Post by hannibal on Apr 22, 2008 11:26:30 GMT -5
So instead of slapping over-priced water-based paint on our little metal men, royal and I skipped paint-nite to play another game. We wanted to test out "transparent" terrain (i.e. difficult terrain, provides cover, but doesn't block LOS). He'll post picture later. We perhaps went a bit overboard, but it was a good test. We had trees that were just trees (those affixed to the board), trees that provided transparent terrain (those on 60mm bases) and forests that blocked LOS (anything on large swaths).
Let me just say right now: I @#$%Q%$ HATE ARTILLERY STRIKES
We decided to play what I call the meatgrinder mission: deploy 10" up, the primary objective is Attrition, draw for secondary objectives.
I also wanted to try and make the Soviet detachments work, because I haven't found the feng shui with them yet. So I took the same one as last Friday:
Soviet Force
Secondary Order: capture (Elite Wehrmacht Officer)
Infantry Detachment
Elite Politruk (Chuman Parent)
Veteran Officer
Regular Mortar team
Regular Anti-Tank Rifle team
Regular Soviet Guard squad
Green Conscript Squad
Green Conscript Squad
Green Conscript Squad
Green Chuman squad (yes, yes, I took monkeys)
Special Orders: Momentum, Coordinated Assault
Veteran Detachment
Elite NKVD Psi Officer
Veteran Officer
Veteran Psi Commados
Regular Psi Cannon team
Regular Soviet Guard squad
Regular Soviet Guard squad
Regular Anti-Tank Dog Squad
Special Orders: Scouts
German Forces
(I don't have the list, so this may be a bit off)
Secondary Order: Breakthrough (Krieghund handler)
Experimental Detachment:
Elite Mad Doktor (Inspiring Leader)
Veteran Rohlingsoldat w/MG42
Regular Rohlingsoldat w/MG42
Regular Sturmaffe ("Otto")
Regular Sturmaffe ("Mongo")
Green Emaciated Soldiers
Green Emaciated Soldiers
Special Order: Surrender
Veteran Detachment (??)
Elite Officer
Veteran Officer
Veteran Sniper w/ StG 44 & Vampyr scope (Assassin Hero)
Regular Wehrmacht Squad
Regular Wehrmacht Squad
Regular Krieghund Squad
Regular MG42 squad
Special Order: that stupid deviate-just-perfectly-to-kill-one-quarter-of-my-fracking-army-should-be-banned-from-the-fracking-game-Artillery Strike
Deployment (left to right from Soviet perspective):
Soviets: soviet guard on far left. Three conscript squads, chumans, officer, and politruk concentrated on center-left. Mortar team, psi commandos, PTRS team in center. Two units of soviet guard, officer, NKVD officer, and psi cannons on right flank.
Germans: Two Wehrmact squads, emaciated squad, MG42 team, and elite officer on left flank. Rohlingsoldat in center. Veteran officer, Krieghund, rohlingsoldat, two sturmaffes, & mad doktor on center-right. Sniper and emaciated squad on right.
The first turn went rather quickly, with both sides advancing forward. On the left, the Wehrmacht squad and soviet guard advanced cautiously. These two units would in effect fight their own small battle and really play little part in the game. The entire conscript line (with officers) and chumans raced across the road. Opposite them, the wehrmacht and emaciateds moved forward.
In the center and left, the Rohlingsoldats moved up to lay down suppressing fire. One would suppress the Psi Commandos, and basically keep it up for the duration of the game. Meanwhile, the soviet mortar raced forward behind a house to get into position. The PTRS also raced forward to take position behind a stone wall.
Somewhere in this turn (and I forget which model called it down) came the artillery strike. It was a "hit" on the scatter die followed by a 1" deviation. After it was all said and done 9 models were killed: one entire squad of conscripts, 3 conscripts from another squad, and 2 chumans. Right, moving on.
The Krieghunds sprinted ahead and were going to charge next turn. The sturmaffes were pumped up by the doktor...with mixed results. "Otto" suffered 2 wounds, while "Mongo" got +2 strength. Both advanced cautiously. Meanwhile, a unit of Soviet Guard laid down suppressing fire on "Otto", suppressing the beast.
