Jay Townsend
Member
- Joined
- Aug 19, 2013
- Messages
- 149
- Points
- 28
Compendium: Jubilee – Dieppe 8/19/1942
I set this up and played it today, after a quick reread of the rules. This battle was always an interesting subject and it looks good as a scenario as well. At first on paper it looks like the Canadians & British had the advantage but with the scenario special rules it even things out quite a bit. One minor thing to note, the German 1/16 PG formation and units are really the 1/26 PG formation and units.
The Canadians and British land in heavy mortar fire and later a big artillery barrage. The sand really hurts the British Churchill armor engineer AVFs and they are useless until they get out of it, or at least what is left of them and the steep sea wall the enemy fire slows the Allies Infantry. Once the Allies start making a few assaults the Germans pull back and decide not to defend all the victory objectives, just half of them, which shortens the map and makes their combined forces much stronger. A chaos roll bring on a German Stuka attack and the British Paratrooper are pretty much done especially after losing their HQ. The Canadians still have a little bite to them but have only taken 2 out to 4 victory objectives by turn 10. The Germans are firmly in control of the other two, so the Germans win this battle/scenario.
A fun, unique situation to playout on the gaming board. Maybe I could have combined the British and Canadian forces better but getting off the beaches took real time. Still a pretty close scenario to playout.
Compendium: Special – Stone 5/16/1940
An interesting scenario for NaW series and a pretty straight forward one at that, the Germans must control all the town hexes on map 18 by the end of 8 turns. The French have enough Infantry but also some nice Char B1/B1 BIS heavy tanks and two improved position they can put around the town hexes.
For some reason I led with my German infantry of the 125th Pz Grenadiers on the south end of the town and the German 22nd Pz on the north end of town, both took too long to get into attacking positions and both took a beating on the approaches to the town of Stonne. By the time they did support each other better, it was too late and bloody. The Germans Infantry paid a huge price for only taking two out of five town hexes. Both sides suffered some armor losses but the French won this scenario.
Without any artillery support, this is going to be a pretty bloody town/city fight. I think I should have attacked one end of Stonne with both German combat groups and worked my way up or down but as the French, they had the prefect defense.
One strange thing happened, when I rolled a 5 on the Chaos random events table and it call for an Allied P-47 air-support in 1940. I thought about it and I could just ignore the event or use it but at a much lower attack value or use the French D520 from Desert Heat but still a lower value, which I did but all that and there was a no effect result anyway.
Fun scenario overall and pretty quick with low unit count and only eight turns.
White Star Rising: The Tigers Still Have Teeth 03/29/1945
Who doesn’t want to play a nice heavy metal tank on tank action! This was the scenario and it looked good on paper as well. The Germans have the advantage starting in the cover of the Saint-Pierre-la-Riviere town hexes. I guess by scenario special rules 10.8, Light Snow has no restrictions, so visibility is normal, not good for the approaching Americans facing mostly Tiger Tanks. The American P47 air-support was the best weapon for the Americans but was taken out by the German Wirbel AA fire after only two turns of action and to top things off the Chaos random event rolled a seven, so the Germans got to repair their one reduced Tiger tank.
So with the victory points the Germans win a Marginal victory, taking out four whole American AFV Platoons worth one point each. If you factored in the half platoons by the victory scale in this scenario, it would be 5-1/2 to 2 so the Germans would still win a marginal victory. Neither side attempted to exit units but maybe the Americans should have tried instead of having a shooting match, which clearly favored the Germans. I’ll have to try this scenario again, all types of American armor, so why not, maybe I’ll have better dice rolls, chaos events and strategies.
Desert Heat: Beda Fomm, Libya 2/7/1941
I remember playing this one in the 1st edition but now I wanted to try it out in the 2nd edition as it is an interesting situation. I think some of the British Valentine tanks should really be Mark VI tanks and they are still available counters from Compendium.
After playing all 12 turns, the British win this one, as the Italian exited zero units off the southern edge of the map. The Italians can’t afford stopping to do combat, as they have little time to travel the length of two maps in twelve turns. Maybe some units can be used to sacrifice to give other Italian units some time to exit. In the beginning, the British had little to do but wait for the Italian Armies to approach. The Italians do have some good off map artillery to use against the British Infantry and AT guns.
Here is the problem with this scenario, even using the special rules with the extra Italian fate points to get to draw one formation an extra time, the Italians need this to be a 14 turn scenario, to have a fair shot at winning, because if one turn ends early without one of their formations getting a turn in, its most likely a British victory but if you add two more turn, the Italians have a 50/50 shot at winning. I tried this with 14 turns and had an Italian victory. So with the added turns I can recommend this scenario but without them, the British will win 98% of the time. Fun to get some playing action in back in the desert with those beautiful maps. I’ll have to play some more scenarios from Desert Heat, as I like the maps, situations and playing with Italians units instead of German units all the time.
