Many Rivers to Cross

On Saturday night, while Peppermint was asleep and my son was busy playing Roblox with a bunch of his friends, I decided to sneak in a game. I recently painted the bases on my WWII figures (finally) and I wanted to get my newly painted bridge out for a game, so I decided on one of the small Crossfire scenarios, scaled down force-wise, and using Hammer of Democracy.

Because the rulebook is a PDF that I have yet to have printed, I wanted my laptop close by. I figured the best way to do this would be to play on a portion of the kitchen table. After clearing stuff of the table (well part of it - the kitchen table serves as my hobby desk, work desk, dining table, and toaster storage!), I decided on a  36" x  30"space

The US had two squads, mortar and FOO (off-table heavy mortar). The Germans had a single squad, FOO (off-table heavy mortar), mortar, and an MG team (inside the bunker).

The squad on the US right attempted to cross the river but soon came under off-table mortar fire, fire from the house, and from the German mortar team across the table. They never made it across the river.

 

 

On the US left, after waiting for several rounds of off -table heavy mortar fire  to bombard the bunker, the squad crossed the river under MG fire.

Shot up, but determined, the squad assaulted the bunker...

Both the US squad and the MG team inside were in bad shape. Each had 5 points of damage. With the automatic point caused by the assault both were at 6. Units are removed at 7 points. In the event of a tie, both sides would suffer a point of damage and both would be eliminated. 

I rolled the dice and held my breath.

The MG team held their ground and gave better than they got. 

With the second squad destroyed/routed, I called the game a German victory.

I got the toys out and played a game, so that was a success, but I think three squads vs one would be a better balance. Or I could have sat back and let the US off-table mortar and on-table mortar do more of the work, but that would be boring. 

I also could learn the smoke rules. Smoke would definitely have helped!

The small space used worked just fine and I can see doing this more often. Rolling dice on the table but not on the game portion of it was refreshing. And it turns out it was nice to sit down and look at the rules on the laptop when needed. 

Heck, maybe next time I'll sit down while I play!