From: "Van Antwerpen, Coen" Subject: The Legend Begins Game Report Hello all, After lurking for some time and not posting I thought the time had come to contribute a game report. Just as way of background, a few years back I asked a question on the game The Legend Begins (Terran Games, 3rd Edition, abbreviated to TLB) and from the glowing (well embers anyway) reports I got back I went ahead and purchased it. Then real life intruded (another child, moving house a few times etc etc) and I had yet to play it not being able to get beyond admiring the map and counters. Well Markus (who gave a nice report on TLB) recently posted a request to regarding gamers in Adelaide and since one of them is me I replied hoping to maybe get a game of TLB (although anything is good) in. Another gentleman, Darren Percival, also replied to Markus so we looked at getting together and having a bit of cardboard pushing fun. Unfortunately all three of us couldn't link at the same time but we did individually. Darren and I got together and played TLB and then I linked up with Markus subsequently and played some more TLB. The following is a short game summary on two games played and a few comments. I thought about editing in some of Markus' and Darren's comments but rather than risk butchering it I'll let them make their own here and maybe they'll tell me to pull my head back in and correct my memory. Darren and I had never played the game before and we sat down read the rules (upto 33 but not the advanced or air rules or fog of war), chose a scenario, set-up and were ready to go in about 1.5-2 hours. The game consists of turns broken down into 7 segments. The order and type of segments, be they allied or axis, is a chit drawn affair with each side having 4 chits thus one segment is always skipped in a turn. Each segement can be of a different type placing restrictions on movement and so forth. All the usual ingredients are there, supply, trucks, tanks, dust, dirt, forts and the odd 88. Enough of a summary now to what happened. Enjoy with comments and analysis welcome, Coen Game 1 ====== The scenario that Darren and I chose was the first one (why not start at the beginning) involving the Italian offensive to attempt to take Egypt or at least hassle the British presence. Game length was 4 turns. I had the British (my daughter likes the colour red and wanted daddy to have the red ones) and Darren the Italians. The Italian forces are large but do have some control problems (simulated by a commitment style die roll) and the British are weak and strung out but have some strong armour on the reinforcement list. After our initial set-up I realised that I'd made a few mistakes like not taking into account the exact locations of the victory hexes and so deploying a little further eastwards than I should have. I also put tanks into a fort which was a bit of waste and one I didn't initially realise. Neither of these were necessarily fatal nor game costing but certainly didn't help. The Italian drive commenced with a short sharp assault on the southern flank of Sidi Barrani leading to a few cooked tanks and an orderly withdrawal of the British towards Mersa Matruh and an attempt to establish a front with the Quattra Depression protecting the flank. There weren't enough British and the Italians proceeded to encircle Mersa Matruh. The holding force in the fort at Mersa Matruh attempted to engage the forward elements of the Italian force with disasterous results for the British. It was a victory of sorts but the bloody CRT resulted in a large number of step losses leaving the fort venerable to counter attack during which it subsequently fell. The British were now behind the ball with ground needing to made and victory hexes re-claimed. The Italians proceeded to rapidly re-enforce Mersa Matruh making it essentially impossible to re-take. Operation Flanker was about to commence. Placing a few ambitous Italian units out of supply on the southern flank of Mersa Matruh a small armoured British force launched a daring flanking raid bypassing Mersa Matruh and appearing to head towards a weakly defended Sidi Barrani. This caught the Italians by surprise and the race was on to re-enforce Sidi Barrani. This race the Italians won but at the cost of still leaving Sollum lightly defended. Could the British, currently re-grouping on the cross roads south of Sidi Barrani, string together a concerted effort and make a drive on Sollum? The answer was yes and the armoured drive left clouds of dust and the Italians at Sidi Barrani wondering "where'd they go?". Unfortunately the pasta loving people at Sollum found out and were distrubed from their tables making a quick exit as the British arrived. The cost in British armour was large and the end result was only a fraction of the initial assault force was still functional but they did it, they held Sollum! But could they continue to hold out now that supply was completely consumed in the mad dash. The next segement (the last of the scenario) was Italian. A small but reasonably strong Italian force was quickly assembled and the final attack commenced. Once the dust settled the valiant British were driven from the confines of Sollum allowing the Italians to resume their pasta feast. Victory to the Italian army upon the completion of the last segement of the last turn. Total playing time about 5 to 6 hours (can't remember exact times wasn't watching the clock). Some closing comments on Game 1: I made some silly set-up mistakes and found out just how punishing the CRT was to the attacker as well as defender even when a victory occurs. We made a couple of errors with the rules but nothing major or game affecting and the few ambiguities we took the "spirit" of the rule. We had some discussion afterwards as to whether the British should forward garrison Sollum and that point is still an open one. Forward garrison and risk being flanked or try and fall back orderly but risk loosing too much ground. Game 2 ====== Marcus and I got together and played TLB. In our case we played the Operation Crusader Scenario (3 turns as opposed to the 4 turn initial Italian one). Marcus had the allies and I had the axis so I was on the defensive most of the time. I was a little nervous about attacking especially given my disasterous (sp?) effort during game one so I spent most of the time maneouvering to block and contain. Markus opened the assault with a push against the front south of Sollum confronting the 15th Panzer set-up there. The clash resulted in a heavy loss of tanks by both sides and the mauled 15th retreating towards Tobruk. This drove a wedge between the 21st and 15th Panzer with the British armour subsequently preventing a link-up