AAR: PHD4 Counterattack

Ed Beekman

Germans: Jerry Simmons
Americans: Ed Beekman

We had a small gathering for some cardboard clashes at Jerry's ASL bunker this past weekend. We had one new face, Steve; Patrick Ireland, Jerry and I rounded out the group.

Patrick convinced Steve to try a little bit of Starter Kit, he'd played original Squad Leader years ago but nothing for a long time. They got a couple of turns of SK1 Taking Vierville (?) under their belts before Patrick
had to leave. Steve then watched the clash of titans.

Jerry and I played PHD4 Counterattack from Lone Canuck's Purple Heart Draw. The scenario takes place in the southwest corner of the beautiful Purple Heart Draw historical map with its dense bocage and orchard hexes. We diced for sides and Jerry got the Attacking Germans while I got the Defending Americans. I got a handful of first line squads a couple of second lines squads and elite HS. My leadership was normal along with a couple MMGs, Baz44's and a module of Bn MTRs. The Germans get a bevy of 2nd line troops along with some 8-3-8 engineers with DCs and a FT, a couple of StuGs, lots of leaders including a 9-2 and an AL but only a few of LMGs. The Americans are threatening to cut the St.Lo-Bayeaux road, the Germans are counter attacking to clear an intersecting road the Americans will use to move their main force to that road.

I set up a couple squads and a MMG on a wooded hill covering my right flank and threw a HS, 2nd Line squad, a dummy stack and my artillery observer along the hedgerows of my left flank. A MMG and Baz team covered the turn in the road and my last Baz squad and best leader I put HIP in the rear for my final Alamo.

Jerry pushed in from the middle through a large apple orchard, only drawing a little ineffective fire against his 9-2 leader/LMG kill stack. The German troops, who were still bunched up along a narrow front, breathed a little easier when my first OBA access draw was a red card. My first turn saw me gain battery access and place a spotting round only 1 hex away from the requested location, followed by skulking - but leaving enough dummies to keep Jerry guessing which non-moving stack had the Observer.

The second turn had Jerry's Jerries storming my left flank. One of his StuGs bogged coming over the hedgerow but my 2nd Liner's took cover rather than react to the beast while the observer remained hidden and successfully called in a spotting round on his own location. The turn ended with one of my squads running for their lives, a HS dead and the StuG immobilized by the Observer and his squad.

My second turn had me skulking and realigning my positions. My observer, stuck in melee with the immobilized StuG were nearly encircled and taking fire from all the hedgerows to their south. This included the only burst from the FT as it ran out of juice with a DR of 11. That's when we realized my troops must have been recent Russian emigres to the States. The OBA observer went Berserk from the first shots, and although the squad ELRd from the same shots they also went berserk. While my knot of defenders knocked out the StuG and regained their Good Order status, the Germans all around concealed themselves and took up positions to attack toward the turn in the road.

My MG crew took one shot and then was eliminated by the 9-2's return fire. I was able to frustrate attempts to place a DC at the point of the hill on my right but that American 6 morale isn't enough to stand a determined and numerically superior opponent. On my left, my observer was able to survive the prep fire and call in harassing fire on his own position. It was mainly a nuisance but did break a squad and stop the Germans from amassing along the road for a major push.

On my right flank, I had ANOTHER squad go berserk when he rallied. His charge denied the Germans the opportunity to keep another broken squad DM, but was finally eliminated by my own fire into the melee. After several rounds of melee, my observer, his field promoted successor and guards finally fell.

In the meantime, Jerry had worked some units through the dense hedgerows to my left to start a pincer back down the road while a leader ran about and found my HIP unit. My last dummy stack got blasted to the moon by a near critical hit (Rolled snakes but subsequent dr not low enough for ITT shot) from the other StuG. With a turn to go I had 4 Good Order MMCs in position to deny the German Victory. The last squad on the southern hill broke and I couldn't rally him and so he was out of the fight. A key self rally had a squad who broke early in the game return to action in my Alamo. On the last turn Jerry had three hexes to put out of Good Order. He encircled the bazooka team who missed their shot against the last StuG as it moved against another of my positions. This HS ended the game locked in melee.

