[DS] The First Battle of Necryr Crossing - AAR

The terrain was set up such that a river ran North-South (across the
short
portion of our 6'x4' table) Three hills were ranged on either side of
the
river, and a road ran longwise across the surface (East-West) with a
bridge
over the river. Near the Northern edge was a natural ford for
tracked/wheeled equipment. The long ends of the tables each sported a
town.
The objectives were fairly straight forward, each side had to defend
their
town (NW and SE corners) while capturing the opposing force's town.

We had six players, divided into two sides of three commands each. The
scenario design had spent consider time trying to balance the force
point
values. We also tried to give each commander a variety of forces. TAN
Force
was almost all expensive hi-tech equipment (GEV, high ECM, etc.) while
BLUE
had a lot of tracked, lower-tech equipment. This introduced more units
for
BLUE at a lesser cost. We had decided to run without infantry to keep
the
game from bogging down. A decision was also made to allow BLUE some
light
artillery to try to balance the superior mobility of TAN. You will note
that
TAN drew very well for unit quality, it was expected that this would be
a
factor later - and there was a casual consensus that TAN had the
advantage.

BLUE Force (West end)
Cmd 1 (about 2000 points)
1 platoon of heavy grav tanks (x3) - HEL/4 main gun (B3)
1 platoon light tank (x5) - ftrack, HKP/3 (B2)
1 platoon light tank destroyers (x4) - ftrack, HKP/4 (B3)
1 platoon IFV (used as recon) (x5) - HEL/1 (G1)

Cmd 2 (about 1800 points)
2 platoon MBT (x4) - strack, HKP/4 (O2, G2)
1 platoon SP mortars (x4) - strack, light artillery - 2 MAK, 1
deployable
mine, 1 HEF (B1)
1 platoon VTOL gunship (x2) - GMS/H(x2) (B2)

Cmd 3 (about 2800 points)
1 platoon of heavy tank (x3) - slow GEV, dual mounted HEL/5 (B2)
1 platoon MBT (x4) - fast GEV, MDC/4 (G2)
1 platoon combat walkers (x5) - dual mounted SLAM/2 (B2)

TAN Force
Cmd 1 (about 2000 points)
1 platoon MBT (x5) - slow GEV, HEL/5 (O2)
1 platoon combat car (x4) - fast GEV, DFFG/2 (3 guns - we treat them as
dual
mounts for coverage) (B1)
1 platoon light tank destroyer - strack, HVC/4 (O3)

Cmd 2 (about 2000 points)
1 platoon tank destroyers (x4) - fast GEV, MDC/4 (G3)
1 platoon combat walkers (x4) - MDC/3 (O1)
1 platoon VTOL gunship (x2) - dual mount SLAM/2 (O2)

Cmd 3 (about 2700 points)
1 platoon MBT (x4) - fast GEV, DFFG/5 (O3)
1 platoon combat car (x4) - fast GEV, DFFG/2 (3 guns - we treat them as
dual
mounts for coverage) (B3)
1 platoon combat walkers (x4) - dual mounted SLAM/2 (O1)

Each side also had a command vehicle escorted by an anti-air element to
keep
the VTOLs from doing something crazy.

Turn 1
=====
TAN divided it forces - making an assumption that the opponent would run
tracked elements for the ford Cmd 3 took the North and moved to close
its
DFFG elements to intercept. Cmd 2 was given the job of doing a rapied
and
direct cross of the river on the South flank - presumably to meet and
defeat
the enemy GEV elements. Cmd 1 was placed in the center, by the town with
orders to support either flank if they got into trouble or to block the
unlikely enemy advance over the bridge. TAN had some concern re: the
placement of enemy HEL guns on the hill tops, but the expectation was
that
this would take a turn or so longer than a sprint over the river.

BLUE reached the conclusion that they had superior long range weaponry
and
that TAN would want to charge to bring its DFFGs to bear. They decided
to
play as a defensive position and let TAN throw themselves at their
positions. Cmd 3 (the GEV heavy unit) was set to approach the ford while
placing their HELs on the likely hill top. CMD 2 was ordered up the
middle,
while Cmd 1 swung to the south, placing their HEL unit on a good hill.

