Rangers of Shadow Deep - Mission 1, Scenario 1

Rangers of Shadow Deep - Mission 1, Scenario 1 - Deserted Village

My first game of RoSD. The setup is on a 3x3ft area, the group starts in the centre of a deserted village with 5 abandoned buildings. There are 6 clue markers, 4 in line with each intermediate compass point (NE,SE,SW,NW) and about 14 inches away from the centre. The final two are in two random buildings.

The scenario starts with 2 Giant rats on the table and 2 zombies. As companions I selected the following: Templar, Rogue, Man-at-arms, Conjuror, Arcanist. I passed the task roll for perception and was able to move 1 clue marker closer to the group starting position.

In the first turn my Ranger attempted to shoot a rat. Missed. Arcanist, Rogue and conjuror moved north, the rogue towards a building with a clue. To note here I probably shouldn't have allowed myself to know which buildings had clues, it would be easy to simply roll once the door had been breached, it would have made the mission more complicated at least!

The Man-at-arms and Templar moved south to another clue marker in a building and closer to the southern zombie. I then moved the zombies and rats, which was wrong, they should have activated before the companions moved. No harm on this round and a good lesson to remember the proper sequence!

The Templar was getting good rolls and she twatted the zombie in one hit. The Arcanist was fortunate that the zombie closing in on her required both actions to move to get to her. The conjuror was well placed to send a bolt of magic into the zombie allowing the Arcanist to move away, in some panic! The Rogue set to work on picking the door lock and succeeded. However the clue marker inside resulted in a zombie being in the house and surprising her.

I got this bit wrong, I allowed the Rogue to move away which when having an enemy in base contact, I don't believe is allowed.

At turn end more zombies started deploying as a result of the event deck. The basic strategy involved utilising the Templar, Man-at-arms and Ranger to use their combat skills to kill off the enemies while the others tried to sweep up the clues. It largely worked. The ranger had to move north and support the squishy types at one point but withdrawing and consolidating towards the fighters allowed them to survive and continue uncovering the clues.

The conjuror even managed to pick up some treasure, which turned out to be an explosive flask. The zombies and rats came on thick and fast but the waves were defeated without too much hassle luckily although the Arcanist took a big hit but limped through on 2 hit points!

It was a fun game and moves quickly when you get a grip on the basics. There is a good amount of uncertainty so works as a solo game nicely. And as mentioned earlier I can ramp this up by "hiding" the clues in random buildings, or more accurately, rolling for them once the door has been opened.

All in all a great wee game, plays well and easily and not much of a burden in order to get on the table. 

29 Let's Go - Game 5 - Flanking St Germain Du-Pert

Ah another game in the campaign after a rather long gap. As seems to be the case the ubiquitous "life" manages to get in the way. Actually I blame my opponent as I could have squeezed a game in on a number of occasions but his calendar has been rather packed!

Having squarely placed fault in his court, let's move on to the game. It was a very peculiar game for me, and rather than give anything away at this stage we may as well jump into my ramble of what happened. Again not enough photos and notes but I shall muddle along.

The patrols

German FM starts at 11, US FM starts at 9.

It was a slow start, the past two scenarios are rather straight forward in terms of the patrol phase, this one had us both scratching our heads a little. We placed out the patrol markers to start the phase and then decided to redo that as we discussed how we could each deploy and possible tactics. Because we are both still rather new to the game we tend to discuss each others plans and options at each stage as it helps refresh memories on what we can do!

I'm not at all convinced I got this phase right, but I'm struggling to think of a better way to have approached it. Ideas on the back of a postcard....

Mike, playing the US,  rolled a six for his free patrol moves so got the maximum of four. He moved up on his long edge seeking to probe behind my short line of patrol markers. I quickly managed to shut down that flank by locking down one of mine and two of his patrol markers that were stacked together. I thought that was a good outcome but by doing that he had effectively pinned my defence around that marker as the other could only move 12" from it (24" total by daisy chain if that makes sense) so my other two patrol markers could only really maneuver around that fixed point.

With that anchor I could only really shuffle my markers around a little and after a somewhat lengthy and indecisive patrol phase I eventually managed to get all my markers locked down to end it! The two separate entry points really throws off where you can put JOPs. Mike really only had four "angles" so was a bit limited in where he could place his markers but it left him with two pairs on his two table edges, on the long edge near my defensive quarter he had one sitting out, tantalizingly, in the open.

