Our Monday game saw us playing out the final Turns of ASL Scenario J35 - Siam Sambal. While the first three turns had been a fairly even contest...Turns 4 and 5 would belong to Scott Holst's men of the French Foreign Legion!
The positions at the start of Turn 4 showed that most of the necessary victory location hexes were still out of French control. So as we began play...I was confident that my Siamese could hold the line...
Yeah...sorta felt like...we got this...
Scott elected to move most of his troops in Turn 3. My circling plane quickly pounced on the Legionnaires in Hex M7. A pin and a DM half-squad would be the result...so not too shabby, especially as this location housed the French MMG and Mortar.
So far so good for my little fighter plane!
On the west edge, the French reinforcements moved rapidly to take my abandoned arty piece and eliminate the crew, which they would do in Advancing Fire.
Scott's French would be consistently good in the last two turns played of this scenario.
The French tank that had been acquired by the Siamese Tank pulled behind a building and would go on to DM my boys in P2.
Back on the east edge, my Siamese continued to try and hold the wood line and keep the French from getting into the village. The French fire was effective enough to DM a key 4-4-7 squad behind the wall. Their breaking would prove to be fatal to stopping the French from moving into the houses.
Scott's French would put down just enough effective fire to allow their boys to move up in Turn 5.
In the Northwest, my boys tried to move into position to hold the village, but the huts offered little protection and added hindrances to my own fire as the French consolidated to make their push to occupy the edge of the village.
Yep...I was beginning to realize that my defense was unraveling!!!
I decided to go for the back to back overruns...with 12 flat...there was a better than average chance of breaking both squads, which would take a lot of pressure off my boys in the woods.
Unfortunately, Scott's Legionnaires rolled snakes and battle-hardened and created a Hero...yep the perfect storm!!!
The Hero would play a key role in eliminating my Tank in the upcoming French Close Combat Phase.
Yep...you guessed it...I picked the wrong day to stop sniffing glue!!!
After my tank failed in both overrun attempts, I was forced to leave it in motion and just hope for the best.
Back in the west, the French continued their movement pretty much unhindered.
As the game worn on...my morale check rolls continued to be less than stellar. And if memory serves, I failed every morale check for the remainder of the game.
Back on the east edge, the French were finally getting the toehold into the village. The door was wide open.
Back to the Northwest, my boys were forming up, but were still a bit
too far back to effectively keep the French out of the unoccupied huts.
My boys continued to pour on what fire they could and they would succeed in breaking a squad here and there.
Back on the east edge things went from bad to worse for my forces...if you look closely you will see that the Siamese fighter plane is missing. Yep...he went for a point attack on the French in O2. 6 down 2 shot...and yes you guessed it BOXCARS...immediate recall and bye-bye air cover.
Losing my plane was huge and would remove a key asset from my defensive arsenal.
And yes...I was a little bit hacked off...
Once Scott's boys occupied the first few huts in the Northwest village, they dug in. At this point, Scott had amassed nearly 20 victory points. So there was no need to advance further and risk losing squads.
And on the East edge, Scott's 9-1 and Hero combined efforts to take out my tank in close combat.
Our game was nearing its end...
A look at the final positions on the East Edge.
And a final look at the French armor group as it had begun moving forward once the Siamese air cover evaporated.
So with the conclusion of Turn 5, Scott and I both agreed that the game had reached it logical conclusion. The French had amassed over 24 victory points. It would be next to impossible for my Siamese to overcome that in the remaining three turns. So the concession was given and Scott's French took home the Gold!
Another great game!
No comments:
Post a Comment