Curtis Brooks (US) & I (Ger) squared off in AP132 NIGHT OF NIGHTS recently, a great paratroop night battle in Normandy on D-Day. With 4 distinct VC objectives for an immediate win and 3 of 4 for an end of game win, the action was hot & heavy from the get go. The scenario has some interesting SSRs & units including a rule that the German AA Guns (5, including a Flakverling) start in AA mode & must fire each turn regardless of target until turn 4 and an appearance of an ammo truck that can go BOOM in the night if sufficiently destroyed. The 4 DZs for the wings, 15 Sqds & 5 HS with 8 SW all told, are specified but can vary a bit according to random DR. We only had to re-roll for 1 as initially it drifted off-board (NA per SSR). The Germans on the other hand have an entering column that includes 5 trucks, 2 ht and an AC along with a couple of Sqds that must tear down the road to exit the playing area on the opposite end to exit at least 1 trk (yeah, it's night and NOBODY tears down the road in column, I know). The kicker here is all roads lead to Rome, or in this case to the center of Saint-Marie-Du-Mont village represented on bd 12a, and this will shortly become the scene of intense fighting. In other words, not a chance in Hades that any of the trucks will make it. But that's alright because the 'mericans have a VC to exit 12+ EVP off the nort' edge (a goodly hump at night, regardless of their final drop points, not to mention the loss of their combat power at the truly critical juncture-the village). The two red-herrings (IMHO) almost ensure a knock down drag out fight for the village and the guns, the other two objectives.
The drops went pretty good for Curtis with only a single stick receiving any AA Fire (CR result IIRC) with two wings landing close to or in the village the other two effectively blocking or putting pressure on the roads to south leading into its confines. Meanwhile my vaunted Wehrmacht forces staunchly defended a couple of victory buildings and tried to pry away his forces from the roads (Well staunchly is perhaps an overstatement. With a ELR of 2 AND down 1 at night they died like dogs the lousy buggers. Ya think they could make a simple MC?-but I digress). Also, like a thundering heard of turtles my convoy hurtles up the road toward, you guessed it-their demise, at the torrid rate of 5 hexes per turn. The paras having found a couple of SW (random per SSR), ambush the column and true to form chuck a DC at my ammo truck no less. Though immobilized by other fire, along with another truck in the same location, we await the final determination in the AFPh with bated breath; Pffszt! Does nothing! Now to action stations for the convoy: "RUN AWAY! Hide, Hide!" It is to no avail though as eventually all the trucks would be immobilized or wrecked but tieing down most of that drop wing from having an impact in the village. Back at the ranch Fritz and Herman were getting their butts handed to them, albeit they did have a few bright spots aided by the fact that Curtis forgot to mopp-up the buildings causing him to leave a few guy back to chase down my brokies. (Hey, we had moved on past that phase and I said "too late", ya should'a seen the look of consternation on his face, priceless-yeah I'm a dick and other not too flattering terms uttered-but I digress) and delayed a substantial amount of paras from getting to the final building and the last gun (yup, the FlaKverling). It fired until the barrels were white hot all the while saying "I'm going to die, I'm going to die!" And he did on Curtis' last turn CC along with capturing the last VC building. All that was left was to have Curtis recover the gun in my RPh and the game was his as none of my other people could reach a VC building or re-capture a gun................. Recovery dr=5 (IT'S NIGHT! +1 recovery drm).
A great game, a great scenario. For the faint of heart afraid of too many Ch E rules, get out of your comfort zone, screw up a few rules here & there like we did and have a blast. Highly recommended!