The Meuvaines Ridge Strongpoint

[lollipops]

edit: I forgot to mention, the Victory Condition in this scenario is to destroy or pin all enemy units.

I had a very clear plan right from the outset with this one. I was pleased to see we had smoke available again, but in the end it all went so well that I completely forgot I had it at my disposal and didn't use it at all. Oh well. Next time. Also, what beautiful cloud effects we have here. I haven't seen the clouds in other scenarios yet. The effects in this game(both visual and sound) are just gorgeous.

So the plan here was to keep the HMG in the building there while everyone else made their way around to the bottom of the map with a view to using the smoke and assaulting into the enemy positions.

Initial starting positions.

Initial plan

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Something very strange happens now and I don't mind admitting it really shocked me at the time. I couldn't quite believe what I was seeing, but there it was right there...

Enemy makes a mad run for it!

Enemy makes a dash for freedom.jpg (715.46 KiB) Viewed 883 times

Now, my initial thoughts after WTF! were, they've seen me moving all my troops (except the HMG stack in the building) round to the south so they've decided to move some of their units out of harms way and make a run for it. This actually might have made sense if they had run in a North-Westerly direction away from my 8-range HMG, but they didn't. They also implemented their plan too soon and gave me a chance to alter my plans appropriately.

Anyway, their decision here made life very much easier for me from here on out, and in fact my units that did the about-turn when they saw what was happening managed to wipe them out completely within the next couple of turns. Bad decision by the enemy. It definitely cost them the game I think.

I'm not proud of the next screenshot.

I simply can't resist taking advantage of the only remaining pinned unit here by attempting to move up into assault position. Suffice to say, it didn't end well. I knew it was too much of a risk at the time but the pull of the helpless pinned unit was just too strong. Oh well. Live and learn. Or not, as was the case here.

Also, I completely forgot about the smoke. I had 3 smoke to use, but just sodding well forgot it. sigh...

I get cocky

I get cocky.jpg (717.12 KiB) Viewed 883 times

So in the end I just had too many units for the enemy to have any hope of surviving. Here's the situation on the penultimate turn.

The end is nigh

The end is nigh.jpg (722.33 KiB) Viewed 883 times

I'll post the victory screenshot in the next post due to the 4 screenshot limit.

[lollipops]

...And here's the Victory screen, as promised.

Victory screen

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I was sure this was going to be a battle to the end when I started out due mostly to the quite tight 5 turn limit, but of course the enemy put paid to that almost at the outset with it's ill-conceived dash for the open. If only it had waited a turn or two and importantly run off in a North-Westerly direction it would have been a whole other story I'm sure.

Note to self: don't forget about the smoke next time. We like smoke.

Also: the cloud effects were beautiful. We really like cloud effects.