Mini A&A Battle Report

[The Maquis]

Well, my friend and I tried our very first game of Axis and Allies Miniatures. It was sort of like a sealed tournament as we each had a starter and two boosters to construct a 100-point army with. My friend drew all four Russian units from this set. I got a little bit of everything EXCEPT Russian. I ran Axis, which consisted of:

Mauser Kar 98k x3
MG 42 Machine Gun Team x2
PAK 38 x2
Panzer IV Ausf. G
Sd Kfz 251
SS Haupsturmfuhrer

My friend ran all 4 Russians from this set (including the two rare tanks), a standard Sherman, a Bazooka Team, and a US Mortar Team. We rolled for Terrain Placement and it was Configuration 3 (High Ground). I made a big mistake when I placed a PAK 38 near the Sd Kfz 251 to be transported only to see in the rules that Soldier-Artillery cannot be used for transport. :(
I also had half my army deployed behind a stream and only half of those units made their rolls to cross. My friend made good use of the hills near the objective to screen most of his units. He exposed one heavy Russian Tank which spent the game trading shots with my Panzer IV. My infantry SLOWLY advanced towards the objective and despite my use of cover, they were pounded by armor and the darn US mortar. I could not roll a single cover save except on the very last turn and when it came to the assault phase I kept rolling one less hit than needed to Disrupt my foe (i.e. if a unit had Defense 4 I would only roll three 4's or higher). In the end (Turn 5) I had lost everything but one MG Team and my friend had not even taken damage. The best I could do was disrupt his exposed Russian tank and one Russian infantry unit.

Thoughts: I suppose I should try to field at least two tanks in my 100 pt. force and I need more practice on how to properly use the Sd Kfz. I thought I had seen pictures of German Halftracks towing antitank guns but maybe I am mistaken. The Russian armor can take a lot of punishment (Defense 6 is tough when you are having bad dice luck). The game was fun though and I think with more pieces I can start to construct better armies. We plan on switching sides and playing another game. Most of my Allied rares are American (Hellcat and "Easy Eight" were two of my pulls).

[Rob Irwin]

So your friend already broke one of the rules by mixing his Russians with another force? You should claim the technical victory :)

[The Maquis]

Well, I allowed it because he did not have enough points to do either a pure Russian or an American/British force. We could assume that in an alternate WW2 universe there was an expeditionary American force on the Eastern Front that aided the Soviets in defense of the Motherland. ;) Hey, I thought about using my Imperial Sergeant to give the German Infantry Banzai Charge! :p

[Wulfram]

Thought I would add it my game tonight. Full Japanese force against Americans...... NASTY.. really nasty.

Japanese occupied the objective first and my three Ha-Gos managed to kill the Stuart (yea, I know it is supposed to be British, but it was an American design after all). During the turn that I killed to Stuart, the Sherman destoyed the last Ha-Go. My Mortars go the better of the M2 mortars (lucky dice rolling as much as anything). My opponents Gerand Rifleman did a number on my officers (put them with the "Red Devil" captain and they get an extra dice and it is really hard to take cover).

In the end, it was a ten turn game. At the end, I had two Arisaka Rifle on the objective and the Americans had their Sherman and they had 1 Gerand rifle in the next square. Final score: Americans 25, Japanese 6. A great bloody game.

[JimBobo]

Well, the rule "only (nation) units can be part of a (nation) army" seems to be an optional rule (i´m all for it, but page seven says otherwise).

But then, the russian received lots of american equipment, and they had good soldiers, so its not very strange to see, for example, a sherman (and other us-equipment) on the eastern front (even if the russian didn´t like the sherman very much).

The SdKfz. 251 indeed did tow -everything- there was to tow (and the 251er could tow), but i think in the movement of the pak the towing veicle seems to be included.

(Besides that, as far as i see they got the wrong pak-model. The model is the PAK 37, with 3,7cm).
Just look for the 5cm PAK 38 in Goggle, there good pictures from Italeri for example.




JimBobo

[Gunslinger]

I personally don't like the historical limitations. I'll take some historical inaccuracy for a more fun game experience.

I think that the SdKfz 251 can carry the Pak 38 (in the game). It's still a soldier and can be transported.

[Vulturedoodle]

(Besides that, as far as i see they got the wrong pak-model. The model is the PAK 37, with 3,7cm).
Just look for the 5cm PAK 38 in Goggle, there good pictures from Italeri for example.
You're right. In appearance, this one is much closer to the PAK 35/36 than the PAK 38. Doubters can go to:

http://www.thetankmaster.com/artillery.asp

Nice catch.
--Steve F.

[Vulturedoodle]

I think that the SdKfz 251 can carry the Pak 38 (in the game). It's still a soldier and can be transported.
No, look up the Transport special ability in the glossary: Transport Vehicles can't carry Soldiers with the subtype "Artillery."

Regards,
Steve F.

