AAR: WO1 French Toast and Bacon

Steven Miller

Germans: Steven Miller
Americans: Tom Gillis

What happens when you lose 75% of your infantry and 83% of your armor? Why, of course, you win! Tom and I played one of the scenarios in the new Winter Offensive pack. It is early in the Ardennes Offensive and the Germans have to control a bridge. There are not a lot of turns but the Germans do get three panthers, three MK-IV's and four squads to only one of the worst armor TD the Americans have in their armory, two AT guns and six half squads with three bazookas. The scenario has some special rules I have not seen before. The American TD has to pass an ever-worsening TC to stay on the board, the Americans get an off-board 105 ART that shoots as direct fire and it has an ability to fire a special charge that allows a CH on a roll of 2 or a 3.

I will not attempt to be as detailed as Nick in his legendary AAR's but I will provide a brief summary. After turn one I was in serious trouble. I was the Germans and realizing there were only a few turns to get to and hold the bridge I made an armor charge. I lost one panther to sheer arrogance. (never, never underestimate a bazooka's effectivness on the side of a panther) I lost two MK-IV's to the accursed TD and APCR. The infantry, what little I had, was now conducting an armored assault without much armor. Pausing only long enough for a panther to vaporize his TD, I continued my dash to the bridge. With some poorly timed bad luck on Tom's part (hidden AT gun malfunctioning at the worst time) and some well timed luck on my part (safely racing two tanks right next to and past an AT gun) I managed to double-time a half squad, which at this time represented 50% of my remaining infantry and my last surviving tank to the bridge. The victory conditions state that the Ger mans win immediately if they control the bridge. So, at the end of the half-squads movement the scenario instantly ended and I won. Tom actually outnumbered me at that point. I'm sure many of you have had those scenarios where you satisfied the victory conditions but you don't feel quite right saying you won.

AAR: J118 Elephants Unleashed

Jay Harms

Russians: Jay Harms
Germans: Doyle Motes

Played J118 Elephants unleashed from the latest annual. Played this one against Doyle at Marks get together last Saturday. I had the Russians and Doyle had the Germans. It is a fun little scenario that has toys for both sides. VCs are the Germans need to exit either 22 points off the board or take 6 of 7 building hexes. I set up with my speed bump force centered around the buildings and Doyle elected to go for the exit VC option early. This put my forces a bit out of place, but with 5 T34s and 2 SU152s entering on turn 1 and 2 respectively, I felt I could contain an end run. That was my first mistake……

Turn 1 I move my T34s into position, and tried for an ESB on one T34 that could just reach where I wanted in its first movement phase…. Rolled an 11 and so without a shot fired, I have one T34 immobilized in the village, not a bad spot, but still not good. (This was mistake #2) Another T34 tried for going HD in LOS of one of Doyles supporting PZIII tanks… no dice. The other 3 tanks are spread out to keep my options open as the German tanks continue to move slowly towards the exit. With a red MF of 8 for the 3 elephants, it was slow going…and I thought I had a decent initial defense...

German turn 2 and Doyle takes a shot at my T34 with a 75* gun after spinning the turret… it goes something like this…”I may as well take this shot to accuire you, I can’t hurt you unless I get a critical since my TK is 10 and your armor is 11…..(dice roll around in the dice cup…) … Critical hit! Scratch one T34…. This kill set the tone for the next 2 turns…. And at this point my defense started unraveling. Over the next 2 turns I lost two more tanks to critical hits, and only managed to deliberate immobilize one of the elephants. Doyle played an excellent game and protected his smaller tanks with the all but invulnerable elephants, while whittling away my tanks. Each turn he moved a bit closer to the exit, with the elephants covering the other tanks, and his infantry covering the Elephants. In the end I conceded as I had nothing left to stop his slow march to the exit. Good game Doyle! Looking back, with a good German opponent, I think the scenario is hard on the Russians given the Elephants have little to fear. Doyle played the attack masterfully and I botched several key decisions (split my tanks, ESB mistake, bad initial setup) which took a close game and made it into a “Jay gets slapped around” game….

Jay

AAR: RPT28 - The Polozkov Push

Nick Drinkwater

German: Nick Drinkwater [ELR 4, SAN 2]
Russian: Tom Gillis [ELR 4 SAN 2]

In what turned out to be my final ASL game in Houston, Tom and myself faced off in this nice little meeting encounter from the Rally Point pack of scenarios. I was officially in transit between the USA and Angola, living in a hotel room in South Houston with one wife and two black cats, as our house was now empty and all our belongings had been packed away ready for shipping and storage. In this strange netherworld existence with a ton of cowboys, rednecks, pig pokers, mutton busters and other rodeo participants, I thought my chances of any more ASL were effectively nil. But then, to my surprise and at very short notice, Mrs D announces she has arranged lunch followed by a spa visit for something female and alien called a "mani-pedi" and that I was hence free to entertain myself and not get in the way of important girl-stuff.

So then, I have 8 hours of 'Nick-time' to kill in Houston - I know, let's call Mr G and see if he's up for some ASL...and bingo, yes he is! As I am sans all ASL gear, I leave it to Tom to make the scenario choice and he came up trumps as always with this excellent 5.5 turn job from the Rally Point packs. What was nice and different about this scenario was that it was a meeting engagement on Boards 44 and 17 and that no set-up defense was required. Instead the Russian strike force (7 x T34M43 and 2 x SU-85 with 10 very lightly armed squads) entered first to which the German response force (3 Panthers, 2 x MkIVs, 2 half-tracks and 7 landser squads) would manoeuvre to counter them. To win the Russians needed to exit 30VP off the German entry board edge, but interestingly this would drop by 3CVP for each Panther that was destroyed.

The game was played across the width of the two boards so the Russians have a very broad front to manoeuvre in but their exit corridor is restricted to within the D and DD hexrows of the board edge to keep the Russian assault centered and stop board edge creeps. On the German half of the play area, two small hill overlays provide opportunities for the Germans to get hulldown with their Panthers and also to funnel the Russian attacks into three corridors - down the middle between the two hills, or left or right of the two hills, or some combination therein. As the Germans come on second, they get the luxury of being able to see which way the Russians are aiming for and respond and apportion their forces accordingly. The problem for both sides is that to simulate poor road conditions, all AFV must use an extra 1/2 MP for each open ground or road hex they enter - the impact of this is to stop the Russian tanks from moving across a whole of board 17 in Turn 1 and hence deny the Germans the two hills. However, this also makes German AFV entry setup critical as you really need to plan those turn 1 moves carefully to make sure you achieve the optimum positions. Interesting conundrums here.

Other issues we both needed to be aware of were the TK numbers of our tanks - my being outnumbered almost 2:1 was equalled by the fact that any hit by a Panther guaranteed instant death (TK of 23 vs 11 AF), but Tom's weaker guns (13 and 17TK) were going to need a lot of help or APCR (14 and 19TK respectively) to dent my Panthers in return. Clearly, the MkIV vs T34 matchup was marginally more favorable for Tom (17 TK vs 11 AF as opposed to 13TK vs 6 AF), but ideally he was going to need to be in flank or side shot positions for kills - something that might be harder for Tom to achieve than normal due to the movement point restrictions. In terms of morale, Tom's infantry were either the par of (4-4-7) or better than mine (4-5-8) and more numerous (10 squads vs. 7) and he had one more leader than I did, but of course, I have lots of that lovely late war German tank-killing goodness (and a Shrek) so the Russians better beware. In return, I was more MG-rich than him, and with the two half-tracks, I had some mobile firemen too to rush in and plug any gaps that may appear in the defense. All in all, this is very much a really equal match of more numerous Russians against technically superior but outnumbered Germans - something that was apparently quite common in Eastern Europe in the middle of 1944 or so I understand.

Tom opted for a "he can't defend everything, everywhere" approach which ended up consisting of a schwerpunkt of rider-bearing T34s down each flank while the assault guns pushed up the middle - in an early sign of the way this was going to go, two of Tom's 4-5-8 riders failed orchard-enforced bailouts which also saw the demise of their sole ATR. Other riders merely pinned but Tom was still pushing on nicely, despite the restrictions of the poor ground quality - being aware of CE status to improve MP benefits on roads is critical in this scenario.

Faced with this broad punch attack, I opted to utilise the two hills to match Tom's attacks as best I can, but plan carefully for position and use the hills to my advantage. Each small hill received a Panther and MkIV wingman plus infantry support, after attempting but failing to get hull-down advantage with the Panthers. The spare Panther plus the two half-tracks went into the middle to be a reserve force that could be used where needed. On the right flank, the MkIV sat in the brush between two woods to keep any Russian tanks that felt like being a bit frisky in a deadly cross-fire.

My turn 1 manoeuvring meant that I had one T-34 on the left flank stuck in a hole with nowhere to go - scratch one T-34 from long-range Panther gunnery. The position of the Panther on the right hand hill meant that Tom's T-34s over there had to manoeuvre away from the deadly 75LL Gun, but this put him in the cross-hairs of my MkIV. Feeling confident that I would get one of the T34s in defensive fire, Tom responded with one of those classic Gillisian throwaway shots, rolling a bounding fire improbable critical and that was the end of my MkIV. So at the end of Russian Turn 2, it was 1 vs 1 on tank knockouts - killer. This one was a jaw dropper I can tell you.

On the left flank, on the appearance of the Panther, the T34 gaggle over there swerved right (like a school of minnows fearing the approach of a barricuda) and tried to manoeuvre through woods and along the side of the left hand hill. However, again the MP restrictions came out to bite Tom again as he could get past my behemoths far enough to get rear shots and enforce more turret spin penalties on me. At the same time, Tom tried to repeatedly run some infantry up to my forward Panther and fix his attention with some CC threats, but they ended up riddled by landser, CMG and BMG bullets. In my return shots on Turn 2, my MkIV spun and knocked out one of his T-34s with a tasty side shot and the Panther then addled insult to injury by spinning and then destroying the second T34 on a flukey intensive fire shot. A bit lucky but it was definitely needed as I was about to be swamped.

I thought that this effectively stopped Tom's attack on the left side for a while, him being reduced to infantry probes which my scant defenders could easily delay for the time being. But of course, it wouldn't be Tom unless he had some death and glory moments, and so he pushed on with yet another T-34 and out of nowhere pulled out another bounding fire shot (one where I chose not to DFF as I thought he'd never get me with bounding fire) and whacked my MkIV from behind. A bit of poor play by me and another real choker. 3 vs 2 on tank kills, but still no Panthers dead yet.

