009 Normandy Farm

Well, if the Germans don't occupy it on the last round, the Americans might just walk in, esp. should they have the critical objective card, which gives them extra movement. So a savvy German player will do that anyway, I feel.Remember, as you asked, the US win immediately the moment they occupy the objective hex, so no chance to counterattack. 

Funny you should mention the extra round. While designing the scenario I was indeed doubting between 4 and 5 rounds all the time. I wanted to keep the scenario as fast and furious as possibile and therefore went with 4 rounds in the end, but I might as well have gone with 5. I think that will often give the US just that extra bit of time they may sometimes need to pull off a win, esp. when they DON'T have the critical objective card in hand.

Thanks for playing! 

Yes, I think German players have to onbligatorily occupy the objective hex at tje last round, and try to keep it.
Assault is a interesting combat move, but useful only if you have a numeric advantage.
Again thank you for your support, I think some little changes (1 round more, 1 flametrhrower) could be useful to improve scenario balancing.
It remains anyway a good learning scenario.

You could make it a double mortar squad, but that kind of defeats the learning nature of the scenario. But sure, you could make it a veteran mortar squad or so and give it +1 or +2 firepower.

Nice to see it come down to a final assault! I had that happen quite often too!

Another clash, decided at the last man stand!! Assault ends with 3-3 result, defending unit wins with only one infantry unit alive.
Yet another point to German, defe  nding hard against last assault.
This time, mg42 was not so deadly and was eliminated at the third turn.
German player take advantage from the card who allow to remove conditions token, rendering vain US suppressive attacks.
 

In this case it's as soon as, so immediately.  The scenario is already hard enough for the Americans, so no potential German counterattack!

Perhaps the mortar squad should have more fire power or cancel cover of defending unit?
The high cover is due to the position of mg unit (+ 3 cover for being in building) and to the officer wich gave another + 1 .. 4 die vs 4 die

Hello, thank you..I'll try your advice for sure...
i need to remove a doubt, the winning condition for the us player is to enter the victory objective hex?
If they do it, the control is on their side and Us player wins immediatly?

Or the check for vitory should been done in command phase?

Thank you in advance, Max

I'd say, feel free to give the MG an auto pin after activating the mortar squad on two of the 4 rounds (I'd recommend 1 and 3) and see how that potentially changes the outcome.

Yes, failing to pin the MG will make a US victory incredibly difficult, but again, that's entirely intentional. 

Another attempt in solo,  another axis success.
Sure I haven't no luck with dice rolls fo us squads.. mortar crew never signed a hit, so the Mg in the center of the map has been free to shot every incoming enemy unit, in conditions of no cover.
4 rounds of play force us player to run towards the goal hex,  and so the better position and easy availability of command point make the job of German player quite simple.
In this sessione, German player draw the card wich allow you to reactivate fatigued units up to 3 times, and the availability o Cp make him not to loose inititiative in the third decisive round.
I'll replay it with a change in my strategy, let's see the result..
I hope dices will be a Little more favorable to us player 😊🙏


 

Hi, Thanks for your reply and congratulations on your work.
I agree with your analysis and appreciate your clarifications.
I'll play more games soon, even though this initial switch significantly affects the outcome of the game, preventing the US player from trying other effective strategies.
Talk to you soon, Max

That is certainly a possible outcome, as I explained in my lengthier post. However, the scenario is intentionally short enough, that you can easily play it several times during a single sitting.

First of all, thank you for playing my scenario!

You said you played it as a learning game and that is exactly what the design intent was! New players were supposed to find out that charging across open ground against an MG in op fire is not a smart move, that first pinning such a unit is basically essential in such an event, that in this case the mortar is the most obvious candidate to achieve this, but that indeed failing to do so multiple times is certainly a possibility in this scenario, making it extremely hard for the Americans to win.

The scenario is also supposed to showcase how important having and playing the right card at the right time can be for the outcome of a battle: If the Americans have the card that gives them two extra movement during an activation, all of a sudden victory becomes much more within reach. 

Another important thing the scenario should highlight is the difference between normal and suppressive fire and when to use it (e.g. against the MG, you really want to pin it, to prevent if from firing anyway. The US forces are pressed for time, so wearing it down will almost certainly make the US run out of time. 

Also, it's highly likely the US will have to take the objective by means of an assault, if and when they get the chance in the first place. First, ideally you'd disrupt the defenders (So they won't get to fire back against (an) almost certainly already weakened attacker(s) or at the very least pin them (only firing back at half strength, unless there's an officer present), before you actually initiate the assault. 

In my playtests at the time, the scenario saw more German wins, but in the right conditions, the US certainly managed its share of victories as well! As far as that's concerned the 58% win ration for the US seems to suggest that indeed they certainly do stand a chance!

Only one solo play with this scenario, with no success hit for Us mortar crew to pin mg positioned in 11a nearest building.. Mortar crew  failed every attempt on target  so German wins at the 4th round, with Us infantry not able to reach hex objective.

 

 Whatch it played!


 

Played this and Germans won. The Americans could have won if they used their strategy cards better.

Justin wrote:

I rolled well with my machine gunner at resisting suppressive fire and ended up getting several hits as the American units moved to the forest.

MG units in OP fire while inside cover providing terrain (e.g. buildings) with full range over open ground could be really dedly for the enemies.
Thank your posting your result and report here.

Don't forget you can play it online using the free vassal game module.
I hope you can play TOI more!

A friend and i just played this as a learning scenario. We bought the original back in 2009 and hadn't played it since like 2016.

We screwed up a couples rules. One being that playing a card takes an activation. That really changed the game.

The German player won but they probably would have any way even if we had gotten the card correct.

I rolled well with my machine gunner at resisting suppressive fire and ended up getting several hits as the American units moved to the forest.

On a base of 12 games played we now have 58% USA victory rate... quite high value!

It would be interesting to know how the games went.
At least to see how much the dice rolls or the initial disposition of the troops have affected the game.
 

Aha! Thanks for your input as a designer, Willem. What you write makes perfect sense. I'm glad to have been able to play this through many times, with different people, so my sample size was large enough to see how the scenario progresses with slightly different placement, and different die results. (I also played this through multiple times a few years ago with a friend.)

From my perspective, this is well-balanced, straightforward scenario, and definitely serves the purpose of helping new players learn the fundamentals.

Note that this scenario was indeed intended to be a learning scenario. Back when I designed it, I remember reading on BGG about how several players new to the game struggled with how to best use mortars and MG's. One,  I remember,  complained about his advancing troops being massacred by MG op fire while crossing open terrain, which indeed is never a good idea, including in this scenario. Moreover, to win the scenario, practically all possible activations will have to be used, including fatigueing a squad. So yes, pinning the MG- most likely with the US mortar- is of paramount importance in this scenario,  but it's supposed to be! It's meant as a learning experience that can be played several times in a single session!

wrote:

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.
 

Completely agree with your point of view.
Sometimes a single wrong or unsuccessful move (even during the first few turns of the game) can permanently compromise the game.

JVHillegas-Elting post=790
Introducing the Strategy Cards into this scenario should open things up a lot.

Don't know if cards could be useful for USA.
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.