Tutorial for Barrikady Factory Battle

[asl3d]

Factory 21
Impulse 22:
The German HS tries to attack the sniper in Close Combat and eliminate him. For it moves to AA9 and there is attacked by the Soviet squad still available to shoot in Y8 that breaks it, frustrating its attack.
The turn ends for the Germans and the Russian commander decides to pass.

[asl3d]

Factory 22
Impulse 23:
The squad remaining on AB7 advances to AA8 and stops there.
The German impulse ends and the Russians pass.
The right flank is not progressing as the left flank has, despite the presence of vehicles.
Impulse 24:
Thus, the Germans change their tactics to try to attract Russian fire.
The HS in Z4 moves to Y5 and the Soviets do not react.
Then, it continues until Y6 and now it is attacked by all (error !!!) Soviet units of X7. Fortunately the HS is still in good order and decides to continue its movement to X6, where it is attacked by all (again error!!!) Soviet units in W7 that finally break it.
The Germans finish their turn.
The Russians pass.
Suddenly, the picture has been clarified and opportunities for Germans arise.

[asl3d]

Factory 23
Impulse 25:
It's time to face our last AFV, the PzKpfw III-N 75 *, with the cannon in T5. We will use the Assault Movement to retain the possibility of firing later. That is, if the cannon fires and fails, we can still return the fire.
The Pz III moves to X2 and is attacked by its flank by the cannon in T5, which fails. We continue with the movement until W3 and, as it still has the AFV 1 MP, we use it to turn all the AFV to the left, facing its front part, with more armor, to the cannon. We could shoot now, but we save this option for later.
The Soviets pass.

Impulse 26:
We continue with the approach of units from the rear.
The Second Line squad in Z4 moves to X4, then to X4, and finally to W5, where it is attacked by the Firts Line squad that handles the MMG of the Soviet group in V6.
Our squad is broken and the German impulse ends.
Now, the other squadron in V6 fires (error !!!) against our HS broken in X6, and it fails !!!
This shot was not necessary since the Soviets are left without the ability to make defensive fire on their right flank. Now, only is available the group in T5 and its rearguard units.

[asl3d]

Factory 24
Impulse 27:
It is time to further weaken the close response capacity of the first Soviet defense line.
The HS in J4 moves to J5 revealing the Soviet group in T5, which fires with all its units (very precipitous !!!), and also fails.
Our HS continues its movement until T4, where it is attacked by a squad of the R6 group. The attack fails again and the HS completes its impulse completely unharmed. A miracle!!!.
In their impulse, the Soviets shoot with their rear group in W8 against our HS broken in X6 and fail again.
The Soviet commander is acting very hastily and is running out of capacity to respond.
Obvious signs of despair!

[asl3d]

Factory 25
Impulse 28:
Now we move the HS in V3 to V4, and from there to U5, where it is attacked by the sniper in T6, without success. The German impulse ends.
Little by little, the Soviets of the first defensive line are losing their capacity of defensive fire.
During the Soviet Impulse, the entire group of units in X8 fires at the HS broken in X6, eliminating it.
Although the loss of another unit is bad news, however, this has happened in exchange for the fact that the Soviet front-line forces have lost all their capacity to respond.
From now on, the German commander has his hands free to act.

[asl3d]

Factory 26
Impulse 29:
The first thing is to neutralize annoying enemies.
The assault group led by Sergeant Major Kreiser in U4 assaults in Clocse Combat the location of the Russian cannon in V5 with an odds ratio of 5: 1, eliminating it immediately.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.

Impulse 30:
Now, the German assault group led by Lieutenant Lemm in X6 attacks in Close Combat the group of Russian units in W7, moving to X6 and then to W7.
This is a risky action, because the balance of forces is balanced, and only the leadership factor of the lieutenant Lemm can unbalance the balance.
The Close Combat advantage ratio is 1: 1 and the Lieutenant wins it at the cost of losing the Conscripts squad. We have been lucky.
The German impulse ends and the Russians pass once more (5 vs 34).

[asl3d]

Factory 27
Impulse 31:
We have another risky move in front of us.
The objective of the assault group led by Colonel Scupin in AA6 is to attack in Close Combat the strong Soviet group that protects the entrance to the factory in X7. Although the Germans are numerous and strong, the Soviets are also strong. Well, if we want to win we have to be bold.
Colonel Scupin's assault group moves toward its target through route AA6-Z5-Y6-X6-X7.
The advantage ratio is 2:1 and Colonel Scupin wins the Close Combat without suffering any loss.
The building of the factory begins to have German color (6 vs 33).
The German impulse ends and the Russians pass.