However, things shortly afterwards got even uglier when, having failed to find 85L APCR, Tom found another snakes from a bounding fire AP shot on my left hand Panther - we thought this was a miss, but just at the last moment, he remembered this was his 8-1 AL which made the shot a hit instead of a miss...the second of Tom's throwaway miracle hits in the game and I was down my third tank - and critically he only needed to get 27CVP off for the win. 3 vs 3 on tank deaths and I'm now even more horribly outnumbered. This was definitely the ugly point of the game for me. Unreal - all my left hand side armour was dead, two T-34s were over there to take advantage of this and they only really needed to worry about low odds, long-range faust shots now.

On the right flank, the early loss of the MkIV had upset my plan and Tom was now locally 4:1 up in tanks on me - this was not good and unless I reinforced, Tom might easily sacrifice a T34 to take on my Panther and then run 2 or 3 of his other tanks off, and at 8CVP a piece, he could be over half-way or better to his VC by the end of Turn 3. So, my reserve Panther had rumbled over there to help out and keep the Russians in an ugly cross-fire position. This meant the middle part of the board was effectively open to a run by Tom's SU-85s but they might still be taking some shots at long range from the Panthers if they dared to.

Tom, ever the optimist, tried to do just this and switched the direction of his attack. A couple of infantry squads made a mad open ground and drew fire from my few right-hand defenders and this opened a gap for a T-34 to make a dash, free of fausts. He almost pulled it off as well as my Panther missed with his first shot, but with a very brave intensive fire attempt, I toasted him from behind on his last hex before exit. It was a huge moment in the game and I had to think long and hard as a broken Panther gun would have been catastrophic, and Tom had played this one really well putting all the really hard decisions back on to me - the best thing you can do as the attacker. But I got lucky, Tom didn't, and it paid off handsomely for me for once.

Still, I wasn't out of the fire yet. My ground level Panther was all shot out, and only my eastern hill Panther was still alive and un-fired - using another T-34, he manoeuvred onto the hill to force me to spin, and afraid of a BFF shot from the side by the Russian, I fired off and missed. However, in another critical moment, I kept rate and managed to roast him on extra MP to scratch my second T-34 of the turn - another huge moment and it was now 5 vs 3 on tank casualties. Then, in probably the biggest move of the entire game, I risked all and intensive fired the Panther yet again and mashed the motion SU-85 that had swung into my sights in the central play area, armour leader and all. A very risky shot, but my gunnery was good, my luck was in and I was riding it bareback!! This was all pretty gruesome for Tom - he had tried every manoeuvring trick in the book and pushed me really hard on all the tough decisions, but at the end of it all, I still had both Panthers left at the cost of three smokin' Russian wrecks. Three intensive fire choices and three kills...huge risks but huge payoffs!

This left a lot for Tom to do, but he wasn't out of the game yet - he still had three tanks left and if he got all three off, all he needed to run off from his infantry was a squad and a half, a task that probably wouldn't be too hard as there was a big exit area and not many defenders to cover it. Tom managed to get one T-34 off past some flailing impotent faust attempts, but his other SU-85 went down to more long range Panther gunnery. Finally his last T-34 was surrounded by landsers and disappeared in a puff of faust smoke. Game over and a convincing win for the men from Munich.

I really liked this scenario, obviously helped by the fact that my dice were hot and shooting sure, but it is a rare example of a meeting scenario where tank manoeuvring is the king. Apart from the Panther shots, there are no sure kills for the all the other tanks and we both suffered several dull 'thonks' from bouncing AP rounds, all of which is part of the beauty of this design, and quite rare for a 1944 eastern front setting. The Germans need to work hard for their positions and to make their tank superiority count, but you do really feel the pressure when one of your precious panzers goes down. The Russians have options here, but the fact that the German's move second, means that much chess-like move and counter move will be happening here. Even if the Russians go with a super big punch, the Germans can easily plan to defend against this and the soft ground conditions mean that re-positioning to try a different approach or defense route gets a bit trickier. Very much recommended and one for armour aficionados everywhere.

That's it from a warm and balmy Luanda. Hope all of you have good gaming while I'm gone! I'm off to the beach for a beer...!

AAR: SP153 The Wrong Side of Victory (Response)

Chris Buehler

I’ll add a few comments to what Tom wrote about our playing of “The Wrong Side of Victory” (SP153 from Schwerpunkt 13). ROAR currently lists this scenario as fairly even 13 to 11 in favor of the Japanese. I don’t have the scenario card handy but IIRC, this 6.5 turn scenario features a reinforced company of Japanese (2 elite, 7 1st line, and 8 2nd line squads) attacking a company of the King’s African Rifles (12 2nd line squads) who had 2 Humbar armored car, 2 squad, LMG, and 9-2 reinforcement group arrive on turn 3. The scenario is set in 1945 Burma but PTO terrain is not in effect with the exception of kunai replacing the grain. Tom and I had been discussing playing a scenario over the last week. We recently finished the 17D scenario of our VotG CG2 where Tom has Germans and had been attacking my Russians. Anyway, Tom wanted to defend and I wanted to play some PTO since I haven’t played much PTO and it’s been years since I last played a PTO scenario (2 or 3 years ago I had the US Marines in “Sea of Tranquility” against Walter’s Japanese cavemen). On a side note, Tom will have plenty of opportunities to defend in the VotG CG2 17N Russian night counterattack.

Back to SP153, the VC were the side with more infantry VP within a given area which was roughly 20 hexes from the Japanese set-up area. The terrain (half boards 5, 32, 36, and 47) was a mix of woods, kunai, and open ground with some small hills. So while I had some cover to work with it comes at a cost of an expenditure of additional MF. Tom’s set up was more concentrated on the northern half of the map, clearly intending to deny the shortest route (in hexes) with the most cover. My assault was up the middle and along the Southern flank. Turn 1 featured my squads running through woods to forward positions where they would LOS to the enemy. During turns 2 and 3, Tom did a nice job of delaying my advance – some nice rolling helped. However, the tide slowly turned and I was able to close on, break, and eliminate some Africans for failure to route. Each of our last turns was a mad dash for the victory area with Tom able to win 14 VPs to 12. I’ll note that Tom was wise to keep his 9-2 near the victory area but he also KIA’d a Japanese 447 trying to scramble across the sunken road on my last turn that ended up being the difference. I was counting on those sons of Nippon to perhaps take a few casualties (red stripe) but move past Tom’s squad into the victory area. Another Japanese half squad came up one hex short.

I did have a few highlights. I was pretty effective with delivering smoke from my 3 knee mortars until all 3 ran out of both smoke and WP rounds. I had a successful bonzai charge through smoke to close and kill a half-squad in CC. I had a tank-hunter-hero that 6ed the ATMM roll but then snaked the CC roll for style points to turn one of Tom’s Humbars into a burning wreck. I dropped a DC on Tom’s broken 9-1 (Lt. Snow), MMG, and broken 447 before they could route away, killing the 447 and wounding Lt. Snow. While he was routing away and trying to block my path, I executed an infantry overrun on Lt. Snow to put him out of his misery.

Overall, it was a great scenario and one that I recommend. Tom played a great game and earned a hard fought win.

Chris

AAR: SP153 The Wrong Side of Victory

Tom Gillis

British: Tom Gillis
Japanese: Chris Buehler

My East Africans pulled a very close one out against Chris's Japanese in 'wrong side of victory'...winner had to have more infantry VPs within a certain distance of a (supposed) water hole on bd 32...I had 14, Chris had 12! Chris had a tank hunter hero blow one of my two Humbar IV ACs to kingdom come, (flamed.) And my other malf'd his MA and 6'd the repair role. For not playing the Japanese very much Chris did great. Even with me having ALL the rolls go my way for the first two turns Chris was in it to the end. The difference being I never sent my reinforcing 9-2 into the battle but had him hunker near the VC area...It turned out to be the correct strategy as he was the difference in VPs...My 9-1 Lt Snow held out on a left flank hill with a 447/mmg for just long enough to delay Chris the vital movement phases to get more troops into the VC area. Lt Snow and all his men perished of course but the time delay may have been the clinch...I deployed the max, (two 447s) at game star t and then deployed by rally phase one more so I had lots of troops to defend my line. Even so Chris killed at least 2 1/2 squads worth of Kenyans for FTR...Those sons of nippon are fast! Actually, mostly by pure luck, I won most of the CCs tho...

I rated it an 8 on ROAR...a must play...

Tomosov

AAR: FT124 Deadly Sleigh Ride

Zeb Doyle

White Russians: Zeb Doyle
Red Russians: Sam Tyson

The Austin Game day went off well, thanks to Rick stepping up after Mike S. had to back out. Thanks, Rick! We didn't have a huge turnout, but those that could make it really enjoyed the hospitality. Highlights included Eric's paradropping Germans being slaughtered before they could pick up their weapons canisters by David Hailey's British in ASL97 A Desperate Affair, Brian Roundhill's Japanese coming up just short against David Longstreet's Gurkhas in J9 A Stiff Fight, and best of all, Rick working to get some new blood into the hobby by playing a neighborhood kid in an ASLSK scenario (although knowing Rick, he probably diced him AND sleezed him and sent him home in tears).

As for myself, I had the pleasure of crossing blades with Sam Tyson in FT124 Deadly Sleigh Ride. This scenario is from the Franc Tireur Out of the Cellar pack 4, and covers the Russian Civil War. Based on the whole two scenarios from the pack I've played, I'd highly recommend it to anyone interested in ASL off the beaten path. The pack has lots of interesting situations and (IMO) really hits the sweet spot of having just enough SSRs to make it unique and give it a good feel without bogging down in tons of chrome and extraneous detail. If you had the vanilla but good for tournament Schwerpunkt scenarios at one end of the spectrum, and the Operation Chariot chrome-fest at the other, this would be somewhere in the middle.

Speaking of interesting situations, FT124 Deadly Sleigh Ride has a historical introduction and aftermath that sounds like it's right out of a movie. The Supreme Regent of the White Russians has been betrayed by the Czech Legion, which has handed him over to the Red Army in exchange for safe passage out of Russia. A faction of the White Army, led by their best general, rushes to attack the town where the Regent is held, but attracts the attention of another Red Army group, which immediately commences a pursuit. In ASL terms, this works out to a small Red Army garrison on board 12, a big White Army force attacking across a steppe board, and then a big Red Army force entering behind the White Army and also attacking across the steppes. At game end, the Whites win if they control most of the board 12 town, and since there are all kinds of cavalry and sleighs and wagons and wagons with mounted guns and such, it ends up being a very entertaining swirling fight with a flavor I can only describe as "pre-internal combustion engine Mad Max."

Sam ended with the Reds and put together a very nice defense. He got a lot of HIP stuff and a choice of which units to take on the defense, so it was pretty hard for me to figure out what I was facing and where it was. However, the Whites have a big numerical advantage to start the game and so I pretty much ran straight at the town, hoping not to get hurt too badly. This didn't work very well...Sam had all his HIP guys in good spots (I like finding HIP stuff, but not when it comes at the cost of turning my DC-carrying 4-4-7 cavalry unit into a broken 1-3-7 with no DC) and he also rolled a ton of threes. For a while, it seemed like every single 1-2 or 2-2 he fired turned into a KIA or K/ that ELRed my unit. I was getting pretty frustrated, especially when he killed some sleighs with really low-odd shots but my SAN was also three and that started to work over Sam's backfield, breaking some key units and wounding one of his three leaders.

