Germantown game two. Turn 6 and English half of turn 7

 Finished up turn 6 and played half of turn 7.  Feel a little sleazy.  Found out George W was in range of a cavalry unit so ran up, chased off the demoralized unit he was trying to rally and advanced in to capture him.  Felt sleazy since last time a general was alone in the hex (years ago I admit) I did not see the rule saying that a VACANT hex did not include having a leader in it (only a leader is vacant but you kinda have to figure that out by putting two and two together, it is never clearly spelled out).

George is where the star is.  Or at least was there.  Rebel half of turn coming up but with morale so low it will be hard to get the favorable combat adds to make it a sure thing.  After that an initiative roll.

Germantown, Game 2, Turns 4.5 and 5

Back and forth fighting for the turn and a half.  Brits had the Colonials on a rope and then the Colonials punched back.  Brits can't seem to capture of eliminate a unit to save their life, even when attacking at 4-1 with a +6 on the dice roll (rolled a 0, which is the lowest possible).  Currently it is a tie but if the Colonials rally a unit it is a minor colonial victory so the Brits would have to come out an attack.

 

Germantown game 2

Played the first three turns of Germantown and what a difference from the first game.  The Brits managed to score a hit with Arty that caused an attack to go awry for the continentals and a Hessian attack on Militia has caused a problem for the continentals as well.  Finally the Brits won the initiative after that fight allowing them to follow up.  This point into the first game the Brits were down 7vp and on the ropes, now it is an open contest with both sides near full strength but the next few combat rolls will determine the flow for the next couple turns at least.

The two Stars are where the main fights happened so far.  The British cannon near the one star made a morale check to keep from being eliminated - it will run some more to hopefully cause other losses.  The Star at the bottom is where the Hessians attacked a stack of Militia forcing most of them to retreat and the front unit was Disrupted.

Great Battles of the American Revolution: Germantown second game day

 Played turns 4 and half of turn 5 (lots going on) in 3 hours today.  The Redcoats are on the backfoot.

The Rebels manage to capture a BUNCH of Redcoats by bad play on my part.  With a need to get 7vp just to get a draw (and not let the Rebels get any more VP even for that) I concede the game.  We made a few mistakes along the way rules wise but my tactical mistakes are what cost the game.  Tried to fight too far forward and that allowed units to get cut off and captured.  Asked for a restart and with more attention to detail (Run Away! Run Away!) in the early game it should be a more interesting contest.

Germantown

 First three turns of Germantown from GMT's Battles of the American Revolution series.  Since I was rusty I asked for the Brits in this one since they react the first few turns.  Considering the number of decisions to be made by either side it would really not have made much difference.

Game start.

Start of turn2.  A lot of US reinforcements on the way this turn but Stephens is drunk so his move by random DR each turn.

Start of turn 4.  I probably had placed my guys badly on turn 3.  Only time will tell.  They did manage to get out in one piece and the lines is starting to form.  The fog will lift over the next three turns (heavy on the first 3, random on the next 3, clear after that).  Statistics wise, Rifle/Arty has been crap while CC has been excellent for the attackers in most cases.

The Dark Sands comes to an end

 The game of The Dark Sands, that started with a lot of promise ends with a sour note.

The map after the last Commonwealth attack of turn 15.  At best the Commonwealth can attack 8 more times if the Chits always work out.  Since there is no overrun mechanic in the game I setup the Axis Defense like so.

If all the combats on turn 16 end up with the defender eliminated that still leaves roughly 1 combat unit per defensive "line".  Axis Reinforcements consist of two units on the next turn and 3 on the last turn.  Just enough to plug all the lines enough to hold off the Commonwealth just long enough.  End result would be 3 Axis VP for holding the VP spots to 0 Commonwealth VP.  Even if the Commonwealth took a VP in the first turn (more than that is not really possible without insane luck) it would still be an Axis victory.  The lack of an overrun mechanic along with Commonwealth tanks serving very little purpose (they are faster and stronger and the advantage ends there) makes the end game very WW1 like.  Sadly the search for "the" game on the desert war continues on.

Next up, a Great Battles of the American Revolution game.

