Babylon Part VI - Dig it Up!

I got feedback from a few people and I decided I would try and implement some of the recommendations. I wanted to take a moment to make sure I expressed how grateful I was for anyone who reads this blog. I am even more grateful for the people that  took the time to help me make it even better. I truly appreciate the time and effort it took to figure out how to make this blog better and telling me. I am always willing to hear constructive criticism, and would love anyone to tell me what they think. The most asked thing I get is if I will ever do this on youtube as video battle reports. I reckon that yes it will happen eventually. I just need to wait until this COVID stuff is all said and done. 

Pre-Game

With water secured and the enemy force scouted out, Rommel could finally launch his attack and not have to worry about falling apart if he needed to retreat. The United States Marines Corps had prepared and were ready to sally forth and push the Axis from their main objectives. With all of the added attention put in the area it was clear that something large was going down. The nearby ruins were clearly important to the Blutzkrez scientists, and the Allies hadn't had time to check ruins themselves before the invasion. The Marines knew they needed to hold out to allow the newly-arrived CLIO scientists the time to sift through the sand and take what they found back to Allied command. 

Rommel planned a powerful western push with elements of Rolf's Fallschirmjager and the sisters in charge of Blutzkreuz in support. The Allies had managed to scrounge enough gear and supplies for an equivalent force, but Rommel was sure his men would be able to secure victory for the Axis. The Allies knew they still had a fighting chance and had managed to even the scales enough that a decisive enough victory could possibly stall the entire Axis invasion and the opportunity to gain whatever it was that the Axis were looking for. 

Game 6 - The Search

Axis 165 vs Allied 165

The Octagon must be getting used to winning, but I still thought it prudent to ask Master Sergeant Kara about the forces she was going to use for the coming battle. 

"War is hard. It's hard mentally as well as physically.  Between the Axis and their crazy tactics and the sandstorms, we have had our work cut out for us.  My boys are tired and they are worn to a fester from all the sand blowing against their skin.  It was my job to boost their morale and remind them that we have a job to do, tired or not, freedom is depending on us!  Here are the platoons and troops I trust to bring us to victory."

USMC Rifle Platoon:

Command: Machete Mack

Combat 1:  USMC Fire Squad

Combat 2:  USMC Demolition Squad

Combat 3:  USMC Rifle Squad

Combat 4:  USMC Heavy Engineer Squad

USMC Taskforce Diver Platoon:

Command: Diver (USMC)

Combat 1:  USMC Close Assault Squad

Combat 2:  Bushmaster

Allied Medium Combat Walker Platoon:

Command:  Mickey (Light)

Combat 1:  Barking Dog (Light)

Combat 2:  Barking Dog (Light)

Separately:

Bazooka Joe

Johnny One-Eye

Blackhawk

Ranger Attack Squad

Ranger Combat Squad

USMC Heavy Mortar Squad x2

USMC Heavy Machinegun Squad x2

USMC Fire Squad

Long Tom II

A whole lot of Devil Dog.

That last win helps make this campaign an actual game. With the water secured, and all the different branches of the Axis military in the area I wanted to make sure each "branch" was present. I attempted to get the extra 10% of points from having a primarily NDaK army, but I just couldn't get the points to work. I find it very confusing why the Prinz transport walkers are not NDaK even though they have an entire platoon dedicated to using the things. I find that a frustrating oversight, but what do I know? I didn't go with the Christoph platoon just to prevent myself from using Scout (a third action after you do a march movement) to overextend and lose troops unnecessarily.

Axis Forces:

NDaK Grenadier Platoon:

Command: NDaK Grenadier Command Squad

Combat 1: NDaK Grenadier Battle Squad

Combat 2:  Grenadier Tank-Hunter Squad
Combat 3: Heavy Grenadier Assault Squad

Support:
Angela III
Christoph
Rolf
Sigrid II
The Desert Fox
Tina and Hyane
Fallschirmjager Tank-Hunter Squad
Grenadier Security Squad
E-10 Hetzer (NDaK)
Hermann Tropical
Prinzluther
Wotan II AR
NDaK Grenadier Recon Squad
NDaK Grenadier Observer Squad

A little bit of everything.

The scenario is to grab and control objects all over the map. Troops have to stand on top of the holes or within 1 square of the pillars and keep enemy troops outside of 2 squares to control the objective. This may seem fairly easy, but 2 squares away can be easy to disrupt since it goes in all directions. The forces would be attacking from the short edges and 6 squares along the long edge. Whoever controls the most objectives at the end of the 6th turn would be considered the winner. If the number of controlled objectives is a tie then it would go into sudden death and be decided at the end of each turn thereafter.

