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No Retreat

No Retreat Mission

A number of people have asked my why we wrote No Retreat since it was published in Firestorm Bagration a few months ago. After all, it is very similar to Hold the Line, so why have two very similar missions?

The answer is very simple really. A nice chap named Mark Gunter collected a lot of statistics about the various missions for Flames Of War, and they showed that Hold the Line was by far our most unbalanced mission with the defender winning a disproportionately high amount of the time.

After looking at the mission and talking with players about it, we decided that there were two main causes for this. The first was that attacking infantry had too far to go to reach their objectives, while the second was that some companies were getting two ambushes that between them pretty much wrecked armoured forces.

We decided that the easiest way to do something about it would be to write a similar mission to Hold the Line that was more balanced. No Retreat is the result. It is basically the same mission with two differences. The attackers start further onto the table making it easier for infantry to cross No-man’s Land and we limited the number of ambushes to one platoon, regardless of the size of the defending force.

This last change has another positive side effect. Previously players often squeezed small platoons into their forces just to get eight platoons and therefore two ambushes in Hold the Line. With No Retreat this artificial limitation is removed and players are freed to construct their forces in a more balanced way.

The other question that comes up is when should I use Hold the Line and when should I use No Retreat? The answer is simple. You can use which ever you want. However, as No Retreat is the more balanced mission, it has replaced Hold the Line in Battlefront’s tournaments.

Phil 

Download the No Retreat Mission PDF... 

No Retreat
Hitler’s orders to dig in and not to give ground leave his soldiers few options to stem the tide of the advancing Red Army. The front-line troops an only hedgehog their positions, fight where they stand, obeying the ‘No Retreat’ order, and pray for a mobile force to counterattack and throw the Soviets back.

No Retreat uses the Ambush, Defensive Battle, Prepared Positions, and Reserves special rules.

Your Orders
Attacker
The enemy has been beaten, but not defeated. They have fallen back to temporary defensive positions.

You must defeat them here and force them to retreat. Once they have been pushed out of this position, the road is open and our mobile troops
can surround and destroy them.

Defender
Things look bad, but the order has come to hold at all cost. Your forces are outnumbered and your defences barely dug, but you must hold until help arrives.

If you can stop the enemy here, we will be able to re-establish the front line and prepare for a counterattack. There can be no retreat!

No Retreat

Preparing For Battle

1.
Determine the attacker and defender using the Defensive Battle special rule.
2.
The defending player chooses which short table end
they will deploy in.
3.
Starting with the defender, both players now place one objective each in the defender’s end of the table. The objectives must be at least 8”/20cm from the centre line of the table, and may not be placed within 8”/20cm of any table edge.
4.
Next the defending player nominates at least half of their platoons to be held off the table in Reserve at the start of the game. Then the defender nominates one of the remaining platoons to be held in Ambush. Finally, they deploy the rest of their platoons in their half of the table.
5.
The attacker deploys their entire force in their half of the table at least 16”/40cm from the table centre line.
6.
Both players now place their Independent teams in their deployment areas starting with the defending player.

Beginning The Battle

1.
The defending force begins the game in prepared positions, so their troops are in Foxholes and Gone to Ground.
2.
Starting with the defender, both players make Reconnaissance Deployment moves for any Recce
Platoons they have on table.
3.
The attacking player has the first turn.

Ending The Battle

The battle ends when either: 


the attacker holds any of the objectives at the start of their turn, or
the defender starts any of their turns from turn six with no attacking teams in the defender’s half of the table.

Deciding Who Won

The attacker wins if the game ended because they started one of their turns holding an objective. They have broken the defensive position and forced the enemy to fall back.
Otherwise the defender wins. The attack has been beaten off and the defender can now prepare their counter-stroke.
Calculate your Victory Points using the Victory Points Table on page 195 of the rulebook.


Last Updated On Friday, May 28, 2010 by Wayne at Battlefront