The Struggle For A Commission: The Diary

[Hugmenot]

Session 3 - Stalemate at St.Barthelemy (scenario 28 BSS)

I started the day with two activations. First one was for 2 x INF and a leader with a combat bonus to assault a DI reduced demoralized GREN stacked with a demoralized leader. German first fire demoralized one of my INF and disrupted the other. Second was to bombard a demoralized a demoralized unit on the 42-column, again with no effect. Despite this horrible start, I was generally happy after the first turn because most of my leaders passed their confusion check and I was able to move lots of units forward on the flanks. The main problem this turn was my Americans suffered more step losses (3) than the Germans (2) when I expected I would close the gap by 2 or 3.

The second turn of the day was very long but not very bloody (Americans 1 step loss per side). This turn was uneven for me because my leaders in the back passed their confusion but those in the front generally did not. I pushed a Major forward so he could move into position so he could spot the dreaded German on-board artillery. I gambled by leaving him alone in a hex and was captured. Both my leaders leading the southern flanking moved failed their confusion rolls.

The third turn was terrible for the Americans. Fog of war occurred on the German 4th activation and of my 3 activations, only 1 amounted to something because the 4 leaders I tried to activate failed their confusion roll.

The fourth turn saw the Germans replace their troops with sharpshooters and my troops paid the price when moving closer. Americans lost 8 steps and maybe more importantly, the troops on the flanks were again stalled with almost forward leaders failing their confusion rolls.

So with 12 turns in, I believe I still have a small chance to draw but that victory is no longer possible. We'll continue for at least another two turns and see what happens.

I should also state that despite my (likely) losing big, i will rate this scenario a "4" or "5". The confusion SSR adds a lot of uncertainty. I would not mind playing it again from either side.