soldiers.

Western Front at the End od Turn 2

In just two months of combats, French has already lost 4 Armies of their initial setup. British Reinforcements should arrive ASAP or the entire front will collapse.

In the East there was no much activity this turn. Just a few combats around AH border at Ivangorod were the rest of Russians Corps were routed. This is the situation:

 

This time, Allied did not fulfill their MO (British) and lost 1 VP.

End of turn 2: VP: +10. WS, AP=5, CP=2. Thus, next turn, Allied will move to Limited War.

Centennial Paths of Glory. Turn 1

Our standard Fall PoG game had begun last October 2nd.  As many other wargamers we will celebrate the Centennial of WWI by playing PoG. We decided to not go for the historical setup but a standard one. Molina will lead the CPs and me will command APs.
Turn 1: August 1914
MO: AH and BR.

CPs had opened with a standard movement. Playing Guns of August for a devastating attack on Sedan, succesfully flanking the French Armies with no GE losses and 7 steps for the poor French. GE 1st and 3rd Army entered Sedan when FRc retreated to Melun.

Then action was shifted to the East with Russian and Austrian trying flankings attacks on Tarnopol and Belgrade respectively. Both attacks failed and were big defeats for the attacking players. Russian offensive in Galicia was stopped at the very first attempt and AH must deal with the menacing serbs.
Then followed a few Action Rounds with CP player replacing their forces in Austro-Serbian border while AP was  playing for events to advance in his WS (now at 4, Rape of Belgium and Blockade) towards  limited War.
CP continued to hit in the Western Front by attacking the fortress at Verdun and causing big casualties while the combined BEF and Belgium forces counterattacked at the german flanks in Liege.
Russians tried to put some pressure into AH ranks but with little success.
AP missed a big opportunity at the end of August when CPs played for Replacements and Allied did not have enough OPs to penetrate directly into the German supply sources.

After the Brit attack Germans have a hole in their lines that goes directly into Essen (supply source).  AP can not penetrate because having only 2CP cards they can not activate Brussels (2ops) and Lomza (1op) in the last action to put the whole CP army into OOS (and ending the war in August).

End of turn: VP=9, WS: AP=4, CP=2.

Coming back to blogging …

Last  season (as happy dads we measure our running year by summer holidays so september marks the beginning of our gaming season) I was very busy to update our blog (including a laptop death in November-December).
But not enough to stop playing.  Thus, I had some very good Vassal plays: Paths of Glory, Normandy’44, Twilight Struggle and a long, long game of Here I Stand. Also Alberto was enough patient to teach me ASL and his favourite game For the People.
In the folowing posts I will try to recover some of the old pics of our Vassal games as well as some of the face-to-face sessions from last year.
We begun last season, as usual, with a now classical Fall Paths of Glory match. Unfortunately I did not keep a good record of our blasting PoG game (files were in the now reformatted laptop). It was a really funny match with Central Powers (me) surrounding half of the French Army but being surrounded in Austria and in the Middle East.
At some point it seems that CP could achieve enough VPs for winning but Allied Player (evil Alberto Molina) counterattacked in Pomerania and put a Russian Corps next to Berlin !!!
Finally the last two game turns were critical and AP won after succesfully defending Italy and Paris.
This is the only pic I had in my computer, It corresponds to Fall 1917 when German Armies are ready to envelope Frenchs:

But at the same time, Turks are suffering in Middle East:

And Russians have destroyed AH Armies at Przemsyl envelopping those at Lemberg:

Some day i will find the USB key where i had all the logs of this incredible match. Then I will show you how big mistakes are made .

N44, 14th June

Overcast again in Normandy.

Utah.

German is bringing 17th Pz SS into place to cover the avenues towards Valognes and prepares a counterattack against American paratroopers. The final defense for this day will be decided after seeing the result of the attack and redistributing the good quality units of the 3FJ.

Omaha

After the big mistake on the precedent turn, German tries to recover the position by attacking American infantry units at St-Jean-De-Daye. His goal is to force Americans to get losses by being forced to retreat through flooded hexes. But it failed and American resisted in the village.

Caen

A big turnover at the outskirts of Carpiquet airport. German attacked British units with the force of the 12SS Pz Div and the valuable support of units of the 21st Pz and the 101 Tiger Battalion. With the quality shift, Tiger, armor and artillery support the attack moves quickly to 5-1. And German got a net '6'. This means that British needed to retreat 4 hexes, got two step losses and German got reserve status.

Now, German had the full 12 SS Div into reserve, being able to penetrate deep into British lines to hit the already heavily decimated 50 inf Div.

