There were about 18 players at Phil Kilgor’s store Tabletop Hobbies at 78th & Quivera in K.C. Kans. for "historical gaming" night from 6:30-10-ish. While the game-masters were setting up their tabletop games for the players to play, we went in the store and saw the new Axis & Allies "D-Day version" that Phil had just gotten a box-load of - interesting looking game on the back with all the new pieces (tanks, pillboxes, etc.)! I was also interested in the Wargames Miniatures mag from England that had an article about WW1 ship battles in the Baltic!!
The guys "suspended" the normal DBA campaign game moves and resulting battles for the night so they could discuss and try the Shako rules for a Napoleonic campaign game they want to start - then when we battle in the campaign game everybody can just show up at Tabletop to fight out the battles! Campaign battles are different because you can’t fight to the last man - there will be another battle so you have to conserve your troops and protect them!!
About 12 players played the Shako demo game put on by Chad Gilbert & Sean Graves using their 15mm painted troops. From what I saw of it, the Allies were defending a set of 4 hills behind a fordable river with the French on the attack to push them off the hills. Both sides tended to concentrate their cavalry on a flank and charge the defending infantry again & again - the infantry "has to roll" to go into square and sometimes they fail forming and take large losses for the failure! The French Guard troops attacked in the middle and were just getting to the hills as the game ended for "time".
Everybody talked about "how it could have been different" and "how the attacking force suffers about 25% hits for advancing to attack"! They also discussed how "battles will end" with a "route & followup phase" for the side with superior cavalry (number of units left) after the battle and the cost to the retreating force (in units lost) for the next battle!!
I played the AH boardgame "Squad Leader" with my friend Mike Fields that I had brought. We both had not play Squad Leader in about 10 years and had to skim the rules a little before we played the 1st scenario - "The Guards Counterattack". We both had liked the system when it first came out and only "balked" when the Advanced Squad Leader games came out trying to make us pay "twice" for what we’d already bought the first time. We agreed on the 1st scenario because we wanted to finish a game before our "time" ran out (get to a result in 3-4 hours). We ended up playing 2 complete games of it in our time we had. We rolled for sides and I was the Russian in the first game.
Game #1
For those familiar with the game there is very little to do on the Russian side for deployment - only place a few squads over on the left flank - I put my guys back where they were safe from enemy "firing" on that side till I was ready to advance over there. The main Russian force in the game is 12 Guards squads with SMG’s and Col. Berki (10-3) - a great officer. As the "victory conditions" are to capture 2 more of the Germans stone buildings without losing some of yours OR end the 5 turn battle with a 3:1 un-broken squad ratio to the Germans - the first place you try for is building "F5" then see what happens and go for other weak spots (K5 & M9) later. The Russians have a 21 squads to 13 German squads ratio at the start but the Russians have to attack and the Germans have lots of support weapons (MG’s) and good officers (5 of them) to stiffen the defense!
The Germans setup has the options to defend "F5" & "K5"concentrated or spread out, forward or back away from the Russian’s "firepower" (SMG’s range is only 2 hexes at full effect!). The Germans setup spread out in both buildings and forward in "K5" and back in "F5"! The Germans setup first but the Russian moves first.
The first turn
I "prep fired" about half the Guards squads (6) with Berki’s modifier into "F5" and moved the rest of the Guards forward to attack F5 across the street and a couple of them to reinforce my center at "J2" - to develop any attack in the center "K5" you have to take your lumps here - I also sent a squad from the left to reinforce the middle. I also like to send a squad or two to the buildings (P3,P5) to threaten to take "M9" later if the Germans move forward with the HMG - they usually do - and you only have 5 turns to get there so you have to "start early" to get there! I also "prep fired" J2 into "F5" for more damage results against them - we killed 1 German squad in G6 and "broke" 1 German squad in H5 - the Germans killed 1 Guard squad crossing the street at F4 from J4 and "broke" 2 others back to G4 with Berki to "rally" them! The rest (3 Guard squads ) advanced from E5 to F5 and I was in the building F5! The German response was to move all his F5 troops to H5 to rally there still holding F5 (attacker must "completely" control to whole building before he takes control of it). The Germans also moved the "HMG & squad" from M9 into M7 concentrating a lot of "firepower" in M7!!