Stalin’s Triumph: A Busy Morning 7/6/1943
I was in the mood for some Eastern Front action and this scenario has a very nice mix of unit types. The Germans only have two divisions to the Soviets four divisions and the Soviets have two ways to win, either by controlling all the town hexes of Pokrovka or by exiting 10 tank platoons off the northern edge of the map.
The Germans setup all their Infantry and attached units of the 25th Panzer Grenadiers in the town/city of Pokrovka and their armor of the 9th Panzer on their right flank on the larger open area to defend against both possible Soviet victory conditions. The Soviets attack Pokrovka with the Infantry of the 378th Motorized Division and attached SU-76s while 6th Tanks Division takes on the Germans armor head on and distract enough for the Soviets 16th and 3rd Tank Divisions slip by. By turn four air-power for both sides shows up to confuse the raging battle even more but Pokrvoka looked like a slugfest and the Soviets wisely decided on the exit unit north strategy which paid off and I quit the scenario a couple turns early as the Soviets had already achieved their victory condition.
A fun scenario that may favor the Soviet a bit with the numbers advantage for the Germans to cover all that area but maybe I also drew the right formation chits at the right time and having the extra Designated Formation chit/marker may have been the main difference. For a more balanced game remove it but with only one gameplay of this scenario, I can’t be sure. Anyway, fun action on the Eastern Front!
White Star Rising: The Hill of Death 6/27/1944
When I saw the victory conditions I knew this had to be a Mark Walker scenario. Frist the victory conditions are not possible for the Germans, as they start out with a very small force getting reinforcements on turns 4 and 6 but in the meantime they can only defend because if they go on the offensive they will give the British 6 victory points to go after only 5 bridges or 5 victory points. They can only defend or deny the 6 victory points which don’t count as victory points for the Germans and hope they wear down the British enough to maybe go after some of their victory points.
I played this anyway to see what would happen. The British managed to take the town of Hubermont for two victory points but were blunted in their attempts to take Berismenil or control the woods/hill center mass hex K4 on map 1. The Germans could neither take back Hubermont nor go after any bridges especially when the British Typhoon air support kept showing up, checking any reinforcements that might have helped the Germans. The British win this one 2 points to the German’s zero points.
To Balance this scenario out, forget the bridges but give the Germans one point each if they control Hubermont, Berismenil and all hexes of wooded hill center on hex K4 on map 1. The British would get two points each for control of these three objectives. In my game play it would have been a Draw. Nice mix of British armor types in this scenario.
I set this up and played it today, after a quick reread of the rules. This battle was always an interesting subject and it looks good as a scenario as well. At first on paper it looks like the Canadians & British had the advantage but with the scenario special rules it even things out quite a bit. One minor thing to note, the German 1/16 PG formation and units are really the 1/26 PG formation and units.
The Canadians and British land in heavy mortar fire and later a big artillery barrage. The sand really hurts the British Churchill armor engineer AVFs and they are useless until they get out of it, or at least what is left of them and the steep sea wall the enemy fire slows the Allies Infantry. Once the Allies start making a few assaults the Germans pull back and decide not to defend all the victory objectives, just half of them, which shortens the map and makes their combined forces much stronger. A chaos roll bring on a German Stuka attack and the British Paratrooper are pretty much done especially after losing their HQ. The Canadians still have a little bite to them but have only taken 2 out to 4 victory objectives by turn 10. The Germans are firmly in control of the other two, so the Germans win this battle/scenario.
A fun, unique situation to playout on the gaming board. Maybe I could have combined the British and Canadian forces better but getting off the beaches took real time. Still a pretty close scenario to playout.
Compendium: Special – Stone 5/16/1940
An interesting scenario for NaW series and a pretty straight forward one at that, the Germans must control all the town hexes on map 18 by the end of 8 turns. The French have enough Infantry but also some nice Char B1/B1 BIS heavy tanks and two improved position they can put around the town hexes.
For some reason I led with my German infantry of the 125th Pz Grenadiers on the south end of the town and the German 22nd Pz on the north end of town, both took too long to get into attacking positions and both took a beating on the approaches to the town of Stonne. By the time they did support each other better, it was too late and bloody. The Germans Infantry paid a huge price for only taking two out of five town hexes. Both sides suffered some armor losses but the French won this scenario.
Without any artillery support, this is going to be a pretty bloody town/city fight. I think I should have attacked one end of Stonne with both German combat groups and worked my way up or down but as the French, they had the prefect defense.
One strange thing happened, when I rolled a 5 on the Chaos random events table and it call for an Allied P-47 air-support in 1940. I thought about it and I could just ignore the event or use it but at a much lower attack value or use the French D520 from Desert Heat but still a lower value, which I did but all that and there was a no effect result anyway.
Fun scenario overall and pretty quick with low unit count and only eight turns.
