Fireball Forward: Darkness Before the Dawn continues

We continued the Fireball Forward game on Tabletop Simulator and managed to finish up one and a half turns (turn 2 and half of turn 3).  All pictures are from the end of the game session.

Overview of the action.   The smoke markers are killed tanks.  

A close up view of the end of session carnage.  The US used an initiative chit to do a double activation of their M10s.  They go lucky and killed a Panther and the rest of the Panther platoon failed Morale Checks caused by the loss of the one.  So the US is in great shape right now, though a lot will rest on who wins initiative next turn though the US has the shifting initiative chit next turn.

From the other end of the table.  The other M10 platoon took out another Panther.  Off to the left is a dead M10 from turn 1.

Battle Above the Clouds: Mclemore's Cove conclusion

Finished up the Mclemore's Cove scenario today.  This is a four day scenario using the basic rules so a fairly large scenario for a basic game.  The Campaign scenarios in the series can go up to over a hundred days, although a lot of that would be marching to battle I don't see how anyone has that much time.

The situation as we start today's session. We left off partway through the second day of battle.  Rosecrans, Bragg Thomas are facing off in the middle of the map.  Union forces are moving up the right flank and the CSA threat to Chatanooga has been beaten back.

In the first activation the union forces near Chatanooga finish off a CSA cavalry unit that was in a bad position where it could not retreat.

With a bit more maneuver the second day of the battle comes to an end.

Thomas wakes up early and leads the first attack of the third day of battle.

Polk is pushed away from the VP spaces in the Cove area.

Thomas moved to parry Bragg's forces at the other pass, surely Rosecrans could hold against Buckner - well maybe not...

Grant needs to send this bum on home.

Bragg had his forces in position but Thomas strikes first pushing Hill away.  This buys Thomas and Rosecrans more time.

Before Bragg can act Union Cavalry take Lafayette - an important town for VP purposes.  The cavalry are quickly sent packing but CSA troops in the area are thin on the ground.  The ones that were here are fighting with Thomas at the moment.

Bragg finally has forces in position and makes his assault on Thomas.

Thomas fights Bragg to a standstill and all the forces in the area are exhausted.  There will be no more fighting in this area today.  In the meantime US troops move in on Lafayette.  They are one mile outside of town when the game is called.  The CSA are losing badly on points by this time.  Despite taking 20VP in VP spaces they are down 22 points due to casualties, 2 points due to VP hexes lost so far and soon to be down 16 more due to other VP spaces.  With the distances they would have to cover to take those spaces back it is not possible with exhausted troops.

The situation near Chattanooga.  The VP space there is defended by a single strong enemy unit that is about to be flanked.  

The entire map at the end of the game.

Next up is Russia Besieged by Compass Games.  I hope it is a worthy successor to Russian Campaign.  All of the modifications I noted reading through the rules sound good.

ASL Action Pack 103: That Damn Bridge (smoke...)

Today's torture was Action Pack 103: That Damn Bridge.  Tycho and I are continuing my self flagellation romp through the 29 Let's Go Action Pack with my continuing as the Hapless Germans and his continuing as the Americans.  This one has a ROAR of 13/13 which make this shellacking harder to stomach.

The Americans have 7 turns to capture the two buildings circled.  The Setup silliness is by SSR.

The results of the first run prep fire.  5 smoke with every mortar getting rate to boot.  In regular fire one and a half squads in a trench would KIA or MC off the map, an HMG and leader in a trench and in Smoke would also be forced to take an MC and not only fail but the lead roll boxcars to go from an 8-1 to a 7-0 and another LDR and MMG in a stone building would also break but at least not ELR.

German Defensive fire had a couple minor successes but the 81mm MTR (all that was left of the hill defense) would do squad to the 2MMG stack it was shooting at (well, it got a pin result).  Other fire had NE on an 8-1 led stack in the open too.  The Dare Death group ran up to my smoked in squad with LMG.  I tried a FPF shot and rolled an 8 of course.  And up on the the hill at the bottom right I tried an intensive fire shot with the HMG and broke it.

End of German turn 1.  By this point I was completely disgusted.  A big juicy stack with 2 81mm mortars firing at it doing squat - well one of the MTRs did malf...

American turn 2 just before the Advance Phase. Defensive fire was not that strong and the failure to rally sealed the fate of the wounded 8-1 leader and squad with him.

Just after a second snake eyes in a few rolls.  The first was when the US attacked in CC.  The second was a 16 flat shot.

Like I wrote earlier my PMC was shot at this point.  Even the squad that whacked by a Sniper self rallied the first chance he got...  

Next up is AP 104.  For 2.5 turns the Germans have to defend with just 2 leaders, at least then they get another leader to last the next few turns.  I'm dice shy at this point though and the idea of not having a leader nearby to rally makes me itchy at best - then again this pathetic leader couldn't rally in time anyway...

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!)