dreenstra
Member
Spreading Blaze 2019 was played a couple of weekends ago. I’m impressed with how this tournament has grown over the years, with many thanks due to TDs Gary Bartlett and Brent Crawford. These two have worked tirelessly to take this tournament from a local meeting of 8 guys to a strong regional with over 24 players competing this year. They work hard to select scenarios for every round that are balanced, unique and, most of all, fun to play. And the prizes for the raffle, minis and main event are outstanding. If you have any chance for some ASL play in the late summer, consider coming on down to Atlanta, you won’t be disappointed at the caliber of play or the friendliness of the competition.
First game: DtF4 “Death to Fascism” playing as Russians with Tim Deane playing Romanians/Germans. This is the fourth scenario from the DtF pack that I’ve played and I have yet to find one I didn’t like. Here, the Russians are attacking across the open ground of board 16 into 17z. Good to see this board 17 variant with the prominent hill featured. The Russians need to score 7VP in total with each building on board 17z controlled (13 possible) garnering 1VP, an additional 1VP for each AFV destroyed (2 possible) balanced out by -1VP for each AFV lost.
One of the nicer features of all of the DtF scenarios is the variable SW purchases. Both sides are allocated SWPP (Support Weapon Purchase Points), the SW available for that scenario and a table of costs that applies to all scenarios. Gives you a few things to think about, though I tend to believe there is an optimal purchase for each scenario so it doesn’t add much to the replay value like one might think at first. I like to spread my purchases out rather than putting a lot into one asset, but this time the Russians need a firebase so I go for a MMG to place in a upper level of the board 16 building. For the rest, I buy a bunch of LMGs and one DC. More DCs would be great to have once I’m into the buildings, but I feel like I need the extra long range firepower from the LMGs to get me there. Plus, my force is a gaggle of 447s so I’m looking at a lower X# if DC are used by any Russian unit other than a leader.
Tim’s defense looks solid enough. He’s spread out to cover an approach from the left or right, with a few stacks up on the middle hill. I expect my MMG stack is going to spot a few trenches on that hill, leading back into the buildings. I have no idea where his 76L ART gun is, there’s just too many good places for it. In the orchard overlay right next to the two hex building in the center is my best guess. I’ll have to try to limit the number of tanks I put in LOS of any one probable location.
I opt for an attack right up the middle to get onto the hill as soon as possible. Given the VP cost of losing tanks, I’m not going to get too frisky with the riders, just dropping them off around the board 16 wall compound and launching from there. I do send a platoon of 447s up my right side, hoping to cross the open ground and get into the woods on board 17z. Tim only seems to have one stack over there.
The initial turn kicks off with a boxcars for the MMG, which will eventually 6 out on the first repair roll. So much for those 3 SWPP. I also find Tim’s HIP squad stacked with an LMG with my right side flanking force, losing a squad to a break. Could have been worse. Speaking of worse, Tim’s Sniper is red hot, activating on the first 6 SAN DRs, with 4 of those being 1 hot Snipers. I lose a couple more squads to Sniper breaks in the middle, thinking my 8-0 is going to be very busy at his rally point inside the walled compound.
Despite the setbacks, my attack makes progress into the right side woods as well as carrying up onto the hill. Sure enough, Tim has a Trench line leading back to the buildings and he starts to fall back through it. There’s a bit of a rules snafu when Tim reveals a HIP leader in one of the Trenches where I don’t recall him having had a MMC setup initially. When I ask him about it, he says he thought all SMC could be HIP according to the DtF SSRs. We discuss and realize that this is only true for SMC that start stacked with an MMC. Their SW get to be kept offboard until used as well. Tim offers to take the leader off the board but I let it stand.
As I start to make some progress into the initial buildings, Tim reveals his ART gun on the far left side (for the Russians) and burns a Valentine that was parked near the hill awaiting the arrival of Tim’s StuGs. Down one AFV and just a couple of buildings to show for it and the German armor entering, not good. Worse, Tim’s Sniper continues his rampage, breaking another squad and eventually homing in on my 8-0 in the board 16 rally point, killing him and forcing a LLMC on the halfsquad he was trying to encourage back into the fray, which they promptly fail.
