Posts made by Der Leiter

@Imperious:

HUH? no Kursk?  Market Garden? El Alamein?

Already did Kursk and El Alamein.

Market Garden is further down the road, though definately one to be done. It’s just deciding how to impliment that one…

Kursk was great fun, but a little lopsided; the Tiger Company seems to be to blame. If I were to every do it again I’d cut it down to a Platoon and add more Panthers (Especially the new ones coming out).

Right now we’re all a little tired of Europe, hence the move to the Pacific.

However, I’m looking forward more to the Battle of France coming after it - I just really like those early war france scenarios.

The next few battles we’re doing, in order, are:

Pacific Island Battle
Battle of France
Stalingrad

Unfortunately again, no pics. Been a little busy and completely forgot to borrow a camera :(

The detailed battle map ;) Arrows are major thrusts, circles are the relative areas of the force.

German forces pressed on throwing everything they had at us.  They shifted a fair portion of each of the forces towards the centre where I had deployed my M36s.  The King Tigers practically just say there and blasted stuff every turn - for the most part they were invincible - with the Jagdpanthers covering them we couldn’t bring enough firepower down on them.  However one Easy Eight managed to score 9/12 successes with AP rounds… unfortunately just missing destroying the King Tiger… however my M36 was able to follow up and destroy it.

The Northern town at one point looked to be overrun; Half-tracks and infantry all over it, King Tigers outside it, etc. But my Ally managed to hold out and repel them.

The centre town was never close to being taken, but did come under some heavy fire.  Many American tanks were destroyed there, but were readily replaced - the town was in too strategic of a position to lose it.  My armoured infantry actually ran into the middle of the enemy force there, linking up with some Quads and managed to do some damage.

My southern city was taking a beating - I’d lost my assault guns, SP artillery, and most of my sherman platoon defending it from Panthers, StuGs, and then the next wave of Panzers. However the infantry were holding out well; concentrated mortar fire had destroy all of that force’s infantry - a Panzerfaust and an MG42. Not a single SS made it to within 200m of the city.

At the point we had to end it (midnight) the Germans had tank superiority and a few assault guns to support them, while the US was badly beaten but holding; it would be very difficult to dig out all the Paratroopers.

The USAF finally came out on turn 5 - by turn 7 they were down to one plane. The Mustangs were fairly ineffective (damaged a StuG), but the Lightnings stafe took out 3 MG 42s, a Panzerfaust, and an SS-PG.

Finally Otto Skorzeny and his Kommandos ran amock - their misinformation wasn’t too much of a problem, but they did draw off forces to deal with them. Otto himself took two turns with Paratroopers and 6 Mortars targetting him before he was taken out.

The Germans had a lot of difficulty breaking through the Ardennes - there were only a few major lanes where one soldier or bazooka could hold up an entire column. By the time they were truly breaking through the US reinforcements were already on their way to reinforcing the towns.

The two biggest influences on the battle were the King Tigers - the US had nothing that could effectively deal with a platoon of them and support weapons bearing down on the city, and the US Mortars which with their improved indirect were able to decimate the incoming SS Soldiers before they even broke through the Ardennes.

The Jagdpanthers did surprisingly well, and the Jagdtiger FINALLY on turn 9 entered the battle - firing a shot and destroyed an M36.

Definately some changes to do if we play this one again. However, next battle will be in the Pacific.

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Well I buy in cases, not boosters but the nicest ones have been where I get the set with two cases. The worst was Contested Skies where I was missing 5 because I got doubles and TRIPLES of some rares.

Nowhere on Banzai charge does it state your opponent cannot defencive-fire against it.
If the defencive-fire is succesful the banzai-charging unit can no longer gets to attack unless it was stopped in the same hex as the target (which would seem a rather foolish thing to do).

It would be completely up to you if you want to House Rule Banzai charge, just be aware those are the actual rules if you ever play in a standard/tournament game. For the most part these changes were made so BMWs couldn’t Evel Knievel across 5-7 hexes to knock out tanks, etc. As it doesn’t work on artillery I don’t believe there’s any other units a 2+ charge distance would apply to.

