| What A Ridiculous Effort At Scenario Writing ! | ||||||||||||||
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This game was played ftf with Wayne Baumber because our 'main feature' scenario ended with plenty of time to spare. This was drawn randomly out of our 'short scenario' bag. I'll be quite frank here and simply state this scenario is absolute rubbish ! It is badly written, badly conceived, and a pointless waste of time. Why ? Because of the SSR surrender rule in this particular scenario. There is no rhyme or reason to it and it is BAD on the following 2 counts. i) The Germans selected a '10' moraled Captain. This meant, that once set-up was completed, the US player could apparently call for a German surrender and the maths of it were, +2 to the dice roll for the current German initiative, deduct any casualties and if a 7 or less was rolled the Germans would surrender ..... Yes, 7 or less on 2 dice and the Germans surrender and you have just wasted your time setting up the game ! Now, there is one downer on that for the Allied player. Each time he asks for surrender and fails, the Germans get +1 to their initiative, so, as long as they don't lose casualties, it should get harder to get them to surrender ? However, the surrender SSR and VC's then really make no sense either when read in conjunction. The surrender SSR simply states that if the Germans do surrender through this way, then 'PLAY' ends. Nothing about the US winning, just 'play ends'. Now to point ii) ii) The VC's state that the US player wins if "At the end of PLAY" they have cleared an area 5 hexes around hex 0604. So get this : The Germans are forced to surrender via the loony SSR, but the US does NOT win because when PLAY ENDS they hadn't cleared the area designated. This scenario is a farce and I hope the new version has remedied this nonsense. Good luck to anybody that bothers any further with it, but for us, it was simply scored as draw, though a no result would have been a better headline. |
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| 6 Comments |
Vince, you really need to tell us how you feel about this scenario ;-)
Alan,
You'll probably know if the newer version of AB has sorted this flawed scenario out or not ?
In Airborne - Remastered this is scenario #14, and Special Rule #3 reads as follows:
The "Germans" realized they were caught between the American airborne forces and the landing troops and concluded they had no option other than surrender. The American player may ask the German player to surrender at the beginning of any turn (once per turn only). When asked, the German player rolls two dice and adds his or her current initiative value and subtracts the number of German eliminated and demoralized units (not steps) AND leaders. If the modified result is less than the morale value of the highest ranking German leader (or less than 6 if all German leaders have been eliminated), play ends. If there are two or more leaders of the same rank, use the one with the higher current morale value. If the result is greater than the leader's morale, the Germans do not surrender, the German initiative level is increased by one, and play continues.
I don't have Airborne - IE's version in hand at the moment, so I can't tell you if it's any different...
Its the same Shad :-(
It is a bit of a brain-bender...
if 2d6 + initiative - dead/demoralized platoons - dead/demoralized leaders is less than best German leader morale then you give up
the is less than part always gets me. Having a better leader would make you more likely to surrender!
I guess the logic here is that the smarter, braver leader is less likely to sacrifice all his men in useless combat?
That's the best justification I can come up with!
Maybe the best justification, but just imagine. Set up game and then "Oooh, right, can I roll less than 8 to end it before a counter moved or a shot fired"
BUT NOW read the VC's
It specifically states "When play ends"
Now the rule we have just discussed 'ends play'. It does not anywhere state this is where the US wins (although of course they do in real-life, but not game terms). So we guessed that perhaps the 'surrender call' should be used when the US is ready to claim that VC's are achieved. However, that said, with the force the US has, it will be nigh on impossible to clear 5 hexes around the target hex in the time allotted.
Crap scenario creation still stands :-)