John Knowles and I continued our Xmas ASL fest the morning after AP01 The Ring with a much smaller scenario: A079 Mike Red from the '95 Annual. We chose it because we wanted to try the Beach landing rules again without going to the PTO, it would be a change of pace from our previous games, and neither of us had played it before. I guess after the previous game we were looking for something different and nether of us wanted to play the Cat has Jumped again. Also there were a couple of scenarios we were playtesting that needed more work and we weren't up to the energy levels required that day.
For those of you who haven't seen it as yet, it features DD Tanks, LCAs, ELR 2 Germans, a very small playing area, Tetrahedron Beach obstacles, and a wide [6 hexes] expanse of sand to cross before reqaching a low sea wall. For the Canadians to win, they must exit 7 VP off the far edge. Not much you may think, but to exit any of the four DD tanks requires that you first Breach the Low Sea Wall.
In our first game John blew me away before I even reached the beach hexes properly, with 2 LCAs sunk and the HMG KIAing everything that actually managed to hit the beach.
We tried again, and this time I platoon moved the LCAs to minimise John's potential Def fire, heading for the area of the beach outside the CA of his ATG. I managed to get there pretty much okay except for hitting a Tetrahedron Mine, exit 1 LCA.
The DD tanks came on in platoon formation as well, and safely landed on the beach, but it was at this point, Turn 5 that we discovered one flaw in the scenario design...the tanks would have to face something like 8 Bog DRs before they even get off the beach, and it takes a whole move to cross the beach at 3 MP per hex...this leaves only one turn for them to get to the exit edge, and therefore any tank that exits cannot even afford to fire other than while in motion, yeah that makes them really useful, even with the faint possibility of Gyrostabilisation.
We reverse engineered the scenario to see how the Canadians can win, and we were non-plussed to figure out how they can without the best of luck with the dice and some poor dice on the Germans part.
This is the first scenario I have really been disappointed in, even Agony of Doom or Soldiers of Destruction didn't strike me as being this much of a sure thing.
Points to ponder... Why does an ELR 2 garrison unit [A "stomach" battalion or "ostbatallion"] get the benefit of non-cowering, self-rallying 8 morale crews for all its SW? Who in their right mind would not actually set any germans up on the edge of the beach? And finally, has anyone actually won this as the Canadians, and what actually happened?
This scenario has some really cool ideas, but the execution of the revision is flawed enough to make it an absolute barker of a scenario, as from what I gather the original was 10 turns long which may well have been too long by one game turn. If the designer of this scenario, Brent Pollock I think?, would care to comment on the revisions that were made I would be most interested.
Perhaps by replacing the 228 crews with 237 hs and extending it by a turn and a half it would solve these problems, but we were not willing to try it again after two miserable attempts...BTW the only reason I did get anywhere in the 2nd attempt was because I managed to roll three snakes eyes and was able to smoke the ATG and the HMG...all those Rof 2 and 3 weapons kill the Canadian player as soon as he steps on to the beach.
If anyone has ideas on how this scenario is winnable in its present form I would love to hear from them, the balance is ineffective, an extra LCA doesn't help that much, as it is the movement to the seawall and the time constraints that kill the canucks, rather than the sea approach. I find it amazing that ROAR has it listed with 5 canadian wins...my first thought was most uncharitable in that I wondered if those five wins were because people were using the Beach assault rules for the first time and were missing important areas.
Mike Red has the potential to be a good learning scenario for Beach assaults and DD tanks, and I would hate to see it consigned to the ranks of the other kennelled beasties. This is not an attack on the designer of the scenario at all, but the tone of this mailing reflects the disappointment I felt after such high hopes.
Pete Palmer
Mike Red was my Seaborne Assault Deflowering scenario. I played it PBEM about two years ago against Rob Modarelli (former CH! staff writer, now stationed in China), a very experienced but patient (with then-newbie Me) player. I took the Canadians 'cause I thought they looked like more fun, plus I was hoping to get some firsthand experience at setting up a good interlocking, mutually supporting defense. Thus I am somewhat biased in Mike Red's favor. The First Time syndrome, I guess.
We played Mike Red as published, no balance. As the Canadians, I still had a shot to win on the last turn but came up about a squad short. Three things kept this one close:
I do agree that Mike Red as published is very tough on the Canadians, depending on the effectiveness of the German fire on the LCs. I would guess that 6 DD Shermans and an AL might be too much the other way though, especially if the Exit VP required are unchanged (>= 7).
Mike Red does have the advantage of being a small, short, simple scenario as Seaborne Assaults go. Wouldn't play it for the win at a tourney, but then, I wouldn't play any seaborne assault scenario for the win at a tourney. Not that I'll be playing for the win at any tourney anytime soon, but you know what I mean...
>> Mike Red has the potential to be a good learning scenario for Beach >> assaults and DD tanks, and I would hate to see it consigned to the ranks of >> the other kennelled beasties. This is not an attack on the designer of the >> scenario at all, but the tone of this mailing reflects the disappointment I >> felt after such high hopes.
Kennelled beastie? I think Mike Red falls into the category of Unbalanced but Fun (which for me includes such scenarios as Double or Nothing, Curtain Call, Cibik's Ridge, Valhalla Bound if you enter the Panthers a turn too early at my insistence, Mr. Steve Dennis...) which makes it far from a three-legged canine, IMO. Play it for fun! Don't even stake Ladder Points, AREA points, or Personal All Time Win-Loss Records and play it as the aforementioned learning scenario. Or, if you're feeling cocky sometime, stake the points.
Way over my credit limit of 2 cents, but I feel like somebody's been dissing my first girlfriend.
Mike Owens