AAR: SP138 - Lacking Coordination

Zeb Doyle

After last week's anomalous results, testing of my 'precision' dice continued at the Gerstenberg Institute of Higher Research. Early trials with the mass spectrometer were inconclusive, and bombarding them with alpha particles also failed to yield any insights. Baffled, we decided to test the dice further in the scenario SP138 Lacking Coordination, with Eric's dice establishing the baseline parameters against which the precision pair could be compared.

The appeal of SP138 is that it's a late-war combined-arms battle, with 8.5 British squads, two Achilles (with the nice 76LL gun), and a small horde of funky armored cars backed by some 140mm OBA trying to hold a village without taking many losses from the onslaught of 15 weak SS squads (4-4-7s and 5-4-8s, who can ELR), three Tigers, and some OBA of their own. It's a fun mix of troops, there's the added appeal of playing on the fresh new boards x and w, and the way the Germans have a staggered entry and aren't allowed to use their OBA until turn three does a really nice job of simulating an uncoordinated attack without any clunky SSRs. But would this very nice-looking scenario stand up to my dice stress test?

Things started normally enough with Eric's SS cautiously entering the board and working their way forward. There was some fun cat-and-mouse action over the first few turns as the Germans tried to avoid my OBA as much as possible and get their 9-1/2x 4-4-7/MMG/LMG kill stack in position to threaten my OT Achilles. Things got interesting when an 8-1 and two 4-4-7s decided to brave my OBA harassing fire and advance into a wooden building in the blast zone. The 8+2 resulted in an NMC, and Eric box-carred the check for both his squads. The 8-1 tried valiantly to rally the 2-3-6s in the next turn, but his efforts went for naught as the OBA came in again and rolled snake-eyes, followed by a subsequent dr of 1, turning the building to rubble and wiping the whole stack out. Working hypothesis: my dice roll low, Eric's roll high.

Meanwhile, the SS kill stack had won the opening round with my Achilles and scared them into redeploying where all those machine guns couldn't see them. That opened things up a bit for the Tigers, who rumbled forward to take on some poorly positioned armored cars. The first Tiger opened up, only to malf its MA. The second Tiger scored a hit (on one of those double small 1/1 AF early war British relics that's about as well armed and lighter than my VW Jetta) and rolled a dud. We carefully checked the rules in case the shock of impact might knock the armored car back a hex, and although that wasn't the case, it managed to slip away to safety during its MPh. After that, we were questioning the laws of physics, but our working hypothesis was holding true.

Al those box cars really swung the initiative over to me, and I took advantage by driving my armored cars into the German backfield to re-DM some stacks of SS that had been broken by the artillery. The malfed Tiger MA really hurt here because it meant that there was nothing Eric could do about it. You may be wondering, given that the scenario takes place in 1945, why the good order German infantry I drove past didn't try a PF attempt or two. It turns out that Eric's dice are pretty good at rolling box cars, but they are VERY VERY good at rolling 6s on PF checks. Six 6's on the first ten attempts really let my vehicles operate with complete freedom.

That put the burden of the assault squarely on the two Tigers that still had working MAs. Eric found a dominating spot for the first one, with the caveat that it would have to spend 1MP in the LOS of an Achilles to get there. The risk was taken, the dice were rolled, and the low-odds APDS shot blew the turret off. The other Tiger then moved up, again spending a single MP in LOS and this time forcing a turret swing. Result: CH, ROF, burning wreck, Germans reduced to one Tiger without an MA, working hypothesis upgraded to theory.

As you might imagine, that put the burden of the attack back on the German infantry. They had rallied and regrouped and were now ready to push past the Achilles of death to get into the village. This would give the Achilles some decent shots, but an OT vehicle with a 4Fp AAMG and HE7 isn't the ideal infantry killer...normally, anyway. The first SS half-squad began the charge, only to be cut down by the AAMG. Next up was a 5-4-8. Result: CH, ROF, 24-2, KIA. Undaunted, a 4-4-7 moved forward: CH, ROF, 24-2, KIA. That left only a HS standing, and figuring I couldn't do it again, Eric brought him into LOS. He was right...not wanting to waste HE, I fired an AP shot: hit, NMC, box car, dead HS, theory upgraded to law.

Killing an entire platoon like that really smashed the German attack, but playing Eric is like being in one of those cheesy horror flicks: the guy just won't stay dead. He managed to fix the MA on his last Tiger and tore into town, finally managing to kill off some of my armored cars. Only my immense luck in the early and mid-game saved me. I was able to send my remaining vehicles to the far side of the town and hide them and Eric just ran out of time. Although the Germans didn't come close to capturing enough buildings, they did end up with 23 of the 35 CVP required for an instant victory. Had just one of those PF checks gone right earlier, it would have been a very tight game even with my great luck.

Anyway, another fun time at the Gerstenberg Research Institute, even if my good dice and Eric's truly horrible luck have made for some less exciting action than normal of late. I think the results of the testing are that I'm going to keep my dice and adapt a far more risky style of play and Eric is giving his dice away...if he can find any takers. More seriously, rumor has it that some of the Dallas guys have played this one; if true, any comments? I thought it was a fun scenario with some tricky decisions for both sides.

Thanks for reading,

Zeb

AAR: DB045 - The Backhand Blow

Zeb Doyle

Here's another AAR from the latest game day. A big thank you to Mike for hosting...I know I had a great time and I think everyone else did too (BTW, Mike, if you want to share that margarita recipe, I'm all ears!). We had a good mix of scenarios, including an ASLSK game, some tourney sized action, and even a few large scenarios. I think Shostak and Motes won the prize for fastest play time, with some bad dice effectively ending a smallish scenario on turn one, while the Denson/Seningen and the Roundhill/Schwoebel games going down to the last die roll. Meanwhile, I had the pleasure of playing Rick in DB045 The Backhand Blow, a scenario that also went down to the last die roll, although in extreme anticlimactic fashion.

Rick and I have had a lot of fun with East Front slugfests in the past, and we were hoping that The Backhand Blow would continue that trend. The scenario revolves around Manstein's counteroffensive to retake Kharkov in early 1943 and features a full company of 6-5-8 SS attacking down boards 23 and 49. Along with the standard 9-2 leader and lots of MGs, the SS get three Tigers (with a 10-2 AL), two PzIVH, a PzIIIN, and a Marder. This impressive force is pitted against some tough Russians, including 18 assorted elite and first line squads, a .50 cal, lots of mines and dummies, as well as a 45LL and a 57LL AT gun. The Russians also get two HIP T-34s, as well as another two T-34s that can secretly set up HIP or enter from off-map on a prerecorded turn and hex. It's a clash of two powerful forces, with the SS firepower and Tigers balanced by the extensive Russian HIP capabilities. The VC in this scenario call for the SS to score 99 points in 7.5 turns by capturing buildings, killing Russians, and exiting off the far map edge, with the interesting twist that any CVP the Russians score is added to that German 99 VP target.

This twist makes things quite tricky for the Germans because every loss they take saps their combat power, takes away EVP, and adds to the difficulty of the task. It's a little like running on a treadmill where the more tired you get, the faster it goes. A more concrete example is contained in the designer notes to the scenario, where it's helpfully pointed out that if you lose your Tiger with the 10-2, not only have you lost a very powerful unit and 11 EVP, you also now need to score 110 VP to win. Obviously, if the Germans take serious losses early, the scenario will turn ugly fast and so they have to be very careful especially with their tanks. The SS Panzer arm consists of seven AFVs, worth a total of 50 VP, and of which everything but the Tigers are vulnerable through the frontal AF against the Russian AT assets. Despite all this grim arithmetic, the scenario looked like a lot of fun and Rick graciously obliged me by taking the Russians.

He set up a very solid defense, with enough up front to slow me down but with the bulk of his force positioned in depth,causing me to abandon any hope of a grand flanking maneuver. I was going to have to dig the Russians out of their stone buildings squad by squad, and I started aggressively going at it from turn one. Things started poorly for me and a few low-odds shots caused a lot of damage. Over the first game turn, I had over 25% of my force break. However, the damage wasn't permanent and that ended up being the high-water mark for the Russian cause. Over the remaining seven turns, my SS troopers behaved like the 8ML he-men they're supposed to be, shrugging off 1MCs like they were nothing and dishing out tons of damage in return. It was pretty amazing how well my infantry performed and on the few occasions they did break, they simply rallied back as if the DM counters on them weren't even there. Anything my infantry couldn't kill, my sniper did, breaking a vital 6-2-8 who then died for FTR and wacking an 8-0, who took a squad with him via a boxcarred LLMC.

That was disheartening for Rick, but he sucked it up and focused on destroying my tanks, which are really the key to this scenario. Here, Rick did a great job reading my mind and setting up HIP traps, but his luck ended up being even worse than with his infantry. A T-34 ended up looking at the side of a Tiger needing an 8TH. Result: no APCR, miss, IF, hit, bounce, burning T-34. The second T-34 tried to take on my lowly PzIIIN. Result: miss, return HEAT shot Shocks T-34, Tiger moves up and delivers CH APCR hit to rear, burning T-34. My PzIIIN proceeded on its merry way, discovered the 57LL but was missed, drove on, discovered the 45LL, and survived six or seven ROF net TK5 hits to the front before the AT gun malfunctioned. The final two T-34s drove on map around turn four and confronted a PzIVH and the Marder. Result: Marder goes for APCR, T-34 dies. PzIVH goes for APCR, T-34 dies, Russian AT threat completely eliminated causing no German losses. Now, SS tanks in 1943 do have access to a surprisingly high amount of APCR, and net 5TK shots against PzIIINs and the sides of Tigers are not high-odds shots, but if you were to describe what happened in our game as 'statistically unlikely' or 'improbable' or 'really really lucky,' you'd be right.

