JunoBear Part 2 - The Cavalcade of Shame Continues

Oh dear god why do I keep doing this to myself.  I've been playing this game for more than twenty years on and off.  You'd think I might have either got a little better at it or taken a very broad hint and developed an interest in chess instead.  After being deposited on my doorstep in a semi catatonic state by a homeless person who was concerned for my wellbeing I dragged myself back to consciousness on Sunday morning just in time to rinse the crusted humiliation from my body, dress in fresh (ok, semi fresh) clothes and stumble back towards Paddington for more punishment.  Punishment was duly dispensed.  For those who like seeing fragile human dreams crushed like an eggshell, read on.

Costly Baptism

First up was another episode in the gratuitous torture of the Polish nation.  This one was called "Costly Baptism" and was set on the very first day of World War 2.  Six Polish squads, a hmg and a trio of incredibly bizarre and decrepit armoured cars attempt to defend a small village from nine German squads and a trio of equally bizarre but slightly less decrepit armoured cars attempting to capture it.  I commanded the noble Poles defending their country, Murray McCloskey had the attacking Germans.

My problem was the Germans only needed to capture three buildings and the entire village was quite close to his entry area.  This meant a forward defence because Murray didn't really need to travel too far to reach his objectives.  A forest bisected by a road covered the centre of the position and I based most of my troops in that anchoring the flanks and centre with armoured cars.  Possibly setting up the armoured cars in the very front of the front lines was a mistake, it certainly didn't stop his armoured cars from moving around my left flank but a good deal of his infantry was held up shooting machine guns and antitank rifles at them.  This delay plus a little lucky shooting on my part held my lines for about four turns.  This was good as my troops had a tendency to break if a bullet passed within a hundred metres of them.  One of Murray's armoured cars broke down, unfortunately in quite a useful position, and my hmg managed to kill another as he tried to penetrate my defences from the flank.  Sadly despite some genuinely unpleasant carnage at the hands of my hmg and my right flank armoured car Murray did eventually wipe all three out (setting one on fire in the process) and moved his surviving troops into the forest.  Once there my soldiers folded like wet cardboard despite the presence of a heroic leader on one flank.  It actually took longer than I expected but as turn five approached the writing was on the wall.  Murray had two of the three buildings he needed and I had nothing to stop him.  Three games four losses.

Maximum Aggression

Leaving Poland we dropped in on Malaya where the Japanese were busy dismantling Britain's colonial empire.  I played Dave Wallace at this game the AAR is as follows;

I lost.  

I was prepared to concede at the end of turn one but more out of masochism than anything else I agreed to continue for another turn.  Then I conceded.  By that time I had lost my entire at start force plus two and a half squads of my reinforcements.  I must confess that I was somewhat over it by this time.  Dave had a train to catch and I simply wasn't in the mood to attempt to pick up the pieces and lose decently in the fourth turn rather than give up and go home after the second.  So I gave up and went home after the second.

Many thanks to Ivan and Aaron for arranging the tournament and for providing the various esoteric counters and maps that nobody else seemed to possess. 

 Now I have to decide whether I actually want to continue playing this game.  I suppose I'd better for a while if only because I've already booked my airline tickets and accommodation in Cleveland this year.  For right now I'm going to crawl under my bed and pretend very hard that the last two days didn't happen.