Friday, November 14, 2008

Memoir '44 session - Sword Beach


Today I got to play the Axis at Sword Beach and I was really looking forward to it after jealously watching others play through the scenario.

What I noticed when watching the others play was just how powerful the artillery in the center of the Axis forces were. Up to this point I have never played with artillery so I was looking forward to it.

After set up the the Allies go first and the Allied forces started up the beach. The Armour lead the way in the centre and their left. They also opened fire against the Bunkers with no effect.

Then came my first turn. I activated my right and managed to get my tanks into Riva Bella and also advanced the infantry up to the wire. I then opened fire on the tanks with two infantry units and between them scored two hits and two flags. The tanks withdrew to the waters edge and never came back.

My opponent seemed to be concentrating on the bunkers in the center and on my left he advanced to take them on. I took a couple of casualties in both flanking bunkers but managed to inflict greater casualties in return. This was helped by a significant bit of bad luck when my opponent attacked with two units in each region and missed with everything.

The Allied tanks in the center took out a gun in the bunker and took out my central infantry unit. I reduced the tanks here to a single vehicle and indulged in an interesting tactic that I'll be trying to leverage in future. I wanted to advance some infantry to attack the tank in the center. I checked my cards and had a right flank card and a center card. So I realised that I could move a unit into the center from the right. So I played the right card, advanced the unit and shot. Next turn I was able to move the infantry again to close the range on the tanks again and attack. It worked too, the tanks were eliminated.

Another incident of note took place on my left. The Allied tanks advanced up to the gap in the wire shooting at the bunker every time and doing little damage. I was able to concentrate fire on this unit. By playing a three/left card I was able to advance towards the tanks with two units and fire with all three. This eliminated the tanks.

The winning medal came in with an air power card. I had been holding this since a few turns into the game but my worthy opponent had never had even two units adjacent since I'd gained it. At this point I'd forced a retreat that had pushed three units together of four,two and one figure each. I got to roll 1 die against each of them and only needed one medal. I got a hit on the group of four, and a hit on the group of two, and yes(!) a hit on the single figure.

Although I won and felt well satisfied A post game rule review showed I had been cheating!. At one point the guns had been forced to retreat from the bunker. The rules state that bunker guns can not be moved, hence that would have been a kill.

So HUZZAR I WON, but I'm a big cheating b@st*rd!

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