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Jason came over on the 9th for a FtF two-player day. It was his pick, which naturally meant Last Hundred Yards. This is still my second session with it, but it generally impressed me as much this time as it did the first time.

The first game was more of a refresher (it’s been quite a while), as we went with mission 4, “Chance Encounter”. I got the Americans and the end of the board with the more compact woods masses. Both sides get a full company with a little support, and are trying to get a majority of the buildings and woods under their own control. Technically, this should have introduced mortars to me, but they generally went unremembered.

I don’t remember details on this action, but I intended to advance in two groups, with the stronger half (since I had three platoons to work with) providing overwatch to the other half of the board as the Germans moved up. This wasn’t a bad theory, but initial fire broke a lot of my squads, and put the ‘stronger’ half into trouble. I never really recovered from the initial breaks. I did get rid of a couple of his platoon leaders, but couldn’t capitalize on the lack of leadership before he got them back.

For the second scenario, Jason introduced me to vehicles with mission 8, “Black Cat Blues”. Classic numbers vs quality, with the Americans having a full company to a defending German platoon, and a platoon of Shermans vs a single Panther. It was also my first scenario to feature two map boards, and the extra space was welcome.

The Americans need to take 10 “points” of buildings, with the church on board 11 counting as three, which makes it impossible to win without taking it (there’s only nine other hexes). The Panther set up in the middle of board 11, and my initial attempt to deal with it merely ended with a dead Sherman. The second attempt went better, as I got Shermans on opposite sides of it, and despite him assaulting one with a half-squad, I managed a good hit on the Panther. I was down to two Shermans, but they helped me sweep deeper into the board, and take a few buildings.

The main problem then turned into the group stationed in the church, which defeated a couple attempts to get at them, and I couldn’t manage any decent shots. However, I brought down mortar fire on it which let me get up to it. Sadly, the second turn of mortar fire drifted onto one of my stacks to break much of it, but I could still get in as soon as the fire lifted. I took the church and forced a retreat that kept going a couple turns. I also could have done it better (did things in the wrong sequence), so I was glad that it had worked.

Casualties had gone against me at first, and then went over to the German side as I got into the town and took the church. But after that, casualties started piling up for me again, including both Shermans. And, about 50 minutes in (game time) I went over the casualty limit.

The general system has held up well for the second go-around. The tanks integrate into the rest of it well, so its a nicely consistent game. That said, there are some wrinkles. I’m certainly startled that you can just drive into a building hex, get the benefit of the terrain, and not worry about throwing a track (in fact, I don’t think there’s any sort mobility kill in the game). Also, the fact that enfilade fire only works full-on to the rear (180 arc), when a simple flank shot should be a lot easier to arrange (and every bit as effective).

Still, it was a good day, and an enjoyable pair of scenarios, despite losing at both.