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.

ASL 244: Château De Quesnoy

 Just a quick note that I played this today.  Tycho is most likely going to kick my can.  This is the start of Allied turn 3 and the Germans have ONLY(!?) 12 turns left to take the big building.  They can only take 59CVP as well but I think they are well on their way to a win.  If you want to play a big honking scenario this is the one.

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.

ASL scenario To Battle By Air 5: Bob's Farm

 Got in a short round of ASL today (one hour game time, not much more setup time).

The setup.  UK comes in on turn 1 and have to hold the circled building at the end of the game.

The exchange of fire on the first half of turn 1 goes nearly completely to the UK.  Couldn't ask for better.  We both agreed it would have been better for the HMG to setup in the building.

The situation at the midpoint of turn 2.  The German reinforcements come on next.  The 9-1 had been pinned and the squad above it went into CC with a CX half squad and eliminated it in Ambush.

The Germans pushed in, managed to get another CC in CC5 going but the UK reinforced with the leader and another squad killing the German squad.  Another German squad in BB4 was DMd and forced to rout.  German player called it here.  We "rolled" some dice the squads in 8-1 were pinned but return fire still DMd the squad with the German 8-1.  

A good tiny scenario.  If the Half Squad and 8-1 had not died in the first turn it would have gone differently, hard to say though.  Both sides had spurts of good and bad luck.  A heroic 9-1 UK leader followed by both squads with him breaking while that same turn Germans were passing MCs left and right.  Very next turn the Germans could not pass an MC for nothing.

ASL Scenario To Battle by Air 4.

 Played this one and it took a bit longer than expected.  Two hours instead of one and a half or so.  A good little scenario.

The Germans win if they have 5fp they can hit the red circled hex with at game end.

Not a good opening.  DMd only a couple and had my Leader and Squad DMd in return.

Should have had that guy skulk away.  Instead I tried firing and go zippo.  Return fire broke him and he surrenders.  Not a good situation.

My big surprise (opponent thought it was a dummy, so did I) turns into a dud.  Only got a pin out of it.

The 8-1 and the squad with him do not manage to hold off the US long and end up in CC.  With the US having 3 squads around to my single squad things are not looking good.  I didn't notice it at the time but my luck was crappy.  The US 7ML troops made a whole LOT of morale checks and my rolls were generally high.  There were enough low rolls mixed in to not make it seem so but the US always made the MCs those rolls caused.   WHINE!

And then it happens.  The US rolls boxcars on a CC roll at the end of a US turn.  The Germans take the chance to scoot.  German prep is snakes and all of a sudden it is up in the air.

Final US movement phase.  They HAVE to get both of the German squads near the VC hex broken or stuck in CC.  The tanks makes an overrun attempt.  The Shrek I was hoarding up to this point misses but the Squad finds a faust and flames the tank.  US attempts to read the Germans for CC (or point blank return fire) don't work out and it ends with a German win.

A good short scenario.  The Germans can't make the stand fast mistake I made but the US HAS to move fast to break or eliminate the Germans - taking ground is not enough in itself the US has to keep the Germans from having 5FP able to reach the VC hex at the end.

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 continues

 Played Turns 13 and 14 today.  Two turns done in three hours.

Start of turn 13.  The Germans have the initiative and attack to the push the Allies back.

End of turn 13.  The Germans manage to push the Allies off of the center map and get a foot hold on the East map.  

End of turn 14.  Due to the auto Defender Retreat result for a map edge the Germans manage to keep the Allies at the map edge for the turn.  The Allies attacked the Axis units on the edge, which either died or retreated and then the Axis used a chit to attack forcing the Allies back again.  With only 11 more attacks possible (11 attack chits in Allied hands last three turns) the Allies have to go 14 hexes to reach the first VP space (Sollum) and a few more hexes to reach the space further up.  If the Axis can keep a line of units in the way the Allies will only gain one hex per attack - and depending on losses keeping that line is very possible.

The game started out very promising, handling the early part of the campaign well.  Then the impossibility of taking Tobruk combined with there being no chance for the Axis to gain VP without it make the 1941 portion of the game almost meaningless.  Rommel has no real incentive to push on to take the Allied base since there is no real chance of doing so.  The best to hope for is by making the Allies fight for it they lose units.  The instant 1942 comes along Tobruk is an instant death trap for the defenders (needing to retreat 4 hexes means losing two steps at least if defending the forts and losing more if overstacked).  The map edge, auto DR sounds good in theory but in practice it makes it a slugging match if utilized as a defense point.  Finally there is no incentive for Rommel to try and move off the center map, extra VP would be nice but even if the Allies managed to have a VP by now (they can get one if things work out well in the early game) the Allies would HAVE to retake Sollum to get a draw.