Battle Above the Clouds: McLemore's Cove

First time playing a scenario from the Western Theater of the Civil War using the GCACW (Great Campaigns of the American Civil War) system.  McLemore's Cove from the Battle Above the Clouds game.  This scenario covers the opening battle that threw the Union in to Chattanooga with the CSA besieging them.

The setup.  Everything circled in red is a possible Victory space.  Those to the right are if the USA controls them and those in the left and middle if the CSA controls them.  The game runs for four days of battle but many of the units can not activate on the first turn.

The first attack is by the CSA against the USA.  I just noticed but there is the Cove right there.  The USA forces manage to hold through this assault!

Negley's boys give's Hill's boys a lesson!

The CSA wins the next activation (or two) and attacks Negley again!

Round two went to the CSA and Negley is routed off the field.

A little more marching and the first day of the battle concludes.  Lines shows some of the marching done on the first day.

The second day sees a lot more fighting.  First up some Cavalry surrounds and then Cheathem assaults Van Cleve outside of Chattanooga.  Not a good start for the boys in blue.

USA mounted infantry make up for the loss by assaulting CSA cavalry and routing them.

Then a major fights occurs with A demoralized Negley holding off a large attack by Bragg.  USA reinforcements will seal off this trouble spot for later activations (the fatigue 2 unit at the bottom marched to join Negley).

The USA get a couple of activations and put Cheathem and his Cavalry in a bad spot.  The Cavalry win the activation and attack but are beaten by the US blocking force.

The USA attack the cavalry on their next activation and wipe them off the map.

The next USA activation after that sees the USA attack and rout Cheathem.

This battle leaves Chattanooga in a pretty good spot but the battle near the Cove is still in the balance.

The Situation when we finished playing for the day.  Most of the maneuver is shown above but there is also a large USA force coming up from the bottom of the map.  In addition further US forces are coming from the left side of the map but have not started moving yet.

Basically a day and a half done in a few hours of game time.  Next game day is the 30th when I expect we will be finishing this one up.  I really like the game system but with some reservations.  Luck is far too prevalent in regards to activations and Flank Attacks.  The bonus for a flank attack is huge and most of the time the ability to get one is nothing more than luck.  Maybe my opponent and I just are not grokking something though.  Regardless the game has a great narrative flow and the system allows us to play out Civil War campaigns at a campaign level instead of strategic or tactical.

Fireball Forward on Tabletop Simulator. Darkness before the Dawn

Played Fireball Forward on Tabletop Simulator.  We finished up the first turn of the scenario and will be continuing on two weeks from now.  Overall it flowed very smoothly - much better then I thought.  The only real problem is making sure voice communication works beforehand!  (TTS itself as well of course).

The table at the end of turn 1.  The Germans entered the road on the right.  They have more forces to enter next turn.  To win they have to get more VC then the US by taking the buildings at the bottom and/or getting tanks off the top or bottom road exit.

A closeup of the German entry area.  

ASL 203: Hard Rock

Robert Z and I continue our Korean War gaming with ASL 203: Hard Rock.  I play the NK and Robert the SK in this one.  The NKs have to get 15vp across a bridge in 8 turns.  Besides the fact I finally won a game this gets more attention since so much fun stuff happened.

The setup.  NKs as noted have to get across that bridge in 8 turns.  The SKs have 2SE HIP as well.

SK half of turn 1.  This little pest took shots from 3 tanks AND 9-2 led 4fp attack and came out with NO need to even do a PTC!  Not Fair!

NK turn 2 he gets overrun.  One of the SK Bazooka guys popped out and shot but missed the T34.  The overrun DMd the squad and MG in the hex.

End of NK Turn 2.  The SK defense on the first board collapses.  They tried to create a Bullet Hero (sortof like a Tank Hunter Hero) but it didn't do anything to the Freeze Sleezing tank up top (that would make two stacks that tanks took out in one turn - well, the second stack someone else finished off but the inability to fire out of the hex was deadly).  The Baz in Z2 was overrun to no effect (don't overrun without MGs!) but the 9-2 finished him off in the AfPh.  U4 had an MTR that didn't manage to hurt anyone get overrun as well.

And the FIRST Zerker of the game.  The SK leader went berserk (+4 on HOB and they go BERSERK instead of surrendering).  He took the 557 along for the ride.  Moving in the open towards a 9-2 led 16FP stack proved deadly.

Nearing the middle of the game we have Berserker number 3.  The 9-2 leader went Berserk and took a broken half squad (broken no more!) and a full squad with him.  NKs have a +2 on HOB rolls and I don't think they surrender either but I don't remember for sure.  The BAZ toting guy will move to G6 making the 8-1 led 14fp stack the target for the zerkers...

The 9-2 zerk stack was actually the THIRD zerk roll of the game.  This poor 126 went Berserk but his story ends quickly as he is taken out in CC before he even gets to move (went berserk in enemy Prep and CCd later on).