My options felt more limited. I got one in the rear of the church, and one forward of that behind the fencing. The final one was behind the row of houses on the other side of the road from the church. My fourth "free" JOP I selected to be in the building to the rear as a back up.

German JOPs in red; US JOPs in light blue.

At this stage I felt alright - the patrol phase hadn't gone as I'd expected but then I don't think it gave Mike any significant advantage either. It'll be interesting to play another flanking scenario to give this all another shot.

The assault begins

Mike opened up the main game with a double six. Immediately we discussed the viability of charging a squad towards one of my JOPs, the one behind the houses, as his JOP lying out in the open would give him a short dash to get there. My JOP was right on the edge of my defences so a full 24" from his JOP on the table edge. So deploying 6" would take that down to 18" to run, 14" to get into closing down territory. He was sorely tempted to try it but decided against the "rush of blood to the head" approach. The chance of rolling low and leaving a squad in the open to be hit by an MG42 just did not appeal to him thankfully!

What he did end up doing was the start of a very comprehensive attack. He brought on one of his Shermans and set the guns on overwatch, his FOO came on and contacted the battery for support, and the first of his senior leaders came on close by to ensure that support would arrive rapidly!

His second phase saw the arrival of a single squad on the flank covering their JOP out in the open, the FOO called in a ranging shot on the church and it came in bang on target. That's going to cover two of my JOPs when it hits and I haven't yet had a phase!

On my phase I pulled on a squad to protect my JOP, not wanting to leave it open in case he moved up on the flank, and also wanting to cover any movement his squad would make. It would make any deployment from his JOP in the open a rather  dicey prospect. Seemed like a decent idea at the time.

The Sherman moves up and keeps the MG on overwatch. A Marder deploys for the Germans along with a Panzershrek team into the building on the right flank.

A second Sherman appears, as does a second squad further back. The FOO calls in the barrage and in a rather unlucky roll (or lucky) makes the church unstable.

**We decided to roll for the building despite no squads being present as it made sense to the narrative that the US were targeting the church where they had seen a lot of German activity (2x JOPs)**

The German JL puts the squad on overwatch and the Marder trundles forward cautiously.


The second Sherman moves up as well and maintains overwatch with its MG.

 The Marder moves forwards trying to get closer to the building edge and get a view of the Sherman.

The second tanks moves forward again and fires at the building with the Panzershrek team with no effect, and the second squad moves up slowly using tactical movement.

The Germans call in a second Marder and get the Panzershrek team to get out the building before more HE rounds start winging their way at them.

The US  have the first Sherman move towards the church and maintain overwatch. the squad continues to move tactically.

The second Marder moves up and looks to get an angle up the road should the barrage lift. The panzershrek team navigates its way very slowly over a fence,

Both Shermans are set on overwatch on MG and main gun,

The Germans do nothing.

US achieve the first CoC dice but can't get any units to activate.

The Germans get their first CoC dice and send the panzershrek team to start moving towards the road, in hopes of looping around the barrage and getting a shot at the Shermans from a less dangerous angle.

A bazooka team deploys to the rear with the FOO and platoon sergeant. The panzershrek team continue to move edging their way over a hedge.

US get a double phase and get a squad to cross the hedge and into the plowed field, the Sherman to their rear manoeuvres to maintain sight and cover of the German JOPs. In the second phase the Sherman is returned to both Guns on overwatch and the squad moves tactically in the field, moving towards the church and looking to close down the furthest forward German JOP. The bazooka team moves up behind the Sherman and looks to get sight of the Marder.

The panzershrek team has a change of mind and moves forward towards the house beside the road, hoping to set up in a position to take a shot should the barrage lift. The first Marder reverses slightly to stay out of sight of the bazooka

More shuffling of Shermans and squads to get the US squad closer to the JOP. The Germans move the panzershrek team up to the corner of the house ready to take a shot if it becomes available.

The US get their second CoC die and move the barrage forward a little way to allow the squad to close down the JOP.

