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Oct01

Two Rounds of Asculum

by Rindis on October 1, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

So after our deep-space excursion, Patch and I were back for the second Pyrrhic battle, Asculum, from Expansion #1 of Commands & Colors: Ancients at the beginning of September It’s about the same mix as last time, but this time, both sides are pretty much back against their base lines, and the Romans only get four cards to Pyrrhus’ six (but they do go first). A unique twist is that while both sides get to leaders, they do not have a fixed set up; instead, you draw your initial hand, and then place them with whatever units you want.

I had Pyrrhus the first time, and put my commanders at the right end of my Heavies, and with my left MC, while Patch put his at either end of his center. Patch started with a Line Command to move up, and I Ordered Two Left to move into skirmish range. Patch moved the flanks up with Out Flanked, and I used Move-Fire-Move, with hot dice to do three blocks to a Light, and forced another one to retreat. Patch mostly stayed in place while Ordering Lights, and caused a LB to retreat after losing a block. I used Move-Fire-Move again to move them back, and did two blocks to a Medium while forcing the wounded Light to retreat. Patch drove a LC with Order Three Left, and then Darken the Sky did a block and a banner to a Light and forced his wounded Medium to retreat. Order Two Left allowed him to engage my LB, who evaded back to the baseline.

I moved up with a Line Command, and Patch used Leadership Any Section to bring his left flank forward. Inspired Left Leadership brought my left up, and my Warriors (first time we’ve seen those in ages) charged in with a MC, knocking out an Aux while taking two blocks on the Warriors. Order Four Center brought most of his Mediums into contact, but only did three blocks across two Heavies while taking seven blocks across three Mediums. Inspired Center Leadership reorganized things a bit, and I finished off all three Mediums for no losses. A Coordinated Attack let him finish off a weak Heavy, and force a LB to evade, while assembling a better line in the center, but momentum advance with his Heavy did a block to me in return for taking two and retreating back to his line.

Order Mediums put our centers into contact, while on my right a pair of MC traded a block each. The center went horrible, doing two blocks to an Aux, who wiped out a MC and did another block to my Warriors. Order Two Center let him wipe out a Medium and finish off the Warriors at no cost. Order Heavies brought up my Elephants, who finished off a MC, while I did three blocks and a banner to an unsupported Heavy. Patch Ordered Three Center to finish off my Heavy and do two blocks and a banner to a Medium. He then used Momentum to chase it down and finish it off. 5-6

For the second go, I had the Romans, with only four cards. But led with one of three Line Commands after putting one leader on the right Heavy and the other near the left end of the main line. Patch put a leader with the Warriors, and the other at the right end of the Heavies, which moved up with an Order Two Center. Out Flanked (my fourth beginning card) got me to skirmish range while the MC moved up. Patch Ordered Three Left for our MC to trade blocks (and his took a banner to retreat to the baseline), and I Ordered Two Right to do a block to a LC while it evaded to the baseline. Patch Ordered Four Left to cut off my MC who died on a banner, while a Light evaded back to my line. A second Line Command got me closer, and ranged fire did a block to his Warriors. Patch Ordered Two Left to reorganize a little, and Inspired Right Leadership moved me up a little and let me do a block to a MC with ranged combat.

Patch Double Timed his heavies into my line, knocking out a Medium (five hits on his third try… a bit late) and doing two blocks to another, but lost a Medium block and three Heavy blocks, and had to retreat three units. My third Line Command let me wrap around his intact Heavy, and I knocked it out with two attacks, taking no damage myself. Patch Rallied, rebuilding two Heavies to full strength, who then came in and knocked out a weak Medium, reduced another to a block, and took no damage himself. I Ordered Three Center, and came up to the end of his line, and moved a leader who had just lost his unit to a new Heavy, and wiped out Patch’s second Heavy.

Patch Out Flanked, but his MC muffed a roll against a 1-block Medium who did two blocks and forced them to retreat back to the baseline. His Warriors did two blocks to an Aux, who did two blocks back, wiping them out, and then Patch lost the leader with them. Leadership Any Section moved my right up, and I forced his LB to evade, and finished off his 1-block MC. Patch Ordered Heavies, finishing off my weak Medium, and doing a block to an evading Light. I Ordered Three Center to move a solid core up and take out a Medium. 6-4

Afterword

The first game started with some punishing hot dice from me, especially on archery, and I dominated the initial exchange of blows. But one bad turn cost me three good units and put Patch into reach of a win, which he got two turns later. However, both sides were completely smashed with no semblance of a line left.

In the second, an amazing initial draw continued with more good cards which kept me in motion, and concentrated on the center. I despaired a bit when Patch pulled out that Rally, as I didn’t want to fight fresh Heavies all over again, but I got lucky with one of them, and advanced past the other.

Both Heraclea and Asculum live up to the promise of ‘Pyrrhic Battles’, as generally speaking even the victor will be fairly smashed up. My win here as the Romans is probably the best shape I was in at the end of any of the four matches. The Romans won both times for Asculum, but they were accompanied by a heavy dose of good luck.

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Sep23

SG33 Treasure Ship

by Rindis on September 23, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

Looking things over, I had noticed there were a few ‘general’ SFB scenarios that are geared to around the current play date of our group (instead of ~Y175) shortly before Patch suggested a Star Fleet Battles game. I put together a package of possibilities, and we went with “Treasure Ship”, where a freighter on robot controls emerges from the WYN cluster, and two of their neighbors fight over who gets to take the prize home. (One of them paid for the valuable resources on board, but the WYN are not above promoting fights by sending the freighter out in range of two ships.)

Of the options, we kept the scenario as small as possible, with Patch taking a Lyran FF and me taking a Kzinti FF, with a small freighter (F-S) up for grabs. (Patch called it ‘two kids fighting over a candy bar.’) Effectively, it’s a frigate-duel, but the freighter is worth two points per intact cargo box to whoever ends up with control of it. The two ships set up on opposite sides of the board, with the freighter in between, running in a straight line at speed 4.

I decided to make a fast grab for the F-S, and try to steer the fight away from it, and possibly disengage (which it can only do by distance), and went speed 28, while Patch went a more sedate 18. Most of the turn was spent running up, and on Impulse 23 I came adjacent and tractored the freighter, then launched a drone, fired the disruptor at Patch, and fired a phaser-1 at the F-S for five points of damage. Which would be perfect for knocking down the shield, except the robot controls put up one point of general reinforcement, and the battery as a second reinforcement, leaving two boxes of shields up. Patch fired both disruptors back on the next impulse, and hit with both for six points on my #6 before turning off. I turned the opposite direction, and Patch turned back a few impulses later. I then fired a Ph-3 into the freighter for three points to knock down the shield, and do one cargo (doh!) internal, and then transported a boarding party and crew unit (prize crew) aboard the next impulse.

