J. R. Tracy
Elder Member
Oktoberfest '03 was as usual a glorious action-packed ASL weekend. I
only get ten games in but a few were quite large, and all were new to
me.
First up I picked up a couple Schwerpunkts from Mike Faulkner. It's
another good-looking pack and I managed to play several over the next
few days. I also purchased an HoB Buckeye Pack (PTO scenarios from Mark
Pitcavage) and the HoB Firefight pack, a pretty nifty set of very small
scenarios, each with its own minimap.
To kick things off, Chris Spell and I played a warmup game Wednesday
night. We chose Attu Climb, a Schwerpunkt card set in the Aleutians. I
had a few US 667s and a couple leaders who start the game on Climbing
counters, trying to reach the peaks of Bd 9 as Chris' IJA ran up to
shoot me off. My first turn climbing was generally successful from a
statistical point of view - only two failed rolls as the rest of my
troops made the heights. Of course, my two failures were both my
Leaders, leaving me playing Advanced Squad for the duration.
Fortunately Chris' dice were appalling - even when he managed to inflict
a morale check, I passed, with nary a break the whole game. Meanwhile I
was flipping and reducing his troops every firephase, and won this
without breaking a sweat thanks to the outrageous luck differential.
Apparently the Japanese have to run across the open ground and hope the
Americans roll high. Hmmm.
Thursday morning I found myself in the Deluxe mini tournament matched
with Adam Lunney from Down Under. Dice gave me the Germans in The Good
Shepherd from OVHS. I defended a city board trying to hang onto three
multihex buildings with a variety of so-so infantry, okay leadership,
some MGs, a PSK, a 75* INF gun, a StuG, and a few points of Mines. Adam
got a lot of 458s, three Shermans and a Wasp. My plan was to hold the
center building and two on the left - the wooden building by the lumber
yard, and the three hex stone building up front. I guarded the latter
with a couple minefields in front, sprinkled my troops mostly on the
left, put my gun in the center building facing my right, and left that
flank otherwise defended only by Dummies, except for a couple halfsquads
HIPed for endgame shenanigans. I put my StuG in the wooden building
facing down the road, and had a dummy StuG on the right just to keep
Adam guessing. My general plan was to grind him up as he assaulted my
positions, making him pay in blood and time, with the specific goal of
hammering the Wasp at each and every opportunity.
Adam came straight at me, strong on my left flank, where orchards
covered his approach. I got lucky and stunned the Wasp as soon as it
entered the board, and the StuG nailed a Sherman when Adam guessed
wrong. I was very excited to get a 1MC on a sneaky LOS versus his 9-2
and 3x458s, but the net result was a Heroic 10-2 and a Fanatic squad.
Adam sniffed trouble in the minefield area and astutely sent a titanium
248 forward to scout it out. He generally enjoyed success winkling me
out of my forward building but was under a bit of pressure as my T1
PrepFire double-stunned the Wasp and sent it home. He stepped up the
pace and had to put his 10-2 in harm's way. I managed to kill him off
with a failed morale check and that was about all she wrote. The Wasp
is a powerful vehicle - it's the most mobile FT unit in the game and
double-small to boot, but the always-CE 'feature' means you really have
to hide it until the enemy has exhausted his fire options. The OVHS
campaign game spoils you rotten, with up to six of these bad boys in
play. In our scenario, however, I was able to give it all the attention
it needed 'til it went away for good. This was a fun scenario, and I
enjoyed playing Adam, but I think the Germans have at least a slight
edge.
Next up I faced Robert Morrison, an Aussie working his way back home
after a couple years in Montreal. We selected The Road To St. Lo. This
is a bocage scenario, in which my American devil squads defend a hill
against a horde of German 548s with armor support. By SSR the hill and
surrounding hexes are devoid of hedges, which of course really opens up
the LOS. I received an HMG, a 60mm Brandt, an MMG, a Hero, and most
importanly, four BAZ 44s. I focused nearly everything on defending the
hill, with most of my eleven OoB foxholes going on top and in the back.
I had flankers on either side plus a HIP Hero/BAZ/666 lying in wait
behind the bocage at the end of the sunken road. Sure enough, my
HIPsters were able to nail a PzIV and its FT-toting Riders as they
emerged from the depression, and I was a bit ahead very early in the
game. Despite this initial success, Robert's superior troops inched
forward and he was continually shooting me off my support weapons on top
of the hill. I was wearing a path between these hexes and the backslope
Rally Center in the woods. Meanwhile I'd nailed a second PzIV, leaving
Robert with only one. He made steady forward progress but I generated a
new Hero and was able to get him in with the HMG. This was the turning
point of the game. Though the Hero was soon Wounded, he held on to the
gun through a 30(+1), 24(+1), 20(+1), and several 8(+1) shots. When
Robert made his rush for the hilltop, only the Hero barred his path.