[JimBobo]

Ups, my bad, it is the 35/36 PAK :p but still with 3,7 cm.
After meeting the first few harder tanks, like the Char BiS or british tank, but at least after meeting some russian tank, it was called "Heeresanklopfgerät", roughly translating into "army-door-knocking-device" (like in doorbell), cause the caliber wasn´t hard enough to "knacken" some of the armor.

There were some special ammo like the stick grenade (some kind of oversized riflegrenade). You can see it in one of the Band of Brother episodes.

@Gunslinger - i´m looking forward for the first tournaments in Germany -if there will be any at all - and if the rules go for historical or not. Personaly i can´t stand the "mix-it-all" kind of game. But thats only for me :D

JimBobo

[Plagued]

No, look up the Transport special ability in the glossary: Transport Vehicles can't carry Soldiers with the subtype "Artillery."

Regards,
Steve F.

Which quite honestly, is a load of crap. Those things are meant to be towed, not pushed around one end of the field to the other.

[HerrBrenner]

Hey JimBobo,

Anfang Oktober ist in Köln im Hive World ein A&A-Mini Turnier geplant. Der Laden ist noch sehr neu, (vor 2 Wochen eröffnet) aber Infos bekommst Du unter www.hiveworld.de

I like the historical army limits, even if this means a hard time for the Japaneese forces. Reaching 100 pts. with only 15 minis is difficult if you want to take some riflemen with you. Still it is an optional rule...

[JimBobo]

Hey, :D die haben wohl noch Starter. Hoffe, das sie mit dem Status: vorrätig ehrlich sind.
Leider keine Infos über den Spieltag. :(

JimBobo

[Vulturedoodle]

Which quite honestly, is a load of crap. Those things are meant to be towed, not pushed around one end of the field to the other.
This has all been discussed before. The conclusion, with which I agree, is that within the timespan of the average game (i.e., seven minutes), hooking, unhooking, and setting up would take too many turns to be worthwhile including. It's a reasonable game mechanic.

Regards,
Steve F.

[HerrBrenner]

Hey, :D die haben wohl noch Starter. Hoffe, das sie mit dem Status: vorrätig ehrlich sind.
Leider keine Infos über den Spieltag. :(

JimBobo

Hi,

leider sind momentan im Laden noch ganze zwei Booster, es sollen aber am Dienstag neue Sachen reinkommen, dann sind (wahrscheinlich kurzzeitig) auch wieder Starter da, von denen ich schon einige wieder verkauft sehe.

Das Problem liegt momentan in Deutschland beim Vertrieb, der die A&AM Sachen viel zu früh ausgeliefert haben ohne einen Erstverkaufstag anzuzeigen. Dafür hat Amigo von WotC ordentlich einen auf den Deckel bekommen, denn wir alle sollten erst morgen A&A kaufen können... :eek:

Jetzt scheint der Vertiebsweg gelähmt zu sein, da die A&A Bestellungen noch nicht eingegangen sind, so daß die Läden das Material zum Erstverkaufstag da haben. So wie es momentan aussieht, gehen die Bestellungen erst am Montag vom Großhändler raus, damit Amigo nicht noch eine Vertragsstrafe zahlen muss. Je nachdem wie lange die Post dann braucht, kommen die Sachen dann am Dienstag oder Mittwoch an.

Das Turnier ist geplant für einen Samstag, es ist aber noch nicht klar ob der 1. oder der 8. Oktober.

[Commissar]

This has all been discussed before. The conclusion, with which I agree, is that within the timespan of the average game (i.e., seven minutes), hooking, unhooking, and setting up would take too many turns to be worthwhile including. It's a reasonable game mechanic.

Regards,
Steve F.

Well, it should take at least a minute to limber the gun, and at least a minute to unlimber it... and probably another minute after that to set it up. But that's at worst 3 turns out a possible 10. So I would like to see a gun transport rule.

However, one thing I wonder about is why the gun can be moved 200m in one minute?! Using "Relocate 2", you can lug that thing across two hexes in the 60 seconds a turn is supposed to last. I find that somewhat odd.

Consider the math:
1760 yards in a mile.
1 yard = .914m.
thus 1 mile = 1608.64 meters
gun moves 200m in a minute.
that means it covers 12000m in an hour.
12000/1608.64 = 7.46mph!
Average human running speed: ~15mph

I don't know how fast a team could actually run with a cannon over rough terrain, but I expect it's less than half of normal human speed.

[Plagued]

This has all been discussed before. The conclusion, with which I agree, is that within the timespan of the average game (i.e., seven minutes), hooking, unhooking, and setting up would take too many turns to be worthwhile including. It's a reasonable game mechanic.

Regards,
Steve F.

I disagree. The way transport is presented in this game is absurd. It's one of the weakest points in the rules, and doesn't respect the value of transport and towing either in game terms or in reality. I can only hope that at some point this will be addressed, perhaps if WotC decides to progress to a scale slightly larger than skirmish. (Which in 12mm, seems absurd not to...)