AAR - Rudder's Keystone - HP #5

Major Issues

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After months of giving you job hunting advice, I find myself at a loss, as I have been furloughed, partly because of Corona virus, and partly because I wore my handmade protective mask into work. It was a white pillowcase with eyeholes cut out. For some reason, this was an issue.

To make matters worse, my wife said that because of Social Distancing, we can no longer have sex.

She said that she will continue to have sex with Sven the poolboy, though, as she has personally checked him out.

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I did have an encouraging interview this week. I was promised that I would be hired, just as soon as ‘Hell freezes over.’

No new games, partly because everyone is sheltering in place, partly because I insist on playing the same CD of Miami Sound Machine over and over during our games. This is an AAR on an older game that I didn’t get around to posting earlier.

Walt and I played Rudder’s Keystone, which is an old CH scenario. As usual, Walt took the ‘muricans, so I had the Germans. A buncha Krauts with three StuGs

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need to exit, while a buncha ‘muricans with two AT guns and a .50 cal try to stop them.

The board has a bazillion brush hexes in the middle. The only higher elevation was two Level 1 building locations on my left. My Jenious Plan wuz to take out the Ketel Level 1 building and run through the brush for the exit and the win. At least two squads have to enter on each board, so two 447s got that duty.

On my left, 6 447s Armored Assaulted toward the stone building, while the good leaders and MGs ran up the middle. A MMG on Level 1 ruined the day for a couple squads under the StuGs. But we pressed on.

On my right, two 447s cautiously advanced toward a lone HS with a mortar. Even if I couldn’t take them out, they may help keep some ’muricans from shifting over.

On my left, the Level 1 Boyz shoot up some more 447s. But Walt decides to abandon the building in his turn. I think that this was a mistake – sure, I had three StuGs with Acqs on the two hexes. But, Dictum Balsai, TEM is your friend. Well, trying to run was not a good plan, as two StuGs got hits, and the ‘muricans were all broken.

Sensing blood in the water, in my turn, a StuG charged forward to get behind the broken guyz and eliminate them for failure to rout.

Except...

An AT gun opened up, and I lost the StuG that was trying to cut off the broken units.

Meanwhile, on board 13, my two creeping 447s were being dealt with harshly by one light mortar. During the course of the game, it got three CHs. Three. The only saving grace was that two of these were in open ground, so there was no reversed TEM.

The two remaining StuGs head away from the AT gun and into the brush in the middle of the board. Where he nails one, needing a 3 TH, and then the other with a CH. Suddenly, I have no armor support.

Although my original plan was to exit off the W edge of 43, now I have to fight my way to the SW corner of 43. I made progress – at one point, there was only a 546 and a hero left in my way. But rallied G.I.s starting trickling back in, some of my guys were broken, and my only chance at victory was a last turn rush down the road through a gauntlet of fire. It ended badly. American win!

The .50 cal and the other AT gun didn’t play much of a part. They were HIP at the western edge of the board.

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"Sounds like a battle over there. Wonder how it's going."

By the time Walt grokked that I was not going there, it was too late to move the heavy machinegun anywhere useful. Walt lugged it for two turns through the brush, then abandoned it in favor of getting the 9-1 and HS into the battle. This is too powerful a weapon to spend half the game hiding. If it was up on Level 1 with the MMG, we might have had a very short game.

My recommendation is to replace the .50 cal with a MMG for balance purposes.

Next post – the answers to ALL your Fortified Bunker stockpiling needs!!! Is 57 cans of beans enough? Should you be hoarding Cheetos? How many Pop-Tarts do you have to trade to get a carton of cigarettes? Will anyone actually eat Spam?

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Paul M. Weir

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I eat it every day here ... Oh ... wrong kind of Spam!
 

Ed Donoghue

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My Dad was a Seabee stationed in Exeter, England & he loved Spam. As a kid I had it quite often & still like it. Problem is that my wife refuses to buy it, cook it or eat it, so I don't get to enjoy it very often.
 
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