Has it really been two months since I wrote a blog post? That's embarrassing. It wouldn't be too bad if I could say I was playing so much ASL that I didn't have time to write, but that isn't true. Or if real estate kept me so busy I couldn't write, but that isn't true either. Ah well, I should stop looking at the past and just make sure it doesn't happen again.
About a month ago, Don Holt and I sat down to play. I asked for a scenario with the British, as I had bought For King and Country, but hadn't used any of it yet. We settled on Scenario 102- Point of the Sword. This scenario, set on D-Day, has a company of Germans, well led and supported by an HMG, an MMG, 3 LMGs and a mortar defending the village on board 10 against an equivalent force of British Commandos. The British also receive a second reinforced company [12 squads] on Turn 4 - halfway through the 8 turn scenario. To win, the British have to occupy two of the three fortified buildings
Here was the opening setup -
About a month ago, Don Holt and I sat down to play. I asked for a scenario with the British, as I had bought For King and Country, but hadn't used any of it yet. We settled on Scenario 102- Point of the Sword. This scenario, set on D-Day, has a company of Germans, well led and supported by an HMG, an MMG, 3 LMGs and a mortar defending the village on board 10 against an equivalent force of British Commandos. The British also receive a second reinforced company [12 squads] on Turn 4 - halfway through the 8 turn scenario. To win, the British have to occupy two of the three fortified buildings
Here was the opening setup -
Putting the HMG in V& allows it to fire up both roads - neatly dividing the map into three areas. This makes lateral transfers hard and keeps the British from slipping around the bottom of the map. The two squads forward in R6 and R7 are there to keep the Brits from getting that clump of buildings [and their good TEM] easily. The idea was to have them dash across to T8 when things got hot and work their way back to the rowhouses.
The British set up almost everything in the woods at the top of the map. I think their ultimate goal was to work their way into the woods at P3 before the reinforcements showed up. That could have put me in between a rock and a hard place - needing to redeploy to face the second wave while under pressure from the Commandos.
That, however, wasn't what happened. The Commandos did a decent job working their way into the orchard and the woods along the other side of the road, but not much farther. The defining moment was in Turn 2 when the 8-1 and a squad tried to dash across the road. By the time the HMG had finished its five shot rate tear, there was a wounded 7-0, a broken half-squad and a hero. Good times. By the end of Turn 4, the British had cleared out clump of buildings at Q7 and were in the backside of the P3 woods. The British reinforcements also showed up and organized themselves behind the wheatfields in and around L8.
Turns 5 and 6 saw the British keep pressure on from the P3 woods while working along the bottom of the map eventually getting into the P9/S9 woods and the building in T8. Unfortunately, one of the British squads went berserk in all the fighting and charged the HMG in V7. This both prevented the MG from firing and pinned 2.5 squads. By the time the British CC phase of Turn 6 rolled around, that rowhouse looked like a New York subway station - 2.5 German squads with a leader, 2.5 British squads with a leader and a few SW for good measure. With many of my squads broken to start with, killing them all was pretty easy.
With those squads gone, the rest was a mopping up operation. I only had 3.5 squads left, had lost most of my MGs [still had the MMG and one working LMG] and was going to lose a good hunk of that pulling back into the town across the new British fire lane on hexrow V. It might have taken more that 2 turns to dig me out of the fortifications, but it wouldn't have been fun for anyone.
Random comments;
Next up -- Japanese and PTO!
The British set up almost everything in the woods at the top of the map. I think their ultimate goal was to work their way into the woods at P3 before the reinforcements showed up. That could have put me in between a rock and a hard place - needing to redeploy to face the second wave while under pressure from the Commandos.
That, however, wasn't what happened. The Commandos did a decent job working their way into the orchard and the woods along the other side of the road, but not much farther. The defining moment was in Turn 2 when the 8-1 and a squad tried to dash across the road. By the time the HMG had finished its five shot rate tear, there was a wounded 7-0, a broken half-squad and a hero. Good times. By the end of Turn 4, the British had cleared out clump of buildings at Q7 and were in the backside of the P3 woods. The British reinforcements also showed up and organized themselves behind the wheatfields in and around L8.
Turns 5 and 6 saw the British keep pressure on from the P3 woods while working along the bottom of the map eventually getting into the P9/S9 woods and the building in T8. Unfortunately, one of the British squads went berserk in all the fighting and charged the HMG in V7. This both prevented the MG from firing and pinned 2.5 squads. By the time the British CC phase of Turn 6 rolled around, that rowhouse looked like a New York subway station - 2.5 German squads with a leader, 2.5 British squads with a leader and a few SW for good measure. With many of my squads broken to start with, killing them all was pretty easy.
With those squads gone, the rest was a mopping up operation. I only had 3.5 squads left, had lost most of my MGs [still had the MMG and one working LMG] and was going to lose a good hunk of that pulling back into the town across the new British fire lane on hexrow V. It might have taken more that 2 turns to dig me out of the fortifications, but it wouldn't have been fun for anyone.
Random comments;
- It might have been interesting to start a squad in U7 and have him dig a foxhole in Turn 1. Having one of the big MGs in U7 would allow it to use Fire Lanes up both roads, which would really limit the British movement.
- Could the German mortar shoot WP in June '44? Setting the P3 woods [or better yet, the orchard] aflame might limit where the Commandos could skulk. Of course, a wind change would completely destroy me, but risk are what war is about.
Next up -- Japanese and PTO!