A Different Part of Stalingrad

Paul and I got together last night for our final ASL game of the year (what with Christmas and visiting family and all). Paul apparently has a copy of Valor of the Guards sitting under the Christmas Tree and so he wanted to try one of the scenarios.  Knowing Paul, he would want to play the Russians and it would give me a chance to play the Germans for a chance (since I’m playing Ivan in the RB campaign game).

So, I looked over the available scenarios with an eye to something that we could finish in about 2-3 hours. What I found was VotG13 - Escape from Komsomol Park. It looked interesting - Russian NKVD troops, strnage SSR, German SdKfz 10/5, and the VotG map.  We quickly setup and got to playing.

What was I thinking???

Scenario Special Rules

The objective of the scenario is for the NKVD and their 3 Commissars along with some elements of the regular army to break out from being surrounded by the Germans. The terrain had the Russians in some stone buildings and their way out was through or around a little office park. Without SSR, this would have been a fairly lopsided game for the Germans as they had more S/W than Ivan and two of the SdKfz 10/5.

The SSR, however, changed all this. There were two in particular:

1. 1.The German deployment was restricted so that no more than 1 MMC and 1 S/W could be in any hex and no MMC adjacent to another MMC.
   

2. 2.At the start of every German PFPh and every Russian MPh, each German unit must take a TC. A failure of the TC means that the unit is marked with either a Prep Fire or First Fire marker (as appropriate).
   

The first SSR meant that it was difficult for the Germans to have a solid defensive line at the start of the game. This normally wouldn’t be a problem as the Germans could shift their troops as the Russian assault develops.

However, the second SSR means that, if you blow the TC, your unit not only won’t be able to fire, but on your turn, will be restricted to a single hex move in the Aph.  As if that wasn’t bad enough, failing the TC also means that the unit is unable to effectively fire for that game turn. And the cherry on top? If you box-car the TC, you are subject to Level A Booby Traps.

Yep, due to that SSR, about 80% of my Germans didn’t do a damn thing for 1.5 to 2 turns. This allowed Paul to walk his Russians through the park with little if any resistance and, by turn 4, he was able to escape his 5 VP worth of troops with little difficulty.

Due to SSR 2, this was more a game of Bunko than ASL. This scenario now inaugurates a new ASL list for me - ASL Scenario Stinkers! It also shows a new ASL Truth:

Truth # 10: Sometimes, it just doesn’t matter what you do; the scenario is too out of balance to make it winnable.

Sigh - well, the ASL year ended on a whimper.  Merry Christmas, y’all!