Following the Romanian coup and defection to the Allies on 23rd August 1944, fighting broke out between German and Romanian forces in and around Bucharest and Ploesti. As part of the German operations to secure the area around the capital and oil fields, small detachments of German Special Forces were to attack Romanian-held Boteni Airfield and destroy the transports that the Germans had supplied to their former Axis partner.
Reckless Raid is a unique new ASL “pocket scenario” that has German Fallschirmjäger landing in gliders in an attempt to take out Romanian transports on the airfield. This is a tricky scenario with SSRs that can easily be misinterpreted, specifically SSR4. We started the scenario but something seemed fishy because we were incorrectly interpreting which parts of E1.54 (which SSR4 references) should be used. So we pinged MMP (Perry Cocke), received the answers (see below), and then finished the scenario. There’s commentary in the video concerning the interpretation of the VC and SSR4, so make sure you check that out. If you interpret them wrong the scenario plays completely differently and is probably incredibly unbalanced.
We think we ultimately played it right, and bubbling under some of the confusing SSR is a really fun, fast, action-packed scenario.
Reckless Raid Q & A:
The following questions were sent to MMP … and the following answers were received:
PK2 VC question: Do the Germans also accumulate CVP for eliminating Romanian units that also adds to their total VP for eliminating Gliders?
Answer: No.
PK2 SSR 4 question: Does the entirety of E1.54 apply since the section is called “1.54 ROUTING”? Specifically, do the capture/surrender and DM night changes in that section also apply to SSR4?
Answer: No and no.
Reckless Raid (PK2)
Module: ASL Journal 13
Scenario Publisher: MMP
Scenario Designer: Tom Morin
Date: August 24, 1944
Location: Boteni Airfield, Romania
Download the VASL .vsav setup file.
Download the VASL .vlog playthrough.
Neal’s Perspective:
Neal, Defender: Romanian (Fortele Aeriene Regale ale României Security Forces, 2nd Anti-Aircraft Bridgade and Grupul Aerotransport)
The key to a Romanian victory is not necessarily the AA Guns … which will probably malfunction early and often. The Germans have very few units. The key, I believe, is to break German units, keep them DM, attempt to capture them to offset German VP, lock units up in melee, or get them to waste time firing on my units. Basically, any tactic that keeps Germans from doing anything but shooting at transports is the key to victory!
Scott’s Perspective:
Scott, Attacker: German (Fallschirmjäger-Bataillon “Brandenburg”)
Keep your German units close together for mutual support, and keep them with leaders. A lone wolf Fallschirmjäger running around trying to destroy transports will probably end up in one of two states: 1) broken and perpetually DM, or 2) captured. Either is disastrous for the Germans as they essentially have 4 squad equivalents going up against 11 Romanian squad equivalents, who will probably be spread out goading you to fire at them instead of their planes. Don’t get distracted chasing around Romanians, unless you absolutely have to. Blow up their planes!
If the 9-2 is lost, it’s probably game over.
The Video AAR (44:45):
.END OF BRIEFING.
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