Wednesday, December 4, 2013

A Meeting of Patrols --- the first three turns

My regular Wednesday-SKYPE opponent and I started "A Meeting of Patrols"...for what will be our final contest of 2013. We ran through 3 turns before time ran out this evening. Both sides moved quickly towards the middle where the inevitable collision occurred. The Germans forced two US stacks to make a +1 and normal morale check. And the result was catastrophe. A broken 8-1, 3xDM'd 6-6-6's, 2x pinned 6-6-6's and a 12 MC that produced a DM'd 2-3-6. 50% of my force KO'd in two shots.  Yes...I had my boys stacked....for movement purposes and paid for it...hard...ASL 101...don't stack...
 I took a different approach to this game and decided to entrench 3 squads on the north edge of Board 5 to stop any German exit at this end. I send three dummy stacks south through the woods to mess with and keep the Germans guessing and maybe tie up their squads in the woods.
 The three dummy stacks will have to work hard to maintain their status as "possible" enemies...we'll see how long I can maintain the ruse...especially after 6 of 12 squads have already been revealed.
 Over on the west edge, the Germans got lucky and I rolled terribly on a NMC, which resulted in 2 broken squads and one pinned. Good grief...
 In the center, I suffered again with an 8-1 broken, a 6-6-6 pinned, another 6-6-6 DM'd and a third casualty reduced, ELR'd and DM'd thanks to my second 12 of the night.
 The Germans are moving a good portion of their force into the woods. My dummy stacks will only last so long if they don't fire...but if I can keep the Americans guessing for 1 or 2 more turns, then that may slow them down long enough to keep them from exiting the board. Maybe...

My 8-1 will need to rally and get back into the fight. His presence can help give my forest defense some teeth.

2 comments:

  1. Yeah, the stacking thing is contextual I think and it sucks when it turns against you. I once was playing a SK scenario and entered my Italians on the board in a stack...they entered a stone building which was like 8 hexes from the enemy, who then took the extended range shot, like a 2 up 2 or something....

    And all my Italians ended up broken and dead etc. It was an improbable series of dice rolls, so honestly I probably would do that move again, playing the odds.

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  2. I know what you're saying. I wanted my officers to move as many squads forward as quickly as possible. And the worst part of it all was my squads were all under concealment at the time. I just couldn't get the rolls I needed to survive a NMC...which is maddening...but that's ASL...you just can't predict the outcomes.

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