The Germans have to setup within 10 hexes of 1aA10. We know the Allies will
be looking for clear glider approaches towards the northeast. And of course
the ART guns need to setup within 5 hexes of another ART gun. I settle on
a gun/trench line on the board 1A central orchard. 105s in J13, G11, and G8,
the 150 to the north in K5. My thinking is that the gliders will not land
behind that line in the town or orchard. If the gliders land to the west,
the guns have open ground to mow them down. 4 of the 6 German reinforcement
random entry hexes are behind this defense line. This line is vulnerable
to the north and south of the town, so I set up the HIP AA guns in G4 and
K14 to protect the flanks (knowing that K14 is not concealment terrain and
will lose HIP with enemy LOS). The pillbox and HMG are in H12 (with a trench),
Trenches and foxholes setup along the west edge of the orchards, allowing
for easy repositioning of the squads, as needed. I did give some consideration
to dummy guns, as I have 10 ?s. I figure I would have to use 9 of them to
make the dummies look credible, and since they would have to setup in concealment
terrain, and would look suspicious if they didn't immediately open up, I did
not think the dummy guns worth it. See Carl Nogueira's LZ S defense in the
latest Dispatches (#48) for an alternate theory of defense.
OlFezz's gliders mostly had ILHs on boards 43 & 44. Several had ILHs south of
the board 1A town. In DFirstFire, the HMG destroyed one glider. The southern
AA Gun forced 2 gliders to evade, one of which crashed in a trench One of the
105s destroyed another glider on the ground. One of the 105s malf'd attempting
to hit a glider. The Germs did have a gun crew broken by the sniper. I thought
there was a rule about no snipers with only gliders aboard, but could not find
it in the heat of battle. Later research did find that rule - in the paradrop
section. Chalk up another reason to dislike Chapter E.....
As a side note, we spaced and forgot the random smoke placement. We did remember
after Turn 2, and the randomness was so bad for the Amis that it did not really
matter for their assault.
As the Amis tried to organize and assault the gun line, the 105s were deadly at
long range. Killing another glider (with a Jeep aboard), keeping the Ami 75 crews
broken and under duress, and picking off squads trying to get into 6 hex firing
range. The 150 in the north had a sterling record of hitting and KIAing squads.
And the AA gun and Germ light MTR in the south kept the platoon or so of Amis pinned
down away from the town.
On Germ Turn 2, they got reinforcement group 6 (SdKz 10/5 from Valor of the Guards,
447, 436, 8-0, LMG) on 44I10. Behind the Ami northern glider landings. I handled
them very cautiously, given the weakness of that force plus the location, they were
just CVP that I could lose.
We completed 3 turns in our first evening of play. To be honest, it looked like a
wipe-out for the Americans. They weren't close to any of the ART pieces, and were
behind about 15-20 CVP to 0. That is correct, no German losses. I know the Germ
defense is brittle, and that the key for the Americans is to pry an opening in the
defense, and the Germs have limited rout/rally opportunities. But with about equal
squad equivalents on each side, and a big CVP edge, I tried to convince OlFezz that
the game was lost, and we should play something else next time. But anyone who
knows OlFezz knows that he never finds a cause lost...