AAR: J106 - Marders not Martyrs

Nick Drinkwater

German [ELR 3, SAN 3]: Nick Drinkwater

Russian [ELR 3, SAN 2]: Stephane Graciet

A very simple one-evening-special scenario out of the new Journal 7, which has the closest feel to an original Squad Leader scenario I've experienced in a long, long time. Not surprising really as this was originally apparently slated for ASL Starter Kit 3 before a decision was made to not include open topped vehicles as part of those rules...as a result it was easily retrofitted back into regular ASL and now forms a simple intro-plus scenario to vehicles with the added spin of needing to get familiar with OT and hull-down rules. As a bonus, the new ASLSK board v was included in the Journal as it is needed to play this one - this board has a good open Russian country feel to it as there are no hedges or walls, but its applicability to represent a western European battlefield may be a little more open to question.

It's the late summer of 1942, the grain is in season, the orchards are heavy with fruit and its a nice summer day. The play area includes approx 2/3 of the board with the Germans defending the backfield area across two low (hills) with a couple of isolated wooden buildings and the board edge woods half-hexes to offer a little bit of cover. The Russian infantry sets up 1/3 of the way onboard - the central area of the play area has two small board edge woods that flank a large central grain field with an axial orchard road. In the Russian back area is another low (level 1) hill that pretty much covers the whole short axis of the board - the Russian Armour, entering from offboard will need to climb and traverse this before they can join their footslogging brethren. To win, the Russians must exit 17VP (3 of them infantry) off the westboard edge (hexrow I) after 5.5 turns.

What gives this scenario the ASL feel is the nature of the force: a small (5 squads) force of the classic 467 Landsers has to hold tight against a mass (10) of the comfortingly familiar Russian 447s. The leadership of the Germans is a 9-1 and a 7-0, whilst the Russians get an 8-0 and a 9-1. Support weapons are fairly similar - the Germans get the brutal MG42 HMG and two LMG, whilst the Russians have to lug a MMG and a couple of LMGs. In addition, the Russians receive a Lt Mtr, normally something we sniff at derisively, but vs open topped vehicles, actually something of a threat out to a range of 20 hexes - it is a concern. Finally the Germans get two Marders with the 75L gun , which is good but not outstanding in late 1942 though the ROF of 2 is very cool, whilst the Russians, get four KV1- E which is a nice-ish tank for this time period as it has 11 AF all around, a good MG platform and is equipped with Radios - it also has a straight 76 Gun, although it has only 11 (Red) movement factors. My basic TK for this scenario is 6 so I will be expecting some bouncing shells, though I do have the option of APCR which has a much healthier TK of 9. One drawback of the Marder is limited HE, so I will be doing a few 2 IFT AP shots at the marauding Russian infantry horde somewhere in this.

My defence is fairly simple - I stick the 9-1 and HMG on Level 1 of the single two level wooden building just in case the Russians feel like doing an amoeba creep through the big grain field, a 467/LMG goes in a board edge woods half hex to seal off the northern side of the board with a 467 reserve behind them as the mobile fire brigade. On the south side, I set up the remaining two squads in isolated buildings to assist the main HMG strongpoint. I keep one eye on the ability of the two LMGs to place across-the-board lateral firelanes through the grain field. Once I see which way Stephane is coming, I'll drop the HMG down to ground level to assist with firelanes where necessary. My only flaw in this is that there is no support if the HMG-manning squad go down - it is a key weapon and needs to fire all the time, but with only 5 squads... Finally, I get the Marders hulldown on the east ends of the two low level hills - they have a clear unobstructed view to the Russian level 1 entry area and will try to pick off at long range anything that wanders into their gunsights.

Stephane clearly doesn't want to do the amoeba creep through the central grainfield and so splits his force to do two board-edge shuffles using the cover of the edging woods. On the north side, his smaller flanking squad of the MMG, 8-0 and three 447s swiftly runs into trouble as they near the woods edge and they are unable to get anywhere for the entire game and on more than one occasion fail to recover the dropped MMG - my single overwatch 467 / LMG pretty much nullifies this threat from the start. Stephane's other plan to use the Mortar to harass my Mortars also goes awry as I manage to retain HE shots long enough to KIA the one squad there in Turn 1 Defensive Fire - similar to Tom's recent AAR of this game. This is a major plus for me as it takes out one of the threats to the Marders from the start. Finally Stephane's main infantry slowly crawls along the south edge whilst not doing a lot. The KV1-E's come on very cautiously trying to remain anonymous in the background as they struggle over the hill, but one gets whacked on an APCR shot as it tries to sneak across my LOS.

By Turn 3, things are going OK for me, but in two swift attacks big holes appear in the defence - first off my AL Marder rolls a twelve, and with the other one already being shot out, Stephane takes the opportunity to send the remaining 3 KVs to the south side to assist the main Infantry rumble. Then my 467 manning the HMG is broken then CRs to nothing on a box-car on a low attack...the essential MG is out of action. After a turn of dithering, I wake up to the fact that the 9-1 can still manage to shoot the HMG at half-effect and this is needed right now as there are 6 Russian squads, 2 x LMG and the 9-1 lined up in the woods edge just waiting to go. I try to dash the 7-0 back across the road to help with MG-manning duties but he ends up CR'ed and wounded to form the bastard step-child of ASL, a broken 3MF 5+2 leader! Way to go! In turn 4, Stephane risks the bog check successfully to send a KV1 through and adjacent to one of my (broken) 447 / LMG flank squads. Things are falling apart everywhere now as my other Marder is out of HE (but not APCR) and has 8 ROF shots in a row at a squad in a grainfield, but every 2FP HE- equivalent attack fails - yuk. Even though my broken squad is doomed to rout Stephane takes a Bounding Fire shot at them anyway - and of course it bites him hard when he rolls eyes and battle harden back to a 467. In the next turn I start up the working Marder, get it hull down on the next hill to the south, take the bounding fire shot and of course leave the stopped KV there a smoking charred ruin.

This is big - Stephane now has to get both of the surviving KV's off- board AND get at least 1-squad and a leader off the board as well. I still have four of my five squads functioning and then to cap it all, the other Marder repairs its gun. In Russian Turn 5, Stephane tries a series of slightly suicidal but no-other-choice infantry moves to get them in position for the T6 end-game rush exit strategy, but some accurate and lucky defensive fire and judicious use of Firelanes breaks most of them - I get two more lucky breaks when my dead-eye Marder takes out a third KV in German DF - he now has to get off the sole surviving Marder (not certain) and at least 10VP worth of infantry which is going to be really tough from here. Finally a low odds 6+2 shot breaks the 9-1 and 2x447 stack in the burning KV hex. These low crawl back one hex and if they can survive into T6 could miracle rally and still dash off to help the win, but through a CX move with one of my squads, I eliminate them with an FTR move and that was that.

So at last a win. Nothing great and there were one or two bone-head moves by me, but overall I had slightly better dice than Stephane, although in the mid-game it looked a bit grim. Stephane had many 2+2 shots against the CE Marder crew but they all failed and that became a problem for him. Stopping the northern flankers cold with just one squad was really cool and getting rid of the Mtr in Turn one was a major plus and keeping APCR was very useful, and I think Stephane missed an opportunity when the HMG went down as he should have risked a squad to charge that building and stop me getting that HMG back. I can't criticise him for taking the bounding shot on the Broken Infantry as we've all done that one, but their battle hardening and return really crimped the big infantry push in Turn 5. It was not a bad scenario though like all small scenarios it could be a little dicey if any of two of the three key German assets go down early in the game - the Russians really need to do a big combined arms push and concentrate on trying to get at least one of those Marders off the board with as much +2 vs CE crew fire as quickly as possible.

As always, welcome comments!

Nick

AAR: J106 - Marders not Martyrs

Tom Gillis

Well as some of you know I spent my Sunday playing ASL. Had a great time as usual too! Played two scenarios, both times as the Russians. Game one was Victor and I squaring off in "Marders not Martyrs" J106. This is a smallish, tourny sized 5.5 turner with defending Germans on bd V. Bd V is going to be in one of the starter kits I guess. It also comes in the new J7. Its a typical euro type bd with a few small lvl 1 hills and some buildings, woods and orchards, and lots of open ground. The German force has just 5 467s, 9-1, 7-0, an HMG, 2xLMGs, 8-1 ArLdr, and 2x(ROF2) Marders with 75Ls and only 1 for AF.

The Ivans have a decent force of 10x447s, 9-1, 8-0, MMG, 2xLMG, and a LtMtr at start. Both sides set up on bd, so no Boresighting for the defending Germans. On turn 1 the Russians get 4xKV tanks with red MPs of 11 and the standard early war 76 MA. Looking over the forces, both Vic and I thought the German force looked kind of brittle. OT AFVs vs. a LtMtr is always bad, and the Russians outnumber the krauts 2/1! Vic was a little nervous before the 1st die roll, looking at my huge force ready to pound him, but I never underestimate him, knowing he is a wily and effectice ASL'er.

