Confirming I flanked correctly

[cthulhukid]

So a friendly patrol through a wooded area went pearshaped.

Like ya do.

German 10 man squad appeared on the top of a wooded hill and caught most of my squad out in the open.  4 of my men managed to duck back into some trees on the left and proceeded to sneak their way around to the left flank while the rest of the group was basically crawling into the pseudo-foxholes that were being made by the hail of bullets raining around them.  After sweating some Fast Move rolls, I popped out of the woods to "surprise the Germans..."

So this happened while the two other groups were exchanging fire.  So many of the German squad were in Duck Back status.  However, that means they cannot be seen "By the Group that caused the Status," therefore they could be seen by the flanking squad, correct?  That's why there's the -1d6 modifier on the InSight table for DuckBack, I assume.

But that appears to be the only modifier I had (besides another -1d6 for the concealment of the woods), correct?

I guess the reason I ask is because I failed the roll, the Germans were able to swivel their fire to my 4 men and killed 3 of the 4.  I had a REP 5 leader, but I lost 1d6 for being active and 1d6 for their cover in the woods, and they lost 2d6 for Duck Back and my concealment.

I guess I assumed flank attacks would work better?  Maybe?

My 3d6 vs. their 2d6.  Was there a way I should have done this better?


Either way I walked out of there with only 2 soldiers standing.  War is hell.

[cthulhukid]

Probably should mention I was using Final Edition.

[Ed the Two Hour Wargames Guy]

May 20, 2020 19:23:57 GMT cthulhukid said:

Probably should mention I was using Final Edition.

Correct, the Duck Back can't be seen from the way they were forced to duck back, but the flankers could see and be seen.  Now in Final Edition under In Sight there's a (1) that says they cannot fire and will complete its reaction - so they duck back out of sight of the flankers too. Hope this helps.

[fenris07]

You have the right idea of flanking with a different group.  Put your LMG in one group to create a base of fire and just hose the enemy down with one shot per model if you can causing duck backs.  It gets the enemies heads down and you can use that flanking group to your full advantage.  If you actually kill some enemies with your suppressive fire awesome but its mainly so they cant fire at you as you move to engage and even if you lose the in sight test with your flanking force it wont hurt you too bad as they'll be smothered by the incoming fire (in duck back) and unable to do anything.  Now whether or not you can get your base of fire in position and firing before they do is the real question lol

[stryderg]

Yeah, sometimes flanking maneuvers work well, sometimes the dice just roll against you.
You can rationalize it as: your maneuver squad came up on the enemy sooner than they expected so wasn't as prepared as they thought they were, and the enemy was taking cover from your base of fire and expecting you.