*Eleven* ROF shots later, Robert's forces were in tatters - three SMCs
dead, five MMCs broken, German support weapons littering the ground.
Two thirds of the way through the streak Robert said, "For the record,
I'm conceding now but I just want to see how long this goes on." We
were both laughing by the end of it. I like this scenario - unlike many
Bocage situations the terrain isn't quite as much to the attacker's
advantage. He has to keep to the roads with the AFVs and the cleared
nature of the hill and surrounding terrain means he'll have to risk some
negative DRMs at some point.
In the Deluxe mini final, I faced Rich Jenulis in Guryev's Headquarters.
Surprisingly, I'd never played this. Dice gave me the Russians and I
proceeded to pooch the setup. I think it was pretty conventional but I
put my HMG on the left with the 7-0, HIP and looking down the road. I
swapped the 9-1 for a Commisar and placed him behind the front line in
the forward building. Rich went strong on my right. His Prep broke the
458s guarding the rubble, and a Sniper quickly killed off my 10-0. Due
to my setup I was now leaderless for at least a couple of turns 'til I
could get the 7-0 across the gully and back into the game. Rich slowly
worked his way forward and I failed to get reinforcements until turn
four. This really put me behind the eight ball as my fresh troops had
to enter under fire from his infiltrating flankers. Given my poor setup
and his solid plan, I needed a long streak of good fortune to recover,
but it never materialized. After I desperately threw away my 7-0 in a
1:8 CC, hoping for the long shot ambush/snakes, I conceded to Rich's
well played Germans. This is a simple chess-like scenario, without much
room for error for either side.
Friday morning I sat down with Timbo 'PharmBoy' Wilson for our
pre-arranged game. We knew we wanted something big and gnarly and
settled on Jura Juggernaut from the new Scwherpunkt. This monster, set
on the first day of Barbarossa, is essentially a two-parter. A very
mobile German force enters over a couple turns and must cross a river
and exit a substantial portion of troops by mid-game. On top of that,
the German must control three river crossings. The Russian gets a mess
of 447s, some MGs and decent leadership, and a couple of 37L ATGs, plus
reinforcing armor including three T26s and four or five BT-7s. The
Germans are attacking across the new 'suburb' board (51?) and then must
cross the Bd 40 river. The Russians are somewhat handicapped by being
able to start with only one MMC per building, and other than a token
hilltop force they must set up on the German side of the river. I
decided to center my defense on the northern (rightmost) bridge as that
end has the highest concentration of buildings, and I effectively
conceded the other two bridges with a token squad or two covering them.
The northern bridge lacks cover on the bridge approach, but I figured my
heavy infantry presence, plus the nice wall offering hulldown positions
for my reinforcing tanks, made the north end the better choice.
Tim came strong on my left, but with empty halftracks and a somewhat
cautious approach. He sent a tank to the cellar in the middle and had a
light infantry presence on my right. He continued to grind forward on
my right, quickly realizing there wasn't much there in the way of
Bolshies, but I had an ATG firing down the road from my right that
tagged an SPW and kept the others a little nervous. By turn three Tim
had his conga line of vehicles assembled and ready for the turn four
dash for the exit. Now I had a dilemma. Tim had made little progress
against the northern force, my strong point. I felt confident I could
get my armor in place to support my infantry, and we'd have a nice fight
for that bridge. However, I was tempted to try to deny his exit in the
south. He had only a PzIV up on the little hill down there, covering
the bridge and the overwatch positions. I figured my tanks could
overwhelm the PzIV and be in place to shoot up his halftracks and tanks.
I only needed to kill a handful to leave him short of the exit
requirement. I coulndn't resist, and despite the designer's admonitions
to the contrary, I went for it. Unfortunately things didn't go quite as
well as planned - a German halfsquad immobilized one of my T26s as it
came on the map and his damn PzIV killed the other two. Meanwhile three
of my BTs broke their tubes acquiring halftracks. Agh! However, my
infantry killed an SPW and a tank, so it would be close after all. One
more SPW died during Tim's movement phase, so now he was forced to try
to exit some armor by running past my ATGs. This soon ended in tears
with two more dead panzers, and our monster game was over on turn four.
We agreed our game was probably an anomaly - it looks like the German
has to hustle off the exit CVP and turn his attention to the bridges.
By getting armor on the far side he's able to bring the Russian
positions under fire from two sides. An SSR allows you to ignore troops
on the far side of the river for Rout purposes, but I reckon a typical
game still has lots of encirclement and not much room to hide for the
Bolshies. We enjoyed our playing and I look forward to trying this
again - it's a great looking scenario with a lot of options for both
sides.