On the right, the sniper and emaciateds ran forward, while the psi cannons readied position. The NKVD officer moved behind a house, ready to pop out and lay suppressing fire or to boost Drive.
From the back of the German line, the Anti-tank dogs and their handler appeared. The dogs charged the MG42 gunner in the back, cutting him down. This would prove to be a mistake. The handler tried suppressing a rohlinsoldat, but he made his Drive roll.
The second turn started with the Soviets using Momentum. This where charging the dogs was foolish. I should have sprinted them forward because then I could have exploded them behind the Wehrmacht squad and emaciateds, essentially gutting that line of advance. However, because I had charged, I could only 1 dog within 1.5" of any enemies. I killed one emaciated and the elite officer (who I was supposed to capture in melee).
Things more or less went downhill from there. The Krieghunds charged, killing a mortar loader and the PTRS gunner. They were summary shot down by soviet guards, but the damage had been done.
Soviet officers tried boosting Drive while the Germans crept forward. The Emaciated Soldiers moved forward and out came the Surrender special order. My squad of 3 conscripts was taken right off the field. That was 11 conscripts and 2 chumans pulled off the center-left flank.
Meanwhile, on the right flank, the soviets hunkered down, boosting Drive with their commanders. The psi commandos managed to kill an emaciated coming up the flank, but then the Assassin sniper started targetting them. They eventually lost the shooting battle mainly because on a clutch turn when the sniper had a drive 1, my psi cannon team couldn't hit.
Next turn, out came the last special order: coordinated assault. The chuman charged a wehrmacht while the soviet guard mortar came down on the heads of that very line of Emaciated and Wehrmacht. It was a perfect hit, killing one Wehrmacht and wounding both emaciateds. The Chuman's charge killed the other Wehrmacht. When the Emaciateds counter charged, the one that made it into base contact failed to wound. Maybe...?
No. By now the sturmaffes were in the soviet lines. "Otto"was suppressed and would fall back to the treeline, but "Mongo" advanced into a Soviet guard, killing him.
At this point, I surrendered. I was 1 model from 2/3 dead and had two Sturmaffes in my lines. Even if I were to kill them, the resulting Berserk/Unstoppable would be bad times for me. The Germans had lost 6 models.
Okay, so final thoughts:
--Despite the beating I took, I wasn't really out of it until turn 4. Had I continued to get lucky with some key rolls (i.e. killing the sniper, rolling up the flank with the lone chuman, suppressing both sturmaffes), I might have pulled out a draw. We feel this is in part because of:
--Terrain: Goldilocks. The transparent terrain works just right. The cover that it provides means that "scoot and shoot" units aren't unkillable but regular infantry aren't doomed to be gunned down Verdun style.
--Krieghunds: just as I suspected, and had been advocating for awhile, they're awesome. The ability to charge without LOS makes them assassins: they can target heavy weapon models.
--Assassin sniper: I convinced Royal to try this out and I think I made a believer out of him. 6 shots, hitting on 2+, with 6+d6 strength...not bad.
--Reasons for my beatdown: I'd love to blame it on the Artillery Strike and some of Royal's rolling, but in truth I beat myself as much as he did:
1) the dogs: now, the smart choice would have been to put them on the right flank and blow up behind the sturmaffes. Maybe get them down to Drive 0 and have two sturmaffes running amok in the German line. I consciously chose not to do that because I wanted to see them play.
The reason they did so poorly is I did not adjust the plan for reality. The plan had been to place them so they could charge the officer (the one I had to beat for my secondary), then through use of momentum, they'd walk behind the emaciateds and wehrmacht and boom. Maybe the other one would go after the rohlinsoldat. However, his troops were position so I couldn't get that charge. Instead of changing plans and just sprinting them forward, I did what you saw, with the results you saw.
2) Psi Commandos: they spent the whole game suppressed. Two turns of that because I did not move them to make sure that the rohlingsoldat could not draw a bead on them. I could have easily moved them so that they were in cover but behind a LOS blocking swath of trees. My mistake entirely.
3) Psi Cannon team: I originally was going to place the commandos on the right flank the Psi cannon nearish to the center. I decided to swap them at the last minute. The end result is that I could not advance to short range with the sniper because of approaching skinnies. So I lost the shoot-out with the sniper.
