So what scenarios have you played Recently?

Ray Woloszyn

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Played twice WO 09 Sting them at Zingem, once per side .
Both times the Germans were soundly defeated.
Now I'm playing it for the third time (against a different opponent) and it seems the Germans again have heavy problems (we are at the end of game turn 2).
The scenario concept is nice, since there are many possible approaches to the objective, as defender or as attacker, and it is not clear what is more convenient. Hence my multiple games.
The German have basically three paths to reach 4 of the 6 victory hexes needed that are scattered on board 66. His small attacking force can be shared in any way between the three entry zones. The negative part is that all entry zones requires a lot of movement in the open and all entry hexes are directly controlled by the Belgian who have 3 LMG and one MMG. Each SW can easily place lethal fire lines and/or kill the low armored three German AFVs.
My opinion is the German in front of a competent defender cannot avoid to suffer heavy initial losses to simply enter the board.

Whatever the tactical approach is, it leads naturally to the same bad result for Germans. Even using all the tricks as vehicle smoke granades, armored assault, freezes and furious deploying it seems the VCs are too difficult. May be I miss something however. But one thing is clear: a safe and cautious approach to minimize risks in this scenario will never work since the time is not enough to make anything different than run.

Looks like the scenario can be won only by a "berserker German" that charges blindly and pray to ovewhelm the light defensive screen by numbers and by luck possibly guessing the "weak" part of the Belgian setup (usually where there are less SW deployed and where the fire lines are less effective ).
Not the best fun possible.
Trust you are well in Italy. I have managed to play face-to-face and avoid COVID for the time being. I read this old thread because I played this today and due to ROAR I gave the Germans the balance. The ATR balance allows the German to take out the two Belgian tanks without risking a dual with the two Belgian SPG's with his weak armor. However, I won fairly easy as a half-track trying to race across the bridge got hit by the LMG and burned causing the first of many problems. I agree with your analysis. Regards, Ray.
 

Khill

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DTF 15 Storming Lommel: my Germans suffered another humiliating defeat from Sven
 

Steve E7

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Hard ROK 203 - North Koreans romped, staying far away from any Human Bullets, but the South Koreans pulled back effectively, the last charge across the bridge was bloody, but the North Koreans were not to be denied.

Surabaya Slugfest BFP71 - Close fight in which the British airpower and OBA was not effective. Indonesians guessed right on what buildings to defend but the weight of the British force was a bit too much, British won in the last CC phase. Very fun scenario.

Fuller's Folly AP135 - GI's never got going faltering to a German fire lane as they moved towards high ground. Never really getting close enough to use the SSR granted MOL/Hand Grenades, game ended early with severe US losses. Nice defensive setup was tough to overcome
 

wrongway149

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Fuller's Folly AP135 - GI's never got going faltering to a German fire lane as they moved towards high ground. Never really getting close enough to use the SSR granted MOL/Hand Grenades, game ended early with severe US losses. Nice defensive setup was tough to overcome
So you would agree that Col Fuller's idea of using Springfields instead of M1's was not a very good one.
 

Old Noob

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Why do you think he got bounced out of the 2nd Infantry Division?
Unfortunately, he ended up in the 28th Infantry Division (just in time for the Huertgen).
 

Eagle4ty

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Why do you think he got bounced out of the 2nd Infantry Division?
Unfortunately, he ended up in the 28th Infantry Division (just in time for the Huertgen).
Nice pick up, didn't think many people knew of that (along with Norm Cota a bit earlier as well).
 

Jwil2020

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Nice pick up, didn't think many people knew of that (along with Norm Cota a bit earlier as well).
As I recall, Hurley Fuller's biggest problem was his cantankerous personality. His proclivity to openly disagree with his superiors did not win him a lot of support from above. Evidently, he spoke his mind a little too frequently. This is a fault that often leads to an early retirement. Nevertheless, his reputation for fearlessness in combat got him a second chance with the 110th regiment. Albeit, short lived.

Norm Cota's appointment to head the 28th division was an acknowledgement of the outstanding leadership abilities he displayed as the second in command of the 29th division at Omaha and the later battles in Normandy. It was not his fault that the "Bloody Bucket" division was one of those sent into the meat grinder at Hurtgen- a totally unnecessary and completely avoidable bloodbath for which Courtney Hodges, First Army CO, should probably have been relieved. Cota's reward for Hurtgen was to have his division assigned to the "quiet" Ardennes front, where in keeping with Bradley's "calculated gamble" his division was expected to hold a front that a whole corps would have found challenging. Even the lamentable Hurley was asked to defend thirteen miles of front (twice the norm for a regiment) with only 2 of his 3 battalions as Cota was hanging on to that as his only divisional reserve.
 