At this point I was 4-0 for the Grofaz, and found myself paired with
Michael Hastrup-Leth of Denmark. Michael and I chose For Whom the Bell
Tolls from the SP pack. In this one my token force of Germans had to
slow down an assaulting Ami force of Paras on Bd 12 and Bd 17, with two
more waves of Americans plus armor following. I received reinforcements
of my own, a mess of 658s supported by a couple StuGs, a StuH 42, and a
couple Marders. The German wins by having good order MMCs in two of the
four multihex stone buildings on Bd 12. I dug a nice deep hole for
myself right off the bat by misreading the scenario card. I thought I
set up within five hexes of 12U5, instead of six. So instead of firing
on Michael's Paras as they crossed open ground and then duking it out in
the Marketplace area, I essentially conceded three of the four victory
buildings and was forced to counterattack to take them back. I also
made a rash decision and decided to fight in a CC instead of withdrawing
when I won the Ambush dr. As it happened we still had an extremely
close game. My reinforcing SS did not prepfire once the whole game,
other than several Smoke shots from my assault guns. I was either
moving or routing every turn. Lots of Smoke, sDs, and burning tanks
allowed my black tide to wash up against the victory buildings again and
again but each time I was thrown back. I finally managed to get into
the Marketplace with 3x658, a Hero, a 9-1, an 8-1, and an 8-0, versus
four halfsquads, a squad and a couple leaders for Michael (including his
9-2). I had to kill his troops and survive with at least one good order
MMC (I already had units in the 12U5 church). We both whiffed our CC
DRs. The final turn Michael reinforced to make it a giant 1:1 attack,
him with a -3 DRM, me with a -2. In the heat of the moment I forgot my
option of withdrawing, and we just rolled and ended with mutual
annihilation. If I'd just withdrawn one 658 with the rest of the units
covering, Michael would've faced a net +4 DRM vs the withdrawing squad
while weathering my return shot. Ah well, it had been a long game up to
that point and I was surprised to find myself with even a chance of
winning. Two big mistakes bookended the game, with classic newbie
lessons relearned - read the damn card and in the end game, review all
your options. Still, it was a great game against a courteous and very
enjoyable opponent. Michael hosts a tournament in Denmark every year
and I hope some day to attend.
More or less out of the Grofaz, I entered Pete Shelling's Playtest mini
on Saturday. First off I faced the man himself in his Bloody Bois
Jacques. This uses two wooded boards, with my Para Americans attacking
a German force, trying to force an exit. By SSR the German can trace
LOS during Fire Phases (including the Ami MPh) through wooded hexes as
if they were in-season orchards. This represents prepared fire
positions and is a neat bit of chrome. The German also gets to HIP a
squad, SW and leader, and the Foxholes are revealed PTO-style. The
American exit area is a narrow strip of hexes at the other end of the
halfboard-length playing area. The Germans also have some 80mm OBA to
stuff things up. Finally, the Ami has a couple Heroes with Johnson
LMGs, reflecting a field expedient of the Paras for hip-firing .30cal
MGs. In all, it's a lot of chrome simply expressed and proved to be a
lot of fun. Pete used his prepared Foxholes to shift his defense and
meet my assault, plinking me at range with effective leader-directed
fire. The woods are pine forests by SSR, so at 1.5 MF per hex my attack
had a lot more flexibility than you'd expect at first glance. A sniper
dinged the leader of my flank platoon reducing me to a one-front attack,
which was already suffering from Pete's OBA. However, my Heros came
through to save the day and I was just able to squeak out a win. This
is a really neat setup and I look forward to seeing it in a Journal one
day.
Next up I played Shaun Carter in A Frosty Morning. This features John
Frost's British Paras in Sicily, as they defend the Bd 14 airfield
against a combined force of Germans and Italians. The Brits have three
ways to win - they can exit 10 CVP off the far edge of adjacent Bd 18;
they can score 30 CVP (not counting prisoners); or they can hold on to
more than half the buildings of the airfield end of Bd 14. The Italians
enter on the long edge of 14 on turn one, a bunch of Fallschirmjaegers
enter at one short end or the other on turn two, a very mobile group of
halftracks and armored cars enters on turn three, and finally two PzIIIs
and a PzIV enter on the long edge of 18 on turn four. As the Brit I
decided to stress-test the scenario by going for the exit. With eleven
648s, two -2 leaders and a couple of -1 leaders I figured I had a shot.
