Cholm, a city of some 6,000 inhabitants before hostilities overtook it, sat astride a vital road nexus between Toropetz to the south and Staraja Russa to the north. In addition, the city contained the only suitable bridge across the Lovat River and surrounding swamp for many miles around. On the 21st, Russian ski troops cut the Germans occupying Cholm off from contact with their parent units in the XXXIX Korps. In addition, the northwestern sector fell to a partisan attack where many of its buildings were consumed by flames as their thatched roofs were set ablaze. On the 23rd, KG Scherer counterattacked and retook most of this part of town, but the Russians held the western churchyard and the nearby road fork as well as the extreme north-western approaches.
The Russian Offboard Observer is at level 1. Also note KGS 4.2. For the purposes of concealment, the Germans set up as if the Russians are entering from offboard.
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Having liked the scenario so much the first time, John and I decided to switch sides and try it again. John would have the benefit of seeing what worked and didn't from my failed attack, while I would get the chance to try and improve on his great defensive setup. One noticeable difference off the bat was I did not sit tight with my defending eastern infantry, but rather actively repositioned them. In particular in the NE, where I moved my men outside the potential blast zone to cover the entry area with a blanket of fire. We had played a few things wrong the first time around (mostly to my benefit), by not realizing the board-edge rout problems of the Russians and also forgetting Deep Snow bog rules for the vehicles. John really disliked my "board-edge stuff" plan, and one potential improvement we thought of would be disallowing German movement on that side of the board until Russian entry. I also ran two stacks of infantry over from the west to the east across the difficult terrain of the snowy sunken river. I also had stacked the western defense to the gills, placing all of my good leaders and many of my SWs there, with the plan of stuffing the Russian initial attack so badly that I'd be able to shift my attention east in the latter part of the game. While this did prove very effective, it wasn't nearly the deadly quick strike I was hoping for, and my endgame suffered because of it. I was particularly proud of my 9-2/HMG nest placement and of one of my big mortars. The other big mortar proved sorely out of position, and I should've repositioned it immediately, but for some reason I didn't. Always a concern, his initial round of small bombardments proved rather ineffective. John wisely Human Waved what Russians he could on entry, something I had failed to do with my much more cautious approach, and had his offboard observer stationed in the west to help soften up my defenses immediately (whereas I had mine in the east). But none of this prevented the Russians from taking an ass whooping the first 2.5 turns, losing 14.5 squads to the 2.5 for the Germans. While his next round of heavy bombardments was still rather ineffective, what possibly won him the game was his use of it in busting up my defense in tiny Block 42. This allowed him to sweep in rather unmolested in the SE corner of the board, and his Turn 4 reinforcements to enter to the far right of their allowed area. Had I been able to slow these units by even a turn, I think I could've bought myself enough time to hold out at the end. It was seeming that John was making the Herculean effort of going for Sector C, but this early in the game I didn't feel I could fully reposition my troops until the remainder of his reinforcements entered. Once again, what units could do so entered via Human Wave. This being Sector A but, as I mentioned, I had setup stiff resistance there and only 5 conscripts and a 7-0 made it to the edge of Block 13, with another stack advancing on, and yet another advancing into the gully. While these never made it past Block 13, they did tie me up far longer than I would've liked, and none of my units were able to make it in time to reinforce against the main thrust. The bitter cold started to wreak havoc on my weapons, losing two MMGs and my big mortar for good, as well as breaking a couple LMGs, and Turn 4 saw a lessening of the Russian casualties. As suspected, another round of reinforcements entered in the upper reaches of Sector C. When Turn 5 saw the last batch of reinforcements enter right behind, I knew I wasn't going to be strong enough to hold him off. One small consolation that turn was me eliminating the Russian sniper, which meant I'd be taking any pot shots allowed me. Another was on the following turn when my set DC blasted one of his T-60s. But, while German casualties had yet to outnumber Russians, I knew it was only a matter of time before I'd be inexorably crushed. The fact that he started taking POWs, allowing him to deploy, didn't help either. Bottom line is, while I staunchly held my ground in the west and NE, the cost of resources I had committed to those areas was too costly. and his delaying tactics with a couple big kill stacks too effective. While the game did go the very last Russian turn, I pretty much knew this was game over the moment his last reinforcements entered in my soft middle. Still, it was another fun playing of what I consider to be a great scenario.
2024-04-04
(A) Jeff B
vs
John Fedoriw
A
German win
52.5 hrs
The Russian commander must have a stomach of steel in this one as they have plenty of deep-snow OG to cross facing numerous German FLs and upper-level fire. Bore sighting will make this task even more dangerous. I did a rather poor job of coordinating my bombardments, holding off on all of them until Turn 3. I would've been much better served starting them earlier. Considering they were rather ineffective anyway it may not have really mattered, but my northern reinforcements were absolutely demolished after I made a mistake on their point of entry and they came on without OBA support. On Turn 4 we changed the game length to 13 turns after seeing that's what it was (erroneously) listed on LFT's own website. Then, close to the end of the game, we noticed the balance provisions on the card. So we inadvertently used the Russian balance, and it honestly turned it into a much better/closer game. I would've conceded long before the end otherwise, as I felt from the get-go that I (correctly) didn't stand much of a chance. In very atypical fashion for me, I lost both FTs on their first shots. Turn 6 saw me lose my first two tanks, as I got a little greedy trying to get behind the German line, and I didn't realize until after the game that we never rolled for deep snow bogs - so I caught a break there. Turn 8 finally saw the German casualties outweigh the Russian, as my OBA blasted a bunch in the all-important Block 18 church, but I still had yet to even take a step into any of the western blocks. Turn 9 saw me take my first POWs, and I thought perhaps I had a chance to win by CVP; not to mention the greater flexibility being able to deploy would allow me for HWs. But there was just not enough time left. We both were bitching and moaning throughout the whole game, and that's usually the sign of a well-balanced scenario. We played to the bitter end, taking us 52.5 hours and a bit over three months, and I ended up one block and 5 CVP short. It was a real grind, but not in a bad way, and was right up there with Bloody Red Beach as one of my most enjoyable ASL experiences. I definitely think the Russian player needs either the balance, or the benefit of having played it once before to know what to expect.
