Sam and Jim's Red Barricades Campaign Game (Day 1)
By Sam Belcher

Jim Johnstone and I finished the first scenario of our RB Campaign game
last week (12/23/98). A brief AAR follows… I won’t say much about what
purchases I made because Jim reads this and “Loose Lips Sink Ships…”

I can say that I bought 4 HT, and a rifle company. ALL of my units were
full strength. (One OBA battery even had plentiful ammo – and I still
drew two red cards on that one!)

Just before the game, I said something like, “As large as this is, no
single roll will make a difference.” Hummmmm.

Jim wanted me to be sure to point out that the first several rolls Jim
made were ‘12’. I mean, he lost 3 HS to casualty reduction the first
three times he rolled a MC! Then, when he fired at me, he was rolling
11! Good thing that his rolls got better before the end of the
scenario! (Jim has never really understood the concept of my “Voice
Activated Dice Tower”.)

I did buy Stukas and they worked great (My first use of Air Support).
The first attack, they killed 2 and a half squads. I had two 80mm OBA
batteries, but one of them drew two red cards right away. (Oh well, at
least I retain it.) More about that later.

First two and a half turns saw Russians lose 2 squads, Germans 1. The
Russians had setup around hex numbered “10” – too far back, IMO. So the
first three German movement phases were used closing up to the line.
Turn 3b (The Russian half of turn 3), my Stukas make their first attack.
I kill 2.5 squads, and almost immediately roll “12” on a 548 MC – he
elr’s to a second line HS?

Turn 4. Jim self rallies 2 (count em, TWO) 447’s! I’ve come in strong
on my left (Eastern) flank and Jim begins to attack along the West board
edge. I have one squad in a upper level building that can see over
there. I use one squad and my Stuka’s to hold my right flank. It doesn’t
work perfectly, but it works well. The Stukas kill some more squads and
slow Jim’s attack quite a bit.

Turn 5a. I regain radio contact for my (now only) OBA. I get a spotting
round on board. In this turn, I let three of Jim’s squads escape certain
death because I was sloppy and put them under DM so they could rout
away.

Turn 5b. I …Forgot… to correct my OBA till I had already fired several
units in the DFPh. Jim let me proceed with bringing down the fire – as
long as I didn’t want to use SMOKE, or fire somewhere where the LOS
Hinderance of the FFE would have changed an earlier attack.

I have to say, this incident reminded me of the fact that Jim and I are
both …Really… “easy” when it comes to allowing the other to “fix” what
can be “fixed”. I already had 2 fire missions out of this OBA, and as
I’ll see in a minute, this won’t make any difference in this scenario.
(The exception is if the correction would affect other actions that have
occurred in the interim.)

Still turn 5b. Jim tries to push his 45L ATG. His crew manages to push
the ATG into a street where none of my ground units has LOS. But… My
Stuka attacks with MG’s and KIA’s the crew. (so sad!) I wonder if Jim
forgot about the Stukas. This scenario is the first use for both of us.

Now, I know that the scenario –Might- end this turn, so I go ahead and
drop the bomb the other Stuka has be hauling around. The bomb misses,
but the MG attack kills two more squads.

At this point, I’ve gained a –LOT- of ground and the left flank is
almost completely devoid of Russian units. So what happens? You guessed
it – Jim rolls a scenario-ending-dr of ‘1’ and its finished. This is
perhaps the luckiest roll Jim had all day. I have captured three
factories and have a toehold in a fourth. If the game hadn’t ended on
turn 5, I would have added another 30 stone locations. If the game had
gone 7 turns, I would have come close to capturing half the map. As it
is, I have over 20% of the map in the first scenario. I gained -90-
Stone locations and Jim lost 40 CVP (20 squads) to my 13 (6 squads and a
7-0) for a three to one ratio! Guess that’s a win, eh?

M10 and P10 gutted – but NOT the Northern-most factory. A couple of
flames change to fires in X15 and X16 during the refit phase.

German Front Line: (Approx.)
A4 - L11 - L14 - O13 - T12 - BB15 - BB12 - FF10

I think Jim gave up too much space for “free”. I can’t really account
for some of this. I didn’t notice any major problems with Jim’s play –
but it was a serious “butt whipping”. Perhaps I’ll have to retire the
Dice Tower till Jim can catch up!

I’ve made all my purchases for the Oct 18 scenario, and Jim and I should
play it Dec 28, 1998. I’ll try to post an AAR soon after.

Just a couple of comments about RB in general. I think the Half Tracks
are a good buy for the German. These guys are exempt from the Recall DR
in the refit phase, and you can buy at least 12 of them. As the front
line moves farther and farther South, the German can use these HT to
move a company of infantry on board and up to the front. On Oct 17, I
kept these and the three Pz III L’s off board with four 467’s as a
“reserve” and “Exploitation” force. They came on board about turn 3 and
by turn 5 were in position to run into the Russian rear if the game had
gone one or two more turns.

I think I have a significant lead at this moment. Jim lost 20 Squads,
(and at least one crew – did you count that one, Jim?) I only lost 6, so
with a single full strength infantry company, I’d have 42 squads to
start Oct 18. Of course, if I rolled well enough, I could actually
purchase two rifle companies and have 54 squads! Now that I have the
Russians “on the ropes” I need to deliver the knockout punch.

Please CC Jim (jimj@visio.com) if you comment / Reply.
Thanks
Sam Belcher Sambelcher@hotmail.com