After finishing up “Confusion Reigns“, I accepted a request for another game from Tracey. I looked around a little, and found a fairly simple and fast looking one with a minimum of fancy toys. J40 “Might Makes Right” from ASL Journal 3 is set a month after the invasion of Norway. The British have started evacuating, leaving a Norwegian force to hold a village that had recently been retaken against a German counterattack.
The Norwegians get a mix of eight squads and two leaders with a LMG and two MMG (which are B11 by SSR) to defend half of boards 18 and 10. The Germans have three and a half elite squads on one hexrow of board 18 at start, with another eight and a half coming in on turn 1. Out-of-play terrain is still treated as being there, probably to allow use of a gully. The Germans get one LMG, MMG, and 50mm MTR each in both their on-board and off-board forces, and need to take 13 building hexes on board 10 in seven turns. All buildings are single story, leaving the rolling hills of board 18 as the only Level 1 terrain, and Alpine Hills are in effect, cutting off LOS in those hills.
Tracey had the defenders this time, and set up a loose net of “?” across board 18, with the obvious concentrations being towards the rear. The Norwegians get 12 “?” to cover eight squads, so there will be a couple Dummies. I set up my MMG to be able to fire on the two most-forward stacks, and the MTR would shell the northern positions from behind a hedge (I wasn’t thinking in terms of Alpine Hills yet, so that was blind hex with few possibilities even after advance, and I didn’t realize it until after I fired), while the second MTR would advance to a firing position in the gully with the MMG. My major advance was along the north edge, but the south edge got a lot of attention as there was some brush to use in an otherwise open expanse.
All of his sighting announcement for stripping “?” as I moved came from the edge positions, implying that his two central ones were Dummies, and I sent one stack out in LOS of K3 without being shot, which tended to reinforce that supposition. But I certainly wasn’t going to take too many chances with them. He did reveal a squad in 18I8 for fire, but didn’t get a result. My advancing fire went better, with the MMG getting a PTC to reveal K6 as Dummies, and another shot broke I8, but set off his sniper, who pinned the second MTR HS IN the gully of P4.
Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full map. Blue hexes are the off-board entry area.
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