From last post:

“Turn 6-7-8.

Bear with me here. I wanted to run the scenario out to see how I might play it based upon chit draws, and points potential. Then let my opponent (Anthony) run his turns with his chit selections and pulls. I think you will see that this shows just how dynamic the game can be and how outcomes can change due to Formation selection and the timing of those activation!  So here is 6-8 part 1.”

This is part 2, with Anthony’s chit selections.

Early Turn 7, after 3 back to back Soviet draws [21st,4th and 20 Armies].

Late turn, with several town recaptured by the Soviets, the Germans go back on the offensive, in North and Center of the map. The bomber kills units in Velizh, and 9th recaptures., in the center a scramble to cover towns such as Smolensk is conducted by 2nd Pzr and 9th Army. While the remnants of 2nd take Vyazma.  This may end up being a town too far.

TURN 8

Then early in Turn 8 2nd Pzr obtains back to back activation. 10th Motorized and 10th Pzr are left to hold Vyazma, whilst GD  & 4th haul ass to Rzhev and knock it out in a one two punch. Meanwhile 18th Pzr recapture Yelna, nothing like fighting for something twice…Since command is mute at this point it all in!! We leave 3rd dangerously exposed and the rest of second is strung out badly. Hopefully the Russians will continue to roll like poop for combat. Its 5VPs for each German motorized unit killed…!!! Yikes.

Turn 8 continues with a vicious attack in and around Vyazma. The 10th bites the dust, so to does 256th Infantry. In the South the Germans use their last activation to secure Kransnopoly for one last VP chit. 19th Army activates and the hurt could be bad here for 3rd Panzer.

Heavy attacks by the 19A, are to noavail, teh Sukas reduce one 5:1 attack to no result and the other he rolls a 2….!

Both of use made errors but none of them we felt were material enough to either ruin the feel or flow or change the outcome so significantly that we elected to restart.

Final Situation – well. WE dont know, we could not unlock the VP chits. So we assumed that the Soviets had the highest ranking chits left +4VPs for the Tank kill. this would still place the Germans ahead ( I say ahead as there is no margin for victory, but shhhhhh..I crushed it I think), for a solid German win. Two more turns would have hurt the Germans, who likely would have turtled up to hold what they had, rather than press gains.

Summary

The initial reluctance I have for AVD is long gone, I cannot say if as per AVL one side is perennially doomed to failure, however I will say that the Germans can pack a wallop if given the chit pulls and the player chooses a loci of attack and the right formations for each turn, assuming he understands the enemy he is playing.

Having a player summary for these short rules was likely not necessary but it did aid speed of play significantly.

This is in the end a game I look to play again, and hope to exercise some of the excellent options and choices in it for both sides. That said, I’m open to a Vassal play with anyone should they like it, drop me a note.

As you likely know this set of articles is part of a Side by Side play thru, so we will be wrapping up our efforts for PanzerGruppe Guderian as soon as possible and then posting that AAR.  Once done there we can rummage thru my brain for something useful to say about both titles.