Again with Tiger support plus the Werfer Artillery support, German got two 4-1 attacks against Allied stacks with reduced infantry units. At the limit of already 5 cadres, British needs to save both attacks to survive this turn. But he fails. Completely destroying his tigers, German got his sixth cadre and as British had only one replacement, Automatic Victory is for German. We have finished the turn but there is no sense to report American movements.

Conclusion:
For the first game of N44 we had made a few mistakes in the rules that could outcome the final result.
First of all, we completely forgot about Allied IPs that could be useful for British. Also we have missed that replacements in storm turns can be either Brits or Canadians. We had assigned to British. A mistake.
More subtle mistakes were made when applying ZOC Bonds, DCBs or applying retreat. When possible we have corrected the  errors.
Strategically, British did not realize his delicate position until that it was too late. He needed to be more cautious.
German had also many errors, some of the quite evident.
American, as usual, played perfectly :-))
A great first game. We have now a good understanding of the rules and we are planning to play again the campaign.
We truly believe that this is an excellent game that deserves to play with. We are anxiously waiting to jump into Ardennes 44. Our only regret is that N44 is now out of stock as well as Ukraine 43 that, under a similar system, we would like to try.
Our deepest thanks for this wonderful game to Mark Simonitch and the people at GMT.

N44, 13th June

Again Overcast-2 at Normandy.

Utah Beach:

German spent his turn trying to put a defensive line into place around Valognes. Note that we have made some mistakes with the rules as the units from Cherbourg can not be released.  17 Pz SS is arriving to the area west of Merderet River. American attacks along the coast to destroy German fortifications. He succeeded but German kept the terrain and no Allied advances this day.

 

Omaha Beach:

German is building improved positions to stop the American advance. But he makes a severe mistake and let alone 84 HQ believing that American can not attack across the flooded hex. Many Allied attacks. Of course, German HQ was destroyed and Americans entered into St-Jean-de-Daye. The other two attacks inflicted several losses into the defender but Axis player was able to stand and did not retreat.

 

CW Beaches:

Only area where Germans has made some attacks. As before, 50 Inf Div was attacked from Tilly and were routed but without losses. At Epron 51st Inf Div was also defeated, losing 1 step and retreating. Dangerously approaching the Cadre limit, British player just played to reinforce his front line and no offensive this turn.

 

Map:

N44, 12th June

A sunny day in Normandy, Weather is clear 6, so plenty of air and naval support for the Allies.
In turn, the Germans get useful reinforcements with the arrival of the 17th Pz SS Div and elements of the 3FJ Div. The good weather allow a full control of the skies for the Allies and the mechanized German units have its movement allowance reduced by two. In fact this means that German will not be able to deploy 17th Pz SS this turn.

German has made a cautious turn, with no attacks to avoid the column shift of the Jabos and trying to reinforce his positions. I realize that we have been playing the IP rule in a wrong way forcing German to spend IP points for beginning the building and for finishing, thus reducing his capability for trenches almost to a half. We will modify our mistake next turn.
Utah Beach:

American made three strong attacks in Utah area with the Air and Naval support. In the coast line, a combination of paratroopers and infantry regiments of 1st and 2nd Division exchanged losses with the disrupted defenders of the fortification. At Valognes, paratroopers of the 8nd and 101st Div tried to take the city before the arrival of the SS units. German resisted with determined defense and inflicted two losses in the attacking stack. At St Mere- Eglise the 91st Inf Div was attacked by the remaining of the 82nd AB Div with support of 4th Div. Germans lost the town and were forced to retreat, taking more losses in their retreat towards Pont-l'Abbé. Finally on 12th June Americans were able to cross (again) the Merderet.

Omaha Beach

Here, both the American and the German are consolidating positions. American did not perform any offensive operation as all the artillery support was devoted to the attack at Utah Beach. More armored reinforcements are arriving to the beach and probably next turn we will see a new allied offensive.

CW Beaches:

British Command has decided to use the Canadians units to protect Bayeux area. Probably he believe that putting Canadians close to American will lead to a better understanding at the Army Boundary Line.

At Caen, two main attacks were performed. 50th Inf Division attacked the 12th SS Regiment close to Tilly-sur-seulles and forced them to retreat towards the bocage. Meanwhile, 49th Inf Div attempted to take Carpiquet airport. However the determined defense of the 21st Pz Div was efficient and inflicted step losses into the attacking formation.

The last British attack was a frontal assault against the hill that guards Cabourg. Fighting from a flooded terrain and against a higher position, Germans easily rejected the attack and British exchanged losses, now approaching the risky amount of 4 cadres.

The map:

WWII: BtB, Turn 15, Fall 44

No Orders from the Fuhrer this turn while Stalin has asked his generals to continue with the offensive .
With the time running out and the Allies more and more stronger, Axis begun the turn playing an event for getting one more Victory point.