I placed all my tanks to enter on the right hand side and spread the infantry pretty much in a line across the front row that I could start at. I (stupidly) placed my mortar in open hill terrain with opening shots on his back row Marders and placed the MMG with the 9-1 and a couple of squads in a building behind my start line. Vic placed most of his troops in some wooden buildings on my left hand side, with just a lone HS on my right behind some woods. Well I thought my Mtr with ROF 3 would start the game putting a hurt on the open topped AFVs. They had even managed to only get one hexside of HD in before game set up, (not that it would matter to indrect fire.) Note to players: Vic did not realize that LtMtrs do get to subtract from the IFT on the Indirect fire chart. So his Marders were not only -1 for being AF less than 4, but also -2 for open top. But it didn't matter...Not only did I not hit with said Mtr, I didn't get ROF. MMG shoots at Germans no effect. Movement phase, no major things, infantry moves into woods on either side of bd, and tanks move cautiously on behind orchards. Only effective DF is Vic shoots and gets a KIA on the manning Mtr squad with a 6-3. Ouch. Already lost the Mtr! No German prep/movement if I recall and no effective Russian DF. Turn 2: MMG shoots at Marders on lvl 1 hill, NE. Movement: I press the attack up the woods on each side but miss an LOS when I move the 8-0 and three squads thru another MMCs hex and overstack! Vic has a 4-1, shoots and of course they all break, with one of them elring to conscript. Good move! Not! Tanks try to move into sneaky firing positions but all I do is get one in ByP that Vic can see, but because of TCA restrictions I can't shoot back. Duh-ski! DF or his Prep see that tank go down, but luckily, the crew escapes. Moving along: there is little German manuveur as they are in good defensive terrain on lvl 1 hills, and wooden buildings. Some small infantry losses on the Russian side but by late turn three I still have three AFVs and 6 or 7 squads. The Marder ROF is murderous. Vic gets lots of ROFs, but I've been pretty lucky with a shocked tank coming back good, and lots of close calls. But suddenly in Turn 4 I lose another KV. My infantry is being broken and elr'd, I can't shoot back and things are looking grim. At one point Vic even suggested we start over as we'd been really playing fast. But this being ASL you never know what can happen. I say no lets play it out, its almost over. Well I get desparate. I really want to get one of those Marders. A 75L gun at this stage of the war is deadly. (Its late 1942.) I send one of my 2 remaining KVs right up to a Marder. Two hexes away so point blank. Vis had shot at him but missed. In AdF I need a three to hit. Not much chance I know.

But mid turn Vic's wife Melissa had brought me a cup of expresso. Now you guys who know me know I love coffee. I guess the energy of the expresso must have transferred into my dice because I roll and presto: a three! Next thing we have is a Marder wreck. Now I move the remaining KV. I really wanted to just get out of the LOS of the other Marder but its going to get at least one shot off before I can. Vic rolls and: boxcars! Vics cursed dice have caught up with him again. My infantry makes slow progress and advances closer to the exit row. His rally phase sees him roll to repair the Marder. If he rolls a 1 he's back in command. If he rolls 2 thru 5, he's hurt, but not out. If he rolls a 6 he's in big trouble. Well Vic rolls and its a 6! Disaster! Within 5 minutes he has gone from almost certain victory to very dire straights. I need 17 EVPs to win. But 3 of them have to be infantry. I'm close to the edge, Vic has no anti-infantry weapons left except CC or CCV. My tanks manuveur to make easy exits but leave their turrets pointed at the enemy. My infantry has to run a gauntlet of firelanes. I have a crew, the two ldrs and about three MMCs close to the exit line. One by one they try. The AFVs exit. There is the points right there except for the fact that three have to be infantry. The 8-0 easily makes it off as he had been able to get behind Vic before he pulled up the FL threat. The crew tries and Vic rolls low and it is eliminated. One of the squads tries and is pinned. Another squad tries the first FL and passes, goes thru the next FL and passes. Vic has to shoot his 9-1/HMG/467 guys. 8-3! He shoots and rolls a 5 or something. Russian Squad is pink mist _and_ Vic retains ROF on the Heavy! Last MMC tries and is broken! Yikes, its all down to the 9-1. With his modifier and his self he is worth exactly what I need in infantry to win. If Vic pins, breaks or KIAs him, thats it game over. Well first FL, he makes it, 2nd FL he makes it! Now Vic has to commit his last hope. HMG ldr directed 6-3. Remember in the early game this same bunch wiped out my Mtr squad on a 6 down three. What's it going to be? Vic rolls and its a '9.' So a 9 on the six column is a 1MC. Can Capt. Ivan pass it? Its been a wild game. At first it looked like a German slaughter. Then Ivan kicks back and luck helps put me back in it. End game Vic crawls back with good positioning of his remaining force. I roll. The dice clatter and land. Its a '5.' Capt Gillisov runs off, leaving his decimated but victorious company behind to join up with the 1st Sergeant and the remaining KVs!

Great game Vic. Neither of us ever gave up and it went down to the final roll. I do think this German force is brittle. If luck hadn't stole the MA from Vic's 2nd Marder it probably would have been a different outcome. We both said 7 (a recommend,) for ROAR. Thanks Vic!

Coming soon my AAR against Chris or Ivan II...

Tom

Pegasus Bridge Campaign - Part II

Ed Beekman

Night III, Sean Harris:British, Ed Beekman:Germans

As reported earlier, Sean and I have been playing CG I of Pegasus Bridge and the AAR on the first two Night scenarios is listed earlier. Here is what happened in the final night scenario.

I figured Sean would have to muscle his way across the bridge. I would have to keep him bottled up as long as possible to prevent him from busting loose all over my side of the canal. To achieve this I set a trap at the bridge exit. A leader and a squad with a MMG were set up in each of the two Café’s that would encircle any units coming off the bridge with point blank fire. I left my conscripts and wounded 6+1 leader in Le Port just in case the Brits got free of the confines of the bridge and ran rampant. I left a mobile reserve near the western crossroads consisting of my last tank and a couple squads with a 6+1 for added MF. Everyone else encircled the bridge and the approach to the crossroads to the west.

Sean dug many foxholes along the canal to put flanking fire on the far side. Nothing else could be gathered from his set up due to cloaking.

The Scenario began with Sean trying to blast my defenders out of Café Gondree. The dice were not good for him. His main Prep Fire success was a kill stack south of the bridge breaking one of my LMG squads with good defilade fire capabilities against the bridge. Then, failing to place smoke, he assault moved some units forward. The defensive fire had a squad, MMG and 10-2 adjacent to overstacked squads on the bridge and I ended up getting a 1KIA with ROF. Two rate rolls later the Brits were still had a GO squad there. Sure I killed one squad outright and eliminated another half squad due to double break (they’ll be back later as walking wounded). But Sean rolled snakes on the first ROF attack MC and created a fanatic squad. The on the second ROF attack the fanatics broke but another MMC got snakes and generated a hero.

I spent my first turns skulking. My 10-2 moved into position to rally the broken squad and swap out unconcealed squads with concealed squads in the Café. We were reminded how hard it is to rally units at night since DM is not automatically lost; even the fanatics took a while to rally.

The Brits kept pushing forward and a squad fell into my trap. I encircled and broke a paratrooper squad who surrendered to my troops in Café Picot. After two British turns Sean still did not have any non-prisoners on my side of the canal. But you know ASL and how quick things change…

I was doing my skulk tricks again when a British Starshell lit up my end of the bridge revealing my skulkers. Sean’s most effective kill stack, 3 paratroop squads, 3 LMG and a -1 leader, got on a roll, breaking (including the 10-2!) and pinning every MMC that could reoccupy Café Gondree. On their next turn the Brits charged off the bridge breaking all who stood in their way. The best I was able to do was break an 8-0 leader. I lost a 7-0, MMG and a squad to the Hero and two squads of Paratroops. My turn saw me putting some distance between my troops and Sean’s to prevent my whole position being overrun. I just didn’t like the odds of poorly led 2nd line garrison 4-4-7’s outnumbered about 2:1 by well led 6-4-8 Elite paratroops.

The 10-2 rallied on the first try although none of the two and a half squads with him did. The Brits lit up just about everything with an IR. A little Prep Fire, 12+2 and 16+2 attacks, resulted in no significant effect due to high die rolls. The Paratroops and Hero moved to clear more houses to the west of the bridge and took heavy fire, the Hero wounded and then was eliminated by a second break while a replacement Hero was simultaneously generated. Several squads chased my 10-2 and broken MMC to the south but their AFPh fire DR was a 12(!) and the Germans escaped without further casualties. Amid the houses and orchards several squads Advanced (vs. Difficult Terrain) into CC with a couple of my squads. Luck (I’ll take it over skill any time!) was with me and I got ambush on both rolls. In both cases I chose escape over a glorious death.

As I continued to withdraw, two squads broke – including one casualty reducing to a Conscript HS. Using dummy stacks and one remaining GO squad, I deployed into all approaches to my last rally point along the west road. One unit rallied and generated a Hero who led the withdrawal/retreat back to Le Port. My rearguard fulfilled their goal and all my remaining units successfully escaped into Le Port. The road through the woods into Le Port, occupied by the tank, was the rally point. As an aside, a wounded British 7-0 on the east side of the canal was killed by a Sniper.

Sean started pushing hard up and down the canal road, about a half dozen squads pushed south to keep pressure on the fleeing 10-2 led broken Germans. A smaller group pushed north to try to seize the canal road entry into Le Port. The remainder cleared the way to the western crossroads.

In Benouville, the 10-2 quickly rallied all the troops (including one HS BH to 1st line) and sent them to protect the town’s approaches. I got even luckier, rolling a 1 to end the game at the end of the German Turn 5.

The short clock prevented Sean from really steam rolling me. His pushes up and down the canal would have resulted in strategic gains for him if the game had lasted another turn or longer. He might have established a foothold in the chateau. That could have been a major feat since he could have put a German MMG on the roof overlooking most of the map with an Ox and Bucks squad to man it without captured use penalty! In the north I only had a couple Conscript squads and a wounded 6+1 leader nearby to hold off two 6-4-8s and a 10-2 leader – talk about a mismatch!

During refit Sean scrounged the only not burnt out wrecked H39 to add a German (f) LMG to his OB but had a Para HS turned into Walking Wounded during an Escape. The Brit wounded 9-2 was cured but the German 6+1 remained wounded. A squad of British Paras was marched off to a Stalag.

This scenario could have easily been much worse for the Germans; Sean had some really lousy rolls on several attacks where even average rolls would have lead to PTCs and NMCs. I also avoided crippling casualties when I achieved ambushes to escape melees where Sean would have needed 9 or less and at best I would have needed a 4 or less to inflict casualties. And of course the premature ending of the game was the worst roll for the Brits.

