Mike Reed and I played Franzen's Roadblock this past Friday evening. (Mike is based out of Raleigh for the next couple of months on business, so NC ASLers beware. :-) ) Mike took the Brits and I had the Germans.
I started out by making one of my worst setups ever. I placed Franzen's Tiger in a woods hex behind the pond. One squad with a LMG secured my right flank. My 9-1 leader and another squad held the building next to the "Y" in the road. Other HSs and squad were littered about with my planning a fallback defense.
The Brits came on aggressively with the Daimler AC and Stuart on his right flank through the woods and the Comets coming on the left. Fortunately for me, Mike thought the 5/8" concealment counters in the woods were a dummy stack. (Only a fool would setup there. Yo!) I barely scored a turret hit due to the AL modifier and then rolled an "8" TK, which barely did that by 1. I voluntarily broke my HS on my left flank to avoid CC and lost a HS on my right who would have surrendered had he broken.
I skulked during my turn 1. As Mike pressed the attack in turn 2, my 9-1 HoB into a 9-2. As I looked at Mike's multihex FG, I realized that if I broke next turn, I'd probably be forced to surrender. Oh, pookie! Bad spot for these guys and too much stuff around to dare to withdraw, although I did pull back into a sure fire "break and surrender" spot for the next turn during my part of the turn #2. (But out of his LOS until he moved to me.)
However, turn #2 proved to be the pivotal turn for me in other ways. The Brits advanced into CC against me is three or 4 locations as I had tried to make things painful for units moving forward with my SS squads PBF. Well my week long string of high DRs finally began balancing out as I won two or three CCs outright and CRed him in another that turned into a melee. Suddenly, I had 8 CVP against a sudden death VC of >= 12.
As I held on, the Brits had surrounded my 9-2 and squad with another multihex firegroup in his turn #3. The 9-2 and squad KIAed one squad during my turn #3 and hung tough long enough to advance into CC with the Brit's 9-1 and another squad during turn #3. Elsewhere I did not fare as well as the Comet squeaked out a trick LOS against my squad with the LMG on my right flank as he fell back. Once he broke, Franzen's Tiger was in trouble.
During turn #4 the surviving Comet eliminated Franzen's Tiger with BFF after Franzen malf'ed his MA trying to eliminate the Stuart, which I had the best chance of hitting and killing the crew for CVP. Sorry Franzen, you were deemed expendable. The British moved forward to cut most of my rout paths if I broke in any subsequent turns. However, I held on enough to win by CVP as I eliminated another 4 CVP from existing melees for a total of 14 CVP. Pure and simple, I won by winning critical CCs, not by any great fire and maneuver tactics on my part.
In retrospect, I was quite lucky to get the win. Had I not done so well in melee and had the 9-2 and 6-5-8 broken in the center, then the British would have walked away with an easy win. I liked the field of fire from where I put the Tiger, but I only had one squad protecting his flank. Once it broke, I was in great danger of being rolled up. Also, moving out of the woods would be costly and turning my turret or VCA would guarantee only an unlikely kill at best.
While the record may show this as pro-German, I don't believe it is at all. The British do have some tough VCs, but they are quite achievable as Mike nearly showed me. My only question would be whether or not the British would do better to avoid CC early, since that seems to play more into the Germans VCs. Another German key is getting an early kill on one of the Comets. Handling two down the stretch would be tough as the Germans must decide whether to try for PFs (67% chance to even have one much less to hit), or to attack the infantry instead.
Another fun aspect of this scenario is the use of the Daimler AC, which is a doubly small target and nearly impossible to hit with a PF when it's moving. If you ignore it, then I will guarantee that it will end up cutting your rout paths. If you try to kill it, then you will spend much of your firepower doing so. Nice problem, huh?
I highly recommend Franzen's Roadblock for a shorter, fun game. It poses some tricky problems for both sides to figure out. Good job, TOT!
Chuck Payne
Mike Thuleen was in town last night, so we hooked up for a game of Franzen's Roadblock. Wow, what a kick driving 10 minutes across town to play FTF instead of going 4 hours into the next state. How do you Easterners stand the thrill?
Mike's German infantry set up completely on the V row, with the Tiger back in CC5. This pushed my "let's bypass and surround the up-front defense" button, but really it's a pretty workable defense here. 5.5 squads and two leaders and two LMG's can cover a 10 hex front pretty darn well.
I tell ya, I really have to work on appreciating this kind of up-front defense thing. Every fibre of my being always calls out for a defense in depth, but maybe after getting whacked by these kinds of defenses a few hundred times, I'll start understanding that they do have their times and places.
At any rate. Dreaming of getting a Comet hull down in X5 or W5, I sent a HS up the path and searched the two German stacks in V5 and V6. One was a dummy but the other was a 9-1 and 658/lmg, so no dice there. One Comet jumped into the U8 building and Bogged while the other stopped in T4 where he was promptly flamed by a PF shot from V3. The Stuart and Daimler hung around U7 and T9 respectively; the roadblock went from U8 to V9 and was pretty effective there.
Meanwhile, the rest of my infantry pushed hard into the woods (excuse me, Tree Nurseries) and advanced adjacent to bunches of German squads who promptly shot me to pieces. Mega-D'OHHHHH!!!!!!
Note to myself for the next counseling session - Why Oh WHY do I play so STOOOPID sometimes? In pbem, I can sip the fine wine of the game and wax poetic about the nuances and vagaries of The System, appreciating the delicate flavor of five- and ten-percent differences in probabilities. I understand what's happening on six different levels and am finely tuned in to the Three Muses of ASL named Time, Space, and Force. In short, I have a clue.