Patch stayed at 18, while I boosted to 30 (halved, since I kept the F-S in tractor). This meant skipping the disruptor, and skimping on battery and phaser charging. I ran for half the turn, while trying to figure out how I wanted to get more boarding parties on to the freighter. On impulse 15 I dropped the tractor, and launched a second drone, and then turned the F-S and sideslipped the FF so that it could drop a shield and beam three more BPs onto the freighter through its down shield, with nothing pointing Patch’s way. (Some of this was delayed because I allocated a box of General Reinforcement on the F-S, which blocked the transport, and/or a shuttle, and landing a shuttle aboard was the original plan. Half a turn gave me some time to look things up and realize I could drop the reinforcement for a bit without having to announce it.) Once that was done, I realized I  only had one boarding party left on the FF. Hopefully, I wouldn’t give Patch any chances to board me….

On impulse 18, I launched another drone, this time going speed 12. Patch continued towards the freighter/me, with range to the drones dropping fast, and on 22 he fired both disruptors and a phaser-2 at range three to the F-S to do 8 points (one disruptor missed), for two internals (the general reinforcement had recently come back up), one of which was a cargo box. Patch turned off to avoid drone #2, and I turned the opposite way (now that the shield was back up). On 32, he turned back towards me, and fired on drone #3, which had closed to one hex… rolling a 6 with a phaser-3 to let it live.

Patch stayed at 18 again, while I dropped to speed 19, which allowed me to charge the disruptor, get the phasers fully charged, and start shield repairs, but only trickle a little power into the batteries. The F-S picked up to speed 5, while it finished charging its battery. Both frigates ran with one point of ECM. Patch finished off drone #3 on impulse 1, and I spent the first few impulses finishing a turn back towards Patch, hoping to keep him distracted from the F-S, and get the ESG to deploy so I wouldn’t be facing it and all the phasers in what I hoped would be a main battle pass later. On 8, he turned in, somewhat to my surprise, given how cautious he’d been earlier.

Sadly, I once again forgot to save a log, so I don’t have a direct record of what happened for the rest of turn 3. However, as ranges came down, and I carefully sideslipped for a slightly off-center run, the ESG was announced on impulse 9, and I had a very tense time of trying to get close while being able to maneuver around it… at whatever range Patch set it at. On 13 it came up at range 2, while I was at 3. I fired my disruptor and turned off, while Patch fired the following impulse. On 17, I dropped a (fake) transporter bomb out the shuttle hatch to discourage him from pursuing me while I got a little distance and turned myself back around. Patch sideslipped the opposite way to keep away from it while the two drones shortcutted near it. Patch turned wide around it (thanks to the ESG), and headed for the F-S, ending the turn with the ESG one hex from it.

The F-S, seeing it coming, dropped to speed 3, and put up three reinforcement on shield #4. After that, and blowing the battery, it lost two hull, the phaser (never charged), two cargo, and three out of four warp (ironically, after losing all but two power, it still doesn’t count as crippled, as that requires only having 10% warp power left, not 25%), on impulse 2, when the ESG hit. Oh, and combined with our earlier shots, it had no rear shields left.

Meanwhile, I’d kept at speed 19, overloading the disruptor and putting a point each into ECM and ECCM (the batteries were still getting a trickle of power, and were finally over 2 energy again). Patch stayed at 18 and also had a point each in ECM and ECCM. He turned away on impulse 6, while I was still turning around (Patch mentioned that he had nearly turned in, which would have been a better decision at this point, though I’m not sure how it would have gone). Patch wondered about the mine, as I went by it while turning after him. I pointed out that I could just set it to explode on size classes that weren’t present (say SC 2 dreadnoughts), so that an ESG collision would be the only thing to set it off (“Evil!”), or it could just be a fake (“Also evil!”).

On impulse 12, I got to range 8 and fired the disruptor, hitting to do five damage to his #4. On impulse 21 I fired the forward phaser to do another 4 points (rolled a 1!), getting through the shield, and doing a single forward hull. Patch started fighting to get me off his #4, which left me with the problem of possibly getting too close to him this turn, as I started cutting inside. Drone #1 quietly ran out of endurance on impulse 23… the first time I’ve seen that happen in quite a while.


Turn 4, Impulse 12, showing movement for the full turn.

For turn five, I kept to speed 19, with much the same setup as last turn, but dropping ECM to recharge the one phaser I fired. The F-S continued to crawl off at speed three while starting repairs on a warp engine. Patch went speed 12 with 1/1 electronic warfare, indicating preparations for a close-range pass with two overloaded disruptors, and possibly pumping all he could back into the ESG….

I launched another speed 12 drone (#4) on impulse 1, and Patch turned on 3, with me just outside the forward arc. I turned in, and on impulse 7 got back onto shield 4, doing three points (lousy roll) with the 360 phaser-1 to get a ph-3, a disruptor and a warp. On 8 the new drone got to range one and Patch fired the remaining RS phaser, and a poor roll let it live with three points of damage again. On 9 he finished it off with a downfired ph-2, but I turned to get my FA arc to bear and fired the forward ph-1 and overloaded disruptor to do thirteen internals, at which point Patch conceded.

Afterword

The addition of the freighter does certainly add interest to an otherwise standard small duel. Also, the small ships are always interesting to work with, as they can maneuver, but just don’t have a lot of guts.

I rattled Patch by going fast and grabbing the prize early, but it could have easily backfired. I burned 1.2 battery power on those transporters, and was only putting 1/6 point back into batteries each turn. Also, I inadvertently left myself open to a boarding action if Patch had ever gotten a good pass to knock down a shield. And I largely broke up his best chance with a fake T-bomb.

If things had gotten serious from there, I would have dropped the real one (I only bought one). They’re an extra thing for Lyrans to be wary of, since an ESG will set them off on contact, and apply its damage to the field… or straight to the facing shield (even from three hexes away) if there’s not enough in the ESG to take it. But, it is only 10 points, and it often won’t get past the ESG at that point, though it does compromise its drone defense.

