LZ Albany set up and first turns
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I have a game of LZ Albany scheduled tomorrow at EGO with AS, my usual Vietnam opponent. I thought I'd take a few hours this evening to set it up and walk through a couple of turns, just to see how it plays. This will be very helpful tomorrow, saving us a lot of time.
The game comes with Modern War issue #24. It was designed by John Poniske, a designer of some repute in the community.
The map is area movement, which makes sense at this scale, for this situation. The firefight resulted from a successful PAVN ambush the day following the tremendous battle at LZ X-Ray, a couple of miles away.
Set up isn't difficult, however, the counters for both sides look very similar. I'm going to assume that's part of the plan to stymie each side's ability to coordinate fire, there friendly fire casualties on both sides.
The game lasts 10 turns, with the last 2 turns being night turns.
Let's take it for a spin.
But first, the Turn Sequence:
Turn
1. Reinforcement Phase
2. Event Phase
3. Action Phase
4. Rally Phase
5. Administrative Phase
Now, we can play.
Turn 1
Note, because ambush, the US player is severely limited on Turn 1.
1. Reinforcement Phase
Nothing yet, everyone is on the map from set up.
2. Event Phase
US doesn't get this due to ambush. The PAVN rolls 4 and places No Move/Fire on A/2/7.
3. Action Phase
Since only PAVN had action chits, they're the only ones going to take the initiative Turn 1.
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PAVN 1/33 activates Move, moves into regions with A/2-7 to initiate Melee. Results, 1 hit on each side. No officer casualties. US prevails here. Another PAVN 1/33 moves into adjacent to melee with part of C/2-7
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8/8 moves.
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7/8 moves.
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6/8 moves.
4. Rally Phase
Both PAVN and US can rally one unit because of colocated Officers.
5. Administrative Phase
VP calculation: 11 PAVN, 10 US.
Turn 2
Last turn was pretty bloody for both sides. This turn probably just as much.
1. Reinforcement Phase
Mostly US reinforcements, and a bunch of them.
2. Event Phase
US roll 3, move B/2-7 towards LZ.
PAVN roll 3, move part of 8/8 in between B/2-7 and LZ.
3. Action Phase
- US: B/2-7 does ranged fire on PAVN in space between them and LZ.
- US: D/2-7 moves north.
- PAVN: ranged fire from 8/8 on B/2-7.
- US: A/2-7 moves north.
- PAVN: 6/8 moves west to melee C/2-7. C/2-7 retreats after first round.
- PAVN: Adrenaline.
- PAVN: Move 10/8 2 spaces west.
- US: B/2-7 fires into 8/8, scores 4 hits, takes no hits in return.
- PAVN: 10/8 moves into LZ Albany.
- PAVN: 1/33 fires onto D/2-7, scores 2, loses 1.
- PAVN: 1/33 does it again, scores another hit, takes none.
- US: Artillery, scores 2 total hits on 8/8.
4. Rally Phase
PAVN not lucky on rally rolls.
5. Administrative Phase
Clean up.
AAR
From just this small amount of playing, I can see that ranged fire is useful for wearing down units in advance of an assault, i.e., melee.
I don't understand the rule for fire on ovestacking. The example implies that 6 platoons (US) would induce a "No Fire" situation on the that region. Which doesn't make sense. It would make sense to switch a die for each extra unit to friendly fire, but not to reduce the units firing. I had understood the PAVN units were companies, something I should double check.