Our Saturday Game - LFT Scenario FT81 - Dubrovka

For our Saturday game, Dan Best and I would travel to the frozen steppes of Russia. Snow scenarios are always hard for me to visualize and one of the reasons I would love to have access to winterized versions of the boards...or some clear board overlays if someone ever wanted to make such things. Certainly this is one of the advantages of playing on VASL as the boards are winterized. This scenario would be my choice and I have always had a fascination with the Spanish Blue Division (250th Infantry Division). 

A few years ago, as I was getting back into ASL, I had the good fortune to interact with Chris at Battleschool. 

ASL Battleschool Blog , I had purchased a copy of Pegasus Bridge over eBay and Chris had placed one of his battle dice in the shipment. This lead me to find his blog and over time, we would trade some correspondences. Chris' blog was the inspiration for my own blog and is still the gold standard in my opinion. One of my next purchases would be a copy of Le Franc #10 La Division Azul. This was very hard to find at the time and Chris even went the extra mile to find the Spanish Counter Sheet to go with it. Even today, my Spaniards are some of my most treasured counters. 

This of course reminds me of the power of the ASL Community. Recently, VASL'ing with Stew did an episode dedicated to the ASL On-Line Community. He credited the 2 Half-Squads for getting him back into ASL and for inspiring his own excellent work on You Tube Stew's Replays . So just as the 2 Half-Squads have inspired many of us to get back into ASL, so too did Chris at Battle School in my own case. His encouragement would lead me to attend my first ASL Tournament, the Texas Team Tournament in 2013. And my first opponent (first new opponent since 1997) would be Dan Best. Grumble Jones exists as a viable blog because of the support and encouragement of the greater ASL Community. We live in a Golden Age of ASL...and Life is Good!

FT81 - Dubrovka (designed by Xavier Vitry) takes place in the winter of 1941 to the south of Leningrad. The Spanish Blue Division had only been in the fight a short time, when the first snows began to fall in October. No one could foresee the winter hell that was soon to arrive.

Dubrovka and Tigoda were villages near the Volkhov River and were necessary objectives to strengthen Spanish positions along the Volkhov. In a fierce and often hand to hand fight, the Spaniards succeeded in taking their objectives.

A look at the battlefield in its winterized version. ROAR has this scenario with 13 Spanish and 15 Russian wins. The  ASL Archive has it with 3 Spanish and 7 Russian wins.

Dan would command the men of the 250th Infantry Division...Spanish Blue Division. The Spaniards would leave a legacy of valor during their time on the Eastern Front. Their accomplishments are the more remarkable given the lack of heavy support available to them throughout their time in the Leningrad-Volkhov Front. Dan's force would consist of 5 x 5-4-8's, and 16 x 4-6-8's led by a 9-2, 91-, 2 x 8-1's, and 2 x8-0's with 2 x MMG's, 6 x LMG's and 2 x Flamethrowers. Dang!!! This is one tough force and by SSR they have -2 drm for leader creation and -1 drm on the heat of battle table. Good Grief!!!

As the defending Russians, I would command the men of the Russian 267th Rifle Division, 1000th Infantry Regiment. The 267th would hold the Volkhov line into 1942. In 1942 it would be trapped in the swamps along the Volkhov and be effectively destroyed. It would be reformed at the end of 1942 and would end the war fighting in the Courland Pocket. My force would consist of 16 x 4-4-7's, 4 x 4-2-6's, and a 1-2-7 led by a 10-0, 8-1 and 8-0 (converted to 9-0 Commissar...just because!!!!) with 2 x MMG's, 4 x LMG's and 2 x Roadblocks. With an ELR of 2...YIKES...against superhero Spaniards....this is going to be a rough battle.


And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:

“The Spanish (in German army) are attacking to clear the board 48 crossroads village of Russians.  They have to clear 20 Russians squads and a crew from 25 buildings, three of which are fortified.  The 9-2 leader will have two 5-4-8 squads with LMG   While the 8-1 will lead the two FT squads.  This group will attack across the eastern half of the board.  The 4-6-8 groups will attack on the north and western sides of the village.  They will deploy two squads as allowed and try for more deployments immediately to use the HS to infiltrate and capture buildings.  The Russians have an ELR or 2 so there will be plenty of conscripts to collect as prisoners.  With all troops having 8 morale hopefully they can cross the open ground and break the Russian defenses.”

So the Spanish would win by controlling all the building locations in the circled area. I would get three fortified buildings and 3 HIP squads. I would hip my 10-0 and two 4-4-7's in the very backfield and hope they would stay hidden and unbroken by game end. 

Turn 1 - Spanish - Dan's boys move forward. I fire, but take down a half-squad and a couple breaks. D-Fire has been letting me down lately. One of my frustrations throughout this game, would be my inability to hurt Dan's Spaniards as they moved in the open. Even  with -3 shots...I rarely did better than pinning the enemy. Dan's dice were good to him for most of the game and he rarely missed a morale check. Dan would finish the game with 3 snakes and 3 boxcars. I would finish the game with 1 snakes and 4 boxcars. 