[asl3d]

Factory 28
Impulse 32:
The German AFV in W3 tries to complete the success and shoots against the Soviet group in V6 but fails. The subsequent attack with their on board MGs also fails.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.
Impulse 33:
Now, the German assault group led by Corporal Hetzenauer in Y4 moves to the rearguard of the units that have already entered the factory, following the route Y4-Y5-Y6-X6.
The German impulse ends and the Russians pass once more.

[asl3d]

Factory 29
Impulse 34:
The next impulses will be dedicated by the German commander to move his rearguard units towards the front, to regroup them, and to lead the rally of the broken units, leading Leaders to their location.
Colonel Heyte's group on V3 moves through the route V3-V4-W5.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.
Impulse 35:
The squad group in X3 moves through the X3-W4-V3 route.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.
Impulse 36:
Lieutenant Ehm and his squad move through the V1-V2-V3 route and regroup with the other 2 squads newly arrived there. The HS that also belonged to Lieutenant Ehm's group could not accompany them in their movement because the stacking limit in hex V3 would be exceeded.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.
Impulse 37:
The group of units in hex W2 move towards the left flank of German attack following the route W2-V2-U3.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.
Impulse 38:
The abandoned HS of the group of Lieutenant Ehm moves towards U3, following the route V1-V2-U3, to regroup with the units just arrived there.
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.
Impulse 39:
Finally, the squad group in AB4 moves to AA5
The German impulse ends and the Soviets pass.

[asl3d]

Factory 30
Impulse 40:
It would still be necessary to move the SdKfz 10/4 20L located in Z2, but the German commander decides to wait to know the reaction of the Soviet commander.
When one side has already used all its units during a turn, the AI will perform an automatic pass, and that is the best way to tell the Soviet commander that he can move or shoot with impunity because we will not be able to do anything.
If we reserve to some units (in this case only one, although the AI does not know, or should not know) to "pretend" that we still have some "ace" hidden in our sleeve, the AI may act prudently.
The German commander passes (Pass-2) and the Soviet commander agrees to end the turn now.

Well, it was not a bad initial turn.
We have lost some units, especially HS and Conscripts squads, but the Russians have also suffered losses. An important fact is that the Germans have not lost any Leader and the Russians have lost three Leaders.
The Soviet front has been broken at several points and now the Germans can take advantage of the penetration points to break the Soviet defense.
We are still far from winning (6 vs 33), but we see a light at the end of the tunnel ..........

[GiveWarAchance]

Golly that is complex and intense. Thank you for making that tutorial.
What do you use to put those arrows and circles on the map? I have Paint Shop Pro but don't know how to make nice neat arrows & circles like that.
Were you a company commander in the army?
You use the HS units like Patton used recon vehicles. Patton ordered recon units "Drive down this road until you blow up!"

[GiveWarAchance]

You really did advance well and got melees cooking inside the factories.
So you are definitely a master at this game, a kind of Lock n Load Sun Tzu.
I'm wondering about this game in general, whether the shooting, spotting, and support aspects are only bells & whistles on a melee based game? I think I really misunderstood this game until seeing this tutorial and your earlier advice about melee.

[asl3d]

ORIGINAL: GiveWarAchance

Golly that is complex and intense. Thank you for making that tutorial.
What do you use to put those arrows and circles on the map? I have Paint Shop Pro but don't know how to make nice neat arrows & circles like that.
Were you a company commander in the army?
You use the HS units like Patton used recon vehicles. Patton ordered recon units "Drive down this road until you blow up!"

Arrows and circles on the map:

I use the normal Paint program provided by Windows. You just have to use the form menu at the top of the interface.

Patton:

I did not know that the famous general had said "Drive down this road until you blow up!", But it is precisely that.

[asl3d]

ORIGINAL: GiveWarAchance

You really did advance well and got melees cooking inside the factories.
So you are definitely a master at this game, a kind of Lock n Load Sun Tzu.
I'm wondering about this game in general, whether the shooting, spotting, and support aspects are only bells & whistles on a melee based game? I think I really misunderstood this game until seeing this tutorial and your earlier advice about melee.