As I pushed forward, leaving a trail of bloody and broken conscripts behind me, Sam unveiled his guns and (importantly) started rolling 11s. Pretty soon, he'd lost two of his three guns and two of his three MMGs (all B11) to his bad dice, and it was now his turn to feel frustrated. That really took the pressure off me, and allowed my White Russians to push into the outskirts of town and capture Sam's last MMG and gun just as the wave of pursuing Red Army units arrived in my rear. That really put me back in a tricky position. I had a CVP cap that I was uncomfortably close to after the first few bloody turns, and had a bunch of wagons, sleighs, and guns that were threatened by Sam's reinforcements and that I couldn't allow to be captured. At the same time, the clock was ticking, and my battered forces still had a lot of buildings to take and weren't making much headway in the town.

Thankfully, I'd left my White Russian general in the rear, along with some MMGs and machine-gun carts. The general was historically suffering from frostbite, but apparently was a pretty formidable leader. This is represented by an SSR that has him as a 10-3 leader that must be in a sleigh or machine-gun cart he cannot voluntarily abandon, which is annoying, but he can direct fire and use his leadership DRM as if a hero out to any range, which is pretty cool. That combination of fragility and immense power makes him difficult to use in attacking the town, since he's extremely vulnerable to MMG and gunfire, but perfect for slaughtering Red Army guys coming across the steppes. A series of 16-2 and -3 attacks, along with a ton of very timely ROF, pretty much made hash of Sam's reinforcements and should have cheered me right up.

Back in the town, though, things weren't going so well. Sam had gone back to rolling threes, and so every attempted Dash further into the town was bloodily rejected. Even worse, on the one flank where things were going well, I ran into the halfsquad from hell. This thorn in my side started life as a full squad, got encircled, shrugged off several decent IFT attacks (6+1, 8+0, etc), was Meleed by a squad, killed it and was only CR'd in return, grabbed an LMG and mowed down two squads with it, was Meleed by a HS, while in the Melee was encircled again, survived an 8+1 and a 12+0 attack, rolled snakes in the Melee to kill my HS and generate a leader and Withdraw to a spot where he could kill yet another squad of mine for FTR. I could hardly believe it when finally a 3-4-7/hero combo were able to kill him off in CC.

With only a few turns remaining, and the HS from hell finally gone, my sniper woke back up and broke a few more of Sam's troops. That was tough luck on him, since the garrison had been pretty whittled down, and every remaining unit was pretty important. When the sniper got really lucky and took out Sam's 8-1 (by far his best leader) and the squad with it on the LLMC, I was suddenly in good shape. Rallying those guys was almost impossible too, since they were all conscripts at this point, and Sam only had a wounded 6+1 and an 8+1 commissar remaining for leaders. It was pretty funny, albeit in a pathetic way, watching the 6+1 try to rally a 5ML conscript squad. Sam would roll a 5 and get all excited, before realizing that wasn't actually good enough. Even better was when he actually rolled snake-eyes on the rally; the resulting HOB roll was Disruption. This little performance naturally got Sam even more frustrated than I'd been earlier, and with my MMGs and war wagons redeploying from the slaughter on the steppes and into the town, he decided to concede on turn six of eight.

I can't fault him for the decision, since I was in pretty good shape, but I was sad to see the game end. It was a very fun scenario for both of us, even with a much higher than normal frustration factor. That mixture of fun and frustration seemed to fit the situation pretty well. After all, it's a brutal civil war, and what you're fighting over is just some frosty chunk of steppe way out in the wastelands of far east Russia. It's like getting into a knock-down, drag-out brawl with your brother over a half-bottle of vodka. Win or lose, you're not going to end up feeling good. Getting back to the scenario, along with the high fun factor, I think the balance is pretty good too. It felt to me like our wild dice mostly canceled out, as did our mistakes.

Quickly going over those: the Red Army has the option to Battle Harden units during set up, although at a cost in VC. Since two of the three Red Army leaders are a 6+1 and a 8+1, I think it's important to BH at least those two to try and avoid Sam's late-game rally problems. Sam also set up his pillboxes with a great field of fire covering the steppes. Since the White Army has such a superiority at the start, I was able to capture them and really channel the Red Army reinforcements coming in on the same board. This isn't nearly as much of a no-brainer as battle-hardening the leaders, since the MMGs there really did chop me up, but I'd at least throw some wire on the pillboxes to make them more defensible if you do want them there.. For myself, I attacked on too broad a front. It worked well at the start in finding everything, but then my offensive stalled out pretty much everywhere, and I had to get lucky with Sam breaking both guns on my left flank to get things going again. I also did a pretty poor job preparing for the Red Army reinforcements, leaving a lot of equipment in spots where it could potentially get captured for lots of CVP. It was lucky the pillboxes were positioned to channel Sam's poor boys onto my 10-3 Darth Vader. That's a good example of our mistakes canceling out...in the end, my force proved slightly more resilient and that was the difference. One other point: obviously all these comments are made with the benefit of hindsight, and are in no way a knock on Sam.

Anyway, this was supposed to be a quick game day report, so I'll stop here with one lastl recommendation for FT124 Deadly Sleigh Ride. It's a fun Mad Max romp that also requires a good amount of thought and offers a unique ASL situation. Thanks again to Sam and Rick for making game day happen for me, and thanks to you for reading!

Zeb

AAR: DASL A - To The Last Man (Part I)

John Hyler

Russian: Mark Carter
German: John Hyler

KAPOW!!!!!!!...............................?????????....................................WTF!?!?!?!?!?

That was the sound of Mark Carter's first-ever (I believe) crit/dud DR sequence. It came in turn 2 or 3 of our scenario, DASL-A, To The Last Man. One of his JS-IIs got the critical hit with its 120L gun. The doubling of FP made it a 48, or a heavy payload -2DRM on the 36+ column. That, coupled with the -3 from the reversed building TEM made for a 36 down 5 DR for Mark. Anything but a dud would have rubbled the hex, perhaps starting a chain reaction rubbling of adjacent building hexes. Alas for Mark, his dice betrayed him with a 12. Amidst the hooting, he took it with great equanimity. Welcome to the club, Mark.

Among other difficulties, his leader who was manning the field phone broke due to 9-2 directed MG fire. After rallying and moving back into the hex where the field phone was located, at least three unsuccessful attempts were made to recover the phone (Brrrring....Brrrrrring) before finally finding it, only to draw a red card.

We made it through four turns, with my Germans holding off and attriting Mark's forces on one side. While Mark's forces are holding a leg, Matt Zajac's Russian Guards are inexorably working their way from the other side of the board where my forces are fighting a rearguard action. I made a bad mistake in my turn 4, voluntarily breaking a squad w/LMG that was in a factory hex. He failed the interdiction DR. I should have kept them there to die, while delaying Matt's Russians. Now, Matt has an unimpeded advance into the first factory, and an easier timetable to attempt to capture the required number of buildings. Stupid...stupid.

We have had a lot of fun thus far, all of us enjoying the scenario immensely. I am in the process of recording the positions to resume the carnage at a later date with Russian 5.

John

AAR: WCW7 Eye Of The Tiger

Walter Eardley

Germans: Rupert Cullum
Russians: Walter Eardley

Rupert and I squared of in the WCW classic Eye of the Tiger. Since I selected the scenario, Rupert picked the attacking SS. The big 280mm OBA was a big dud doing nothing but create a few shell holes and setting some woods on fire. None of this had any affect on the game. Rupert pushed his left flank initially and then decided to switch to a more central attack. On turn four, he was in an excellent position to break through the center with my VBM frozen 9-1 HMG/458 but a 2MC on a 348 and 658 stack left two broken 348s which died for FTR. This took the wind out of his attack and left him dashing for buildings. In the end, I was able to kill both of the ACs and both PzIVhs plus enough infantry to push him over the 30CVP restriction.

Over all, this scenario lived up to the hype. It was very close until that fateful 2MC. If these guys had survived, I would have been pushed out of the buildings in the center and he would have been well positioned to take the back three buildings.

AAR: SP19 Men From Mars

Matt Schwoebel

American: Matt Schwoebel
Japanese: Zeb Doyle

I hosted an impromptu mini-game day at my place on Saturday. Zeb has returned to the Center for Treatment of Addiction to Squad Leader after too long a hiatus. Seeing the report by Hyler wherein Zeb apparently forgot how to roll dice in his rustiness (if not how to criticize Nick's tastes in everything, always a popular pasttime that we all will soon miss out on), I decided to challenge Zeb to a game. It turned out Eric, a mere several minute walk away (thankfully a far distance when he drinks), and David Longstreet were playing Saturday as well. Thusly the mini-gameday was born.

Zeb and I played Men from Mars (SP19) set in 1944 Burma. I as the defending Allied Chinese/American player and Zeb the attacking Japanese. The game is played on the A-P half-boards of 37 and 38 with the airfield on 38 replaced by overlay 1. Both boards have a mixture of dense jungle, kunai, palm trees, the occasional patch of bamboo or swamp, and rare open ground. The Japanese achieve victory for their immortal Emperor by capturing more than half of the huts on the overlay (11 total) within 8 turns. The area around the huts was the largest area of relatively open ground in the game, but had cluttered terrain in front and to the sides of the village. A meandering road from the left edge of 37 (defender's eye) curves to go through the center of 38 existed.

The imperial occupation force enters from the long edge of board 37. It has 4 leaders (9-1, 9-0, 8-0, 8+1), 15 1st line 4-4-7 squads, 2 crews 2-2-8, 1 HMG, 1 MMG, 3 LMG, and 2 knee mortars. They also have a radio for 70mm OBA with plentiful HE ammo. Assuming a fire group led by the 9-1 and the 8+1 as radioman, this still left two leaders to launch banzai charges through mostly cluttered terrain. SAN 4, ELR 3.

The initial Allied force is primarily Chinese. A rather low firepower group of a 9-1, 7-0, 11 1st line 3-3-7 squads, 1 MMG, 1 LMG, and 1 Lt Mtr (German 50mm). They may set-up anywhere on Board 38 and hexes 5 or less on Board 37. They get 6 extra concealment counters, 10 foxholes, and of course 2 Dare Death squads. The minimal initial American force on Board 38 only has a 9-1, 2 elite 6-6-7 squads, 1 MMG, and 2 foxholes. Two squads may set up HIP. 3 machineguns to leave resid against screaming Japanese seemed a bit light, gulp. On turn 4 the American reinforcements enter from any outside edge of Board 38, but it must be recorded before play begins (curiously does this mean before set-up or before the first roll of dice? And must it be announced?). They included 9-1, 8-1, 6 elite 6-6-7 squads, and 2 MMG. I chose the long, rear edge of 38 to enter reinforcements. Mainly because I feared a HMG firelane if they came in from either short side edge... SAN 3, ELR 2 (Chine se)/ELR 4 (Americans).

