Mark Woloshen - Apr 18, 2006 9:22 pm (#645 Total: 647) AAR - Defiant Russia DEFIANT RUSSIA AAR by Mark Woloshen This past Friday, our group had an all day gaming session. Sean and I got there early (poor Dave had to work) and decided to try something relatively simple. I had recently picked up Defiant Russia from Avalanche Press, and both Sean and I were keen to give it a try. (Both of us have played Alsace 1945 and Sean had Gazala - both in the small format games that Avalanche has introduced in the past year or so. Small and playable, that seems to be the motto. Our experience with Alsace certainly bore this out - good game, very balanced scenario, high replay value. As such, both Sean and I rate this game highly - especially given its low price. Anyway, we randomly drew sides. Sean was the Soviets and I was the Germans (and allies). To begin with, I looked forward to launching my armies into the USSR, though well defended (at least in numbers) I knew my Panzer armies would make short work of Sean’s pitiful peasant soldiers. Boy was I wrong!! Backing up a bit, the game is pretty straight forward. The sequence if play is as follows: 1. Weather (you can play with historical weather, or have it randomly generated), 2. Axis Organization Phase - the Axis player determines supply status, takes any replacements he is due, figures out if he gets any air points, and finally places his reinforcements - if any. 3. Axis Movement - the Axis player moves some, none or all of his units. He can also use rail movement for a set number of units. 4. Axis Combat - the Axis player MUST attack all units that are in his ZOCs. (Combat is kind of interesting - the players roll a number of dice equal to the number of strength points on each counter. Each “6” rolled scores a hit against the enemy units being attacked. You would be surprised how few “6”s pop up during some of these battles!!) 5. Finally, the Axis player has his Exploitation phase, where he can move certain units again. These units can then attack again, though this time the Axis player selects where he will attack (he doesn’t have to attack everything in his ZOCs). Once that is finished, the Soviet player repeats the sequence and that completes one game turn. A word about ZOCs. A moving unit must stop immediately upon entering an enemy ZOC. Armoured units can move through an enemy ZOC by paying extra movement points. If you start the combat phase in an EZOC, then you have to attack - regardless of the “odds”. To win, both sides score points for the occupation of certain hexes on the map. A number of key cities are worth victory points (Minsk, Leningrad, Kiev, Kharkov, Moscow, Rostov, Bryansk, and Sevastapol). Players also score points for eliminating enemy units. Oh, the game scale is 45 miles per hex and each of the seven turns is one month. Okay, so I launched my attack against Sean and things went wrong on the first turn! My attacks in AGS went fairly well, moderately so in AGC, but not well at all in AGN! I inflicted a few hits ( which caused a number of his units to flip - hits cause casualties - at least one, and the remainder of the result can be taken as hexes retreated - providing you have enough steps to satisfy the “loss”), but more importantly, he inflicted some significant harm on my units - especially my armour! In fact, on his half of the turn, he actually occupied a hex of East Prussia!!!! (The gall of the man.) My Finns launched an attack against Leningrad, but were forced to pull back - it is a tough nut to take without German help (well, that’s what I figure after playing it once). Sean didn’t retreat (and in fact attacked in AGN area). He held his position across the front and prepared for turn 2. Turn 2 seemed to go a bit better for the Axis. The Romanian front kicked in and AGS managed to push the Russians across the Dniester river, heading towards Kiev. AGC pushed several Soviet units into the Pripet Marshes, and the Soviets doggedly held on in the North - even with Guderian aiding the attacks toward Minsk. Sean began a bit of a pull back in the Ukraine, justified his line to the Marshes, then pulled back to a line running from Minsk to Riga. On turn 3, AGN was able to make some headway towards Minsk and I think we captured Riga this turn. AGC was driving towards Minsk (slowly), and AGS with the Romanians pushed the Soviets to the South Bug river. (He left a token defense force at Odessa. I had really stretched his lines in the south - not quite broken yet. On his half of the turn, Seans’ replacements and reinforcement began filling in some of the gaps created by my advance in the south. He still maintained his position around Minsk, but the line was beginning to fray a bit (especially after I had taken Riga). Howver, we haven’t heard the last of Comrade Sean and his Red Machine!! Turn 4 started well for the Axis - Minsk fell, my forces were on the outskirts of Kiev - which fell this turn, and the Romanians were moving towards the Crimea (the Romanians!!) In his half of the turn, Sean was able to pull back and form a line in the north near Veliki Luki to Smolensk, through the Marshes to the Dnepr River line. An interesting tactic, which I waited too long to implement, was the move forces to just outside his ZOC, then move in during the Exploit phase. That way you don’t have to attack everything in your turn, and you force your opponent to either attack you or run during his turn. Turn 5 saw my forces in AGN driving towards Talinin and points east. AGC was bogged down a hex or two short of Smolensk, AGS was pushing towards Kharkov, and the Romanians had captured Sevastapol. Then it all came crashing down - the reason? Zhukov!!! Sean used this leader to coordinate a severe body blow to AGC. He used Zhukov to attack Guderian and two full panzer korps, eliminating both and forcing Guderian to flee!! He was also able to place enough forces in the south to channel my attack towards Kharkov (which I never took). In Turn 6 I tried to retrieve the situation with a coup de main east of Talinin. My battered AGN forces tried to force the Soviet position north of the lakes and push towards Leningrad to help the Finns (who had been quiet since turn 2). AGC was stalled near Smolensk and units were still clearing the Marshes. AGS was stuck near Kharkov and stretched between just south of the Marshes all the way along the Dniepr to a point two hexes west of Stalino. The much feared Zhukov puts in an appearance near Kharkov and annihilates my units in that sector. I’ve taken too many hits and my army (especially in the south) is quite brittle. Sean vapourizes several key units (including two panzer korps) and I am forced to set up a screen (cannon fodder) to try and salvage Kiev. (For victory points, I hold Minsk, Kiev and Sevastapol, plus I’ve killed a large number of Soviet units. He still holds Moscow, Leningrad, Kharkov, Bryansk, and Rostov - though he has the edge, I still feel I might have a shot - if only I can save Kiev and grab Leningrad. Turn 7, the last turn. I try one more time to get Leningrad with the Finns. All I need to do is cause him two hits of damage and he’ll be eliminated - I get roll a 5 and a 6! Close, but no cigar! In the south, I try and hold on to Kiev. Unfortunately for me, Zhukov is in a position to crash through my line. Sean sets it up so that during his attack phase he brushes aside my screening force, and during the exploitation phase, he launches an attack on Kiev - which succeeds!! I have taken too many losses, and not been aggressive enough to win the game. Sean has sufficient victory point locations, and an edge in the number of units eliminated to win a solid victory! Well done Comrade . . . this time! The game was great fun. It took a little bit of time to work out the rules (which shouldn’t be hard given that there are only 16 half pages). The map is quite nice to look at, though some members of our group didn’t care for the way railways were portrayed. (I didn’t mind them, they certainly are important in the game for supply and transportation.) The units are quite functional, though some of our guys thought they were a bit too busy - the German Cross and Red Star in the background for the respective armies made it difficult to read the counters, according to some. Both Sean and I enjoyed the game a lot. We would happily play it again - now I want to get Red Vengeance and see how that plays out.