The StuG came over the hedgerow where my former HIPsters were but died from an underbelly hit from my bazooka. I missed the burning wreck by one but Jerry made his crew survival and while I was preoccupied with this pesky crew he moved his 9-2 led stack Adjacent to my location. Jerry's job became a little harder when my leader became a 9-2 Hero during DF but the game ended with this stack also locked in Melee.

Finally I had a concealed squad and my 2nd line miracle self rally squad in a stone building. My unconcaled squad was able to pin an attacking squad and wound the leader with them but still had a HS and concealed German unit in position to jump them in melee. There was no ambush so I couldn't sneak away for the victory. Jerry elected to use everything to attack my concealed unit while my concealed unit refused combat and the unconcealed unit attacked. Jerry failed to get a result on my concealed unit and so the game ended on the last roll of the last CC phase of the last turn. Great game Jerry.

Steve, who had been watching since mid game seemed entranced and appreciated our explanations of the terrain and some of our tactics. Welcome to the world of ASL Steve, I know you'll love it as much as the rest of us!

Houston July Gameday

Mark Carter

Thanks for coming over, Chris and John.

Here is a little note on the other games going on that day across the room from Chris and John.

We ended up odd numbered on Saturday, so I drafted my 12 year old son Race, who has played quite a bit of ASL, both SK and some full rules. He usually wins against me. But this time I wanted to ratchet up the fun for the kid. So out came Zombie Pack 1! Mwahahaha.

Points of interest, the Zombies are portrayed by IJA counters and are always Berserk (so yes, they are morale 10). They only have 3 MP however, and always use hazardous, staggering movement, making -4 shots possible. They have no weapons except HtH melee, but once a human is in melee with a zombie, they can become infected even if they survive the melee, and as the human player you can contemplate suicide or euthanasia, because if the infection otherwise overtakes the human unit, it becomes another zombie.

Since the zombies do no shooting and never break, and since in these two scenarios, always IJA half-squads, they just vaporize, the turns are very fast.

The first scenario we took on was Zombie #5 “Matchstick Men of the Fighting O”. In this scenario, the National Guard has loaded up and is trying to reach the remaining uninfected humans in a little town in southeast Ohio. Hitting the arsenal before hitting the road they had their choice of weapons: “Oh yeah man, flamethowers! Four of ‘em. Hey look, a couple of Wasps, too!”. Roll a 10 on the FT? No problem, just refill it at a Wasp and its good to go again!

These fellows would have to fight their way through dense woods via a single small road, and they had been suffering through a bad drought (EC dry with breeze) and the forest is teaming with the undead, some HIP, with FTs and Wasps lighting fires everywhere.

I know of someone who would just love all those blazes intermixed with panicking humans and staggering zombies waving their remaining arms all around.

In this scenario I was the Humans and about to squeak by with a win when we noticed we had missed Race’s reinforcements. Had we remembered those, I would have changed by movements and would have run out of turns. Game to the “Zombie Race”.

In the second scenario, Zombie #4 Killing Fields, I was the Zombies this time trying to eat some brains by staggering across a field to humans in the trees, and some hiding behind a minefield. By using humans as bait, the human player can attract the berserk Zombies to stagger right in to the mines… The rest of the humans manned LMGs, MMGs, a FT and a MTR. We ignored the mist in the scenario (simply missed it, ha) and so my poor lifeless green forms were cut to pieces. The boy had an absolute blast mowing them down! Zombie-Rate! Race’s humans by a mile.

Ok, by now he was having a lot of fun, so I pulled out HP 15 Moldavian Massacre from Hero Pax 2 and I took the Russian defenders. Even though my cleverly set up MMG was ready to lay down that fire lane down the road, it rolled a 12 on the first shot. A 6 on the next RPh, you know how it goes…

My mortar on a hill by one of the victory buildings however was very effective keeping the marauding Moldavians off the other hill and so they were funneled into a very tight gap. The Romanians were able to capture 3 of the 4 VC buildings, but the Russians were able to hold out, finally giving me a win. A fun little scenario.

We got in three games, one regularASL and two Zombie pack treats for my son. It was a lot of fun. Those fast, fun zombie games were a great lead in to ASL so it all worked out well.

