The US Civil War Turn 6

Played turn 6 of The US Civil War by GMT games today.  For some reason this single turn took us 4 hours of game time to play out.  Being the Summer of 1862 it makes sense that it would take longer to play these turns but those four hours flew by.

The Situation at the end of turn 5.  In the East The Army of Northern Virginia is near the north end of the Valley.  In the West both sides have beaten each other up pretty well.  In the Trans(far west)  the union forces are beating up the confederates in the area.

Now on to the results of Turn 6

First in the West.  The blue lines are the campaign of 3 Star General Grant.  He first moves south down the Mississippi to take the confederate fort (bottom star - other one was an oops).  He lost the first battle and had to give it a second try where victory was his.  Bad rolls for my opponent.  This opens up the Mississippi to Northern Aggression and gives him 3 Victory Points.  Grant then moves East (I was afraid he would go south and take Memphis and the 4 juicy VPs there but he was worried about what Bragg would do.  (coming to that last).  In the Far West Curtis goes from Victory to Victory (or at least one draw but no losses).  In the process moving onward to Little Rock - but he runs out of time).   Finally Confederate General Bragg, starting from Nashville he attacks and destroys Sherman's forces Northwest of him then continues on to Bowling Green and destroys the Militia defending there.  He then had a choice to send cavalry up north to take some Union Victory spaces (they were open, no defenders nearby but they would have needed to cross the river - doable but the Union might have been able to ship reinforcements in to take the spaces back).  Bragg then moves south to block Grant and gets stomped in a battle and falls back to just outside Decatur.

 

Next up in the deep south.  The strategy of holding the ports is not working so Jeff Davis asks Lee to send Jackson down to take care of the problem, along with 30 thousand troops (railed in from outposts through the south, a couple from Richmond's newly raised troops and one poached from the far west).  Beast Butler is the first to feel Jackson's wrath when he is attacked and routed (2 losses to 1 for Jackson - leaving Butler with only 1sp left).  Since the battle started at 2 to 1 Jackson continues on and finished Butler's force off.  Next Jackson goes after the garrison at Charleston easily destroying it.  He then starts a march down to Florida to deal with the Northern Aggressors there - time will run out before he gets there.

Finally we come to the North where the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia scares McClellan into total immobility.  First Activation goes to the North who attack a CSA outpost just outside of DC (battle not shown, just southwest of the one shown outside DC).  This ends up a draw but satisfies Lincoln's On to Richmond call.  Robert E Lee then moves the CANV out, heading north in the valley to engage a union force there (battle marker forgotten), after destroying them he moves to Baltimore and attacks - routing the Union forces there as well.  General Stuart moves cavalry from Richmond up to just outside DC (using a special action card to allow him to get there).  Nobody reacted to stop him so he was able to act as a supply source for the CANV in Baltimore.  Next activation the CANV takes Annapolis and moves toward Wilmington to defeat the remains of the Baltimore force that retreated earlier.  The Next Activation Lee takes Wilmington and parks the army in Lancaster.  The DC forces move to retake Baltimore and Annapolis then skedaddle back to DC.  Final activation roll, TIE - so both sides get a special action card, then the US rolls a 6 and the CSA a 1 On To Richmond and 5 activations but the south gets to go last...  The USA takes out Stuart's cavalry (Stuart failed to retreat, tis sad but oh well), the other activations were used for Grant, a naval move and an attack on New Orleans.  The CANV then gets to move.  First a single SP is activated and moves to Philadelphia, Lee then sends Grouchy old Longstreet to Dover and then finally moves the rest of the CANV to Baltimore and then Annapolis (using the Special Action East card the CSA drew from the previous Tie).  Little Mac tried to intercept twice - needing a seven or higher on 2d6 each time but failed both times.  Being out of supply the SPs on their own have to roll for forage and all three make it (anything but a 6).  This give the CSA 12 VPs for holding the 6 vp hexes in the north at turn end and thus a sudden death victory - the victory point mark for turn 6 is 15, the USA had 14 VPs from other spots they had taken, minus the 12 the CSA gets it leaves them with 2vp and they needed at least 4 in order to avoid the Sudden Death Victory).  Abe Lincoln is forced to Sue for peace with the CSA.

Both Lawrence and I like this game a lot.  Despite the blowout at the end of the turn it would have gone much differently if the tie had not occurred (giving Lee the Special Action card that allowed the run to Annapolis), the US had LOST initiative (and thus would have gone last and been able to respond to Lee's VP grab run) or the CSA had rolled a 6 for any of the units that could have died for being OOS.  The Union has to start attacking from the start by amphibious assault and driving down the Mississippi while defending DC.  The CSA has to threaten DC and the cities around it and keep the US from taking other spots in the meantime.  A real balancing act - quite different from For The People where it is pretty much ALL about DC till Grant arrives.

