[SG2] PBEM AAR - Valley of Death - Report - 5a of 5

The mailing list seems to have coughed at the size of this section, so
I've
divided it in half. There is now a "5a" and a "5b".

MAP LEGEND

The map represents a gaming table 8' by 6'. The scale on the bottom and
side
of the map shows a distance in inches. The top of the map is north.

Pale green areas are clear. Lime green areas are hills, and you can see
the
contour lines. White lines represent the crest of the hills (using the
military crest rules). 

The hills are designated as follows: the northern ridge that extends off
the
western edge of the map is Ridge 111; the northern ridge that extends
off the
map in the north east corner is Ridge 122; the ridge just south of the
center
of the map and extending off the west edge is Ridge 121; the two level
hill
just south of the center of the map and extending off the east edge is
Hill
131; the big ridge at the south end of the map and bisected by the road
is
Ridge 141, with the western side designated Ridge 141a, and the eastern
side
designated Ridge 141b. 

Yellowish brown areas are bushes. They act as soft cover, block line of
sight
through them, but do no block line of sight above them. 

Dark green clumps are light woods and chocolate brown clumps are dense
woods.
These act as soft cover and block LOS up to one level higher (i.e. a set
of
woods on hill Level 1 blocks line of sight through it on Level 1 _and_
on
Level 2). 

The small green clumps with white centres sitting in orderly rows
represent an
orchard. The orchard works as soft cover, but does not have the movement
disadvantages of woods.

The round light grey thing is a building (modeled after a Kryomek
building I
own). The light grey squares are bunkers. The bunkers have Armour Class
5,
with Armour Class 3 doors on the rear (north) side. The bunkers are
designated
A, B, C, and D, from left to right (east to west).

The dark grey meandering line is a road. The light blue meandering line
is a
stream. The white area where the road and the stream intersect is a
bridge.

Blue dots are IF infantry and infantry-portable heavy weapon units. Blue
diamonds are IF vehicles (an empty vehicle is a hollow diamond). A blue
line
sticking out of a unit shows its heading, when necessary. Likewise, red
dots
are NSL infantry, PA, and infantry portable heavy weapon units; red
diamonds
are NSL vehicles. A red triangle is the NSL gunship. Red lines show the
facing
of a unit, when necessary.

Large yellow circles are IF minefields. Smaller dark green circles are
IF
pre-plotted artillery positions. Orange circles are NSL pre-plotted
artillery
positions. Dark blue circles are areas where an IF artillery strike has
been
called in to hit, and dark red circles are where an NSL artillery strike
is
expected. Medium blue circles are where the rounds from the IF mortar
battery
landed, while bright red circles are where the rounds from the NSL
mortar
batteries landed. White circles represent smoke. 

TURN 0

The NSL set up in the southeast corner of the board, with the two
platoons
separated by about 60 metres and the company commander off in the bottom
right
corner of the board, out of harm's way. The NSL player requested that
the APCs
be kept off table. I ruled that he could call them in from the Loiter
Box of
the Inbound Chart if he wanted to.

The IF player put a squad of militia in each of the bunkers, and the
militia
command squad in the far right bunker. The regular IF platoon was set up
in
the Civet APCs to the west of the orchard, facing east. The HAMR team
was set
up on the tip of Ridge 122 around the co-ordinates 57, 15. This provided
a
good view of the eastern side of Ridge 141b, and covered the road over
the
bridge.

The IF minefields were scattered throughout the area. The bulk of the
mines
were placed in apparent anticipation of an attack along the eastern side
of
the board, though two minefields were located on Ridge 121.

The NSL's pre-plotted artillery points were sighted on the bunkers, one
per
bunker. The IF player was allowed to choose his pre-plotted artillery
points.
He used these to fill gaps in his minefield coverage.

The IF had the option of activating first or second for the first turn.
After
that, a secret roll was made. The Quality Die (QD) of each player's
command
unit was rolled. The player that rolled highest went first that turn.
This
roll was made in secret. (Note: see the way the PBEM rules worked for
activations.)

See the set up map:
http://home.att.net/~agoodall/sg2/pbem/sg2-vod-t00.jpg

Commentary: 
The NSL player had the option of dropping artillery rounds on the first
turn.
I think Roger missed this. Not surprising since I _forgot_ about it. The
result was that no NSL artillery was dropped on the first turn, the
artillery
didn't hit until the second turn. I'm still debating whether or not
letting
the NSL drop artillery on the first turn is good for scenario balance.

The set up positions of the two players was a little surprising. When
designing a scenario I like to think of how I would play it. The
scenario was
designed as a spoiling attack by the IF. This was why the IF had the
option of
waiting a turn and coming onboard in the southern valley. The IF chose
not to
do that, preferring to start in the middle valley on turn 1.

For the NSL, my thought would have been (assuming I knew nothing of the
IF's
true disposition) to run the troops in GEV APCs up the far right edge of
the
board using the PA as scouts. By turn 2, the troops would be ready to
cut due
west across the board and assault the IF. If the IF had also followed my
plan,
this would have resulted in the IF catching the NSL in a pincer.

Instead, the NSL chose to fight without the APCs. Since they intended to
hug
the woods, this made sense. It also nullified -- to a small extent --
the anti
vehicular units of the IF, which were hanging back waiting for APCs to
show.
The placement of 1st platoon may seem a bit weird, but this was before I
clarified the way trees worked (they blocked LOS one level higher up).
If you
think the bunkers have LOS to ridge 141b, then placing the troops behind
the
hill crest made a lot of sense. In a second run through of the game I'd
expect
the NSL to be able to set up very close to the dense trees.

