So what scenarios have you played Recently?

Houlie

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Prereg or not, Rocket OBA can't be accurate. There was much Axis rejoicing after my OBA came down. Now the shell holes are useful though!
I played this as the attacking Russians and really enjoyed it. For me, too, the rocket OBA had no real impact on the game other than some shellholes, IIRC.
 

Mister T

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J168 Katyusha's Embrace is a real interesting one where the Axis has to choose between defending the buildings in the middle and risk being encircled by the Russians or backing off to the VC area and risk losing the buildings!
A very good scenario i would enjoy playing again - with either side.
 

Eagle4ty

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True, but extent of error is much reduced (max 2 hexes IIRC) from a PreReg hex, so it will not fly all over the board.
Extent of error halved (FRU), so 67% chance of hitting your target hex anyway. As you've stated, rockets really aren't that bad as they're an area denial weapon for at least two turns and a great suppression one as well not to mention ancillary effects.
 

JRKrejsa

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The Hohenstaufen Hootenanny SP 266 Ukraine spring '44 SS try to take a village and exit. Guards try to hold on and keep a hill. The SS made good progress to start with. The at start T-34/85 was bait for the 85L ATG. The Elephants bit on it, and two went down in a single fire phase. (For the cost of the T-34.) After that the surviving two pachyderms made some progress, but not enough. It did not help that the 'schrek fizzled on the first shot. Soviet victory.
 

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I thought this was a very interesting scenario. It certainly did not feel Schwerpunktian (which I liked) with what felt like an extra turn for the attacker. The Germans can't afford for much to go wrong though so I'd give the edge to the Russians.
 

Ray Woloszyn

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The Hohenstaufen Hootenanny SP 266 Ukraine spring '44 SS try to take a village and exit. Guards try to hold on and keep a hill. The SS made good progress to start with. The at start T-34/85 was bait for the 85L ATG. The Elephants bit on it, and two went down in a single fire phase. (For the cost of the T-34.) After that the surviving two pachyderms made some progress, but not enough. It did not help that the 'schrek fizzled on the first shot. Soviet victory.

I have played this twice as the German going 1-1. The Russians surprised me by have the ATG on the hill which tore up some of my infantry. I attacked from the onboard locations to win, however, running all four Elephants off the board. Mistake I made was not to encircle the village as this allowed the Russians to back away unmolested so a mixed attack from on board and off board might be better. Both games played were fun and tight.
 

Ray Woloszyn

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Who's played in recent memory Castello Fatato [G38]? Lots of overlays on desert boards with night and deep snow rules did not dissuade me from trying this the other day. Every year or so Dave Stephens and I will play these night scenarios to relearn the Chapter E rules. The game revolved soley around only the victory building which starts partially on fire thus allowing the Italian 47mm ATG's to blast at the Russian units therein maintaining acquisition. The building was hotly contested with CC's galore which should have meant death for the Italian lax squads but with only a +2 difference for ambush at night, I found my Russians on the losing end of most of the ambush roles. The game was originally in Back Blast but unbalanced so AH pumped up four of the Italian 347's with "Hans and Franz" 447's. As the Russians I would in the future position my mortar to bombard the ATG's as well as send a half squad after them also since both could be hidden at start and end up away in most cases of the first turn Italian Human Wave. We had fun but replay value is minimal.
 

Jude

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Who's played in recent memory Castello Fatato [G38]? Lots of overlays on desert boards with night and deep snow rules did not dissuade me from trying this the other day. Every year or so Dave Stephens and I will play these night scenarios to relearn the Chapter E rules. The game revolved soley around only the victory building which starts partially on fire thus allowing the Italian 47mm ATG's to blast at the Russian units therein maintaining acquisition. The building was hotly contested with CC's galore which should have meant death for the Italian lax squads but with only a +2 difference for ambush at night, I found my Russians on the losing end of most of the ambush roles. The game was originally in Back Blast but unbalanced so AH pumped up four of the Italian 347's with "Hans and Franz" 447's. As the Russians I would in the future position my mortar to bombard the ATG's as well as send a half squad after them also since both could be hidden at start and end up away in most cases of the first turn Italian Human Wave. We had fun but replay value is minimal.
I played this one back in April and posted a short write up about it. My memory of it was winning as the Italians because of incredible MC rolls and some poor shooting by the Russians. Even so, it wasn't until I lucked out and broke the Russian commissar that I was able to secure the win. That occurred because of a CH from the AT gun. My impression after the game was that the Italians should get blasted, especially on that initial human wave. The dice won the game for me and not good strategy on my part as I basically just kept pushing forward and hoping for the best. That's not very exciting...
 

jrv

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My recollection of Castello Fatato from long ago was that I looked it over and decided the mandatory Human Wave was a bad idea, so I set my Italians up as far back as they would go, performed the Human Wave hitting thin air, then played the rest of the game out normally. In general when a scenario has a mandatory X on the first turn, you do not want to perform X on the first turn, and you should do everything you can to minimize the damage from it.