I also had a 76mm mortar, a couple LMGs, a couple DCs, two 50mm MTRs,
and two ATRs. I made my dash and Shaun intercepted with his 548s. It
quickly became obvious that I couldn't get off (especially when my 10-2
broke, never to recover) so I decided on Plan B, inflict CVP and
counterattack the airfield. This worked surprisingly well, especially
after I generated two Heros and handed them the ATRs. I managed to kill
one A/C, immoblize two others, kill a PzIII, and eliminate a lot of
infantry. I even had a chance to overrun some Italian infantry on the
airstrip in my freshly acquired German halftrack (a thought which may
have crossed Rommel's mind at some point) but a sharp-eyed lmg/346
stunned the SPW before it could close. I managed to capture one
immoblized A/C as well. By the last turn I was pinging away at the
other armored car with my captured A/C and desperately tried to kill off
Italian infantry. Unfortunately I broke the AAMG on my new halftrack,
costing me 2 CVP, and found myself at 26 CVP - I nailed two more but was
still short of my goal. We both had an absolute blast playing this -
it's sprawling, has neat troops and equipment on both sides, and the
multiple victory options make for a wild wide-open game. This will be
a beaut when it's finished.
Saturday night Darrell Andersen split our time between the bar and a
game of Le Diable Noir. This urban slugfest has French SS holding off a
tsunami of angry heavily armed Bolsheviks in April 1945. There was
nothing subtle about this one. My Germans had to defend a building at
one end of the new urban board with a bunch of 658s and four StuGs.
Darrell had a zillion squads, some T34/85s, a couple Sukas, and three
ISU-122s. Darrell scanned the card for any mention of a CVP cap and
finding none, made his plan. This amounted to running head first at my
position. Just for appearances he lobbed a couple smoke shells ahead,
and also croaked my 10-2 and HMG squad with a '2' on a 122mm effects DR.
While I was busy hunting Russian tanks I noticed a disturbingly large
quantity of Russian infantry gathering out of LOS across the street from
the victory building. Soon Darrell drove two of his ISUs directly at
the building and didn't seem terribly heartbroken when both turned into
burning wrecks on my doorstep. Sensing the inevitable, I pushed a
couple concealed halfsquads out in front of the building and awaited the
drunken hordes. I didn't have long to wait. Sharp shooting by Darrell
outright eliminated one of my picket halfsquads, opening a clear path to
the building. The long-forseen human wave was launched and despite
killing three squads and a couple leaders I was still up to my armpits
in Reds. Close combat killed a few more Russians and a lot more
Germans, and it would come down to the final turn in the final hex. I
felt pretty good with a concealed unit, two 658s and a -1 leader ready
to go. Well, that is until Darrell decided to open his last turn with a
what-the-hell ISU shot at the hex, through a lot of Smoke. Snakes,
followed by a 1, followed by a yahtzee, and boom, boom, out goes the
Reich. I loved the human wave and the truly Stalinesque disregard
Darrell had for the welfare of his men. This is a so-so scenario made
fun by a great opponent, a nice way to wrap up Saturday's play.
Sunday morning I was able to get in one last scenario. Alan Saltzman
and I selected The Robert Feinstein Factor, yet another new SP offering.
Alan had to keep at least one of his *four* JagdTigers alive, mobile,
and in a HD position on Bd 41. He had a handful of late war German
infantry to help. I in turn had six 76L Shermans, two 105 Shermans, a
pair of M8 A/Cs, two M3 halftracks, and a mess of 667s (with two BAZ
45s) to take him down. Alan also enjoyed a 9-2 AL. I had to attack
across the new suburb board to reach Alan's position. I knew I was
going to take losses, but the question was, how many? Well, it cost
four tanks to take out the first JagdTiger. Let's see, four times four
is sixteen, and I only had twelve vehicles, let alone tanks. Hmmmm.
Despite the inauspicious start, we still had a barnburner. My mobility
and firepower soon took out a second tank, but Alan paired his last two
next to each other on and adjacent to the bridge near the Bd 41 church.
I managed to burn one with a bounding fire APCR shot. Two of my tanks
died terrible deaths to the 9-2 AL and a guarding halfsquad's PF. I ran
an M8 into the 9-2's hex to tie him up while another tank got close, but
Alan in turn killed the M8 and tied up the Sherman in CC the following
turn before I could get off a shot. Finally, with only one immoblized
Sherman left from all my vehicles, it was down to the infantry. A 9-1
managed to Assault Move with a DC/667 adjacent to the final JagdTiger,
and successfully placed a DC through the front facing for an attack
against the aerial AF - anything but a twelve, and I rolled a five. I
thought I'd lost this one for sure but a nice streak of luck in the
midgame plus some nice speedy American vehicles carried the day. The
map was covered in burning wrecks. Great game, and my first match
against Alan since he kicked my a$$ in For Honor Alone, nine years ago!
So, six wins, four losses, not great by my standards but outstanding in
entertainment value. I achieved my goal of playing all new scenarios
and managed a mix of new and familiar opponents. I was especially
impressed by the turnout of players from overseas. Here's hoping our
economy picks up a bit and our North American contingent can return to
former levels. Congratulations to Aaron Cleavin - now I'm not even the
best ASLer in my own company! Thanks also to Mark and his crew of local
helpers - Rick, Bill, Pete, Bret, et al. As always, a great weekend.