Here is the location of the FAQs and errata pages: http://www.wizards.com/default.asp?x=ah/aam/ah20050914a

You can only Banzai charge into an adjacent hex.

The Elefant isn’t out yet; it is in the upcoming set (Reserves) though.

I’ve found the Oberleutnant isn’t as great in 100 point games unless you specifically build the force around him. 13 points on one infantry unit can be risky as the Axis don’t have the transports (tanks especially) that the Allies do.

@MechanizedWarfare:

@Der:

Best of all though was my Buffalo Soldier who earned some medals that night (though posthumously):

He was a real american hero.  :cry:

I’m thinking the shock of having his whole battalion wiped out might have made him a little nuts - like rolling berserk for the russians in squad leader.

I don’t think you can reasonably expect WotC to do that. There wouldn’t be much to gain for them, and a lot of work.

Now it would be nice if they all weren’t rare, but then again I don’t really want 6 Sherman Calliopes, and I vastly prefer having units such as the new Hungarian Tank as uncommons instead so I can get a bunch of them easily, unlike say the Romanian Tank which is notoriously difficult to find around here.

Crack Shot gives you +1 to hit, I think you mean Headshot?

An attack from Headshot is NOT a hit, so doesn’t stack with them; all it can do is exactly what is says; give a face-up disrupted counter. This is exactly the same as getting counters from defencive-fire - they don’t count towards the number of hits during the casualty phase.

Polish Infantrymen are nice and solid. I’m glad that they finally get some infantry AND they’re not the vanilla SMLE variant.

The Turan I is nice, if for no other reason than it’s a minor nation tank that’s only uncommon.  Statwise it’s alright, with decent speed, but wear rear armour. Not sure it’s much better than a Romanian tank for 2 less points.

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Some new war stories from the first half of our Battle of the Bulge game:

We’re convinced that at least some of our spotters have had sniper training; my ally’s spotter killing an adjacent Oberleutnant dead in one shot. My spotter kept directly mortar fire all around him as the SS surrounded and pounded his location (there were cries of ‘Broken Arrow!’).

Best of all though was my Buffalo Soldier who earned some medals that night (though posthumously): His mission was simple - hold the road to delay enemy reinforcements. It was suicide, but if he failed the Germans would overrun the nearby city - if he succeeded he could delay their advance enough to give the US armour a chance to reinforce the cities. A StuG and MG42 are ahead of him; two Panthers closing in nearby.

The MG42 fires twice at point blank range - no effect.
The StuG fires off a round, again at point blank - no effect.
Both Panthers open up with their MGs - one manages to score a disruption

The Buffalo Soldier was out in the open - everyone expected him to die. Instead the squad  held up enemy reinforcements AND managed to retreat into the forest. But the squad wasn’t finished yet. A full SS Panther platoon drove around him, blatantly ignoring him, since SS-Stormtroopers were nearly on top of his position. Again, against all odds the squad not only slipped away from the SS soldiers, but close assaulted a Panther disrupting it with defencive fire, and damaging it in the assault phase.

Unfortunately the combined fire of 4 Panthers, 2 Stormtroopers, and MG42, and a half-track FINALLY destroyed the squad.

Unfortunately no Camera this week; hoping for next one. For once I wasn’t the Germans, playing the Southern American forces.

The 106th made a valiant stand, but were overrun. A pocket is still holding out near the centre of the Ardennes, tying down the Flakpanzer, a Brummbar, and the Jagdtiger (which seems unlikely to see combat now).

The King Tigers have penetrated through the North and a large force of SS-Panzergrenadiers are moving in close by. The Northern City (marked A) has taken little fire so far - only one ATG has been disrupted (amazingly it rolled 10/10 successes two turns in a row against a Brummbar, which only managed to disrupt it in return!)

The Germans seemed to be focusing on the Northern and Southern cities, leaving the centre alone though some of the remaining Sturmpanzer units seem to be heading that way. However several SS-Kommando units have been uncovered in the vicinity, but not before they sowed their seeds of disinformation. Otto Skorzeny is still at large.

