Taivu - AAR Setup and Turn 1 Vid

Lock N Load AAR - Kalach Bridge

Kalach Bridge
Mission - Germans need to blow up one side of the bridge in 7 turns. It means though they need to be to
the bridge by the end of turn 6 and be of good order all of 7.

Russians set up units beyond bridge to have as a reserve. They spread out the wrecks to hopefully
block out some of the shots that would probably come from the level two hill with a nasty 88 set up.

Germans have no motorized equipment. The plan is to attack heavily on the right hand side.
This will be a tough one. But heck, any attack is tough for me.

1st Turn - German 88 takes out the PZ II on the Bridge in the first shot. Shots from a T-34 Shook Sgt
Bauman and his Squad with the MG34 up on the hill. In addition, the German 2-3-4-5 squad attempted
to close assualt a T-34, but like my last game of LnL, they failed their morale roll and will be crushed
or shot to pieces. Sgt Beck moved up very close to the T-34 on the right as they prepared to go into the
house in F4 to start laying down fire. But perhaps they'll wait until more troops are forward to help.

Turn 2
German Inititative (You roll each turn for inititative simple d6vd6 roll. Ties go to the last side with initiative.)
The Germans needed initiative and also needed their 2-3-4-5 in E5 to pass their morale roll (2d6<=Morale,
in this case a "5" - rolled a "4"!)

Got initiative and the squad jumped in with their Satchel charge and blew the tank and it's crew to...
Scratch one more Russian armor unit in two turns.

I can't help but think about Chain of Command and how this loss of 2 armor units would reduce the morale
of the Russian side, potentially significantly... I like that rule and miss that a little in this.)

Anyway, nice start to a turn.

Turns out Russians can't hit much in opp fire. However, the T-34 did shake the 88mm...so the Russians can
hope they don't successfully rally.

Turn 3 - Germans maintain initiative.
88 Remains Shaken.
But have no fear the AA gun just forced the remaining T-34 to be abandoned and the crew shaken upon coming
out of the vehicle...seriously, who wouldn't be shaken after taking multiple rounds from an AA gun?

No more armor for the Russians. Goodness that didn't take long.

The Russians moved their troops to their right/Germans Left and filled in the gaps and take on the German
flanking move.

Man-o-man, suppressive fire just doesn't cut it. Germans laid tons o fire into the Rusians to no
effect. The lone squad that had been in G8, now in D8 took fire from 5 squads at various times thorughout
the turn and suffered nothing.

Other German 2-3-4-5 is pushing aggressively forward to what was an empty foxhole...However, the Russians
moved in there with a 1-1-4-5 to cover that advance.

The German Mortar is moving to the Southern Hill to get a better vantage point.

Based on Movement points, the Germans need to move at least one unit toward the bridge at
full speed for the next two turns.

Turn 4
2-3-4-5 Squad eliminated leader and Russian squad in G8 to eliminate a threat to approach the
bridge. The big problem, the leader and squad the G6 stone building. The 88 is ineffective against
it, unless it can roll very high damage roll.

Turn 5
Germans made slow progress, but there will need to be many melees to rid the area of effective
units so that one unit can stand by the bridge for 1full turn. the 2-3-4-6 German Squad entered into
melee with the Russian leader, squad and lmg. They locked into melee for the next turn.

Turn 6
Russians and Germans fought to the death in the stone building in G6. A sacrifice that needed to
happen for the Germans to get up to the hex. MG fire also shook the German squad in H5, so they
won't be able to recover from that because there's no leader to rally them. So the Germans will win
this one because the sole unshaken Russian squad can't see hex H6 in order to fire on it.

These are well designed scenarios. At least for the solo player. Almost all of the Lock N Load Scenarios that I've played have come down to the last turn. Well, okay, this one came down to the second to last turn, I'm sure there are a few things I could've done to help the Russian cause a bit. For one, I could've kept a guy in the stone building on the bridge to fire protected.

Initiative rolls also could've helped the Russians. Out of 7 turns (I rolled for the last one to see what would happen.) the Russians only won initiative once! Therefore, their tanks were blown to bits quickly by charges and AT guns.