Until next year,
JR
only get ten games in but a few were quite large, and all were new to
me.
First up I picked up a couple Schwerpunkts from Mike Faulkner. It's
another good-looking pack and I managed to play several over the next
few days. I also purchased an HoB Buckeye Pack (PTO scenarios from Mark
Pitcavage) and the HoB Firefight pack, a pretty nifty set of very small
scenarios, each with its own minimap.
To kick things off, Chris Spell and I played a warmup game Wednesday
night. We chose Attu Climb, a Schwerpunkt card set in the Aleutians. I
had a few US 667s and a couple leaders who start the game on Climbing
counters, trying to reach the peaks of Bd 9 as Chris' IJA ran up to
shoot me off. My first turn climbing was generally successful from a
statistical point of view - only two failed rolls as the rest of my
troops made the heights. Of course, my two failures were both my
Leaders, leaving me playing Advanced Squad for the duration.
Fortunately Chris' dice were appalling - even when he managed to inflict
a morale check, I passed, with nary a break the whole game. Meanwhile I
was flipping and reducing his troops every firephase, and won this
without breaking a sweat thanks to the outrageous luck differential.
Apparently the Japanese have to run across the open ground and hope the
Americans roll high. Hmmm.
Thursday morning I found myself in the Deluxe mini tournament matched
with Adam Lunney from Down Under. Dice gave me the Germans in The Good
Shepherd from OVHS. I defended a city board trying to hang onto three
multihex buildings with a variety of so-so infantry, okay leadership,
some MGs, a PSK, a 75* INF gun, a StuG, and a few points of Mines. Adam
got a lot of 458s, three Shermans and a Wasp. My plan was to hold the
center building and two on the left - the wooden building by the lumber
yard, and the three hex stone building up front. I guarded the latter
with a couple minefields in front, sprinkled my troops mostly on the
left, put my gun in the center building facing my right, and left that
flank otherwise defended only by Dummies, except for a couple halfsquads
HIPed for endgame shenanigans. I put my StuG in the wooden building
facing down the road, and had a dummy StuG on the right just to keep
Adam guessing. My general plan was to grind him up as he assaulted my
positions, making him pay in blood and time, with the specific goal of
hammering the Wasp at each and every opportunity.
Adam came straight at me, strong on my left flank, where orchards
covered his approach. I got lucky and stunned the Wasp as soon as it
entered the board, and the StuG nailed a Sherman when Adam guessed
wrong. I was very excited to get a 1MC on a sneaky LOS versus his 9-2
and 3x458s, but the net result was a Heroic 10-2 and a Fanatic squad.
Adam sniffed trouble in the minefield area and astutely sent a titanium
248 forward to scout it out. He generally enjoyed success winkling me
out of my forward building but was under a bit of pressure as my T1
PrepFire double-stunned the Wasp and sent it home. He stepped up the
pace and had to put his 10-2 in harm's way. I managed to kill him off
with a failed morale check and that was about all she wrote. The Wasp
is a powerful vehicle - it's the most mobile FT unit in the game and
double-small to boot, but the always-CE 'feature' means you really have
to hide it until the enemy has exhausted his fire options. The OVHS
campaign game spoils you rotten, with up to six of these bad boys in
play. In our scenario, however, I was able to give it all the attention
it needed 'til it went away for good. This was a fun scenario, and I
enjoyed playing Adam, but I think the Germans have at least a slight
edge.
Next up I faced Robert Morrison, an Aussie working his way back home
after a couple years in Montreal. We selected The Road To St. Lo. This
is a bocage scenario, in which my American devil squads defend a hill
against a horde of German 548s with armor support. By SSR the hill and
surrounding hexes are devoid of hedges, which of course really opens up
the LOS. I received an HMG, a 60mm Brandt, an MMG, a Hero, and most
importanly, four BAZ 44s. I focused nearly everything on defending the
hill, with most of my eleven OoB foxholes going on top and in the back.
I had flankers on either side plus a HIP Hero/BAZ/666 lying in wait
behind the bocage at the end of the sunken road. Sure enough, my
HIPsters were able to nail a PzIV and its FT-toting Riders as they
emerged from the depression, and I was a bit ahead very early in the
game. Despite this initial success, Robert's superior troops inched
forward and he was continually shooting me off my support weapons on top
of the hill. I was wearing a path between these hexes and the backslope
Rally Center in the woods. Meanwhile I'd nailed a second PzIV, leaving
Robert with only one. He made steady forward progress but I generated a
new Hero and was able to get him in with the HMG. This was the turning
point of the game. Though the Hero was soon Wounded, he held on to the
gun through a 30(+1), 24(+1), 20(+1), and several 8(+1) shots. When
Robert made his rush for the hilltop, only the Hero barred his path.
*Eleven* ROF shots later, Robert's forces were in tatters - three SMCs
dead, five MMCs broken, German support weapons littering the ground.
