Southwest Michigan ASL

KAASL 3

2009-01-17T13:29:00.001-05:00

KAASL III AAR

The third Kalamazoo Area Advanced Squad Leader gathering got started on January 9, 2009. Alas, so did one of the heaviest winter storms to hit the area in quite a while. Doug I and decided to open the doors anyway; we had already had to postpone it from a December date and didn’t want to push back any farther, he lived there, and I’m just a few minutes down the road. We were pretty sure it was going to be just Doug and I playing all weekend – 8-10” of snow and wind doesn’t make the best of travel.

To our surprise though several other brave souls braved the winter roads and joined us so here is a recap of the games and players. By the way, I played more then the past two KAASL’s so the AAR’s are not too detailed as I didn’t get to watch the other games much.

Friday January 09

Doug closed his office at 6:00pm and he and I cleared his office, pulled out tables, and set out ASL gear and snacks. Earlier in the day P.J. Norton of Officefest fame called and said he was on the way from the east side of the state so I know we had at least one other dedicated player headed our way. Shortly after 7:00pm we were joined by Geoff Ferguson, a local who occasionally gets a game in, Darin Scriber from the Battle Creek area, Jason Cameron from up north in Grand Rapids, and PJ who easily won the farthest traveler award this blustery evening.

Rocket’s Red Glare (G6): Darin and I sit down and play this early General classic. I’ve played it a couple times before and like both sides. I think we dice for sides and Darin gets the US. Enjoy the game with Darin – but can’t quite get anything to work for me. The Wirblewind doesn’t seem to be able to find ROF, the StuG manages to malf his gun on his second shot, the ART gun on it’s second shot also, meanwhile, Darin calmly pushes the US kill stacks forward hex by hex and grinds into the Germans. It doesn’t look good for me and gets worse when a sniper takes out the leader in my rear building and the squad with him boxcars the LLMC. With my MMG broken and the HMG trying to hold off Darin’s attack through the center of the village I have no one to prevent Darin from running a squad into the rear building so I resign. Oh well, better luck next time – but Darin had everybody in place to take advantage of opportunities, so kudos to him for a great game.

Edge Of Extinction (SP157): Doug Lynes squared off against Jason in this new Schwerpunkt scenario. Doug, playing the US, has to play a cat-and-mouse game with some light US tanks against Jason’s two Tigers. Doug is hot and gets the dice exactly when he needs them. One hit against a tiger and then a follow-up snakes for the TK roll takes one Tiger out (from the front if I recall) and then a few turns later he takes the other Tiger out from the side with a critical hit. Sounded like they both had fun and you knew when Doug rolled the snakes.

Acts Of Defiance (A68): PJ and Geoff settled down to play this favorite. Now Geoff has only played a few SK games and a few ASL games so I was a bit surprised when Geoff wanted to play this. Lots of toys including two Goliaths and this one is certainly larger then it looks. To win as the Germans you really have to know how to use all the tools and I don’t think Geoff has that experience yet. Needless to say, PJ was able to win handily with the Russians but the game went quite late – I think 3am or some such time! Geoff, however, got a good look at some of the toys that that ASL portrays so well.

That evening PJ stayed overnight at Doug’s and the rest of us made the trek home through the snow.

Saturday January 10

Well, for all the snow Friday, Saturday was worse. Jason wisely decided not to make the trip back down from Grand Rapids, and after his very late game, Geoff doesn’t make it back until the afternoon. So, Saturday morning finds Darin and my self back around 9:30am and PJ and Doug join us for more ASL.

Comrade Klimenkov (RPT15): Doug and PJ face with another Tampa Bay club’s scenario, but this time from the Rally Point series. Doug picks up his second win with this one when his Germans, with two King Tigers, hold off PJ’s Russians escorted by four IS-2m’s. Doug gets a big break when PJ pulls three Stalin’s around to out-gun one of the King Tiger’s, but Doug gets a ROF and takes out two of them before slipping away. I was impressed that both of them just didn’t fall asleep in the middle of the game as both were up after 3am with the game against Geoff.

Chance D’une Affaire (U): With PJ playing Doug, Darin and I squared off again. This time with another classic from the early ASL days. This 9-turn, early war French vs. German classic plays pretty quick because the unit size is small. My Germans have to hold back a combined French armor and infantry attack down the length of board 6. Initially I get two Pz IIF’s, but they start abandoned and have a restricted number of times they can move reflecting them being caught by the French in the middle of refueling. Darin plays well on the first turn and manages to just get enough firepower on one of the PzII’s that I never get it re-manned. Unfortunately, that Pz is also the one that could move the most and had the 9-1 armor leader assigned to it. I’ll never get it in play as his infantry move up to over run it. However, my other PzII tightens it’s belt and makes up for it. It only gets two movement phases – but the first one it uses to do a critical overrun on my left flank eating up about 6-8 shots against it and totally disorganizing Darin’s right flank. It’s second movement will take it through another overrun and into a defensive position in the backfield. Meanwhile, I manage to hold Darin’s infantry from moving too quickly through the terrain and he simply runs out of time before taking the needed buildings. This time I get the win.

Ranger Stronghold (T3): Darin and I have to take off in the afternoon, but Geoff arrives and so he and Doug square off for the last scenario of KAASL III. A small tourney scenario from the General magazine is selected. I’m not there to watch this one, but I know that Doug wins his third in a row defeating Geoff in this one.

Conclusion

Considering the intense snow storm that hit at the same time KAASL III was a great time for those who could show up. While we didn’t have as many players show up as the first two gatherings, I really didn’t think anyone other then Doug and I would be there so when Geoff, PJ, Darin, and Jason also arrived it really made for a great winter weekend. In all six scenarios got played by the six of us. Don’t know when Doug and I will host the next one but we’ll notify everyone on our mailing list as soon as we know. Meanwhile, look for PJ Norton’s Officefest sometime in February.

Chris

ASLOK 2008 AAR

2008-10-17T09:43:00.001-05:00

AAR – ASLOk XXII – 2008

Back to the best of times….

Last year I had one of the most enjoyable times at ASLOk I’ve had – aside from going 0-4. This year I managed to get on the winning side also.

I drove over to ASLOk after teaching my last class at KVCC and found my roommate Ben Richardson. Ben’s one of the Grand Rapids guys and we have roomed together a couple of times for the Chicago Open. The hotel has changed this year – no longer in Middleburg Heights and the new hotel is much improved. We have the 6th floor all to ourselves with a private bar and small lounge equipped with a big screen TV. The hotel staff is great and the cleanliness and natural window lighting is a big plus. The name tags are the same style as the previous year – but features what I think is the Japanese 70mm infantry gun on it. The shirts are the ASL Japanese yellow color with a Japanese tank featured on the front. I use the evening mostly to get settled in, grab a drink and find Glen Housemen. I play-tested for him this past year and he has a couple of ESG Dezign Packs for me. I chat around a bit, look over the new place and then head to bed looking forward to the first mini in the morning.

Friday October 10 – Round One of the ‘Take No Prisoners’ Mini

As the name implies, this mini-tournament features battles where prisoners won’t be taken. This pretty much means Japanese for the most part. This should be intriguing because while I’ve played PTO at home quite a bit, I have never entered a mini that is set in the PTO. Should be interesting to see what happens.

My first round is against Scott Houseman. Glen’s brother and partner in the Detroit area Eastside Gamers crew, he’s already been up here a few days and is pretty tired. We choose a Schwerpunkt scenario “Nunshigum” and dice for sides. I’ll get the attacking Gurhka’s and Scott, the defending Japanese. Small scenario that swirls around a multi level hill in light jungle.

Unlike last year, this first round is all mine. I attack fairly aggressively, wanting to find his dummies and then focus the British firepower on the real units while preventing a small reinforcing group from getting on the victory hill – I need to clear the upper hill levels of all Japanese. I get lucky the first couple turns moving through (and discovering) the dummy stacks he has and then slide two British half-squads into a melee with two Japanese full squads. I’m hoping just to either pin them down or pick up one Japanese squad. The dice gods smile at me and I eliminate both Japanese squads for the loss of only one half squad. Big blow to the Japanese in this size of a scenario. I keep pushing the attack and clear the hill about a turn early. Seeing no possibility of a counter attack, Scott resigns. Only takes a couple hours to play and I’m on to the second round.

1 - 0

Friday October 10 – Round Two of “Take No Prisoners”

I report the win to Brett (the TD) and he tells me that this mini is only two rounds long (not the usual three) because some guys dropped out. Cool, better chance at a plaque. He points out the other first round game and I head over to let them know I’ll be playing the winner. They finish fairly soon also and I meet my next opponent, Jack Daniels from Virginia. Ex military and the winner of a mini the previous day. Looks to be a challenge. This second round won’t be easy.

We select the classic “Totsugeki!”. It’s been a round for a long time, has a great track record for being balanced, and features the Japanese attacking through Chinese troops to seize and destroy three Chinese guns. We’ve both played this once before so we dice for sides. I get the attacking Japanese and Jack will set up the defending Chinese. I attack primarily up the center and quite aggressively knowing that time is an issue in this scenario. I send a couple squads on the far right flank but they run into trouble when a nice defensive fire roll K/2’s one of the squads. Meanwhile, my single mortar gets set up, but can’t hit a thing. Regardless, a couple of Banzai’s and some encircling shots break through the strongpoints that Jack sets up and the rest of my forces flow around the defenders and into the gun area. I capture the first gun on turn two, the second on turn three, and the by the end of turn four have broken the crew on the last gun and can advance in on my next turn unopposed. Jack resigns on turn 4 of a 7 turn scenario. Good victory for me. Not only to I win the plaque for the mini (always a personal goal of mine) but the win is against another very solid player who had won a plaque the day before.

2 - 0

Friday October 10 – Open gaming

Since my second round ended fairly early I’ve got the rest of the afternoon and evening to pick up an open game. Phil Pomerantz (Pennsylvania) asks if I’m looking for a game so we hook up for my third scenario of the evening. Phil has been around the ASL circuit for quite a while and I see his postings quite often on the various internet forums. He’s also had success in the tournament level so I’m looking forward to playing someone of his experience. Looking for something new, we select Tanks But No Tanks from the latest Schwerpunkt scenario pack. Dicing for sides I get the defending Polish. Phil gets the attacking Russians and will have to kick me out of 3 of 4 buildings. It’s a classic fighting withdrawal into a last ‘Alamo’ position and I usually have pretty good success with these scenarios as the defender. Phil brings on the Russians somewhat cautiously and I get in a couple good shots and then pull back before his armor can surround me. I get a break when one of his tanks breaks the main gun and then the cmg. Another one will fail its mechanical reliability check and immobilize out of play. Regardless, he pushes me out of two of the buildings fairly easily (although I don’t even try to defend the farthest one out) and focuses on the large center building as the last of the three he needs. In the end, a concealed crew in the steeple wins it for me as what fire he can get on it fails to even cause a PTC and he concedes knowing he won’t be able to physically get to that crew and take the building. Actually, I still have several units in the building on the second to last turn and feel pretty secure the last couple of turns. Win my third game in a row.

3 - 0

Saturday October 11 – Round One of the “Best New Artist” mini

The Saturday mini I’m in features scenarios that are being released at ASLOk so no one outside of the design team has seen them. My first round opponent is Chas Argent (Maryland). Chas is a great player and part of the MMP crew that produces the ASL line. I’ve played Chas before and won by literally one MF when an infantry unit that he had to exit to win a scenario ended up one movement point short of exiting. Doesn’t get much closer then that.

We look over the scenario list and choose an ESG design called “Patton’s Pride”. I get the Italians and Chas is the attacking Americans. He needs to choose (in secret and before I set up) either to capture three buildings or capture two Italian artillery pieces. After he makes his choice, I set up the Italians. While there are several good places to set the Italian defense, it is in a very restricted area and there is not really any chance of falling back and rallying as the US enters from both the front and the rear of the Italian position. With the Italian’s low morale and the heavy firepower of the US, this doesn’t look to be pretty.

The scenario plays out pretty evenly throughout the game. I get enough firepower down to keep Chas from rushing in too quickly, but at the same time, he gradually wears down my Italians as the superior US firepower gradually cracks each of my defense points. Finally, it comes down to the movement phase of the last turn. Chas selected the Gun victory condition and he has already captured one of the guns. On the last turn he is adjacent to the last gun (which its cowardly crew fled from the previous turn). It comes down to a single recovery die roll. Chas makes the roll and captures the gun in the movement phase. Oh well, fun scenario and I enjoy playing Chas. My first lose – but I’ve already got my plaque for the weekend and it was a good playing.

3 - 1

Saturday October 11 – Open Gaming

Well, now I have the rest of the day open to play. I look around for someone else who lost their first round and would be interested in playing a single larger scenario for the rest of the day. I hook up with Ray Wolozyn (North Carolina) who is looking for the same thing. I’ve played Ray once before several years ago. He beat me in a scenario of Clear That Roadblock but I remember really enjoying the play. Ray was also the very first Grofaz winner of ASLOk. I’m really looking forward to playing him again.

We select Shattered Bone & Burning Flesh. One of those colorfully titled ESG scenarios that have just been released at ASLOk. We dice for sides, I get the Germans and Ray the defending Russians. I have to either exit 22 points off the far board edge or capture most of the buildings that the Russians are defending. To do this, I have an attacker’s dream order of battle. Two King Tigers, a flamethrowing halftrack, a Puma armored car and elite troops accompanied by three squads of assault engineers. Three heavy assault guns each with a smoke depletion of 10, and a couple of halftracks to zip around in. In front of me, some 1st line and elite Russian infantry, an AT gun, a heavy artillery piece, and a mean 82mm mortar. On turn two Ray will get two SU-85 TD’s and a SU-122 assault gun.

Just looking it over, I’m a bit suspicious. This looks easy for the German. I’ve got the dream attack force and there just doesn’t look to be enough Russians to hold them off.

Well we start it off. Regardless of whether there are enough Russians or not – it doesn’t matter. I completely dice Ray. Everything I try works. Doesn’t matter what it is – smoke dispensers, smoke grenades, low odds shots etc. Everything Ray tries the dice fail him. He doesn’t just fail morale checks, he box cars them. His .50 cal breaks, his MMG breaks. I send a light screening force off my right flank. Discover his two 6-2-8 squads concealed in the gulley and proceed to break them with low odds advancing fire. I swing everything else down the board side left flank and proceed to blow out every Russian unit in front of me. I run some German half squads to soak up fire from his front MMG nest. He misses his rolls and when I roll up my flame halftrack adjacent to them…I proceed to roll a 3 and we just pick the pieces up off of the board. I slide one of my halftracks up to take advantage of the hole. Oops, I find out I pulled adjacent to the AT gun. Looks like I’ll lose the HT. But wait, not in this game. He hits the ‘track, but then duds the To Kill DR. And on that roll, with almost all his infantry taken out of play and me having lost no units at all he resigns on the first part of turn two even before his armor enters. He really has nothing left to stop my infantry from taking every building by turn three or four. Both my King Tigers are in perfect position to take out his reinforcing armor and I have a strong infantry screen in front of them to prevent any Russian flanking attacks by the armor that gets on board. Doesn’t get any prettier for me – but it’s too bad the dice played such an unbalanced variable in the game. I pick up my fourth win – but it certainly didn’t turn out to be the game that Ray and I were looking for. This one looks heavily in favor of the Germans. I’m not even sure what the Russians can do to hold of the German force.

4 -1

The Coda…

I end ASLOk 2008 with a 4 – 1 record and take home a mini tourney plaque. All of my opponents were great players and a real joy to game against. The hotel is much improved over the past few years and, like always, I game away with a few more insights into the game. After I got home, Todd Wiley came over on Monday and we pulled out Shattered Bone & Burning Flesh. I want to try it as the Russians and see if it really is as unbalanced as it seems to be. We got through the first two turns with my Russians doing much better then Rays did. ‘Course, Todd wasn’t rolling the dice like I was so maybe this will be a more typical playing. Still, it looks tough on the Russians. We’ll see what happens.

Chicago Open 2008

2008-04-07T17:22:00.002-05:00

AAR – Chicago Open – 2008

Just got back from the 2008 Chicago Open. I drove over with Ben and Mark again this year. I blogged the AAR from last year on an earlier page so I won’t repeat the description of the Open or how the scoring works; you can check out my earlier blog for that. This one will focus just on the games themselves.

Friday April 04 – Round One & Two

I check in with the tourney director David Goldman when I arrive and then check the seeding for the first round. This is my third time at the Open. In 2006 I was seeded 64th out of 66 and ended up in 37th place. Last year I was seeded 44th out of 56 and ended up in the same standing; 37th. Apparently that is a clue for the tourney director as he seeds me 37th out of 52 this year. Well, slowly moving up and with the higher seeding I have the potential to play stronger players any wins I get should be worth more points.

In the first round I’m matched up against Mike Stubits – a local from the Chicago area. I’ve never played him before and don’t know anything about him. He seems (and will turn out to be) a real nice guy and I enjoy the game. We pick Elephants Unleashed (FrF23) and roll for sides. In this 1943 scenario my defending Russians have to prevent a fairly hefty German force (including 3 PzJg Tigers and supporting Pz III’s and a Pz IV) from exiting units off the far edge of the map or controlling a set of buildings in the Russian set-up area. While my on-board defenders are fairly weak (essentially four squads with some defending stuff) I get a good body of reinforcements in the form of two SU-152 tank destroyers and 5 late model T-34/76’s with some engineers. Briefly, the first two turns go well for Mike. His forces waltz through some minefields in touched – I get worried as I really don’t delay him much. But then after I get my armor on I take out a Jg Tiger with a 152, he Immobilizes and second one on a start-up DR, and the third one malf’s its’ main gun leaving it defense-less. Meanwhile a T-34 takes out a Pz III and a thrown DC from an engineer squad takes out the Pz IV. The second Pz III bogs itself on some wire and is soon targeted by two T-34’s just as he unbogs – but uses too many MP to be able to stop and gets caught in-motion. By the end of turn 3 Mike realizes he isn’t going to achieve either victory condition and gracefully resigns. My winning the armor battle has won me the scenario. Off to a good start. I’m 1-0 and will start the second round seeded in 19th but just as important for me – Mike will go on to win his next three scenarios so his wins count on my total point score. He’ll end the tourney in 32nd place with a 3 – 3 record and 33 points.

Round two finds me matched up with another 1-0 player, Dave McLee from Rockford, Ill. Another player who I don’t know and another very enjoyable person to play. We pick J27 – High Tide At Heiligenbeil. His Russians supported by four SU-76 assault guns have to gain control of a large building on map 45. In this 7 turn scenario, Dave elects to try a strong sweep along my left flank. Unfortunately for him, I had hidden the AA gun on that side. By turn three the crew has shrugged off several MC’s and brings his whole attack to a complete halt. This gives me time to displace my HMG and MMG over to that side and essentially pin almost his whole force against the board edge. Dave sees the writing on the wall and resigns at the end of turn three. He’ll end the tourney in 47th place with 11 points. With the second win and points from both Dave and Mike I move up to 7th (the highest I’ve been in the three years going to the Open) with 22 points. Last year I was 1-1 and holding the 22nd place after two rounds.

For me it is a great start to the tourney and with both scenarios finishing fairly quickly I get to turn in early and get some sleep. Can’t ask for anything better then that.

Saturday April 05 – Round Three, Four, and Five

Course, the problem with ending Friday in 7th is that I know I’ll be matched up against top caliber players. Wes Vaughn (Fayetteville, Arkansas) is my next match. I played Wes several years ago at ASLOK in the final round of a three round mini. Wes proceeded to enlighten me on how to use early war armor as he easily beat me. One of the few times I’ve learned fundamental concepts that changed how I approach the game by playing another player. Wes is always a tourney contender and I believe he has won a few tourneys. We pick Rostov Redemption (FrF11). The scenario starts off with a pretty good start for me. I take no losses and bloody his nose a couple of times – but I’m also having to pull back a bit faster then I want and I leave a couple squads too far out on my right flank to make it back into the building I’m defending. Regardless, I’m in decent shape by turn 5 (of a 7 turn scenario) with quite a few units and leaders in the building and in a decent position to pull off a win. But during the turn everything collapses at once. When I advance a concealed squad into an unconcealed half-squad next to the building – my hopefully ambush turns on me when I miss the ambush roll, miss the attack on him, and then his half squad eliminates my squad. On his next turn, his prep fire phase shatters my defenses – breaking every single unit in the building on a series of NMC/1MC checks followed by me rolling all 8’s or higher. We go into my turn 5 and when not a single unit rallies (and he will be able to keep every unit DM) I resign as there is no possible way for me to prevent him from moving more units into the building and eliminating my units by failure to rout – he already has one squad blocking the rear stairwell. At the time I was pretty happy with my play but upon reflection I did have three fundamental mistakes: 1. I should have been much more aware of protecting the stairwell hexes. Then broken units could rout up to the upper levels and he would have to dig them out. With only two turns left – he might not have been able to do that; 2. I should have placed the AT gun and crew HIP in one of the victory buildings. Steve Dennis pointed out that this is a no-brainer – but I guess I was over thinking the placement and didn’t see the forest through the trees. I think Steve is right on that finally; 3. I should have pulled back the two flanking squads a turn sooner. We moved in quickly to cut them off from the building. If they could have gotten there the extra two squads would have made a difference. A more subtle mistake was that I used the 5-2-7’s in the delaying screen in the beginning. I think I should have used the 4-4-7’s instead. I needed the 5-2-7’s in the building and not the 4-4-7’s that I had planned on. If it had gone down to some CC’s – the 5-2-7’s would have been in their best environment. But it is a dice game and everything did collapse at once so I take my first lose. Wes will go on to place 5th with a 5-2 record and 70 points. I do gain a point from Mike winning again (giving me more ‘strength of schedule’ points) so I’m at 23 points but drop to 11th as some other players move into the 3-0 category.

In round 4 I’m matched up with Larry Zoet from Grand Rapids. Funny, we travel all this way to play each other and we only live about an hour away back in Michigan. We’ve played a couple times. Last time we met was at Oktoberfest and I came out on top in a mini-tournament. We’re good friends and I enjoy playing and chatting with him. We pick RPT 18 Worker’s Settlement No. 8. Strange beginning. Larry’s first combat roll breaks his primary machine gun and his second roll immobilizes his only armor – an early model T-34. This scenario is too small to win with both those major pieces out of play on the first turn (and the T-34 is gone for the game now) so Larry simply resigns. I don’t really know what to make of it. It is a tourney and these things happen – but we really didn’t play and I don’t want to take a win I didn’t at least get a chance to make a dice roll in. So I offer to just simply play a mulligan and start all over. Weird thing is, on the restart he then stalls the T-34 (almost immobilizing it again). Anyway, his attack (held up a bit by the T-34 stalling) runs into what turns into a pretty strong wall of defense. I get good rolls, he doesn’t get the breaks and by turn 4 it is pretty clear he isn’t going to penetrate through my defenses enough to win. We play it through to pretty much the end but the last few turns were just for fun. I think the scenario is tough on the Russians (Larry’s side) and on top of that I had strong die rolls through out the scenario. I immobilized the T-34 with street-fighting and generated two heroes and a fairly small scenario. Tough break for Larry as he had gotten off to a great start in the tourney. Larry goes on to pick up two more wins and finishes 4-3 with 50 points – exactly 1 point and 1 place behind me at 15th. I move up to 8th place with 36 points with a 3–1 record. Last year I was in 20th after the fourth round. What a difference a win and stronger schedule makes.

Round 5. Well of course back up in 8th means I’m back up with the big guns again. No exception this time. Jason Eickmann (Indianapolis, IN) – always a strong contender and experienced tourney player – is my next match. We square off with The Prelude To Spring – I’m the attacking Russians. I play well. I get through the first several turns with all my armor intact and his armor pinned behind some woods. I’m in good shape to make a rush for the exit VP with all 5 of my tanks (I only need to get three off if I have at least 1 squad riding or the armor leader in one of the tanks). But then fate steps in. His gun crew rallies and hauls but across several hexes of open ground (passing all the checks from three -2 shots). Slides up adjacent to my T-34 with the leader in it – and proceeds to calmly find a panzerfaust and fires a way. Scratch my armor leader option and one fast tank. Ratz… Well, I still have 4 tanks – two with riders. I pull over in front of his PzIV’s with my SU-100 and two JS-II’s. He doesn’t have great shots at me (shooting through a couple orchard hexes and being buttoned up) but his first ‘acquisition’ shot with APCR rolls a three (he needed a 4) and proceeds to toast the SU-100. OK…I’m still OK with a T-34 and two JS w/riders left. Ooops…not so fast. His other PzIV fires HE (he really can’t do much against the front of the JS) at the tank hoping for a hit and collateral damage on the riders and CD crew. Bang – critical hit. OK, well, the CH doesn’t actually hurt the tank and doesn’t inflict more damage to the PRC – but when I roll a 12 for the JS crew that recalls the JS. Leaving me with only two tanks left and no reasonable chance to make up the points from my remaining infantry. Wow – that changed tide quickly. Well, I’m pretty happy with my play and gave Jason a game. However, I really had no reason to have the CE crew on the JS – the benefit probably wasn’t worth the risk and I should have bounding fired the T-34 at the crew before starting with the hope of pinning or even breaking him. I guess I just didn’t think he would both find a PF and get a hit and I wanted to be able to fire in the advancing fire phase at his armor. Jason goes on to finish 12th with a 4-2 record and 52 points – 1 point ahead of me. I drop down to 15th with 37points and a 3-2 record. Game ends at a decent time so I get a drink in the hotel bar, chat with Jason and a couple other guys then turn in for the night.

One win and two losses for the day, but the two loses are both good games against great opponents and the third win ties me with my best record at the Open. I was 3-3 my first year going.

Sunday April 06 – Round Six

Ben, Mark and I decide to just play the morning round (6th) and then head home. Ben and Mark pair up to play buddy matches – but I don’t see a whole lot of value in it and I’d rather just play my normal pairing so I stay within the regular seeding match-up as I think it will be Pete Shelling.

When the adjusted pairings are posted I see I am matched up with Pete. Pete is both the ‘Grofaz slayer’ (having beaten Bob Bendis {the 2006 ASLOK Champ} twice now) and an incredible scenario designer. Oh – he is also quite a good player. I chat with him all the time at ASLOK and we play tested one of his Ponyri scenarios a couple years ago at ASLOK. I’m looking forward to this match.

