Our Saturday Game - Scenario V23 Tiger at Bay

So here are we are for yet another "Our Saturday Game". One of my great concerns as I enter my 10th year of blogging is the danger of developing "stale" content. This blog has gone through some evolutions over the past 10 years. The first phase consisted of simple paragraphs about this or that topic. The next phase was the posting of pictures of my earliest Cardboard via Skype games. These photos were taken by the computer webcam and were not great. The next phase followed my first tournament in 2013 in Texas. Following that experience, I began playing against Chris Brackney (aka Big Kansas). And my blog posts began to include period pictures at the front end. Then Chris and I played our epic Pegasus Bridge CG and my story telling style grew out of that experience. But I still didn't have a regular AAR template or format. That would come once Dan Best and I started playing each weekend. So the AAR you read now is based on that formatting and story telling style which of course contains GIF's which have become a staple of my efforts to bring the AAR's to life. 

But just how many "Our Saturday Game" AAR's can people stand? Naturally, I hope a lot as I don't really have a new style/direction to go with my blogging. In short, I have found my voice in the community and this is pretty much what Grumble Jones will look like into the future...how ever long that may or may not be.

This is just something that has been on my mind lately. The blog view statistics have shown a change in readership over the past three years. On the one hand, monthly views have stabilized in a relative pattern since 2017. But individual post views have dramatically changed. Two or more years ago, the average views of a single post were around 400-500+. Today that average  number is generally less than 200. Of course the views go up over time as posts are viewed in the archive. But this trend made me wonder whether or not the blog was reaching its "terminal velocity". In other words, has it saturated the ASL blogosphere? 

I don't know the answer to that and it would be interesting to know if  Wall Advantage, Cardboard Warrior, Hull Down, VFTT, Hong Kong Wargamer and even the Two Half-Squads were experiencing the same thing. And today we also have Dave and Martin's excellent "Illuminating Rounds" on YouTube. I absolutely love their posts. And I try very hard to keep up with my fellow bloggers as well as the Two Half-Squads. We are truly living in a Golden Age of not only physical game content, but also community inspired content. 

Well, a bit more rambling than is probably good, but something I needed to write about. Grumble Jones will continue and in much this same format. So my thanks to all the readers who visit this site and here's hoping it continues to provide content that is entertaining and worthy of your time.

Tonight's scenario choice comes from the outstanding View from the Trenches. I will take for granted that most of you are familiar with VFTT. If not, check out this link and enjoy!

https://www.vftt.co.uk/indexs.asp

The scenario which I selected for our game is from VFTT Issue #95-97, which was published in 2016. The scenario can be downloaded from VFTT. The ASL Archive has it with 2 German and 0 US wins.

Our choice would be VF23 Tiger at Bay (designed by Alan Hume). A quick shout out to Alan Hume, whom I have never had the privilege of meeting, but whose voice and passion for ASL comes out regularly on the Two Half-Squads Podcast through his letters and voice mails, which are a joy to listen to on the podcasts. So Alan, I hope that Dan and I do your scenario justice!

Alan has set this scenario at the Mussolini Canal, south of Cisterna, Italy in May of 1944. The fighting for Cisterna is well known for the devastating defeat inflicted on Darby's Rangers. In this scenario, the 1st Special Service Force along with tanks of the 1st Armor Division find themselves attacking a mixed force Axis defense with Italian SS and German Grenadiers with a Tiger Tank. And everyone knows the best scenarios always have a Tiger Tank!!!

Ok...I'll admit it...I am a bit of a Tiger Tank fanboy. It just seems like the perfect looking tank to me. I has intrigued me since I was a kid with a windup Tiger Tank that ruled my Marx 1/32 scale bedroom floor battles. Lincoln Log bunkers were no match for that Tiger. 

A good view of the Mussolini Canal and the position of the 1st Special Service Force. The German 1028th Grenadier Regiment was detached from the 715th Infantry Division, whose position is also indicated on the map.