The Dark Sands Game 2 Turn 12

 Got in the last chit of turn 11 and all of turn 12 today.  That took 3 hours to complete.

The starting point.  The Germans just started a combat chit when power went out last time.  

The results of the attacks (forgot to show one - the Italian in the center got an A1 result).  The Allies are forced to retreat in all but one battle.  Putting a large number of their forced in jeopardy of being OOS.

At the end of turn 12.  One allied stack is eliminated for being OOS, another was eliminated by a retreat it could not make (surrounded and escarpment).  A final stack was eliminated in an exchange.  The Germans took a good bit of tank losses in the exchange but certainly made out the winner.  Good luck and good luck with the chits are helping the Germans right now.  Later the Commonwealth get better chits but will it be enough to force the Afrika Corps back far enough to get 2 or the VP spaces?

The Dark Sands continues

 Continued The Dark Sands turns 10 and part of 11.  Near the end of the last chit the power went out (and I'm getting too lazy to post images).  Tobruk fell easily after the Panzers came back.  The front is a long line for both sides with neither having a huge advantage in chits (but the Germans having an advantage for a couple of turns).  Holding onto gains is the name of the game now.  Perhaps taking the Mersa Matruh for VP as well.

The Dark Sands

 It is taking me nearly a month to get this in so I don't remember much and got lazy on the pictures.  The Axis forces decide to pull back with the Commonwealth getting reinforced and better chits the next few turns.

The start of turn 6.  The Germans would fall back to Tobruk and hold a line near Halfya.  The Commonwealth would give chase.  In the back and forth both sides took losses but I think the Commonwealth took more.

The situation at the end of turn 9.  The Axis will start getting better chits soon and in 42 the no retreat rule for Tobruk goes away making it an easier target to take.

The Dark Sands continues

 We finished up three turns bringing us up to the start of turn 6.  The Commonwealth is pushed back to El Alamein but the Axis is running on shoestring supplies.  On turn 8 the Commonwealth gets a healthy dose of supply (lots of action chits) which could allow them to breakout of Tobruk and cutoff Axis supply if the Axis (me) is not careful.  So far Axis losses have been extremely light with all of them being restored by replacements while Commonwealth losses have been heavy.  Now does the Axis go for the knockout in two (just barely possible) or get a bit more conservative.

The West has not seen much action.  Some reinforcements are stuck due to lack of supply.  An oddity of the chit driven nature of the game. I had no Move chits and only those for Rommel and Afrika Corps and those were more important to use at the front.

In the Center the Commonwealth has been penned up in Tobruk since turn 3.  

In the East the Commonwealth make a stand at El Alamein.  The chits allowed them to make a hasty retreat from Mersa Matrah.

The Dark Sands Game 2 turns 1 and 2

 Actually entered this nearly a week later - so much to do lately.

We restarted The Dark Sands after I messed up the first game, badly, and the Axis had no chance.  In this one bad combat results and chit draws leave the Commonwealth in a bad starting position for Rommel to come on.  On the plus side they are far away...

The setup.  Doesn't change from game to game but I still post it...

First blood to the UK!  (to be expected) the unit is eliminated with no Commonwealth losses.  The Commonwealth rolls after this would not be good.

End of turn 1.  The Commonwealth is not nearly as far along as the first game.  Partly that is due to my playing better but largely due to bad chit draw order and dice rolls for the Commonwealth.

At the end of turn 2 the Commonwealth is not even on the leftmost map (East, West?   Can't remember).  More sub-optimal chit draws and combat rolls for the UK.  They have taken a LOT of step losses from combat that they can not really afford this early.  Last game the Italians were down to a single unit left and Benghazi had been taken.  Rommel comes on next turn so we see how it will go from here.

Panzer Scenario 11 Redux part 2

 Martin and I continued our Panzer game.  The real fun happened on Turn 7 and 8.  And then we found an oops...

We played out a number of turns starting with Turn 6 but the important stuff happened turns 7 and 8.  The Axis infantry moved up so I had an SU-76 go adjacent to spot (spotting is by unit dummy!  So only the SU would have seen them till they fired or came out of full cover anyway).  The Germans did a close assault - wrong phase!  OK, oops.  It cost the Germans a lot of squad power and the Russians an SU-76.  Down at the bottom right the T34s moved around and fired on the Tiger and a PZIV.  The PZIV brewed up but the roll for Special Ammo on the Tiger came up short and the regular shot bounced right off.  All the German return fire did was immobilize a T34 so next turn in the crossfire I was hoping for a kill, Germans got first shot and blew apart both T34s...  

