Playing this one over VASSAL (lovely program) and have finished up turn 5. Things are looking bad for my UK troops and good for the US. If the UK can hold on and push the Germans back from the beaches it will be slog. If not it will be over soon. Lots of mistakes with the UK and a couple of bad DR (compensated by good DR on the US side) caused the mess there.
Slow month, news is getting to me so I took awhile to posting this and am keeping details at a minimum.
This is the picture at the end of the game. The US started off to the left and the Germans one hex over from there (the two lines). Two M10s and a Crocodile (on loan from the UK) with a bunch of troops versus nearly as many defenders with a 40ll and an AA gun (off to the right). This is where the game was called. The US had to capture both of the buildings in the red circle and it was looking like a good chance till this turn. My Germans folded up like a wet book the turn before but then most of them made their Rally attempts and this turn when the US pushed they were broken, pinned, and blown up on every DR. Down at the bottom a HS get a 2-2 and 1-2 shot pinning the first guy and DMing the second. Up where the tank is destroyed there is a mine in the road, every US squad that went in to clear it was DMd. Finally another tank went to cross the bocage and bogged.
Just played this one with Tycho and there is something funny with the Random.org dice roller too!
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| The US has six turns to capture 3 of the buildings in the red lined area. Germans get 2 Squad Eqvuialents HIP. I choose Half Squads and a squad with an LMG and another with a Shreck. One more hanging out in the grain to be a nuisance too. |
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| Second shot and first blood. The US armor leader's tank is CE and promptly gets stunned for it. Adding insult to injury the LMG got rate. |
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| Next is a 2-2 shot and I roll a 1,2 while laying down a Firelane. The SSR for the US having 10ML on turn 1 is not helping them since they just die. |
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| End of US turn 1. By the end a SNiper popped the US leader and two squads were KIA. The scond one was from a 2-2 shot where I rolled snakes ending up a 0 on the 1 table. The US return fire only resulted in a MC for the Germans that got one leader pinned and also caused the Sniper Check that killed the 9-1 leader. |
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| End of German turn 1. The German MMG and leader wounded the US 9-1 leader and fire from the gun (or the MMG again) broke the squad under the one tank. The 238 shot at a US squad and leader and broke both of them too. When they routed I revealed 238 in the grain, maybe should have waited and got them in CC but with the dice roller shining on me today it didn't matter. |
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| First shot of German Defensive Fire Phase in US turn 2 and game over. First shot is another 4fp shot where I rolled a 1,2 breaking another US squad. At this point they were down to 2 unbroken squads and 5 total versus an unharmed German side (8 squads). The tanks never got smoke and the Germans only suffered a single Pin result (maybe a second when it didn't matter, during a US Advancing fire phase).
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The VASL die roller gets slammed a lot (I'm one of the slammers) for odd streaks - this is the third game in a row where Random.orgs results have been consistently high for one side and consistently low for the other. In this case low (very low) for me and high (very high) for Tycho. Perhaps it is time to use a camera focused on a dice glass...
Ooops. Didn't give Wallace a retreat path and he died. King buttstomper then went on a killing spree. Have to try this again and play a bit more conservatively with Wallace.
Played a few hours of Hammer of the Scots. Then the power went out. Luckily my opponent has a save of it but I have nothing to show. King butt-kicker went North in the second year and stayed for the third which we are in the middle of. Hoping to continue the game on the 21st.
Played this one on VASL and got diced in record time. I thought the Random.org dice were supposed to be better than VASL's. First opponent roll malfed his big mortar and other shots were not good. Second player turn he had a ROF run on 9 shots with another mortar and a critical hit. Moved my remaining guys into a fortified stone building. First shot from the mortar on that was, you guessed it, a crit. Went from a 4+4 to a 16-4 on the IFT. I gave up at that point.
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| The start of the Braveheart scenario. Nothing exciting here - all the games start this way... |
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| The situation at the start of 1301. The Scots got all 2 and 3 activation cards in 1297. 1298 went well and 1299 was ended early when we both used event cards in the second card play. The English attempts to invade have been pushed back each time. So far so good. |
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| The war continues next week! |
