One of the previous Germans had a second go at attacking in this game, with a new Soviet player defending. This time the Soviet player dispersed his forces a bit more than previously, and two popular killing grounds, the hamlet and the farmstead, were left vacant, though the woods around them crawled with Soviet riflemen. During the first turn, which consisted of six initiative rounds (sets of 20 initiative phases) and 18 initiative phase, the German player spent 85 impetus points and the Soviet player spent 34. This was OK, though, as the German spent most of the turn deploying onto the game board and trying to locate Soviet troops. All three of the Soviet rifle companies were located during the turn and a brisk firefight between the German's armored grenadier company and the Soviet 3rd rifle company resulted in most of a Soviet platoon being suppressed and a morale chip being played against it by the Germans (to no effect). Meanwhile, the Soviet first rifle company deployed a platoon to the Soviet's rightmost hilltop to watch for Germans approaching on that flank. During turn two, the German continued his advance, bringing his tanks on-line to shell the center (2nd) Soviet rifle company in the woods between the farm and the hamlet, and getting his second grenadier company into position to fire on the center Soviet company. The firefight between the armored grenadiers and their opposing Soviet 3rd company continued on the right flank, with no telling effect. Both sides' battalion mortars were called, shelling one another's second companies with no effect. This was a short turn, ended by a tie on the sixth initiative die roll during the third initiative phase. This time around, the Germans spent 34 impetus points and the Soviets, nine. During turn three both sides managed to contact their off-board artillery; the Soviets called their 120mm mortar fire down on the German first grenadier company, though it didn't arrive during the turn. The Germans called their artillery battalion's combined fire on the advanced platoon of the Soviet first rifle company; it didn't arrive, either. The battalion mortars continued their ineffectual fire as well. The Germans managed a second contact with their artillery battalion and called its fire on the Soviet second rifle company, forcing it's whole-scale retreat from the center of the line. Continued German fire on the Soviet third rifle company inflicted further losses on the previously hit Soviet platoon, causing it to fail a morale check (forced by the playing of another German morale chip) and fall back through the woods, routed. This turn was one in which the Soviets held the initiative most of the time, with three initiative phases, 43 Soviet impetus points, and nine German impetus points. Turn four saw things come to a head as the Soviet 120mm mortars hit the German first grenadier company, causing suppressions in two platoons, triggering morale checks (paid for with two Soviet morale chips), resulting in one platoon's becoming shaken and the other, routed, rendering the company ineffective for the time being. The Soviet first rifle company's advanced platoon, seeing its frontal threat removed, fell back before the German artillery fire arrived. The German third grenadier company entered the board at this time, advancing up the road to the armored grenadier company as they advanced after the German tanks. The German tank platoons, expecting support from the armored grenadier company, advanced after the retreating Soviet second rifle company, sending a platoon around either side of the farmhouse. The Soviet 57mm antitank battery spent an opportunity point and engaged the rightmost tank platoon, suppressing, and in a subsequent initiative phase, destroying it. The other German tank platoon engaged the Soviet battery but without effect. In danger of being outflanked, the remainder of the Soviet third rifle company fell back, to form a second line back with the 57mm antitank guns. Exhaustion of the German's sequence cards ended the turn after four initiative phases during which the Germans spent 53 impetus points and the Soviets, 42. The game was a Soviet victory. Given time, the Germans would have eventually flowed around the Soviet's flanks, but there simply wasn't time. Notes One difference between PoA and the other rules that we didn't realize until we started scenario play is that in PoA, units fire, not stands. To the get same level of combat (i.e., which units/stands roll attack dice) as with the other rules, we almost should have played PoA at the next lower scale (i.e., three stands comprise a squad but the squad fires, moves, etc., as a single whole), except that a) we hadn't nearly enough miniatures to play such a game and b) the ground scale would have changed too much (i.e., 1 inch on the tabletop would have represented only 10 yards, so we'd have needed a 20' by 30' game table!) so the very nature of the tabletop battlefield would have changed considerably. We elected to stay with the PoA platoon game as a result. As it turned out, this was a good idea because the two players had their hands full controlling a reinforced battalion apiece. During the first turn it occurred to us that the Soviet forces were expecting the Germans. To that end it might have been appropriate to give some or all of the Soviet troops pre-game target acquisition, i.e., make them able to fire at first opportunity, and also perhaps give them one or more opportunity points to use. Then again, had the Soviets gotten lucky with the first couple of initiative rolls this would have taken care of itself, so just take it as a point to consider. If TF's play sequence took some getting used to, PoA's took a lot of getting used to! We found that one could never really rely on anything, as far as when or even if things happened on the tabletop. The game's designers' notes - several pages of them - explain in some detail about the random nature of the battlefield and how PoA replicates that. It does! We found that in some ways, the initiative-based turn sequence, combined with the use of impetus points and the ubiquitous sequence deck, really mixed things up - one could never