Back to the Balkans

 After playing some of the larger and more complex Unconditional Surrender scenarios, I wanted to re-visit some of the earlier ones, in particular the invasion of the Balkans. It is such a short scenario that the outcome is very heavily dependant on the weather, and when I originally played it the German had good weather on both turns. In fact the probabilities are 33% good weather in April and 66% good weather in May, so there is only a 22% chance both turns will be good weather and 22% they will both be bad. Instead I just played this with bad weather in April and good weather in May, as that is the more average outcome.

The effects of poor weather are quite simple, armour and air support only give +1 to combats instead of +2, it costs an extra movement point to attack and there is an additional -1 on combat attacking a hex in poor weather. Although these sound marginal, the net effect is to seriously degrade the inherent combat superiority of German units (normally +2) as well as halve the effect of their normal air and armour superiority in 1941. Perhaps most important, units are restricted to a single 'assault' attack per turn in poor weather, rather than multiple mobile attacks in good weather, restricted only by available movement points. 

The game setup. I really like this map and there is an interesting mix of counters. The terrain is absolutely horrible on a lot of the map, partly why we never used to invade Greece when playing Third Reich.

Game control stuff. Only Yugoslavia and Greece have National Will (six and four respectively) and Production (four and two respectively). Taking three Yugoslav cities or one city and Belgrade will force a Yugoslav surrender. The only way to get Greece to surrender is to take Athens (4 will) , as there is only Salonika (2 will) otherwise.

Compared to other games this one is pretty light on special events. Both the Axis and Allies have a pair of 'ground support' event chits which give a small combat bonus, the Germans also have a paradrop.

The weather chart is on the top right, I just allocated poor weather to April and good weather to May.

The general military situation. Greece is defended by a pair of Greek armies and one British army (the "BEF"). There are a pair of Italian armies in Albania and one up in Trieste. Hungary, Rumania and Bulgaria are all allied to the Axis but only Hungary and Bulgaria have committed any forces, one army each. 

The Yugoslav Army is quite large with six units, but as they are completely surrounded, they are deployed in a perimeter defence. Sadly Zagreb and Belgrade are hard on the border so vulnerable to attack.

The Germans have two infantry armies and two panzer armies plus a single air fleet. Two of the German units are down in Bulgaria on the Greek border, the rest are in the north.

A closer look at Yugoslavia. The Italians in Trieste are a weak (single step) Army, as are the Hungarians in the centre. The German air fleet is based just behind them. Belgrade and Zagreb are garrisoned by 1 step armies while the better 2 step Field Armies are along the Drava and the coast. The Yugoslavs are also defending Nis and the northern Albanian border. Nis is very important as it sits on the only transport route through the middle of the mountains. I drove that way to Greece many decades ago, the main road was still the concrete one the Germans built after conquering Yugoslavia.

The German panzer army is on the Rumanian border northeast of Belgrade. The German infantry army  is just north of Zagreb. We cycled that way a few years ago, starting in the Julian Alps and ended up on the coast of Slovenia.

Down in Greece the Italians have two field armies facing off a Greek reserve (1 step) army in Albania. The terrain here is awful, rough ground and mountains, an immediate -2 to the attacker, with an additional -1 in bad weather.

There is a Greek field army in Salonika/Thessaloniki faced off with a German infantry army and panzer army in Bulgaria and contingent of Bulgarians across the border from Nis in Yugoslavia. If the Germans don't take Salonika at once, there is nothing to stop the Allies sea transporting the Greek unit to Athens....

Finally we have the British/Commonwealth (the counter is marked BEF) sitting in the pass at Thermopylae on the route to Athens in rough ground with their left flank protected by a mountain range. The Germans don't currently have any air down here and would need to get a lot closer to Athens to consider a paradrop into the city (needs an air unit within three hexes for Axis paradrops).

So, the priorities for the Germans in April 1941 are to defeat Yugoslavia so they can stage resources down to Greece (particularly air), and ideally take Salonika too to isolate the large Greek army there. I don't see any way on earth they can try and take Athens in April too.

Up north the German infantry assault Zagreb, supported by the Italians from Trieste. At least in an assault combat you get a +1 for every extra supporting unit. The Luftwaffe put in an a sortie of ground support. Despite all the extra support, the terrain and weather disadvantages give the Germans are mere +1 on their combat dice. The Yugoslavs however are isolated as the city is surrounded (-2) and are already at reduced strength (also -2), so their net is -4, although their combat dice can never be reduced to less than 1.

