Major Issues
Elder Member
I took some time off from applying to join the cast of "Empire" to play Blood On The Tracks with Rockford.
Contains his monster hit, "Tangled Up In Wire."
We played with the optional Dylan counter. This causes all enemy units within earshot to have their morale lowered by one, due to having to listen to his nasal voice. It also causes all friendly units within earshot to have THEIR morale lowered by one, due to having to listen to his nasal voice.
Rockford had the Soviets.
Almost all of his troops were in the E-K hexrows. Wire and mines were in the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
The limit as to how many counters can be set up per hexrow limits the German setup. I made two giant kill stacks on the front line to Prep Fire. I broke one squad, the other passed his MC. Not a stellar start.
My assault went badly. I had a lot of 10, 11, 12 rolls when firing big FGs. One 8-0 was lost to a sniper early. An attempt to go through the wire on the right ended badly, with a 9-1 wounded, a squad reduced and broken, and one squad broken. I couldn't get these guys off the wire. The Soviet sniper continued to pick at them, eventually killing the 9-1 and the HS.
I did kill a HMG crew that was on the roof of a factory. The Stukas were of limited use - the sighting TCs are tough. They reduced a squad and pinned a squad that was trying to get to the abandoned HMG on the roof.
I took a chance and moved a squad into the Flame location to DM one of his squads. For the next spread roll, we roll snakes and the flame goes out!!! "Okay, I need all of you guys to whip them out and pee right here!!!" Ah, the well-trained German army...
Photo available upon request.
I ended up initiating several close combats to try to make something happen. I don't like to do this against stealthy troops who can declare hand-to-hand. It generally worked for me, but I did take some losses. But a couple times I was punished for my success, as the next layer of Soviets would shoot me out of the newly occupied location.
Due to Rockford's fall-back defense, I didn't have a good opportunity to try for OBA until turn 4. And pulled a red card. My next card was black, the SR was on target, then my radioman was broken.
This is not tank country, and it took a while for the StuGs to pick their way forward. I seized an opportunity to overrun a 628 in open ground with the StuG with the armor leader. I have no MGs, so this is on the mighty mighty 4 column. I roll a "3" and kill them!
A 45LL opens up on the StuG from a factory, until Rockford realizes that the railroad in front of him is elevated and blocks LOS.
He has a tunnel going from I29 back into the factory, which he uses a couple times to successfully extricate broken units.
I call it after 5 turns. His 16 FP firegroup in the factory keeps breaking my squads, I hadn't cleared the J32 building yet, and there were still squads holding out on the left in the J and K hexrows. I may have been able to clear through row K by game end; there was no way I was going to clear a factory.
No OBA and lots of really high attack rolls hurt me. But this could have been far, far worse. He forgot 6 factors of mines and the 8-1 in his setup. His AT guns didn't get any action in the game. Also, a misinterpretation of the Commissar rules, which he read in their original Cyrillic, meant that he did not exchange the 8-0 for a 9-0.
Not a fan of this one. Time is going to be a big problem for the Germans. But I think that it is too easy for the Soviets to get a sleaze win with the "clear on/west of hexrow K" part of the VC. The Soviets have 5 HIP MMCs. It would be worth scattering them around and hoping one doesn't get found. Also, the J32 building has both Level 1 and Cellar locations. Even if you find a HIP 628 in the Cellar, it won't be easy to get them out.
But the big problem is the potential use of tunnels. The Soviets get 4 fortified buildings, which can be exchanged for tunnels. Rockford had the one in the center to use to rout guys. But he could have also used it to move squads back up. There are 8 potential locations, if you include the building J32 cellars, that a tunnel from the factory could go to. You cannot find tunnels by searching, so you have no way of knowing that one exists until it is actually used. The only defense is that they can't be used if the target location is enemy occupied. But that's a lot of locations to occupy, with troops that are badly needed assaulting a factory.
Interestingly, there is an SSR to keep the Soviets from doing the sleaze move forward at the end of the game via the sewers. But not tunnels.
The one tunnel was the only fortification I found. So maybe Rockford did have others to try such a move. Who knows what is going on in that devious, twisted giant brain of his???
He definitely outplayed me, and deserves the win. Which is why I am hardly even going to mention his missing testicle.
FYI - there is Perry Sez errata on this already. For the VC, building M30 counts, partial buildings count. Hex R33 is Rubbled.
