Darin Leviloff  - Jan 4, 2007 8:32 pm (#16989 Total: 16990)  
Last Played: Cedar Mountain, Pax Brittania, Sun of Austerlitz,
Battleline, No Prisoners! (S&T), Up Front and Pharoah computer game 

On to Moscow AAR 

Played a year of "On to Moscow" (S&T #171). This is a game that needs to
be played with some frequency as the Russian position is a challenging
one. In both games I have played, the Russians have been crushed early
and often, and this game was no exception. I wonder what is a viable
Russian strategy ? Probably: 1) delay and draw the Swedes closer to your
reinforcements from Siberia and further from the Swedish littoral and 2)
get a major Swedish force in a pincer between two Russian forces and
sacrifice the first army to weaken the force for the attack of the
second. One thing definitely learned is not to confuse quantity with
quality. The latter matters far more than the former. 

Our game began with an inauspicious opening for the Swedes. The random
event caused the Swedish fleet to be permanently lost. The tide soon
turned when an attempt to dispatch Menshikov backfired, with him
"Marching to the Guns" and setting up camp outside of Charles XII's army
at Vilna. While the Russian player should have probably sacrificed his
subordinate, he had Peter follow up and reinforce the hopelessly exposed
position. As expected, the floundering strategy got Charles XII to sally
forth, crushing Peter's combined force for a major victory without a
single Swedish loss (of course, we used the wrong Combat chart-the 7 YW,
but a modified "10" on a single die is a good die roll on anyones
chart.) Meanwhile Lybecker moved onto capture Noteborg, but was forced
to leave his engineers and artillery behind in Viborg due to the dense
forest preventing a quick approach. 

A brief Russian respite followed. Charles, emboldened, attempted to
crush the remnants of Peter's/Menshikov's forces, who had returned to
Minsk. The hasty assault on the fortress did not work to Charle's favor,
resulting in significant demoralization and a forced Swedish retreat.
Still, Peter left Menshekov behind and headed back to Moscow to regroup,
while Charles limped back to Vilna (after expending a supply train in
winter) to rally. 

The next year turned again in the Swede's favor. After significant
reinforcement and re-tooling, the Russians lost 9 SP's in a revolt.
Charles moved up to outside Minsk and beseiged the fortress. Meanwhile
General Lowenhaupt easily captured Dorpat, Driving Bauer back toward
Novgorod. Swedish reinforcements arrived in Reval under the command of
General Rhenskold. The only respite came when weak forces under General
Krassow attempted to drive into the Ukraine, only to be forced to
retreat back to Lemberg after significant attrition. 

Peter then turned to the North, moving toward St. Pete. The threat lead
Lybecker to pillage Noteborg and retreat to Ladoga, while Lowenhaupt
abandoned the pursuit of Bauer and regrouped in Reval. Charles seemed
stalled, waiting for Minsk to surrender. 

The grand climax followed soon. A Cossack uprising seized Baturin,
leaving Golitsyn as the only hope for the Ukraine. Rhenskold "marched to
the guns" and captured Narva, while Lowenhaupt ensconsed himself in
Dorpat. Charles, tired of waiting for the Minsk garrison to surrender,
assualted the fortress, suffering light causalties. With the road to
Moscow open, Charles eyed Vitebst as his next goal. 

Peter moved on Lybecker's weak and isolated forces. Despite a 5-1
advantage, the czar made a critical error in not waiting for his
artillery and engineers before making an assault. With the fortress
terrain shift and significant negative modifiers, the "3" roll became a
modified "1" and caused a 20% loss and morale checks for both forces. A
draw for the czar became a debacle and the Russian player decided to sue
for peace as dinner time approached. 

A good oldie and a challenging game. One of the few games on this period
and certainly one of the only ones where the Swedes seemingly hold the
advantages. Tomorrow, hopefully, we will turn to another game in the
same time period, Marlborough.