JR
 

buser333

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Yes these types of SSRs are tricky. I am just about to start "Khamsin" and can theoretically see how, due to the movement limitations for the Germans, the scenario could be "broken."
My opponent and I have a question about SSR5 there which says "During their MPh, all German vehicles must move as far due east as possible..."
I take this to mean that the halftracks cannot spend any extra MPs when going around or (heaven forbid) through hammada. He is even taking this one step further and saying he could see how that means the Germans must setup with a perfectly clear route east through open ground. I see no limitations to where the Germans setup, only in MPh so I don't agree with this, but what about the former?
 

Ray Woloszyn

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Even so, it wasn't until I lucked out and broke the Russian commissar that I was able to secure the win.
You also lucked out that your opponent did not notice the commissar who should not have been available in 12/42 :oops:

Dave started the HW from the nearest point possible but used the frontal hexes (three) to avoid some of residual that the Russians laid down. At various points in the game there were a lot of broken Italians wishing they were in sunny Italy. My "Nodicev" sniper did little whereas the Italian with his Mannlicher-Carcano rifle did much better.
 

jrv

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The mandatory Human Wave was a bad design, too.
I hesitate to say it was bad. I would say rather that it could be better. The scenario designer was trying to force the player to do something that would be bad for him in game terms because it happened in the historical event. One approach, taken here, is to just mandate it. That can get the historicity job done, but the player is motivated to try to think of a way to weasel out of it. The scenario design would be better if the player wants to perform the action because it is advantageous to him in some way. The reason that the player wants to avoid performing the Human Wave in Castello Fatato is that the Soviets put down criss-crossing firelanes, hoping to slaughter lots of Italians.

JR
 

Jude

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You also lucked out that your opponent did not notice the commissar who should not have been available in 12/42 :oops:
Funny! We jumped through a bunch of Stalingrad scenario at that time so we must have totally got mixed up on the dates. That commissar was making things tough for me before he went down. Maybe the CH was karma.
 

Jacometti

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I hesitate to say it was bad. I would say rather that it could be better. The scenario designer was trying to force the player to do something that would be bad for him in game terms because it happened in the historical event. The scenario design would be better if the player wants to perform the action because it is advantageous to him in some way. The reason that the player wants to avoid performing the Human Wave in Castello Fatato is that the Soviets put down criss-crossing firelanes, hoping to slaughter lots of Italians.

JR
Better for the designer to simply reduce the Italian OB by the number of squads/units "expected" to die/break in that mandatory human wave and start the scenario "right after it happened" without such shenanigans.

A mandatory human wave can totally unbalance a scenario, depending on a limited number of early IFT and MC rolls.

Especially at night with Italians, which means hardly ANY chance to rally and return to action.
 

JRKrejsa

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Forced to Reconsider HoB LM6 Chinese Civil War- ChiCom attack on Nationalist pillboxes and trenches. But, the ChiCom player decides to attack across open board 33, or up the hills of board 9. The Nationalists are split into 2 units, and can't come to the others aid. (But can fire off their board- just not leave.) The easy choice is to go along the outside of board 9. The ChiComs took heavy losses to start out, but were able get around the side of the hill. And put effective fire on Nat. 3-3-6s. I thought I could prevail in a bitter struggle at the top of the hill, but no such lock... Communist victory. Nice Scenario.
 

Cpl Uhl

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A mandatory human wave can totally unbalance a scenario, depending on a limited number of early IFT and MC rolls.

Especially at night with Italians, which means hardly ANY chance to rally and return to action.
Which is pretty much what happened to me in Castelo Fatato. Skads of broken morale 5 DM'd Italian squads wallowing around in the snow trying to be rallied by wounded 7-0 leaders. Still glad to play this one for hell of it. And I got the hell of it alright!
 

jrv

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Better for the designer to simply reduce the Italian OB by the number of squads/units "expected" to die/break in that mandatory human wave and start the scenario "right after it happened" without such shenanigans.

A mandatory human wave can totally unbalance a scenario, depending on a limited number of early IFT and MC rolls.

Especially at night with Italians, which means hardly ANY chance to rally and return to action.
I'm not sure I agree with this. The dramatic part of the story was the charge. I would suggest changing the scenario so that the Italians want to perform the human wave. Perhaps they could be *allowed* to perform a first turn human wave that raises their ML by two instead of one instead of being *required* to do a normal one. Perhaps the night LV hindrance applies to firelanes too. It is possible that everyone is dead at the end of the human wave, but that's the risk you take.

JR
 
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