What is the toughest/hardest scenario you ever played ?

Actionjick

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I'm interested in whether it's due to victory conditions, complexity of the rules, units, terrain, enviromental conditions, size, balance whatever it was that made it the hardest scenario you've played.

You can include opponent but I'm looking more for factors available to any player.

I'm still thinking about it.

Campaign games welcome also

Thanks for any input.
 

Sparafucil3

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For me, it was easy. A70 Wintergewitter v. Steve Anderson. I had the Germans. I easily rolled fifteen 12's. It was so bad, Steve asked me if I wanted to switch dice but I steadfastly refused. I broke EVERY MA and SW I had. I broke AFV MG's. The only thing keeping me in the game was my 9-2 and a long odds shot which broke some Russians. In my last turn, I had to tie up 3 units in CC. I had to use AFV's to get into position to even have a chance. I managed to do it. Neither of my two tanks were ambushed and managed to survive CC and tie up those two. My 9-2 got into CC, managed the ambush, and I rolled my last 12 of the game allowing Steve to withdraw for the win. Man I worked my ass off for that loss. I still hate that scenario. -- jim

EDIT: It was STEVE Anderson, not Darrell. Reading that back, I was like, I don't think I have ever played Darrell.
 
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Honza

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For me it was probably One Down Two To Go. I was the Germans and was very inexperienced at attacking in Stalingrad. Don't think that I captured more than a few stone locations.
 

von Marwitz

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Thinking about it, I cannot remember as this tantalizing experience seems to have been begninly effaced from my memory.

But I do remember an instance, where I played the Americans and a fat German Jagd-Panzer VI was blocking the general path of advance sitting on a plateau out of LOS. As my 10-2 leader with his would-be 'killer-stack' had miserably failed to achieve anything, much less breaking open my originally intended route of attack, it took me two turns to get the necessary assets into place to get to grips with that armored monster. Everything was at the ready: A sacrificial Sherman, two more with 76L Guns and good chances for APCR, one even with a Gyro for the side shots, and BAZ squad for good measure. A plan to draw & exhaust the behemoth's fire options before taking him out was just waiting to be effected in my upcoming turn.

The commander of the beast (although out of my LOS), must have felt this strange tickle in his neck, though... He successfully made the Mechanical Reliability to start, calmly moved one hex forward to the hill crest and into LOS of my armada, defiantly stopped at (Double-) Point Blank range to shrug off all sorts of futile attacks to at least deliberately immobilize him despite being extra large. He then coldly fired to blaze my most valuable tank and even IF'ed with a precision which can be mustered only by Germans to successfully take out a second one. That done, with the thunder of its enormous 128L Gun still echoing from the surrounding hills, he started in reverse after successfully rolling his Mechanical Reliability yet again, moved one hex back to snugly stop where he had started.

Shreds of torn steel from my former tanks were still tumbling from the sky and littering the area, when my next turn came up. Though the German tank commander did not shout anything, he had made his point as clear as Gandalf on Durin's Bridge in Khazad-dûm: "You - shall - not - pass!"

von Marwitz
 
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Actionjick

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For me, it was easy. A70 Wintergewitter v. Darrell Anderson. I had the Germans. I easily rolled fifteen 12's. It was so bad, Darrell asked me if I wanted to switch dice but I steadfastly refused. I broke EVERY MA and SW I had. I broke AFV MG's. The only thing keeping me in the game was my 9-2 and a long odds shot which broke some Russians. In my last turn, I had to tie up 3 units in CC. I had to use AFV's to get into position to even have a chance. I managed to do it. Neither of my two tanks were ambushed and managed to survive CC and tie up those two. My 9-2 got into CC, managed the ambush, and I rolled my last 12 of the game allowing Darrell to withdraw for the win. Man I worked my ass off for that loss. I still hate that scenario. -- jim
You have to watch out for those Darrell guys, honorable but tough!

I still haven't decided on a scenario but I believe a campaign game is very difficult against a skilled opponent. It's like the observation made by Guy that AFVs don't rout. A scenario outcome can be decided by hot/cold dice or the last turn rush. A CG is like infantry that can rout and rally and come right back at you. A CG gives your opponent the same opportunity. You may win a CG day against a skilled opponent but to string together enough CG day victories to win the campaign is an entirely different matter.
 

M.Koch

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A98 "Crossing The Gniloi Tikitsch". It was at a GRENADIER tournament 10+ years back against John Tait, a really nice guy, true sportsman and GRENADIER veteran.
It took us over twelve hours to finish the beast and it went down to the last dice roll. Afterwards we were mentally burned out, but happy.
Every time we meet we well remember our game and have a beer or single-malt on it.
 
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Sparafucil3

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A98 "Crossing The Gniloi Tikitsch". It was at a GRENADIER tournament 10+ years back against John Tait, a really nice guy, true sportsmen and GRENADIER veteran.
It took us over twelve hours to finish the beast and it went down to the last dice roll. Afterwards we were mentally burned out, but happy.
Every time we meet we well remember our game and have a beer or single-malt on it.
I played a marathon like this against Sean Deller. I don't even remember the scenario. What I do recall is Sean banzaied with a leader possessing his radio and that I got possession. I meant to destroy it, but was forced to fire the HS possessing it by another banzai. Sean got his radio back but the delay meant it wasn't that effective. I won that scenario and I did not have a single counter left on the board as all of my units were eliminated but Sean could not get to the last VC building with the MF's he had. I can still see the look on Sean's face as he realized I had lost everything but won. I always tell new players to know the VC. If having something left is not a requirement, then having something left doesn't matter. This was such a fun time. Sean and I were laughing and carrying like a couple of kids playing army soldiers which of course, we were. -- jim
 

