Played a Pegasus Bridge scenario for the first time on Saturday. For the life of me, I can't remeber the name of the scenario. I know, what a loser. Was it Ham and Bloody Jam PB1? The Brits land 6 squads, 3 hs sappers in 3 gliders and the Germans defend the bridge.
This was Scott Flagg's first time playing ASL in about 6 years. Neither of us had played night before, nor had we ever done a glider landing before.
Germans set up as follows:
wire in V20
trench in W21 (70, 436 w lmg hidden)
trench with 1 436
in X21
wire with 1 hs 248(?) in X23
50mm AT exmplaced in X20 and crew
436
w lmg in building Z20
pillbox in Z21 facing Y20/Z22 hexside w 1 248 and MMG
trench
in AA21 with 436
wire in BB21 with dummy stack.
Now in words for those without the board:
Bridge is to the West over the canal. I had to clear the bridge. Facing west towards the bridge one sees a line of 2 trenches and a wire at the end. Each trench has a squad. A AT gun is behind them. To the right is a building with a squad. A Trench and a wire cover the road. With a squad in the trench and a dummy under the wire. In front of the building is a pillbox facing SE. A few hexes before you get to the bridge is a little rise. To the SE of the rise is a wire hex with a hs under it.
I am going to paraphrase the action.
The first turn, I landed in the irrigated fields to the NE of the bridge (DD24, GG24, GG23). Landing was no problem. Though I probably landed to far away to win the scenario. I was roughly 7-9 hexes from the bridge.
Turn two I split my stacks up into individual squads and crept two squads within NVR (2 hexes) of the dummy under the wire. I was hoping my opponent would open fire and I would blast his gun flashes with all my other units. This didn't happen obviously. The German drove his jeep reinforcements into bypass with the building and unloaded his 8-1 and para squad.
Turn three I shot the dummies and revealed them. The rest of my units advanced as far as the hedge separating the fields from the bridge approach. I had a 9-2, 658, and a 248 get hung up on the wire north of the bridge. They were fired upon wounding the leader and breaking the hs. The 658 was never able to get enough MP to move off the wire the rest of the game. I had one group charge the pillbox, while another moved between the pillbox and wire to face the unit in the trench. His squad in the trench was quickly broken and reduced. This squad fled into the building. Attacking the pillbox broke and or reduced the squads I sent in. They were stripped of concealment by a FG formed by the MMG in the pillbox and the building. The men in the trenches across the street finished them. I split one squad from the two attacking his northern trench to advance into CC with the hs pillbox. At 3-1 I easily dispatched him. I rolled a 2 for something (I forget what) activating his sniper. His sniper proceded to kill my sniper. My SAN being reduced to 1 I removed him from the map.
Turn four I proceded to eliminate the men in the building. Two squads surrendered. I invoked No Quarter and killed them. The paratroop hs was killed outright. His leader ran across the bridge, broken. He finally managed to take possesion of the AT Gun.
Turn five I put my mortar to good use. I placed smoke on both his trenches south of the bridge. Making it hard for him to hit me, but near impossible for me to hit him. I ran a 458 onto the bridge and then advanced him into CC with the gun crew. The germans in the trenches broke him in their prep fire. I broke my mortar in defensive fire.
Turn six I repaired the mortar and got a CH against the trench squad in X21. This activated his sniper who killed my wounded 9-2 who was justing getting back into the action. He routed back one trench to his 70. His hs under the wire in X23 ran back through the drifting smoke to W21. I got two sapper half squads onto the bridge. They were unable to clear the bridge.
Turn seven he pinned one of my sappers from his group in the trench. The other sapper failed his clearance dice roll again. The scenario ended in German victory. With a little more time we were sure that I would have won. He was expecting me to land to the SE of him and a lot closer.
I am not sure if there were actually six turns. Just pretend to mush two of the turns together.
We had some interesting questions come up.
How long to gun flashes remain on the map? Someone shoots, I shoot back at his gun flashes. He moves someone else into the hex and moves the original guy out. Do the gun flashes remain?
If I target gun flashes beyond my NVR with my smoke firing mortar, do I pay the +2 to hit for concealment penalty? I mean, I am using the area target type on a hex I can't really see.