350 Tigers lash out at Ladoga

350 Tigers lash out at Ladoga

First playtest.

I played the first game of this very nice scenario and, even if the result was not what I hoped for (in the end the Russians won), I was pleasantly satisfied.
Already in the first few turns, I realized I had made a mistake in deploying the German First Division so far forward, right in front of the Russian forces' entry point.
It would have been much better to conduct a deep defense aimed at slowing the advance of the T-34s (vehicles that, even in the snow, proved VERY fast).
Obviously, this mistake was paid dearly by the Germans.
The Russian forces (also thanks to a series of not particularly good die rolls on the German side!) calmly entered the battle, immediately inflicting significant damage on the German forces.
Realizing that the situation was getting critical, I decided to "save" victory points by trying to move the units to defend these important hexes, with the result of slowing down the Russian advance and thus buying time to bring the 4 Tigers onto the field at the end of turn 5.
After inflicting a few lucky hits on the Russian armored force (10 T-34s can be quite a challenge to handle if you're on the wrong side of the fence!), it finally came to the final showdown: 4 Tigers vs. 7 T-34s.
Here I have to admit that, between some not particularly good dice rolls on the German side (both in attack and defense), some rather good dice rolls on the Russian side and a misperception of the danger posed by the Tigers by my opponent, the Russians managed to eliminate my Tank Ace and open a gap through which they could sneak out 2 T-34s and 1 infantry unit...certainly a minor victory...but still a victory!
Regardless of the final outcome, some points in the scenario gave me pause:

1- The Germans should deploy in depth, with the aim of slowing down the Russian advance.

2- The Russians must control 3 VPs, while the Germans have, at least on paper, the possibility of controlling a total of 4 VPs from the first round (points that can rise to 6 in the second and third rounds). However, the Germans must contend with the Russian advance (with a very clear superiority in men and equipment), and the possibility of maintaining control of these VPs for more than a few rounds is rather uncertain. Considering that the VPs in German hands are all Neutral (excluding the point on board 37B), this means that the Germans, as they gradually lose control of the points, see the sum of their VPs increase in favor of the Russians until they reach double-digit numbers. Considering that the German player needs these points to be able to put Strategy Cards on the field and, if necessary, to be able to use the "Artillery 88's" card (which with a cost of 4 VP is certainly not economical nor particularly effective if you consider that a 4+ is needed to establish contact and be able to use it... roughly this means that 50% of the time you spend 4 points to... get no result). I honestly think that perhaps, if the VPs were "non-neutral", the Russian player would not find himself in the position of having an excess of VPs to spend on strategic cards or combined fire actions (still leaving the German player in a difficult situation due to "scarce resources").

3- The Soviet Reinforcements deck seems to me to be of little use in a scenario where, due to snow (Deep snow effect) and lack of roads, the presence of infantry units (even on board trucks), does not really contribute to increasing the critical mass moving towards the Germans, generating a "tail" of Russian squads very distant from the faster T-34s (during the game at the beginning of the third round the T-34s were almost a whole board away from the Russian infantry units!)

4- As interesting as the "Expert" specialization of the German Division 2 is, I personally think that the German player would be better served by an additional MG that could be put into OP fire when the Russian infantry arrives.

Of course, these are just personal opinions and, overall, the scenario is pleasant and very well designed.

 

Here are my thoughts, for future reference.

5) Soviet decks:
Soviet Armor Reinforcements are too far away and/or too expensive.
In my game, I drew only one card from the soviet armor reinforcement deck and took a KV-1 (cost 5) on turn 2. Virtually unplayable, since with the "deep snow" slowdown, it would have moved 3 (advance) or 1 (fire and move).
I've seen other armor reinforcement cards cost 9 (2x T-34); that type of reinforcement couldn't enter before turn 4 and I don't think it would have much of a chance of aiding the advance or reaching the final escape point.
For this reason, after the first card I immediately stopped drawing from that deck.
I tried drawing a couple of cards from the Soviet Reinforcements deck, but I got two identical cards: two squads of regulars with the GMC truck option. Given the presence of deep snow and the difficulty of the forests and tank traps, I thought it would be better to call the units alone (without trucks). Their movement would still be limited to three open hexes and only two hexes (if one of them was forest). They were too slow, and if they entered after the third turn, they wouldn't have had a chance to reach the exit.
At this point, I drew exclusively from the Winter deck, which, however, was shared and therefore ran out too early.

