ASL 138: Battle of Sabers

 Have to admit.  This one was pretty boring up till the end of this game day, it was much more fun when we finished it up in February.  This part consisted of the Poles retreating and the Germans advancing.  Perhaps I should have pushed more and risked more defensive fire shots.  The cavalry aspect played almost no part in this game, the woods kept them from moving fast and charging was not really an option.

The setup.  A squad or two of Poles are setup HIP (they have the option to come on from the West instead).  Germans have to get 12CVP off the West edge or get 8 CVP higher then the Poles at game end.

End of German turn 1.  Lost a half squad but so will the Poles.

End of Polish turn 1.  The backpedaling starts...

End of German turn 2.  The other Polish HIPster was found and dealt with (bottom).  In the next turn the Germans would finish it off for the CVP.

End of Polish turn 5.  Two turns left to go.  Very little shooting so far and mostly ineffective.  Rain started somewhere around turn 3 or 4.

Fireball Forward: The Crossroads. From Panzer Lehr at Saint Lo

Reffed this one with a new friend and my son.  Jeff (new guy) took the US and Jordan (My son) took the Germans.  A six turn fight over a crossroads in Normandy.

The Germans enter from the bottom and the US setup behind the line.  I made a mistake and the US roll of a 1 on the setup only allowed a single unit to setup south of the topmost hedgerow.  It would make a big difference.  Also forgetting that moving off a road required a bog check.

The Germans throw in the towel on turn 3.  The first US shot at a PZIV is a crit and kills the tank.  The unit morale makes the survivor run off the board.  The next shot is another crit and kills another German tank.  The remaining German tank managed to kill that Sherman (the exchange of shots shown) but then failed it's unit morale check for having lost a tank.  The US passed their check so at this point the Germans were down 4 tanks (one broken tank left) while the US were down a single tank with 9 left.  Points wise it was over.  If the hits had not been crits or if they had missed it may have ended differently but the odds are with the US in this one.  It also does not help that the stats on the PZIV are different between the 2nd edition rules, this module, and the latest unit charts.  The latest unit charts probably would have given the PZIV an edge since they had more armor and might have stopped another hit.  The M4s also had another point of armor too though.

ASL 262: Showdown at Tug Argan Pass. conclusion

 Finished up this scenario today  (another New Years Day game!  Woohoo!).

The Axis through in the towel after 5.5 turns.  Though I think they still had a decent chance to win it had to be no fun at all.  They have to take beating after beating after beating to get up on the hill.  When his FT tank immobolized I think all the fun was drained out of it.  For the Commonwealth it is basically a game of sitting tight and spread out to keep the Italian 100+mm arty from smashing them flat OR getting smoked out and not being able to punish the Italians on the way up to the hill.

Image from the end of the game.  The only notable item I could remember was an ATR immoblizing the FT tank.  The Italian arty did not help much either, he drew a bunch of red chits (using the red chit goes back in plus one rule or otherwise the Italian arty would have done nothing) so it did not land often.  The Italians did start causing MCs on the Commonwealth troops the last turn and the UK could not pass one to save his life.  Other turns they did not seem to fail any so it evened out.