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1940: Swallows of Death
The supplement looks really good! Here is my first game play:
Swallows of Death, scenario #1: First Contact
Funny, I rarely start with the first scenario of a new game or supplement but scenario one looked good and was only one partial map and fourteen turns with an odd match of forces meeting in combat and some special railroad rules.
The French/Moroccan side setup west of the main railroad, dug in, with minefields and roadblocks as well. The Germans start with one armored force but on turn three more armor and MTC Infantry enter to reinforce the Germans. The Germans air force showed up 4 times in the 14 turns. Sure the Moroccans can sit in their dug-in line of defense and shot up German tanks and armored cars in the beginning but midway through, they will have to go after those railroad crossings and eastside town hexes. The Germans pushed their luck a couple of times trying to go after western towns and through minefields which cost them a couple of SK222 armored car steps. The Moroccans in the north cross over the railroad embankments and occupied several towns on the eastern side, as the Germans are short on Infantry to cover all the victory objectives and their armor is good to get some of these objectives but still takes hits from those Moroccan 25mm AT guns.
By the end of the game, I wasn’t sure who won, so I did a count. Between the step losses, the towns on the eastside and the towns on the westside which are different point levels and the control of the railway intersections, if I kept track of everything correctly, the Germans had 17 points and the Moroccans/French had 22 points. The Difference of 5 points and a Moroccan/French Minor Victory. The French lost two leaders and the Germans one leader, not that they count.
A pretty close scenario, and a few events or dice rolls differently and it could have gone either way. The Germans are pretty hemmed in on the first couple of turns with only armor and on turn three they get 6 units of valuable motorcycle Infantry but not enough to take on all those Moroccan Infantry and they need their armor to help. I think the Moroccans have a very slight edge but only playing this scenario once, I can’t say for sure. I fun first gameplay in this game supplement. The counters for Swallows of Death are excellent without any knobs and I hope AP keeps using this counter making vendor.
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