Alan Snider - Feb 12, 2006 7:25 pm (#12330 Total: 12348) Solitaire gaming is crap, but I may have to learn to enjoy it. http://www.stalag17wargames.com/ GAMENIGHT, Feb 11/2006: I am pleased to be back in the land of AAR writing, and no game could be a better re-entry than Javier Romero's "Ebre 1938" from Vae Victis magazine. Courtesy of Brent Louie we got to use the deluxe version which featured a 25% larger map and counters that are "yaquinto-thick"..a truly impressive kit job to this dtp game. Brent took the Republican Forces amassed on the opposite side of the Ebro, while I got to direct Franco's Nationalist forces with the Condor legions in the air. As we had given the game a little first turn test drive on Thursday night, I chose a slightly different setup strategy...The Nationalists are able to place up to 4 units adjacent to the Ebro, but I decided not to take this option as it gives extra opportunities to the Republican to engage in battle, then advance across the river without any bridges (although they can do this with 4 units per turn anyway). This also draws you closer to the Republican artillery, which never ends up good (trust me). I amassed quit a few troops near La Fatarella- Faumeres, Sierra de Caballs- Gandesa, and Fayo. I sensed that this was much a game of delaying and holding onto the requisite amount of VP's to claim victory; I was just a little unsure how effective my air superiority would be. In our trial run it was a bit of a nightmare as they were quite ineffective, the Condors got their butt whooped and I lost planes like they were piloted by children. On the first turn their is no air phase, meaning that four bridges immediately were set to be completed to start the top of the second turn. The Republican had quite smartly placed leaders/artillery near the bridge construction in order to get the added protection from air raids. My first run through yielded 2 bridges successfully bombed, but this still allowed for 2 bridges open for safe passage and maintainence of supply when it came time for the Republican movement phase. This pretty much forces the hand of the Nationalist player to let loose the first dam flood as the bridges constructed /in construction will be at the full 6 allowed within the rules (at any one time). Fortunately, I was able to destroy 5/6 of the bridges with the flooding...leaving the bridge at Xerta the only one being open. I did not catch on quick enough as to the significance of this (more about this later). quite a few Republican forces made it across and now engaged my forces all along my main front and contested the VP hexes. It was only turn 2 and I was beginning to sweat as Nationalist commander (holy smokers!). One thing that can be said, is that the battles are quite attritional, even at high odds attacks. It is also required that one lose 1/2 total steps in a battle to be forced to retreat. This makes it a fair bit tougher to capture a VP hex. I was going to need all the help I could get to make the clock run out. The main Nationalist strategy was to push as far up toward the Ebro to lock an entire line out in ZoCs to slow, prevent the quick advance of the Republicans on the VP hexes or their ability to get behind the Nationalist lines. In fact, if I had things to do over, I may have lined the areas just out of range of the enemy artillery with cheap little brigades to bung up the Republican advance not unlike a minefield...rows upon rows of interlocking ZoCs to mess things up real bad (wait til next game, buddy). The biggest disappointment was the efficacy of the supposed air superiority. I nearly matched the Republicans in fighter/escorts and had tons of bombers set to rain down death. By turn 3, over half of ther bomber force lay in ruins at 1/2 strength (as I was able to recover none- argh). I still have both fighters at full strength, though. At the top of turn 3, I was likely too ambitious and did not deploy enough force to take out the bridge at Xerta which WOULD have put the entire Republican force out of supply. This was a critical error. I took a few swats at their unsupported armour units instead, and had some success. A deft move by the Republicans during their movement phase, reopened the supply line to Xerta and enabled them to make full strength attacks. We sit at mid-turn 3, Nationalist side set to move and presently in control of all VP hexes. There are 4 bridge markers in place, so it is not an option to try to put the enemy out of supply until next air phase and a ton of luck. I am thinking I need to hold onto my remaining dam flooding option until at least turn 6-7. I need to hope for some moderate sucess with the bombing and try to seal off the remaining 1-2 bridges with a counterattack of some sort. Wasting the Republican's time the name of the game. It looks like I only need to hold onto Gandesa and the surrounding area to get about 20 VP's which will at least ensure a close game. (stay tuned; I believe this game willl get several spins, as I just swear by the topic and the game system)