A good ASL week for me as I have played 4 games already and there is still the Calgary Highlanders Club meeting on Saturday. Probably a record for me.
My first game was HOWARD'S MEN from PB. This is the second scenario in the pack and is a night action. I had the German's and Brent Lloyd had the Brits. It was Brent's first night scen, so we took things nice and slow and I had him re-setup as he was unaware of the free 25% HIP, and the free ? counters that come with being a night defender. Luckily he didn't have to learn about the terror of No Move restrictions as they are removed by SSR.
Brent's setup was largely defined by the scenario card, as was much of mine, so straight to the action. Things got off on the wrong foot for me as I poured tremendous fire onto his PIAT/hero and couldn't scratch him. I thought one of my tanks was going down for sure. Things got off to a similar start for Brent when his PIAT hero didn't manage to bag one of the tanks but malfed instead.
I tried to work my way mostly through the village itself along the Z,AA, and BB rows, with a flanking force taking the long way round via the DD and EE rows, and the tanks heading the other direction up the hill and down the X and W rows. Brent's HIP units turned out to be at X14 and X16, giving rise to much pouring over the rulebook to see what to do when a tank drives into HIP infantry. After almost giving up the game for good, we made some best guesses (which turned out to be correct) and continued. He didn't manage to bag my tanks and my OVRs were unsuccessful, other than to break one squad. Subsequently, he managed to immobilize one of my beasts and that tank played a cruel game with the lowcrawling broken squad for almost the rest of the game.
Brent's 9-2 stack was in the Cafe Gondree at X18 and his other strongpoint was in the Cafe Picot at Z17. I slowly worked my way down (after successfully dealing with the AT gun on the other side of the canal). The endgame descended into a CCfest. All I needed was to get a unit into Z16 or AA17 and have it hang on until the end. I managed to do it by getting some lucky rolls in the next to last turn CC phase. Brent's only units left were the 9-2 and a squad at X18. I drove my remaining tank into the hex to tie them up and prayed. His Streetfighting attack failed and the game was mine.
One other odd thing about the game was my HMG. I don't think it fired a shot. I managed to get it to Z14 assembled. But Brent broke me, I dropped it and routed. He moved in and scooped it, I broke him and he dropped it and routed, and back and forth all game. It was never a factor other than the amount of blood and effort expended trying to possess it. IT was cursed.
AFTERTHOUGHTS...
I think it would be pretty tough to go for the quick win (ridding the area near the bridge of good order Brit MMC. I don't know if I would have put both IP in the grain on teh hill as Brent did. One did immobilize a tank, but the other was more or less wasted and could have been better used on the other side of the road. Brent did man the AT gun and at first it seemed like a mistake as the DRMs were astronomical, but eventually it became effective and I did have to take tmie out to whack it.
This was a very fun scenario and a great one for night newbies as Brent didn't have to learn all the intricacies of night at once. He's well set up for his next night scen. Other than the accidental OVR rules fiasco, the only other tricky bit was the slope rules as neither of us have played much KGP. Also, that are around the swamp at Z9- is that all level -1?
Grant Linneberg