For Dawn, Sean receives a few reinforcements and I get to purchase mine. I’m thinking Infantry and something that can shoot smoke and put some hurt on infantry. I really can’t afford to pay the premium to bring units on further north on the map so I’ll probably buy a Panzergrenadier company and platoon. This will give them time to make the long march toward Le Port. I also like the GSW 39H (f) with its 105 gun (H4, S7). The PzA LrS (f) has more kick with the 150* gun (H4, S8) but its B9 vs B11 for the GSW 39H makes it less worth the cost. Heck it only carried 8 rounds, I don’t think I should spend about a quarter of my CPP to buy one or two vehicles that may only get one or two shots off. That’s at least a CPP per shot that won’t hit the target half the time.

We are looking forward to the sun rising on more action around Pegasus Bridge and will let you know how it goes at a later date.

Ed

AAR: SP24 - Forest Fighting in Latvia

Nick Drinkwater

Roll up, roll up! Easy wins on offer! Do you need a confidence inspiring quick victory? Come and play me, now is the time. Roll up, Roll up!

So I'm now 0-5 in my last 5 games of ASL - I'm thinking I may be the new Sam Belcher. Can't beg, borrow or steal a win right now...

German: Ken Havlinek [SAN 2, ELR 4] Russian: Nick Drinkwater [SAN 5, ELR 2].

A fast burning single-evening six turn special in which a reduced company of German Landsers (9 x 467), moderately but numerously led (9-1, 8-0, 7-0) and lightly armed (MMG, 2 x LMG, 1 x ATR) have to sweep through one half of wooded board 34 and take out a really weakly held Russian Trench and Foxhole line and then prevent any Russian Good Order unit from possessing either of two 76mm ART pieces set behind the trench line in a small forest sylvan "glade" (a 3-hex open ground overlay in the middle of the forest). I guess this is the Euro-version of Totsugeki, where life is cheap (Russian conscripts), the fighting is intense (tons of in-your face, point blank fire) and "no retreat" is the order of the day (those guns must be manned!).

Apart from the two guns and their elite crews (elite? Pah! My arse!), these Russians are pretty grim - the ELR 2 is really nasty, and I only have 2 x 447 and 3 x 426, a Lt Mtr (with really limited firing opportunities in this dense forest and a minimum range of three), a couple of LMG, 3 Trenches and 3 Foxholes. The worst thing is the Leadership - a single solitary 8-1 leader and no commissar! It's not all bad - as well as the Gun possession VC listed above, the Germans also have to control three hexes of the at-start trenches and foxholes. And note this is hexes and not counters - as a result I combine the three single foxholes into one three-squad foxhole to reduce the number of easy win hexes for the German....I just don't have the quality or number of forces to spread out and defend a thin foxhole line. Setup limitations mean than four my of squads have to be in the holes and trenches - also I have to set-up on or between hexrow H-J, while the Germans start further to the west in the trees, just two hexes away in row F. The choking forest is actually not as bad as first thought as there are several paths for use for attacking and retreating, and by SSR all forest roads are paths. In an effort to halt easy German flanking moves in the two side clearings, I place a monitoring squad and trench on the north side, and a couple of squads with the Mortar on the south side. The remainder of the trenches and foxholes form a small complex in the middle of the forest adjacent to and in a 'brush' clearing there. The leader and the LMG and a couple of squads stay here to react to whichever way Ken comes on.

In hindsight, this was actually a weak set-up, suffering as usual from the mid-week rush to get something done and finished well before 3am, and I think I over-stengthened the southern side by a squad, while the northern side was understrength. I hadn't realised that set- up restrictions prevented Ken from setting up all the way to the south edge of the board, and so he was always more likely to come from the north and centre. Also, my 3S foxhole was one hex too far forward and was too easily taken by a brutal frontal attack. Live and learn I guess. Anyway, Ken set-up primarily north and centre with a small platoon flanker detailed to try the southern approach. He quickly bumped off my one dummy and then walked into my northern sole outpost squad - a brave 447. These guys put up a great fight, took off a 247 in CC and weathered it all the way to Turn 3 before going down on a 12 +3. The delay job they had done was cool though. They even helped some more, as once broken and reduced (of course - ELR 2!!), Ken misplayed a move and they were able to run away backwards, instead of being FTR'ed, and then tied down a couple more squads while they chased them down.

In the middle though things were horrible as per usual. I could not inflict any damage at all with my usual high rolls (several 8+1 and 12+1 shots either missed or shrugged off) and two more squads broke and also disrupted on the first shots they received), usually 6+1 or 12 +2 return shots. I tried to play it cagey with concealment in places but again, concealment always was lost with a return NMC result and then a follow-up shot saw more Russian prisoners. In Turn 3, both my brave northern guys and my supposed strongpoint succumbed in two consecutive shots and so it was time to run back to the guns, as the way in was now wide open. In Turns 4-5 Ken cautiously pushed on rounding up the Russian escapees and I thought he'd blown it as he only came into the Gun sights in his Turn 5 - he didn't want to be in the forest at the edge of the 'glade' taking shots from those two guns (ROF 1) for too long. We spent a few minutes scrabbling through the rule book to make sure we had the mechanics and timing of SW recovery and possession worked out properly (even a Gun possessed by the sole Russian leader was enough for me to win), and of course, I had last turn so I could move and recover them, and if I survived DF, would win.

Anyway, it never quite came to that. On Turn 5 he moved adjacent in three hexes to one of the guns having blasted out and then captured my last speed bump squad in the forest. At this point I had the two guns, and behind them a 447, 8-1 and LMG and next to them a solitary script. Now came my one turn of good shooting: the gun fired, hit one adjacent squad (not the two concealed units there), but they shrugged off the 1MC. Desperate times call for desperate measures so the IF was taken - the guns just need to be possessed, not working...good shot, broke a squad, pinned a squad. Fire from the other gun against an adjacent concealed unit was ineffective due to a change of CA (+3 as these ART guns are not on fast turntables), but I decided to retain fire here for the final round. Shots across the glade from the 8-1 stack broke another squad, but there was still enough German presence there to do damage. And of course, they did. Two average shots later against the emplaced guns (8+2 and 8+1), and both crews were routing back having rolled 9 and 11 on the resultant NMC at their first time of asking. Typical!!!

In Russian T5, to win I now had to advance my two surviving infantry squads onto the Guns and then try and recover them in Rally phase of German T6 - unfortunately my single conscript squad had also pinned (a big result at this point of this game), so the 447 went and found one gun, while the 8-1 went for the other. I successfully recovered them, and even shot up a squad that assault moved point blank in the open in German T6 Defensive Fire, but the 447 squad went down in a hail of gunfire and the 8-1 went down in a 8:1 CC - Ken needed to roll lees than an 11 (he rolled a 6) , but I couldn't hurt him anyway (needed a 1 or less), and there was no point in withdrawing as I'd lose possession of the gun. As I needed to be good order and not in CC to win, that was that. Game over - good win Ken!

Interestingly, I had one very close moment which could have been very interesting...my SAN of 5 had successfully missed 7 times in a row (kind of normal), but the eighth was (almost) crucial - Ken had a single 7-0 guarding a full squad of prisoners in the backfield line in the Trench complex. Horror of horrors, the sniper was actually warm (2), and if the wound die-roll came in on my side, my prisoners could have escaped and been off and running, recollecting foxholes in my Turn 6 and with little that Ken could do to stop it....momentary look of panic on Ken's face when he realises the enormity of this!

Da-dumm....dice roll please for the wound....it's a 2! Darn it. Ken may have had a single shot at the 'scapies before they disappeared off into the forests collecting mushrooms, but even if they'd failed the MC, they'd only CR to a HS which would have been plenty to get the holes back! Oh well, it wasn't to be and that would have been a cheap win if ever there was one, but hey, I'm cheap!

Good all infantry, single-evening scenario. With work and family commitments for both of us, these are good sized things for us to play, as we can't start until 8.30pm and neither of us really want to go any later than 12.30 - 1.00am, so the SP packs are ideal. Also, we have very infrequent playing schedules so we're always a bit rusty when we next play - thus we try and steer clear of things with really complex VC or SSR as we will no doubt miss the importance of them in some fundamental way which will flaw the scenario. This was good M & P ASL and much fun - we both felt this was a little bit tougher for the Russians than the Germans (its a really tasty force for them), especially with only the single leader and the ELR of 2...my guys just melted. Perhaps a squad or half-squad less for the Germans may have equalled things out a bit. My biggest problem was inflicting any kind of damage on the Germans - I delayed them well in parts but when it came to the Turn 5 and 6 end game, Ken had only lost a single half- squad but I was down almost 50% of my squad base and there was way too much German FP to withstand that. Also, I really should have thought more about the Mortar - that should have been at the back of the 'glade' firing across it into Germans in the trees and hurting them, but instead it got lost up front somewhere without doing anything. A rare thing this one...a Schwerpunckt scenario that perhaps is a bit more unforgiving of defensive slips than the attackers for once.

Anyway, hope you enjoyed that AAR - if anyone else has played it, I'd welcome comments.

Nick

AAR - Pegasus Bridge Campaign

Ed Beekman

Sean Harris and I have been playing the Pegasus Bridge Campaign I (8 scenarios) and have completed two Night scenarios. Here is a report of the action so far.

We practiced by playing PB1 “Ham and Bloody Jam”. Sean took the Brits and I had the Germans. Sean landed his gliders away from the bridge on/near the road and stealthily approached the bridge. My conscripts were consistently forced to retreat to the wooden house behind the pillbox and eventually eliminated for failure to route since Sean cut off all possible retreat and the Brits have invoked No Quarter by SSR. However due to the cautious approach to the bridge not much time was left to take and clear the bridge. My reinforcements of a 2-3-8 HS and 8-1 Leader took over the MMG in Café Gondree freeing up a Conscript HS and 7-0 to delay the advance over the bridge. Eventually the 7-0 blocked the win by taking up position on the west end of the bridge. To remove him would require Infantry OVR and use up too many MF to gain all the needed LCVP. It was a fun learning experience and we were ready to do it again in a campaign setting.

