I took a similar force to last time, but dropped the 251/1 armoured transport to fit in a few more units.
The end list was something like this:
Reg. Lt. + assistant
2 platoons of 10 Reg. troops (2 smg, 1 lmg)
1 platoon of 10 Vet. troops (6 smg, 2 lmg)
Reg. medium MG
Reg. medium Mortar
Reg. light Howitzer
Reg. sniper team
Reg. Sd Kfz 222
Reg. StuH42
The Marines turned up with a crap load of men. All regular. 14 orders in total. The force was something like this...
Lt. + assistant
4 platoons of 12 men (2 BAR, not sure how many SMG)
1 small squad with AT grenades
1 Engineer squad (with flamethrower)
Sniper team
Bazooka team
2 Medium MG
1 Medium mortar
Medic team
Forward air controller
This was going to be tough with so much fire power.... My first mistake was letting Phil set up an "interesting" table. Here it is:
A river in one of the deployment zones... never a good idea. Anyway, I rolled with it and left it as is, but I was pretty clear that the river was going to be played as rough ground apart from the crossings/bridges which would be open ground to at least give whomever had that side a chance.
And it would be me who would have to deploy on the river side. We'd rolled up Point Defense as the mission. Phil choose sides. I choose to be the attacker to counter Phil's numbers with half of his force having to go into reserve.
If I recall correctly, Phil deployed his mortar, sniper team, bazooka team, 1 medium MG, Lieutenant, engineers squad and FAC.
Objectives were placed and the German advance began. After a preliminary bombardment though. Which was reasonably effective with all but the Marine mortar taking a pin marker. Even better though, the Marine sniper team took a hit killing the spotter.
As much as possible, I brought units on where I could use the buildings to cut down on firing angles. I really did not want to collect a few pins early on with so much distance to cover.
The first and second turn were quiet as a large number if the Marine reserves failed to arrive.
My troops position themselves, but slowly. Too slowly.
My sniper finishes of the Marine sniper team and the StuH42 decimates the Marine MMG team. A few more pins are spread around. One of my infantry squads gets into the Chateau for cover... this would prove to be a bad idea...
The Marine bazooka team sets it sights on the StuH42 and charges towards it. German fire manage to take out the loader.... but the Marine with the bazooka makes it around the building.... uh oh...
The shot hits home immobilising the StuH42. Then this happens...
This was the last thing I needed on my Vet infantry squad. But there is some success though....
See that unit of Marines next to the forest... a direct hit from my mortar team obliterates them (I rolled a 6 to range in first time). Fire from the German forces is definitely causing a lot of casualties among the Marines. The immobilised StuH42 deals a heavy blow to the second Marine MMG. But... the Marines keep passing their order checks and removing pins.
My units are up, but have a huge piece of open ground to cross to get to the objectives and time is running out..... (the rather large shells are standing in as objectives... see if you can spot them :) ).
The unit in the Chateau find themselves facing the bulk of the Marine force and the pin markers start stacking up...
A couple of pin markers later and they're gone.
In the last few turns of the game, I manage to get a large number of pins onto the two units of Marines guarding the objective in the building. My Vets get into position to charge... but then disaster...
The Engineers flamethrower puts on some extra pin markers. I pass my morale check, but fail my order check. The unit goes down.... and then the game ends. This is all that's left...
Hardly any Marines left, but the Germans aren't in good shape either. The Marines had done their job and held me off. Too slow and too cautious. I really needed to get up quicker in the first couple of turns and take the risk of getting a pin marker or two while there were only a few Marine units on the board. Still, it was always going to be a tough challenge on such an open table.
Man of the match - would have to be my mortar team. Proved very effective in this game. Definitely a very useful unit especially when it dropped a mortar round directly onto the head of the Marine FAC :)
US units not having a modifier to shooting from moving is brutal. So far, it seems to be a pretty broken rule, but that's probably because we're still figuring the game out.
Once thing I do notice though, is that once you get a few pin markers on a unit, then that's pretty much it for that unit. It's just too hard to even try and get a rally order off. Staying down doesn't seem like a good option with the limited turn number of most games and the likelihood of just having more pin markers added each turn anyway.
I do wonder if the HQ units should be able to do more. Say, use their order to rally a unit within 6"? The game just seems to be missing an option to have higher command units interact more with other units to help support them.
Still. All good fun.
Just the one game again for me today. Chris had come along, so he and Mark rocked out a game of FoG. Here's a couple of pics...
The game looked awesome with all the very nicely painted mini's.
Until next time.
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