The Germans just scrape a 'defender retreat' result, which as the Yugoslavs are surrounded and unable to retreat, becomes a 1 step loss. Zagreb falls, 4 National Will remaining. 

The action then switches to Belgrade, this is rather more critical than Zagreb as if this attack fails then Yugoslavia will not fall this turn. I had a cunning backup plan to attack Nis, but on its own that would not be enough National Will lost.

The Germans commit their panzer army with Luftwaffe support. The Hungarians join in, but due to the surrounding ZOC, it isn't possible to isolate the city so the Axis end up making a frontal assault across the river and into the city.

The pink track is used to record the attacker and defenders positive or negative dice modifiers (what a clever idea and very useful for those of us with limited short term memory). Despite the extra +1 for the panzers, it is more than made up for by the defenders not being isolated. We end up with +2 for the Axis and -2 for the Yugoslavs.

The Germans roll big and inflict a step loss, so Belgrade falls, although a retreat result would have done. There was a significant chance that attack would fail, maybe 25%, but it wasn't possible to make it any stronger apart from putting in a paradrop too (the Luftwaffe are just in range).

Losing Belgrade takes the Yugoslav National Will to zero, so all their armies are removed. The unoccupied cities are all marked as Allied controlled though and will remain so until the Axis moves into them (which costs an extra movement point as they are unfriendly). So, Sarajevo, Nis, Split. Nis is the critical one as it sits across the transport route through the mountains to Greece.

In fact one of the Italian armies in Albania has just enough MP to reach Nis and occupy it. I want to use the Bulgarians to help the assault on Salonika.

The action switches to Greece as the Luftwaffe stage down to a new base in Bulgaria, costing an air sortie so two remaining. After occupying Nis to open up the supply route,  the next order of business is to see if I can drive back the BEF. If I can force them to retreat, it will isolate the Greeks in the west and make attacking out of Albania much easier.

So, the panzer army attacks the BEF with air support and as it is such a critical battle, both sides throw in some ground support. In theory I could also drop the paras on the BEF, but I want to save them for if things get really critical

A Commonwealth field army is a rather different proposition to a weakened Yugoslavian garrison corps, and despite the panzers and Luftwaffe, we end up with +3 German and +2 Allies. Dropping the paras on them would reduce the Allied modifier to zero.

Unsurprisingly the attack fails as you need to win by a certain margin to even get a retreat, let alone a step loss. What a waste of an air sortie.

Still, having the panzers there stops the Salonika garrison retreating west, so now the German infantry and Bulgarians assault Salonika with air support. The Greeks still have one hex they can retreat to (the peninsular in the southeast), so aren't isolated.

Amazingly the evens dice roll is enough to push them back. The Greeks aren't as good as the BEF and extra +1 for the Bulgarian support was just enough to clinch it. The Greeks retreat southeast and the Germans occupy Salonika. If only the Allies had a 'sea evacuation' event! But they don't in this scenario.

That is two off the Greek National Will, but not enough to force a surrender, only taking Athens will do that.

After the panzers were halted at Thermopylae, the Italians make a Hail Mary attack from Albania and manage to roll 6:1. Just like DBA, this is really bad news for the loser. tbh, I'm really not a fan of opposed dice combat in a strategic game, give me a good CRT any day, it avoids this sort of silliness.

The Greeks suffer a step loss and are removed, while the Italians advance.

This in turn means the Allied position has gone from looking great to complete catastrophe in a single dice roll. To avoid being isolated by the victorious Italians, the BEF has to abandon Thermopylae and retreat further south to block the access route to Athens.

The isolated Greek army in the north counterattacks to try and retake Salonika. The terrain and weather put them at a considerable disadvantage to the German defenders.

Unsurprisingly the Greek attack fails and their army falls to low supply. I have the option to voluntarily eliminate it at this point, but I'd only be able to rebuild it in the construction phase of next turn so better to leave it in play and tie up some Axis units.

In the production phase the Axis recover a couple of air sorties, so they have three going into the next turn.

I took the isolated Greeks off to avoid clutter.

So, first thing in May 1941 was that the panzer army from Belgrade came piling down the railway line and just had enough MP left to attack the BEF. With air support and clear weather, this was enough to drive it back with a step loss. German panzers are pretty good in clear weather, even with bad terrain. The panzers deliberately didn't advance, so as to leave space for their mates.

