Post by richjones on Feb 25, 2010 0:06:18 GMT 1
WWII Flying Lead games are either a squad based 'patrol' mission (in the soon to be released Frontline Heroes supplement the mission your squad is doing is kept secret from your opponent, who will in turn also be trying to achieve their objective be it recon, prisoner snatch etc) or squad actions that are seen to be part of a bigger action, in which case there is often the chance of support arriving etc.
In tonight's game the second 'scenario' type was being used. Set during Operation Market Garden the US airborne were pushing towards one the bridges just in front of the advancing armour. They were being hampered by Panzer Grenadiers who were continually launching small counter attacks from the flanks. The game was seen to be part of a larger company action and both sides had the possibility of medium armour support arriving during the game.
The table:
The game was around 770 points with one piece of armour thrown in as a possible reinforcement. It was a firmly 'historical' based game with few strong personality characters ...
It was a straight 'meet and greet' encounter scenario with normal VP calculation with an extra 5 VPs for being in control of the house.
The only special rule in place was that from turn 2 at the start of a players activation they rolled a dice on a 6 the armour arrived, on the next turn a 5/6 was required and so on.
The initial setup for the squads ...
The US Airborne went for a flank move covered while half the squad moved into the house.
the Panzer Grens split into two groups each with an MG42 ... if they had won the roll for first activation they may have been able to set up and activate overwatch zones straight away
However the US got to move first and quickly moved down the board
However their elation was short lived as the first German activation saw one of the MG42 teams set up and spray the wall with lead
causing the bazooka man to 'seek cover' dropping down behind the wall ... the MG42 rolled a 1 and therefore was 'out of ammo' but being a crewed weapon the 'assistant' could, and did negate this on a quality roll pass ... however the tracking shots from the LMG (which has the auto fire rule allowing it to track) did nothing to the nearby troopers. The Germans then failed to activate the next man and the US had their second turn ... a timely 6 meant their tank support had turned up early and managed to move onto the board with one action and decided to stop.
This was about the last thing they managed before turning their activation over... the Germans moved up, the other MG42 setting up an overwatch zone making it risky for the US troops to move to that side of the house ... this channeled the US troops towards the higher concentration of German fire power.
The Germans also managed a fluky '6' and their Hetzer arrived on the table! Meanwhile some of the Grenadiers moved up to cover in the middle of the right flank field.
This prompted the US player to start throwing some of the available grenades ... they placed the aim point over the cover where the blast would not do either of the Germans much good!
Having to roll 2 dice as it was 2 range bands in distance they failed one of the rolls against their base quality and the German player was allowed to move the land point a short distance ... enabling him to place it on the other side of the cover.
Although they were both still in the C3 blast zone the cover managed to save both from any real harm ... the only result being one of them being knocked over.
Things then started going downhill for the US player ...
The German moved his leader back to give the panzerfaust totting grenadier some support (read kick up the behind) as his leader ship bonus enabled the grenadier to achieve 3 actions ... prime the faust, get up, FIRE ... the distance the FL table represents is basically a Personal Anti Tank weapon's paradise ... get it on target and good things are likely to happen
The roll for accuracy was good and the AT rating of the faust was increased by one to 8 ... this is then compared to the Sherman's armour which is a 3 ... being more than double any penetration is lethal ... this was easily achieved and the tank was out of action ... the crew bailing out
The Hetzer was then fairly safe to move out ... the only thing that could really worry it was the bazooka and the German player had made sure the bazooka man was being consistently pinned down (by making him go shaken) with direct and speculative fire.
To be fair the US player was having some really bad rolls both when trying to activate for 3 actions and also when firing.
One by one the US characters were being picked off ... the medic being unable to get to the Out of Action characters their morale testing point was rapidly approaching ... a HE hit from the Hetzer did more damage
The German NCO moved up to KIA the shaken bazooka man while the Hetzer moved up ... the morale point reached the US forces broke cover, the final nail in the proverbial coffin being another check being forced when the German leader moved up and capped the retreating US squad leader ...