Mark

AAR: J100 A Few Rounds More

Chris Buehler

Germans: John Hyler
Americans: Chris Buehler

The 7/24 Houston game day took place at Mark Carter’s home so first I would like to thank Mark for hosting, providing beverages, and tasty brisket!

I had the opportunity to face John Hyler in “A Few Rounds More” (J100) from Journal 6 set in Germany in March of 1945. This scenario features a 6.5 turn match-up that features an attacking force of 14 American squads (elite and 1st line) and four Shermans against a defending force of 12 German squads (2nd line and conscripts) and four AFVs (two Sturmtigers). The Americans had a 9-2 leader, 9-2 armor leader, and two of the Shermans were gyro-stabilized while Germans had some dummies and could HIP one squad and any SW/SMC stacked with them.

The battle took place on board 3 with the Americans entering along the A-hex row with the objective of taking three multi-hex buildings (the three hex building – M2 – was worth two) while sustaining less than 40 CVP in losses. We rolled for sides and John ended up with the Germans. Deep down, I think he really wanted those Sturmtigers and their massive 380 mm guns. These were great but could only fire once per game turn. As such, I considered the other two 20L (12 IFE), ROF 3 AFVs (I don’t recall the exact model) to be more dangerous to my squads.

I roughly split my force with one group going around/over hill 547 while the other going around/over hill 534 to assault the M2 and L4 buildings. The scenario started with my rolling a 12 on the weather roll – gusts! There went my plan of rolling on with the Shermans and using their smoke mortars to provide some cover. So I went with a slightly slower approach. John took aim at one of my Shermans with his first Sturmtiger shot, scored a CH only to roll a dud. Later John scored a direct hit only to roll a dud. While lady-luck smiled on me during those two rolls, John had some nice rolls during the scenario including a rate tear with his HMG and MMG that stopped my assault on building M2 dead in its tracks. At this point I nearly failed my personal MC.

I rallied and was able to destroy John’s AFVs and bottle up his remaining good order units in and adjacent to the M2 building. At this point, John had amassed 38 CVPs so I could not afford more losses. I captured the L4 building and on my final turn sent two squads to capture the R6 and T6 buildings while dodging small arms fire and PFs! It was a tough battle that went to the end but I managed to pull out a win. Thank you for a great game John!

Earlier today I checked ROAR and it shows this scenario with 36 American wins to 32 German wins. I wasn’t surprised at those numbers as it felt like a “balanced” scenario to me.

Chris

AAR: AK22 Fruehlingswind

Zeb Doyle

Americans: Zeb Doyle
Germans: Matt Schwoebel

Well, yesterday was my opportunity to finally play a game out of CH's latest offering, their Afrika Korps desert series. This is a set of six related scenario packs that (in total) come with 50 or so scenarios covering the fighting in North Africa. The heart of the pack is a huge map with nothing on it but scrub, and a ton of overlays that are then used to customize the terrain for each specific battle. This means you are looking at putting down five to ten overlays for each scenario, which may be a turn off for some people, and probably does necessitate the use of Plexiglas, but allows each battle to have a unique feel and does a good job of simulating those wide-open desert spaces. The pack also includes some new Italian counters (used in a few scenarios), a bunch of other counters most veteran ASLers will probably already have, and some basic SSRs to cover some of the overlays (including a fun-looking Beau Geste style fort). The scenarios are a good mix of nationalities, size, and situations. Overall, I'd say that the physical components (50 scenarios, a big map, a bunch of overlays, a small booklet, and some new counters) seem worth the $100 or so CH is charging. The quality of the scenarios (having just read them over and not played them) looks to be on par with CH's other recent offerings: somewhat more typos and clarifications required than the top-level producers like MMP, Friendly Fire, and Schwerpunkt, but much better than their dark days when many CH scenarios were simply unplayable (I think 12 or so of the scenarios so far have questions/clarifications required). So, if you like desert and don't mind a little more errata/clarifications than normal, I'd definitely pick this up. Anyone who doesn't like desert, obviously, should avoid this at all costs. If you're somewhere in the middle, you could always just dip your toe in with the purchase of the core pack, which gives you the map, counters, overlays, etc, and some scenarios for $40.