You'd also be right if you figured that, thanks to all that luck, I was in great shape heading into the final two turns. I'd stupidly bogged a Tiger in a trench and the Russian sniper had Recalled my Marder, but my total losses were an amazingly low 7 CVP, I'd killed tons of Russians, captured every building on the map but one, and had my entire force ready to attack that last bastion. The only problem was that the last building is a factory where every hex is fortified and every Russian within is Fanatic by SSR. As anyone who has played RB knows, fighting 6-2-9s at one hex range in +2 TEM is very slow going, and although I threw everything I had at the factory, I ended up being completely shut out of it. In the end, I had to run my tanks off the map (surviving a last-ditch MOL attack) and ended up winning with 111 total points. That doesn't sound too close until you factor in those 7 CVP I lost and remember I needed 106 VP to win...had that last MOL hit my charmed PzIII, I would have not exited it, would have had to score 112 points, and would have lost.

The true difficulty of the task really didn't become apparent to me until after I'd played. As written, the Germans win by scoring 99 of a possible 196 VP, but that assumes the SS infantry can move an average of three hexes per turn against some very stout opposition and exit. I think instead they're going to be so busy grabbing buildings and killing Russians that you can't expect any infantry to make it off. Speaking of buildings, I don't think it's realistic to expect the Germans to take the factory either, which by SSR is worth double points. If you take out the German infantry EVP and the factory points, you're looking at trying to score 99 of a possible 152 points. Factor in three tank losses (and with six HIP Russian AT assets, that seems highly possible), and suddenly the Germans need 116 out of 135....very tough sledding and no margin for error. As an interesting comparison, the scenario designer notes say to budget two turns for taking the factory but expect overall losses in the 25%-40% range. Since I took 8.5% losses and arrived at the factory with two turns to spare and ended up barely winning, that seems like a very optimistic view to me.

At any rate, I'm certainly not complaining since I won and had a lot of fun playing. It was just unfortunate that what looks like a real slugfest has to be approached by the Germans as an exercise in casualty avoidance, with any slip up likely equaling a loss. I can't recommend the scenario as written at all even though there's a lot of promise underlying the flawed VC. If I were to try it again, I might tinker by giving the Russians the balance but ignore the provision that German losses add to their required total....obviously that's a big change, but I think the scenario needs something along those lines. So, final rating on The Backhand Blow: exciting situation, lots of promise, neat SSRs, but VC are a fatal flaw.

Anyway..thanks for reading and thanks to Rick for playing,

Zeb

AAR: J33 - The Slaughterhouse

Brian Roundhill

Setup - As the Germans, I have to hold onto one of the two factories. I decided against using the board 20 factory as my Alamo because it was closer to the Russian setup area and had better approach paths for the Russians. The board 22 factory (the Alamo) had more open ground and fewer stone buildings for the Russians to use, so I designed my defense around it. I wanted the Russians to attack the board 20 factory first, I wanted it to hold for the first three turns, and I wanted to delay the Russians as they transferred their attack from board 20 to board 22. Ideally the Russians would be forced to take the last factory in only two turns.

With this in mind, all the conscript squads and one 447 went into the board 20 factory. I put two 6-factor minefields in front of this factory inside the wall, leaving the western-most hex empty. I put 3 of the Wire in position to slow down an attack from the board joins north-east into board 22, and finished the line of Wire with 2 6-factor minefields. I put 4 1-factor AT minefields in scattered locations. A picket force of about 5-6 squads occupied the village in front of my Alamo, and the factory got everything else. I put the majority of my forces in the back of the factories to gain concealment. Since I had some concealment counters to work with, I also created some 3-stack dummies in each factory with the plan of splitting each of them in to two 2-stack dummies. My 88 was in the village, and my 20L was in the woods on the board join, hoping to catch some Russians running into the board 20 factory.

The Russians setup as desired. Across the stream facing the Alamo was the kill stack with the 10-2 and two AFV's, one of each type (don't remember the details, but I think they were an IS-122 and a T-34 with 85L). Four AFVs setup with riders in the far west, apparently planning to drive behind the rowhouses behind that factory, and everyone else was in the center.

Turn 1 - The Russian kill stack opened up on my 9-2/HMG in the front of the Alamo. No effect early, but a later MC generated a Berserk 9-2 and squad. Schwoebel apparently didn't like that because a 122 hit vaporized them both. The rest of the Russians moved out. A few moved to the northeast towards the Alamo, found the Wire, and stayed out. Several squads moved towards the board 20 factory, some staying behind the wall, others hopping the wall into the building there. One squad examined the concealed stack in the factory and found several bullets, dying in the process. When a leader and squad moved into the street also, the 20L had to fire a 20-2, but only broke them both.

Fire was ineffective, so the Russians advanced closer to their objectives. Both the minefields in front of the board 20 factory were found, breaking one squad. The German turn was quieter as skulking and force shuffling was the order.

Turn 2- The Russians kept the pressure on. The kill stack and 122 kept the front of the Alamo pinned down, and probing fire was sent across the wire into the village with no effect. Schwoebel logically deduced that the third hex in front of the factory was also mined and avoided it this turn, which channeled his attack into the street to the west, with ugly results. About a squad and a half died there, and another couple of squads broke, but enough remained to close into CC in three locations. My concealed conscripts got ambush, declared Hand-to-Hand and eliminated a 628. The other two 628s avoided Hand-to-Hand and locked conscript squads in Melee.

The German turn saw more skulking and force shuffling, but both conscript squads turned their Melee into Hand-to-Hand. One resulted in mutual annihilation, but snake-eyes in the other found the Germans a new leader.

Turn 3- The Russian Commissar was earning his money, rallying troops and creating a Fanatic 628. More Russian troops assaulted the board 20 factory, but couldn't get in. Russian AFV's had moved behind the 20L and were peppering the position with fire, but to no effect. The kill stack and 122 continued their barrage, but the Germans were playing scared and only putting dummies in the front of the Alamo. The Germans yet again skulked and shuffled, but the board 20 factory force got brave and moved into CCs. Outside the factory, a 426 and a Fanatic 628 with prisoners killed each other, leaving some German unarmed. Inside the factory, the German leader and squad were unsuccesful and perished, giving the factory to the Russians. Also, the 20L was given several targets and its fire broke a squad, but the flamethrower roasted the crew.

>> I think this was a mistake on my part. Attacking the Fanatic 628 was not a bad play because he was guarding prisoners, but I should have kept the leader and squad out of CC and made Schwoebel dig them out. Even if they broke in Prep Fire, it would be one less unit moving towards the Alamo.

Turn 4- The Russians turned their attention to the Alamo. At this time, I'd lost a couple of squads in the Alamo, but still had my entire picket force. Russian fire exposed more dummies in the front of the Alamo and broke the 88 crew. Several Russian squads quickly moved past the board 20 factory and onto board 22 north of the village where German forces were lighter. Advancing Russians avoided the Wire and found the minefields, slowing progress into the village. The Germans continued to skulk, and also started to pull in the village picket, giving up a hex or two.

Turn 5- Russian fire continued to pound the front of the Alamo, and a second Heat-of-Battle found the squad with the Panzerschrek go Berserk, and ELR'd the 838 with the flamethrower. They would later be shredded by the kill stack on a 12-4. Russian forces continued to move into position to assault the factory, and a brave DC squad entered the building adjacent to the factory, only to die there. Russian AFVs surrounded the factory and opened fire, giving notice that it would not be easy for the Germans to hold on. The Germans started pushing out of the village and into the factory, putting a couple of squads in the street.

Turn 6- Two turns to go, and my plan had worked so far. Schwoebel had only two turns to dig me out of the factory, but he still had a lot of firepower. The Russians had lost half of their Infantry, but so had the Germans, and the Russians still had all of their AFVs. One AFV drove into the front of the Alamo, establishing a bridgehead for the rest of the Russian troops. Thankfully, none could take advantage of that as they instead ran around the Wire and minefields and through the village. The western side of the factory was also assaulted, but not enough troops were available to get in yet. The kill stack dropped their weapons and ran down the eastern flank to get into position to assault that side of the factory. During the German turn, the 8-1 quit trying to rally the conscripts and instead took the flamethrower out of their hands. Then the conscripts self-rallied. The AFV inside the factory was introduced to the flamethrower and promptly started burning, and the Germans fell back into the eastern side of the factory. One turn to go, could they hold on?