Tim brings in his StuGs on my right side, grabbing hulldown positions behind the walls there and challenging another Valentine and T-34. Sadly, my Valentine isn’t up to the task, promptly missing the lead StuG with his DFPh shot, then missing again in PFPh and malfunctioning the MA on the Intensive Fire shot. When the StuGs entered, the T-34 took the opportunity to make a successful Motion Attempt, so it swings around the right flank of the StuGs. The trailing StuG turns and fires but misses. The T-34 has just enough MP to get behind it, stop and get off a BFF shot that burns the assault gun.
Tim’s second StuG, with the 9-1 armor leader, now faces a dilemma. Turn to face the T-34 to take a shot through the smoke of its blazing compadre, or start up and seek a better position to face off against the rest of the Russian armor which is sure to be rushing to support? Tim opts for the latter, hoping his blazing wreck will give him some cover, but the T-34 gets off a shot on the start MP that ends the StuG’s chances. With a couple of buildings in my hands and +1VP on the armor matchup, Tim decides to resign. I felt like it was still going to be a close run for me to get the next 3VP given how many squads he still had stacked in the central buildings, but the loss of his armor has an understandable effect on Tim’s PMC. It’s always a pleasure to play Tim. 1-0 in the main event.
Second game: FrF97 “Wrecking the Rentals” playing as Germans with Jeff Waldon playing Russians. Jeff and I faced off a couple of years ago at Spreading Blaze for “Red Churchills” in a match I won, so Jeff was seeking some revenge. We decide on this one from Friendly Fire having heard good things about it and neither of us having played it before. Dice gave me the Germans who need to keep the large combined arms force of attacking Russians from driving a board length to put two squads and/or tanks into the VC area. The Germans only have a screen of infantry, an 81mm mortar and a Marder initially but get a trio of reinforcing PzIVs early. They do have an advantage in the terrain they are defending; there are only two gaps in the woods that the Russians can use to push forward, unless they are willing to risk some Bog DRs. I decide to put the mortar on my right to cover the large area of plowed field and the Marder on my left in the woods line to cover the largest of the two chokepoints. The infantry is deployed in three groups, some in the central woods mass, a squad and a half with the 7-0 on my left covering the Marder, and another squad and a half on my right in the thin row of trees.
Jeff has a large number of lend-lease Valentines and Shermans and plenty of infantry to use as riders. He also gets a few trucks to speed the infantry forward if he wants to take the risk, but by SSR the trucks are removed from play when they no longer have a passenger on board. He makes his main push through the larger gap on my left, but I’m a little surprised when he unloads a platoon of infantry early on my right. Without their transport there is no chance these guys will get close enough to the VC area. Jeff later explains that his intent was to only use the infantry to support the move of the armor, he felt they couldn’t get far enough fast enough to count directly to the VC.
What follows is a bit of a nightmare for Jeff as I consistently roll well against his riders, forcing PTCs and MCs which Jeff fails again and again, forcing his units to bail out and take another MC. To make matters worse, the Marder makes its presence felt, taking out one of the lead Valentines and another that drives into its woods hex in bypass with a critical hit. To add insult to injury, the Marder then changes VCA (+6 due to woods), fires out of the smoke in its own hex (+3 from the burning wreck) and hits and kills a Sherman with APCR stopped two hexes away. This frees the reinforcing PzIVs to enter onto my left side unopposed and take some free shots at the last of the Valentines running for the VC area.
Despite the carnage, Jeff is able to get three tanks into the VC area, two Vals and a Sherman, but the PzIVs are stalking his tanks along with my infantry that is now rushing in from behind. When one Valentine is destroyed and the other stunned from fire from my infantry, Jeff decides enough is enough and resigns. Good game against a fun opponent. 2-0 in the main.
Third game: FrF97 “Ameriskanskaya Suka” playing Russians with Tom Kearney playing Germans. I’ve seen Tom several times up at The Bitter End tournament in Raleigh, NC but we’ve never had the chance to play. Mostly, this is due to Tom staying on the winning track while I make my exit in the first two rounds. But not this time and it’s a pleasure to finally get to play him.
Dice give me the attacking Russians with a whopping 9 tanks, 5 of the beautiful T-34/85s and another 4 lend-lease M10 GMCs. To counter this, the Germans start with 5 447 squads and a couple of JgPz IV tank destroyers, but get another half dozen squads (including an 838) and three Panthers. The Russians need to hold onto one building that starts in their backfield and capture at least one more multi-hex building. Initially, I have five 628s setting up onboard with the T-34/85s but get another seven squads in a mixed bag of 447s and 458s along with the Wolverines.
