A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | Turn 6, Final

     This is going to a less picture heavy post, because my forces met with disaster right at the beginning of the turn. I'm going to skip over the spawns in the rally phase because they are ultimately inconsequential. The AEO of course won initiative AGAIN, and their order card sent them into melee. After considering for a moment whether this meant the forces next to the crash site or the ones next to my medic and half squad on the other part of the map, I ultimately determined the AEO should be going for broke at this point. (It is the last turn after all.) The Somali stack in N8 therefore rolled for their morale checks. The leader passed and applied his LM to the other units, who also passed theirs. This technically was reinforcing a melee since there was already a Somali unit in the crash site hex. All together, the AEO had 3 FP facing my 5 FP in total.

    I thought about how to handle this for the AEO for a few moments. The way the Lock 'n Load Tactical melee system works is that the attacker can choose how many units he wants to attack. The solo expansion considers this to be one of the "judgement calls" a player will have to make for the AEO. The AEO could attack less units, resulting in a more equal fight, but eliminating even one less melee eligible unit would only give them enough VP's to draw at the end of the turn.  I eventually concluded that the best thing for the AEO to do was to take on all my units in the attack. While it's true they could still have a chance to eliminate some of my other units elsewhere in order to gain victory points, there was no guarantee. The opportunity for victory was there and then with no turns remaining after. If it had been a more ambiguous situation, and the game was not about to end, I might have came up with several logical options and randomly rolled for what the AEO would do. This did not seem ambiguous to me though. 

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | Turn 5

     I've had absolutely no luck on initiative rolls this game. The AEO won the initiative again. Those cruel, cruel dice. The shaken Somali leader manages to rally during the rally phase and so does my shaken squad. A couple of mobs spawn on the roadblocks as well. I should point out the mobs are supposed to limited to 8 in the counter mix, the more recent printing of the game that I have contains much more than this for some reason. However I am keeping the limit at 8, at this point various mobs have dispersed and reappeared during the game. 

    The AEO began its turn by attempting to move the MMC's in N6 into melee with the crash site. One passed its morale check and the other failed. The one that passed entered into melee, but it was eliminated while my crew unit survived.

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | Turn 4

     Before starting turn 4 I fixed a mistake I made with a mob entering a roadblock square. They can not do that. I moved it the next logical way. The AEO once again won initiative this turn. Only one roadblock spawned a MMC, a 0-2-4. Meanwhile my shaken unit failed its rally attempt with the medic. Darn. The turn begins with a battle around the crash site. The AEO has the 2 adjacent MMC's with RPG's fire into the crash site, luckily one did no damage and the other missed entirely. I remembered I need to place acquisition markers in the square since the RPG's are ordnance. This essentially gives a bonus if the units attacks with the RPG again next turn. 

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | Turn 3

     For turn 3 I've decided to take more of an "overview" approach from this point on, cutting down on the actual game mechanics. The blog posts, while enjoyable to write, were long and took time from playing. In addition I'm not sure if people want to read something that long.

    Turn 3 began with a leader and new Somali MMC forming on one of the road block, with a mob forming on the other. The Somali AEO got the initiative again, and immediately used it to fire on my half squad that's stacked with the medic I had retreated down last turn. This resulted in them being shaken. On my turn I decided to move them the 2 hexes I could further down. 

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | Turn 2: Part 2

     For finishing up turn 2 I decided that doing a play by play of each move was unnecessary, so I'll recap the basics of what happened.

    I passed for basically the rest of the turn as my only unused unit was the crew. Everything was out of range for it, and it couldn't move out of the crash site hex. The AEO moved its 0-3-4 unit that had formed on the roadblock in J6 at the start of the turn. The unit moved closer to the crash site, taking cover in a light construction building. 

    The RPG armed 0-3-4 in H9 moved towards my squad and medic that had retreated from F9. That unit took cover adjacent to them in a light construction building as well. 

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | Turn 2: Part 1

     The Somali AEO wins the initiative roll for turn 2. To start off a roll must be made on the roadblock unit generation table during the Rally Phase. This results in a mob being formed on the Western roadblock in E7 and a 0-3-4 without a SW being formed on the eastern one in J6. Continuing the Rally Phase, a Somali half squad in hex G10 picks up the RPG left behind by its fallen comrades (There is no rule for this in the solo expansion, but the way I play it AI units will pick up fallen support weapons pretty much automatically as long as they have space). It dawns on me that the situation for my lone half squad in F9 is getting worse. I'm considering moving him down with the rest of my units. 

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | End of the 1st turn.

     In this post I'll be wrapping up the first turn of the scenario. 

    
    Picking up from where I left off, I only had 3 unexhausted units on the map, a medic, the sniper team, and Super 61's crew. I considered moving the sniper team 1 hex (as per SSR they are allowed to move 1 hex from the crash site), but the rubble was too expensive in MP's for me to be able to assault move them, and I didn't want remove their ability to fire that turn. So I passed. The order card for the AEO ordered an activation of a mob. Rolling on the mob activation chart they gave a result of "mob grows." Another mob was spawned next to the previous one but other than that they remained in place. Both were marked Ops Complete. 

    

A Day of Heroes: Scenario 2 - Chalk 2's Run | First two impulses.

    The Lock 'n Load Tactical series of wargames is a personal favorite of mine. For me they offer an enjoyable amount of depth mixed with just the right amount of complexity. They cover a wide range of subject matter too, from WW2 to the modern day. I acquired A Day of Heroes a few months ago but hadn't had the chance to get it on the table yet, so that's what I'm doing this post.

    A Day of Heroes covers the Battle of Mogadishu, which occurred in early October 1993 during the Somali Civil War. On October 3rd US forces inserted and captured a couple of high ranking members of Mohamed Farrah Aidid's militia, but things quickly deteriorated after two Blackhawk helicopters were shot down. 

    The Scenario I'm playing begins shortly after Super 61 went down. I'll be playing the US forces and the AI will be playing the Somali forces (with some occasional guidance from me when necessary). My objective for the scenario is to control the crash site by the scenario's end while minimizing casualties. The Somali objective is essentially to maximize my casualties, capture my support weapons, or force me to disperse mobs. Mobs are a special mechanic for this module and represent mobs of unarmed civilians, with the possibility of becoming armed/hostile. Another unique feature of this module is the fact that the maps are divided up by squares instead of hexes. This is the only module where that is the case. 

What this blog is (Hint, it's in the name)

     Hello there! I'm Cardstock General, and this is my blog. I'm sure by the blogs' name you can tell that I plan on talking about solo/solitaire table top gaming and history (and maybe a few other topics here or there). I intend for this just being a relaxing writing exercise where I get to share my hobby with others who may share similar interests. I have not previously blogged before, so this is a first time experience for me. Hopefully my posts are interesting and enjoyable. I am mainly a solo gamer; it's actually my favorite way to play because I can do it anytime I want. As long as a game has a solitaire ruleset/automa, solo expansion, or something fan made I'm happy. I try to avoid having to completely play both sides if I can. 

    Typically the wargames I play are not based on using miniatures with detailed terrain on a table, though occasionally I do play those and will include them here if I do. Instead, I mostly play games that use cardboard counters. In addition, I also enjoy board games not based on war.