DS2: thanksgiving game AAR

Over Thanksgiving weekend (last weekend in Nov for non-US folks :) three
of us
(Dave and Joel, 2 DSII newbies, and I :) played a game of Dirtside. We
didn't
*quite* finish (played for 7 turns; really had one more turn to go to
fully
wrap things up, but had to call it due to the late hour and the fact
each of us
had to go for various reasons - not the least of which I had to get up
early
the next morning for work!). In a nutshell it went like this:

Terrain: We opted to use the floor instead of tables (more room that way
:) The
ground was open but *heavily* littered with cliffs, hills, and scattered
trees.
The only way into the defender half of the field (mine) was either over
the
level-1 hill/ridge or through one of three 'single-lane' passes between
some
rather impassable cliffs. The center of the playing field is depicted
here:

w    ww  www	CCCCC							
  wwww
www   w wwCCCCCCCCCC C							
 wwwww
 www wwwwwwCCCCCCCC CCCC				      CCC   CCC
CCCCCCW
 wwwwwwwwwCCCCCCCC CCCCCC  CCHHHHHH	   HHHHH     HHHHHHHCCCCCC CCC 
CCCCCCC
wwwwwwwwwwwCCCCCCCC  CCCCCCCCCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHwHwHHHHHHHHwwwwHHCCCC CCC C
CCCCCCC
wwwww  wwww   CCCCCC  CCCCCCHHHHHHH	   HHHHH     HHHHHHHCCCCCC CCC	
CCCCCC
	       CCCCCC  CCC					C  CC  C
 CCCCw
		CCCCCC						CC CC
CCC CCCCw
		  CCCCCC						
   www

C - cliff, impassable
H - hills (geo-hex :)
w - woods, heavy

There were more hills and cliff areas in the rear third of the defender
area,
behind which the objectives of the attacker (the howitzers) were placed,
as
well as cliffs in the rear area of the attacker. Light woods were
randomly
placed by my taking a large handful of small (~1 cm) green cotton balls
and
tossing the whole kit and kaboodle onto the playing field. :)

Big overview:

			CCCC
			 CC
			CCCC	    CC
				   CCC	     CCCCC
(attacker)	  CC CCC    CCC    CC	    CCCCC
		   CCC	    CCC   CCC	   CCCC
		    CC	     CC
			      C

	  WWWW					      WW
	  WWWCC CCCHH		 H	      HHCCC CCWW
	  WWWWCC CCHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHCC C CCW
	  WWWCCCC CCHH		 H	      HHCCC CCWW
	  WWW  CCC				      WW
		  CC

(defender)

			    C
	       CCCCC	   C CC 	    C	    CCCCC
	       H    C	   CC  C    CC	   C C	   C	H
		H    C	     C CC   CCC   C   C   C    H
		 HHHH	     CC  C  CC	 CCCCC	  CHHHH
		   h	       h     h	   h

h = howitzer placements

(okay, okay, I am not Dr ASCII, I don't have his talent; hopefully you
can
make heads/tails out of my 'maps' above :)

Defender forces (me): 4 platoons main battle tanks (Partisan-II), 1
platoon
large DFFG/5-armed heavy battle tanks (Rommel/Patton), 2 platoons of
heavy
tank-killers (King Tiger II), 1 small platoon (2 tanks) of double SLAM/5
missle
tanks (Vulcan), 3 squads power armor infantry, 4 squads line infantry,
and 4
heavy howitzer emplacements (assets were not available for this
scenario,
however, being busy with other fire missions). All vehicles are tread
mobility
(fast, medium, slow).

