Best J5 scenario?

Pitman

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At one point I *would* have said that the scenarios looked (as a group) to be bad, judging by the early ROAR results, but apparently Florida was just taken off the "Gore" win column. Results are starting to look somewhat more promising. Which is a good thing.
 

samt88

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I've played a few of them, and would play Himmler's House or Flame of Unrest again anytime as either side.

Scenarios in that class are the best in the business.
 

'Ol Fezziwig

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pitman said:
Journal 5 at one point was really awful in terms of ROAR. Things are somewhat improving as more scenarios get played, although there are clearly some for which the odds are long that they will ever prove to be balanced. Here's the latest results:


Escape to Wiltz [J88] American 10 German 24
Do you think this is due to the nature of the scenario, ie, a rather mobile action with certain key locations/waypoints?
 

Jazz

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[QUOTE='Ol Fezziwig]And to think _I_ left that one alone... :eek:[/QUOTE]

An uncharacteristic display of restraint on your part Herr Fezziwig....and I will not use any little smiley things in an obviously vain attempt at maintaining a level of decorum on the forum...
 

Mastadon61

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pitman said:
Journal 5 at one point was really awful in terms of ROAR. Things are somewhat improving as more scenarios get played, although there are clearly some for which the odds are long that they will ever prove to be balanced. Here's the latest results:

Bloody Nose [J83] Russian 8 German/Romanian 12
Makin Taken [J84] Japanese 12 American 8
Himmler's House [J89] German 8 Russian 9
I don't think 12 to 8 is a good indication of balance. In my game of J83, the Russians were winning until a last turn charge amazingly captured two more buildings.

In J84, the US won rather easily due to I believe some poor setup choices and some lucky dice that discovered the HIP gun with probing fire :) and later destroyed it.

Neither of these games were reported to ROAR (unless my opponent did).

I like J5. I've had alot of fun playing many (7 of 12) of the scenarios in it. If I had to pick one to play again, it'd be J89 Himmlers house.

Don Hancock
 

Pitman

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Having played Escape to Wiltz (and actually won it as the US), I think that many players are probably not approaching it correctly as the Americans. I think some of their instinctive reactions may not be the correct ones. I wonder if repeated playings might make it more even.
 

ON TOP ASL

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wiltz, nearly victory

I played it as an very agressive attacker, with riders and changing TCA to force bail out in forward positions. Totally outplayed my defending opponent. On the turn when I had to move troops out i neglected to stop a German SMC, when it was my turn the SMC was positioned so I had not movement enough to get the required points for a win.
Aaaagh, I could easily stopped the SMC but did not care, another W/L negativ for US added to ROAR :-(
Funny thing, I managed to malf a SW without shooting!? Bail out (dismantled) made it unusable.
 

MajorDomo

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Best J5 scenario

The scenarios I have played ranked:

1. Flames of Unrest - Partisans with mini-flamethrowers, sturmtigers, Goliaths, fun and balanced.

2. Bloody Nose - Good wide-angled battle for a village.

3. Makin Taken - PTO battle, different feel plenty of action.

4. Pavlov's House - Remake of a good small battle for a factory. Original scenario pro-German (70%), this one looks balanced.

5. Ptichin' In - Partisan attack on a bridge, nice action although Roar has it 18-9 for the partisans.

6. Frontal Assault - Should be called "Frontal Massacre" as 6-5-8's and Panthers trudge accross open ground to their doom. Roar has it 13-1 for the Brits.

7. Escape To Wiltz - Roar has it 24-10, seems right to me after two playings.
Rich
 

'Ol Fezziwig

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Frontal Assault

Where, typically does the German attack come from? Board 19 or 16? Looking at the size of the German force, splitting any more than a 3 squad/1 leader flanking force might be too much of a dilution of the attack.
Do the Panthers lay back for the armour battle or carry Riders forward? Are the turn two Panthers used to form a cross-fire or to replace losses?
Maybe it's me, but I always look a little longer at the apparently lopsided scenarios.
 

Chris Milne

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Having won this as the Brit, I would say that a German left hook through the grain might give better odds of victory than a main effort up front. However, that risks leaving insufficient time to break through and grab everything.

Some success depends on the initial rocket FFE. If this can take out a few Fireflies, naturally things look much better for the SS. Even better is if there are a few blazing wrecks to provide a bit of cover.
 

MajorDomo

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Frontal Massacre er Assault

Played it twice, the best German attack destroyed a Firefly and disabled another with the bombardment. Smoke also provided middle board cover and the Germans came rolling up through the woods line with one Panther immobilizing but destroying a firefly in the process. The attack ran out of steam in the bombardment area as the dug-in brits caused casualties and immobilized the German armor with the Piats. The Brits still had the buildings, the antitank guns, mortars and an easy win.
Rich
 

Roy

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What we found, was that the tanks can get there, but if the infantry gets there, it's too late to take the buildings away. The Germans can't afford an even modest amount of broken squads, because the only place they have to rout through the first 2 or 3 turns is back at the board edge, and they usually have to LC to get there. The British also have a couple of well placed mtrs to hit those same woods.

The amount of damage from the FFE didn't seem to matter, the infantry have a tough time getting there in time to do the job, and Panthers can't take and hold buildings.

That was our take, and it's not one we'll even consider again. Mike didn't enjoy getting ripped up crossing open ground for two or three turns, and I didn't enjoy him not having a prayer from the start. And him not having a chance is sayin' something, he's way better at ASL than I am. :(
 
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ross

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Frontal Assault

As someone mentioned earlier, the Germans simply must ignore the compelling taunt of the scenario title. They must use a "Flanking Assault" instead (and hope for some luck).

In my German victory, I divided up the first turn forces. One Panther/infantry platoon group armor assaulted toward the overlay stream on bd19; a second group (w/ the 9-2 and dmMMGs) armor assaulted toward the lone bd19 bldg at the crossroads (and survived a 1mc attack thanks to the 9-2). The third Panther took a 658 squad for a wild ride along the bd16 road to eventually outflank the Brits (but they had a major scare when an HIP ATG revealed and bounced a shot during their mad dash up the road). The remaining two platoons of infantry DT'd thru the grainfields on bd16. Oh yeah, the Rocket FFE wasted all four trucks and Immobolized two of the Shermans (w/ one crew failing its Immob TC and abandoning that Sherman). All three Fireflys survived the Rocket FFE unscratched though.

The second German turn saw the three reinforcing Panthers all enter on board 16 while keeping their front AF towards the revealed ATG (and at the same time keeping out of LOS of the Fireflys).

Hmm, I don't have time to type up an AAR here, so let me summarize. Because the Germans were able to get positioned along the flanks, the Brits ended up having trouble routing away. The Germans did end up capturing a British MTR and got off two Smoke shots to help screen their movement from bd19 into the bd33 large orchard next to the VC building. It did help that one Firefly malf'd its MA midway thru the action and ended up being Recalled.

Nevertheless, this did come down to the final turn even with the Germans coming out ahead in the luck factor (but we didn't record DRs, so who knows?). My advice then is if you end up with the Germans, then insist on the balance.
 

Stevedeth

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I am playing J80 now in the Cyber open. As the Germans I think I am getting my arse kicked with three tanks down so far. Anyone else play this one yet?

SD
 
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