He suggests AP18 – Village Of The Damned. I mention that I play tested this for Mark Pitcavage (the designer) in an early iteration of it – but that doesn’t bother him. We dice for sides and I get the Russians. He sets up his mixed force of Italians and Germans and we’re off. I know the Russian has to move quickly to cover a lot of ground against a fairly brittle Axis force so I take off running – making good guesses as to what are dummies and what are real units. I play a strong attacking game but am helped by things going my way. I just make my morale checks and he just misses his. I get into good positions early on and get a multitude of encircling shots. His units then break on NMC’s and 1MNC and I swipe in to capture them. By the end of the game I’ve captured about 4-5 squads and 2 leaders. It really simply goes my way and there isn’t much he can do about the dice. On his turn 4 my defensive fire breaks his last units on the board and them game is over. For me it’s a great victory – but a tough one for Pete as nothing he trieded to do paid off and everything I tried worked. Pete will finish 3-4 with 39 points and in 24th place. I get my 4th win, end up with 51 points and the final placing of 14th with a 4-2 record. Fantastic finish for me.

Last Thoughts

Well after a disappointing last year at Chicago this more then made up for it. I was hoping to simply get in the top half – maybe around 25th place or so. The 14th out of 52 was more then I expected. In addition I picked up some more ideas on how to play certain types of scenarios and feel pretty good that I’ll take away some ideas that will make me even more competitive in the future. That’s the benefit of getting to play opponents you don’t normally play and witness different styles of play that you don’t see in your area.

….course at 14th I’ll get seeded a lot higher then 37th next year so I’ll be right in the frying pan from the 1st round….

…but I’ll be there : )

CG

PS: Michigan was well represented. There were six of us there and everyone placed in the upper 22. The highest place was Jeff DeYoung from Grand Rapids who ended with a 4-3 record, but with 56 points to end up in 9th place. He only lost to the eventual 1st, 2nd, and 3rd place finishers. The other achievement was Mark DeVries – who after losing his first two matches on Friday ended up winning one of the mini-tournament plaques by going 3-0 on Saturday.

KAASL I AAR

2007-10-22T20:35:00.001-05:00

KAASL I AAR

Over the weekend of October 19-20 the KAASL (Kalamazoo Area Advanced Squad Leader) club got together and hosted the first KAASL gathering. Loosely based on P.J. Norton’s long running Officefest on the east side of the state, Doug and I had been talking about hosting something similar at his chiropractic office on this side of the state. When his tenant moved out this month we realized that this was probably the best window to see if we could pull off a larger gathering then the informal one-day ‘house’ gatherings that we had done in the past. E-mails were sent out right after Oktoberfest and even though it didn’t give everyone much heads-up (something we’ll work to improve on next time) we had a great first-time turn out. What follows is an AAR of the event.

Friday October 19

Doug closed his office at 6:00pm and he and I cleared his office, pulled out tables, and set out ASL gear and snacks (including two home-made apple pies courtesy of my wife) and drinks. Shortly after 7:00 Todd Wiley, Geoff Ferguson, and D.J. Florian arrive. All three are locals - Todd and I play weekly and we are in the middle of a KGP campaign game. Geoff is an avid board-gamer, but just recently caught the ASL bug through the starter kits. He and I have played about 5 SK scenarios so far. D.J. is an occasional ASL player and plays when his schedule allows. Todd and Doug pair up to play “T-Patchers” and Geoff and D.J. settled into a SK scenario “Ambitious Assault”. I play host and help coach D.J. and Geoff through rules issues. It also gave me time to set up my defense for the next day’s game against Mark.

T-Patchers (G25): I haven’t played this scenario before so kept looking in to see how it was going. Doug’s US troops, led by his Shermans, pushed straight up the center early in the game. It was looking pretty good for Doug early on, especially when Todd’s AT gun malfunctions. Then a major infantry stack of Doug’s hit a minefield and Todd repaired the AT gun. Some slowed-up infantry and a couple destroyed Shermans later and Todd had bloodied Doug’s nose and blunted his assault. They’ll play until 1:00 in the morning when it will go down to the last turn and Doug pulling out a win by avoiding the CVP cap by 1 CVP.

Ambitious Assault (S9): D.J. gets the Italian defenders in this one. He spreads his defense out through-out the village in the center of the board. He has to defend on both ends as on one flank the US come in and on the other flank the British enter. D.J. will throw a couple of speed bumps up on a hill to slow the US attack down. When Geoff enters on the US side things don’t go quite as planned. D.J.’s speed bump Italian squad, supported by an Italian HMG across the board, hole up in a stone building and decide to earn the Italian medal of valor by stopping cold each US squad that attempts to get past them. That single squad will alone survive 4 turns before finally withdrawing in good order back into the village. On the other flank, Geoff will enter the British reinforcements, but having only 2-3 turns with them on the board, can’t push far enough into the village to make up for the delayed US attack on the other side. Fun game to watch, but D.J.’s experience paid off dividends as Geoff struggled to get the US attack going past the Italian defense. D.J. and Geoff will finish around 10:30 with D.J.’s Italians holding out for a win.

Saturday October 20

Geoff and D.J. had job commitments for Saturday, but Todd, Doug, and I were all back along with a contingent of guys from up north – well, at least as far north as Grand Rapids. Around 10am Mark DeVries, Jim Haller, Ben Richardson, and Larry Zoet pull into the parking lot. We match up for games, pull the grill out, and start day two rolling the dice.

Terrify and Destroy (SP 146): Mark and I had arranged ahead of time to play this one. I had set it up the evening before so it didn’t take long for Mark to settle in and get his off-board US lined up. My Germans get 4 Jagd Tigers and a couple of Flakwagons with supporting infantry, but set up in three different areas that really don’t support each other. The US has three 76L armed M4’s along with two more 75mm M-4’s, a Stuart light tank, and another M4 mounting the 105mm gun supported by a halftrack and 14 elite US squads. The scenario starts off furiously with a pretty aggressive US tank attack from two sides. My defending Germans get a few breaks and by turn 4-5 Mark has lost all the 76L mounted M4’s and his 105. Another M4 75 is staring down the barrel of a Jagd Tiger as is the Stuart. All I’ve lost is a single Jagd Tiger to street fighting and I really haven’t had to give up much ground. Looking over the scenario, Mark concedes that he isn’t going to be able to kick me out of 3 of the 4 buildings needed in the time left and there is still enough time left to get in another scenario. So, we switch sides and play again. The second playing is much more intense. It goes the full distance ending in the CC phase of the last player turn with my US infantry finally taking the third building away from the two 5-4-8 squads defending it. A strange playing as I rolled something like a dozen 12’s and an equal number of 2’s. Definitely not bell-curve rolls on my end. The 12’s were frustrating – but balanced by the 2’s. A key point in the game was Mark’s 9-2 breaking on a NMC caused 6fp +3 shot from a M4’s machine guns. I also got fortunate with DI shots against two of the Jadg Tigers effectively taking them out of the game relatively early on. To his credit, Mark had an outstanding counter-attack by a Jadg Tiger and squad early in the game which bagged about 5 squads and a leader in the first two turns via a melee and then withdrawal behind me to end up eliminating several US units due to FTR.

White Star, Black Cross: Ben Richardson and Todd Wiley went head-to-head in this Scott Holst play test. Ben had brought down one of Jeff DeYoung’s 3-D boards built for this scenario. I didn’t get a chance to watch much of this game – being involved in my own scenario with Mark – but from what I saw Ben got off to a rough start with several malfunctions the first few turns. Eventually though, Ben recovers enough for his German attack to finally defeat Todd’s US defenders. Maybe one (or both of them) will chime in here and add more to this AAR.

Strange Allies: The last three (Larry, Doug, and Jim) joined up to play a three-player scenario by Steve Swann. Not published yet, Strange Allies takes place with in a couple weeks after the end of WWII in Europe. On the island of Crete, communist partisans (Jim Haller) are attacking a unit of British troops (Larry Zoet). The surrounded British send a call out to their recently surrendered German “prisoners” (Doug Lynes) and order them to counter-attack the partisans and ‘rescue’ their British captors. Strange…. Like Ben and Todd’s game, I didn’t get to see much of this one either, but from what I heard Larry and Doug didn’t have a lot of trouble containing the partisans. It sounds like this scenario needs a bit more balancing before it is published as they all thought it was hard on the partisans.

Conclusion

By about 6:00pm all the games had wrapped up. The GR guys had to head back up north so we called it a day. Between my two games I had started the grill and we had burgers and brats available as needed. Lesson learned – don’t try to play a scenario and work a grill. Let’s put it this way – no one could order their burgers medium rare…or for that matter even medium. Well-done was par for the course. Mark DeVries surprisingly finished off the last piece of pie so I didn’t have to bring any back home. It looked like everyone had a great time. We had 9 different guys show up and got in 6 scenarios. Not bad for the very first gathering and on short notice. Doug and I will get together over the next few weeks and start looking at dates for the next gathering. We’ll get the word out much earlier next time. Thanks to everyone who showed up and to all who replied to the original email with support and best wishes. Especially PJ and his phone call on Saturday. Hopefully we’ll see even more folks next time.

Update: Originally this was posted as Officefest West with deferance to PJ's Officefest that he organizes on the East side of the state. At his quite reasonable request I've changed the name of our event to KAASL and have gone back and edited this posting to reflect that change. CG

ASLOk 2007

2007-10-07T21:07:00.000-05:00

AAR – ASLOk XXI – 2007

It was the best of times – it was the worst of times…

Murphy’s Law…

Well, that pretty much sums up my past weekend at ASLOk XXII. Last year (see my previous blog) I went 4-1 and won a mini-tournament plaque (almost won a second one!) and felt pretty much on top of my game. Didn’t happen that way this year – but that’s OK.

I drove over to ASLOk after teaching my last classes at KVCC and Kalamazoo College. I arranged ahead of time to room with Jim Taylor – we connected up with a couple games this past year and the rooming worked out very conveniently for us. When I got into Middleburg Heights I checked in at the registration table and picked up my shirt and name tag. Same tag style as last year; but with a US ‘Stuart’ tank on it. The olive drab shirt features a crewed HMG amongst some rubble and, although dark, is a nice color. I look around for the Schwerpunkt guys as I need to pick up the next Schwerpunkt pack for the mini tomorrow but it doesn’t look like any are around that evening. I do find Glennbo and he gives me a couple of the Eastside Gamers #3 packs. I play tested several scenarios in the pack for Glen and these were the comps for that. Glen, Scot and Eric have done a great job with the first two packs – and after play testing the 3rd pack I’m sure this will be just as good. I want to play the ‘Destroy All Monsters’ scenario some day – just sounds too cool.

Too late for a game so I chat with a bunch of guys and then head up to the room to watch Boston beat L.A. and go up 2 – 0 in the play-offs and then turn in to get some sleep.

Friday October 5 – Round One of the Schwerpunkt 13 Mini

Last year I won the Schwerpunkt 12 mini so I figured what the heck, lets sign up for that one again. The advantage to this mini is that no one really knows the scenarios as they are all new and first released at ASLOk. The disadvantage is that you really don’t know if they are balanced at all. Last year I was pretty lucky and choose the side that in the end would be slightly favored in tournament play. That certainly didn’t hurt my chances.

I’m matched up with Craig Houliston (Lino Lake, MN) for the first round. I’ve heard Craig’s name around the circuit the last few years and I know he won one of the mini’s last year so I’m guessing we’re probably pretty on par with each other. Looking at the list we select The Legrew Maneuver (SP 150). This scenario features a German withdrawal in front of a faster and more numerous US force. The Germans have to exit ≥ 26 EVP and at least 4 of the EVP have to be infantry MMC’s. The Germans have 2 JgPz IV(L) and 3 PzIVJ’s and 8 squads with a smattering of support weapons. The US has 10 squads and a variety of 6 tanks including one very quick M10 GMC – the little guy is literally twice as fast as anything the Germans have.

The Germans set up on board first. I pick one side – I’ll withdraw along a side so I only have to protect one flank. However, the US moves first. Craig quickly pushes down my ‘protected’ side along a woods road catching me a bit by surprise. At the end of this first turn he ends up where I anticipated he would be on turn 2 – not good for me. On the other flank he quickly moves the M4A3, M10, and 3 of the 4 M4’s into flanking positions to try and get flank shots on the area I’ll have to withdraw through. That I expect. On my turn 1 I crank up a JgPz to engage the sole M4 on the woods-road. Pull into the mouth of the woods-road and face the M4. Good odds for me. My supporting mmg team gets hot and shreds the only squad that might have a CC chance against the JgPz and the M4’s gun pretty much can’t touch my front armor; and my gun will shred him. Facing that Craig calls for a D.I. (deliberate immobilization) shot. He rolls a snake eyes to hit getting both the hull hit and (after we figure it out) the exact number he needed to hit me. I roll a 10 for my crew immobilization task check – and the crew of fools abandon the much safer JgPz for the open ground and are then promptly KIA’d with a follow-up MG shot from the tank. Murphy’s law… I’ll take this M4 out the next turn with my Psk team, but the real damage is done. This is a serious problem for me as the PzJg and crew are 7 EVP of the 35 EVP I have in vehicles. I’ve only have 28 left now.

The rest of the scenario proceeds OK – I’ll lose a Pz IV to tank fire but exit a second one (that malf’d it’s MA) by turn 4 of 5. That tank gave me only 5 EVP because of the malf’d gun but the remaining Pz IV w/armor leader (8EVP) and the last PzJg (7EVP give me enough points to exit to win (I’ve got another 6 EVP of infantry that can literally advance off the board at my leisure) and two more turns of movement left. I’ve pretty much recovered from the initial loss of the PzJg although getting the last PzJg off will be tough because he’ll have to risk at least one if not 2 shots as he exits – the PzIV can exit easily. Craig slides his armor in behind a flanking hedge to interdict my armor. I’m not worried – his bounding fire or advancing fire shots are pretty low chances and the odds are in my favor as I can spend a defensive fire phase and prep fire phase to take them out and still exit. That is until Craig decides to take a low odds BFF shot on my Pz IV w/armor leader. Boom…I don’t recall if it was a critical hit or simply a ‘3’ that he needed – but he hits the Pz IV and burns it. Gone is 8 more points and that’s game as now I don’t have the points to exit. Bummer. Out in the first round. Regardless – Craig was an excellent opponent and I really enjoyed the game. This one looks tough for the Germans because it is easy for the US to swarm around to the rear and the German tanks are slow and very vulnerable from the sides. As an opponent – the best of times. Taking a first round lose – the worst of times. Murphy’s Law – the snake D.I. and crew bailing and the BFF shot. 0 - 1

Friday October 5 – Open Game

Well, the nice thing about losing in the first round is that you can now play who ever and what ever you want to – and with over 140 fellow ASL’s in attendance getting a game is never a problem. I hook up with Rich Domovic (Chicago, Ill). Rich and I played in St. Louis where he won and went on to place a couple places ahead of me in 9th and has been in town this past week playing in the Euro vs. US tourney. He is 9 – 4 so far and was the most valuable player for the US. However, I had a great time playing him and was excited to see he was out of his first round mini also. We pick another SP scenario called ‘The Zebra Mission’ (SP 147). We dice for sides and I get (again) the defending Germans.

Zebra mission looks cool – a medium small scenario with a bit of everything. A variety of 9 German squads assisted by a PzJgIII/IV and a FlaKPz IV/20 has to survive an onslaught of 9 heavy firepower but lower morale US squads, a M3(MMG) halftrack, 2 M4A3(75)w’s and a Pershing (M-26). Don’t get to see Pershing’s very often so this looks cool. I do OK in the first 3 of 6 turns. Playing cat & mouse I keep the US from pushing into the city too hard but on turn 3 everything collapses. Back-to-back box cars against a probing US squad malfunctions my only strong SW (a HMG) and a supporting LMG. With this suddenly appearing huge hole in my defense Rich floods across the street and pins my guys against a second row of buildings where they can’t rout from. A turn later about a 1/3 of my force is eliminated through breaking and/or melee. To make matters worse – my FlaKPz I moved over to protect their rear is taken out by the Pershing who splits a LOS diagonally across the board through two buildings I was sure blocked the LOS. A nice low roll To Hit and down goes the highest firepower producer I have. Then the PzJg runs out of HE after his first shot. He’ll be swarmed by infantry, immobilized, and then the crew will abandon only to be shot down. Turn 5 finds me with 3 good order MMC’s in a building – but they are encircled and surrounded by US squads and tanks. By the end of the turn they will all be broken/eliminated and that’s game. Enjoyed playing Rich again – and I’ll look for him anytime I have an open spot to play (the good times). The worst of time is I’m now 0-2. Murphy’s law – back to back malf’s on my HMG and LMG opening up my main defense, the ‘I’m sure it’s blocked’ LOS that wasn’t, and the PzJg running out of HE on his second shot. We do a late dinner together at Damon’s and then after socializing some I head upstairs to watch some baseball. 0 - 2

Saturday October 6 – Round One of the ‘Twilight of the Reich’ Mini

Saturday morning I’m up for the next mini. I’m paired with Eric Bongiavanni. One of the very cool things about ASLOk is that it draws a significant off-continent contingent. Guys fly in from England, Sweden, Belgium, France, Australia, and Japan to play. Eric is one of the guys that have come over from France. He is from Marseille (history there!) and speaks very good English – unlike my (as he puts it) “heavily accented” remedial French. Eric is 7-6 so far (having arrived the past weekend) and this looks to be a good game.

We pick another Schwerpunkt scenario “Twilight of the Reich”. This was on my ‘want to play but never have’ list. It’s gotten a lot of play at ASLOk since it was released and is fairly well balanced (a slight edge to the attacking Russians. A typical small tourney scenario, two standard boards (48 & 44) are modified by all the grain fields being treated as sand and two low sand dune overlays are placed on the board. This will make it all but impossible for the tanks to avoid taking at least a few bog checks in and adjacent to the sand hexes.

The Germans have to keep at least one mobile, good order, and functioning MA in a fairly small area by the end of 5 turns. The kicker is that two of the JgPz's have to enter from off board and almost have to risk at least two bog checks to get to the victory area. The Russians get two ISU-152’s and 4 T34/85’s along with 9 infantry squads to combat the three JgPz and 7 low end German squads.

We dice for sides – I get the defending Germans (hmmm…see a pattern here?). I set up and Eric enters the board. Turn one goes well – I take out a T-34 with a PF shot and then a bit later another T-34 with a Psk. Somewhere in there I think I get a 3rd T-34 (maybe my on-board JgPz) – but then things collapse. Three low odds hits with a T-34 and a 152 (needed a ‘3’ each time) flat out KIA 3 of my 7 squads. The PF hit on the first T-34 breaks a 4th squad and he’ll never come back around. My first JgPz will finally fall after malf’ing his MA on an intensive fire shot and being swarmed – but I expected that (the swarm that is – not the malfunction). The two game breakers however were one of my two JgPz reinforcements breaking his MA on his first shot and my last JgPz bogging by rolling a 12 in an adjacent hex to a sand hex. Eric – of course – had passed about a dozen bog checks without breaking a sweat. With the other two PzJg down Eric simply drove the last T-34 around to the JgPz flank and took him out. Ratz…Good time to play, bad time to lose.
Murphy’s Law strikes again. Two MA malfunctions and a game losing ‘12’ on a bog check. 0 -3 sigh…

Saturday October 6 – Open Gaming

On Friday I ran into David Goldman (Chicago, Ill) who does a great job as tourney director for the Chicago Open. We haven’t played before and mentioned that if we were both out in the first round on Saturday he'd be interested in playing me. Not only would I be interested – but I’d be honored! Well, as fate would have it we both lost our first rounds and got together after lunch to play. Looking for a medium sized scenario to finish the rest of Saturday off with we selected another new Schwerpunkt “Nova Buda Butte” (SP 152). Good size at 8 turns with a nice OoB of combined arms. I ask to play the attacking Russians (anything but the defending Germans again) and David is fine with that. He sets up and we start rolling.

I’ve got a mix of 7 T-34/M43’s and 2 T-43’s with 25 supporting squads attacking what will eventually become 17 SS squads, a Pak 40, SPW 251, StuGIIIG and two PzIV H’s defending a flat topped hill with buildings on it (the Butte). The Russians have to cross 4 very open ground hexes twice under the watchful covering fire of a German HMG and MMG. Well, the Russian just has to grin and bear it – there is no way to cross the first turn except in the open so you hope for little to no ROF from the two German MG’s.

Murphy’s Law – David gets something like 7 ROF or more from the HMG and MMG. At the end of turn one I’ve lost 4.5 squads outright KIA’d and there are a couple more squads broken. It was devastating. My T-34’s (who can’t unbutton to fire) need 2’s and 3’s to hit the MG nest in the stone building – and will never get a single hit the whole game. I also make a mistake on my left flank. Not thinking David will take the StuGIIIG off of the butte (who starts on board unlike the PzIV’s) I keep a T-43 in motion with a squad and leader riding moving around the flank. Actually – I think I just plain forgot about the StuG… David does move the StuG and catches my T-43 in motion. Three turns later – that StuG will account for 3 (or maybe 4?) dead T-34’s/T-43’s even though I do get the original T-43 out of harms way. I’ll never destroy the StuG as he ends up destroying his MA on an intensive fire shot and getting recalled. Regardless, between the StuG success (I’ll bounce 3 APCR hits and another 2 or 3 AP hits off of him for no effect) and the HMG (who will continue to have good success on turn 2) My forces are pretty shattered by turn three. At the beginning of turn three though I’ll manage to pin the HMG/MMG nest with some MG fire and – seeing I need to cover open ground take a risk and trigger a human wave attack after freezing some infantry with one of my T-34’s.

This is the highlight of my weekend. The human wave works to near perfection. I cross 4 open ground hexes and get into the buildings at the edge of the butte only losing 1 squad. David tells me it is the best executed human wave he has ever seen. Two turns later I’ve done some damage to him in melee – but a couple of flanking squads (after taking out his SPW) are pushed out of breaking the game open for me by a CH from one of his MkIV’s and all of his turn 4 reinforcements are in place. Counting squads on turn 6 of 8 turns, I realize I’m only up by one ½ squad and have only captured 3 of the required 10 stone buildings. There is no way I’ll capture 7 more buildings in two turns given the distance and the terrain so I resign as there is little play left in this scenario. Had a great time playing David and I hope I’ll get another opportunity in the future. Worst of time – I’m now 0 -4 and that is pretty much it for me this weekend. Murphy’s Law – David’s ROF from H*ll HMG/MMG and the StuG that wouldn’t die. Regardless, this one looks tough for the Russians. Later that evening I saw Bret Hildebrand setting this one up and playing the first couple turns as the Russians. I didn’t watch the whole game – but it didn’t look like his was going much better then mine was. 0 -4… : (

The Coda…

It really was the best of times and the worst of times mixed in with Murphy’s Law. While record wise this was the opposite of last year (4-1) I really enjoyed every game and each of my opponents. I got to play all new opponents (except for Rich) and there is just always something very cool about playing the Euro’s (thanks Eric). I also got to play a scenario I was hoping to play (Twilight) and an opponent I was hoping to play again (Thanks Rich). The games with Craig and David were great and many of my ASL friends did win mini’s (Ben Richardson, Jeff DeYoung, and Jim Taylor). This was Ben’s first time down and he won the ‘monster’ mini, Jeff won his first mini ever, and Jim continues to tear up his opponents and take home the wood. Well back to my two campaign games against Todd and Doug. Better luck next time I hope – that probably will be the Chicago Open next April.

St. Louis Tournament 2007

2007-08-04T20:17:00.000-05:00

AAR – 10th Annual St. Louis Tournament – July 2007

Earlier in the year, Mark DeVries talked me into going down to Missouri with him in order to attend the St. Louis Tournament. Not having anything else scheduled that weekend and said I’d go. Unfortunately things didn’t work out for Mark and he couldn’t go down – but Jeff DeYoung could so Jeff and I drove down on Friday to spend the weekend playing ASL.

This was my first time down for this tourney and found out that it’s quite a drive down there. About 9 hours with breaks. Fortunately Jeff is a great passenger and, although long, the drive really wasn’t too bad. Getting into St. Louis was another issue. We tried coming in from the East but there was too much over-stacking on the bridge hex and we bounced out and took a bypass around the north side of the city to sneak in from the west. We made it there about 30 minutes before the official start time of 5:00pm due to the time change between Michigan and Missouri.

The St. Louis tourney is very similar to the Chicago Open (see my previous blog) with the only exceptions being that it is a 5 round tournament and the first round is not structured; you find your own opponent as soon as you get there. This actually works well since it means that some of the players can get there early and pair up instead of waiting for their opponent to show up. I think Jim Burris (the TD) does seed everyone for the tournament software – but that initial seeding doesn’t affect the 1st round pairings.

Friday July 27 – The beginning

Jeff and I check in the pretty decent hotel and pick up the tournament scenario pack/rules and T-shirt. Love the shirt. It has the St. Louis ASL club logo on the front – but the real catch is the back. A single panel drawing copied from Bill Mauldin’s book Up-Front. My Dad gave me an original printing of the book decades ago and I’ve always loved it.

Right after I check in I run into Doug Kirk (St. Louis, MO). He’s looking for a game and we’ve never played so I’m game. Doug placed 2nd last year and two years prior to that and has also done well at the Chicago Open so I’m looking forward to a strong game. We pick CH149 Final Embrace. Rolling for sides I get the British (who have to attack against a strong German force anchored by two Panthers) and Doug is the Germans. In a nutshell, Doug was able to stop me cold. Nothing I tried really worked (although I did get a Panther with a bounding fire shot with APDS) and everything he tried did work. That included a HIP flamethrower/838 ambush that I walked into leaving me minus a 9-2 and company deleted from my plans on turn two. The general consensus on the floor (there were 5+ playings of it) seemed to be that this was a tough one for the British and I agree. Regardless, I really enjoyed the game and Doug was a classy opponent. Doug will go on to earn a 3-2 record and place right ahead of me in 10th. End of round one and I’m 0–1.