Attacker force (them): 1 platoon heavy grav tanks (Deimos), 2 platoons
fast-GEV
'Ogre' main battle tanks (Striker), 1 platoon 'Ogre' GEV troop carriers
(carrying 2 squads power armor each), 1 platoon 'Ogre heavy' main battle
tanks,
1 platoon 'Ogre Combine Light' fixed-mount small tanks, 1 platoon
troop-carrying HUMMVs (carrying 1 regular squad infantry each), 1
platoon slow
main battle tanks (Land Raider II; houserule is that they have 2
firecons, can
fire main [side] guns at 2 diff targets/turn), 1 platoon 'GW'
4xGMS/H-armed
missile tanks (Whirlwind), 1 platoon (3 tanks) 'Battletech' SLAM/5
missile
tanks (Hunter), and 2 Combat Walkers (1 size 'small', 1 size 'v-large').
You
might notice that the mobility types for these vehicles covers pretty
much
everything from tread to fast-wheeled, to walker, to GEV, to Grav.

Unless noted, all tank platoons consisted of 4 elements.

Leadership and Platoon/troop quality: a mix of regular (lvls 2/3) with
some
Green and Veteran troops (one of each level available). Leadership
levels
chosen and distributed randomly (as were quality ratings). There were
more
troop quality/leadership markers than there were troops, but each side
had at
least 1 green and 2 veteran troops (the defender's lone green troop had
a
level 3 leadership; oh boy! :)

Objectives: the attackers are to knock out the 4 heavy howitzers
(located in
the back of the playing field) which are causing no end of grief to
their front
line forces. The defender's job is to prevent the destruction of the
howitzers.

Deployment: not knowing how the attackers would be coming at me (over
the
ridge, through the corridors in the cliffs) I was hard-pressed to try
and cover
all the avenues of attack (the floor is a wide area to keep cover on; I
would
have had an easier time on a more restricted-space table). Granted I
could 
have just plopped all my armor up on hills and taken opportunity fire as
they
came screaming over the ridge or through the corridors but if they timed
it
correctly they could quickly have overwhelmed my forces and get to the
howitzers - which were 'hidden' behind cliffs in the back (such that one
had to
actually go *around* the cliffs in order to kill the howitzers - running
the
guantlet of my tanks and infantry  in the process). I had kept all but
one of
my infantry squads by the howitzers in case they drew my armor out into
the
open areas for engagement or in case they got some of their own infantry
in the
back rows before my tanks could get turned around to deal with them.
(this was
also partly because I have played DSII only a dozen times now or so and
still
don't have a good feel for using infantry very well - to start with,
they move
awesomely slow, too slow to get anywhere for my tastes w/out being
preplaced -
notice, I had no troop transports available to me).

I positioned 1 platoon of Partisan-IIs up on one hill in the back,
covering the
right-most corridors, and one troop King Tiger IIs with the Vulcans
hiding
behind the leftmost rear hill, ready to rush up to give supporting fire
to the
middle or cover the leftmost corridors. All other armored assets I more
or less
divided up to one side or the other, figuring if they rush ALL their
units
through the middle, I can pin them from both sides, but if they all try
roaring
through the corridors on the sides then half my units will be out of
position
and need to move (fast) to get involved in the fray before the defenders
on
that end were wiped out (besides, terrain cover for my units was better
on the
sides than in the middle; the middle was mostly open with scattered
trees). 

After I deployed I looked up to see the attackers had their armored
units
stretched across their back field - with their GEVs and Grav units up
front,
tread/wheeled/walker units in the back. Granted these guys hadn't played
DSII
before, but they have played other wargames so I figured they were going
for a
two-prong attack: hit me hard and fast with the quicker units before I
could
get my forces fully into defensive positions, thus weakening them for
the
tread/wheeled units to come lumbering up and into my backfield.

To try and make this now-growing-longer-than-intended AAR not too long,
the
GEV/Grav units attacked en masse, while the tread/wheeled/walkers
lumbered
s-l-o-w-l-y up to the middle, much as I expected upon seeing their
set-up. They
ran into my trying-to-get-into-position tanks and started hitting them
hard.
Unfortunately, since the attackers were few, and I was many, I gave a
bit
better than I got (although my green Partisan-II platoon froze up under
panic,
having been fired upon at close range by a Deimos platoon of tanks,
blowing 2
of the Partisan-IIs away; they remained ineffective for about 3 turns).
The
Grav/GEV units continued running into my tanks, knocking out ~40% of my
exposed
armor, but I was able to hammer down most of the attacking Grav/GEV
units
(mostly from them being out-numbered and unsupported by their
tread/wheeled/
walker units). I had to, though, bring up my 'hidden' platoons of
Vulcans and
King Tiger IIs up on top of the hill they were secluded behind to give
supporting fire.

