The Winner’s Report - Eye of the Tiger
Call me paranoid, but it has never been a practice of mine to divulge
too much information regarding my tactics or set up when writing AARs. As a
compulsive tournament participant, this probably has something to do with
the fact that certain scenarios often crop up repeatedly, and my next
opponent may avidly study the plan I begin to proudly espouse. However, on
this occasion I feel I can admit one particular little strategem that was
witnessed by so many, it’s use is no longer a secret.
I had prepared a set up for a long ago tournament, so when I was
lumbered with the Russians against Mel, at least I could resort to it. (I
cordially dislike this scenario by the way, for the way it encourages a
ridiculous set up by the defender. The enormous FFE can be predicted as to
its intended spot, which I managed to do, but the resultant dispersion of
troops seems contrived to my mind.)
Anyway, in consulting my dusty black book of dispositions, I became a
little confused: It seemed I had neglected to allocate my full quota of
concealment counters. I counted and recounted several times, and had been
about to rectify the situation when I belatedly realised that my lack of
dummy counters was purposeful – I had intended to ‘dummy a dummy’ so to
speak. Because there is sometimes a great distance in time between me
composing and recording a set up, and actually playing it in a scenario, my
original plan has often completely slipped my mind by the time I come to
deploy it. I realised therefore that part of my strategy was to include
throwing in a little confusion and surprise, by concealing a real unit up on
the front line with all the other dummies, and having it display all the
bravery of its illusory compatriots. It would bide its time and at an
opportune moment reveal itself, causing as much mayhem as possible. Little
was I to realise that this cheekiness would ultimately win me the game......
Mel is a very aggressive foe, scornful of the vagaries of chance. Though I
negated his initial FFE, its very threat had dictated my scattered set up.
He soon discovered my HIP AT gun, which went down early on without
destroying any AFVs at all. In the centre cluster of buildings he manoeuvred
quickly in to a position to both creep and blast his way over the road, and
at this stage I was in dire straits. An event of outrageous luck saved me –
snake eyes on a CC roll when I was outnumbered led to leader creation and a
personal morale boost. This stabilised the front, but I still had to
retrieve some of the buildings Mel had taken. Our AFVs took a toll on each
other – Mel was unafraid to park a Pz IV a couple of hexes away from my TD,
both of us HD, hoping I would hit the wall. I didn’t. He also rashly
intensive fired and recalled his Tiger, whilst I took out his other Pz IV
with some infantry. I was still losing though, so it came down to the
pretend dummy in the end, who had patiently assault moved and advanced his
way behind Mel’s lines, pretending to be sniper bait. A good player like Mel
cannot be fooled forever though, and he eventually decided to run a squad
into its hex to determine its threat. Luckily, the resultant DFF shot pinned
him and I was able to VBM freeze him in my last movement phase in order to
enable the erstwhile dummies to sprint into some buildings, thereby winning
me the tournament.
A curious scenario then, and a very stressful one too. The ace up my
sleeve came good in the end. I’m just glad I remembered to play it!
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