VP problems - Mission 18 - "Bridgehead"

ChappyNS

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I am currently playing a "Bridgehead" scenario and the allotment of VPs to the FRIENDLY side seems to make it extremely difficult to win.

First of all, the FRIENDLY side gets no casualty VPs unless they manage to eliminate a very rare AFV/gun activation for the ENEMY side. So almost always there will be no VPs awarded to the FRIENDLY side for this.

The only other way to get FRIENDLY VPs is to control activated fortification locations which can only be from S? that start on the river board. But here is the thing. The maximum S? that can be originally placed at start is 15 (which is the case in my mission). The ENEMY has an AC of 2. Statistically, that means that only 5 x S? will have a chance of activating. Out of those 5, and on Table A1, a DR of either "3", "4" or doubles (for this mission only) will produce an "F". This is very small. But to make it worse, you then have to roll on the fortification table, meaning you need a DR of "4" or less. I'm not a mathematician, but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the chances of activating even one fortification is HIGHLY unlikely.

Note: if activated units on the river board dig entrenchments during the battle, this does not count for VP purposes. Only S? at the time of activation count.

And so, unless I am reading the rules incorrectly, this "Bridgehead" mission has a very high failure rate for the FRIENDLY side.

Thoughts anyone?
 

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I am currently playing a "Bridgehead" scenario and the allotment of VPs to the FRIENDLY side seems to make it extremely difficult to win.

First of all, the FRIENDLY side gets no casualty VPs unless they manage to eliminate a very rare AFV/gun activation for the ENEMY side. So almost always there will be no VPs awarded to the FRIENDLY side for this.

The only other way to get FRIENDLY VPs is to control activated fortification locations which can only be from S? that start on the river board. But here is the thing. The maximum S? that can be originally placed at start is 15 (which is the case in my mission). The ENEMY has an AC of 2. Statistically, that means that only 5 x S? will have a chance of activating. Out of those 5, and on Table A1, a DR of either "3", "4" or doubles (for this mission only) will produce an "F". This is very small. But to make it worse, you then have to roll on the fortification table, meaning you need a DR of "4" or less. I'm not a mathematician, but you don't need to be a rocket scientist to figure out that the chances of activating even one fortification is HIGHLY unlikely.

Note: if activated units on the river board dig entrenchments during the battle, this does not count for VP purposes. Only S? at the time of activation count.

And so, unless I am reading the rules incorrectly, this "Bridgehead" mission has a very high failure rate for the FRIENDLY side.

Thoughts anyone?
It is a dr on the fortification table with modifiers for quality of MMC & as Don pointed out you should have had some Enemy reinforcements (equal to US# of all Friendly At-Start forces) coming by now. That is where you hope to get your AFV/ Gun points (they would activate on a 1-3 dr).
 
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dlazov

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Looking at the Bridgehead SSR 1 it states that "Each final even DR (for Hold Attitude S? only) on the ENEMY Activation Table {A1} indicates the possibility of a Fortification being Activated (as if "F" were listed in the Table A1 results; 5.14), make a subsequent dr {A5}.

Looking at A5 it appears to me that 1-4 will get some type of Fortification (with drm's) while only a 5 or 6 will not.

So I am thinking we would have seen alot more in your AAR then what we have seen.

Also note SSR 2, there should be a sizeable off map S? based on your US# coming at your river assault
 

ChappyNS

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It is a dr on the fortification table with modifiers for quality of MMC & as Don pointed out you should have had some Enemy reinforcements (equal to US# of all Friendly At-Start forces) coming by now. That is where you hope to get your AFV/ Gun points (they would activate on a 1-3 dr).
Thanks...for some reason on the Fortification table I was thinking DR not dr. Even with that error, I would have only had to make one roll on the fortification table yet.

Reinforcements do not commence until turn 3
 

ChappyNS

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Looking at the Bridgehead SSR 1 it states that "Each final even DR (for Hold Attitude S? only) on the ENEMY Activation Table {A1} indicates the possibility of a Fortification being Activated (as if "F" were listed in the Table A1 results; 5.14), make a subsequent dr {A5}.

Looking at A5 it appears to me that 1-4 will get some type of Fortification (with drm's) while only a 5 or 6 will not.

So I am thinking we would have seen alot more in your AAR then what we have seen.

