The Guards Counterattack is the first scenario in the original Squad Leader game (lates 70’s) and as such, it must surely be the most played scenario in the system, holding a special nostalgic charm for many as being the gateway to a world of tactical warfare.
When Squad Leader gave way to Advanced Squad Leader (1985), this iconic scenario did not migrate across to join the scenario line-up in the Beyond Valor module. However, Multi-Man Publishing has since taken some notable scenarios from the base system, converting them to the advanced rules and they now host them on their web pages, so once again The Guards Counterattack is available to us all.
While I wait for the re-prints of the ASL Starter Kits (some months off), I have been re-learning the rules through play, with some bits that I already have from the Starter Kit expansions, together with admin counters and a wider order of battle from the full ASL Beyond Valor module.
As it happens, Beyond Valor also includes mapboard 1, the board that The Guards Counterattack scenario uses, so I am pretty much set up to run that scenario, but using ASL Starter Kit rules rather than full ASL and the prime issue is whether the starter kit rules can cope with this full ASL scenario.
If we go back to the original scenario in original Squad Leader and understand that this was in fact the introductory scenario to the system. Basically you only had to learn the systems core engine to play. Scenario 2 would introduce you to a chunk more of the rules, Scenario 3 - more and so on, right through all the scenarios until the full system had been assimilated.
Of course, things learned and played in a later scenario could be taken back and used in an earlier one and over the course of that ‘programmed learning’ system, scenario 1 became further enriched by the layering on of newly discovered aspects of the rules.
So, in the spirit of that very first game being played just with just the core engine, then our starter kit rules will do just fine. Even things like staircases and being in the upstairs part of a building and the principles of concealment, are all things that later scenarios introduced. We might recall having played ‘The Guards Counterattack’ using those things eventually, but not on the first outing, which is what we are replicating here.
The first surprise is that when looking at the original scenario and the downloaded ASL one, they are pretty much identical - good, that just adds to our ease of recapturing the moment.
Above - The playing area uses just half of board 1 (lower map). I took it to a copier and got it enlarged, so now it sits on an A3 sheet - upper map. (A3 is a UK / Euro measure, but around twice of U.S. letter size or twice A4), making it just that bit easier for when I play, especially for face-to-face across a dining table.
Scenario Blurb - The action represented here takes place on 6th October 1942 at Stalingrad. The Germans have been successfully on the attack, but as Stalingrad absorbed more and more men, advances slowed and Soviet counter-attacks increased. ‘By October 5, the Germans had almost taken the key Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works. However, the fighting had been so heavy that the line troops occupying the surrounding area were exceptionally weak from the previous week’s combat. At that point, the Russians counterattacked with their crack 37th Guards to break the ring the Germans had thrown around the factory and to reinforce the desperate defenders’.
Victory Conditions - To win, the Soviet forces should end the game controlling a net gain of two or more stone buildings than they started the game with [there is an extra option for winning to do with casualties].
Anyway, once again I am back on the streets of Stalingrad, near to the Dzerhezinsky Tractor Works, trying to decide what to do with those twelve 6-2-8 sub-machine gun units belonging to the 37th Guards (below shot).
I have just watched two videos on two different gamers playing this scenario solo and they both decided to use the ‘Human Wave’ rule (full ASL rules), to charge out into the street with their 6-2-8’s and overwhelm the building opposite. On both occasions it was a disaster for the Soviets, they just faced a hail of bullets and got mashed!
I feel it is better on turn 1 to use the devastating firepower of the 6-2-8’s to hose down the building opposite before putting a foot out in the street and so that is what we shall do!
Turn 1 - above - here are the Guards (brown counters), under the command of Captain Antonov. If they form fire groups and shoot across the street, hosing down the building complex F5, they can reach the top end of the fire table and be devastating. They get a 2MC result (a morale check with a +2 penalty to the test). This might normally be expected to be effective, but the Germans roll exceedingly well and pass their tests!
Above - In the top centre, the Soviet medium machine gun (MMG) fires and breaks down, this is not a good opening for the Soviet side.
Turn 2 - Above - The Guards surge forward to assault the building. Their first stack enters the open street (E5 now under the blue DM counter) and I have missed the potential of a German squad and light machine gun (LMG) position in building J4 (right building block). It has a line of sight right down the road - fires - gets devastatingly low dice and scores the dreaded Killed in Action (KIA) result, in fact, worse, it is a 2KIA. Two squads in the target hex are removed from play and the third is automatically broken - ouch!