In FTF, I just grab a hammer and start whacking. To silence the little civilized wimp inside of me who's horrified at the risks I'm taking on the board, I whack harder. HRMGMGMMGMMMMMMMM!! ME WHACK HARDER. URGHHHHHH. UNGAWA! GO UP DERE AND RIP LIMBS OFF!!! HRRRRRRGGHHHH!!!!
It's so pathetic.
Mike's dice were actually kind of bad in the beginning, but after two turns, I noticed that he was up to something like 8 CVP already; four more and the Germans would win automatically. Sheesh.
At that point, Mike got a tad greedy and brought the Tiger up to the brush in W6 to put the big hurt on British infantry in the area. Fate smiled on me, though, and my 9-1 fired a PIAT from X7 and knocked out the Tiger for a tasty 7 CVP.
After that, the Stuart zoomed up to EE5 and kept broken Germans under DM and routing away from the British infantry. I figured the Stuart's exit VP combined with the Tiger's CVP and various German infantry casualties would be enough to win as long as I could keep from losing any more CVP, so the Brit infantry circled the wagons deep in the trees and waited it out. Mike's sniper made it interesting, wounding my 8-0 on the last turn of the game, but the bullet passed 2 cm to the left of a major artery and he survived. Mike also made a last-turn rush to faust the Stuart and came very close to success, but his dice did not cooperate and I skated the tank off on the last turn.
The Brits got 24 CVP/Exit VP at the end, while the Germans were stopped just short of an automatic win at 11 CVP. If that sniper had aimed just a little better at my leader, Mike would have won.
Very nice scenario. I'd think the replay value would be VERY high. The interplay between the two sides' VC's is tremendously tense; the Brits need to kill or capture Germans while avoiding that dreaded automatic German win on CVP. They can exit a vehicle (or two or three...) for some nice Exit VP, but what's gone from the board isn't around to support the surviving Brit infantry. Such a tightrope to walk.
For the Germans, nailing British vehicles seems to be the high priority. You get a few CVP, he loses some firepower support, and he loses the potential to exit some nice VP of his own. Conserving your squads is a biggie too; these 5.5 squads seem to have more on their hands than the 6 squads the Germans get in Valhalla Bound, even though the playing area is 1/8th the size. Given that people have recommended that the Tiger start in W5, think about putting the HIP 348/psk in V0 to possibly nail any Comets who shy away from the Tiger.
Tom
As promised, we played this last night. As the German, I set up the Tiger in CC5, where it could sight down the road through the trees and orchards on the left, and where it also had a few weasely LOSs down the center of the board. Lt. Franzen had a HS of SS in the building next to him for close support, and the balance of my infantry was up front. In the right-most hex of the building on the right, I had the 9-1 w/lmg/658, supported by a HS in the woods for flank protection; another lmg/658 stack was behind the wall in the center, covering the (not-in-season) grain field along with the 9-1's boys. On the left, I had two 658s forward in the woods, with an 8-1 behind for rally purposes. Finally, a PSK/HS was HIP in the left-hand woods hex right on the board edge where the Brits needed to exit. Oh, the Roadblock was on my right, between the woods and the pond. Dummies were scattered about in a manner pleasing to the eye.
Pooch placed the bulk of the British to drive down his left, my right. Some Infantry was set to probe the center of the board through the woods. After opening things up with some cheeky VBF nonsense with the scout car (only tied up some dummies) Pooch brought his Infantry on. Fortunately (for me) I had lots o' firepower sighted on the hexes two large stacks would have to enter on, barring offboard movement. The first two shots at those hexes bagged a 457 and a 248 KIA, plus a broken squad. Pooch made his only major error of the game here, in not moving offboard to avoid the residual. After that, the British were right on top of my troops in the center and right, and by turn two he had captured the 9-1 and 658 on my right and killed the supporting HS. In exchange, Lt. Franzen smoked a Comet.
In midgame, a self-rally generated a leader on my left, which allowed me to be much more aggressive with the 8-1 on that side. I moved him up with a 658 to harrass a squad struggling to rally, a concealed leader, and a good-order squad. Pooch searched these guys to strip concealment (he thought they were dummies) which earned me another dead HS through search casualties. My next turn, Pooch's fire only made the 8-1 heroic, and I leaped into CC, getting 1.5 squads and a 7-0. I was up to eleven CVPs (there's another dead HS somewhere), while Pooch had nine. At this point Pooch nearly conceded, but there was still a chance he could get the balance of his points if he got the Tiger and captured some of my rapidly ELRing troops.
I played fairly recklessly from this point, trying to get that last CVP. This cost me my heroic 8-1 and broke his squad to a 447, as they stalked the Stuart. Much to Pooch's dismay, the squad bounced back with *another* leader creation on the self-rally, and again set off to get the Stuart. The Stuart would have none of this and overran the 8-0/447 in a tree nursery hex. Two Panzerfausts blistered the paint on the thing but did little else; fortunately, Lt. Franzen was paying attention and sent a shell through the rear of the Honey, cooking the crew for the final VP I needed.
In all, our game was marked by some of the luck Matt noted: two leader creations on self-rally sure helped my cause. Also, losing 1.5 squads in the opening MPh hurt the Brit's already infantry-poor force. Still, we had a good game, and I will try it again. We never had a chance to roll for Franzen's Chinese Fire Drill SSR; the only shot taken at the beast missed. I believe the British must concentrate their force, and play as much for points *on* the board as for exit points. Pooch eschewed the woods half of the board out of respect for Panzerfausts, but I'd be tempted to try that side myself - open ground is a bitch, and I'll take my chances against the 'fausts. This scenario is definitely fun, and I'm sure it will see lots of tourney action.
JR