Spreading Fire 2017 AAR

plpalmerdvm

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(NOTE: I am cross-posting this from the ASL FB where where I originally posted with some photos of the games)

I am finally getting around to writing some AARs of my games at last weekends Spreading Fire Tournament in Atlanta. I had a great time and would highly recommend it to everyone. In the first round I was setup against Pierce Mason. My first choice for the round was "Belgian Blitzkrieg", but Pierce had actually playtested that. He was interested in doing some PTO so we chose J166 "Maximum Agression, and dice gave me the defending Japanese. This scenario is a little different in that the Brits setup and move first with the IJA sandwiched between the onboard Brits and thier reinforcements. Pierce setups up his units around the setup hex. I split my force about 50/50 with the intent of taking out the onboard Brits fairly quickly and slowing down the much larger reinforcement force. I also made sure to have LOS to all the onboard Brit units to deny concealment while gaining concealment for some of mine. On turn 1 there is minor movement of the onboard Brits, and the reinforcements come on the east flank. The IJA MTR goes on a ROF tear causing absolutely no damage. In my turn 1, I do a mini-Banzai of just a HS and leader. The HS breaks on a 6 +2 shot, but opens the door for the rest of the units. I break a Brit HS with Advancing Fire and win two 2:1 CCs with no losses. In Brit turn 2 I get two FireLanes down the road that kept all but one Brit unit from crossing. The lone Brit squad in the town is encircled and breaks during Defensive Fire, so now I just have to worry about the reinforcments. In IJA Turn 2 I move my town defenders forward and shift to defend the road again, but I leave a hole in the middle that 3 Brit squads are able to sneak through on their turn 3. One of my squads goes Berserk and dies quickly on an 8 -2 shot. On turn 4, Pierce tries to flank ad leader and squad around the northeast flank, but they break. The three probing squads in the middle also break, so the Brits only have 1 turn to try to rally and take out a mostly intact IJA force, so Pierce concedes. I like this scenario. The initial Brit setup has limited options, but the IJA player has options as how to deal with the Brits. 1-0 and onto the 2nd round.

In round two I get paired up the the TD himself, Gary Bartlett. This 2nd round was the hardest for me to pick, so we pick another PTO, J189 "Buckley's Block". Dice give me the defending GI's. I setup the MMGs in the middle to place some FLs, the HMG goes on the left flank with a sneaky LOS across the board to a boresighted jungle hex the IJA are likely to move a stack through. The gun (hopefully with some canister) also goes on the left and the 75 HT on the right. I setup my units in basically 3 "clumps" to provide mutually supporting locations. Gary comes on in the middle avoiding my HMG BS hex, but does allow me to setup firelanes (and use the BS) on both MMGs. He moves on boldly (IMHO) through the FLs taking multiple 2 -1 attacks, but I can't make him pay for it. One 447 does take a K/1 but otherwise I only manage to Pin two squads. On IJA turn 2, Gary sends a small Banzai up the middle at my MMGs. The initialy 20 flat shot results in a 2MC that the 447 shakes off, but the 6 flat SFF causes a K/2. In DFPh the 37L gets the perfect canister shot at three occupied hexes and rolls a 3 resulting in much damage (one K/3 and two 3MCs). This is the high point for the US though as pretty EVERYTHING goes south. In JT3 I take a 12 -1 shot at an AM'ing 447 and cower. The 447 goes berserk causing that to FPF and they break. I do manage to KIA the DC hero that Gary generates, but right after I have a 2nd unit that breaks on a FPF shot (OK, that one was by my choice as he gave me a down 2 shot at at stack). I lose two HS in AFPh and the gun crew goes down in CC. My left flank has just totally collapes, but no worries as the center units are shifting over, right? I had to back the HT out it's location to shift over. When it restarts it throws a track in a spot unlikely to see any action. By the end of my turn I've got the HMG pulled back and the MMGs in the jungle nearby. The IJA Berserker charges the HMG and dies to a 36 -1 shot (even retaining ROF!), but when the HMG goes to place a FL, it malfs on boxcars. On just about every shot after that I roll doubles when I want to place a FL. Gary has a pesky CX 137 HS that is adjacent to my 668/HMG, so I move in on them for CC with a 6:1 down 1 attack. Of course I roll boxcars again. Gary keeps the HS in Melee with me to tie up the US HMG for another turn. He reinforces the melee but misses his attack. I now have a 2:1 in HtH and roll an "11". In JT5 Heavy Rain starts making my attacks even less effective. I do get a MMG FL down but Gary again boldly dances through it with me causing only a couple of Pins. By now he has outflanked me on my left. I've only lost 6 CVP, but he has enough VPs to exit on his turn, so I have to attack. As I move a couple of 668s adjacent, they break and it's over. I thought I played well, but the combination of Gary playing a great game and my cold dice did me in. Still had a very fun game and Gary, you owe me a rematch. So I'm out of the main tourney at 1-1, but the great news is that now I can get into a mini.