All in all a good game. I'm glad we got the terrain worked out, but man am I tired of getting my poor soviets beat down. By the end I was griping about pulling out my rocket trooper detachment on Friday (people around here hate that list).
Anyway, we have a couple of questions coming off the game...so over to the rules forum.
Let me just say right now: I @#$%Q%$ HATE ARTILLERY STRIKES
We decided to play what I call the meatgrinder mission: deploy 10" up, the primary objective is Attrition, draw for secondary objectives.
I also wanted to try and make the Soviet detachments work, because I haven't found the feng shui with them yet. So I took the same one as last Friday:
Soviet Force
Secondary Order: capture (Elite Wehrmacht Officer)
Infantry Detachment
Elite Politruk (Chuman Parent)
Veteran Officer
Regular Mortar team
Regular Anti-Tank Rifle team
Regular Soviet Guard squad
Green Conscript Squad
Green Conscript Squad
Green Conscript Squad
Green Chuman squad (yes, yes, I took monkeys)
Special Orders: Momentum, Coordinated Assault
Veteran Detachment
Elite NKVD Psi Officer
Veteran Officer
Veteran Psi Commados
Regular Psi Cannon team
Regular Soviet Guard squad
Regular Soviet Guard squad
Regular Anti-Tank Dog Squad
Special Orders: Scouts
German Forces
(I don't have the list, so this may be a bit off)
Secondary Order: Breakthrough (Krieghund handler)
Experimental Detachment:
Elite Mad Doktor (Inspiring Leader)
Veteran Rohlingsoldat w/MG42
Regular Rohlingsoldat w/MG42
Regular Sturmaffe ("Otto")
Regular Sturmaffe ("Mongo")
Green Emaciated Soldiers
Green Emaciated Soldiers
Special Order: Surrender
Veteran Detachment (??)
Elite Officer
Veteran Officer
Veteran Sniper w/ StG 44 & Vampyr scope (Assassin Hero)
Regular Wehrmacht Squad
Regular Wehrmacht Squad
Regular Krieghund Squad
Regular MG42 squad
Special Order: that stupid deviate-just-perfectly-to-kill-one-quarter-of-my-fracking-army-should-be-banned-from-the-fracking-game-Artillery Strike
Deployment (left to right from Soviet perspective):
Soviets: soviet guard on far left. Three conscript squads, chumans, officer, and politruk concentrated on center-left. Mortar team, psi commandos, PTRS team in center. Two units of soviet guard, officer, NKVD officer, and psi cannons on right flank.
Germans: Two Wehrmact squads, emaciated squad, MG42 team, and elite officer on left flank. Rohlingsoldat in center. Veteran officer, Krieghund, rohlingsoldat, two sturmaffes, & mad doktor on center-right. Sniper and emaciated squad on right.
The first turn went rather quickly, with both sides advancing forward. On the left, the Wehrmacht squad and soviet guard advanced cautiously. These two units would in effect fight their own small battle and really play little part in the game. The entire conscript line (with officers) and chumans raced across the road. Opposite them, the wehrmacht and emaciateds moved forward.
In the center and left, the Rohlingsoldats moved up to lay down suppressing fire. One would suppress the Psi Commandos, and basically keep it up for the duration of the game. Meanwhile, the soviet mortar raced forward behind a house to get into position. The PTRS also raced forward to take position behind a stone wall.
Somewhere in this turn (and I forget which model called it down) came the artillery strike. It was a "hit" on the scatter die followed by a 1" deviation. After it was all said and done 9 models were killed: one entire squad of conscripts, 3 conscripts from another squad, and 2 chumans. Right, moving on.
The Krieghunds sprinted ahead and were going to charge next turn. The sturmaffes were pumped up by the doktor...with mixed results. "Otto" suffered 2 wounds, while "Mongo" got +2 strength. Both advanced cautiously. Meanwhile, a unit of Soviet Guard laid down suppressing fire on "Otto", suppressing the beast.
On the right, the sniper and emaciateds ran forward, while the psi cannons readied position. The NKVD officer moved behind a house, ready to pop out and lay suppressing fire or to boost Drive.
From the back of the German line, the Anti-tank dogs and their handler appeared. The dogs charged the MG42 gunner in the back, cutting him down. This would prove to be a mistake. The handler tried suppressing a rohlinsoldat, but he made his Drive roll.