Looking at the boards, the cluttered terrain meant setting up too far forward with 3-3-7 squads was in all liklihood suicidal. All told I had 3 squads on board 37 and they were close to the heart of the defense in and around the village. One 3-3-7 with an LMG in a FH took advantage of a board edge water obstacle (pond to non-ASLers) and adjacent swamp hexes to look down the road on board 37, hopefully to slow down any mad dashing Japanese and then run back towards the village unscathed. Two squads set-up together in front of the village on Board 37 at the edge of a jungle area in FHs to hopefully beat up any Japanese squads charging up the center before falling back into the village. A couple of hexes away a couple of dummies also were on this jungle clump edge.

The defense centered on the village itself. The Japanese would need a minimum of 2 turns to get to the village edge, which meant surviving for 2 turns with enough of the village huts in Allied hands when the cavarly... err American infantry... arrived. A couple of convenient bamboo/swamp clusters limited the Japanese to two narrow channels up the middle (leftish flank, dead center along road) and a wider one on the right flank (defender's perspective throughout). I boresighted the American MMG (9-1, 6-6-7, FH) on a key jungle hex (1 of 2 bottleneck hexes) for the furthest left channel and sat the group adjacent to the center road. The other American squad looked straight down the road to a jungle hex 6 hexes away (full 6 FP on Japanese stopping there) and was in the center of the village. The Chinese 9-1, MMG, 3-3-7 combo had a hex on the right flank boresighted that I thought had a Japanese crossing sign (palm tree hex instead of the 2 MP kunai hexes) and was in a FH be hind bamboo in the front right portion of the village. The right flank had so much kunai and palm trees to provide cover I seriously doubted I could defend it. The remaining 7 Chinese squads, mainly in FHs, were scattered around the edges of the village to whittle Japanese forces while falling back. The 2 HIP squads being in kunai on the left and right flanks along attack routes. The second of 2 bottleneck hex on the furthest left route was boresighted by the Lt Mtr. Two further stacks of 2 dummies - one in center of village and one on far right flank. I had two Dare Death squads towards the center of the village... But they didn't end up getting an opportunity to use this ability as both were laterd needed away from leaders who could launch them on their berserk attack.

Gleefully lining up stacks of Japanese squads, Zeb was ready to play. Perhaps bringing a katana and rising sun headband was a bit too theatrical... That's when Eric and David arrived. As the cats ran for +3 TEM, we set-up the new arrivers with a table and then went back to our game.

Zeb dutifully lined up bunches of squads on the board edge and preceded for 2 turns to march forward. I waited impatiently as he counted 2, 4, 6, 8, who do we appreciate, ZEB! The 3-3-7 with LMG successfully intimated Zebbites from dancing down the road.

On Turns 3-4 things started to get interesting. The Japanese began to swarm through the two narrower centerline gaps and around the right flank. Knee mortars put smoke down making the normally dangerous road an easy cake walk. Neither of my MMGs managed to use their boresighted hexes. The Japanese kill stack with 9-1, HMG, MMG, crews and a squad advanced into the American boresighted hex, proceeded to fire in their Prep, and although the American 9-1 escaped the MMG squad broke. In fact, this squad carrying the MMG would never rally. My Chinese MMG tried to stem the tide, but rarely managed rate and broke for a half turn as well. The two forward 3-3-7 squads I had hoped would fall back were swarmed by Japanese and went down in place (failure to route after breaking while encircled).

It sure sounds like things are going poorly for the Allies... But a strange thing happened. The Japanese failed just about every single morale check. Magic 8s and 9s kept appearing whenever Zeb had to roll. The remaining 6-6-7 squad even smoked in managed good shots. The 3-3-7 squads fired effectively too, getting shots from 2-2 to 2+1. I rolled a lot of 5s and 6s. All of the vanguard Japanese half-squads so useful for cutting off route paths were failing checks. At the end of Turn 4, Zeb had troops in the front center area of the village, ones moving into my right flank, a single squad breaking around the left flank after slogging through swamp, and even the 70mm OBA was being lined up. My 2 HIP squads did go into melee with Japanese squads and evened out losses.

Then the 'cavalry' arrived on my Turn 4. Turns 5 and 6 are blurrier than they should be. American firegroups with 8 or 20 FPshots led by -1 leaders firing through +1 to +4 hinderances quickly took their toll on the Japanese. Initially I did not advance the reinforcements more than 3-5 hexes from the board edge, but with the village being relatively open and huts only causing hinderances if an actual hut depiction is crossed... Many Japanese units went from full to striped to half-squads in 1.5 game turns.

At the end of Japanese Turn 7 (I think), Zeb's Japanese had 1 or 2 hut hexes in their possession (needing 6) and I had slowly moved the American reinforcements further into the village. The Japanese artillery lost radio contact and had only managed to break/reduce one squad (one of my Dare Death squads). The center of Zeb's line had been mauled. The right flank attack thwarted. Interlocking Chinese squads and American squads meant any break for the village would require surviving some 6 down 1 shots. With more half-squads than striped squads left (and too few of either), Zeb conceded the game as he didn't have enough force to prevent me from retaking his limited gains.

I had a very short time to bask in the glory of my victory. We ate The Hub sandwiches from just down the road. Eric and David were locked in their scenario and having fun. Zeb and I had played a full 6.5 turns by 1:30 p.m. Zeb graciously offered me a beer to try. It was an imperial stout (read: malt liquor equivalent). I drank it all unexpectedly and he then pulls out some scenarios to look at from the recent Normandy pack...

As the food and beer sunk into my ASL-dazed brain, I agreed to attack as the Brits against Zeb's SS Germans in First Cristot. This game is 6 turns and has an unusual SSR where the British may move the infantry or the armor for their player turn (not both). The British infantry (8 squads with 2 leaders) must have 5 VP reach three small hills at the end of Board 55 (?). To get there they must pass through lots of bocage protected by a small German infantry force (3.5 squads with some concealment counters) with a crewed 50L AT gun. The British armor is in a small village surrounded by the hills and separated from their infantry by the SS. The SS also receive 2 Panthers entering from the edge closest to the British armor (4 x 75 Shermans, 1 Firefly) on Turn 1. The British infantry may move as few as 12 hexes to reach the nearest hill.

Well, there isn't much to describe... I decided to attack on a narrow front and make for the closest hill. Bad things happened. As Nick will testify, 50L guns may go on terrible, terrible rate streaks. I think Zeb shot 8 or 9 times in a row with negative modifiers making half of the hits 12 FP criticals. The 6-5-8 with MMG chewed up more British infantry. We switched roles and rolls with me rolling 9s on morale checks and him rolling 5s on attacks. My tanks did well trading a 75 Sherman for a Panther. But in a mere 3 turns I ended up with an infantry force sized 4 VP (vs. 19 original VP) and conceded.

We discussed it afterward and with such a small German infantry force I should have attacked on the broadest front possible. A missed shot by Zeb's infantry or good shot by my infantry and a gap could be quickly exploited. I attacked towards the nearest objective and Zeb smartly defended that with his greated concentration of FP.

Eric and David played away until 7:00 or so a couple of hours after Zeb had left. All in all a great time.

Now I am looking forward to the arrival of Houstonites this Saturday!

Thanks for reading!!

Matt

Alert Levels around the globe

A Repost From Gents Down Under...

The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies all but ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorised from "Tiresome" to a "Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was during the great fire of 1666.

The Scots raised their threat level from "P*ssed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards" They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front-line in the British army for the last 300 years.

The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide". The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France 's white flag factory, effectively paralysing the country's military capability.

It's not only the French who are on a heightened level of alert. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout loudly and excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides."

The Germans also increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbour" and "Lose".

Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual, and the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels .

The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy.

Americans meanwhile are carrying out pre-emptive strikes, on all of their allies, just in case.

New Zealand has also raised its security levels - from "baaa" to "BAAAA!". Due to continuing defence cutbacks (the air force being a squadron of spotty teenagers flying paper airplanes and the navy some toy boats in the Prime Minister's bath), New Zealand only has one more level of escalation, which is "Sh*t, I hope Australia will come and rescue us".

Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be right, mate". Two more escalation levels remain, "Struth!', "I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend" and "The barbie is cancelled". So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.

AAR: BFP67 Coke Hill - response

Zeb Doyle

John, thanks a lot for taking the time to write up an AAR and for the kind words. Although I don't think you missed or omitted anything, I'd like to respond with my view of the action and give my own idea of the balance. So, here's my official BFP-67 Coke Hill AAR:

It all started with a white-knuckle drive from Austin to Houston on Friday. The plan was to spend the evening giving our own Nick Drinkwater a bon voyage before the oil industry drags him off to Angola, and then spend Saturday dicing John into oblivion. Things didn't start so well due to a delayed start and a pouring rainstorm following me all the way to Nick's house, but at least I arrived in one piece. The evening didn't improve, with Nick dragging me off to see Avatar, and afterward trying to convince me that the movie is a complex allegory about the American exploitation of the West and its indigenous people (for those who don't know, Nick is British and loves to tweak his American cousins about it). I swiftly reclaimed the moral high ground by pointing out that Avatar is clearly about the depredations of his own beloved oil industry. Forced to the defensive by my superior logic and wit, Nick quickly shifted gears to an asinine discussion of how to represent the final battle scene in the movie using ASL:

"So, the big hammer-head rhino thingies, are they more like a Panther or a Tiger?"
"Uh...I don't really care"
"No, no, wait, I've got it...Sherman jumbos are perfect for them. OK, and on to the Navi...obviously heroes, but I think their inherent range is greater than four, don't you? Oooh, and they need ROF, definitely!!! Two or three for the ROF???"
"Still not caring..."

I was never so happy when the sun came out Saturday morning and we headed out to actually play some real ASL. BFP-67 is a really good-looking scenario designed by Chas Smith and out of the just released Blood and Jungle pack. It's set in Borneo, 1945, and the attacking Aussies are trying in seven turns to capture eight level two hill hexes on board 50 and then move 24 EVP onto or north of hexrow U. They have plenty of troops to do this, with 14 elite squads, OBA support, and three Matildas, including a very nasty flame-spouting variant (I love the name Grond for this, BTW).