Dan's Spaniards had made good progress on Turn 1. Dan worked at getting a squad around my left flank, but this was the longest movement direction in the game.  So this effort did not affect the outcome of the game.

I would lose my first prisoners by the end of Turn 1 and be forced to rout from one of my fortified buildings and MALF one of the LMG's. By the end of the game Dan would capture my 8-1 and 10 squads worth of Russians infantry. I can't remember the last time so much of my force was captured. One of the smart decisions, which Dan made was to take prisoners. With an ELR of 2, I was scriptifying my boys with alarming frequency and some of these would disrupt. So routing was not even an option. So my boys surrendered early and often. By taking prisoners, Dan ensured that my boys would give up rather than low crawl away.

Turn 2 - the Spaniards move ahead on both of my flanks. My D-Fire is again mostly ineffective.

I left a lot of resid on the battlefield...but again, I wasn't inflicting enough damage to slow down the Spaniards. I needed just one turn of slowing Dan down to win the game. I just couldn't get it.

The limit of the Turn 2 Spanish advance.

My right flank was in serious jeopardy. Dan's 9-2 and both flame throwers were attacking that part of my line. 

Dan's Advancing Fire Phase was putting a lot of factors on me. Dan would PREP Fire only a few units and the rest would advance and were dealing good damage in the Advancing Fire Phase. 

Dan would create one hero during the battle.

Turn 3- Spanish - I was struggling to slow down the Spaniards. I needed to slow them down and just couldn't do it.

Dan was breaking through all along the front!

More and more of my Russians were' ELR'ing...then surrendering. Dan's boys had the battle well in  hand. High rolls and an ELR of 2...recipe for disaster...

At one point in the game I told Dan that I was doing more for his cause than for my own!!! One of the peculiar things about ASL is that your own dice rolls will harm you almost as much as anything your opponent does to you. Cowering was absolutely driving me to tears during this game. I would roll a 4 and cower and then do nothing and my 4-2-6's would double cower...so I was getting to the point where I  just wanted to stop rolling the dice...

Overall, I would fare poorly in close combat. Our CC's would almost always go to MELEE, but Dan was able to reinforce those and close them out in his favor. 

Dan was gobbling me  up....

My fortified locations didn't do much for me either as both of my MMG stacks were broken. Dan's fire power in his stacks was just too much me and his 9-2 was really whacking me upside the head.

The battle was becoming a rout for my guys. Dan really started to steamroll as we neared the final turns. I just wasn't generating enough firepower to do the damage necessary. 

Turn 5 - Dan succeeded in clearing the cross roads. He was well on his way to a victory. At this point Dan had all the momentum. I was reeling and just trying to keep my 10-0 and 2 squads HIP for as long as possible. Time was running out....

Turn 5 - Russian - my HIP 10-0 and two squads were still HIP. They were going to be my last chance to win.

Of course by this time in the game, Dan had figured out where my last dudes would hiding. But before he figured that out, he would empty both flamethrowers...so that was a good thing..

As Turn 5 ended, all I had left was my final HIP stack. There was a half-turn left. Could I hold out?

I'm thinking...No....

Nope..as Dan rushed me. In response I tried firing my 4-4-7's independently to create a wall of Residual fire from 4 factors to 2. But my first squad cowered...final fired and leaving only two residual. My 10-0 and 4-4-7 would fire next. I would KIA a 4-6-8, but Dan just kept throwing guys at me. I did Final Protective Fires and this would result in both 4-4-7's breaking and giving Dan the victory. 

Many times in ASL...I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and tonight was one of those nights. Congrats to Dan on a powerful victory. He really kept the momentum from Turn 1 to the Turn 6 and earned the win. He was wore out at the end...but I think it was because he had so many counters to move and prisoners to herd to the rear!!!!  That  stuff will wear you out fast!! I teased Dan that it had been another humiliating defeat for me and truthfully it really felt like that to me. But there is always next Saturday!

Dan's Spaniards had won a solid victory!

And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:

“The plan worked.  The high Spanish morale allowed them to move forward and in a grinding attritional battle broke the Russians and mopped them up.  Taking over 100 prisoners including the 8-1 leader.  The grinding attack stayed on schedule with all troops in place for a last turn assault on the final fortified building.  The Russians broke themselves with FPF fire.  This scenario is classic east front action and a hard infantry battle.  The Russian ELR made a break hard to recover from with several disrupted squads and the commissar executing twice for failure to rally.  My thanks to Grumble Jones for a good scenario choice and a refreshing change from our desert battles.  This scenario might make an appearance in March Madness ASL Tournament.”

Dan and I will be back next Saturday for more Close Combat as we play a classic -

 ASL Scenario 44 The Guantlet!!

See you then!