NIGHT I

The first TC was to roll for sides with Sean’s high DR of 10 giving him the Brits, I again got the Germans. My 5 yr old daughter rolled for my MGs, tanks and Leaders. My bridge defenders received one MMG, a pair of 8-0 leaders but no additional LMG. None of my Panzer-Pioneers in LePort or Benouville received HMGs. The Benouville garrison received a 7-0 Leader and a LMG. The first leader roll for LePort was boxcars – great, a 6+1. In true ASL style the next roll was snakes giving me a 7-0 and a mighty 10-2. The tank platoon was at full strength giving me 3 Hotchkiss and one Somua tank.

I set up with wire over the pillbox and protecting the AT Gun approaches. Trenches were used to create a bunker complex with a route under the wire and another across the river to give an escape from Café Gondree. A HS and 8-0 manned the MMG in Café Gondree and another squad occupied Café Picot. A HS occupied the bunker and a squad protected the bunker from the Trench. The other 8-0 and more conscripts manned the building behind the bunker and the final squad guarded the trench back door to the bunker.

The glider landing was a die roll disaster. Two gliders missed their landing hexes with one destroyed and the other damaged with half the occupants broken. We both agreed that such bad initial rolls would doom the fun of the campaign so we agreed to start over. The second attempt was much better with only one glider being damaged with a leader, some MMC broken and a PIAT lost.

Sean attacked with a pincer against the bunker. He forced his way into the bunker through the communication trench and ground down all the east bank defenders. The 50L was captured in CC; I think it became known through civilian interrogation. Only a HS and the leader, reduced to 7-0 quality, escaped through a swamp to cower in fear out in the irrigation ditches to the north of the bridge. My Fallschirmjager reinforcements drove along the canal and into an IR. They were hit by intense fire from the other bank, the 8-1 broke and the HS was eliminated due to boxcar Fate. The Brit Sniper eventually finished off the Kubelwagon, I claimed that in their haste to gain cover the parking brake wasn’t set and it rolled into the canal.

The Brits rushed the bridge, clearing it as they moved. The defenders on the far side were eventually reduced to two leaders manning the MMG and a broken HS in Café Gondree. The game ended for me with a disaster and a mercy. The disaster for the Germans was that the NVR dropped twice in a row to zero so the Brits just marched up to all the remaining positions and wiped them out in Close Combat. The mercy was that the game ended immediately upon the death of the remaining defenders, thus not allowing the Brits to claim more strategic terrain to consolidate their bridgehead.

Night I scenario ended with the entire German garrison eliminated except for a 7-0 and conscript HS who escaped into LePort during refit. The British suffered no permanent casualties, only an 8-1 and a HS of each squad type becoming walking wounded. The downside for the British is that they only controlled three strategic locations on the west side of the canal (W18, X18, and Z17) and they were isolated.

NIGHT II

My goal for the German counterattack was to retake the western side of the canal. I split my forces to follow the two roads to the bridge out of LePort. The force attacking along the canal road consisted of two Hotchkiss tanks, a 7-0, a 6+1, and about half my infantry. The force attacking from the crossroads had a Somua, a Hotchkiss, a 7-0, and the MMG and LMG in a kill stack with the 10-2. Sean manned his airborne MTR, covering the north of the bridge, and the 50L AT with his walking wounded HS. His reinforcements were slowed by wounds to his leaders (one walking wounded and the other an early sniper victim). His western force deployment was dictated by their isolated status. To my advantage the NVR quickly rose to 4, thus making my SMT tanks more effective, although towards the end of the scenario it dropped back down to 3.

I scouted along the river with a conscript HS and a 6+1 for added mobility. They succeeded, the Brits revealed themselves by eliminating the HS and wounding the 6+1. The lead Hotchkiss tank then found the PIAT team and created a fiery beacon to guide all to the bridge. As the battle developed around Café Picot, I infiltrated concealed units into place to rush the cafe. One concealed squad was lost to snakes on DF. In return I pinned his 9-2 and broke one defending squad, then on a subsequent attack I broke the other squad but the already broke squad got HOB, rallying, going fanatic and creating a Hero. The broke MMC fled to Café Gondree while the Hero attempted to Gammon bomb the other Hotchkiss (dying in the unsuccessful attempt). Half the fanatics died and the British 9-2 was wounded in Melee. Reinforcements charged across the bridge and reinforced the melee, eliminating two of my squads. I threw more troops at the Café and Sean pulled out into the smoke behind the café. My other Hotchkiss overran them but was then knocked out by the 50L AT across the river, an incredible shot through the bridge, at a moving small target by non-qualified troops at night (+7 -1 for acquisition)! I broke one of the remaining three HS and the wounded 9-2 around Café Picot, who fled across the bridge, and killed the remaining two HS in melee at the cost of another 2nd Line squad.

The fight around Café Gondree took longer to develop since my units had farther to travel. The Somua attacked down the road only to be caught in an IR and destroyed by a critical hit from the 50L AT. The Hotchkiss came through the fields on the plateau overlooking the bridge, over the hedge and into the irrigation ditch behind the café only to become bogged. Supporting troops followed up including the 10-2 16FP kill stack (which was revealed by those pesky French civilians as it was about to attack ). The attack drove the broken refugees from Café Picot south down the canal road with an 8-0 leader and out of the fight. The 10-2 and his troops made quick work of the defenders and took up positions to defilade the bridge with some serious firepower. Sean’s reinforcements rushing across the bridge were stopped by their defensive fire.

Having achieved my initial goals of driving Sean from the western bank and having lost ¾ of my armor and ½ my infantry I offered to end the scenario. Sean, having only a couple GO squads ready to cross the bridge agreed.

Sean will attack in the next scenario. I will have 13.5x 2nd line squads, 1.5x conscript MMC, 4x LMG (one is British), 2x MMG, 3x 7-0, 2x 6+1 (one is wounded), the 10-2 and a Hotchkiss tank to defend. Sean has 4.5x elite rifle squads (one is sapper), an elite SMG squad, 8-0, 7-0, wounded 9-2, 2x LMG, a PIAT, an airborne MTR, and the 50L AT. He also has as walking wounded 2 elite SMG MMC, a HS of elite riflemen, an 8-1 and a 7-0. But Sean is smiling because he gets 18 squads plus a plethora of excellent leaders and SW to charge across the bridge and wipe out my defenders. We are looking forward to more hard combat over the vital Pegasus Bridge and will let you know how it goes at a later date.

Ed

2006 ASL Team Tournament TD Report

Well, the fourteenth edition of the Austin ASL Team Tournament event is now in the books. The tournament was held in Austin, TX from June 22nd through June 25th, 2006. This year we had a good turnout of 33 players joining us from all over Texas and from points as far away as Ohio, Oklahoma, and New Mexico. They showed up to battle it out for the many honors we had available for the taking.

As has been the case over the last few years, the doors opened on Thursday morning to open gaming. Thursday gaming counted toward the Major Johnson award – given to the person who plays the most ASL over the course of the weekend; the Minor Johnson – given this year in celebration of the release of Armies of Oblivion to the person who played the greatest number of scenarios involving a minor power; the Audie Murphy and Col. Klink awards – given for the greatest number of snakes and boxcars respectively; and prizes to the person(s) who playtested the greatest number of Pete Shelling and Heat Of Battle scenarios over the weekend.

By coincidence, the beginning of the tourney also corresponded with the 65th anniversary of the start of Operation Barbarossa. In recognition of the event, Zeb Doyle conceived a great remembrance mini. He created two relevant scenarios and came up with a unique team/scenario scoring format that did a good job of taking out scenario imbalances as evidenced by the fact that the difference between the eventual first and second place teams was just one point. Zeb distributed German and Russian themed t-shirts to the participants (very cool!), and also created a booklet with well written articles covering the finer points of pillboxes, platoon movement, and naval OBA that we are going to make available as a Banzai!! Special Edition on the Central Texas ASL website (www.texas-asl.com) and was also made available to the participants. At the end of the day, the winners of the mini were Matt Shostak of Austin and John Van Marter of Capitan, NM.

Friday open play began counting towards the meat of the tournament: the team honors and the top individual awards. As a part of the weekend activities, the ASL Team Tournament also offered a Saturday only, one-day mini-tournament, punctuated by a full BBQ dinner provided by Pok-e-Jo's on 5th Street. We call it the “Texas Heat”. It is a unique format where players are pitted against each other not only across the playing board, but also compared against combined results of their fellow Axis or Allied commanders. A field of 12 played two scenarios: Abandon Ship (WCW5) and A Hotly Contested Crossroads (DB35). Glen Gray (Addison, TX) wound up as the top Allied Commander and Russell Mueller (Dallas) garnered the top Axis Commander accolades.

All the action concluded with the final big matches on Sunday that determined the team champions, and saw it pit the top undefeated players against each other to crown the “10-3” individual champion and “9-2” runner-up. When the dust settled the Team winners were Jack O’Quin (Austin) and Doyle Motes (Houston), the “9-2” runner up was Zeb Doyle (Austin), and the “10-3” superman was Jim Ferrell of Fort Worth. Congratulations, gentlemen!

We were able to get a lot of folks in on the winning action this year by being able to give out a number of door prizes thanks to the generous support of the folks at Bunker Hill Games and Against the Odds magazine!

We closed the books on the 14th Annual ASL Team Tournament, the last of the gear was packed, and most of the folks had headed back to the real world. It is really incredible to have all of these great players together for several days of competition, camaraderie and just plain ol’ fun. I hope that you can join us in Austin next year as we look to see who will be the champions of our 15th Annual ASL Team Tournament. To all, please mark your calendars for June 21st through June 24th, 2006 and plan on being here!

