Cambrai Scenario # 1: The Beast's Last Sting (Battle report and scenario changes)

Today I had the opportunity to play  the scenario published as sketch in my previous entry. A first game ended in less than 15 minutes, with Lieutenant Bion and his crew lyind dead next to thier tank.

After a short brainstorming, the group of testers decided to refight but changing  a few things.

1. Most important change, the arrival of reinforcements. It is really tedious to use the Blank Card, as for several turns in a row it did not showed up and the only action we saw was  the British LMG and the German section in the table exchanging fire (hardly exciting). We decided to introduce 1 reinforcement section at the end of each "Time for Snifter" card (German first, British second and then sequentally one turn each side). This change really provided momentun to the game.
2. We also decided to upgrade Lieutenant Boin to "super-heroe" basically meaning that he could not receive wounds but only shocks. That was the only way to force the German player to clos on the tank in order to try capturing the crew.
3. Finally (minor adjustments) the "Ammunition Shortage" and the "Dynamic Commander" cards on the British deck were hardly useful, we got rid of both. 

The second attempt with these changes really went well, with the German player cautiously approaching the tank and the British forces rushing to try avoiding the crew being taken prisioners. In the race towards the tank, one British squad was the winner but unluckily  the British Big Man was shot and (even worse) he rolled a "4" on the Big Man wounded table (page 21) forcing the unit to move out of the table with his wounded commander in order to save him.

At this point the British player, having misread the scenario's victory conditions, decided to retreat taking with him also the wounded tank crew but leaving Lieutenant Bion and his LMG in the tank because he thought the Big Man could only move with his own card. The whole idea of the scenario was that, once the crew was approached by a friendly squad, both  (the crew and the squad) would move and activate as a single unit from that moment (although with two big man).

I was acting as umpire and I thought the British player wanted to leave the LMG covering the retreat of the British squad carrying the wounded men (true, I thought it odd, as it was risking loosing the game; but as I was not asked by the player I could no clarify the situation). On the next turn, a German squad charged the tank wreck and captured Lieutenant Bion, taking him back into his own line and winning the game.

Summarising, a very dynamic and balanced, although relatively short, scenario that I hope you all will enjoy. Please do send any feedback or suggestions if you decide to play it.

As in the case of my previous scenario "A Ridge not too Far", I plan now to write the final version in a pdf document and upload into the resources section.

Some pic from today's battle

Lieutenent Boin and his LMG defending its wounded comrades

German squads rushing to capture Lieutenant Boin

British squad carrying wounded











German section pinned by Boin's LMG fire behind a wall