Speaking of those guns, they couldn't do much against the infantry units.

LnL No Time for a Spot of Tea AAR

This is from Lock N Load's Band of Heroes supplement, Swift an Bold. This covers Britain's forces in Dday and Arnhem.

This particular scenario, No Time for a Spot of Tea, covers action on September 17th. The Brits needs to clear any good order Germans up to 3 hexes from the road.

Here's the report:

Turn 2 - Brit squad killed, at gun taken out, hero killed - all Brits. Leader wounded. Troops shaken in open - left flank is scary.

Giving Piat to Hero to go after tank.

Will avoid mg42 on north and try to take out middle platoon of SS.

I need someone to teach me how to play effective offense.

End of turns 3 & 4. Brits making progress and Germans slowly retreating. Hero refuses to go into close assault w piat in hand against the Stug. Turn 5, the Brits have initiative and that hero is firing that piat point blank into that Stug.

End of game - No Time for a Spot of Tea. German victory. Germans pretty much controlled it. Though there were a couple of chances with the Brits - more smoke, maybe?

Hero with Piat = Jack crap - probably should've equipped him with Bren. With his particular skill card, it could've come in handy. Bummer, this was a lucky chance that I won't get again - ie, the card/hero combo.

The tank was just running around the field overrunning in the last couple of turns. Bad news.

Overall fun because I played both sides. As Brit I would've felt frustrated.

Heroes of the Pacific Chart Preview

Steve P, The Chart Guy, posted some of improvements and thoughts on his chart work for Lock N Load's upcoming release, Heroes of the Pacific.

Link to his post - http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?14@@.ee6f6d0/11319

I like the look of them.

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?233@@.ee6f6d0/11319!enclosure=.1ddae42d

http://talk.consimworld.com/WebX?233@@.ee6f6d0/11319!enclosure=.1ddae42e

Lock n Load Publishing News

There's a new sheriff in town at Lock N Load and they've announced it with a comprehensive newsletter.

What stood out to me
1. In house printing will mean they're able to keep line of fire magazine issues in print, with printed maps and counters. (Exception - issues 1-6 have counters printed on card stock that you would have to paste on counter material yourself.)
2. A nice schedule of upcoming printings of games.
3. They put the call out for freelance artists, game/module designers, etc.

I wish them luck in their new path.

I'm looking forward to Mare Nostrum, Heroes of the Pacific, and Band of Heroes. Though on BoH, I'm tempted to find a much cheaper used copy and just start playing all these scenarios I have.

Lock N Load Heroes of the Blitzkrieg Early War AAR Video

I posted this video a while ago but I want to make sure my readers see this. Lock N Load make some good scenarios. Now that Geekway is over, I need to pull this back out and start playing this game again.

I thought I'd scored a copy of the Band of Heroes 2nd Edition, but alas it wasn't the right edition. So all my expansions and modules await either finding an old copy or for the reprint that might happen in the next 18 months.

Unique AAR Map for Heroes of the Blitzkrieg

Another thing I saw on BoardGameGeek.  I really dig how this guy created this hand drawn map for the AAR. When you look at most WWII books, this is what the real  AARs looked like.  Drawn from the memory of those there, by hand. 

He explains later in the thread how he created it.

I also played this scenario from Heroes of the Blitzkrieg.  This is one of the modules of the Lock N Load tactical series.

Go check it out.

AAR - In Defeat Defiance - The Canal

First - welcome to new subscribers  James Brewerton, mentioned yesterday for being a community advocate and creator of BlogCon - go check out his site and services.

Also welcome to Edwin King - of whom I know nothing.  But I'm sure a stand up lad.  Though, he may be connected with another blog I follow, I'm just having a time finding it, please hold...okay, I'm back. Edwin is the owner of the blog, Thoughts of a depressive diplomatist , of which I'm a new subber. He has a cool perspective and writing and topics.

Thought I should stop searching for a tactical level series that is perfect and play one of the three I have. Lock N Load's In Defeat, Defiance won this time. I chose a small scenario, The Canal and gave it a whirl.