I want to thank the many folks who helped me pull all of this together: John Hyler for getting the trophies and setting up the tournament room; Mike Seningen for his sage advice, handling treasurer duties and running the Texas Heat; Matt Shostak for helping pick the Heat scenarios; Zeb Doyle for his Barbarossa mini; Glenn Schools for helping clean up the place the end of each day; Sam Tyson and Jeff Toreki for the use of their coolers; Kevin Kenneally for his vocal support on the Forum; and many others.

Of course I want to extend my sincere appreciation to the following sponsors for their generous support of the ASL Team Tournament:
The La Quinta Inn for providing us gaming space
Against the Odds Magazine
Boulder Games
Bunker Hill Games
Dispatches from the Bunker
Fanatic Enterprises
The Gamer’s Armory
Heat of Battle
Lone Canuck Publishing
Multi-Man Publishing
SoCal ASL Club

Here is the complete list of prize winners (and their booty):

• Team Champions: Jack O’Quin and Doyle Motes (engraved cups, SoCal Melee Packs and Lone Canuck Tournament Packs)
• 10-3 Champion: Jim Ferrell (engraved cup, MMPs Fire in the Sky)
• 9-2 Runner-up: Zeb Doyle (engraved cup, gift certificate from Boulder Games)
• Texas Heat: Glen Gray and Russell Mueller (gift certificates from The Gamer’s Armory)
• Major Johnson: Jerry Simmons [Denton, TX] (engraved cup, subscription to Dispatches from the Bunker)
• Minor Johnson: Matt Shostak (engraved cup)
• Audie Murphy: Bill Hayward [Cleveland, OH] (engraved cup)
• Col. Klink: John Garlic [Weslaco, TX] (engraved cup)
• HOB Playtest Prize: Mike Cadieux [Oklahoma City, OK] (a copy of Russia’s Heroes)
• Pete Shelling Playtest Prize: Glenn Schools [Fort Worth, TX] (Fanatic Enterprises Fanatic Pack #4) and Tom Gillis [Houston] (ASLOK XX Anniversary t-shirt)
• Barbarossa mini: Matt Shostak and John VanMarter (engraved plaques)

The complete list of participants and all their scores is available from this blog.

Thanks, as always, to the ASL players themselves, who choose to make the ASL Team Tournament one of their ASL tournament stops each year. Without you guys, there would be no ASL Team Tournament. Thanks again!

Rick

2006 ASL Team Tournament Results

Player Scores

Player              Score   Wins   Losses
------------------ -------- ------ ------

James Ferrell         5.0      5      0
Bill Hayward          3.0      4      1
Mike Seningen         3.0      4      1
Zeb Doyle             3.0      4      1
Randy Shurtz          3.0      4      1
Sam Tyson             2.0      3      1
Allen King            2.0      3      1
John Garlic           2.0      3      1
Doyle Motes           2.0      3      1
Jack O'Quin           2.0      3      1
Russell Mueller       1.0      2      1
Tom Gillis            1.0      3      2
Rick Reinesch         1.0      3      2
Eric Gerstenberg      0.0      2      2
Brian Roundhill       0.0      3      3
Matt Shostak          0.0      3      3
Walter Eardley        0.0      3      3
Bryan Register        0.0      2      2
Christopher Buehler   0.0      0      0
Robert Delwood        0.0      0      0
John Hyler           -1.0      2      3
Michael Cadieux      -1.0      2      3
Pete Shelling        -1.0      2      3
Glen Gray            -1.0      1      2
Scott Bell           -1.0      1      2
Dan Preston          -1.0      0      1
Kevin Kenneally      -1.0      0      1
Jeff Toreki          -2.0      0      2
Glenn Schools        -3.0      1      4
Matt Schwoebel       -3.0      0      3
Jerry Simmons        -5.0      1      6
John Van Marter      -5.0      1      6
Scott Hopkins        -5.0      0      5

Major Johnson Scores

Player                  MJ Total
---------------------- --------

Jerry Simmons          21100.0
Matt Shostak           16040.0
Bill Hayward           15529.5
John Van Marter        15219.18
John Garlic            14662.5
John Hyler             11536.0
Brian Roundhill        11094.65
James Ferrell          10374.0
Zeb Doyle               9339.4
Sam Tyson               9073.5
Rick Reinesch           9017.89
Mike Seningen           8656.5
Doyle Motes             7726.5
Walter Eardley          7420.5
Allen King              7255.0
Bryan Register          6696.0
Randy Shurtz            5920.0
Eric Gerstenberg        5812.5
Tom Gillis              5442.5
Michael Cadieux         5425.0
Scott Hopkins           4518.75
Scott Bell              4350.0
Glenn Schools           4046.25
Jeff Toreki             4017.0
Pete Shelling           3780.0
Glen Gray               3738.75
Russell Mueller         3540.0
Jack O'Quin             3140.0
Matt Schwoebel          1450.5
Dan Preston              224.25
Kevin Kenneally          224.25
Christopher Buehler        0.0
Robert Delwood             0.0

Team Scores

Team                                     Score      Wins    Losses
---------------------------------- --------------- -------- --------

Doyle Motes,Jack O'Quin,                4.0         6        2
Bill Hayward,Walter Eardley,            3.0         7        4
Brian Roundhill,John Garlic,            2.0         6        4
Michael Cadieux,Zeb Doyle,              2.0         6        4
Christopher Buehler,Rick Reinesch,      1.0         3        2
CENTRAL TEXAS                           0.625       31       26
James Ferrell,Jerry Simmons,            0.0         6        6
Pete Shelling,Tom Gillis,               0.0         5        5
HOUSTON                                 0.0         12       12
NORTH TEXAS                            -0.667       14       16
Eric Gerstenberg,John Hyler,           -1.0         4        5
Matt Shostak,Scott Bell,               -1.0         4        5
FOREIGNERS                             -2.0         9        13
Mike Seningen,Scott Hopkins,           -2.0         4        6
Bryan Register,Jeff Toreki,            -2.0         2        4
Dan Preston,Glen Gray,                 -2.0         1        3
John Van Marter,Sam Tyson,             -3.0         4        7
Glenn Schools,Matt Schwoebel,          -6.0         1        7

AAR: 2006 Texas ASL Team Tournament

Jim Ferrell

I just love the end of June. The Austin ASL Tournament is one of the highlights of my year. Once again I'm up and on the road by 0600 to drive to Austin Thursday June 22, 2006. Zeb Doyle is planning a mini tournament covering Barbarossa and it starts at 0900. 201 miles later I pull into the La Quinta, ready to roll dice, with 5 minutes to spare.

Zeb's mini consist of two scenarios that 2 man teams play, one team mate is on the Russian side and the other plays the Germans. The team that scores the highest total points wins. I would play Sam Tyson then Matt Shostak, as a Russian player I defended then attack. These are excellent players and I really enjoyed my games even if Sam handled my poor Russians rather roughly. I really liked the format as one player tries to prevent points and the other is trying to accumulate them. The final total was very close between 1st and 2nd place. Great start to the weekend. Zeb passed out T-shirts to the contestants dated in the language of each nationality, really cool. Thank you Zeb.

Friday, I had arranged a game with Mike Seningen Friday morning to kick of the main Tournament. We chose A Hotly Contested Crossroads DB035 from the Bunker guys. I have played few scenarios as intense and gut wrenching as this one turned out to be. Mike is an ace ASL player and he put my Germans through the ringer, both of us played on the edge all game. In the end I took a chance with my OBA and it worked., The OBA had a 50% chance of nailing my guys if not accurate, it landed right on target and a I just escaped Mike's pending rampage through my rear area. Mike continued to attack with his few good order units and I managed to just hold on to win. 1-0 My second game Friday was against Walter Eardley from Houston. Walter is rather calm and mild mannered and after the 1st game a welcomed opponent as I was a wreck. We chose Lend-Lease Attack J98. I would be the Russian and Walter would take the Tigers. Walters luck was just average and he could not stop my exiting enough CVP for the win. 2-0 I was spent and went to bed around 0130 and did not sleep well as I continued to think about my ASL play.

Saturday, I was waiting for a match and Scott Bell asked if I needed a Game. We settled on A Siege of Their Own. This was a playtest scenario and Scott wanted the attacking Russians. I fell back against the advancing Russian horde and waited for my reinforcements and they proved decisive. Scott is relatively new, however, his attack was planned very well. It was just not to be. 3-0

I was matched up with Brian Roundhill and we decided to play after the annual Saturday Barbeque Dinner the Austin guys provide. Most excellent! Brian and I settled on Deadeye Smoyer SP43. Brian forgot that the M26 entered on the west edge and ended up losing his Panther early. Brian defended the victory building with tenacity and skill. The game would come down to the last close combat phase. Well played Brian. Sometimes you need a little luck and I rolled a snakeyes at the right moment. 4-0

Late Sat. is reserved for diehard ASL and cards. I played cards until 0200. Sleep is restless and Sunday Morning arrives and I drift into the game room. I will be matched with Zeb Doyle and depending on the outcome of another match ours could be for the title. We were asked to pick a scenario that could be played in a reasonable amount of time. Zeb pulled out some scenarios and I settled on Twilight of the Reich SP97. Zeb had played it before but it is one that struck me as providing an exciting ending. The dice gave me the defending Germans. The Germans are fragile and must try to conserve his infantry and that was my plan. I fell back and my squads slowly died off. A 2-3-7 and 8-0 leader are the heroes, they managed to survive turn 3 an 4 of CC at odds of 3-1 and 4-1. The 8-0 would withdraw Russian turn 4 when Zeb rolled a 12. He would run down the ISU152 and advance into CC and lock the Beast in CC, no Prep fire turn 5! My Jagd Panthers rummbled into burning wreck hexes and remained in Motion. Zeb would need a series of snakes to win and the dice would not comply. 5-0 and the Tournament 10-3 award as the other game's outcome made ours the Title game. The Austin Tournament is well organized and a blast. Texas hospitality is waiting for all of you next year. Rick, Mike, Zeb and all the others made this an excellent place to spend a few June days come see us next year.