Much to TAN chagrin, their speed estimates were off - BLUE established
good
HEL positions on both main western hills in turn one. Much of the TAN
force
was in the open at or crossing the river.

Turn 2
=====
BLUE HELs dominated.

In the center, the dual mounted heavies of BLUE 3 were visible to TAN
1's
HEL and took several direct hits - but turned out they had ablative
armor so
despite drawing enough points to kill 2 of 3 - they were of the wrong
color.
BLUE 3 returned fire and killing one and immoblizing another of TAN 1's
tanks. BLUE 2 had elements swinging up the main road straight for the
bridge.

To the South, BLUE 1's HELs caught the TAN 2's tank destroyers (their
only
green unit) mid river. Took out a couple of figs and induced panic in
the
unit. The rest of BLUE 1's forces swung around an intervening hill and
lined
up their guns on the panicked unit and the walkers following them up.
The
resulting fire was ineffective, but some artillery was dropped on the
walkers - more downed figs and confidence fell (for both the walkers and
TAN
2).  TAN's VTOLS had moved up in Turn 1, but where screen by a copse of
trees and escaped the carnage. They performed a pop-up maneuver at the
single mount HEL unit on the hill before them. This turned out to be the
high point for TAN (for the entire exchange) as the dual mounted SLAMs
(what
a great weapon mount config) hit at medium range and drifted... 2 of 3
tanks
were destroyed.

To the North, BLUE 3 had gotten his MDC tanks into position and killed 2
combat cars and immoblized another of TAN 3's platoon.

Turn 3
=====
In the center, TAN 1 was concerned. He had a collapsing Southern flank
that
he had to cover, but BLUE 2 was clearly advancing right at him - his
orders
were now in conflict. The light tank destroyers started to swing to the
South while his HEL tanks tried again to take out the dual mounted HEL's
on
the hill. This time there was more success - taking out one dual mount,
but
in the exchange of fire lost another TAN tank. BLUE 2's lead element was
the
IFV, TAN 1 had ignored them as a threat (HEL/1, who cared?) but they
fired
for the hell of it and drew a BOOM! TAN 1's main platoon had been
reduced to
one mobile and one immobile. The entire center was now effectively held
by
one platoon of combat cars with a full company bearing down on the
bridge.

To the South, TAN's situation was even worse. The green tanks routed and
began fleeing. BLUE let them go and took some shots at the remaining
walkers - killing them all, and took out one the VTOL elements with a
nice
visibility angle along the edge of the intervening trees. To the North
BLUE
3 had also advanced their walkers onto a hill and achieved an angle onto
the
other VTOL and burned it down to. TAN 3 had had 2 of three units
completely
eliminated and had his third routed.

To the North, TAN 3 advanced his DFFG tanks and got some shots on the
walkers that had taken out the VTOL - roasting two, but then his combat
cars
routed under further fire...

Turn 4
=====
Never really started, TAN failed all their personal confidence checks :)
and
announced a general retreat. BLUE allowed them to exit the field with
something resembling dignity.

CONCLUSIONS
===========
It was a rout. The fasted Dirtside game I have participated in to date.
After combat discussions reached the conclusion that point balancing may
not
be as important as "barrel balancing" - unit count, for instance, or
weapon
ranges.

BLUE definitely thought that their advantage in long range weapons
mattered
a lot. TAN countered that they had long range units, they just proved
ineffective early (TAN's successful hits that ablative armor turned
back) or
suffered poor luck (the panicked greens). Regardless, BLUE's range
advantage
was key.

BLUE also thought TAN's lack of artillery was to their advantage. They
did
not worry about unit crowding and thought they got a good movement boost
from this and got units to position faster as a result. They thought
they
noted a tendancy in TAN to spread their force out and this kept units
from
supporting each other.

We had a couple of DS virgins, and they had fun and want to play again
(cool - but they were on BLUE so who could blame them).

I plan to redesign the scenario some, and try it again (play testing for
a