At any rate, Matt Schwoebel bravely volunteered to play one of these with me, and we settled on AK22 Fruehlingswind. This is a February 1943 seven turn scenario set in Tunisia, and has a small American force trying to hold a village against some marauding Germans. The Americans are a pretty solid force, with five squads, an 81mm MTR, two Grant tanks, two 37LL AT guns, 75mm OBA, and reinforcements in the form of an armored halftrack platoon and some M10 GMCs. The Germans look a bit sexier on paper though, with a 10-2, a 9-2 armor leader, a Tiger, lots of elite squads and halftracks, three Pz IVF2s, three Pz IIILs, and some OBA of their own. That was enough to seduce Matt, and he opted to take the attacking panzers. I put together a defense, with most everyone hunkered down in the village, and awaited the attack.

At that point, Matt confessed he'd never actually played Desert before, so we paused for a brief rules review. Ten minutes later, Matt might not have been a expert on hillocks, wadis, and vehicle dust, but he was at least ready to go. The German attack entered on a wide front, with panzers, halftracks, and infantry all pushing forward as fast as they could. In the wide-open expanse of the desert, that didn't mean too much. Our forces were still separated by twenty or more hexes, so the infantry couldn't do much, but I was able to open up with artillery, mortars, and fire from the Grants. On my right flank, a German 8-0/radio/halftrack looked like a good target for my 60mm MTR. This was a small moving target at 16 hex range, but when you're good at this game like I am, things like that don't matter. One Critical Hit later, the half-track had been blown to scrap, killing the leader and removing the threat of Matt's OBA.

Over on the left flank, three Pz IVF2s faced off at 24 hexes against my two Grants. Here, Matt had the advantage of numbers, black TH numbers, L length guns, and a 16 TK against my 8 AF. I had red TH numbers, large target size, and a 12 TK vs 6 AF. So, over the course of the next two turns, Matt quickly lost one panzer, malfunctioned the guns on the other two, had one recalled, and then saw his last one destroyed. I took zero losses myself, and was left to ponder...am I THAT good or do Matt's desert tactics really suck? Pretty much by default, that shifted the Schwerpunkt of Matt's attack to the center, where his 10-2 and accompanying kill stack were moving rapidly forward, assisted by the Pz IIILs. I brought my 75mm OBA in here as harassing fire, hoping to slow the German infantry down just a bit. The artillery didn't scatter perfectly for me, but I did manage to catch the 10-2/kill stack/Pz IIIL with a 4+1 attack. That ended up being an NMC, which sent the 10-2 and all the squads with him Berserk and confirmed that Matt's desert tactics are truly terrible They immediately dropped all their pesky machine guns, and charged off towards the nearest American unit. Patience would be required there, as 22 hexes of open desert separated the Berserkers from their target...

That was pretty much that. All kidding aside, I can't think of a much rougher introduction to the desert than what Matt had to endure, but sometimes the dice do crazy things (his main takeaway from his first desert scenario: "it's still important to roll low"). At least I had fun picturing my Americans scratching their heads wondering why the British think these Germans are so tough. A few questions (quite minor) did come up during play. Related to the scenario itself: The V17 overlay coordinates are wrong: it's impossible to set it up using the listed O11-R11, and it should be Q11-R11. Thankfully, this is easily apparent and easy to figure out. On the VC, "the side with the most Victory Points at game end wins." Is it intended that a tie is a possibility? Finally, the scenario takes place in Feb 1943, but the Germans get a PzVIE(L) with an sN. At that point in the war, the first iteration of the Tiger had only been around for a few months, and so it seems strange to have the (L) version in play. Chapter H notes (and I know those are only a guide) don't have the PzVIE(L) showing up until 1944. Likewise, I thought the sN didn't come into use as early as Feb 1943. Again, this is a minor issue either way, but it does make me curious about whether the PzVIE(L) is actually the correct tank to use, and if so, why?

Finally, one rules question that we couldn't quickly answer: a MTR hits a HT and immobilizes it. The collateral attack on the crew results in an NMC. Does the crew take the NMC or the Immobilization TC first? If you do take the NMC first and break, do you then still take the TC? Thanks to anyone that can help with the rules question, and thanks to everyone for reading.