During this mad clash of armor, the attackers dashed their GEV troop
transports
in the far right side, where half of my armor (incl 75% of my heavy
units) had
been mauled badly by their Striker and Deimos attacks. Preventing the
deployment of the attacker powered infantry was....problemmatic at best.
Their
GEV troop transports shrugged off (through *bad* die rolls - we were
using die
rolls over chit draws for something different; worked fine) most of my
attacks
and were able to disgorge 75% of their PA infantry platoons (I managed
to KO
only one transport before this happened). My infantry units (all my
powered and
a couple of my normal) moved to intercept them, but most of my infantry
(the
remaining line inf) was too far away to do much good (moving at 2 mu
when they
were seperated by 12-16 mu means a few turns before engagement). The few
surviving tanks in the neighborhood attempted to suppress/kill the
attacking
infantry units, but their effects were marginal at best. I even lost a
couple
tanks to IVARs (kind of a bummer, eh?).

In the meantime, the attacker wheeled/tracked units tried to get into
position.
I had sent a few of my units onto the ridge in the middle of the field
to
disrupt their positions (and managed to take out the walkers, but not
before
the walkers managed to do a little damage themselves; basically and even
trade), but after their few shots of fire, they were wiped out. The
attacking
Ogre-type tank units began moving through one of the corridors through
the
cliffs, and were intercepted by a few Partisan-IIs I had left in the
area.
A stalemate ensued while the two sets of armor hammered each other to
scrap.

Back to the right side of the board, the attacker infantry managed to
move two
infantry units and one Striker tank close to two of the howitzers. One
howitzer
was destroyed, and the other minorly damaged (inconsequential damage;
armor was
never breached, but hits were applied). My troops (mostly tanks since
they
killed 90% of my infantry units in the area - fighting powered armor
infantry
with line infantry is a real bitch, ya know?) rallied and managed to
finish off
the units attacking the howitzers.

There was some confusion in the ranks of the attackers at this point.
They were
without power armor infantry, w/out their Grav/GEV tanks, without their
walker
units, and were starting to take casualties among their tracked
platoons. While
my units were both decimated and scattered between two areas of
operation, it
was very likely I could get the currently out-of-position units into a
position
to intercept any enemy incursions into my backfield. 

A turn or two of maneuvering followed with not much combat. During this
I sent
a 'probe' (sacrificial attack designed to weaken the attackers further,
and
maybe prompt them into attacking earlier than they wanted while they
were still
out of position) onto the center ridge. The probe was almost totally
wiped out,
but not before it did significant damage to the attacking forces arrayed
before
it (removed most of the missile threats that still were to enter the
fray). The
attackers followed up on this probe with a small assault of their own,
using
their Ogre 'heavy' tanks. Their probe was blunted hard, causing them to
lose
most of their platoon.

We decided to call the game at this point. It was late (we'd been at
this for
almost 5 hours) and while we had still 'only' really one more turn to
play,
the conclusion was almost a sure one: I would be able to repulse their
next
wave of attacks with what I had left, maintaining the integrity of my
remaining
3 howitzers.

A victory for the defenders, but at a cost. In the long run, the
defenders
would have insufficient resources available to repel another full-scale
attack
for quite some time (I was down to 52% of my original defending force).
If the
attackers had another company or three of armor/inf units available to
come at
the howitzers again in the next couple weeks, the howitzers would be
overrun.

Good thing the withdrawing attackers didn't realize how few defenders
remained...  :)

Sorry I've no fictional story written up to go along with this. It's
already
only taken me 2 months just to write this AAR overview up; no time to
get in
a fiction story, too.  :-/

Forces Used:

Infantry was pretty standard, whether powered or line. No special
additions/modifications to them. The Howitzers were medium howitzers,
with 1xAPSW for defenses and 4 points of armor.