The second turn started with the Soviets using Momentum. This where charging the dogs was foolish. I should have sprinted them forward because then I could have exploded them behind the Wehrmacht squad and emaciateds, essentially gutting that line of advance. However, because I had charged, I could only 1 dog within 1.5" of any enemies. I killed one emaciated and the elite officer (who I was supposed to capture in melee).
Things more or less went downhill from there. The Krieghunds charged, killing a mortar loader and the PTRS gunner. They were summary shot down by soviet guards, but the damage had been done.
Soviet officers tried boosting Drive while the Germans crept forward. The Emaciated Soldiers moved forward and out came the Surrender special order. My squad of 3 conscripts was taken right off the field. That was 11 conscripts and 2 chumans pulled off the center-left flank.
Meanwhile, on the right flank, the soviets hunkered down, boosting Drive with their commanders. The psi commandos managed to kill an emaciated coming up the flank, but then the Assassin sniper started targetting them. They eventually lost the shooting battle mainly because on a clutch turn when the sniper had a drive 1, my psi cannon team couldn't hit.
Next turn, out came the last special order: coordinated assault. The chuman charged a wehrmacht while the soviet guard mortar came down on the heads of that very line of Emaciated and Wehrmacht. It was a perfect hit, killing one Wehrmacht and wounding both emaciateds. The Chuman's charge killed the other Wehrmacht. When the Emaciateds counter charged, the one that made it into base contact failed to wound. Maybe...?
No. By now the sturmaffes were in the soviet lines. "Otto"was suppressed and would fall back to the treeline, but "Mongo" advanced into a Soviet guard, killing him.
At this point, I surrendered. I was 1 model from 2/3 dead and had two Sturmaffes in my lines. Even if I were to kill them, the resulting Berserk/Unstoppable would be bad times for me. The Germans had lost 6 models.
Okay, so final thoughts:
--Despite the beating I took, I wasn't really out of it until turn 4. Had I continued to get lucky with some key rolls (i.e. killing the sniper, rolling up the flank with the lone chuman, suppressing both sturmaffes), I might have pulled out a draw. We feel this is in part because of:
--Terrain: Goldilocks. The transparent terrain works just right. The cover that it provides means that "scoot and shoot" units aren't unkillable but regular infantry aren't doomed to be gunned down Verdun style.
--Krieghunds: just as I suspected, and had been advocating for awhile, they're awesome. The ability to charge without LOS makes them assassins: they can target heavy weapon models.
--Assassin sniper: I convinced Royal to try this out and I think I made a believer out of him. 6 shots, hitting on 2+, with 6+d6 strength...not bad.
--Reasons for my beatdown: I'd love to blame it on the Artillery Strike and some of Royal's rolling, but in truth I beat myself as much as he did:
1) the dogs: now, the smart choice would have been to put them on the right flank and blow up behind the sturmaffes. Maybe get them down to Drive 0 and have two sturmaffes running amok in the German line. I consciously chose not to do that because I wanted to see them play.
The reason they did so poorly is I did not adjust the plan for reality. The plan had been to place them so they could charge the officer (the one I had to beat for my secondary), then through use of momentum, they'd walk behind the emaciateds and wehrmacht and boom. Maybe the other one would go after the rohlinsoldat. However, his troops were position so I couldn't get that charge. Instead of changing plans and just sprinting them forward, I did what you saw, with the results you saw.
2) Psi Commandos: they spent the whole game suppressed. Two turns of that because I did not move them to make sure that the rohlingsoldat could not draw a bead on them. I could have easily moved them so that they were in cover but behind a LOS blocking swath of trees. My mistake entirely.
3) Psi Cannon team: I originally was going to place the commandos on the right flank the Psi cannon nearish to the center. I decided to swap them at the last minute. The end result is that I could not advance to short range with the sniper because of approaching skinnies. So I lost the shoot-out with the sniper.
All in all a good game. I'm glad we got the terrain worked out, but man am I tired of getting my poor soviets beat down. By the end I was griping about pulling out my rocket trooper detachment on Friday (people around here hate that list).
Anyway, we have a couple of questions coming off the game...so over to the rules forum.