It turned out that Patch had missed the ESG power storage from the WS-III start, so he’d been blowing power on it it he didn’t need to. I was mostly worried we’d have a close range pass, where he had twice as many disruptors (…and similar power, so maybe he couldn’t overload them, but I can miss with one overloaded disruptor a lot easier than he can miss with two standards), just as many main phasers (2s instead of 1s, admittedly), twice as many ph-3s, and could use his ESG to knock down my drones with strength left over (or use the ph-3s for that and hit me with a full ESG ram).

I took half of my drones as type-IIs, and the mix served me well. The two speed-8 drones made good terrain, and the speed-12s got in close and forced him to kill them.

As for what did happen, thirteen internals would have gutted many of his systems, and the next impulse I’d probably follow up with the RS ph-3 for 1-4 more damage. Then I’d go sailing off past him, before lining up for a shot at the near-cripple next turn. Patch gets 6 points for the drones and T-bomb I took, while I get 42 for intact cargo and 15 for forcing a disengage (if not 32 for crippling him, but I don’t think I would have quite gotten there). 57:6 is deep into Astounding Victory territory. If things had lasted longer with the same end result, that could have been chipped away at as the F-S got shot up further.

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Sep19

Operation Dauntless T6-T8

by Rindis on September 19, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

The second ‘getting started’ card for Operation Dauntless has three scenarios meant to get you up and going on the new armor rules (the card is recommended even for those who have played Red Winter). Mark and I tackled them all in our efforts to get a good handle on the game, and played the variants of T6 and T8, with me in my usual role as the British each time.

T6 is meant to showcase Anti-Tank fire and the Armor Reaction Cycle. Five squadrons of Shermans face off with three companies of Pz IVs, trying to get control of a hex in the middle of an open field. Most of the map is closed off thanks to special rules forbidding entry of non-field hexes, nor crossing slopes.

The matchup is interesting, as the Pz IVs have +6 penetration (vs the Shermans), and a range of 6, while the Shermans have +4 vs the Pz IV and a range of 4. Since there’s a -1 per hex of range, it means both sides are rolling at +0 at their maximum range, though the Shermans are always +2 below the Pz IVs. The only British advantage here is the 5:3 odds, especially as the victory hex begins in German hands.

Well, that and going first. I started out with three squadrons running through open terrain to 1209 (hidden behind light hedgerows), taking fire in three hexes, and the first shot hit and reduced one unit. The last two moved forward one hex to just outside the Pz IV’s range. Mark responded by moving up to just out of the second group’s range, with two companies entering LOS of the first group, who reaction fired, but missed. That led to several rounds of Return Fire until a Pz IV connected and reduced another Sherman squadron. The Combat Phase saw one of the reduced squadrons eliminated, but Return Fire reduced a Pz IV company.

I moved the second group up to the victory hex, taking fire from 1511 and 1611, which reduced one squadron, but 1511 was eliminated by Return Fire from my first group. I skipped the Combat Phase entirely, so as not to let Mark get extra shots off. Mark sent the Pz IV in 1611 to join the one in 1411 (staying out of range as he could), while the other fired on 1509 and knocked out the reduced squadron there. In the Combat Phase, they both fired on 1509, and reduced the remaining squadron, which reduced a Pz IV on Return Fire.

I moved the first group from 1209 to 1509, but lost two steps on the way in, leaving me two reduced squadrons in the victory hex. This left Mark four shots (assuming I didn’t start an ARC) to eliminate two steps (since full elimination of one side is also a win…), and indeed got one in the Action Phase, and the other in the Combat Phase.

We tried the “Fire on Their Flanks!” variant, but either we missed something basic, or it just doesn’t work. The main idea is that the Germans get three Panther platoons instead of Pz IVs, but they must drive into a crossfire, as the victory hex moves to 0807, and starts under British control.

The Shermans also start near the new victory location, and the advice is to move them to 1007 and 0609 to force rear shots from one group as the Panthers move/fire on the other. Mark obligingly didn’t drive into the trap, instead stopping in 1009 on the first turn, eliminating a Sherman squadron in 0609 during the Combat Phase. With no cover near 0609 (all of Fontenay is a level down, so LOS is clear to all those fields) the remaining Sherman unit there didn’t dare do anything that’d provoke a Reaction, and the group in 1007 couldn’t do anything either, and reacting to anything they did wouldn’t turn the Panthers away from 0609 either.

So I basically passed my second turn, and Mark killed the second Sherman on his second turn. I could either occupy the victory hex, receiving two short-range shots on the way in, and then watch the Panthers either shoot up what’s left (at a rough average of two kills per three shots, and 8 shots for 6 steps not bad odds), or more likely, charge in for an Assault that the Shermans would have to be pretty lucky to survive (needing lots of 9s and 10s for the flank shots). Or, stay in the corner, and at least try to get a flank shot as the Panthers go for the victory hex on the last turn.

That last is what I did, and I did reduce a Panther with a flank shot on the way in. But it’s the only positive result I got in the scenario.

Neither Mark nor I see just how this should force any real number of flank shots, and without that, the scenario just can’t work.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

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Sep11

T3 The Lone Gray Wolf Y160 S1-S2

by Rindis on September 11, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: SFB

“The Lone Gray Wolf” is an interesting mini campaign for SFB that I’ve had some desire to play ever since the days of Commander’s Edition. Back in Captain’s Log #41, there was an ‘update’ to it, positing that this situation could have happened before, maybe an early version was even the reason why it was tried at the height of the General War. This provided for alternate versions of the campaign in each Klingo-Kzinti conflict, which works out to a W-era, Y-era, two ‘middle years’, and late-GW variants of it. The fourth one happens to be set in Y160, our group’s current scenario date, so with our expanded Vassal playing time, I talked Mark into playing through it with me.

A Klingon dreadnought goes alone to the Kzinti capital to negotiate a peace. The talks break down, and the dreadnought is forced to make its lonely way back to Klingon lines, with Kzinti forces hunting for it. There are six Kzinti groups hunting for it, and the dreadnought must survive six scenarios to win through. But, this is not ‘face each force in turn’. Instead, each scenario starts with a die roll to determine which force finds the dreadnought this time. Repeated rolls of the same number will bring up the same ships (worse for wear from the previous scenarios, just like the dreadnought, and if the Kzinti ship(s) were destroyed before, this becomes a ‘free pass’ for the Klingons). The Klingons must conserve fuel, and must stay to speed 20 or below most of the time, and can only disengage by acceleration once in the entire campaign.