Also note SSR 2, there should be a sizeable off map S? based on your US# coming at your river assault

Thanks Don, I only missed one roll for fortification so far...no biggie. Again as I said above, for fortification I was thinking DR (like everything else) and not dr.

As for SSR 2, they don't come on until the third turn (see S? placement)
 
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TopT

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Reinforcements do not commence until turn 3
Yep, When I initially read S? ENTRY, I took it as IF the reinforcements had not yet entered by T3, then you start would add another +1 to the DR but I see that you have it right.
 

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This was our 4th mission and it was extremely close. We captured a pillbox and a fox hole then decided to cautiously advance far enough to cover the reinforcements coming in, so we kept our activation's as limited as possible. Good thing - the initial reinforcements included a KV-1. We had nothing to take it out so we kept it smoked in as much as possible and gave it difficult and small targets. In one of the MANY enemy REs they received, there was another group of reinforcements. We had a handle on the initial group but with the second one it looked like we would be overwhelmed. Luckily for us the scenario ended just before the second group could get close enough. It was very close if I recall rightly. It's also the scenario where our company took the most damage too.
 

ChappyNS

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This was our 4th mission and it was extremely close. We captured a pillbox and a fox hole then decided to cautiously advance far enough to cover the reinforcements coming in, so we kept our activation's as limited as possible. Good thing - the initial reinforcements included a KV-1. We had nothing to take it out so we kept it smoked in as much as possible and gave it difficult and small targets. In one of the MANY enemy REs they received, there was another group of reinforcements. We had a handle on the initial group but with the second one it looked like we would be overwhelmed. Luckily for us the scenario ended just before the second group could get close enough. It was very close if I recall rightly. It's also the scenario where our company took the most damage too.

Thanks for your story! What campaign were you playing?

I have only had one activation out of 8 so far, almost a second one but rolled a DR "7" on table A1 which is nothing. I am actually hoping for more activations so I can get some fortifications to capture for VPs!

You say "we". Were you playing with someone else? Same or different side?
 

Steed

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Thanks for your story! What campaign were you playing?

I have only had one activation out of 8 so far, almost a second one but rolled a DR "7" on table A1 which is nothing. I am actually hoping for more activations so I can get some fortifications to capture for VPs!

You say "we". Were you playing with someone else? Same or different side?
We started June 41, Russia. We're trying to take our company through the rest of the war. We are the borg..... :). My war gaming compatriot and I. We've been playing since Dec I think. We're playing on the same side, Germans. We split the company in half ( or close to it ). Having 2 people looking over the rules and the game helps a lot. And it's nice to bounce ideas/tactics off someone. We are up to Feb 42. We might switch to the desert at the appropriate time, neither one of us has done any scenarios in the desert. I think overall we've been lucky with our missions but I don't expect that to last much longer. But we are having a blast! Last Sunday one of Frank's mortars went on a tear, hit the same hex at least 10 times ( lost count so not sure exact number ), got 3 crits, revealed a 122mm gun - and the crew promptly rolled box cars on the moral check, and eliminated the leader and broken squads. Only stopped because everyone was dead and he had no other targets.

Yes you definitely have to get some fortifications to get VPs. I believe you also get points for guns/vehicles but I can't remember and I don't have the card here.
 

ChappyNS

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We started June 41, Russia. We're trying to take our company through the rest of the war. We are the borg..... :). My war gaming compatriot and I. We've been playing since Dec I think. We're playing on the same side, Germans. We split the company in half ( or close to it ). Having 2 people looking over the rules and the game helps a lot. And it's nice to bounce ideas/tactics off someone. We are up to Feb 42. We might switch to the desert at the appropriate time, neither one of us has done any scenarios in the desert. I think overall we've been lucky with our missions but I don't expect that to last much longer. But we are having a blast! Last Sunday one of Frank's mortars went on a tear, hit the same hex at least 10 times ( lost count so not sure exact number ), got 3 crits, revealed a 122mm gun - and the crew promptly rolled box cars on the moral check, and eliminated the leader and broken squads. Only stopped because everyone was dead and he had no other targets.

Yes you definitely have to get some fortifications to get VPs. I believe you also get points for guns/vehicles but I can't remember and I don't have the card here.
That's a great idea getting someone else in on it. And mortars are tons of fun with their ROF.

Yes you do get points for vehicles/guns but you need to roll a "2" or "3" to even have one appear let alone destroy it. So some fortifications better be revealed soon
 
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