I played Twin villages with a friend a few days ago. And it was a good balanced scenario. The main reason I wanted to test this scenario was to test artellery.
I played versus a player which have never played ToI so the first round was more of a learning round where I guided him what I tought he should be doing etc. I then released I did a big big mistake. I should have made my MG squad hidden infront. With the camuflage op-card I could have fired a few shot and kept it concealed. It would have been significant more difficult to take me. He destroied my MG squad, and in only a couple of rounds he suddenly assulted my position on the bridge and I had very little to answere. I lost the 3point command objective. He had also drawn the two cards which gave him two extra command towards initiative. (3 in total with the seeze the initiative op card) From round 3 and on I totaly gave up on even trying to take the initiative. The few command I actually had was spent on top priority barrage. I placed it on the bridge, but it scattered. Luckily down one hex to to hex containing two other of his units. And yes, a well placed artellery attack can be quit handsome. I lightly damaged 2 of his halftracks, one of his panzers and took one of his squads. Later, I got two other increased priority which basicly gave me free use of all artellery cards I had. Then I called in another one in the exact same position and he took quit a few cassulties. Basicly killing his forward troops, and suddenly there was hope. He managed to wipe me of the board (with the artellery still comming in), but he did it slightly to late. Thus I actually managed to block him from exiting with two units.
A well orginized, well balanced scenario. Had I played versus a slightly more experienced player, or he had looked at the victory conditions more carefully slightly earlier, he would have won easily. But, geting my MG squad stupidly destroyed by not seting him up as concealed was a big misstake. With the camuflage op card, an concealed MG troop would have been far more troublesome to remove.
So basicly, the german has more AND better troops. 4 panzers versus 3 shermans, 2 extra squads wich half-track support. But the US has artellery and camuflage. And the us ha an engineer. Building an entrenchments in a forrest was fun. Plus the US is defending and has a few natural benefits that way. Thus, the scenario is balanced and fun. Maybe I feel like the defender is slightly to static, but maybe thats not uncommon.
But this scenario and experience tells me something about the system.
1) This illustrates, that if you do an mistake in the setup as the defender, its very little you can do to fix it afterward. An attacker is more mobile and is not that critical dependent on setup. However with a standar attacker defender scenario, this is very very difficult to improve. Thus, this is the way it is.
2) Artellery:
- At one point it seems to random. If you get increase priority early it makes a huge difference
- The suppressive forms often does not make much sense for the defender. If the attacker has the initiative, (which is often the case at the end) pinning squads which he already has used is not much use.
- With some (in my case three) increased priority cards, the command cost of the card is irrelevant and the only thing which matters is the number of cards you have available.
Thus, it would have been fun to have an artellery deck which is
- ordered so that you get an increased priority round 2 and round 5 (or whatever)
- an artellery attack which allows you to pick between supressive and normal damage
- At round 1 you get an card which allows you to draw 2 artellery cards each turn.
But a well placed artellery attack can be very powerfull.
3) Command points
In this spesific situation command points had no value, atleast in the end of the scenario. He had the initiative regardless of how many command he spent on it, and he had enough command to use all cards he had drawn. For me it was useless to try to get the initiative, and when I got the three increased priority I could also use all my cards for free.