Turn 7- The Russian horde, or half-horde because of losses, attacks. The AFVs go wild and drive into the factory. One locks down a group of Germans, one bogs in an entry hex, and one tries to lock down another group of Germans, but the flamethrower ends that idea. Russians charge the factory and survive the resulting fire to mixed effects. For example, the 10-2 passes, but one squad with him pins and the other breaks. The end result is that only two groups of Germans can be attacked in CC. The stack with the flamethrower is eliminated, but the stack locked down by the Russian AFV kills a squad and survives the return attack.

Last player turn. One German squad with MMG is in the back of the factory, surrounded by a 10-2/8-0/628 on one side, a couple of squads and a burning wreck on the other side, and an AFV with an 85L on a third side. One German squad is locked in Melee with a Russian squad and an AFV. First, the Russian 8-0 recovers the flamethrower, then he and the 628 break under fire from the German squad. Then the Russians open up. 12 +1 from AFV MG's, 16 +0 from the AFV main gun, 24 +6 from the squads in the burning wreck, and the German squad stands strong. The Russians are running out of options, and when the AFV can't eliminate the squad in its hex, the Germans remain in control of the factory.

Synopsis - This was one tight game that lived up to it's name. The streets ran red with blood this day as both sides were decimated with losses. Schwoebel played straight into my plan, and I still feel lucky to win. A fun game, and an enjoyable scenario.

Lessons learned -

• Shostak commented that keeping the heavy weapons in the factory for the end-game might be the wrong thing to do in this scenario. My PSK never got to fire, and the squad with the flamethrower broke before using it, but the leader with the FT was invaluable.
• I got too carried away with CC in the western factory. Keeping control of that factory at the beginning of Turn 4 might have made it impossible for Schwoebel to take the other factory.
• My Gun placement could have been better. The 20L was effective and probably gained me a quarter or half turn, but the 88 was seen immediately and avoided. It fired twice, broke a stack once, and failed its first MC.

Ferocity Fest Recap

Zeb Doyle

Here's a quick rundown of my Owlcon action, during which I had a great time and many dice were rolled:

I headed down to Houston early on Friday to get in on the Ferocity Fest mini, which took place at Ken's house. The place was easy to find, very close to Rice, and I even beat the rush hour traffic getting there. To make things even better, Ken was a great host, giving us a tour of his fantastic place and breaking out some Chinese rice wine for us that had been given to him by the Chinese Minister of Energy. Even without the ASL action, it would have been lots of fun hanging out with everyone, admiring the house, and drinking wine.

Alas, the peaceful tranquility of the morning was soon shattered as Ferocity Fest begun. The format was was a single round of play, with everyone playing TAC30 Yae Dake and both Marine and Japanese players scoring 'style points' for various actions during the game to determine the overall winner. I got the defending Japanese and had to try and hold a hill from Rob's attacking Marines. The Marines have a ton of firepower in this one, but not a lot of time, and their attack is tricky to coordinate with lots of groups of scattered reinforcements trickling in from all directions. I decided to try and use a wall of halfsquads to block these various Marine assault columns, prevent their linking up, and just try to run the clock out on Rob. I caught some big breaks early, with both Marine FTs X'ing on the first shot and my sniper killing Rob's radio man and then his 9-2. That took the attack from 'difficult to coordinate' to 'impossible,' and my blocking halfsquads were able to slow the Marines to a crawl. In the end, Rob got two of the required eleven hill hexes, leaving my Japanese with a solid win. However, Walter was also playing the Japanese and denied his Marines any hill hexes at all, caused more casualties than I did and was anointed Ferocity Fest champ. Ironically, Yae Dake wasn't really ferocious at all. There's no PTO in play, which takes away a lot of the Japanese tricks, and it ended up playing out as a solid but not exciting scenario. I wouldn't warn people away from it, but there's noting to recommend it either.

We then moved venues over to Rice and started some full fledged Owlcon action. The gaming space was exactly the same as last year, which was both good and bad. It's by far the most noisy and cramped space I've ever played in and there are tons of other gamers basically on top of you, but then again, all those other gamers are being exposed to ASL. With the starter kit making it so much easier for people to try dipping their toe into ASL, I think it's really worth the sacrifice to show the flag at these events and try to get new people involved. The other key to this happening is Walter, who does a great job spotting interested-looking people and roping them into trial games. I think the Texas ASL clubs do a great job of sustaining players but fall short in the recruiting department. Walter is really going above and beyond here and deserves a lot of praise for it. The combination of playing with other gamers to elicit interest and then having the starter kit as an easy entry really does seem to be working. Thank a lot, Walter.

At any rate, by the time I'd checked into my motel and registered at Owlcon, it was getting late. Luckily, Bill "the fastest ASLer in the West" was free and we decided to quickly knock out a scenario. The selection was TEF1-2 The Last Waltz, which features a desperate band of 5-4-8 SS troops trying to hold Vienna against a very tough group of Russian Guards. The Germans are pretty standard, with the usual MMGs, PSKs, and a PzIV, while the Russians are mostly 4-5-8s with some 6-2-8 assault engineers, some DCs and a FT, plus a 9-2. They also get three Shermans but only have a slim numerical edge and no real long-range punch. All in all, it's an interesting match-up with the Russians trying to capture two big multi-hex buildings and score a combination of 24 EVP and CVP.

The game started great for me as my first Sherman drove onto the map, survived a dud PSK round from a perfectly placed HIP 2-3-8, killed the offending HS with his CMG, and then swung his turret two hexspines to score an APCR CH on the PzIV. Good times. The attack bogged down a little after that, with my 9-2/4-5-8/FT combo breaking every single time they were shot at, but I got tons of ordinance and sM smoke from the Shermans and that really let me maneuver freely. The key moment in the game came when a 6-2-8 assault engineer survived some fire to get into one of the big victory buildings while it was guarded only by a broken SS squad. The SS squad routed out, giving me control and letting the remaining Russians focus their attack on a single building. Bill wouldn't give an inch though and so the battle was bloody and fierce. I finally got the FT into action on the last player turn and managed to get the win, but only had two good order squads and a tank left when it was all done. Fun scenario against a great opponent, The Last Waltz is good tourney fodder as it's small but both sides have enough tools that one bad roll won't doom you. I'm not sure there's a ton of replay value, and knowing the building control rules is key, but I enjoyed it a lot.

That was all the ASL I could handle for one day, so I headed back to the motel and tried to calm my mind down to get some sleep. It didn't work real well, and I tossed and turned all night while visions of FFMO and FFNAM raced though my head, but I was back at Owlcon early the next day for some more dicing. My morning opponent was Johnny, a really nice guy who had actually been recruited by Walter the year before. Johnny wanted to learn how to use vehicles, and Rob had been doing some trash talking about having the Tank Ace award all wrapped up, so in an effort to make things interesting I pulled out the all-armor CH58 Death Ride. This scenario features some 24 Russian tanks trying to halt 14 German AFVs at Kursk. I love Kursk scenarios since there are so many types of tanks in play, which makes for some fun TH and TK combinations. Death Ride looked to fit the bill, with PzIII, PzIV, Tigers, several types of T-34s, T-70s, and Churchills all putting in an appearance. The dice gave me the Germans and the super-cool Tiger/9-2 AL combo, although they have their hands full trying to advance against a numerically superior force while killing lots of Soviet tanks and/or exiting.

It was a brutal battle from the start, with Johnny exhibiting some excellent ASL instincts. He used the slower Churchills to guard the exit area, while the T-34s and T-70s maneuvered out of my LOS on my flanks to pick off targets of opportunity. As I pushed forward, my flanks became increasingly vulnerable and the Russians executed numerous well-planned attacks on my PzIVs. Unfortunately, almost every time this happened, I managed to roll a TH that included a one on the cdr, giving me a turret hit and ROF. The turret hit is bad enough, since it changed the net TK on the T-34 M41 from a 6 to a 9, but the Russians can afford a lot of losses in this one. It was the ROF that was the real game saver for the Germans because each PzIV that went down seemed to take four or five tanks with it. Meanwhile, the Tigers were shredding up the T-34 M43s, although Johnny was making it tough on me here too, as I could only get at him at point-blank range and had to risk lots of APCR and DI attacks. The Russians never got the rolls they needed, though, and although I finally malfed an MA on the last turn, I skated past a lot of decent Russian shots, red MP start-ups and so on with nary a scratch to the Tigers. My other tanks didn't fare so well, as Johnny managed to kill about half of mine and didn't let me exit a single vehicle, but I managed to destroy enough of his armor to win. Overall, it was a fun scenario as all-vehicle scenarios go although nothing makes it really stand out. If you're looking for a big Kursk tank battle, but don't want to deal with the Steppe terrain in Clash Along The Psel, then this is a good one. Meanwhile, watch out for Johnny...I think he went 2 and 1 for the weekend in his 3rd, 4th, and 5th ASL games ever. Very impressive.

Next up was Tom "Commissar" Gillisov, who was nice enough to play SP140 Red Valentines with me. This scenario was high on my wanna-play list due to the meaty combined-arms clash and the interesting AT ditch SSR. It looked like a lot of fun, plus there were plenty more tanks for me to kill in pursuit of the Tank Ace award. Tom took the Russians, which put him in the unpleasant position of trying to defend the board 48 'village of death' with a weak infantry force and a 120mm OBA module, with a bunch of Valentines (as you may have guessed from the scenario title), T-60s, and T-34s reinforcements arriving over the course of the game. The Soviet force totaled 13 squads and 14 tanks, which made for an interesting match-up with my 11 squads and 10 tanks, although of course my squads were elite SS and the tanks were split evenly between the very nice PzIIILs and the PzIVF2s with the long barrel. My mission was to take almost all of the board 48 village and have at least two mobile tanks at game end.

