009 Normandy Farm
Victory Results:
42 %
58 %
Total plays 12 - Last reported by JVHillegas-Elting on 2022-02-18 04:02:07
Normandy, June 1944. A group of Americans approaches a farmhouse and its surrounding buildings. As dusk is fast approaching they are looking for shelter for the night. They are in for a nasty surprise. Apparently a group V German soldiers had the same idea and see theAmericans approaching.
Although the Americans have superior numbers, the Germans have the benefit of cover and of an MG '42. Who will spend the night sleeping at the farm and who will sleep the eternal sleep?
| American | German | |
| Division 1 |
5 Squad Bases |
3 Squad Bases - 9 Regular Infantry - 1 Officer - 1 Machine Gun Crew |
| Division 2 |
- |
- |
| Strategy Decks | Command 1 (optional) | Morale 1 (optional) |
| Starting Strategy Cards | - | - |
| Operations Cards | - | - |
| Deployment Zone | Any hex with a green border. | Any of the hexes on map 11A. |
| Starting Initiative |  |
|
| Objective | As soon as the Americans control the VP objective, they win the game. | If they don't control it by the end of game round 4, the Germans win. |
| Rounds | 4 | |
| Actions per turn | 1 | 1 |
| Reinforcements | - | - |
| Special Rules | - | - |
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Completely agree with your point of view.When I extrapolate this across other scenarios, my conclusion is that there are some scenarios in which there is a single point of success or failure. This is probably more true of smaller scenarios than larger ones, but in this one, with the predominant setup described above, if the USA faction is not successful pinning the German MG in that building, then the USA cannot win.
Sometimes a single wrong or unsuccessful move (even during the first few turns of the game) can permanently compromise the game.
Don't know if cards could be useful for USA.JVHillegas-Elting post=790
Introducing the Strategy Cards into this scenario should open things up a lot.
Don't forget that Germans start with 3CP and USA with 0CP (and the 2CPs are on the hill within easy reach of the MG).
Last week I had the rare-these-days opportunity of playing in-person with two of my greatest friends. One of them is still a newbie to the game, so I played this scenario with him seven times. I've always found it helpful to re-play a given scenario multiple times, particularly with new players, so we all can learn from our mistakes. This compact scenario is great for that, because it's not complex. Strategy Cards can be introduced, but they're not required.
The first two times I played Germany, he the USA. I won both. He thought Germany had the advantage in this scenario because they only needed to defend, so we switched it up.
I then won as USA four times.
For our seventh game, I also played the USA. He played with another friend, who had zero experience with ToI, so they played together. In this game, Germany won.
From this experience, I have a scenario-specific observation that's applicable to ToI as a whole.
For most play-throughs, the German player placed their MG crew in the building hex at the SE corner of map tile 11A. This makes a whole lot of sense, because the Germans need to stall the USA troops from crossing the open ground, getting into the woods hexes in map tile 7A, and pushing for the Victory Objective marker.
With this setup, the scenario hinges on the USA player pinning the German MG squad with the mortar squad. If this doesn't happen early, the USA player ends up losing a lot of squad figures crossing the open ground, or being pinned. So much so that they don't have enough figures or momentum to take the Victory Objective hex.
While playing the USA, I was victorious when I could pin the German MG squad at least two times in four rounds.
The time I lost as the USA, my mortar squads never pinned the German MG in that building hex.
When I extrapolate this across other scenarios, my conclusion is that there are some scenarios in which there is a single point of success or failure. This is probably more true of smaller scenarios than larger ones, but in this one, with the predominant setup described above, if the USA faction is not successful pinning the German MG in that building, then the USA cannot win.
Introducing the Strategy Cards into this scenario should open things up a lot.
The first two times I played Germany, he the USA. I won both. He thought Germany had the advantage in this scenario because they only needed to defend, so we switched it up.
I then won as USA four times.
For our seventh game, I also played the USA. He played with another friend, who had zero experience with ToI, so they played together. In this game, Germany won.
From this experience, I have a scenario-specific observation that's applicable to ToI as a whole.
For most play-throughs, the German player placed their MG crew in the building hex at the SE corner of map tile 11A. This makes a whole lot of sense, because the Germans need to stall the USA troops from crossing the open ground, getting into the woods hexes in map tile 7A, and pushing for the Victory Objective marker.
With this setup, the scenario hinges on the USA player pinning the German MG squad with the mortar squad. If this doesn't happen early, the USA player ends up losing a lot of squad figures crossing the open ground, or being pinned. So much so that they don't have enough figures or momentum to take the Victory Objective hex.
While playing the USA, I was victorious when I could pin the German MG squad at least two times in four rounds.
The time I lost as the USA, my mortar squads never pinned the German MG in that building hex.
When I extrapolate this across other scenarios, my conclusion is that there are some scenarios in which there is a single point of success or failure. This is probably more true of smaller scenarios than larger ones, but in this one, with the predominant setup described above, if the USA faction is not successful pinning the German MG in that building, then the USA cannot win.
Introducing the Strategy Cards into this scenario should open things up a lot.
Germany having seized the prey, Soviet Russia will seize that part of the carcass that Germany cannot use. It will play the noble role of hyena to the German lion. (commenting on the joint invasion of Poland by Germany and the Soviet Union, 1939) 
