Paul S NJ
Senior Member
Round 4 - AP143 Late for Chow vs Jeff Wasserman
I offered to dice for sides but Jeff wanted to bid. I bid G1 and Jeff bid G3. I took an extra 546 with the reinforcements and increased my SAN (who never impacted the game).
Analysis
This features 12 tough 548’s with four mg’s and four leaders trying to push through 8.5 initial squads with 3.5 (4.5 in our case) reinforcements. The germans need to exit or be in some central buildings near the exit after 7 turns of crossing some open ground and bocage. The initial troops are divided into two groups which are forced to set up forward on the outer edges of board 4. This gives the germans three options: 1. Attack one of the groups directly, overwhelm it, and then boogie as fast as possible to exit. 2. Try to snake through the two groups, exposed to flanking fire the whole game. Any board edge student body approach would be exposed to a lot of fire while leaving US troops unaffected, so probably isn’t a viable option vs. a typical setup. I had the chance to get stomped by Steve Pleva in this scenario before the tournament, so I knew the US has a tough task to inhibit movement without getting drawn into a fight. There were times in that game where I thought I might be able to hold a thin line only to have it fold due to massed german assault fire and US 6 morale.
I setup to have two fire lanes cross the middle to discourage the central blitz. I put the 5 squad force on my left, realizing the mg force up front in Y9 were only a speed bump if the germans attack them directly. On my right the mortar boresighted L9 through a 3 grain hexes since that’s a good spot for an lmg squad looking to block US lateral movement. Jeff entered three squads in the middle and pushed the rest directly at my right flank troops. My mortar managed a critical hit in L9 which ELR’d an 8-0. That 7-0 then failed to self rally multiple times, even rolling a 12 to wound and tragically would never lend his movement bonus to anyone. A key moment was in advancing fire when my 8-1 and 666 passed a 1MC. Another 666 went berserk charging to its death in a 35(-2) shot. That sacrifice did allow the 666 in the B hex row to redeploy towards the fight. Meanwhile the left flank troops ran to get into position to obstruct the advance.
In german turns 2-4 Jeff’s 9-1, MMG and three squads dueled with some left flank troops while his main body pressed forward towards board 54. I was tempted to stand and fire in my player turn a couple times but kept falling back trying not to be trapped in place. My reinforcements came on turn 3 and deployed like mad to get the most warm bodies to obstruct movement.
In turns 5-7 Jeff split his troops into three groups, one continuing to fight on board 4 with the US 7-0 manning a mg, reducing a 548 on a 2+1 when it rolled a 12 on its MC. The 7-0 then rallied a 666 under DM, turned heroic, and captured/placed a DC for style points. The two other german groups faced a ragged band of half squads who kept advancing next to them in a ‘zombie defense’ to force them to prep fire to try to open a hole for movement. In the end both groups got close to exit but couldn’t quite push through.
Rules learnings/refreshment: a dashing unit may not pay 2 MF to use shellholes. Pinned units may still use assault fire.
Round 5 - J123 Charging Chaumont vs Bill Cirrilo
Bill has won several recent tournaments and we have played some fun, tight games so I knew I had to bring my best game. In this round Bob Bendis was playing John McDiarmid, who was acting as a spoiler. So if John won then my game with Bill would be the final, if Bob won he would play winner Sunday for the awesome Joe Leoce trophy.
I’ve played this scenario before and really enjoyed it. 5 447’s defend a deluxe victory building, aided by two selected assault guns and two more 447’s on turn 3. The US has 8.5 squads with 7 AFV, two C7 stuarts, two halftracks, and three of five possible AFV. The US approach is hampered by mud (which means no SMOKE) and barbed wire fences. A central stream/marsh divides the attack into two avenues. We diced for sides with me attacking. I choose the ROF 3 24 IFE meat chopper, the 76L and the armor leader shermans. Normally I’d choose the tanks with the smoke mortars. I split the attack between the two avenues, using the halftracks and stuarts aggressively to reveal dummies or freeze defenders. Bill’s MMG nailed one squad on a 4(-3) shot, but the meat chopper then entered and sustained several rate of fires on 12+3’s to kill the crew manning the MMG. One half-track freezed a half squad on the german far left which allowed a US squad to get close and kill it in CC. On the german right the other halftrack unloaded a squad and hmg. In the center a stuart used canister to eliminate some dummies. In german turn 1 a german half squad in H4 died for failure to rout.