The Table and Game

Big Game, Many Troops

Now with deployment zones and objectives!

Turn 1

Due to the scale of the game and the number of units running onto the board on the first time I decided to do the TLDR version and just give the quick snippets. Even I don't like to read that much detail. 

Allies get to go first with no approaching sandstorm from the moderate risk weather (Roll 3 dice and on 2 successes the weather becomes an issue.) The Allies move mostly their support weapons on first to get ready for the push and to protect their line troops from any sneaky Axis attacks. Not wanting to give an obvious vector of attack I moved a varied amount of units on the board like the battle grenadiers, Christoph, Hetzer, and the Hermann to give some even frontage. I didn't want the Allies to know where the breakthrough was going to come from. Rommel and his accompanying command team jump into the prinzluthor command transport walker and push up the middle to allow them to jump to either side if I needed to change tactics. 

Don't look at the doggo butt.

The marine line troops start to trickle in at this point and take up positions. Master Sergeant Kara is careful to make sure they are behind pieces of line-of-sight blocking terrain to ensure they don't start getting peppered. Diver is positioned so that any push in the northern area is going to become bloody fast with his close combat squad. Flamethrowers ignore saves and hit everyone in a square so you can be sure its gonna get toasty. Angela runs up the northern flank in a vein hope that she will be able to pick out the special weapons before they become an issue, but line of sight continues to be an issue for the Axis. 

And the marines came marching in.

The rest of the troops on both sides move into positions countering each other and it becomes clear that the northern flank is where the showdown is going to happen. Whoever wins will gain control of the vital 3 objectives in the area. The marines are hidden behind the tree line while the Axis troops are sprinting across the open desert. The Allies put their bushmaster on top of the objective in a defiant gesture that the Axis did not take kindly to.

The suspected sneak attack did in fact exist.,Unfortunately for the Allies, it was going to come from the sky. Rolf and his paratroopers would drop into the northern front and land in the trees that had a perfect view of the objective with the bushmaster on it. Rolf passed his infantry ace (allowing him and his unit to get 3 actions for their turn) and they managed to stick the landing (paratroopers have to roll to see if they get tangled up in the landing and lose an activation). This allowed the unit to safely land and sustain into the bushmaster with their rocket launchers and the Panzershreck. The sustained shot was not ruined by the sand (When you fight in the desert you must roll to see if a sustained shot is turned into a regular shooting action due to the sand seeping into the weapons) and the first blow was struck with the satisfying explosion of the bushmaster. 

Damn fine job boys.

End of Turn 1

The forces at the end of the first turn were in a prime position to smash into each other hard next turn. No significant gaps existed to exploit for either side, and it was clear the price of a mile was going to be high. The tree lines in the southern flank would hamper any attempts at dealing long-range damage. My hindsight points out that the tanks would have been better placed in the northern front, but I had to make do with the bed I had made.

I sure do like chips. Loki also really likes chips!

Turn 2

The Allies gain the initiative and continue to see clear skies with no sandstorm incoming. The blackhawk starts by sustaining into Rolf and his boys. The sandman did not intrude on the shot and the 4 wounds on the unit would hurt Rolf and kill a fallschirmjager. 

The southern front needs to be secured before any big pushes can be made in the north. Christoph shouts for his security squad to get close to the Barking Dog, but the astute ears of the tank crew heard them coming and got the guns ready as they came screaming into view (passed a reactive fire test that allows them to overwatch someone that moves into their range). The crew manage to inflict 3 wounds onto Christoph before the Axis soldiers blast the tank to pieces with Christoph's expertly shot panzerfaust 100. The heavy machine gun crew decide to take up position in the destroyed tank and shoot at Christoph's unit. 3 grenadiers go down in the storm of lead. 

Southern front remains in contention.

The hetzer moves forward into position in the southern flank and puts everything into the marine machine gun crew. The machine gunners find the tank carcass more useful than the recently deceased crew and managed to only take 1 wound in the explosions. Diver hears the shooting in the south and decides to make an impression in the northern front. Diver passes his infantry ace roll, runs into the tree line, and then sustains down two of the battle grenadiers next to the column. Sandman didn't have anything to say about that. 

And that's all I have to say about that. - Forest Gump

The heavy grenadiers in the southern flank advance into the tree line in the hopes of getting some clear shots into the flanks of the Americans next turn. The rifle marines use their advance and fire rule (can do three actions as long as they are some kind of combination of moving and shooting) and run into the far tree line before sustaining (no sandman) down 4 recon marines. Only the sniper is left alive. Angela sees the marines firing from the tree line and shoots into them after failing a sandman check. One marine goes down clutching a newly grown bullet hole.

