Tuomo
Keeper of the Funk
Tuomo Lukkari and I wanted to do this scenario for an upcoming episode of Illuminating Rounds, but we got a few turns into this one before calling it. Figured we'd done enough pregame prep to warrant some kind of AAR, though, so here it is.
Tuomo liked the scenario card. I liked Neil's Silly AAR about it.
Executive Summary: The Axis came onboard and started breaking things, while the French rolled low.
Pregame Setup:
What's Going On: The French win at game end if they have more squad-equivalents (listed on the card as "squads-equivalent", which is completely AWESOME and may in fact be gramatically preferred) at or above Level 2 on Hills 538 and 714 than the Axis do, provided they have amassed more CVP than the Axis. The VC hills are the two right-most ones on boards 2 and 15.
Being French, the French are constrained by a positively Gallic set of setup restrictions. There's six 457s, two leaders, two LMG's, and a couple of ? counters that have to set up sorta-kinda-evenly on both VC hills. 10 more squads with assorted infantry paraphernalia and a 25LL ATG set up on/left of hexrow U (ie, somewhat back of the VC hills). Two AMD 50's and a 47LL ATG "Ghost Gun" set up on board 16 on/left of hexrow U, but only at Level 0. And various other bits of Tin Cans come in as reinforcements on hex 16A5.
The Axis field a truly multicultural force, with Italians providing the comic relief in the form of four Semovente M41's, two L40s, and six 447's, while the Germans stiffen their resolve with five 548 Assault Engineers complete with Demo Charge. Adding to the fun, all of the Axis Infantry have to enter on Trucks, which are promptly Recalled once they unload their Passengers. I say that not because it affects the game in the slightest, but because fully 3/4ths of you will be unable to focus on the rest of the AAR unless this issue has been settled in your minds. Chill out, dudes.
To complete the SSR Spice, there are no Roads on the Hills (I apologize for not making special overlays for this, mea culpa), and the Hills are Soft and Bog Terrain.
The Armor vs Armor Game - Here is where I decided that this is an Odd Scenario, because the Italian armor really has nothing to fear from the French until maybe turn 4, when the reinforcing French Ac de 75 mle97 might make its presence felt, briefly, before dying to any shell that hits it. Prior to that, the only French tube the Italians need to worry about is the 47L ATG, which has a glorious APCR TK of 13, and only fires APCR. However, remember those weird setup restrictions - it can't start on a hill. Now, it comes with its own handy-dandy halftrack that one could use to tow it up to Level 2 on turn 1, say, and unhook on turn 2, but a quick check of the math shows that the Italian tanks would need something like a 5 to hit the thing during the process, with hit = kill. And if I were the Italian and saw the French putting this most-valuable asset in such a vulnerable position, I'd dedicate at least 3 or 4 tanks to the task.
Oh, sure, the French also have plenty of infantry lying around who would be glad to help PUSH the Gun up to a good firing position, but again, while those Italian tankers aren't very good, they're positively aces when it comes to gunning up Infantry using Hazardous Movement. So no, as much as it killed me to just leave the only French antitank asset worth a darn in a Level 0 position when there's hills all around, it felt safer to just stow him in 16O4 and hope some Semoventes came into view.
With that settled, I figured the Italian armor would basically kick the butt of whatever French armor they could find. If the Italians attacked on board 2, I had no illusions that my 25LL ATG set up at Level 4 on 15N4 would be able to do much against them. I didn't do the math in the pregame, but when finally forced to engage with the prospect during the game, we found all kinds of minuses to add to the TH and TK DRs. Hint: if you announce a shot and your opponent chuckles and says, "Good luck!", it's not a good thing.
But the Italian armor wouldn't just be hunting down the French armor; the Semovente M41's have 75mm guns with Smoke, and the L40's have 47mm guns. Sure, their MG's are either laughable (M41s) or non-existent (L40s), but that's what their Infantry friends are for.
All in all, then, I didn't expect this to go well for the French. Tuomo could pick the hill he wanted to swarm, achieve local infantry superiority, surround the hill with his armor, and keep me from reinforcing it. I expected to hate the entire armor battle, as the Axis would kill anything they hit, while the French would put all their hopes on rolling low while cursing the setup restrictions that kept their best AT asset down at level 0.
As you can see from the setup above, Tuomo did indeed pick the board 2 hill to attack. I was marginally happy about that since IMO it's a little easier to defend and reinforce, offering more cover for the purposes, but all of that would be mooted anyway.
Axis turn 1: The first tank on the hill Bogs; gotta love it. The second tank has the nerve to TPBF Freeze my 7-0 and 457/LMG in 2AA5, despite being Open Topped and having no MGs; my CC DR of 8 was ineffective and basically ceded the front half of the hill to the follow-on Axis units. And follow-on they did, piling out of their Trucks like they were Axis Clown Cars or something. On the very very bright side, my 60mm MTR back at level 3 in 2Q6 got a bead on one of those things in 2FF10 and nailed it with a Critical Hit. And on the less-bright-but-still-pretty-bright side, my infantry in AA5 re-evaluated their tactics and managed to nail that Very Brave Tank in CC, at the low cost of a broken 7-0 who routed back down the forested "slot" on board 2 to safety.