Tuomo

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For me, it was easy. A70 Wintergewitter v. Darrell Anderson. I had the Germans. I easily rolled fifteen 12's. It was so bad, Darrell asked me if I wanted to switch dice but I steadfastly refused. I broke EVERY MA and SW I had. I broke AFV MG's. The only thing keeping me in the game was my 9-2 and a long odds shot which broke some Russians. In my last turn, I had to tie up 3 units in CC. I had to use AFV's to get into position to even have a chance. I managed to do it. Neither of my two tanks were ambushed and managed to survive CC and tie up those two. My 9-2 got into CC, managed the ambush, and I rolled my last 12 of the game allowing Darrell to withdraw for the win. Man I worked my ass off for that loss. I still hate that scenario. -- jim
Now I want to see you play it against JR Tracy :)

Kind of the ASL equivalent of dropping a cat with buttered toast taped to its back. The Universe may blow a fuse trying to figure out how to make you both lose.
 

Sparafucil3

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Now I want to see you play it against JR Tracy :)

Kind of the ASL equivalent of dropping a cat with buttered toast taped to its back. The Universe may blow a fuse trying to figure out how to make you both lose.
I played (I think) One Log Bridge against JR once. I moved an Infantry unit to the back of one of his tanks. He get's clever and shoots the Infantry unit with the RMG for no effect. Move another unit (I want to say tank, but I don't know for sure) into his face. He say's "I will shoot the MA" and I say "You can't". We dig the rule out out he is like "Oh FUCK!!". I know I didn't destroy the tank and I know I lost, but I remember the rule discussion so I take that as a WIN for me. -- jim
 

Honza

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A98 "Crossing The Gniloi Tikitsch". It was at a GRENADIER tournament 10+ years back against John Tait, a really nice guy, true sportsmen and GRENADIER veteran.
It took us over twelve hours to finish the beast and it went down to the last dice roll. Afterwards we were mentally burned out, but happy.
Every time we meet we well remember our game and have a beer or single-malt on it.
Great scenario.
 

Actionjick

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Kind of the ASL equivalent of dropping a cat with buttered toast taped to its back.
I've heard a lot of sayings about cats but that's a new one to me. Don't think I should try it, I like cats and toast too much and don't need the loss of blood. 🙄
 

Actionjick

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I played (I think) One Log Bridge against JR once. I moved an Infantry unit to the back of one of his tanks. He get's clever and shoots the Infantry unit with the RMG for no effect. Move another unit (I want to say tank, but I don't know for sure) into his face. He say's "I will shoot the MA" and I say "You can't". We dig the rule out out he is like "Oh FUCK!!". I know I didn't destroy the tank and I know I lost, but I remember the rule discussion so I take that as a WIN for me. -- jim
Sounds reasonable to me.
 

Actionjick

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For me, it was easy. A70 Wintergewitter v. Steve Anderson. I had the Germans. I easily rolled fifteen 12's. It was so bad, Steve asked me if I wanted to switch dice but I steadfastly refused. I broke EVERY MA and SW I had. I broke AFV MG's. The only thing keeping me in the game was my 9-2 and a long odds shot which broke some Russians. In my last turn, I had to tie up 3 units in CC. I had to use AFV's to get into position to even have a chance. I managed to do it. Neither of my two tanks were ambushed and managed to survive CC and tie up those two. My 9-2 got into CC, managed the ambush, and I rolled my last 12 of the game allowing Steve to withdraw for the win. Man I worked my ass off for that loss. I still hate that scenario. -- jim

EDIT: It was STEVE Anderson, not Darrell. Reading that back, I was like, I don't think I have ever played Darrell.
Lol, well things can get a bit hazy as the years go by. At least you have a goal now of playing Darrell.
 

Honza

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Another one that I really struggled with was as the Russians in The Liberators. Got virtually nowhere near the VC.
 

AdrianE

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It was something from Kakuzu Ridge. Caves, cave complexes, miserable terrain. Lots of time delving through the rules for no fun at all.
 

Actionjick

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It was something from Kakuzu Ridge. Caves, cave complexes, miserable terrain. Lots of time delving through the rules for no fun at all.
Fish and I felt the same way about caves in general. To be fair we probably didn't give caves the time necessary to master them but just didn't seem worth it.

Funny because I was always interested in caves as a kid.🤔
 

Craig Benn

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It was something from Kakuzu Ridge. Caves, cave complexes, miserable terrain. Lots of time delving through the rules for no fun at all.
I've only played the Gorge from J2 out of the Kakazu Ridge scenarios. But it was one of the most enjoyable games I've had. It helped I was playing someone who knew caves- as I did - but it was a real chess match. You need to do some prep in advance rather than wing it but if you do it's well worthwhile.
 

Actionjick

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I've only played the Gorge from J2 out of the Kakazu Ridge scenarios. But it was one of the most enjoyable games I've had. It helped I was playing someone who knew caves- as I did - but it was a real chess match. You need to do some prep in advance rather than wing it but if you do it's well worthwhile.
This reinforces something I've been mulling over and its obvious when you come right down to it. Any scenario or set of rules becomes tough if you aren't having fun with it. That's most likely why we found caves difficult.
 

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I've playtested some cave intensive modules like Iwo and a less intensive one, Blood and Iron. It did help that Dave Lamb was playing too and knew the cave rules pretty well. But we recently played an old gem, Sea of Tranquility and it was really fun. My current regular partner and I spent a fair amount of time in the rulebook, but it was worth it. I came away with a decent understanding of those Cave rules.
 
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