Quick note - the number 4 on Board 4 is at the top of the map and not on the bottom as depicted. 

As the scenario Defender, Dan Best would command the Grenadiers of the German 1028th Grenadier Regiment, X-Mas "Guardia Marina" and Italian SS "Vendetta. His force would consist of 3 x Italian 5-4-8's led by a 9-2 with 2 x LMG's, an MMG and Pannzerschreck. Then 3 x SS 4-6-8's, led by a 9-1 with 2 x LMG's, an MMG and Panzerschreck. Then 3 x German 4-6-7's led by an 8-0 with an LMG, 50 MTR and Panzerschreck. And finally in support would be a Tiger 1 with a 9-2 Armor Leader. 

This scenario would make for a great 3 or 4 Player Game.

Dan's Germans would have the Victory Condition burden of controlling Hexes 63P8, 63Q9, 63R8 and Building 63R9 at game end.

As the scenario attacker, I would get to command the Americans and Canadians of the 1st Special Service Force known as the "Black Devils" by the Germans. Their story is well known and if you need any additiona information, check out the great movie, The Devil's Brigade. Good stuff!!

My force would consist of 10 x 6-6-8's (USMC, unless you have the outstanding Lone Canuck counters...which I DO!!!), led by a 9-1,  and 2 x 8-1's with 2 x LMG's, an MMG, a 60MTR, 2 x BAZ 44's a DC and a Flamethrower. for support, I would receive 3 x Shermans, an M10 and an M38 Greyhound. 

I couldn't be happier with this force! Black Devils...yeah BABY! You SS schmucks are going down!!!

And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:

"The Axis must advance into the village to take and hold a victory building and crossroads hexes.  My set up will be to have the SS troops move to buildings 63T8 with the 9-1 led kill stack of Squad MMG and Squad LMG.  The other SS squad with LMG and PSK will move to building 63V7 to guard the flank.  The German infantry will capture the VC building and crossroads.  Except a HS with the MTR will set up in the woods to bombard any approaching troops.  The Italian troops will move north of the village and get into the village across the main road from the victory building to protect the flank.  The tiger will set up to cover the cross roads and then move to the crossroads to defend against enemy armor.  Hopefully the Tiger and PSKs can take out the enemy armor and the infantry can get into position with minimal casualties.  Defending against the Allied infantry will be the toughest part of this scenario."

My plan was put all my MG's in with the 9-1 in the Z4 house. My intention was to keep a firelane down the lengh of the road and keep Dan's Germans off the victory locations. My M-10 would be alongside for support. The remainder of my force was going to strike towards the village.

The EC are wet with Rain...which turned to Heavy Rain and would persist for the remainder of the game.

Turn 1 would have been fairly uneventful...except for a bone headed move on my part. I seem to have a desire to hobble myself in every game. I sent the M8 Greyhound with a squad of riders with the Flamethrower. After dropping them off, it restarted and headed towards the victory location crossroads. A panzerschreck fired at it and missed....close call!! I should have stopped then, but then foolishly rain into the covered arc of the Tiger. And of couse Dan rolled...hit and destroyed it and then machine gunned the surviving crew to death. I had just placed cover on one of the victory locations. UGH!!!

Turn 1 and I was already sensing bad times were ahead.

 But...I had my Machine guns right where I wanted them. 

Turn 1 German - Dan's Tiger moved out, dropped some smoke and moved to control the village road. My M-10 would fire at infantry in the building behind the Tiger. I rolled high (surprise) and missed. Dan's Italians would move into the village. Turn 1 - Dan had control of the victory locations and probably the game.

Turn 2- My flamethrower fired as I had planned it...ahhh...but I would roll a 10 and do nothing and toss my flamethrower out the window. One of my most important assets does nothing and is removed from play.

Dan's defensive fire would be telling....My M-10 after failing to do anything to the Tiger would be destroyed. Then Dan would reveal his mortar across the vineyard, which would cause me no small grief during the battle. Oh...and the German sniper would break my squad with the mortar.

