It's a Long Way to Tipperary Tournament - Round 3 - S43 DIME Beach

[Steel God]

Situation at the end of Turn 17 – 1200 July 11th 1943

Brian did what I would have done, straightened out his line, exchanged fires with the Americans were it was advantageous to do so and netting about 20 VPs for himself.  So, if I’m not careful and I let him net those 20VPs per turn he is within striking distance of stealing a Minor Victory from me.  Conversely the only shot I have at securing a Minor Victory is getting to Ponte Olivo and capturing it. It’s 4 hexes away and only 4 turns left to work with.  Not impossible but highly improbable.  If I back off, he can still close with me and get favorable exchanges, but at least the modifiers would be even instead of me shooting at him in trenches and towns with defensive advantages to go with his firepower advantages.  I’ll stare at this for a bit and decide but after the replay I’m leaning towards preserving the Draw.

Yup, I decided to play it safe, which generally is my MO in most games.  I’ll start by devising a plan but when I play, I first figure out how to get a Draw and then start looking for opportunities or mistakes by my opponent to expand the goals and fulfill the objectives for that victory.  When playing people with the skills that Brian has that can produce a lot of stalemates.  So, this turn I abandoned all hope of Victory and playing for the tie.  Fired available artillery and 1 air strike focusing on artillery and weak armor (as those yield the best VP values) and fired my infantry stacks once before pulling back 1 hex across the line.  I expect he’ll come after me and go after those good exchange rates his SA and Quality ratings afford him, but at least my guys will get more than a casualty or 2 in exchange if he’s out of his trenches.  Score’s back up to 657- status quo.