Tom set his troops up quite far forward in an attempt to cover the AT ditch, forcing me to enter quite cautiously. I was very worried about losing any infantry early, given that I was outnumbered to start, and so used a lot of sD from the PzIIIs to cover the advance. This worked very well and the SS made it into the ditch with minimal losses. Here, I think Tom made a small error by deciding to stand and fight. The LOS from the off-board 120mm OBA observer is very poor, the reinforcing Soviet tanks have to come a long way to get into the fight, and once the SS infantry makes it to the ditch, it's very tough to hurt them. The situation was only made worse by my good rolls and the fact that Tom didn't pass an MC until turn three, but between the SS 9-2 kill-stack and the BFF Panzers that would then cut rout paths, there were only three Soviet squads left alive after the first few turns. I had taken some infantry losses as well, and was actually in the process of massacring my numerous prisoners to free up troops for another push forward, when the Soviet armor hit me like a tidal wave.

As Tom rolled his tanks up to try and save the day, I was already a little worried. I'd lost a PzIII to an ATR CH through the front and malfunctioned two of my precious PzIV 75L guns, and was having some bad flash-backs to my game of Huns Of Steel where Eric had trashed my PzIV2s with Valentines and then rolled his (effectively invincible) T-34s on for the win. It was exactly the same situation here, and I didn't care for it one bit, especially when I malfunctioned another two MAs firing at the oncoming Soviet armor. Tom handled his units very well, coming in on my flanks with superior numbers, and his good tactics were rewarded with good dice, as his first four attacks (needing a 5TH and a 5TK) were all successful. That and the malfunctions pretty much shattered my Panzer force and the remaining SS tanks were forced to scatter to the four winds and hide. At this point, my chances of victory looked very slim indeed. I was down to three tanks with working MAs and had only killed two Soviet tanks, which meant I was effectively outnumbered 4:1. In addition, while my infantry had eradicated their Russian counterparts, I still had a lot of buildings to run through and capture. In short, it was Tom's game to lose.

That's where I ended up getting very very lucky. I think Tom got caught up in the thrill of trashing my Panzers, and spent the rest of the game hunting my reamining armor with his OBA and tanks. I was able to use lots of tricks like motion attempts and sDs and moving to where I could get out of LOS while expending just a single MP and so forth, and thanks to some good rolls, was just able to keep the required two tanks mobile at game end. Meanwhile, the village was essentially unguarded and although it took every single MPh I had I was able to take the required amount of buildings. In hindsight, my margin of error with my infantry was so slim, the Russian tanks and OBA could have sealed off the village and given themselves an easy win. This isn't meant as a knock on Tom at all, as the decision wasn't so clear-cut in the heat of the moment and he was handling his tanks masterfully against mine. Instead, it's more a testament to how exciting the scenario was; we were both completely caught up in the action and having a really great time.

Overall, I think our playing was fairly atypical. I doubt the SS will generally erase the Soviet infantry so easily, and likewise, the armor battle seems like it should be much more even than it was. So, although I can't pass a definitive judgment, I think Red Valentines is pretty balanced and a ton of fun. If I could do it again (and this is a scenario I'd replay in a heartbeat), I'd try having the Soviets contest the AT ditch, then fall back into the town to allow the OBA and armor to fully support them. Meanwhile, the SS have to realize that they have to push hard every turn but not take crazy risks. I didn't realize just how many buildings I had to tag and almost lost because of it. The game is chock-full of interesting decisions for both sides and I'd really recommend it. Very cool swirling East Front action, but not of overwhelming size. Congrats to Tom as well for sucking up his terrible luck with his infantry, completely manhandling my Panzers, and putting himself in great position to win.

My narrow escape against Tom put me into the finals Sunday morning against Roy. He wanted the Marines in HP18 Flame Tree Hill and I tried to put together a Japanese defense that could hold off his overwhelming firepower. I don't want to write a ton about what happened because the game is worthy of a full-fledged AAR, but Roy went with a hyper-aggressive attack that almost gave me a heart attack, led to several massive swings in initiative, and ended the game on turn two with roughly 50% casualties on both sides. I walked away feeling very lucky to have won, and I think Roy walked away realizing that he'd had about a 60% chance to win, but if he'd done things just slightly differently, he'd have had an 80% chance of victory. It was a great way to end the tourney for me because it packed about four scenarios worth of action into two hours of play and I was able to head back to Austin early. The scenario was interesting and both sides have a lot of fun toys. I want to think over the balance a bit more before making any comments on that. Finally, I want to thank Walter for the prizes. The trophy mugs were very nice and the gift certificate to Barnes and Nobles was very very generous. Thanks a ton. Most importantly though, I would have had a great time even without the prizes. Owlcon's a great event and I can't wait to come back and defend my championship next year!

Zeb

OwlCon 2007 Wrapup

Walter Eardley

Howdy Folks,

First, I would like to thank everyone who took the time to attend Owlcon this year. I really do appreciate you coming. Like I have said in the past, if it wasn't for those of you attending, it would just be me and a bunch of Warhammer folks hanging out.

For the Saturday morning Starter Kit session, we had two players signed up. I had the privilege of walking a very nice guy named Edmund (I think he lurks on this list) through his first ASL game. He was a SL player from way back so after a little instruction and clarification we were able to work our way through Retaking Vierville. I have high hopes we will see Edmund at future game days! The other guy no showed. I must thank Ken for being on stand by to teach a second player. I really appreciate the help and support.

I also passed out flyers to several people interested in learning the game or knew people interested in learning the game. The Starter Kit session and visibility to the convention attendees in general is the most important part of the event and the main reason I hold this tournament. Getting to see everyone is great but finding new players for our hobby is of great importance.

We had a nice turnout this year for the main tournament with several new faces added to the mix. Zeb was once again the Top Dog in this event by capturing two of the three top awards. Zeb defeated Roy in the championship match to finish the weekend 5-0. He earned a nice trophy and a $40 gift certificate plus the praise and adoration from the rest of the attendees. He also killed 28 tanks over the weekend (topping Rob's 18) to take home the Tank Ace trophy and another $10 gift certificate. Congratulations to Zeb on his accomplishments!

Friday's action was Ferocity Fest where 6 of us squared off in Yae Dake. Two of the games were Japanese victories me defeating Doyle and Zeb defeating Rob. The third game was a Marine victory by Roy over Ken. I took home a copy of Battling Buckeyes while Roy took home another scenario pack (I can't remember the name). To cap off a great day, we toasted with what we originally thought was sake but turned out to be something else. The point was it had oriental writing on the side and was a very fitting end to a great day. Thanks to everyone who attended Ferocity Fest and thanks to Ken for opening his house to us despite a daughter and wife who had pneumonia!

Here are the final numbers. Let me know if you see anything fishy. I will post the results to ROAR.

• Zeb Doyle 5-0 (28 AFVs killed)
• Roy Casagranda 4-1 (3 AFVs killed)
• Rob Burton 3-1 (18 AFVs killed)
• Stephen Miller 2-1 (0 AFVs killed)
• Stephen Graciet 2-1 (4 AFVs killed)
• Johnny Johnson 2-1 (8 AFVs killed)
• Walter Eardley 2-2 (12 AFVs killed)
• Robert Delwood 1-0 (0 AFVs killed)
• Doyle Motes 1-2 (0 AFVs killed)
• Kevin Riley 0-2 (2 AFVs killed)
• Victor Behar 0-1 (1 AFVs killed)
• Tom Gillis 0-2 (7 AFVs killed)
• Ken Havlinek 0-2 0 (AFVs killed)
• Bill Dorre 0-3 (7 AFVs killed)
• Rick Reinesch 0-3 (3 AFVs killed)

Walter

AAR: Stonne 4 - Trial by Strength

Nick Drinkwater

German, [ELR3, SAN 2]: Nick Drinkwater

French, [ELR3, SAN 4]: Tom ("I roll 4s") Gillis

A full free day for gaming, so we wanted to try a monster game to play. This one is eight action-packed turns of early war mayhem on the excellent Stonne map, which is fabulous - one of Critical Hit's earlier efforts that probably is a bit underplayed. There are some gems among their early modules and I think this one looks particularly good - probably one of the best, alongside "Ruweisat Ridge" and "Those Rugged Bloody Heroes" and produced before CH got lost in the game-playing dead-ends of serious counter variantism (such as Pointe de Hoc) or really ugly maps (Carnage at Cassino). The whole map area is in play but the main focus of the scenario is centered on the plateau and village of Stonne itself. Stonne village is a mix of small ground-level stone cottages with some narrow- street terrain and rowhouses, but the village nestles snugly above a very steep wooded escarpment with numerous double-crest hexes to really put a crimp in all attempts by the Germans to swiftly reinforce the melee.

