xenovin
Elder Member
Played this one last weekend as the Communist Chinese and not sure how the US can hold out past Turn 4 never mind win this scenario. The US has six fixed unlimbered 155 SPA guns across two boards, a somewhat strong headquarters unit that has to set up within three hexes of 44M6, and a perimeter Force of 4xHS, 2xHMG, 2xMMG, 4x Foxholes, a 9-1 and 2x HT covering the front of the SPA battery. The board configuration has the mass of Chinese entering over mostly open hills and down through an open “valley of death” fronting the SPA battery with a thin cover of light woods and brush along the extreme northern and southern edges of the board flanks. So the Chinese can either march down through the open center or move through the cover on the flanks (tough choice here). The Chinese also have a small four squad forward recon infiltration force (free of impulse movement) to harass the US perimeter force but I used to CX towards the rear of the SPA guns.
The US are under all kinds of restrictions which you can read in the SSRs but basically the bulk of the forces can’t do anything on Turn 1 except for the small perimeter force. And here in is my question. What can the US do with the perimeter force? You have a HMG, MMG and HT to cover each board, mass them on a single board, or mass them in the center and hope their fire lanes (FL) can halt the Chinese impulse movement waves but the flank hindrances really cuts down the FL. If you set up in the flanks as a direct block, it’s much harder to fire at the Chinese until they are right on top of you!
My initial impression was that the three US SPAs on Board 19 deployed away from the 6x666 US squads in the HQ unit was much easier pickings so I massed the bulk of the Chinese against these guns as their destruction would meet the VC requirements. By Turn 3 I was in position to CC 4 of the SPA guns which had already fired at my units five times (and thus 5 VC points) so we called it. Afterwards we wondered if the three SPAs on Board 19 should try and limber up and drive away but they are not allowed to do anything on Turn 1 so the crew would go TI on Turn 2 converting them over to their limbered side so that on Turn 3 they could move either over by the HQ force for covered wagon circle defense or just drive off the map and give the Chinese the 2 VP per gun. This would be a hard thing to pull off based on our playing so it leaves you with how best do you employ the US perimeter force until the HQ force is freed (through SSR restrictions) to help out. How the US could even still be in the game by Turn 7 is a mystery as not much time to re-occupy abandoned HTs and strip out the HMG/MMG and get them into the fight before the Chinese have their hands in their back pockets looking for smokes.
Has anyone won as the US is this scenario?
The US are under all kinds of restrictions which you can read in the SSRs but basically the bulk of the forces can’t do anything on Turn 1 except for the small perimeter force. And here in is my question. What can the US do with the perimeter force? You have a HMG, MMG and HT to cover each board, mass them on a single board, or mass them in the center and hope their fire lanes (FL) can halt the Chinese impulse movement waves but the flank hindrances really cuts down the FL. If you set up in the flanks as a direct block, it’s much harder to fire at the Chinese until they are right on top of you!
My initial impression was that the three US SPAs on Board 19 deployed away from the 6x666 US squads in the HQ unit was much easier pickings so I massed the bulk of the Chinese against these guns as their destruction would meet the VC requirements. By Turn 3 I was in position to CC 4 of the SPA guns which had already fired at my units five times (and thus 5 VC points) so we called it. Afterwards we wondered if the three SPAs on Board 19 should try and limber up and drive away but they are not allowed to do anything on Turn 1 so the crew would go TI on Turn 2 converting them over to their limbered side so that on Turn 3 they could move either over by the HQ force for covered wagon circle defense or just drive off the map and give the Chinese the 2 VP per gun. This would be a hard thing to pull off based on our playing so it leaves you with how best do you employ the US perimeter force until the HQ force is freed (through SSR restrictions) to help out. How the US could even still be in the game by Turn 7 is a mystery as not much time to re-occupy abandoned HTs and strip out the HMG/MMG and get them into the fight before the Chinese have their hands in their back pockets looking for smokes.
Has anyone won as the US is this scenario?