"Steel eyed boys" (TOT#2, don't remember the exact reference) side: germans opponent: Nicolas Faussot (Faussot@ensta.fr, but does not read his email often) british win. This AAR was written in conjunction with the british player, so you'll get impressions from both sides of the battlefield.
Here is an extract of a mail Mike Reed sent me to balance the scenario:
> I have a bit of 'errata' that we've been kicking around for Steel-Eyed
>
Boys that you may wish to incorporate into your game - it's been tested,
>
and seems to work out fine. The changes (minor) are:
>
> 1. No
German unit may move/advance north of hexrow T (ref to board 10) prior to Turn
2.
2. AFV crews may not voluntarily abandon their vehicles.
>
> Feel free to try this - it addresses a minor flaw in that the
German can
> 'screw' the game by immediately setting up to run away
rather than
> making any attempt to defend the village, and win by that
method -
> definitely not in the 'spirit' of the game, but it seemed to
slip by us
> in the playtest, unfortunately. The second fix is just to
avoid the
> 'sleaze' of British crews jumping out of their tanks to grab
VC
> buildings, also not an intention of the design.
Attractions:
Lessons learned:
Plans:
British: (it worked, read it with great attention.)
german:
a few statistics:
The Dice gods were all right during this play, giving almost equal amounts of 2 and 12 to everybody. It was the accumulation of fate in one single player turn and the perfect play of my friend that caused my demise.
Summary of play:
turn one British
smoke is here ! : sM in 10DD8 and 10EE8 sD in E4 infantery smoke in 10EE3 after my sacrificial squad took its first shot... just imagine the board at the beginning of the AFPh, when everything drifts. At the end of the MPh, the british are on the DD hexrow, the tanks are at the good places and the mortars ready to lay down smoke for the second british MPh. the german DFPh and firelanes are mostly ineffective, and in the AFPh, my sacrificial squad is broken and encircled by a 7(DRM +1) IFT attack. They should have drink less milk... Note this squad has to rout to the first level (and will certainly be eliminated for failure to rout in the next british turn) since the penalties for encirclement, smoke and rowhouse bypass makes retreat too long a road.
turn one german
I skulk, retreating my dummies. I also launch local counterattacks on DD7 and CC8 that costs me 1 squad locked in melee in DD7. The british player assembles his SW and eliminates dummies in the wood patch around 10V0.
turn two british
all the british forces will be on board during the next MPh. The prep fire sees one comet malf its MA, one mortar has no smoke and the other one gets one in DD8.
The turning point of the MPh is when a 658+lmg in CC8 cowers (snakes, but to no effect...) and therfore does nor establish a fire lane along the 10CC street. a comet comes and puts sM smoke on CC10 to cover the reinforcing infantery : british troops reinforce one melee in DD7 and positions itself in BB9-BB10.
The flaking platoon takes the woods in V0 and in the center, it is searching time for british half squads. They reveal a HS HIP in DD4 without anu search casualties.
The british horde is on the BB row, with the 9-2 kill stack in point around 10BB3.
In the CCPh, the HS that was once HIP is killed, and we trade one squad in DD7.
turn two german
I see the comet 6's his repair dr. One less tube to cope with... I skuk everywhere except in the BB9 woods wher I launch a strong counterattack. a 658+PSK jumps on a HS+? in AA1 too much alone to my taste but fails to lock him in melee. a 658+lmg is sent to BB5 to slow down the british in the centerline.
turn three british
The smoking mortar lays down two more smokes and the has no more shells. 2 comets intensive fire in prep and both malf their MA. Another one gets an area target type CH in 10Y7. Ouch. In the AA4 rowhouse, a status quo develops : A hip HS of mine KIA a british H, my 658+lmg sent in BB5 makes a 457+piat bersek. a comet rides to O10 and watches the fight from the far end of the village (Y5->Q9 is under his control) During the DFPh, I uncover a 658+MMG+8-0 in W3 and the BB9 woods is still mine : hex CC9 is soon to be overstacked with 4.5 broken squads. slurp. in APh, a 457 from the flanking platoon reaches the T row.
turn three german
two hard points now: the woods around BB9 and the AA4 rowhouse. in the rowhouse, everything goes his way: my squad+lmg is broken in DFPh, and the HS eats his own panzerfaust. Ack!, having a white colored dice with a to hit DR is not a good thing for a half squad... in the house, everything goes my way, and I even manage to gain concealement again.
turn four british
the british rally DR are very good, and almost everything is back in the saddles again, especially in the BB9 woods. A FT is Xed in PFPh, and the infantery small arms fire creates a fanatic plus hero in BB10. During the MPh, Nicolas takes the AA4 rowhouse and sets up a fire base in AA5 with 3 squads, 2 MMG and the 9-2. He begins to assault the Z6 building, getting one squad inside (who will later earn the victoria cross....) and one HS in the street just behind. All the tanks enter the village, except the last one who covers the BB9 woods. The british sets up a very nice infantery assalut on a MMG of mine in W3, but it sadly ends with a 12 in CC which allows me to withdraw in W4 and survive one more turn. at this point, the german has already suffered 2 ELR drops. For those interested, I have the description of the map at this moment of the game.
The end of the game was very quick, as I could not pass a single MC or rally my men. In the end of the game, my last hip (658 DC in Z7) is revealed by a 4+3 shot... I get overwhelmed, encircled, enshrouded in sM and the game ends in the turn 7 german MPh, when I have no more units on board, except a few unpossessed SW.
anyway, I enjoyed the game, and highly recommend it for play. Maybe it's not the easiest way to take a win as the germans, but the victory conditions can reward a very aggresive dsefense of the german player.
I'll get to you next week, for an AAR of beyond the PakFronts from the march madness pack.
Guillaume Counio