David R. Moody - Aug 25, 2005 1:23 pm (#10609 Total: 10617) Last played: Gringo, The Devil's Horsemen, Lobositz, Franco-Prussian War, Risorgimento (campaign game), Lock 'n' Load (ANZAC expansion), War of the Ring, B-17, Settlers of Catan, Down in Flames. Reading: The Fellowship of the Ring (J.R.R. Tolkien) Last night at Endgame in Oakland, CA: a rousing firefight from the ANZAC expansion to Lock 'n' Load, from Shrapnel Games. In anticipation of the impending release of Band of Heroes, the WWII version of the LnL system, Joe Oppenheimer and I decided to try one of the Vietnam scenarios. At his request, I picked one from the expansion--a meeting engagement between New Zealand forces belonging to Victor 1 (a detachment from the Royal New Zealand Regiment--if memory serves, the first Kiwis in country) and Viet Cong in November 1968. Basically, two patrols checking out the same village ran into each other, and more troops arrived, escalating the firefight. It's a two-mapper that works out to be a one-mapper; once the NZ reinforcements arrive you don't really need the second map, unless the Kiwis get shoved out of the village and need a fallback point (though by then it may not matter). I took the New Zealanders to Joe's VC. There were four hut and building hexes on the village map, each worth 4 VP in this scenario. To win, therefore, one of us had to control three of the four hexes. My small patrol (two NZ half squads, with a medic, M-60 machine gun, and claymore mine) controlled three of them (two hut hexes and the only wooden building on the map) at start, in a cluster at the end of a dirt road that ran westwards away from my lines. A big patch of light jungle, turning into heavy jungle, was on the left, with a smaller patch of light jungle with rice paddies beyond it lay to the right. Joe's at start forces (his own patrol) set up beyond that, near the one hut hex he controlled. He had initiative on the first turn, so once he was set up, we started the battle. Very soon a fierce fight developed, with each side shooting across the road. Joe's plan (he told me later) was to try and encircle me through the jungle and grab another building or two. My plan was to get my reinforcements (six NZ squads, with two leaders, a scout, and three missions of offboard 105mm artillery support) up as quickly as possible and then hold on. So I had one half squad (in the wooden building) deploy the claymore while the other sniped away at the VC. That half-squad, hit from all directions (including RPG fire through the light jungle) soon was wiped out, but not before it generated a hero who manned the M-60 until he too was cut down by sniper fire. Joe, meanwhile, tried to sneak some troops around my left, but in doing so came within range of my other half squad, who hit them with fire down the road (I had one of my better nights with the dice). While this was going on, more troops came up for both sides. I sent one platoon of New Zealanders up to reinforce the hut and wooden building closer to the rear, while the other one, with the scout, Assault Moved through the light jungle to the hut with the hero. He died before they got there, so they hunkered down in the light jungle next to it, in perfect position to cover it and the left flank while not being exposed to too much fire themselves. There they waited while the scout Stealth Moved through the dense jungle and the other leader (back at the buildings) tried to call down artillery on the tree line in front of him, a tree line swarming with VC. They did not have long to wait. Joe managed to rally his Shaken troops and mount a serious threat against the left. The scout was ambushed and killed, but not before he was able to sound the alarm. His comrades fired into the jungle, driving back the enemy. The VC regrouped and tried an ambush, but heavy Kiwi fire drove them back with losses. The VC leader called down mortar fire, and the RPG went into action again, but still the New Zealanders held. On the right flank, the Kiwis also held on, despite heavy fire and constant sniping (mostly I passed my activations to keep my mens' heads down while Joe moved up, tried to Spot me, and banged away with rifles and heavy weapons). Artillery came down and blasted a concentration of VC, causing the rest to try and move around the right via the rice paddies. Then a wounded hero charged the wooden building, tripping the claymore (to no effect) and starting a melee, which was soon reinforced by both sides as one shaken NZ half squad crawled out to the medic in the next hex. My men finally won the melee on the last turn. And with that, the VC melted back into the jungle, leaving my battered troops in possession of the field. A great fight, right down to the end. It really could have gone either way. If Joe's ambush attempt and melee had ended differently, he would have won. It also reminded me of why LnL is the best tactical level game I've played in a long time. When I got home I pulled out three more scenarios for solitaire or ftf play--I want to learn how vehicles work next. There was a big crowd at Endgame--one of the biggest I've seen there. At one point we were squished on the end of the table and had to store the extra counters and game box on the floor. Lots of fantasy minis battles going on, as well as a big Diplomacy game. At our table they were playing something called Parthenon and another game called Burnout, which appeared to be a card game about tech companies. Looked interesting, but I play games to escape from reality, not relive it. No word yet on what we'll play next week--possibly a scenario from 1777, or GMT's Brandywine, or a small cavalry fight from the Great Campaigns of the Civil War series, with hopefully time for Down in Flames afterwards (still need to finish our Bismarck Sea mini campaign). At home, still building my forces for our PBEM operational MechWarrior game, preparing to assault the convent at Churubusco, and getting ready to bomb Wiener Neustadt in Mike Lam's PBEM B-17 game.