Rindis.com

Near the beginning of August, Mark and I returned to Great War Commander, with another scenario from the recent Battle Pack. This one needed a bit of fudging in Vassal, as French Legion platoons don’t exist there yet; however, they’re identical to the Chasseurs platoons except for having one better morale while broken.

It is December 1914, and the scenario uses a no-man’s-land map (#9)… except that everything is destroyed woods instead of shellholes (representing the Argonne Forest). This leads to some interesting line-of-sight questions. Destroyed woods blocks LOS on the second hex, and there are slopes on the board. Generally, in this system, there’s  only ever one blind hex. We worked out that looking down into a broken woods hex would work as normal, and then the next hex in line (also broken woods), being affected by ‘blind’ hex would be the second broken woods hex, which would then create an actual blind hex behind it, and this would continue until the chain of broken woods hexes was interrupted by something (like the stream flowing near the bottom of the map).

The Germans set up along the top edge which is a level 2 ridgeline with a road in front of it, with ten platoons and two MGs and foxholes, while the French are at the bottom with 11 platoons and better leadership. The objective hexes are all in the middle, and the ‘open’ one was L, giving 4VP for objective 4, right below the German ridgeline. Mark had the Germans, and set the MGs up on the ridge, with one on a forward promontory with a platoon and Lt Hertzler to back it up.

I tried starting off with an Artillery Request, but it went off-board. An Offensive let me get everyone moving, but the stream in front of me breaks up the cover, and let that forward MG do a lot of damage, breaking seven platoons and two leaders, and suppressing the unbroken one. With some idea this would happen, I Recovered, which rallied four platoons, leaving two others suppressed (and broken), and suppressing Lt Antoine (after an initiative re-roll).

Mark called in an Artillery Request, which thankfully shifted to just hit one platoon, who was fine. He then forced me to Rout, forcing Lt Antoine, Lt Lebas, and a platoon off-map and onto the casualty track, as well as causing a time trigger. I Recovered the remaining broken platoons, and Advanced into the river on the left, where my only remaining leader was. Mark Denied my artillery, and Moved forward to take all five objectives. This took him off the convenient ridgeline in the back, but he had a small presence at the level 1 slope. At that range, I started Firing on the forward position, with little result.

I Moved mine off board while the intact group pressed onto level 1 to threaten Objective 1. Mark couldn’t do anything about it, but I couldn’t get a card to let me kill to the platoon garrisoning the Objective either, though I did break it. Mark Moved to intercept, and I broke nearly everyone who came in range, but I kept Moving up the board, and exited five platoons and my remaining leader shortly after another time trigger. Worse for Mark, one of his MGs malfunctioned, and was eliminated. This brought VPs down to 3 for the Germans (I think there was a mistake in there, later corrected). And right about this moment, I got two Ligne platoons and Lt Grenier as Reinforcements, these were brought in on the edge of my shattered formation so Grenier could start asserting some control over them.

Remember, shellholes are destroyed woods.

Mark Requested Artillery… which landed a bit short on his own line (I was holding the Under Shoot strategy card to enforce that if it hadn’t happened on its own), breaking two of his own platoons, and turning I6 into actual shellholes. I Moved Grenier forward, with OpFire causing another time trigger, and my exited troops returned, to the left of the stranded ones from early on. Two platoons broke in the stream, but immediately Recovered.

Before much else could happen, an Air Assault caused another time trigger, taking us to the 4 space on the track. Between the re-entry of my troops, and the reinforcements, things were turning around, but time was slipping away. I managed to make a couple German units leave position on a Rout, and then Moved getting across the river with two platoons and Grenier broken to OpFire. Mark Recovered, getting… some of his troops back in order, but failed on two platoons and Waldau. I Recovered my broken troops, but had to give up the initiative again to do it, and Advance got my right onto the level 1 slope. Shortly after, I Moved up to take control of Objective 2, and headed for #4 (accidentally leaving one platoon behind as it was off the bottom of my screen).

Mark Moved to reinforce the area, with my OpFire doing nothing… except setting off my Sniper to break his MG team. I then Advanced onto the forward platoons (J4 & I3) and eliminated the German platoons in both. I also Moved the left flank into the river. Fire then managed to break the German platoon guarding that area, and had another time trigger, taking us to space 6, and passing the first Sudden Death check (at 7 German VPs before the +1/turn).

The close-quarters struggle near #4 continued, with me using multiple Counter Attacks to suppress his troops as he fired (he later cleared that with Recover, and I started the process all over again…). Another time trigger took us to 7, and the game continued. The left Advanced out of the stream, and then into control of Objective 1. I’d been looking to get into Objective 4 and take it in melee, but I had to burn important cards in defense, and then lost the platoon with Grenier, though he was only suppressed.

