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.

ASL: Festung Budapest Campaign game day 1

Finally got round to starting up the Festung Budapest campaign game Tycho and I have been planning on.  Only about a month later then planned.

The setup.  The Russians also need to capture a building or two on the first day.  

End of Russian turn 1.  The smoke made it hard to slow them down but the minefields managed to break a squad.

End of German turn 1.  Smoke is really getting to be a pain.  A 75L gets the first significant kill of the game taking out a T34.

End of German turn 2.  A weather roll of 2 followed by 5 and smoke is even worse.  Stopping the Russians is going to be VERY painful now.

Start of German turn 3 and ANOTHER weather roll of snakes followed by a 5.  All the smoke magically goes away with Russians in exposed positions.  Some hot dice could make this a very bad turn for the Russians.  

After a massive number of rules lookups for 3.5 game turns (ran into something new nearly every player turn) we finished up there for the day.  This is a LOT of counters in a small area...

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.