In another article in this issue, I described the battle for Simongen, one of a series of WW II encounters in a campaign in which several of us are engaged. This article concerns yet another battle, one in which the defending German forces, badly outnumbered, had orders to hold at all costs. I played this encounter on my table, solo style, using STURM rules, a set generated by Don Bailey with this sort of battle in mind. Don had e-mailed me the German order of battle, and a copy of the "Hold and die!" orders. He also furnished the map, showing the terrain around Goosebeek. His message indicated that, of the two bridges that led to the north near the town, his defending Germans had blown the most easterly bridge… the west one was still intact, and the German force had placed itself to the north of the river, as well entrenched as possible. My basic Allied force consisted of 10 tokens, 10 stands… each stand representing a squad? platoon? company?… whatever. I had 5 infantry units, one armored car, one heavy tank, and 3 medium tanks. Another 10 units, which Bob Hurst had supplied out of his paratrooper assets, came on the field around Bound 3 to help out. This gave the Allies a total of 20 units for the attack at Goosebeek. I must admit that the German troops took their "Hold and die!" orders quite seriously. Their force consisted of 8 units… 3 armored cars, a couple of machine guns, an anti-tank gun, and the remainder infantry. It was only when the defenders were down to 3 infantry units that I decided that the survivors had had enough, and that despite their orders, they'd pull back. The STURM sequence lets each side dice for two parameters: (a) The number of units that may move. Here, there are 3 possibilities… either all units on a side move, or half of them, or only a quarter of them. (b) The number of actions given each unit. This parameter provides either 1, or 2, or 3 actions per unit. An action can be devoted to moving or firing. I wanted the Allied force to keep advancing, and so I opted for parameters which would provide the Allies with the greatest number of moving units. In contrast, the defending Germans didn't have too much need to advance, and so I biased their dice in favor of the number of actions to be received, thus providing them with the maximum amount of fire-power. After the Active Side (AS) dices for its parameters, it selects a unit to move or fire. If an impact is produced on the Non-Active Side (NAS), the NAS draws a card from a deck, the Reaction Deck, which denotes the response of the unit that has just received the impact. If the response of the target is to fire back, the original firing unit nows draws its own card… this reaction-counter-reaction continues until the cards themselves shut the system down. As an example, on Bound 4, it was now the Germans' half of the bound, and, when dicing for their parameters, they could select only 2 units, but both of these units were given 3 actions. The Germans selected an armored car (A1) to open fire at an Allied medium tank that had approached the bridge. The sequence works quite well for the solo gamer, in effect, telling the gamer who does what to whom. I've detailed a portion of the reaction-counter-reaction below to show how the system works. Armored Car A1's first of 3 actions a. A1 fires and hits the Allied tank b. Tank draws reaction card (Card #1 for the tank) which says to return fire. It does and hits A1 c. A1 draws a card in response to the tank's fire (A1's #1 Card). A1 fires back d. Tank draws a card (Tank Card #2) and returns fire. e. A1's #2 Card is drawn. A1's response is to fire back. f. Tank #3 Card is drawn, which says the tank is to do nothing. The reaction cycle stops A1's second of 3 actions a. A1 decides to fire again. b. The tank has already drawn 3 cards. It is defined as 'exhausted' and, when fired on, must take its casualties and pull back. A1's third of 3 actions a. A1, for its third action, fires at an enemy infantry unit b. The infantry draws its card, Card #1, which mandates a return fire. c. A1 now draws a card… it now has 3 cards (2 are from the interaction with the tank)… and fires back. d. Card #2 for the infantry… which then fires back. e. A1 has already drawn its third card. Now that its been fired on, it's exausted and must pull back. Of the 2 German units, we've gone through A1's 3-action routine. The Germans can now select their second unit, A2, to fire. A2 also has 3 actions. A2's first of 3 actions a. A2 opens up on the infantry unit. b.The infantry (now having responded twice already to A1) pulls its Card #3, and fires c. A2 draws a card (A2's #1 Card), and fires back. d. The