This is no simple mop-up mission, however; the Japanese may be at their end of their tether, but they still have plenty of teeth. Seven squads and four crews are supported by a 10-2 leader, a .50cal HMG, 2x DC, 2x MMG, a 75mn ART gun, several pillboxes, trenches, mines, and panjis. Factor in the jungle terrain, the lavish late-war availability of THHs and possibility of A-T Set DCs, and it's really a dream scenario for anyone that likes to construct intricate Japanese defenses. That certainly includes me, and so I was really looking forward to the game.

So, all excited, I showed up, greeted John, pulled out the required gear, and then hit the first of several speed bumps that was to doom me to defeat. Although we'd arranged to play days earlier, John wanted to be as fair as possible and roll for sides. Given that he's a relative PTO newbie, and I love playing the Japanese, I probably should have simply claimed that side and prepared a set up. Instead, we waited until that morning, the dice spoke and gave me the defense, and I set up with the clock ticking away in the background.

This was actually a fairly minor factor in the game, but I mention it because I disagree with John's assessment that the scenario has a somewhat pro-Australian tilt. As it turned out, I had bigger problems and even having an unlimited amount of time to prepare would only have slightly improved things for me. That's because my last ASL game was in June, and I was super duper rusty. As an especially embarrassing example, I thought long and hard about what to do with my DCs. Using one as a AT-Set DC per G1.6121 would be cool, especially since the Aussie tanks are 7 EVP each, can almost satisfy that part of the VC by themselves, are extremely difficult for the Japanese to deal with, and there are lots of road hexes. However, after some quick thinking, I arrived at what I thought was an even more clever plan.

Looking at board 50, the gully makes it very hard, especially for armor, to get to the back hill without using the V5 bridge. I'd just use my 10-2 to quickly set the DC, drop the bridge, and then the double crest-line created by the gully and the level one hills would prevent the nasty Matildas from crossing anywhere but on the most remote flanks. I could put all kinds of weapons back there and keep them safe from the 32FP mobile flame-tank! Even if I'd been right about the rules, I then only put the .50 cal on that side of the gully. The ART gun, in particular was way too far forward, and would have done much better on the far side of the gully as well. That's how I ended up picking a bad plan and only following half-way through on it. Did I mention I was rusty?

At any rate, I made a few other minor gaffes during set-up with my squad placements, but I'm sure you're all getting tired of my whining, and so I'll try to focus on the positive. I was happy with my pillboxes in level two hill hexes in X2 and X3, each one guarded by HIP units and covered by panji and mines. The overall plan was to keep the .50 cal and 10-2 in the rear, chopping up the Aussies as much as possible and the rest of my covering force just running out the clock via delay tactics. I wasn't optimistic about taking out a tank and so I figured John would achieve the EVP target. My real hope of victory was to hide the pillboxes until late in the game. Hopefully at that point, the Aussies wouldn't have the time to clear out both the guarding units and the pillbox units and advance inside to actually Control every last level two hex.

Since John has already done a great job of describing the action, I won't be too detailed here. The opening phase saw the Aussies coming on and picking off two of my squads I'd left too far forwards. Some lucky CC rolls for me allowed me to trade bodies pretty equally, but I didn't slow John down at all and he was rightfully happy to kill Japanese at a one-to-one ratio. Meanwhile, my genius idea of blowing the bridge wasn't going so well. Needing a five or less on one die to place the DC (using a squad and the 10-2), I rolled a six and my best leader was kept away from the .50 cal post for a key turn yelling at a bunch of fumble-fingered wanna-be bridge blowers

This was especially annoying as John started to push over the Y6-Y7 hill going for my gun. The .50 cal squeezed off a shot, and would have kept ROF but with the 10-2 MIA they Cowered. That opened up my gun to far too many targets and it was overrun by a Matilda and then swarmed by a platoon of Aussie infantry. This was one of John's two really bad moves of the game in my mind: the gun was in the open and he advanced some concealed infantry in using the cover of the tank. Had he dropped concealment, my crew would have had a non-HtH 1:2 on one squad or something equally pathetic. As it was, the concealed infantry forced an ambush roll, albeit only with a -1 drm in my favor. I didn't get it, and my crew went down quietly as expected, but a 1:6 -2 HtH ambush attack looking for a 6 on the whole stack would have been pretty fun...

As the game wore on, a little bit of the 'non-average' luck occurred that John mentioned in his AAR. None of it was too material though; certainly watching him pull seven straight black cards for his OBA as he went after concealed targets was frustrating, but a series of high scatter rolls and the constricted jungle terrain meant he only ever got one mission off all game anyway. I also had a HS sitting next to an unsupported Matilda fail four straight THH rolls before watching the unscathed tank drive away. That was certainly frustrating as well, but not that unlikely, and I would have needed another good roll even had a THH appeared. Likewise, a Mild Breeze springing up allowed the Matilda sDs to generate some massive smoke screens, but by that point there were just too many Aussies for me to handle. In reality, most of the mid-game consisted of John doing a great job of taking apart my poor set-up and grinding down my Japanese.

By the end game, my brain slowly started to emerge from its self-imposed ASL hibernation and I belatedly remembered that B10.52 prohibits vehicles from crossing double-crest lines, but then goes on to mention that gullies aren't crest-lines. Oooops! If John wanted to, the Matildas could cross the stream despite my bridge-dropping tricks. At this point I realized I'd tried to be far too clever...not going for an A-T Set DC had been a criminal omission. With my prospects dimming by the second, I watched John continue his masterful attack. The .50 cal got smoked in by a MTR, the flame belching Matilda continued to run rampant, and large amounts of Aussie infantry converged on my pillboxes.

At that point, my remaining tricks and traps went off pretty well. Advancing against difficult terrain across a panji hexside into a jungle location containing a HIP Japanese unit is a recipe for disaster. The only problem was that my screening forces hadn't slowed and attrited John's troops enough, and I ended up needing him to advance a huge stack into CC for me to try to get with a good roll. Sadly for the suspense level of the game, he did a great job managing his risk with the infantry and never even gave me the opportunity. In fact, aside from a gratuitous Matilda ESB check that made my eyes go very wide and was his second bad move of the game, John used his position of strength to take me almost completely out of the game. When his avenging infantry peeled back the pillbox guards and finally attacked my Japanese actually huddled in their pillboxes, and I didn't get a miraculous CC result, it was all over on turn five of seven. Ouch!

Well, when I screw up that badly and still have a good time, it speaks very well of both the opponent and the scenario. I want to congratulate John on a convincing win. If my AAR has read like it was written by Paul Carell with a "I lost, he didn't win" style, that's only because I don't want to knock the scenario. I think it was my mistakes and not any balance problems that turned John's well-earned win into a blowout and has him thinking it might be pro-Aussie. For the numerous whiny reasons listed above, I disagree and feel that a solid Japanese set-up has a very good chance of victory.

That brings me to just a few brief scenario comments. The card portrayed a very interesting situation, with a powerful Australian force confronting a very entrenched foe. The Japanese, however, have enough tools at their disposal that it shouldn't devolve into a bug hunt (obviously, with a decent set-up!). Having played it, I still think that's the case. It's a situation where both sides can throw some punches, does a nice job of showing off the respective combatants approach to battle, and offers a lot of fun without being so meaty you can't easily play it in a day. Because of all that, I recommend it....but be sure to read up on A-T Set DCs first and then use one!

Thanks again to John for playing, and thanks to you for reading,

Zeb

AAR: BFP67 Coke Hill

John Hyler

Australians: John Hyler
Japanese: Zeb Doyle

Last Saturday, at Jay Harms' house on our Monthly HHS ASL meeting, I had the pleasure of playing Zeb Doyle. I had not played Zeb since Owl-Con, 2008, so I anticipated a fun match. I was not disappointed. I have wanted to get into the PTO, so we decided upon BFP-67 Coke Hill, from the new Blood and Jungle scenario pack published by Bounding Fire Productions. Upon arrival, we diced for sides with Zeb being the Japanese player. This was good since Zeb is one of our best Oracles of ASL, so I was looking forward to seeing the tricks of the Japanese trade at work.

Prior to game-day, Zeb had vowed vengeance for an Owl-con defeat and had sharpened his skinning knife. I decided that I needed my finely honed fileting knife, and since this was Coke Hill, a 100pound note to savor the fruits of victory should providence smile upon me.

Coke Hill is a small, but violent scenario played on half (R-GG) of board 50. The attacking Australians are tasked with clearing out and controlling all of the level 2 hill hexes south of the stream, and also to have at least 24 exit VP on/north of hexrow U. To accomplish this, they have an impressive force: 14 4-5-8s and 3 2-4-8s, well lead by 5 leaders ranging from 9-1 to 8-0 with an assortment of SW, 3 LMGs, 2 51MTRs, 2 PIATs and 2 DCs. Supporting this INF force are three Matilda IIs, two of the late versions, with HE for the 40L MG, and a very nasty Frog (Grond), with a 32FP flamethrower MA, along with a module of 80mm OBA

The defending Japanese have 7 4-4-7s, 4 2-2-8s and one 1-2-7, lead by three leaders ranging from a 10-2 stud to 8-0. They are well armed with a 50Cal HMG, 2 MMGs, 2 LMGs, 2 DCs and a 50MTR, with a 75* ART, 2 1+3+5 pillboxes, 4 Trenches, 5 hexsides of Panjis and 18 mine factors, along with level A booby trap capability.
After Zeb set up, I arranged my forces to on the south edge for their turn 1 entry. I deployed an additional squads to have an additional four HS for scouts. I split and placed the HSs on the flanks. The remaining squads were stacked with leaders and set up to advance through the jungle primarily on the west side of the road. The tanks set up to enter on the road.

Grond crawled on: Turn 1
In Aussie one, my infantry swarmed on, CXing to move as far as possible. The tanks entered, with one sucessfully popping smoke in BB4, adjacent to concealed Japanese units. Grond followed, belching flame into BB4, stripping concealment, but doing no further damage. There was no DF, and the squads advanced further on board.

During Japanese one, Zeb's attempt to mine the bridge in V5 with a DC failed, prompting a brief discussion of why this should qualify for a Labor -1(-2) counter. The unit in Grond's crosshairs beat a hasty retreat, with other Japanese units repositioning themselves out of LOS.

Grond crawled on: Turn 2
My OBA gained battery access, attempting a SR on X6, where there were concealed Japanese in the huts. It was inaccurate, ending up in DD8. This marked the first turn of overall futility for my OBA. With only a narrow LOS window from my off-board observer, I was forced to draw one additional card after the other. I managed to do this successfully six times in a row during the game before drawing the first red card. The HSs east of the road bumbled into two of Zeb's minefields, one in Y1 and the other in Z2. Y1 survived the attack, Z2 broke. Zeb revealed one of his pillboxes in X2 during my MPh, I think perhaps breaking who they fired at. This prompted me to start one of the 40L Matildas in that direction to provide support, ESBing to stop in Y2. After initially thinking to move Grond forward to X4, I decided to wait with it in a holding pattern in AA5 while the infantry caught up. The HSs west continued to move north on the left flank, being positioned to enfilade another concealed Japanese unit. In CC, a Japanese HS revealed itself and demonstrated how deadly the Japanese are in CC by ambushing and subsequently killing the HS in HtoH combat.

