From: "Mircea Pauca" Subject: [boardwargaming] Czechoslovakia'38 (XTR) impressions, two replays (long) Reply-To: boardwargaming@yahoogroups.com In the recent months I succeeded to play PBEM a classic hex&CRT game: Czechoslovakia'38. (Command#24 magazine by XTR 1993). The situation is almost-alternate-history: Czechoslovakia refuses to give up Sudetenland after the Munich agreement/Diktat and resists German invasion, hoping for Soviet, French and English help. The country is protected by the 'Little Maginot Line', a continuous line of forts all around the long border, but 3 lines west of Prague. Germans start surrounding them (including Austria after the Anschluss) with the embryonic armored, "Light" and mech forces spread with the infantry. The game system is straightforward I-go-You-go, with a "neoclassic" CRT: Ratio vs d6 => X/Y steps lost. There are some quirks: 2:1 ratio is very likely a 1/1 and assures 1 defender loss (and almost all Czech divisions are 1-step, but Germans are 2-step with Panzer and Motorized at 4 steps). At 5:1 attacker's losses drop sharply, from 4/6 to 2/6 steps, but that is likely only against the '1' intrinsic defense of forts, not field units. German Panzers have the option of 'Mobile Assault' but that was never used, due to the 2 Left CRT shift. More important was the ability to move within enemy Zones of Control at +2 move, so to gain the 1R bonus for Concentric Attacks. Supply rules looked weird too - not blocked by ZOC's so it's possible to cut supply only by encircling units completely - impractical except Prague, which is asupply source. Once a few breaches were made in the fort lines, a German force could be supplied from another breach on the other side of the map... In the first game (Tracy Johnson as German) I intended to refuse major combats but retreat the maximum of 9 units inside Prague for the 2L shift. The rest of the Czech army to escort the evacuation of Industrial Infrastructure to the eastern map edge. The Prague part went well: Germans took some time to breach the fort lines. The first assault on Turn 5 failed catastrophically (2/0 loss), then Germans paused to knock the forts around and mount a full siege. In Turns 7 and 8, with a bit of luck, they conquered 1 of the 3 hexes of Prague, just about when talks of Allied support started and they were still undecided (4/6 chance). The evacuation of industry was helped by very cloudy weather (4 of 8 turns - had to be 1/6) that prevented the Germans from flying Interdiction. The 'corridor' of easy terrain for mech movement is quite well defined geographically, so not much choice here. Germans concentrated to 'pinching' Czechoslovakia in the middle (Moravia), from the north and the south. Infantry slowly massed, breached the single fort line, then advanced, helped by Panzers constantly outflanking the slower Czechs for Concentric attacks. In Turn 7 the action was over, annihilating the last Czech infantry escorting the industry transport. Only one of the 5 industries got away safely (that from Brno, the easiest). On Turn 4 a German paratroop/airlanding regiment was annihilated when it dropped (according to earlier plans) over a Czech division. The game ended with 13 VP, below the Czech survival limit of 16 VP, and the Allies didn't move their behinds yet, preferring sterile diplomacy. Only the Soviets had sent one expeditionary Corps, just protecting one Slovakian town. The return game (me as German) things went quite similarly. Prague was defended only by 5 divisions, Germans reached the outskirts by Turn 3 and conquered 2 of the 3 hexes by Turn 7. German breaches and advances in the rest of the country were more dispersed, sometimes on the limit of 'stalling' but well helped by Air-Ground Support. Ultimately it did the same, with more German losses. The air-landing just didn't happen, keeping this elite for later campaigns. A major difference was that Czechs tried to bring repeatedly reinforcements from Slovakia - 5 divisions in total. Each of them carried a 1/6 risk of enticing a Hungarian aggression on weaker Slovakia. It wasn't a surprise that finally happened, bringing a 5 VP penalty and nullifying the 2VP for the one evacuated Industry. The game ended on the earliest Turn 7 with 4 VP. Thank you for reading, Mircea Pauca, Bucuresti, Romania Yahoo! Groups Links <*> To visit your group on the web, go to: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/boardwargaming/ <*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to: boardwargaming-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com <*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to: http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/