Here I swither over whether to try deploy just outside the church to try and damage the US squad. The problem is I'm facing 4 guns on overwatch from the two tanks, and with the rolls Mike has been getting he has managed to activate at least one tank if not two and a squad nearly every turn. So after the overwatch fire, I'd then face about the same in the next phase. I doubt a squad in light cover at best will survive much of that, and decide against deploying. (I also clearly forgot about pictures after this too)

The US waste no time in capitalising on the German hesitance and move the barrage forward again, this time it hits the Marder and the panzershrek team, The Marder shrugs it off but the panzershrek team receives three hits, and these end up as kills. With a team wiped out I convert that into two points dropped on FM (9) with a lovely roll of 6. Typical. The us squad pushes forward a little and makes it over the fence surrounding the church, getting into base contact with the JOP.

A double 6 for the Germans. I suspect this is all but over however I try a bit of a long shot and deploy a squad to the far side of the rearmost building and look to get a squad moving up the table edge to try hit the US squad before they can enter the church and capture another JOP.

In my second phase I reverse the Marder out of the barrage and move the squad on the left across a hedge towards the church.

After a quick discussion on sequence and intent (I explained that if he wanted the turn to end he should do it at the end of my phase and before he rolled the dice) Mike decides to end the turn and keep his barrage going.

His rifles move forward to close down the JOP in the church and the Sherman swings slightly to counter the German Squad moving up the left flank. The turn end resulted in a bad things happen roll for me which I managed to get as another 2 point FM drop (7).

At this point I withdraw. I had allowed myself to get boxed in and the overwhelming firepower I was facing made me feel like if I tried to engage I would end up getting pasted. I was struggling to get dice rolls that would allow significant deployment and when I did I had positioned my JOPs rather poorly and in a way that wouldn't allow me to engage the enemy in anyway near parity. Partly this is due to the barrage removing the church as a viable defensive centre piece.

Post Game Admin

I have been woeful in keeping track of the post game changes however to get it up to speed Col Goode is back to a Concerned outlook having dropped down to trouble and even worried after the first two lost games.

The Germans are actually faring rather well. Both the Men's opinion and the Commanders are sitting at 0. Although the commanders opinion isn't tracked until contact with Isigny is re-established again I have been tracking it to try and remind myself I need to get in the habit of doing it. The Main platoon is down 6 men and I'll need to decide when I bulk them up with some reinforcements. I'm rather tempted to do this for the next game and try avenge this poor performance.

When the Dust had settled.

I've come away from it feeling that I simply did not do enough:

1) I should have taken more risk and been much more aggressive. I was cowed into submission by his Shermans being on near constant overwatch, and his barrage rendering two of my JOPs rather useless. For all that I had two Marders that realistically could have been thrown at the Shermans as I can't take them with me to the next table! I may have lost morale due to them being blown up but that would have been better than the collapse due to the panzershrek team being hit by a mortar and then the loss of a JOP. I was scared to commit troops and that gave an easy victory to my opponent.

2) I also deployed poorly. I should have kept the panzershrek off-table and had it available for an ambush. On table it  was struggling to get a position especially as neither of us were rolling sixes to end the turn and I wasn't getting many fives to generate a CoC dice to end it that way.

3) Ultimately I think I lost because I had no clear plan of what I wanted to achieve and how beyond a vague aim of trying to lower my opponents force morale.

At the time it felt like I had little option but to call the retreat. I could see no way of levering my way into the game at that stage and it felt like Mike was getting all the right dice when he needed them and I was not. I knew he would take a FOO but with no ability to take support options beyond the two Marders I needed some way to counter his FOO and I could not come up with anything,

In reality I gave away the game early on by allowing him to build up control of the area. I could have brought on both Marders and looked to use them in tandem to harass him, I may well have lost one but the quicker they were on the board and being aggressive the less his tanks could have pressured me. With the tanks occupied I would have been more secure in deploying some troops and using the LMGs to try pick off the FOO and Senior Leader sitting at the rear, with two leaders in close proximity with only a bazooka nearby I would have been certain to cause some sort of pressure on his morale, maybe even neutralise the barrage.

Oh well, this is what comes from not being prepared! Five minutes spent at the start of the game thinking about how to tackle the problem would have been time well spent. It has been a very good learning experience and points out yet again how good CoC can be at giving that real command experience. I should correct that, the lesson on planning has clearly been identified. Now we shall see if I can actually make the change and act on it in future!

A poor excuse for an AAR

So I got my first game of 2019 in at the weekend. This was the next installment of the 29 Let's Go Campaign and we had finally moved on to the second table: A delaying action at Arthenay.

From German table edge.

From American table edge.