The devil dogs carrying the mortar march from the rear to behind the treeline. The lack of any observers is severely hampering their ability to shoot at long range over the trees. The surviving sniper recon grenadier lines up a shot on the marines that killed his friends and puts one down with a sustained shot. 

The lack of cover is not helping the Axis push.

The Allied heavy marines sprint to the southern objective to try and push Christoph out of the area next turn. Rommel sees an opportunity with his binoculars from the prinz and tells the driver to move up. He radios Christoph personally to reactivate and kill the heavy marines........Christoph obliged with enthusiasm and removed them with his flamethrower.  

No more heavy marines.

What people see on the table.

What I see in my mind. I remembered this picture specifically as this series of events happened for some reason. 

The Allied barking dog in the northern front moves into the tree line and shoots Rolf's boys with the recoiless guns and the machine guns into the battle grenadiers. After the smoke clears, one grenadier and two more fallschirmjager are on the ground screaming for a sanitatar (German for medic). Rolf is truly pinned down and the heat isn't helping (while fighting in the desert it is harder to get out of suppression due to heat exhaustion). His unit losses an action, but they shoot everything they can manage at the enemies in front of them. Rolf aces and tells sandman to SIT DOWN as his unit sustains and salvoes everything it has into Diver's unit as the panzershrek tries to hit the barking dog. The panzershrek goes wide with a sigh of relief from the tank crew, and 4 wounds go to Diver and 2 marines die from the massive amount of firepower. 

Rolf and his men have managed to hold back an entire Allied attack by themselves.

The Micky orders the barking dog to reactive over the radio thanks to their platoon that allows tanks to order each other around. The barking dog unleashes another salvo of death into the fallschirmjager after reloading. Rolf is the only survivor.

The sadness for Rolf was all encompassing.

The other team of recon grenadiers see a chance to inflict some necessary damage. They charge into the breach and shoot everything into Diver's unit. The sniper does a sweet jumping 360 no scope into Diver. This blasts the hero off the board while the rest of the Axis troops miss terribly. They charge in to punch the last two marines, but only one in each squad die in the fist fight.

Major blows to both sides here.

Johnny One-Eye and his combat rangers come screaming up the middle of the board ready to help secure the south next turn. Tina's squad charges up to help support Rolf. The anti-tank grenadier's panzerfausts are necessary to remove the armor that is bearing down on Rolf. Joe and his close-combat rangers counter the action and move to help support the armor. Joe fires his grenade into Tina dealing 4 wounds to Tina while the flamethrowers remove all but the sniper from the recon team. 

The Wotan II moves into the center of the battlefield hoping to remove the northern barking dog early in the next turn. The allied mortar realizes they are needed on the front and bring the mortar just so they don't get skinned by their CO. They run into the trees ready to stop any Axis breakthrough attempts with their submachine guns. Sigrid marches through the desert ready to pounce some devil dogs next turn. The trifling Americans need to learn their place. The marine demolition squad finally moves and unleashes hell on Rolf and Tina. Rolf goes down with much sadness in my heart. Thankfully, no wounds are inflicted on Tina's unit.

The heavy machine gun in the northern front marches to take up position in the bushmaster wreck on the objective to help the marine's push next turn. The observer grenadiers advance up and mow down the heavy machine gun team to make sure their .50 caliber bullets don't do any harm. Machete Mack has been silently observing the battle in the north and finally explodes into action with his fire squad. The devil dogs take up position in the recently vacated bushmaster wreck and mow down the offending observer grenadiers. 

So much potential.

The long tom II moves its fat butt down the middle of the board to position itself for an explosive entrance next turn. 

End of Turn 2

Both lines start to thin. How much more can they push?

Turn 3

I can truthfully say that by this point, both of us had our butts and teeth clenched. The objectives were neatly cut down the middle, and all it would take is one decisive blast to tip the balance. The Axis appear to be on the back foot, but Rommel's presence in the transport walker with a squad of command grenadiers can be a pitch hitter where ever the Axis thinks they are needed. 

Allies get first turn and continue to experience clear skies. The marine mortar on the southern front lines up a shot and hits the Wotan II and Christoph with some heavy mortar rounds. A wound is inflicted to the Wotan II and a security grenadier hits the dirt missing some vital bits. The Wotan II finally has the shots it wants and gets ready to do some vital sustained shots into the Allied forces. Sandman rears its ugly head and ruins the shot, but the machine guns manage to take two wounds off Joe and the Mega DOOM lasers ding the barking dog for 2 points of damage.  

