Monday, March 01, 2010

AAR: DASL A - To The Last Man (Part I)

John Hyler

Russian: Mark Carter
German: John Hyler

KAPOW!!!!!!!...............................?????????....................................WTF!?!?!?!?!?

That was the sound of Mark Carter's first-ever (I believe) crit/dud DR sequence. It came in turn 2 or 3 of our scenario, DASL-A, To The Last Man. One of his JS-IIs got the critical hit with its 120L gun. The doubling of FP made it a 48, or a heavy payload -2DRM on the 36+ column. That, coupled with the -3 from the reversed building TEM made for a 36 down 5 DR for Mark. Anything but a dud would have rubbled the hex, perhaps starting a chain reaction rubbling of adjacent building hexes. Alas for Mark, his dice betrayed him with a 12. Amidst the hooting, he took it with great equanimity. Welcome to the club, Mark.

Among other difficulties, his leader who was manning the field phone broke due to 9-2 directed MG fire. After rallying and moving back into the hex where the field phone was located, at least three unsuccessful attempts were made to recover the phone (Brrrring....Brrrrrring) before finally finding it, only to draw a red card.

We made it through four turns, with my Germans holding off and attriting Mark's forces on one side. While Mark's forces are holding a leg, Matt Zajac's Russian Guards are inexorably working their way from the other side of the board where my forces are fighting a rearguard action. I made a bad mistake in my turn 4, voluntarily breaking a squad w/LMG that was in a factory hex. He failed the interdiction DR. I should have kept them there to die, while delaying Matt's Russians. Now, Matt has an unimpeded advance into the first factory, and an easier timetable to attempt to capture the required number of buildings. Stupid...stupid.

We have had a lot of fun thus far, all of us enjoying the scenario immensely. I am in the process of recording the positions to resume the carnage at a later date with Russian 5.

John

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Isn't it getting a little old playing 'sleeze the newbie?' C'mon, John, I'm sure it was kinda fun at the time to hose Mark like that, but we all know that Duds only apply to TK attempts and never to IFT rolls. Nice job fooling him, I guess.

NRBH on that, or I'd give you the rule number. Also, I'm 98% sure that CHs don't count when it comes to affecting terrain, so any rubble/blaze, etc, would have been on the 24 column, not the 48.

Finally (and just to try and completely ruin your day!), was it really a CH? I'm picturing the JS-II firing at a stone building, probably BU....snake-eyes is not an automatic CH at that point, at least not without a bunch of acquisition.

Anyway, sounds like a fun time. Looking forward to hearing how it turns out...

Zeb

Anonymous said...

You guys misplayed it -- a dud only occurs on the TK.

The 12 on IFT still has an affect.

Also note 12's on TH means that the gun may break -- but the final shot occurs.
Granted few times a 12 TH actually hits, but if it can and it does hit - than you make your TK or IFT roll as appropriate.

Mike