A lot of time spent looking up rules just because it's been so long. And the rules aren't formatted quite as I would like.  But this old, tired argument, is, well, old and tired.  So I will let it lie. Lay. Lee?

Anyway, moving on. To my short rememberance:
The setup - The MG34 Team ended up moving into one of the large stacks because I read the stacking rules more closely and realized I really needed their help over there.  I was going straight across the bridge all focused there.  The one bridge was the only way anything could get over the canal.  The tanks can't even cross the bridge, so they were support.

And this end of turn 2 I believe.  After turn 1,  I realized that shooting at those guys in the 4+ stone buildings was doing absolutely NO GOOD.  So I had to hustle on over there.

Oh yes, the objective:  Germans needed to capture 10+ building hexes over the canal in order to achieve different levels of victory.  They have 8 turns.  I was trying to develop an attack with suppressive fire, but alas, nothing.  So I just stormed the bridge, took a shaken result on a squad.  Though I did send a weaker unit to soak up the opp fire - I remembered to do this based on something I'd read in Fredrick's book on strategy:

So I meleed the building where there's the stack of Germans across the river.

End of Turn 3 - notice the giant stack of melee.  I learned a lesson, sort of. The Germans attacked all the Brits in the hex and they didn't get any kills.  The Brits then, learning from that only attacked one of the German units and took them out. Thus reducing the German's chance next turn.  I'm not completely confident this is the way to do it in this case, but I gave it the ole college try.

In Heroes of the Blitzkrieg you can choose to attack only one melee eligable counter.  You don't have to attack the whole hex.  I thought the German odds good, so attacked them all with no result.  As the Brit player I thought I would try to whittle the Germans down.  Problem is, there were more Germans and they would most likely win an attrition.

The other option, withdraw. There's a risk, but it might save some guys for a later turn.

Oh, also in the Turn three pic, the only German reinforcements arrived.

Turn 4 - This photo is blurry because what I'm trying to say here is that war blurs our reasoning and only destroys the souls of our young and poor.

Oh wait, this isn't my Etsy photography site.

Moving on, Germans are taking buildings, but turn 6 sees some serious Brit reinforcements.

At this point I was concerned the Germans wouldn't be able to take more buildings with enough time then, at a minimum, create a nice defensive line in the middle set of building as the British reinforcements would arrive turn 6.

Turn 4

End of Turn 5 and only Brits left on board is the Shaken S35. Brits have 2 Bren carriers coming up, With a leader and initiative. One of the German PzIIIs move's East (to the right in the picture) to cover this beautiful long shot down the road to cover when the Bren Carriers arrive.  It would impede movement as the road was covered.  However, based on how they shot, I probably would've been fine.  Though, there is only one armor point on those little buggies.

End of Turn 6 Germans lost Von Martial & Squad, but took out British half squad and Sgt Radoslovich at the same time. One Half Squad, two Bren carriers and S35 left for Brits.

End of Turn 7 no Brit infantry left. All losses to Brits due to Melee.

End of turn 8 and game - "excellent" German victory. 17 buildings taken. All left abandoned S35 - taken out by Pzb39 (rear shot). And shaken Bren carrier. One of the The Brens managed to take out a German squad.

The "dead" pile

Next time Brits perhaps a bit back except for tank? Make the Germans cross more open ground.

There would be an opportunity to cover the bridge for a turn or two.  Then fall back to the rear line of buildings to allow for open ground crossing and opp fire. 

And the video of it. Starts about the 4:40 mark.

Fighting The Hedgehogs AAR

I didn't take great notes, but I wanted to post some pics of my 2nd game of Lock N Load's Heroes of the Blitzkrieg.  This was the scenario called Fighting the Hedgehogs.

My biggest takeaway from this game:  read and understand the victory conditions.  I thought it was simply that both sides had to eliminate more vp worth of the enemy.  I played it that way through turn 3 or 4 when I realized I'd made the error.  The real vp: French earned vp for eliminated units.  Germans win for exited units.  whoops.