Two thirds of the way through the streak Robert said, "For the record,
I'm conceding now but I just want to see how long this goes on." We
were both laughing by the end of it. I like this scenario - unlike many
Bocage situations the terrain isn't quite as much to the attacker's
advantage. He has to keep to the roads with the AFVs and the cleared
nature of the hill and surrounding terrain means he'll have to risk some
negative DRMs at some point.
In the Deluxe mini final, I faced Rich Jenulis in Guryev's Headquarters.
Surprisingly, I'd never played this. Dice gave me the Russians and I
proceeded to pooch the setup. I think it was pretty conventional but I
put my HMG on the left with the 7-0, HIP and looking down the road. I
swapped the 9-1 for a Commisar and placed him behind the front line in
the forward building. Rich went strong on my right. His Prep broke the
458s guarding the rubble, and a Sniper quickly killed off my 10-0. Due
to my setup I was now leaderless for at least a couple of turns 'til I
could get the 7-0 across the gully and back into the game. Rich slowly
worked his way forward and I failed to get reinforcements until turn
four. This really put me behind the eight ball as my fresh troops had
to enter under fire from his infiltrating flankers. Given my poor setup
and his solid plan, I needed a long streak of good fortune to recover,
but it never materialized. After I desperately threw away my 7-0 in a
1:8 CC, hoping for the long shot ambush/snakes, I conceded to Rich's
well played Germans. This is a simple chess-like scenario, without much
room for error for either side.
Friday morning I sat down with Timbo 'PharmBoy' Wilson for our
pre-arranged game. We knew we wanted something big and gnarly and
settled on Jura Juggernaut from the new Scwherpunkt. This monster, set
on the first day of Barbarossa, is essentially a two-parter. A very
mobile German force enters over a couple turns and must cross a river
and exit a substantial portion of troops by mid-game. On top of that,
the German must control three river crossings. The Russian gets a mess
of 447s, some MGs and decent leadership, and a couple of 37L ATGs, plus
reinforcing armor including three T26s and four or five BT-7s. The
Germans are attacking across the new 'suburb' board (51?) and then must
cross the Bd 40 river. The Russians are somewhat handicapped by being
able to start with only one MMC per building, and other than a token
hilltop force they must set up on the German side of the river. I
decided to center my defense on the northern (rightmost) bridge as that
end has the highest concentration of buildings, and I effectively
conceded the other two bridges with a token squad or two covering them.
The northern bridge lacks cover on the bridge approach, but I figured my
heavy infantry presence, plus the nice wall offering hulldown positions
for my reinforcing tanks, made the north end the better choice.
Tim came strong on my left, but with empty halftracks and a somewhat
cautious approach. He sent a tank to the cellar in the middle and had a
light infantry presence on my right. He continued to grind forward on
my right, quickly realizing there wasn't much there in the way of
Bolshies, but I had an ATG firing down the road from my right that
tagged an SPW and kept the others a little nervous. By turn three Tim
had his conga line of vehicles assembled and ready for the turn four
dash for the exit. Now I had a dilemma. Tim had made little progress
against the northern force, my strong point. I felt confident I could
get my armor in place to support my infantry, and we'd have a nice fight
for that bridge. However, I was tempted to try to deny his exit in the
south. He had only a PzIV up on the little hill down there, covering
the bridge and the overwatch positions. I figured my tanks could
overwhelm the PzIV and be in place to shoot up his halftracks and tanks.
I only needed to kill a handful to leave him short of the exit
requirement. I coulndn't resist, and despite the designer's admonitions
to the contrary, I went for it. Unfortunately things didn't go quite as
well as planned - a German halfsquad immobilized one of my T26s as it
came on the map and his damn PzIV killed the other two. Meanwhile three
of my BTs broke their tubes acquiring halftracks. Agh! However, my
infantry killed an SPW and a tank, so it would be close after all. One
more SPW died during Tim's movement phase, so now he was forced to try
to exit some armor by running past my ATGs. This soon ended in tears
with two more dead panzers, and our monster game was over on turn four.
We agreed our game was probably an anomaly - it looks like the German
has to hustle off the exit CVP and turn his attention to the bridges.
By getting armor on the far side he's able to bring the Russian
positions under fire from two sides. An SSR allows you to ignore troops
on the far side of the river for Rout purposes, but I reckon a typical
game still has lots of encirclement and not much room to hide for the
Bolshies. We enjoyed our playing and I look forward to trying this
again - it's a great looking scenario with a lot of options for both
sides.