Melee based game:

I am an Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) player, and I learned how to play this wonderful boardgame by reading the games played by many good and experienced players, like Tom Repetti, Bill Conner, Mark Nixon, and many more. I have also learned their old "dirty" tricks. This has helped me to learn to play HoS, because the games are pretty similar, although they are not the same.
Regarding the Close Combat, it is necessary to specify a little. If you are on the attack, both in ASL and here, appeal to Close Combat is a solution, undoubtedly risky, but a solution. But if you're on the defensive, you just have to use the defensive fire "intelligently" to keep the enemy forces from overwhelming you.
If there are few units, the Close Combat does not make sense. You have to maneuver in the field, gain the advantages offered by the terrain, create ambushes, and all the variety of resources offered by combat in the Second World War.

[GiveWarAchance]

Thanks for detailed answers.
I did not know Windows had a paint program. I have Windows 7
Those players you mentioned, they used to play this Lock n Load game? Do they still play. I am actually new to this game so I wasn't around in its heyday.

I used to play SSG games like Decisive Battle Normandy and Italy and Kharkov games. They are quite good but sadly forgotten by the masses who moved onto stuff like Hearts of Iron 4 and Panzer Corps and the Gary Grisby games I guess but I also like Panzer Corps and Grisby's game A World Divided which has a deadly strong AI and beefed up campaigns for single player for people like me who are not really into multiplayer but I used to play the SSG games by email cause they had almost no dirty tricks to exploit so the combat was honest.

[asl3d]

ORIGINAL: GiveWarAchance

Thanks for detailed answers.
I did not know Windows had a paint program. I have Windows 7
Those players you mentioned, they used to play this Lock n Load game? Do they still play. I am actually new to this game so I wasn't around in its heyday.

I used to play SSG games like Decisive Battle Normandy and Italy and Kharkov games. They are quite good but sadly forgotten by the masses who moved onto stuff like Hearts of Iron 4 and Panzer Corps and the Gary Grisby games I guess but I also like Panzer Corps and Grisby's game A World Divided which has a deadly strong AI and beefed up campaigns for single player for people like me who are not really into multiplayer but I used to play the SSG games by email cause they had almost no dirty tricks to exploit so the combat was honest.

Paint:
I have Windows 8, but surely Windows 7 also has it. Its a classic.

Players:
Tom Repetti, Bill Conner, Mark Nixon, and many more, are part of the "Hall of Fame" of the famous boardgame Advanced Squad Leader, at least for me.
I do not know if they keep playing and I do not even know if they know this game. Many already have a certain age and I do not know if they still live. Some of them founded some of the ASL conventions that are still celebrated all over the world. Also, they are very funny.

I also have some SSG game and I think they are pretty good, although of a very different style and dimension from Heroes of Stalingrad or Advanced Squad Leader. They are another type of games.

[GiveWarAchance]

Okay so those gentlemen you mentioned are famous ASL people. I wish I had played that game too. I only played Axis & Allies but played it an awful lot to be honest. I have a newer version of it but don't know anyone now who likes wargames of the board type.

The SSG games are what I'm used to. I like the operational level with battalions and regiments that make up divisions. It is fun preparing complex attacks and then seeing how they cook. I used to play Steel Panthers (I think it is called that) which was squad based too but no where near as strict and difficult as Lock n Load. I really liked the stuff that Wild Bill made especially his eastern campaign I think Korsun Pocket and the famous Long Long Road to Victory

[asl3d]

ORIGINAL: GiveWarAchance

Okay so those gentlemen you mentioned are famous ASL people. I wish I had played that game too. I only played Axis & Allies but played it an awful lot to be honest. I have a newer version of it but don't know anyone now who likes wargames of the board type.

The SSG games are what I'm used to. I like the operational level with battalions and regiments that make up divisions. It is fun preparing complex attacks and then seeing how they cook. I used to play Steel Panthers (I think it is called that) which was squad based too but no where near as strict and difficult as Lock n Load. I really liked the stuff that Wild Bill made especially his eastern campaign I think Korsun Pocket and the famous Long Long Road to Victory

Famous ASL people:

Right.

Games

Boardgames, especially ASL are difficult. They have many rules to respect (even the "famous ASL people" recognize that there are moments that they forget to apply a certain rule), many charts to consult, many modifiers by terrain effect, units, their morale, and much more. Calculate all that makes the game move slowly, sometimes, desperately slowly. But it has its charm.
Naturally, a computer is a very important gameplay aid. I am amazed with HoS, even with TotH (despite its obvious limitations).
I know and I've played Steel Panthers and also Korsun Pocket. Both games are very funny but, with all the respect for those who think differently, ASL and its computer versions (especially HoS), are on another level, both complexity and show.
Thinking of the battalion-level game, Avalon Hill Company published a series of promising boardgames: Panzer Leader, Panzerblitz, and several expansions. They were promising but I think they failed to capture the essence of a game at this level without falling into the classic games of regimental-type tactical units, you know ....

