The journey which Dave and I started with Last Hundred Yards continues. We play asynchronously – the game is ideal for this purpose, with no interruptions plus either of us doing the end-of-turn resolution. We communicate via Discord while uploading files to the shared Google Drive folder. That really makes things easier, automates a lot of stuff plus gives me an easier access to materials needed for session reports 🙂
We really liked our first mission, #1 On Their Own, and decided to continue with that title. Will we play all scenarios like in case of Combat Commander Europe? Do not know, but we shall make to the vehicles battles for sure!
The Game
Couple of words as an introduction to the system. The Last Hundred Yards is definitely unique in comparison with other tactical wargame published to date. It introduces innovative system of action-reaction, intended to model Small Unit Behavior in Combat during WW2. It is pretty fun, really fast-paced, and provides a very good simulation of what it was like to command combat units at the platoon or company level – both infantry and vehicular units.
The game is purposely designed to deliver a brisk yet intensive gaming experience that forces many decisions upon you as you take command of an infantry company in Western Europe after the D-Day landings. On top of this, it is marvelously published with one of the most beautiful maps I have seen so far.
The Mission
The Base Game of Last Hundred Yards leads us through twelve various missions. They are gradually growing in complexity and introduce new game mechanics & units. Mission #2 The Dark Woods can be still treated as introductory scenario, although three platoons on each side requires some more coordination.
Sides: scenario has some pretty crazy set-up (see above). We rolled for sides and in the end Dave was leading German Platoons and I had a pleasure of commanding US forces.
Goal of the scenario: as usually, you can win LHY battle in at least couple of ways. The ones for this engagement are as follow:
- One of the sides sustained enough losses to reach its Casualty Limit (here it was three for each side). The other side wins.
- The Final Time score (which counts elapsed minutes and additional points for casualties) reached at least 31. That pretty abstract number only means, that there is a time pressure and time limit. At that moment we count the number of contiguous road hexes from friendly board edge – who has more, wins.
Let us see how it went!
The Session
You know me and my passion for picture-rich session reports. I am definitely a person to whom image speaks volumes in comparison to the text only. Thus, below you will find detailed depiction of main actions during the game – that was a very confrontational set up from the start and super bloody session due to the rule about controlled road hexes. So let us jump to report!
You can click on every image and enlarge it for better visibility.
Summary
This was our second experience with Last Hundred Yards. Let us be honest, that scenario did not have a lot of finesse but is very good training in basic rules, coordination, assaults and fire resolution. Talking about strategy, I think amassing platoons at one hex, even sometimes at penalty of density, paid off in all those assaults. And that some of them backfired – well, that happens!
More reports to come!
Can’t believe you didn’t mention the insane introduction of line of sight rules! This scenario was very hard for that. All of those woods and hills, blind hexes galore! But it was fun
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Good point, we were struggling so much – not sure how we are doing so good now, but probably using common sense helps 🙂 And it was many-times point-blank fire, as we were approaching via woods.
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Great AAR… thanks for sharing.
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More are coming!
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