Saturday April 14 – Success at last

Round Two
Saturday morning finds me seeded 18th out of 29 and matched up against … (drum-roll) Jeff DeYoung (Grand Rapids, MI). Yes, we drove 9 hours to play each other!! He also had lost his first round (against Bob Bendis who will go undefeated to win the Tourney) and the pairings matched us up. Well, this is actually a good thing. We’ve never played each other even though we’ve known each other for years and I’ve even been to his house to play ASL – just not against him. We’re both looking forward to the game and get a bit of a laugh out of it. We sit down and select HP31 Operation Eisbar, roll for sides (I get the Brits) and start to play. This scenario finds an elite German infantry force attempting to push through some British light infantry (elites) reinforced by two AA guns and a heavy mortar. The brits also get a ‘rat-patrol’ style reinforcement in the shape of a 2-4-8 half squad and 9-1 leader on an aamg armed jeep. He either has to exit 10EVP or destroy all the AA/MTR ordnance. I set up an AA gun and Mortar on a 2nd level hill and run the last AA gun toward the back in a reverse slope position. On my first WP shot with the Mortar it box-cars out. A turn later it will be eliminated on the repair attempt but that is about the only thing that goes wrong for me. Jeff manages to turn several of my MC’s on him into damage as he rolls several 12’s on the MC’s and my mortar crew stoutly defends the end of a gully with their pistols breaking his lead assault group when a good IFT roll and bad MC rolls for Jeff leave the stack broken and shattered. While Jeff makes a great recovery and (after realizing the exit VC is not reasonable) makes a strong push over the hill and towards the last AA gun. A fortunate rally of a DM broken half-squad that adds a hero to my OoB suddenly anchors a crumbling center and Jeff falls just a hex short of taking out the AA gun. My first win of the tourney and a great game with a fellow Michigander. Jeff will go on to end with a 2 – 3 record and place 20th. End of round two and I’m 1–1.

Round Three

With my win in round two I move up 4 places in the seeding to 14th. This round finds me paired with another local and fellow 1-1 record holder Dale Holmstrom (St. Louis, MO). I played Dale’s brother (Bob) last year in Chicago and lost to him, but have never played Dale and don’t really know anything about his playing style. We pick FrF16 Last Orders and dice for sides. I’ll get the defending Germans in this rather small scenario with variable victory conditions. This scenario favors the Russians and the tourney list has it recommended being played with the German balance of adding a Psk to the OoB. Dale will command 3 T-34/85’s, a SU-85, and 5 elite squads with a FT and LMG led by a 8-1. I’m defending with two PzJg Tigers and a captured T-35 ‘land-battleship”. The T-35 isn’t much worth against the T-35/SU-85 – but with a plethora of MG’s and a 75mm howitzer can keep the Russian infantry off of the Pz Jg Tigers. A card draw gives me the VC of killing 28CVP. I’m not real thrilled about that because that means I have to take out all the T-34’s and the SU-85 (and their crews) or almost all the infantry and three of the tanks. Dale enters with the lead T-34’s and finds out that the PzJg Tiger can’t be penetrated from the front when I move toward him and zero in on the lead T-34. Soon the Tiger and a fortunate PF hit from a conscript squad have taken out the 3 T-34’s – although the Tiger will be taken out in close combat. That leaves the SU-85. I run the T-35 into the SU-85’s hex to prevent him from firing out (without this the SU-85 would have a side shot on the PzJg Tiger as I cross a bridge) and then roll up two hexes away with the 2nd JgPz Tiger and finish off the SU. Game over as none of the crews survived the elimination of the tanks. Good game but I had good fortune with To Hit’s and the maneuver game. Dale will go on to a 2-3 record and place 21st. I’m now 2-1.

Round Four

The middle of the seeding is tightly packed and the win only moves me up one position to 13th. The final round of the day finds me paired up with Rich Domovic from Chicago. Rich is one of the well known tournament participants and I’ve seen him at the Chicago Open and ASLOK but have never played him. Everyone speaks will of him and I’m really looking forward to this game. He placed 17th out of 56 this year at Chicago with a 4-3 record so he clearly has the playing chops for a great game. We pick Morning Traffic. My Germans have to cross a set of bridges and cross a board to capture 3 buildings or 4 buildings if I lose my 4 tanks. The French have a fairly robust force of 9 1st line infantry squads led by a 9-1 and 8-0 with an infantry gun, MMG, ATR and a couple of LMG’s. Supporting them are 5 FT tanks of various models. This scenario just didn’t click in for me. While I got across the bridge on the first turn I took a lot of casualties. A cmg shot from a FT-17 shattered a whole stack of mine right off the top. Later the 75mm armed FT-17 critical hits my one smoke generating MkIVC. Meanwhile I contribute by doing a “Jeff DeYoung” and throw enough Fate MC’s to eliminate the equivalent of three of my 13 squads. I finally get enough troops across a grain field and attack the buildings – but without the smoke from the Mk IV I can’t suppress the 9-1 lead mmg until the very end of the game and after 6 turns of chipping away at my troops – I only have a few ½ squads at the end and not near enough to push him out of the buildings. Enjoyed the game – but a bit frustrated as nothing was really working for me. Rich goes on to a 3-2 record and a 9th place finish. I’m even at 2-2. After the game Rich brings down some Rum and Coke and we have a drink while David Goldman is looking at a scenario called Road Kill. He has it set up and believes that it’s almost impossible for the US to win. Doug Kirk comes by and thinks just the opposite – and he’s played it before and explains why. Interesting discussion which will come into play for me tomorrow.

Sunday July 29 – Final Round

Round Five

Sunday morning finds my loss sending me back to 18th. This will be the day that determines if I leave with a winning record or not. I’m paired up with Shawn Ettleman (Columbia, MO). Shawn placed 3rd last year so this will be a tough game. We pick Road Kill from the East Side Gamers pack. As we roll for sides I recall the discussions from last night about how this is tough for the Germans. Shawn has also played this before and won as the US – but I still wanted to play it as it looked fun and we could finish it at a decent time for me to get home. I end up with the Germans off the dice roll. Hmmm…not really what I wanted as I think this will be a steep climb. This scenario features a weak German force defending a town against a superior US force of elite and 1st line infantry with a lot of armor. The US wins by essentially destroying all the Germans and the village. I play a fairly up-front defense thinking that his relatively low morale may give my 2, 4, & 6 point down 2 shots a decent chance of slowing him up (he only has 6 turns to defeat me). I get some help from a hot AA gun on a hill outside of the village that ends up destroying two halftracks (including his M3 (MMG)) and the accompanying 2 squads. A companion mortar does nothing – missing its first shot and then the crew breaking on a cheesy 1 +2 shot. A duo of PzAII manage to only hit once out of about 8 shots – and that was against a lonely ½ squad before their taken out by a Bazooka shot and a BFF M8 HMG HEAT shot. My Marder does play tag with his M24 manned by a 10-2 AL and escapes that to kill the other M24 on an intensive fire shot – but he too will fall eventually to the 10-2. Meanwhile I’m focusing on breaking, pinning, and slowing up the US infantry while desperately trying to keep my infantry away from the massive US firepower the 6-6-6’s and 6-6-7’s can put out. I lose 2-3 squads as I withdraw but still have about 7 left by turn 4 (although my lone MMG broke and then eliminated itself early on).

During our turn three I glance around to the game behind me. It is Bob Bendis and Doug Bennett playing for the championship – they also have selected Road Kill. They are a turn behind us, but Bob’s Americans are already where Shawn’s forces are currently. Noting that I’m feeling a bit better as apparently my delay tactics are working better then Doug’s. By turn 5 I have no armor left and Shawn has flooded the town with his remaining armor and troops. I’m just about ready to concede as this looks like it can only be won by me rolling snakes and Shawn rolling box-cars a bunch of times; but I still have units where I need them to be. By the end of turn 6 he has whittled me down to about 5 locations which he has basically surround and, in many places has me in vehicle by-pass freeze/CC. By the end of his turn 6 Advance Phase I’m left with only 4 low odds chances of winning: 1) a 7-0 leader and 447 squad is in a victory building in CC with a 9-1 ldr, 667 squad and in-motion halftrack, 2) a broken conscript half squad in a steeple location that would have to self rally with a snake-eyes and then survive defensive fire, 3) a 9-1 leader, 447lmg squad that is encircled in the upper level of a two-story single hex house, and finally 4) the crew of a MMG that started outside the village who is one move away from a victory building – but would have to run through a least two US half-squad shots at him in open ground.

Meanwhile, Bob Bendis has handily defeated Doug Bennett’s Germans on turn 5.

By now a small crowd has gathered around our game since we were playing the same one as the champion match and my defending Germans are still in play.

USA CC Phase. I’m struck by an inspiration. Looking at the board I realize that if I can withdraw form the one melee I’m in – I can withdraw into a location he can’t shoot at and then advance into a VC location after his defensive fire for a win regardless of the other three options. I declare the squad to withdraw from the melee with the 7-0 leader as covering unit. I won’t get to attack Shawn’s units with the squad – but that doesn’t matter if the withdrawal is successful. With my covering unit (the sacrificial 7-0 leader) he needs a 7 or less to eliminate my squad as it withdraws (an 8 will only half-squad it and the half-squad would still win for me).

I really haven’t had a great roll all weekend. No critical hits or leader creations and only 1 hero in 5 games. Shawn has rolled low enough and often enough in this game so many times that my sniper was active enough to totally eliminate his sniper! I’m hoping all my luck has been saved up for this moment.

He rolls an 11. I withdraw into an adjacent location that no one has LOS to (his melee units are still in melee with the leader and can’t shoot out) and he resigns. I’m stunned as I thought this game was lost two turns ago and none of my last 4 options seemed very viable. Teaches the lesson to never give up in this game. I end with a victory and a great game from a very skilled opponent. Shawn will place 16th with a 2-3 record while I’ll end the weekend 3-2 and place a respectable 11th.

Last Thoughts

Well, the unexpected win in round five really capped off a great weekend over all. Doug and I actually shared the same number of tourney points (with 36 each), but his win over me gave him the 10th spot and me the 11th. Regardless, I feel I did stronger in this tourney then in Chicago and placing in the upper 40% reflects that. All my opponents were first rate gentlemen and a joy to game against. The trip down to St. Louis, while uneventful, is a long travel and Jeff and I discussed what the feasibility of doing this year after year is. Maybe catching Amtrack down or even flying down would be more viable. It is right on the end range of how far I want to drive for events like this. Regardless, I was much happier with my level of play here then in Chicago as my wins were solid played games and my losses were against the two gentlemen who placed in the 9th and 10th spots ahead of me.

Chicago Open 2007 AAR

2007-04-20T09:55:00.000-05:00

AAR – Chicago Open – 2007

Ben Richardson, Mark DeVries and I drove over to Chicago to participate in the Chicago Open. The Open is run by tournament director David Goldman and this will be the second time I’ve made it over there. Mark talked me into going last year for the first time and I really enjoyed it. It is a much difference atmosphere then ASLOK because the format is much stricter instead of the open gaming that ASLOK is based on. There are time limits for each round and a specific set of scenarios that has to be selected from for each round. After each round everyone is re-seeded according to the results and then the next round begins. For the first round, seeding is done based on past tourney results and then the #1 plays #2, #3 plays #4 and so on. After the first round – everyone is re-seeded according to the results, and the new #1 plays the new #2 and so on. Everyone gets 10 points for a win, plus an additional point(s) for each opponent that a person you defeated has beaten. This way you might have several players whose records are 3 wins and 2 losses – but they will have different scores depending on how the successful the players they defeated are. As the weekend progress – your score may increase if your defeated opponents continue to win against others.

Friday April 13 – Round One & Two

After we check in I check the seeding for the first round. Last year I was seeded 64th out of 66 – I hadn’t been to Chicago before so I had no prior record. All the new players are seeded at the bottom. I ended up finishing 37th out of 66 with a 3-4 record. This year I’m seeded 44th out of 56 based on last year’s results.

My first round is against Corey Edwards from Wisconsin. We pick Orczy Square from the Schwerepunkt series. I’m the defending Russians trying to hold off his attacking Hungarians. Corey’s Hungarians need to clear three of five buildings of Good Order Russian MMC by the game end. I set up my defense to prevent him from coming down the center of the square where he has access to all five buildings. I also forget about the set-up restrictions and set-up my one AT gun illegally – so it never gets used in the scenario. Corey does a wide flanking end run which worries me because it catches me by surprise – and turns out to be a very effective attack. Fortunately I can recover and manage to prevent him from taking enough buildings. He takes two buildings fairly easily, but when my reinforcing T-34’s come in, they quickly take out several Zrinyi II’s (Hungarian Assault Guns) and prevent him from crossing the road into two of the other buildings. I win by holding him off in the center building. My win for me and fortunately Corey will go on to pick up several more wins on his own, adding points to my score, and getting him a final result of 19th with a 4-3 record. Fun game and Corey handles the loss well so it’s a good start for me. After the first round I’m 1 – 0 but forgot to check my seeding. I’m guessing I’m probably in the upper 20’s – maybe 28th or so.

Round two is against Todd Jones from Iowa. Like Corey, Todd is another very personable opponent and we have a great game. We pick Borodino Train Station from Journal 7. I play tested this for MMP but that was several years ago. I’ve won it as the Russians – but it has tended to favor the Germans over time. We dice for sides and I get the Russians and Todd gets the defending Germans. My first two turns go great. I make it across the road and take the Train Station losing only one ½ squad. However, Todd does a great defense and manages to escape the building with all of his troops (albeit broken), but more importantly, manages to get a blocking forces across the street which prevents me from putting on the coup-de-grace on the broken units. I overlook an opportunity to street fight his open top AC with an assault engineer squad and that will come back to haunt me. Meanwhile, Todd plays a great defense game assisted by two leader creations in CC (meaning I also lost those CC’s), a hero creations, and a string of a ½ dozen snake-eyes at key times. In the end I can’t punch the hole in his defense and achieve the second requirement of crossing the far road with 3 squads. Great game by Todd and a well earned win on his part. Todd goes on to earn a 4-3 record and place 18th, one place above Corey. I’m now 1-1 and end round two seeded at 22nd.

Saturday April 14 – Round Three, Four, and Five

Saturday morning finds me matched up against Bernie Howell from Texas. We pick Hamburg On The Lovat; a Dispatches from the Bunker scenario. Using the modified boards created by Jeff DeYoung (great job on those Jeff!). Dice give me the Germans defending against the attacking Russians. He gets a T-34/76 early model and a nasty flamethrowing OT-34. It’s an early 1942 scenario so no panzerfaust for me but I do get two fanatic tank hunting ½ squads that can start HIP. The first three turns Bernie crushes me. Methodically using the FT tank and very sound tactics, he blows through my first line of defense and almost cuts me off from getting by troops into the victory building; almost but not quite. By the end of turn 3 I’m thinking I can’t win this as the FT tank is devastating me and he’s lost almost no squads. But then starting on turn four things turn around for me. His T-34 immobilizes in an out of the way position due to a mech reliability failure taking him out of the attack. Then he gets ansy with the FT tank and tries to outflank me to get to the back of the building; right past one of my HIP tank hunting ½ squads I put there just in case he tried something like that. I miss the ATMM roll and he is moving, but the -1 for street fighting saves the day as my DR of 3 leaves a wrecked FT tank in the road. The biggest thorn in my side has just been pulled out. I luckily manage to get several units into the building. He finds out a turn too late that I have a fortified location in the only stairwell leading to the upper floors (he had rubbled the other one at pre-game set up) and by turn 5 realizes that he can’t possibly get to my upper floor units to take the building. I win by doing what I do best – not throwing in the towel early, and playing a strong fighting withdrawal. I finish round three 2-1 and, with 23 points find myself seeded 9th because Bernie had an earlier win and Corey ends up winning his next two games after losing to me. Bernie will go on to a 3-2 record with a 26th place finish.

SPLAT – this is the sound of me hitting the wall at this point. Strong opponents, fatigue, poor decisions, and dice that turn south on me help me slide downhill from this point on.

Round four is against Doug Bennett from Illinois. Doug wants to choose A104 “In Front Of The Storm”. Lots of people warn against it saying it’s too heavily balanced in favor of the Germans (the French have to cross a very exposed bridge so after some hesitation on my part, we agree that Doug will play the French and be given the French balance; exchanging a French 8-1 leader for a 9-2 leader. My hesitation is that I think that is a pretty extreme balance, but I weight the fact that he has to cross two hexes of open bridge terrain to win – no small feat in itself. Most of the game goes well for me and my game plan. Not great die rolls – but enough to do what I want to do. A mechanical reliability failure immobilizes 1 of his 3 AFV’s. Another one I Immobilize in CC. The third one has to now roll a task check every time he moves as he is radio-less. I slow him up the first few turns and withdraw my best troops across the bridge to the far side. A fortunate HOB roll gains me a hero – which I immediately pull back to the other side of the bridge. I leave a small blocking force of 4 squads and an ATR to delay him as long as possible. I know they are simply sacrificial lambs as they won’t be able to retreat across the bridge once they break – but with their 8 morale they should be able to hold him off.

Now I hit the wall….

He manages to get MC’s on everyone of my blocking force’s units. They all manage to fail their MC’s. In one turn my whole delaying force is gone. Should not have happened with 8 morale troops – but it does. I’m really not too worried though – I’m in great position with the hero & my own 9-2 leader with a 548 squad and MMG sitting behind a roadblock at the end of the bridge and that means he has to cross 3 open ground hexes with a minimum of a -4 DRM (-2 leader, -1 hero, -1 open ground). It could be as bad as -5 adding in the -1 for bridge and -1 for non-assault movement. He has only two turns left. I even ask him how in the world he thinks he can do this. I’m sure I’ve got this won.

Me and my big mouth….

First thing he does is take about 3-4 little 2 & 4FP +2 shots from various units across the canal. Nothing really happens so I’m thinking this is good because those units aren’t moving. Next he manages to roll his TC for the last tank – no problem, my AT gun has the first hex on to the bridge bore sited and LOS to the whole bridge. The tank rolls up and parks adjacent to the roadblock. My AT gun takes 1 shot – bounces the round, 2nd shot on ROF, bounces the shot, 3rd shot intensive firing; rolls a 12 and is eliminated.. He bounding first fires his CMG. He’s looking at 2fp +2 for roadblock. Rolling low he gets is PTC. No big deal – I think. Well, that is until I fail the ptc with my 9-2 and then my squad. Ratz – now I can’t lay a fire lane and I just lost the -2 modifier. Still, I’ve got the hero’s -1 and the bridge and open ground -1’s. Now he CX’s a French green squad down the road. OK, I take my shots as I get to lay residual. 1st hex my covering squad fires and lays 1 residual. I roll a 9 for NE. Now he goes to the first bridge hex – I fire my hero, pinned squad and mmg. 6pts with a -3 DRM Now he gets his 9-2 leader (the one he got from me courtesy of the balance) and two French squads – and arms them with Kevlar armor. Move out “Vite, vite!” shouts the French demi-god. These three units now proceed to waltz through three residuals. All at -2 or more. I manage to roll a 9, 10, 11. He passes any MC’s easily with his 9-2 leader and is now sitting under the tank adjacent to me. Hey, these guys should be dead – especially after the 2fp -3 shot in the second hex; the one I rolled a 10 on for NE. Anyway – it doesn’t get any better. He survive my final fire easily (I roll an 11), advanced into my hex and then proceeds to eliminate all my units with a “3” DR. I totally miss mine – rolling another 10 (I think). So there – he strolls through 3 negative residual shots and a final fire shot and then takes my guys out in CC. All against what should have been untouchable – a 9-2 ldr, hero, and 548 squad manning a MMG.

Unbelievable….

The game finishes only about 15 minutes from the start of the 5th round and I’m exhausted and still in shock. I’m now 2-2 and drop down to 20th place. Doug continues with his unbelievable fortune doing the same thing to my friend Ben and ends up 5-2 taking 6th place overall.

It doesn’t get any better

Round 5 matches me up with Tom Mueller from Wisconsin. We pick Lacking Coordination from Schwerepunkt. I’m the attacking Germans and Bob is defending buildings with Brits. I never seem to play these attacking scenarios well – and this one is no exception. Bob plays a great defense assisted by a razor thin Los check that reveals one of my 3 Tigers 19 hexes away and out of his covered arc through 2 orchard hindrances and a gap in two wood hexes. Spins, shoot APCR, rolls a 3 and hits. Scratch one Tiger. Later I slide a Tiger through a 1 hex wide gap and he nails that one on 1 MP in his LOS. Scratch Tiger 2. I’ve still got a plan. My 3rd Tiger is in position to take out enough CVP to win me the game (instead of taking buildings) – until he slides his spotting round over and directly converts to FFE: 1. First round critical hits the last Tiger. Well, after the last scenario I’m pretty numb to this. Earlier I gained a hero only to have him and another 548 squad get adjacent to a first fired 237 half squad who final fires with a 4 flat shot, rolls a 6 for a MC. My hero fails it and wounds – and then dies on the severity check of a 6. The squad of course rolls a 12 and ELR’s/Breaks/and reduces. They were supposed to take that building easily. This was pretty much how the whole scenario went. Game over. I’m 2-3 and drop a few more spots. Up to my room to catch some sleep. Tom will go 3-3 and end up in 25th place.

Sunday April 15 – Buddy Matches

Since round 7 goes pretty late and many of us travel quite a ways to get here – David Goldman uses buddy matches on Sunday. If you can’t stay all 7 rounds – two pairs of players partner up into two teams. One team plays the other and one person from each side plays the attacker and the other the defender using the same scenario. Your result counts for your buddy. So, if you win and your buddy wins – you get the points for both wins effectively giving you 7 rounds of playing – but the 7th round is your buddy. Ben and I are supposed to buddy up and play Mark DeVries and Gary Trezza – but because of the seeding, Mark and Gary can’t buddy up. So, Ben and Gary buddy up and Mark and I buddy up. Ben crushes Mark in less then an hour. Gary succeeds in every single attempt at everything – including 3 successful moving sD6 rolls in a row (rolled three 3’s in a row). I fail every single attempt at anything – MC, PTC, To Hit, Rally, anything under the sun that I need to roll for. I don’t even notice it – Gary notices it and, apologizing, points out that he’s never played a game like this before. He exits or kills enough VP in his first 3 player turns that he wins before my turn 3. I don’t even get my reinforcing T-34’s on the board – the game ends before then. Par for the course. I pick up two losses (mine and Mark’s) and then pack up for the drive home. Gary ends up 5-2 and in 8th place.

Last Thoughts

Well, clearly the competitive part was a disappointment. I ended up placing 37th – same as last year but with 1 less win. I was really hoping to at least get the 3 wins of last year and move up into the 20’s – but that didn’t happen. Regardless – I did have a great time getting to see a lot of ASL friends I only see at tourneys like this and got to play 6 other people I’ve never played before. It was a great time regardless of the results and I’m sure I’ll be back next year to avenge this year. I can also take some consolation that my two winds were against players who finished 26th and 19th and my losses were against players who finished 6th, 19th, and 25th. So all the games were at played in the upper ½ of the standings. The previous year I had a lot of games played at with the lower ½ of the standings – that’s why I could place higher this year even though I had one less win. The two games I won were worth more points in the end.

How much does chance affect the game? Well, in the alternate world – when Doug ran the bridge, even average dice rolls (7 or less) would have broken him if not even outright KIA’ing the French supermen. I win the scenario easily and pick up 14 pts for Doug. Ben and I do pair up and I pick up 13 points for Ben’s win over Mark (even if I still lost to Gary). Those 27 points are added to my now 4-3 record and 27 points from my other 2 wins (for a total of 54pts) and instead of placing 37th, I now place a very respectable 12th. So close – and much for fate.

Well there you have it. I’m planning on heading off to PJ Norton’s Officefest May 18 & 19 – so expect another blog around that time. Thanks to Mark DeVries and Ben Richardson – two great players and my roommates for the weekend. Mark ended up 3-4 and in 27th while Ben did the strongest of the West Michigan crew going 5-2 and placing 9th.

Starter Kit #3 Review

2007-03-23T10:38:00.000-05:00

Starter Kit #3 – Tanks

Review

For those interested – here is my take on Starter Kit #3. I’ve played ASL since its inception under the guise of the original Squad Leader. I purchased the first two starter kits and pre-ordered the third one mostly out of need to have a complete system and to give me a better tool to help introduce players to the game. One of my current regular opponents, Doug, learned the hard way; I showed him the basic rules, we threw a couple counters on the board in a ‘made-up’ scenario, and then we started with scenario #1 Fighting Withdrawal. Since then we have gradually worked our way through all the module scenarios through Gung Ho!, several campaign games, and play testing for the last couple of Journals. I wish I had had the starter kit when Doug started as I’m sure it would have made the learning curve much easier for him. Currently I’m playing scenarios out of starter kit 1 with another future ASL’er, Geoff. I know he has ordered all the starter kits and so maybe the ASL virus has gotten to him also. Anyway, on to the review.

Outside The Box

The game arrived in an over-sized box via UPS. The corner of the box is slightly crushed – but when I open the box it was well packed with Styrofoam peanuts and the game itself buried in the center of the over-sized box. Not even close to being damaged. So an A+ for packing. I opened the box and pulled out the shrink-wrapped game from the peanuts. First view is of the back as I pull it out. The three game boards are laid out across the top and below them is a small action-paragraph about a squad leader leading his men as they first realize enemy armor is approaching them. OK, great tie in with the purpose of this module. Just a lay-out thought – but too bad they didn’t put counters on the board graphics to “show” the described encounter being represented by the game. That would have been too cool. Most of the remaining text is laid out on a soft gray background and goes through contents and a description of the game. Several notices to the purchaser that the boards and counters are fully compatible with ASL and even a few sentences encouraging the purchases to “expand their horizons to include the detailed rules that make up the total ASL system,…” This is good – and is reinforcing the idea that the starter kits are ASL and are meant to transition players to full ASL and not be a stand-alone separate system. Oddly enough, at the end of the same paragraph is the sentence “Others may want to wait for additional Starter Kit material…”. Maybe the rumors of more SK style products other then the three SK’s and scenarios in the Operations magazine are true. Personally, the text on the gray background looks a little too busy and I think a bit too wordy. I’d like to have seen a little less text but at a slightly larger font. However, I’m not sure what text I’d leave out and still get the effect MMP wants. On the lower right hand corner a text box with white background shows three vehicle counters and what essentially are vehicle notes for the German Pzkpfw V (Panther), Russian T-34/85, and British Vickers Mk VI. The white background catches the eye and the counter graphics are well done and very clean. The only other comment is that I can’t believe they left off a web site address to check out for either the Operations magazine or a way to order more from MMP. The front of the box is a pretty striking image. The shadow of a Tiger approaching at a slight angle with the turret slewed off across the box looks cool. The graduated gray background representing the background sky sets both the Tiger and the orange box title (similar to the original SL orange) well and I think will grab the potential purchaser’s eye. Oddly enough, even though the game is referred to as the ASL Starter Kit #3 – Tanks, the word ‘Tanks’ is no where on the box. I guess the image replaces the text. I guess I’m good with that, subtle, but it works. Box: B+

Inside – Print material

Well, I open it up. First thing that catches my eye is a blue-green slip of paper. A scenario errata. Sigh…well at least it is easy to find and they took the time to include it in the box. Maybe that will be the only errata. Next, a square salmon colored note with the contents listed and a contact email/phone number/address if there is a problem. Looks good and is consistent with MMP’s good customer service. Next is a letter sized yellow sheet explaining the full ASL system. Here we go with the final step of the starter kits. Essentially – if you like the SK game – you’ll love the detail of full ASL. OK – if this is included then here is where you could delete some of the back of the box text which duplicates this sheet. Regardless – once again the perfect opportunity to include a web address is over-looked. Next is the Vehicle and Ordnance Historical Notes booklet. All black and white or gray scale – no color here. Glancing through it there are Russian, British, USA, German, and Italian vehicles and ordnance listed. Oddly enough, the credits at the end are listed as Starter Kit #2 credits – not #3. I’m guessing that is a misprint – but obviously doesn’t affect the game. The back of the booklet shows the counter art and all the descriptions. This also is in black and white or gray-scale. The nationality color is substituted with white and the normal white and red depictions are grey-scaled. OK, it works, but I would have preferred the color counter version. I assume this was done to cut down on the expense of printing.