Big disappointment.

Bazooka Joe advances next to Tina to finish the job, but Tina predicts this and orders reactive fire before they get hit by the bus of flame-induced pain. Three rangers go down from the quick thinking, but the flamethrowers kill everyone but Tina. Their panzerfausts sit melted in the sands of Babylon without the chance to be fired. Sigrid charges across the open desert and jumps into the demo squad with her knives. The marines saw her coming and braced themselves for the flurry of her blades. She cut down two of the marines, but the marines bash 3 wounds off of Sigrid in return. 

Its all going wrong!

Johnny One-Eye and his boys run forward to remove Christoph and the Wotan to clear the objective and remove their damage dealing capabilities. Christoph springs an ambush with some reactive fire and managed to severely wound Johnny and kill a ranger. A bazooka round smashes into the Wotan for 5 damage and the machine guns and assault rifles take down Christoph. Angela sustains, but can not escape the sandman rule. Angela manages to kill 1 more demo man. The Allied heavy machine gun shouts for the marines in front of them to hit the deck as they blast a torrent of fire at Sigird. Sigrid is forced to flee the table due to the injuries inflicted by the large lumps of lead thrown at her.

The southern flank remains in contention which forces the Axis to have to worry about too many things. If one of the fronts can be cleared of devil dogs than a chance of victory becomes much more likely. The heavy grenadiers advance to a position to remove Mack and his marines from the area. Mack hears their heavy suits and reactive fires into them as they pop out of the trees. The reactive fire removes all of them before they even have a chance to fire.

Big oouuff.

Rommel orders the prinz driver to move forward and fire on Johnny's squad to remove the anti-tank threat. They manage to put down two marines. Rommel shouts over the edge of his transport to get Tina to reactive successfully. Tina sicks Hyane on Joe's ranger squad and manages to finally remove them. The marine mortar team in the northern runs forward and jumps onto the objective since the game deadline is coming fast. The surviving recon sniper manages to get a single shot off even with the effects of suppression, but doesn't put down any marines. The blackhawk moves forward and reloads. The pilot is clearly ready to make a big impression next turn. 

The Wotan II readies its weapons and fires all of the machine guns into the rangers in front of him, and his laser at the Barking Dog. The laser manages to laser through the barking dog like it was made of paper, and the machine guns put down two more rangers to leave just Johnny. 

The Wotan is trying!

The long tom marches forward into the treeline to push the next turn. The recon sniper lines up a sustained shot into the demo squad and pings one in the head. The hermann moves forward and shoots everything into the Mortar team that is stubbornly holding onto the objective. The hetzer sustain fires through the sandman and does a single wound on Mack's squad in the tank wreck. Its carcass continuing to protect the marines inside. 

End of Turn 3

Turn 4

Axis forces manage to finally get a first turn, and they get to keep experiencing the beautiful weather. The Wotan continues its onslaught by machine gunning down Johnny and lasering down the mickey. Much needed relief is given to the Axis by the removal of both threats in one activation. The Long Tom lumbers forward and blasts the area with the Prinz and the Wotan. The heavy armor protects them from any significant damage. Thankfully, they only took 1 damage each.

The surviving recon sniper near Angel tries to emulate the Axis hero. He aims a sustained shot at the demolition squad and is rewarded with a big miss.

Better luck next time man.

The marine rifle squad suffer from suppression and exhaustion from the heat. They manage to put enough shots downrange to put down the recon sniper. The Hetzer continues to fire everything it has at Mack and his devil dogs. The blast manages to peel another wound off of Mack.

Nevermind, I guess he won't get a chance.

Mack sees an opening in the explosions to charge and remove the Wotan II. He shouts that America needs them more than ever and leads the charge through the trees. They get their unmolested and shove grenades in every nook and cranny of the walker's legs. The already limping Wotan finally goes weak from the explosions and Mack gives a triumphant cheer. The last recon sniper tries to remove a demolition marine, but suppression and battle exhaustion keep him down. The heavy machine gun has their sustained shot ruined by the sandman, but manage to gun down Angela anyway.

The prinz then moves into position to dominate the middle objective, and halt Mack's push. The machine guns and cannon manage to do 5 wounds to the marines which finally brings down a few of the marines. The back machine gunner manages to bring down one of the demolition marines behind them. The blackhawk advances eastward from the treeline and launches its explosive payload at the transport. The thin armor of the prinz can't protect it and it lands hard into the ground. The passengers hit their heads on the way out for a wound to The Desert Fox. 