US turn 2 my 76L tank bogged due a barbed wire fence. It would bog again and never got into the fight. I aggressively used the half tracks and stuarts to freeze two more squads, losing one to a PF shot which battle hardened the desperate firer. Thanks to being tied up, I got two squads into CC with two defending squads. In one I missed my 3-1 against a pinned 447 and in the other (despite winning an ambush) I rolled a 12 on a HtH 3:1 (-2) to let a surviving 247/PSK get away. The 447 thankfully missed his GT2 Hand to hand 1:4 against the two squads, which would have put me in trouble. The 247/PSK immolated itself by using desperation fire to burn a stuart.
By US turn 3 Bill was down to 2 squads and 2 leaders in the victory building while I had about 7 squads and four AFV bearing down. I was able to get one squad in each location on the ends of the VC building when Bill’s reinforcements were entering.
In GT3 his AFV’s entered to support the VC building and stopped, one immobilizing to reaction fire as it overran and broke a squad of mine. The key moment was a US 7-0 tossing a DC against several concealed and unconcealed units in E1. I managed to roll a 4 (+5)(without rubbling the building) for a 2 MC on his units which ended up with 2 squads and 2 leaders broken while rolling a 10(+6) on myself for NE. Sweet! The germans all surrendered in the rout phase and Bill threw in the towel. Since Bob lost to John I ended up as the tourney winner!
Rules learnings/refreshment:
- When wind starts smoke doesn’t drift until the start of advancing fire.
I offered to dice for sides but Jeff wanted to bid. I bid G1 and Jeff bid G3. I took an extra 546 with the reinforcements and increased my SAN (who never impacted the game).
Analysis
This features 12 tough 548’s with four mg’s and four leaders trying to push through 8.5 initial squads with 3.5 (4.5 in our case) reinforcements. The germans need to exit or be in some central buildings near the exit after 7 turns of crossing some open ground and bocage. The initial troops are divided into two groups which are forced to set up forward on the outer edges of board 4. This gives the germans three options: 1. Attack one of the groups directly, overwhelm it, and then boogie as fast as possible to exit. 2. Try to snake through the two groups, exposed to flanking fire the whole game. Any board edge student body approach would be exposed to a lot of fire while leaving US troops unaffected, so probably isn’t a viable option vs. a typical setup. I had the chance to get stomped by Steve Pleva in this scenario before the tournament, so I knew the US has a tough task to inhibit movement without getting drawn into a fight. There were times in that game where I thought I might be able to hold a thin line only to have it fold due to massed german assault fire and US 6 morale.
I setup to have two fire lanes cross the middle to discourage the central blitz. I put the 5 squad force on my left, realizing the mg force up front in Y9 were only a speed bump if the germans attack them directly. On my right the mortar boresighted L9 through a 3 grain hexes since that’s a good spot for an lmg squad looking to block US lateral movement. Jeff entered three squads in the middle and pushed the rest directly at my right flank troops. My mortar managed a critical hit in L9 which ELR’d an 8-0. That 7-0 then failed to self rally multiple times, even rolling a 12 to wound and tragically would never lend his movement bonus to anyone. A key moment was in advancing fire when my 8-1 and 666 passed a 1MC. Another 666 went berserk charging to its death in a 35(-2) shot. That sacrifice did allow the 666 in the B hex row to redeploy towards the fight. Meanwhile the left flank troops ran to get into position to obstruct the advance.
In german turns 2-4 Jeff’s 9-1, MMG and three squads dueled with some left flank troops while his main body pressed forward towards board 54. I was tempted to stand and fire in my player turn a couple times but kept falling back trying not to be trapped in place. My reinforcements came on turn 3 and deployed like mad to get the most warm bodies to obstruct movement.
