- Joined
- Feb 4, 2003
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- Location
- La Belle Province
- First name
- Michael
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Bruno L’Archeveque and I did two playings of A15 CAT AND MOUSE recently, as part of our continued nocturnal adventures. The scenario is designed to be played several times as a competition between two players. The scenario has a DYO segment in that the board, the EC, the NVR are determined by the players before setup. There is a bit of of randomness to each side’s OB, but the basics stay the same. I am normally not a fan of DYO and random OB, but this scenario represents a situation, rather than a specific action, so I accept it and appreciate it as a neat design choice. The scenarios represent the aggressive patrolling by the First Special Service Force during the time that they were deployed to the Anzio battle. This scenario play sfast, so it is a good choice to get some night rules experience.
Our first playing used board 33. After setting up the Germans, I thought to myself that the Americans would need to move fast and directly to the central building to fight the Germans for its control. Bruno, however, did not grasp the shortness of this five turn scenario. He attempted a flanking maneuver that ran out of time. This board will always be challenging for the Americans because there are only two easy-to-take buildings. The image below shows the situation when he conceded after the fourth American turn. There are five turns.
A week later, our second playing used board 13, which has an elevated road to make things interesting. I had the American attacker this time. The elevated road seemed like a great place to put a couple of the 60mm mortars. The Americans can obtain five buildings before even reaching the German setup area at row Q; of course the German have more to start with as well. The Americans cannot win without taking another building or two, depending on the casualties on both sides. Most of the American troops went up the right as fast as possible. The image below shows the situation after two turns of approach.
The first shots were exchanged during German turn 3. Both sides received broken units, but a German 447 turning into a broken conscript hurts more. The Americans have loads of firepower ready. There is an extra board showing now because we had starshells drift off-board.
In the fourth American turn, the mortars and the small arms fire break a lot of Germans. Some Americans are broken during their moves and the German sniper takes out one mortar team.
Most of the Germans have gained freedom of movement. Bruno tries a counterattack near the north edge to take back one building, but it doesn’t go as well as he needs it to, partly because of the mortar team on the elevated road. There are not a lot of good order Germans in front of the south American group, but the large German concealment counters are still a threat. The Americans must push hard in turn five.
In the final American turn, the south group seizes two more buildings at no cost to themselves (fortunately, the large concealment was a dummy) and threaten the last good order German MMC in that area. In the last German turn, the German vehicle finally reveals itself as a halftrack and it trundles up north to assist the counterattack there, but to no avail. This second playing was much more interesting than the first. Given infinite time, I would have tried playing with each of the six possible random boards. The image below shows the end of the final American turn.
Our first playing used board 33. After setting up the Germans, I thought to myself that the Americans would need to move fast and directly to the central building to fight the Germans for its control. Bruno, however, did not grasp the shortness of this five turn scenario. He attempted a flanking maneuver that ran out of time. This board will always be challenging for the Americans because there are only two easy-to-take buildings. The image below shows the situation when he conceded after the fourth American turn. There are five turns.
A week later, our second playing used board 13, which has an elevated road to make things interesting. I had the American attacker this time. The elevated road seemed like a great place to put a couple of the 60mm mortars. The Americans can obtain five buildings before even reaching the German setup area at row Q; of course the German have more to start with as well. The Americans cannot win without taking another building or two, depending on the casualties on both sides. Most of the American troops went up the right as fast as possible. The image below shows the situation after two turns of approach.
The first shots were exchanged during German turn 3. Both sides received broken units, but a German 447 turning into a broken conscript hurts more. The Americans have loads of firepower ready. There is an extra board showing now because we had starshells drift off-board.
In the fourth American turn, the mortars and the small arms fire break a lot of Germans. Some Americans are broken during their moves and the German sniper takes out one mortar team.
Most of the Germans have gained freedom of movement. Bruno tries a counterattack near the north edge to take back one building, but it doesn’t go as well as he needs it to, partly because of the mortar team on the elevated road. There are not a lot of good order Germans in front of the south American group, but the large German concealment counters are still a threat. The Americans must push hard in turn five.
In the final American turn, the south group seizes two more buildings at no cost to themselves (fortunately, the large concealment was a dummy) and threaten the last good order German MMC in that area. In the last German turn, the German vehicle finally reveals itself as a halftrack and it trundles up north to assist the counterattack there, but to no avail. This second playing was much more interesting than the first. Given infinite time, I would have tried playing with each of the six possible random boards. The image below shows the end of the final American turn.