The rule book is next. Keeping in the same format as the first two starter kits it includes all the previous rules with all the new rules and errata included and highlighted in a Salmon colored background. Looks just as good as the previous rulebooks with lots of graphics and color and a more descriptive style of writing then the technical style of the ASL rulebook. Finally on page 2 I spot the http://www.multimanpublishing.com/ tag. However, if it wasn’t underlined – I probably would have missed it amongst all the other text. Print Material: A

Inside – Scenarios, Boards, & Data Card

Standard card stock scenario cards. Numbered S20 through S27, the eight scenarios cover everything from Joseph 351 to Clash at Borisovka. Joseph 351 is an all infantry scenario with variable OoB for the USA along with variable VP - also, escaped Russian POWS that have been re-armed. What a hoot! S21 – Clash at Borisovka is an all armor scenario with Tigers & Pz IV’s vs. T-34’s. The other scenarios use everything except for the Italian counters. Looks like a good variety. We’ll see if they are fun to play and learn by. Missing – any allied or axis minor counters. Too bad as one of my attractions to the game was that it was more then just a ‘major’ powers game.

The game includes three new boards (T, U, and V). Clean graphics and good accurate cutting makes this a real plus. Even the edge half-hexes have ‘half’ dots on them for LOS checks. There is nothing more bothersome then trying to string a LOS from a half-hex with no dot in it.

There is one quick-reference data card with the infantry rules and MF/PP chart and one reference card with all the vehicle To Hit, To Kill, and related information. I’m surprised they didn’t include two of each chart as both players would need this chart and I have found it awkward to share charts while playing. Not impossible by any means, just not convenient. Not a big fan of how they laid out the vehicle charts. Each nationalities gun type has its own separate TH line. I prefer the way the full game does it as this looks rather cluttered – but I assume that MMP chose this layout as being easier to understand for a true beginner. Regardless – it drives me batty. Scenarios, Boards, & Data Card: B+

Inside – Counters

The game includes 2½ sheets of counters. The two full-sized sheets look great. Good clean colors, graphics, and cutting. I’m a bit confused by the blue Gun Malfunction counters. The reverse side is a non-turreted CE counter. This must be a counter specifically for ordnance like the Brit 25pdr which doesn’t have a disabled side. I guess I’m just used to all malfunctioned counters have a disable side to them. Personally, I wish counters such as these would be more standard across the system both in color and in front/reverse side images/text. The ½ sheet counter containing all ⅝” counters has a bit of a problem. The cutting looks like it is about an 1/16” too low on the sheet. This isn’t too bad on the front side, although the German 88LL AT gun has a Russian brown bottom border and the row of Russian T-34’s has a US green border on the bottom. The problem is on the reverse side. On the reverse of the T-34 row, the special ammo graphics looks like the year number is going to be halved by the cutting when I separate the counters. Too bad, because otherwise the counters would be an A+. Whoa…what do we have here! I see a USA 8-1 Sgt Garrett and a British 8-1 Sgt Lynes and Sgt Wiley. We’ve made it big time. This can’t be coincidence. Todd Wiley, Doug Lynes and I have all play-tested for the last couple of Journals. Apparently we’ve now earned our own counters – thanks MMP! Well, the mis-cutting is bothersome – but not too bad and the personal counters are just way too cool for me so that will bump the counters up to an A-.

Final Comments

This looks like another great product for MMP. I don’t see any major issues at first glance and I think the variety of nationalities – especially when combined with the previous SK’s – along with the starting player now getting a taste (addiction) of three modules of counters and boards will serve the purpose MMP intended the SK’s to have well. Overall - a strong A-.

2006 ASLOK AAR

2006-10-08T18:06:00.000-05:00

AAR – ASLOK XXI – 2006

Just got back from ASLOK and thought I would add an AAR about it to the Blog. I left after work on Thursday and got to Middleburg Heights, Ohio around 9:00pm. I checked in across the street at the Ramada Inn and then checked in with the Bret (tourney director) for my name tag and shirt. The shirt is brown and features two Russians in a Stalingradish setting. One appears to be carrying a flamethrower – so kind of a cool drawing. Bret has changed the name tags to a much cooler looking item. It’s a laminated color printed tag with the full name, hometown, and some tag line unique to the person, along with a pretty nice picture of a Russian T-34. Looks like the same design as what David Goldman uses for the Chicago Open (sans lamination) and as I saw Bret there this past year I’m guessing that is where he got the idea from. Thumbs up on both the shirt and the tag. Hey, it’s the small things that count.

Too late to start a game as I want to be awake for the 8am Friday morning mini’s so I say hi to friends and pick up a set of Schwerpunkt custom dice and the two scenario sets they are selling; Schwerpunkt 12 and Rally Point. Since I’m in the Schwerpunkt 12 mini the next day – I should probably have the scenarios. Looking around it is clear that this isn’t a better year for the hotel ASLOK is held in. Lots of areas need repair/cleaning up and there doesn’t seem to be any hotel staff around so apparently all the change of owners over the years hasn’t helped at all. Well, really doesn’t matter as we just need the room to play in and I’m not staying there anyway. The only issue is that the restaurant is apparently closed for the weekend so you can’t get food at the gaming site. In the past I usually had breakfast there – but the Ramada I’m staying at has a breakfast set-up now so it ends up not being an issue. OK, head back to my room, check out the news, and then catch some sleep. My goal (aside from having a good time) is to win another mini tourney plaque. I won my first one in 2003 and then have come up empty ever since.

Friday October 6 – Round One of the Schwerpunkt 12 Mini

Grab breakfast and head across the street for the 8am mini-tournament. I’m there a bit early and check the pairings for the first mini. I signed up for the Schwerpunkt 12 mini. Schwerpunkt is a professionally printed journal that focuses on sets of scenarios compiled by a group of ASL players in the Tampa Bay, FL area. Evan Sherry pulls it all together and has a tradition of releasing a new Schwerpunkt collection at every ASLOK. This year is number 12 and the mini is drawing the scenarios from the newest Schwerpunkt released this ASLOK. For all practical purposes no one has seen these unless you play-tested for Evan. This past year Todd Wiley and I played through all the 1st Schwerpunkt scenarios so I became pretty familiar with the Schwerpunkt style of play and feel pretty comfortable with this type of quick playing and aggressive scenario. My first round pairing ends up being Dave Ginard (Ohio). Dave is one of the true veterans of ASL. He was involved with ASL from the early SL days and I believe was one of the early play testers for Squad Leader©. A strong player and certainly in the upper tier of players. I’d kind of like to run into him in the final round, not the first round…

We pick the Bozsoki Relay. A small 4.5 turn scenario with about 30 counters a side on two boards (17 & 18). An initial group of 10 Hungarian squads, 2 armored cars, a 75L AT Gun and 81mm mortar start on 1 board. They have to exit the opposing board with 16VP. The Russians have 14 squads and 3 lend-lease M4/76s to prevent them. However, an additional Hungarian force enters behind the Russians and they include 7 more Hungarian squads and 6 Zrinyi II Hungarian assault guns. At least 1 of the Zrinyi’s have to exit with the on board group – but none of the rest of this reinforcing group counts for exit points. We dice for sides and I get the Hungarians. My goal is to use the reinforcing Hungarians to create a column through which the on-board Hungarians can pass around. However, I don’t want the Russians to see my initial set-up and know where I want to push. So, I spread out along the length of the board with my leaders on the far right (I’m going to try to push through the far left board edge). On the left flank I’ve hidden the mortar in a grain field with the AT gun near it and covering a row of empty hexes that can interdict any of his M4’s trying to cut across and sever my column. I figure the mortar will get revealed quickly and Dave may try to take it out with a M4 – then I can take the M4 out with the AT gun.

After my set up, Dave sets the Russians up. He has grouped the Sherman’s in the center of the board – apparently he is worried about the 6 Zrinyi’s, each mounting 105mm howitzers. The rest of his force he spreads out pretty evening across the board. I’m real happy with this because he is trying to defend against a broad front push by me – but I’m not planning on doing that. My first deception seems to have worked.

I line the reinforcing Hungarians up on the far left flank and we start. In brief, I am able to run the Zrinyi’s unopposed into a straight column exactly as I had hoped and get the escorting infantry into the positions I want them in. His only AT asset on that side is an ATR which after missing 1 side shot doesn’t get another chance as the front of the Zrinyi’s are un-penatratable by the ATR. I start pushing all the on-board forces quickly to the left keeping them behind woods and hills in as many blind hexes as possible. My 81mm mortar reveals itself and breaks the crew of his mortar squad which was set up on one of the few 2 level hills around. Dave reacts by moving his infantry more to my left flank – but I don’t think he realizes exactly what I’m doing as he doesn’t push as hard as he could. I think he thinks I still might cut in and try to fight my way through. Meanwhile his tanks start to position themselves to cover open hexes I might be going through. By turn 2 my Zrinyi’s start to pound the Russian infantry that might interdict my moves. Dave realizes the predicament he’s in and pushes the three Shermans around a hill (to avoid the Zrinyi’s) and straight into the row that my still hidden AT gun is covering. By the end of turn 2 all three Sherman’s are eliminated. By the end of my turn 3 there are no Russian infantry left to stop my end run and with all his armor eliminated (and all mine are untouched) Dave resigns as he physically can’t get enough units in place to stop me from exiting the Hungarians. I’m excited because; I’ve won my first round, Dave is a well-respected player, and my overall plan worked. Thanks to Todd for all those playings of the Schwerpunkt scenarios. We finished in good time so I step out for lunch. 1 - 0

Friday October 6 – Round Two of the Schwerpunkt 12 Mini

After lunch I find out my opponent is Larry Zoet (Michigan). Larry is one of the great Grand Rapids guys that I often game with. I’ve played Larry twice before; winning once many years ago at ASLOK, and losing to him this past year in the Chicago Open. We pick “To No Avail” and set it up. This scenario features Guards Russians against SS Germans in 1943. The Germans win by capturing one of two buildings but not losing too many troops. It is a 7 turn scenario but not too many counters. The Germans will get 11 SS squads (3 are assault engineers) and 5 halftracks. The Russian gets 8 elite rifle squads, 24 AP mines, 4 barb wire, a 45LL AT gun, a light T-70 tank and a T-34. We dice for sides and I get the defending Russians. I really think that Larry will attack down the right side. He can reach both buildings faster that way. I set up the minefields and wire on the right side along with the T-34. The T-70 and squads set up a rather forward defense and a 9-1 and MMG go HIP on the right flank.

Larry sets up on the left. Ratz…First shot from the T-34 malfunction’s the gun…double Ratz….Then I realize I forgot to use the three fortified building locations given in the Russian OoB. Triple Ratz….This is going to be tough. Larry pushes strong on my left flank. I do a fighting withdrawal and manage to keep everyone (except maybe a ½ squad) alive. He unloads a halftrack for the HMG on it and leaves the track in the back abandoned. Larry uses his 1 demo charge on a concealed unit and doesn’t get an effect. For all 7 turns it is a tight and tense game, Larry’s forces pushing forward and mine trying to stay alive and withdraw into the buildings. The T-34 crashes into the factory (one of the victory buildings) in the hopes he can prevent the Germans from controlling it – but a repair attempt later eliminates the gun and the crew abandon it. The crew ends up holing up in the 2nd building as it become apparent Larry isn’t going to try for it. The crew is just there to prevent a last minute dash to pick up the building for free. Meanwhile, Larry is losing points as between the AT gun and the T-70 I’ve managed to eliminate 4 of the halftracks and some infantry. Meanwhile, one of my far right flank squads that can’t make it back into the buildings (too risky) decides to make a run for the abandoned halftrack on the last two Russian movement phases. All Larry can do to prevent this is double time a 7-0 leader and ½ squad adjacent to the track. Two defense fires later the Russian squad captures and then destroys the Halftrack just breaking the 35 CVP cap for the Germans. Great game and very exciting. I’m very happy with my play as I had to overcome the loss of my major weapon system (the T-34’s gun) and fortifications that didn’t come into play.
On to the third round. 2 – 0

Friday October 6 – Round Three of the Schwerpunkt 12 Mini

The third round features scenarios from the Tampa Bay group’s new “Rally Point” publication. This is a 2nd publication from them and is strictly a collection of scenarios as opposed to the Schwerpunkt journal that also includes detailed analysis of each scenario and other topics. My opponent is Derek Cox (England). I don’t know anything about him but the Euro players that all come over are always strong players as I’m sure the trip over filters out the interest of weaker players. We select RPT7 “Romanian Hammers’ and dice for sides. I get the Russians again. This scenario features a mass of Romanian squads (12) and two late reinforcing Stug IIIG’s against 9 Russian squads of various qualities – but with a commissar and a 9-2 leader and two light T-26’s tanks. The Russians have to keep a good order Russian MMC within 3 hexes of a particular building. Oh yeah, the Stug’s enter behind the Russians and only 4 hexes away from the victory area. The other unusual aspect of the scenario is that it is played all on starter kit 2 boards – V & W – so these are basically new boards to us. As we start this it becomes very clear that Derek is a very methodical player and very knowledgeable about the rulebook. For the first 4 turns (of a 6 turn scenario) I feel that I am being slowly picked apart in a very calculated and precise manner. Only fortunate placement of the commissar to rally 2 squads that break on the first turn and then later a 3rd conscript squad keeps my left flank from totally disintegrating. I try to keep my T-26’s in a position to threaten the inevitable entry of the Stugs (on turn 3), but I have to move them into the battle with the infantry to delay his movement across open areas. My only hope is that his methodical play also means he is fairly conservative and that usually means the attacker run out of time in a Schwerpunkt design – I thank Todd again because this is what I’m counting on based on our playings. The Stugs come on the board and quickly take out the T-26’s. I don’t have a choice with them; they became sacrificial lambs once my flank crumbled. However, they kept Derek from rushing straight up the center of the board so it wasn’t all in vain. By the last turn I’ve managed to get almost all of my force in good order and into stone buildings in the victory area. I’ve lost about 2-3 of my squads plus the T-26’s – but all the rest are in place and one 1st line squad is in an upper level protected by other squads in the lower levels. Unless Derek can break him – the squad will win the game for me as Derek's troops can’t physically reach him through the ground floor squads to engage him in close combat. The problem for Derek is he is about 1 turn too late and needs to move squads next to the buildings for close combat against the lower levels that normally would have been used to create a huge fire group with the intention of breaking the squad. On turn 6 some prep fire happens – largely ineffective – and then after the movement and advancing fire – my upper floor squad passes a NMC and seals the victory for me. Hurray – my goal of earning a mini-tourney plaque is reached so I’m happy. Also, all three games were great games against very enjoyable opponents. Three wins and no losses put me on the same track as 2003 when I also won a mini. I ended that year 4-1. 3 – 0

While playing Derek I also picked up two rule points of note: 1. Snipers are not activated on TK dice rolls. Just TH dice rolls. Odd, I don’t ever recall that – but Derek pointed it out and when I looked it up he was right! 2. When an infantry unit ascends a crest line and is fired on through that hex side – they don’t get the benefit of the height advantage. Now, I did know this one – but I don’t recall that I’ve ever claimed it and it is definitely not in my list of things I keep in mind to look for. Derek caught me on this one as I assault moved a conscript out of a ground level house and up to a 1st level hill. I figured he was safe from the 2fp shot that Derek could get on him until my +1 mod (for HA) turned into a -1 for open ground. I think the squad survived the shot – but it definitely came as a surprise for me and is now on the top of my mind.

Saturday October 7 – Round One of the LL Mini

LL mini is themed around scenarios that have LL modified guns in them – be it ordnance or vehicular guns. For me, today is just icing on the cake as I’ve already achieved my hope for the weekend – a mini plaque. I get there about 15 minutes early and find that my pairing is also there early. We get a head start on the round. My opponent is Eric Safran (Michigan). Another Michigander, but this time from the East side of the state. Eric is part of the East Side Gamers group that compiles the ‘Dezign Pak’ series. I’ve met Eric several times over the years at PJ Norton’s Officefest, but we’ve never played before. I don’t really know how he is as a player but I know he plays a lot with the ESG group and so at the very least is an experience player. We pick Kampf at Melikova (not sure of the spelling) from the Journal. This is a straight up German vs Russian scenario with the Germans attacking a village. Small and quick to play, it features a German Flamm PzIII and Pz IV verses a Russian 45LL AT gun and a late arriving KV-1. Both sides with accompanying infantry. The Germans have to clear three buildings of Russians. Dice give me the Russians again. I’m good with that. They’ve done me well so far. Typical fighting withdrawal for me. Concealment and good fortune keeps the FlammPanzer from doing any real serious damage. Two good incidents helps seal this scenarios for me. His Pz IV makes a wide swing around my rear area to my left flank – and parks adjacent to my hidden AT gun. I have to spin but keep ROF and on the second shot one PzIV bites the dust. The second incident is that in the need to get troops forward, he pushes his 9-2 and a couple squads in sight of my mmg. A KIA and multiple random selection later – all three units are eliminated. Along with two melees that I win I’m able to reoccupy the building I lost early on and keep the other two with him only having 2 GO squads left and a FlamPanzer that is facing the KV-I two hexes away. After his rally phase when no one rallies, Eric resigns as he physically doesn’t have enough units to occupy three buildings, much less combat the units in each one. Great game against Eric and I’d definitely enjoy playing him again – he also is an efficient player and we finish before 10:30. Wow, 4 – 0 and into the 2nd round of this mini. Checking in, Bret tells me this is just a 2 round mini as other players dropped out. Off to lunch and wondering if I could possibly pull off a second plaque this weekend. 4 – 0

Saturday October 7 – Round Two of the LL Mini

The other pair from the first round end rather late (around 1:00) so during my break I head back to the hotel and grab a quick nap. I get back and find that my opponent is Matt Book (IL). Haven’t played him either but hear the name a lot and I am pretty sure he is a strong player. We look at the scenario choices and seeing that (since this is the final round) we have the rest of the day decide to pick a fairly large scenario “The Awakening of Spring” from the original General magazine. Late war Germans attacking Russians with King Tigers, Panthers, Stalins etc. Looks very cool. We dice for sides and once again I’m Russian. He takes off to get lunch and set up my defense. Hmmm… 1 ½ hours later he just gets back. OK. We can still get this done, but by the time he finishes his set up it is 3:30. I’m a bit worried as this is a 10 turn scenario with a lot of counters. Well, if he is a quick player we can finish this.

Turn 1 ends….two hours later. Matt is a very good player – but very, very methodical – checking every possible LOS on every hex I move into and calculating every single modifier on every possible shot even on shots he had previously figured out before. There is no way we’re going to finish this in a reasonable time. I figure this will take us another 10- 12 hours at this pace. I ask him to consider canning this scenario and restarting with a much smaller and quicker playing one. He agrees (although he thinks we can finish it – sorry, no way Matt) and we pick another that he suggests – “Steamrollers” from a Paddington Bears (Australia) collection. I don’t know it, but he says its balanced 20:20 on ROAR. He takes the defending Germans and starts setting up while I grab a quick dinner. I come back (he is still setting up) but when he finishes I set up the Russians and we’re off. Oh, while I was at dinner – I checked ROAR. Ooops, sorry Matt, not quite balanced – 25 German wins to 18 Russian wins. That’s about a 60:40 split and gives the Germans about a 20% favor. That doesn’t sound balanced to me and at this level, that difference means something. OK, well, this is all icing on the cake for me anyway and it still looks fun. The Russians have to attack across mud into about a ½ dozen German squads, 2 King Tigers, a JadgPanther, and a Pz IV. I’ve got 7 628 squads 2 T-34/76’s, 2 ISU-122’s, and 3 JS-II’s. From the front the heavy hitters can take each other out in the turret, but not in the hull. My plan is for the infantry to attack down the left flank woods via a road and path (avoiding mud penalties) and enter the village from the back to force out the German infantry (which have to be within 3 hexes of the village center). Meanwhile my 5 JS & ISU’s will engage his KingTiger and JadgPanther in the center hoping to take them out by simply outnumbering him in guns. My 2 T-34’s go down the right flank to pin down the infantry and prevent them from displacing back to the village and threaten the flanks of his tanks. His second King Tiger and MkIV are over there, but only the Pz IV is in a forward position.

The forest fight goes great. I move through in good time and am at the outskirts of the village with three turns left to go. However, the tank battle in the center is a disaster. On his turn 1 he spots a LOS to one of the T-34’s across the board. I thought it was blocked by two sets of woods – but no – the thread just snakes through. Scratch 1 T-34. In the center on turn two I am in position to rush the two defending center tanks with all 5 of mine. 2 of my 5 tanks bog in the mud but are in decent positions. One of his defending shots takes out a bogged ISU. But, all four of my advancing fire shots either miss the JP or hit the hull of the KT for no effect. On his next turn his prep fire KT takes out JS #1 with a turret hit. Then his JadgPanther critical hits ISU #2 blazing him and then hits JS #2 in the turret taking him out. I’m left with just the sole JS for my defensive fire phase. He fires and hits the KT in the hull – no good. My turn 3 the JS’s prep fire hits the KT in the hull again. His defensive fire hits the JS in the turret – scratch the 5th tank. Meanwhile, my T-34 had moved up to a hedge to take out the MkIV. He easily out guns and out armors the MkIV so this should be a clean kill. I hit – and then roll a dud. My mg’s get a MC on units in a building 3 hexes away – a snakes on the MC creates a battle hardened half squad and hero. The Hero takes the panzerschreck, runs up to the T-34 and then toasts him in the next turn. Great. All my armor down and not a single scratch on the Germans. I get a brief glimmer of hope when one of his King Tiger’s throws a track and fails a start up transmission check and then the 2nd King Tiger bogs then immobilizes, but the remaining PzIV and JadgPanther make it into the village along with most of the German infantry and my remaining 6 Russian squads (one had broken in the woods and failed his 8ML self rally twice) simply can’t survive the open streets through the firepower of the remaining two AFV’s and German squads. 4 – 1

That evening back in my hotel room I recapped the scenario. I let down on the last one. For what ever reason I definitely did not have my top game on for it. Upon reflection I really mishandled the tank battle. While I did a good job of getting him outgunned, I should have had the remaining ISU smoke the JadgPanther and then have the other three tanks fire the 122 HE at the King Tiger. Targeting the KT on the Vehicle table would have been a hit on anything but a 12 (very large target & acquisition). The HE wouldn’t hurt the KT but the collateral attack on his CE crew (yes, they were CE the whole time) would have been an almost guaranteed 2-3 MC if not an outright K/KIA and I doubt they would have survived 4 shots like that. That thought had crossed my mind – but with the frustration of the slow play and the fatigue of 2 straight days of playing I didn’t consider it as much as I should have. I was too caught up in hoping for a turret hit on the KT which never came. With the KT gone, the JadgPanther would go down the same way or even by direct fire as my 122L guns could penetrate his armor fairly easily and then I would have had the tanks in the village and between his units moving in from the right flank. That would have left just 2 German 658 squads and a leader verses 1 or 2 Russian 122 bearing tanks and six 628 squads. I misplayed the scenario and gave Matt the opportunity he needed to win.

Well, my chance for two mini plaques passes by but I’m still very happy with my play (except for the last scenario) and I achieved my goal of a mini plaque. I hope I can keep improving to the point where I can consistently win a mini and/or place in the top tier at the Chicago Open and then I might give the Grofaz bracket at ASLOK a shot. Off to Chicago for the Open in April of 2007! I want to thank my regular opponents Todd Wiley, Doug Lynes, and semi-regular opponent Mark DeVries for giving me the chance to play almost every week and keep honing my ASL skills. They really came through this weekend. Also, another great job by Bret Hildebran for running another great ASLOK.

May Officefest AAR

2006-05-15T16:54:00.000-05:00

Traveled over to the east side of Michigan for PJ Norton’s 25th ‘Officefest’ this past weekend. PJ has been hosting this twice yearly event for many years and I’ve managed to attend almost everyone one of them. The first Officefest was where I broke into the real world of ASL. Before then I had just played solitaire or with my brother. PJ was also the person who convinced me to head down to Oktoberfest for which I am forever grateful to him.

I arrive late afternoon on Friday and am ready to roll dice. Looking forward to anything – PTO, Desert, Night, or a regular East front scenario. Doesn’t matter. I’ve gotten in 27 games so far this year and am well on my way to breaking last year’s record of 51 scenarios and a campaign game. I’m hoping to get in three or four games in, but I can’t stay too late on Saturday as I have a gig early Sunday morning.