The Germans go all in as they only have one chance to take Athens. The other panzer army (which is much closer so has loads of MP) rolls up to the weakened BEF and attacks it with every support option in range, including the paras. I burned a precious air sortie to base the Luftwaffe in para range. I could have paradropped direct into undefended Athens from there, but it is only a 50% chance of success.

It cost three MPs to move into position and three to mount the attack, the panzers have four MP left and could attack again if needed. Then one of the infantry units would need to rush past and take Athens. 

Unsurprisingly the weakened BEF are overwhelmed as the sky is black with bombers and there are panzers everywhere.

The panzers march unopposed into Athens, and Greece surrenders. Game over with another Axis win. tbh, after the catastrophe in Albania, that wasn't going to turn out any other way. 

The Albanian offensive was such an extreme result, I reset the game to that point in April 1941 and rolled it again. A much more average result this time. The Italian attack failed.

That left the Allies with two manouvre units to defend Athens. I didn't re roll Salonika as that would be stretching things too far. 

In the April allied turn they put the Greek infantry into Athens (I think it is still important to defend the city against paradrops) and the BEF onto a bottleneck with the flank covered by mountains.

I still wasn't far enough away to stop the Belgrade panzers railing down and attacking. They made an all out attack like the last game, including the paras as the Luftwaffe staged in air drop range.

The BEF took a step loss and retired. As before the Germans broke contact to leave space for a follow up attack on the narrow peninsular.

The other panzer army moved up and attacked with Luftwaffe support. 3MP to get to here and 3MP for the attack, so four MP left.

The panzers overran the BEF in one go. Drat!

And with four MP left and one sortie of Luftwaffe, it was  more than enough to crush the Greek garrison of Athens. Another Axis win.  If Salonika had held out, that would be have been a much more viable city to defend, but equally if both turns had been poor weather, I think the Axis would have struggled. Neither is very likely however (only 22% that both turns weather will be bad) so I think the chance of the allies winning this one are long. Despite parity in ground units and the awful terrain, the Axis advantages of position and troop quality are just too great.

That is still an interesting and enjoyable scenario, but I don't think it would be much fun as an opposed game. How many hex and counter games are played opposed these days in any case? I'm sure I saw some stats that solo play vastly exceed f2f play, but I cant recall.

I hope the blow-by-blow account wasnt too tedious, but I thought it was worthwhile to expose some of the game mechanics. I really like the integrated movement/combat system for mobile combat, very clever and works well. You do genuinely feel like Erich von Manstein planning a complex operational manouvre with with unit-at-a-time activation, but it can be a bit overhwelming at times and you yearn for something simple like AHGCs Afrika Korps.

Chancellorsville 1-3 May 1863

 Another trip to the American Civil War and the last in the current series of 250th Independence Anniversary US battles. This one is Chancellorsville, another huge multi day battle, which tbh I'm a bit anxious about running with players because there is a fair bit going on. However I have a scenario so we may as well give it a go, as usual with my heavily modified version of Neil Thomas's ACW rules.

Chancellorsville was fought over three days in May 1863 after 'Fighting Joe' Hooker took over the Union Army of the Potomac to try and wrest control of Fredericksberg on the Rappahanoc from Robert E Lees Army of Northern Virginia.  Repeated union assaults had previously failed, but Hooker settled on a wide flanking manouvre to unhinge the defence.

Battlefield from the south, the Potomac winds north-south and Fredericksberg is in the foreground, now largely destroyed after months of siege. Further up the road leading north from Fredericksberg is the Tabernacle Church and finally at the top of the map is Chancellorsville in 'The Wilderness'. The area marked with pine tress is dense forest, left untended after earlier forestry work and now heavily overgrown and very bad going. The woods indicated with deciduous trees further south are more open in the better tended farmland and just block LOS.

This is based on the old Volley and Bayonet scenario and victory is determined by the control of critical communication points in the north, not Fredericksberg itself. The objectives are the two roads leading off the west edge of the map, Chancellorsville, Tabernacle Church, and the ford in the northeast corner. The game last for three days with two overnight turns.

Here it is with the troops deployed. Most of the CSA army is around Fredricksberg, but Hooker has sent half his Army north to try and catch Lee in an encirclement. The Rappahanoc provides protection for that road on the right right which allows for rapid north-south Union movement.

For this game the CSA were played by John B (Lee and JEB Stuart), Tim (Jackson) and Simon (Longstreet). The Union were John A (Hooker and Slocum), Mark (Reynolds and Couch), Jim (Sedgewick), Russell (Meade) and Jerry (Sickles and Howard). The CSA units were generally divisions, while the Union units were generally Corps although the bigger Corps had two divisions. I will italicise the Confederate division titles to try and reduce some of the confusion as to which  units are on which sides. 

