Time marches on

Joe and I continue our 1 turn a session and we’re hammering away at the game. Since the last post, we’ve played twice so that make it ... um add two... carry the one... find the least common factor... turn 4!

The big news is that the Russian left flank has all but collapsed. Joe’s assault troops took enough stone building locations west of the railroad to give him the victory for this scenario. He has also managed to jump the tracks and take one stone building (F11) and part of another (F5) east of the rail road. The Russian defenses are holding well on the North, but I’m frantically trying to move around to the west to contain the Germans.

One thing, today the dice were very much against me. I couldn’t make a decent roll to save my life! For example, I had a PTP obr. 42 (45LL) fire six times in a row (lovely ROF) only doing 1MC each time.

The German Pzkpfw III’s are lined up behind a immobilized and malfed Pzkpfw III on Tramvanaya Street. The Pzkpfw III was immobilized by a squad and a half of conscripts who charged the tank when their Commissar went berserk. On Turn 4, these guys faded back into the buildings along the western edge of the board to draw fire as they tried to infiltrate to the German buildings. Well, they did and went all wobbly kneed when the Commissar bought it.

This campaign game scenario has brought to light yet another ASL Truth:

Truth # 9: A broken attacker is as good as a dead one. If he’s DM’ed, there’s a good chance he’s not going to advance. Unless you’ve got casualty victory conditions, a Defender should try to break as many troops as possible rather than kill them.

My holding up the Germans on the northern flank is due to keeping them DM’ed. On the western flank, I haven't’ been able to do that.

We’re taking an extended break (3 weeks) for vacations, and then we should be able to hit it hard and fast for turn 5 in mid August. I hope that the scenario ends on Turn 5 as they Russian position is really weak on the west right now.

Other News

Oh, and as for Paul and I, we’ve not played ASL since 25 June. Last Wednesday we played a game of The Rise and Decline of the Third Reich (4th Edition). We should be back to ASL (or finish our F&E game) this week.

Greater Games Gathering 2.2 is scheduled for 29 August in Plano. I will definitely be running a multi-player “scavenger hunt” scenario for Federation Commander. If y’all are in the neighborhood, come on by!