To defend the Russian left at start, Tom has two infantry stacks overlooking the open ground that I must cross to get to the first multi-hex building and two 5/8” concealment counters covering the roads on either side. He also has two more 5/8” stacks over on my right in hulldown positions. Half of these four must be dummies, but which two? I make my initial rush into the woods and Tom’s halfsquad there does all it can, laying down residual in three hexes but the only result he can get is a BH/Hero combo for one of my 628 squads. Meanwhile, the German squad on this side goes Berserk and charges to their deaths.
The Russians must be careful not to push everything forward as those German reinforcements have the option of entering anywhere from the German back to the Russian right flank. With that in mind, I use a platoon of the reinforcements to garrison the backfield building, and another platoon with a pair of Wolverines to hold the crossroads around FrFAI5 on my right. Tom makes all that caution for naught though, entering his reinforcements on the far board edge and rushing forward to defend the multi-hex buildings on the Russian left.
German reinforcements come on and unload behind the first multi-hex building. This starts a series of cat and mouse moves as we each dare the other to enter the building and face withering fire from the other side. Tom parks a Panther on my left covering the road there, another in 71L3 and the third in FrFAV1 covering the middle. He reveals one concealed 5/8” stack in 71L4 to be a JgPz IV, one down, three to go.
I decide that, with nearly a 2:1 AFV advantage, I can afford to take some risks with my armor, so one Wolverine makes a dash down my left on turn 2. Tom reveals a JgPz IV in 71K10 and I resign myself to losing the TD but Tom’s TH roll is boxcars, malfunctioning the MA. His Panther in M8 opts for a Motion Attempt and is successful, but a lucky BFF shot from a T-34/85 that follows the brave Wolverine burns it anyway.
I now know that the two 5/8” stacks in FrFAS6 and S7 don’t contain any vehicles and push my units from camping around the J5 crossroads to put pressure on the village on that side. Tom reveals a 447 squad lurking under the 5/8” hat in S7 and gets a PF shot that burns one Wolverine. He drives his Panther over to that flank from V1 and, with help from another 447, burns a second Wolverine. I’m sensing I’m not going to make any progress on my right and start to focus everything on pushing on my left.
The fight for the 71N4 building turns into a seesaw battle with neither side gaining the upper hand despite constant fire attacks and close combats. I get a lot of luck with my CC dice, rolling snakes on three occasions and generating three leaders. Finally, a mild breeze springs up, spreading around the smoke from the various burning wrecks, and I’m able to use the cover to start to slip units past the N4 building where the struggle rages on, into J5, K4 and even F7. With so many buildings falling into German hands, Tom’s last hope is to load up a squad on his one remaining Panther and drive down to the 71Y7 building, to wrest control of it back from my one remaining 447 there. Unfortunately, I’m able to focus several shots on the riders and force them off, ending German chances. Great playing of a scenario I think I would play again as either side. Tom was a lot of fun to play, maintaining his sense of humor despite the bad dice and keeping me constantly on my toes with local counterattacks. 3-0 in the main event.
Fourth game: RPT156 “Wiking Rescue” playing Germans with Dave Kocat playing Russians. Due to a scheduling snafu, Mike McGrath has to depart Atlanta early and bows out so Dave and I are the last two undefeated players still in the running. We’ll face off to decide the championship for Spreading Blaze 2019. We are both unsure about the balance to this one (ROAR has it as 0-0, perfectly balanced before our playing) but the situation looks interesting. The Germans have a group of eight squads from a Penal Battalion that start under Ammo Shortage in the open village on board 9a. They also get reinforcements: three Panthers, nine SS 658 squads and a dozen halftracks looking to drive the length of boards 43 and 16 to rescue the guys on board 9a. Between them is a force of 15 Russian 447 squads along with a half-dozen SU-76Ms.
The Russian player needs to decide how to split his force. Since any non-crew Russian MMC in buildings on boards 43, 16 or 9a inside the German setup area (there are a couple of buildings on 9a on the German right that are outside) count to the VC, setting up on boards 43 and 16 will force the German relief force to stop and deal with the screen before they can proceed to helping the beleaguered penal battalion units. The problem is, with 15 squads, the Russians are outnumbered and finding a balanced split between the two fronts is problematic. Dave went with 10 squads on board 9a, along with two of the assault guns. All the remaining infantry set up around the board 43 walled compound except one lone squad in the upper level of the board 16 multi-hex building.