Thanks, Jim Ferrell

AAR: GONA 2 - Gona's Gone

Nick Drinkwater

Japanese Player: Nick Drinkwater [ELR3 SAN 3]

Australian Player: Tom Gillis [ELR 3 SAN3]

From the burning, searing arid wastes of western Egypt to the stinking, steaming jungles of northern New Guinea (i.e. overcast), the wife-free ASL-athon continues. For my final act in this two weeks of gaming, Tom swaps in for Stephane, but the results stay the same - I get spanked hard again - 0 for 4 on my last 4 games now! But I'm learning a lot fast...

Anyway, this one comes from a small neglected gem from the early Critical Hit stable, Those Ragged Bloody Heroes, which was produced by the Paddington Bears team (I think). The map is not one of the best, being computer generated with some sickly odd green colours for the jungles and marsh and odd symbols for debris and palm trees, and movement on the map is severely curtailed by the huge swathes of dense jungle (3MF by SSR, not the usual 2MF), so most travel will be along the main open ground and kunai 'corridor' where the Gona-to-Kokoda trail finishes at the sea. However, most of this map does not come into play in any of the scenarios (there is a fun looking five date Platoon Leader CG that comes in the pack which uses all the map), with play being restricted to the area around the Gona village on the western half of the map.

In this particular scenario, the Australians start off by having just conquered the main part of Gona village and its vital wooden building Mission, and are poised to sweep into the sea the final remnants of the Japanese garrison, whose backs, quite literally, are up against the wall. The Japanese are clinging on to the few bits of debris left of the village amongst the palm trees on the two-hex wide slight beach. Setup requires that the Japanese start on or adjacent to three separated ocean-facing hexes - effectively they can form a defensive belt two hexes deep by approximately nine hexes wide. To win, the Aussies need to eliminate 22 of the available 26 Japanese CVP within seven turns while losing less CVP than the Japanese.

Setup for the Australians means they are at start at most 3-4 hexes away from the Japanese outer line, so crossing the terrain in the time allotted is no issue here. The restricted set-up also means that there is not so much tactical flexibility for me here either. I only have one light jungle hex at the extreme west end of my setup area, while the the bulk of my force is scattered among palm trees or in a couple of hexes of beach debris. This is the first time I have played FTF PTO, so this really is a sharp-learning curve for me on all the quirky setup tricks for the Japanese. I place my two (HIP) pillboxes at each end of the defense looking inwards and make bunkers with the two trenches, one of which is placed HIP in the single jungle hex for me. Tunnels are run to some foxholes in the middle part of my coastal strip to give me some ability to switch some units laterally, but this and a few HIP tricks are the best that I can achieve here - this really is the end of the line as far as the Japanese go as there is nowhere else left to retreat to.

The Japanese force is brittle with 2 x 448, 2 x 447, 3 x 347 and 3 x 336 with a smattering of 0 and +1 leaders. I also get 2 MMGs, 3 x LMG and 2 Lt Mtrs and that is pretty much it. In return there is a crushing Aussie hammer to whack this particular nail back into place: 6 x 458, 6 x 457, 3 x447, 1 x MMG, 2 x LMG, 2 x Lt Mtr, 1 x 76mm Mtr and 1 88* OBA module. In addition they get 4 leaders ( two -1s and two 0s) - so, a huge numerical and quality advantage, tons of quality leaders, three smoke belching mortars and OBA combined with no real distance to travel - where's the challenge for the Australian? Well, it comes from the fact that Tom has to destroy pretty much 90% of my force but that is pretty much it - these Aussies are really well equipped to do this task (probably a bit too well equipped as it turns out) and they have plenty of time to do it.

Tom kicks off by trying to do a half-squad searching creep blitz on the west flank in the jungle but loses a half-squad to search casualties for his efforts. In response to this, he gets even more aggressive and continues to push a strong elite force through on this western flank right into the teeth of my defense, and sends the other platoon of 447s through onto my eastern bunker. His mortars all lose smoke after one or no shots, and in my T1 response, I devastate many of Tom's probing squads as they try and jump me in CC - he triggers a couple of my hidden trap HIP squads, and even though I fluff the ambush each time, I whack 4.5 squads in CC. Tom then gets even more aggressive with his Aussies (who is really playing the Japanese here?) and goes for an overly hasty conversion of his correcting OBA which unfortunately does zilch, nada, nothing to my eastern bunker complex but kills another 1.5 squads of his own 447s. Nicely done Tom! End of Japanese Turn 1 and I'm 13 CVP up to Tom's 3!!! Awesome start and I look forward to getting another couple of points as one of my eastern 448s is in H2H melee with a 457, behind Tom's attack line. I even have a conscript Japanese squad get aggressive and take out 1.5 Aussies squads for the net loss of a half-squad...even the bad Japanese are deadly!

So I've eliminated about 25% of Tom's force for virtually no net loss, but pretty much all my stuff apart from one concealed squad and leader is now revealed. Tom has so much extra leadership in here that he is able to use a probing 8-0 as a half-squad concealment stripping proxy. Hmmmm - seems odd, but no worries as I am well ahead here and two or three more dead Aussie squads and I'll be home and dry!

And that was the end of the game as I then proceeded to lose in style over the next 3 Turns with not a single point of damage inflicted on the Australians.

I could not buy a roll at all. My H2H Melee 448 squad somehow contrives to lose its hand-grenades and bayonets and misses its target and then gets wiped - this is a big loss. In addition my heroic CC-lovin HS goes down in another CC and that adds salt to the wound. Then things go really wrong. I break all three of my machine guns, two squads drop to two 8+3 snakes attacks, I could only ever pin Tom, never break him: in one particularly grim sequence, I rolled 11, 10, 9, 10, 11 on a series of breaks and stripes on my troops which gutted the core of my defense. One of my few very good attacks resulted in a hero for Tom which proceeded to carry on striping and breaking my sole surviving eastern bunker force with three effective 4+1 shots!

At this point with everything falling apart around me, I try my only remaining trick which was to send my sole remaining concealed squad and 8-0 back through one of my tunnels to the western (now abandoned) pillbox behind and adjacent to an Aussie two squad (plus leader) adjacent stack - juicy target indeed! In reply, Tom of course gets just the exact dice to strip my concealment and then another long range 8+3 shot of his 'stripes' my sole squad there. Despite this, I jump into CC - now that I've just lost the concealment (by one), I miss the ambush ( by one - for the third time) and then miss taking all three Aussie units - by one. Of course I do. The return attack leaves my guys all dead and that really was that - I planned and played that attack perfectly but came up with nothing - I just can't buy a good and essential dice roll right now (see recent AARs!). Tom then plays out the next two turns to whittle down my last three squads and the leader on a series of "just by one" success rolls from two-hex range big fire groups shooting by him, and a series of "just by one" failure rolls by me and that was that. We were actually laughing by the end as you could predict that my next roll would miss by one, and yep, sure enough, there it was, missing by one!

Oh well. I learned a lot on my first FTF PTO game, despite the nasty dicing I gave myself at the end. Despite failing every ambush attempt from concealed stealthy Japanese, my HIP units worked quite well in their positioning and the attempt for the 'stab in the back' via the tunnel would have been a thing of beauty on any other day and been a serious setback for the Aussies if it had come off.

Overall though, we both agreed that this scenario, though fun, was too pro-Australian. Tom's kamikaze tactics in turn 1 were actually a bit too premature and cost him a lot more than he should have ever lost. He should have probably held back at least one round, probably two, doing some large fire group attacks and multiple mortar attacks at my guys to cause some stripes, combined with an aggressive half-squad search policy to find the HIP stuff. There is very little tactical flexibility for the Japanese here and once concealment and HIP is lost, there is nowhere to hide to regain it, and the Aussies just need to sit there and shoot holes in the Japanese until it is time to charge. By the end of two or three turns of this pounding, the Japanese will be seriously atritted and unable to hold back the Aussie tide.

A couple of points - my SAN of three netted me one broken 447 squad (too late to make an impact), and the overcast conditions kicked in normal rain in Turn 3, but this was too late and still too light to do anything. The Aussies need to be softened: maybe 3 x 458, 5 x 457 and 5 x 447 (these guys are supposed to have fought their way across some of the hardest terrain on the planet, so they should be degraded somewhat), and lose one of the four leaders. Or they need to lose a turn to do this as in seven turns, it really is a bit too easy for them to win.

Despite this, I'm looking forward to some of the other scenarios in this pack and I would like to give the small CG a spin as well, as this is as "meat and potatoes" as it gets in the PTO. It does look fun as the Japanese try and pull off a tough fighting withdrawal against these hardened Australians.

Nick

AAR: J80 - Egypt's Last Hope

Nick Drinkwater

German Player [ELR 3, SAN 2]: Nick Drinkwater

British Player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: Stephane Graciet

Round 2 of the Line in the Sand mini-CG. Going into this on the back of my loss in Rommel's Remedy and comments from the Houston Crew of "if you thought that was hard for the Germans, just wait for the next one..." ringing in my ears, I set up with a due case of caution and dread. In this one, I actually probably randomly selected the best combination going of an extra Long-barrelled MkIV, 2 x MkIIIHs and a 8-1 AL, an additional half-track mounted force of 3 x 458 and a 8-0 and an extra 100mm OBA with aerial observer. This is pretty powerful and is great in combination with two more OB Long Barreled MkIV F2s (with another 8-1 AL), two MkIIIJs with 50L, two MkIIIHs, an AA HT, and a couple of HT mounted squads. Already on-board half-way across Board 26 are a ground-force of a 9-1, 8-0, HMG, 2 x LMG, 5 x 468 and 3 x 548. My one big choice was whether to go for a 75L Marder (with B11) or a MkIV F1 with a third 8-1 AL. I chose the latter for its suppression abilities with a good HE capability and good Smoke-churning potential. Finally, I get onboard-set up of two 81* Mtrs, with their awesome 3ROF and S8.

