Turn 6 opened with the British preparing to move first. Major Howard had a few surprises under his beret for the hard-pressing Germans. Instead of bugging out....Howard's boys took the fight to the Germans and rocked them on their jack-booted heels for much of turn 6.
Yep...Turn 6 was filled with my lamentations...
Storms raged this evening between Tulsa, OK and Hays, KS and played absolute havoc on our SKYPE connection. Our connection dropped nearly every 5-10 minutes and really interrupted the flow of the game this evening. While we treat this humorously in this AAR, it really did add extra frustration to both sides throughout the evening.
The lay of the land at the beginning of Turn 6.
"Are you there...oh man...we're down..."
Big Kansas rolled the wind change for Turn 6 and the first roll of the night was Boxcars...we should have known the rest of the night would be downright weird...
The resulting Gusts cleared the smoke from the battlefield.
The British prepped and Pine-Coffin's boys quickly DM'd the Germans facing them.
With limited non-interdicted paths of retreat available to Pine-Coffin, he elected to remain in Row K, while Lord Lovat's boys made their move to come to his assistance.
Lord Lovat was pinned in the open, but the Flamethrower squad made it successfully to the edge of Benouville.
One of the surprising moves was the strength of the British movement along the canal road. It's success will likely prevent the Germans from gaining a toehold in Row O, which was a main German objective for Day II. Drats....
My Landsers hunkered down in the irrigation ditches and tried to keep from being DM'd in mass.
The British Sherman and a Red Devil 3-3-8 moved up to support the British Half-squad with a Piat in the P16 foxhole. Together they put some serious hurt on the Germans in the irrigation ditches.
Even with it MA malf'd, the Sherman still contributed to Howard's success in Turn 6.
While the British made gains along the Canal Road, the Germans began putting serious pressure on Pine-Coffin's positions from the West. Turn 7 will show whether or not the Germans risked too much...
A look at the situation in Benouville. The British moved a bit from their far eastern positions, but are still firmly in control of Row K.
Down again...
Sometimes a good plan still goes bad. When my Mark IV created a protective smoke screen, he didn't take into account that the smoke would drift in front of the other Mark IV and nullify a shot at Pine-Coffin in Advancing Fire. ASL...you gotta be thinking ahead all the time...
My Germans crept forward along the west side of Benouville...approaching Pine-Coffin warily...
Internet connection lost again....let's listen in "You're going to do a Rules Dive... ooh that sounds fun...can we join in??"
Internet down again..."They sound like Amis Kapitan.." "Ja... I sink you are correct..." "Prepare for Rules Dive...zum befehl!"
With the frustration of bad MC rolls coupled with the SKYPE connection failing with increasing frequency, we finished Turn 6 and called it a night...Here are the relative positions at the end of Turn 6.
Maybe Facetime...I don't know....
Rolling out of Day II prior to Turn 7 is next to impossible...so we are headed to at least a half-turn more in Turn 7...and at this point, both sides will need to start thinking of territory to control before the game ends.
Dang...internet down again...can't even have a post turn wrap session..."Da Boris...I know of this game ASL...I play it often. Da, I win all the time. It's easy Boris...I roll only 1 die for all my rolls...cheating..what do you mean cheating ?!? .Boris you don't know cheating from Borscht...I am the final authority on all rules...don't make me mass troops on your border...cause I'll do it..."
The Eliminated box saw more recruits and the Walking Wounded saw its first tenant from Day II.
"I know...I picked the wrong day to quit rolling well....!!!"
And now with all kidding aside...on this 70th Anniversary of D-Day we remember the gallant deeds of the men and women who set Europe free from the darkest tyranny.
"Never give in...never, never, never, never, in nothing great or small, large or petty, never give in except to convictions of honor and good sense. Never yield to force; never yield to the apparently overwhelming might of the enemy. -- Sir Winston Churchill
Always tough when the dice don't like you but way worse when you can't keep connected
ReplyDeleteian
No doubt. The constant interruptions just messed with the tactical flow of the game. Constant communication is such an important aspect of Cardboard via SKYPE. We had hoped to get into Turn 7 last night...but just couldn't keep any momentum.
DeleteAs for rolls...I rallied a 4-3-6 with snake eyes only to break them and disrupt them with a 12 on the battle hardening roll. It was just that kind of night. But I had a blast anyway. Love to play the game.