Access to the village from the south is by a long straight road, parallel to the base of the escarpment that, through a nasty hairpin, enters the main plateau playing area by the notorious sunken road "bottle neck". This is the only way the German armour can get in to the village at all as we could find no errata that would allow me to create vehicular trailbreaks through the rear escarpment-hugging woods anywhere. I understand that in the Campaign Game the French can boresight, block, mine and generally make this outlet hex impossible for the Germans to move through which seriously hampers them and makes it much more difficult / close to impossible for the Germans to win - I'm not sure if CH have amended this or not, but allowing Trail Breaks would certainly provide a much bigger degree of tactical flexibility for the Germans.

Of the 27 buildings onboard, the winner has to control the majority at Game End - three of these stone huts are isolated to the north and are effectively "gimmes" for the French who can set up in / adjacent to them. Four more buildings are just connected to the main Stonne village, but are on a small Level 7 plateau with the 1-hex water tower, which acts like a factory - the village itself is just to the southwest on Level 6, and has a small church with steeple, but this struggles to see over the many in-season orchards. Despite the apparent plethora of open ground on the approaches to the village, ground assaults will actually be more covered than is first discernable. One good thing to assist the defense are the numerous barbed wire fences that cross everywhere - these are difficult to traverse with infantry and require all tanks to make a simple non- modified bog check (bog on a 12). These should impact the assault.

Overall, the scenario represents the first big French counter-attack after the Germans have just taken the town for the first time (it is probably equivalent to the classic old SL scenario, "Counterstroke at Stonne"!). Though attacking, the French setup first with 6 x 457, 9-1, HMG and MMG plus foxholes adjacent to the three 'gimme' houses and also separately next to the water tower - they are starting to ready themselves for the impending MASSIVE assault by a mixed French armour and infantry force from the east: the attacking force consists of 15 (FIFTEEN!!) tanks - six of the behemoth Char B1-bis, six H39(L)s and three FCM 36s. These all have good to awesome armour for this time of the war, and though they are all 1MT and need to operate with (french) modified platoon movement, they are good gun platforms, and the B1-bis are really nasty with 3 potential attacks per fire phase. In addition, to represent early war tank fright, any infantry that moves or is moved adjacent to a tank has to take a PTC - more pain for the outnumber germans! To escort this tank company is a massive Turn 2 infantry attack force of 23 x 457s, 9-2, 9-1, 2 x 8-1, 7-0, and a plethora of machine guns. Ouch. Count em folks - thats 29 squads in total - not often we get to play with that many troops.

The Germans are going to have a tough job holding on until their reinforcements arrive. On board they start with 6 x 468 and a 9-1 in the water tower hamlet and 12 x 467s, 1 x HMG, 1 x MMG and 4 x LMG in the village proper together with a 9-2, 8-1, 8-0 and 3 x ATR. This is all stiffened by three 37L AT Guns in the water tower hamlet, and three more in the main village, together with two 75mm Inf Gun and two recently captured French pop guns (25LL). An apparently powerful blocking force, but against the B1-bis, it is going to be Deliberate Immobilizations only for all of these guns, and only moderate to low chances to kill the other French arnmour (TK numbers of 9 versus Armour of 4 / 6). Also important is that MGs are only going to DI the FCM 36s, and the ATRs are only going to DI the H39s and FMR35 - the Char B1s were effectively imvulnerable to all these LATW. Not good for the Germans, not good at all.

To respond to this massive thrust, the Germans get to dash on a MG company with 8 x 468 squads, four MMG and a 9-1 leader which enters on the south side on Turn 1. To try and counter all that French armour,the Germans also need to rush on six early war Stugs via the sunken road bottle neck, starting on Turn 3. Note that the earliest that any impact will be felt by these Stugs is Turn 5 as it will be at least two turns to get the Stugs up that long slow climb and into the fighting proper. Finally, on Turn 4, the Germans get a 7-0, a Kubelwagen and a Radio for 150mm OBA with scarce ammo. Again, getting it into any position to be able to affect the outcome of the game is unlikely to happen until Turn 6 at the earliest as driving in to the village will take 2 Turns (assuming no interference from the French). The alternative of dismounting and then hiking in will probably take longer as those are steep wooded slopes which that leader has to climb - as my MG platoon was about to find out the hard way.

Early blows were traded with Tom's initial assault on the water tower hamlet being rebuffed and me even managing to Immobilize a Char 1 in a position where it was unable to fire on any of the village. I shrugged off a couple of early MCs and sent the first few French squads packing, but attrition started to bite as four of my 468s and two of the three Gun crews got waxed in CC for a net return of one and a half squads - as was remarked at the time, my CC luck (or lack thereof) is legendary amongst our local crew and I continued my usual trend by missing a bunch of ambushes or attacks vs withdrawing broken units by 1 or more. Recognizing the threat from the Chars, I jumped into CC with one with a 468 and a 9-1 instead of reinforcing a melee - this leviathan was stopped and should have been toast, but I then rolled a 12 to CR myself from Crew small arms!! A long-odds in-hex shot from Tom then broke the survivors and that one hurt a lot too. To follow the loss of both these strong points, Tom, with an Improbable Critical Hit from a 47mm Char Turret Gun, took out the third of my outlying 37L AT Guns - the three outlying AT Guns scored a total of 1 Immobilized Char B1- bis from six or seven hit attempts - not a viable exchange rate.

Tom sent a big right hook HMG platoon around to the west to reinforce two of the at-start HIP squads in the outlier hamlet - my only quality sniper attack of the day took the 9-1 through the heart and this discouraged the others from doing a lot. Despite this setback, Tom sent a platoon of surprisingly nippy tank platoon to test the western defenses - I of course missed all the shots including several CCs vs bypassing tanks, and got hurt by tank MG CC attacks in return - it was ugly.

In Turn 3, I did manage to DI two of the FCMs by HMG and ATR fire, and in my only good anti-attack of the day I gained a crit on an H39 which knocked it out. I also managed to snag another bypassing H39 on the third CC attempt and I also DIed a second Char from a 75 Inf gun which had failed to find its HEAT on the first try (of course). By this point it was too little, too late, as my central town defenders went down in a never ending whirlwhind of Char B1 and H39 shots and they just melted away under relentless acquisition and an eternal run of 4s by Tom (if my SAN had been four, Tom would have lost this game). By this time, I was losing 1-2 squads a fire phase and despite continuing to attrite his troops, including a great long sharp LOS kill of a hero with a squad and a half from my HMG, it was never enough.

While Tom continued to envelop the eastern side of the defense in masses of troops and very large tanks, he also sent a flanking platoon to the south and east to try and interdict the entry areas of all my reinforcements. To get my Observer on to a viable vantage point in his small van as fast as possible, I had to nullify this threat quickly which meant leaving a Stug to deal with the problem...this he did, but this meant he was going to be at least one if not two turns late getting into the battle area behind his comrades. My MG company legged it on as fast as possible but with barbed wire fences and wooded double-crest slopes, they still weren't all even at the southern village edge by the end of Turn 4. Similarly, my first Stug was yet to appear out of the road by the end of Turn 4 due to the slow rate of climb - it is a tough row that the Germans have to hoe in this one.

The end came surprisingly fast - a two-squad detachment went down to a 8+1 shot from Tom's 9-2 and then forced to surrender and that was the last real resistance - I fired back with my 9-2 and HMG stack, but Tom passed the subsequent three 2 MC and the subsequent three (rate) NMCs with a single pin only. In the next turn, his 9-2 guys scored a 1MC on my killer stack in return and I rolled 10, 10 and 10. No point in going on from there and I conceded. When the 9-2 stack collapsed at the end, I had only 1.5 unbroken squads of my original 18 squads left, the majority being prisoner, and four of the six 37L AT Guns were crewless or destroyed. The two captured 25LL Guns were still hidden as was one of the two 75* Inf Guns, but these were not going to materially change anything. Tom still had four now invulnerable Char1s left as well as one FCM and four of the H39s...my now broken 9-2 was about to do surrender from FTR, and all my other at-start leaders were dead.

Even though the MG company and Stugs were close, they were still at least one more turn from being in the village in any force as they continued to struggle up the steep wooded slopes. Even once up, I was only then going to be holding five of the twenty seven buildings at that point - these eight squads were never going to be enough to recapture another nine buildings in only three turns, from a French force that still had nineteen of its original twenty-nine squads left. Also, it was difficult to see how my Observer was going to find a safe place to sit and observe, let alone have enough time to actual bring in a Fire Mission, espcially with scarce ammo, as he was still struggling to even get on to the board. It was going to be Turn 6 or later until at least three of the Stugs were going to get to the village as they still had to negotiate a double crest as well as the hairpin and that was just going to eat up movement points.