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Old Noob

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Eaglety: Colonel Fuller was mentioned in Charles MacDonald's "A Time for Trumpets" as CO of the 110th Regiment.
That is how I knew he was in the 28th Infantry Division. After looking at "Fuller's Folly" and Second to None", it wasn't
hard to figure out what happened to him after his misadventures in Normandy.
 

Eagle4ty

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Eaglety: Colonel Fuller was mentioned in Charles MacDonald's "A Time for Trumpets" as CO of the 110th Regiment.
That is how I knew he was in the 28th Infantry Division. After looking at "Fuller's Folly" and Second to None", it wasn't
hard to figure out what happened to him after his misadventures in Normandy.
Kudos to you my friend for remembering what you read in that book. At my age I'm lucky I can remember I even HAVE that book! You must be one of them thar young whipper-snappers. 🆒
 

Steve E7

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BFP97 Renewed Pressure - One of the few Crucible of Steel scenarios I had not played. Great basic infantry fight for a Russian village.
Russians setup in the center of Bd44 and pushed right into the heart of town, and entered on the north edge, taking that group of buildings which was lightly defended, but did have some HIP halfsquads around hoping to sneak back some building control at game end. German fire was not good enough to slow down the center push and the Russians had gained too much of the town prior to the reinforcing German infantry to cross the road and get into the fight. Russian win.

20297
 
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von Marwitz

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BFP97 Renewed Pressure - One of the few Crucible of Steel scenarios I had not played. Great basic infantry fight for a Russian village.
Russians setup in the center of Bd44 and pushed right into the heart of town, and entered on the north edge, taking that group of buildings which was lightly defended, but did have some HIP halfsquads around hoping to sneak back some building control at game end. German fire was not good enough to slow down the center push and the Russians had gained too much of the town prior to the reinforcing German infantry to cross the road and get into the fight. Russian win.

View attachment 20297
I remember playing that one, too, a couple of years ago. It was a fun game and tough fight.

von Marwitz
 

Old Noob

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Eaglety: Just have a fair memory, but trying to keep memory files constantly updated.
Been rolling AH dice since 1975 (sophomore year at HS), starting with PB and Tobruk.
 

Eagle4ty

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Eaglety: Just have a fair memory, but trying to keep memory files constantly updated.
Been rolling AH dice since 1975 (sophomore year at HS), starting with PB and Tobruk.
Well if it's any consolation I had gotten out of the Army the first time by then. I believe my first "wargame" was around 1965 or so IIRC (and that's a stretch!)
 

Jwil2020

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Probably OT, but the first wargame I played was AH's Luftwaffe given to me by a friend of mine in 1973. The original RB folded up like an old-fashioned road map! It was quite an experience teaching myself the rules well enough to play it with another friend of mine. I was grokking the rules before I even knew what the term meant! :oops:
 
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Michael R

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Probably OT, but the first wargame I played was AH's Luftwaffe given to be by a friend of mine in 1973. The original RB folded up like an old-fashioned road map! It was quite an experience teaching myself the rules well enough to play it with another friend of mine. I was grokking the rules before I even knew what the term meant! :oops:
The original Panzerblitz rules were like that too. I had forgotten about that.
 

boylermaker

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I played FB18, Red Banner Days, which is one of a couple of Festung Budapest scenarios that were published in journals. This is a pretty fun one: the Russians attack first, needing to overwhelm a small picket force of Hungarians, then dig in as a strong German force counterattacks them.

Lots of stuff to do for both sides: Germans and Russians each have toy-toting infantry and a bunch of armor, and the Russians have some towed guns, although obviously the towed guns never did anything useful because towed guns have never once had an impact on a scenario in the history of ASL. I'm not sure why designers keep adding them to scenarios.

On the last half-turn, my German opponent hit his CVP cap with a boxcars during the rally phase and the Russians won the game. My opponent predicted the 12 before he rolled it, but felt he was far enough behind he needed every body to try to push the Russians back out of the victory buildings. Pretty fun--the Russian did a lot of street fighting and went 3-3 or 4-4, which probably swung the game, as it's going to be pretty difficult for him to bring down the German Panthers any other way. I recommend making sure that you play this one the next time you break out your Festung Budapest scenarios.
 

volgaG68

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.....although obviously the towed guns never did anything useful because towed guns have never once had an impact on a scenario in the history of ASL.
Crux of Calais would like to beg to differ. In all fairness, and taking your apparent jocularity into account, I believe Towed Guns had the most effect in some of the old-school scenarios that allowed you the time/turns to approach the front, unhook and establish your frontage, etc. I agree that in most modern scenarios you usually have one chance to unhook it safely, and you better have maximized your hex selection or it will prove useless otherwise. Post-old school, I cringe when I get them as they will be shot up quicker than John Dillinger.
 
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