RB/RO CG: Fire on the Volga (Pt. 3)

Note to readers: This post won't make a lick of sense to anyone who isn't familiar with the Advanced Squad Leader game system.

Specifically, Stewart King and I are undertaking to play a modified CG that combines the Red Barricades and Red October boards and OBs to become a massive, all-encompassing campaign that runs for 30 CG days! I attached the moniker "Fire on the Volga" and undertake here to maintain a blog of the CG as we progress. Stewart is an old friend and has agreed to refrain from reading my blog until such time as I give him permission.

•  Prelude (Explanation of CG)
• 17 October (CG Day 1)
• 18 October (CD Day 2)

Feel free to leave comments. Let me know if you think my setup is crazy, or if you find my strategy hopelessly flawed. Just be sure not to reveal anything about my game to Stewart (nor vice-versa).

Aftermath of CG Day 2

Bleak, baby. Bleak. Like Yevgrev says in Dr. Zhivago: "Even Comrade Lenin underestimated both the anguish of that nine hundred mile-long front, and our cursed capacity for suffering." 

The attack on the Chemist's Shop mostly succeeded, but Stewart yet clings to hex Z10, the southernmost of the building. The riverbank hangs like ripe fruit before my eyes, but is yet ungrasped. Along the railroad tracks we met with only slightly greater success than expected. After all, a savvy Russian player is not going to fight too hard on the western board edge. It's a fool's errand.  In the factories, we took only what the Russians ceded. Behold, the perimeter!

Continuing with the previous day's progress 

Stewart fought tenaciously to hold the Chemist's Shop. My attack stalled  in the trench at the very door of the (thoroughly-fortified) building. I made a risky decision, moving my 10-2 kill stack from his position on the 1st level of N5 over to the rooftop of hex P6. There were 2 modules of Red 80mm mortar dropping nearby, but I found the gap in his OBA missions, got up there and, as 10-2 kill stacks tend to do, laid waste to the Russian defenses.

My retained forces are strong, especially with my battle-hardened 10-3, who will be directing machinegun fire very close to the front lines on the coming day. But my Sturm troops are reduced to a depleted company, which more or less dictates that I buy a Sturm Company with my allotted 17CPP for the day. Here's what I've got.

Retained forces: 

• 10-3, 10-2, 9-1 x 2, 8-1, 8-0 x 3, 7-0 x 2
• 548 x 8.5
• 468 x 5
• 467 x 26
• 447 x 4
• HMG x 3, MMG x 5, LMG x 4, Atr, x 3, Lt. Mtr. x 3

I've still got 2 full companies of rifle troops, which bodes well for the next few days. Since I'm compelled to buy a Sturm company, I will do so. And since I'm still fairly close to the board edge, armor is a good substitute for a second company of infantry. 

I suspect Stewart has set up some nasty Russian MG nests in the Commissar's House. But I've got a Mortar OBA module that will smoke up that observation point, should it prove necessary. My 10-3 kill stack is set up to move into the first level of the Chemist's Shop as soon as the opportunity presents itself, from which location he will serve as overwatch as my Sturm troops on to the wire and trench line that Stewart has developed on the approaches to the Commissar's House. (I have definitely noticed that, as per our CG SSR) the Russians have a lot more fortifications than normal. And while it may have slowed my progress on the map, the casualties so far have still been about what one would expect.)

Here's what I bought:

• I3 Sturm Company
  548 x 12
  MMG, LMG x 2, DC x 2
  9-1, 8-1, 8-0
• A4 PzIIIH Platoon
  PzIIIH x 3
• O5 Offboard Observer (Hex Q1)
• O2 80mm Mtr OBA
  Normal Ammo

Not much imagination to my assault, I'm afraid. Push to the river! Attack the Russian flank. These things write themselves...