AAR - Talon's Grip - ESG123

Major Issues

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Vince
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I have been busy searching for a new career, but I took some time off to play Xenovin. I have picked up a few job hunting tips that I thought I would share to keep you from making the same mistakes as me:

Don’t keep referring to yourself as ‘The Chosen One.’

Don’t ask if the company is really just a front for ISIS.

Under ‘Achievement You Are Most Proud Of’, don’t write ‘Played Laurey in an all drag-queen version of Oklahoma!’

Under ‘Latest Meaningful Achievement’, don’t write ‘Improved office morale by implementing an opioid disbursement program.’

It’s best not to bring up that you are a Penitent in Mistress Rachel’s House Of Discipline.


Xenovin wanted to play Talon’s Grip. Axis wins by building control or EVPs. Romanians come in from one direction, Germans with 2 AFVs for support from another direction. Like in most early war scenarios, the Russian troops are garbage. Unlike most, they do not have numbers to make up for this. Initially, they are outnumbered 14 squads to 8-1/2. Later, they get three more conscripts. Weeeee.

The Axis don’t have far to go, and lots of time. A breakthrough anywhere can result in them getting a lot of unoccupied buildings quickly.

My light mortar and 45L AT were setup to deal with the German onslaught. 3-1/2 squads were to hold back the Romanians.

The ATR promptly killed the AC. But my AT gun and mortar did nothing. I broke the AT gun, and both crews died.

Xenovin always tries to grock which units are my dummies. He tries, but he is bad at it. He decided that most of those facing the Romanians were unreal. What was unreal was my shooting as he moved into the street. Not one squad made it across.

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"We can't advance! They have penknives! PENKNIVES!!!"

The Germans were making progress, though, and his PzKwIII could now be fearless, with no AT gun to knock him out. So he is shooting his way into the center of town.

I manage to break his 9-1 and 548. Sensing blood on the water, my 8-1 boldly charges alone through town, while bullets and tank shells fly all around him! It was like a scene from 3:10 to Yuma, but with less Russell Crowe.

He made it unscathed, which forced the elimination of Xenovin’s 9-1 and 548 for failure to rout. I paid for it when I lost the 8-1 and a squad in CC the next turn, but it was still worth it.

One oddity about this scenario, besides the fact that it is one of only 14 scenarios not designed by Pete Shelling, is that neither side has many leaders. The Russians start with one, and get one later. The Romanians have two. The Germans have two. So losing one of two leaders becomes huge.

Two Romanian squads and a 7-0 sneak through the German area to get into town. The remaining Romanians are collecting their wits and weeping bitter tears after being thrown back by old men with flintlocks and one pitchfork.

The PzKw III VBFs one 447 squad. Upset that he made them spill their borscht, they take revenge by torching him.

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"This is what happens when you park in a bad neighborhood!!!"

End game is three separate fights. My conscripts go on the offensive and successfully attack the Romanians.
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Most of the Romanians spend the rest of the game running away, while being chased by an 87 year old with a cane, yelling, “You kids get off of my lawn!!!” In the center of town, Germans and Russians are plinking away at two hex range. On the edge of town, 1-1/2 Romanian squads are trying to occupy buildings.

At this point, it’s still anyone’s game. Xenovin can win with 9 EVPs, and he still has 11 in the area. He can also get enough buildings, but the question becomes, can he keep me from running around to reoccupy the empty ones?

Now Fate steps in. Two of his squads break. One of them had prisoners, who decide that it would be nifty to attack their guards. If only they had given them chocolate. The guards get stabbed in the neck, and I now have a 226 HS occupying a victory building. Xenovin concedes, as he no longer has enough points to exit, and doesn’t have the troops left to take buildings. My peasant army has triumphed!!! I congratulate him on a game well played, but he just wandered off in a daze, mumbling something about losing Motion AFVs to Reaction Fire every friggin’ time he plays me, plus some stuff about throwing the entire game out into the street and switching to the Starter Kit version of Chutes and Ladders.

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I decided to give him some alone time, which I used to hide all the knives and other pointy objects.

Despite the outcome, gut feeling on this is that it is pro-Axis. I only had two conscripts Disrupt all game, and passed some MCs I probably shouldn’t have.

Pic of end of game is below. There's hardly anyone left.
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