As an aside, in full ASL, this machine gun could create a ‘Fire Lane’ running right along the street and anything crossing its path would have to roll on the Combat Result Table, but here, with the starter kit rules, we are limited to only the target hex being attacked.
Above - by the end of turn 2, Captain Antonov and three Guard squads have got themselves into the German held building.
Turn 3 - Antonov works to clear out Captain Weiss and his remaining half squad from the building. They now control their first building (they need 2 buildings), but through the turn they suffer heavy casualties from nearby German fire-groups.
For their part the Germans have not been idle. Over on the right, they have assaulted the Soviet held 4 hex building N3, but only with one squad and a LMG. Several of the Soviet squads there are broken, but as they recover, that lone German unit may come to regret being so rash.
Also the Heavy German machine gun that starts in building M9 (lower right) moves across to the left flank to act as a back stop against the Soviet Guards progressing further.
Turn 4 - This is only a 5 turn scenario, so there is a lot to do and the only way to take buildings is by manoeuvre ….. no matter how dangerous the streets!
The Soviets re-claim the building N3 (far right) after a long melee in N5, finally getting rid of the German squad and LMG. Overall, the Germans suffer a few casualties, but importantly, the Soviets have now positioned themselves for a final push - though it will be across well guarded lines of fire between the buildings and any assault is likely to be harshly dealt with!
Turn 5 - As it is their last turn, the Soviets must balance laying down fire in the Prep Phase, against having enough squads to assault.
The assault starts and Captain Antonov is killed in the attempt to storm the I7 building (lower centre left)
Above - this is the situation at the start of the Russian Advance Fire Phase. looking at the board, the only place that the Soviets can concentrate upon, to pull a victory, is the large building in the centre (K4), where the Germans defend at J5. The Soviet MMG is present after moving, so will not be able to fire this phase (MMG / HMG that move can’t fire in the Advanced Fire Phase). The Germans survive the Russian Advancing Fire Phase and so the Soviets move into the German strongly held hex (J5) ready for Close Combat (normally simultaneous combat) .
But ….. the Germans get an ‘Ambush’ result, so the German defenders will fire first with a modifier benefit and this takes out a Soviet 6-2-8 squad! The Close Combat there is not definitively resolved and rumbles on into the German part of the turn. Here the Germans manage to remove another Soviet squad and the balance of play at J5 is clearly moving in the German favour, though the combat would rumble on into a future turn(s) if such turns were available!
End of Game - The game ends with the Soviets only managing to capture one stone building (F5 - left). The melee in J5 (centre) is ongoing and at building L6 (lower right), all the Germans in that building are broken and if the game were to have gone another turn, the Soviets no doubt would have descended on L6 and possibly taking it and that would give the Soviets their 2 building victory.
However the 5 Turn time is called and the game has not delivered a victory to the Soviets. German losses were a 9-1 leader, a LMG and 2½ squads. Soviet losses were a 10-2 leader, 7 x 6-2-8 squads and a 1 x 4-4-7 squad. The high losses ensured that the Soviets were also denied the other leg of victory by the ratio of surviving units.
I thoroughly enjoyed this replay and in no small part there was the heavy hit of the nostalgia factor. The enlarged map-board did help easy management of the counters.
Scenario 2 from the basic Squad Leader game (The Tractor Works) is a big battle that uses the other half (only) of the game board. It adds Concealment, a couple of new weapons (flamethrowers) and has 38 Soviet squads!
Scenario 3 (The Streets of Stalingrad) used the whole board and combines scenarios 1 and 2, plus it adds in tanks. Building X3 is a factory and Soviet units in there use the Fanatical rule (full ASL).
Later Starter kits do pick up some of those new areas of rules (such as Concealment in Starter Kit 4 and expansion) and going through the various Starter Kit scenarios might throw up some Special rules to bring some of that other extra stuff in.
The Orders of Battle of these two additional scenarios will stretch my Starter Kits and I will have to dip into the Beyond Valor module (full ASL) for the counters.
Anyway, we are fortunate that Multi-Man Publishing have hosted some of these old, fine and updated scenarios on their site - thank you.
Resource Section.
My sister webspace ‘COMMANDERS’ showcases the various figure and boardgame systems that I am enjoying and gives a flavour of where current projects are up to. Link -