As the German, I deploy the penal battalion troops spread out as much as possible to minimize damage from the HMG and SU-76Ms. Their orders are to skulk and hold until relieved. Meanwhile, I’ll use the Panthers to hopefully punch a hole through the Russian line and only unload enough squads off halftracks to clear the compound, keeping as many loaded as I can to push on to the village as quickly as possible. I’ll also keep an eye on my halftrack casualties since I have to have three mobile with functioning main armament at game end. I can be sure that they will be high priority targets for any and all AT assets in the Russian arsenal and he has a lot with machineguns, a mortar, anti-tank rifles and, of course, the 76L main armament of the SU-76Ms all able to penetrate.
The Germans setup first and move first and I take advantage of this to skulk back on board 9a, limiting Dave’s Defensive Fire. Meanwhile, the SS rush forward, moving up to the woods screening the compound and unloading a reinforced platoon. Dave gets one sneaky LOS down the woods road to take a shot on one halftrack in bypass with his ATR and immobilizes it. One down, eleven to go. Advancing Fire gets a MC result on a Russian squad manning the MMG in the compound, Dave rolls HoB and then a Surrender result. On my second turn, a Panther rolls adjacent to the compound, deploys its sN to place dispersed smoke, and the SS tide rolls in.
David makes a counterattack with two SU-76Ms on the left side of the compound, taking out the 75* halftrack and stunning one Panther when it unwisely goes CE to try to better its shot odds, but those two are soon dispatched. With the last resistance on board 43 subdued, my infantry prepares to load back onto their transports and head to board 9a where the Russians there have pushed back my units and taken a toehold in the buildings I originally occupied.
The Russians get a brief lift when the first halftrack that shows up is taken out with a shot from an LMG. With a squad and a half on board, three CS rolls net the Germans a surviving vehicle crew. But the tide is not to be stemmed and the next German vehicle in is the lead Panther, who takes out the last SU-76M (the other on this side had malfunctioned and then disabled its MA for a Recall) and then the HMG stack with fire from its machineguns. With more halftracks on the way and half of his remaining infantry already broken, David decides to resign. 4-0 for the Spreading Blaze 2019 championship.
I just want to take a moment to say thanks to everyone for the games and also to Gary Bartlett and Brent Crawford for putting together an amazing tournament in Atlanta year after year! If you ever have a chance to make it to Spreading Blaze, please do! See you next year.
First game: DtF4 “Death to Fascism” playing as Russians with Tim Deane playing Romanians/Germans. This is the fourth scenario from the DtF pack that I’ve played and I have yet to find one I didn’t like. Here, the Russians are attacking across the open ground of board 16 into 17z. Good to see this board 17 variant with the prominent hill featured. The Russians need to score 7VP in total with each building on board 17z controlled (13 possible) garnering 1VP, an additional 1VP for each AFV destroyed (2 possible) balanced out by -1VP for each AFV lost.
One of the nicer features of all of the DtF scenarios is the variable SW purchases. Both sides are allocated SWPP (Support Weapon Purchase Points), the SW available for that scenario and a table of costs that applies to all scenarios. Gives you a few things to think about, though I tend to believe there is an optimal purchase for each scenario so it doesn’t add much to the replay value like one might think at first. I like to spread my purchases out rather than putting a lot into one asset, but this time the Russians need a firebase so I go for a MMG to place in a upper level of the board 16 building. For the rest, I buy a bunch of LMGs and one DC. More DCs would be great to have once I’m into the buildings, but I feel like I need the extra long range firepower from the LMGs to get me there. Plus, my force is a gaggle of 447s so I’m looking at a lower X# if DC are used by any Russian unit other than a leader.
Tim’s defense looks solid enough. He’s spread out to cover an approach from the left or right, with a few stacks up on the middle hill. I expect my MMG stack is going to spot a few trenches on that hill, leading back into the buildings. I have no idea where his 76L ART gun is, there’s just too many good places for it. In the orchard overlay right next to the two hex building in the center is my best guess. I’ll have to try to limit the number of tanks I put in LOS of any one probable location.
I opt for an attack right up the middle to get onto the hill as soon as possible. Given the VP cost of losing tanks, I’m not going to get too frisky with the riders, just dropping them off around the board 16 wall compound and launching from there. I do send a platoon of 447s up my right side, hoping to cross the open ground and get into the woods on board 17z. Tim only seems to have one stack over there.
