ASL23 – UNDER THE NOEL TREES

JP playing as the US
Legion playing as the Germans

 THOUGHTS

            I have setup with a light screening force in the centre of the board (4 squads, 8-1 and MMG in 19I8 and a BAZ in 19R9) if he tries to go through the centre of the board these guys can put some pressure on and maybe take out a tank or hold off his infantry.

            My hellcats are in 19V2 and 19N2 both with their C/A facing the south end of the board and the 9-1 AL in the N2 hellcat to improve my long range shot chances. We can cover all the south side of the board and also be able to put fire on the centre of the board where the holes in the trees are. (19S10, W10 and Y10).

            This leaves me only the north side to contend with and I have BAZs with HSs in 19E3 and 19H2; which also has a 7-0 leader. I originally had my last BAZ and 2 squads in this area as well but thought it was too obvious that I was trying to scare him into attacking down the south end of the board so I moved one squad and BAZ to 19R1 along with an 8-0 leader as a tactical reserve and the other squad to the south end. From his perspective there were 3 US concealment counters at each end of the board and 4 in the centre, a nicely balanced setup so he would be unable to read my intentions. 

TURN 1

            On they came and I temporarily exposed 2 units to make him lose ? it certainly looks like he will come into my hellcats LOS. In my turn I moved my reserve (8-0 Squad and BAZ) further south to plug the hole and also the HS 7-0 and BAZ leaving only one BAZ on the north edge but if he shifts the direction of his attack I can get both back there before he gets to the board edge.

TURN 2

            He dismounts his infantry and it certainly looks like he is going to take his time and clear out the centre woods before assaulting the main tree line to the east, he puts a StuG in my V2 hellcat’s LOS and during my Defensive Fire a sniper stuns the CE StuG and also wounds a 7-0 leader. I fire with the hellcat but miss. In his Advance Fire a Pz IV fires from 16J6 at my still concealed hellcat. I eventually kill the StuG in the next Prep Fire but feel I will die from his Pz IV in his Defensive. Fortunately for me he misses; I had a +2 concealed +1 small and +1 woods but that was still no guarantee of safety. I keep moving men to the south where it is now obvious that he will be attacking.

TURN 3

            He misses!!! My hellcat still lives!! He also pops SMOKE in 19X4 to give him some cover and sends 4 AFVs into the open on the south of the board, my 2nd hellcat opens up but misses the 1st AFV it fired at, a 2nd comes into its LOS and I went intensive and scored a “Possible shock” result which he failed. I also scored a K/1 result on one of his squads however it made it into the X6 wooden building – the only infantry loss for the entire game for either side. In my Defensive my V2 took out the 16J6 and got ROF so laid an Acq. on another of his tanks through the SMOKE. During my turn I toast his shocked StuG in Prep but missed the rest of his tanks.

            I was moving a MMG and a HS with BAZ to DD2 (where I already had a squad trying to entrench) which would put both the open hexes CC2 and EE3 1 hex away from my BAZ as a last line of defence when he fired his HS at my HS, I passed the NMC but he had created a SAN and I rolled a ‘1’ – a wonderful 6,4 put the sniper close to a CE Pz IV and it caused a Recall. At this point Legion gave me the game as he could only win by getting his remaining 3 AFV’s off board AND by having a higher CVP count and the score was: US: 19 CVP, GERMANS: 0 CVP – I could afford to run away from him and he would still take losses trying to get to me. (Even if he toasted my hellcats they would only be worth 10 CVP in total).

AFTERTHOUGHTS

            The hellcats are evil but it only takes a loss of concealment or a Malf. And the Yanks would be in trouble. I think Legion rushed the game somewhat. As he was dismounting troops in turn 2 I thought I was going to be in for a tough day in the office but instead of a combined arms assault he decided to take the Hellcats head on – if it had worked I would have been in trouble. His MMG never fired a shot and was behind the action so I feel that the presence of the screening force in the centre of the board disrupted his assault.

            Overall it was an outstanding victory and has given my morale a much needed lift as Legion has been running rampant over my troops in previous games.