We finally finished our game of J171 Whom Gods Destroy yesterday. It took this long for the three of us to be in the same place at the same time again.
If you're not familiar with the scenario, it's a 3-player action that pits Germans vs. British-trained Greeks (EDES) vs. Communist Greeks (ELAS) in late '44, all fighting over ... something, I guess. I was German, Jamie Westlake was EDES and Jonathan Woodger was ELAS.
3-player scenarios are always a hoot, because it's that element of "diplomacy" that adds an interesting spin. ("Don't shoot me! Shoot him! He's the bigger threat!") As the Germans I got the bulk of my FP into the victory area early and basically dared the other two to come get me. I got a bit over-excited trying to drive the EDES away and lost a tank as a result. On the other hand the ELAS tried a frontal assault at the Germans that failed miserably. He spent the rest of the game trying a sneakier approach that largely worked fine for him. EDES tried a similar approach after seeing what happened to the ELAS, but then had the problem of ELAS being in his way. He didn't want to start an all-out assault with them because that would only strengthen my position -- but he couldn't just ignore them, either. A lot of back-and-forth then ensued.
It has to be said that my SS forces were comprised almost entirely of crack-shots who all suffered from nervous conditions. My shooting was very good, my morale checks and task checks were 100% woeful until I finally passed something around Turn 4. 8-morale guys who literally never passed anything for 3 turns were hampering my defense something fierce -- what kept me going was my ability to chop into tiny pieces anything that popped up in front of them. So I ended up doing a lot of sitting and waiting.
Particular highlights of this game were, firstly, my second tank. Like the rest of my troops his morale was highly dubious -- he never passed up on an opportunity to be stunned or shocked. However, his resilience was unquestioned. Struck by multiple ATR rounds over several turns, assaulted twice in close combat (once while shocked), he survived everything the other two forces threw at him, breaking several units regularly (thus slowing the advance of the EDES forces in particular) and eventually made his way back into the victory area daring anyone to show their faces. What a champ.
The other event of note was an "interesting" result on a stack of ELAS units -- a 10-0 commissar who had been wounded by a sniper, an 8-0 leader and three miscellaneous partisan squads -- that badly wanted to attack my Germans but couldn't quite work out how to do it without dying horribly (my main force was a Death Star consisting of 3 x 6-5-8, 2 x MMG, 1 x HMG, a 9-1 leader and a hero). So they sat in place for a long time, taking pot-shots with an ATR but otherwise too far away or too hidden to be shot at. Then some EDES forces were able to get into position to take some shots at these guys. A 1MC result and the Commissar shrugs it off -- and then the 8-0 went berserk, convincing everyone else to follow him. Down the hill they ran, cut to pieces as they came, while the Commissar sat there wondering was it something he said? Glorious.
Final result was a win to ELAS due to CVP they had picked up. However in the final turn it possible for any of the three of us to win -- if I had broken a couple of squads that I had shots at, I would have won by having a winning squad ratio; if EDES had managed to kill a couple of units, he would have won by CVP (EDES and ELAS were running neck-and-neck by that point). A really great time was had by all. Must play!
