Barkman's Corner done in Arc of Fire

John hosted a game of Arc of Fire for my son and I today.  Fun game.  My son took the Germans and I got the Americans.  

The setup.  The US enters at the bottom and need to exit off the top.  The Germans setup somewhere near the top.  The first group I encountered were at the middle hedgerow and I am fairly certain the Panther was at the crossroads.

The Panther makes itself known by knocking out two tanks.  The rest of the US forces get bunched up on the table entry.  3rd platoon makes the fastest headway going off toe the right.

3rd platoon moves up and just about now an over-eager Jerry fires off a faust and misses due to being just out of range.  2nd platoon gets bogged and fails morale check after morale check.

3rd platoon pasted the German squad that fired on it and then moved into the hedgerow, only to be nailed with a faust (this time taking out a sherman) from the next hedgerow.  Return fire from the remaining two shermans kills off the second German squad.  Then another unit kills another sherman and the remaining one made a run for it.  On the right the 76mm armed platoon also take a bunch of time getting through the bocage and the mud on the right.

The action moved to the right flank.  The Germans got tired of waiting and moved the Panther up.  The US fired on smoke shell which did just about nothing since everyone made spotting rolls through it and fired like crazy.  The Panther hit the US tank in the front but did not manage to kill it outright - merely making the crew bail out.

The US get the next few activations and manage to roll a 10 (out of 10) three times in a for three solid hits on the Panther, knocking it out.  At that the game is called for the US, they still had not run into the Pak-40 but could have skirted around it when it was found.

A close up shot of the knocked out panther and the losses from the us 3rd platoon.

Fireball Forward: Darkness Before the Dawn

 Got in a Face to Face game of Fireball Forward at the Dragon's Lair game store in Fort Myers.  An old standby scenario my son and I have played a few times before.  It is good one so almost certainly will play again.

The setup.  The German Panthers come on at the road at the bottom.  The German infantry within 6" of the road.  Points are scored for controlling the buildings, destroying Panthers, or getting Panthers off the board.

End of turn 1 (of 5).  The Germans come on with Infantry to scout ahead.  A few Americans are spotted.  Nobody is harmed in the first batch of fire.  

End of Turn 2.  Germans move up into position, still nobody is hurt even with many more units opening fire.

End of Turn 3.  The Americans get crushed by fire this turn and the Germans hardly hurt.  The first building is cleared out and a rampaging Panther finishes off some routed US squads by overrun (top right just beyond the building).  Further to the right a Panther is destroyed by an M10.  To the left of the building two M10s are destroyed with no loss to the Germans in a shootout over there.

End of turn 4 and the game.  The remaining US infantry on the left break and run.  A Panther is shocked by a hit from an M10 while the other Panthers move up on the US infantry to clear out the building.
On the Right 3 M10s and 2 Panthers trade a bunch of shots.  The Panthers miss and the M10 rounds bounce off the front armor of the panthers even at close range.  The one M10 that probably could have killed a Panther (since it was at point blank) missed it's shot.

Ending result was a German win.  A lot of lucky results on firing in the third turn along with almost all the M10 shots being no effect sealed the game.  Could easily have gone the other way.

ASL: The Steelworks 2 - Hunt the Hun

 Got in a game of ASL.  Tycho was busy with an online tourney so we kept it small.   The Steelworks Scenario 2.  A fight for a small industrial area in France.  With mist and stone buildings this is a tough one when the Germans start with four squad equivalents onboard and the UK has 10 SE coming on turn one.  The Germans roll for a further three squads starting on turn 2 but...

The setup.  The UK wins if there are no Good Order Germans in the buildings inside the red lined area at the end of the game.

First turn coming on for the brits.  The only units that were broken were either moving in non-building terrain or the one stepped into mines.  The +1 for mist up to 6 hexes (and going up every 6 from there) along with stone buildings makes defensive fire (or offensive) somewhat meaningless.

I left a guy in the road to try and get a kill, hoping he would only be possibly DM in response if things went badly.  Nope, multiple shots killed him outright.  The UK troops stream on and CC my other units after 1 hex shots at them in buildings (8+4) does nothing.  To be fair Advancing fire did nothing as well but self breaking and routing was not an option or there would be no one left to hold the line at all.

Germans get reinforcements as early as possible on turn 2.  They run up the road on the left.  Blast the units in the building adjacent and move in for CC.  Still did not manage to kill everyone even with an ambush so they jump out the hex to see if they can shoot them with firepower and move back in.  They did manage to break everyone but also get pinned by return fire so can not jump back in later.  I conceded on that note.

Maybe using snap shots is a better idea.  A 4+1 shot being better then an 8+4.  Hard to find good snap shot angles but worth keeping in mind for next time.  OK - won't be a next time for this one, too many better scenarios to play at least once first.