Ad Hoc 98
Last weekend it was time for Ad Hoc'98 in Linköping, Sweden, again. Getting older I was actually hesitating this time about driving those 760 km (for you non-metric guys over there that corresponds to 19000 hexes) alone, through three countries (Mr. Repettis Law about travelling in Europe), but luckily I caved in to my desires. Arriving on Saturday morning there was lots of playing already going on. The complete winning team from Intensive Fire 96 (Klas Malmström, Nils-Gunnar Nilsson, Bernt Ribom & Patrik Manlig) was there, as well many others from the list (Mel Falk, Daniel Qvarfordt, Andreas Carlsson and more). In total 15 or so.
The first game was against Peter Kotilainen whom wanted to play RP7 No Quarter. This scenario has a setup where the Germans (658's) setup to take 4 of 5 six objective hexes from the Canadian player. In spite of attacking the Germans sets up first, and the Canadian player then puts his stacks together and place them randomly in his setup area. Finally three HS 348's are placed randomly in the middle of the Canadians. After deciding how we wanted to play the Bocage Peter wanted to have the Canadians. The setup generated one pre-game CC that had to be resolved, and my 348 eliminated one of his 458. Another 348 was the sole occupant the stone building (one of the objectives). Ah, nice start. But the Canadian setup came out quite good too. The first turn saw no damages to my Germans, and a 2MC against the 9-2, 458/LMG in front of the German left flank caused the 9-2 to go heroic and the squad to break, opening up that flank as it appeared. A HS in that area was also broken and had rout off to some woods. Things worked nicely and an 11 ROF from my Mortar eliminated another whole squad and I pushed forward a bit too friskly. The 9-2 finally rallied his broken comrades and promptly wiped out a 658 stupidly sitting around in OG (I never learn to handle things when it goes well). The broken HS Selfrallied and generated an 8-0 in the process. They surged forward on my extreme left to put some pressure from the side, where HS broke again and had to rout back. Next time the HS again rallied on snake eyes and produced a hero this time! Ah, well. Great laughs anyway. My attack came together and some more ROF from the Mortar cleaned up the 9-2 stack. On my right my attack was held of by a sturdy 458 in one foxhole (objective) supported from behind the Bocage. On the final turn I had to take two objectives, got the first, but had a squad pinned and needed a 2 or 3 in the CC for the final one. Which I missed. Cool scenario and good replay value.
Next I played Nils-Gunnar whom selected TOT 36 Balkan Barbecue from my want-to-play list. This scenarios pitches Axis Minors with French Armor (one with a FT) against Partisans in the middle of the winter. The VC where lengthy but in principle awarded points for Huts (both), exiting units (Partisans only) and bodies (both). Dicing for it I got the defending partisans. On my right flank I had three hills as set up area and on my left the overlay with huts (1). I setup on the hills to move over to the huts ASAP and a deep defence among the huts. A HIP 337/ATR lurked on the extreme left in case Nils-Gunnar delayed the entry of the AFV's for one turn. Pitting 347's against 337's makes for a low FP affair and the single "killer stack" was a leader +347/LMG + 347/MMG for 12 FP. The axis entered with all units against huts except for a leader and 4 squads on the far opposite flank (due to missreading the SSR's he thought that was the exit area instead of from behind the huts). The Snow made all maneouvering s l o w. My forward 337's held off well, but still died in some places. One 337/LMG in a Hut survived the onslaught of the killer stack and another leader controlled stack _and_ two of the AFV's for the whole game!! It shrugged off 2MCs and 1MCs like nothing. When a 347 finally managed to enter and engage in CC the 347 was broken by my Sniper and to rout away! The partisan gets two DC which where put to use in the midgame, one blew up a single squad (after I missed a chance against a leader, two broken and one GO squad - doh). The other where optimally placed against the FT tank and blew it to pieces. Another tank went down in a CC. My 337/LMG squad broke on the final turn when running around securing huts for the partisans, but otherwise these fellows won this one for me as Nils-Gunnar conceded with one turn to play.
Sunday morning I woke unaturally early, a problem when you're used to being woken up by your kids every day. Patrik Manlig was looking for a game but I had already made a setup for SP 11 Pomerainian Tigers as the Russian against Bernt Ribom. So we had breakfast at McDonalds and discussed 0.50 cal vs 20L AA's and panthers with UV-sights. Then it was time for some action. Pomerainian Tigers is a heavy metal scenario pitching German 548's supported by various Stugs and turn three reinforcments with two king tigers against Russian 628's with a 57LL AT. The Russian reinforcements come on turn 4 consisting of three IS-IIm. The Russians also get some AT mines which must be placed on the paved roads. I put them up on the left on the level one road after the stream (also treated as paved road), with the HIP AT on the right side, hoping that one of the biggies would come that way. The German player must exit 40 VP, deducting one for every two CVP caused. Bernt moved his forces along the road up in the hills and placed his initial two StuH 42 out of LOS from pontential AT locations. No defensive fire. On the second turn he kept running adjacent to my front ?(1) and finally I had to shoot, breaking + CR'ing a squad. He attacked in CC with two squads and ambushed me, but no damage and a Snake eye later he was another squad down and I an 8-0 up. Nevertheless, the 628 took the route out of harms way using the newly won leader MF bonus to the full. On turn three the king tigers arrived + one more StuH (I think). In my def I FPF'ed two different 628/LMG, breaking both. Oops, there went 25% of my squads.... My biggies arrived, but being cautious in selecting the entry hex they did not quite reach the front line. Next turn the all Germans surged forward, and the first king tiger parked in my bore sighted hex for a side shot from the AT. I managed to shutup, and the StuH comming with them parked even closer, also for a side shot. And the second king tiger also - at two hexes distance! Come DFPh and first out is the AT. When I place it concealed on board Bernt starts to worry for real. First target is the most distant king tiger in the bore sighted hex. I go for APCR, finds it (but depleted), gets ROF, keeps "?" and hits the turret. One burning tiger. Then select the second tiger, hits, gets ROF and one IF and hits again but neither of the turret hits penetrate. Still 10 less CVP for the Germans to exit. In his AFPh he provokes a MC on the still concealed crew, whom after natural 12 roll over and die. There is still a lot of distance for the Germans to run so I pull back what I can and park the stalin tanks in defensive positions overlooking his approaches. In his next MPh the remaining king tiger moves forward up a hill where it takes a hit from the first IS-IIm, which penetrates the turret. The Germans fails their personal TC and resigns. I really enjoyed this one, and would like to try this one again. Bernt _again_ taught me how to use the free CA change instead of shooting.
Thus ends a great weekend. Thanks to Klas Malmström for arranging yet another great event and looking forward to come next year also!