The problem, I spent too much time with the Germans trying to take out units.  Instead, I should've shaken them and then scooted off the board.

Beginning of Game.  Germans enter from right and exit left.

 The French MG weapon team had the armor penetration card that allowed them to fire against armor.  Good thing.  It occupied one of the PZ IICs for 2-3 turns as shaken.  Using a reinforcement, I stick a squad with a Boys .55 to shoot at the backside of the entering Germans.  Nothing happens and then they are quickly meleed and taken out.

End of Turn 1

Good thing for the Germans, there was only one French leader, so there wasn't much Rallying to be done.  So anyone shaken, was probably going to stay that way.  Though there is a card that can be used one time to help rally troops.  Perhaps I should've used it earlier.   During Turn 2 the PZIIC commander and his tank attempt to take out the pesky HMG team.  And, the French 25mm attempts to take out the lead tank.  See that the Other PZII is still shaken.

End of Turn 2

The Germans begin to make good progress on the North and South sides.  The Lead tank takes out the HMG team.  Other PZIIC still shaken.

End of Turn 3

The lead German tank is taken out by the 25mm!

End of Turn 4

Finally, the other PZIIC unshakes and boogies to get off the board.  And a hero is created for the French on the South side.  This would slow down the southern troops. 

End of Turn 5

Tank makes it off.  And there's a German squad with just two hexes left to get off the board.  However, several shaken squads were left on board, which gave points to the French.

End result: French Victory:  12.5 vp to German 12 vp. 

End of Turn 6 and Game

The first two scenarios have been very close, coming down to it at the end.  Both enjoyable.

I have until April 28th to raise $1,000 for my Charity Water campaign.  Take a look and help if you can,   Thank you.

Lock N Load Heroes of the Blitzkrieg Phoney War Pt 2

See the first half of the battle report here.

Turn 4
Southwest: Sgt Olivier is again unable to rally his troops with the MG. More precious time lost. Their job was going to suppress the remaining Germans in the south copse of trees.  So, he directed the 2 squads north of him to suppress, thus stalling their movement.  Their fire works and they reduce one already shaken squad and shake the other.  The remain France Corps squads rush the forest and easily dispatch the Germans. This half of the battlefield is clear.  Now they can support their surrounded brothers in the house.

End of Turn 4

North: The Germans that had just jumped the wall and ran straight in for the French in the foxhole, easily dispatching them. Their peers entered the wire and worked their way slowly through.

Middle: Lt von Martial took his squads into the building to melee Mdl Julien, the weapons team and the shaken squad.  Basically they were only fighting the weapons team.  Well, they couldn't defeat the weapons team, very resilient. (Though I played this wrong. Weapon teams only defend in melee with a nominal FP of 1.  I used the units full firepower of 2 to calculate the odds. I didn't use them to counterattack in the melee, which is correct.)  I had the Germans use a fate point to buff up the roll, to no avail.

As this melee ensued, the French kitchen police, just returning from the rear lines and hearing the cries of battle, come rushing straight down the road toward the house to reinforce their beloved and artistically talented Mdl Julien.  And this is when they realized their mistake. Running straight down the road.  Before they heard the sounds of the Mg34, their comrades started falling all round them.  Even Adc Beaujolais was shaken.  They all hit the ground, though too late after both squads shaking.

And then from the...

South:  Lt Wurtz took a squad w mg into the building to reinforce the melee.  The French weapon team succumbed to the overwhelming firepower.

Turn 5

End of turn 5

Southwest (France Corps) - Sgt Julien reluctantly leaves the squad with mg.  They tried self rallying, but couldn't make it happen. He joined with 2 of the squads to work their way toward the building.  The other two squads, one at a time work their way toward the south part of the house. One is shaken, the other joins with them in the same hex.

North:
The French make the same mistake as their brothers and move downstairs to prepare for Melee.   I don't recall how, but the German squad waiting outside the north side of the house are shaken.  Their fellow squad that had been stuck in the wire join them by the house. 

South:
Some of the Germans fire into the newly arrived French kitchen troops. They reduce one to a half squad, the other stays shaken and the leader is wounded and shaken.