Mark volunteered to take the Kzinti, and after some pondering over drone choices (especially for me, as they have to last for six battles), and deciding to try MRS shuttles (which added more drones to the mix), we started in mid-August. The first roll was a ‘6’… the weakest Kzinti group, a single FA-L (drone-armed freighter; also about the only ship unchanged from the original version). Against a C6 early dreadnought (this is the second time I’ve piloted one), Mark’s main hope was to force me to at least expend consumables, either launching drones, or using T-bombs.

Setup is always with the Kzinti a half-map behind the C6, and Mark set up about six hexes off to one side. Initial speeds were 17 for me and 18 for the FA-L. I spent on 4 ECM and 1 ECCM while Mark didn’t spend anything on EW. I spent half the turn getting turned around, while the FA-L first turned to parallel my initial turn, and then turned in. As I started setting up for an oblique attack, Mark fired his two bearing ph-2s at range 7 with a +2 shift to do one point of shield damage, and then turned off. Three impulses later, just short of the oblique, I fired all bearing weapons (4xph-1, 2xph-2, 4xdisruptors overloaded off of batteries) to do 11 internals through shield #5 with below average rolls (phasers never rolled under a 3, and two disruptors hit on a 2/3s chance). Internals were all over, taking out two of three control spaces, and reducing the sensor rating to ‘3’ (making drones a really chancy weapon, as he had a 50-50 chance of losing lockons and all drone tracking next turn), but not taking out any weapons.


Turn 1, Impulse 23, showing movement from Impulse 17 through 32.

Two impulses later, the left waist phasers were in arc, and better rolls did three points through the down shield, for two hull, and one sensor hit, reducing it to ‘0’. By the end of the turn I was six hexes away in a stern chase, and it was obvious that Mark would be trying to disengage by acceleration. I went down to speed 12, overloading the disruptors and recharging the phasers and batteries, while the FA-L went its maximum of 23 (…okay, 31, we forgot about the freighter’s acceleration limits).

I immediately volleyed everything I had, trying to get it down to less than half its original warp power, and unable to disengage by acceleration. The phasers were a bit more mixed (with a 2 in the mix, but also two 6s), but all the disruptors hit, to do 17 internals through the #3 shield. This took out the last control space, two phasers, both impulse, and left just enough warp to disengage with. On impulse 4, I turned to get the right boom phasers into arc, and did two more points to take out the shuttle and a third phaser. After that, the distance opened up, and Mark got me off the down shields, so that I couldn’t do any internals, even if I got the waist phasers to bear, and he disengaged.

We checked what the next group would be after that. And it was… 6! again!

We set up and did a half turn in a short session, just to see if I could get internals before it fled. Between scenarios, all shields are regenerated, and limited repairs can be made (he repaired the sensors, a couple warp, and I don’t recall what else). However, he set up smartly in a far corner, and I couldn’t manage more than about two greater speed than him, and couldn’t do more than dent a shield.

We’ve started scenario 3, which should be much more of a challenge. (Spoiler: he got his second-best group.)

Mark was just too aggressive given the disparity in power between the ships. Of course, group #6 is probably best to see towards the end of the campaign, hopefully after something has done some real damage, and the Klingons have to be a lot more cautious. Catching me with a scatterpack could have been bad, but even that is unlikely to scare an intact C6 much (partially because of drone speeds, and partially because it doesn’t have to give much credence to the FA-L’s pop-guns).

The real goal would be to drag things out. It’s unlikely to go anywhere near twenty turns (at which point he rolls again for another group to show up), but if he can get me thinking about it, I might make a mistake. And of course, short of hoping for that, the goal should be to get me to use T-bombs or drones, but with a fresh C6, the FA-L just couldn’t force that either.

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Sep03

3 Chateau Fury

by Rindis on September 3, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

One of the games Mark and I were enjoying right before FtF games got cut off was Great War Commander. So, as part of our regular weekend rotation, we recently played scenario three “Chateau Fury”, with me reprising my role as the French. The French are counterattacking near the end of the Battle of the Marne, and have a mixed force of regulars and zouaves to attack a four-hex chateau in the middle of the map.

The Germans have less than half as many men, but have the only machine gun on the board, while the French get a 75mm gun as reinforcements. Both sides have the usual hidden VP chit, while the known common one is 3 VPs for the chateau. Mark set up spread in a loose line through the village on his side of the map, with one platoon in the chateau (he would have had a second in there, but he’d be out of command range, and we hadn’t yet picked up the fact that being in an objective would keep him in cohesion). I set up one big group with three leaders to go through the walled grove and rush the chateau, with a second group ready to try for a flanking action later. (I had got lucky, and my secret objective was another VP for the chateau.) Artillery support was extremely confused in the actual fight, and here there’s a a SSR that has any artillery request just draw a random hex, move to the nearest occupied hex to that, and automatically break everyone there.

For once, I started with a move cards, and advanced directly on the main objective. Mark had an artillery request… which came down next to Lt Hertzler (his commanding officer) to break him and the MG squad! (The odds were that I’d be closer to any random location on the map, but it hit his most important units….) I then moved up into the chateau, breaking off two platoons to take cover behind a wall and put pressure on his flank. Mark discarded, and I had ineffective fire, while moving up to the edge of the woods on the left. The Germans finally opened fire, getting some high command meddling, and doing reconnaissance to find out my objective, but failed to affect me, other than a sniper breaking a platoon.

I fired again to no effect, and my platoon recovered. (I worried that I should wait a while before doing that, and was proven right.) The Germans fired again, and I counterattacked to supress the platoon in the chateau (illegally; he hadn’t been activated). The Germans moved a platoon closer to the center, and I fired (on my turn) still getting no result, but Cne Fleury (my commanding officer) was broken by a sniper. The Germans advanced into his position, ambushing and breaking my platoon there, though elan and a charge gave me some hope (along with a strong roll), while the Germans were feeling unternehmungslustig, and just missed tying the melee, losing their platoon and control of the chateau.

I tried causing Hertzler to rout, but instead he and his platoon recovered, and a new German platoon moved into the chateau. Fleury recovered (along with all the men left out of cohesion by his break), but the platoon with him merely became suppressed. My right flank went on the offensive, with one platoon breaking to enemy fire (we hadn’t caught that an fire action gives a lot of potential opportunities to fire), but my ending fire broke one of his platoons, and a sniper broke Hertzler. Further fire did nothing, but activated German air support, which suppressed a platoon.