infantry, with 3 cards drawn, is defined as exhausted and pulls back. A2, having driven the infantry back, is now free to devote its second and third actions to other enemy targets. If you examine the above sequence as given, you'll note that the Allied units, in responding, always drew the first reaction card, hence they were always 'one card ahead' of the German units, and became exhausted earlier. Since the Germans, when dicing for their actions, had either 2 or 3 opportunities to fire, they could pour it on the approaching Allied force. First one German unit would fire, causing Allied cards to be drawn, and then, when the first German unit had finished, a second German unit would fill the gap, causing more Allied cards to be drawn. STURM's damage table will usually cause 1 or 2 hits to be placed on a target unit. The actual effect of these hits is delayed until a Damage Assessment phase occurs at the end of the bound. There is provision in the hit table, however, for a "catastrophic hit", wherein, with a very low toss of the dice, the target takes 4 hits and assesses its damage immediately, even before the Damage assessment phase shows up. In the battle, the Allies heavy tank approached the bridge, crossing half-way, when it traded fire with the Germans. The tank already had a couple of hits registered on it, and suddenly, a roll by the Germans of '06' on the percentage hit-dice indicated that a "catastrophic hit" had occurred. An immediate four hits on the tank, and an immediate damage assessment. Alas! A horrible assessment toss for the tank… maximum damage… all of its hits counted, and KABOOM!… it blew up on the bridge! For the next bound or so, there was a tremendous traffic jam on the Allied side of the bridge. The bridge was completely blocked, preventing access. In addition, Bob Hurst's paratroopers had arrived on the field, and advanced to the south side (the Allied side) of the bridge, adding to the chaos… and the entire Allied force was in panic. How do the Allies get rid of this huge blocking obstacle? Needless to say, STURM doesn't cover this particular situation. And so I ran one of the Allied medium tanks up to the bridge, and there, under fire, the courageous tank commander tried to push the heavy tank off the bridge. Every action which the medium tank devoted to pushing or pulling, or shoving, or whatever, it had a 40 percent chance of success, and getting the behemoth out of the way. I am happy to report that on his very first try, his very first action, the medium tank commander accomplished his task, and shoved the heavy tank aside. Everyone on the Allied side (me) breathed easier. It would have been a wee bit embarassing if the Allied force had to draw back from Goosebeek because one of its own tanks fouled up the attack and prevented the river crossing. By the time the Germans drew back and let the Allies have the field, not only had the Allies lost their heavy tank, but had also lost a medium tank and one armored cars. What was most interesting about these losses was that they occurred through the dreaded "catastrophic hit". A extremely low percentage dice toss of around 05, or lower, was required… and the Germans got three of these during the battle. I've played STURM for some 7 times now, and the only other "catastrophic hit" I experienced was once on the Bob Hurst gaming table. The regular Allied force at Goosebeek didn't do too badly… aside from its armor losses. And the paratroopers really didn't participate in the battle… they came up to the bridge around Bound 4, and mostly added to the clutter of the traffic jam with the rest of the Allied contingent, as the medium tank commander did his good deed. In previous battles in this campaign, I've noted that the Germans have always had one or two of their heavier units available for the defense. In this battle, the heaviest German unit was the armored car. They also had one anti-tank gun, which was quickly taken out of action. I'm beginning to suspect they've run out of their heavier armor. Due to the action-reaction cycle of STURM, once a heavy unit opens fire on its targets, it draws a non-ending stream of reacting enemy fire in response& the longevity of the heavy stuff in STURM is quite small. The 'exhaustion' definition of drawing a maximum of 3 reaction cards before a unit pulls back, helps some, but once your heavies open fire, be prepared to acknowledge you've opened up a Pandora's Box& there's no closing the lid. Back to PW Review February 2000 Table of Contents Back to PW Review List of Issues Back to MagWeb Master Magazine List © Copyright 2000 Wally Simon 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