In his turn, Zeb's 75*ART that had been exposed in Y7 by advancing Aussies in Z5 pivoted and fired upon those units. A hit with no rate HOBed and rendered Berserk one squad. I think that the other occupants broke. The squad with leader successfully placed the DC on the V5 bridge, moving into U6 during the APh. Faced with Grond's emminent arrival, the concealed unit in X6 skedaddled down into the dry stream. Zeb attempted with no luck to generate a TH hero from the HS in Y1. In the DFPh, I corrected and dropped the OBA on the ART in Y7, it was inaccurate, scattering to X6. The gun crew survived the FFE.

Grond crawled on: Turn 3
During the PFPh, I found myself on the horns of a dilema. My OBA FFE was sitting on the location that my Berserk squad needed to charge, and I would need to charge through one clear hex of FFE (16 down 2) enroute and another when entering the gun's hex, and this was before facing any DF from the gun. After no little hemming and hawing, I decided to cancel the FFE. The Matilda in Y2 start firing AP rounds into the pillbox with no effect. In the MPh, the berserk squad charged the gun, only to meet with a grisly end, courtesy of a CH. I then moved a 40L Matilda in an overrun attack. The tank survived the DF, which maintained ROF, but the overrun was unsuccessful. Due to the gun maintaining ROF, I left the tank in motion in the hex.. A squad moved into Y4, only to get mowed down by the 50cal in T5. I opted for a more circumspect approach, easing the rest of the OB forward. Another squad, having in an earlier turn survived entry into Zeb's third minefield in Z3, assault moved out into Y3, surviving exit and DF. Grond Moved to X4, but I do not remember if it fired or not. I advanced three concealed squads and leader into the hex with the gun, three squads into Y4, one of which had survived fire from the 50cal during a bonehead stroll through Z4 during the MPh. Two squads, each with a 50MTR and a leader into Z4, and a HS, squad and leader into AA8 where another concealed Japanese squad waited. The squad in Y3 advanced onto the pillbox in X2, only to break and leave various precious body parts dangling on the now-revealed panji they had blundered into. CC saw the gun crew killed and the Japanese squad in AA8 CRed to a half squad and the hex left in melee.

In his turn, Zeb's PF into the stack at Y4 from both the 50cal and a MMG from a newly revealed pillbox in X3 was ineffective except to battle-harden a squad into fanatic status. In the MPh, he unleashed a HIP T-H hero on Grond in X4. It took just about every bit of firepower able to fire at the T-H hero to finally kill him. The leader and squad in U6 moved into T5. A second attempt to generate a T-H hero in Y1 failed. About this time Zeb started to mutter that he was running out of bodies to do things with. In the CCPh, the melee in AA8 ended with both sides completely dead.

Grond crawled on: Turn 4
In my PFPh, my 50MTRs fired smoke at T5 and U5 with success in T5. OBA gained battery access and tried to place a SR in T5, which was inaccurate and scattered off the board, sigh. In the PFPh, two of the three squads in Y4 fired at X3, with no effect on the Japanese in the pillbox. The tank in Y2 finally got results and reduced the crew in the X2 pillbox to a vehicular crew. In the MPh, the fanatic squad in Y4, now kitted with a RPh transferred DC, moved into Y3 and attempted to place it. Deadly accurate fire from the MMG in the pillbox ended that terminally. The three concealed squads and leader in Y7 assault moved into the hut in X6 and the Matilda in X6 moved into the dry stream in V4. Grond started the MPh with a bounding fire shot into X3. I think that it may have killed the crew in the pillbox, but I cannot be sure. It then went into motion and ended up in by-pass in W4 on the W4-X3 hexside. Elsewhere, the HSs on the left flank continued to roll up a gaggle of broken Japanese HSs to the north. There was no advance fire since everybody had shot or moved. In the APh, I eschewed moving the two squads in Y4 either into X3, figuring that I would skewer myself on more panjis, or into Y3, into the CA of the pillbox, so they stayed put. One squad with MTR advanced into Y5.

In his turn, Zeb fired the HMG out of smoke, but now directed by the 10-2 into my squads in Y4. The result was a MC that the first squad passed and the second squad rolled another snakes. The ensuing HOB DR was yet another snakes, resulting in a hero. With very little else able to fire, the turn went quickly. My AR in the DFPh scattered off the board again. In the APh, Zeb advanced a concealed unit into X3, leaving another concealed unit in W3.

Grond crawled on: Turn 5
In the PFPh, I finally drew a red card on the OBA, ending their misery, my MTRs started to home in on his kill stack in T5. In the MPh, the Matilda in Y2 started up and moved to X4 and stopped. The two squads and hero in Y4 assault moved to Y3, surviving the DF. The three squads and leader in X6 moved singly, all ending up in X4. Grond continued the bypass movement in W4, ending up in V3 with the TCA facing W3, stopped and fired again. A three on the 32 column removed the dummy stack. The last Matilda I seem to remember continued moving up the stream bed. Zeb's DF with the 50cal again did not have any effect on the squads in X4. In the APh, the squads and hero in Y3 braved the panji, remained good order and advanced into X2. The squads and leader in X4 all advanced into X3. I was happy that there were no panjis on that side. CC eliminated the Japanese units in both pillboxes, and with that, Zeb conceded.

I liked the scenario, but it has a pro-Aussie feel to it. My moves were far from perfect, but my mistakes were made up by above average dice rolling. I cannot complain. The Matilda Frog destroyed a good third of the Japanese OB all by itself. If the Japanese player can destroy that tank, they have a much better chance of holding off the Australians. Zeb was also the victim of some bad dice. Afterwards, Zeb said that in retrospect, he should have setup some things, like the ART elsewhere. Hindsight being 20-20 that perhaps may be the case. But I had a great time versus a fun and knowledgable opponent, and I was able to see some of the neat tricks that the Japanese can do. Thanks a lot, Zeb. I will approach my next PTO scenario will much less trepidation. We are now 2-2 against each other. I look forward to our next game.

John

AAR: DB074 Sole Success

Mike Cadieux

Good little scenario here. It features early war Filipino troops against Japanese in Dec, 1941. The Filipinos had 10 squads, three leaders, two MMGs, two LMGs, an ATR, mortar, some foxholes and some concealment counters. The Japs had 11 squads equivalents, two tankettes, two mortars, three LMGs, one MMG, one crew and three leaders.

It played quickly with the Japanese making their main assault up the eastern side of board 43 taking advantage of all the kunai and hoping to get close enough to capture the majority of the huts/buildings on the second board, board 17. A small "at start" force moved up the middle of board 43 to prevent the covering force on the west side board 43 from quickly moving east to reinforce.

Two turns to move up midway through the Kunai. No really good shots for the Filipinos due to all the kunai hindrances and restriction against forming FGs in like terrain.

The Japs found they had no WP and quickly depleted their Smoke capability for the force going up the middle. But one tankette kept one enemy squad with MG frozen and smoke enabled the small force to move forward. But the force in the east was also close enough to the enemy to launch a dreaded Banzai charge at the beginning of Turn 3...After the dust settled, the Japanese had eight and a half GO squad equivilants while the Allies had three and a half and the way to the buildings and huts on the eastern side of board 17 was wide open.

The Filipinos surrended at that time feeling they would not have enough strength to counterattack to get the buildings back.

It was fun to acually kick off a Banzai Charge and to see it succeed. Thanks to Greg for a good day.

Mike

The Cactus Farm: The Viewpoint from the Other Side

Nick Drinkwater

Jay is doing himself a bit of a dis-service...my luck wasn't great admittedly but he did set up a really good solid defense and I pretty much found every one of his BS locations the hard way with fairly grim consequences each time - amazingly I walked away from the 9-2/MMG boresight spot with only a couple of pins, but pretty much everyone else got shredded. I smoked in as much as I could but even when shrouded in Smoke, Jay's squeezebore still managed to Shock two Churchills - double acq and the -1 size mod is a killer whether you're +4 trying to shoot out or not.

Never really got any momentum going at all in this one - once the left flank attack had been stopped cold, the re-alignment just cost time and more importantly MF/MP I didn't have and I was going to be forced to cross a cactus hedge the hard way to get anywhere. And I was actually lucky in that Jay X'ed out one of his AT Guns and his 20L AA Gun early in the game as well, but even with this, my infantry just kept failing simple NMCs and worse from his two MMGs, and then scuffed their rally attempts on my own turn (four elevens on rally attempts in a row!!) and it all went south fast. The timing of the Gusts couldn't have been worse as it was just when I needed those Churchills to be at their smokey best...sadly, only one of my Mk I Churchills was placed to place Prep Fire Smoke, the other was re-positioning and of course all SD and SM smoke from the other MkIV Churchills was NA for that crucial turn. As Jay relates the other problem I had was getting the 9MP behemoths through the trail-breaks...pretty much one tank a turn at most when the trailbreak is in Brush and with a smoking, burning Churchill sat there too.

Overall, I did very little damage to Jay: my sniper wounded his 9-2 and he X'ed two of his own guns out, but after 5 turns all I had to show were two dead German para half-squads in return and one broken squad. Amusingly, in my only lucky moment of the game, Jay had a Para h/s fail to place a DC optimally on a Churchill and then failed to kill it with a subsequent ATMM Cc with a squad and a half in CC - the only plus point for me! When we called it, Jay was just about to bring 100mm harassing OBA down onto my few remaining attackers after I had just been ambushed and lost two squads in CC with the wounded 9-2 SMC. I wasn't even at the cactus farm perimeter itself at this point, but this game was pretty much over by the end of turn 2.

This is a pretty good scenario and with slightly less hot German dice and a more competent British attack than I was able to offer it definitely should go more towards the distance...however I still don't fancy the British chances much of having to try and take the Koresh compound against 8 morale defenders in stone buildings with first and second line infantry across the Cactus hedge with 6IFT factor OBA dropping around your ears. And also, having to remove them from entrenchments on the hilltop at the same time.. Didn't even get close on this one!

Verily, spiked on the cactus farm indeed!

Well played Jay...at some point in the future, we'll try again!

