ASL J109: Break for Hungary

Played this ASL scenario on March 10th, the second in a trilogy of scenarios dealing with Croatian Paratroopers near the end of the war.  To win the Croatians need to get 8CVP off the left edge of the board OR get 8 higher CVP than the Partisans - and prisoners did not count for the exit VP.

The game setup.  Unlike the last scenario this time the entire map is in play,  it is also ammo shortage for all Support Weapons.  So no MG fire lanes (sniff sniff).

The Croatian first turn sees a swing of good and bad dice on each side.  Looking over the log it appears to have been pretty even this time.  Although Croat attempts to take out the MG and MTR near the bottom of the map were some of the crappy rolls - as were a number of the shots on the advancing Croats so I guess it evens out.

End of Partisan turn 1.  The dummies heading to the top of the map are ignored the rest of the game.

End of Croatian turn 2.  Still not a lot of progress though the MTR crew was broken and the leader of the Partisan troops is all that is unbroken in the south besides the MG.

End of Partisan turn 2.  The Leader routes with his broken squads in tow (still broken, only leader is concealed) and the MG team left the MG in position (too heavy to move) and hid.  MTR team rallies right quick however.

End of Croatian turn 3.  The MG team could not find the MG, my BRILLIANT plan not looking so brilliant in hindsight.  The +1 for being fatigued would have been better.  On the plus side the MG team was not a target for any shooting either.  The leader manages to rally one of his charges, just in time too.

End of Partisan turn 3.  The MG is found and it and the MTR break the 9-1 leader and squads with him on the road (where the Malfed LMG is).  The center of the Partisan line is still being stressed however.  With the rally of the squad in the south things are looking better there.

End of Croatian turn 4.  BREAKTHROUGH!  The Partisan MG is taken out by snakes from the Croatian mtr leaving the rout open for the Croatian troops.  The 8-1 leader rallied and brought some MG firepower into the center of the map to keep Partisans honest.  A game I thought was going all my way last turn runs a crapper this turn.  Unless more troops can be moved south (past that Croatian 8-1 leader and MG position) if is 5 to 2 in the south...

End of Partisan turn 4.  The Croation MG position proves to be no threat, rolling badly to NE or just pins versus troops moving with a number of hindrances in their favor.  The center is now secure(ish) and the south has two squads in position with andother two on the way.  A Partisan HIPster comes out of hiding to try and whack a Croatian squad in CC (Croatians went right by his position) - when I got an ambush I decided to move between the squad I moved into CC with and the 8-1 MG stack forcing him to fire at them rather than move if the other squad could not break my squad.

Luck swings my way in Croatian turn 5.  The move forward but do not break my squad in the south and in the center their 8-1 stack is DMd. 

End of Croatian turn 6,  lost Partisan turn 5 somehow.  My Partisans had slid south to cover the bottom of the map.  On the Croatian turn my squad guarding the north side of the hill is taken out in Prep Fire leaving the hill undefended (unless I wanted to lose Concealment on my hill stack).

Seemed to have misplaced another one!  Anyway, a bonehead move left my one squad broken from Croatian fire, but perhaps not so boneheaded after all - the Croat player did not have enough units left to get off the board after trying to make my Concealed stack reveal itself.  he could have gotten 6vp off but needed at least 8.  This game went right down to the wire.  I recommend it as an interesting situation and it appears it could easily go either way with lots of decisions required by each player throughout the game. 

Have to put this in there, my second win after a long stay in the pit of despair!