Well the action started and I go so absorbed I didn't take photos or notes. Oh Dear. So what follows is a rough approximation of what occurred, true in spirit if not exactly accurate.

The Americans, commanded by Mike,  started with a dismally low morale roll starting on an 8 whilst the Germans managed an rather outstanding 10. The patrol phase played out with the Americans securing jump off points back at the hedges one on the right flank (for the US) and the other two on the left. Not surprising as that is where more cover is. The Germans had to place one in the "grey box" to the rear so on went into the house just north of the road (US Right Flank) behind the small orchard. One went into the large house across the road and the final went on the US right flank back behind the hedges near the edge of the table. I suspected that Mike would be bringing in a FOO and I didn't want to have all JOPs cluster in an 18in square ready for him to lock down with a barrage and then stroll in.

Given the FOO threat I decided to take the IG 18 option, I swithered between this and a sniper as a FOO counter, last game I had taken a FOO and it starts to feel gamey always going for that option. I figured the 6 HE dice the infantry gun would throw out would be a decent counter for the FOO, especially if I could get him isolated. In addition I took an MMG to bulk up the firepower along with an adjutant to help with the lack of command.

Apart from the suspected FOO I also knew that Mike had to take a Sherman, given the last outing I suspected it would just be the one so was content relying on the hard hitting panzershrek in the platoon on dealing with it. This was not to be the case.

The Americans started with the Sherman coming on via the road with the commander setting them on overwatch and a squad deploying on the right flank out into the ploughed field, adopting a tactical stance. The germans didn't respond.

The Americans then brought on the FOO and a 60mm mortar, the FOO in the corner of the hedges south of the road and the mortar set up in the orchard and went on overwatch. The FOO called up the battery to start the predictable process.

At this point I thought it was best to act before the barrage could get going - or at least start to act to try give myself the best chance of killing the FOO, He was deployed alone and no squad or team nearby to help him out. I deployed the IG 18 and fired at the pesky FOO. A delightful 4 die hit, and Mike obligingly converted three into kills. Checking on the FOO hits table and rolling again resulted in three kill hits (1s and 2s). By any measure that FOO was gone. I was gleefully rubbing my hands together at this point thinking I'd get his FM tumbling already and I could be in with a shot of winning this, especially with his low starting morale and Mike's predisposition to rolling exactly what he didn't need.

Sadly his men shrugged it off with no effect, apparently no one liked Hank anyway.

The hate came back from the Sherman and the 60mm mortar - accumulating shock on the IG and a kill.

The Americans then brought on another squad in front of the 60mm mortar and lining the hedge, and tried to move the squad in the ploughed field although they didn't get far. Mike was rolling a lot of 5s in his command dice which was limiting his ability to activate units but was thundering up the command dice, turn three and already sitting on 5 points.

Now I had deployed a unit, possibly too early, I felt I needed more on the board to split his attention and stop the IG getting killed/routed too soon. I brought on a squad in the central building and threw out some fire at the Americans. I also removed two shock on the IG.

The Sherman fired into the building causing shock and used the MG to put covering fire onto the house. The squad near the mortar jumped the hedge then threw some smoke to cover their move.

I brought on a panzershrek and attempted to nuke the sherman however despite hitting and getting four strike dice I only manage a single net hit due to some good rolls by Mike. The sherman took one point of shock and the driver couldn't be activated in the next phase. I then tried again with the IG, again I managed to hit it but with only four strike dice the Sherman shrugged off the single hit I managed to roll.

Then things became sticky. The panzershrek got focused on by a US sniper who killed one, then the sherman had a crack and killed the other. I converted that into a one point drop in morale. The IG was also getting a lot of attention, the JL taking a wound and dropping to one command initiative.

I pulled on my SL and the remnants of squad (from campaign casualties so far) which was just the LMG team to help out the IG 18. I was chipping away at the squads but the covering fire, tactical stance and poor rolls meant very little was happening. The IG and LMG team were occupying much of the US fire and largely getting shock and removing it, with I think one or two kills.

The US managed to push the squad in the south on their left flank up to the second line of hedges and prepared to push across. I deployed the MMG just outside the house behind a stone wall and proceed to hammer the squad. The leader took a hit and dropped to one command initiative and the FM dropped one point to 7.

