Andrew Maly and I played this as my last game at ASLOK. We chose this scenario from the new Action Pack. This features board #42 with just a handful of Americans trying to stop the Germans from exiting >= 16VPs worth of SS of the far half board edge. The Americans can all set up HIP if in concealment terrain. They have 2 76L ATs, a BAZ, two MMGs and any leader can fire as a hero too. Walls and hedges are bocage and the Amis have 24 factors of AP mines. The Germans have a 8-1, 8-1, 2 7-0s, 9 SS squads with 3 LMGs and a MMG plus two SPW 251/9s with their 75* guns. However, the VC's do not count either the vehicles or their crews or any prisoners in the exit VP required for the German to win. Alas, I did not catch that minor point, much to my chagrin. Furthermore, each CVP the German took increased the needed exit VP by one. I didn't catch that either. Actually, I just focused on the 16 exit VP and didn't comprehend the other implications in there. I also went to dinner while Andy set up, so I sorta forgot about those qualifiers. At least when I am stupid, I am consistantly and grossly stupid. I earned the bone head award on this one for sure.
I sent out HS scouts to search and find any HIP Amis and their mines. Andy had set up to stop me from taking the concealed woods approach. Instead I moved through the orchards because I was trying to go where the SPW 251/9s could go. I kept them in motion and bypass on the back side of the woods. They were worth too many exit VP to lose carelessly, I thought. Actually, they were totally expendable. I successfully pushed nearly everyone except a squad and three HSs up my right flank. Andy moved some of his HIP units to stop me. Meanwhile I sent a minor force to sweep my left flank clear of any still HIP Americans. A HS finds mines in a building hex, breaks and later self-rallies. He dies while exiting the building hex to these now known mines. Surely he can pass a 6 (-2) attack. Not on a K/2 it won't! A 76L pops up and kills another HS. I am still not worried. These are not needed to exit. Elsewhere, another HS dies flushing out an American MMG HS, who soon dies in CC. A HS finds more mines and dies. The squad moves into the trees and breaks from mines. It routes out of the mines and breaks again. I wonder why the Americans are pulling back from my main line of attack just to capture a broken HS.
Andy points out that now I have lost 6 CVP, that by his calculation I cannot exit enough VPs to win. Son-of-a-gun, he is right. I read the VC's again and the 10 VP I expected to get for the SPW 251/9s are not counted. Yuch! Now I realize the halftracks are totally expendable while the infantry isn't. Had I not routed that broken squad forward and taken the casualty reduction from the mines, then I probably could have exited everything else for the win.
The main lesson learned is one I have real trouble learning: READ THE VICTORY CONDITIONS CAREFULLY. Rodney Kinney has posted how Clyode Angell reads the VCs aloud two or three times before the game starts. Well we had read the VCs quickly before Andy set up, but I had forgotten all the minor details of what counted and what didn't by the time I came back from dinner. But most importantly I did not review the VCs again before plunging into the scenario. Reading the VCs and the SSRs more carefully every time is a habit I must learn to improve my game. Too often, I am missing important information in these areas, which greatly impacts how I play the scenario. The fact the halftracks were totally expendable was completely missed by me.
As Andy and I discussed the scenario afterwards, we realized the mines should probably go on the American's left flank from the woods adjacent to the road across the front of the bocage into the woods on their left flank boardedge. Thus the Americans behind the bocage could shoot during DF and probably hide behind the bocage during the American's turn. The woods route would take the German longer to maneuver through and any push down teh road would draw -2 DRM fire.
This is another short, fun scenario. Its VCs need to be clearly understood by both side or someone may be quite surprised. Andy did an excellent job of understanding teh VCs and knowing what he needed to accomplish to win, inflict 6 CVP on my infantry forces. He played to that goal and won to my shock as a result. Good playing on his part!
Chuck Payne