Zeb Doyle vs. Roy Casagranda

Roy and I have been playing the very cool King Of The Hill CG and, inspired by Nick Drinkwater's Berlin: Red Vengeance writeups, I thought I'd share some highlights of the action.

King Of The Hill features the British trying to take away a key hill in Normandy away from the SS. So, it's 1944, the Germans have 6-5-8s and Tigers, and the Brits have OBA and tanks with lots of smoke. Nothing new there. The VC are also pretty straightforward. Whoever controls the top of the hill at campaign end wins. Also pretty vanilla. However, there are two major elements that make KOTH completely unique and very interesting.

The first thing to catch the eye is the terrain. The entire battle plays out on a hill almost completely devoid of any cover at all. There's a main hill of roughly 20 hexes or so that's at level four (Hill 112) , another more forward and much smaller hill at level four (Hill 111), a small clump of woods on the back half of the main hill, and then lots and lots of level three terrain that gently slopes away on all sides. A few hedges and a very tiny amount of other woods complete the picture. In short, whoever controls the level four hill and the woods can set up a rear slope defense out of LOS. Everything else on the map is wide open and can be seen from almost anywhere. Skulking is impossible 90%+ of the time...certainly not your normal ASL!

The second part of the campaign that is really unique is the way the ebb and flow of the battle is handled. First, the hill, being the highest point for miles around, made a great artillery observation post (which was in fact the reason both sides fought so hard for this particular area). To simulate the devastation unhindered artillery could cause, each side in the campaign suffers a HUGE depletion modifier if their opponent is in full control of the main hill and woods. This gives a really interesting feel to each scenario; you only win the campaign by controlling the hill at the end of the CG, but both sides want very much to control at least a piece of it at all times, which leads to lots of desperate 'last-ditch stands' over the key terrain.

The other CG SSR to simulate the ebb and flow is also a very cool rule and one I'd love to see other CGs utilize. As per normal CG procedure, both sides are issued a bunch of Campaign Purchase Points for each scenario. The catch here is that only if you attack do you get all your CPP. Going on the defense gives you only one-half of your assigned CPP, with the remainder added to the next day's total. For example, if you got 40 CPP on Day One and Day Two and opted to defend on Day One, your CPP total would change to 20 CPP for the first day and 60 CPP for the second.

This doesn't sound like a big deal, but in play it leads to tons of agonizing decisions and makes it far more difficult to predict when attacks are coming. Often you'll want to defend and save the vital Attack Chits for later, but that can leave you with a meager amount of reinforcements for an entire scenario. Both sides have a very limited amount of attack chits, but the CPP totals are set such that losing half of them severely restricts what you can buy. Finally, just to further complicate things, both sides have a Reserve Chit they can use to add 10 CPP to any one scenario OR use as another Attack Chit. These rules are quite simple overall but add a great element of planning, tension, and ebb and flow to the battle.

Moving on to the opposing forces, KOTH also showcases just how outclassed the British infantry is at this point in the war. For 7 CPP, the Brits receive 12 first line squads, 3x LMG, and 3x PIAT for a total of 54 FP. The SS, for 9 CPP, get 12x 6-5-8, HMG, MMG, 3x LMG, 3x PSK for a total of 93 FP, which doesn't even count the ROF of the machine guns. In addition, the SS have better leadership on average, and get to start dug in while the Brits are forced to cross the wide open lower slopes of the hill.

Of course, just as in the real war, the British come with plenty of tools to aid their infantry. First and foremost is the OBA, which is cheap and plentiful for Monty's boys in this campaign. They also receive a bewildering array of options with the artillery, including rolling barrages, special pre-set rolling barrages (which, at a minimum, pin every unit they cross over), and observer planes. To render this onslaught of artillery even more deadly, most of the hill had a dense layer of shale just under the surface which reduces foxhole TEM to a mere +2 vs. OBA.

The second deadly equalizer for the British is the air support. Typhoons are also cheap and plentiful and appear in rocket and bomb armed versions. The 12 FP MG is deadly strafing just by itself, and the rockets just eat German armor for lunch. Each Typhoon gets four rocket, hits Tigers on an 8 (doubling the lower die roll) and kills it on a 7. As you might imagine, with four to six Typhoons in every day time scenario, the German Panzer arm disappears fairly quickly, leaving the British tanks free reign to roam the battlefield.

So, with all these exciting thoughts dancing in our heads, Roy and I started the campaign. Roy went with the British, and after I finished teasing him about how his side's idol was the stodgy Montgomery, I started to set up. I had lots of stuff to work with: two companies of SS, 4x Pz IVJ, 2x 81mm MTR, a 75mm AT gun, an 81mm MTR module, a bunch of foxholes, a few trenches, and entering on turn three 4x Tigers.

My set-up was somewhat restricted by SSRs but even more by my fear of the British firepower. It's an ASL axiom not to stack, but in this case the bulk of the carnage would be caused by OBA and airplanes, both of which attack multiple hexes at once. Forget stacking, I couldn't safely place units adjacent to each other! In this sense, the KOTH battlefield felt much more like a modern war. The SS simply had to disperse across a far wider area than normal simply because of the overwhelming British FP.

