This scenario was played between Mika Harviala (Poles) and me Larry Brien (Germans).

One look at the Victory Conditions for a German win in 6 turns revealed that the task was going to require a steady hand and nerves of steel. Losses will probably be high but time is not a positive factor in favour of the Germans. In order to get a sufficient number of units within striking distance of all the objectives the Germans will have to move fast. Panzer Meyer would have been proud of the results.

The Germans starting offboard are looking at a sea of concealment counters arranged in a forward position from the heights of 50N5 down to the woods straddling the road between 50L9 and 50L10 over to the buildings in and around 17P4 ending by anchoring in the woods of 17N8 and 17M9. A seasoned player would recognize where possible heavy weapons are setup and trained to maximize its destructive force on the hapless enemy. A likely spot would be the stack on 50N5. All indicators suggest a heavy or medium machine gun with a good leader. A good field of fire and this well placed firing platform offers an enfilade fire onto the enemy approaching the buildings below. But looking at the building in 17P4 we see a stack on the 2nd floor with a concealed counter on the main floor. Have to wonder here if a leader is lurking on the main floor ready to quickly move up stairs and direct fire when the time comes. However a fast moving body of motorized vehicles moving towards the building may limit the time available to lay some serious damage, and if this is the location of the heavy machine gun then where is the Medium machine gun and ATR!!! Decisions decisions .......

As the German I decided to respond to both possible treats by splitting my forces. A small detachment was assigned to hit 50N5 and the woods on both sides of the road in 50L9 and 50L10. A Pz 1B was first onboard moving along the road from 50A6 towards the wooded area. Smoke was created in 50J9 in the hopes of concealing additional offboard moves. This Pz 1B then proceeded to 17K1 where it did a VBM on 50L10, freezing a concealed HS. Next came a German HS riding a motorcycle following the road net on board 17. By the time it reached 17K6 the bark of a medium machine gun opened up from 17P8. This HS had doen its job of locating the MMG and now if it were to die it would have been for a good cause. But wait the gun is placing a Fire Lane so my HS survives to move onto 17N5 where he dismounts. The HS motions to his comrades the location and a Pz IIA starts up and clanks over to the enemy position, stops then firing and pinning them in place.

The Poles have exercised excellent fire discipline after several tanks and other units have moved towards the hill (50N5) and building (17P4) getting ready to overwhelm them with superior fire. However when a full squad riding on motorcycles advance to 17I6 a Polish squad with an ATR located in 17N8 unleashes a hot reception only to have the Germans pass the 1MC but this act also activates the Poles deadly 1 SAN. My HS that had moved up to 50I7 was DM'd.

So at the end of the German movement phase the bulk of the force was situated heading towards or were already around 17P4. A deadly situation was revealed once the Polish ATR gun was found next to my Pz IIA in 17O8 !! So in the Defensive Fire Phase the ATR fired and missed. However a squad located in the wood hex 17Q8 fired at the German squad on the motorcycle in 17K5 getting a K/1.

In the Advance Fire Phase I decide to fire at the 17P4 main floor and rolled snake eyes. Lucky for me I attempted a fire attack with my HS at another location and rolled boxcars. By the way both Mika and I had our share of both kinds of wild die rolls but some or most of my rolls seem to have happened at the appropriate time. Anyway back to the attack on the main floor, the die roll was a NMC which revealed nothing more than a dummy stack. So this eliminated the possibility of this spot being the location of the heavy mg, at least in my opinion.

During the Polish turn one a few prep fires caused more damage to a German HS and the ATR shocked my tank. The Poles moved their tanks in a defensive position around the buildings 17W7. Several squads used assault moves to shift position. During the defensive fire phase nothing was hit.

So for turn 2 focus was going to be on the hill. I had a DM'd HS in 17K5, a broken HS in 50H8 but a GO S with a Pz IIA making plans to assault the hill. Other units were going to try and clear the woods adjacant to the road. Starting in the Rally Phase both my HS in 50H8 and the shocked tank rallied! Then in my Prep Ph I fired on the ATR toting S rolling what else, snake eyes breaking them. My VBM tank in 17K1 moved to 17Q1 overrunning a foolish Polish squad getting another snake eye eliminating them. In the movement phase I move the full squad up the hill looking to draw some sort of reaction from the stack that I was positive it possessed the heavy mg. Moving tanks to freeze suspected units and firing on other all the time clearing the way for the infantry to advance on the buildings. Another Polish SAN and that disables one truck. The road was cleared around 17Q2 so that a PSW 222 was able to move up to the building on 50x6. Another Pz IIA moved up closer to 50N5 and still no reaction!! Man what control. But moving additional motorcycle troops towards 17P4 building finally reveals what I thought was the hmg's location in 50N5. The weapon opens up on a full squad and eliminates them. By the end of German Turn 2 the Germans only possess the building in 17O6 but threaten 17P4, 17P9 and 17P2. In Polish Turn 2 Prep the hmg destroys a truck in 17O4 witha full squad aboard then with ROF kills a leader in 17N8. These are snake eye rolls by the way. Another snake eye roll and another squad is killed but this time my SAN is activated and ends up on top of the Polish 8-1 leader, killing him. Then in the movement phase Mika moves his tanks in for an assault on the German armour with no good results in his favour.

Turn 3 was played using Live VASSAL and luck continued in favour of the Germans.

By the end of the German turn 4 movement phase .... when this game was called, the Germans had under their control buildings 17O7, 17P2, 17P4, 17P9, 17R5 and 17S4. the other building in immediate threat is 17S6. Four tanks remain in the German arsenal with 5 full Squads and 3 HS remaining. The Poles still have three tanks but only two GO squads. The 9-1 is DM'd along with a HOB created 7-0. The hmg was destroyed by the Germans. The mmg is in German hands. A very bad situation for the Poles.

Well that's it for an AAR on our playing of J113. I've enjoyed reading the other accounts and look forward to future AAR for the next set of games. All the Best to everyone and Good Luck.