Jude
Senior Member
Played AP75 Gabriel's Horn as the attacking Germans. I wasn't sure about this one as it looked like the Germans had way too much to do and not enough time to get it done. My friend set up his Americans with the bulk of the 1st line guys close to board 60. He later revealed his plan was to rush them back to reinforce the city. Luckily, I placed a nice stack of men in that area, not to stop him, but so I could rush the city as well. So, my elite men were to hit the city while my 1st line men's job was to take the level three hills. I set up with encirclement in mind and was able to get several caught in the crossfire. Steady pressure allowed me to reduce the hill pockets and by turn 5 (of 6.5) I had broken the last of the guys up there. Lots of prisoners. The city began to fall only because of one lucky occurrence. My preregistered hex was one of the forward buildings on board 60. I drew a red card right off the bat. I wasn't going to choose that hex anyway because I wanted to hit the large level three hill mass (I didn't have enough men to shoot - and get encirclement - at all the guys over there). I figured that the OBA would at least tie them up. Well, because of the red draw, my friend moved three squads (two Known) right into the preregistered zone. I called it down during his DPFh and tied up three of his five squads over there for several turns. My rolls were initially poor, but pins held them in place until I started rolling MCs. That fortuitous stroke of luck allowed me to flank his men and slowly gain headway on the southern side of the city. Once most of the men on the hill were reduced, I moved the other stack of men to hit the northern side. With one good order squad, one leader, and two crews left, my friend called it at the bottom of turn five. Pretty bloody affair (well, as far as taking tons of prisoners). My friend likes playing the Americans but that 6 ML is just brutal. Couple that with a 2 ELR and it is a tough go. I don't mind playing the Italians with that low of a morale since the scenario designers always seem to give them plenty of squads. Not so with the Americans. I read that for this scenario the American player really needs to keep the end game in mind and suck it up through the inevitable losses. And so it was with this one. My friend hung tough, but ran out of men to do anything. Still, we both recommend it. The scenario featured an unusual situation that caused us to plan and think the entire game - especially the pregame set-up .
One tip if you're playing FTF, the terrain changes were confusing. We had just played a scenario where orchards were olive groves, in this one the woods were. That was confusing enough, but brush was cactus patches as well (luckily, it was the same in the other scenario). However, there was a TON of brush. I placed wooden rubble counters (in case one of the stone buildings rubbled) to represent the cactus patches - kinda the same rules - which really helped visualize the terrain.
One tip if you're playing FTF, the terrain changes were confusing. We had just played a scenario where orchards were olive groves, in this one the woods were. That was confusing enough, but brush was cactus patches as well (luckily, it was the same in the other scenario). However, there was a TON of brush. I placed wooden rubble counters (in case one of the stone buildings rubbled) to represent the cactus patches - kinda the same rules - which really helped visualize the terrain.
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