Turn 6:

Turn 6 Melee

I didn't get a photo of the whole board.  Here's what I recall: The French moved closer to the house.  And let's just say this - Lt von Martial grouped his two squads with mgs with some fate from the fatherland and rushed into the north part of the house to melee the 2 French squads sporting a mg.  The Germans were successful in taking out the French.  Unfortunately for the Germans, the French rolled an 11.  They only succeeded on a 10+.  So, even using the German's last fate point to subtract from their roll, it would've still succeeded.  Big loss. 

Yes, it gives the Germans their 4 vp for being in sole possession of the building. But it also gives the French 2.5 more vp.

Turn 7:

End Game - French Victory 7-4

The French weren't going to take the building. So all they needed to do was get one good order French unit next to the building.  Sgt Olivier rushed up and was shaken.  France Corps unit 1 rushed up, shaken.  France Corps 2 rush up...and shaken. 

But wait, what's this? The wounded and shaken Adc Beaujolais was able to roll a 2 during the rally phase and was in good order in order to ensure a French victory, 7-4.

After Report
A fun scenario and I learned a lot about the rules and strategy.

First, the rules to work on:

1. Fire groups - Take one squad at full firepower, then all other squads are taken as 1/2 firepower. Support weapons fire at full.  Weapon fire teams don't fire in fire groups.
2. Spot first, before firing.  I forgot a couple times with the Germans in the woods in the Southwest.  
3. Weapon Teams defend in melee at a nominal 1.  They can't attack in melee.
4. For this scenario - I could've used fate points to subtract as well as add. 
5. For this scenario - I forgot to begin lifting the fog for better visibility.

Strategies

1.  The France Corps come in after the Germans are set up.  Possibly, they could've come up on the North side and not necessarily the Southern portion.  The buildings, wheat fields and trees were tempting cover.
2. Another error entering the board, the French kitchen troops, coming down the road.  Again, the German was there, I could see it.  I should've come a little further north, with some, perhaps a little further from the action.
3. The French should've stayed upstairs.  The Victory Conditions state that the Germans could be the only ones with GO troops in the house.  By staying upstairs, it would've taken the Germans another turn to get up there to fight.
4. For the Germans, I probably should've kept one of the German leaders back to rally troops. As it was I had 2-3 units sitting most of the game.  Frankly, I'm lucky the Germans up North did as well as they did.
5. Similarly, Probably should've made to groups of attacks since I had two leaders and not three.

Lock N Load Heroes of the Blitzkrieg Phoney War AAR

Pre Game

I had started a scenario of Lock N Load Games' Heroes of the Blitzkrieg right after receiving it for Xmas.  However, it had ordnance, tanks, etc.  I was a little overwhelmed, so I put it away and started diving into ASLSK again. Poked my nose back into CC and finally decided to understand how LnL’s squad level game worked.  I would push past all the hurdles I was experiencing.

Author side note:  I’ve put gaming, blogging, youtubing, and painting very much to the side for a while.  See the previous post.   With all that said, I still want a small touch of gaming in my life, so I’m trying to do this with some moderation – which is tough for me .  As you can see from the back and forth on the tactical systems I just wrote in the first paragraph.  I’ve found that it’s been hard to concentrate on rules while reading them.  Not necessarily because of the rules, but because my mind is in a million places.  And I can only give a little bit of time to it, so I get it in chunks.  All that said, I was finding understanding the LnL rules quite a challenge.

Then I found this rewrite on Boardgamegeek.com.  It reads more like I learn and has helped immensely wrap my head around some of the concepts/exceptions etc.
So I found a scenario with no tanks and no ordnance and a small counter count, Phoney War, near Forbach, No Man’s Land; January, 1940.

