Saturday, September 17, 2016

Mixing it Up

...in the cauldron.

Pun intended. My apologies.

But really, Dave and I did decide to mix it up. We both took tank armies--a definite rarity for him--but we also did something more extreme: I took Americans and he took Germans.

My list was from Blood, Guts, and Glory, which is the only American tank list I've ever seen win. I had:

1 M4 Sherman
2 platoons each with 2 M4A3E8 Easy Eights, 1 normal M4, and 1 Jumbo
4 105mm guns
1 platoon of infantry

Dave took a StuG battery. Or battalion. Or something. It doesn't really matter. He had:

1 StuG
2 platoons each with 3 StuGs (1 platoon proxied by Jagdpanzer IVs)
1 platoon of 3 Hornisse tank hunters
2 platoons of infantry

Here's the report. The scenario was, in fact, Cauldron. I may make puns, but they're honest puns.


My deployment. My infantry was the only platoon I put on the table.
 He starts with his infantry to my right and a platoon of StuGs to my center.
 I get a platoon in Immediate Ambush, and I choose one of my tank platoons plus my company commander.
 He advances with his infantry, bringing reinforcement infantry on behind it.
 Both our armor does some posturing but no damage.
 At this point I start wishing American infantry had more automatic weapons.
 His infantry's assault rifles do a small number on me.
 His infantry packs into the field. And my artillery isn't on the table yet.
 He gears up for an assault.
 He has more reinforcements come in on my right, but they promptly fail firepower.
 At this point I start wanting some reinforcements.
 But at least I killed 2 of his reinforcing Hornisses.
 ...and they don't run away.
 I also get some reinforcements and brew up a single StuG.
 My reinforcements come in on his rear and...fail firepower. Fun stuff.
 All my original tanks are either destroyed or bailed out by now.
 Dave sweeps in for the assault...
 ...and cleans up. Plus my tanks run away.
 I literally failed every armor and morale check for that platoon for the whole turn.
If I'd killed one more Hornisse...

This wasn't a bad game, though it was a quick one. I think it's hard to play defense with armor, especially when your opponent's tank company has more infantry than many infantry companies. That's just hard to defend against.

Then there's the fact that I missed 3 50% armor saves (only one of which Dave passed firepower on, perpetuating our run of poor firepower luck) and a 50% morale check on my tank platoon. If the platoon had survived the turn, I could have forced him off my objective at least temporarily. Alas, the dice are not always on my side.

More to come in the next couple of weeks.

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