For America!

Tina is surrounded by her men's bodies and is suppressed from the fighting and exhaustion. She barely even thinks about it as she darts from her position into the recently vacated barking dog wreck in an attempt to threaten the back objective in the north. The southern battle starts to show desperation as the marine mortar team charges the hermann in an attempt to land a grenade in the cockpit. They manage to inflict 2 wounds on the herman for nothing back. The hermann loads and fires everything into the mortar, and only manages to inflict 1 wound. I debated for a considerable amount of time to see if attacking in melee would be worth it since the hermann only has 2 wounds left and the mortar gets two swings. Eventually it is decided that it is not worth it and the turn ends. 

Turn 5

Allies go first, and the sand stays away. To say the tension is high would be an understatement. The game seems to be solidly in Allied hands, but I got one more gamble that I hope could turn the tide. Machete Mack tells his boys to light up Rommel and his command squad with a sustained action that isn't affected by the sand. The bullets ping off the nearby cover and the proceeding charge results in 1 more wound to Rommel. Rommel and his command staff kill the devil dogs in the return melee swing. No one messes with The Desert Fox! The tense situation with the hermann and its rival mortar team finally ends with the hermann blasting 1 with its guns, and stepping on the other one. The objectives in the south are effectively secure.

Could this be the comeback?

The machine gun sees the lone woman and her creepy-looking dog approaching his objective and unloads an entire belt of .50 caliber ammunition into her position. Between the cover and her heroic nature, she is completely unphased. The last recon grenadier saw Tina's heroics and decides to escape suppression and sustain into the nearby marine rifle team to help keep the shots off of Tina. 

The tension is very high.

At this point all of the objectives need handlers due to the approaching end of the game. The hetzer is moved to grab the southern objective due to a lack of targets in the area. Then in a mistake that wasn't noticed until the writing of this report, the heavy machine gun fires again and takes down Tina in another firestorm of bullets. This would effectively end the Axis's hope of taking any objectives in the northeast. 

Rommel tells his staff to follow him to take out the nearby blackhawk. The command staff follows him unquestioningly into the suspected deathtrap. Between Rommel's laser pistol and the resulting melee, the blackhawk loses 3 wounds and gives nothing in return. One wound short of destruction. The blackhawk decides that survival is more important than killing and runs out of line of sight behind the nearby pillar objective. 

Turn 6

This is it, the turn that would decide who the winner will be. Axis get first turn and the sandstorm finally rolls in. At this point everything was so close that it wouldn't even play a factor. Rommel circles around the pillar that the blackhawk retreated behind and charges in. The blackhawk isn't expect it to come from that angle and fails its reactive fire! Unfortunately, Rommel and his men are not able to put the blackhawk down. The marine rifles march and shoot at Rommel to inflict two wounds. 

At this point I had to order a full retreat for the Axis forces. I counted how the objectives would end up by the end of the turn and realized I was fighting an impossible battle.  The hermann marched to the southern objective to claim it, but it was just too little. The Allies would win on objectives, and the Axis just did not have any means of disrupting a claimed objective. The hermann was 1 square of movement short of being able to put the game at a stalemate. This may have given Rommel the time to try and make something happen.

Sadly this was not the case.

 End of Game

Conclusion and Thoughts

This is the type of game that I live for. Sledgehammer blows smashing into each that just kept the game going with no obvious winner. I think that with more units I would have had a better chance of winning. Rommel and his command staff in the pimp ride may have been just too much in one basket. We both thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and really that is all that matters when it comes to war gaming. 

The Octagon sent this transmission from Master Sergeant Kara to the retreating Axis forces to just rub their victory in Rommel's face. 

"I pulled out all of the stops for this fight and my boys put their heart and soul into their defense.  It was an extremely close and tireless fight.  The Axis troops are heartless and were cutting down everything they could, but in the end, our Allied boys did freedom proud!"

Axis 3 - Allies 3

Well clearly we can't end on a TIE! That would just be very unsporting of us. We have decided that we will play one more game to decide the true winner. The Axis would be denied the desired artifacts in the ruins, but the war itself has need of other strategic assets. I just received some fantastic terrain for a desert town that I am eager to get on the table. The reason this report took so long to be produced was I was painting and modifying the terrain for use in the next game. The excitement is thick enough to cut with a knife. 

What do you guys think of that? What did you guys think of the game? WHY DID IT HAVE TO BE LIKE THIS! Well leave a comment and be sure to tell me because I have no idea. Look forward to the next post and keep the boom boom going boys!