The initial turn kicks off with a boxcars for the MMG, which will eventually 6 out on the first repair roll. So much for those 3 SWPP. I also find Tim’s HIP squad stacked with an LMG with my right side flanking force, losing a squad to a break. Could have been worse. Speaking of worse, Tim’s Sniper is red hot, activating on the first 6 SAN DRs, with 4 of those being 1 hot Snipers. I lose a couple more squads to Sniper breaks in the middle, thinking my 8-0 is going to be very busy at his rally point inside the walled compound.
Despite the setbacks, my attack makes progress into the right side woods as well as carrying up onto the hill. Sure enough, Tim has a Trench line leading back to the buildings and he starts to fall back through it. There’s a bit of a rules snafu when Tim reveals a HIP leader in one of the Trenches where I don’t recall him having had a MMC setup initially. When I ask him about it, he says he thought all SMC could be HIP according to the DtF SSRs. We discuss and realize that this is only true for SMC that start stacked with an MMC. Their SW get to be kept offboard until used as well. Tim offers to take the leader off the board but I let it stand.
As I start to make some progress into the initial buildings, Tim reveals his ART gun on the far left side (for the Russians) and burns a Valentine that was parked near the hill awaiting the arrival of Tim’s StuGs. Down one AFV and just a couple of buildings to show for it and the German armor entering, not good. Worse, Tim’s Sniper continues his rampage, breaking another squad and eventually homing in on my 8-0 in the board 16 rally point, killing him and forcing a LLMC on the halfsquad he was trying to encourage back into the fray, which they promptly fail.
Tim brings in his StuGs on my right side, grabbing hulldown positions behind the walls there and challenging another Valentine and T-34. Sadly, my Valentine isn’t up to the task, promptly missing the lead StuG with his DFPh shot, then missing again in PFPh and malfunctioning the MA on the Intensive Fire shot. When the StuGs entered, the T-34 took the opportunity to make a successful Motion Attempt, so it swings around the right flank of the StuGs. The trailing StuG turns and fires but misses. The T-34 has just enough MP to get behind it, stop and get off a BFF shot that burns the assault gun.
Tim’s second StuG, with the 9-1 armor leader, now faces a dilemma. Turn to face the T-34 to take a shot through the smoke of its blazing compadre, or start up and seek a better position to face off against the rest of the Russian armor which is sure to be rushing to support? Tim opts for the latter, hoping his blazing wreck will give him some cover, but the T-34 gets off a shot on the start MP that ends the StuG’s chances. With a couple of buildings in my hands and +1VP on the armor matchup, Tim decides to resign. I felt like it was still going to be a close run for me to get the next 3VP given how many squads he still had stacked in the central buildings, but the loss of his armor has an understandable effect on Tim’s PMC. It’s always a pleasure to play Tim. 1-0 in the main event.
Second game: FrF97 “Wrecking the Rentals” playing as Germans with Jeff Waldon playing Russians. Jeff and I faced off a couple of years ago at Spreading Blaze for “Red Churchills” in a match I won, so Jeff was seeking some revenge. We decide on this one from Friendly Fire having heard good things about it and neither of us having played it before. Dice gave me the Germans who need to keep the large combined arms force of attacking Russians from driving a board length to put two squads and/or tanks into the VC area. The Germans only have a screen of infantry, an 81mm mortar and a Marder initially but get a trio of reinforcing PzIVs early. They do have an advantage in the terrain they are defending; there are only two gaps in the woods that the Russians can use to push forward, unless they are willing to risk some Bog DRs. I decide to put the mortar on my right to cover the large area of plowed field and the Marder on my left in the woods line to cover the largest of the two chokepoints. The infantry is deployed in three groups, some in the central woods mass, a squad and a half with the 7-0 on my left covering the Marder, and another squad and a half on my right in the thin row of trees.
Jeff has a large number of lend-lease Valentines and Shermans and plenty of infantry to use as riders. He also gets a few trucks to speed the infantry forward if he wants to take the risk, but by SSR the trucks are removed from play when they no longer have a passenger on board. He makes his main push through the larger gap on my left, but I’m a little surprised when he unloads a platoon of infantry early on my right. Without their transport there is no chance these guys will get close enough to the VC area. Jeff later explains that his intent was to only use the infantry to support the move of the armor, he felt they couldn’t get far enough fast enough to count directly to the VC.
