Last night I played Toujours L'Audace with Pooch, All American Screaming Eagle. I was deeply skeptical about my chances in this one, being the Belgian Waffles- 19 SS squads with five leaders is a thundering horde by any standard, and my dozen 458s with assault fire (whoopee!), 50mm MTR, and MMG had their work cut out for them. First I did what anyone playing this must do: I read Nixon's Annual article on the Into The Fray scenarios. He isn't particularly encouraging, rating Toujours 55% German, but he does offer a Belgian setup which I used as a guide for my own.
I created a Modified Nixon Defense, changing only a few things from what's described in the Annual: (from memory) I moved the 8-0 from 11K4 to 11K1, seeing no reason why this guy should eat lead up front; I un-HIPped the squad in 2AA3, since as Nixon himself points out, this is an obvious location for a unit and will take fire anyway; and I removed the squad from 11H1 or thereabouts and HIPped it in 2P5. This last squad would (hopefully) advance into the VC area in the bottom of the seventh and survive for the victory. Pooch opened up in a straightforward up-the-gut attack, with a dozen squads pushing up the K-L-M-N hexrows, with four squads and the MMG on his right and three squads on his extreme left. The 9-2-led killstack contained 3xlmg/468, a little unfair from the Belgian perspective. He soon blew me out of the 11K1 woods mass, killing the defenders - I had some good shooting, but his own MCs were hot, generating two heros (a third would appear later), though both were wounded before the woods were cleared.
Pooch pushed hard, and quickly drove deep into my right-hand woods mass; I broke some guys as they approached, but my two squads covering the edge were quickly overwhelmed. I pulled the 8-1/mmg/458 team out of the line and back toward 2V5. On the left, I rotated concealed squads into the woods edge to give his MMG something to shoot at, and was holding well. By turn four Pooch was ready to plunge into the left-hand woods, and had only a HS and the MMG team on the right to worry about. At this point I realized I could surrender a hexrow per turn and be able to make a last stand on the very edge of the VC area. I dashed my mmg team across the road and into the lefthand woods, and awaited the assault.
The endgame went about as expected, with German squads surrounding my three hexes of remaining troops. I managed to survive the T7 CCs, however, and got my own hero in the bargain. Also, my sniper dropped the 9-2 when Pooch was doing recon by fire, a particularly satisfying moment. Being the Nazi scum that he is, Pooch fired into the melees, including a 24(+1) attack. The latter generated a 3MC, which my guys passed while his own broke. My HIPsters emerged in the bottom of the seventh, diving into the melees. The top of the 8th saw further cold-hearted machine gunning of melees, inducing a 4MC which I again passed. Finally, it came down to the last CCPh. Each hex had three German squads, while one included two heros and a leader as well. On my side, one hex had a squad, one a HS plus a leader, and the last, an 8-1, a hero, and a squad. Thus Pooch had two 3:1 attacks and one 2:1. He waxed two hexes, but boxed the third, and I was in with the win.
My win was based on hanging on and getting the right rolls at the right time (passing the 3MC and 4MC at game end). The Waffles must skulk or die - critics of this tactic had better avoid this scenario, because it's a complete hose job without it. There are so many Germans that the attacker can afford to push his luck - even the loss of the 9-2 wasn't such a blow given the number of squads on the board. Despite this, with three CCs to win on the last turn, Pooch had less than a 20% chance to win the scenario. Pooch made no obvious errors, but was denied by the dice in critical attacks. Thus the crushing German numbers are offset by pretty tough VCs. If he's facing a single CC, it's a different story, but if more than one location needs to be cleared, the Chasseurs are suddenly looking a lot better. I'll still pick something else for first choice at A-Con, and I'd prefer the Germans in this one, but I'm not as nervous about the Belgian chances as I was when we set up.
(the other) JR
Ian Carter and I got together last weekend and ran through #48 "Toujour L'Audace". This is a nice scenario, Belgian elites guarding a crossroads against early war SS - a straightforward pure infantry battle in mixed terrain. The boards are modified by SSR somewhat, but it's bearable (all hills are woods). I got choice of sides, and took the Germans (wanted to brush up on my attack skills). Balance wasn't used. A16 Battlefield Integrity and E2 Interrogation were in effect; we used the IFT.