History Note from the scenario sheet:
                During the period preceding the German offensive both the French and the Germans kept their positions along the border.  France had invaded the Saar country but retreated after the Polish capitulation.  War was then an affair of recon patrols, brutal ambushes and coup de mains on outposts.  On this day, at dawn, the Germans attempted to eliminate a French advanced base, taking advantage of a thick fog. Unfortunately, French Corps Francs were just returning from a night operation and joined the battle to rescue their comrades. – Olivier Revenu

Also, while I was looking through some of the blogs I follow, I found that Brad at Hexsides and Hand Grenades, back in March of 2012 listed Phoney War in his list of 3 Essential Scenarios from Lock N Load games.  By the way, his AARs are great and I try not to compare myself to him.  If I did, I wouldn’t write any.

I think my intro is going to be longer than the actual AAR.

Pre-Game – Mdl Julien hears of an impending attack, though they can’t see anything for the fog. (LoS limited to 3 hexes.)

Victory Conditions: Germans get 4 points for occupying the two hex house on the west half of the board and another 4 points by having no good order French unit next to the house.  The French get a point for each squad and ½ a point for each ½ squad or SMC (single man counter.)

End of Turn 1

End of Turn 1 (The stacks of Fire and Hit and Run markers are just that – stacks of them, no units are under them.) At the North (top) of the board a German squad is shaken and will remain that way for the rest of the game.  I had no leaders at the North end of the attack.  Not very smart because there’s nothing these guys can do once shaken…except move away from the enemy. The middle group of Germans gets into some rubble to prepare an attack there.

In the South the German hero is wounded as he crosses the open ground. As you can see, the Germans are able to get pretty close in turn 1.

To the Southwest, the French Francs come that direction to reinforce their people.  Though, now that I think about it, I’m not sure why I brought them along this part of the board.  The Germans had already set up this defense in anticipation of them coming on board.  I should’ve taken them on the northern side.  I think the cover of the building and wheat attracted me.

End of Turn 2

Turn 2
Starting in the Southwest side of the board, the France Corps were able to break the Germans in the forest with the MG34 and the ones in the forest hex straight East. The other Germans go to reinforce those hexes.   In the northern forest hex, the GO German squad hopes to get that mg from the shaken squad.  But they’re so scared, they won’t give it up…(you can’t swap weapons with a shaken unit – blast!!!)

Up North, the shaken move back to the forest to stay out of range of the French guns.  The Germans low crawl up to the wall. (Still a little shaky on the spotting for this.)  Oh yeah, the French in the house are all set up on the second floor to help with spotting.

In the middle, the Germans manage to shake the French sitting outside in the foxhole. However, one of the German squads also shakes. The leader moves a little closer in.

To the south, the German MG34 shakes the French in the foxhole to the south of the house.  The hero escapes shooting from the second floor to get next to the Frenchy in his hole.  I smell Melee.  As long as the initiative lands right.

End of Turn 3

Turn 3
Southwest:  The hero rushes into the forest to Melee the GO (good order) squad and the shaken squad.  The hero’s compatriots don’t see what happen; they just hear the shouts and shooting.  The hero survives opp fire and then courageously fights to the death 2 squads.   Further South of this position, his peers aren’t so lucky.  After the more forward squads try to shake the forest dwelling Germans and fail, the Leader and mg equipped squad attempt to advance fire. Instead, they take fire, the squad freaks out (shakes) and remains that way for the rest of the game.  Even the strong Sgt Olivier can’t rally them.

North: The Germans make it over the wall without casualty or incident.  They are extremely luck here.

In the middle, Lt von Martial runs his squad through wire and fire and melees the shaken squad (Actually, they just eliminate shaken units – no rolls necessary.) They are right next to the building.  Mdl Julien makes a mistake and runs the squads and Weapons team downstairs to prepare for the inevitable close assault. I'll explain the mistake in tomorrow's post.

South: Bad news for the German hero.   The French had won initiative, so the shaken squad moved back into the minefield hex.  Edging gingerly through their garden of death.  The hero, unaware of the danger and believing he has them on the run, rushes into the hex succumbing to the minefield. The other units watch in despair as this happens knowing now to avoid that area and inch closer to the building.


Join us tomorrow as we complete Turns 4-7 of Heroes of the Blitzkrieg Phoney War comes to an exciting conclusion! (insert dramatic radio drama music here)