Turn One, Week Two- All quiet on the Western Front

Week 2

 With only two players showing up last night, week two was a bit of a washout. Rather than playing myself, I decided to let Iain and Gordon play off their German forces against each other to get some of the rules down. 

 To make things simple the mission was the classic 'Free-for-all' with two objectives either side, and a simple idea of grab one of your opponent's while defending the two in your deployment zone. The other advantage to this scenario was the point of not having reserves, meaning the players would have everything to play with from the start of the game, and not have the potential hazard of reserves not showing until turn 3.

'Boff ze Jengrals Dötter' and 'Heinrich Himmelsdorf'

 With the relaxed tone of the campaign, I didn't mind players taking absolutely ridiculous names for their Infantry Ace, such as Gordon and Iain's above, respectively. This is a mild imporvement over Gordon's Tank Ace, Hoffel Roffel III, who dressed in a shocking pink overcoat, commanded his Panzerkompanie.

The Hoff leads his company forward proudly

With both players set up on the village table, it was time to get the game going.

Bad positioning and worse ideas

 Gordon took first turn and advanced a unit of MG armed infantry in trucks down Iain's left flank, surely a foolish move, given what Iain could do to the soft top transports and their precious cargo. All other teams attempted to dig-in, but they were obviously all feeling the after affects of the Schnapps as not a single team passed.

 Now, the veteran players amongst you are probably thinking; advance and blow the heck out of the trucks and that platoon will be in pieces. Well, alas, the thinking didn't go that way, and instead Iain took up defensive positions for next turn. His heavy machine guns being blocked by his own advancing infantry and his mortars failing to range in led to a rather disappointing first turn.

The machine gun crews curse their comrades as their advance blocks line of sight

Gordon's next turn began better as the truck mounted squad debusses and takes up firing positions on the Grenadiers across the wall, using the forest to get a little bit of cover for themselves. A few small exchanges between the other Grenadiers and the mortars fail to chip the defences and the turn passes again.

 The Grenadiers advance, dismounted from their transport

 Sensing the impending capture of an objective, Iain send his troops forward to prevent a quick game-over for his side. The Grenadiers on the left flank vaulting a wall and rounding a building to take on the advancing MG teams. A few shots from them taking out a base of Grenadiers before he elects to charge in. Why am I not mentioning the Heavy Machine Guns and the Mortars? Because they did precisely nothing, again.

The Grenadiers set up an assault, bravely or foolishly... (The objective is behind the building)

 The assault begins, and the defensive fire results in an almighty sixteen dice being rolled. This results in nine hits and... no casualties! The platoon is pinned down, but Iain's riflemen got off lightly in that exchange.

 That feeling of elation lasted a few brief moments as the MG teams let rip into the hapless Grenadiers, reducing them to a team plus command, and subsequently forcing them to retreat.

 As a last-ditch attempt to salvage the game, Iain sends his 2iC over to the small forest by the objective in an effort to contest it while mortars rain down on Gordon's Grenadiers. (Licence taken to fudge the rules here for enjoyment's sake) This comes to nothing as the mortars fail to range in with an impressive dice roll of 2/1, 1, 1.
 The 2iC's plan comes to nought as the MG teams open up on him, dispatching the base and securing the objective with no other forces to push them off.

 Gordon is victorious, scoring all four XP for the campaign, while Iain gets a meagre two. Lessons have been learned this day, and hopefully they will be put to practice on the next outing.

Iain's defensive position is a formidable one, but still he lost

Gordon's Grenadiers had little to trouble them the entire game