A few weeks ago, January 17th to be precise I took what my friend Wayne promised to be the final assault on those trenches at Ypres. Wayne will be running the scenario for
Hotlead and I have been helping him play test it. So after a few tweaks for the last battle we try again.
I once again take the extra squad rather than the machine gun section. Meat shielding and mobility for the win.
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| And in this corner |
Due to an overlooked rule about not allowing troops to run in the terrain I was forced to slow down. I could only take the maneuver option of 6" movement instead of running at 9". The up side was I could now fire at the trenches before assaulting them. The downside being the greater amount of time required to get there.
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| Shell craters do not make good cover |
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As it took much longer to get to the trenches I was taking more hits form the trenches. But bad luck for Wayne with poor shooting and gas affect rolls evened it out a little.
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| In the open and under fire |
As the gas did its grim work the volume of defensive fire dropped off and I moved up for the assault.
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| The big push into bloody hand to hand |
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Some bad luck for Wayne in the trench fighting led me to take it with a still sizable force left. Supporting fire from the squad left in the objective trench to the far right further whittled down his defending troops. By the time I had settled in to the trench and turned the defending machine gun against its former owners it was obvious he had little left to defend and prevent me from taking both objectives. Victory at last. I guess the old saying "At first you don't succeed, try try again." does apply sometimes. I'd like to claim tactical brilliance but in reality luck had more to do with it.
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| my dead pile |
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| Wayne's dead, mostly from gas I think |
