Me and Mike decided to play Maczek Fire Brigade for this round, rolled for sides and I got the Polish defenders while Mike took the Germans. I am writing this AAR from memory since my logfiles didn‘t seem to work so there might be some inconsitency in it. Mike will just have to correct me where needed.

Setup

Since I‘m a relatively inexperienced ASL player I took full advantage of the article in Journal 8. I followed Mr. Hildebran set up but deviated from it a bit. I placed two squads and a dummy stack around the woods road at lvl 50. My HMG went to 17P4 lvl 1 and my MMG 17S4 like the article suggested. I did however not place forward units at the east edge of the map, which in hindsight was a mistake since it gave Mike an nice avenue of approache. The rest of my squads were placed in O7, O8 and O9 and I placed a squad and half in buildings R5 and S6. I then for some odd reason placed a dummy stack in W4. My basic game plan was to keep hold of the buildings around R5, keep the infantry at bay until the Vickers could reinforce my position, and to hopefully knock out a tank or two. I intended to have TKS take care of the German Armor.

Turn 1.

Mike entered with few AFV at bd50, the rest of his forces entered board 17, most of them following the road. The bd50 entered and reached the edge of L9 woods uncontested although one of the PzI managed to bog 17F2, the bd17 forces got a warm welcome. A PzII was knocked out by the HMG and a truck was set on fire as it approached my stronghold at P4. The motorcyclist moved in and reached the hedge line around 17L7 at that time I was cursing myself for not having at least a HS to irritate them. Mike also moved a superstack around the east edge of the map. The remaining two trucks managed to deliver their HS payloads to 17O6 which were in turn promptly broken. My Vickers platoon entered and headed to the town, since all the fun seemed to be there.

Turn 2.

Mike continues his approach During this turn Mike lost both his PSW 222s. One was knocked out by my now feared HMG in P4. The second got hit by a sizzling sniper. Mike did get his bogged Panzer free and moved closer to the P4 building. His infantry continues to move along the east edge mostly unopposed. At the bd50 road his tanks overrun one of my squads there and break it. That squad is then eliminated for failiure to rout. My dummy stack there is also taken out of the action. My Vickers continue their advance to the town and reach it but I did manage to foul the approach and the cannon armed one was not in LOS of anything. The TKS arrive and head to town.

Turn 3.

Mike ignores my now alone, although concealed squad, at 50O9 and moves his PzII to 17M1. In that position the PzII managed to knock out my Vickers Ejw(b). Mikes infantry moved into 17R8 woods and two of his HS engage one of my HS in Q8. That melee lasted until turn 5. The other remaining PzII moves from his position in 17K7 and is promptly shocked by my HMG. His infantry moves forward and in position at the edge of R8 woods. During my half of the turn I move a squad to contest the O6 building. Unfortunately I didn’t have the east side of the building covered so the HS managed to low crawl out. My squad the advances into the building. Mike’s luck continues in this turn as he manages to malf and x the CMG of his only remaining PzI. Mike is now down to 2 PzII while I’ve only lost one Vickers. I move my TKS up to the U4 grain field where they trade a few shots with the U1 PzII but no luck on either side.

Turn 4.

The O6 building turns out to be the deathtrap I remembered in this turn. Mikes shocked Panzer shrugs off the UK status and Mikes manages to break my HMG squad! His panzer is now free to move at that side of the map since I’ve got nothing else to irritate him there. Mike used that to his full advantage as he move into bypass at O6 and lays down smoke in the building. I even fail my PAATC and the now pinned squad is expecting a few “friends” to join him soon. The tank moves the moves to 17P6 to engage my remaining Vickers in R6 and S7. During the following firefight one of the Vickers is knocked out and the other has one of its turrets knocked out but Mike suffers a stun on the P6 panzer while the one in U1 is knocked out by the TKS and is now with out armor support. The CC in Q8 remains unfinished but a O6 his manages to kill my squad with out any retaliation. At this turn we realize that Mike will be hard pressed to reach the required number of buildings to win.

Turn 5

This turn started with me rolling snakes to rally my HMG squad, which was promptly followed by boxcars to disrupt them. Boy was I glad there was no German squad around for them to surrender to. The Infantry assault on the town starts this turn. Mike move two Squads to the north with the intention to capture CC3 and DD6 buildings but one of them is broken by the MG armed TKS. I manage to hold most of the attacks of and in my half of the turn I manage to break two squads by overrunning them. Those squads then surrendered to my valiant forces. Mike is at this moment not left with many option.

Turn 6

Nothing much happened in this half turn. I did manage to break my squad in R5 by fpf which then surrendered to Mikes forces. He also managed to get into Q4 which he won, and with my now 2 prison guard HS in S6 with a HS and his 9-1 but my HS managed to see them off with out losses. In the end the Poles still controlled enough buildings to stop the Germans from achieving victory, not to mention having complete armor superiority on the battlefield!

Final thoughts

I knew that getting APDS rounds for the MGs would work!! They were absolutely deadly effective in this game. On the first turns they kept the panzers at bay so Mike was unable to pops some smoke to cover the infantries advance . Mike was dreadfully unlucky in this match but he handled the infantry well and got it into positions where he could have won the game easily. But I got the rolls that I needed when I needed them and managed to keep hold of enough buildings in the end.

I'd like to thank Mike for this interesting and fun game, made even better by his cheerful attitude. Mike never gave up and used his forces to the fullest. Unfortunetly he was simply unlucky in this game. If his rolls had been a bit better it would have been a completely diffrent ball game.