The squad made it across the hedge with a decent move to spare and threw some smoke to impair the vision of the German squad and MMG in the house. This got them to a position to be able to use a CoC dice to move a JOP forward to just behind the last hedge they crossed.

This was starting to look ominous for the Germans. With a squad and a Sl still off table the Americans had a good punch still to throw. With the panzershrek gone I would be waiting for the Sherman to move closer before a panzerfaust would be within a range worth trying a shot.

The Americans pushed the squad forward on the left flank and pulled in SL and final squad just behind from the advanced JOP. The new squad threw smoke and the put down some covering fire. The move brought them just past the 90 arc for the MMG which forced me to move them into the house to get cover and reorient the LMG.

Lots more fives for Mike and any spare dice went to beating up the IG 18, which was eventually forced to break. I brought on my second full squad and final unit into the upstairs of the central house and spent a phase hammering into the overstretched squad with every possible unit. I managed to pin them but that was it. with most of the squad alive I would need another 9 points of shock or similar to get them to break.

The US used the fresh squad to start to flank round the house down the road, towards an unprotected JOP in the "grey box" zone. They also hammered the Lone LMG team on the US right flank  which was beaten down to one man with the JL and SL.

At this point I decided to withdraw. That group of two leaders and a LMG was too fragile and too much of a target to survive much longer. My strong point in the central house would have been able to do some serious damage to the US squads eventually although not without some losses themselves. I was 2 points higher in FM thanks to some injuries on his JLs and had 5 casualties from the platoon. With three more maps to play I think I've already taken too many losses to be hanging around much longer.

So another two men lost permanently and one missing the next game, ends up with 7 men missing the next game, so I'll probably need to consider some reinforcements.

Well played to Mike who is getting to grips with Chain of Command and trying to get his Yanks moving forward despite pitifully low movement rolls! We noted that if we played more frequently the game would flow a lot better with less requirement to refer to the rules.

Turner and Cook - 29 Let's Go Game 3 preamble

The huns were not giving it up easily.

Twice they had managed to throw back the US troops sent against them. But not this time. This time they would be facing Lt Ernest Turner, and he was not about to let them stop his platoon, and he had the equally implacable 1st Sgt Elmer Cook to back him up.

The loss of a Sherman tank had stung the last platoon, and to hear them talk about it the Germans had masses of artillery and firepower to throw at them.

Ernest suspected it was more likely some mortars and a well positioned MG42. He was no fresh faced officer straight out of training, he had worked his way up through the ranks and earned his position.

Sgt Cook was similar, an older man with none of the "rabbit in the headlights" approach the younger inexperienced men in the division had.

This time it would be different. This time 29 Infantry Division would prevail.

All they had to do now was wait for Col Goode to order the move. He was dithering. Nervous and wanting more artillery. Turner couldn't give two hoots about artillery, he had the men and equipment to push through La Cambe and he wanted to be let loose to do it.

Probe at La Cambe (pt2) - An annoying error

I had spent a good whack of time preparing terrain as evidenced by previous blog posts, made up some new supports and re-based some old ones, printed out force morale trackers and two unit boards. I even laid out the terrain the night before to make sure I had everything I needed. And then what did I do? I left a box behind, filled with roads, hedges and ploughed fields.

These pictures were snapped the night before when I had set it all up, and I was rather pleased with the result. The "new" second hand mat is lovely, even my cobbled together buildings look alright. I was and still am rather annoyed with myself for such a slip up!

Moving on. On discovering I had made this egregious error we had to improvise, and we ended up with bin bag roads, polystyrene chip hedges and a cloth as the ploughed area. I was initially thinking it was rather annoying that I hadn't managed to get some flock onto the new orchards I had been working on, but that pales in comparison to polystyrene hedges, let me tell you.

As a result I really didn't take many photos and I sort of forgot to take notes on the game to be better able to write it up. So perhaps just an overview to track what happened and I can try and do a proper first AAR on the next game!

For my 12 points of support I went with a FOO, a tripod mounted MG42, three entrenchments and an adjutant. I also had an extra entrenchment from strengthening my position after the last victory.

Force morale rolls favoured the Germans, starting on 11, while the US started on 8.

The US rolled high for patrol moves and got an extra four, and used these to push on down the road. He ended up with JOPs in La grande maison du  pays, behind the trees to the north side of the road and behind a "hedge" on the southern side looking out over the ploughed fields. I placed one in the orchard, one behind and to the side of  the east facing building and a final one on the far side of the same building.