At this point I was 4-0 for the Grofaz, and found myself paired with
Michael Hastrup-Leth of Denmark. Michael and I chose For Whom the Bell
Tolls from the SP pack. In this one my token force of Germans had to
slow down an assaulting Ami force of Paras on Bd 12 and Bd 17, with two
more waves of Americans plus armor following. I received reinforcements
of my own, a mess of 658s supported by a couple StuGs, a StuH 42, and a
couple Marders. The German wins by having good order MMCs in two of the
four multihex stone buildings on Bd 12. I dug a nice deep hole for
myself right off the bat by misreading the scenario card. I thought I
set up within five hexes of 12U5, instead of six. So instead of firing
on Michael's Paras as they crossed open ground and then duking it out in
the Marketplace area, I essentially conceded three of the four victory
buildings and was forced to counterattack to take them back. I also
made a rash decision and decided to fight in a CC instead of withdrawing
when I won the Ambush dr. As it happened we still had an extremely
close game. My reinforcing SS did not prepfire once the whole game,
other than several Smoke shots from my assault guns. I was either
moving or routing every turn. Lots of Smoke, sDs, and burning tanks
allowed my black tide to wash up against the victory buildings again and
again but each time I was thrown back. I finally managed to get into
the Marketplace with 3x658, a Hero, a 9-1, an 8-1, and an 8-0, versus
four halfsquads, a squad and a couple leaders for Michael (including his
9-2). I had to kill his troops and survive with at least one good order
MMC (I already had units in the 12U5 church). We both whiffed our CC
DRs. The final turn Michael reinforced to make it a giant 1:1 attack,
him with a -3 DRM, me with a -2. In the heat of the moment I forgot my
option of withdrawing, and we just rolled and ended with mutual
annihilation. If I'd just withdrawn one 658 with the rest of the units
covering, Michael would've faced a net +4 DRM vs the withdrawing squad
while weathering my return shot. Ah well, it had been a long game up to
that point and I was surprised to find myself with even a chance of
winning. Two big mistakes bookended the game, with classic newbie
lessons relearned - read the damn card and in the end game, review all
your options. Still, it was a great game against a courteous and very
enjoyable opponent. Michael hosts a tournament in Denmark every year
and I hope some day to attend.
More or less out of the Grofaz, I entered Pete Shelling's Playtest mini
on Saturday. First off I faced the man himself in his Bloody Bois
Jacques. This uses two wooded boards, with my Para Americans attacking
a German force, trying to force an exit. By SSR the German can trace
LOS during Fire Phases (including the Ami MPh) through wooded hexes as
if they were in-season orchards. This represents prepared fire
positions and is a neat bit of chrome. The German also gets to HIP a
squad, SW and leader, and the Foxholes are revealed PTO-style. The
American exit area is a narrow strip of hexes at the other end of the
halfboard-length playing area. The Germans also have some 80mm OBA to
stuff things up. Finally, the Ami has a couple Heroes with Johnson
LMGs, reflecting a field expedient of the Paras for hip-firing .30cal
MGs. In all, it's a lot of chrome simply expressed and proved to be a
lot of fun. Pete used his prepared Foxholes to shift his defense and
meet my assault, plinking me at range with effective leader-directed
fire. The woods are pine forests by SSR, so at 1.5 MF per hex my attack
had a lot more flexibility than you'd expect at first glance. A sniper
dinged the leader of my flank platoon reducing me to a one-front attack,
which was already suffering from Pete's OBA. However, my Heros came
through to save the day and I was just able to squeak out a win. This
is a really neat setup and I look forward to seeing it in a Journal one
day.
Next up I played Shaun Carter in A Frosty Morning. This features John
Frost's British Paras in Sicily, as they defend the Bd 14 airfield
against a combined force of Germans and Italians. The Brits have three
ways to win - they can exit 10 CVP off the far edge of adjacent Bd 18;
they can score 30 CVP (not counting prisoners); or they can hold on to
more than half the buildings of the airfield end of Bd 14. The Italians
enter on the long edge of 14 on turn one, a bunch of Fallschirmjaegers
enter at one short end or the other on turn two, a very mobile group of
halftracks and armored cars enters on turn three, and finally two PzIIIs
and a PzIV enter on the long edge of 18 on turn four. As the Brit I
decided to stress-test the scenario by going for the exit. With eleven
648s, two -2 leaders and a couple of -1 leaders I figured I had a shot.
I also had a 76mm mortar, a couple LMGs, a couple DCs, two 50mm MTRs,
and two ATRs. I made my dash and Shaun intercepted with his 548s. It
quickly became obvious that I couldn't get off (especially when my 10-2
broke, never to recover) so I decided on Plan B, inflict CVP and
counterattack the airfield. This worked surprisingly well, especially
after I generated two Heros and handed them the ATRs. I managed to kill
one A/C, immoblize two others, kill a PzIII, and eliminate a lot of
infantry. I even had a chance to overrun some Italian infantry on the
airstrip in my freshly acquired German halftrack (a thought which may
have crossed Rommel's mind at some point) but a sharp-eyed lmg/346
stunned the SPW before it could close. I managed to capture one
immoblized A/C as well. By the last turn I was pinging away at the
other armored car with my captured A/C and desperately tried to kill off
Italian infantry. Unfortunately I broke the AAMG on my new halftrack,
costing me 2 CVP, and found myself at 26 CVP - I nailed two more but was
still short of my goal. We both had an absolute blast playing this -
it's sprawling, has neat troops and equipment on both sides, and the
multiple victory options make for a wild wide-open game. This will be
a beaut when it's finished.