We like it enough that we are going to start it right up again, perhaps playing with the advanced Naval rules or maybe using the basic rules but allowing naval assaults on regular actions playing the basic game.

ASL scenario BFP-26 Armored Samurai

I've been toying with playing the PTO and the Japanese for years, trying a couple scenarios but it never caught on, too much to learn.  Then I purchased Blood and Jungle from Bounding Fire Productions and it has a very nice intro - the first scenario is no Banzai, no Dare Death, no PTO terrain, etc...  The next one simply adds that the Japanese are HTH if they attack, the next one adds one other item, etc...

So BFP26 takes place in Manchuria in 1932 and features a bunch of Japanese AA trucks, "tanks" (they are tracked, have some kind of gun, and are not actually un-armored...) and Japanese first line squads.  They are up against 2 Chinese ARTY pieces of 70mm and some first line and conscript squads.  The Japanese win by controlling two particular buildings and keeping CVP under 34.

The Situation at start.  Japanese come in on the right side on/after turn 1.

End of Japanese turn 1.

End of Chinese Turn 1.

End of Japanese turn 2, the AA trucks come on and I get over enamored with the firepower they bring (16fp after moving...)

End of Chinese turn 2. 

First Melee, A Japanese HS and Squad jump on a Chinese squad and all that happens is the HS gets eliminated.  No HTH and not HTH modified for the Japanese.  At this point I am still playing the Japanese like I would play with other nationalities...

End of Chinese turn 3.

Japanese Arty lands, sometimes you just get lucky...

Japanese turn 4 end.

Situation at the end of Japanese turn 5.  Chinese guns pop up and fire!  The Japanese MG at the top killed a tank as well.

End of Chinese turn 5, the guns shock one tank and when another fires PB it malfs the MA...

At this point something clicked, Japanese do not break they Stripe...

BONSAI!  (Banzai is not allowed by SSR you see).

At the top right a platoon moved directly adjacent to the Chinese LMG, squad, and leader in the building, all the squads stripe and the leader CRs but all is good!  I lose an AA truck however and that brings me close to the CVP cap...

Pretty much the end of the game.  I had to try a bum rush to get to the last Victory building and lose an AA truck in the process which brings me over the CVP cap.  If I were to play this again I would know better  - the Japanese win or lose with their ability to keep going when other nationalities break and run.  The squads on the trucks would have disembarked as soon as getting on board and swarmed the Chinese defenses.  The trucks themselves would be for long range cover fire.

The US Civil War turns 3,4, and 5

Played through turns 3,4, and 5 of The US Civil War yesterday.  The south appeared to be in big trouble at the end of 61 and then the winter of 62 introduces RE Lee and things look up.

End of turn 3 in the East.  Longstreet has been kicked out of his spot in WV, now holding onto one last little town (left side of pic near the center).  J Johnston holds off the union horde with Stuart nearby.  Stuart had gone on a run up north did some damage and after figuring out I messed up and used the 0 column instead of the 1 (and thus he lived rather than died) he skeedadled back in VA.

The situation in the West and far West.  Van Dorn holds Springfield.  AS Johnston holds the Mississippi.

A shot centered on WV, which is about to fall.

End of turn 4.

In the east "whiskers" Burnside takes Norfolk.  J Johnston and Beuregard hold off McClellan and Longstreet falls back into VA.

In the west Grant had taken Nashville, AS Johnston swung around to retake it (Grant had moved back to the spot where the 1SP currently resides) and Grant managed to Intercept but then lost the battle.  Nashville is saved!  The problem is the South had to use up almost all the SP in the area to do it.

End of turn 5.

First in the East.  Longstreet was defeated at Stauton but the the US did not have enough MP to destroy the space and take control.  RE Lee moved near but could not make it that phase (not enough MP).  Next activation roll the south wins and RE Lee attacks - knocking the interlopers down 2so to no loss.  Since it was 2-1 Lee kept going and attacked again finishing off the last US SP.  Next activation round Lee went up to Harpers Ferry (using a Special Action to increase speed by 2) and knocked them back as well (the DM stack above them is where they ended up).  Finally some troops in DC went south and attacked Beuregard and lost (lucky buggar but the entrenchments helped).  I thought I had it on the picture but further south the US landed troops and took a port too, the squeeze is starting...

More fighting between Grant and AS Johnston, with Mcgruder now up as cavalry.  Basically the two are pounding the snot out of each other.

In the Far West Curtis takes Springfield, not looking good for the Rebs, but there is a lot of ground and not much in the way of VP spaces.