Further German fire still did nothing, but another artillery request broke Ltn Lehas (a ‘1’ leader still back in the grove) and the platoon with him. I recovered all my broken units, and advanced into K3, eliminating the broken platoon there, and more fire finally broke the German platoon in H4. German fire suppressed G5, my fire did nothing, but German sappers placed wire in J2. Mark tried recovering, but while Hertzler did, the platoon in H4 merely became suppressed. Hertzler tried moving across the road, to back up the chateau, but my fire broke the platoon he was with, and Hertzler opted to stay with him, and a sniper broke Ltn Antoine (my second leader, in charge of the left flank). I advanced into H4, and finally took out the second German platoon in the chateau.


Situation just as the first time trigger goes off. (VPs are slightly off, we didn’t catch the actual VPs for unit elimination until very late.)

During the melee, both our decks finally depleted, setting off two time triggers, and reconnaissance revealed Mark’s objective chit as +1 VP for objective 1 (A3). Mark discarded again, and I recovered, getting Antoine back, who then moved his force out into the field. Defensive fire was mostly ineffective, but Antoine was suppressed (with a really bad roll; I used my strategy card to boost it to the suppress). Some fire from the center suppressed Hertzler. Mark went on the offensive to get Hertzler out of the road, and broke a platoon of zouaves with fire from E3, and then used advance to get the broken MG platoon out of the road. I moved up on the left, but some hidden wire kept me from getting quite as far as I wanted. Mark recovered, and fired to eliminate my broken platoon, while a sniper broke Tignous (my right-flank officer).

We both discarded for a turn, and Mark advanced into K3. I used bayonets and two charges, while Mark was unternehmungslustig again, and beat me out by one point to win the melee. I had almost no hand, and therefore no turn, while Mark fired, breaking G4, and setting off a time trigger. Hptm Waldau moved back to face the chateau, and I fired with no effect only because Mark used concealment. I used artillery denied while Mark discarded, and then I used a second one to remove his phone permanently. I tried to recover, but my broken platoon in G4 only became suppressed. I then moved, getting my left into the village.

Mark fired a couple times, eliminating the broken platoon in G4. I advanced in to E3 and killed the platoon there in melee. Mark fired and broke the victorious Antoine and platoon. He then placed a runner, and I called an air assault, which suppressed Waldau in J3. That allowed an offensive to surround the building, and broke the leader and platoon despite concealment. Mark advanced Hertzler into Antoine’s hex (and the runner towards the board edge), for a melee that was closer than it should have been on a good roll for me, and we passed the initiative back and forth a bit until it settled with Mark as he got a second good roll. I then fired, and wiped out Waldau and platoon on a double-break.

Hertzler fired on G4, with no effect, but a sniper broke my platoon in C2. I tried moving up to get a big combined shot against Hertzler, but fire from him and the MG broke three platoons and Lehas, and one platoon was eliminated as it was forced to stop (by breaking) on top of another broken unit. Mark discarded for his turn, which was just enough respite, as I’d drawn a recover at the end of my turn, which rallied all my remaining units, and a sniper broke the fusiliers with Hertzler. I then fired, and double-broke the fusiliers to put the Germans to their surrender limit. (The attack was not quite legal, I forgot the ‘chained together’ bit of a firegroup—which should be second-nature to me—and the lowered amount wouldn’t have done it. On the other hand, I had an Advance to follow up with, for a 9:6 melee, so I’d probably have won that way.)

Afterword

So far, we’ve seen a turn around in fortune in the middle of each game. In this case, I had a strong start, getting into the chateau without trouble. The problem was, despite a strong start, sitting out the clock was at best, iffy from a VP standpoint. And once Hertzler got back into action the MG he commanded started causing all sorts of problems, as an 11-point attack (MG=8, +2 command rating, +1 for the platoon firing with it) was too hard to survive.

I managed to keep pressure up, and got really lucky with the air support suppressing Waldau, giving me the opportunity to get rid of him. But after that, I was afraid my struggles to get further would just wear me away until I couldn’t win. Certainly, my last move had me despairing, but thankfully Mark was out of useful cards, and thankfully, I drew a Recover just when I needed it. In fact, that entire last draw was stellar, with the Fire and Advance cards coming with it.

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Aug26

Two Rounds of Heraclea

by Rindis on August 26, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

After finishing off “Happy Valley“, Patch and I went for our usual round of Commands & Colors: Ancients on July 22 and 29. Up this time was the Battle of Heraclea from Expansion #1, the first of two battles that made Pyrrhus of Epirus exclaim ‘one more victory such as this and I am undone!’

The Roman army (the first time it’s come up since we started going through them in order) is a bit tougher, but is back on the baseline. Epirus’ army isn’t poor though, and has plenty of light bows on one flank, and elephants on the other. An interesting special rule is that Roman infantry can’t ignore banners from elephants. If there’s a banner result, they will be retreating.

I had Pyrrhus first, and led off with Order Lights to move up the LB, and picked off one medium block. Patch engaged them with Order Two Right, and I evaded, and hit back with Order Four Left, and drove them off again with one block loss. Inspired Right Leadership brought his MC into contact, while the rest of the flank moved forward, but he just lost another block. Order Three Center reestablished my line, and got Patch’s Light down to one block.

Patch used Order Mediums to get both flanks in motion, though all the action was on his right, where he drove a LB back to hills on the baseline, and did two blocks to an Aux… who then got three triangles to wipe out the damaged Medium. I moved up my center, and Patch used Order Three Right to reduce a LB to one block, do a block to an Aux, which forced a Light back on a banner. Darken the Sky reduced a MC to one block, and did a block to a Heavy. Line Command only put one unit in contact, but he finished off an Aux, and then did three blocks to another before retreating.

I Ordered Two Right to bring up the elephants, and Patch used Inspired Center Leadership to smash in to the forward part of my line, finishing off the Aux, and wiping out a Med. Mounted Charge sent my Elephants towards his center, and my cavalry against his, knocking out a MC, reducing another to one block, and forcing the third to evade while I lost one block. Order Mediums activated a MC on each flank, while his center pushed forward. He finally drove off my LB, and and knocked out a heavy (taking two blocks in the process), eliminated an Elephant, and drove off a MC, but failed a momentum attack, causing him to take two hits and retreat.

