ATS Stalingrad LARGE HEX (Second Edition)

Terrain is brutal, in terms of LoS and also the amount of debris all over the map (which obscures fire and M-kills tanks very easily). It feels like Stalingrad. Some interesting scenarios, but they aren't the most fun I've had with ATS. Scenario 4 is a small but exciting one with not much in the way of complexities (one aircraft, which is unlikely to do much, and a bit of OBA but it's low ammo supply so might never get fired) - a good first scenario for ATS, I would have thought. We played the big one (full map, lots of counters, 11 or 12 turns) and it was very static - I prefer big scenarios where there's scope for manoeuver and mobile defence. Part of the static-ness was also my fault for not attacking boldly enough.

ATS - Critical Hit

My first ETO ATS. I had a lot of fun with it and ATS Robot.

We play scenario "Yards Paid in Blood" in the second edition of the ATS Stalingrad game (Leo's copy). Frederick, Kenneth play the Russians and Leo and I play the German. The scenario depicts the Russian 37th Guards Rifle Division counter-offensive on 12 October, 1942, supported by several tanks T-34, T-70 and OT-34. As Zholudev's men swam in, they have to control at least three building hexes designated, staunchly defended by the 389th Infantry Division with two medium MG42 machine guns and one Pak 40 Anti-tank Gun. General Walter von Seydlitz's 51st Army has just dispatched two tanks to support the defense in the southwest part of the October Factory. The Germans, facing sea of Russians coming, call in air support of three Stukas, bombing the Russians who are prepared to move out of the factories by the Commissar's whistle. Leo's copy of the second edition doesn't have the tank and aircraft counters! Fortunately, I bring up my own first edition copy and use my counters for those.

There was a main building (with three hexes) in the center of the map. The Russians decided to move in waves towards this building, hoping to maximize the advantage of numerical superiority. The Russians therefore deployed a large number of the troops in the center. The Germans deployed some machine guns in the main building. In the beginning indirect fire phase, the Germans called in the Stukas, dropping the large bombs onto the concentrated Russians. 6 infantry squads were gone as a result.

This edition comes with the air rules for the German Stukas bombing and strafing. The air bombing rules are quite nice. First, you place the aircraft in its target hex and if there is any unit within three hexes of the target, Accidental Attack may occur with a dieroll of 1. If so, the aircraft roll on the Accuracy Diagram to determine the new target hex. In our case, I did roll a Stuka bomb attack with a "1"! After adjusting the Final target hex with the Aerial Accuracy Chart, the aircraft was still fortunate to find the Russian target. We as the Germans werevery happy!

The Commissar kept calling the troops to move forward, only to be shot into pieces by the machine guns in opportunity fire, while each machine gun can fire three times in a single turn with rate of fire of three. This was bloodletting scene, too cruel to behold. Kenneth and Frederick decided to concede the game even before the tanks came on stage.

We agreed to play the same scenario the second time. Now that the Russian players had more experience. We deployed our Germans more forward positions to defend the center. The Russians now started in the factories on the right. Frederick thought tht the factories would provide two levels cover, shielding the men down below. However, we checked the rules and found that the factories with white dot in the center of the hex only have a rooftop location above Ground level and it is a level 10 blocking terrain. The German stukas could bomb them into pieces theoretically Nonetheless, we had some bad dices this time, killing only two squads.

We had an argument about the Opportunity Fire into building. Since the building hex cost 2MPs to enter, and Opportunity Fire is movement point triggered, can the Opportunity Fire target the enemy unit when it spends the first MP without being in good cover inside the building? After some debate, we considered that the unit moved into the building in one single full movement and the unit receives the terrain benefit when fired upon.

I found there were quite some differences between Rule v3.091 and the rules that came in with my 1st edition game that was bought in 2004 (8 years ago). The system does evolve a lot more so far from the original, especially in the air rules. For example, the air units are removed after three turns since their arrival in the original rules. This was revised to whenever the aircraft drop sall available ordance or after two turns since their arrival in rules v3.091. The later makes much more sense since each aircraft may make at most two bombing attacks per game. They could drop one large bomb (500 HE factors) at one time and four small bombs (each 50 HE factors) in another time. A Mistaken Air Attack, in my rules, may occur if there are any other units within five hexes, which is inconsistent with the Accidental Attack rule which may occur if there is any unit within three hexes of the target. v3.091 removes the inconsistency and now the attack is named as Accidental Attack and three hexes. Of course we played the game using v3.091. I felt that the system was versatile enough to accommodate to the changes so far without any repercussion effect.

This scenario is a bit larger than others but it is a very cool scenario, covering all kinds of actions from tank, infantry, gun to the air fighter. The interaction among them is superb and you are constantly adjusting your tactics every impulse and turn. My first edition has a different map and is much larger than the ATS Stalingrad LARGE HEX 2nd Edition, although the scenarios in both edition is more or less the same with the description of the battle and Special Scenario Rules. For example, in the first edition, the same scenario is called "Into the Factory". The Russians are also given two Molotov Cocktails and the "Resistance Nest" (every Soviet unit in the same building is considered to be marked with courage where the Soviet Commissar is in) is removed in the new edition scenario. Since the Russian is generally on the offensive in this scenario, and there is a very large factory building on the map that is sufficient to house all the Russians inside, everyone would have become courage. Well, it wouldn't make much sense, would it?

I simply love this system. I would ask every ASL player to jump the boat and dive into this system for tactical simulation of any kind. I bought three ATS games in the month of August and preordered the Mammut Pack which is due to deliver in September.