Both my opponent and I rate this game highly, now that Lee is on the board he will have to protect the north while making big gains elsewhere - it is close to a southern auto-victory at the moment.  The problem for the south is pushing for that victory means leaving somewhere else uncovered...

ASl AP43: Escape from Encirclement

Played AP43: Escape from Encirclement on February 13 and am just getting round to writing it up (with this and the ASL111 writeup I have two done in a day however!)

The scenario uses three maps the long way around - but two of them are only half in use so the effect is two maps.  The Germans setup on the left and right leaving a gap in the middle board which the Russians have to exit 32VP off.

Here is the map setup in VASL - the UHD monitor I bought myself for Christmas came in real handy for this game!  The Red lines are where the map ends (could not get the cropping to work properly).  The sets of Blue lines at the top are where the Russians can enter (one set on the left and one on the right - for this game my opponent swarmed in on the left).

The Germans go first, giving them some time to prepare for the Russian onslaught. 

First Blood!  Russian Turn 1 and the 75* gun gets a kill. 

End of Russian Turn 1.  After the fun of an early kill things settle down into nothing special going on.

End of German turn 2, a couple pins and a squad jumps into CC with two enemy squads hoping for good luck - well he at least survived the encounter has a half squad and thus holding up the Russians during their next move.

End of Allied turn 2 and the HS in Melee is still alive.  The ATR pinged a shot off a tank, so did the MG nest.  Otherwise the Russians continue their advance.

End of German turn 3.  Hustle up Franz!  Battle is over there!  My 75* took a shot and broke a Russian leader, since he had rate I took another shot and broke the gun...  More ping, ping, ping, ricochet ATR action!  The Heroic (OK, Not a technical hero in ASL) succumbs to Russian CC rolls.

Russian Fire phase of Turn 3 and the lousy Russian MTR gets a crit on my MG position, that breaks the leader while a follow on shot breaks the crew too.  On the left a lone German squad plays havoc on the advancing Russians.

End of Russian Turn 3.  The MG outpost to the right was swarmed and the troops slaughtered by no quarter.  the middle of the board is a big open mess for my Germans now!

German turn 4, another one of those ASL moments where the game turns on a couple of DR.  The first is the ATR firing at the tank and scoring an Immob, no more points for moving that off the board.  The MG follows up by first Blasting the stack in BB3 (two Squads, an lmg, and a leader) and then proceeds to kill the other Russian tank.

Start of Russian turn 4, if the tanks had still been on the board and mobile things would be different but now the Cavalry have to get to the south (and more troops are needed to get the required 32VP off to boot).

Charge!  (Ooops, SSR states not charging on turn of entry, TROT!!!)

In a bad start to things the Immobed Russian tank Breaks its MA, the Russian Cavalry come onboard and Half of the break or die. 

At this point the game was called since the Russians did not have enough left on board to get the required exit VP.

Very interesting scenario, the Germans have to choose which side to defend and the Russians have to pre-designate where their units will enter and then rush off the board in 6 turns to win.


Next up, BFP-26 Armored Samurai.  (played it last week actually, and playing BFP 27 Chapei Chockblock on the 2nd)

ASL 111 Balkan Sideshow Finale

Tycho and I finished up our game of Balkan Sideshow (Nearly 2 months ago...) on February 6th.  I can safely say this scenario would be a stacking disaster if played on a real board.

Things at the top of Turn 6.  Allies hold the bridge still but the Hungarians have armor ready to stream on.

End of Allied Turn 6.  Not much different yet.

Hungarians storm the bridge, and 3 tanks are dead - the last one going up in flames!  (And thus hindering the heck out of the MG bunker sighted down the bridge)

The Hungarian Flamethrower leader, AKA Bringer of Death.  Strolls across the bridge and only suffers a ping.

He later fires onto the MG bunker and breaks/ELRs them into a quivering mass of jello.  To make it worse he strolls out into the open street and survives a 4-1 shot...  Plus the 8-1 leader can't take the MG from the Brokies who refuse to give it up.

And the stupid move that ends the game for me.  I put the 2 squads and leader in range of the FT (long range) and they squads break. 

On the ending half of the final player turn I played better but it was too late.  A zerker (only a half squad left here) locked my left flank in CC/Melee, the last squad upstairs broke trying to keep the enemy out of CC with him (FPF shots, made a couple but the enemy laughed off the Resid so he had to try and try again).  Finally the crew off to the right survived AFV assault but did was stuck in CC.  In order to win I had to have a good order MMC within the red lined area. 

A fun scenario but the stacking is incredible!  It compare to RB in that respect.