Bloody March Turn 3
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Time again for my once-a-month foray into the beastly Central America. I really like the concept of this game, but I haven't quite picked up the flow of it yet, and that's only using the ground forces. But let's continue on.
The score so far is FDN 4, FSLN 0, by dint of the FDN occupying the Las Vegas village which is worth 4 VPs.
Turn 3
Picking up from Bloody March Turn 2, it appears that the FDN is impregnable in their entrenchment at the town of Las Vegas, so the FSLN needs to find better hunting elsewhere. For example, picking on the out-of-supply Honduran unit CES.
FSLN phases
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Supply: All FSLN units are in supply with the green-bordered hex 2012 containg the town of Ocotal.
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Regular Ground Unit Movement:
- Veng: 2411 to 2212. Only 3 MP! Entering a forest hex costs 2 MP. So take the road south.
- Lopz: 2310 to 2208, road movement.
- 50-02: 2310 to 1910, getting behind the HN unit using road movement.
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Insurgency Movement:
- Uman, Pom: 2310 to 1908, HDN is now ZOC'ed, insurgency units exert a ZOC for combined defense value of 2 or more.
- Mrh, Estr, PVP: 2411 to 2208.
Insurgents ignore terrain costs for movement.
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First Insurgency Disbandment: None.
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Ground Combat: Pom, Uman and 50-02 take on HN CES, which is out of supply in 1909. The odds are 4:1, +1 DRM for attacking insurgency units. Allied force decides to not use air defense as that would use up the helicopter activation for this turn. At 4:1 +1 DRM, minimum attacker step loss plus retreat. Since HN CES is EZOC'ed, that's two step losses for an elimination, and a VP for the commies.
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Reserve Movement: None.
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Second Insurgency Disbandment: None.
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Reinforcement: No reinforcements.
The Communist phase went pretty fast this time. I'm getting the hang of where to find the right rule when I need it.
FDN phases
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Supply: All units in supply given the entrenchment provides supply at Las Vegas. Otherwise, in supply from trail connection to La Rosita.
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Regular Ground Unit Movement: None, holding fast at Las Vegas.
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Insurgency Movement:
- Sjac, Cond, Seg from 2509 to 2107 to reinforce the helicopter on the entrenched position at Silca.
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First Insurgency Disbandment: None.
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Air Mission: None, will use helicopter mission for ground combat support. This was a mistake; had I used the helicopter for ground combat defense of HN, it would have resulted in an attacker step loss (because I recomputed the odds and rolled to see what would have happened). I had intended on using the helicopter on the proceeding ground combat phase, but there won't be one this turn for the FDN.
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Ground Combat: None, holding fast.
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Reserve Movement: All insurgents moved.
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Second Insurgency Disbandment: None.
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Helicopter Transport: None, HN got eliminated.
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Return to Base: Never left base.
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Reinforcement: No reinforcements.
Score: FSLN 1, FDN 4
This game isn't all that difficult, but there are a lot of different capabilities to keep in mind. It's getting easier, and will get a lot easier once I've pushed a lot more pieces around the board.
One interesting thing which I've noticed from the initial game up until now in this game, is if there is any chance at all of getting a unilateral attacker step loss during the communist combat phase, I've been getting it. What are the odds? The only success I've had so far is overwhelming odds where I don't have to roll the die. Seriously, while there isn't much rolling, I seem to be consistently rolling 1s and 2s every one all the communist attacks.
This turn took about an hour to play, including the writeup and all associated rules lookups.
Here's what it looks like at the end of Turn 3. Veng is probably out of play, it won't be able to get anywhere useful in 2 turns.
The saga continues in Bloody March Turn 4.