Firecontrol systems. Most firecon systems were Enhanced, except for
the Deimos, Partisan-II, Rommel/Patton, and King Tiger II tanks, which
had Superior, and for the HUMMV, Whirlwind, and GEV troop transport,
which had either basic or none.

Quick overview of the armor:

Partisan-II Main Battle Tank
 Move: 12; fast track
 Armour: 3/2
 Stealth/ECM: 1/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d10
 Equip/Notes:
  HKP/4
  PDS-Enh
 Special: n/a

Rommel/Patton Heavy Battle Tank
 Move: 10; medium track
 Armour: 4A/3A
 Stealth/ECM: 1/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  DFFG/5
  PDS - Enh
 Special: n/a

King Tiger II Heavy Tank Killer
 Move: 10; medium track
 Armour: 4/3
 Stealth/ECM: 1/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  MDC/5
  MDC/2 - rear fixed
 Special: n/a

Vulcan SLAM Tank
 Move: 8; slow track
 Armour: 5/4
 Stealth/ECM: 1/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d6
 Equip/Notes:
  SLAM/5
  SLAM/5
 Special: n/a

Deimos Heavy Grav Tank
 Move: 15; grav
 Armour: 4/3
 Stealth/ECM: 1/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  MDC/4
  PDS-Enh
 Special: n/a

Striker Fast GEV Battle Tank
 Move: 15; fast GEV
 Armour: 3/2
 Stealth/ECM: -/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  HKP/3 - fixed
  HEL/2x2 - turr
 Special: n/a

Heavy GEV Troop Transport
 Move: 15; fast GEV
 Armour: 3/2
 Stealth/ECM: -/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d6
 Equip/Notes:
  RFAC/2
 Special: capable of carrying 2xPower Armor Infantry troops

Ogre Combine Light Battle Tank
 Move: 8; slow track
 Armour: 2R/1R
 Stealth/ECM: -/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d10
 Equip/Notes:
  HKP/5 - fixed
 Special: oversized gun allowed

Ogre 'Heavy' Main Battle Tank
 Move: 8; slow track
 Armour: 3R/2R
 Stealth/ECM: -/Sup
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  HKP/4
  PDS-Enh
 Special: n/a

HUMMV
 Move: 10; fast wheeled
 Armour: 1/1
 Stealth/ECM: -/none
 Effective Targ Die: d10
 Equip/Notes:
  1xAPSW
 Special: capable of carrying 1xLine Infantry troops

Land Raider II Main Battle Tank
 Move: 8; slow track
 Armour: 4/3
 Stealth/ECM: 1/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  HVC/4x2 (one left, one right; half turret)
  RFAC/2
 Special: 2xFireCon, allows tank to fire side weapons at
  different targets the same time

Whirlwind Missile Tank
 Move: 10; medium track
 Armour: 4/3
 Stealth/ECM: -/Basic
 Effective Targ Die: d6
 Equip/Notes:
  GMS/H-Enh x4
 Special: 'systems down: firer' only affects individual GMS/H mount

Hunter SLAM Tank
 Move: 10; medium track
 Armour: 3/2
 Stealth/ECM: -/Basic
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  SLAM/5 - 180 degree turret
 Special: n/a

Valkyrie Small Combat Walker
 Move: 12; walker
 Armour: 2/1
 Stealth/ECM: -/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  HEL/2
  SLAM/3
 Special: n/a

Catapult Large Combat Walker
 Move: 12; walker
 Armour: 5/4
 Stealth/ECM: -/Enh
 Effective Targ Die: d8
 Equip/Notes:
  medium artillery 
  HEL/3
 Special: randomly choose 3 out of the following artillery rounds:
      2xMAK
      2xSmoke
      2xHE
   (in our scenario, he was loaded with 2xSmoke, 1xMAK)

Th-th-th-that's all folks. Happy New Year!

Mk
------------------------------------------------------------------------
-
Daune: "How can you be asleep and getting ready at the same time?"

Indy: "I'm multi-tasking..."