Starting over from Turn 6 in two weeks.  Not making the same mistakes twice (perhaps all new mistakes instead!).

The Dark Sands played by a dummy!

 Lawrence and I continued our game of "The Dark Sands".  This one image sums it up.

The whole time I was trying to figure out how the Germans could win - they could not afford the losses that combat would ensure...  Then Lawrence attacks after I "Brilliantly" surround his units so they would be eliminated for being out of supply and well he DID manage to roll a 6 when no other result would free them but less whiney is the fact that the MOBILE CRT is in use most of the game - the Germans should have been attacking like crazy and forcing the Commonwealth troops to retreat (and thus be eliminated for failure to rout when surrounded as they would have been).  So I updated the VASSAL module with a "little" note not to use the Assault CRT...
Going to start up the campaign again on the 21st.  If I use the wrong table again I need to start playing Axis and Allies, Checkers, or Tic Tac Toe.

Panzer scenario 11 redux

 Finally got round to the rematch of Panzer scenario 11.  Things are going better for the Russians this time around.  When nobody scores a hit things are even...

Situation at the end of turn 5.  The Germans have to pry the village away from the Russians, at least enough to make sure neither side gets points for it.  The Tiger fired at the 2 T34s but with smoke, movement, and cover did not score a hit.  The T34s shot at the Panzers near the bottom left and with range and smoke -same story.  The infantry creeping up to the town have not been spotted yet since they are low crawling.  One of the guns in the town took a pot shot at a tank at the far left but with smoke the to hit was 1 percent and it missed.  With the Germans pumping smoke like crazy it is going to end up a knife fight all around.

The Dark Sands continues

 Played turns three and four today.  A short post not due to frustration but due to too much going on.  Next game day is currently set for May 1 where we hope to get in turns five, six, and seven since they are shorter turns due to a lower number of chits in play.

The situation at the end of turn 3.  The Commonwealth forces made a hasty retreat to Tobruk helped by fortuitous chit draws - they were able to skedaddle before the Axis got most of their move chits) and the fact there were so few of them on the West map to begin with.  Combat did not go as well as I hoped either with the lone Commonwealth unit attacked on the West map able to survive the Italian attack and needing cleaned up by the Germans.  Probably the worst thing is drawing the best replacements chit early in turn 4 without enough losses to use the replacements though the tank loss being made good is a bonus.

The end of turn 4.  Combat did not go at all as well as I would like with step loses being nearly even and the Axis can not have win with that kind of exchange ratio.  The idea of attacking Tobruk is a non-starter so the Axis will think of bypassing and going for the auto-victory by taking both main victory areas.  Most likely not going to happen but it should force the Commonwealth to remove some units from Tobruk.  Since the best replacement chit was drawn this turn (and for the Axis it is lose or use) I know the infantry losses I took will not be made good.

Panzer Scenario 11

 Finally got round to playing Panzer/MBT.  I have some ASL to unlearn and some Panzer to learn!

The game situation.  The Germans have 20 turns to take the town outlined in blue.  Whoever has control of 10 of the buildings get a boatload of points.  My Russians setup all in the town (they could have been anywhere on most of the map with the tanks and in woods or the buildings for the infantry and guns)

First blood goes to the Russian Mortar.  Able to fire without being spotted past three hexes is a big deal.  An excellent roll kills a German HT.  The passengers survive though.

Russian positions end of turn 1.

German positions end of turn 1.

End of turn 2.  The Germans take out a Russian gun.  They are much easier to kill in Panzer then ASL...

End of turn 3.  No kills this turn.  The Russian Mortar annoys the two Open top German vehicles at the bottom right (in the woods).  It would go on to Suppress one then the other the rest of the game.

End of turn 4 and things are starting to look bad.  The Germans take out another Russian gun and a badly placed SU-76.

