Classic Squad Leader Training #1: "Forced March"

Was directed to these scenarios [CLICK] by the helpful guys at the Classic Squad Leader Fb page. This first one teaches maneuver and establishing a base of fire, using Leaders, Squads and Support Weapon rules.  The simplicity allows players to focus on these key elements of tactical CSL play.

Disclaimer: I am not a CSL expert!  That's why my avatar is...

...so this post should be considered more of an interesting exploration of this scenario, and hopefully encourages you to play it and perhaps find out things I have not!  so...

**Reader Beware!!**

After some initial problems figuring out the scenario [resulting in some very lop-sided games] I got enough experience to make a few conclusions of how to approach it. It does have one flaw, that a fast end-run by the Russkies will usually result in overwhelming force at the exit point, so using the - many - options available - is essential to have an interesting game. 

First, I can't figure out any way to win at the Alpha-0 level for the Germans.  They simply won't have enough firepower to stop the Russkies exiting the board at J0, and will likely get blown away.  Below, one of my first games, all the Germans [with no support weapons] are rushing to try to stop the Russkies from exiting at J0. But they aren't fast enough. Below, the end of Game Turn 1:

This will result in Game Turn 2, Sov Player Turn, with the 8-0 stack able to exit J0 in their Advance Phase [Advancing the 8-0 Leader to I1 to rally Squads], stack G6 Advancing to J0, stack F6 Advancing to Road I2, and E6 to I3 or H2. With 8 Squads sitting in wait for 5 German [and needing only 2 more Squads to exit for a win] the results are fairly predictable with 8 Russkie Squads fighting 5 German *moving* Squads.

Below, the Russians wiped out 4 Squads and both Leaders, then exited 9 Squads.

The last-ditch effort made by one German squad resulted in a Berserk Sov squad headed its way! The Leader stayed behind to Rally Squad 11.

Alpha-0 with Alpha-3 Option

This can be partially remedied by using the Alpha-3 option to have the Germans take the first player turn, however, resulting in a closer game. Below, Germans have occupied the L-M board edge woods first, enabling them to shoot at Russians advancing down the road. Russians still massed more fire and broke a German stack, killing one squad. 

The last two Russkies on the board managed to break the 8-1 stack.  With 7 Squads off the board, and another Berserk Russkie headed their way, the Germans again lost Alpha-0/3 version.

Alpha-1 Level.

With lots of Sov wins using Alpha-0, I went to the Alpha-1 level, which gives the Germans support weapons and the Sovs a 9-1 Leader and 6 more Squads. Below, the Germans have an HMG under the 8-1 Leader, and its Line of Fire [LoF] can be seen 16 hexes away:

This can definitely trash the Russians in one lucky Phase of Firing, so they must 

establish a base of [infantry] fire at the manor house in O6. This will hopefully distract or destroy enough units in the German base of fire to allow their forces to cut across the "line of death" at the end of the board:

I began assigning one leader to each force, the 9-1 with several squads to head to the manor house, where his -1 can help affect Sov shooting:

And the 8-0 to the East board side, where he can hurry squads along and rally them as they get broken trying to cross the LoF of German MGs.  As their job involves more movement and less shooting, I figure they can get by with the 8-0 Leader while the 9-1 Leader works to suppress the Germans.

As for the Germans, I found that they could exactly make it to the below positions, within the setup restrictions.  This resulted in the house at T3 having the 8-1 Leader, two Squads and the HMG. This is the weapon interdicting the Russian movement South at the East edge of the board. With up to -3 [-4 if they swap Leaders] on every shot at Russkies Moving in the open, there's a good chance of eliminating them all with a good roll!

The other stack has the 9-2 Leader, 3 Squads, MMG and 2 LMGs, all of which is needed to confront the Russian force moving towards J0. There's a firefight about to happen across the fields at K1, J0-J1, and the I1-2 Road. Without all the firepower, I found that the Russians could sweep them aside and walk off the board Turn 4 perhaps 5.  Of course, some hot dice can make a big difference with such small forces. 

First play with this plan, the Russians managed to get 8 Squads to the closest exit hex, the half-hex J0, and the Germans had to concede.

Another play was more complicated, and as it was one of the most engaging right off the bat, I tried to document it thoroughly.  

I figured out the safest routes for the Russkies and they moved, then the Germans moved, and thus was the situation end of T1:

On Soviet PT2, they continued to race one stack quickly to G4, but the rest had to go around the woods. The Leader then back-tracked to aid the stacks behind, while the first stack of 3 exited the board.

End of German PT2, at the base of Fire v. Manor House, they'd managed to drive off 2 Squads, which Routed a hex to Rally with the 9-1 Leader...

...and at the objective, they'd managed to contest it with the 9-2 stack but not preventing Sov Squads from positioning themselves to exit the board. 

End of Sov PT3, they began diverting squads South, while exchanging fire with the German base of fire. This forced the Germans to spread their fire, resulting in some Squads making it South - 2 in the center...

 

...and several more in the East.

End of German PT3. Russkies have managed to stack up some Squads well positioned to get off board at J0. Germans have Advanced the 9-2 stack to Defensive Fire at J0:

Sov PT4. They advance out into the road, as they have a turn to spare.  In the ensuing firefight, with Sov M2 and I1 exchanging with L0, the Germans broke, had nowhere to run, and were ultimately destroyed.  I was too discouraged to take pics, sorry!  I had hoped to finally stop the Russkies, but was again defeated.

Ultimately, a game with small numbers of units has to be played carefully, as one or two dice rolls can determine the game.  So far, the Germans haven't done really well in this scenario, but I'm hoping I will figure out something, and stop the Russians from exiting half their victory points T2.  We'll see!