What follows is a bit of a nightmare for Jeff as I consistently roll well against his riders, forcing PTCs and MCs which Jeff fails again and again, forcing his units to bail out and take another MC. To make matters worse, the Marder makes its presence felt, taking out one of the lead Valentines and another that drives into its woods hex in bypass with a critical hit. To add insult to injury, the Marder then changes VCA (+6 due to woods), fires out of the smoke in its own hex (+3 from the burning wreck) and hits and kills a Sherman with APCR stopped two hexes away. This frees the reinforcing PzIVs to enter onto my left side unopposed and take some free shots at the last of the Valentines running for the VC area.
Despite the carnage, Jeff is able to get three tanks into the VC area, two Vals and a Sherman, but the PzIVs are stalking his tanks along with my infantry that is now rushing in from behind. When one Valentine is destroyed and the other stunned from fire from my infantry, Jeff decides enough is enough and resigns. Good game against a fun opponent. 2-0 in the main.
Third game: FrF97 “Ameriskanskaya Suka” playing Russians with Tom Kearney playing Germans. I’ve seen Tom several times up at The Bitter End tournament in Raleigh, NC but we’ve never had the chance to play. Mostly, this is due to Tom staying on the winning track while I make my exit in the first two rounds. But not this time and it’s a pleasure to finally get to play him.
Dice give me the attacking Russians with a whopping 9 tanks, 5 of the beautiful T-34/85s and another 4 lend-lease M10 GMCs. To counter this, the Germans start with 5 447 squads and a couple of JgPz IV tank destroyers, but get another half dozen squads (including an 838) and three Panthers. The Russians need to hold onto one building that starts in their backfield and capture at least one more multi-hex building. Initially, I have five 628s setting up onboard with the T-34/85s but get another seven squads in a mixed bag of 447s and 458s along with the Wolverines.
To defend the Russian left at start, Tom has two infantry stacks overlooking the open ground that I must cross to get to the first multi-hex building and two 5/8” concealment counters covering the roads on either side. He also has two more 5/8” stacks over on my right in hulldown positions. Half of these four must be dummies, but which two? I make my initial rush into the woods and Tom’s halfsquad there does all it can, laying down residual in three hexes but the only result he can get is a BH/Hero combo for one of my 628 squads. Meanwhile, the German squad on this side goes Berserk and charges to their deaths.
The Russians must be careful not to push everything forward as those German reinforcements have the option of entering anywhere from the German back to the Russian right flank. With that in mind, I use a platoon of the reinforcements to garrison the backfield building, and another platoon with a pair of Wolverines to hold the crossroads around FrFAI5 on my right. Tom makes all that caution for naught though, entering his reinforcements on the far board edge and rushing forward to defend the multi-hex buildings on the Russian left.
German reinforcements come on and unload behind the first multi-hex building. This starts a series of cat and mouse moves as we each dare the other to enter the building and face withering fire from the other side. Tom parks a Panther on my left covering the road there, another in 71L3 and the third in FrFAV1 covering the middle. He reveals one concealed 5/8” stack in 71L4 to be a JgPz IV, one down, three to go.
I decide that, with nearly a 2:1 AFV advantage, I can afford to take some risks with my armor, so one Wolverine makes a dash down my left on turn 2. Tom reveals a JgPz IV in 71K10 and I resign myself to losing the TD but Tom’s TH roll is boxcars, malfunctioning the MA. His Panther in M8 opts for a Motion Attempt and is successful, but a lucky BFF shot from a T-34/85 that follows the brave Wolverine burns it anyway.
I now know that the two 5/8” stacks in FrFAS6 and S7 don’t contain any vehicles and push my units from camping around the J5 crossroads to put pressure on the village on that side. Tom reveals a 447 squad lurking under the 5/8” hat in S7 and gets a PF shot that burns one Wolverine. He drives his Panther over to that flank from V1 and, with help from another 447, burns a second Wolverine. I’m sensing I’m not going to make any progress on my right and start to focus everything on pushing on my left.
