My second game during the tournament, check the attached scenario for complete details:”In the outskirts of Lund”
US Armoured infantry vs US A.P.E. platoon
US LUCKY 7th A.P.E. PLATOON: "Holma”
Slugger 4rp
Comandsquad 7rp
Flamer.
A.P.E. SQUAD 1 8rp
Bazooka
A.P.E. SQUAD 2 8rp
HMG
A.P.E. SQUAD 3 8rp
HMG
Chameleon snipers 6rp
Medium Mecha 14
Souped up engiens
Heavy Armour
2x CCW
Flamer
US ARMOURED INFANTRY PLATOON: "Anatoli"
Veteran + Body Armor 5RP
1x Sentinel 7RP
1x Command Squad 6RP
(incl Sniper & Medic)
2x Armored Infantry squad with packed LMG & 3x explosives 14RP
1x Comanche with light armor, assault pod and flamethrower 4RP
1x M10 Wolverine with improved sights 7RP
1x M4 Sherman with improved sights 12RP
I knew that I would only have a chance in this scenario and against this enemy platoon if I knocked out the enemy mecha and somehow survived with my tanks. The infantry on both sides were just as sparse, but mine were more fragile and the APE squads had a hell of a lot more firepower than I could muster in any fire team.
The scenario itself called for a speedy advance towards the middle in order to grab the V-gas canisters. Again I was facing an opponent with initiative 10 vs my 8, so I could only expect to lose the turn initiative every turn.
The game begins with cautious movement on both sides. The APE Platoon chameleon snipers try to pick off my Wolverine but fail, but the second sniper inflicts a “immobilized” result almost immediately making my small flamethrower mecha stand useless out in the open. My Sherman tank would cement the difference in “crew quality” between itself and the M10 wolverine crew in this tournament by rolling like shit. The most this tank did was to kill 1 APE with LMG fire and score a lucky hit (the only one throughout the tournament) with its main gun and blow up some 4 more APE soldiers. After that it was hit and immobilized on the right flank – in a good position nevertheless overlooking a couple objectives and the enemy approach but also out in the open just waiting to be finished off.
Things started to get real interesting as my M10 wolverine started to inflict kills with its only (and pintle mounted) HMG, this attracted more Chameleon sniper fire and the enemy mecha. The chameleon sniper hit the turret and damaged it so it could not traverse anymore. The mecha ran at full speed and tried to trample some of my infantry but failed to kill anyone, then attacked with a flamethrower but only killed a single soldier and my targeted fire team passed its cool check. Trying to knock out the heavy mech one of my fire teams attacked the mecha from behind with their explosive charges but failed to do any damage –the short fuse killing one of the men as he tried to retreat making his squad panic and disorganize. This in turn left the flank to be saved by Liberty, so she charged around the back of the mecha and punched it in the kneecap resulting in the mecha being immobilized and without the possibility to change traverse. One headache less.
Things actually looked bright for about a turn and a half. My fire teams advanced along the frontline taking (acceptable) casualties. My idea was to storm the objectives , grab them and run back towards my tanks for protection fast as hell. This did not really work out. The enemy Chameleon snipers persistent in their attacks kept shooting at both Wolverine and Sherman. Bailing my Wolverine and my Sherman, APE squads moved forwards slowly and with Slugger Murphy within constant LoS to keep them utterly fearless. Around turn 4 I had fought my way towards the middle and started grabbing the first objectives. First objective was fine, but moving on towards the second one spawned a “twitcher” zombie which attacked my fire team and locked them in close combat. Same thing happened on the left flank. Another of my fire teams grabbed 2 objectives but spawned a twitcher zombie on their second pickup. The slow moving but crazy dangerous APE’s started to come into LoS and the short range would make their HMG’s even more painful. Preparing myself for some close combat I lined up my only decent fighter, Liberty, behind a wall- completely overlooking the fact that the enemy had an APE perfectly lined up to pepper her with his Packed LMG resulting in her premature death and dooming both fire teams on her flank.
APE squads rushed in to assault, and I moved up both fire teams to overwhelm the APE troopers. The close combat went on for 2 turns but as more APE’s arrived my two fire teams were beaten to a pulp and I lost control of my two captured V-gas canisters. On the right flank I was still tied up with that damned zombie. I tried to salvage the situation by moving up my platoon sniper and a lone soldier to grab the two rightmost objectives but the soldier was killed and while the sniper grabbed the last objective he had to stay out of sight not to be killed instantly by the approaching APE’s.
The Sherman crew decided to remount but their tank was blown up along with them. My M10 Wolverine had a couple crewmen picked off out in the open but remounted only to get blown up as well. Slugger Murphy appeared from around the corner and attacked my soldiers who had just fought off the damn zombie on the right flank and chased them away (I made a failed tactical fall back resulting in them being disorganized). The following turn Slugger attacked again and crushed their skulls in with his spiked baseball bat. At this point I gave up because it would have been pointless to keep playing as we both realized the result would not change.
The scenario was not limited in the amount of turns played but rather had a 3hour limit/until 1 side is defeated. This is the only thing I could really say made me slightly annoyed, because if it had been 6 turns I would have most likely won. As it was I lost half my platoon going for the objectives, 25% near the objectives and the last 25% in a war of attrition where I had zero chance of surviving.
It should be mentioned that the Chameleon snipers fired at my tanks each turn scoring something like 16 hits in total, but only 3 of them were penetrating. The enemy bazooka also failed to do any damage. The enemy mecha was likewise neutralized. My own force suffered from shitty performances as well. My Sherman which had been taken out of action immediately during my first game killed 5 APE’s in total during this game. Though you have to take into account that this vehicle has 2 LMG’s and 1 HMG. I fired like a madman but only inflicted 1 single machine gun kill with this vehicle! On the opposite flank my single HMG Wolverine killed at least 4 APE’s (including a really great roll of double sixes to hit followed with killing two APE’s that was hit).
But with the vehicles knocked out in both platoons the APE platoon had the upper hand with their durability and firepower outclassing my own remaining infantry.
The game ended a 7-3 to “Holma” and his APE platoon. We had both killed over 50% of the enemy platoon but I held only 1 V-gas canister while he held 5. He was out of luck when checking the quality of those canisters however. Looking at the score board after Day 1 I saw that I had no chance of placing anywhere near 1st place so this might have contributed with my relaxed approach during the 2nd day and the last 2 games to come. You can also tell that this game was really tense and pretty fast paced as the amount of pictures for this battle report is the lowest out of all 4 games I played during the tournament.
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