Con Report: NOVAGcon, pt 2

Third Scenario: Assault on Carter Island. Rough map:

_______________________________________          Beach
CCCC HHCCCCCCCHH HH HHHHHH HHHH HHHHHHHHHHH HH HHH
                AA2
AA1 FFFFFF HH FF FFFFFF AA3 HH FF FFFFFF HH HHH*H FFFFFF

            PDC

F Forest
H   Hill
C   Cliff

There was also about 5 feet of open ocean north of the beach, which was 6"
wide. PDC indicates the location of the Planetary Defense Center "Barsoom",
which was built from a piece of stryofoam a full foot
square, 3" tall with 3 HEL/5 laser turrets, plus a Class 5 Beam Battery
made from a distributor cap and part of a Swedish lightbulb. It looked
incredible, much kudos to John Wilkes. The asterik marks the location
of a GMS/H turret.  I told John (Defender) he had the mines to install
1 block mine group, 2 fix groups, or 4 disrupt groups. He had me stick in a
block group across the avenue of approach marked AA1. AA2 was covered by 6
Wide Area Munitions groups. John had 2 platoons of grav tanks, both of which
were held back sort of in the center of the board. He had 1 missle carrier in
a set of ruins north of the PDC, and 1 IFV in the woods in the middle of
board. Plus about a company's worth of infantry, mixed powered and unpowered,
with 4 GMS teams, 2 each PA and Line. These were spread out covering the
entire area, including two on the hills next to the central cliff on the beach
as spotters, and two missle teams on the hill on the far right of the board. I
also gave
him a four-gun off-board medium artillery battery.

Dave attacked with a cross-attached armored company.  One Platoon of
MDC heavy tanks, 1 of DFFG heavies, 1 of MDC medium tanks, 1 platoon of
IFV-carried infantry, 1 section of 2 mortars.  Plus he had a platoon of
engineers and an artillery battery in support. All as tagmatic troops, see my
home page. He basically ignored the mines and headed down AA3, with the DFFG
heavies coming through the small gap between the central cliff and the small
hill to it's right. The rest of the company headed
down the gap on the right of the board.  The DFFG-heavies took it on
the chin from the laser turrets, eventually loosing 3 tanks and routing. The
rest of the company got about where the notation "AA3" is on the map. They
attempted to use their infantry to assault up the hill against the missle
teams, but rolled a 2 on the confidence check. Leadership of 2. Ooops! The
fighting degenerated into a slugging match, and two of the MDC heavies got
knocked out, along with an IFV. Then Dave started running out of the smoke he
was using to cover the IFV in the woods, and it lit up the command section,
knocking out the unit XO's tank. Then a series of really bad rolls resulted in
the HQ section breaking, and we called the game.

Lessons Learned: HEF! The artillery was equipped with nothing but smoke and
MAK. This is useless against infantry. Smoke: Smoke was heavily used, but IMHO
misused in two instances. It was used to cover some annoying defending units.
Sure, they can't shoot, but they can't be shot. The terrain was waaaay to open
to be able to smoke for a turn and bypass. It would have been better to use
the smoke to break the defender into a series of fortified sections which
can't support each other. Then take them down one at a time. YMMV.