The Germans are to set up on or south of Hexrow R. The first wave of British start on or north of Hexrow J and on turn 4 a second wave comes in along the west edge north of Hexrow M.
The Germans are badly outnumbered and the British have all kinds of time to accomplish their objective. The Germans on the other hand have some brilliant terrain for fire lanes and a couple of really good spots to bring down some hurt on the British as they approach as well as one squad + SW HIP. The Germans need to trade space for time and slow the British down. The British have two major advantages: lots of guys, and LOTS of smoke (mortars with a 9 depletion number, plus all of the British 6-4-8's/3-3-8's are Assault Engineers and Commandos - smoking on a 4 or less).
I decided that V7 and Y5 were great spots for my MMG and HMG to place fire lanes to cover the left side of the board. On the right, you have all the woods that is pretty much the only approach cover. It just begged for the mortar so I put it in U1 with an LMG in U0 to cover it. There is another really good spot on that side (X2) but for that to be effective, you need to put either the HMG or MMG there. Probably the MMG (if you use the German balance put the MMG there on Lv1 to cover the right side).
For the rest, I figured I needed to do a fallback defense so I started out forward in the U hexrow with a squad in X6 to cover a retreat through the opening. Then there was the decision of the HIP-ster. My right side was weak and if it was rushed, they would have to fall back quickly. I put a squad with an LMG in Z1. This afforded a couple of intersting fire lane opportunities (Z1 north hexspine alternate left hexgrain and NW hexspine alternate hexgrain left) for the Endgame (I'm thinking turns 5+). R6 & R7 seem way too exposed and there is no way to rout back (read: DEATH TRAP). Even the R9-S9 woods seem a bit too exposed. Normally, I could afford to lose a few squads, but with the numbers of Brits coming, I need all my squads for as long as I can have them.
Unfortunately, me having the squads so far back almost guaranteed that Turn 1 was going to have the Brits advancing essentially uncontested up the board. I might get a few stray shots if I was lucky, but playing someone as experienced as Bob, I highly doubted it.
Turn 1 played out basically like I thought it would. I hadn't counted on the smoke though. Bob but his mortar in H0 and smoked R5. That REALLY sucked because he came up the middle of the board with me having basically no line of sight without at least a +3 hindrance. For the firepower I could bring to bear, that was sniper bait. So Bob got to the P6 grain field and from there advanced into stone buildings basically without incident.
My turn 1 was basically holding ground and trying not to give Bob too many shots while getting my boys in a position to hurt him if he tried to come across on turn 2. Bob had put kill stacks in R6 and R7 but I had concealed guys in U5 and U6 (the U6 guy had an LMG) and my MMG was in V7. Unfortunately, the smoke in R5 made it hard for my guys on the right side of the board to get in a good shot. I also broke my MMG in a typical "me" fashion.
Turn 2, Bob's mortar moved west to J4 in the backfield to prep for another shot on turn 3. Bob took some shots and broke my stack in V7 (2 squads, an 8-1 leader and the MMG). That really sucked, because although I didn't technically have to rout (no adjacent units and in rally terrain), he could keep my stack DM all day long. This would not give me an opportunity to get the MMG back in the game. That was unacceptable so I routed to X8. Since Bob was coming down the left side of the board, I began shifting my right side defense to help. I moved the mortar into the adjacent grain field so that when he tried to cross the open ground I could get him. The rest went back toward the next line of defense, because I figured I'd be displacing next turn. The two squads on the front line did their job, though, and held up the advance another turn.
Turn 3: Bob smoked R8 so his guys could do a wide right hook to attack through the V7 building that he had just weakened. I didn't realize that I did not need to cause an IFT result against a squad to lay a fire lane, however, so I didn't want to take +3 shots from U3 or Y5 to cause a SAN 4 sniper check. I only found out later that I could have shot and made it more difficult for him... Live and learn. His two kill stacks stayed in R6 and R7, so my two forward squads did their job again, but it was time to fall back so they moved to the W4 building. I dropped the mortar and moved the squad back to reinforce the middle as well. By the end of Turn 3, I had reinforced my second line defenses at W4, X2, and X6 with only Y7 vacant.
Turn 4: Bob DM'ed my broken stack in X8 and began to move into my vacated positions (particularly U5 and U6). There was not a whole lot of action in this turn, I'm guessing, in part, due to him not knowing where my HIP guy was, but maybe I just was still that tactically tenable. His reinforcements entered the board on this turn as well. At this point I was reluctant to relinquish my second line defenses and so I made some judicious use of fire lanes particularly from the HMG in Y5 to try to make it harder for the reinforcements to join in the fun. Didn't work too well due to my dice rolling tendencies resurfacing. I thought therapy would cure that, but I guess I was wrong. I routed my Brokies to AA7 and they finally rallied on my turn 4, although I still couldn't repair the MMG. And with that, my second line was set.
Turn 5: Bob closed down the left (west) side to some sporadic small arms fire (I finally decided that I needed to take out some of his firepower - I dropped my HIP and started firing on the reinforcements coming up the left side into the buildings), and advanced into CC. My guys held their own and one even killed his opponent. In the middle of the board, one of my two squads broke (the one with the LMG in W5, but he was able to rout to a leader in X2. With the CC, I had a problem in AA7. I didn't have enough guys to hold this building. I wasn't too sure which direction he'd head so I sent the guys in BB7 down to DD6 and the AA7 guys over to BB5 under cover of infantry smoke in AA6 from AA5. I already had some guys in the DD6 building so that I could hold the fortification. The HMG moved into AA4 and I was into my last line of defense.
Turn 6: Bob began his envelopment of the remaining units in W2 and X2 and I worked on making him think about coming across the last street. I plugged him point blank in Y2. Bob took AA7 and BB7 and moved out in the street towards BB5 placing a DC in AA5. I tried to get some small arms fire to bear but it didn't work too well. He made it into the street and would have taken the building next turn. At this point we called the game (it was 12:00 and we were tired).
Both of us agree it would have come down to the last turn, although, the British would have won (probably). Turn 7 would have seen the AA5 building taken and the British position to take another one (probably DD5 as it didn't have the MG's around it). Turn 8 would have lost the building. All in all, I played a pretty good game I thought. My biggest thing was that I needed to cause more casualties. I couldn't get the rolls I needed to make him keep his head down more. My fallback points were pretty good. My initial plan was pretty good. The game would have gotten to the last turn so my timing was pretty good. Light years ahead of 1 year ago. Now THAT is a good feeling....
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