[GiveWarAchance]

I can image the glacier slowness of calculating all that information at every step. But I guess if you are with good friends, the game is just as fun fast or slow.

By Korsun Pocket, I meant the Wild Bill campaign for Steel Panthers, but I also like the SSG Korsun too but Normandy and Italy are lot better I think cause of complex terrain.

I think the SSG games were even more complex than this Lock n Load style especially Normandy and Italy because before moving any units or doing attacks, I had to allocate units and arty & air support to each attack in advance so I didn't overload on the first or second attack which makes the other attacks too weak. I also had to consider the effect of cratering roads so sometimes had to hold off on using arty, and then the biggest problem of putting units on defensive terrain after attacking to avoid being wiped out in counterattacks. And allocating units was fun cause it is good to have reserves, and a reinforcement division could sneak up to a random part of the line and surprise the enemy with a sudden strong attack at that point. If I made a hole in the enemy line, had to think was it worth it to rush in a fast unit like a recon armored car to destroy arty and supply trucks cause the unit I send will be destroyed by a counterattack which can be a terrible loss to a division. The are only a small number of objectives so it is important to make a long-term plan. In Italy it was fun to set up ambushes on roads that the allied player expects to be undefended and then swoop in suddenly and wipe out enemy units and then move further up the road on defensible terrain to avoid an angry counterattack. The Salerno, Sicily and Overlord battles got quite complex cause of terrain and supply problems on the mountain roads. Germany has lots of nice defensible terrain in Italy but is low on units and is very vulnerable to supply being cut off on those mountain roads but can sure do a lot of damage to the allies if used carefully. Those are the only games I played PBEM games a lot with.

[asl3d]

ORIGINAL: GiveWarAchance

I can image the glacier slowness of calculating all that information at every step. But I guess if you are with good friends, the game is just as fun fast or slow.

By Korsun Pocket, I meant the Wild Bill campaign for Steel Panthers, but I also like the SSG Korsun too but Normandy and Italy are lot better I think cause of complex terrain.

I think the SSG games were even more complex than this Lock n Load style especially Normandy and Italy because before moving any units or doing attacks, I had to allocate units and arty & air support to each attack in advance so I didn't overload on the first or second attack which makes the other attacks too weak. I also had to consider the effect of cratering roads so sometimes had to hold off on using arty, and then the biggest problem of putting units on defensive terrain after attacking to avoid being wiped out in counterattacks. And allocating units was fun cause it is good to have reserves, and a reinforcement division could sneak up to a random part of the line and surprise the enemy with a sudden strong attack at that point. If I made a hole in the enemy line, had to think was it worth it to rush in a fast unit like a recon armored car to destroy arty and supply trucks cause the unit I send will be destroyed by a counterattack which can be a terrible loss to a division. The are only a small number of objectives so it is important to make a long-term plan. In Italy it was fun to set up ambushes on roads that the allied player expects to be undefended and then swoop in suddenly and wipe out enemy units and then move further up the road on defensible terrain to avoid an angry counterattack. The Salerno, Sicily and Overlord battles got quite complex cause of terrain and supply problems on the mountain roads. Germany has lots of nice defensible terrain in Italy but is low on units and is very vulnerable to supply being cut off on those mountain roads but can sure do a lot of damage to the allies if used carefully. Those are the only games I played PBEM games a lot with.

SSG games:

The game that I like the most is Normandy, although Italy is also very good.
However, a good game does not mean it is convincing. All those games are good, some very good, but none convinced me.
I think the problem for game designers on this scale is to correctly reproduce the tactical complexity of the units at the battalion level and, at the same time, introduce strategic aspects for the regimental and/or division commanders.

The Longest Day:

The game that I have seen that comes closest to this that I am explaining to you is a boardgame, published years ago by The Avalon Hill Game Company. His name, how could it be otherwise, is The Longest Day. The game does not only cover the landing of Normandy, because on this scale it is difficult to enter into the detail of the landing. However, the organization of each division, with its battalions, its zones of influence, the artillery support of each division or regiment, were very convincing. The problem is that it is a macro boardgame. Very complex to manage, even if you have good friends with you that help you have a good time ......