Fire the Bren !: "All American": end of campaign debrief

“All American” debrief chat

I joined my opponent Cam (US Airborne player), and our regular umpire Skampy, for a debrief chat about the last battle and campaign in general.

Skampy: This bridge map is heavily skewed toward the Allies. They start with two free chain of command dice and it’s a bottleneck. DA, you were right with your support choices, rightly guessing Cam would go heavy AT. I think you should have brought on your third squad earlier, although the command dice weren’t kind to you in this last game.

Your original plan to commit to one flank was solid. Your biggest misplay in my view was not having your Renaults move full-tilt up over the bridge. If they get knocked out at least they’re good cover. Those renaults don’t have decent firepower anyway. Put them both on early and rush up.

Cam: This was our first chain of command campaign and it was a bit terrifying defending against the Germans. In hindsight a huge turning point was right at the beginning. I was able to stall DA on the first map and he was on the back foot after that. I was able to kill a lot of Germans. My paras did well ! Except Foxhole Harvey…

Skampy: Harvey is teaching civilians at Chilton Foliat jump school now.

Cam: In this last battle, I started with two chain of command dice and rolled plenty of 5s. My bazooka ambushes were useless but being able to remove smoke helped me. The sniper helped to draw your covering fire.

Skampy: DA should have had 4 sections. But he took a lot of casualties getting to this map.

DA: Yes, Cam really bled me of manpower. Tallying up total campaign losses, Germans suffered 45 casualties including 28 KIA, whereas Airborne suffered 25 casualties and 11 KIA.

I was hoping to have enough time for two cracks at this map. The US player loses their free chain of command dice after the first game on this map, and so then I’d be able to use a forward observer or pre-game barrage. But Cam delayed me enough that I only had one chance at La Fiere.

I was planning on using the Renaults for covering fire but in retrospect maybe Skampy is right – all they’re good for is line of sight blocking.

Having only one SL, one wounded JL, one dead JL, and a dearth of 3s on the command dice also meant my “action economy” was not high enough to coordinate a massed assault across the bridge.

The scenario rules say the Germans' one Jump-Off Point can be moved via a Chain of Command Dice per the normal rules. So that might have been a good move.

Well, we all agreed a very fun campaign - ending on an action-packed finale.

See you next time when we start our play through of “29, Let’s Go!”

- Fire the Bren crew