Burnie Fox has once again stomped me into the dirt, this time as the Germans in a PBEM play of Le Herisson, (ASL 77), leaving me with only one GO squad, (and a broken squad or two, and the 9-1 French leader), while the only losses the Germans sustained amounted to an ELRS, (yes, that's what I said). It's an ugly story that you might want to skip, but for newbies/educational experiences crowd, you might read further...
This was 1st Liners vs 1st Liners, the Germans with a 12.5 to 9.5 squad-equivalent advantage, add in the three big 150mm sIG 1B AGs, and both sides had 4 mgs and 3 leaders, (Germans with a 10-2). French advantages included 12 concealments, 2 roadblocks, and HIP for one squad-equivalent, etc., and defending in all stone buildings, 11 of which the Germans must Control, etc., etc., see scenario sheet.
Point is, about a week after starting this scenario, I read the article on it in the '96 Annual, discovering that I had:
Simply put, I was sIG-scared and dice-jumpy, (Mars is crapping on me so far this year). I figured anything I put up front, Burnie would break it with massive 150mm explosions immediately, add-in a kill stack or two, and then set the dogs to my routed heels. So I just put in the 237s and the ?+2 dummy stack to keep him honest, and he honestly did not want to rush into anything and used all three sIGs to lay down 3 smokes right in front of each viciously defending HS (and dummy). (I kept praying the sIGs would malf, having a B# of 9 after all, but right through to the surrender in Turn 6, none of them did...I think Burnie got every smoke he wanted from those sIGs, and was only a little less successful with H.E.) [sigh #2]
My plant was to cat & mouse the Germans, and I had a vague memory from last fall, (before my PC went down and I went out of touch for 4 months), of being cat & moused in a village defended by Italians against American 1st Liners, but this situation did not feature American morale and provided the Attacker with a much greater abundance of cover in the approach. The weakest points for the Germans are the first moves and then the cross-street moves in the middle and late games. I was hoping to paste sufficient quantities of Burnie's force when they made those street crossings.
With the sIG smokes well laid down, Burnie did not rush into things pell-mell, but just methodically made more smoke, DT'd selectively, AM'd, Dashed, bypassed with mmcs and sIGs alike, and busted up 1 small CC with DF when he hadn't won the initial CC and the French were threatening to reinforce the Melee in French favor in order to create a painful lodgment in the front/center objective. Seeing that this was not working, and that all but 2 German squads were rolling toward the important northeast sector, I left only 1 GO squad behind to slow things up in that center/front bank building, (whatever), with my next line of defense across the next north-south running street.
So, here was where the game basically ended: I had a mmg457 at one end of the street, (building X6), while Burnie had a sIG at the other end, (EE3). My mmg failed to kill/stun the sIG, but the sIG let fly more smoke for my boys to inhale. Meanwhile,in adjacent orchard hexes CC3 and BB3, the Germans were stacked, respectively, as first the 10-2/hmg467/lmg467/lmg467 and then another sIG and two more 467s. Across the street, facing this 80 meters of Death Stars from Hell, I had the [mistakenly] HIP 8-0/hmg457 in CC5, and the 9-1 was in AA6 with two 457s. The French 9-1 stack broke the 467s with the sIG, but did not stun the crew. Fretting over Burnie's constant, and successful use of smoke, I decided to reveal the HIP hmg stack and fire at the 10-2 Bowling Ball stack -- cross street fire into only hedges for protection -- before he could plop down more roiling +2's or +3's of gray matter.>>>>>>>>The 8-0/hmg457 rolled a DR of 5/5.<<<<<<<< With the French suffering from Ammo Shortage, this meant the hmg malf'd *on its first shot!*, (and the 8FP +1 DRM attack was NE). The Bowling Ball Boys destroyed this pea-shooting bunch in quick order, and from then on it was basically just a matter of seeing if Lady Luck could draw things out for me a bit, but it ended at the end of German Turn 6, (of 7 and 1/2 turns possible), when Burnie got control of 12 buildings, (1 more than needed).
Other than that, the only thing of note, perhaps, is that Burnie admitted having committed the cardinal sin of moving large stacks in enemy LOS/LOF, when I resisted using the 9-1/457/457 against people rushing up into our faces, and held fire for the 10-2 Bowling Ball, which broke/pinned, (except the 10-2), with one squad going _Berserk!_ and dropping the hmg and chasing my mice, er...colonials for 3 turns. Oh, yes -- and thank you, Burnie, for teaching me about the infamous VBM freeze.[sigh #3]
Paul