Order Heavies allowed my smashed center to engage his strung out forces, knocking out two Mediums and Cassius, forcing another to retreat with two losses, while the remaining Elephant caused a block and two retreats to an Aux. Patch Ordered Three Left, trying to pick off my Elephants with smashed units, and did a block to them with archery, but his one-block MCs couldn’t get a hit, and the Elephants did on battle back. 7-6

Patch led off the second game by moving some of his Heavies up, and we went a couple turns after that trying to get our armies in shape, ending with me using a Line Command to get forward. Patch Out Flanked me to reduce two MC for no losses, and did a hit on a Heavy with archery. I Ordered Mounted, but only drove off one MC in return for taking a block. Patch Ordered Four Right, and knocked out two MC, and forced the last one back to the baseline with one block.

I Ordered Mediums, and moved the remnant MC out of the way, while forcing two LB to evade. Patch Ordered Two Center, doing a block to a Med, while I did a block back to an Aux (on a double banner into his line). Leadership any Section moved up my right, and I knocked out an Aux, taking a hit in the process. Patch Ordered Four Center to do six blocks across three units, taking five blocks in return. I Counterattacked, knocking out two Heavies, but losing one in return. Patch Ordered Three Center, knocking out three Mediums, and taking two blocks in return. I Counterattacked again, and did three blocks to a Heavy, who retreated out of range of my second attack. Patch Ordered Three Center again, and knocked out another Heavy. 3-7

Afterword

The first play was very… Pyrrhic, with both armies thoroughly smashed. Patch had done fairly well, but just couldn’t bring it to a close. The second game, my hand was very uncooperative. I started with cards that would all be good a couple turns in, but I needed to deploy a bit first or lose about half of it.

The Romans have what it takes to win this battle, but they are in a hard position, and managing to fight while working out of it is rough. Even with Patch’s fairly convincing win as Pyrrhus, he’d nearly run out of heavier units, and more action on the flanks instead of the center may have caused a very different result.

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Aug02

AP73 Happy Valley

by Rindis on August 2, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I’s latest ASL fight revisited Action Pack 8, with “Happy Valley”, an early armor clash between the Americans and Germans (with a couple Italians thrown in) during the race to Tunis in November 1942. It’s not DTO, but there’s plenty of arid terrain, with brush turned into cactus patches, woods turned into olive groves (regular orchards are still that, and out of season), and all walls and hedges are cactus hedges (that’s a lot of spines on that board).

The Americans are defending the board 6a village with four squads, two MMG, two 81mm MTR, a 37LL ATG, two M3 GMC, and a T30 HMC. In addition, there are three HIP Stuarts who can set up nearly anywhere, and three more that come in on turn 1. The at-start Stuarts are meant for an ambush, as they are revealed in the same way as emplaced guns, and their TCA can be whatever is desired when first revealed. The Germans enter on turns 1 and 2 (BS is NA for the Americans, something I forgot during setup, and wasted a fair amount of time on…) with twelve squads (mostly 1st Line, but there’s three 5-4-8s), as passengers in trucks and halftracks, a couple of ATRs, DCs, six Pz IVs, three Pz IIIs, and two Italian AB 41 armored cars. They need to cross most of boards 2 and 40 to get at the victory area and take all the buildings there in 6.5 turns, and get random air support every other turn.

There’s three or so general approaches, the most obvious is right down the center along the board 2 road. There’s a fair amount of hindrance, but it’s a straight shot in more ways than one. One thought that worried me is swinging around the east side of the hill. It would be slow going for the trucks, but it would allow getting fairly close without worrying about defensive fire. To the west, the board 40 hill overlooks the victory area, and has a good amount of cover, and there’s a gully in front of the hill. Two of the Stuarts set up HD on level 1 hills, with the bow pointed along the hill for a quick getaway, and the third was in 2D7, where it could cover the D4 farm area, and possibly ambush that east route. One MTR was hidden inside the village with 6aP12 to act as spotters (with the MMG—I seem to have missed the second one when pulling counters), the ATG was in P10 to look down the center

Patch mostly went for the center route, entering just his armor on the first turn, and keeping the mounted infantry back. The first couple tanks started climbing the board 2 hill, while the first AC started down the center road before climbing up the shoulder, and ending next to one of my hidden Stuarts who promptly rolled a 10 and 11 to miss and reveal himself, and then malfunction the MA on IF. He also set up a park near the main road, and around of the base of the smaller hill, with one Pz IV a hex away from my hidden Stuart, with a Pz III with it’s turret pointed that way, and an AC behind the position.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left. The river is fordable, but neither of us bothered, especially with the north end having three places with no dry land. EC is “Dry”.
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Jul21

Lost Time

by Rindis on July 21, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Mark and I have fallen into a bunch of fairly regular Vassal sessions over the past few months. Our primary slot has been our learning sessions with Operation Dauntless, and we had a few weeks of three-day weekends, so I proposed we start something a bit faster moving than our fumbling learning sessions, and well-known to the both of us, and we ended up going for A Victory Lost, doing one turn per session, and it (after a later schedule shuffling) became our Sunday morning slot.

Now, neither of us has ever been experts, and it’s probably been a decade since I last played, so expect a lot of sub-optimal play from us (moving HQs was a particular problem on a few occasions, espeically later, since the module, for all its great features, doesn’t mark the HQ as active along with everything else, so it can be easy to forget).

Mark wanted the Germans, so I started with a decision to mostly press in the center, keeping the 1GdA, 3GdA, 5ShA, and 5TkA chits (along with Popov who shows up at the end of turn 4), and of course picking 1GdA for the special combat segment, which eliminated the Ravenna division and retreated Julia and Tridentia, but got no effect on Cosseria and Cuneense.

Turn 1 chit sequence: 5TkA – 3GdA – 1GdA – R3A – Hollidt – 4PzA – STAVKA

My first chit draw also saw my first losses, as I tried a 1.5:1 and two 2:1s to get across the initial river lines (thought it was three 2:1s until I saw a town, which reduced it to 1.5:1), for a pair of A1 results, but I pushed the 7Lw back to break that line in the middle. I got a mechanized division across a gap for a second try to eliminate a pair or Romanian divisions, and then blew open the Italian sector (pretty standard stuff), to start heading west, with the 1st heading south towards Millerovo after bouncing the It8A HQ away from the remaining Italians. However, a 3:1 was NE, to keep a road clogged.

