SS with and ELR of 1 supported by french Flame Tanks and a Stug vs British 458 ELR 5 boys with two piats (split a sqaud and set up both Piat half sqauds HIP) and a 57L AT gun with Unlimited APCR...ie one hit = one kill.
We diced for sides and I got the germans.
I decided to bring on the flame tanks on turn two, as I figured I would go for the exit victory condition, and you have to have at least one tank if not two exit the board to have any chance at it. I figured with ELR 1 troops, the likelihood of many german infantry units exiting was low.
I went for the "Wings" entry, with a platoon creeping up each board edge an the Stug providing smoke coverage. My opponent didn't set up any units to hinder this movement. I recommend this for anyone playingthe birts. Make sre you put a squad at each edge to get -2 shots in the open at germans.
Anyway this surprised my opponent who thought I';d creep p thru the Orchard area. Turn 2 saw my flamtanks come on board. We were getting short on time (less than an hour) so I ran 'em up and let loose with the Flamethrower at one he range...first tank only pins a concealed brit, and the 47mm fired BFF and rolls a Critical! Sadly the 8-1 shot rolled a "10" for a big nothing...oh well....Second Flametank gets nailed by the AT gun. My Infnatry manage to ambush a concealed Brit and kill it.. all this is on the german left side.
Turn 3 sees me with enough points on the left to exit the edge and win barring any lossed. He has nothing over there, so i fige theres a hip HS with a Piat... At this point we have 10 minutes and the wife is watching us...So I go "what the hell", roll the Flametank along the road and see what happens....of course the HS is hip in the orchard road, fired the Piat, hit, got a possible shock, no effect...I try to flame him, but roll a Boxcars...so I go for the big 6 FP overrun...nothing....tanks exits....infnatry move up next to said HS and kill it....nothing is nearby to prevent a german win, so we call it a game and pack up.
ASL in 2 hours...it can be done!
Hersh
PS: A good tourney size scenario, but with fairly limited attack/defense options the replay value may be on the low end.
German: Bryant Glando
British: Doug Bush
Ring of Fire is yet another enjoyable "Market-Garden" scenario featuring elite forces slugging it out. In this case, the British force is part of the 1st Airborne's perimeter which is fighting against a German SS force of 8 squads with flame tank and assault gun support. To stop them the Brits have seven squads (458s), three leaders, a 57L AT, and two PIATs.
Setup
British: I decided that the most dangerous infantry avenue of approach was the woods dominating the north half of the board, so I put 4 squads, a PIAT, and the MMG on that side. To the south of the GG5-R3 road, a large orchard dominates and makes that side a good armored avenue for the Germans. The AT gun went in Z3 and 3 squads, the other PIAT and the 51mm filled out that side's defense. I was hoping to kill two tanks, one with the AT gun and another with a PIAT, which would give me 12 CVP and put me very close to the 16 CVP automatic win for the Brits and hopefully make Bryant very cautious with his infantry force. The boresight hexes were DD4 for the MMG and DD7 for the 57L.
Turns 1 & 2
Bryant weighted his attack in the wooded avenue, sending 5 squads and two leaders that way. On the south side, he moved his Stug III to EE5 and a kill stack (9-1/658/346/MMG) to the DD4 building. The two ex-french B1 flame tanks crept on to FF2 and FF3 on the edge of the big orchard. The Brits held their fire on turn 1A except for the MMG killing a 348 as it crossed the road in FF5. Turn 1B saw the Brits open up with little effect. The Brit MMG hit the big German stack in DD4 with two snake eyes in a row, but fantastic MC rolls by Bryant let him get away with only a broken 658 who quickly rallied the next turn. My initial line of infantry in the woods in BB8/BB9 quickly fell apart after some horrible attack and morale rolls on turn 2, which foretold of bad things to come on that flank. Still, despite my problems in the woods, after turn 2 the 1st airborne boys were holding the attack into the orchard at bay with a stubborn 9-1/458/PIAT stack in BB3 and my still HIP 57L ! gun.
Turns 3 & 4
Then disaster started to befall the Brits...
First, some good searching moves by Bryant in the woods around X8 uncovered both my remaining dummy stack and my HIP stack (8-1/458/PIAT). The resulting exchange of first fire, final fire, FPF, and advancing fire ended in the total collapse of that flank for the Brits (three 9s in a row from my only GO 458 on that side didn't help!) There were now five SS squads in the X8/X7 area with nothing to stop them but a broken 458 and an 8-0. The woods flank collapsing also led to my guys in the orchard getting hit with fire from their flank. On the other side of the main road, more crap dice rolls broke my 9-1 and the squad he was with, opening up the way for the armor to move in. My AT gun knocked out one of the flame tanks as it moved into CC2, but the crew survived on another great roll from Bryant. Aside from giving me two less CVP, this crew ended up taking out the AT gun crew in CC !
Turn 5
In the woods, Bryant continued to push toward the exit edge. It was pretty much over at this point, but the final insult was a twelve hex shot from a buttoned-up B1 flame tank (another 4) which took out my last squad with it's 47mm main armament. Bryant then moved off his remaining two tanks and some infantry for the win.
Analysis:
British
The large wooded area is even more dangerous to the Brits than I feared. The German player can get into the woods in force quite easily since they extend to within two hexes of the entry edge. There are a couple decent spots that the MMG could go in to set a fire lane to slow this down, but the ammo shortage SSR kills that option. I think the British player must setup five of his seven squads in this area. The woods from Z7 to Z10 is a good first defense line. I set up a little to far forward and the SS firepower was too much to handle at close range. This defense line backed up by some more Brits in hexrow W may have worked.
On the other side of the road, the remaining two squads, the 51mm, the PIATs, and the 57L are capable of delaying any SS push in that area. The farm buildings around V2 are a good fall back position.
German
The German player has a lot of options, but has to be careful with his armor due to the 16 CVP cap. Bryant's attack into the woods was very well done, and since he was careful with his armor he was able to be agressive with his infantry attack. In the end, despite his armored attack stalling in the orchard, his success in the big wooded area allowed him to flank my orchard defense and break through. But for my horrible dice rolls in the last 1.5 turns, this could have easily gone down to the wire, and I highly recommend this TOT scenario.
Doug Bush