Another month and another asynchronous scenario in Last Hundred Yards tackled by me with Dave. That game really fits that type of play – we do our moves in Vassal, then we exchange via shared folder, communicating and doing very important rolls on Discord. As LHY has almost no interruptions in the game-play – each side does its actions and reactions fully before handing over to opponent – that goes pretty smoothly!

What I like is that this game gradually introduces you to the new mechanics, rules and units. Each scenario brings some new elements, nicely packed into historical context. This time we will play with full set of rules for infantry (or, as game calls it, non-vehicular units). Should be fun.

Our Combat Commander camping with Dave:
Mission #1 On Their Own
Mission #2 The Dark Woods
Mission #3 At Least It’s Quiet Here

The Game

Couple of words as an introduction to the system and the game. 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 #4 Chance Encounter scenario – as mentioned above – brings together all those infantry related mechanics – multiple platoons, mortars, machine guns, etc. All of this in a very confrontational set-up! Both sides enter from the edges and there are seven Mission Objective Points for control of key areas to be won. Whoever gets the five of them first – wins!

Sides: this is a random encounter type of scenario. Similar forces, both sides entering from their respective Friendly Board Edges (FEBs) and everybody runnign forward – under the enemy fire – to get those critical buildings or woods. We decided that I will be leading German Platoons entering from the right, while Dave will have possibility to command the US forces assaulting from the left.

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:

  • Scenario Specific: whoever first controls five Mission Objective Points during Victory Check phase wins.
  • Standard: one of the sides sustained enough losses to reach its Casualty Limit. The other side wins.
  • Standard: the Final Time score (which counts elapsed minutes and additional points for casualties) reached at least 32. That pretty abstract number only means, that there is a time pressure and time limit.

What in case none of above is achieved? Then this is a draw!

Let us see how it went!

The Session

That was again action-packed session – short-range, intense infantry and small units engagements. On top of this, a lot of movement (at least initially) and wrestling for best positions. Let us see how it went!

You can click on every image and enlarge it for better visibility.

Set-up of our Mission 4 – US troops entering from Left, Germans entering from the right. Seven Mission Objective Points clearly visible – who will get five of them first?
Slowly but steadily we move forward…
…only to rush to the objectives on the Last Hundred Yards! I was receiving then a huge amount of Small Arms fire as Dave managed to take good positions before me. But I had four objectives while he only three. Nice balance.
Once your units breaks, you have mandatory Recovery attempts; if you do them too good, some of your units become Heroes. They simply take to themselves that they are invincible and start charging the enemy strong-points without any regard for their safety. In this particular case I actually succeeded and was very close from pushing Dave out from northern forest thus winning the game!
The constant fire exchange starts to bring casualties, recovery attempts and… more Heroes, this time on US side! They got decimated in the process and had to withdraw!
There will be one more crazy, hero-based assault by US troops – this time successful – before the scenario clock announced GAME OVER.
A complete draw in area of casualties, points, even lost leaders and mortar status 🙂
Two each – these were our losses.

Summary

Wow, that was a total draw – in number of Mission Objective Points (each side had controlled three, one was contested), in number of casualties (each of us sustained two). A true stalemate which without some additional reinforcements would definitely not change. It was cool to run for the objectives but then the tempo definitely slowed down.

More reports to come! And already in next we shall have vehicles!