Board at the end of Axis turn 1:
Tuomo liked the scenario card. I liked Neil's Silly AAR about it.
Executive Summary: The Axis came onboard and started breaking things, while the French rolled low.
Pregame Setup:
What's Going On: The French win at game end if they have more squad-equivalents (listed on the card as "squads-equivalent", which is completely AWESOME and may in fact be gramatically preferred) at or above Level 2 on Hills 538 and 714 than the Axis do, provided they have amassed more CVP than the Axis. The VC hills are the two right-most ones on boards 2 and 15.
Being French, the French are constrained by a positively Gallic set of setup restrictions. There's six 457s, two leaders, two LMG's, and a couple of ? counters that have to set up sorta-kinda-evenly on both VC hills. 10 more squads with assorted infantry paraphernalia and a 25LL ATG set up on/left of hexrow U (ie, somewhat back of the VC hills). Two AMD 50's and a 47LL ATG "Ghost Gun" set up on board 16 on/left of hexrow U, but only at Level 0. And various other bits of Tin Cans come in as reinforcements on hex 16A5.
The Axis field a truly multicultural force, with Italians providing the comic relief in the form of four Semovente M41's, two L40s, and six 447's, while the Germans stiffen their resolve with five 548 Assault Engineers complete with Demo Charge. Adding to the fun, all of the Axis Infantry have to enter on Trucks, which are promptly Recalled once they unload their Passengers. I say that not because it affects the game in the slightest, but because fully 3/4ths of you will be unable to focus on the rest of the AAR unless this issue has been settled in your minds. Chill out, dudes.
To complete the SSR Spice, there are no Roads on the Hills (I apologize for not making special overlays for this, mea culpa), and the Hills are Soft and Bog Terrain.
The Armor vs Armor Game - Here is where I decided that this is an Odd Scenario, because the Italian armor really has nothing to fear from the French until maybe turn 4, when the reinforcing French Ac de 75 mle97 might make its presence felt, briefly, before dying to any shell that hits it. Prior to that, the only French tube the Italians need to worry about is the 47L ATG, which has a glorious APCR TK of 13, and only fires APCR. However, remember those weird setup restrictions - it can't start on a hill. Now, it comes with its own handy-dandy halftrack that one could use to tow it up to Level 2 on turn 1, say, and unhook on turn 2, but a quick check of the math shows that the Italian tanks would need something like a 5 to hit the thing during the process, with hit = kill. And if I were the Italian and saw the French putting this most-valuable asset in such a vulnerable position, I'd dedicate at least 3 or 4 tanks to the task.
Oh, sure, the French also have plenty of infantry lying around who would be glad to help PUSH the Gun up to a good firing position, but again, while those Italian tankers aren't very good, they're positively aces when it comes to gunning up Infantry using Hazardous Movement. So no, as much as it killed me to just leave the only French antitank asset worth a darn in a Level 0 position when there's hills all around, it felt safer to just stow him in 16O4 and hope some Semoventes came into view.
With that settled, I figured the Italian armor would basically kick the butt of whatever French armor they could find. If the Italians attacked on board 2, I had no illusions that my 25LL ATG set up at Level 4 on 15N4 would be able to do much against them. I didn't do the math in the pregame, but when finally forced to engage with the prospect during the game, we found all kinds of minuses to add to the TH and TK DRs. Hint: if you announce a shot and your opponent chuckles and says, "Good luck!", it's not a good thing.
But the Italian armor wouldn't just be hunting down the French armor; the Semovente M41's have 75mm guns with Smoke, and the L40's have 47mm guns. Sure, their MG's are either laughable (M41s) or non-existent (L40s), but that's what their Infantry friends are for.
All in all, then, I didn't expect this to go well for the French. Tuomo could pick the hill he wanted to swarm, achieve local infantry superiority, surround the hill with his armor, and keep me from reinforcing it. I expected to hate the entire armor battle, as the Axis would kill anything they hit, while the French would put all their hopes on rolling low while cursing the setup restrictions that kept their best AT asset down at level 0.
As you can see from the setup above, Tuomo did indeed pick the board 2 hill to attack. I was marginally happy about that since IMO it's a little easier to defend and reinforce, offering more cover for the purposes, but all of that would be mooted anyway.
Axis turn 1: The first tank on the hill Bogs; gotta love it. The second tank has the nerve to TPBF Freeze my 7-0 and 457/LMG in 2AA5, despite being Open Topped and having no MGs; my CC DR of 8 was ineffective and basically ceded the front half of the hill to the follow-on Axis units. And follow-on they did, piling out of their Trucks like they were Axis Clown Cars or something. On the very very bright side, my 60mm MTR back at level 3 in 2Q6 got a bead on one of those things in 2FF10 and nailed it with a Critical Hit. And on the less-bright-but-still-pretty-bright side, my infantry in AA5 re-evaluated their tactics and managed to nail that Very Brave Tank in CC, at the low cost of a broken 7-0 who routed back down the forested "slot" on board 2 to safety.
Board at the end of Axis turn 1:
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