Despite the mauling and the dicing Tom admitted he gave me, this was actually fun - in such a huge scenario, the odd dice normally even out, but I did take the worst of it. We had two French heroes, Crew Small Arms, Berserk, a German heroic leader(and then quick death) and one Improbable Critical and one Normal Hit (both French). I had my MMG and a Lt Mtr malfunction whilst Tom had only two CMG malfunction and he did not bog a single tank at all (and there was a LOT of barbed wire fences for him to cross) - his ability to roll 4s was amazing. I really shouldn't bother with Ambush or CC in any game of ASL - it just hands VP to my opponent in nicely wrapped-up parcels labelled "To X, Free VP courtesy of my CC dice, Best regards, Nick". In this one, I killed precisely one tank in Bypass and killed 1.5 squads over at least ten CC attempts - pathetic. My AT Guns could barely dent the French Armour and I just couldn't stop the French horde in any way shape or form. To counter his numerous 4s, Tom also rolled a lot of 11s - sadly, he wasn't playing the Italians or Allied Minors so this didn't really impact him! Despite my whining, Tom played this one really well and relentlessly everything in his path, and when the opportunities came as my infantry melted away, he poured through the breach. Well played Tom!

We both thought this one favoured the French just too much - they can rapidly and easily overwhelm the initial German forces which are partially spread out and can't quickly disengage and retreat due to the at-start HIP force. The French have numerous tubes, especially the Char B1s which are essentially almost invulnerable to everything the German's have. The worst issue for the Germans though is the timing of the reinforcements - with the current schedule, it is an absolute bugger for them to get anything forceful up into the village before Turn 5 and by then the French will most likely have overrun most of the at-start village force and from then they will be very difficult to eject. To remedy this, I would suggest that the German armour come on one turn earlier and the Observer be allowed on in Turn 1 and not Turn 4 - with the scarce ammo, he's going to struggle to get more than one or two FFEs down during the game anyway, so why handicap him further with the unobtainable schedule he currently has?

Good luck to all of you at Owlcon next week - to paraphrase English soccer striker Gary Linker, "ASL is a game where a bunch of blokes roll lots of dice for three days, and then Zeb wins?!!!"

Texas ASL - February 3rd, 2007 AAR

Zeb Doyle

So, the February 2007 game day has come and gone and much ASL action was had by all. The turnout was decent with nine of us there, and we even had John Hyler and Manabu Matsuura. Manubu is new to Texas and ASL, but in just his third ASL game ever, he gave Mike Seningen quite a battle. John meanwhile played Rick in a game of Pocket Panzers, which, from the way they were shouting, sounded like it was lots of fun. The most noise came from my immediate right, however, where Mike Denson and Shostak were playing The Bozsoki Relay and engaged in what, verbally at least, must have been one of the most intense ASL games ever played.

I had the privilege of rolling dice with Brian Roundhill, who deserves a vote of thanks for hosting. We played Taking A Stand At Rosario, a really cool-looking scenario that's been on my play list forever. It's an early war fight between the Japanese and Americans in Luzon, and has all kinds of fun goodies like bicycle riding Nipponese warriors facing off against 6-6-7s on horseback. I was the defending Americans and spent a fair amount of time arranging my defense. Brian didn't have the time to look at the scenario nearly as much but still put together an excellent attack. The set-up gave me a bit of an edge, but the key to the game was the six Japanese mortars producing a grand total of two smoke rounds. That gave my 9-2/.50 cal combo the opportunity for a ton of 8-1 and 8+0 shots, and I rolled well enough that Brian's SAN of 4 was activated early and often. The Japanese infantry melted away under that punishment with a lot of K/ and KIA carnage, and by the end of the game Brian had his troops in great position but there weren't enough of them left. The funniest part of this scenario for us was an SSR stating that the first American 6-6-7 to pass a non-HOB Morale Check automatically Battle Hardens and creates a Hero. The first MC I rolled was snakes, and I got my BH and hero the standard way. After that one occurrence, Brian focused virtually all his fire on my 9-2/.50 cal/3-4-7. That combo passed tons of MCs and actually never broke but wasn't a squad, and so didn't qualify for the SSR. Amazingly, the entire game passed without the SSR ever being activated! I'd highly recommend the scenario, but thanks to the dice, our playing wasn't too incredible.

After that, Brian and I decided to try Transylvania 6-5000, featuring Hungarians trying to kick the Russians out of a village and/or off a hill. It's a pretty small scenario, but both sides get some interesting choices. I wanted to attack after defending in the prior scenario, and Brian was nice enough to take the Russians. He set up a nice little defense centered on the hill and left the village empty. One nice touch was using his dummy counters to simulate an extra tank. That's a tactic that is often overlooked, but makes it much harder on the attacker. I then brought my Hungarians on and over the first few turns showed Brian how to use smoke. The secret here is to roll low, and unlike the Japanese in the prior scenario, my StuGs went 4 for 4 on sD attempts and 3 of 4 on smoke shots. All that cover make it easy for my Hungarian infantry to push forward and by the time the Russian reinforcements were ready to enter, I was in great shape. This is one of the interesting parts of the scenario, as the reinforcements can try to bolster the hill defense or make a dash for the village to draw off some attackers with them.

Brian decided to reinforce the hill, which I was happy to see. I figured I was in such good position there that the extra Russians would make little difference and I wouldn't have to make the difficult decision of splitting my force. I got even happier when a lucky PF shot torched the Russian T-34/85 as it drove on. Feeling like victory was at hand, my Hungarians prepared to storm the hill. Brian wouldn't go down so easily though, and did a great job with his remaining T-34 M43 to really tear up my troops. My dice cooled down a little as well and my 4-4-7s, suddenly unable to pass 2MCs at will, fell back in disarray. The T-34 kept my StuGs from getting into a good position and suddenly disaster was staring me in the face. At this point, near the end of a very intense game and after hours of ASL and the consequent mental exertion, Brian made a major mistake in driving his T-34 into a more defensive position that happened to be outside the VC area. The tank was still a threat to shoot at me, but I no longer needed to destroy it to win. That was huge, because I was in really bad shape going into the last turn. I ended up having to get a lucky IF hit and survive a 24-1 CH to pull out a very very lucky win. If Brian hadn't moved his tank one hex or if my 8-1 hadn't survived that 24-1, I would have lost.

Overall, it was a great day, although I did feel guilty for dicing the host in one game and then stealing his well-deserved win in the second. It was also really good to see everyone and to meet Manubu. For everyone that wasn't there, I'll borrow a line from Australia and ask "It's ASL--where the bloody hell are you?" (disclaimer: bikini-clad Aussie babes not included)

Thanks for reading,

Zeb

After Action Report: RPT3 Varosmajor Grange

I had the pleasure recently of battling the redoubtable Zeb in this scenario from the first Rally Point, which is produced by the Schwerpunkt guys. It depicts a firefight in Budapest in 1945 between Hungarians and Russians. The Hungarians are on the attack, with the opportunity to come from two sides. They must clear four buildings of good order Russians at game end. One of the victory buildings is on the left side as the Hungarian player faces the board. It is a large, 7-hex, 2-level building. The other three are all in a row on the right side, and each is just one hex in size, but with an upper level. Their force comes in two roughly equal sized groups, one with slightly better quality troops featuring a 9-2 leader, a heavy machine gun, a flamethrower, and supported by two Zrinyi II assault guns, the other rounding out their numbers with a few conscript squads, led by an 8-1 leader, and supported by a formidable Hetzer tank destroyer. On the defense, the Soviets have a fairly low-quality force considering the time of the war, containing 5 conscript squads among the dozen total, led by a 9-1 leader, but with their firepower bolstered with a heavy machine gun of their own, plus a medium machine gun. They are supported by a T-34 M43 tank, and on turn 2 a fearsome flame belching OT-34 comes riding in to the rescue.

Zeb’s defense looked like it was going to rely on holding something in the 3 small buildings area, because the large building had only one unit in it, and it was not heavily supported. Consequently I only brought a few units on my far left, including the 9-2 leader and the HMG, hoping to get to a level 2 location where he could harass Russians from a distance. The Zrinyis, having little to fear from the Russian infantry, moved right up in their faces to try to intimidate them with their large 105mm guns. A 20-flat shot is nothing to sneeze at after all. The Hetzer was tasked with hunting the T-34, which was set up in the road on the far right (the Russian left). The Russians did not contest many of the opening moves by the Hungarian infantry, mainly because they did not have line of site to them, as they moved up behind cover to get to the front line on the first turn. The main action occurred when a Hungarian squad moved out into the street to draw fire from the T-34. My intent was to bait the tank to shoot, thereby preventing it from being able to make a motion attempt when the Hetzer later bore down on him. With a 14 frontal armor factor, the Hetzer had very little to fear from the Soviet tank, whose 76L gun only had a kill number of 13. With APCR, the kill number would go up to 17 at 0-1 hex range, 16 at 2 hexes, 15 at 3 hexes, and 14 from 7-12 hex range. So even against an APCR round at close range the risk was minimal. The T-34 took the shot with its bow machine gun, enabling my little scheme. The Hetzer moved up to a couple of hexes away, and when the T-34 declined to shoot, the little agitator took a bounding fire shot needing a 5 to hit. The shot was true, and it wrecked the Russian tank (17 to kill against 11 armor). This bounding fire shot had about a 1 in 8 chance of succeeding. Had it missed the odds for a kill in the next prep would have been much better, say about a 1 in 4 chance. It was an auspicious start to the scenario.

Naturally the Russians skulked under cover in their half of the first turn, but on the far left flank a lucky HMG shot directed by the 9-2 leader broke the Russian squad manning a medium machine gun. The game was really starting out well for the Hungarians.