Following the orders of Stalin, Russian generals launched an attack in the Ukrainian Front. Six Mechanized Fronts moved into combat against German positions at Cherkassi and Kirovograd. But, well prepared the experienced German Armies repelled the frontal assault and inflicted heavy losses at Russians (9 steps). Immediately, German activated more reserves to the area and reinforced Cherkassi with Armies from Konotop.

Soviets rapidly understood the weak position at Konotop and shifted their offensive there, hitting with the new version of his main tank T-34 (+1 drm). But Germans had a surprise in his hand and played Panzerfaust that forced Russians to take a step loss, reducing the force of the attack. Again the German resistance was stiff but they could not stop the Soviet advance and retreated to Chernigov. German was obliged to bring more units to fill the gap at Chernigov, this time with a combination of German and Romanian Armies and exhausting all his strategic reserve.

	At this point, Allied attention shifted completely to the Western Front and the combined force of British and American Armies attacked the West Wall Trench at Saar that was defended by German Armies.   Allied won the battle but German resisted at the fort by losing one extra step.
Axis redeployed his units at the Western Front to better defend the Rhin but they make a fatal mistake by placing two weak corps to defend Holland. Allied did not miss the opportunity and attacked Holland with the British units from Antwerp and the reinforcement of the British 2nd Army brought from Belfort. Germans were crushed and Holland was liberated. Situation is critical for the Axis that looked for replacements.
	The Allied Mechanized units rapidly penetrated into the hole and the British 1st Army reached Hamburg and menaces Berlin. In the meantime American 3rd Army, leaded by Patton attacked the fort at Ruhr. First attack was successful but German was able to maintain the position. But Patton allows the 3rd Army to make another attack and they hit Ruhr again. And the heroic defense made by the Germans allowed them to survive at the fort with just  1 step left.

But in the last action of the turn, Germans surrendered after American First Army entered Berlin.
This is the final map

Step losses this turn:
Ge: 34 steps, It: 3 steps.
Ru: 17 steps, Br: 6 steps.
Losses really reflects the heavy combats in this last turn.
A great game played Alberto Molina (Axis) and Alberto Pomar (Allied) from March 9th, 2013 to May 27th, 2013.

WWII:BtB, Turn 14, Summer 44

 

More and more voices are claiming in Russia for a total offensive and Stavka gave orders at the beginning of the summer 44 to attack.

German begun cautiously, by reinforcing his Force Pool with Mechanized Corps and preparing replacements.

In turn, Soviet Commanders brought into the battlefield several Shock and Mechanized Armies from the reserve and initiated the expected offensive in the first week of summer.

First, to give more moral to his population, Stalin attack the trenched German positions at Kaluga, in front of Moscow and Tula, to relief the pressure onto his capital.		At the same time, Mechanized Fronts attacked from the flanks the German Armies at Ukraine to cross the Dnieper river.
The attack was completely successful and the Germans were defeated and routed from his trenches with heavy losses.		In Dnepropetrovsk, Soviet destroyed the weak Italian Army and advanced into the city. A great attack was also seen in Nikopol with German retreating towards Kirovograd. Soviet is now firmly established beyond the river.

 

Hearing his officers, Hitler decided to abandon the exposed position and Orel and retreated his infantry units towards the forests. Russian did not miss the opportunity and have taken Orel (VP=6) while continuing the pursuit of the Germans in Ukraine. But, well trained, 1st Pz Army have resisted at Kirovograd.

German mobilized more of his units from the Army Group Center and the 3rd PZ Army joined the front at Kirovograd.  Axis minors defend Kremenchug while the valuable German Infantry Armies are forming a thin line between Cherkassi-Poltava- Konotop. But Soviet had another surprise in his hands and transformed the standard Infantry Fronts at Melitopol into fear Mechanized Fronts. Looking for any weakness in the Axis line, Soviets did not search a combat against the Pz Armies and instead moved to attack Kremenchug and Poltava. Germans were defeated in both spaces but Russian did not advance.

 

Axis played for more replacements while Russian was still pushing the attack to the very end. Relocating his forces he occupied Kremenchug with a strong force of three Mechanized Fronts and attacked Kirovograd with another three. Germans resisted and two of the Russian Mechanized Fronts were severely damaged. This halted Russian offensive for the summer and they have played for replacements.

 

In France  the only noticeable movement was an attack of the American forces against the trenches at Saar. Difficult to be a success, this was part of the attrition war that Allied are employing to force Axis to divide his replacements.

Map at the end of summer:

A very bloody turn. Losses were

German: 25 steps, IT: 6, Romanian: 4

Russian: 27 steps, US. 4 steps.

VP= +6 (Orel shifted to Allied).