AAR: RBF14 Third Hotspot

Jay Harms

Germans: Jay Harms
Americans: Tom Gillis

Game two saw me facing off with Tom in a meaty RBF scenario "Third Hotspot -RBF17". Again I was the German defender against some corn fed Americans. This game was more balanced from a luck standpoint with Tom using his Arty very well. He came on spreadout hoping to surround my troops who are holed up in the board 10 town. Highlights included his 9-2 failing just about every 1MC and NMC I threw at him. Despite this, Tom fought his way into the town at the center, but had a bit more trouble with the two flanking attacks. My left flank held up well thanks to a 81mtr and several 548s with LMGs in foxholes, but even then, I was down to 2 squads holding the whole area. On my right flank, that was where the game really was decided. I had a 75L AT gun way in the rear of my defenses and Tom came zipping around the town to flank me. I took a shot with a 238 and psck an missed his sherman. he then brought up another sherman and a HT with a 667 in it next to the first fired 238. Little did he know, he parked this collection of soon to be wrecks with their sides and rears to my 75L. I kept rate a few time, and there was not much left. My other 81mtr then started dropping rounds on another half track out of site to the 75L, to good effect. With the Americans limited by CVP cap of 52, and my AT gun and mtr accounting for half the points all by themselves, Tom ended up calling it with a turn to go. It was late, and he had reached 48 CVPs and would have need to run the PF / AT gauntlet. Good game also, and Tom is a great opponent. So Tom did not snatch the pebble from my hand yet!

Thanks again all, look forward to the next game!

AAR: J50 The Cactus Farm

Jay Harms

Germans: Jay Harms
British: Nick Drinkwater

First off Thanks to everyone who showed up to make the game day a blast! Doors opened at 9am and by 10 we had 5 games going! I was lucky enough to face off against Nick in ASL J50 - The Cactus farm. And I mean it when I say lucky enough as Nick is an oustanding opponent who plays a quick and very friendly game. Also, his luck is not something you really want to have, so just by playing him, it feels like you are lucky! Nick drew the attacking Brits, and I had the Germans. The scenario is set in Tunisia so this was the long awaited Africa Cup game. The Germans get to set up behind a known AT minefield and have two 40LL AT guns and a 20L AA gun to augment 8 548's led by Lt Stahler. The brits bring on 9 Churchhills, which are veritable smoke making monsters, or at lease should be with normal luck! A dozen 457s and four 447s round out the attack. Victory conditions are for the Brits to take a cactus farm buildings while also denying the germans the nearby lvl 2 hill.
Turn 1 saw the brits enter and Nick failing 7 of 8 smoke rolls. This was not a good start and because of this, I was able to flame a chruchill in one of the 3 known trailbreaks through the 3 AT minefield belt, (hey rolling snakes on the TK is nice). Lt Stahler also contributed when the Brit 9-1, a 457 and dm'ed HMG wandered into a sneaky LOS. I promptly rolled a 3 resulting in diced tommy. Another mmg shot, also wiped out a 247 HS and this really stopped the attack on the german right flank. Although we didnt know it at the time, this was one of the turning points as it forced the Brits to focus on the trailbreak through the minefield, and in effect losing a valuable turn. Turn 2 saw the Brits get some smoke and begin to move through the brush cover (there was very little cover, hence the need for smoke) and begin to threaten the Germans. Just when it looked like the Brits would get in place to threaten the cactus farm, Nick rolled a 12 on weather and gusts magically blew away his smoke cover. Lt Stahler again made his presence known, and my one remaining 40LL got big Shocks on 2 of the Churchills that were through the minefields. This really slowed the attack as it cost the brits another turn, with Nick never really recovering after that. We ended up calling it on turn 5 as there looked to be too little time for the brits get into the cactus farm. Crossing all the cactus hedges is nasty... So thanks to a few lucky rolls and Nicks timely gust roll, the Africa Cup is mine!!

TAP22 Last Outpost: Japanese and Italians fighting????

Zeb Doyle

It's a fun scenario, but I think a bit of a stretch in terms of the history. All the Great Powers had diplomatic outposts in China (I think Shanghai) that the Japanese shut down after capturing them early in WWII. The Italian outpost was the one exception, since they were an allied Axis power, and the embassy just carried on. Apparently, that state of affairs continued until Italy switched sides, triggering a Japanese attack. Now, the historical aftermath is roughly (going from memory here) something like: The Japanese launched a few minor probing attacks, didn't get anywhere, brought up a gunboat and shelled the embassy, upon which the Italians surrendered. Doesn't quite sound like the action should translate into how the scenario plays, which is mostly the typical "launch banzai, VBM freeze, go balls to the wall, etc."

In fairness to the designer, there is a CVP cap for the attacking Japanese, and some interesting VC: the Japanese have to capture two big buildings or score a certain level of CVP. The twist is that prisoners count for zero and you can't invoke No Quarter (again, if memory serves). It gave Schwoebel a great chance to win our playing as the Italians. Fiercely defending two buildings, he had me in a position where I was going to pretty easily take one and have to work really hard to capture the other in the allotted time. Thankfully, I was able to kill off all the Italians in the doomed building and get enough CVP for the win. Had he timed it right and voluntarily broken everyone in the doomed building, I wouldn't have been able to get the CVP and would have needed a lot of stuff go right to take the second building.

To sum up, it's a fun scenario with some design elements that capture the dynamics of the Japanese not wanting to take many losses, and the Italians being willing to surrender after enough of a fight to salve their pride, but I am highly skeptical that the historical intensity of the action ever came remotely close to how the scenario plays out.

Zeb

Hasty Pudding - A Response

Walter Eardley

Nice over view of the scenario. While my dice were not great, I made mistakes early which really cost me in the end. The initial force was setup too close to the entering British. It should have been further back where it could have hopefully survived. My second mistake was attacking one way and then deciding I really needed to attack the other way. While I was able to shift, it left most of my remaining infantry at least one turn behind where they needed to be at the mid/late game. Combine this with my mighty 9-2 doing literally nothing the entire game, my 838s being less then supermen and some timely high dice rolls and the Pudding was not very tasty to me in the end.

Those Matildas are really tough early war. My only real shot at dealing with them was to use the DCs. My one opportunity was thwarted by a TCA spinning 8 up three shot from the CMG which caused my mighty 838 to pinned. I had another opportunity but could not pass the PAATC. On the very last turn, I finally got a 467 and 9-1 in one of the hexes but rolled a 9 and missed the attack. Bummer ... I REALLY wanted to kill at least one of those buggers. The other option for the Matildas was to just out run them. A squad with a leader going CX will be able to leave then in the dust especially if they are moving through a village.

In the end, I was reduced to using Slimy Truck Tactics to try to provide cover. One valiant driver ever tried to over run a squad in the street with an HMG. I really needed that HMG to fire so the driver took one for the team. I still felt like I needed to shower after making the move.

This was also a good example of how HTs can be really dangerous by either providing mobile rolling fire power or death traps for your infantry. I lost 3 of the 4 HTs with a squad inside. This really hurt my chances. On the other hand, I was able to build some very impressive FGs in places where Jay was not really expecting me to be (I think). The final HT I lost, the squad actually was able to roll its CS number and then rolled a 3 on a subsequent 2MC while bailing out. Unfortunately this activated Jays SAN. He rolled a 1 and the sniper selected the abandoning squad to be broken. It died for FTR. I just laughed. Pretty typical "Luck of Jay".

I would definitely recommend this scenario. If you want a challenge, take the Germans and try to kill a couple of those Matildas! It is large so make sure you have plenty of time for the Pudding to setup properly.

Walter

AAR: U19 Hasty Pudding

Jay Harms

Germans: Walter Eardley
British: Jay Harms

Sat down with Walter the over the last month and we just finished playing “Hasty Pudding” out of one of the recent scenario packs (Turning the Tide). It is an old scenario that was redone recently, and featured a “speed bump” force of Germans (two 467s MMG and 9-1) covering a board 7 bridge initially against ~9 squads of brits led by a 9-2, two 94* art guns and 7 rolling pillbox Matildas. On turn 4, a powerful German counterattack enters and then has 6 turns to fight through a town and at least get 1 MMC onto the bridge by game end. The German counterattack has about a dozen AFV’s, a 9-2, and ~12 squads, including four 838 Assault engineers toting bombs. We diced for sides and I got the Limeys. The first 3.5 turns were a blur as I rushed the bridge and wiped out the speed bump at the end of turn 2, but not before immobilizing one of my 3 “good” matildas. I then rushed to set up a perimeter prior to the German counterattack. Having 2 turns to do so, I was able to get most of my units in place, except for the 6 MF Matilda I’s which were also radioless and road MF not allowed. Talk about the slowest tanks ever! Walter initially came at my right flank but as all but about 4 of his tanks had 1 armor, everything was vulnerable to MG fire. His “heavy” tanks had a frontal armor of 3. I was able to slow the attack down, and thanks to Walters’ dice, was able to break and wound his 9-2 and almost 40% of his infantry. The 9-2 eventually rolled a snakes on a rally, but promptly then rolled a 12 on the HoB, and ended the game as a wounded broken disrupted leader…never did rally. I expect the SS shot him afterwords for cowardice. The 838s were no better, and rarely passed MCs. This really slowed the German advance, and by turn 7, Walter had switched the axis of attack to my left flank, and in the one brief showing of good dice on his part, his big tank Mk IV 75* went hull down and shot up and pinned one of my gun crews, broke the other gun crew, and trashed some infantry all in one phase. His armored car then overran the pinned crew, and another tank then finally shot it up and broke it. This opened up my left flank and I was scrambling. Thankfully Walters dice then went cold and both 838 were broken while crossing the roads (under cover of wrecks) by long range 2 even and 4 even shots. With Walter down to only 3 good order squads, and only 2 turns to reach the bridge (where I had my 4 Matilda I’s parked we called it a game. Very fun scenario that has a lot of interesting give and take on both sides. I would recommend it. Early war armor is a challenge, and is a totally different flair than late war monsters roaming the battlefield.

Jay

AAR: SP154 On The Road To Hell

Scott Bell

Germans: Scott Bell
Americans: Dan Preston

I had an opportunity this past Saturday, to play against the Minister of Defense (Dan Preston), in an interesting scenario by Schwerpunkt (SP154 "On the Road to Hell")

This scenario takes place in Holland (1944), and involves a remnant German force that attacks and gains control of a portion of Hell's Highway, near Koevering, Holland. The Allies needed to keep the road open to support the Allied troops that were participating in Operation Market Garden. Therefore, the Allies need to take the road back.

The five and ½ turn scenario seems to recreate this battle quite well. As the Germans, I had a mixed force consisting of an interesting mix of squads as follows:

3 x 5-4-8

2 x 4-6-8

2 x 4-7-7

1 x Jagdpanther

1 x Marder

The Allies have the following:

8 x 7-4-7 (American)

3 x 4-5-8 (Brits)

3 x British Sherman III(a)

The setup for the Germans is restricted to within 4 hexes of a building that is close to the road on board 17. The victory conditions require that the Germans have at least one MMC within 3 hexes of LOS of the road (that runs east-west) or a mobile Jagdpanther with functioning MA within 3 hexes of LOS of that same road.

