Bay of Pigs (Rico Scenario)

[Big Ivan]

Hi TotH Family,

Well I took Rico's advice and started his Bay of Pigs Invasion scenario. "Rico you are a devious devil in this creation!"[:D]

I'm playing as the Russians under normal conditions. LOS Quality is set to fine.

Prelude: There are two avenues of attack for the Russians. One isthmus on the left and one on the right.

Right off the bat I'm down (2) T34/85's. One from Pershing fire which you see in the screen shot below.
The other was knocked out by a bazooka ambush on the isthmus off to the right of the screen. The Russian
reinforcements that come in along the right side of the board (right isthmus)have to roll a die <= the current
turn number. To say the least they are coming on board piecemeal. To make matters worse in the screen shot below
you can see shell holes where USA 200mm artillery has already fallen in turn 1 killing a Russian squad and half-squad.

The Russians have to capture 4 objective hexes in 12 turns which are all at the bottom of the map behind the US main line of resistance.

My opinion at the start, this will not be an easy scenario to win. The USA forces have a lot of firepower but the Russians
will eventually have the numbers. Should be interesting at any rate![8D]

[rico21]

No doubt, John, you're the American Rico, brother.[:D]

[Big Ivan]

Update on Bay of Pigs. {TURN 4-Russians End of Advance Phase.}

Below is a screen shot of the left isthmus where I am doing pretty bad!
As you can see from the shell holes the American artillery is spot on! Not only is it disrupting my infantry
but it also killed a T34/85. Both Perishing's down at the bottom have been hit several times w/o one
penetration. The Russian 85mm guns on the T34/85's just don't have the striking power. Maybe I'll have better luck with the
SU-100's which fired at the Pershing's for the first time in the preceding AF Phase.

Current losses (kills): Russians: 1-Leader; 3-half squads; 2-squads and get this...10-AFV's!
Current losses (kills): Americans: 2-Leaders; 4-half squads; 2-squads and 0-AFV's! The Pershing's are just plain tough!

[Big Ivan]

Update on Bay of Pigs. {TURN 4-Russians End of Advance Phase.}

Below is a screen shot of the right isthmus where I am doing not as bad.
The American artillery hit there too off screen to the top. But the American artillery failed to really hit anything.

I did loos a couple of T-34/85's there to bazooka shots but I was able to overwhelm the American squads and leaders and start my drive down the isthmus.
Got a lucky shot on the American 9-2 Leader and 2-squads killing the leader and one squad and breaking the other one which you can still see marked with DM.
The CC you see is a Russian Leader/Squad & Lt MG about ready to attack a single American Leader. There was a squad there but it was lost for failure to route.

Got a little lucky here on the right isthmus but I have a feeling there are some bad times awaiting me when I get a little further down. Time will tell.[:)]

[Big Ivan]

Update on Bay of Pigs {TURN 7-Russians End of Advance Phase.}

Below is a screen shot of the left isthmus where at least I got an early Christmas present. All 5 Pershing tanks
have been destroyed by this phase! Caught a stroke of good luck as two of the Pershing's broke their main armament!
The initial US holding troops seem to be on the run but more infantry forces
are moving up from the south. The SU-100 on the objective hex will most likely be lost I'm afraid.

The American artillery has been devastating in this game. It has hit 4 times, 2 times on the left isthmus and 2 times
on the right isthmus. Its odd though. There is no real LOS from the radio to the right isthmus so not sure how
artillery is falling there. Guess I'll have to review the rule book again. The Russian artillery has hit once 82mm
battery. The 120mm battery has lost contact - lousy luck.

[Big Ivan]

Update on Bay of Pigs {TURN 7- Russians End of Advance Phase.}

Below is a screen shot of the right isthmus. At the objective hex there is actually 3 wrecks there. One Pershing,
one T34/85 and one SU-100. Both Russian wrecks were caused by the US artillery! The last Pershing wreck is off
screen at the bottom. Doing in part pretty well on this side of the battle. Tank resistance has ended but the
American infantry is still in the field. The T34/85 highlighted is in shock. There goes another AFV probably.

Just a side comment. The SU-100's are pretty good mobile AT Guns but are not good for infantry combat. All
SU-100's that have shot at infantry have lost their high explosive ammo allotment. Makes for different strategy
now when engaging infantry.