The US started with a four consecutive phases and finally a turn end. In that time he brought on a sniper in la grande maison du pays, a sherman which went onto overwatch, a senior leader south of the road and a squad nearby.

Then I finally got a phase! not actually too damaging as I would have been unlikely to bring anything on in that time aside perhaps from a FOO. And for my first phase I did nothing but accumulate some CoC points.

The US then brought on a 50 cal machine gun again to the south of the road and a squad to the north by la grande maison du pays. The sherman trundled down the road a little more. At this point he threw a double six (again) and after much swithering decided to start moving one squad across the ploughed field towards the seemingly empty German end. The 50 Cal was on overwatch but the sherman had used both of the JL command pips to move so was not able to cover this advance.

Being broken ground the squad couldn'd double time it over the area and had to take a more measured approach which failed. His second roll turned up nothing that could get his squad to move for a second time. And the sneaky hun player pounced!

I got a rather fortunate roll and was able to deploy two squads and a senior leader, getting both squads to fire into the squad in the open (albeit on a tactical stance). It was brutally effective in terms of shock, not many killed but about 7 points of shock. The 50 Cal opened up in retaliation but deploying in an entrenchment meant all he managed was to wound and knock out one squad JL, the communist Kurt Zimmerman. My force morale dropped to 9.

The US fired into the same German section in their phase with the sherman, but only managed some shock. He also rallied some shock off the now paralysed squad sitting out in the field. He was however accumulating a fair number of CoC points but it was not helping his current situation.

When the Germans got a phase again they had more dirty tricks up their sleeve. The panzershreck team deployed by the road side and lined up the sherman. I need an 8+ to hit it after taking range bands into account, and rolled an 8. With the 13 dice I rolled 6 hits, which is not a bad conversion given the Shermans matching armour value of 6. He managed two saves, and the Sherman was brewed up. His force morale dropped to 6.

In the same move the FOO arrived on the table and called for mortars. The US player managed to roll yet another double phase and seeing this I felt he was going to be able to rally the squad and get them out of harms way, I took the chance and burned both CoC dice, that the Germans start the scenario with, on activating my two squads and pouring more fire into the precarious US squad. It worked, enough shock to pin them.

Now the US player was facing dice woes and pulled on his remaining senior leader to try give him more activation options, and deployed him near the sniper in the hopes of getting him to finally use his rifle. His 50 Cal was battering away at my 2 Section with the downed leader and I was losing a few men.

He was managing to roll a fair number of fives and sixes but little in the way of getting a co-coordinated attack going, so he tried to move a squad forward on the German left flank and attempt to save the game and get off the table. This was met by the final section from the German side who unleashed all their fire power into the rather bold US squad. This had to be blunted so I took the opportunity to deploy my final support, the MG42 team, and batter into the Americans.

It wasn't decisive and we spent a few phases trading fire, primarily from his 50 Cal which was well positioned to my squad, and I started to lose a good number of men and enough to have a team wiped out which dropped my morale to 7. In this time my FOO had got a ranging shot on target and put two shock onto the 50 Cal.

On the other flank I had managed to put enough shock and kills on the isolated squad to break them and the subsequent force morale roll dropped the Americans onto 4 command dice, and my FOO managed to call in a barrage which pinned the 50 cal and obscured my sight of it and the broken squad.

Between my MG42 and the now battered 3 section they manage to break the second US squad on the German left flank, forcing another morale roll but with no effect. At this point I realised if I ended the turn both US squad leaders would rout and force his morale down lower. He was unlucky with his rolls and his morale tumbled to 0.

I was lucky in that my opponent assumed I would defend in a similar manner to the last encounter with mines, wires and road block and used a fair bit of his support on engineer teams. He also didn't bother bringing on his second sherman which would have caused me more problems. He had no mortars or smoke which meant I was able to pop up and hit him when it suited me.

It was, nonetheless, a brutal encounter and I lost 8 men of which, luckily, 7 are immediately returned to duty due to the force morale difference, and one will make his way back in a future battle. This means I am 4 men down going into the next battle but having won this one I can strengthen my defences again which helps. The US player will be on a monstrous 31 support points. Gulp.

Next time we are playing at my house so there will be no AWOL terrain! Apologies for the comical terrain in the pictures and the rather limited and poor photography. It is a learning curve!