Another critical asset lost...

 Despite my losses, I was making some semblance of progress.

 In Dan's part of the turn, he would succeed in breaking my 9-1's position in the Z4 house. 

 Turn 3 - I moved to take on the Italians in the village. They were well-led with a 9-2. 

The Italians also had a Panzerschreck. They would fire and miss. In the village I would send a squad into CC with the Italian 9-2 and lose them. The Italian 9-2 would also KIA my boys that had moved adjacent with a DC. I was dying by the squad!

The Italian Panzerschreck would take down a Sherman and break itself with the back blast. I would force the German mortar to make a morale check. They promptly battlehardened and created a Hero. Awesome! I would manage to eliminate the Italian 9-2 when Dan rolled successive 12's in that location. I was down to two tanks and still had a chance in this fight. All I had to do was control one of the victory locations. But could I do it...

Turn 4 - I sent both tanks around the backside of the village. The broken Italian Panzerschreck squad would be eliminated. I needed the Panzerschreck for sure!

I finally had to abandon the Z4 building and route away to safety. My 9-1 leader was dead...so it would be tough to rally the boys.

On Dan's part of Turn 4, the Tiger moved to take down my armor. He would succeed in destroying both of my remaining Shermans.

The Tiger 1 would destroy 4 of my 5 armored vehicles.

Then the final coup de grace as Dan's kill stack broke every man in my last remaining kill stack. That was the game...I conceded and congratulated Dan on a really decisive victory. I had done very poorly from start to finish and never seriously threatened Dan's control of the victory locations. 

My boys had been handled roughly and lost well over 30% killed on the field. All of my armor was destroyed and at game end only 2 squads were unbroken. Pretty soundly defeated...

I just never got into a good rhythm and my rolls were once again overall on the bad side. My 8 morale trooops went down and went down hard. Dan's force was much more resilient and he rarely suffered any breaks....at least any caused by me!!!

Despite the loss, it was a fun game and Alan's scenario is well worth the playing. It definitely is replayable and I would certainly do some things differently as the Americans.

I thought Dan did virtually everything correctly. His Italians traded two squads and a 9-2 for a Sherman and 2 x 6-6-8's. So not too shabby.

Of course the Tiger Tank was not a Tiger at Bay but instead a Tiger unleashed!!!

"Uwe, this one is for Grumble Jones a@$...cause he got owned tonight!!!"

And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:

"The plan worked.  Mostly due to terrible dice rolling by Grumble Jones.  The tiger was able to destroy 4 enemy tanks and the Italians got the other with their PSK.  The Axis infantry accounted for themselves well with the Italians exchanging well and the SS able to stand up to the Allies in the fire fight.  With the tiger still in action and the Axis in the victory building and on the flanks Grumble Jones gave his concession.  The scenario plays very fast and has great options for attack by both players.  It is a fun little scenario great for a tournament.  My thanks to Grumble Jones for a good game.  We need to find Grumble Jones a good pair of dice."

Dan is very generous in victory. He played an outstanding game and did what every ASL player has to do which is...take advantage of your opponent's misfortunes and bale that hay...cause in ASL the dice can turn on you in an instant.

I will probably start looking for a dice tower. I've been using my 2013 Texas Team Tournament Audie Murphy trophy cup for years now. And it is the height of irony that my dice do so poorly in a glass I won for rolling the most snake eyes at the Texas Tournament.  Of course...don't tell anyone...but I shared Dan Best's dice during our playing of Futile Bravery (our first game vs each other). And man were those lucky dice!!! They were some nice Chessex Dice as I recall.

Anyway, I'll be looking for a dice tower in the coming days. But since my good buddy Roy Connelly is preparing to defeat me at March Madness...I don't want to disappoint him by changing my bad rolls!!! Can't wait to see you Roy...7 years is too long between games.

Dan and I will be back next Saturday for a playing of DASL 29 - Lehr Sanction. 

As always...we'll see you then!!