Zeb

AAR: PA1 Battering Ram

Ed Beekman

Germans: Ed Beekman
Russians: John Farris

I paid a visit to the Oklahoma City Club this past weekend with the idea of getting some face time to talk about the November Thunderbird ASL Tournament (hint, hint, put it on you calendar for Nov 12-14) and play some ASL. When I arrived Mike Cadieux and Greg Parker were setting up AP42 Frontiers and Pioneers while John Farris and I selected Lone Canuck's Panzer Aces #1 Battering Rams. I got the Germans with a handful of brittle 5-4-8 squads and two HIP JagdPanthers with a third reinforcing later. John got the Russians with mix of elite squads with the emphasis on the SMG type and five JS-2m's. The Russians have to exit 55 VP but this is reduced by 8 for every JagdPanther destroyed. The Russians enter from a woods into a cratered and rubbled no mans land then have to get through a low hilly area to exit. I set my HIPs on the left and center thinking it may lure John to cross my frontage to get to that "weak" flank. John attacked heavy on the left while I skulked. Acquisition by the Stalin's 122Ls had me backing away to a reverse slope defense on the first hill. I traded a squad for a squad in a melee with two 6-2-8s during the withdrawal. Meanwhile my HMG got only 1 shot on its boresighted hex, which broke a squad before malfunctioning and being X'd out within a turn.

I didn't reveal either JagdPanther until about halfway throught the game. The first I revealed when threatened to be overrun by the advancing Russian forces. I got a couple ineffective shots off then John got to retaliate. His to hit roll was snakes but that was what he needed to hit. The following roll wasn't a 1 and, being hull down behind a wall, I dodge a real big bullet. John charged in for the kill but I went into motion and was again saved by my hull down position. Since the Stalin tanks weren't getting the job done, the infantry took their shot. The first squad missed its attack and then broke when the Navertied....you know, the Snoogie Woogie, attacked. The second squad survived the Snoogie Woogie but also failed its CC attack. When I moved away the next turn, a turret hit was finally achieved against my TD (+5 TH mod, had to hit turret) just proving luck does not play favorites.

During this time one Stalin was lost to a gun malfunction, another was burning from a Panzerfaust shot and two of the remaining three were under low ammo status. My reinforcing hunting Panther took up an overwatch postion and started pounding away on the Stalins. Six consecutive hits on a Stalin with my 88LL just bounced, even a turret hit. My last vehicle broke cover to sortie into the Russian rear area but ended up stunned from an artillery shot but survived the coup de grace attempt by a Russian tank. At this point it was getting late and we looked over what it would take for John to exit what he needed. Most of his units had to move to their fullest the remaining turns with a few unable to make it. His tanks could exit but would have trouble knocking out my vehicles leaving them as threats for rear attacks. Although my infantry had been whittled down to some half squads and a couple of squads, they were well situated to place fire lines, faust vehicles and just plain get in the way. John conceded although if we had time he might have still been able to pull it off. All in all a fun late war heavy metal slugfest. C'mon, my 88LLs only bounced off the Russian armor! Good Times.

On a humorous note, during our breaks we stopped by to watch the Cadieux-Parker early war slugfest. We got the impression they were playing a WWI air battle. The tanks were circling each other for the rear shots. At lunch time Mike had his Czech tanks on the T35 and KV tanks' 6's. The T35 took a rear hit only to see the shot bounce when Mike rolled way too high. It was the KV's turn. Mike decided APCR (A4 in 41) was needed to have a chance against that monster. The result was a critical hit, turning a roll that would have only immobilized into a burning kill shot. Good times.

A final note, we discussed future cross Red River cultural exchanges. If anyone is interested in going up to OKC later this year, let me know. The guys offered to put us up for the night to reduce the wear and tear of driving up and back in the same day (-2 DRM on the PMC). I offered the same hospitality option to my hosts if they would ever like to visit us here in north Texas. It was an enjoyable excursion. Got to see players I normally only see at tournaments (e.g. Mike Laney stopped by for a while to chat) and play ASL with them. Good Times!

