Normandy 44 continues

It is a slugging match but the Allies have been able to push the Germans back slowly.  I expect the pace to pick up now that the Mulberrys are done.

ASL Scenario Into the Rubble 18 "Capital of the Ruins"

A fun scenario.  I would play it again - as the Germans...

The Setup.  The US has to capture all the circled buildings in 7 turns.  By Bounding Fire Productions (BFP) rules a number of the buildings have a third story.

End of US turn 1.  Things are going pretty well so far...

End of game (turn 6).  I called it after this turn.  A number of mistakes on my part and some bad dice (see below) did me in.  Besides that IFT being in the red I rolled the German sniper (5) about 10 billion times!  (no exaggeration!).  The German 88 in Q12 was a ballbuster too.  It got rate and scored hits almost every time.  Knocking out multiple groups.  My tanks managed to disable of malf a weapon a piece - with the M10 in W11 winning the prize.  Bogged, MA Disabled, and MG disabled.  Managed to unbog for the recall though!  UP in R7 a 1mp ESB breakdown roll results in a breakdown...
Even with all that another turn might have been enough.  Played better I think the US has a good chance at this one but perhaps the 3 story buildings would make it tougher to root out the Germans then can be done.

And the Dice Rolls...  When I did roll a 5 it always seemed to be when firing 4fp shots at units in stone buildings (well, all the Germans were in Stone buildings the entire game except the gun and I didn't roll low when firing at that, oh no!, so...)

Another happy day of ASL!

Next up is our third playing of Purple Heart Draw.  The first two ended up as blowouts for each side so this is the drawbreaker.

Normandy 44 continues

Part 1 at https://fiftyshadesoffeldgrau.blogspot.com/2019/10/normandy-44.html

Lawrence and I continued our Normandy 44 game yesterday getting in 2.5 turns (4 through German turn 6).  Found out we were playing the retreat stopping rules wrong - we had thought you needed the terrain AND the units already in the terrain to stop a retreat and rereading found out it was one or the other.  That makes a big difference going forward.  We also had to read (and reread) the Bocage advance rules...

End of German turn 4.   (June 9).  A counter attack pushes the Brits out of Epron.  Otherwise falling back is the order of the day.

Something went wrong with the Panorama shot on the next picture!

The Allies attack, attack, attack!  They did the same around Caen too.  The front line is getting pushed back but only a hex or so at a time.  Bocage is great stuff.

End of German turn 5 (June 10).  Clear Weather!  BAD!  Reforming the line again...

Allied turn 5 (June 10).  Epron is retaken but I did a sneaky (he was planning a reserve attack).  The Epron defender retreated back one space and was available to blunt the Allied Reserve attack.  The Allies still have two VP spaces on the German side of the line (so they count for game end VP).  I also stuck around too long between the Allied Beaches and now have two strong (if crappy TQ) units cut off.

End of German turn 6.  (June 11)  More CLEAR weather!  More BAD!  A counter-attack pushes the Americans back and the line looks a little thin there.  Strong German reinforcements are on the way and if the weather gets crappy again (2 clear days in a row) it could be a good time to retake more.  

Lawrence and I both like this game a lot.  A perfect size and scope for us.  Even at one map and a "normal" number of counters for a one mapper there is a lot going on each turn.  Part of that is the ability to do a Determined Defense, another part is the need to balance where Arty, Air, and Naval power is used and the final bit is the CRT has a lot of D1, DR, A1 and EX results.  So a single combat is hardly ever decisive in and of itself.  To take ground requires grinding away and the use of reserves - which neither of us has mastered yet.  It is a deep game in a small package.

The only "problem" I have is that the game "series" (Normandy 44, Holland 44, Ardennes 42) is so similar but with minor differences in each title that lead to major changes in how to play the game.  They are different scales in each game and different time scales so I admit it would be needed but (mis)remembering things from the previous games has been a problem from time to time.