Ian set up fairly spread out, considering he was tied to within six hexes of the crossroads (2U3). His lt MTR went into 2V3, where it caught me by surprise; I saw the ?'d stack and expected it to be his MMG, set to fire down th 2Y2-11I5 road. He placed almost half his infantry in the 11K2 woods area, with the rest scatter along a line in his setup area. The MMG with a squad and 7-0 went into 2O1 HIP to cover his left flank, and 2 HS were HIP'd way back in his rear to force a complete search. Another squad was HIP'd around 11J0, in the center.
I considered doing an end run, but realized that I'd have to clear the center sooner or later, and might as well do it through good cover. "Hey diddle diddle, straight up the middle." Works for me.
With that in mind, I ran my boys in centered on 11K, stacked as much possible to use the leader bonus. I didn't bother creating any HS for searching, as I didn't expect to need them until later in the game, when they would likely have appeared as a result of casualties anyways. Cynical or what?
Things got off to a bad start for me. I'd run my 'firebase' (468/MMG, 468/LMG, 9-2) to cover the 2Y2-11I5 road, cutting off a few squads and giving me a shot at what I thought was his MMG. Ha. My boys advanced, ?'d, into 11I5. His first shot (of the game) was with the mortar, and - of course - was snake eyes. When the branches settled, he'd KIA'd one squad and broken the rest of the stack. Subsequent ROF shots (his mortar team had phenomonal luck, later becoming Fanatic) wounded the 9-2, and sort of slapped the rest of them around. So much for the first turn.
The firebase eventually rallied, although the wounded 9-2 spent the rest of the game limping along rallying stragglers. I applied steady pressure (sounds like a first aid course) to his center, pushing it back into 2T1. The 11M4-P2 wall was really useful; I moved 5 squads out behind it and poured fire into his exposed flank. Bayonets and grenades were the order of the day in the 11K2 woods area, with the SS assault moving by squad through residual FP to engage in CC. The Belgians gave as good as they got, getting the ambush several times, and his mortar continued to be a nuisance on the German left, until I moved within its four hex (!) minimum range. BTW this is a nice little weapon, very portable, but the min range is a real pain, especially in close confines. Happily for me, it malf'd early in the mid-game and never came back. Chapter A all the way from there.
The turning point of the game came when I'd pushed him back into the 2T1 building (2 HS (one broken), 2 squads and a leader). I assault moved adjacent with a squad and 8-1, and took a 20FP D1F shot for my troubles. Then, joy of joys, the 8-1 HoB'd but Ieee went berserk, taking the squad with him. At this point, Ian went for the gusto, taking an 8FP SFF shot (NE), and two 12FP TPBF FPF shots as the bersekers charged in. All to no avail. In the AFPh, the nuts returned fire and came up with a 2MC that shattered the Belgians. Interdiction played hell with them when they routed out. From there on it was just a matter of cleaning up.
I was able to keep the few squads on his left at bay, and deployed a chunk of my remaining troops to sweep the victory area for his HIP units. The MMG revealed itself, bagging a squad in the process, but they quickly fell to fire from several of my squads and a hero that had been created in the fighting for the 11K2 woods. I found one of his HIP HS the hard way, after a CX HS advanced on top of it. Classic ambush; they never saw it coming. Ian had placed his other HIP HS just outside the victory area, in the hopes of advancing in at the last minute. I cleared the whole area, and had a solid line of troops on the boundary of the VC area, leaving him no hope of surviving long enough if he did move in to contest control. With two turns left, he resigned.
All in all it was a good fight. I don't think either of us made any glaring errors. The success of my berskers was a major factor, as they wiped out close to a third of his remaining OB at the time, and saved me at least a game turn that would have been spent clearing the rest of the center. The resiliency of the SS was another factor; they just bounced right back, time after time. I don't think there was a single German unit out of the game broken for more than a player turn. German leadership took a beating, too: out of five SMCs, two were wounded and a third killed. Battlefield integrity didn't have too much impact, although the Belgian ELR did drop once (I think - it's been a week ;) ).
One thing I would have done in Ian's shoes (here we go with the hindsight thing ;) ) is put perhaps two squads along the 11M4-P2 wall, if only to discourage early movment in the open area it bounds around 11O4. As I mentioned earlier, I was able to move five squads into there and beat up his flank. The wall TEM is better than the woods, too. Admittedly, routing could get tricky if the Germans take 11L3, but I wouldn't hang around there too long anyway. Whatever the case, this is a really good meat and potatoes scenario; a good sized pure infantry fight. I'd play it again.
Ciao, Vic.