from occurring. The remains of the 15th proceeded to protect the Tobruk-Bardia road for most of the rest of the game after some light weight engagements. The few axis armour now left, aside from the 21st, were some Italian units protecting the south-western flanks of Tobruk and blocking the western approach of Tobruk. The 21st retreated in good order to Bardia and holed up waiting for the British. The few 88's were intially deployed forward and were over-run but at least had the effect of being speed-bumps. After the dust cleared Bardia was strongly held but essentially cut-off with the British armour blocking access. Tobruk was still well contained and the southern front was secure. Then it was the axis turn - I sent a small Italian armoured force, up until then containing the western approaches of Tobruk, rushing over towards the eastern edge of Tobruk in order to entice the British to engage and maybe ease some of the pressure on Bardia and cook a few British tanks in the process. This they did but they were decimated in the process. Unfortunately what I forgot was that there were now no longer any active covering forces blocking the western approaches to Tobruk. The game now entered the phase of "let's bang a fort" with massed attacks occurring on Bardia (a victory hex). The fort with stood two strong assaults but was beginning to have trouble. The British were also burning supply at a high rate and things were getting interesting. It was then that the British capitalised on my earlier mistake of "unblocking" the western approach to Tobruk. A small force was sent on a mad dash scooting past the Italian infantry napping in their trenches and heading for Merchilli. I now added insult to injury by not effectively screening the approaches to Merchilli and the British made it to the city pushing aside the small force there. They now had victory without the need to take Bardia if they could hold Merchilli. The Arieste and Treiste (spelling? my notes are else where) divisions protecting the southern approaches to Tobruk now made a mad rush towards Merchilli. It was now the last segment of the last turn with a 50% chance it was to be either a British or Axis segment. If the British won the draw then the game was theirs, if the Axis won then victory relied on the successful expulsion of the small British force in Merchilli. The British won the chit draw and thus the game. The final status of the British forces was largely burnt out with hardly any supply left and depleted armour. However, a final attack was made on Bardia which finally succummed and fell sealing the fate of the garrison there and securing the victory. Well done to Markus. As an aside we played the attack out on Merchilli just as a hypothetical Axis win last chit draw. The Italian Merchilli relieving force was successful with the British driven off into the desert. Total set-up/poke around time about 30-40min, playing time about 3.5 hours. Now the inevitable post game analysis: I made a mistake of not blocking a road with an Active ZOC and Markus sent some units out on a mad dash through limited ZOC from Tobruk (adding insult to injury) to claim an extra victory hex which, if Bardia had held, would have sealed the game for him also - boy was I kicking myself. As with Game 1 though we didn't use any advanced rules such as air etc. I had a lot of supply but since I didn't really attack it just stockpiled. Markus had a few supply worries if the game had continued on from the scenario though as he burnt pretty well all of it in the effort to take Bardia. I certainly would like to play more of this game to explore the way the system works over a period of several turns/offensives and to add in air etc Those British tanks, when set-up as divisions and stacked, are a powerful bunch to try and contain/attack and I see what some people were saying about this at the time I made initial game enquiries. The 15th and 21st panzer are pretty good too but 15th took the brunt of the initial attack by Markus and never had the opportunity to link up with the 21st after the armour spearhead separated them. The 15th went running to Tobruk and 21st off to Bardia. We had one magnitude 4 combat and a few 3's IIRC during the course of the Bardia conquest. Interesting to see an attack against a 17 step defence rating of 104. Markus managed a 1-1 and to help burnt lots of supply in a heavy artillery attack. Alas a poor roll (i.e. no advance) meant punishment was taken but the fort held out to be reduced to 69 and then another attack to become 33 before finally not being able to withstand the final push and falling on the last segment. I think a key for the axis (apart from properly blocking roads with AZOC's ) is get the 15th and 21st to link-up early and hold in reserve as much as possible to prepare for a counter attack around the flank. Another thing to do is properly set-up some 2(4)-12's around Bardia along with a couple of blocking AZOC's to slow the advance down (love those speed bumps). Then again another look at the map may change those ideas again. All in all a great time and another last segment nail-bitter finish. From: Markus Stumptner Subject: Re: The Legend Begins Game Report >Those British tanks, when set-up as divisions and stacked, are a powerful >bunch to try and contain/attack and I see what some people were saying about >this at the time I made initial game enquiries. Yes, Steve Thomas has pointed out that this actually runs counter to British contemporary practice - they used the armored divisions only administratively and typically deployed the brigades separately, so giving the British such a drastic stacking advantage via the armour HQ's seems ahistoric. What I overlooked in the game was the possibility to stack two more armoured brigades with the division right on the first turn. This seems too strong. It would make sense actually to limit the contents of the British armoured division HQs to at most three or four of the possible subunits before El Alamein (when Montgomery started changing the practice), and I would recommend trying such a rule if you find some scenarios favoring the British too strongly. I had actually played only a couple of the scenarios ftf before (most of my play experience being with the campaign), and was again pleasantly surprised not only by the tension and fun of play but also that the scenarios are indeed playable in one sitting. A very enjoyable evening. Markus Last 3 games played: Black Wednesday, Up Front, The Legend Begins (Deluxe) ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- "Bakayaro! Bakayaro!" ("Stupid Bastards! Stupid Bastards!") -- Admiral Aritomo Goto's last words to his staff, October 11, 1942