I walk in the door and can see that there are already several games going on. PJ and Fred Schwarz are back in a corner playing ‘Huns of Steel’ from the latest module release. Looks real interesting and definitely one I want to play in the future. Mark Pitcavage has a game going and there are another couple of games ongoing but I can’t recall specifics. A shout from the hall and my attention turns to a beaming Glenn Houseman (Glennbo from Strat Forum and part of the East Side Gamers design team). Apparently I’m on his ‘hit list’ along with David Lamb and Mark Pitcavage. Good company, but I’m not sure I want to be on any list that Glenn has – those are the lists that I figure federal agencies have fun with. Those of you that peruse the Strategy Forum message boards will know what I mean. But, I digress… Glenn is looking for revenge from last Officefest when he and I played L’Abbeye Blanche from the first Action Pack. I won at the end of turn 2 and it wasn’t pretty….you can ask Glenn for details. Anyway, I enjoy playing Glenn so we start to look for a scenario to play. Mark Pitcavage perks up his ear and asks us to play-test one of his “Few Returned” scenarios titled ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’ that he is preparing to submit to MMP. It is an interesting moderately-large scenario with a rather complex victory condition. He has only gotten 5 play-testings of it and he is hoping for more. We look it over and it looks interesting so there it is. We dice for sides, Glenn gets the attacking Italians, and I the defending Germans. The Germans have to defend a bridge and have more VP than the Italians. However, the Germans get VP for exiting units (full points for exiting at the far side of the board and ½ points for exiting at a specified hex within the German set-up), controlling the bridge, and keeping a road clear of Italians. The Italians win by controlling one hex of the bridge or adjacent bridge hex or having more VP then the Germans. On top of this, the Italians have a variable reinforcement chart and roll to see what they get. Working through all this is probably why play-testers have avoided this scenario. However, this is the perfect time to play this and it does look interesting. The Italian gets some armor and the German gets to play with the 105 RCL which you don’t see too often. I set up a rather up-front defense relying on my 8ML and some concealment counters to survive an Italian prep fire and keep him from moving towards the bridge on the first turn. Glenn obliges me and takes his prep fire. When the smoke is cleared a snakes on Glenn’s part has me starting with the new Italian balance – take away one 548 squad. Oh well, at least he didn’t move and the rest of my troops are in good shape. The rest of the 8 turn scenario proceeds. Glenn never quite gets a coordinated attack against the bridge going. My 548’s in the woods are just too strong. A little tête-à-tête with my reinforcing 81mm mtr and his Semnovente goes no where – my mortar duding out a critical hit and his Semnovente continuously missing the mortar team and others. A portee’d 37L takes out a light tankette of his and then (in one of the few glory moments for the Semnovente) in turn gets taken out by the Semnovente. By turn 5-6 it’s a tight game. Glenn probably won’t get the bridge, but he is ahead on VP. Turns 6-7 go my way though. I start exiting troops and racking up some CVP in a little side battle across the bridge. By the start of turn 8 it is clear the Glenn cannot physically reach the bridge victory hexes and I’m now clearly ahead on CVP & EVP. Glenn resigns. It’s been about a 6 hour scenario – but worth it. Mark tells us the scenario has been favoring the Italians and Glenn is a decent player so it’s a quality win. 1-0.

It’s now about 11:00pm and I step out to get a bite to eat. When I get back, Fred’s son Eli is open. He has only played the starter kit series with his dad, but has come to pick up some more experience. Since I’m also open I figure we can set something up from the starter kit and then play it tomorrow morning. The next one for him to play is SK5 Clearing Colleville so we dice for sides and set it up. I’m the attacking US and he is the Germans. Next thing I know we go from set-up straight into playing. I brush up on the starter kit rules (hmmm…no sniper, no by-pass, no HOB…OK got it). He plays well but a risky move on his part gave me an 8fp -3 shot that I rolled a 3 on for a 2KIA taking out 2 squads and then my 9-2, 3*666,mmg stack does back to back snakes in a prep fire phase blowing a huge hole in his line which I then flooded through. Good game but the dice gods were clearly on my side. Played him to give him experience and coach him along. We talk about set-up options. For only his 5th game he already shows a good fundamental grasp of strategy and with more experience will pick up the wisdom to be pretty competitive in a relatively short time I think. Basically sharking here but had a good time. Cheesy win. 2-0 and time for bed.

After breakfast on Saturday, Chad Vanderbos and I matched up on SP53 "Thorne In Your Side". I'm the US attacking across an open field against three German conscripts, 8-1, and a 2nd line squad with a PzIV 75* and MMG (all starting HIP) vs my 7 or so 666's, mmg, 2*M5A1's and a heroic 9-1. I lose a haf squad right away and my leader wounds limiting his movement. Then I miss my special ammo role for canister and then malf the other tank’s MA. But I get a lucky break in a defensive fire shot by my heroic leader into an adjacent empty hex which turns out to be not-so-empty and contain one of the last HIP conscript squads I'm looking for. On the opposite side of the hex sits a 666 which then proceeds to break and encircle him. Anyway, the highlights are my good M5A1 crashing through a woods hex and bogging adjacent to the PzIV who then ignores the M5 (needing to take out my infantry more then the M5). The PzIV breaks a squad, but then is taken out by the M5. Finally, on the last turn I've pinned down the last conscript squad in the woods and take him out in CC to win. Another quality win as this is a pretty balanced scenario and Chad's an experienced player. 3-0 and time to go home.

Glad to see PJ keeping Officefest going after a year off. It’s always a great time to see the guys from the east side of the state and a few of the ‘buckeye’ crowd. Hope he can host it again in September.

Gun Copse

2006-05-02T09:53:00.000-05:00

Chris Garrett and I have been working our way through the Schwerpunkt scenarios in numeric order. Its great practice for me, as the Schwerpunkt scenarios are heavily used in tournament play; they are usually quick, and very aggressive in design. The attacker always seems to be a turn behind, and the defender always seems to have just a little less than he needs to win. I can’t tell you how many times it comes down to the last couple of actions to determine the winner.

Today was Gun Copse. A very light detachment of Japanese occupies a banana plantation in Burma, defending with a Heavy Machine Gun and an 81 mm mortar. In typical British fashion, the Brits decide to assault the location over 500 yards of open ground, relying on artillery smoke to save their lives while they close the distance. The objective is to flush the Japanese completely out of the plantation area.

The game starts with the British player (Chris) designating a pre-registered smoke barrage in a specific hex. He does so, and then I set up. The plantation in the middle is a little too obvious – it is central, has great sight lines over the soon to be bloody plain, and ultimately is the final objective.

So I don’t set up there.

I figure the smoke will come down and block everything in the center, so I focus on a few scattered woods hexes on the board edge. I’m hoping that the oblique sightlines will work out just fine. I place the HMG and a leader in an open hex with a foxhole. There’s no sense is staying in the woods when he has artillery (trees actually are more dangerous than open ground under a barrage). I place the small 50 mm mortar nearby in another hole, and back that up with a vanilla Japanese squad in a building to play free safety. I place the 81 mm Mortar on the opposite side of the board in a woods hex that provides a good covered arc across most of the British advance. The mortar would be blind to an extreme edge approach by a British squad, so I have to place another Japanese squad in the plantation to cover that approach. I give him a foxhole to protect against that artillery. Finally, I get one hidden squad that should be the ace in the hole. The British have to kill all of the Japanese, so that means they have to find this guy in light jungle to win. I place him well back in the plantation, where the Brits would have to dig through jungle to get to him. He also has a view of the rear flank in case the Brits manage to swing someone around and try to come in from behind.

With the setup complete, Chris reveals his pre-registered smoke hex.

It isn’t in the plantation. Sigh….

He placed it on the flank, thinking I wouldn’t use the center as it is too obvious. The smoke comes down accurately and bathes my HMG emplacement and the small mortar in great swathes of obscurement.

The Brits come on board en masse, screaming to intimidate the Imperial Army. Since two of my primary weapons are now unusable, I end up having to reveal the 81 mm mortar and start laying down rounds as quick as I can. I manage to hit a squad and leader, pinning the squad but the leader keeps right on going, seemingly unaware his men are pinned down behind him. The mortar loses rate of fire, so I can’t do much more for now. The Brits essentially cover half the distance without a scratch.

My turn begins and I continue with the heavy mortar. It is a target rich environment, so I expect to mow down some Tommies.

Excuse those boxcars as I malfunction the heavy mortar.

Things aren’t looking good at this moment.

I pull up the heavy machine gun, leave the foxhole, and use the smoke to relocate to the plantation. It is vital that I get that piece in operation as soon as possible, given I have little more to resist the Brits with other than harsh language and my tangible despair. The same goes for the little mortar. I pull it back to a walled hex and wait for him to come through the smoke. My free safety unit activates and I move him forward into the plantation.

Chris starts his next turn with a glorious weather roll of boxcars, resulting in wind gusts which essentially blow away his protective smoke. Suddenly his Brits are naked and I have the Heavy Machine Gun ready to rock. As a bonus, the little mortar now has a clean sightline to a horde of awkward Brits scratching their collective heads and looking for their smoke. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

I fail to repair my heavy mortar, so everything isn’t roses yet. Chris cranks up his radio to contact the artillery battery and it craps out on him. It is harder to use radios in the jungle.

So Chris turns to his two light mortars and goes for smoke to cover the machine gun. Subsequent rolls reveal the British quartermaster wasn’t handing out smoke rounds this morning. So Chris switches to high explosive and tries to pepper the gun. Turns out the quartermaster was handing out shoddily maintained mortars as well, since one of them malfunctions.

Chris is rolling like me.

The Brits suck it up and move forward for King and Country. The resulting turn is as expected. Broken, quivering Brits are hugging the ground, running back to cover, or simply dying in place. He has more bodies than I have bullets though, so a good portion of grim men crawl forward a little closer.

Specifics start to get hazy at this point, so I will jump to the highlights.

At some point, the artillery wakes up and pummels my location with 94 mm shells, killing my only leader and taking out some Japanese troops. The heavy machine gun remains in service with a determined crew vowing to die in place rather than abandon the position to the Brits. I continue to sustain the machine gun fire in an epic sequence of shots, pinning, killing and breaking in a ridiculously improbable sequence. The machine gun SHOULD malfunction under so much abuse, the crew SHOULD lose their nerve and flee, but everything stays together. I can imagine the slightly glowing barrel when the gun finally ceases.

But the Brits managed to get a squad in close and engaged the valiant crew in close combat. The crew falls to the bayonet and the British take possession of the gun.

On the flank, my 81 mm mortar was utterly destroyed in a repair attempt. I think it got off two shots the whole game. Maintain your weapons, kiddies, especially in the jungle.

The Brits reach the plantation and we are reduced to a close in hide and seek as he looks for my hidden troops while I try to fade back and hit him when I can. The game seems to be turning as he quickly isolates my Japanese and closes the noose. He’s taking horrible losses, but he’s getting the job done.

The end comes on the final turn (Schwerpunkt). My hidden squad took some fire and ended up revealing himself. I’m down to him and a half squad of Japanese, surrounded by Brits.

This is where I screwed up. I’m not used to the Japanese. I think in terms of Western troops. Western troops have NO chance to remain in that situation and survive. So my instinct is to flee across the open ground to a nearby location where I can make the Brits come to me over open ground at the end. The Japanese don’t break like Western troops – they simply get a little smaller but keep going. So I figured I could have waltzed through some gunfire and have a reasonable chance of some guys living long enough to get to my destination. I was trying to use what I knew about the Japanese, while still thinking in terms of European troops.

Chris gunned me down and that was that.

Then the lesson began. “Jungle is the Japanese friend”. Chris illustrated how if I had remained in the jungle, surrounded by Brits, I had an advantage. The Brits could shoot me up, and given the protection of the jungle, I would probably survive enough to remain intact. Then as he was forced to move into close combat, I had a very good chance of affecting an ambush – a Japanese specialty – and withdrawing from the combat, thus winning the game!

We played out that course of events and the Japanese would have won precisely as he explained it.

So while this was a loss, it was a great lesson in the Japanese. As always, Chris played a great game and never missed an opportunity to teach. Thanks man.

(Cross posted at Amateur Megalomania)

AAR - Primisole Bridge Completed

2005-09-17T19:00:00.000-05:00

July15PM: Having three attack chits left, I’m trying to decide how best to use them. Doug has two left and I think he is probably going to save them for the end game. If I have taken the necessary VL’s, he’ll use his chits to counter-attack on the last two CG days. If I haven’t won the VL’s, then he won't use them and the CG ends having played only 5 scenarios – which works to his advantage. I want as many CG days as possible so I won’t use my attacks on 17PM or 17AM assuming that might be saving his for those two days. I also don’t think a British night attack is really worth it. I can’t use my Shermans (they are withdrawn at night) and the terrain is going to slow a non-cloaked unit up tremendously – a problem for me as I need to move fast. Night probably favors the Axis in this one so I will forgo attacking at night. That leaves me 15PM, 16AM and 16PM. Well, three remaining days and three remaining attack chits. Nice how things just work out that way. I use my 3rd attack chit and Doug selects Idle. British attack for July 15PM.

With 65 CPP I purchase 2 more Rifle companies, a Bombardment, 100mm OBA with Off-board observer, a MG Pltn, an AC Platoon (AEC I’s), and some fortifications so I can place foxholes and dummy counters. I get lucky and roll Full RG’s across the board. Hmmm….a full AC Pltn II is 3 AEC I’s, but there are only 2 in the counter mix. I’m also getting short on 458’s and British non-airborne mortars. This CG clearly takes more counters then what a regular set calls for. I’ve got one of each module and each CG and I’m not going to have enough counters to play this without substituting counters : (

Doug picks up a Pioneer Coy, Fortification points, a 70mm OBA, and an AT gun section. After we set up it is clear that foxholes rule this game. They are strategic locations and with the vineyard/olive grove hexes become effect +3/+4 protections because of hindrances. The field of battle is littered with them.

After set-up the British bombardment comes down. Not a lot of effect as the foxholes get +4 modifiers, and pretty much everything is in foxholes. Lots of rolling though, as you check each hex for possible kindling. Doesn’t really seem worth it. Well, down to business.

My plan is to place the 2nd line troops, MG pltn, and OBA on the right flank where all his Pioneers were during 15AM. The OBA keeps him from moving and the MG’s and infantry will keep him from taking back any terrain over there. Meanwhile, all the Elite and 1st line units along with two Shermans will work to push through the Italians/Germans on the West flank. I’ll pick the two Objective hexes for my Coys on that side so that they link up and give me a large area of control with minimal strategic locations. If I can pick up the West Axis entry hex so much the better.

On the East side things go very well. My OBA comes down and I pull 5 straight Black cards. With no radio contact DR needed for the Off-Board observer I simply walk the 100+mm OBA up and down the Axis line. It is devastating (even with the foxholes) and by turn 6 there is only a handful of Italian and German units left. Probably less then ½ dozen squads. The last two turns (it will end on Axis turn 6) I even start to advance down the road and flank Doug’s troops with a few squads and half-squads. Doug does manage to break some units early on before the OBA takes out most of his heavy weapons, but my OBA breaks his ldr with one of his two radios and that OBA module never fires as the leader stays broken until he is eliminated by OBA around turn 5.

Meanwhile, a rush down the road with the armored cars goes for naught. All three get behind the Axis lines on the East side, but since they are wheeled, they can’t cross the irrigation ditches so they really contribute very little…except as targets. Doug manhandles a 40mm AT gun up the embankment of the sunken road and then proceeds to destroy two of the three armored cars and a Sherman. Clearly the high point for Doug. The third AC turns tail and heads back to the safety of the village where he remains the rest of the scenario. However, the Italians and their German counterparts can’t stand toe-to-toe with the full Elite and 1st line OB of the British crossing the field. Doug gets the second module of OBA down for a turn or two, but then malf’s the radio. That will be the third one he breaks during this CG. Soon after, some British infantry overrun the position and the second radio is gone for good. By the end of British turn 6 there is very little left of the Axis forces. Only 3 GO squads are on the west flank and maybe 6 or so on the East flank. Doug looks at his disposition, balances the value of continuing on in what is becoming a very counter intensive CG for little gain, and realizes that if this scenario goes on for 1 or two more turns there may be nothing left of his force and resigns. I think he hasn’t passed his personal morale check, but it really does look grim. He has caused 37 CVP this turn, but most of it has been in the two Armored cars and two Shermans. My infantry is relatively untouched and is ready to swarm his remaining positions. He has also had terrible luck with OBA and if this goes on, his set-up areas will be so compressed that my OBA will be even more devastating.

Post-Scenario Reflection: Neither Doug or I were really looking forward to playing another CG date (which may also have influence Doug’s decision to resign). The map was already counter intensive with loads of infantry units and foxholes. Adding more to this over a minimum of three more scenarios and it was really becoming tedious. With the potential of two modules of OBA per side for a total of 4 FFE’s on board, it was also really becoming an OBA mess. Having said this, the first few CG dates were very fun to play. Lots of RG choices and enough CPP to purchase them with. However, by the time you get to July 15PM/N there is simply too many counters on the map to deal with in an enjoyable manner. Doug and I thought that if you simply trimmed the CPP's (maybe even halving the amount) to limit the number of counters on the board and also make the OBA more expensive that maybe the tedium wouldn’t set in. Of course, how historical this would be is another issue.

A few thoughts for each side:

British:
1. If the British can prevent the forced withdrawal during 14PM he will be off to a very good start. Having a set-up area on board for 15AM effectively adds an extra CG date to his options as he won’t have to attack across the river/bridge. The paras must hold on.
2. The OBA off-board observer is well worth the points. No radio maintenance DR and a LOS to almost everywhere on the board. All those vineyards now won’t block LOS. Watching Doug break 3 radios and not being able to see the base level through 6 vineyards/olive groves proved the value of the off-board observer.
3. Armored cars = worthless. Maybe if the British have to attack across the bridge they have purpose. But their wheeled status forces them to either run up and down the road (with little purpose) or risk fairly high bog DR’s in the vineyards. I wouldn’t buy them again.
4. Shermans. Once the limited AT assets are gone, Shermans rule. Plow them through the vineyards/olive groves. So what if they bog. If they immobilize they become strategic locations. If they go mobile again – well the Germans don’t have PF’s so rock & roll – just watch the flamethrowers.
5. Save the attack chits for July 15 and later. No need to waste them on July 14 like I did. Let the Axis attack then – as he should. You’ll likely just waste one on a duel attack and you can’t afford that.

Axis:
1. OBA is good – unless you roll radio contact like Doug. You need to have two modules every turn to inflict max damage on the attacking Brits. Make them run through it to attack you.
2. Keep your AT assets as long as possible. The Shermans want to get on the north part of the map – don’t let them. Stay back and avoid being a target for OBA if possible.
3. Attack on July 14. You really, really, really want to kick the British off the board during July 14 so he has to attack across the river/bridge on July 15. If you don’t do this, they will start in the village north of the river and hit you long before you want them to. That’s what happened in our game.
4. Italians and ELR of 0. Need I say more? Put them where the British aren’t and use them to dig foxholes (read strategic locations). Their best usage is the objective hex that comes with each coy. At least the Germans can claim the hex.
5. Remember, in essence you are playing a fighting withdrawal. We didn’t play it out, but I suspect that with a good fighting withdrawal, keeping 25 hexes is pretty reasonable. Defend in depth and try to never let the British use their full movement allowance.

Aside from the way our game went, I think this is probably a fairly balanced CG. If you can commit yourself to a rather intensive and (later) repetitive set of scenarios then this is probably worth your time. It is a grind however once you hit July 15. Also, have a couple sets of British and some extra German 468’s, DC’s, and FT’s. You’ll need them.

AAR - Primosole Bridge CG1 thru 15AM

2005-08-20T18:09:00.000-05:00

July15AM: With 80CPP plus 4CPP left over from 14N I figure it is time to seriously go on the attack. I don’t want the Axis to have two Idle days in a row to reinforce their lines and this looks to be when I have the most points to work with. I figure Doug will go Idle (no real reason for him to attack) and I’ll use my second Attack Chit. I’m still concerned about wasting the one on 14PM as that leaves one less potential CG Date to play – and I want as many CG Date’s played as possible. I’m the one that has to take ground – Doug just has to delay me. My plan for this scenario is to attack out of the village (which I’m fortunate to control) and take the two East entry points away from Doug. From their I’ll roll up the North edge gradually taking each entry point away from Doug until he has to make his last stand around the B4 house. I don’t think there will be a problem with this (of course there will be) as I think Doug will spend more resources on the West set-up area then the East.

I buy 2 Coys of Lgt infantry (one on-board set-up), two troops of Shermans, a 70mm Batt. OBA, a Mtr Pltn and a MG Pltn. The Mtr and MG Pltn get to set-up on board for free. They go in the West side of the village to defend against any counter by the Axis across the vineyards. The OBA goes in S14 to provide OBA punch for my drive to the entry points. One rifle company starts on-board and in the village so I can get a quick jump on the entry points – maybe before Doug can react and stop me. Finally, the 2 Sherman troops enter from L28 with the 2nd Inf Company. 6 of the squads ride into the village on the Shermans and the other 3 (it ended up being depleted) either head west to the far copse of Olive Trees or CX it into the village to help defend the West side.

Right away I see my plan is in trouble. On Doug’s turn 1 he places a whole company of Pioneers on the Northern entry hex of the East edge. Along with what appears to be a couple more MG platoons. Rats, I’m going to have to grind this one out. He counters my 70mm OBA with two of his; a Batt. Mortar and a 105mm. Then he rolls out 2 88’s and another German Infantry Coy (I think these are the remnants of the 14PM Germans that get to enter because I had the village) that enters from the West side. Lots of counters, this isn’t going to look pretty. In addition, he still has a ton of Italians that remained after 14N.

Basically, thing go to plan. On the West, Doug sends the Italians slowly across the vineyards – assault moving then advancing. They don’t try a direct attack like last time and are content to dig some foxholes to extend their set-up area later. Late in the scenario and send a couple platoons and a Sherman to counter-attack. They do end up capturing 2 Italian squads but not much more happens (other then the Sherman bogs and then malfs the main gun). In the center, some mortars and a Sherman take care of the two 88’s. One never gets unloaded and the other one falls prey to a mortar as the crew tries to manhandle it to a better position. I’m happy those guns are gone because that leaves very little to counter the Shermans. On the down note, my 76mtr platoon manages to break and then eliminate the mortar. That ended up being a wasted 6 points. The real action is on the east flank. Both his radio’s end up breaking, and only one gets repaired (the 70mm fortunately). He ends up only getting 1 fire mission down – it beat me up in the center pretty good, but too late in the scenario for Doug to take advantage of the hole. My OBA gets about 3 missions down and does some damage – mostly to Italians, but the OBA hindrance helps me out a bit as Doug manages to put together some 36+ firegrouped shots into my line. My company sweeps quickly NE and takes the farthest south entry hex easily, but then Doug and I basically form up lines and face off about 3-4 hexes apart; blasting away at each other. My light company verses his pioneers. With all the hindrances from the vineyards and olive groves neither can really gain a distinct edge. Fortunate for me, the OBA causes enough double breaks that I do pick up a bunch of CVP; but they’re mostly Italians so he’ll still have a lot of German units on board after this scenario. The scenario ends on British turn 6. I’ve taken 1 entry hex but have caused 38CVP (14VP in prisoners) to his 4 CVP. I’m real happy about that, but am concerned about not taking that second East entry hex. Also, 1 Sherman was recalled and a second still has a broken MA. Also, two of the remaining five Shermans are bogged. We’ll see what I get to keep come the refit phase. I really don’t want to fight two Axis set-up areas – I don’t have the numbers to fight a two front battle – but clearly I’m going to have to come the next battle.

AAR - Primosole Bridge CG I cont.

2005-08-13T18:44:00.000-05:00

July 14PM cont.: Doug loads up for the attack. Near as I can tell he has purchased four coys (2 IT and 2 Ger), an Italian MG pltn and an Italian mtr pltn plus the FB42 and a Stug pltn (2 stugs). He must have bought 2 coys for 14AM and then 2 more for 14PM because of the restrictions on how much he can replenish. I end up with just being able to by increased SAN twice, FB42, two Para Pltns and one ArBn Coy Cmd. Not much, but since I didn’t lose much on the initial landing and still have 2 AT guns and a captured Italian MMG along with the village I’m feeling pretty good. It is a lot of Axis squads though….

Doug has to enter everyone from off-board. His Italian blackshirt coy and 2 stugs enter from the north and drive towards the town across the open fields. It’s a pretty safe crossing given the hindrance from the olive groves and vineyards. The regular Italian coy and two more German companies cross from the NNW corner and attack the west side of the town. Since we both have FB’s I’m wondering about tying the Axis FB (we both only got 1 plane) up in a dogfight – but alas, his FB enters first (even though I had purchased the -2 drm option) and my first sighting check boxes recalling the useless FB. Doug’s FB then runs a strafing run on my 9-2 and three squads that I thought were in good shape behind the stone wall – course that was only in good shape from his infantry. A snake eyes later and tied r.s. sees two of my para squads KIA’s and a broken 9-2 and 648. Not looking good – but later that turns out to be my only casualties so in hindsight that didn’t matter as all the para’s withdraw after the night anyway.

After the FB attack on my stack and another broken squad on the north end of the village Doug’s Italian attack is looking pretty viable until he hits the barb wire fence. Then he breaks both mortars and 1 of the hmg’s. He pulls a Stug up outside of the wire and then discovers that one of my AT guns is three hexes away. A turn later the first stug is gone and the turn after that the second stug is down. Meanwhile, the western attack hits the range of the 648’s and the firepower is too much for the Germans and Italians. The attack bogs down at the wire. I get lucky and roll a 1 at the end of Brit turn 5 and the scenario ends. The paras have held the town with the loss of 2 squads and the recalled FB. The Axis lose the two stugs and 6 ½ squads (mostly Italian). Doug does manage to get to all 4 objective hexes and also dig a few foxholes so he now has a much expanded set-up area around B5 and a second set-up area on the East side of the map.

July14N: No reason for me to attack so I go Idle. He still has a lot of MMC’s and there is no reason to take the East entry hexes as he can still enter on them at this time. If he wants to attack my paras at night, go ahead. I like stealthy at night and there is a large uncontrolled territory between the allied and axis set-up areas that he will have to cross at night that will eat up lots of turns of movement. Realizing that the British paras withdraw after the night anyway, Doug also goes Idle so no scenario is played. The Brit paras withdraw, but since the British control the village north of the river, a portion of the Germans that withdraw (9 squads, 3 leaders and a SW) will get to come back July 15AM. So, Doug will have two set-up areas with the remnants of two coys of Italians setting up in them and about a company of Germans to enter with in addition to his normal CPP purchases. We pause here and will pick up July 15AM next….

AAR - Primosole Bridge CG I

2005-08-11T16:15:00.000-05:00

AAR

Doug and I started the Primosole Bridge CG I. Doug choose the Germans/Italians and I’ve got the British. We’ve played the Pegasus Bridge CG twice and both times Doug played the British so it made sense to switch. Also, Doug has a habit of failing morale checks with British elite troops so he figured he was better off with the Italian conscripts.

