Met a new ASL'er yesterday, Bob Riconda, at a get together at Paul Blankenship's house. Bob had just got back for the most recent tourny (can't remember the name) where he played ftf for the first time after a number of years playing solataire. I've been on a PTO kick lately, so I talked Bob into a game of The Glory Road, which I've been wanting to play for awhile.
Scenario Info:
The Glory Road features Board 34 + overlay 5. The japanese setup in a convoy (but without the convoy rules) of three Chi-Ha (57mm) tanks and five trucks filled with nine squads and good leadership. The task force must get 30 FP factors across the overlay stream on Hexrow K. Defending are seven Indian squads of mixed quality, a 40L, 12 mine factors, and two wires. The weather is atrocious (heavy rain), so no WP for those nice knee mtr's or sD's of the tanks.
Setup:
The Japanese must setup in the road north of hexrow AA on roads, so the japanese column was stretched out from AA6 to GG5. My plan was to put the tanks out of harm's way (since that 40L would cut through my armour like a hot knife through butter) by rambling down the road to the clearing around Q8-P8-P9. Turns out there were actually a couple of LOS's from there. Bob sets up in srength defending the bridge. He puts a squad+mtr in oL6, squad+atr in oM7, 8-1+mmg+squad in oN7 and the 40L emplaced in oL5. On the west end of the river he has a squad+lmg in oK2, two squads in oL4 and his 8-0 in oK4.
Action:
My first truck I filled with a squad and two hs's. I figured that these guys would draw some fire as I moved to oO5. Sure enough Bob opens up with an ATR in hex oM7. With a +4 to hit and a 7 TK I thought my truck was doing what it was designed to do, draw fire. Well, Bob rolls a CH with that ATR, destroys the truck and a hs. Luckily the squad and hs survived (cs6 and no burning wreck). Bob then can't pass up an opertunity to fire at the guys getting out of the truck, which step reduces the squad. Well, end of my player turn, I advance the reduced squad into oN4, and discover a 6 fp mine field. Bob rolls snakes--Good bye squad. Not looking good so far. His turn 1 Prep fire is ineffectual verses the remaining hs in his LOS, and he stands pat everywhere else. Turn 2 found me unloading the rest of the convoy. The surviving hs in oN5 moves to the bridge and survives. I create a kill stack with my 10-1 in P6 and one with my 9-1 in P4, with a mtr in oO5. my tanks manage to break his squad + mmg in oN7 (causing loss of the mmg after only one shot). Meanwhile, my sniper wounds his 8-0, which would have dire consequences later. At this point of the game, with a couple of step-reduced squads and 1.5 squads dead, I think I'm dead. I am able to get hs's across the bridge, but both times they die in CC only taking hs's with them. However, turn 3 defensive fire ends up breaking the two squads in oL4, squads which will never be heard from again since his leader is now a 7+1 and fails to rally them on three consecutive game turns! On turn 3 I break his crew of the 40L, which he immediatly rallies and recrews. I know that I must get rid of it to bring my tanks in for the win (even with the tanks I'm only 6 fp factors over the thirty neeeded for the win). His two remaining GO squads are both shielded by jungle, so I declare a Banzai with my last leader (the 10-1) plus a squad and a half and go running into the hex to face a 6 -1. He gacks the roll and I kill him in CC, while he gacks the cc roll too. The rest of the story is mostly bob's desperate attempts to attack the tanks and the last turn CC attack to take out a squad, which failed. The end was closer than it should have been, as I forgot to button up the tanks or attempt motion or get one more tank over the bridge in time.
Lessons:
Never count the japanese out. My SAN was 3 and I rolled at least 5 sniper checks, not to mention the two snakes Bob rolled in the first turn. I had the same experience in Totsugeki as the Chinese. I rolled great, but could not rally anyone fast enough to stop the Japanese. They just keep coming.
Dense Jungle is constrictive. Bob's units were screened on a couple of key occasions due to the inherent terrain of dense Jungle.
Don't get too obsessive about one avenue of approach. I got fixated on the bridge early on when I could have tried the left flank with the infantry and then moved on a east-west axis to take out the 40L for my tanks. Instead I ran units over the bridge even though the bodies were piling up. After the game Bob mentioned it to me after I asked where the Wire counters were. He said that he didn't expect me to come over the bridge so agressively and the wires were on the flanks (as well as the rest of the mines).
A fun scenario that could go either way.
Brian Williams