be sure (as with the late-game tank attack) whether one's supports would show up, when friends and foes would fire, or much of anything else. Calling artillery fire worked very well with this mechanism. Once one called the fire, it took the appearance of a "Barrage Arrives!" sequence card to execute it and sometimes that card never seemed to get there… On the other hand, this lent itself to some gamey decision-making on the part of the players - card counting is practical and even desirable if one's gaming to win. Of course, we're all armchair historians; that's not the way we do things! In an odd sort of way, though, the sequence deck made things somewhat predictable, like in a card game where there are three kings showing. You know there's another king in there somewhere, but how close is it to the top of the deck? Also, playing morale chips to trigger enemy morale checks seems, well, odd. Yes it does represent in an abstract sort of way the ability of one side to intimidate the other (My morale is high - yours is not - tremble!) but it felt odd making a conscious decision whether or not to trigger a morale check on the part of the enemy. The Germans had a considerably lower number of morale chips than did the Soviets. In an all-day battle (as opposed to what was to have been a short, sharp, breakthrough), the Germans would probably have run out of morale chips (neither side tried to rally any troops, which costs morale chips, and fortunately for each side, neither failed any officer checks or major morale checks) before the Soviet side and that would have meant an end to the German attack. It's an interesting way to measure a side's break point. The decision-making is interesting, too - does the German spend morale chips to force morale checks on Soviet units, hopefully causing them to become shaken or routed, or does he hold onto those chips against the certainty of shaken or routed German units' needing them to recover? Unfortunately, I don't know that it's a reasonable thing for the German to be making conscious decisions about. PoA's combat mechanisms all work and work well - attacking armor from the side is better than from the front and a bigger gun is better than a smaller gun - but it removed the "feel" of the different weapons systems from the players minds. This isn't necessarily bad, even given the troop scale, as the players represent battalion commanders who are more concerned with the simple questions of whether their troops are better armed and armored than their foes than they are with specific armor thicknesses, etc. I haven't tried to work the statistics on the combat die rolling, but having the defender cast 1D6 in opposition to the attacker's die roll adds considerably to the unpredictability of combat. We need to play more games of PoA - many things felt weird but we frequently translate different to mean weird and I'm afraid that's what we may have been doing. At game's end when we looked at the play map, the troop movements and the general flow of the combat was convincing and that may be the most important thing. Orders of Battle Scenario Length is 4 turns. GERMANS 4 Opportunity Points storable. Difficulty Die = D6; 20 units, 5 Army Characterization Cards provided 17 morale chits & one extra Close Assault card in sequence deck. Unit (All Troops Trained) Competency Fire AP Fire Soft Close Assault Morale Speed Armor Strength (stands) Bn Med Mortar Platoon Ready NA D10 D6 D10 - 2 Bn Med Mortar Platoon Ready NA D10 D6 D10 - 2 Bn MG Platoon Ready NA D12 D6 D10 - 2 1st Plt, 1st Pz Gren Co Ready NA D10 D8 D8 - 3 2nd Plt, 1st Pz Gren Co Ready NA D10 D8 D8 - 3 3rd Plt, 1st Pz Gren Co Ready NA D10 D8 D8 - 3 2nd & 3rd Pz Gren Co identical ratings as 1st Co. above Ready NA D10 D8 D8 - 3 1st Plt, Gep Pz Gren Co Eager NA D12 D10 D10 - 3 2nd Plt, Gep Pz Gren Co Eager NA D12 D10 D10 - 3 3rd Plt, Gep Pz Gren Co Eager NA D12 D10 D10 - 3 1st Plt, Pz Co (Pz IVh) Eager D12+1 D12 D8 D10 Reg., Med. 3 2nd Plt, Pz Co (Pz IVh) Ready D12 D10 D6 D8 Reg., Med. 3 Officer Abysmal Poor Avg Skilled Superior Sequence Deck Adds KG HQ - - - x - +1 Brilliant Commander card Battalion HQ - x - - - +1 Cmd Indecisiveness card 1 PG Co HQ - - - - x +2 Brilliant Commander card 2 PG Co HQ - - x - - - 3 PG Co HQ - x - - - +1 Cmd Indecisiveness card 4 (Gep) PG Co HQ - - - x - +1 Brilliant Commander card Pz Co HQ - - x - - - Off-Table Artillery Competency Effect Continuing Barrage Pre-Registered Coordinates 1st 10.5cm Battery Ready (D6) D10 D6 N/A 2nd 10.5cm Battery Ready (D6) D10 D6 N/A 1st 15cm Battery Ready (D6) D12 D6 N/A SOVIETS Opportunity Points storable. Difficulty Die = D10; 20 units, 5 Army Characterization Cards provided 26 morale chits & one extra Infantry Moves In Difficult Terrain card in sequence deck Unit (All Troops Trained) Competency Fire AP Fire Soft Close Assault Morale Strength (stands) Attached SMG Platoon Eager NA D12 D12 D10 2 Attached HMG Platoon Ready NA D10 D6 D10 2 Att. 57mm (HV) AT Bty Eager D12 D10 D6 D12 2 Att. 76.2mm Gun Bty Ready D10 D10 D8 D10 2 Battalion Mortar Platoon Ready NA D8 D6 D10 2 Battalion HMG Platoon Ready NA D10 D6 D10 2 1st Plt, 1st Rifle Co Ready NA D10 D10 D10 3 2nd Plt, 1st Rifle Co Ready NA D10 D10 D10 3 3rd Plt, 1st Rifle Co Ready NA D10 D10 D10 3 2nd & 3rd Rifle Cos as above Ready NA D10 D10 D10 3 Officer Abysmal Poor Avg Skilled Superior Sequence Deck Adds Battlegroup HQ - - x - - - Battalion HQ - - - x - +1 Brilliant Cmder card 1st, 2nd, 3rd Rifle Co HQ - - x - - - Off-Table Artillery Competency Effect Continuing Barrage Pre-Registered Coordinates 1st Hvy Mortar Platoon Ready (D6) D12 D8 N/A To the Vistula! WWII Rule Sets Reviewed Introduction Battlefront Tacfire Point of Attack Scenario: 5 August 1944 Overview Scenario Replay: Battlefront Scenario Replay: Tacfire Scenario Replay: Point of Attack Comparisons and Conclusions Back to Table of Contents -- Courier #82 To Courier List of Issues To MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2001 by The Courier Publishing Company. This article appears in MagWeb (Magazine Web) on the Internet World Wide Web. Other military history articles and gaming articles are available at http://www.magweb.com