Paul S NJ
Senior Member
Listeroids,
Another fantastic experience in Albany. The new hotel was fine and Steve and Joe ran a great tournament and raffle. Bill Cirrillo won the very nice Maus! Congrats Bill!
Round 1 - FrF89 Red Tears Shed on Gray
I was matched with Stephane Graciet of NYC (and originally France) for this round. Since we arrived later than the official afternoon start time Steve suggested this 1941 city fight scenario. Stephane preferred the Russians so he set up his 11 squads (all but 2 conscript) and two guns (37L and 76* HE only). He placed the rubble to close the gap on his right flank. An orchard cuts the city in half with both flanks having the required 10 factory hexes needed in the VC. Looking at the terrain (a long row house on the russian right and relatively open ground on the russian left) I assumed the HIP MMG squad and 76* were on the open flank and the 37L was centrally located (turns out they were, just like in the set up I had planned). I decided to attack the row house flank directly with my 16 rumanian SE and three tanks (3 AF and 37* guns) and by turn three had captured all three factories on that flank, losing one of tanks immobilized by the 37L before it malfunctioned and disabled. Stephane lost about half his infantry in the process but had enough to maintain solid control of the left half of his setup area. By Russian turn 4 when his 4.5 SE and two 45L armored cars entered I had consolidated my three factories with about 8 squads and two tanks. Stephane's AC just rolled up to my tank and killed it with a snakes bounding fire. His infantry entered the woods and his rear factory getting ready to jump off and go for a VC hex in the closest factory on turn 5. I managed to kill both AC (one by MG fire and one with the immobilized tanks crew in CC) but lost my last tank in the process. On RT5 Stephane charged a 527 down the road to my factory. I took a 4(-2) shot and made him into a 628. I took three 4 flat shots to no avail. the now 628 jumped into an empty factory hex, reducing me to one less than my VC. In RumT6 I fired a 12 flat FT shot, 4 flat and 12+3 shots all without touching the 628. Then I jumped him in CC, ambushed him (due to a -1 leader and ? unit) but missed my 2-1(-2) attack. In Russian T6 Stephane managed to get another 527 into a factory hex but couldn't take out my 347 there so I maintained control. Stephane missed his 1-4 CC roll so the game came down to my 2-1 (-1) CC roll. I needed a 7 to win and rolled a 9. Therefore this scenario is clearly a barking dog
(actually I like it as a good 5-6 hour tournament scenario). 0-1
Round 2 J189 Buckley's Block vs Paul Chamberland
I've had the pleasure to play Paul many times and we picked this nice tournament sized PTO scenario. Steve ruled that the road was unpaved so it was affected by mud. I bid A0 and Paul bid J1 so I took away one IJA lmg. I set up to threaten two fire lanes across the middle/left to channel Paul into the central woods and the woods by the river. The rain turned heavy turn 1 (and would have gotten heavier every player turn for most of the game as it turned out). Paul moved into those two areas with only one stripe but the heavy rain also protected my troops from his fire. I had my HT crew get out with the .50 cal turn 1 and pass that on to a 668 who assembled it in JT2. I maneuvered my troops into a large blob of squad/mg on a back line and 348 half squads on a front line facing Paul. No losses on either side. I also advanced a concealed 668 into K1 to block up that front while the 50 cal was being assembled and the HT was unmanned. On JT2 Paul had to decide whether to banzai his whole force at my full force. see photo.
Paul decided to try to whittle down my defenders first. In hindsight that was probably his best chance to win as my ATG was several hexes back behind a tree line, the HT unmanned and the 50 cal wasn't built yet. I fell back each turn thereafter with minimal losses/breaks. By JT3 Paul launched a four squad banzai against my .50 cal/668 and HT only to lose them all without result due to some hot shooting by the HT and high FP of the 668/50 cal.
One rules learning is that a banzai/hw unit may not stop next to a 2 MF terrain location if it has one MF left and there is a legal one MF hex adjacent. This forced Paul to move a couple hs survivors next to my units into a hex where the HS's had to take a 20(-1). They then broke and died for FTR.
On JT4 Paul banzai his remaining troops up the gut into ATG and heavy defensive fire only to lose most of them. The ATG canister (C10 with ROF2) was devastating. Paul didn't notice the F9/G9 hex side was water covered, which hindered the banzai somewhat. see photo.