Saturday morning is the start of the mini's. I'm in mini-B and paired to play with Bill Gouinlock. I had previously played all three of the choices for this round. We chose BFP135 "No Shortage of Determination" which I had won as the Poles at Bitter Ender in 2016. Dice give me the defending Germans. I setup the 75 ART gun on the hill on my left flank bore-sighted on the other hill, the ATR up front in the woods to cover all possible entries of the TKSs, the MMG back in the "town" (a one-hex building), the MTRs bore-sighted on woods hexes, and everyone else spread around. Bill spreads out his entry some with a few units behind the hill, some sneaking up the northern woods, but the majority of the force on the southern flank. During movement I think the only shot I took was into one of the MTRs BS hexes resulting in a K/1. The first Defensive Fire Phase was brutal on the Poles. While the gun had to turn to fire at the TKS and missed, the remaining fire broke 4 squads, a HS and a leader---quite a bloody nose on turn 1. In German Turn 1 the gun takes out the TKS and a HS dies taking a CH from one of my MTRs. At this point the Poles are down 2.5 squads and the TKS. The gun crew and a HS on that flank break in the DFPh and have to rout out back into the woods. My goal in Pole Turn 2 is to take out at least one TKS (may be difficult) and keep Bill's infantry from getting back to DM my brokies. All three TKS's come in on the same southern/left flank. I do break the one Pole squad trying to make it over the hill. The rest of the Poles try to organize in/behind the stream (Bill gave me a little lesson on Crest Status), but aren't making too much headway. In GT2, the gun crew rallies and climbs back up the hill torwards the gun. In DFPh the Poles start using Spotted MTR fire on my units in/around the town, but this is tying up two of his leaders (one to spot and one to direct) and the resulting 2 +2 attacks are not effective. The crew gets back to the gun and recovers it. Pole Turn 3 does not go well for Bill. He starts by rolling back-to-back boxcars on Rally DRs. He get a 1MC on the gun crew, but they shrug it off. In MPh the gun toasts one TKS with snakes on the TK followed in DFPh by a reinforcing LMG doing the same in the backfield. About the only thing going the Poles way is that the German MMG malfs and is eliminated. In PT4, Bill sneaks another TKS into my backfield, but I don't chase and will concentrate on stopping his infantry. In PT5, he runs a HS though my reinforements "Gaunlet" surviving 4 -2, 12 -4 (passed a 3MC with a 3) and a 4 +1. A following squad braved a couple of 1-2 FL shots before falling to a 4-2 residual attack. With the path and woods blocked, there's really no way Bill is going to get anyone else back to board 17. I like this scenario although it is dependent on whether the German can get the TK DRs he needs. 2-1 and on to 2nd round of the mini.

Saturday night sets me up with Brent Crawford, the other TD at Spreading Fire. We pick J191, "Rebels Without a Pause" which looks like one of the best scenarios on the list. Dice give me the defending Germans AGAIN! Brent has to pick one of three VCs pre-game and this determines when his Partisan reinforcements enter. I don't setup too far forward as I don't want to be cut off the by the unopposed armor. Some squads and dummies go in the "triangle" in front of the first VC building. I have the MMG up at level 2, theFlak HT on my left flank, both guns in the 2nd VC building covering both flanks, and an HIP HS in the 2nd and 4th VC buildings. On turn 1 there are no reinforcements and Brent moves mostly out of my LOS. He gives me a 6 -2 shot from from the MMG, but I can only manage double 5s for a not so impressive result. I play "the shell game" with my units on turn 1 to try to keep him guessing which ones are dummies up front. In Slovak Turn 2, still no reinforcments. I gack another 8 -1 shot from the MMG with another double 5's. He moves one of his AFVs right in front of the 50L and it gets the kill. Brent moves into three CCs during advance: one is just dummies; the 2nd I get ambush and have 4:1 -2 vs a HS and leave not a trace; the third pits one of his 347s vs my 447---he kills me and I CR him. Not the best exchange for me and don't want to keep that up. Finally on Slovak Turn 3 the reinforcments show up. Now this probably means he picked VC 3, but it is not certain so I need to be cautious. As the Partisan reinforements race in, I get a 6 -3 shot at a big juicy stack causing a 1MC. Brent's guys just laugh that off with 4 consecutive DRs <=7 (I think one unit pinned). In my turn 3, the Flak HT starts dishing out punishment with 8FP attacks and breaks a couple of squads. In turn 4 Brent moves one of the LTs to outflank the Flak HT and takes it out with a 4 +1 BFF shot from the MGs rolling snakes. the 50L continues to be dangerous as it takes out a 347 squad that Fates on it's MC. By GT5, it's pretty obvious that VC 3 is the chosen one. I start shifting units around and plan on stuffing as many locations as possible into those two buildings. I deploy up front and send on HS upstairs along with a crew while the 2nd HS mans the MMG. In the 2nd VC building, I get all 6 locations stuffed: two by the guns, one by the HIPster HS, and rest by my retreating squads. By Slovak Turn 7, there is no way both buildings can fall, and very unlikely that even one will. Brent sends an LT to BFF one hex and then move into bypass hoping to place a DC, but the LT dies in CCRF on snakes. I think this scenario has definite replayability value. I think you need to figure out the best use for the Partisans since they can't gain building control. Definitely want to play this one again. 3-1 and onto the min-B finals.