In turns 5-7 Jeff split his troops into three groups, one continuing to fight on board 4 with the US 7-0 manning a mg, reducing a 548 on a 2+1 when it rolled a 12 on its MC. The 7-0 then rallied a 666 under DM, turned heroic, and captured/placed a DC for style points. The two other german groups faced a ragged band of half squads who kept advancing next to them in a ‘zombie defense’ to force them to prep fire to try to open a hole for movement. In the end both groups got close to exit but couldn’t quite push through.
Rules learnings/refreshment: a dashing unit may not pay 2 MF to use shellholes. Pinned units may still use assault fire.
Round 5 - J123 Charging Chaumont vs Bill Cirrilo
Bill has won several recent tournaments and we have played some fun, tight games so I knew I had to bring my best game. In this round Bob Bendis was playing John McDiarmid, who was acting as a spoiler. So if John won then my game with Bill would be the final, if Bob won he would play winner Sunday for the awesome Joe Leoce trophy.
I’ve played this scenario before and really enjoyed it. 5 447’s defend a deluxe victory building, aided by two selected assault guns and two more 447’s on turn 3. The US has 8.5 squads with 7 AFV, two C7 stuarts, two halftracks, and three of five possible AFV. The US approach is hampered by mud (which means no SMOKE) and barbed wire fences. A central stream/marsh divides the attack into two avenues. We diced for sides with me attacking. I choose the ROF 3 24 IFE meat chopper, the 76L and the armor leader shermans. Normally I’d choose the tanks with the smoke mortars. I split the attack between the two avenues, using the halftracks and stuarts aggressively to reveal dummies or freeze defenders. Bill’s MMG nailed one squad on a 4(-3) shot, but the meat chopper then entered and sustained several rate of fires on 12+3’s to kill the crew manning the MMG. One half-track freezed a half squad on the german far left which allowed a US squad to get close and kill it in CC. On the german right the other halftrack unloaded a squad and hmg. In the center a stuart used canister to eliminate some dummies. In german turn 1 a german half squad in H4 died for failure to rout.
US turn 2 my 76L tank bogged due a barbed wire fence. It would bog again and never got into the fight. I aggressively used the half tracks and stuarts to freeze two more squads, losing one to a PF shot which battle hardened the desperate firer. Thanks to being tied up, I got two squads into CC with two defending squads. In one I missed my 3-1 against a pinned 447 and in the other (despite winning an ambush) I rolled a 12 on a HtH 3:1 (-2) to let a surviving 247/PSK get away. The 447 thankfully missed his GT2 Hand to hand 1:4 against the two squads, which would have put me in trouble. The 247/PSK immolated itself by using desperation fire to burn a stuart.
By US turn 3 Bill was down to 2 squads and 2 leaders in the victory building while I had about 7 squads and four AFV bearing down. I was able to get one squad in each location on the ends of the VC building when Bill’s reinforcements were entering.
In GT3 his AFV’s entered to support the VC building and stopped, one immobilizing to reaction fire as it overran and broke a squad of mine. The key moment was a US 7-0 tossing a DC against several concealed and unconcealed units in E1. I managed to roll a 4 (+5)(without rubbling the building) for a 2 MC on his units which ended up with 2 squads and 2 leaders broken while rolling a 10(+6) on myself for NE. Sweet! The germans all surrendered in the rout phase and Bill threw in the towel. Since Bob lost to John I ended up as the tourney winner!
Rules learnings/refreshment:
- When wind starts smoke doesn’t drift until the start of advancing fire.
- The morale on the back of the unit is used when a broken unit self rallies to create a leader.
- for purposes of mud/snow bog hex-count, both hexes and bypassed hexsides count
- an AFV which only uses its MA (only) in bounding fire and retains rate may fire once more in advancing fire, even from a different hex
- In deluxe the usual bypass measurement is used to judge if bypass is possible. Since hedges were representing barbed wire fences by SSR, we weren’t sure if we should use the hedges normally for bypass purposes or the hex side only. Steve said to use the hedges normally.
Attachments
Last edited:
