Adventures in Belgium with Brian

[larryfulkerson]

According to the situation briefing I've already won a marginal victory. I
guess I just need to hold onto what I've got already and thus win the game.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's a look at Bastogne currently. Brian has somehow gotten some reinforcements
into the AO and it's hard going to advance in this area. But I'm pushing.

[MikeJ19]

Larry,

Well done. The 101st has arrived outside Bastogne, just in time for you to trap them all. This does look like an interesting scenario.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the T10 front lines and as you can see they look remarkably like the
front lines at the start of the game. Very little progress is showing from
50k feet up.

[larryfulkerson]

I got some moves from Brian just now, well, 8 minutes ago [ I had to light a
cigarette and take a sip of my coffee and daydream for the rest of the time ]
and I'm looking at the front lines for T11 and they look remarkably like the
front lines from the start of the game. I'm impatient with these 1/2-day
turns I guess. The units can't go very far in just half a day unless they are
motorized or are vehicles. Brian is getting some reinforcements and they are
entering the theater at the bottom of the map and traveling north along the
roads and if I had any bombers I'd put 'em on INT to frustrate the Americans.
This may turn into a rather long AAR if the progress is going to be this slow.

[larryfulkerson]

This is a view of the Robertville area currently. It's a massive traffic jam
and the terrain isn't conducive to vehicle movement. I need to get the river
crossings repaired and see if I can't get a unit on the northwest side of the
river.

[larryfulkerson]

Here's the resolved battles dialog and I made a small amount of progress
this turn. One hex at a time is still progress.

[larryfulkerson]

I'm running into massive traffic jams near Robertville. I'm going to have
to pull some of those people back or build some tall stacks or both. I
don't have enough river crossings to get everybody into the fight.

[larryfulkerson]

Hey Brian:
I got your moves loaded in my computer and I'm looking over the front lines and I'm finding that a lot of the progress the Germans are making is in the south and that there are whole sections of the front lines where the Allied units facing mine are larger and stouter than mine are and attacking them would just lose people with no result on the American positions. We've just now entered a period where there are Blizzards and the poor weather just makes it that much harder to penetrate your lines. And I'm facing massive traffic jams and bottlenecks at the river crossings. Broken bridges are a major hassle because there's so few of the right kind of engineer. I've repaired the rails up to the front lines and the supply levels are just fine. So far so good.

friends,
larry

ps have a wonderful day.

ps ps start looking for another scenario for us to play, I'm rapidly loosing interest in this one.

[larryfulkerson]

When Steve Sill and I were playtesting this scenario I have this memory of
having a lot of fun with it and felt enthusiastic playing it but now, about 8
years later, playing as the Axis, I'm finding the lack of progress frustrating
and depressing. I realize it's half-day turns and that there's not supposed
to be much change from one turn to the next turn but I'm finding it sort of
a drawback. I've grown older and less patient and needing a instant satisfaction
anymore slow moving games aren't fun for me. I remember how detailed the scenario
is and how realistic it plays and I like that a LOT but it's not enough for me
to play it at this time. Brian and I are looking for a good scenario to play
instead and I'm all ears if you guys know of a good one. Brian tells me he's
looking for a "small but long" scenario. Anybody have an experience with one
of those?