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Magua -> Foucarville - Battle Report (9/10/2005 3:41:14 AM)
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I'm still learning the rules myself, and my friend is completely unfamiliar with them, so I wanted to start out with a fairly simple scenario. As it turned out Foucarville was a perfect choice.
SPOILER WARNING
As some of you might be aware, the LnL games frequently include encounters that are unknown to the players at the start. Thus is the case in this scenario. There is really no way to do a battle report of this scenario without describing the encounters that occurred. So, if you want to get the most enjoyment out of the game. STOP READING NOW!
Setup: The Germans (my friend) set up in the buildings a woods at western edge of Foucarville deploying their MGs so as to have the clearest lanes of fire down the road to the west. The mortar was placed in the light woods in the middle of town.
Turn 1: The U.S. Paras (me) entered the west edge of the board, in column, along the road. Niether side had a LOS to the other so the turn ended without incident
Turn 2: The 1st Para Platoon led by the Sgt Hill advanced up the road rounding the bend and coming within LOS of Encounter Marker A. All hell broke loose. A German sniper opens up north of the road, wounding the Sgt Hill. A German rifle squad nearby opens up resulting in the entire platoon being shaken. The rest of the company fanned out on either side of the road, with Lt. Michael and a platoon jumping into the woods to the east.
Turn 3: The Paras retained the initiative, and succeeded in moving the shaken platoon off the road to the east where it hunkered down in the woods next to the second platoon and the Lt. A single squad equipped with a bazooka started working its way north, west of the road in an effort to flank the ambushers.
The Germans continued to lay fire down on the shaken paras in the woods and inflict casualties on one of the squads.
Lt. Michael sent a squad east across the field to the bocage where it had a LOS to the second encounter marker. The Paras discovered that the woods are laced with mines. They were lucky, though some were shaken, there were no casualties.
Turn 4: I directed as much fire as I could against the German ambushing squad in the woods to the north and managed a shaken result. I got my Paras out of the mined woods, and moved Lt. Michael and two more squads east across the field to the bocage.
Turn 5: I was getting really concerned. I had only three turns left and still hadn't neutralized the ambushing squad and sniper. I was nowhere near Foucarville, and I couldn't see how I'd be able to capture any buildings at all, let alone enough to win. So I had to work towards, and hope for a German retreat.
Lt. Michael's platoon low-crawled across the bocage to the next bocage line. From here, still unspotted he had a LOS to two German squads defending the town. The Sgt Hill's platoon pressed forward and as they passed the bocage to their right are hammered by MG and mortar fire from the town. Casualties resulted, and other units were shaken.
But my ace-in-the-hole squad that had been circling to the left, was finally in position to spot the German ambushing squad in the woods about 100 yds to the east. It opened fire causing the German squad to be shaken.
Turn 6: Lt. Michael failed to spot the Germans in the town, and they failed to spot him. Fighting continued along the road with the Paras doing their best to reorganize. To the north, the shaken ambushing squad retreated east, across the brush. My flanking Para squad exhibiting impressive initiative and elan, charged through the brush and captured the skulkers. The elimination of a squad doubled the chances of a German retreat from a 6 or more, to a 5 or 6 or more.
Turn 7: Unless the Germans retreated, I had no chance of winning. I was nowhere near the objective buildings. My friend rolled the die, and got a 5. The Germans were ordered to retreat and Foucarville was mine.
My friend's first response was, "All the trouble I caused you with a single squad and a sniper, and I lost it on a single dice roll?" I pointed out that perhaps he had left that ambushing squad out there too long, that if he had pulled it back, and conducted a fighting retreat, it probably wouldn't have been captured and the die roll of 5 wouldn't have lost him the game. He agree that he probably could have done things a little differently.
Comments:
Since we were both green at the game, I am sure we blew a lot of rules, but that's all part of the learning process and I'm sure it all balanced out. Truthfully, the whole affair felt just right. There was a lot of chaos and shifting fortunes. I really felt that the Paras were particularly well modeled. They were resilient, more so than the Germans, and it showed. Even when brought under fairly effective fire, they were able to regain their composure and press forward time and again.
I really liked this scenario. Since the Germans are fairly static, the scenario small, and the encounters, this one is a great solitaire candidate.
Edits?
The scenario sheet calls for the germans to have an 81mm mortar WT, which I couldn't find in the counter mix, so I assumed this to be a typo and used the 50mm mortar team.
The scenario sheet also specifies the alternate objective buildings as 15I5/16/J5. Since there is no building in 16/J5, I assumed this was supposed to indicate 15/J5.
All in all, Foucarville is a very tight, and clever little scenario. Good job guys.
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