Contains his monster hit, "Tangled Up In Wire."
We played with the optional Dylan counter. This causes all enemy units within earshot to have their morale lowered by one, due to having to listen to his nasal voice. It also causes all friendly units within earshot to have THEIR morale lowered by one, due to having to listen to his nasal voice.
Rockford had the Soviets.
Almost all of his troops were in the E-K hexrows. Wire and mines were in the Boulevard of Broken Dreams.
The limit as to how many counters can be set up per hexrow limits the German setup. I made two giant kill stacks on the front line to Prep Fire. I broke one squad, the other passed his MC. Not a stellar start.
My assault went badly. I had a lot of 10, 11, 12 rolls when firing big FGs. One 8-0 was lost to a sniper early. An attempt to go through the wire on the right ended badly, with a 9-1 wounded, a squad reduced and broken, and one squad broken. I couldn't get these guys off the wire. The Soviet sniper continued to pick at them, eventually killing the 9-1 and the HS.
I did kill a HMG crew that was on the roof of a factory. The Stukas were of limited use - the sighting TCs are tough. They reduced a squad and pinned a squad that was trying to get to the abandoned HMG on the roof.
I took a chance and moved a squad into the Flame location to DM one of his squads. For the next spread roll, we roll snakes and the flame goes out!!! "Okay, I need all of you guys to whip them out and pee right here!!!" Ah, the well-trained German army...
Photo available upon request.
I ended up initiating several close combats to try to make something happen. I don't like to do this against stealthy troops who can declare hand-to-hand. It generally worked for me, but I did take some losses. But a couple times I was punished for my success, as the next layer of Soviets would shoot me out of the newly occupied location.
Due to Rockford's fall-back defense, I didn't have a good opportunity to try for OBA until turn 4. And pulled a red card. My next card was black, the SR was on target, then my radioman was broken.
This is not tank country, and it took a while for the StuGs to pick their way forward. I seized an opportunity to overrun a 628 in open ground with the StuG with the armor leader. I have no MGs, so this is on the mighty mighty 4 column. I roll a "3" and kill them!
A 45LL opens up on the StuG from a factory, until Rockford realizes that the railroad in front of him is elevated and blocks LOS.
He has a tunnel going from I29 back into the factory, which he uses a couple times to successfully extricate broken units.
I call it after 5 turns. His 16 FP firegroup in the factory keeps breaking my squads, I hadn't cleared the J32 building yet, and there were still squads holding out on the left in the J and K hexrows. I may have been able to clear through row K by game end; there was no way I was going to clear a factory.
No OBA and lots of really high attack rolls hurt me. But this could have been far, far worse. He forgot 6 factors of mines and the 8-1 in his setup. His AT guns didn't get any action in the game. Also, a misinterpretation of the Commissar rules, which he read in their original Cyrillic, meant that he did not exchange the 8-0 for a 9-0.
Not a fan of this one. Time is going to be a big problem for the Germans. But I think that it is too easy for the Soviets to get a sleaze win with the "clear on/west of hexrow K" part of the VC. The Soviets have 5 HIP MMCs. It would be worth scattering them around and hoping one doesn't get found. Also, the J32 building has both Level 1 and Cellar locations. Even if you find a HIP 628 in the Cellar, it won't be easy to get them out.
But the big problem is the potential use of tunnels. The Soviets get 4 fortified buildings, which can be exchanged for tunnels. Rockford had the one in the center to use to rout guys. But he could have also used it to move squads back up. There are 8 potential locations, if you include the building J32 cellars, that a tunnel from the factory could go to. You cannot find tunnels by searching, so you have no way of knowing that one exists until it is actually used. The only defense is that they can't be used if the target location is enemy occupied. But that's a lot of locations to occupy, with troops that are badly needed assaulting a factory.
Interestingly, there is an SSR to keep the Soviets from doing the sleaze move forward at the end of the game via the sewers. But not tunnels.
The one tunnel was the only fortification I found. So maybe Rockford did have others to try such a move. Who knows what is going on in that devious, twisted giant brain of his???
He definitely outplayed me, and deserves the win. Which is why I am hardly even going to mention his missing testicle.
FYI - there is Perry Sez errata on this already. For the VC, building M30 counts, partial buildings count. Hex R33 is Rubbled.