Wednesday, November 12, 2008

AAR: RBF40 King's Gambit

Tom Gillis

Randy and I hooked up on this one the other day. Early August 1940 Copenhagen...Randy was the Landsers, and I the defending Vikings, I mean Danes...

It is a really fun small 7 turn scenario from our 'recon by fire' friends. It was early war Germans vs Danes in a scenario called Kings Gambit. The defending Danes are trying to protect the King and palace on bd 45 from a reinforced German plt advancing to secure it. The Germans have 7x467s and some decent ldrs and a DM MMG and 228 crew to go with it. The Danes have about a similar amt, except for some trucks for use with later arriving palace guards. As the Danes, I chose to try to interdict the advancing Boche with a couple of my trucks armed w a HS and 8-1 ldr. They pretty much failed in this attempt with me eventually losing the 8-1 to a nasty 6-2 shot KIA and the HS just continously breaking. So much for being a hassle in Randys rear. My center groups, (9-1, 457, LMG on my left side in a block of stone buildings, and a 457, LMG next to them on my right in similar TEM. These were the real soldiers and they kept the Germans moving slowly for a turn or two by breaking several MMCs. But as the Germans slowly closed in on these guys I made a mistake. Instead of advanceing into an open hex to get closer to Danish lines, I asslt mv'd instead. Randy was able to get a 6-1 on these guys and rolled low. Real low as it KIA'd that squad. My other squad was hit bad by fire and elr'd to green. But all was not going completely bad for me: I kept breaking the German squads trying to get closer to the palace, (building J3 on bd 45.) The VCs are the Army that had more good order squad equivalents in or within 1 hex on building J3 after 7 turns. Well Randy skilfully moved most of his force through some orchards and into the palace. I had 2 broken 457s, both with an 8-1 ldr, no longer DM'd and a couple of squads and a HS. I broke 1 of 2 467s he had in the in the palace and pinned the other one. (No CC for him...) We counted squads and he had 3 1/2 gd order squads going into German T7 (The last turn,) and I had 2 1/2...If I rallied both my squads (one in a woods hex and one in a building hex) I'd prob win as Randy will have to face some blistering DF in his last mv phase. If I only rally one of them, I'll still prob win as the Germans have to have _more_ squad equivalents and that would tie us.

OK, rally phase rolls: remember Allied minor brkn side is one less, so in both cases I'm looking for an '8.' First roll: an 11, uggh! Of course...and this particular squad had rolled 11 the rally phase before that...Damn. But these are the Kings guard. Not elite front line guys maybe, but not raw greenies either...I roll and its a...9! Damn, game over! Great fun, and Randy played a good solid game, never panicking when he had lots of brokies, and making solid moves. We both gave it a '7' on roar: a respectable "recommend." Try this one if you can as it is short and fun. And not so much of a bloody slugfest, but more maneuvering for good firing, dashing, and moving situations. Some funky things, not in a bad way...The Danes set up and move first, before the Germans are even on bd, and the Germans are restricted from entering buildings until the Danes fire on them. (Of course I fired right away...but I wonder what a game would be like where the Danish player lets the Germans advance very close to the palace before firing...could be interesting. Randy was a fun opponent and I'm looking fwd to playing him again.

cya,

Gillisov

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