White Star Rising: The Tigers Still Have Teeth 03/29/1945
Who doesn’t want to play a nice heavy metal tank on tank action! This was the scenario and it looked good on paper as well. The Germans have the advantage starting in the cover of the Saint-Pierre-la-Riviere town hexes. I guess by scenario special rules 10.8, Light Snow has no restrictions, so visibility is normal, not good for the approaching Americans facing mostly Tiger Tanks. The American P47 air-support was the best weapon for the Americans but was taken out by the German Wirbel AA fire after only two turns of action and to top things off the Chaos random event rolled a seven, so the Germans got to repair their one reduced Tiger tank.
So with the victory points the Germans win a Marginal victory, taking out four whole American AFV Platoons worth one point each. If you factored in the half platoons by the victory scale in this scenario, it would be 5-1/2 to 2 so the Germans would still win a marginal victory. Neither side attempted to exit units but maybe the Americans should have tried instead of having a shooting match, which clearly favored the Germans. I’ll have to try this scenario again, all types of American armor, so why not, maybe I’ll have better dice rolls, chaos events and strategies.
Desert Heat: Beda Fomm, Libya 2/7/1941
I remember playing this one in the 1st edition but now I wanted to try it out in the 2nd edition as it is an interesting situation. I think some of the British Valentine tanks should really be Mark VI tanks and they are still available counters from Compendium.
After playing all 12 turns, the British win this one, as the Italian exited zero units off the southern edge of the map. The Italians can’t afford stopping to do combat, as they have little time to travel the length of two maps in twelve turns. Maybe some units can be used to sacrifice to give other Italian units some time to exit. In the beginning, the British had little to do but wait for the Italian Armies to approach. The Italians do have some good off map artillery to use against the British Infantry and AT guns.
Here is the problem with this scenario, even using the special rules with the extra Italian fate points to get to draw one formation an extra time, the Italians need this to be a 14 turn scenario, to have a fair shot at winning, because if one turn ends early without one of their formations getting a turn in, its most likely a British victory but if you add two more turn, the Italians have a 50/50 shot at winning. I tried this with 14 turns and had an Italian victory. So with the added turns I can recommend this scenario but without them, the British will win 98% of the time. Fun to get some playing action in back in the desert with those beautiful maps. I’ll have to play some more scenarios from Desert Heat, as I like the maps, situations and playing with Italians units instead of German units all the time.
Stalin’s Triumph: A Busy Morning 7/6/1943
I was in the mood for some Eastern Front action and this scenario has a very nice mix of unit types. The Germans only have two divisions to the Soviets four divisions and the Soviets have two ways to win, either by controlling all the town hexes of Pokrovka or by exiting 10 tank platoons off the northern edge of the map.
The Germans setup all their Infantry and attached units of the 25th Panzer Grenadiers in the town/city of Pokrovka and their armor of the 9th Panzer on their right flank on the larger open area to defend against both possible Soviet victory conditions. The Soviets attack Pokrovka with the Infantry of the 378th Motorized Division and attached SU-76s while 6th Tanks Division takes on the Germans armor head on and distract enough for the Soviets 16th and 3rd Tank Divisions slip by. By turn four air-power for both sides shows up to confuse the raging battle even more but Pokrvoka looked like a slugfest and the Soviets wisely decided on the exit unit north strategy which paid off and I quit the scenario a couple turns early as the Soviets had already achieved their victory condition.
A fun scenario that may favor the Soviet a bit with the numbers advantage for the Germans to cover all that area but maybe I also drew the right formation chits at the right time and having the extra Designated Formation chit/marker may have been the main difference. For a more balanced game remove it but with only one gameplay of this scenario, I can’t be sure. Anyway, fun action on the Eastern Front!
White Star Rising: The Hill of Death 6/27/1944
When I saw the victory conditions I knew this had to be a Mark Walker scenario. Frist the victory conditions are not possible for the Germans, as they start out with a very small force getting reinforcements on turns 4 and 6 but in the meantime they can only defend because if they go on the offensive they will give the British 6 victory points to go after only 5 bridges or 5 victory points. They can only defend or deny the 6 victory points which don’t count as victory points for the Germans and hope they wear down the British enough to maybe go after some of their victory points.
I played this anyway to see what would happen. The British managed to take the town of Hubermont for two victory points but were blunted in their attempts to take Berismenil or control the woods/hill center mass hex K4 on map 1. The Germans could neither take back Hubermont nor go after any bridges especially when the British Typhoon air support kept showing up, checking any reinforcements that might have helped the Germans. The British win this one 2 points to the German’s zero points.
To Balance this scenario out, forget the bridges but give the Germans one point each if they control Hubermont, Berismenil and all hexes of wooded hill center on hex K4 on map 1. The British would get two points each for control of these three objectives. In my game play it would have been a Draw. Nice mix of British armor types in this scenario.