I got the left back towards the back area again, where Mark had positioned a platoon to OpFire, which ended up Recalling Grenier, and Scrounging his lost MG (this led to an interesting question, if a platoon is already activated, and receives a MG through this event, can he use it; i.e., is it active? Our answer was ‘no’.), and KIA killed a German platoon, while I got two platoons to exit. Offensive got the other three platoons and Fleury to exit. A couple turns after that, I ran out of cards for a time trigger, ending the game with 3 French VPs thanks to those exits.

Afterword

About mid-way through the game, Mark and I found we’d been playing wrong all this time. Someone came by and pointed out that terrain acts as a modifier to most any morale roll, when we had thought it was just a defense bonus. The rules for cover talk about this, but the Recover order rule doesn’t mention it, and when playing Recover, that’s where we looked….

We finished the game as we had started, without cover helping against anything but taking fire, but we will use the correct rule next time. Both of us are concerned about how easy that makes a lot of morale rolls, notably recovery. Since most broken morale is 8 or 9 to begin with, that makes Recover a nearly automatic pass, especially for a defender.

In fact, it would have prevented my early-game disaster, which while it had me down for a bit, was interesting to recover from as I got things together. I think we saw the Reinforcements event in one of our first games, but nothing more until this time, when Mark got it early, but couldn’t take what he got, and then I got mine.

Including all the objective chits, Objective 4 was worth 7 VPs, which is why the fight in the center got so desperate, with neither of us getting enough advantage to clear the other out. Objective 5 was worth 4 VPs, so along with the early casualties, I was fighting an 11-point deficit in control. My ability to exit so many troops really saved me.

Mark and I cycled around to Great War Commander again in February, with scenario 21, “Gurkhas at the Chapelle”, from the BEF expansion. This is in March 1915, so we got to see the standing barrage rules in action. The board has an extensive trench system, which was also a first for us. Both sides get 9 FP artillery (the Germans as a reinforcement), which is heavier than seen in the 1914 scenarios.

I had the defending Germans, with eight platoons, ten hexes of wire, and two MGs with teams to man them. This isn’t quite enough wire for the entire board, and I left gaps at either end. One of the MGs went on objective 4, which is a forward spur of the trench line. The better leader, and bulk of the troops were clustered around objective 3, while the remainder backed up the MG. The British have a mix of fifteen platoons, including three engineers, two MG (with teams), and four leaders. They also automatically have objective chit “Y”, which gives an extra VP per unit exited off the enemy side, and an Offensive card already in hand. The open objective made objective 3 worth 3 VPs, and my secret objective gave 4 VPs for objective 4.

The scenario starts with two local barrages from the British, the first of which scattered off map, and the second “hit”, but scattered into no man’s land for no effect. Mark’s first actual card play was an Artillery Request, which also scattered into no man’s land. After trying, and failing, to soften me up, he Moved his left flank up, getting a platoon into the trench. I redeployed a bit to have better line of sight on my own backfield, and used an Artillery Denied to break his phone. He Moved more of the flank up, and then went on the Offensive on his right, getting into the trench behind my forward MG. With use of a +1 from a strategy card, I was able to keep my MG crew down to being suppressed by his fire. He then Moved the first group off-board for nine VPs.

The next turn, he Fired on the forward MG again without result other than promoting my best leader (Waldau) to Veteran, and moved more of the left towards exiting. I used an Offensive to move closer to his string of units, and his Op Fire caused a time trigger to return his exited units, and give me artillery access. His fire broke Waldau and suppressed the MG team, while mine broke one of his platoons. Recover put everything to rights again.

Mark Fired on his right, breaking my forward MG, but Probe recovered him, and on my turn an Artillery Request put a standing barrage down in front of my trench, to break two platoons (and my sniper eliminated one on the other side of the board. Then a second one shifted it one hex up to break a leader and suppress a couple platoons as well as chew up the landscape. (And there was an error, I forgot I needed the overall commander for artillery, and had used Lt Lochow for the first request and then the FAO for the second. Of course, we also hadn’t yet realized  standing/creeping barrage markers hung around from turn to turn either, and thought you had to do all of this inside one turn to make the adjustment work. We figured that out a little later. Not that it mattered for me, as you’ll see.)

Mark led off his turn with two Artillery Denied, breaking my brand new phone and eliminating it, and then Advanced on his right, getting into melee with the forward MG with Griffith and a guards platoon, and narrowly losing them to a good roll and my use of another +1 bonus. Right afterward, I Fired the MG to eliminate a broken platoon, and got a hero with the MG thanks to an event. Mark Moved up on his right, and conducted an Offensive on the left, but ran into Op Fire, breaking Maj Stone, and a platoon, and suppressing another, and setting off two time triggers. Then Mark’s attack at the end caused another time trigger (taking us to 7/10).

