PS NJ
Senior Member
- Joined
- Nov 16, 2021
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So for this round I was matched With Derek Pulhamus, with whom I've had several good games. We picked out a relatively simple looking scenario, Taking Diego Suarez from Kedge the Yankee ASL crew. Sixteen seasick (no CX) brit squads (half 648s, half 457s with three mortars but only three leaders) take on 11 fragile (ELR1) vichy 457s with four 458's coming on turn 3. The brits have to enter in open ground and cross a kunai field to take most of a village in only 5 turns. I set up (pictured) an upfront defense which caused every entry hex (except two orchards) to be open ground, so no concealed entry. Derek AM'ed into the orchards, tossed several smoke grenades to cover other concealed AM'ing units, and advanced his mortar units on. Broken units had no where to rout. My fire broke several squads, in FT1 I just sat and prep fired, breaking several more squads and leaders. Finally in BT2 Derek found his two mortars left all their smoke shells in their transports. He treid to AM forward but by the end of the turn he only had five GO squads left had taken one hut, and resigned.
Steve Pleva stopped over and took a break from his tourney director role to give it a shot (he suspected my rolls might have been overly lucky). Steve used a similar approach and did a bit better, taking two huts by the end of BT3 (pictured), having half the brits GO, and breaking half the french; but still resigned as there was no chance of taking the required VC buildings/huts. I think it's a good design but the brits need some help. I'd bump the fench setup back two hexrows and make the entry row (hexrow Q) out of play. Some folks suggested adding an extra half turn, but I think with the other two fixes that would be too much. Steve thought only bumping the french set up back was needed, but I think that is all Steve needs and we mere mortals would need a bit more help.
In the next round I played Jonathan Kay from Canada in Hazmo 6 Great Vengeance. I bid G2 and John bid B1 so my HMG became a MMG but then I added a LMG, so not a bad trade. I setup my two wire and AT mines with a HIP DC forward on the left and the 75L gun in a great central location. I put three dummies in the steeple to draw smoke and the 50L gun on my right primarily as anti-infantry. John smoked (5 smokes) the wire area but couldn't make much progress in the face of the wire. I love how wire connects to adjacent building/woods hexsides and can't be bypassed. It's a shame AT ditches and mines can be bypassed, IMHO. John searched for mines a fair amount (I learned even an SMC can cause search casualties). My 75L burned one Churchill and then John gave me a side shot on the Croc and I managed to get the 6 net TK roll to kill it. The last Churchill bogged and immobilized on the wire. John got two fanatics, a heroic leader, and two heroes and managed to turn the corner. German turn three I pulled back from the left to better defend the mandatory VC building (P3). By British turn 4 (pictured) John was forced into some risky attacks and then had enough. One highlight was my 7-0 going into CC with a heroic 8-1 and taking him out
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