July 13 Night: Like Pegasus Bridge, this CG starts off with a British night Glider landing but also adds Brit paratroopers. The Italian on-board set-up is pretty structured with the Italian units in the buildings/fortifications adjacent to the paved road and a small German contingent that shows up on turn 5 traveling in convoy. The British have two wings of Paratroopers and up to 4 AT guns delivered by Glider to attack with. I choose to drop the paratroopers in the compound and just west of the village. Later, another platoon of para’s enter on-board cloaked. The gliders all landed in the SW corner so as to guarantee landing and avoid being overrun by the Germans if they land north of the village. Good plan except I rolled 6’s for two of the gliders as they landed. They crashed malf’ing the guns, eliminating the crews, and bogging the jeeps. Hmm… 4 easy CVP for Doug right off the bat. Well, at least I kept 2 AT guns in good order. May entry dr goes great and my para’s enter right away. The ones dropping from the sky do their job. The west attack into the village goes smoothly with almost no losses. The Compound attack also goes well for the Brits. This allows the cloaked para’s to move up the road quickly and stay cloaked as they assist clearing the final buildings in the town. It doesn’t help the Italians that the NVR went down to 1 on turn 2. By turn 6 the town is taken and the convoy rolls down the road and into the north part of the town – and unknown to them surrounded by concealed/cloaked brits. After the ambush, the 88ATgun and truck are eliminated (but the crew survives) as are two other trucks and respective half squads. Doug does catch a few breaks though. One half squad will end up advancing out of a CC and into a building giving him an isoloated strategic location in town (that half squad will eventually escape). The gun crew ends up in uncontrolled territory where he also will be retained. The surviving truck in no-man’s land will also escape along with the Italian truck that left much earlier. End of the scenario came on Axis turn 6 when Doug rolls a “1”. That left the British in control of all the village/bridge/compound except for one building in the village. All the Italians eliminated (except the truck) and most of the convoy eliminated (except a half-squad, crew, and truck). British CVP is 27, Axis CVP is 6.

July 14 AM: I think Doug will attack this turn. The British are at their weakest and the Axis strategic location in the middle of the town creates some no-man land hexes I have to work around. I, on the other hand, want to go Idle – not waste an attack chit with so few troops and defend in the stone buildings against one of his 3 Attack chits. Course, I end up being wrong, Doug chooses to go Idle in order to have two replenishment phases to work with. So, no scenario is played.

July 14PM: OK, I don’t really want to attack, but I need to get rid of the Axis strategic location in the middle of my set-up (it doesn’t go away in the Idle day as you don’t repeat that section of the refit phase on an Idle day) and I’m thinking I need to stretch out a bit and build some entrenchments to serve as strategic locations for the future. I select attack. Doug, now flush with lots of troops (I guess as he has a ton of CPPs to spend) also selects Attack. On reflection, this is a bad decision on my part. I should have realized that Doug would have to Attack or else simply fore go the chance to force a British withdrawal at the end of 14PM. I should have gone Idle also. If both of us Idle I save an Attack chit for later when I get all the CPP and I will not be forced to withdraw my Paras before the night and he ends up wasting a lot of troops as he is forced to withdraw later and would only get to use these troops for a limited duration. Since we both picked Attack, I’ve just wasted an attack chit. So we’re playing this one with a Dual attack. Brits end up rolling to set-up first. More to come….

6 player scenario!

2005-07-18T18:21:00.000-05:00

AAR-G1: Timoshenko’s Attack

This past Saturday the SW Michigan ASL club got together for another multi-player scenario. This time, at Mark’s suggestion, we put together a six player one. Timoshenko’s Attack was the first of a series of scenarios published in the now defunct “General” magazine published by the Avalon Hill Gaming Co©. The scenario features a Russian attack across three separate boards against German defenders. The six player feature is that each of the three boards is a separate “scenario” with no LOS or movement between boards. The Russians have three separate groups which they decide on what board each group will attack. The Germans have one common “pool” OoB that they draw from to create three separate on board OoB’s and one reinforcement pool. The Russians win by exiting 13 VP off of any one board. As a note here, ROAR has this pretty heavily in the Russian’s favor although I don’t recall what the exact results were. We met at my place and started rolling around 5:30pm.

I faced off against Tony (Grand Rapids, MI). Don’t recall the board number, but my end was a small town with many stone buildings. The middle of the board is pretty open and Tony’s end had woods to cover his entrance. Tony is a strong player and I enjoyed gaming with him. The first couple turns went well for him. I had three squads, a mmg, and a lmg along with a 8-1 ldr to hold off 15 447’s 2 mmg’s and an assortment of ldrs and lmgs. One of the leaders was a commissar who probably helped me more then Tony as he ended up reducing several squads unwilling to enter the battle right away. Well, 3 against 15 didn’t seem that reasonable so I spend the first half of the game rolling 10’s and doing a fighting withdrawal back into the town. This let Tony move half way up the board with no losses. I request the 10-2, crew manned hmg and a couple of squads. Still a 3 to one advantage for Tony, but a 10-2 led crew and hmg is pretty nasty in stone buildings… And so it proved to be. Once Tony hit the outskirts of the town crossing the roads against stone building Germans proved too much for Russians who tended to conscript every time and a commissar who apparently didn’t like his own troops very much. I lost the 8-1mmg468 combination to a melee results and had another squad break towards the end. But the 10-2 and his charges went on some ROF rampages and managed to do enough damage before Xing out that Tony resigned on turn 8.

The middle board matched up Doug (Portage, MI) for the Germans against Steve (Hastings, MI). Steve had the Russian group that featured 3 T-28M34’s. Our sole consolation was that the tanks are radio-less so they have to move in platoon movement. However, the 76mm howitzer they mount and the 5 mg’s (1 aa, 1 cmg, 1 rear, 2 turreted bow) make them formidable verses a German OoB in 1941. I didn’t get a chance to pay too much attention to this scenario as I was busy fending off Tony’s hoards, but the gist of it was that Steve moved quickly down his board breaking 2 of Doug’s outlying squads and leaving it looking not too good for Doug early on. Because of this we sent the 37mm AT gun and OBA radio to him along with (I think) 4 squads, a leader and maybe a mg or two. In the end, we probably over-reacted with this group as Doug ended up bogging Steve down and between the AT gun and OBA stopping all three tanks and not leaving enough infantry to make the required exit points. Two boards for the Germans.

On the final board Todd (Portage, MI) faced Mark DeVries(Grand Rapids, MI) Todd, with all the joys of recently becoming a father for the second time, hasn’t had a lot of gaming time recently. On the other hand, Mark, an ex-Grofaz top 10 finisher plays weekly. I didn’t get a chance to see any of this battle so all I know is that Mark pushed down the board with Todd also doing a fighting withdrawal. Mark had around 9 458 Russian squads verses Todd’s initial 3 467’s. We sent the rest of the reinforcements to Todd (probably about 2-3 squads, mmg, and a leader) but in the scenario that ended the quickest (they had the least number of units to push) Mark managed to push the requisite 13 VP’s off the end of the board on turn 8. Well, the Germans almost pulled it off.

We all agreed this is a tough one for the Germans to pull off. In essence the Russians have three opportunities to win and the odds are they will win on at least one of the boards. That’s what happened this time. Also, 3 T-28’s are worth 15 VP, i.e. more than enough to win. Being 1941 the only worthwhile defense against them is the AT gun (which isn’t guaranteed – I think Doug bounced 3-4 shots off the armor before getting a result), the 105mm OBA (which has about the same chance), and a slightly weaker chance with the single 50mm mortar. With armor factors of 3 & 2, the mg’s really aren’t a serious threat. Street fighting is an option on two of the boards, but one board is wide open and it is probably rare that the Russians would choose any other board for the afv’s. If the German guesses which board the Russian tanks come on and set the AT gun HIP, he risks the tanks coming on somewhere else and simply driving off. If he waits and uses the AT gun as reinforcements (as we did) then the Russian knows where the AT gun is and can try to avoid it.

Anyway, as the scenarios ended everyone picked up another scenario. Todd and Mark played a small scenario by Adam Lunney “It’s Hardly Fair”, Tony and I played a hand of Up Front and Steve and Doug ended up doing a play-test scenario for MMP that I had. The whole gathering ended around 1am and it was a great time. Not sure what our next multi-player will be but watch for word of it on this blog!

AAR: The Advance Continues

2005-06-05T19:55:00.000-05:00

Wanted to share an AAR of our multi-player scenario for the blog. Yes, the four of us got together on June 4th and played this one out. It was a great time and with four players “woofing” at each other, certainly a lot livelier than the typical two-player game. Anyway, on to the AAR.

As defenders, Doug and I had gotten together a couple days earlier to look the scenario over and set-up a defense. The scenario was from the 1990 ASLOK event titled “The Advance Continues” and Mark had gotten a hold of it and sent the defense to me. What is unusual about this scenario (aside from being intended to play by four players) is that the two sides do not know the opponents OoB or their victory conditions. This is vitally critical to the scenario; more so than you might imagine at first. Therefore, if you have any intention of playing this scenario, do not read further on because it will spoil (and probably massively unbalance) the scenario.

************ Spoiler **********

The scenario takes place south of Bastogne on Dec 23 1944. It is Patton’s push to relieve the besieged defenders of Bastogne by pushing through the German 212 VG Division. Doug and I, as defenders looked over the German OoB. Not much, 6 second line squads, a couple of leaders, a Flak gun (37L), an AT gun (50L), a light mortar, smattering of mg’s, 6 concealment counters, and a road block. On turn 2, the meat of the Germans enter on either side of the two boards as determined by a random dr. The reinforcement includes 4 elite squads (468), 2 Stug IIIG’s, a Puma AC, Psk, dmHMG, a halftrack, three tracked trucks (SdKfz 11’s), a 9-1 leader and a 9-1 AL. Certainly respectable. What do we face…well, that’s the catch in the scenario. All our scenario card indicates is that a US armored division is assembling for an attack. So we don’t know what we are facing, but we can take some intelligent guesses.

The scenario takes place on 2 boards placed length-wise. Looking at the clues in the German set up and the VC’s, it was fairly obvious that the US would be entering from the South end. Part of the German VC is that they have to not lose units, control buildings and 2nd level hill hexes, and control the 4 North road exit hexes off the playing field. So, Doug and I guessed that the US VC’s would probably be exiting units off the North end (we were correct here), capturing the buildings, and capturing the hills (wrong on these two). However, guessing correctly on the exit part helped a lot. Looking at the terrain and the fact the SSR had Deep Snow in effect; we knew that dismounted troops couldn’t physically cross the length of the boards in 7 turns. Therefore, we based our defense on covering the roads and not really worrying too much about the center of the boards where the woods and lack of roads would really slow the US down in the deeps snow. As a matter of fact, almost all of our dummy stacks were in the center, and only 1 real unit was in the center. Everyone else was focused on road hexes. Careful LOS checks revealed a few critical road hexes that would have to be crossed, so that was where the bore-sighting for the AA, AT guns and the mmg went. We also wanted to ID as early as possible the US forces, so the mmg went on the first level of a building, giving it LOS to the East half of the potential entry side, and the AT and AA guns went on a 2nd level hill on the west side to get LOS across the west side. We needed to ID the US as soon as possible so the reinforcement group would know what they were up against as they entered. Our plan was essentially to 1. ID US forces, 2. Get fire down on the roads and forces US troops to dismount, 3. Fall back the on board units as soon as possible and 4. Let the reinforcements plug the gap and possibly counter-attack to take back buildings left by the withdrawing troops. We figured we would be facing a company of 1st line and maybe elite US squads, a troop of Sherman Tanks, M3 halftracks and maybe some trucks as, given the distance to travel, the squads would have to be mounted. To pause here, it was neat to set-up with a second opinion. Between the two of us, we were able to cover several possible US actions that might have been missed with just one person planning. This type of defense planning went a long way (a long with good dice rolls) to what happened next.

And off we went. Turn one: Hmmm…Mark and Steve set up a whole string of vehicles off-board – but fortunately on the side we thought they would enter. Turns out they had 15 vehicles. 6 Shermans, 6 M3 Halftracks, 2 trucks, and a M16 quad .50cal halftrack. The quad .50 was an unpleasant surprise, along with one of the Shermans being a Jumbo with a front armor of 18. We had nothing shy of a panzerfaust/panzershreck to touch that puppy-dog. Rats… Steve enters on the East side, the MMG team identifies everyone (pretty much what we expected). A shot from the mmg in the boresighted road hex stuns/recalls a halftrack crew and breaks the passengers. So far so good. The AT gun fires across the boards and burns another halftrack and passengers. Then the quad .50 opens up on the mmg squad. Leader breaks…squad Berserks. Not what we needed as they represent 16% of our total force on the board. They eventually die in CC taking no one with them. On the West side, Mark rolls the Jumbo up on the hill (where we see it the first time and get depressed) and starts to shell the AT gun. Eventually breaking the crew.

The next few turns see the East side US forces get caught in the village by the German reinforcements – with most of their armor in motion. Not pretty. With the loss of only the Puma AC, the help of two malfunctioned MA from the Shermans, the two Stug’s, the roadblock, and a panzerfaust shot pretty much stop the US thrust cold. Lots of VC earned by the Germans for only the loss of the berserked squad and the Puma. The US lost 3 Shermans and a halftrack IIRC. Meanwhile, on the West side, the Mark was cautiously watching for (non-existent) minefields and more hidden AT guns etc. While the Jumbo kept the AT gun out of action (the crew broke and rallied twice), the AA gun had also opened up on some trucks and a .50hmg that the US had set up. Breaking the .50cal and the leader with it, along with burning the truck and taking out the Quad .50 with a nice cross board shot had also added up a lot of CVP for the Germans on that side also. By the beginning of turn 5, a quick check of the VC’s and counting up of CVP’s revealed that it was extremely unlikely for the US to gain more VP’s that the Germans. Only three Sherman’s had the potential to exit in time and even though they would earn double EVP’s, the Germans would still have more than enough VP’s to exceed the US count. At that point the US resigned.

I think there were two key elements that made this scenario both a blast to play and a German victory.

First, having the thoughts of two players setting up a defense I think is more of an advantage to the defender than the attacker. Terrain and certainly in this case, distance to travel in deep snow restricted what the US could do no matter what their OoB was. With two planners, we were able to better anticipate and plan such key issues as bore sighted hexes (everyone of them paid off), roadblock placement (stopped the US in the village), and HIP placement (the HIP squad took out a Sherman with a PF). Doug took shots (including an IF) that I probably wouldn’t have taken – and each time those shots paid off. The attacker doesn’t get that benefit as the only thing they can plan prior is based simply on terrain – as they don’t know what the OoB is or where the placement is.

Second, since the defender could have had anything (Mines, more hidden units etc.), the attacker, essentially trained to attack knowing at least what the OoB of the defender is and able to “count” counters, will be much more cautious then in a typical scenario. This is a huge advantage to the defender – especially in a scenario such as this where time was critical. I think if this was played as a normal scenario between two players knowing each others OoB, the balance would be tremendously in favor of the US. As it stands, I think the Germans gain a huge benefit from the unknown. This was very evident in the cautious west advance by the US (trying to protect the Jumbo/Shermans) and the East advance getting flanked by the German reinforcements. I wonder how often this has been played as a four-player scenario and what the results were.

Anyway, great time and I hope that Mark, Steve or Doug will comment on it as two their impressions of the scenario were.

Chris

What to do!

2005-05-30T09:38:00.000-05:00

Todd and I have briefly talked about what to do with this blog. We don't have any clear ideas. It was originally set up by Todd to record is ASLOK experience - which was very cool as Todd was down there several days before I was and I got to check out his first experience there. Anyway, if anyone reads this and has suggestions as to what they would like to see, please reply. Thoughts I've had are posting AAR's, sharing tactical/strategic hints, and/or drawing awareness to little used or misunderstood rules. Thoughts?

4-player attempt!

2005-05-30T09:34:00.000-05:00

For those those who follow the ASL world, the SW MI group is going to try a four-player event June 4. Mark got a hold of a four player scenario and so he, Doug, Steve and I are going to sit down this coming Saturday and give it a shot. Doug and I will set up a defense seeing as I'm hosting it and Doug lives just a couple of minutes from me. Then Steve and Mark will be rolling into town and start their attack. Looks to be interesting at least, and a great time for everyone to sit down together, game, food & drink, and exchange ideas. Hopefully I'll get an AAR out sometime the week after.

Our shortest scenario yet....

2005-04-02T20:03:00.000-05:00

Today Doug and I sat down to play The Taking of Takrouna. It was the next in our goal to play all the published modules in order. We looked it over and ROAR showed it slightly favoring the Italians. Usually I'll take the under-dog, but since we played at my place and I could do the Italian defensive set up, Doug agreed to be the attacking New Zealanders (Maori's).

The scenario revolves around the Maori attack on an observation post in a small village surrounded by cliffs. The X1 overlay works great for this and the desert board 25 really makes this an exercise in LOS, adv vs difficult terrain, and abrupt elevation/double crest line movement.

Briefly, Doug split his force in two, 1/2 sweeping around the far side to clear the hills of my mortars and then swing back around. The other 1/2 planned on moving straight at the cliffed village via the wadis that cut through the hills. Seemed reasonable, except my mmg and 9-1 leader in the village along with three squads didn't like that plan. They caught his primary stack in the open and proceeded to roll snakes, then another very low roll etc. That, along with a failed wound check on the leader and then missed LLMC's.....

By the time the rout phase game around, we realized there was no place for the broken Maori's to rout, and since they were within 6 hexes of the brits and in open ground with no legal rout paths, the remaining 1/2 of the NZ force on that side of the board was eliminated for failure to rout.

With literally half his force eliminated on turn 1, and the rest of his force on the other side of the board, he resigned. We set it back up and played again. I still pulled off a win, but this time it went to the end.

Shortest one I ever played. Oh yeah, I called the first snake eyes ; ) That was what made it so funny - we were both laughing at how terribly diced Doug was getting. It was just too incredible to believe.

Red Barricades AAR

2005-03-06T22:12:00.000-05:00

One Down, Two To Go - RB1

Well since Todd granted me access to post on the site I guess I should probably use it. Since he has been busy with family I’ll post the final update on our game. Let’s see, it started in November…and I’m just now posting the end.

Anyway, we finally did finish the scenario. Todd’s highlight was probably his Stuka taking out my buried tank with the bomb. That hurt because I was counting on that gun to protect my right flank. The other two guns were on the other side of the factory and set up to cover the middle and left flanks. Todd pushed heavy on my left flank. I thought he was going to force his way down along the rail and then make a run for all the stone buildings that way, but to my surprise he quickly cut back in across the rail lines and into the corner stone building. The rest of the battle had Todd’s Germans moving into several of the stone buildings, but paying the price in ½ squad casualties each time. Shortly before the end of the scenario Todd was still a building or two short of the victory conditions, but didn’t have enough troops to push any farther. The battle of attrition was won by the Russians as the conscripts, busy double-timing from their entry earlier in the scenario, were arriving to shore up the defenses.

It was an exciting scenario and Todd is a great person to play against. After we finished this one we went on to play test several scenarios for MMP. One of them ending up in Journal 6.

Meanwhile, Todd connected me (reconnected really) with the crew up in Grand Rapids. Mark DeVries and I got together for a great game Red Gust. We’re working on connecting all the West Michigan players together. We’ve located about a dozen so far and hopefully will be able to get as active an ASL community here as they have on the east side of the state.

Red Barricades with Chris Garrett

2004-11-28T17:11:00.000-05:00

Chris and I are on our fourth session of the first Red Barricades (Stalingrad) scenario, and I need to start writing a summary. I think we might finish it soon, and it has been a real back and forth battle. I want to post the historical narrative now to get this going....

And the historical aftermath of the battle...

More of the battle soon...

Finally...the AAR.

2004-11-28T15:21:00.000-05:00

Finally, a continuation of Olboeter’s Escape. Scroll down if you haven’t already read the previous post regarding the setup for the scenario.

Jeff did exactly what I didn’t expect. He committed a rather substantial part of his forces to a southern approach through the orchard area (see bottom of the graphics file from the earlier post). That area was covered by a few lightly armored carriers and one Sherman, which happened to be facing the wrong way to cover the central approach. About all I had going for me was the Fireflies on the hill providing overwatch, as well as the 80 MM Artillery I could call down when he got near enough. The in-season orchards made for terrible line of sight until he got into the village proper, so it was going to be one intense fight in the village.

On the positive side, he did commit half of his forces to a northern approach through the wooded road, coming into my hidden PIAT placements. That was going to help.

First up, he advanced his Wirblewind up through the northern grainfield, heading for the woods. This vehicle scared the hell out of me, since I’ve faced them before and understand the devastating firepower they can lay down on infantry. Take a look. Fortunately for me, my lead Firefly got a bead on it as it passed through the grain, and I took a shot. Luck was with me, and the wirblewind went up in flames. Big relief right off the bat, and the Germans took their first casualty.

The Northern advance went off without too much trouble after that, as he raced to the edge of the forest and prepared to enter the road passing through the woods. He did send a halftrack through the narrow grainfield pass, driving right next to my hidden Sherman, but I destroyed the halftrack with another Sherman on the orchard hill in the middle of the map. The goal was to create chokepoints of wrecked vehicles wherever I could, and any other heavier vehicle passing through here would come under fire from the hidden Sherman.

In the south, I had a little luck. The second Firefly managed to take out another halftrack on a fortunate roll as it passed through my line of sight in a break in the orchard. A second halftrack charged my concealed Sherman, and I was forced to break concealment and take a shot, cranking the turret around to face the right way while leaving the read of the tank exposed. I managed to kill the track, but a follow up wave of panthers sent my Sherman up in flames. The two carriers tried to maintain concealment, but I ended up taking a few flank shots on thinned skin halftracks as they rumbled past. Unfortunately, it had little effect.

Back on the Northeast hill, the Fallshirmjaegers advanced onto the map on my flank, overwhelming a suicide squad positioned primarily to delay his advance. I had three squads committed to keeping this force pinned down and hampered, long enough to allow my hilltop forces to concentrate on the advancing armored column. It ended up going pretty well, and I didn’t really have to abandon the hill until late in the scenario, but more on that later.

The second German turn presented me with some hard choices. He positioned a halftrack with an onboard 81 MM Mortar in a position that would let him lay smoke on my Fireflies, blinding them to the armored advance. In addition, he had a panther positioned for a long range dual with the same Fireflies, giving him a very high probability of scoring hits. Fortunately for me, his second shot resulted in a malfunctioned main gun, so I decided repair probability was low and shifted my attention to the mortar halftrack. Both Fireflies fired and one scored a hit, sending the halftrack up in flames. That was a major blow against him, as laying smoke would have notably changed the progression of the game. If the Fireflies can’t see, they have to move, and moving tanks are not the best shooting platform. He had far too many tanks for me to come down and mix it up at close range.

The Southern Advance continued, leaving my two carriers as burning hulks as the column swung north and began to work it’s way through the wooded region south of the village. I had one Sherman again facing the wrong way on the road, concealed and waiting for an advance through the village center. I could move and loose concealment, or leave it parked to the last possible moment and try to appear more threatening than I was. I elected to hold concealment.

The north side advance was a bit of a nail biter. At one point he had my hidden Sherman surrounded with squads, one of which had a Panzerschreck. I held my position and watched the squads break around me and move on each side, leaving me hidden in the woods. I let the first two vehicles drive by my hidden PIAT, engaging them with a PIAT in the small wooden building by the road. The goal was to block the exit hex with a wreck while doing the same with the trailing vehicle. Fortunately, the lead vehicle went up in flames from the PIAT, and the .50 cal machine gun from the hill top stunned the crew of the second halftrack. The second hidden PIAT came to life and claimed the trailing panther. By the next turn, four wrecked vehicles were strung along the road, leaving one free tank on that flank. I have to say I was very pleased with the way that went down. I bloodied his nose there, and the enraged German infantry boiled through the woods to attack my Poles.

Going back to the malfunctioned panther, he repaired the gun in his next fire phase! I cringed, fully expecting one of my Fireflies to die. Fortunately for me, the dice God laughed at him and he malfunctioned it again! In my fire phase, I put a round through the cursed tank just to make sure it didn’t come back and harass me. It burned, providing much satisfaction.

The southern advance reached the tree line, and he ran yet another halftrack into my concealed Sherman, forcing me to reveal my position. I fired at the offending halftrack and immobilized it in my hex. Unfortunately, that locked my firing range, as the rules don’t allow you to ignore a vehicle in your own hex. So until I killed it, I was stuck. Not that it mattered, since I had two Tigers bearing down on me, one with a 9-2 armored leader. As a matter of fact, within about three minutes my Sherman was a smoking ruin.

Now that he was rolling into the village, I had targets for the Off Board Artillery. I executed a fire mission and brought the 80 MM down on the two Tigers. This resulted in the strangest OBA mission I’ve ever seen. I rolled insanely low, blowing the track off a halftrack, and killing both Tigers with extremely lucky rolls! Jeff had to pause and take a personal morale check, but as expected, he passed. I don’t think I’ve ever witnessed him fail one. I know I would have a hard time carrying on after something so improbable, and potentially game changing, but onward we went.

By now, the Germans had taken quite a pounding. As the southern force, or what remained of it began to press into the Village, the Northern advance was putting pressure on my hill top position. I had to relocate the .50 MG to cover the oncoming Germans, and my two remaining harassing squads fell back and moved up the hill to whack the Germans as they advanced. It’s hard to whack SS, even under the best of circumstances.

My ambush PIAT squads went down in close combat with angry Nazis, but they went to their graves content with the knowledge that they extracted a high price for their lives. Posthumous medals all around with a nice folded flag to each family.

On the next Fire Mission for my artillery, I drew my second red card, resulting in the loss of battery access. So I fired off exactly one mission, resulting in the death of two Tigers and an immobilized halftrack. I have to say it was efficient! Unfortunately, I could have used it for a few more turns.

My hidden Sherman wasn’t doing any good, as the Germans had went right by without giving me a high value shot. So I made the first major mistake and blew my position, firing up the tank and moving it toward the village to provide some backup. I misjudged the speed and position of his tanks, and before I knew it, hungry panthers had pounced on my Sherman from both directions, resulting in a dead tank in short order. On the hilltop, a squad got within range for a Panzerfaust attack on one of my Fireflies, and I decided to fire the main gun at them in an attempt to ward them off for a little longer. As you might guess, the gun malfunctioned, leaving a defenseless Firefly. I tried to pop a smoke dispenser, but my crew couldn’t get it working for whatever reason. A ‘faust shot later, my first Firefly went up in flames. It was bound to happen.

My remaining Firefly scooted off the hill and raced down into the Village, gaining a tight angle shot on a German tank. Jeff missed the line of sight, and in my next fire phase, another German vehicle went up in flames. By now, despite inflicting heavy losses on the Germans, I wasn’t feeling very good about the scenario. The Germans gain victory points for dead Poles, and now that he was infiltrating the village, the inherent Panzerfaust capability of the German infantry was placing all of my tanks at considerable risk. In rather short order, four of my fire Shermans were burning, giving the Germans big boost in victory points.

As the scenario began to wind up, I drove my last remaining Sherman off of the map, since it couldn’t do much more good and it was worth too much for him to kill. The Firefly backed itself up to the map edge, but soon drove off as well when the infantry got too close for comfort. Hand to hand ensued all over the map, and the SS was simply deadly in close combat on this day as Jeff wracked up some points for dead squads. He had occupied most of the village, and despite the heavy cost in vehicles (14 of the 18 German vehicles had been killed by this time), he had the points to win the scenario. We took the time to do the math and there wasn’t any way for me to stop him from getting the last few needed points. It turned out to be incredibly frustrating, since for the first time in a long time, I was smacking Jeff around, yet I couldn’t win.