AAR: AP62 Shouting Into The Storm

Zeb Doyle

Russians: Zeb Doyle
Germans: Sam Tyson

So, I had a pretty fun weekend of ASL--Friday night, I had the pleasure of hanging out with Sam Tyson, eating some tasty pizza at Conan's (and getting to check out all the Frank Frazetta artwork there the same week he died), and playing Shouting Into The Storm from the latest Action Pack.

Shouting Into The Storm is a late-war 1945 East Front scenario that covers the same action as SP11 Pomeranian Tigers, but plays out very differently and has some added fun with the variable OB. I'm not going to do a detailed AAR here, but for those who don't have the card handy, it's roughly 15 German squads with King Tiger and StuG support trying to take a village away from some Soviet Guards, who get some 57LLs and tank support of their own.

After dicing for sides, I got the Soviets and put together a defense I was pretty happy with...at least at the start. I'd describe the terrain as 'dense village,' and so went with the assault engineer group, giving me both more bodies and extra FP. The 100L AT gun in the other group would have been fun, but with plentiful stone buildings and limited LOS, I just didn't see the King Tigers being a major threat. The choice of AFV groups was a bit tougher, but here as well I decided not to worry too much about the German big cats and so went with the T-34 and SU-100 group, passing on the IS-2ms. Meanwhile Sam decided to blatantly copy me and went for the German assault engineer group, giving him a platoon of 8-3-8s with a FT and some DCs instead of a bunch of 5-4-8s with a PSK and a hero.

The scenario started and I soon realized I'd already made my first mistake. Since the Germans have to come across a bridge, I placed one 4-5-8/LMG on board 2a to try for a FL. He ended up cowering and not doing anything, but even great dice for me wouldn't have made the move a good one. The Germans have tons of smoke and tools to get across the bridge, and that forward position is a total death trap. I think the vast majority of the time, the single Soviet squad set up forward will just uselessly die in place, and that's exactly what happened here. After turn one, I was down 10% of my force with nothing to show for it. So much for being happy about my set up!

After that, things started to look up for me and went about as well as I could hope. I ended up being fairly lucky against Sam's armor and ended up knocking out seven of his eight AFVs without losing a single AFV myself. Highlights included a StuG exploding on a 1 factor known AT mine that Sam gambled with, the SU-100 smacking down two King Tigers with frontal turret hits, and taking out a StuH with some streetfighting. Good times!

Unfortunately, that was about it for the highlights. Sam didn't just throw all that armor away, he used it to lever his infantry into the town. I managed to pick off two squads on their way in, but that still left ten 5-4-8s and three 8-3-8s with good leadership against four 6-2-8s and five 4-5-8s with adequate leadership with both sides in +2 and +3 TEM. Sam did a great job using his numbers to seize the initiative, keep the pressure on, and just grind me down. Even with my good luck against his armor, I knew I was in real trouble by turn four because of the pounding my infantry was taking.

Sadly for me, no deus ex machina appeared, and by the time turn six rolled around, my only remaining 'plan' was to drive my armor into the non-building victory hexes and survive two fire phases and one CC phase with a bunch of point-blank Wehrmacht infantry. Germans don't get many PFs in 1945, right? I can't recall the last time my entire force was wiped out with a turn still to go, but it happened to me here. Well played, Sam!

I enjoyed the game and matching wits with Sam, even if I did end up getting crushed. That aspect of it was a bit frustrating; aside from throwing away that 4-5-8 playing Horatio at the bridge, I thought my set-up was pretty solid. I was happy with the variable OB groups I'd picked, my guns were in good spots, and I couldn't have hoped to have the armor battle go any better. So, I'm left scratching my head, wondering just where I went wrong. In that sense, the scenario reminds me a bit of Nishne, Nyet, the only other one I've played from the new Action pack. Both seem to have a German attacker with a powerful force and straightforward goals, while the defense is in a position where they have to really really think about what they are doing. Obviously, I didn't put enough thought into it.

Anyway, thanks again to Sam for a fun time. The one good thing about getting smashed so quickly was that we didn't end up playing late into the night. I was pretty tired and had to be at Eric's the next day for a game there. And we all know how peeved Eric gets if you are even five minutes late........Hopefully I can find the time to write up that scenario too.