The remaining US forces left the table ... a resounding victory for the Germans ... until next time maybe!
The US player was left to ponder what went wrong ... it had only been a short while since it all appeared to be going so well
In tonight's game the second 'scenario' type was being used. Set during Operation Market Garden the US airborne were pushing towards one the bridges just in front of the advancing armour. They were being hampered by Panzer Grenadiers who were continually launching small counter attacks from the flanks. The game was seen to be part of a larger company action and both sides had the possibility of medium armour support arriving during the game.
The table:
The game was around 770 points with one piece of armour thrown in as a possible reinforcement. It was a firmly 'historical' based game with few strong personality characters ...
It was a straight 'meet and greet' encounter scenario with normal VP calculation with an extra 5 VPs for being in control of the house.
The only special rule in place was that from turn 2 at the start of a players activation they rolled a dice on a 6 the armour arrived, on the next turn a 5/6 was required and so on.
The initial setup for the squads ...
The US Airborne went for a flank move covered while half the squad moved into the house.
the Panzer Grens split into two groups each with an MG42 ... if they had won the roll for first activation they may have been able to set up and activate overwatch zones straight away
However the US got to move first and quickly moved down the board
However their elation was short lived as the first German activation saw one of the MG42 teams set up and spray the wall with lead
causing the bazooka man to 'seek cover' dropping down behind the wall ... the MG42 rolled a 1 and therefore was 'out of ammo' but being a crewed weapon the 'assistant' could, and did negate this on a quality roll pass ... however the tracking shots from the LMG (which has the auto fire rule allowing it to track) did nothing to the nearby troopers. The Germans then failed to activate the next man and the US had their second turn ... a timely 6 meant their tank support had turned up early and managed to move onto the board with one action and decided to stop.
This was about the last thing they managed before turning their activation over... the Germans moved up, the other MG42 setting up an overwatch zone making it risky for the US troops to move to that side of the house ... this channeled the US troops towards the higher concentration of German fire power.
The Germans also managed a fluky '6' and their Hetzer arrived on the table! Meanwhile some of the Grenadiers moved up to cover in the middle of the right flank field.
This prompted the US player to start throwing some of the available grenades ... they placed the aim point over the cover where the blast would not do either of the Germans much good!
Having to roll 2 dice as it was 2 range bands in distance they failed one of the rolls against their base quality and the German player was allowed to move the land point a short distance ... enabling him to place it on the other side of the cover.
Although they were both still in the C3 blast zone the cover managed to save both from any real harm ... the only result being one of them being knocked over.
Things then started going downhill for the US player ...
The German moved his leader back to give the panzerfaust totting grenadier some support (read kick up the behind) as his leader ship bonus enabled the grenadier to achieve 3 actions ... prime the faust, get up, FIRE ... the distance the FL table represents is basically a Personal Anti Tank weapon's paradise ... get it on target and good things are likely to happen
The roll for accuracy was good and the AT rating of the faust was increased by one to 8 ... this is then compared to the Sherman's armour which is a 3 ... being more than double any penetration is lethal ... this was easily achieved and the tank was out of action ... the crew bailing out
The Hetzer was then fairly safe to move out ... the only thing that could really worry it was the bazooka and the German player had made sure the bazooka man was being consistently pinned down (by making him go shaken) with direct and speculative fire.
To be fair the US player was having some really bad rolls both when trying to activate for 3 actions and also when firing.
One by one the US characters were being picked off ... the medic being unable to get to the Out of Action characters their morale testing point was rapidly approaching ... a HE hit from the Hetzer did more damage
The German NCO moved up to KIA the shaken bazooka man while the Hetzer moved up ... the morale point reached the US forces broke cover, the final nail in the proverbial coffin being another check being forced when the German leader moved up and capped the retreating US squad leader ...
The remaining US forces left the table ... a resounding victory for the Germans ... until next time maybe!
The US player was left to ponder what went wrong ... it had only been a short while since it all appeared to be going so well