In the end, I went for a set up that was as concentrated as possible, which really meant my force was scattered far and wide. The only stacks for me were two MG nests of 2x 3-4-8/HMG/MMG/leader. These, along with the AT gun and the 81mm MTRs, were placed in trenches with really great LOS. Everything else was placed with an eye towards delaying the British. The killing would be left to the MGs, the MTRs, and (especially) the OBA. The main goal of the scenario, though, was to preserve my force as much as possible and keep the British off Hill 112 to trigger the depletion modifiers.

Roy, after several snide comments that MY side's idol was Rommel and he was dead, brought his force onto the map in a perfect set-piece attack that would have brought a tear to Monty's eye. Roy had purchased well as the British, with three companies of infantry, 4x Typhoons, 150mm OBA, 70mm OBA, some 51mm MTRs, a bunch of carriers, 4x Crocodiles and a mixture of 6x other Churchills, some with the 14 frontal armor and some with the 11. As can be seen, I was outnumbered 3:2 in infantry but still had a edge in FP in that department. The armor battle was vastly in Roy's favor to start, with the ten Churchills facing my four Mark IVs. I could count on the four late arriving Tigers to briefly change this before the Typhoons killed them. Finally the British airpower and artillery went a long way to negating my advantages of cover and terrain. In short, a fascinating matchup of two very different forces, both with very different approaches to war.

The first several turns saw the British war-machine rolling stolidly forward as the Germans frantically tried to throw some grit into the cogs grinding them to bits. Since Roy had the chance to look over my set up and coordinate everything, he had a major advantage early on. The British attack can be very powerful, but only as long as everything is working in tandem. Tanks, artillery, and infantry all have to compliment each other to cross the open ground.

Roy's opening attack was a perfect example of this, with two rolling barrages breaking several of my squads and providing decent cover for his troops. A swarm of pesky carriers then VBM froze my forward elements, enabling the Crocs to lumber up and torch the cowering SS. The remaining British armor came on and smoke mortared anything left alive. Finally, the British infantry crept on to mop up and cut rout paths. Meanwhile, the Typhoons zoomed ominously around overhead, completely freezing the Germans in place.

The German advantages in this campaign are of firepower, flexability, and resiliancy, and as the British coordination slowly and inevitably degraded, the tide of battle slowly swung in my favor. The good German leadership with the SS broken ML of 9, plus the rear slope defense enabled the German infantry to spring back to life time and time again. Meanwhile, between the 81mm MTRs and the MG nests, the British infantry slowly melted away. Each German unit, especially with the great LOS and high FP, is a major threat by itself and doesn't need any external support to be dangerous. Roy did a good job shutting down each threat in turn, but the smoke and rolling barrages couldn't last forever, nor could they cover every required hex needed. Even more unstoppable, the 81mm OBA came in as harrassing fire and really tore a huge hole in the British lines.

It all played out in very interesting fashion. As described above, the British were highly coordinated for the first several turns and really dominated. As their attack faltered a bit, and my Tigers entered on turn three, the British offensive really fell apart. I think Roy made one major mistake in being too eager with his planes and going after my Tigers while the tanks were still in Motion. This changed the Rocket TH roll from an 8 (plus doubled lower die) to a 6 (plus lower die). Obviously a huge difference, and the net result was one dead Tiger and four Rocketless Typhoons.

At this point, I was still reeling from the carnage of the first two turns, during which I had lost almost a full company. The British attack however had beome completely disjointed as the Tigers made their presence felt and so over turns three and four I was able to rally back my force and really put the hurt on the Tommies. It was amazing how much things changed once the British force fell into disarray.

By turn five, I was licking my chops for a counter-attack and Roy was actually hoping for the game to end. Things swung back in a hurry when I malfed two Tiger MAs and lost the last one to a Croc CH through the front AF. In the end we were both relieved when the game ended at the earliest possible moment on turn five. There were burning wrecks and abandoned equipment everywhere, but the most graphic illustration of the carnage was the huge group of shellholes where my main trenchline had been. Roy's 150mm OBA had been a brutal rototiller. The British had gained a lot of ground, but had been kept away from the vital Hill 112. Overall, it seemed like a marginal German win. Having the three Tigers fizzle out was disappointing, but I was lucky they survived at all with all those Typhoons.

The scenario wrapped up with both sides having lost about a company of infantry each. I also lost two Tigers, a Panzer IV, but took out two Crocs, a Churchill, and a couple of carriers. Pretty even, but again it was fascinating how and when the damage occured. Almost all my infantry losses were in the first two turns as the British offensive rolled over me. As the battlefield descended into chaos, and individual unit traits became more important than coordination, the Germans ruled supreme, with the Tigers, machine guns, and leadership just manhandling the Tommies. Just as another point of reference, Roy's 38 squads had only a few -1 leaders and only two 51 MTRs with an ROF of two. The 24 Germans had a 9-2, numerous -1 leaders, and four weapons with an ROF of three! Once the Monty-esque attack devolved into a furball, the German infantry really dominated.

Of course, that's the main problem I'm now facing for the next scenario: I'm running out of the vaunted German infantry. At the end of the morning scenario I'm down to no Tigers with working guns, am outnumbered 2:1 in infantry, and have a really tough decision to make for the next scenario. With only two attack chits, one reserve chit, and five scenario dates to go, I really don't want to attack. If I dont't though, my CPP total is such that I can't afford another infantry company. In that case, I get to play the afternoon scenario with a single company of SS trying to hold off the entire British army. It's gonna be a very interesting decision!

Thanks for reading and stay tuned for the afternoon action.

Zeb