Missing a small handful of images. Sorry folks.

3rd Marine is dug in and ready for the Dutch.

The Dutch are not impressed, realizing their land was under attack and constantly being reinforced by additional enemy forces, time was of the essence.

The 3rd Marine were dug in, with improved positions and hungrily awaited reinforcements. The Infantry units had lines of fire established, but lacked lacked offensive fire power.

This would be a close assault, street fight. They were ready. Unafraid their officers assured in the confidence of their mens training. The Dutch were not know for putting up a fight over much.

The Dutch close rapidly.

The first assaults are inconclusive, but the Soviets are surprised at the ferociousness of the Dutch assault.

Soviet Marines, are attacked, disrupted and dismayed as the Dutch attack in waves across two activations. Their mortars are ineffectual and their Jets do little damage.

The sooner reinforcements arrive the better thinks the Soviet Commander!

The F-16’s next pass is more effective, adding to the carnage.

The Soviet holding position is in disarray! Dutch forces although some are disrupted, have suffer light casualties. Where as 50% of the 3rd Marine have been wiped out. One entire platoon is isolated from the rest of the forces.

The Dutch finally resort to some Arty. This holds the Soviets in place.  The Dutch transports are bunched up in the woods, and appear to be preparing to cross the bridge.

The Soviet HQ bugs out. The majority of the city and the Bridge are controlled by the Dutch.

Not a moment too soon the T-80s arrive!

Rushing to the bridge they seek to support the 3rd Marine with ranged fire.

Well…..this is just hard to fight.

By the end of Turn 5 the Dutch have apparently squandered an ideal opportunity. Rather than rush the bridge they elect to fire down range at teh approaching tanks to some effect. But they are not across the bridge yet.

The T-80’s reinforce. The weakened Infantry drops back to overwatch and the T-80’s HQ unit applies its bonus to firing on as many of the gathering forces as possible.

The traversing of the bridge is causing some concerns for the Dutch. Wether stacking, a disrupted unit or a now reduced unit they cannot prepare the assault to launch across to capture the last 3 hexes of town.

The Soviets unleash a barrage of fire at the various units attempting to rally and form up to assault.

By turn 7 the soviets are taking losses, but the line is holding and more reinforcements arrive.

The Dutch probe the bridge. The Soviet HQ for the Marines takes damage, and the T-80’s wait for a chance to engage.

The stakes go up as the game clock winds down.

Units are bloodied. The Soviets want to recapture the bridge. The Dutch  are desperate to drive the enemy into the ocean, but have stumbled badly at the bridge.

In an effort to  spur the men on the HQ elements hit the bridge, KG’s tanks and the infantry fight back ! An assault by the Soviets take the Dutch by surprise and eliminates the units there, killing the HQ and disrupting and reducing the 3rd Marine infantry. But the damage is done! The city and the bridge will remain in Soviet hands. As more forces unload from cargo holds the Dutch stare in dismay across the canal.

This game was played between Major Bill and I.

What happened to the Dutch?

As you may gather from the comments I was the Soviet player. I was initally taken aback by the success of the Dutch initial assault. We made a small error Turn one but nothing that changed the game irrevocably. Major Bills move, fire, disrupt and assault was perfect!

One of the keys to success from what I have seen of other players is the ability to maintain momentum. The Major came out swinging. Then the fight stopped, just as success was within reach. Wether timing of chit pulls or sequencing of stacked units that caused the flummoxing the fact remains that the Dutch in essence went from offense to defense before the job was done.

The ability of the ‘attacking’ player to execute is critical especially if reinforcements are coming. A quick review of my forces and locations of Improved positions makes me thankful that Major Bill was more cautious. The IP located directly across the bridge would have been almost impossible to dig him out of with just tanks. That would have held up the Soviets from securing or recapturing objective hexes. So a note for next time, seek locations that aid the defense of the Soviets and wont aid the Dutch should they be lost!

Major Bills switch from high probability assaults to low chance fire attacks was a mistake, but if he was not entering into melee it makes sense.

This is a scenario that I could see going both ways. I got lucky this time. The Dutch with 2 activations, air and good ground troops should win this. That however is countered against a random entry enemy reinforcement and a very tight timetable to capture a lot of hexes on 2 sides of the river/canal.

Another very dynamic scenario from Walker and Co.