Those are some tough paratroopers! Thanks for the video. I'd love to see a longer gameplay of this sometimes, the game really shines when you can utilize the road movement rules on the entire map and maneuvre cleverly.
Awesome play through...I've had this game (and others in the series) for a couple of years, and never actually played it: Always been intimidated by non squad based games, but this actually looks very playable. You roll like I do :). I can't believe the German armor doesn't get some sort of bonus for attacking infantry in a clear hex. Attacking at 2:1 give you a 50% chance of something bad happening. Seems to me the combat table should have at least 1 retreat only result for the attacker if the odds are higher than 1:1; that would make a big difference when you're sweating those 2:1 odds attacks with a limited amount of KG Koch steps you can lose. BTW, my grandfather was in the Battle of the Bulge...Company C, 117th Regiment, 30th Infantry. The were deployed around Malmady on the morning of Dec. 18, with orders to occupy Stavelot. They had taken Stavelot by the night of the 19, and their engineers dynamited the bridge across the river that cut Peiper's fuel/supply line. Not within the operational area of this game, obviously, but pretty cool none the less.
My hat off to you grandfather - it is unbelievable what they had to endure - they are and always will be heroes. I never really got friendly with the SCS system - it is relatively simple but I find it strange that they attacker get so many attacks and overruns. It is also a large game with many units, but the setting around Bastogne is awesome though. Thank you for taking the time to watch and to comment!
Bastogne has a very bloody CRT (not uncommon for SCS, actually - Afrika II is even worse, as I recall) but it has a logic behind it, which is scale and lethality - the counters in this scenario are company-sized (notice the single "I" above the NATO symbol), meaning that they each represent around 100-150 men at best. That means that any serious combat will leave one or both sides very badly hurt. A good consideration here is that the siege of Bastogne only lasted 8 days (20-27 Dec. 1944) and resulted in the American side (the winners, I'd remind you) losing over 3000 men. As for the Armour and not having a bonus in combat, while I can see what you mean, this is actually also logical since what the game calls "clear" is still very much the Ardennes, meaning rough, uneven ground that was frosted at the time and made armour significantly less effective. As a "consolation prize", all armour in this game (if I recall correctly) has exploit-capabilities, which means that it can attack up to 3 times in a turn, versus the infantry's single attack, so I would argue that they are powerful enough without any additional shifts (also, a standard 101st airborne company had around 10 bazookas on hand, so they were far from helpless against the Panzers).
Those are some tough paratroopers! Thanks for the video. I'd love to see a longer gameplay of this sometimes, the game really shines when you can utilize the road movement rules on the entire map and maneuvre cleverly.
Awesome play through...I've had this game (and others in the series) for a couple of years, and never actually played it: Always been intimidated by non squad based games, but this actually looks very playable. You roll like I do :). I can't believe the German armor doesn't get some sort of bonus for attacking infantry in a clear hex. Attacking at 2:1 give you a 50% chance of something bad happening. Seems to me the combat table should have at least 1 retreat only result for the attacker if the odds are higher than 1:1; that would make a big difference when you're sweating those 2:1 odds attacks with a limited amount of KG Koch steps you can lose.
BTW, my grandfather was in the Battle of the Bulge...Company C, 117th Regiment, 30th Infantry. The were deployed around Malmady on the morning of Dec. 18, with orders to occupy Stavelot. They had taken Stavelot by the night of the 19, and their engineers dynamited the bridge across the river that cut Peiper's fuel/supply line. Not within the operational area of this game, obviously, but pretty cool none the less.
My hat off to you grandfather - it is unbelievable what they had to endure - they are and always will be heroes.
I never really got friendly with the SCS system - it is relatively simple but I find it strange that they attacker get so many attacks and overruns. It is also a large game with many units, but the setting around Bastogne is awesome though.
Thank you for taking the time to watch and to comment!
Bastogne has a very bloody CRT (not uncommon for SCS, actually - Afrika II is even worse, as I recall) but it has a logic behind it, which is scale and lethality - the counters in this scenario are company-sized (notice the single "I" above the NATO symbol), meaning that they each represent around 100-150 men at best. That means that any serious combat will leave one or both sides very badly hurt. A good consideration here is that the siege of Bastogne only lasted 8 days (20-27 Dec. 1944) and resulted in the American side (the winners, I'd remind you) losing over 3000 men.
As for the Armour and not having a bonus in combat, while I can see what you mean, this is actually also logical since what the game calls "clear" is still very much the Ardennes, meaning rough, uneven ground that was frosted at the time and made armour significantly less effective. As a "consolation prize", all armour in this game (if I recall correctly) has exploit-capabilities, which means that it can attack up to 3 times in a turn, versus the infantry's single attack, so I would argue that they are powerful enough without any additional shifts (also, a standard 101st airborne company had around 10 bazookas on hand, so they were far from helpless against the Panzers).