Saturday night Darrell Andersen split our time between the bar and a
game of Le Diable Noir. This urban slugfest has French SS holding off a
tsunami of angry heavily armed Bolsheviks in April 1945. There was
nothing subtle about this one. My Germans had to defend a building at
one end of the new urban board with a bunch of 658s and four StuGs.
Darrell had a zillion squads, some T34/85s, a couple Sukas, and three
ISU-122s. Darrell scanned the card for any mention of a CVP cap and
finding none, made his plan. This amounted to running head first at my
position. Just for appearances he lobbed a couple smoke shells ahead,
and also croaked my 10-2 and HMG squad with a '2' on a 122mm effects DR.
While I was busy hunting Russian tanks I noticed a disturbingly large
quantity of Russian infantry gathering out of LOS across the street from
the victory building. Soon Darrell drove two of his ISUs directly at
the building and didn't seem terribly heartbroken when both turned into
burning wrecks on my doorstep. Sensing the inevitable, I pushed a
couple concealed halfsquads out in front of the building and awaited the
drunken hordes. I didn't have long to wait. Sharp shooting by Darrell
outright eliminated one of my picket halfsquads, opening a clear path to
the building. The long-forseen human wave was launched and despite
killing three squads and a couple leaders I was still up to my armpits
in Reds. Close combat killed a few more Russians and a lot more
Germans, and it would come down to the final turn in the final hex. I
felt pretty good with a concealed unit, two 658s and a -1 leader ready
to go. Well, that is until Darrell decided to open his last turn with a
what-the-hell ISU shot at the hex, through a lot of Smoke. Snakes,
followed by a 1, followed by a yahtzee, and boom, boom, out goes the
Reich. I loved the human wave and the truly Stalinesque disregard
Darrell had for the welfare of his men. This is a so-so scenario made
fun by a great opponent, a nice way to wrap up Saturday's play.
Sunday morning I was able to get in one last scenario. Alan Saltzman
and I selected The Robert Feinstein Factor, yet another new SP offering.
Alan had to keep at least one of his *four* JagdTigers alive, mobile,
and in a HD position on Bd 41. He had a handful of late war German
infantry to help. I in turn had six 76L Shermans, two 105 Shermans, a
pair of M8 A/Cs, two M3 halftracks, and a mess of 667s (with two BAZ
45s) to take him down. Alan also enjoyed a 9-2 AL. I had to attack
across the new suburb board to reach Alan's position. I knew I was
going to take losses, but the question was, how many? Well, it cost
four tanks to take out the first JagdTiger. Let's see, four times four
is sixteen, and I only had twelve vehicles, let alone tanks. Hmmmm.
Despite the inauspicious start, we still had a barnburner. My mobility
and firepower soon took out a second tank, but Alan paired his last two
next to each other on and adjacent to the bridge near the Bd 41 church.
I managed to burn one with a bounding fire APCR shot. Two of my tanks
died terrible deaths to the 9-2 AL and a guarding halfsquad's PF. I ran
an M8 into the 9-2's hex to tie him up while another tank got close, but
Alan in turn killed the M8 and tied up the Sherman in CC the following
turn before I could get off a shot. Finally, with only one immoblized
Sherman left from all my vehicles, it was down to the infantry. A 9-1
managed to Assault Move with a DC/667 adjacent to the final JagdTiger,
and successfully placed a DC through the front facing for an attack
against the aerial AF - anything but a twelve, and I rolled a five. I
thought I'd lost this one for sure but a nice streak of luck in the
midgame plus some nice speedy American vehicles carried the day. The
map was covered in burning wrecks. Great game, and my first match
against Alan since he kicked my a$$ in For Honor Alone, nine years ago!
So, six wins, four losses, not great by my standards but outstanding in
entertainment value. I achieved my goal of playing all new scenarios
and managed a mix of new and familiar opponents. I was especially
impressed by the turnout of players from overseas. Here's hoping our
economy picks up a bit and our North American contingent can return to
former levels. Congratulations to Aaron Cleavin - now I'm not even the
best ASLer in my own company! Thanks also to Mark and his crew of local
helpers - Rick, Bill, Pete, Bret, et al. As always, a great weekend.
Until next year,
JR
I will say that the analysis I wrote for that scenario is the best literary piece I have ever written for SP.