Monday, May 11, 2020

Airfix Battles: Scenario 2 (part two)

The starting position looking from behind German lines
ROUND ONE
I discarded my dropping-lead command card to give me +1 on the initiative roll. Hauptmann Wald stood pat. I lost the roll 4-5, but the +1 meant a tie, and so we rolled again. The second time is without modifiers, but I won 4-3.
*I chose to play the first command card. I would have loved to call in an artillery strike but, thanks to the edge cover, my captain did not have line-of-sight to any of the German units. Instead I used my lightning-strike card to give a basic order, advancing the captain and veterans one square so they could shelter behind the edge cover directly in front of them.
*Wald also played a lightning-strike card, but with rather more aggression than I managed. He used the two extra movement squares to send his pioneers directly forward, crossing rough terrain and finishing in the centre of the battlefield where Colonel Parker is (they could reach the centre as there is no penalty for crossing edge cover).
Before he could shoot at my snipers, which he can do as part of the lightning-stroke command, I used my fire-interrupt card. This allowed my snipers to shoot at his pioneers, getting +1 for being crackshots  - and they certainly were as all them scored a hit. Not surprisingly, the pioneers failed their morale test, but did not have to retreat, being only pinned.
This gave us a problem that does not seem to be covered in the rules, or at least is open to more than interpretation. One rules states: "You cannot give orders to a unit that is pinned until it succeeds at a rallying test. In addition it cannot fire or move or assault using interrupts. However, it can use other interrupts"
That may seem clear enough, but consider this: the pioneers already had orders to advance and fire. Their move was interrupted by my playing an interrupt card, and under Interrupts is stated: "If you want to use an interrupt card, ask your opponent to pause their turn, then resolve the card. Put the used card in the discard pile. Your opponent then continues their turn from where they paused [my underlining]."
We had quite a discussion on this, in the end deciding that the spirit of the rule is that once a unit is pinned, it has to rally before it can take any offensive action.
*It was my turn to issue an order, but all I had in my hand of command cards was an interrupt, which can only be used during the opponent's turn, and my artillery-strike command. In theory I could have used that to bring artillery fire down on the surviving pioneers, but that would be a somewhat questionable decision considering they are occupying the same square as Colonel Parker, so I decided to pass.
*Wald and the veterans advanced to shelter directly behind the cover in front of them.
*I called in an artillery strike on Wald and his veterans. It scored one hit, which was not negated by the saving throw for being behind cover.
*Wald gave a stay-frosty card to his captain and veterans. The card will allow them to fire during my turn at a unit of mine that moves.
That brought round one to a close.
The battlefield at the end of round one
In terms of casualties, I am clearly winning - but Wald's aggressive play has given him the objective, ie the centre square containing Colonel Parker, and he will have won if he can hold it for two rounds. So it is far from obvious, at least to me, who has the advantage.

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