The Romanians ordered a fall back, with units heading to Millerovo, while the 62nd shifted to hold the flank of the southern line. Hollidt also fell back, with a thin line of infantry while the 11Pz headed northwest toward Millerovo. 4th Panzer Army sent two divisions circling behind the lines towards Hollidt and everything else putting up a light screen… safely away from the Russians. Stavka found that three divisions had been too eager, and were out of command range, so my tanks (most notably) didn’t roll any further forward. There wasn’t a lot of combats, and notably, the Hungarians refused to budge to a 2:1 in the north, even as the Italians next door ran for the hills.

Mark put all three new divisions and Kempf in and around Valuyki, and F-Pico went to Millerovo, while I put the 2Tk a bit behind the 69A, ready to use strategic movement down into the fairly open center.


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Jul05

Operation Dauntless T5 x 3

by Rindis on July 5, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

The last step before diving into armor in the Operation Dauntless tutorial series is “Let the Shells Fly”. It is recommended to play it twice, with the second play incorporating the Friction Fire rules; I was hesitant at first, with the alure of the second half of the tutorials so close, but I can say now that it’s worth doing.

However, the main point is to have a good integrated example of combat and assaults with ranged fire support. It really does showcase much of the infantry side of the system. Ranged fire the the third combat system of the game, and uses its own result table, which is just trying to get a 14 or higher on 2d6(!). The base ranged combat value of the unit is added to this (ranged combat is always per unit, never added together), with some modifiers: bulk kills, with a +1 to the result per company present in the target hex, and then there’s the normal terrain modifiers, degraded performance for more distant direct-fire weapons, and bonuses to indirect-fire weapons that can see their target (instead of needing a spotter). As heavy machine guns are enough to provide a ranged attack factor, almost every unit has some ranged ability.

The general result from ranged fire is suppression, which prevents a few things (notably Friction Fire), and causes a shift in any following combat/assaults (really good results can cause a step loss or two). However, suppression comes off at the end of the current phase, so suppression caused during the Action phase is of now help during Combats (but will help assaults). A wrinkle that defeated us for a bit is that while you can do ranged fire against anyone in either phase, if there is going to be a combat against a particular hex, all ranged fire against it must be part of that combat. You can’t do ranged fire against a hex, and then engage in combat with it. This turns into a sequence at the start of combat where you declare all offensive and defensive support right after the main combat is declared, and then resolve all those ranged attack rolls before going on to the main combat.

The British have two full battalions backed up by a heavy mortar company (who technically have transports, but are immobile in this scenario), and plenty of off-board artillery (which is just longer-ranged, heavier, versions of on-board indirect fire units; I was thinking them assets at first, which are more limited and hampered my use for a while). The Germans are trying to hold St-Pierre (/the ground in front of the bridge across the Seulles) with about three companies; six platoons, three pioneer platoons, a MG section, two IG batteries, a mortar battery, five off-board batteries (including one of nebelwerfers, my personal nemesis), and then roughly another company enter as reinforcements on each of turns 2 and 3. Some of the British start as loaded up MG sections and towed AT batteries, giving a chance to play a bit more with the transport rules.

We stuck with the same sides as before, and Mark set up the Germans in front of the bridge; half the British set up fairly close, and the other half is over on the other side of the map, and needs a turn just to get into range. There’s a couple of light bocage hexes on the fringe of the entire built-up area, one of which was left empty, so my first action was to move down the road into that and then assault a platoon in an open field.

An average roll got a 0/2 on a 3:1, pushing the Germans back into the village (we also forgot that he had a possible shot at my carrier platoon on the way in). The rest of the Lincolnshires moved up into 0508, while part of KOYLI went down the road to stop in 0706, preparing for a big attack on the other light bocage hex. Two more companies marched off-road, only getting partway to the action, while the MG section and towed 6-pounders motored to positions overlooking the village.


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Jun27

Operation Dauntless T3-T4

by Rindis on June 27, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

As mentioned last time, Mark and I are working our way through the Operation Dauntless tutorial scenarios. The third one is fairly simple and very quick, while the fourth one got into one of the rules sections that really had me puzzled when I went through the rule book. Not that it was actually confusing or poorly written, it was just different enough that I knew I’d need to see it in action to ‘get it’.

T3 “Recon Roundup” basically shows off the capabilities of the British Universal Carrier platoons. They start with two full battalions, plus three recon platoons (note that each battalion also has an organic carrier platoon), and a third battalion enters on turn 1. They have three turns to wipe out the four starting German units (three platoons and a MG section), and occupy Rauray (three of four hexes) against three German companies (and associated MG sections) that enter on turn 1. There’s some restrictions on where the British can move, that enforces this as two separate fights; the carrier platoons can go wherever, but everyone else is limited.

The order of the day is movement, and the carriers finally get their full movement allowance, instead of being special ruled as just ‘leg infantry’ for movement, as in the first two scenarios. This brings in tracked movement, which is naturally more sensitive to terrain (leg movement is surprisingly simple: 1 for everything except woods [2], and 0.5 for roads), and an allowance of 15 (as opposed to 6 for the very fastest normal infantry).


First turn moves. Yes, there is ZOC in this game, but armored units ignore it.

The initial goal of running around and cutting off the German units is easy to do, and concentric attacks are also an odds shift, which helped for an otherwise weak attack against 0606—attacking out of a field is deadly, and the doubled MG factors meant it was a 2:1 (I had also neglected two include a third hex while concentrating on getting the concentric bonus), which caused one loss, which the Germans took on their platoon. 0807 took a full 5:1 and four losses, which was all retreat, with one platoon being eliminated for retreating through a zone of control.

The remaining German platoon got all the way to 0520 (road net, and the retreat got him a good head start), while new units approached Rauray. The MG sections couldn’t get up on the first turn, but the three companies managed a 4:1 attack (lowered to 2:1 for dense terrain and armor), and rolled a ’12’ to send a platoon reeling four hexes back, and occupy a hex of the village.

On the second turn, my main two carrier platoons were able to catch up to and surround the retreated German survivor, while the Kensington battalion hurried forward in case they were needed. In the east, the main column continued to Rauray, but still couldn’t get there, while the scout platoon moved back into the village. Both combats went well, finishing off the initial German forces.

The German MG sections caught up to everyone else, and Mark did a 5:1 attack against 1417 (3:1 after close terrain and armor bonus), forcing a one hex retreat, and taking a second hex of the village. However, for my last turn, the infantry finally came up, and the carriers moved around for encircling attacks against the Germans now in the village. The two carrier platoons that had hunted down the surviving Germans last turn also had an easy time moving up to help.