Thanks for reading,

Zeb

AAR: AP62 Shouting Into The Storm

Ed Beekman

Russians: Glenn Schools
Germans: Cory Sosebee

Glenn and Cory played AP62 Shouting into the Storm from the new Action Pack. It is the 1945 scenario featuring a local German counterattack using StuGs and King Tigers. Aside from the late war heavy metal, the scenario features a variable OB. The Germans are allowed to supplement their force with either a platoon of Assault Engineers with DCs and a FT or extra Fallschirmjagers with a hero and PSK. The Russians can reinforce their on board defenders with a platoon of Guards riflemen, 9-2 leader and 100L AT or a strong platoon of Assault Engineers with DCs and a FT. The Russians also get to select between three IS-2m tanks or 3 T34/85 and an SU100 with an 8-1 AL.

Cory chose the Engineers for his attacking Germans while Glenn opted for numbers both times, taking the Engineers and the T34/85 armor group. Initially a squad held up the German advance at the bridge choke point. Cory seemingly couldn't pass a MC and there developed a huge overstack of broken units at the bridge exit. Finally a StuG and a squad cleared the defender and the attack resumed. The attack split in two directions, the Germans have to control a building and a cross road on each flank to win.

As the game progressed, Cory's luck changed from rarely passing a MC to rarely NOT passing a MC. On an early turn the German sniper broke two key Russian squads opening the middle of the battlefield to the Germans. Although a AT gun destroyed a StuG as the opening was exploited, Glenn's luck saw a swing soon thereafter when that AT gun malf'ed on its next shot and the crew was broken by a self rallying DM squad. Another AT gun immobilized a King Tiger when it got caught in bypass in the Gun's hex. Again Cory surprised Glenn by breaking the gun crew thereby freeing the King Tiger to kill one of his T34's skulking in the distance. The final rush was on and now Glenn couldn't buy a break. His numerous -1 and -2 shots were either ineffective (and malfing a couple LMGs) or Cory passed the 1 or 2 MCs. The SU 100 helped by burning a King Tiger and destroying a StuG but was looking at probable destruction in CC when Cory's infantry took all but one hex in the last VC building in multiple CC wins. Glenn gracefully conceded his Chairmanship to Cory for the next meeting at my place in July.

AAR: AP60 Nishne, Nyet!

Jeff Toreki, Zeb Doyle

I managed to squeak out a win on the German CVP cap VC, but I felt like I was pretty much getting my ass kicked the whole time. Zeb was crushing me from two sides in a vice grip, and then I got a bit lucky when he parked a few vehicles in LOS of a 57LL, and killed 23 CVP in one turn. There are also instant VC of the Germans winning at the end of turn 4 if no GO Russian vehicles or infantry are within a village area – to keep the game from ending there, I had to sprint a Stuart back into the village through a hail of German fire and survive. I also had to survive my own major ‘duh’ moment of the game (one of several) when I moved a T-34 into the LOS of a halftrack that was a sitting duck for the 57LL (and represented the last 5 CVP I needed), allowing him an automatic motion attempt to escape. Luckily for me, the t-34 managed to kill a PzIIIN with a malfed MA for the win. By the way, the PzIII needed a 5 or less to go into motion, and rolled a 6.

The best analogy I can think of is fighting Mike Tyson and taking a beating, then taking one lucky swing and cutting his eye, so the ref calls it on a TKO. It doesn’t really feel like a ‘win’, so much as being saved by the ref stopping the fight. Thanks again for the game Zeb.

Jeff

***********************************************

Yep, Jeff did a great job to get the win in a scenario that seems tough on the Russians. The scenario has a very powerful German force smashing into a decent Russian force, and the Russian defense is further complicated by the instant win provisions. Jeff really had to try and master a steep learning curve of deciding how to design a very precise fall-back defense, while I just had to drive on and try to avoid a CVP cap...easy, right?

Things went well for me for most of the game with pretty average luck on both sides IMO, with Jeff only avoiding the instant win VC on turn four by having a Stuart survive three TH attempts needing a 5, a 6, and another 6.