So what have these bad boys got to do to get this job done? They need to cross two desert boards under long range fire, climb up the face of the Board 25 gullied precipice (representing the western end of the Alam Halfa ridge, which in reality was a low rocky ridge and not the Tunisian Djebel which the Board 25 massif represents) and be in control of two of the three marked peaks on Level 4 at Game end - all that in 6.5 Turns. Again, the rigours of broken terrain are to play a major part in this game, and there are patches of cactus patch and hedges to really impede progress on the lower slopes of the hill. The broken terrain fields are more prevalent on the eastern 2/3rds of the two desert boards while the western third is much more open - however, there is only one of the three victory locations on this side of the play area, so the bigger of the two Level 4 hills is almost inevitably going to be the focus of the attack, and I am going to have to brave at least one or two BT hexes whether I like it or not. The ground force have really got their work cut out as it is extremely open terrain in the run-up to the base of the hills. One thing that could be useful is that I can park a vehicle on a victory hex to control it - the presence of a trench or sangar does not create a separate location to deny this, so Stephane will have to get an unbroken infantry unit in there to deny me control - something to keep in mind for game end.

Stephane has a small but very potent force to stop me in my tracks. He has been given one of the dreaded 3ROF 6lber AT Guns, and three more Grants. He has 8 x 457s, a 9-2, 8-1 and 8-0, MMG, plus 88mm OBA and Radio. Stephane's Operational Reinforcements are actually fairly average (compared to the awesome force he pulled in Round 1) and he gets three Valentines with 2lber guns and poor HE capability (really BAD tanks for July 1942), Random Air Support (2 FB with bombs - of course!) and two 25lb ART guns - again all good stuff for Infantry suppression as they try to inch across the open ground, especially the strafing FB which are will be there until the end of the game. Also he has a couple of light mortars and an ATR or two, but overall this is not as strong as the force he had in Rommel's Remedy, although the natural terrain more than makes up for this.

In light of everyone's comments, Stephane graciously agreed to give me the balance and subtracted his 76* Mtr from his OB, a big loss of a very nasty 3ROF weapon. Even so, if he gets his OBA going and my smoke weapons and OBA fail to do much, then I am really going to struggle in this one.

So we're off and straightaway, one of my two Mortars instantly loses Smoke. Hmmmm. Looking at the terrain, I forego the obvious path of using the western-most Level 0 wadi complex to approach the hill, as based on Stephane's Game 1 policy, it is sure to be heavily mined - also, it only gets me to the more isolated of the two peaks and there is a belt of wire in the way to block access out of the wadi. As a result I am going to try trekking across the broken terrain fields on the eastern side to tackle the double peak fortified complex. Stephane has foregone the option of setting up anywhere on Board 26 and has gone for a stand and die defense on the dominating Level 4 peaks of Board 25 with entrenchments and sangars. His Hull-down attempts for the three Grants largely fail, and he is very unlucky in T1 when I hit and break the crews of both 88* ARTs in their hilltop eeries and the crews fail to rally. Things get better when I successfully smoke in his 6lber AT Gun plus his 9-2 MMG combo - finally, my overwatch MkIV F2 takes out one of the Grants at Long Range which was cool. I even destroy two of his squads with long-range MG fire which is a serious chunk of his defense off the board.

But of course this is ASL and things always swing back! Stephane instantly gets his accurate (despite the light dust) OBA going followed by air support (rolls a 1 on Turn 2!), and even though his bombs only immobilise one of my MkIV Specials, a 25 hex "red" to hit number shot from a Grant Gun takes him out. He then follows this up with a lucky crit on my smokeless Mtr, still a major loss. Finally my aerial observer, after twiddling uselessly with his frequency dials for 1.5 turns, goes and blows a transistor on his radio - second game in a row where my OBA has done squat. This and the Mortar-crit are huge losses as crossing the open ground with the infantry to climb the hill with no smoke is going to be a very painful drawn-out suicide attempt.

To compound this, I realise I've made a bad tactical error - based on my horror-story attempts to get vehicles across BT in game one, I choose to pick the least BT-ridden path I can to get my huge armoured convoy to the front. This means sending the whole lot down a big right-central wadi, but this just costs far too much time, and I realise that I am going to be seriously behind the required pace by the time I've picked my way out of there. Obviously, the design of the scenario was for the convoy to risk the one hex of BT in the southern-most board and then suck up a couple of bogs, but my dice-rolling on braving BT bog attempts in game one had been pitiful and scared me off this. In the meantime, my ground-based forces are inching along the open plain under the pressure of an accurate correcting 88mm OBA Barrage. Grim progress here.

Despite all this, I press on grimly into the face of adversity. My Aerial Observer manages to find a spare transistor under the co-pilot's seat and fixes his radio, and I send the half track convoy around to the east where they carve a way through the BT fields with only a couple of bogs. The armour column pops up out of their cover in the gully and swiftly dispatches a Grant and a Valentine with consecutive crits (sorry Stephane!), followed by the last Grant by another long shot. My smokin' Mtr continues to keep the 6lber and the 9-2 shrouded in gray misty stuff, and my only OBA fire mission (before I pull the inevitable second red card) is good enough to break the two squads with the 9-2, and the AT Gun crew. Stephane can barely buy a break and receives virtually no ROF from any of his weapons, including the two now-rallied 88* ARTs. I continue to get great ROF from my HMG and my surviving Mtr, but this is rarely effective as Stephane continues his usual trend of always being able to find that necessary seat-of-the-pants die-roll just when he needs to.

By the end of T4, all the Grants are smokin pyres, the British OBA has gone away after the observer broke, one of the FBs has been recalled with jammed guns on a 12, the 9-2 has been forced to rout, the three crappy Valentines are still struggling to climb the north side of the precipice to join the fight, and the 6lb AT Gun has not fired a shot. With heavy smoke cover, my surviving infantry start legging it up the hill, but Board 25 is a total bitch to assault either on foot or on tracks and I am probably already 2 turns behind schedule at this point. By the end of Turn 6, I have just managed to get a couple of squads onto the eastern most of the three Level 4 victory hexes, but the armour is lost in the maze of wadis and unable to help. I even get adjacent to the middle peak victory hex with a Mk III but it just clean runs out of time and MP to climb out the double-crest wadi it was in for an Overrun and possible victory - meanwhile, the British have been pretty much cleaned off the front face of the hill and the few surviving units adopt a reverse slope defense.

Realising in T6 that 95% of my force is going to be locked up on the main massif but due to the terrain are ultimately doomed to fail in their attempt to claim the last peak and seal victory, I send a HT and 8-1 + 468 on a hail mary to take the westernmost isolated peak - this HT immobilizes halfway up the hill on an ESB and even survives a hit (dud) from the entrenched 88* ART which is the sole British unit actually on this victory hex. With this sole HT-borne squad, I actually have a shot at snatching the unlikeliest of victories from the gory, dripping jaws of an ugly defeat, but I need to survive all the DF against them in my last phase and then advance in for the win.

The HT survives the attention of the last FB, and the subsequent CX-ing squad and leader survive 6 enfilading attacks from a lonely British HS and a Valentine. The leader finally pins from the now pinned, adjacent Gun's Defensive Fire, but in true Stephane fashion, after having rolled really horribly all night, finds the one shot he REALLY needs from left field and ends the game with an Intensive Fire Critical Hit!! My guys go down in a hail of high-explosive shrapnel and that was that. What was worse was that this lone British crew had survived two hits from my Mortar and two hits from my HMG, but of course he merely pins when I absolutely have to have him break.

To say I was gutted was an understatement - to get SO close on a scenario that I was forewarned was really tough on the Germans was actually good, but for once, JUST once, I wish that single critical game-winning die-roll would just go MY way for once. It gets a bit disappointing and tough to keep coming back for more of this after a while.

It's rare for me to criticise a scenario in these AARs, but I think this one is far too pro-British: the Germans need the best selections from the force pool, no weapons to break (2 of my 3 MkIV F2s had malfunctioned guns, and my MkIV F1 was recalled with a Disabled main gun), inexhaustible smoke, a non-failing radio and every other slice of luck going and even then they will lose. I can only imagine those few British losses on ROAR were due to loss of the OBA and the AT Gun very quickly, coupled with some Grant breakdowns. I diced Stephane pretty horribly in places in this scenario and was above average on most of my die-rolls - he had five good die-roll combinations in the entire scenario and that was it (the last shot, a low odds hit by a strafing FB, a very low odds shot to take out one of my half-tracks, and the long-range kills on my Mtr and first MkIV F2). His OBA was actually pretty ineffective (mine was no better with its single Fire Mission), his 88 Guns didn't much until that last shot, his FB killed only one half-track and one squad over over 6 turns, his mines played no part in this and he'd already taken his other big weapon, the 76* Mortar, off the board as part of the balance. I kept his 57L AT gun smoked in and unfired all game, the Grants killed one tank only before all being destroyed, my other Mtr and HMG went on several ROF streaks and kept smoke and I played this whole thing pretty well. And yet I still lost and wasn't realistically that close at winning if truth be told, reduced to trying the big lateral hail mary with the Half-track. It was taking so long to pick through the terrain that some of the Mk IIIs and several of the HTs and passengers never fired a shot in anger, spending most of their time just picking their way through the terrain just trying to get to the Level 4 hexes on Board 25, let alone actually fighting for them.

One lesson learnt - the Germans absolutely have to go through the more open west central route, as there is nowhere near enough time to get there and actually do anything by going to the east - the eastern summit of Board 25 is essentially sealed off from the others by a horrible wadi complex and you are doomed to fail if you try that route. Of course in the west, the infantry are then inching across a lot of -1 open ground and not +1 BT so they will chopped to pieces, and you will be running into a funnel where the Brits can pour fire on you from 2 sides, but you may just at least have the time necessary to achieve the VC if nothing else. Having tried to avoid the worst of the pitfalls of the BT by using the eastern wadi in the interest of force preservation, I needed at least one more turn, and my impact was again dissipated by the forced dispersion of my units imposed by the BT and the problems of all the crags, cliffs and wadis on Board 25, which meant they arrived there piecemeal, if they actually arrived there at all.