The Southern city has been threatened, with a Brummbar approaching within 300m, but has so far avoided combat - US forces rushed out to meet the attackers, bottling them up along the one road and causing some damage - a SE Paratrooper sacrificed himself to take out the Brummbar, and a few StuGs were destroyed as well.

There were some heroic efforts on the part of the 106th - one squad survived being attacked POINT BLANK by an MG 42, a StuG, and two Panthers without being wounded, ran back into the trees, surviving more attacks, to finally come out and close assault a Panther (6/7 successes) before finally going down.

One Concealed Spotter shot a surprised Oberleutnant hitching a ride on a StuG (5/6 successes) though he was killed in retaliation.

Another Spotter held out four turns, calling in fire from four mortar positions on the SS-Panzergrenadiers surrounding him. He went down in a blaze of glory, shooting up an SS-HSF’s command vehicle, forcing him to dismount then be shredded by mortars. Unfortunately the SS-HSF shot the spotter dead before being blown apart.

Bad weather has prevented any air support thus far.

Next turn both sides will be receiving reinforcements - the Northern Routes are blocked, and five pristine King Tigers are waiting for them.  I’m glad I’m in the south.

~DL

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GERMANS

1x Pz IV G (I Assume this is the Panzer IV you mean)
1x StuG III D
1x SS-Haupsturmfurher
5x SS-Panzergrenadier
1x Panzerfaust
1x MG-42
1x BMW R-75
1x Mauser

The Panzer IV G isn’t an ideal choice, but with what you have it’s decent enough. Having 5 SS-PGs helps. I’d recommend either getting some of the smaller German vehicles (Hetzer or Elite Panzer IV D), or a larger one (Tiger, etc).

SOVIETS
1x T-34/76
1x T-70
1x Katyusha
1x Cossack Captain
1x Commisar
2x Fanatical Sniper
2x Communist Partisan
4x Mosin-Nagant

A bit light on AT units, you’d have to be careful using this one. The Katyusha is a one shot wonder so make sure the shot counts (though keep it in cover if you can… just in case). Use the Partisans to tie up units for the Katyusha to salvo on. The Snipers are good against the popular SS-PGs, but can also double as AA. The Mosins have a close assault 8, which threatens most vehicles - keep marching them towards the objective and try not to sac them unnecessarily to the commisar.

US/UK/France
2x M4A1 Sherman
1x Humber Scout Car
2x Flamethrower
2x Jeep
1x Red Devil Captain
1x Screaming Eagle Paratrooper
2x M1 Garand Rifle
2x MAS Rifle

The Flamethrowers should begin on the Jeeps so they can zip up and torch whatever needs torching.  Once the Jeeps have unloaded they can race back to transport your other soldiers up.  The SE PT can land on the objective right away, or try to take out rear enemy support units. There’s a decent amount of AI dice to give reasonable protection from aircraft.

Well they were used quite extensively…

Not all American units are overpowered coughLeecough but the majority are at the very least decently priced, and more often than not underpriced.

Historically it’s fairly correct, as the Americans had a TON of equipment, however WotC has specifically said they didn’t take issues such as that into consideration when pricing - they just decided to over/under price some units :roll:

It’s a mix of Able, Baker, Charle, Dog, and Fox maps along with a few custom ones (3rd column, 2nd-5th rows).

I don’t recall who did the custom maps, as it was quite some time ago that we printed them off; he’s a member of HHR last I recall.

Here’s the map:

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T-70s are very very good IF you use them properly. Their undermanned SA requires some consideration. However, as many players will attest they’ve had Tigers (King, Vet, I) taken down by a pack of T-70s.

I don’t agree that the Japanese have better infantry than the SS-PGs, but they have equal too. Japanese tactics against armour require skill and luck. Their best unit against armour has always been the Ho-Ni, though it is unfortunately easily neutralized by aircraft - and thus far Japan has no AA unit save their Zeros; this is generally the only reason I field them now. Alternatively just go all, or mainly infantry.

An Honour-Bound Hero is a must in a JP army.