Rocket's Red Glare AAR

Played RRG against Rob based on a post on the GS forums regarding most played scenarios according to ROAR. Really glad I did. This scenario is awesome. It uses one of my favorite boards (board 3). The troops are all elite and have plenty of toys. There aren't a ton of them, and there's a lot of flexibility.

Turn 1

I had what I thought was a pretty good setup for responsiveness to react to whatever Rob decided to do. With all the MG's, the fire lanes were aplenty. Based on Rob's swing around the hill, I took my MMG out of M5lv1 at the end of the turn. A big mistake, but done with the intention of being flexible. Once I lost control of the S2-N4 road he was free to swing some guys around flanking to O5 and P4 a lot sooner than he should have. My whirblewind would make it more difficult for these guys in Turns 2 and 3, but I should have just left the MMG there. My 105 I chose to set up HIP in R8 with a CA of Q8-R7. My thinking was that it would be used to wreck an Ami end game. As it was, the bulk of the Ami forces came down the right side of the board using the W6 hill as cover. Tons of Bazookas and 'fausts. Perhaps a better place to put the 105 would have been in Y6, or maybe even putting one of the LMG's there with a squad. Either one would have done the job.

Turn 2

The Ami's had penetrated down the right side of the board to the Y8 area on turn 1. On turn 2, since I moved my MMG to support the middle, the Stack in T1 was free to swing around into O5 and P4. Not that I didn't have anything to meet them with, they just were way closer than they should have been on turn two. I moved my StuG III (L) up some to support after the Ami's put their tank in W5 thinking that maybe he was coming down the hill to support his infantry thrust. He didn't though, and was just there to provide a sort of quasi-artillery support for the attack. At that range, my 'schrek in the middle of the board was basically useless, although I put him in R6 with a 6-5-8 on the off chance that the tank would get bored and come down to play.

Some of the bazooka guys assaulted my squad with an LMG in U6 and failed to kill him starting a melee which lasted until the end of the game, ultimately tying up 3 squads and a leader in something like a 1-4 CC that the Ami's for some reason just couldn't win. If a squad with an LMG has to go down, that's not a bad way to go. This turn, Rob went berserk with one squad that I stopped by moving the spare crew forward to within sight range of the berserk squad to tie him up.

Turn 3

This is where things really started going bad overall. I did not have enough mass in the center of the board to stop those stacks in O5 and P4 so I started shifting. My 75L shifted to help the HMG in S8 keep the Bazooka teams in turn 2 from hooking around south to capture O10, while the guys I originally had protecting it moved toward the center of the board to help fend off the masses. I put the Whirblewind in O7 and then Q6 after doing some damage with that 20 FP IFE gun (MAN I like that!). The other thing about Q6 is that it is hull down to a bunch of stuff. The 90L started after me and couldn't get a turret hit. YAY for HD!!! After the Ami's moved I didn't like the 75L position so I went to reorient and bit it with a Bazooka round. No survivors. Should have popped smoke before starting. That was my second big mistake.

At the end of this turn, my position was precarious but not totally lost.

Turn 4

This is when I lost the game. The Ami's broke my MMG, my HMG, the guy with the 'schrek, and a couple of un-weaponed squads. After that the middle of the board was basically over. I had no one to maintain Q7 except a wounded leader and although getting there was costly for the Ami's due to the 105 that put a ton of fire on Q6 breaking the squad and wounding the 10-2 leader, the stack in R6 advanced into CC with Q7 and took the building, ending the game.

Analysis:

I REALLY need to work on timing. When to abandon positions v. when to hold them. Also, I tried to avoid putting a stringer out in no-man's-land but putting someone in Y6 even if they broke on turn 1 or 2 might have slowed the Ami's down a turn. Even better, it might have channeled them into the fire lanes that I was ready to make. All good things....

As a scenario, I'd play this again in a second. This is truly one of the "Classics" for a reason. I recommend it to anyone.