So that was that. Ultimately a very disappointing scenario as all Stephane had to do was play average, sit there and take his licks and he was still going to win, and yet there were very little tactical options open to him. All I could do was try and think of a plan which minimised the effects of the terrain (which I failed) and then really hope for the best as I rode into that particular valley of death. Overall, I had lost the mini CG on the slightly pro-British Rommel's Remedy and the very pro-British Egypt's Last Hope. One final thought - in this scenario, I had probably the best option going here in terms of my choices of Operational support, and Stephane's were pretty average. I absolutely shudder to think what the result would have been like if the Brits had been able to choose their operational support teams and had had their Game 1 choices here of 3 more Grants (with six-more barrels) instead of 3 Valentines, and they had had ANOTHER 57AL 3ROF AT Gun. There is no way the Germans could win that - I have to wonder how the Germans managed to pull a win out under that combination during playtesting?

Ugly indeed.

Nick Drinkwater

AAR: J79 - Rommel's Remedy

Nick Drinkwater

German / Italian player [ELR 4/2, SAN 3]: Nick Drinkwater

New Zealand player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: Stephane Graciet

Stephane and myself are both partner-free for a couple of weeks so we are using the opportunity to get in some serious ASL, starting with the Line in the Sand mini-CG. Rommel's Remedy was round one in this three-part classic, and ended with a solid New Zealand win in German Turn 5 when yet another of my AFVs went down to another long odds shot from Stephane. Anyway, for those who want to read my AAR, please read on...

There's a little bit of choosing to do in the set-up as the Germans get to select between either an 88L AA Gun or a 81mm MTR + 20mm AA Gun. In addition, as this was round 1 of the CG, we both drew randomly from the three operational reinforcement groups: I selected 4 x MkIII H (50 normal gun barrel) with a 9-1 AL, a 3 x 468 HT Reinforcement group and 2 Stukas with Bombs. Stephane received 2 FB with bombs, 1 x 6-Lber AT Gun and a 76* Mtr and 3 Grants with a 9-2 AL.

These random reinforcements augment a very mixed at-start line-up of six 347 Italian sappers with a 9-1 leader and (chosen) HMG and a 8-0 with 70mm OBA and 3 x M13/41s. The at-start German forces include 2 Psw 222(L)s, 2 MkIIIJs with the 50L Gun and a couple of MG half-tracks. To win, the Germans (and let's be honest, it really will be the Germans and not the Italians doing the hard miles here) must exit 45 DVP off the east edge of Boards 31/30 (game area includes these plus half of boards 26 and 27), having started set-up on the board 27 half-board. All the German random reinforcements arrive from off-board on Turn 1 to really provide the impetus to the attack as the Italians are far too weak to achieve this on their own. The northern half of the Allied play area is dominated by two large hillocks arranged lengthwise, both with Level 1 summits. In addition the attack is funnelled by three lengthwise wadis that are located at the edges of the play area to create a central flat 'kill-area'.

The big thing about all these scenarios for the CG is the fact that Broken Terrain (BT) is in play and this has an absolutely MASSIVE effect on the way the scenarios pan out. The big part of BT is that hammada hexes resolve as half-level obstacles which seriously reduces the LOS opportunities to small open "courtyards" between "walls". In addition, all hexes around the hammada become bog terrain and this can seriously break-up and spread out coordinated attacking forces as I was about to find out. There is a lot of broken terrain in this play area and at some point the Germans are going to have to cross some of it in force, with a fair number of their vehicles surviving if they are to win. And that is in the teeth of a British linear defense that as well as the things listed above has 10 458s, a 9-2, an 8-1, an 8-0, some sangars, a few trenches and wire to impede movement and 60 mine factors: up to 45 of these could be replaced by AT mines and all, some or none could be hidden. Moderate dust is in effect so every shot is at least +1 minimum. Finally there is a track that traverses through the southern third of the play area and frees up all the movement for the attacking Germans, but means running through the teeth of the central 'kill-area'. Oh yes, did I mention that the Kiwis also have sticky gammon bombs to slap on to the immobilized or slow-moving German vehicles picking their way through the Broken Terrain? I didn't? Well, they do, and they really hurt.

I was a bit ring-rusty on ASL having just got back from a big trip to Europe, so I certainly wasn't at my best, but I think to win this, the Germans have to bring their absolute top game with them plus a bit of luck, as the terrain alone both funnels and then really breaks up the coherency of their attack. On top of that, they are facing a New Zealand defense that merely has to hang tough for a while while they maneuver the Grants through the broken terrain fields to hinder, delay and damage the slow-crawling German strike force. In addition, the Kiwis rolled really well in this for their support groups and picked up the dreaded 3 ROF 57L AT Gun, that can just destroy anything the Germans throw at them. The three Grants are really effective as well as they have 6 tubes firing all of which can damage any of the German armour, and their 11 turret AF means that all the German guns are more likely to bounce off rather than penetrate. Despite all this, Stephane, in his own words, presented one of his weaker setups and set up the AT Gun in the centre in front of some crags which effectively blocked his LOS to the northern half of the area and all of his backfield. Also, he'd been less than optimal with his all-hidden mine deployment and I fortuitously found the extreme northern flank wide-open at the extreme board edge. In contrast, the Italians went nowhere at all slowly and were soon running backwards in their customary "Nick is playing them" fashion.

Having recognised the need to kill some of the hordes of Kiwi infantry, I had opted for the 81mm MTR instead of the 88L AT Gun as I really wanted its 3 ROF to keep the heads of the Kiwis down, but this was noticeably ineffective as it missed virtually every shot, didn't keep rate and was put out of the game twice by sniper shots. The sniper also whacked my 8-0 Observer right between the eyes, so the OBA did precisely nothing after just half a fire mission. Two key pieces, both rendered ineffectual in no time. Ugly indeed. In the middle, my HT swarm of elite Germans were held up after running into the misplaced AT Gun. After one lost HT, they quickly swerved left to the north to drive and join up with MkIII swarm which had just successfully turned Stephane's flank for the loss of one tank on an AT mine. By now, the Italian tanks were all Immobilized on BT, or burning from one of the Grants, so it was up to the Germans to finish it off.

On the MkIII dominated northern flank I had been progressing pretty well. To Stephane's frustration, I had managed to race off one of my two Psw 222(L) for 7 DVP exit points, but then the first of numerous failed bog checks meant the other become burny, crispy toast for one of the swiftly transferring Grants. I managed to catch a 458 in the open, but true to form, Stephane rolled just perfectly when needed and it survived 2 nasty OVRs and then of course blew a hole in one of my nice shiny MkIIIs. I continued to fail Bog checks at the critical moments and was soon seriously over-stacked in one key Broken Terrain edge hex. Further maneuver with what was left of the Panzer force killed off three 458s for FTR and I overran the 76* MTR in its sangar to remove that threat. At this point we were looking good for the win, as Stephane lost a Grant to a Stuka, another one to a BFF critical hit (always sweet), and then I managed to break the 57L AT Gun crew with the other as they tried to rapidly manhandle the Gun over the rocky fields to get a LOS to my tanks. (These guys '12'ed themselves out of the game during a rally).

All I needed to do was get off 3-4 of the tanks and some of the stuffed-to-the-gills half-tracks. Stephane sent his big 8-1 AL Grant on a charge to halt me but missed everything and then broke both guns on IF shots - in addition both his FB missed with their bombs by one (phew) and their strafing attacks were ineffective. To counter this, I lost an all important half-track to a rear LMG shot through dust which was a nightmare, and then another motion tank went down as Stephane charged his 9-2 and a couple of squads through a storm of defensive fire as they all shrugged off countless -1 and -2 shots unscratched. Typical. Now it was down to a really fine margin as I had to get everything mobile off unscathed and de-bog my only remaining bogged tank.

We entered German T5 and I started the great Kentucky Derby dash. One half-track got off and 2 of the 3 tanks were on their way when my final HT went down to a 3 TH roll and then an immobilizing 4 TK from the only effective attack the FBs did all night - grrrrrhhh. I tried to run the surviving squad and leader off the board but went down to a lousy 2 FP long-range shot - the leader broke but the squad went berserk and were shot down in a hail of bullets on the empty desert floor (one of the few bits of the play area without BT!) as they charged back towards the Kiwi defense line!

That was pretty much it as I couldn't get enough off to win - we rolled to see if I debogged the stranded MkIII but that mired - of course it did.

This is quite a delicate scenario and needs some more finesse as the German than I was able to provide. In the cold light of the day after, I still think it is a bit pro-Allied, and this was compounded by Stephane pulling out the most lethal of his possible random reinforcement groups while I pulled merely average. This combination, allied to the extreme effects of BT on LOS and maneuver as well as the need for the Germans to cross at least 1-2 BT hexes means the Germans have to work hard for every advantage and everything needs to function at least in an average way to help this task. If Stephane had played his A1 defense and placed the mines and AT Gun in much stronger positions, I don't think I'd have even got close. Of my choices, I would still stick with the 81* Mtr as if it functions normally, it is an outstanding support weapon - I was unlucky to have Stephane pull the Grants, and the 88L AA Gun would have helped a bit, but not enough to offset the advantage that the Mtr offers. Finally, I definitely need to brush up some more on my Combined Arms play as I missed one or two opportunities and too many of the German infantry spent the game as passengers rather than fighting. The biggest thing of all though is the BT - this is a bugger to get through and seriously reduces the two big advantages for the Germans in this game - maneuver and speed.

Anyway, well played Stephane to pull yourself out of the hole you'd partially dug yourself into. We're moving onto Egypt's Last Hope next where I have to win. More to follow.

Nick Drinkwater