That still only added up to a 3:2 and 1:1 (both then shifted up one odds column) against the big German units, and both results were 0/1, and Mark flipped a unit each time to stay in place and win by occupying two hexes of Rauray.

T4, “PIAT and Panzerfaust” is a really tough scenario for the British. It’s only two turns, and the Brits must clear the north side of a stream in that time, without losing any units. Like in T2, heavy fog is in effect, limiting everything to movement and assault. This time, the ‘tactical advantage’ system is used, which inserts a short anti-tank action before the main part of an assault. Surprisingly, considering the armor tutorial starts at scenario T6, both sides get some armor platoons.

Interestingly, regular infantry units pretty much all have an anti-tank factor, with a range of 0. These are for short-range LATW like Panzerfausts and PIATs, and only come into play in an assault. When there’s armor and AT-factors on opposite sides of an assault, you figure out the tactical advantage to determine what kind of AT fire (if any!) happens before the assault itself happens. The Brits have three Firefly platoons and one of regular Shermans (along with two brigades, an extra MG section, and no carriers), while the Germans have a SdKfz 251 platoon, plus three more that include some 251/10s (the 37mm gun version), and one Pz IV platoon (along with four each reduced infantry companies and MG sections).

The German set up is fixed, in four hexes on the north bank of the Bordel, and the scenario recommends the British set up in four groups, with each one set to do an assault. That part was easy, figuring out how to do good assaults was a bit harder.

Tactical advantage consists of adding up various modifiers, starting with a comparison of the number of infantry steps; heavy fog actually adds one to the total, making assaults a bit easier. If the final number is positive, the attacker draws chits, and if it’s negative, the defender does. In all cases, you draw one more chit than the total, with a ‘0’ being a single defender draw. The person who drew the chits chooses one chit for the assault to use. Each chit gives a sequence of AT fire by either the defender or attacker.

So, in my first move, a combined force of Shermans, Fireflies, and two infantry companies assaulted the left of the German line, with a company, MG section, and 251/10. At this point, the odds would be 17:10, with the halftracks generating an odds shift, and preventing an armor bonus. But heavy fog and four infantry steps to two generates a ‘+3’ tactical advantage, giving me four chit draws, which were DA, No AT Fire, D, and AA. That second one would cause nothing to happen, the first and third would allow Mark (who’s Defending) to do one AT fire against my tanks (followed by one from me with the first chit), while the last one just gives me two anti-tank shots. The chits range from zero to four AT shots (in all sorts of mixes), and at low numbers are unlikely to be what you want.

So I took the ‘AA’ chit, and took out the halftracks, shifting the base odds to 17:8, or 2:1 (which was also the final odds), for a 1/0 result that only flipped my Shermans. The second assault was fairly similar, except that with a MG section instead of a Sherman, I had 5 draws, which allowed me to knock out that 251/10 section, and a better roll got me a 0/3 to knock out the MG section (can only retreat two), and send the company back across the river.

The third assault was against the Pz IV hex in a village, and the penalty for attacking out of a field (-4) generated a 0 tactical advantage, with the chit draw being No AT Fire. This turned into a horrible assault with three left shifts (close terrain, dug in, German combined arms) (we did four, as we missed the ‘normal’ 251 didn’t have an orange combat strength), and a poor roll generated 4/0 results, forcing me to flip a two companies.

I at least learned my lesson, and the fourth group moved down the edge of the active board into 0810 so as to not be penalized on the tactical advantage draw, allowing me to use a AAA chit to kill the 251/10s. Another poor roll gave a 2/1 result to flip both companies, but eliminate the German MG section.


After the first turn.

Mark moved the retreated company into 0710, but frankly it wasn’t needed (though his best move). I needed 0710 to be cleared so I could assault 0610 from there, and not confront his Pz IVs in the open. Clearing it on turn two doesn’t do a lot of good, as the assaulting stack is forced to advance into the hex, blocking anyone else from using it.

But, I gave it a try. 0810 tried again against 0710, and generated one loss, which Mark took, to keep a company sitting there. I swung the stack with the Shermans across to hit 0610, with a TA of -1 (4-2 steps, -4 for coming out of a field, and +1 for the fog), and Mark chose a D chit (the other draw being No Fire), and effectively won the scenario by eliminating the weakened Sherman platoon with his Panzerfausts. The assault itself was 1:1 (or 1:3 after three shifts against me), for a 2/1 that flipped my infantry and eliminated the halftracks.

We did the last two assaults anyway, hitting 0710 again, and forcing the company there to retreat three hexes after a No Fire draw, and then 0410 where I chose a No Fire chit (I could have chosen AAAA or AAA, but I had nothing to fire at) and then a 0/1 result eliminated another MG section, but left a company behind, leaving me with two hexes of Germans north of the river, and having lost a unit.

So, a horrible time for the Brits on the ground, but a really good introduction to an important part of assaults. As the infantry moves into rang, the armor has it out, and what comes out the other end may have a big effect on the assault itself.

The actual AT fire is dominated by a comparison of the AT value to the target’s armor value (though that does max out a +8, which all of ours were well past). Normally, range reduces the 2d10 roll, but of course this was all at range 0. The potentially annoying part is that one of the modifiers (flanking fire) relies on seeing the die roll first. Often, it’s not going to make a difference (at least when the penetration is already high), but it is extra fiddly.

We did miss another wrinkle of AT fire: a second draw of a different set of chits. This is purely for infantry (range 0 AT, really) vs armor in an assault. Now, all my fire was with the Shermans, so we just missed it late when Mark’s infantry got my Shermans. You draw chits depending on visibility (4 for day/good visibility, down to 2 in fog or at night). At that point, no modifiers, even the big penetration one, are used unless the chit draw says so, meaning Panzerfausts aren’t that reliable (but the base ‘to kill’ is 14+ on 2d10, so not likely, but far from impossible even without modifiers). A quick draw of two chits gives me Terrain in Assault Hex (+5 for village), and Enemy Infantry+MG Steps (-8 for four steps). With a roll of 14, that’s 11 for my Shermans to actually survive, thanks to all my covering infantry. (Or he could have just used the Pz IV instead, with two less AT/penetration than the infantry [but always uses it], which would have done the job.)

I still wasn’t going to push him out of the hex though.

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