AAR (April 7, 2001)

The SETTING
The scenario was drawn up as a lightly escorted convoy of support
elements,
that runs into enemy units. Victory was to be determined by getting as
much
of the convoy as possible off the opposite end of the table, not by
holding
ground. The terrain was laid out in advance by another person, with only
the
words "We need a road for a convoy" as his guide. We were hoping that
this
would provide an action that would feel less "scripted" (we have had too
many assaults lately).

THE CONVOY (roughly 6,700 points)
1 company of combat cars (4 platoons - 4 each)
1 platoon scout cars (class 1 hi-mobility wheeled - MDCx1)
Transport (5 5-ton low mobility wheeled)
1 battery towed artillery
2 ambulances
command vehicle
combat engineer unit (2 infan teams, 2 AEV, 1 ADS)
a couple of turns of off-table artillery support
ability to call in aerospace support
ability to call in ground support (1 armored and 1 infan. company) if
things
got out of hand

THE ATTACKERS (just over 7,000 points)
1 company of Medium tanks (5 platoons - 4 each, slow tracked - HKPx4)
1 platoon of heavy tank (3 class 5, slow GEV - HELx4)
1 platoon of power armor (including an ADS with the transports)
2 minefields
1 on-table artillery battery
ability to call on a short armored and short infantry company if needed

The attackers were able to pre-place.The convoy was allowed to start
with 4
units on table, and then bring on 2 units per turn.

The terrain was clearly against the convoy. There were two strong points
to
bottle neck the convoy, one being about 20 inches or so on table (ironic
note: the guy who laid the terrain was a commander for the convoy...).
This
was a point where two hills came close to the side of the road - close
enough that a single mine marker covered the entire pass. The hills also
severely limited movement options (they were large). The heavies had an
excellent position, covering right down the gap between the hills. the
rest
of the units spilt up on either side of the road, beyond the first two
large
hills. There were no trees (the cat had tried to eat them over night
*shrug*).

THE ACTION (no clear turn by turn break down - sorry)
The convoy started with two combat car units, the scouts, and the
trucks. 1
combat car unit immediately began to hook to the convoy's right, around
one
of the hills. One figure came under visibility of the heavy tank HELs
and
was destroyed - 54 inches - (much of the rest of the convoy's actions
revolved around eliminating the HELs). The scouts began hooking to the
left,
they were artillery observers and wanted to get a good vantage point.
The
trucks pulled off an parked in a town near their entry point. The second
combat car unit sprinted ahead, gambled that the mine marker was a
dummy...
and suffered the immobilization of the lead car. The crew did not bail,
and
was quite annoying for a turn or so, until concentrated fire eliminated
it.

More units entered the board for the convoy - the towed guns came on,
preparing to unlimber and support the action, the engineers began to
move to
clear the mine field. As some of the scouts cleared the hill edge -
opportunity fire cleared them out. The right most combat car unit kept
hooking, while a unit of tracked tanks moved to intercept.

As the combat cars finally hooked around the hill, the tanks waiting for
them missed with their opportunity fire, and blew their call for
artillery
support. The combat cars succeeded with their call, and the entire
platoon
of tanks was destroyed. The hook continued the next turn - hoping to
either
run up on the heavy tanks with their DFFG or run past them and catch the
on-table artillery undefended... It did not matter when the heavies
turned
on them and another unit of tracked tanks closed also... the resulting
fire
completely destroyed the combat cars.

The additional two combat car units entered the table, and both began
swinging to the right... attempting to call artillery down on the
distantly
visible heavies as they did so (every such call failed - a theme for the
day, it was the single least effective artillery day we have ever had -
lots
of 1s and 2s). The attackers did not want the enemy concentrating
firepower
so the powered armor advanced on the convoy's left (maneuvering through
the
area previously held by the scouts - some rather ho-hum fire exchanges
and
failed artillery rolls had removed them) bringing the town and
ambulances
under threat - sparking a debate on the merits of adhering to rule books
literally or not per the "buying the drinks" comment for firing on
medevac
units... :).

It was about this point that the convoy remembered that they could call
for
reinforcements (4-5 turns away), and thought it prudent to do so.

The engineers managed to sneak along the edge of a low escarpment and
remove
the minefield. And the convoy prepared to surge forward...

The convoy's supporting airstrike swept in now, and it was effective.
One
pilot bailed under the threat of the ADS, but their other two managed to
avoid being shot down and took out two of the heavies.

It was dramatic, but the convoy lost their nerve at this point...
Pressure
was advancing on their immediate left and several units were moving to
close
on the now cleared gap before them. They clearly could not force an
advance
and protect the vulnerable units in their rear. A general withdrawal was
begun. Sharp fire exchanges with the covering combat cars resulted in
another platoon suffering severe damage and they routed (GMS from the
power
armor, and HKP from an advancing tank platoon).

Unfortunately the convoy's artillery was unlimbered... As it prepped for
departure an enemy unit cleared to LOS on it and called in an artillery
strike that took out all the guns and 3 of the soft top tractors in
beautiful open sheaf fire mission. If the convoy's spirit wasn't broken
before - it was then. The retreat effectively became pell-mell.

This is when it got cool, IMO. We shift the map 50%, to include where
the
retreated convoy had lagered and began moving the called reinforcements
on
table... Spirits rose among the convoy. The attackers' reinforcements
were
also entering, but they were outnumbered and rushing to get into some
sort
of organized defensive position.

The convoy's friends surged forward, thrilling in the massive meeting
engagement... (good 20-25k points to a side)

We called it there - but left it set up to continue at our next
gathering.
============================
It was much fun. Learned a few things:

The points may have been balanced but most of the convoy's were tied up
in
combat ineffective units, so the attack clearly over powered them.
Couple
that with poor ground, and the convoy really did not have a chance. The
clear objective and need to coordinate was nice though, I recommend
convoy
attacks - and will try it again some time with better force balance.

We did not use any hidden units... would have been fun.

Those of us that have read any Hammer's Slammers had a serious debate on
the
rule that a vehicle can only fire one weapon per turn... We elected that
they combat cars could fire more than once, as each gunner is about as
independent a system from the vehicle and his crewmates as he could be.
This
gave the combat cars a real fighting chance - but the longer range
weapons
of the enemy (and more of them) and relatively open terrain (remember no