Part 2 of the 9-2 berserk story.  The 8-1 lead 14fp stack is attacked at 4+2.  The squad manning the HMG breaks and the other squad pins.  From 14FP to 2FP in one lucky shot!  The 9-2 and friends charge.  Fired on in the street by J3 and a gun that pops up in D4.  The Half Squad dies, the Leader wounds, and the other squad eventually CRs but manages to get into the Gun hex (target hex changed when the gun popped up though we may have made a mistake since I don't think the gun unconcealed while shooting - does a ? target count for Zerkers?)

End of turn 6 AfPh and the game.  The Baz in F3 managed to burn a vehicle in H4 but did so well he broke himself.  The NK infantry swarmed across.  The SK have only 1.5 squads left unbroken and are in no position to halt the NKs for 2 more turns.

*I* had a lot of fun with this one.  The SKs could have setup their Bullet Heroes hidden on the map and that would have made a big difference since Robert had shit luck rolling for them.  I remember he rolled sixes at least twice in one turn trying to get one.  That made the squad doing so pinned and unable to attack the tank in their hex.

ASL Action Pack 102: Better Late then Never

Continuing the 29 Let's Go "campaign" AND my getting slaughtered streak I played this one.  the Germans can win by taking the circled US hexes and holding them or getting enough CVP off the right map edge after turn 6.

A Bad setup on my part lost the game before it even started.  I should have setup farther from the US entry area OR concentrated more on the right side.

I didn't keep the original log thinking I was done with blogging games but then I one won... (later).  The starred units were captured.  The red lines show the US advance by end of turn 5 and my forces were still bottled up in the middle of the map.  The forces at the bottom right were not enough CVP to win so I conceded the game at that point.  PMC down in the gutter by this point!  (I lost this one due to my own bad play and not due to luck though!)

A House Divided

I needed to play a simpler quicker playing game to clear my brain so we decided on A House Divided.  Though the VASSAL module is based on a later version of the game I have owned the GDW version since the mid eighties.  I don't remember if we diced for it or I just asked and got the Union.

The classic simple game.  The Union has to take all of the multi-point VC hexes (three of them IIRC) and not let DC fall to the CSA.

First Blood goes to the USA who win the first battle of Bull Run!

The situation October 61.  The CSA pushes USA forces back in the west and win a battle outside Fort Monroe in the east.

March 1862.  The CSA attacks Fort Monroe and takes it!  The USA's bumbling commanders sit and twiddle their thumbs.  Command rolls of 1 a couple times in a row.

April 1962 and the USA continue to twiddle.  The south handily win the second battle of Manassas. 

May 1862 and the CSA makes an end run around DC.

Lincoln demands the Army of DC (Potomac Bah!  they spend all their time in DC up till now) to attack and destroy them.  Instead the US army is destroyed but the CSA's army of Baltimore is reduced to a couple of divisions.

In June 1862 the CSA attacks and takes Washington DC earning them a negotiated (at the point of a gun) peace.

I should have just let the units above DC sit there.  If the CSA went further away from DC then a smaller force in DC could have attacked anyone left to hold recruitement cities and the CSA forces up there would not be helping to secure the southwest which was being strangled by the USA's western armies.  I would like to try this again with the advanced rules.  A fun lite wargame with a few ahistorical items but not bad at all for a low complexity affair.  The "Advanced" rules are not all that advanced either, bringing the game up to the low end of intermediate complexity.

ASL 208: The Grist Mill

Played this one with Robert Z and it was another one where I did not save the log.  Slaughtered again.  (yup, sore loser).  Once again bad play on my part.

Although the entire map was used this was the only part of the map that was important.  The US have to hold the building in R9 at the end of turn 5 to win.  Being Korea the trees do NOT block LOS and that totally messed up my thinking.  The Rice Paddy grain didn't help either though the slowed up the NK advance I didn't take it properly into account in my setup.  The lowered breakdown number on the MG and the Mtr combined with no rout ability (I could see enemies in both directions!) caused me to lose guys for Failure to Rout.  A brutal intro to Korea for my forces!

Normandy 44 continues (Turn 15)

Lawrence and I continue our game of Normandy 44.  Last week the clear blue skies were a disaster for my Stalwart Germans - we pray for a Storm to come...

Disaster Strikes!  More clear weather.  Though there are a few clouds in the sky the Jabos still have free reign over the battlefield and our reinforcements do not have the mobility they need.  The Germans retreat toward Cherbourg to try and make a strong line and hold the line at Caen.  Sending in mere Stugs to held back the Allied armor where Panthers were attacking just two days ago...

The end of Allied turn 15 and the game.  The German forces everywhere collapse.  Near Cherbourg everything is forced to fall back.  That would not be so bad but near Caen the forces just outside the city disintegrate losing 2 units outright and the stug being forced to rout away.  The Commonwealth forces enter Caen and baring idiotic play would never be forced out of the city now that they are in it.  Allied VP is very close to the 10 needed for a win and no more hexes of Caen need be taken to get that VP.  

A good game on the topic.  For a one map game with a moderate number of units it is a SLOG to play through for the Germans - you will be on the defensive nearly the entire time and plugging holes constantly with too few forces.  Depending on the weather rolls (only one storm turn this game) it could be a rough patch for either side.  Too few and the Germans don't catch a needed break and too many or too early the Allies are unable to get forces ashore.  Looking forward to trying this one again - maybe as the Allies this time...