Grinding away at Galacia: The Forgotten Cauldron.

Taking a “historical” approach, with both sides aggressively attacking, with little finesse.  At this point, the Russians are the most successful aggressors.  Their successes were helped by the requirement that Austro-Hungarian units must attack early in the game.  These attacks had limited success, but with heavy loss.

One tactic has emerged in this session.  The Der Weltkrieg rule set calls for mandatory retreats if losses represent one-half of a combat force.  In this particular scenario, the threshold is reduced to one-third.

The operational area has a wide frontage, so most stacks are in the 12-16 (3-4 divisions) factor range, with 8 factor stacks often used to plug gaps.  A two hex attack can typically generate a 3-4 factor loss, which not only attrits the defenders, but also forces a retreat.  The Russians have been very successful at this, albeit aided by some favorable d6 rolls.

In attempt to avoid the odd angle/glare influenced photo in my recent game report, I tried shooting these in half-light.  Further explanation is senseless.

This is the  Austro-Hungarian (white counters, with some Germans in gray) left flank.  Russian progress is limited.

Not so on the center/ right flank, where the A-H right  (bottom right of photo) is under some real pressure.

Interesting game, and I’m now fairly fluent with the rules.

Started play on Galacia: The Forgotten Cauldron.

Turn One featured both sides maneuvering towards their scenario objectives.  There was even a bit of screening cavalry skirmishes.

Thought I had finally figured things out.  No.

While flipping through the scenario booklet anticipating reinforcements, I found that each Army had a specific mobilization turn, and that very few units could move initially.

Massive reset and just another in a seemingly endless number of ways of fouling up the rules.

New game is now (literally) moving forward.  There will be Army level contact next turn.

And yes, the perspective for the picture is strange, to say the least.  Map is covered with a plexiglass advertised as “non-glare”.  No.  Well, unless the garage fluorescent fixtures have superpowers.  Best I could do.  And, I can’t just turn the lights off.  Motion activated.

Austro-Hungarians in white, Russians brown.

Reached a stopping point at Serbia The Defiant.   And yes, I made a hash the rules.

The new combat results table (CRT) worked just fine. Once again, operator error. Well, the new CRT is based on column shifts, as opposed to die roll modifiers.  But, the die roll modifier for attacking across  rivers still holds. Well, I didn’t grasp that pesky detail, and since the Austrian avenues of approach to Belgrade cross rivers, their attritional successes are now suspect.

Rather than the classic re-do,  I’ll pick it up and continue playing the series.  This is a topic I’ve brought  in the past:  Play a game/system and then move on to another game/system, or focus on getting better at one particular series of games.

In this case I’m not going to be an omnivore, but focus on Der Weltkrieg.  So, it’s time to set-up Galicia:  The Forgotten Cauldron.

Finally got around to continuing my play of  Romania – The Transylvania Gambit. 

As previously posted, the Romania Army’s plan was badly flawed, and the scenario certainly reflects that.   The availability of German reinforcements to bolster the Austro-Hungarians effectively stops any offensive across the Carpathians.

Despite the slow operational tempo of mountain fighting and Romania’s desperate-from-the-start prospects,  I was settling down for another session when a  casual glance at the rule book moved the game from the possibly forgettable to another memorable rules gaffe.

Tim’s been on me to compile and post a list of our grotesque errors of rules omissions and commissions.  I have consistently demurred.  Not out of personal shame, but because the compilation would be a very lengthy and time consuming process.  So Tim, here’s one in real time.

All those German reinforcements hustled south using the Austro-Hungarian rail network, which has a capacity of three units per turn phase.  It took a few phases, but the Romanian attacks were quickly blunted.  Well, that was too quickly.  While the entire rail capacity is three units, the capacity for any one rail line in that network is only one unit per phase.  Whoops………..

The poor Romanians were not only fighting a flawed initial deployment and the mountainous terrain, but also some very tough units that should not have been there – at least not so quickly.

Well, that put paid to the game.  It was going to be some time before the  operational tempo accelerated past “slog” speed, especially with Winter just around the turn track corner.  My current impatience is not the best mood to enjoy a scenario which accurately represents the time and resources required to build up combat power in this theater of operations.

So, despite my high regard for the system, I decided to pack it up, and move on to another game.

Here’s a photo taken right before it all went back in the box.  Note all those gray German units in the North Central portion of the map.

This treatment is included with Serbia The Defiant and covers Romania’s August 16 entry into World War 1.

Rather than cooperate with Entente forces in Salonika and attack Bulgaria, the Romanians opted to limit operations against Bulgaria and focus on regaining Transylvania.

This threat was quickly matched by  Austro-Hungarian (A-H), German, Bulgarian and even Ottoman forces.

A-H troops offered stiff resistance  in Transylvania, while a composite force of the latter three nations,  under the command of the redoubtable General Von Mackensen, attacked Romania from the south.  Romanian reverses on both fronts forced the already hard-pressed Russians to send reinforcements to bolster their new ally.

Romanian resistance collapsed, with an Armistice signed in April 1917.

The game is set up and ready to go.  I’ll start pushing cardboard this evening.

Finished up the other night.  It was a marginal Austro-Hungarian victory, based on casualties only.  No objectives were taken, but  the issue remained in doubt.  While losing on “points”, the Russians certainly had the upper hand when it came to capturing objectives.

In the East, the A-H  2nd Army is in danger of being rolled up along its right flank by the Russian 8th Army advancing towards its objective of Stanislav. The very strong Russian corps is obscured by the -1 strength marker for the top of the four, 4-4 units.

To the west, the A-H 3rd and 4th Armies are locked in combat with the Russian 3rd and 5th Armies.   Here, the Russian units are adjacent to their objective of Lemberg.

To the West, the A-H 4th Army is standing fast to the North of Fortress Przemyl, but its neighboring 1st Army is under extreme pressure, with little in the way of a Russian 3rd Army sweep towards its objective of Krakow.

A good game.  I already have “Serbia The Defiant” on the table and will start play this weekend.