Joe Oppenheimer  - Jun 16, 2009 2:12 pm (#29203 Total: 29451)  
"Holding Ney between his thumb and forefinger, he made him advance 
three hexagons." - The Club Dumas 	 

On the table – In The Trenches: Opening Engagements, Rising Sun.

This scenario depicts the night assault on Tsingtao of November 6, 1914.
It’s a pretty unusual situation since you have German troops dug in
around a Chinese city being assaulted by Japanese and British troops. I
thought this scenario did a great job of showing of the system and
hinting at what’s to come in the next edition that will feature the kind
of trench warfare we usually associate with World War One. 

The scenario begins with the Allies conducting a preliminary bombardment
against every German occupied hex. This is a special type of bombardment
that involves rolling against the fortification value of the hex. A high
roll eliminates any defending unit and potentially craters the
fortification reducing its defensive value. The preliminary bombardment
also removes some wire markers which will help the attackers in their
initial advance. The Germans begin with only seven units on the map and
this bombardment killed off two of them – one of the two very valuable
artillery units and an infantry unit defending a strongpoint near the
front. 

It’s clear from the rules section on preliminary and saturation
bombardment that we’ll be seeing more of this sort of thing in future
volumes of the series. 

The Japanese sappers pressed through seizing the blockhouse hex that had
been reduced to rubble and beginning the process of cutting holes in the
wire for the follow on troops. Because this is a night scenario spotting
range is limited, but the Germans in an adjacent strongpoint were able
to spot for the remaining artillery unit. They called down fire on the
first wave of Japanese attackers and were able to slow and disperse
them. 

The three German infantry reinforcement arrived and along with the two
infantry units that had survived the bombardment they left the heavily
fortified Iltis Hill and maneuvered into position to delay the Allies.
The Japanese follow on troops also arrived (triggered by the sappers
seizing a strongpoint) as did three very strong companies of British
infantry. 

The Japanese took several turns to concentrate their forces around the
lone German infantry defending the last frontline strongpoint. Because
of the heavy defensive modifiers this terrain provided it took multiple
Japanese units approaching and taking casualties before enough fire was
applied to reduce the defenders. The Japanese then sent in fresh units
to finish off the German defender in Close Combat. 

While the German infantry scrambled to contain a breakthrough in the
center, heavy artillery fire continued to rain down on the Allied left.
This reduced a number of Japanese units approaching the aforementioned
strongpoint, and badly damaged one of the three British companies which
was still advancing in a single stack (big mistake). 

Eventually the remaining German units pulled back to the trenches and
strongpoint on Iltis Hill. The two full strength British companies
brought up the left flank and poured heavy fire onto the entrenched
troops. Because of the night rules they generally had to be adjacent to
be effective against the trenches and that allowed German machine guns
and the remaining German artillery unit to maul the attackers. Several
times the British had to pull back out of effective range to recombine
their reduced platoons, but they were able to remain an effective force.
Meanwhile the Japanese gathered their remaining full strength units and
surrounded the hill. It took several round of attacks with the Japanese
taking bloody losses but they were eventually able to take all but two
hexes of the hill and claim victory. If the Germans could have held out
for two more turns or eliminated the Allied units and retaken their
trench hexes in the final turn they would have been able to claim
victory. 

This is a really cool scenario that brings together a lot of the more
interesting aspects of the game – night actions, preliminary
bombardment, sappers, fortifications, opportunity fire by machine guns,
formation fire, and the deadliness of well placed defensive artillery.
The Germans will be on the defensive and will have to struggle to use
the few assets they have to buy time. The Allies have strong forces and
can take a lot of losses but they’ll need to break through and advance
to the primary objective while husbanding enough force to battle their
way through the trenches. 

I’ve really enjoyed the three scenarios in the game. I’m sure I’ll
solitaire them again and I look forward to bringing them to my weekly
game night for some face to face play. While I was initially uncertain
about this series, I’m now really excited to buy the upcoming releases
that will cover mid and late war battles.