The Sunday morning mini Final pits me against Dave Reenstra. Dave and I have played several times over the past few years with him getting the best of me lately, so I definitely wanted the rematch. We went off-list and picked 3 possible scenarios from the main list. A dr picked ASL187 "Morgan's Stand", and DRs AGAIN gave me the defenders for a 5th straight game, albeit this time as the Americans. We had to reset once after setup because I noticed we misread the VC hex. I need to either have an unbroken MMC on board 10 or prevent the German from controlling hex 7AA5 (NOT 10AA5). The US has to setup in a small perimeter. The Sherman went into the total hull-down hex on board center. The MMG upstairs in the big building, the M10 with some HD coverage back on the road, BAZs on each flank, and squads scattered around. The German forces are randomly chosen each turn. On GT1, Group 4 comes on with 2 AFVs but only 2 squads which is good for me because it will take longer for the German attack to build strength. The AFVs come in on the north flank and start acquiring hexes Z6 and AA7 in the big building. I mainly skulk back. GT2 sees Group 3 enter with only 3 more squads, a leader, and a 37L HT. The HT tries to sneak into the backfield, but I take the BAZ shot and get the 5 I need to toast it bigtime. A HS cruises through MMG fire only to break to residual FP when bumping one of my 668s. In GT3 Group 2 comes on in the center. The StuG ends in bypass where it can shoot at the Sherman, but can only find the wall. The Sherman stuns the StuG on the return shot (Note: this should probably have been a Shock). As a squad moves through the MMGs BS hex, I gack the 4 -2 shot rolling an "11". As the PzIV also moves to challenge the Sherman, it does stun on a 6+2 shot. In UST3, still get no reinforcements of my own missing the first two dr's by one each. I move the M10 up to get a shot at the in-bypass StuG and fail to get APCR. In fact I roll a "10" starting us on a whole discussion on what effect the Ammo Shortage has on the US AFVs. We could not totally resolve, used a dr to settle and played that it meant the AFVs started as circled B10/B11/X12. Rolling the "10" then meant that it was now circled B9/X10, so I could not take the regular AP shot with the M10 and moved it back to where it was. The StuG goes on to burn the Sherman in GT4. His last infantry group enters in the center to start putting pressure on my GI's. Dave also moves the StuPz up to start firing at the bridge and interdict my reinforcements. I put one over on him by again failing to get my reinforcements in UST4. I am mainly skulking as I can still get out of the Germans LOS, but I'm sure it will get cozier. The StuPz starts firing on the bridge but can't manage to hit it. In GT5, Dave breaks both US leaders and their accompanying squads which is very bad for the US, but when he tries to move units up to exploit, I KIA one squad on a 2 -2 Dash shot and K/3 the other on a MA shot from the M10 saving my brokies for now. I still get no reinforcements in UST5 and starting to get worried. I mainly skulk into Z6, but do move a concealed BAZ-toting HS adjacent to the PzIV. In GT6 luckily all three of my units rally needing 5's for each. That BAZ-toting does break, but only after soaking up a lot of fire. For some reason Dave decides to no longer fire on the bridge and move the StuPz. As it turns to leave the hex it Bogs on the 3rd VCA change. The Germans get into CC in Z5 and both sides fail to do any damage. My reinforcements finally arrive on Turn 6 and make it across the bridge only having to survive a 2 flat shot from the StuPz AAMG. The M8 also makes it across the wooden bridge and races forward to add supporting fire to the "Alamo". On GT7 Dave starts increasing the pressure on my GIs in Z6. He fires into the melee and breaks my guys but not his. That 666 later dies in CC. by end of the turn he's go units in all ground level locations of the big building meaning I'm upper-level-encircled. In UST7, I rally a squad in Z7.1 with snakes only to have it go Berserk. This may be the one time where a Berserk unit actually helped my by charging downstairs and soaking up a 24 +1 attack. I try to sneak my reinforcements past a 447 to board 10, but they can't stand the heat. The units in Z7.1 spread out in the upper levels. A HS breaks to a 12 +1 shot. I AM a leader and HS into the same hex passing a 6 +1 resid attack. The PzIV however turns it turret and breaks them on an 8 +5 shot. After all movement is done, I have two GO squads with leaders and the berserkers left. Dave take a 6 +1 spraying fire shot at the two squads and fails to get a MC. There's no one else to shoot at them, so I hold on for the win. I like this scenario, but probably could have done better with my end game. Probably could have used the M8 to freeze the 447 interdicting my reinforcements allowing them to run forward. Of course, should have rolled lower for my reinforcements early on!!! I win the mini just in time to head off to the airport, and now I've got a little more hardware for my Victory Wall.

Many thanks to all of my opponents---I had five fun games and hope you had the same. Thanks also to Gary and Brent for running a great tourney weekend. I hope to some back next year (if the calendar cooperates).
 
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