I ended up conceding the game when people starting arriving for the general gaming session that night. In retrospect, I made many mistakes in exposing my Shermans toward the end, since they represented one third of the needed points for a German win. If I had pulled the tanks off map when the German armor had been crushed, I probably would have won. Also, when the Germans seemed to be crumbling, I changed my tactics from a falling defense to a stand fast defense, almost counter attacking in places. There was no need for that, and it put the Germans right back into the game. Too bad.

Like all Schwerpunkt scenarios I have played, this one was one of the most entertaining scenarios I’ve played in the past year. I would highly recommend it.

For future AARs, as I had mentioned before, I’m going to make a habit of including more images so as to illustrate the action. I hope it enhances the readability, especially for the non-ASL players that I am trying to ~~lure~~ attract to the game.

Still working on AAR

2004-11-25T16:15:00.000-05:00

I am still going to give a good write up of Olboeter's Escape, I've just been sidetracked on another project. I did manage to figure out a way to give some more visual clues on scenario set ups. While this isn't perfect, it should help give a sense of what is going on. Click this here to get an image that should help. Right click and select 'save as' to open it in an image program and be able to zoom in close. In the future, I'm going to provide links to my VASL files so you can really look at what is going on.

More narrative of the scenario to follow soon.

2004-11-23T14:32:00.000-05:00

Olboeter's Escape - Schwerpunkt SP109 from Volume 10.

My latest mission against Jeff DeYoung placed me as the defense in this scenario, involving Polish soldiers outfitted with British gear against a mixed force of German SS in 1944, trying to pull back from France. As I love the historical element of the game, I will include the write up that is attached to this scenario.

Coudehard, France, 20 August 1944: The Falaise Pocket was closing and rapidly becoming a death trap for German units. Elements of the German Seventh Army streamed toward the very small bottleneck that remained open near the crossroads village of Coudehard. Here, SS Sturmbannfuhrer Erich Olboeter led a mixed force of Panther and Tiger tanks, SS Panzergrenadiers, and flak panzers, in an attack to break the encirclement. Olboeter's mission was to seize Coudehard in an effort to hold open the Coudehard-Boisjos road, enabling other German units to escape. Joined by elements of Fallschrimjager Division 3, the Germans made progress until they reached a wooded area on the edge of a pasture southwest of the village, and the surrounding high ground held by determined elements of the Polish 1st Armored Division. Sturmbannfuhrer Olboeter, standing in the commander's hatch of his Panther, signaled Untersharfurher Leo Freund to follow. Olboeter's Panther moved out but did not get far before being immobilized, forcing Olboeter to bailout. Untersharfuhrer Freund was about to advance when Polish fire struck the warhead of a panzerfaust lying on the edge of the ditch in which his squad was taking cover. The resulting explosion blew apart one of his comrades, spattering Freund and the surviving squad members with the soldier's blood and chunks of flesh. Enraged, Freund and his men surged forward into the enemy, past burning vehicles and through the Polish infantry position. Fighting rages until 1500 hours when the SS finally cleared the village. The German success was short-lived. The gap was later closed again, forcing many Germans to abandon their equipment and infiltrate through the trap on foot. Olboeter escaped this time, but was badly burned in a partisan ambush eleven days later. He died on the operating table in Charleville on September 1, while having his legs amputated.

The Poles are facing a tough task, trying to contain a heavily armored column of SS. It's kind of like bathing a rabid 200 pound cat while being IN the bathtub at the same time - naked. It just isn't going to go well, and success will always be vaguely defined. Fortunately, I had a good two weeks to prepare, of which all but five hours was completely squandered by me. Finally, the night before, I loaded up VASL and started working on my defense.

The write-up in the Schwerpunkt magazine helped tremendously, but I tried not to follow the rationale too exactly, since Jeff was sure to be aware of the same recommendations. The Poles have seven tanks at their disposal, but only two of them are really worthwhile. Two Sherman V(C) models up gunned by the British with a 17 pound cannon (equivalent to 75LL in game turns). As is with all Shermans, the armor rating was pathetic, especially against gorillas like the Panther and Tiger that will shortly be swooping in on my position. The Poles also get five normal Shermans, useful for little more than killing thin skinned halftracks, creating smoke, and keeping crew turnover very high in the European theater of operations. God help the Allied tanker in WW II. I don't know how they climbed into these death traps without soiling themselves.

Advantages to the Poles were found in the setup and terrain. Per scenario rules, the Poles were permitted to set up two squads and one Sherman hidden in place, looking for those surprise flank and rear shots on tanks as they rolled past. Fortunately, the Poles had a number of 'Projector, Infantry, Anti-Tank', or PIATs. (Scroll down from the link). The PIAT is essentially a spring loaded bazooka-type weapon that fires a shaped charge. Ironically, the Kill Number in game terms is identical for a PIAT and a Sherman, but of course the Sherman has a bit more range. Go rent A Bridge Too Far to see the dramatization of a PIAT in use.

Finally, the Poles have 80 mm artillery they can call in to help keep the Germans at bay. The artillery ended up being the MVP for me, but more on that later.

As for the armor face off, the two up gunned Shermans (termed Fireflys) were the only things that could take on the Panther and Tiger from the front, and even that was a dicey proposition. If memory serves, the kill number of the Firefly was 23, while the frontal Tiger armor is something like 18, leaving a 5 or less on two dice to effect a kill. Forget about a normal Sherman. Oh, and the Tiger will pretty much kill any variant of Sherman on any hit. You begin to see the problem.

The Germans also have lesser panzers, various flakwagons, and a Whirlwind - essentially a quad mounted anti-aircraft gun treads that can mow down trees. He also gets a 9-2 armored leader to command the mechanized horde, meaning he has a great chance of ventilating my tanks from very long range while not even stopping to aim.

The German goal is defined thus - accumulate 95 victory points in a combination of exiting German units through a narrow corridor defined in the scenario (escape the pocket), kill Poles for points, and control the village buildings at the exit point (holding the pocket open). Sounds like fun, for him.

My insanely devious set-up session went long into the night, as I tried to think like Jeff DeYoung. This led to an uncontrollable desire to make foam 3D maps, so I had to pull back a bit and try to think like Jeff thinking about the scenario. As the Schwerpunkt magazine suggests, there are three primary approaches to the objective: one up the middle over open ground, one to the north passing through a narrow wooded road, and one to the south also through wooded road into the village. The north approach is the most direct, while the south approach still comes under the view of a large hill mass on the north side. Obviously, the hill mass is the best place for the Fireflys, so they took the hill and had a nice over watch position over the entire map. Unfortunately, the southern approach was also screened heavily by in-season Orchards (it is August after all), leaving many blind spots for his armor to pick their way along the approach. The northern route was also under the Firefly guns, particularly where the road exited the woods. I backed up the northern approach with two hidden squads armed with PIATs, covering the road exit, and also sighted the .50 caliber machine gun on the hill to cover the same northern approach. Finally, the hill was home to my radio observer, ready to call in the artillery to pound the escape route, the village and either the north or south approach.

My hidden Sherman was placed in the forest, guarding a back door hex that would give the northern force access to the center in case I backed him up in the woods. I thought that he might try to loop around at some point, and a hidden Sherman would get a point blank shot at a passing vehicle, from the rear. The rest of my forces went into the village to cover the building, and my two anti-tank pieces were deployed hidden to fire on any vehicle on the verge of exiting the map, again from the rear since he would have to drive by to exit. The southern approach was screened lightly with a few dummy tank counters, a few armored carriers to give the impression of more tanks, and one Sherman that was actually deployed to race into the center of the map to get rear shots at passing tanks. I really didn't think the southern route was viable due to the time limits of the scenario.

I finished my setup and hit the sack by midnight, ready for a 9 AM slaughter in Grand Rapids. To be continued later tonight....

Behold...an update

2004-11-18T10:25:00.000-05:00

I don’t know if anyone is still reading this, but I should offer some sort of token update. With my recent acquisition of a new laptop, I’ll be able to offer more faithful updates to my ASL rounds as they happen, as well as any other notable game related information. I would still like to see this page grow into something more exhaustive, covering other gamers in the Kalamazoo/Grand Rapids area.

Since my last post, I’ve played several times. Unfortunately, I’m not able to offer a detailed blow by blow, and I feel that if I don’t go ahead and post a summary, I’m going to be hung up thinking I need to address these past scenarios before I move on.

I’ve played several scenarios with Chris Garrett as we finished up the playtest for the latest Journal. We played a French-Japanese scenario set in Indo-China with the Japanese either assaulting a small village or moving through to exit the map. Terrain included an embanked railroad and rice paddies, but mostly the rice was out of play and served to funnel the Japanese through a narrower passage on the map. I ultimately lost, but once again I learned a lot and am feeling more and more comfortable with things. I still forget a lot of stuff, but the increased frequency of playing is drilling it into my head.

After we finished that scenario, Chris agreed to play a Red Barricades scenario to help me get back into the mindset of Stalingrad. I had arranged to start the full Campaign Game of Barricades with Steve Garvey, another local I met at ASLOK through Jeff DeYoung. Since it had been some time since I’ve played on the RB map, the practice would help. I took the Germans on RB1, essentially just like the start of the Campaign Game with the Germans assaulting the north side of the map as they move into the factory complex. We only finished one turn in an abbreviated playing, and then two more turns on a subsequent playing. Highlights (for me) include a Stuka dive bomber attack that took out an emplaced T-34 tank turret, and a fairly successfully push to get across the first east-west road before the complex. I’m by no means comfortable, but at least I’m still in the game.

In the meantime, I started the first CG date with Steve. Since we are set up at my house, I am the Russian player (that way I can work on defensive set-ups prior to his arrival, saving time). We completed three turns on the first day, and I have to say it has been a horrible day for the German player. Casualties thus far – 13.5 squads dead, four leaders dead, one dead tank, four immobilized tanks (two abandoned by the crew), one halftrack in flames, and three stunned halftracks. The Russians have lost 2.5 squads. Unfortunately for Steve, my anti-personnel and anti-tank mine placements seemed to have been effective, as he’s hit about every spot I’ve mined. The tide has turned to the point where I am considering a Russian counter attack when we resume.

Finally, I played a scenario with Jeff DeYoung called Tip-Off at Taurragon. This was an early war scenario with the Germans (me) assaulting across a couple of bridges into a prepared Russian position. It was a great session, with lots of destruction on both sides. The Germans were gaining ground but probably paying too high of a price. While I think the Russians had a slight edge by the time we had to quit, it was quite possible for the Germans to break through given the position. We picked it up when time was called.

Coming up this weekend, I am playing a German-Pole scenario at Jeff’s house from the latest Schwerpunkt magazine. I will be the Poles with a prepared defense while the Germans try to roll through my positions and escape from the map. That one will have a more detailed write up. The RB Campaign will pick up again after Thanksgiving, and I’m still working on the RB scenario with Chris G. So lots more updates to come.

I’ve never played so much ASL, and when I moved up here, I thought I’d end up playing a lot less, if at all. I have to say Michigan has been kind to me so far.

Beach Blanket Banzai...or something like that....

2004-10-20T20:22:00.000-05:00

I guess I really should get around to blogging my latest ASL round, but I've been busy over the past few days. I will content myself to writing a small report, and perhaps my opponent will chime in with his views here.

Chris and I have been working through some playtest scenarios for the next Journal (actually I should say Chris and I as well as Chris and Doug). The latest was a PTO scenario that pitted a mob of Japanese assaulting a line of Americans armed with four anti-aircraft guns being deployed as machine guns. The assault takes place at night (NVR of 1 hex for those who understand such things). Play ettiquette at the moment places the home player on defense, so they can be ready to go when the other player arrives.

This gave me the Japanese on the attack. The scenario is really short, consisting of 4.5 turns to essentially kill all the Americans and capture/burn a couple of ammunition dumps. The Japanese have the advantage of moving at night, which meant I essentialy ran right up to his positions all over the map and prepared to launch into Hand to Hand combat from close range. The attacker at night has a higher chance of ambush, and coupled with the already stealthy, concealed Japanese and thier prowess at hand to hand, it could be a long night for the Americans.

On the American side, they get two (or three?) .50 caliber machine guns, and the aforementioned anti-aircraft guns that are a direct violation of all that is civil in ASL. Two of them are the dreaded quad-fifties, laying out a ridiculous 24 FP with ROF 2 (for those that undertstand such things). Here I am trying to get adjacent to these monsters (NVR = 1), with predictable results.

Actually, I can't really complain. It's a fair test. The American crews have a morale of six, so they are likely to break under fire. The problem was my approach and inexperience to both night and Japanese. In my lust for hand to hand, I got too close to the guns, within visual range, before I had the opportunity to advance in for close combat. I neglected to use starshells to illuminate the scene and lay down fire on the weak kneed crews before rushing in. I certainly would have done some things differently now that I see....but that's the story with just about every ASL round! I always seem to know what to do after being thrashed.

The banzai charge was a key tactic (gee....imagine that when the word banzai is in the scenario title). Chris showed me how to conduct a charge, and with his help, I managed to take out a gun and some .50 cals at a relatively light cost. Unfortunately, I bungled my approach on the other side of the map, and after having two of my three leaders go down under fire, there was no one left to initiate a charge into the guns.

The best moment (for me) was the creation of a DC Hero to go and try to take out an American position. My hero stepped up and strapped the Demo Charge to his body, prayed to his ancestors, and then charged into the American position, all for the glory of the Emperor. He managed to survive the charge and flung himself into the foxhole with the frantic American squad before closing his eyes and triggering the charge.

I rolled boxcars! The demo charge was a dud. A calm American stepped up and fired a round into my hero, sending him off to his ancestors.

Such is my typical ASL experience.

Overall, I really enjoyed the scenario, mostly because I got to be Japanese and it was a night fight. Stepping back from that, I don't think the scenario is really appealing to vetern players. It's really one big banzai charge, over in one big push. The Japanese either win or lose in one big flurry. Nice for a short game, but I don't think it was one of the better scenarios we've seen so far.

I think next week we are going to do some French-Japanese scenario that looked to be fairly long. Look for that report in the middle of the week.

On the 30th, Jeff DeYoung is coming down for some undetermined scenario. He sent me two choices but I don't own them, so I'm not sure what to expect.

I also made contact with Steve Garvey, whom I met at ASLOK. He's interested in doing a Red Barricades campaign here at my house with some regular scenarios every third or fourth meeting for a break. A long Stalingrad fight....that might need to have it's own seperate blog!

More later....

My new storage option

2004-10-17T21:41:00.000-05:00

Cabela's -- Plano 7771 Hard Box

After viewing all the storage solutions observed at ASLOK, I have been thinking about ways to convert my counter storage to a more portable format. Right now I'm in the standard Plano solution, but they aren't really as portable as I would like. I spotted these Plano 7771 tackle boxes at the local Meijers and I think this might be the way to go. As you can see in the picture, the box will hold four Plano's internally that will easily accomodate four nationalities with a tight pack. Inside the top lid, three smaller Planos would cover most of the information counters. A large bin in the side would cover dice glass, card decks and quick reference charts. I figure two of these boxes should cover most everything I would need with a tight packing arangement. Not bad, and I'll be searching some more before pulling the trigger on anything.

I'm also thinking about clipping my counters. It's probably simple insanity, but at the moment it seems strangely appealing....

ASL First Fire - Central Washington ASL

2004-10-16T21:44:00.000-05:00

ASL First Fire - Central Washington ASL

I stumbled on a pretty useful ASL themed blog here. Lots of great links. I plan on addind a perma-link to the right side of this one a little later.

The French

2004-10-16T19:13:00.000-05:00

MultimanPublishing.com

I scored a very nice acquisition today while running down to South Bend, Indiana with the family for a 'get the hell out of Kzoo day'. We drove down to do some shopping and such, so while there I decided to visit any local game shops in hopes of stumbling on a copy of Doomed Battalions somewhere. I wasn't so fortunate, but I did find a rather large shop in Downtown South Bend called Griffon Games and Books.

This store is the dream of any military history enthusiast. Unfortunately, due to a bargain I made with my wife, I couldn't stay long to look since she was orbiting the block in the van while I looked for ASL merchandise. As it was, I dallied enough to send her around the block five times before emerging to jump in the van as she went by (parking was really a mess.) The entire basement of the store is nothing but books devoted to military history. We're talking about perhaps half the size of a mall Waldenbooks full of nothing but war stuff. I think he has about every Osprey publication there is. I can't wait to go back and give it a proper browse.

As for purchases, I scored the last copy of Croix de Guerre for $34 (MMP wants $45 plus shipping.) He had two copies of Hollow Legions, but I don't need them. Unfortunately, he's letting the inventory run out since no one seems to play in South Bend.

Great store if you are ever in the area.

The Future of the Blog

2004-10-13T22:14:00.000-05:00

This was going to be a short term project to document my time at ASLOK 2004, but I've had too much fun with it to quit now. I've been thinking about it, and I'm going to keep it active.

This blog will continue to document my ASL games (usually at least once a week), as well as other events I plan on attending in Chicago and Detroit.

Looking ahead, I'd love to see this become the nucleus of a Southwestern Michigan ASL Group, with more content, reports, and other things that might add a little to the ASL community in some small way. There are six players that I'm aware of in the region, and I'd love to get some others writing here about thier ASL experiences. Something to think about.

So if you've enjoyed the Blog, stick around. Maybe it will turn into something.

ROAR: By Scenario Name

2004-10-12T20:33:00.000-05:00

I thought I should post the ROAR record of each scenario as a summary. For those that don't know, ROAR is an on-line database of scenario playings, so the community can keep track of the results and know ahead of time if a scenario is balanced or not.

First Scenario - Totsugeki! Lost as Chinese.
ROAR has it Chinese 4 Japanese 3

Second Scenario - Hill 27. Lost as American
ROAR has it American 20 Japanese 15

Third Scenario - Awakening of Spring. Lost as German
ROAR - German 27 Russian 29

Fourth Scenario - To No Avail. Won as Russian. Playtest, so no ROAR results.

Fifth Scenario - The Hawk. Lost as American
ROAR - American 17 Japanese 17

Sixth Scenario - Panzer Graveyard. Lost as British
ROAR - British 51 German 56

Seventh Scenario - To the Matter Born. Won as German
ROAR - German 10 British 0....crap, that takes the gloss off the win, doesn't it!

Eight Scenario - Bloody Red Beach. Annihilated as American.
ROAR - Japanese 15 American 15

Ninth Scenario -Kettlehut to the Rescue. Lost as American but with wrong setup.
ROAR - American 1 German 0 (still too new to have much data).

Tenth Scenario - The Last Fort. Lost as German in a close one.
ROAR - German 2 Polish 3

Acquisitions at ASLOK

2004-10-12T20:17:00.000-05:00

I purchased some things there that I should make mention of.

First was Schwerpunkt Volume 10. Schwerpunkt is usually packed with some really great scenarios, and this was my first ever acquisition. I plan on getting the rest of them over time.

Second, I purchased Netiher Fear Nor Hope from Heat of Battle, covering the 2nd SS Das Reich Division from 1939 until 1945. I've only played The Last Fort, but the rest of them look great. One scenario features six consecutive Russian Human Waves on the SS positions. Looks like fun.

I also purchased The Buckeye Pack from HOB. My grandfather served in the Buckeye division in the Pacific theater, and it seemed fitting to honor him with the purchase. I haven't played any yet, but Jeff DeYoung assures me that this is a great pack of scenarios.

Finally, I picked up Melee Pack I and Melee Pack II from the SoCal ASL Club. These were relatively cheap at $10 each, but I haven't really had a chance to examine them.

Unfortunately, Critical Hit had rented a suite upstairs for their sales, and I didn't know it until I had already blown my budget. There are quite a few CH modules I'd like to have, so I guess I'll just have to order them later.

The Last Fort (and the last battle)

2004-10-12T19:52:00.000-05:00

After getting my rear end handed to me in Kettlehut to the Rescue, I searched around for another game. Steve Garvey, whom I had played earlier in To the Matter Born happened to be available and seeking a rematch, and after two consecutive crushing losses, I remembered enjoying his company in our last game, so I readily agreed to the battle.

We wanted to play on one of Jeff's 3-D maps, so after a few moments of routing around, we discovered The Last Fort from the Heat of Battle Das Reich pack. The Last Fort takes place in late September of 1939, and pits the SS against Polish troops trying to hold a village with a large fortified building up on a hill that must be assaulted. The victory conditions are very tough for the SS, as they must take a very large number of buildings from the Polish in a rather short amount of time. The Polish may be relatively weak, but they have a good amount of numbers and the SS has to move quickly.

Steve took the Polish, so I wandered off to return after he finished establishing his defense. The Poles get a few bunkers, some mortars, a few machine guns and plenty of warm bodies. Plus everyone starts the game concealed from me.

The SS have a large number of squads, quite a few leaders, a few demolition charges, two flamethrowers, a ridiculous number of machine guns, and two modules of Off Board Artillery (100 MM with no smoke and one pre-registered hex and an 80 MM with a radio on board). I liked the SS position. Instead of assaulting the fort directly, I chose to enter on the far flank and sweep up the board ninety degrees from the fort. I sent a smaller force toward the fort, but moving at an angle to meet up with my flanking force. I wanted to try to fix some of the defenders in front of the fort and limit his movement. I also pre-sighted the 100 MM OBA to pound a location in between the two offensive lines, hoping to later catch him moving as he tried to shift to his flank. The 80 MM radio was on the far flank and would be used to lay smoke to cover the advance over a small bridge later. The bridge had me worried, because I HAD to cross it by turn 6 to grab the building hexes on the far side, and the choke point would spell trouble. I wanted to cover it in smoke and march across under cover, at least that was the plan.

The game opened with me moving what seemed to be a ridiculous number of SS troops on the map. On the flank, I was probably excessively cautious as I took a path that kept me out of sight in the rear, but cost me a little time in the heavily wooded terrain. Eventually, I had to crest a small hill that slowed me down a little more. As the game progressed, I realized that Steve hadn't really defended the flank in a forward deployment, letting me get fairly far before I met resistance. Had I pushed harder, I would have been fine, so that was a mistake.

My radio operator was wounded on turn one by a pretty long shot, leaving him somewhat hobbled and slow. Unfortunately, I kept meaning to transfer the radio to an unwounded leader, but kept forgetting to do it. Turn after turn, he hobbled on, falling behind. I really can't explain why I didn't get him relief, but it never seemed to work out. Later this would cost me.
On the frontal assault, I managed to make pretty good time passing through a valley befire coming up on the Polish position. I had a few squads break under fire, but in typical SS fashion, they rallied and rejoined the fight. SS don't run, they just relocate to a better firing position. I began to bring down the 100 MM OBA, and this was another mistake. I was itching to begin pounding the area, and as a result I didn't wait for him to drop concealment. Because of this, I had to draw extra access cards (“Jah!! They ARE there, just fire the damn guns! No I can't see them, but I know they are there!”). This depleted my access deck unnecessarily, and sure enough, after a few missions, I drew the two red cards and the artillery command revoked my access and moved on to a different engagement. I manged to break some squads and strip some concealment, but the mission was largely wasted. Stupid mistake, and again I have no explanation.

The SS continued to grind forward, sweeping the Poles off the hills and taking a squad prisoner. Another squad was killed in Close Combat while my mortars got set up in a pretty decent position. I began to come up to the bridge, while he pulled some men out of his defensive position around the Fort and redeployed on the flank. He also managed to get quite a few squads to fall back over the bridge, evading the SS net and living to fight again. This would cost me.

It came time to cross the bridge, but my lagging radioman couldn't see the bridge enough to bring down the smoke. He did manage to bring it down on the fort, taking a few machine gun positions out of play behind the screen. I was left to run across the bridge taking brutal firepower from several positions, but we're SS...this is what we get paid to do, right?

As a result of an earlier Heat of Battle result, I had a fanatic SS squad. Their job was to go first and draw as much fire as possible. Off they went, marching down the road singing Deutschland Über Alles while the Poles unloaded with all they had. They took twelve down two shots, they took eight down two shots, they took four down three shots, and they loved it. They marched and sang, dreaming of the Iron Cross they would proudly show their village after expanding the frontiers of the Reich. They took Subsequent shots of four down two, leader directed machine guns with rate of fire. They took it all, and they carried on with their duty. In the end, they ended their movement safely across the bridge, right in the heart of the Polish defense, leaving a trail of residual fire in their wake. It was a proud moment for Das Reich.

After they made their historic march, I sprinted a large chunk of my forces up the road in a desperate attempt to make the crossing. I shouldn't have to do this, but I dawdled too long and also never brought the radio up properly. My guys were going to pay the cost of my foolishness. They ran in the wake of the Fanatics, and mostly survived. Some broke, some pinned, but most survived to get that foothold across the bridge. But the pin results left me short of my goals, and it was going to be very difficult to grab enough buildings to win the game. In the carnage of the road crossing, two heat of battle results spawned two SS Heroes. (The Bridge of heroes will be the subtitle of this scenario for now on.) One of those heroes would almost make a dramatic difference.

On the final German turn after the crossing, I managed to grab all but one of the required hexes to secure victory. No one else could reach the last hex with the available movement, but one squad and one hero could advance in during the final advance phase and battle in out in close combat with a Polish squad for victory. Unfortunately, the building was uphill, so the squad had to go CX (Counter Exhausted) to make the climb along with the Hero. The Heroic modifier canceled the CX result, leaving me at 3-2 odds, while the Poles hit back at 1-2. I need to win the combat to win the scenario.

He rolled a 3, resulting in the death of the squad and hero. I failed to kill him, leaving me one building short in another bitter defeat. It was a great scenario with a lot of replay value, and I liked it so much, I went up to the Heat of Battle people and bought the module pack.

I ended ASLOK 2-8 for the week, far from my too ambitious desire to win once a day. I'll talk more about that as well as a general wrap up a little later.

Kettlehut to the Rescue, sort of....

2004-10-11T20:20:00.000-05:00

I apologize for my late updates on my final few games. I didn't have the time while wrapping up ASLOK, and since then I've been busy getting back to my normal life.

When last I posted, I provided a grim update on Bloody Red Beach. That was from Wednesday. Thursday, I returned to the venue full of a determination to redeem myself. As soon as I arrived, I managed to get a game with a gentleman from Colorado named Tom (Jazz). He wanted to play something from the new Schwerpunkt pack just released at ASLOK, and I was happy to comply. I chose "Kettlehut to the Rescue" since it looked interesting.