On the second turn, one of the Zrinyis got up close and personal with the lone Russian conscript squad tasked with defending the big victory building on the left. The risk in close combat reaction fire for the Hungarian assault gun was again minimal, considering the low morale of the conscript. It pinned on its pre-AFV attack task check, and was subsequently bum rushed by about 5 Hungarian squads and a leader. It took a couple of CC rounds to finish them off, but the outcome was not really in doubt. Meanwhile the Hetzer relocated a little bit more to the left, since it had to be prepared for the oncoming OT-34, by far the most dangerous weapon in the Russian arsenal. I was a bit worried that the flame throwing monster would go after my Zrinyis, but instead it drove up right behind the wrecked T-34 on my far right flank, and belched a 16-flat shot at a stack of Hungarians in a building on that flank, doing considerable damage. They all broke, and were out of the game for a while as they fell back and tried to rally.

The middle game saw the Russian luck begin to turn. I rolled well early, but now Zeb reeled off a string of threes and assorted other low rolls to keep my forces back. The fight was most intense in the middle area between the big victory building and the three smaller ones. My flame thrower team would carefully move up, only to be broken two or three times, eventually succumbing to a Russian sniper while taking cover in the big victory building. They never got a shot off. One of the Zrinyis tried the vehicular bypass trick again to limit fire opportunities from a Russian squad in the front line and thereby jumpstart my assault in the area, but this was no squad of conscripts. It was a seasoned group of veterans that wouldn’t be so easily intimidated. They deftly knocked out the assault gun with grenades in CC reaction fire. For sure, the Zrinyis are not ideal for this tactic, since they have no machine guns, giving infantry a +1 bump on their attack. The difference between needing to roll a 4 or a 5 to harm a vehicle in CC is pretty significant. The other assault gun wasn’t having much luck either, as it malfunctioned its gun! The Hetzer drove over back to the far right flank to take on the OT-34, but it could not do so without spending a lot of points in its line of sight, thereby allowing the Soviet tank to kick into motion and turn away for a quick escape, making it nearly impossible to hit. During the next turn or two, the Hetzer kept chasing the OT-34, only to see its prey kick into motion and escape each time, free to drive somewhere else and fry another group of Hungarian infantry. The hunt was made that much harder because the Hetzer dared not get too close to the flame throwing tank either. If it got up close to increase its odds of a hit and kill, and make it harder for the Russian beast, if it kicked into motion, to turn toward a covered escape route, it might have to endure instead a shot from the flame thrower. These are very dangerous indeed. Even if the Russian tank had to change facing to take such a shot, it still wouldn’t matter because there is no to hit roll. Instead, the flames allow an immediate roll on the kill table. Yikes.

Eventually though in the middle area, numbers began to tell and the Hungarians were able to push the Soviets back and gain a foothold. The Zrinyi with the malfunctioned gun now had the duty of driving next to as many broken Russian troops as possible to make them DM, and to force their routing in a direction to my liking. It could do little else unless it managed to fix its gun, which it failed to do for the remainder of the game. Otherwise the Hungarians tried to get their panzerschreck teams forward to prepare for the next attack by the OT-34.

The critical moment occurred, I think, in turn 4. The OT-34 had successfully torched a couple of Hungarian stacks of infantry, setting back the assault on the Hungarian right flank. Moreover, it had escaped the Hetzer twice. It now drove across toward the middle area, and a Hungarian panzerschreck team, thinking it was now or never, took a shot at 3-hex range. I think they needed to roll a 4 or less to hit, certainly not great odds. Not only did they miss, but they ate the backblast to the tune of a K/1, resulting in a broken half squad. Now the Russian monster, no longer having anything to fear from the PSK, drove over that way and gave the hotfoot to another stack of Hungarian infantry. The roll was a 10, however, and the ammunition ran out! The attack still counted, but it was only a morale check. The Russian tank moved on, and drove down the road next to those it had just attacked. From the upper level, a squad found a panzerfaust and, braving backblast of course, put a lucky shot through the hide of the dragon, creating a blazing wreck in the road. This wreck would now conveniently provide some cover for Hungarian infantry as they tried to cross the road to the last bastion of the Russian defense, the final three victory buildings.

There were other notable events in the mid game, although I can’t remember the precise order of their occurrence. The bypassing Zrinyi managed to casualty reduce a Russian squad when Zeb rolled boxcars on their CC attack. In another close combat, Zeb rolled snakes to recreate a 7-0 leader in roughly the same area where the previous 7-0 had been dispatched by the Hungarian sniper. The Hungarian sniper was active all game, breaking a key unit in the victory area fairly early, and then later eliminating the Soviet 8-1 leader in the final victory buildings.

With unopposed armor and a numbers advantage in infantry, the endgame was somewhat anticlimactic. Zeb did a great job getting the most out of his troops, but the writing was on the wall about how it would end, and using vehicular bypass and infantry firepower, the Hungarians were able to clear the victory area. This was another fun game against a great opponent. The scenario is worth a try. Give it a go and let us know how it went. I hope you’ve enjoyed this recap.

AAR: ASL 116 - The Sixth Blow

Zeb Doyle

This won't be nearly as polished as Nick's AAR from the other day, but I had fun playing The Sixth Blow with Eric last Saturday. The scenario has always tempted me since the card looks so interesting, with fleeing Hungarian cavalry fighting through partisans and a powerful German force entering to block off a mixed Soviet group of cavalry and tanks. The terrain is also a major attraction, with hills, valleys, woods, and streams all combining to make some very tough going. There are defensible choke points galore and of course the random rockets and airplanes only add to the spice.

I ended up with the Soviets and set the partisans up skewed very heavily to one side of the map, with a few units scattered in the middle as well. The far side of the map looked wide open, but was actually covered by the minefields. Eric quickly figured out my gambit, but decided it would be easier to face the mines than the partisans and readied his cavalry to retreat. Things started off with a bang as the rocket OBA came in and killed two Hungarian squads, but also blocked off a road, preventing my tank column from making much progress on the first turn. Still, the Hungarian cavalry didn't make it too far in their MPh, and by turn two, the Russian armor had caught up to them.

By the time the mid-game rolled around, the mines and Soviet tanks had wiped out the Hungarian cavalry to the last horse but were greatly slowed by the tough terrain and weapon malfunctions. Out of the six tanks, two .50 cals, and two airplanes available over the course of the game, seven of them were lost to the dreaded boxcars. That put more of a burden on the Russian cavalry, but they were up to the challenge, clearing out a Hungarian rear-guard with a saber charge and scaling the board 50 hill to destroy a machine gun nest.

Still, even the toughest Cossack has a tough time fighting tanks, and things began to look rather dicey for the Soviets towards the end. Even if the Soviet tanks weren't largely malfunctioned, the terrain is so difficult to maneuver through that it's almost impossible to get onto the vulnerable flanks of the Panthers. This brings up what I feel is the key match-up of the game: the Soviet aircraft vs the German armor. In my game, I targeted the FlaKPz IV/37 early and knocked it out. That left the planes free to carry out a lot of point attacks on the PzIVs and the Panthers, and even with net 5TK and 6TK, it was enough to get the job done. I lost one plane to a boxcarred attack, but by turn 8 all the German tanks were taken out as well. A late game kill of the last Panther was the difference, and a final cavalry charge cleared the way for the Soviet armor to slip off for the win.

Overall, the game was fun but wasn't as cool as the scenario card suggested. In its favor, it's the best venue for cavalry I've ever seen in ASL. I had units doing charges, dismounting to mop up, and then climbing back on their horses to head up the next hill. Every horse that got shot was a major loss, and the overall effect was very cool and something I haven't experienced in any other scenario. Ultimately, though, the game seem to come down to the German tanks and the Russian airplanes. There's not a lot of skill involved in that match-up aside from trying to roll fives and sixes, but I have a tough time seeing the Russians win if it doesn't happen. The fact that the scenario seems to center around a dice-rolling contest definitely makes it less interesting for me, although I still enjoyed the overall game. The last interesting point regarding this scenario is what to do with the Hungarian guns. Eric used them in conventional fashion and managed to blast a few Russians, but I'm wondering if putting them in the back and pushing them off for another 8 EVP isn't a better way to use them. I know Bryan and Brian have played this scenario; you guys have any thoughts?

Thanks for reading,

Zeb

AAR: SP12 - Piano Lupo

Nick Drinkwater

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

American: Ken Havlinek [ELR 5 SAN 2]

The underused Board 11 with the two low flat hills makes a nice change for this 4.5 turn, single-session playing scenario from Schwerpunkt. The Americans have to eject a small and brittle 5 x 346 strong Italian platoon from out of a large fortified, 2 level stone farmhouse (introduced on an overlay) and one of two 157 pillboxes. These Italians are stuffed to the gills with automatic weopons (HMG, 2 x MMG and a LMG) and have been stiffened by a single German 468 squad and an 8-1 out of the Hermann Goering Division with another Italian MMG - this all sounds impressive but the US are a mighty impressive force themselves with 4 x 747 para squads, 3 x 337, 2 x (dm) MMG, a Bazooka and 2 x (dm) 60mm MTR. The Americans have very tasty leadership for such a small section with a 9-2 and a couple of 8 Morale leaders, and this compares favourably with the 8-0 and the 7-0 of the Italians.