Mark Recovered, rallying all his broken units (which had really piled up), repaired his phone, and then put a standing barrage down in the middle of the trench, reducing three hexes to “foxhole” status (a scenario rule makes that slightly easier than normal) and suppressing the one platoon it hit. I Advanced along the trench on the left, and killed a British platoon, while an Offensive tried to shore up the right, with the only real result being my Lt Lochow breaking on an event. Mark went on the Offensive to exit two platoons and Maj Stone, taking control of objective 2 on the way.

I Recovered to rally Lochow, and Advanced to redeploy my flank a bit. Two creeping barrages moved his artillery across my units on his right, creating more shellholes, but not breaking anyone, though an event allowed me to eliminate a guards platoon. With Lt Priestly and his platoon suppressed, I decided to Advance in and try to deal them before Mark finally took out my forward MG, but lost the melee despite a 7 to 5 advantage. I Moved to start centering my defense with Waldau moving towards the center, and suffered a suppression on the MG team with him, but Mark’s MG jammed.

Mark Advanced in turn to take out another platoon in melee, which also advanced time to bring his exited units back. I finally continued my Move towards the center, and came under Op Fire, which caused two more time triggers to end the game.

Afterword

After adjusting for my hidden objective, Mark won by 5 VPs. Both of us were about halfway to a surrender (I was at 3/8 casualties, Mark was at 6/11), and things were getting thin on the ground by the end.

Overall, the scenario gave the fun back-and-forth experience that GWC does well at. However, the start of the game was the deeply frustrating experience that this kind of game can also provide, as I went a few turns with a pretty much dead hand. Move (when I’m where I want to be), Recover (with no one broken—yet), and Artillery Request (and no artillery). This let Mark get going, once he started to realize what was up, and set up the early exits which did a lot to give him the points he needed to win. The main problem of course was just being stuck twiddling my thumbs when discarding didn’t help.

Still, seeing the standing/creeping barrages in play was very educational. I think there’s too much control in there, as you get to adjust it how you want on the fly each time, but it’s not a bad match for the level of complexity, and certainly gets a lot of the right feel for the long artillery bombardments that would happen.

After finishing up The Lone Grey Wolf, Mark and I cycled to Great War Commander, picking up with the third Mons scenario from the British expansion. I had the attacking Germans again, as they try to take a hill, and the British are trying to extricate an artillery battery from it. The British have ten platoons of highlanders, four foxholes, and two 18-lbrs with crews, lined up on or behind a road running diagonally across the map (this takes a special rule, as the scenario format is too inflexible to do this normally). They can remove one 18-lbr each time time advances, getting VPs dependent on the current turn for doing so.

The Germans get fifteen platoons (in a mix of fusiliers and landwehr) and a machine gun, with another seven platoons plus a second MG coming in at time index 4. Both sides have pretty good leadership, and the British control four of the objectives at scenario start (with a little farm to one side uncontrolled). One 18-lbr was on top of the hill, while the other was on a lower plateau, with infantry backing both up, and a third group on the east edge, in a larger farm.

The open chit made every objective worth two points, and my secret one was 4 VPs for the main hill. I set up in three general groups with Waldau and the MG set to occupy a small orchard in the center of the map, while the other good leader had the challenge of crossing a stream to get at the larger farmhouse (at least there was a fence to provide some cover if I could get that far), and the smallest group was in front of the uncontrolled farmhouse, with the eventual job of getting on the plateau.

I lead off with a Move for that last group and took objective 2. Fire from the MG prompted the highlanders on a forward spit of the hill to Go To Ground, getting some shellholes as cover. Despite no result (barely), Mark then pulled the platoon back to the main hill. Some more Fire back and forth had no more result, and I ordered an Offensive to bring the center forward. This drew Opportunity Fire from the 18-lbr up top, and nearby platoons, with a final result of three time triggers, the 18-pdr malfunctioned and withdrawn on the first time trigger, three platoons broken, Waldau broken, one platoon dead (double break) and then brought back broken and next to the farmhouse by Walking Wounded, and a British hero created. Once I finally got to fire after my movement, I managed to suppress and break Lt Crawley in the farmhouse.

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

During December, Mark and I returned to Great War Commander, and tried out the first scenario from the British expansion. It (and the next two scenarios) are set during the battle of Mons on 23 August. It features a German attempt to take a critical bridge over a canal from a British covering force. It’s by far the most lopsided we’ve seen so far from a number of troops standpoint: fifteen German platoons to six British.