Hooker had immense problems commanding his dispersed army, so all units more than three hexes from him are treated as having 'poor staff', so harder to activate. The Union outnumber the CSA about 2:1, hence my trepidation about playing this with the very attrition focussed Neil Thomas rules.

Around Fredricksberg the Union have three Corps, Reynolds I, Sedgewick VI and Couch II, largely dug into siege works.One of Sedgewicks divisions (Brooks) has a bridgehead over the Potomac. Most of these units are Seasoned, but Howes division (2/VI Corps) is green.

Both of Lee's Corps are here, McClaws from Longstreets I Corps is on the hill, while Jackons II Corps is concentrated west of the Union bridgehead. Lee himself is up on the hill (Marys Hill I believe) with McClaws division and Jackson is with AP Hills large five base division. All the CSA units are veterans to even the odds a bit. 

Further north, Hooker has concentrated Meades V Corps and Slocums XXI Corps around Chancellorsville. Sykes division (2/V Corps) is veteran but the other two are green.

The other division of Longstreets Corps, Anderson, is dug in at the Tabernacle Church, and JEB Stuarts cavalry division is over in the top left. Stuart had shadowed Hookers flanking move, so it wasn't the surprise Hooker was hoping.  These units are both veteran.

Finally straggling up from the siege of Fredricksberg are Sickles III Corps and Howards XI Corps, just crossing the river. Both these units are green but if they arrive in a timely fashion at Chancellorsville, they will give Hooker a crushing local numerical advantage. What can Lee do about that? Well, we shall see.

OK, enough background, off to battle.

May 1st opened much as you would expect when the artillery around Fredricksberg sprang into life. Both both sides were largely in serious entrenchments so the smoke was impressive but casualties were light.

In the north however Brooks and Couch advanced on Anderson at the Tabernacle Church, while Sykes moved southeast and engaged Stuarts cavalry in the woods. Typically both Sickles and Howard failed their command rolls and were stuck around US Ford in the northeast. Having sent his forward divisions into battle, Hooker rode off the see what the holdup was at US Ford.

Jackson led Hill and Rhodes north and the shook out into line southwest of Anderson. So far all so historical.

There was heavy fighting in the north, Sykes managed to push back Stuarts cavalry with loss, who retired to the Spotsylvania Road exit to reorganise. Anderson and Hill inflicted enough losses on Slocum to force his Corps back into the Wilderness once more, while Rhodes advanced to the road between Stuart and Anderson. 

Back at Fredricksberg the guns continued to roar, enough to inflict some actual losses by now, but units in siegeworks can rally adjacent to the enemy, so damaged units paused to reorder their stragglers. The two CSA divisions here were comfortably holding off the Union troops.

Hooker had however lost confidence in the original plan and instead led Sickles and Howard back down the Potomac, where they are dimly visible in the northeast corner.

Suddenly there were an awful lot of Union troops around Fredricksberg as night fell on 1st May. Reynolds I Corps had left its siegeworks and moved opposite the crossing to Fredricksberg. Overnight units rallied and there was some shuffling around. The units in the open dug hasty fieldworks.

In the north, JEB Stuart reoccupied the ground he'd held earlier and Griffin moved back to the front as well having rallied. The other units dig rifle pits along the line. The CSA had numerical and qualitative superiority here, so what would the next day bring?

Dawn on the 2nd May saw the Union attempt to overrun Tabernacle Church! The charge failed in a hail of musketry and Griffin fell back once more, leaving dead and wounded behind him.

The guns roared out at Fredricksberg with losses on both sides, but McClaws (on the hill with Lee) lost a base but didn't feel able to make a rally attempt as Sickles crossed the Potomac via Banks Ford right next to him.

Lee indicated to Jackson that help was needed further south so Hill broke off and headed back down the road. There was now a parity of forces in the north. Hmm, well that is an interesting development. The CSA have pretty much got the objectives locked down here, but have just given up any real hope of taking Chancellorsville. Perhaps more worrying, is that overall losses (in bases) are now equal, whereas earlier in the battle, the CSA had a clear lead.

We broke for the evening at that point as the game moved into the afternoon of 2nd May.

The ring around Fredricksberg tightened, Sickles declined to charge(!) Mary Hill but Reynolds moved across the river into Fredericksberg while everyone else covered them with fire.

