Andy and I finally got round to trying to get back into Blitzkrieg Commander in the Christmas break. We thought we'd ease ourselves into it gently using the BKC Lite ruleset. This was a mistake. We got quite confused about the rules we remembered, and what we could find in the Lite ruleset and in the main rules. We compiled a set of questions as we played which I posted later on the BKC forum and they were promptly answered by the author of the rules. The key thing we learned was that the Lite ruleset was based on version 1 of the rules not the revised 2nd version we had been using. So ditch the Lite ruleset if you have one.
In the first game, Andy's Italians were defending a town from James' British.
James' schoolboy error was putting his fastest tanks ahead of his slowest tanks, so they didn't get held up. But the slowest tanks were also the strongest, so they took a while to get into the action.
They eventually arrived and the engineers started very very slowly to clear a path through the minefield, given the suppressing fire laid down by the Italians.
We were trying the standard rules where hits are removed at the end of each round, so there was little destruction although lots of suppression. As time wore on, the British tanks on the left flank made a mad rush through the minefield. Only a couple made it... but then discovered Andy had secreted a flamethrowing tank inside one of the buildings. But by that time, most of the Italian infantry had been destroyed or chased out of most of the town. We decided on a draw in the end - the Italians would lose the town, but not within the number of turns to achieve even a minor victory.
The scenario for the second game was that the British had occupied the fortified area of the town but the Italians had been reinforced and were about to counter-attack. James made full use of the 25% allowed for fortifications...
Andy kicked off with some air sorties (the RAF gamely lending him a plane to replace the one left at home) but the close concentration of command bases shooting at the aeroplane meant it was often scared off and eventually shot down.
Andy's tactic was a delayed flank attack with a stronger force after softening up the British with a frontal attack. This was met (and decimated) by mortar fire - although we realised afterwards the mortars should not have been so effective, causing hits only on rolls of a 6.
The Italians kept up the bombardment from a distance, striking at any British tank that dared to leave the safety of its pit.
Eventually, the flank march was brought on and, much to James' surprise, the Italians appeared to have been reinforced by a few German tanks.
There was a fierce firefight across the minefield. With this game we were using the optional rule where hits remain on units, so there were many more losses across both forces. Andy again caused devastation with his flamethrower units which James will try to recognise earlier next time. But the Italians failed to evict the British from the town and their losses were such that this game resulted in a minor British victory.
With the clarifications from the forum and the accumulation of hits across rounds, the second game played more swiftly and it was a lot of fun. Continuing the campaign approach, the next scenario planned is for the Italians to intercept a small British force coming to reinforce the town.
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