Cross of Irony: Redneck ASL

Day Two (18 Oct 1942): The Longest Day

Day Two seemed to take a long time to complete...strung-out over 2 weekends, we felt the scenario would never come to an end. I should point out that it wasn't just slow gameplay that extended the game, but I was also ill for several days (I either had a sinus infection or Cat Scratch Fever, I'm not really sure which.) But, we finally managed to end the seemingly perpetual battle which failed to please either of us.

As before, I (Kommissar Kipper) will be writing the majority of this blog, while Field Marshal Marsholio (my Axis opponent) is the author of the italic musings of the German side. And, of course, feel free to leave any comments and insults that might be appropriate (or even inappropriate, we don't care.)

Pre-battle:
Russian Strategy: I obviously placed too much faith in OBA holding my lines instead actual soldiers, and I paid the price for not purchasing infantry. On the other hand, I have saved CCP and now have an onboard enemy to plan against. It's time to stiffen resistance and inflict casualties, so I purchase 2 Militia Coys and a Rifle Coy. None are depleted, so I'm in business. The 120mm OBA carries over from the previous day, so I spend the rest of my CCP on fortifications...except for 2 CCP that I'll save. I purchased mines, FBs, and bumped my booby-trap level up to A.

German Strategy: or (More Beer, More Rockets, More Infantry; Attack Attack Attack!)
I landed 15CPP, purchased 1 depleted rifle coy, SAN increase, 150mm Rocket OBA, 100mm OBA, I planned on unleashing steel rain across the map before moving my infantry in. I set up dummy counters on the front lines just in case the rockets or 100mm batteries fell short. Then after a turn of bombardment I planned on sweeping through the fractured soviet lines and capturing as many stone locales as I could, cx-ing all the way. ELR dropped to 3 too, which starts the stalling attack process, but I figure I can fight through it with heavy OBA support.

The Battle:
Russian Player: It took so long to play, I've forgotten a lot of specifics. It seems that the beginning of the battle went very well for me, as I caused numerous casualties, including the destruction of another one of his PzIIIs by way of a critical hit with my 45L AT. But on and on it went, turn after turn (thanks to the randomness of the scenario ending)...and the longer it went, I began to lose units of my own and went to a more defensive posture. Of course, as bad luck would have it, my OBA failed to fire a single shot, thanks to 2 red card draws right away. He had his own poor luck with OBA, but it's very likely that I might have taken out a whole Rifle company if my pre-registered OBA had arrived.

German Player: or (If All Else Fails, Reboot) StuG's got recalled at the end of day one, they earned their keep with a few lucky shots. My Rocket's field phone broke on the first roll, so the SMC manning the phone spent half the day on the line with tech support. By the time he got things sorted out, I only had grey units in LOS for targets. 100mm OBA drew red on the first attempt. Initial plan was a total failure and my units that were meant to charge across the burning soviet corpses just stood and shot, trying to break a rugged defense.

BATTLE BREAKS: The Warsteiner was a bit skunky, and the Newcastle mini-keg seemed a bit off as well. No matter--we saw to it that they were properly drained. The weekend's Guitar Hero duel was the Van Halen disc on the Hard setting. Marsholio beat me on the easy songs (such as "Eruption" and "Atomic Punk"), but I finally nailed him in the complicated masterpiece called "Stacy's Mom".

In anticipation of Tarantino's upcoming film, we decided to watch Corbucci's original Django. It took us several sessions to see the whole film thanks to random bouts of unconciousness that always seem to occur at 5am and the kegs are empty. We even got started watching Django Kill, a movie that was a sequel in name only. Supposedly, over 30 Spaghetti Westerns had "Django" in the title, and I'll see how many of them I can round up.

Post-Battle
Russian Player: As the scenario went the maximum number of turns, I lost more units to his superior firepower than I had planned and ended up losing a bit more ground as well. But overall, my lines held...well enough to score a Russian Victory. I had hoped to kill more Nazis...but was thankful that my own losses were relatively light. With his ELR down to 3, I suspect the he will be Idle in the next scenario...and I now have a cunning plan for Day 3: ATTACK!!!!

German Player: (Stallin' in Stalingrad) I spent entirely too much time dicking around waiting on fire missions that never came about. I fell way short of what I needed to grab factory wise, the day was a total loss with very light casualties. 16 points worth, lost another PIIIL to an HIP AT gun on the rail lines, and only nabbed 16 locations. I should have bought more infantry instead of all the OBA.

Final Casualty Tallies: 24 Russian casualty points, including a 9-1 leader. 16 German casualties, including a PzIII, and captured 16 Strategic Locations

RUSSIAN VICTORY

NEXT: THE SOVIETS COUNTER-ATTACK!