6) Soviet units:
The Soviet MG and mortar are fairly useless and fall far behind, almost too far to have any impact on the endgame.
Perhaps replacing the MG with an SMG could help?

7) Soviet specializations / Soviet operation cards:
The Soviets have only one engineer unit (no more can be added from reinforcement decks). I've always found the "clear tank traps" operation card ineffective. The engineer must already be on the hex (having arrived there in the previous turn) and be completely exhausted to remove the tank trap. This requires at least two turns, hoping not to suffer any opportunity fire. Combined with the fact that T-34s are much more mobile and agile, the engineer's role has been largely ignored.
As you can see from the replay, the Soviet tanks used the "upper corridor" to bypass the traps in the lower part.

Final push
When the Tiger tanks appeared, they stopped exactly on the "R" hexes to form a "wall" against the approaching Soviets.
Six Soviet tanks (one of which was heavily damaged) managed to enter the forests and, with a couple of combined fire actions (and a lot of luck), they managed to eliminate the German tank ace.
This created a corridor that allowed two Soviet tanks to exit, and on the following turn, an infantry unit to do the same.
The other two Soviet tanks that attempted to pass near the Tigers were wiped out by some amazing dice rolls.

 

Thank you for playing my scenario!

I tried to post a very lengthy reply, but unfortunately it just wouldn't allow me to post it somehow.

The short version is that certain things worked out exactly as intended ( the T34's outrunning the other units, the Germans initially outproducing the Russians etc.)

However, based on your comments, I will try the scenario again- which is, after all, still in its playtesting stages, and I will remove the deep snow special rule, so all units will move normally.  I will also add one SMG to the Russian starting forces and I will increase the value of the Russian command point to 5, so buying Russian armored reinforcements will become more affordable and worthwhile.

a things considered, I don't think we should make life too much easier for the Russians, because, after all, despite everything, they still won the scenario!

Thanks again for playing and your valuable input. It's very much appreciated!

 

As for the comment regarding the 88 card. I'm pretty sure that, just like with regular artillery cards, you don't have to pay for them.again if you fail to establish contact. You can try again for free on the next game round. I always remind myself by placing an op fire token on the card and place it in my play area.

At any rate, this is how the card's meant to be played in this scenario!

boersma8 wrote:

As for the comment regarding the 88 card. I'm pretty sure that, just like with regular artillery cards, you don't have to pay for them.again if you fail to establish contact. You can try again for free on the next game round. 

Based on this consideration, it might be a good investment for the Germans to spend the first 4 Command Points to activate this card (and thus have 10 turns to establish contact).

I always remain skeptical, given the randomness of the drift, about the actual effectiveness of artillery cards... they are always 4 CP not spent in any other way!

Scenario details and image updated accordingly:

• Removed the deep snow special rule
• Added one SMG to the Russian starting forces
• Increased the value of the Russian command point to 5

We're ready for the next playtest!

Yes, the Germans may want to buy this card as quickly as possible. Of course, once contact has indeed been established an you execute the rest of the card, you WILL have to pay for it again, if you want to reuse it!

I agree that artillery is often a bit underwhelming for what it does. I wrote a lengthy article on this which can be found here in the articles section and was originally posted on BGG>

More potent decks were released by 1A games which have artillery attack cards hit on 4+ (rather than the normal 5+). These can be downloaded from this very website as well.

In my Against all Odds scenario, which can also be found on this site, the standard artillery decks actually hit on a 4+. That makes a world of difference!

The 88 card is part of Tigers lash out at Ladoga for historical reasons, by the way. The Germans used 88mm artillery fire to push back the Germans. I decided against an actual 88 mm/Flak 36 figure in this scenario, because the 4 Tigers offer more than enough anti-tank firepower!

Thank you so much for the clarification on the use of the 88mm artillery card.
I can't wait to try the scenery again with the new changes.