The fight for the 71N4 building turns into a seesaw battle with neither side gaining the upper hand despite constant fire attacks and close combats. I get a lot of luck with my CC dice, rolling snakes on three occasions and generating three leaders. Finally, a mild breeze springs up, spreading around the smoke from the various burning wrecks, and I’m able to use the cover to start to slip units past the N4 building where the struggle rages on, into J5, K4 and even F7. With so many buildings falling into German hands, Tom’s last hope is to load up a squad on his one remaining Panther and drive down to the 71Y7 building, to wrest control of it back from my one remaining 447 there. Unfortunately, I’m able to focus several shots on the riders and force them off, ending German chances. Great playing of a scenario I think I would play again as either side. Tom was a lot of fun to play, maintaining his sense of humor despite the bad dice and keeping me constantly on my toes with local counterattacks. 3-0 in the main event.
Fourth game: RPT156 “Wiking Rescue” playing Germans with Dave Kocat playing Russians. Due to a scheduling snafu, Mike McGrath has to depart Atlanta early and bows out so Dave and I are the last two undefeated players still in the running. We’ll face off to decide the championship for Spreading Blaze 2019. We are both unsure about the balance to this one (ROAR has it as 0-0, perfectly balanced before our playing) but the situation looks interesting. The Germans have a group of eight squads from a Penal Battalion that start under Ammo Shortage in the open village on board 9a. They also get reinforcements: three Panthers, nine SS 658 squads and a dozen halftracks looking to drive the length of boards 43 and 16 to rescue the guys on board 9a. Between them is a force of 15 Russian 447 squads along with a half-dozen SU-76Ms.
The Russian player needs to decide how to split his force. Since any non-crew Russian MMC in buildings on boards 43, 16 or 9a inside the German setup area (there are a couple of buildings on 9a on the German right that are outside) count to the VC, setting up on boards 43 and 16 will force the German relief force to stop and deal with the screen before they can proceed to helping the beleaguered penal battalion units. The problem is, with 15 squads, the Russians are outnumbered and finding a balanced split between the two fronts is problematic. Dave went with 10 squads on board 9a, along with two of the assault guns. All the remaining infantry set up around the board 43 walled compound except one lone squad in the upper level of the board 16 multi-hex building.
As the German, I deploy the penal battalion troops spread out as much as possible to minimize damage from the HMG and SU-76Ms. Their orders are to skulk and hold until relieved. Meanwhile, I’ll use the Panthers to hopefully punch a hole through the Russian line and only unload enough squads off halftracks to clear the compound, keeping as many loaded as I can to push on to the village as quickly as possible. I’ll also keep an eye on my halftrack casualties since I have to have three mobile with functioning main armament at game end. I can be sure that they will be high priority targets for any and all AT assets in the Russian arsenal and he has a lot with machineguns, a mortar, anti-tank rifles and, of course, the 76L main armament of the SU-76Ms all able to penetrate.
The Germans setup first and move first and I take advantage of this to skulk back on board 9a, limiting Dave’s Defensive Fire. Meanwhile, the SS rush forward, moving up to the woods screening the compound and unloading a reinforced platoon. Dave gets one sneaky LOS down the woods road to take a shot on one halftrack in bypass with his ATR and immobilizes it. One down, eleven to go. Advancing Fire gets a MC result on a Russian squad manning the MMG in the compound, Dave rolls HoB and then a Surrender result. On my second turn, a Panther rolls adjacent to the compound, deploys its sN to place dispersed smoke, and the SS tide rolls in.
David makes a counterattack with two SU-76Ms on the left side of the compound, taking out the 75* halftrack and stunning one Panther when it unwisely goes CE to try to better its shot odds, but those two are soon dispatched. With the last resistance on board 43 subdued, my infantry prepares to load back onto their transports and head to board 9a where the Russians there have pushed back my units and taken a toehold in the buildings I originally occupied.
The Russians get a brief lift when the first halftrack that shows up is taken out with a shot from an LMG. With a squad and a half on board, three CS rolls net the Germans a surviving vehicle crew. But the tide is not to be stemmed and the next German vehicle in is the lead Panther, who takes out the last SU-76M (the other on this side had malfunctioned and then disabled its MA for a Recall) and then the HMG stack with fire from its machineguns. With more halftracks on the way and half of his remaining infantry already broken, David decides to resign. 4-0 for the Spreading Blaze 2019 championship.
I just want to take a moment to say thanks to everyone for the games and also to Gary Bartlett and Brent Crawford for putting together an amazing tournament in Atlanta year after year! If you ever have a chance to make it to Spreading Blaze, please do! See you next year.