First Game of SB (also first back at club)

[Moggy]

Hi All

John Watson and I just had our first SB game. Also for me first game since around May/Jun last year.

John exercised his Austro-Hungarians while I fielded my Italians. John had the advantage in a few more Bn's of Infantry while I had some professionals which he lacked.

The pre game proved interesting with me losing a Bn, not able to deploy in the right hand column, raise a Bn to prof, Gain 2 shock assault counters and a few gains in assets and could move an objective. John was able to raise a Bn to Regular and gained some asset values. Although I seemed to win more ended up with lower dice scores so only gained a reconnaissance in force mission.

We both managed to deploy the majority of our troops and John lost only a few bases to depletions then withdrew 1/3 of his inf/cav untis to reserve. This left us at this stage.




The building towards the far end was one of the objectives John had control of immediately. On my side of the table I had the gnoll and woods within my grasp in turn 1.





Turn 1 commenced with a sneaky gas bombardment which sadly overshot his line causing only minimal damage. This then drifted off the table in my next turn .  Both of us soon learned the lesson that shooting proved of little value with minimal casualties for both of us. Point effect barrages followed but bad range-finding by John coupled with rolling the dice of doom on saves left him on a downward slope.  The right flank did almost nothing for the whole game except stare at each other over a patch of clear ground and exchange artillery and mortar fire to little effect. The countdown clock started with a 2 and then 1 for the next few turns leaving us both with the feeling this could be a very long game! John also seemed to have given the wrong location to his reserves as they seemed to be very reluctant to appear. I think there was still 5 units left to appear when we finished.

Further pressure occurred in the centre And progress was made by the Italians eventually driving off the Austrians from the buildings and pushing further up the road.



The right centre had stalled at this stage and a single Bn of Austrians held up 2 and a MG who never mover further forward for the remainder of the game. By this time the crossroads had fallen into Italian hands but momentum was running out as troop were either in completely the wrong position and ended up stuck by failing successive 1 fail results.

John eventually got his Cav on the table and swing past the Italian front towards a gun battery on the hill before he ran out of movement. I single Bn of brave Italians just managed to complete a spoiling attack but lost. This did give a bit more time to block.  Sadly the cavalry decided to take on the Prof infantry Bn and a MG and had their just rewards losing 7 half basses to outstanding shooting and unlucky saves.



Time (real world time that is) was pressing at this stage so we called it a day and did a tally up on the VP.  Italians won 81:58 so a definite victory for the Brave Italians over the Gallant Austro-Hungarians.




Time (real world time that is) was pressing at this stage so we called it a day and did a tally up on the VP.  Italians won 81:58 so a definite victory for the Brave Italians over the Gallant Austro-Hungarians.

Think we both enjoyed both the game and the way the rules played. Simple, Logical and reasonably clear. A couple of small elements we had to make a local rules as neither of us could find the answer in the rulebook:

1.   At what stage does a unit to lose all cohesion and should be removed. There was one instance of a Bn being down to its last half base but remained.

2.  If you are assaulted from the direction of your own baseline are you able to retire in another direction and/or leapfrog the opponents units

Both learned lessons on Army makeup and the need to get troops on table asap.

Overall a great experience. Both can see the reason why so many are happy with the rules as they Are.

Cheers, Now need a lie down in a dark room.


Derek

[John Watson]

Thanks Derek. It was an enjoyable day. I didn't help myself by misplacing the scenery. I'll know for next time. I also tried one or two things just to see what would happen. Maybe next time I'll put out the big boys (Late War British).
John

[SimonC]

1.   At what stage does a unit to lose all cohesion and should be removed. There was one instance of a Bn being down to its last half base but remained.

This is correct . The last half base does remain. This is one of those oddities that needs to be tidied up

2.  If you are assaulted from the direction of your own baseline are you able to retire in another direction and/or leapfrog the opponents units

No, all retires are toward your baseline .. it makes rear assaults particularity bad if the defender has to retire . However it does mean that the assaulter has to kill every last man to take the square - so sometimes not the best thing.

[martin goddard]

Simon has it right


If you are assaulted from the rear and hence cannot fall back( because all fall backs are toward base edge).
The fallback square receives anther 6 hits (that is a lot of hits) which might be very damaging.  See P53.

I will turn some attention on a new SB.
I agree with Simon that the 1/2 base unit needs a look. I will probably go for some sort of instant disintegration at 1/2 base for infantry and cavalry.


martin

[SimonC]

I will probably go for some sort of instant disintegration at 1/2 base for infantry and cavalry.

There is an argument that when last 'full base' is removed that means the whole unit counts for VP at the end (therefore destroyed). But its really not clear what the RAI or RAW is !    Similar with MGs ,  a lot forget that when 'damaged' the actual base has been removed so qualifies for scoring. That said, that too is not super clear. This isn't helped by 'damaged' markers rather than 1/2 base markers for MG and Guns

It probably just needs a 'last base' just has 1 hit line adding.

[Colonel Kilgore]

I don't think I knew that about MGs, Simon  - thanks!

Simon

[Sean Clark]

mmm. This all makes sense. I think some later sets of rules see the last whole base removed, So if a unit is down to 1.5 bases and loses half a base, the last stand is destroyed too.