In the north Sykes drove Stuarts cavalry back again, but Griffin fell back with heavy losses into the wiilderness to join Slocum. Both these units were finding it hard to rally.

As night fell on the 2nd, Sickles charged up Mary Hill covered by the rest of the Union army, but was bloodily repulsed, many routers drowning in the river as they fled. AP Hills division had meanwhile moved into position northeast of Mary Hill to shore up McClaws position on the hilltop.

Stuarts cavalry infiltrated back into the woods as Sykes didn't show any great inclination to follow them, but Griffin and Slocum dithered in the forest although Griffin finally rallied a base back. The Confederates were probably a bit over committed here, but with three objectives in close proximity there was little choice.

As night fell the Confederates dug in (both Anderson and Rhodes had now improved their positions to fieldworks). Sykes also extended his entrenchments, but under cover of darkness Griffin moved back up the threaten the Tabernacle Chapel while Slocum marched west to join Sykes, hoping to overwhelm Stuarts cavalry the next day.

Around Fredericksberg there was mainly the sound of pickaxes and shovels overnight as most people dug in where appropriate. Howards Corps moved down to the Fredericksberg crossing ready to follow up after Reynolds however. Couch and Sickles exchanged places at the ford east of Fredericksberg as Couch's Corps was still fresh. The Confederates sneakily moved the Corps artillery from the Tabernacle Chapel and placed it on top of Mary Hill instead.

Dawn of the 3rd opened with Couch charging McClaws on top of Mary Hill. They were cut down in droves as Lee himself encouraged the defenders, and like Sickles, they found their retreat route blocked by the river so losses were catastrophic.

Reynolds Corps slipped northwest of of Fredericksberg, impeded by ZOC while Howards marched into the town. Suddenly that big gap between the two CSA trench systems was looking to be a problem (of course the Union could have done this manouvre days ago with the units already over the river, but it didn't seem to occur to them).

The CSA responded with fire. Hill routed and destroyed Couch, blocked in by the river. Combined fire from McClaws and Early inflicted 50% losses on Reynolds, and in the north Griffin was flung back once again with losses while JEB Stuart hung on grimly against two Union divisions. Slocum attempted a frontal charge but failed his morale test. If units want to charge in the ACW, they need to find an open flank, and Stuarts flank has been wide open all game. Union losses have skyrocketed in the last couple of turns while the rate of CSA loss has remained steady, mainly among the poor unfortunates on top of Marys Hill under attack by six Corps(!).

Reynolds sets off west towards the objective on row F, but Rhodes simply abandons his fieldworks and moves south the block the move. Having destroyed the threat at the ford, AP Hill starts to move back around Mary Hill. Reynolds needs to try and break through the CSA fire to move further west but has already taken heavy losses. The rest of the Union troops batter McClaws who is reduced to 50% strength, despite his siege trenches.

The tide turns on the afternoon of the 3rd. Reynolds takes enough losses to be forced to retreat, reduced to one active base., and hard up against Hills division, it is hard to see him surviving another turn. McClaws inflicts enough losses on Howard to force him back out of Fredericksberg and the Union position around the town is starting to look a bit dicey.

Catastrophe in the north, Stuart weathers heavy fire from Sykes and in turn puts enough hits on Slocum to force a retreat, but with their back the table edge there is nowhere to retreat to, so losing another base is enough to destroy them completely. With the losses this turn the Union army is well past its exhaustion point and is now coming close to its rout point.

With the army exhausted it is unable to take offensive action any more and Hookers attack grinds to a halt late on 3rd May. Lee still holds all his starting objectives and has managed to shatter the Union army as well, so a great Confederate victory! The CSA are well off their break point, despite heavy losses on Mary Hill and being outnumbered almost 2:1.

Gosh, that was a slogging match and quite hard to run, with more moving parts than I was happy with for two short evening sessions. We did reach a conclusion however with ten minutes to spare no less. A very interesting result as Hooker basically gave up on the Chancellorsville encirclement on turn 2 and decided to refight the battle of Ferdericksberg instead, but with the units in the north pinning the CSA (which they did very successfully until 3rd May). 

Sadly Fredericksberg is a horrible position to attack and not worth any VPs at all. Lee could use his interior lines to reinforce threatened positions and the Union suffered disastrous losses trying to attack the fortified heights across the river, just as they had in 1862. It was a brave effort and pressed home with vigour however, and the Confederates had some agonising command decisions to make about how many troops to commit to each sector.

Many thanks to the players for taking part in such good spirit. Following the requests to run Gettysberg, I am working on a scenario which may appear in due course....