We played it out but JT4 losses gutted the IJA attack. 1-1
Another fantastic experience in Albany. The new hotel was fine and Steve and Joe ran a great tournament and raffle. Bill Cirrillo won the very nice Maus! Congrats Bill!
Round 1 - FrF89 Red Tears Shed on Gray
I was matched with Stephane Graciet of NYC (and originally France) for this round. Since we arrived later than the official afternoon start time Steve suggested this 1941 city fight scenario. Stephane preferred the Russians so he set up his 11 squads (all but 2 conscript) and two guns (37L and 76* HE only). He placed the rubble to close the gap on his right flank. An orchard cuts the city in half with both flanks having the required 10 factory hexes needed in the VC. Looking at the terrain (a long row house on the russian right and relatively open ground on the russian left) I assumed the HIP MMG squad and 76* were on the open flank and the 37L was centrally located (turns out they were, just like in the set up I had planned). I decided to attack the row house flank directly with my 16 rumanian SE and three tanks (3 AF and 37* guns) and by turn three had captured all three factories on that flank, losing one of tanks immobilized by the 37L before it malfunctioned and disabled. Stephane lost about half his infantry in the process but had enough to maintain solid control of the left half of his setup area. By Russian turn 4 when his 4.5 SE and two 45L armored cars entered I had consolidated my three factories with about 8 squads and two tanks. Stephane's AC just rolled up to my tank and killed it with a snakes bounding fire. His infantry entered the woods and his rear factory getting ready to jump off and go for a VC hex in the closest factory on turn 5. I managed to kill both AC (one by MG fire and one with the immobilized tanks crew in CC) but lost my last tank in the process. On RT5 Stephane charged a 527 down the road to my factory. I took a 4(-2) shot and made him into a 628. I took three 4 flat shots to no avail. the now 628 jumped into an empty factory hex, reducing me to one less than my VC. In RumT6 I fired a 12 flat FT shot, 4 flat and 12+3 shots all without touching the 628. Then I jumped him in CC, ambushed him (due to a -1 leader and ? unit) but missed my 2-1(-2) attack. In Russian T6 Stephane managed to get another 527 into a factory hex but couldn't take out my 347 there so I maintained control. Stephane missed his 1-4 CC roll so the game came down to my 2-1 (-1) CC roll. I needed a 7 to win and rolled a 9. Therefore this scenario is clearly a barking dog
(actually I like it as a good 5-6 hour tournament scenario). 0-1Round 2 J189 Buckley's Block vs Paul Chamberland
I've had the pleasure to play Paul many times and we picked this nice tournament sized PTO scenario. Steve ruled that the road was unpaved so it was affected by mud. I bid A0 and Paul bid J1 so I took away one IJA lmg. I set up to threaten two fire lanes across the middle/left to channel Paul into the central woods and the woods by the river. The rain turned heavy turn 1 (and would have gotten heavier every player turn for most of the game as it turned out). Paul moved into those two areas with only one stripe but the heavy rain also protected my troops from his fire. I had my HT crew get out with the .50 cal turn 1 and pass that on to a 668 who assembled it in JT2. I maneuvered my troops into a large blob of squad/mg on a back line and 348 half squads on a front line facing Paul. No losses on either side. I also advanced a concealed 668 into K1 to block up that front while the 50 cal was being assembled and the HT was unmanned. On JT2 Paul had to decide whether to banzai his whole force at my full force. see photo.
Paul decided to try to whittle down my defenders first. In hindsight that was probably his best chance to win as my ATG was several hexes back behind a tree line, the HT unmanned and the 50 cal wasn't built yet. I fell back each turn thereafter with minimal losses/breaks. By JT3 Paul launched a four squad banzai against my .50 cal/668 and HT only to lose them all without result due to some hot shooting by the HT and high FP of the 668/50 cal.
One rules learning is that a banzai/hw unit may not stop next to a 2 MF terrain location if it has one MF left and there is a legal one MF hex adjacent. This forced Paul to move a couple hs survivors next to my units into a hex where the HS's had to take a 20(-1). They then broke and died for FTR.
On JT4 Paul banzai his remaining troops up the gut into ATG and heavy defensive fire only to lose most of them. The ATG canister (C10 with ROF2) was devastating. Paul didn't notice the F9/G9 hex side was water covered, which hindered the banzai somewhat. see photo.
We played it out but JT4 losses gutted the IJA attack. 1-1
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