David R. Moody - Jan 23, 2009 1:36 pm (#26305 Total: 26386) Almost 20 years of pitiless combat! No rest, no sleep like other men. And yet the spring wind blows, Subotai. Have you ever felt such a wind? . . . For us, there is no spring. Just the wind that smells fresh before the storm. Last night I met my friend Ryan Kent at Gamescape San Rafael to play Firefight 4 from Conflict of Heroes. Firefight 4 is a two-mapper, set on June 24, 1941. The Germans are across the Bug River, and are pushing east; a small force of two squads plus two LMG teams, with trucks and four tanks (two Pz.II, a Pz.III with a 37L, and a Pz.IV with a gun that fired only HE) has to clear a village and then push on to take a bunker and a road beyond a hill, all in five turns. I was the Russians, and I got four squads, an MMG team, a 45L AT gun, and two T-26 tanks (first scenario I've ever seen in any WWII tactical game where a T-26 was the best armor killing tank on the field). Setup for the bunker was fixed; I got to set everyone else up anywhere I wanted, and hide four units. I also got a Hasty Defense marker, adding 1 to the defense value of any hex I put it in. Victory was by VP--for killing units, of course, plus for geographical objectives like the road, bunker, and two hexes in the village. Lured by the siren's song of the VP for the village hexes if I held them on Turns 2-4, I decided to hide two squads there, one in each hex. The vehicles I also hid, one on each flank, in light woods. I could have hidden units in the open had I wanted to, but the thought didn't really enter my mind. ASL is my tactical system of choice for WWII, and I tend to fall back on reflexes from many many years of playing that game. Probably that's also why I put those two squads in the village--in my experience, it can be hard to dig infantry out of buildings, and I hoped they could hang on a couple turns. Still, I think it was too big a speed bump. My main line was on the second, larger hill in the rear, where the bunker was. The AT gun went in the bunker, covering the left; MMG team in woods and the Hasty Defense marker covering the road; last two squads in the woods near by. Not a bad defense, I thought, though again maybe not wise to leave two squads so far forward, and perhaps I should have stuck the MG in the bunker and the AT gun in the woods along the road, since only infantry could take the bunker. Anyway, Ryan rolled in with his force, leading with his infantry, mounted on his two trucks. First squad/LMG combo dismounted and entered woods on the edge of the village. My men kept their heads down. Second squad/LMG combo decided, for whatever reason, to charge into town mounted on their truck. One of my squads opened up on them, and I rolled really well, taking out both infantry units, but not the truck. A little weird, I thought, but I suppose the infantry could have tried to dismount and gotten cut down while the truck survived. Ryan was rather bummed, and sent in his armor to clear the town, which he did in short order, even firing at my hidden unit (he correctly divined its hiding place) and taking it out. Still, I had a nice VP lead. Next turn, Ryan remounted his remaining infantry into their truck and moved up the road through the village. I revealed one of my two hidden tanks at that point, and knocked out their truck (infantry survived this time). Then I moved the tank up and knocked out his Panzer III and the other truck (had a card that gave me a free action). Ryan started stacking up on my right, moving all his remaining armor that way. His Panzer IIs surrounded my tank and knocked it out. My remaining tank was on the other flank, so I moved it out of cover and advanced it across my front, firing ineffectively at a Panzer II. Turn 3 proved decisive. Ryan won initiative (he had it every single turn in the game) and hit my tank with a card that made it inactive for the turn (no radio? looking out for the other flank?)! Fecker. I responded with a sniper card that removed one of his already low Command Points (in CoH, every lost unit causes a reduction in Command Points), but then he played a card that gave him more CP equal to one die roll. He rolled a six, of course. So the landsers rolled forward, my MMG firing ineffectively as they took up positions in the woods opposite. I tried pulling my remaining squads back to cover the objective hex, but foolishly stacked both in the hex--ripe for Ryan to roll over them with his Panzer IV. He also moved up his Panzer IIs and attacked my now immobilised T-26, knocking it out. In desperation, I pushed my AT gun out of the bunker and tried fighting it out with the Panzer IIs, but my dice failed me and soon he had taken that out as well. I conceded on Turn 4, when it became apparent I had nothing to stop him with. Good game, hard fought on both sides. And only my second playing of CoH. I'd like to play it more, but I still prefer ASL (which we might do next week). I understand from the Gamescape guys that Robin Williams (a frequent visitor) bought their last copy of CoH. I wonder if he needs an opponent?