Current losses (kills): Russians: 1-Leader; 12-half-squads; 3-squads get this...15-AFV's.
Current losses (kills): Americans: 3-Leaders; 8-half-squads; 3-squads and 5-AFV's. Just loving the Pershing's
being gone!

Victory Recap: Russian draw at the moment with 2 objective hexes controlled.

Happy Thanksgiving TotH Family!![:)]

[Big Ivan]

Update on Bay of Pigs {TURN 9- Russians End of Advance Phase.}

The Screen shot below is of the left isthmus. Good news the red star radio has been silenced. No American artillery
fell this turn. The broken blue star American squad routed to that hex from the woods hex next to the American radio leader.
The blue circle had an American 7-0 leader which perished due to not being able to rout when surrounded.
The yellow circle is the Russian only radio with a functioning battery of 82mm.
Radio contact was successful but battery access was not. My plan if
battery access was achieved was to drop artillery right on top of the American radio leader.

The yellow arrows indicate my general line of movement as I hug the river bank and road going south.

This area of the battle is pretty much turning into a mopping up operation. American resistance appears to be minimal.

[Big Ivan]

Update on Bay of Pigs {TURN 9- Russians End of Advance Phase.}

The screen shot below is the battle on the right isthmus.

The white circle is where an American airborne squad perished a turn early by not being able to rout due to being
surrounded.

I took a gamble and headed southwest for the objective hex furthest south in hopes that there were no American
squads down there with bazooka's. The yellow arrows indicate my general line of Russian AFV movement.
The gamble paid off thank goodness! No Americans there that I can see. Of course at the start of next turn
that may change.

As you can see there is one objective hex near the American 9-1 leader. 3 turns to go to grab that one for the
Russian major victory. However, I suspect through good Intel that there is a hornet's nest there of American
airborne infantry. I broke a couple of American squads where the 9-1 leader sits. They routed to the building
right next to him I think? I thought it odd that the A/I didn't rout the leader also, but I suspect the A/I
wanted eyes out front to see what I'm up to!?

This engagement on the right is far from being over is my gut feeling.

Currently at the end of Russian turn 9: Russian minor victory.

Current losses (kills): Russians: 1-Leader; 14-half-squads; 3-squads get this...15-AFV's. Didn't loose any more and that's a good thing!
Current losses (kills): Americans: 4-Leaders; 10-half-squads; 5-squads and 5-AFV's.

[Big Ivan]

Final Update on (Rico Scenario) Bay of Pigs Invasion. {Turn 12-American End of CC Phase-Game Over}

The picture below is a parting shot showing the disposition of Russian troops on the right isthmus at scenario end.
The scenario ended in a Russian Major Victory with all 4 victory objectives being secured by the Russians.

It was touch and go there for a while until I was able to knock out all the American Pershing tanks.
From that point it was just clean out the American infantry. I must say the American artillery was spot on and devastating
in this scenario. Most of the Russian losses came from 200mm artillery hits. I like to think it was 8" cruiser
guns off the coast of the invasion.

At the end there was an American 10-3 Leader(battle hardened from a 10-2) and a broken GI squad. Those were down
at the bottom of the left isthmus trapped at waters edge.

Final losses (kills): Russians: 1-Leader; 17-half-squads; 3-squads and 15-AFV's.
Final losses (kills): Americans: 6-Leaders; 16-half-squads; 7-squads and 5-AFV's.

This was an enjoyable scenario Rico! What worried me up until about turn 7 was the alarming rate I was losing armored fighting vehicles!
But once I was able to close with the Pershing's and concentrate my AFV forces, the Pershing's were just overwhelmed with shot after shot.

Peter and Jorgy: As I said in the beginning this was played with 1.1.17 with LOS Quality check set at "Fine". What I observed was no more
than 2-5 seconds between start of the next action. The speed of the game is many times greater than in the early days so what
you are working on to correct in the program seems to be helping greatly.

Thanks TotH Family for bearing with me in this AAR. As someone once said AAR's are not easy to do. There is a lot of work involved in screen
shots and remembering what happened. But I tried to keep it simple in my delivery where I could.

Cheers All!