From: "Bruce Probst" To: Subject: [Aslml] AAR FC4 Cactus Trap Date: Friday, February 25, 2005 11:16 PM Played this HOB scenario last night (from their "Fortress Cassino" module). It's a small night action set amongst the steep hills of Board 25. A small number of Germans are defending with lots of wire, mines and boobytraps against a company of Gurkhas who need to control the heights to win. My opponent was Rob Morieson who had never played a night scenario before. I'm always amazed at the trepidation the night rules cause amongst players who have never used them (perhaps it's the unfriendly way in which Chapter E explains them), but the basics were easily communicated to Rob and away we went. I took the Germans and tried to set up a linked defence with wire blocking the crags and mines and boresighted MGs covering the more open ground. A lucky German starshell on the first turn caused the Gurkhas to be more cautious on their left flank than they would have been otherwise, which is just as well because I didn't have much defending there! He instead channeled his advance up the centre, which suited me fine as that's where my defences were strongest. Or so I thought. Unfortunately some well-placed Gurkha starshells ended up blinding my troops at exactly the wrong moment. The Gurkhas slipped through the gaps that I had planned to cover with fire by virtue of the fact that the starshells prevented me from seeing them. All of a sudden the Gurkhas were very close indeed after suffering very few losses, and three German squads plus three crews with MMG were placed in a difficult position. That was bad enough, but I might have recovered from it; after all, with three MMG against targets in mostly open ground there's the potential for a lot of mayhem. Unfortunately Rob followed up his quick advance with a string of very good attack DR that left my troops shattered. Two disasters like that in quick succession were too much for me to bear and although I struggled on for a few more turns threatening to make a comeback, the outcome was never seriously in doubt. It wasn't all bad news. My DR weren't generally awful, and indeed there were three separate occasions in which I was subjected to a 3MC and passed every time. (Unfortunately the many NMC and 1MC results were less favourable.) The Gurkhas proved surprisingly clumsy in Close Combat and took quite a few casualties; unfortunately they had the troops to spare. Best of all half of my wire and mines had good results, which in my experience is a pretty good average. I think it seems a reasonably balanced scenario, although being small it suffers the usual risk of a swing of luck making a big difference. The Germans have several options with their defence strategy and the Gurkhas can either try brute force, subtle manoeuvre or a combination of both. A high initial NVR and lots of gullies means straying hardly ever becomes an issue and lets the players get on with the core of the night rules which quickly become second-nature. (The difficulty in rallying is probably the major factor here.) A bit of time needed for the German setup but otherwise it plays quickly. Check it out.