Anyone get a decisive in Spartan's at the Pass yet?
Posted: Thu Mar 15, 2007 4:57 pm
Back before the Christmas holidays I remember a thread asking if anyone had managed a decisive victory with the Germans in the Spartans at the Pass scenario.
I hadn't yet given that one a go at that time and decided that when I got back to COTA after the holiday hiatus I would make that goal my primary focus. I have to admit that after several playings and attempts at different tactics I have consistently come up short. Has anyone managed it yet?
Meeting the exit requirement for the eastern route doesn't even seem to be a challenge. It is getting those infantry regiments to the south exit that seems to be the biggest challenge.
Once I tried sending the tank Bn that arrives on day three to the south to assist with breaking open a route for the infantry. All was going well, and it looked like I might get an infantry Bn to the southern exit in time, when I noticed the the tank BN that starts the game on the board had become too heavily attrited to satify the eastern exit requirement. As there is no armor exit requirement in the south, the BN I sent there was for creating a breakthrough only.
On the next attempt, I sent the reinforcement tank BN to the east, it bypassed the lead tank BN and exited to provide me with the full armor exit requirement. I found this odd as it has 41 tanks, which provided the full 200 points of required exit firepower and the lead BN starts with 50, but was attrited to 37 in the prior game where it only provided 133 points of the necessary 200. I also noticed the the day three schutze Bn falls short of meeting the eastern exit requirement for infantry and either the recon Bn or the pioneer Bn have to be sent off as additional exit units to meet the requirement. The numerical exit requirements do not seem to jive with the scenario breifing which states that the German commander needs to exit a tank Bn and a motorised infantry Bn.
I guess if I can get the lead tank Bn to the eastern exit point without becoiming so heavily attrited that they satisfy the exit requirement then I can use the reinforcement BN to assist with a breakthrough in the south. One key to getting the infantry passed the choke point of the town objective in the middle of the pass is to send one regiment at the objective and slip the other around it to the south, keeping to the south of the woods/forest, which provide a nice fire block to allow them to skirt by with the recon BN. It just seems that the recon Bn doesn't have the oomph to force a breakthrough the way the follow up tank BN does.
The bottom line seems to me to be that the distance the two infantry regiments have to cover to reach the southern exit is an excessive distance to expect foot sloggers to cover against a determined foe with good artillery support in the time given. With another 24 or even 12 hours I do believe it would become achievable.
I haven't completely thrown in the towel and will continue beating my head against the mountain wall in dogged determination to get that elusive decisive victory, but I am curious if anyone else has managed it yet.
I hadn't yet given that one a go at that time and decided that when I got back to COTA after the holiday hiatus I would make that goal my primary focus. I have to admit that after several playings and attempts at different tactics I have consistently come up short. Has anyone managed it yet?
Meeting the exit requirement for the eastern route doesn't even seem to be a challenge. It is getting those infantry regiments to the south exit that seems to be the biggest challenge.
Once I tried sending the tank Bn that arrives on day three to the south to assist with breaking open a route for the infantry. All was going well, and it looked like I might get an infantry Bn to the southern exit in time, when I noticed the the tank BN that starts the game on the board had become too heavily attrited to satify the eastern exit requirement. As there is no armor exit requirement in the south, the BN I sent there was for creating a breakthrough only.
On the next attempt, I sent the reinforcement tank BN to the east, it bypassed the lead tank BN and exited to provide me with the full armor exit requirement. I found this odd as it has 41 tanks, which provided the full 200 points of required exit firepower and the lead BN starts with 50, but was attrited to 37 in the prior game where it only provided 133 points of the necessary 200. I also noticed the the day three schutze Bn falls short of meeting the eastern exit requirement for infantry and either the recon Bn or the pioneer Bn have to be sent off as additional exit units to meet the requirement. The numerical exit requirements do not seem to jive with the scenario breifing which states that the German commander needs to exit a tank Bn and a motorised infantry Bn.
I guess if I can get the lead tank Bn to the eastern exit point without becoiming so heavily attrited that they satisfy the exit requirement then I can use the reinforcement BN to assist with a breakthrough in the south. One key to getting the infantry passed the choke point of the town objective in the middle of the pass is to send one regiment at the objective and slip the other around it to the south, keeping to the south of the woods/forest, which provide a nice fire block to allow them to skirt by with the recon BN. It just seems that the recon Bn doesn't have the oomph to force a breakthrough the way the follow up tank BN does.
The bottom line seems to me to be that the distance the two infantry regiments have to cover to reach the southern exit is an excessive distance to expect foot sloggers to cover against a determined foe with good artillery support in the time given. With another 24 or even 12 hours I do believe it would become achievable.
I haven't completely thrown in the towel and will continue beating my head against the mountain wall in dogged determination to get that elusive decisive victory, but I am curious if anyone else has managed it yet.