On turn five, things swung back the other way: I lost a Tiger/9-2 AL to a HIP MOL-P unit that needed a 6TK and got it. Jeff then malfed a 57LL which really opened things up, giving me the opportunity to take out a motion T-34 from the rear with a PzIII, and eliminate three broken squads and the malfed 57LL with just two half-tracks and two squads. Unfortunately, I got stupid and greedy and parked all those units, along with a Tiger, where another 57LL could see it all. I just didn't think Jeff would put both 57LLs in such close proximity...very well played.

Anyway, the 57LL killed everything but one HT, put me 5 CVP away from the cap, and left me in a position where I couldn't do much to stop the final HT from getting nuked for the win. Then...Jeff got a little greedy himself and drove a T-34 past the HT and into position to challenge another PzIII. That let me get the HT into motion and gave it a path to safety and gave me a 5/6 chance to motion the PzIII. I failed the roll. Next turn I did everything I could go save the PzIII, but Jeff ended up with a 7TH, 7TK, and got them both. I failed the 5CS number and that was the game. Really stupid play on my part to try and bring the hammer down in the way I did. Obviously, the risk I ran if the second 57LL WAS in the area was just too high.

Final thoughts: The Russian set-up could have been better, which you would expect given the Russians have the steeper learning curve and I have the benefit of a full game under my belt unlike Jeff. I think the Russians can make the turn 4 instant win VC a very remote possibility without compromising the overall defense, and so any turn 4 frantic deathride like we had should be uncommon. Having said all that, I still like the Germans in this one even against a Russian defense that has the benefit of a prior playing. Even after all my stupid play, as we were picking up the pieces at the end, both Jeff and I thought the German force was still strong enough to win the game if the CVP cap were disregarded. Overall, it just felt like the Russians need a really good set-up and either a really dumb move like mine or some luck to be in it at the end...or perhaps a bit of both. If Jeff rolls a 7+ on his MOL TK, I'd be writing right now about what a tactical genius I am instead of whining. Anyway, I don't recall the ABS balance provisions off the top of my head, but I would certainly use them if I played it again.

Enough about the balance. Wrapping up, I'll just quickly mention the fun factor: it was neat to use the new boards, and I thought the railroad and AT ditch SSRs were fun and changed the feel of the game in a good way. The multiple VC were interesting and add to the complexity of the defense, but didn't work as well as I was hoping. If the Russians put a few more troops around the first VC area, the Germans won't be able to completely drive them out in the three turns they have to do it. After that, both the other VC require capturing a big Factory in the heart of the Russian defense, something that realistically will never happen by turn six. So, if the Russians can survive the turn four hurdle, the feel of the game really switches to that of a standard 8 turn game. Finally, the scenario was fun to play, but has a little too much of the 'big force smashing little force. Little force can't do anything but hang on and hope that time and terrain save the day' feel for a repeat playing. So, fun, good scenario aside from potential balance issues, but not a classic IMO.

Hope there aren't too many sour grapes in there, and congrats to Jeff again on the win!

Zeb

AAR: WO1 French Toast and Bacon

Steven Miller

Germans: Steven Miller
Americans: Tom Gillis

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

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

AAR: J118 Elephants Unleashed

Jay Harms

Russians: Jay Harms
Germans: Doyle Motes

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

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

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

Jay

AAR: RPT28 - The Polozkov Push

Nick Drinkwater

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AAR: SP153 The Wrong Side of Victory (Response)

Chris Buehler

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

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

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

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

Chris

AAR: SP153 The Wrong Side of Victory

Tom Gillis

British: Tom Gillis
Japanese: Chris Buehler

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

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

Tomosov

AAR: FT124 Deadly Sleigh Ride

Zeb Doyle

White Russians: Zeb Doyle
Red Russians: Sam Tyson

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zeb

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

John Hyler

Russian: Mark Carter
German: John Hyler

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

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

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

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

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

John

AAR: WCW7 Eye Of The Tiger

Walter Eardley

Germans: Rupert Cullum
Russians: Walter Eardley

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

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

AAR: SP19 Men From Mars

Matt Schwoebel

American: Matt Schwoebel
Japanese: Zeb Doyle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Thanks for reading!!

Matt

Alert Levels around the globe

A Repost From Gents Down Under...

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

AAR: BFP67 Coke Hill - response

Zeb Doyle

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Zeb