The 2nd turn
I prep-fired Berki’s (rallied) fire-group into H5 along with the J2 fire-group and broke another squad there - I moved two squads from F5 into H5 and started "hand-to-hand" melee combat in H5 to take control of building F5 - failed to win the melee that turn so it continued! I also moved my 2 squads from P5 to P6 slowly putting the move on M9 later - the German defensive fire made 1 Russian squad a "berzerker"(must go try to kill the nearest enemy unit in hand-to-hand) while the other Russian squad there got into P7! Russians squads in N4 moved forward to fire on M7 & K5 Germans while reinforcing squads for J2 advanced into K3 ready for the assault on K4 Germans!! The Germans shifted troops in M7 to cover the approach to M9 and fire at N4 Russians but with no "effective results"! The Germans could not fire "into" H5 as there were German troops there in melee!!
Turn 3:
The Russian "prep fire" from G4 & J2 killed a couple German squads in the middle (K5) building - the Russian "steamroller" was continuing toward control of K5 with a "hand-to-hand" melee in K4 & a melee victory at H5 (Russians gain control of building F5)!! The Russian "berzerker" squad advanced toward M7 (slowly) and although Germans shot at him with lots of firepower - a KIA must be rolled to stop him! Germans at I7 could now shoot at Russians in H5 and killed a Guard squad there before I could spread them out and move up more Guards!
Turn 4:
I moved the "berzerker" sqaud into M7 to "hand-to-hand" the Germans there while I moved the Russian in P7 over to N9 to "advance" into M9 (3rd building gained)! I won the K4 melee gaining control over K5! At this point I had gained 3 buildings without losing any AND had a "squad ratio" of 3:1 so the rest of my thoughts were on "how to hold on to my gains on the last turn"? I lost the melee in M7 but had 12 Russian squads left to 4 Germans! Turn 5 : Saw the Germans try to make some "last move" runs for "capturing some of my buildings but they failed being "broken" and had to route to cover! A Russian win in the first game!
Game 2
I offered to switch sides but Mike felt he would try the Germans again with a different "plan"! He placed the Germans in "stacks" at G6 and K5 feeling that with a big firepower group he’d do better in the counterattacks & melees!! This initial placement allowed my Guards to jump out of building F3, go to the back road and end up in E6 with an advance into F5 (in the building with the defensive modifier for "stone buildings" (+3)!! The German "defensive fire" from G6 killed 3 Guards squads in F4 with a KIA result - this would be a different game! After advancing fires "breaking’ the German officer & squads in G6, the German routed his troops out of G6 to H7 to rally them (routed troops drop their SMG’s where they broke - the Russians later picked the SMG’s up adding to their firepower in F5! As the German pulled back from building F5 he said, "now you’ll have to take K5, come and get me" ( a challenge)!
I kept my Guards in F5 back away from German firing and started feeding Guards squads to the center toward K5. Each squad I sent over there had to cross the street and take heavy fire from I7 - I lost about half the squads I sent over either broke or killed but little by little I got my Guards across the street to enter building K5! I’d gotten a regular Russian squad into K4 but the Germans moved from K5 to K4 and had a 3:1 melee combat (roll an 8 or less to win the melee) - they failed that first melee turn when they had the advantage! Because they were in melee the Germans couldn’t fire at my Guards squads coming into the building in the next hex (at double fire factor)!! I fed a Guards squad into the melee battle as they arrived into the building from arcoss that deadly street - slowly I gained the upper hand in the melee and by turn 4 I’d won the building (2 buildings gained - none lost = Russian victory).
On turn 5 the Germans tried to take building F5 back with a large 3 squad to 3 squad melee but got "KIA’d" as they approached in the next hex by a Russian "36 fire factor defensive fire attack" (18 doubled)! This ended our second game with another Russian victory!
We had a lot of fun playing Squad Leader (since it had been about 10 years for both of us) and we look forward to more Squad Leader in the future! We plan to "blow-up" the playing map at Kinko’s to a "poster size" playing area and get about 3-4 players on a side to do the massive 3rd scenario - Attack on the Tractor Factory with lots more squads & tanks! Pull out your copy sometime and give thought to the fun of the past - the fun of the future ! Good gaming all, Harold Morgan in Gladstone Mo. (N.K.C.Mo.)
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