But the British have a trench and two foxholes plus a machine gun, and two “2” leaders. The Germans get a pair of machine guns as reinforcements, but have to make do with bodies and three “2” leaders until then. Also, the Germans have possible artillery support, but the British have none. An interesting SSR is that one of the British leaders is effectively immobile in a railroad station, and can’t participate in normal fire attacks, but can attack on his own with 0 firepower and 4 range, but treats one enemy unit morale as “0”, meaning that his attacks start from a base of 0 offense vs 0 defense, with modification for cards and terrain. A couple final notes: The German surrender limit is quite high (13), and the game starts on turn 5, and goes to turn 11(ish); this generates a six turn game that is highly unlikely to go overtime once sudden death rolls start on 11.

I had the defending Brits, and of course clustered around the bridge with a foxhole in that hex (I think that’s legal…?), and a trench with the MG in the hex behind it. The other foxhole went a couple hexes away, another platoon was in the rail station, and the last platoon was behind the rail embankment. Three of the five victory hexes are in the fairly limited British area, with one being the bridge (4), another the rail station (5), and a third being a road leading off the British side of the map (3). The public objective gave one VP for a crossroad on the German side of the map (2), while mine was one VP for the rail station, and Mark’s was two VP for the bridge.

The Germans only get one hexrow for their setup, and have enough platoons to have one per allowed hex. Mark put the inferior five platoons of Landwehr on the east side, and the leaders were distributed to control everything. He led off with a Move to bring the west side forward and through objective (1) (Obourg village itself), and then Advanced the center section. For my turn, I Fired at his leading troops, and a poor roll caused Mark to re-roll and pass the Initiative to me. However, they broke anyway, but a second shot at the same unit did nothing.

Mark immediately Recovered… which failed, and then called for Artillery, which was accurate on the bridge… which still meant it drifted off-target where no one was. He then tried a second Request (using the FAO instead of his leader), which was inaccurate to end up near where the first one went. He finished up the turn by Advancing the east-edge troops. I passed, and Mark Recovered to rally the broken platoon. He then Moved the bulk of his center, and my OpFire broke Waldau (his ranking officer) and three out of eight advancing platoons (the Maxim right behind the bridge was being very handy). Moreover, the final defense roll was a ’12’ for a time trigger.

↓ Read the rest of this entry…

Mark came over again on October 26th, and we returned to Great War Commander with the second scenario. I took the French again, who this time are on the attack. It’s still 1914, and the French are pulling back, but one unit goes forward with a counterattack, and delays the German army by confusing the line of communications.

We used the strategy cards this time, though I only used one during the game for a +1 bonus (both cards I had were otherwise unusable), though Mark cycled through three or four, also mostly for the roll bonus. The scenario also introduced us to the targeting rules, as the Germans have a mortar, and the French have off-board artillery. Also, the Germans get some foxholes, and there’s a chance of buildings being rubbled in a pre-game bombardment (and one was, suppressing a German platoon in it).

Mark mostly set up in the village, with the mortar in the rear, and a platoon in the quarry in the rear of the other side of the map. I started in three groups, mostly lined up on my edge of the map, but with my overall commander and machine gun off forward in the woods (where there’s a couple additional setup hexes). As I had been concerned, I didn’t see any Move cards for an attack. However, I did have a couple Advance cards, which I used to get a little motion on one flank.

But before I even got to that point, I also had a good string of Artillery Request cards, and started pounding the German positions. I generally used the observer hex, and got good results. An early event also gave me an extra leader with pair of platoons, who showed up in the middle of my line. The overstacking caused by that was cured by a time advance, giving me my only true loss of the day.

Time became my main concern. I was churning through cards pretty fast, and hit a time trigger about a third through my deck, churned through an entire deck, and then hit another three fairly early time triggers. Mark eventually hit a time trigger of his own most of the way through his own deck. His casualties were mounting, but for a while, advancing time was keeping it from meaning much.

I had at least two artillery draws that rolled ’12’ in empty hexes to cause a large number of shellholes in the map. After some early Advance, I finally saw a Move or two and headed for the first set of shellholes. My secret objective was, conveniently enough, extra VPs for the fountain in front of me (though the public one was 2 VP per victory location), so I concentrated on the town, and slowly ground up the forces there as I got in, and used Fire cards to get into a protracted fight in the center until I finally exhausted Mark’s luck and ability to keep rallied. Eventually, I ground his forces down, and forced a surrender while time was still a couple spaces away from checking for end of game.

Things certainly seemed to go my way the entire game, starting with a nice string of artillery attacks, which was generally fairly effective. Mark was low on Fire cards and couldn’t do much when I finally did start moving. My main problems came down to lack of ability to move, and time ticking down fairly fast for a bit. But I felt in control of events the entire way through. So far, I’m really wondering how to mount an effective defense here, and how often games don’t end with the surrender level being reached.