In short: nothing particularly wrong struck me with either set up. The
set ups
were just different from what I envisioned.

TURN 1
The IF chose to activate first. The first activation saw squad 11 (1st
squad,
1st platoon) in its Civet advance west past the orchard.

The NSL moved squad 2P (PA squad, 2nd platoon) across the river and into
the
woods on the southern tip of ridge 122. They ran right past the IF HAMR
team. 

More of IF's first platoon moved up. The command Civet moved up the
slope
towards the bunkers, then offloaded the command team except for the
leader.
(Note: there was a communication breakdown as far as the TO&E went and
only
the EW team was supposed to run into the bunker. I thought that the EW
team
was part of the command squad. I corrected this by letting the IF player
split
the EW team from the command squad for free, something he did in Turn
2.)
Squads 12 and 13 moved up with their Civet, 12 heading for Ridge 121 and
13
heading for the woods east of the orchard. The heavy weapons team also
moved
to the woods.

(Another note: the IF player realized later that he had placed the
missile
weapons team within a minefield. Since I had precise co-ordinates and
the
players had to guess by eyeball or by printing the map and using a
ruler, I
let the IF player reposition the missile weapons team outside of the
minefield. This was done at some point in this turn.)

The NSL moved up their squads. 2nd Platoon moved through the woods just
east
of the road, while 1st Platoon moved over the hill crest and into the
dense
woods. Unit 23 was spotted moving into the wood edge. 

The NSL player continued to consolidate his platoons, while shifting the
company heavy weapons squad CH away from the company commander. The IF
unloaded squads 11 and 1H (heavy weapons squad) from their vehicles,
while 12
debussed from the Civet and headed up to the bushes on Ridge 121. Squad
13,
still in their Civet, was sent around to the relative safety behind
bunker C,
but not before it was spotted by the NSL. The missile team IF 1T went on
overwatch.

The NSL company commander (CC) communicated with the platoon commanders
to
attempt Transfer Actions. These were detected by the IF EW unit, which
tried
to jam the communication. It didn't work. With the two platoons
consolidated,
the 2C (2nd Platoon commander) moved squad 2P further up Ridge 122. They
entered an IF minefield. In spite of their experience level they
triggered
some mines, but none of the mines penetrated their armour. The IF heard
the
mine explosions. 2C finished off by calling in an armour piercing salvo
from
the 2nd Platoon's mortar battery onto bunker D.

NSL squad 23, reactivated by the platoon commander, made a run for the
bridge.
They didn't quite reach it. They tried to get under the bridge with a
second
move action. The IF HAMR team spotted them, and fired as they start to
move
again. The squad's plasma gunner was hit, and the squad hit the dirt
with a
suppression. The HAMR team, however, gave up its position (rolled a 1 on
the
Quality Die). NSL squad 21 fired back at the HAMR team. All three shots
hit
the HAMR operator, but only one penetrated. It was enough and the
operator was
killed.

The IF player spent some time searching for his opponent, but found
nothing
(there was nothing to spot in the areas he was searching). 2C, the
militia
command squad, fired at NSL 23 now lying beside the bridge. The plasma
gunner
was hit a second time. IF 2C then called for the platoon mortar battery
to
strike NSL 23.

The gunship was waved off and sent to loiter.

See the Turn 1 maps for the positions at the end of turn 1:
http://home.att.net/~agoodall/sg2/pbem/sg2-vod-t01.jpg

Commentary: 
Chris, the IF player, bemoaned his bad rolls in this turn, particularly
with
regard to his HAMR team. What he didn't see were the spotting rolls I
made in
secret. He made all of these, thus his luck was pretty much average.

You can't fault the IF's use of the HAMR team to hit unit 23. It was
just bad
luck that they were spotted and fired on by another NSL squad.

Roger should have brought in the gunship on this turn. Due to the hills,
it
would be relatively easy to hide it from harm by having it hover behind
Ridge
141. He didn't want to bring it in until he had a target, but putting it
in
loiter means he has to use a communication attempt in a later turn to
bring it
on board. Otherwise it would have entered any time on turn 2 on its own.
The
gunship is also the NSL's best "bunker buster". Since the GMS/H is
sensor and
ECM dependent (_not_ range dependent) it would be a simple matter of
having
the gunship pop up from behind Ridge 141 and drop missiles into the
bunkers,
with no one in LOS except the bunkers. 

With this in mind, I could criticize Chris' placement of his missile
team. The
missile team is actually not badly set up for dealing with APCs or the
gunship, but there are a couple of spots where the gunship can fire on
the
bunkers and not be hit by the missile team. I personally think that
bunker D
is a better spot for the missile team. It's well protected. While likely
to be
the first target of the gunship, there's virtually nowhere for the
gunship to
hide that wouldn't let the missile team get the first shot in. Of
course, if
the missile team loses the gunnery duel with the gunship, the missile
team
would probably be lost with the bunker, so perhaps Chris' position isn't
that
bad.

The mortar battery makes a pretty wimpy anti-bunker weapon. The mortars
roll
2D12 versus 5D12. Since the gunship won't make an appearance for at
least one
more turn, I think dropping smoke on the bunker would have been more
useful
than firing on it with anti-armour munitions.

Allan Goodall		       agoodall@hyperbear.com
http://www.hyperbear.com

"We come into the world and take our chances
 Fate is just the weight of circumstances
 That's the way that Lady Luck dances
 Roll the bones." - N. Peart