The Americans that initially enter the board have a very large area with which to enter. They come down from the North. The Americans can choose woods on the left (west) or woods on the right (east) as they attack the Germans to the South. They can also head South thru open ground, directly towards the Germans, though I suspect that few would go that route.

Dan chose to separate his force into 2 parts. His larger force of Americans and British squads attacked my "left" flank. Dan used a smaller American infantry group along with his Sherman tanks to come down towards my "right" flank. As the Germans, I pivoted my Jagdpanther, towards my right flank, along with my supporting squads (with PF) to protect against my tank being swarmed by the Sherman tanks.

I was in a classic "2 front" situation, and was reminded of why this is so undesirable. Initially my flanks were holding up quite well. My initial decision was to hold firm in my position with the Jagdpanther, in order to maintain the strongest defensive position possible in anticipation of being swarmed by the Sherman tanks. In hindsight, this is where I believe I probably lost the game.

Dan did an "excellent" job of exercising patience. He held firm on my right flank with his smaller force of squads and the tanks (rather than immediately engaging), and waited for his force to my left flank to be completely engaged. This, in my opinion, is where Dan won the game.

This aspect of the game was the most interesting part, for me. Many years ago when I used to spar in Tae Kwon Do, I trained and fought against multiple opponents, which was a very difficult but very necessary part of my training. Trying to fight 2 people at once is a losing proposition, and you have to actually engage in such a fight to truly understand the disadvantage. The strategy to fight multiple opponents is to fight against one person, and to use him as a shield to keep between yourself and the second opponent. It requires a lot of movement during the course of engagement. The only other option is to attempt to "take out" preferably by KO, one of your opponents quickly, to return the odds to 1:1.

This scenario reminded me of my earlier sparring days. What I should have done, in my opinion, was to use my Jagdpanther and a mobile force, to quickly engage the smaller American force along with the Sherman tanks on my right flank, in an attempt to quickly destroy this force; to eliminate the two front situation that I faced. I recognized this too late, however.

My left flank deteriorated more quickly than I anticipated. I went after the Sherman tanks a couple of turns too late. I did manage to destroy 2 Sherman tanks with my Jagdpanther, which might have made more of a difference, had I done it a couple of turns earlier.

My left flank quickly broke down to the assaulting American squads. Those 7-4-7 squads are awesome on the attack. I did not have enough defensive firepower to break them with any regularity, and Dan was able to move adjacent to my squads for multiple and powerful shots during the AFPh. In this manner, Dan was able to whittle my forces down by breaking them and killing them before they could rout. My situation became bleaker as my Marder tank, which entered on turn 2, broke its gun on the first shot. I immediately began a systematic and desperate retreat to the south, moving further away from the road that was a part of my victory conditions. The game was slipping away from me.

At this point, it was apparent that I was not going to be able to retake ground that was close enough to the road. Therefore, I made a decision to fall back with a major hook movement towards my left flank, in an attempt to get at least one squad close to the road (further west) to fulfill my victory conditions. My Jagdpanther moved back and to the left (west) towards that same objective. Basically, I used every available squad to move at full speed in that hook movement to try to get around Dan's attacking front, in order to gain LOS to the road. Initially it looked like I might make it. Dan, however, did an excellent job of shifting with me, and by using the road was able to get back in front of me.

On my final movement phase, I had 1 squad, 1 half-squad, along with 2 leaders and my Jagdpanther, in position to view the road. Now, all I had to do now was to survive. During the AFPh of my final turn, I fired my Jagdpanther at Dan's infantry, to gain target acquisition for his final assault. On that shot, I broke the gun on the Jagdpanther, which eliminated that tank for victory condition purposes. This enabled Dan, on his final turn, to swarm my very small remaining force that had the LOS to the road, for the win. Even with a functioning gun, it is still doubtful that I could have survived Dan's final assault, which easily overwhelmed what I had left.

It was a very interesting game, and Dan and I both enjoyed this one immensely. According to ROAR, this one is about dead even on balance. In the final analysis, I really enjoy watching a good plan of attack unfold as this one did. Dan executed one of the better and more tactically coordinated attacks that I have witnessed. He has always been an excellent defensive player, which he prefers. He had wanted to develop his skills on the offensive side. I would say he has "arrived." Judging from the confident grin on Dan's face at games end; I would say he knew that as well. Nicely done!

For those who have not played this one, I would recommend that you add it to your list. It is a lot of fun.

Regards,

Scott

AAR: SP83 Boeinked

Nick Drinkwater

German Player [ELR 3, SAN 4]: Nick Drinkwater
British Player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: John Hyler

This is a fun mid-sized scenario that demonstrates the full majesty of a British set piece infantry attack with all the toys. The Brits need to take 4 multi-level stone buildings in the centre of the Board 46 village from a tough little German defense of 7 x 4-6-7, two Pak 40s and two Stugs with OK leadership to back them up. The Brits get seven Churchills of different varieties to assist them, all of which are veritable smoke machines. The best one is probably the single Churchill MkV with a 95* gun and S9 plus the usual ton of SD, SM and even WP - nasty for infantry if this one gets going. They also have four of the Churchill MkIV with a 57L gun and only limited HE, but again good SD and SM capability. Finally, they also have two Churchill MkVIIs with a proper 75 gun and again, you get it, more SD and SM capability.

In addition the Brits get a company of 4-5-7s, with a couple of mortars (for more smoke) and a couple of PIATs. Finally, they also receive two Bren As to do annoying scouty, encircly things. A good force and with the huge amount of smoke assets, one more than capable of getting the job done.

One of the cool things about this game is that the To Kill rolls of all the main AT assets will typically be either 9 or 6 for the Germans against the 8/11 AF of the Churchills and about 5 or 6 for the various Churchill guns against the 8AF Stugs - the PIATs with their TK of 16 are very powerful with a kill of 8, but the best thing here is that overall there is no surefire guarantee kill for either side, and hence getting optimum positions for rear and side shots may be important.

Looking at the board configuration, the fast way into the village is directly down the length of Board 46, but the Brits do have the open terrain of Board 44 to consider too - the Germans need to think about this as well. There is a good transverse hedge on Board 46 that can form a temporary halt line to the Brits, but it is important to think about where British armour could get to at the end of Turn 1 when planning the initial setup of the Stugs in particular. I was a little bit lax on this as I had left a Stug up there supported by a couple of squads, but John's opening turn moves were well planned and left my exposed Stug at the mercy of a Churchill IV by the end of Turn 1 - poor planning by me.

The rest of John's opening assault was textbook smoke, armoured assault and move and my only good shot from a level one, long range MMG resulted in a single pin. John sent a couple of Churchills down the Board 44 axis together with the two carriers whilst the infantry all solidly pushed hard into the woods and over the fields on Board 46.

A key moment happened early in German Turn 1 - my threatened Stug had already turned in Brit 1 Defensive Fire and on a laser thin LOS, had acquired the Churchill. In German Turn 1, I decided to gamble and stay where I was and take the shot and luckily found the APCR on a three - even hitting the hull, I was now able to put a shell through it and the first Churchill was dead - I then followed this up with a sniper that recalled the Churchill V - a HUGE move in the context of the game. Despite this John was still warily grinding onwards and all my overwatch squads were now smothered in Smoke - still no sign of either Pak 40s at this point though.

In British Turn 2, John pushed his carriers on into Board 44 where he found the first Pak 40 which was in a lateral orchard where it had a good view of the Board 46 area south of the hedge. Very frustrating for me as one of my traps was now blown with no results. Being wary of the newly revealed Pak, John manoeuvred another Churchill carefully out of sight, but this one also fell foul of crossfire from another thin LOS from my other Stug. My gunnery was outstanding in this game and this scratched another Churchill - three down, which soon became four when another was recalled with main armament failure.

On board 46, John had skillfully executed a smokey advance to the hedge and was now surrounding my forward Stug by a PIAT crew and two Churchills - it looked doomed, but I was able to put it into motion. Amazingly, he was able to find his SD as his first move point of his next movement phase, and I successfully evaded both Churchills - just as it was looking that I was going to be able to get out of jail free, John rolled a 4 and a 6 with the PIAT and that was that. The hedge defenders were now almost done...but not quite.

John had dumped smoke and then a squad and a half into CC with my only squad there, but in one of those cruel twists of fate, he rolled a 12 on his CC attack and I withdrew one hex to the south. Now, that squad was un-obscured by smoke and was in a position to cover a lot of moves by John's infantry over the open fields - it was a really critical move as the threat from this single squad held all John's infantry up for another turn at the hedge line, and the one squad that did try an run the gauntlet ended up broken. Now with four Churchills dead or recalled and the schedule pushed back a little, John was going to need to push hard from now on.

I had re-ordered the village defenders to try and get as much concealment as possible and also withdrew all the outlying defenders for the last couple of turns. In addition, I was able to drill a hole through one of the carriers with a Stug, but amazingly John pulled a two for the crew survival and the half-squad sheltered under their wreck. The other Carrier decided discretion was the better part of valour and hid for a while - more deadeye shooting when I needed it.

On Board 46, my heroic squad went down to a snakes at 1-hex range from the flamethrower - they were more plasma than atoms at the end of that one! With this, John was able to push his infantry over the hedge and two of the surviving Churchills ground forward to help them. At this point I dropped HIP on the other Pak which was in a board edge woods hex south of the hedge and two hexes from a stopped, lovely fat Churchill filling their gunsights. That beast somehow survived my Final Fire but went down to the subsequent Prep Fire as did a sixth motion Churchill adjacent but behind the hedge on a rate shot - as I said my gunnery was outstanding in this game. It was a good spot for the Pak and I think I faked John on it pretty well as he was expecting in the village as part of the last ditch defenses.

It was now desperation time for John with only one Churchill left and the infantry were starting to break a little too. Another snake-eyes survival from one of the Churchills ended in mutual destruction of the Pak crew and the vehicle crew, but by now, their job was done. John's infantry twice tried to push into the outer edge of the village but individual squads broke to some desperate shooting by my defenders and then John's FT failed on a 10 after that only one successful shot. In a final insult, John tried to enter another CC with one of my guys and rolled yet another 12 on his attack so I carried on withdrawing. At this point, John called it as it clearly wasn't going to be his day. Three of his squads were broken, one was dead, a couple were still laboring across the fields, the Flamethrower was malf'ed and he only had the single tank left. It was clear he wasn't going to push the Germans out of stone buildings on this day.

I liked this scenario - it is impressive to actually play a late war British attacking force, and John pressed on resolutely even after a couple of rotten early events went against him. The huge amount of smoke-making potential makes you have to think hard as the German defender on how to impact and delay the British and they will need to re-position their defenses at times and be flexible. As the Germans you definitely need to think hard about the opening turn one moves and where the British could be.

Anyway a fun one and I recommend you give it a go.

Cheers
Nick