After the random choosing of this scenario, I opened up the book and read through the scenario. I thought that a win for the South would bring about a probable Southern offensive operation to capitalize on the new intel gained from the last scenario. I was pleasantly surprised that the writers really thought this storyline through very well. I really applaud DP9 for such a well through out product. They need to restart making these scenario books in this manner and not the random and non-interconnected scenarios they now have. The only issue besides the army building I have had in conversions comes in the way of the terrain. The two hex maps that come with the Tac Pack are used in every scenario, however they adapted the maps drastically it seems. So sometimes woods are boulder fields and imaginary lines create plateau effects, as in this scenario. This was a bit challenging converting to a viable replicated miniature table. But I did my best.
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| Used a bunch of foam sheets and books, covered by my trusty old army blanket |
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| View from on top of the ridge (Northern Deployment Area) towards the Southern deployment zone |
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| Looking up the hill from the Southern position |
The background of this scenario is that the Northern Commander, after receiving the report of the failed intercept of the escaping Southern recon unit, decided to preemptively attack the Southern forces before they took advantage of the intel. A wise move and uses a feint to draw off the faster and more dangerous gear squads from the South's main force, which (if you read the other posts, you will remember) is the remnants of a regiment. Well , their heavy support (2 x Nagas) are left with a couple gears and some infantry in the rear as the rest of the unit rushes off to attack the Northern feint attack. The North on the other hand has assembled an interesting strike force to attack and destroy the Nagas. They have one Strike Squad of 1x Razorback, 2x Jags and 2x Strike Cheetahs, along with Recon infnatry, Heavy Weapons Infantry (Rockets) and a cool unit called the Armor Killers armed with AGRs and Rockets and JUMP packs! I was having pictures of Heinlein's original Starship Troopers from the book "jump" through my head. Anyways, here is where I made my mistake in translating data from TAC to Blitz or just conversion... IN the Scenario book these infantry units are all just squads of 10 men each. Well, I just decided for ease of conversion I would make every squad a platoon....oopps. That would mean 5 x platoons of infantry in this game. Well, if I don't know infantry rules by the end of this game, I never will!
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Starting positions
As the Southern commander starting first I assessed the Northern infantry as my greatest threat, not the gears. If I could keep them at distance and prevent close range attacks and crossfire it would give my Nagas a better chance. However, my mission goals were only to survive for 6 turns, not save the Nagas. However, as damage is cumulative saving the Nagas for later would be important. So my strategy was to use the infantry to move foraward and bog down the Southern avalanche down the hill and use them to spot, along with my two Iggys targets for my Long-fang and Nash Nagas. Gears would sweep up anything that got through the infantry.
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| View from Southern Deployment Zone |
Switching caps to the North, I found that my units although well equipt, needed to close the distance to be effective and that would be an issue if I didn't find a way to punch through the Southern infantry. As soon as the Southern infantry advanced I knew I had to keep the "lines" somewhat in the middle of the battlefield. If not I would not have room maneuver or range the enemy Nagas. So, goal one stop the Southern infantry, goal two bypass with gears and Armor killers to get to the prize.
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| View from Northern Deployment Zone |
After Turn 1, I found that the Southern troops were not as defenseless and easy as I forecasted. Coordinated fire and IF pulverized the Northern Razorback as it moved forward to get a shot. Also, as a large amount of the infantry are armed with just assault rifles or MGs they can't really effect the gears, and the gears are loaded out to kill heavies so like wise they can't kill infantry effectively. I can see that the middle plateau of this battle field is going to be strewn with dead infantry and broken gears very quickly. I think though the strategy for both sides would change dramatically if they did have only one squad of each type of infnatry. This would allow for some much more dramatic moves. The BNorth does have one badger to ferry the Heavy Infantry, but since I upgraded them to a platoon, I would have to ferry four squads now back and forth....I still could I guess, but the AGRs are in a good position shooting down from 2 elevation levels above aining that +1 already to cancel out range degradation....hmm We'll see in Turn 2.
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| End of Turn 1 |
Too be continued.......
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