Setup restrictions mean that the Italians have to start a MMC in each pillbox and they need to be within 5 hexes of the Q4 overlay farmhouse - I place them separately, one on each of the two hills to the north of the farm, with LOS over the farm complex (south) and the approach over the hills to the east. I strengthen these more by placing trenches adjacent to the pillboxes to create bunkers, which offer to act as much more defendable fortresses than is possible by just using an isolated pillbox alone. The important thing with any pillbox is to make sure the pillbox hex location and blind spot approaches are covered by other forces and the bunker tactic helps this a lot - any Italians stuck in a pillbox will clearly be doomed in CC when these Americans get motoring, so its important to try and prevent / delay such access by the US Paras before they get there as much as possible.

Due to time limitations, I was rushed on the setup and struggled to place the two pillboxes optimally with covering fields of fire - probably the best way is to connect the farm back up to mutually covering pillboxes on the hills just to the north through use of the trenches so that when the time comes to give way, a fallback retreat could be conducted. With my defense however, I had separated the two pillboxes from each other and the farm - this was good as it would mean that Ken's force would probably have to split into two and hence weaken it's overall thrust, but it also meant that the defenders of the farm would have to hang tough for almost the entire game as there would be no place to retreat, and with one or two bad rolls I ran the risk of being defeated sequentially and quickly - perhaps asking a bit too much of this small defending force. Anyway, I stuck the Germans on Level 2 of the farm together with a 346 and an MMG, put a 346 squad in the outlying southern shed of the farm to cover any quick dash by the Americans from the southern woods, and then put a 126 half squad in each pillbox together with a squad, MG and a leader in each trench element of the bunkers.

The US has the option of coming on from the east - a longer trek in, probably taking at least 2 turns just to get to the place to start attacking (and no margin for error in this approach) - or come in from woods on the south side of the board either side of the Q road. This meant that is was only 2-3 hexes distance for the paras to be onboard and assaulting the farm, but also some less pleasant open ground to negotiate. Ken opted for this direct approach, putting half squads with each mortars on both flanks and then driving the bulk of the force up the left hand side of the road. A single halfsquad swung west to try and sneak onto the back of my westernmost pillbox, but I quickly shoved my entrenched squad into wall advantage to slow their advance to a crawl - Italians theymaybe, but even Italians can wreak damage on targets moving in open ground.

The main attack in the middle was just plagued by misfortune for Ken - immediately I thought I was in for some big trouble as one of Ken's Para squads shrugged off a 2 check from the Italian HMG which then X'ed on its next rate shot. This was swiftly followed by more X's by the German MMG and a LMG and it was all looking a bit grim. However, Ken then just tweaked the nose of misfortune when he rolled the first of five "sixes" for smoke grenade placement out of nine attempts in the game (and these Para bad boys have "3" smoke exponents). In a short 4.5 turn game, the loss of this much manuever capability is a really tough thing to recover from, and even more so when you're in a Schwerpunckt scenario where the emphasis is usually on the attacker to move and keep going.

Even when he did get going, my Germans made short work of a Para squad with a nice 16-1 "eyes" and Ken really struggled to put together any big fire groups as I successfully kept the odd crucial squad pinned, broken and most importantly DM. This ensured that many of Ken's attacks were 6+4 and 8+4 instead of 16+2 (the 9-2 and two squads all pinned on one really crucial moment on a lowly 6+2 shot). I also got very lucky when Ken's Bazooka Xed on its first shot (8FP HE equivalent attacks are nasty!) and I managed to survive unscathed a crucial 2 check myself from one of Ken's big attacks. Even when the Germans did eventually break, their superior morale meant they were able to rally straight back on a 6, despite being DM (rally terrain with the 8-1).

Eventually Ken did sneak 2 x 337 hs onto my western most pillbox and they were confidently expecting to crush the 7-0 and the 136 inside (which had been broken by the only effective sniper the turn before), but the 7-0 refused to bow and managed to CR one of the 337s on his own 1-4 CC attack roll of a 3 - posthumous medal for him! The other 337, unable to advance into the pillbox was then caught with its pants down in the open by the K/2 roll from an adjacent 346 in the trench in German Turn 4 and that was effectively it. It was now Turn 4.5 and Ken had still not quite taken the farmhouse and I was conducting a "fill the stairs with bodies" defense there and there was no way he was going to be able to even get near to taking either of the pillboxes now. We did play it out, and even though my German 468 did break, a hardy 346 hung tough on Level 1 and kept control of the crucial farm.

A fun but quick scenario which is actually much tougher on the US than it first looks - the +4 fortified farmhouse is a really tough nut to crack and bunkers are hard things to successfully get into without having some time to suppress the defenders first. Ken tried every trick he had in the book with lots of great use of firegrouped advancing fire by the Paras and multiple hits (but no crits from the mortars), but the loss of the squad to the "eyes" and the failures to move when looking for smoke cost him the match. Missing a couple of critical MCs hurt the Americans a lot as it took Ken until the last turn to get in a 20+4 Point Blank attack from the Paras (my Germans melted under that one), but by then it was too late. Overall, this is a great scenario to have a nice short refresher on the mechanics of placement and mechanics of pillboxes and bunkers, and hell, when isn't it fun taking on the challenge of the Italians?

Nick

AAR: SP74 - The Last Tiger

Doyle Motes

Dec. 2 saw Alan King and I square off in a battle of large tanks and Infantry (SP 74 The Last Tiger).

Alan was the Jackbooted Germans and I was the Red Dogs of War the Russians. Object was for the Russians get infantry and tanks inside a set area controlled by German infantry and the cream of the Panzer forces (a tiger, a Nashorn, and a SPW 251/22). Simple task you say -- I think NOT! The Russians have several tanks in there force form the IS-2, T34/85, ISU 152, and M4/76a - but will this be enough to meet and beat the Jackbooters. O yes the Germans have the height advantage and the Russian tanks must cross some open ground. The task is grave for the Russians and SPEED and Lady LUCK has to be on your side.

Russian's have to have there troopers as riders to be able to get enough infantry across the board to offset the Germans holding the high ground, woods, and town buildings. The Russians move out and quickly encounter the Nashorn on the hill and his fist shot miss no rate, but Alan decides to go for an IF shot. You guessed it the tank rolled to at stop dead. The rider breaks and then reduces to bailing out. But, the crew did escaped. The SPW 251/22 pick out a tank and shoots bing a hit but does not destroy it. He now shoots again due to rate and misses. The Russian tank is now protected by the woods. The other Russian tanks move into position to address the two German vehicles on the hill. Infantry moves up. The Advance Fire phase turn 1 - saw the Russian's shoot at the Nashorn from behind a stone wall --- Load --- Fire and hot metal rang out form the T34/85 and as the dice slowly stop it was 1,1 (Snakes Eyes) the song of death for the Nashorn. It erupted in a blaze of glory for the Russians and Alan's smile left his face. The next tank to shoot upon the hill was the ISU 152 (crew exposed) its target was the SPW 251/22. A TH 3 was need and a three was rolled. The shell left the tanks and hit the SPW 251/22 ht the to kill roll was a 12 (Dud). That tanks was able to escape and soon to slap the Russians again. The other 251/1 ht was hit by a M4/76a -- that ht was turned into a burning mass of metal. Turn 2 saw the Russians moving for position but the HIP Tiger as not to be found. The Germans now started hitting the infantry as they press for position. But, again the Germans roll a 12 with there MMG and a key position had to be surrendered to the boys from Moscow. Turn 3 was a turning point for the Germans they were able to break some Germans in a stone building and the flood was on for Stalins hoards. A T34-85 moves in for the kill on the SPW 252/22 only to be sighted by the --- He fired and missed the Russian had little choice but to move closer to the tiger (open ground and no cover). Alan's tiger decided to IF and belched another couple of hundred pounds of hot metal and misses again. The T34/85 decides to move between the SPW252/22 and the Tiger. But, before the Russians can even get off a shot the German's in a building decide to go for a PF. Yes, after facing the cold blooded Tiger the PF form a building does him in(he does not burn). Two more Russian tanks move into position to cross swords with the mighty beast. The new IS-2 move up on a hill over looking the SPW 251/22, Tiger, building full of infantry and leader. A T34-85 after moving and being CE fires on the Tiger (from hell) and BOOM it was now dead and the crew escapes. The other tank shoots at the units in the stone building and Snakes are rolled. German units break due to cannon fire. Infantry now move into position to be in the victory locations by end of game. Russians try to use a PSK to fire on the IS-2 on the hill and decided to eat the back-blast. They missed and broke due to back-blast. As turn 4 rolled around the Russians decided to shoot the Infantry in the house just below the IS-2 that had used the PSK on them. Load -- -Fire--- Boom again 1,1 belches from the 122L gun -- that group died in a blaze of glory of Iron Cross. At this point Alan decided the Germans had - had enough and surrendered.

This game was fast and deadly for both sides. I would rate it about 9 on ROAR. Play it you will like it.

Alan, I enjoyed it. As Jay Harms says it is better to be lucky than good. The number of snakes you and I rolled made for a deadly game.

Doyle Motes