End of turn 5.  Exchanging fire and no kills.  The Germans plop a bunch of smoke.  Another ASLism to unlearn.  Smoke needs no to-hit and is as easy/hard to place moving or not.  Though can only place using short halt move.

End of turn 6 and this one hurts.  The Russian 57mm gun (the only one really capable of hurting the Tiger) is taken out.  Inevitable with 3 to 5 tanks firing on it.  It had even gotten a HVAP shot at the Tiger but missed the to-hit roll.

End of turn 7 and another Russian tank (A T35-76) dies.  We played on two more turns but it was really all over at this point.  All the Germans need do to win is take 6 town hexes and with the overwhelming tank strength or three Russians to 9 German it was not going to be pretty.

I did learn not to fire too soon and that the guns should be IN the buildings instead of alley ways.  The Germans will have to close with them to take building hexes.  We are going to play this again in two weeks to see if I can put up a better fight the second time around.  After that one to more scenarios and all of the optional rules we agree on.  

The Dark Sands full campaign start

 Lawerence and I started our up The Dark Sands full campaign today.  Even with the test game we played a couple weeks back there were still mistakes.  I don't think any that are critical (since the opening turns are very scripted but still a bit annoying).

The map at start.  The UK will get pretty much all of the chits which makes the unit count misleading.  The Italians are going to take a beating.  This is actually a good thing simulation wise, in a couple of other games it is nearly impossible to replicate what happened to the Italians in this time frame.

The end of turn 1.  Most of the Italians have been eliminated already.  The rest fall back to Tobruk which was a bad move on my part - I should have read the TEC more completely.  The forts did nothing for them.  The would have been far more useful blocking the roads.

The end of turn 2.  All of the Italians are gone and the UK has forces in the Axis setup area.  Due to scripting the Italians had no chance but I might have saved one or two.  Also due to scripting the UK has no chance of keeping the turn 3 Axis reinforcements from arriving - though with slightly different luck and worse play on my part the UK could have gotten a LOT of troops into the Axis setup area.

Thoughts so far.

1 - A good simulation that is easy to play.

2 - Highly scripted due to the chits and reinforcements and withdrawals are on a set schedule with no consideration of what is happening in this particular game but the scripted nature of the chits also normally helps ensure things go semi-historically (at least so far).

3 - No tracking supply points!  Hurray!  The action chits handle that aspect of things pretty well (at least so far - if the Germans don't get past Tobruk and still have supply limited by lower chit counts it would seem a bit strange but I don't think that will happen).

Two complete game turns completed in four hours.  Not bad considering rules reading involved and this are pretty full turns in regards to number of chits to be played.  Next game is set for next week.  The Afrika Korps and Rommel come in and swing things back to Axis initiative.

The Dark Sands Learning game

 Lawrence and I dug out The Dark Sands for a learning game.  It was different enough to be hard to "grok" just from reading the rules.  We played out the first turn of the second scenario (where the Germans first arrive).

The setup for the scenario.

End of first turn.  Where did the UK go?

It seems like this will be a nice simulation of the war in the desert.  The other ones we tried were too fiddly (SCS Afrika 2) or didn't have the flavor of the campaign (The Afrikan Campaign - which also had some major rules issues).  This one has no supply point tracking - that is handled by the chits available to each side each game turn, this does tend to choreograph (or railroad) the game a bit but much of what happened was outside the control of the participants so we will see how it feels.  As an example - the commanders on the ground had troops constantly taken away for other theaters and it is very hard to simulate that since some of the taking away was due to success in the desert earlier...

Next game for this, the start of a full campaign, starts on the 20th. 

Normandy 44 game 2 over

 Turn 6 and game over.  

4 attacks with rolls of 1,5,2 and 1.  The two 1 rolls were 4 to 1 attacks that would only fail on a 1.  Had all I could stand and quit.  If it makes me a big baby I don't give a shit.

Normandy 44 (second playing) end of turn 5

 Playing this one over VASSAL (lovely program) and have finished up turn 5.  Things are looking bad for my UK troops and good for the US.  If the UK can hold on and push the Germans back from the beaches it will be slog.  If not it will be over soon.  Lots of mistakes with the UK and a couple of bad DR (compensated by good DR on the US side) caused the mess there.