So with all of my rules questions answered I settled down to play the first scenario in the game, Storming the Gap. The scenario pits elements of the 1st Squadron of the U.S. 11th ACR against tanks from the Soviet 247th Guards Motor Rifle Regiment. This is a learning scenario so it only features basic units and also has no artillery, smoke or combat aircraft.
In order to win the game, the Soviets have to control all of the town hexes at point A (Eichhofsiedlung) and point B (Haunec). Any other result is a US victory. The Americans can set up anywhere on the map but the best choice seems to be putting troops in the ‘valley’ that the two cities are in and await the Soviet tanks. The Soviets enter the game from any map edge marked in red.
The US forces have two M1 Abrams units, a Jeep TOW, M901 ITV an infantry unit with attached TOW launcher and an M113. They also have two Improved Positions which they can place anywhere. These positions allow a unit to ignore the first hit against it during every combat action.
The Soviets have nine T80 units.
The first question the Soviets have (other than where the heck is our Smoke and artillery?) is where to move onto the board. I actually tried doing the Soviet’s first turn movement from three different locations and no matter where you start from you end up with a traffic jam. This actually seems to match well with impressions of the issues the Soviets would face.
Unlike other games, the units in WaW have to stay within the command range of their HQ. For the Soviets this is 4 hexes. The morale of the formation is 6 so any hex that starts outside of this range will have to make a morale check or be out of command. The US forces, with a morale of 7, can toy with moving units outside of their command range but for the Soviets it would be disastrous.
The command range also stops players from artificially splitting up their forces to attack from multiple angles. The NATO forces can try to do a limited version of this based on their, usually, higher command ranges but the Soviets are required to ‘pick a lane’ and stick to it. It limits you as a player but it is a limitation I like as it makes the player make more realistic decisions about deployment and movement.
I think the Soviets either need to try to start from the north map edge and then try to run down towards Haunec or start from the bottom right edge of the map and use the cover from the town there to make a quick run towards Haunec. I chose the latter and I am interested in trying the northern approach as well but then I remember that this is just a learning scenario.
I set up the US forces in and east of Haunec. The infantry and TOW are in Haunec and the M1s are placed in Improved positions in the hills. The Jeep TOW. Is placed in the trees to allow it to get some additional benefit from terrain to try to keep it in the game longer. Soft targets, including vehicles, get more benefit from the terrain than armoured units do (10.6.14). The M901 and the M113 are also considered soft targets (indicated by the yellow circle in the bottom left corner) but they have a base armour save of 6 instead of the 5-6 for most soft targets.
The game starts with the Soviets getting a free activation. Typically in World at War 85, NATO formations get two activation cards and the Warsaw Pact forces get one. That is the case in this game but the Soviets get a free activation before the game begins to move onto the board and get in place. The stacking rules make it difficult for the Soviets to manoeuvre and stay in command range so the T80s quickly clog the road and some are forced out onto open terrain.
The US forces try to fire some ATGMs and regular AP shots at the Soviets with little effect. The turn ends before the Soviets can get their activation and so the Soviets get to ‘save’ an Operations Complete card for next turn.
The Soviets start to advance out of the city and begin to trade fire with the US forces. Both M1s are disrupted as is the Jeep TOW one of the T80s is also disrupted but the US fire this turn was exceptionally unlucky. The situation could have been worse for the US if it wasn’t for the Improved Positions which stopped three hits.
The activation system in the game lends itself to interesting decisions. Units that are not Ops Complete can fire during the opponent’s turn. So do the US forces take as many shots as they can during an activation or do they try to save some units to try to fire when the Soviets are moving? And since you don’t know what card will be flipped next from the activation deck you may try to save units and then have them activate next anyway.
Things heat up as the Soviets leave the protection of the city. The US ATGMs are much less effective when firing into blocking terrain like a city. I haven’t done a statistical simulation of it but I suspect that they are about as likely to take out a Soviet T80 in a city heck as they are to fail to reload their ATGMs. Once the Soviets hit the open terrain though the ATGMs and M1 can start to do their work. Two T80s are wrecked and one is reduced.
Sadly Soviet Volley Fire (10.6.10) takes out the southern M1 and a lucky T80 shot destroys the M901 ITV. Saving on a 6 is still difficult even if you get a lot of defensive dice.
The Soviet tanks are keeping within the Command range of their HQ but my main concern at this point is what will happen once the HQ comes out of the city. The Jeep TOW is in an excellent position to take it out.
As if to demonstrate my point the Jeep TOW takes out a T80 and manages to survive several Soviet ‘move and fire’ actions. It is disrupted but still in good shape. The M1 isn’t able to do any damage and the TOW team in Haunec takes a ‘snap shot’ during the Soviet activation but isn’t successful.
After seeing what happened to the other M1, the HQ decides to pull out from its Improved Position before it starts to feel the effect of Soviet Volley Fire. It is Disrupted by Soviet Opportunity Fire but undamaged and continues to move away from Soviet forces until it is behind the city. The Jeep TOW moves behind the trees to avoid Soviet fire. The Soviets move forward and take some shots at the US forces in the city but to no effect. During their second activation the US forces try to use their ATGMs at T80 in the open but the Soviets start what will be several turns of ridiculous armour save. The Jeep TOW moves back into the trees to position itself for a shot next turn.
The Jeep TOW is Out of Command and can’t fire. It tries to rally but isn’t successful. The TOW infantry try to move into the next hex to load into their transport but Soviet Opportunity Fire disrupts it so it can’t complete the action. The M1 HQ unit moves into the now empty town hex and is also disrupted by Soviet fire.
During their activation the Soviets aren’t really able to do anything. The infantry and M113 get an immense bonus from the city and their fire on the M1 gets horrible rolls.
I swear these are different turns. It is a bit of a stalemate. The Jeep Tow and the TOW infantry can’t rally and then M1 can’t manage to damage a T80 even with the Point Blank fire bonus (10.6.4). The Soviet fire doesn’t manage to do much more than return the state of the game to turn 6.
This stalemate continues for the next few turns until the end of the game. The Soviets try to force the issue by moving a T80 to the outside of their command range to try to assault the hex with the infantry and M113. A quick ATGM shot ends that plan quickly. The Jeep TOW isn’t able to get back into the game. Despite my comments earlier being out of command range for this US unit proves to be debilitating.
The Soviets try to use Volley Fire to take out the M1 but the added defensive bonus from the city keeps them in action until the final turn when the M1 and the HQ are reduced.
The Americans claim a victory but since this is a learning scenario it doesn’t have all the tools that the Soviets need to succeed against a more nimble foe.
Despite it being a learning scenario I have had to stop myself several times from resetting it and trying a different approach or American deployment. Even writing this post I am thinking about what I could do better this time which I think speaks well of the underlying system.
The basics of the movement and combat systems were easy to pick up and most of the issues that I checked in the rulebook were mostly to confirm my initial thoughts about the rules.
In spite of it being a small game, the activation system provided quite a bit of randomness in the turns. You aren’t guaranteed to get your full number of activations in a turn and saving your fire to do Opportunity Fire can often be invalidated by the activation deck. The combat system is straight forward and the few exceptions to it are easy to remember. There aren’t a lot of modifiers in combat so that is also easy to remember.
The first few turn were a little slow but by the end of the game I was motoring through the steps and actions.
The next scenario, A Matter of Bridges, adds more infantry as well as Soviet Artillery so I am looking forward to trying that one out.
Pile of dice 
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