I figured it was time to go back to North Africa for my next ASL game with Patch, and started looking at the Hollow Legions scenarios, which it appears he has largely not played. The first one of the set, “The Taking of Takrouna”, is interesting, featuring a quick New Zealand assault up half the board 25 hill to take overlay X1, which was obviously meant purely for this scenario.
The Italians are defending with 12 346 squads (and a pair of HS), a MMG, three LMG and a pair of light MTR, dug into a few foxholes. The New Zealanders (Maoris, actually) enter six 458 squads (and a pair of HS), a pair of Heroes, some excellent leadership, some LMGs and a pair of light MTR. Overlay X1 becomes the level 4 top of the hill with a small stone village surrounded by cliffs (Takrouna). The Italians can shift one squad in or out through a hidden trail, everyone else must climb. A couple of nearby crag hexes become further stone buildings, and Moderate Dust adds a 1d3 LV to all attacks.
Patch had the Italians, and set up concentrated on the obvious route from the NE corner, where there’s a little bit of brush for cover. (In fact, his MMG and a MTR were boresighted in there.) I seriously considered it; the brush helps, there’s a couple gullies to go up, if could get that far, and it’s the shortest route to the goal in BB5. I also considered the middle, where there’s a wall, and the exit of one of the gullies. Eventually, I went with the SE corner, with the longest way to go, but relatively few defenders, and I was worried about breaking as I entered and being forced to rout off the map.
Unfortunately, there’s a lot of crags in there too, and I didn’t realize just how badly going uphill into crags was going to slow me down.
My fears were justified though. Patch broke one of my MTR HS as soon as he entered, and I never did get anyone over there to pick up the abandoned MTR either. I also realized that residual was more dangerous than original fire in this scenario. Most residual is one column below the fire that caused it, which makes it about equal to a +1 version of the original shot, and the original fire has at least that much from Dust, while the residual isn’t affected at all.
Thankfully, the one HS was the only thing that broke, despite getting a 1MC on my 10-2 stack. My 9-1 and a squad were poised to advance onto the ridgeline, and my fire managed to Pin two squads. I advanced onto one of them, but neither of us got any result.
Situation, British Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
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