This one is played on board 2 only, the VCs state that there are to be no unbroken American units in hexes <=5 on/between hexrows H-P. I created some markers in the module to enable me to mark the various VCs, red and blue's set up hexes, and just general areas that need to be highlighted. In this scenario the aforementioned VCs are marked with the yellow square area in the maps below while red and blues respective set up hexes are marked with the red and blue arrows.
And as if to set the tone for the impending battle, the Germans, who had the advantage of numbers and 2 tanks at their disposal, walked right into the LOS of an American Bazooka that rolled a 6 on the accuracy die promptly followed by a 5 on the penetration die. This was more than enough to see the German Panzer IV explode into a ball of smoke and flame. And all this with the very first shot on the very first move of the battle!
I decided to allow stacking since the map is relatively small this time and the Germans have a lot of troops to squeeze onto the board. It didn't do any harm and had a stack been hit I was going to roll a die and count down from the top to see which unit was hit, a rule sort of stolen from ASL in itself.
After the shock of losing one of their two Panzers so quickly to Bazooka fire, the Germans may have been a little too cautious since they struggled to make any progress at all. This situation continued until most of the German front line was a mass of pinned and suppressed units with the odd no-fire in there too for good measure. Something needed to be done if the situation wasn't to deteriorate further, and I remember thinking maybe this battle was just a lost cause from the start and perhaps I should just give it up, or restart. Thankfully I pushed on after deciding to try deploying copious amounts of German smoke and rushing across the road onto the hill. Now, I had previously made a house-rule that stated that only Veterans could deploy smoke, in one hex only, and only in adjacent hexes, but there's no mortars or artillery available to either side in this scenario, so no chance at all to place smoke. Smoke, it has to be said is pretty much essential in Crossfire, and then I remembered that ASL has a rule that allows infantry to place smoke in an adjacent hex too, so that was all the excuse I needed.
Just look at all that beautiful smoke.
I should mention that if I were playing by the official Crossfire rules there would almost certainly be mortars aplenty or even OBA missions. They're usually pretty generous with the smoke but limit it's use to one fire mission per initiative, which is fair enough. I think in future if an ASL scenario doesn't have either mortars or OBA then I might just add some in. It really is necessary if playing by (pseudo)Crossfire rules. And besides, I just love firing smoke all over the place.
Even with the use of smoke, the Germans take numerous hits as they make their way across to the hill in a desperate attempt to get into close combat with the American troops. A couple of units manage to get into close combat and take out a Veteran unit no less, but a lot of units end up pinned and suppressed in the attempt. Still, it needed to be done, and they have made inroads into the American line now.
Here's the current situation after the, mostly, successful assault on the hill.
This is the latest shot of the current battle situation. The smoke was a godsend. I'm not at all sure the Germans had much chance without it. It's still all to play for, but at least the Germans have managed to make a slight dent in the American defences. I think a lot will depend on how quickly the Germans can rally their suppressed units and get them onto the hill before the Americans can re-group.
I'll pick it up next time with the Germans retaining the initiative.
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