Blood & Fury Scenario 10: The Gütersloh Pocket

Play-test report from June 2020 of Blood & Fury:

Scenario 10: The Gütersloh Pocket

Red Circles denote setup areas, all witin 1 hex of center circle. Objective A is one of the control areas required.

  1. GÜTERSLOH, WEST GERMANY

There was to be no surrender for the West German troops defending Gütersloh and its environs – defending their families, homes and hearths. They understood it would go until the last man was down. Some troops and commanders held out hope for escape: after all, other BAOR, Bundeswehr and even some American units had broken out further west (see Scenario 9, Breakout). In the wild aftermath of that, the West German 2nd Panzergrenadier Division had been split into fire brigades to hold bridges and airfields in a 65 km corridor between Gütersloh and Lüdinghausen. It was a confused, desperate – and ill-conceived – attempt to be everywhere at once. But the Soviets were dogged: their thrusts trapped widespread and mixed Bundeswehr and BAOR remnants. Despite their dire situation, the NATO forces were still prepared to find a way out, and to fight another day – if that were even possible. If not, they would make it as costly as they could manage for the Soviets. The final Soviet approach began: in one suburb of Gütersloh, on the NATO perimeter, the Soviet 3/248 Guards Motor Rifle Regiment closed in for the kill.

Objectives:

VICTORY CONDITIONS: NATO wins if they meet any ONE of the following three conditions:

  1. Exit four units from the west edge of the map. The HQ counts as a unit; OR
  2. Eliminate four Soviet units; OR
  3. Control one hex of Objective “A” (5-G12) at the end of the last turn.

Soviet Setup:

The Soviets must set up in three groups.

Each group must have at least three units (the HQ counts); but no more than five.

The groups must set up on or adjacent to one of the following hexes:

5-D12; 5-D6; 5-J6

With this in mind here is my Soviet Plan of attack to finish of the Capitalists.


NATO plan:

With the movement range of 6, no unit can exit turn 1 without being opportunity fired upon, now 2 NATO formation cards in turn 1 would see the game over immediately . They would expose themselves to at least 2 opp fire shots, and leave themselves in a situation where they would be as vehicles or foot, saving a 1d6 against multi dice shots. Not really a good idea.

Therefore the 1st path to victory is removed at least in turn 1 & 2.


Lets get on the with the play test. The scenario is very short. FIVE turns. The cards…well they will be everything!