The Wargamer

Fast Forwarding A Little and Moving Slightly West

Readers may recall that at the end of my first AAR I was able to achieve a Major Victory against the AI in the campaign of Close Combat – Cross of Iron. At the end of that AAR, I was given a meager 36 points with which to refit my troops and battle the Soviets in another round. I was rather pessimistic about my chances to survive that next battle but, in fact, I managed to hold the Soviets off quite nicely for about a dozen or so games before they pushed me back to the next map. Although not easy, my strategy for fighting on that last map varied only a little and the results were fairly consistent: slowly my forces were ground down with few points available for replacement. Eventually I was beaten off the map.

In the Historical Operations of Close Combat – Cross of Iron there are several consecutive maps where the player’s skill determines how slowly or quickly they are traversed. This AAR is about the battle on the next map. I’m still fighting the Moscow Retaliates Historical Operation, only now I’m just a bit further to the west.

In this scenario I am once again facing a situation where I have too few resources to meet the task at hand. In the middle of the map are a series of landmines and trenches which the scenario briefing indicated would be shelled heavily. My choice is to endure that or find another way to handle the situation. Once again the keystone to my defense is my single 88. Without it I have no reliable way of stopping an advance by Soviet armor. So as a strategy I have decided to ignore the temptation to place the 88 where it can hit the Soviets as they are channeled through the mines. Instead I'm using a modified reverse slope defense again to protect the 88.

Now, to see how much of my plan survives contact with the AI.

20 seconds into the game and a T-34 is my first victim. But the AI knows where I have placed the 88, and this early in the game that lack of surprise may be decisive.

Soon I spot a KV-2 but it moves before my 88 is able to target it. But a KV-1 appears just after it. The first round appears to bounce off the hull. Not good. But then I check my messages and see it has been immobilized. In this open terrain that simply won't do. The KV-1 starts to swivel its turret toward my 88, which is running low on only six rounds of HT left. Every shot has to count, but will my 88 reload before the KV-1 gets a shot off? Without that 88, this game will end very quickly.