Kettlehut has a small force of Americans defending a Chateau on a high mountain from an advancing force of Germans, armed with offboard artillery and a few tanks. The Americans are dug in on the hill and are reinforced with a platoon and two tank destroyers later in the game, along with an Artillery Field Observer (Lt. Kettlehut). Historically, the presence of the Field Observer directed counter-battery fire to silence the German guns. As a special rule to this scenario, the counter representing Kettlhut has to get line of sight to the far end of the board. When he does, the German player losses artillery support.

To simulate the preparation bombardment, the Americans must start the game by taking a task check for each American squad. Every other squad that fails starts teh game broken, while the others are pinned to start. I deployed on the hill with foxholes and three machine guns creating a nice killing field in front of the chateau. I placed a bazooka in a hole within range of a small wooden building in the path of the German advance, ready to smite any squads that took cover there. I placed the small mortar in a foxhole behind the chateau with a spotter in the building to call the shots, keeping the mortar both out of the line of fire and a hex further back to prevent the Germans from getting within the minimum range of the mortar (2 hexes). Overall I was pleased, but worried about the pre-start task checks.

I guess I should have expected what happened. Of the nine squads to start the game, two broke and two were pinned before the game started. THe left flank collapsed completely. The Germans opened up with a cluster of two machine guns on the opposite hill, directed by a 9-2 leader. The guns went on a rate of fire tear, spraying the Americans with fire and breaking just about everyone before it even got started. By the end of German turn one, I had two good order squads in play. The Germans swarmed up the hill and started taking broken Americans prisoner. By the end of turn two I was down to one good order squad with most of the rest hopelessly surrounded. It was bad...demoralizing even.

The Germans swept me off the hill in no time, securing the building when my reinforcements finnaly arrived. I was left with three American 6-6-6 squads, two Priest Tank Destroyers, and Kettlehut. With that, I had to take the Chateau back from about a dozen German squads and two tanks of his, plus the artillery that kept pounding my positions. Utterly hopeless.

We played it out, but it just didn't seem right. It was quite a bitter loss for me, since I so wanted to redeem myself from Bloody Red Beach. A few hours later, I received some consolation. It turns out that the scenario was printed incorrectly. The Germans set up on hexes number less than five on thier board, putting them right in the face of the Americans. Turns out it is supposed to be hex numbers greater than five! That would back the Germans up and force them over open ground, as well as letting any broken Americans to rout back to some cover to rally. It might have really changed things. I can't say I would have won, but I wouldn't have been crushed in one game turn. I'd really like to play it again the right way.

So I sucked up another loss and ran to 2-7. Still seeking redemption.

The end of ASLOK

2004-10-10T20:39:00.000-05:00

I'm back home now and looking at returning to work tomorrow. It has been quite a whirlwind since Friday, which was my last day at ASLOK. I plan on finishing up some reports and give a closing post about my experience, as well as the future of the ASLOK blog. Stay tuned until tomorrow evening sometime for the last few posts.

Coming up for air...

2004-10-08T14:35:00.000-05:00

I am at a Panera's just down the street from the hotel, taking advantage of the free wireless net connection and some pretty fine eating. I thought I should post a small update, since I've been out for so long. Since my last post, I have played two games, one of which went until 1:30 AM only to be resumed at 9:00 for another three hoursor so. I'm about to head back in to get in my final ASLOK game of 2004, and then back to Toledo for the rest of the weekend before returning to work, exhausted, shell shock and jittery.

Later I'll update the two games played, plus the one about to happen. I'm honestly hard-pressed to recall a more entertaining week than what has happened here. If you haven't done ASLOK, you really haven't done ASL correctly.

Later...

Bloody Red Beach

2004-10-06T22:25:00.000-05:00

Today was the big day. Jeff DeYoung and I were going to engage in Bloody Red Beach from the Gung Ho! Expansion set. We’ve been talking about this now for several months, and I’ve been drooling over conducting an amphibious landing into the teeth of a prepared Japanese defense on Saipan in 1943.

Jeff has a spectacular 3D map for this, and you’ll see some pictures shortly. It really is something. He had a prepared defense and set up the night before in the interest of time, so when I arrived, I simply had to jam Marines into landing vehicles and start motoring into the shore. The night before, I found myself staring at the ceiling while laying in bed, stomach churning like I was actually going to climb into the boat in the morning. My hands were shaking a bit when we started the scenario.

The Marines are massed with 26 full squads, almost a full squad worth of leaders, including a 10-2 and a 9-2, and enough support weapons to make the most liberal of quartermasters blush at the excess. Five flamethrowers, five demolition charges, and something like 10 machine guns (Heavy and mediums). The Marines also get 9 Fighter Bombers with 150 MM Equivalent bombs and Napalm spread over the first three turns. Toward the end of the scenario an Naval Battery (120 MM) is available to pound the island. The Marines also get 4 Shermans, one of which is a Flamethrower tank! Glorious.

I don’t know the exact makeup of the Japanese forces, since I don’t have the scenario in front of me, but I know they get two 90 MM Mortars, two 70 MM Guns, some knee mortars, quite a few machine guns and a 20 MM Anti-Tank Rifle (of which I will rue). They are holed up in caves and pillboxes all along the beach, ready to whack Americans as they come ashore.

I loaded up my boats and divided them into three tasks forces, each mentally assigned to certain parts of the map. I wanted to try to keep my boats together in groups, but shift in various directions to offer some minor feints in case Jeff needed to move to react to the threats. He was free to inspect boat contents, so I thought it might be useful. It wasn’t, but hey…I’m trying to be S-M-R-T smart….

The boats started moving, as you can see here. I know it’s small, but there it is. The boats come in slow, taking about three turns to cross the reef and move on in. I should mention that they aren’t really boats literally. They are thinned skinned tracked amphibs. Once they cross the reef, they are actually on treads in about waist deep water while motoring in. The four tanks are dropped off at the reef by actual boats, and then they have to motor through the water to the shore (per special rule they have been waterproofed.).

Jeff held his fire for the first two turns, remaining hidden and concealed. I got three bombers per turn, but since they couldn’t easily see anyone, they really didn’t accomplish much. We talked about this, and I think this is the correct move. It’s tempting to try to rake the Marines from far off shore, but with so many bombing opportunities coming along, revealing your position pretty much assures the guns will be knocked out. Better to hammer the marines up close on Turn Three when the bombers are about to leave, which is exactly what he did.

When he opened up, he gave me everything he had. Before I knew it, a couple of Landing Vehicles – Tracked (LVTs) were knocked out with Marines spilling into the surf to wade their way ashore. Another went up in flames, taking the passengers with it into oblivion. The mortars began pounding the water while the bunkered machine guns raked the waves. My marines were holding tough though as I kept pushing to shore.

My last flight of bombers roared into action, dropping a load of Napalm on the top of one hill, cooking the crew of a 90 MM Mortar (you can see that here. The other bombers knocked out a 70 MM Gun, and the third didn’t accomplish much. His next fire phase saw another two LVTs knocked out, but no one made it out of the wreck alive. The carnage continued, with vehicles taking heavy fire as the Japanese came boiling out of the caves to saturate the water with fire. I cant’ recall details, only that the whole thing was a swirl of death.

Finally some of my Marines hit the beach. Once there, they are Fanatic on beach hexes, so they were accepting murderous fire while coolly collecting themselves for action. I had toeholds all over the beach, but I had taken murderous losses so far (34 CVP for those that know).

Then things started to get bad…

My Marines were angry and motivated by now. They have superior firepower, and in general the Japanese can’t stand toe to toe with them. Unfortunately, I decided to do something incredibly stupid, and if you’ve read any of these other posts, you would think I had this figured out….I went into Close Combat with the Japanese all over the map. Let me explain my lame thinking. Marines are fanatic on the beach, but I wanted to get up on the regular terrain to begin to assemble support weapons and lay down some fire bases. Terrain was choked, so in each case, the Japanese occupied the ground I had to have, and I didn’t want to hang out on that beach longer than I had to. The odds in CC were heavily stacked in my favor, so I decided the best way to get a firm footing was to whack his guys and occupy their ground.

Really, the numbers weren’t that bad…

You can see the pre-CC action here.

In one case, I advanced three full squads onto a depleted crew manning a 12.7 MM AA gun. I’m looking at greater than 12-1 odds, and it isn’t hand to hand, so the Japanese won’t get the -1 modifier. BUT, he won the Ambush roll, allowing HIM to declare Hand to Hand, getting a -1 for HTH and a -1 for Ambush. Next thing I know, he is at 1-8 odds needing a 3 or less to kill the whole stack.

He rolled a 3. BLAM, an entire platoon of Marines wiped out by a depleted Crew, who calmly reoccupied their gun and continued to pour fire on the advancing LVTs. I failed my personal morale check at that moment. But it wasn’t over.

We moved to the next CC action, where I needed a 9 or less to win. I rolled 11, leaving me locked in melee, open to the Japanese boiling out of the foliage to join the combat on his turn, and in short order, another collection of Marines were whacked. Suddenly my foot hold was essentially gone.

In the meanwhile, on the right flank, his little ATR (Anti-Tank Rifle) started to go to work on my landing craft. Before I knew it, another two LVTs were knocked out, leaving only a single leader alive and wading ashore with not a support squad in sight. The ATR ended up knocking out four crafts and immobilizing an amphib tank. Who fears an ATR??? Jeff just kept crushing me with it.

My moral continued to sag as the CVP total ran to the 70s. Per scenario victory conditions, the Japanese auto-win at 100 CVP of casualties. I pressed on and got my 10-2 on the beach with some men behind him. I took a flamethrower shot, only to boxcar the roll. I began to assemble machine guns and mortars, but in my confused state, I didn’t think about the fact that I couldn’t SEE anyone to shoot, so I was left lugging around the heavy support weapons when I really needed to be fleet of foot.

I took a moment to admire Jeff’s collection of maps, here. It was a moment of solace for me…

It just kept getting worse as my vehicles continued to wallow. He began to meet them at the beach, creating tank hunter heroes who ran out with Anti-Tank Mines, blowing themselves up and taking out my landing craft. Before long, we were at 100 CVP and the entire mess was over.

I was demoralized, exhausted, irritated at myself and ashamed of a pathetic performance. I tend to do this with big scenarios and I don’t like myself for it. I get so ashamed at my own stupidity in the game, I tend to become withdrawn. I HATE not giving my opponent a good game, especially when that person is a good player and I want to learn from them. I feel like I’m wasting their time when I do such completely stupid things, and then take it out on myself through irritation. I need to work on that…

The post-mortem revealed some major mistakes that I hadn’t caught on my own. All the while, my Shermans were wading ashore when I could have parked them out on the reef and used them to start blasting smoke on the guns and ATR. I could have even fired White Phosphorous and began to burn the Japanese. For some reason, I didn’t think the tanks could be used until they hit the beach. I could have even parked a few LVTs out there and started to use the large machine guns to spray the Japanese, maybe chewing them up a little to cover the others as they advance. It literally didn’t occur to me. I was so focused on reaching the beach, I didn’t think I could stop and engage. Missed chances.

Later, I realized I had a few chances to lay smoke grenades to cover my infantry as they moved, but I forgot to try. Of course, the CC lesson has finally been learned. Essentially – no matter what the odds, if it is numerically possible, count on the Japanese getting it done and adjust your move accordingly.

I feel bad about this thing. I’ve been so excited to play it, and seeing it decay into a nightmare was a big disappointment. I couldn’t muster the energy to get a second game today, and after hanging around a little, I came on home to Mark’s to get some rest.

As always, Jeff is a gracious and terrific opponent, and I only wish I could give you a worthy game someday. As it stands, I imagine it is a bit like beating a dead horse – momentarily satisfying, but essentially without any real value.

Back fresh tomorrow for some redemption…I hope…

Panzer Graveyard and To the Matter Born

2004-10-05T23:41:00.000-05:00

This is going to be a dual update because I'm exhausted. Today was a 15 hour day, resulting in three games, and I have to be back in eight hours to start Bloody Red Beach, which will probably be an eight hour game.

I got a game with Bill Hayward, playing The Panzer Graveyard. A German assault with poor quality infantry and six PanzerKampfWagon Mark III tanks against a collection of British armed with PIATS and a couple of odd tanks. I really can't say much about this one, because it was a complete, utter, devestating annihilation of my forces. Bill is a long time player, and he conducts Maneuvers: a training session of newbies here at ASLOK. Today was my training, as he showed me how to dance tanks like it was a ballet. I can't even describe what happened, other than an utter rout like I've never experienced. I can't even isolate an amusing moment, because it is all a blur. I felt like selling my set and never coming back.

Bill was terrific in the post-mortem, giving me some key advice on tank handling. While demoralized, I did learn a lot and feel a little better now that time has passed.

After I was trying to recover from the thumping, Jeff DeYoung and the rest of his group showed up with about a billion 3D foam maps and a few tons of ASL gear. I helped unload the truck and stack everything in the main room while trying not to drool over the maps and avoid the stampede of people coming over to admire them. I met one of Jeff's friends, Steve Garvey. I wanted to get in a short game, so Steve and I played one of the 3D board - To the Matter Born.

Because Jeff is a historically ignorant snob, he failed to include the historical segment of the module, so I'm not sure what is going on. I have some Germans trying to defend a hill from some British soldiers entering in troop carries. The have to run through a screening force of Germans with PanzerFaust capability while driving toward the hill. Unfortunately for Steve, I managed to take out two carriers with 'Faust shots, and those carriers happened to be manned by two of his three leaders. I also shot up a bunch of guys who dismounted nearby. Really, by the end of turn two, he had suffered critical losses by he pressed on until the end, which left me as the winner.

Best sequence - a second line German squad killed a British squad exiting a vehicle, reduced another squad that jumped out adjacent to him, passing a Final Protective Fire morale check in the process, 'Fausted a carrier in the next fire phase, then jumped on a British squad with a PIAT and killed him in Close Combat. I think he might be ready to apply to the Waffen SS after that performance....unfortunately, he later ELR'ed down to a Conscript status. The dream was over....

I'm adding a picture here of my 'Hawk' setup shortly after the game started, since I forgot I had a picture. I'm also including a picture of Jeff looking desperate in the middle of a game of "The Rock" with Larry. Fine eating indeed....

Bloody Red Beach tomorrow, with a monster report to follow!

The Hawk

2004-10-05T13:42:00.000-05:00

The Hawk

Tuesday saw a few more faces showing up here. I don’t know them, but I know I haven’t seen them yet. After hovering around a bit I found a guy waiting on a game and introduced myself. Mike Faulkner is a fellow from Florida who now lives in Cleveland. I’ve seen him here for the past few days, and he seemed to be a pleasant guy. Turns out I was right.

He had a list of scenarios he wanted to play, and one jumped out at me. HS-BRT1 The Hawk, from Blood Reef Tarawa. Tarawa is a small atoll in the Pacific, scene of a violent confrontation between the US Marines and the Japanese in 1943. A lot of medals were handed out at Tarawa, many of them posthumously. I asked if he was interested and he readily agreed, allowing me to take the Marines.

The Marines are assaulting a collection of four pillboxes, attacking with 6.5 squads, 4 demolition charges, a flame thrower and a 10-3 heroic leader. The leader represent a real life Lieutenant Hawkins. I don’t have the historical in front of me, but it roughly goes as follows:

Hawkins directed the assault against the Japanese. Wounded several times, he refused medical treatment and appropriated more demolition charges. When asked, he said he was going off to kill more Japanese. He led the assault effectively until being cut down by a machine gun. Despite his wounds, he lived another four hours and continued to direct the battle until the pillboxes were destroyed. He died on the island that night.

The Japanese are defending with seven squads, a Heavy Machine Gun, two Medium Machine Guns, and a 70 MM Gun, along with the four pillboxes and two fortified locations.

The scenario opened with me dividing my forces to advance from both sides on a ring of mutually supporting pillboxes. I had two decent avenues of approach into the fortified locations, and out of the covered arcs of the pillboxes. I worried about splitting my troops, but the terrain is so tight, they couldn’t have effectively fought without being too crowded. It turned out not to really hurt me, but it was a worry.

I managed to scoot up close to the Japanese early, and the threat of my large firepower kept him hiding in concealment. I gave the heroic leader a demolition charge (DC) and got ready to try to place it on a large collection of Japanese in a fortified building adjacent to me. First, I managed to place a White Phosporous grenade on that stack, but it proved to be ineffective (I forgot they get the protection of the building on the morale check). Then to draw some fire, I sent a squad with a DC to try to take out a bunker from outside the covered arc. The Japanese in the fortified building tried to protect them, and managed to pin the squad, preventing them from placing the DC. The heroic leader then jumped out and placed the DC on the stack, sucking up some big shots, but he’s a hero. The DC was placed.

On the other side, using more smoke as cover, I placed a DC on the other fortified building using a 9-1 leader. He dodged some fire and got the job done. When it came time for the DCs to explode, the one placed by the 9-1 went off with snake eyes, resulting in two reduced squads and a wounded leader, along with a dead crew. We even had to check to see if the building caught on fire. Excellent.

The DC placed by the 10-3 then went off, and I rolled boxcars, resulting in a dud. The Bell Curve re-established itself to my sorrow.

The next turn saw the Japanese trying to avoid being shot by the superior American firepower. I fired the flame thrower into one of the bunkers, but a 10 roll resulted in that being the last shot - someone forgot to fuel the tanks. That would hurt me.

I kept my 2.5 squad stack with the 10-3 adjacent to the Japanese, hoping to hit him with a massive volley of fire. As soon as I decided to do that, I began to worry about close combat with the Japanese. I started checking odds and began to sweat. The Japanese are so good at hand to hand combat, it is possible for a single squad to kill everything I had there, and sure enough, Mike knew what to do.

A single squad advanced in, attacking at 1-4 odds, but with one of my squads exhausted and pinned, he only needed a 6 or less on two dice to kill everyone. I need about any roll to kill him, but mutual death would be VERY bad for me. Stupid Todd…stupid. He rolled a 9, which got my heart beating again. I snuffed his guy and thanked the ASL gods for sparing me from my error.

Turns out they were just being cruel. The next turn saw repeat of the DC placement by the 10-3, but this time Mike rolled snakes and inflicted a wound on the heroic leader. He retained rate of fire on the machine gun and hit him again, this time wounding him a second time and killing him outright when I failed a severity check. He followed up by hosing the rest of my troops, which promptly began to fail and die. On the other side, my DC placement went poorly with some terrific dice rolls on his part, resulting in the loss of half my guys in a short time. We did the math and I realized I couldn’t possibly win.

I would have done only a few things differently. Mike agrees that I did little WRONG, if just went poorly on the dice. Not to take anything away from Mike, as he did exactly what he had to do, but luck helps and hurts on both sides.

It’s a great scenario, and I would like to try it again and see how it comes out. Lieutenant Hawkins still died, but this time the job didn’t get done.

Lunch is now over and after posting this, I’m back to the grind. Stay tuned…

To No Avail

2004-10-04T22:37:00.000-05:00

I’m standing around in the Ballroom checking out some of the other games going on, when a guy I haven’t seen yet steps up and says “You want a game?”

I shrug and say “Sure” and stick my hand out to introduce myself.

He shakes and says, “I’m Pete Schilling.”

Uh…Pete Schilling. Standing here shaking my hand. The guy who makes some of the best scenarios I’ve played. He asks, “You wanna playtest something?”

I follow him out to help him cart in some stuff and he hands me a couple of scenarios. I went with the shorter one only because my brother had to take me to the venue today because of his work, so I had to be ready to leave by a certain time. We dice for sides and he gets the SS, I take the Russians.

The scenario is called To No Avail, and has been through a few iterations according to Pete. It takes place in Stepankova, Russia on July 30th, 1943. After the Kursk action, a tired collection of SS, supported by some halftracks and 75 MM Guns on halftracks, roll into town defended by a small collection of Russian Guard units supported by a T34, a T70 Tankette and a 45 LL AT Gun. The Russians also get 3 foxholes, 2 fortified locations, 24 factors of AP mines, 8 dummy counters, 4 Wire counters, and one squad hidden in place. The goal is to defend a specific building on the map from the German advance, taking place across two map sections, mostly city fighting.

I begin my setup. A large gully runs across the entry map for the Germans, so I place the T34 and a squad with a light machine gun to screen the bridge over the gully. There is a one hex window on the side where he might pile through and miss the gully, but it seemed awfully crowded to me. I placed another squad on the far right with my only Anti-Tank Rifle, hoping to take a pop at a halftrack if I get the chance.

Falling back, I deployed a second line of squads in the city, making sure I had a clear path to fall back to the defense building. Wire counters cluttered the street in front of the victory building, leaving two paths through for my men, and bolstering those building hexes with fortifications. To cover a flanking assault, I mined the ground near the building, and placed the AT gun in a copse of trees to cover a long street that pretty much HAD to be crossed to get to the building. I wasn’t sure what to do with the foxholes, since they seemed out of place here. I considered putting the foxholes in a position that might help him, but then mine the hexes as a trap. In the end, it didn’t really look right, so I placed the holes out of play and ignored them. The hidden squad went with a 9-1 leader and the Medium Machine Gun in an upstairs location in the victory building, covering the approaches. I was fairly comfortable with the setup.

He deployed his tired SS on the one hex choke point that I didn’t think would work out all that well. The mob of troops advanced in a tight cluster, but I really couldn’t do much about it. The halftracks entered on the second turn, so I was forced to wait it out with my guys. My first turn resulted in one assault move with one squad, nothing else.

The Second German turn went well for me. I had one squad forward deployed with a Light Machine Gun, and he pushed hard with the SS. A fire lane went down, cutting off his advance, and the lane ended up causing some trouble. I broke a squad, continued to fire with the squad and left enough residual to clog up his advance. He ended up with a half squad in a position to jump into close combat (hand to hand is allowed in the scenario). He advanced in to CC, but then rolled boxcars, allowing me to withdraw and live to fight another day.

Meanwhile, the ATR wasn’t going to get a shot, so he bugged out and began making his way back to the main building. The T34 moved slightly to cover the road where the halftracks would have to pass. The T70 moved up to provide some support.

The Germans continued to advance, and the escaped Russian squad from earlier continued to harass them from good positions inside of buildings. The T34 had acquired a stopped halftrack, and I would have laced it on the first movement point if it tried to go anywhere. Instead, he stripped the armament and abandoned the vehicle, taking a crew and Heavy Machine Gun out with him. Fortunately, the T34 broke him with machine guns of his own.

Meanwhile, the Germans began to swarm towards the T34 to take it out in close combat. The SS had Anti-Tank Mine ability, so it was a threat. I caught an 8-0 leader and a full squad from across the map with the hidden Machine Gun, wounding the leader and reducing the squad to a half squad. He got to attempt the attack on the T34, but fortunately for me, the Mine Check revealed that the pockets were empty. The tank lived to fight on.

Moving ahead a bit, the Germans continued to grind forward, but I was extracting lives for the ground. The Russians faded back and stepped up to resist at the right moments, and I seemed to be doing the right things. As you can imagine in a city scenario, my tanks were constantly being engaged in Close Combat no matter where I went. Eventually, a squad managed to blow the tracks with a mine, leaving the tank stranded. Later, one of the halftracks with the 75 MM gun got the T34 with a High Explosive Anti-Tank round, but the tank had done it’s job, so it didn’t bother me much (I’m sure the crew felt differently).

The noose was tightening around the victory building, as you can see here. I managed to get most of my troops back into the building and settled in for the final assault. This is where it got funny.

I had two squads and an 8-0 leader in a fortified location, dug in and ready to suck up the firepower with a lot of protection from the stone building and the fortification. Sounds good? Then he took a shot that resulted in a Heat of Battle roll on my 8-0 leader. He went berserk, and the two squads obediently went berserk with him. Before I could yell “Hey!” the berserk guys charged out of the fortification, out into the road, making a beeline for the nearest SS troop. They wanted blood, and they found it. Pete rolled a 5 on a 36 -3 shot, leaving nothing but dead Russians in the street. Just like that, I’m short a bunch of guys. You know, we take the time to fortify these buildings so you can stay in where it is safe….not run out into the teeth of it. Sigh…

But on the positive side, the Germans just ran out of time in the end. The final turn required a mass push by Pete, and some good rolling left broken and dying SS all around the building. It was touch and go, but I managed to lay enough residual fire to keep everyone off of me.

My very first win at ASLOK comes against Pete Schilling! Even if it was a playtest, I am proud of the effort. Pete was a blast, and I had a great time with him. Great sense of humor.

That was the only game of the day, as I’ve been a bit worn out by four games in a little over two days. After resting up, I plan on trying to get three in on Tuesday.

Not a good idea...

2004-10-04T15:58:00.000-05:00

They take the parking pretty seriously here...

The Last Gasp of the SS

2004-10-04T15:37:00.000-05:00

After my morning of American-Japanese carnage in Hill 27, I returned to the hotel looking for more. I met Ken Mioduski, and we agreed to a game. Ken is the first American I’ve played here, hailing from somewhere in Maryland. He had a stack of scenarios he was interested in playing, and after a brief examination, one just leapt out at me.

The Awakening of Spring (G33) is a late war Eastern Front scenario, set in Hungary. The 6th SS Panzer Army, still largely untouched, was committed against the advancing Russian in a futile attempt by Hitler to counterattack around the oil fields in eastern Europe. Essentially, this is the final offensive of the German Army in the east.

The scenario occurs during falling snow, providing some cover beyond six hexes of range. The SS have to predetermine one of two victory conditions: either accumulates more than 20 Casualty Victory Points than the Russians (kill them) or exit more than 36 points on the far side of the board (break through the line). After looking at the very large open mapbaord (4 map sections), I decided that the lack of cover and distance were too great of an issue to exit, so I went for the kill condition as a judge of victory.

The Order of Battle for both sides is impressive. I’m going to detail the tank collection because I just love tanks, and these are the cream of the crop. Pay attention Mike, this scenario was made for you.

For the non-ASL reader (those that I am trying to recruit), I want to explain some of the numbers below. When a tank shoots another tank, you subtract the armor factor from the To Kill of the gun, leaving a number. You then must roll less than that number with 2 dice to affect a kill. There are lots of little details, but that should give you an idea.

The Germans get 10 armored vehicles, consisting of the following:

Two JagdPanzer V Tank Destroyer: JagdPanzer literally translates as Hunter of Tanks, and this one has the tools to get it done. It is armed with the 88 MM LL Main Gun (27 To Kill Number), capable of putting holes in almost anything (except for the Russian monsters we are about to see). While it doesn’t have much in the way of machine guns (3 factors) it does have Nahverteidigungswaffe capability. This is a 92 MM High Explosive projector used to protect the tank from close assault by infantry. The Jagd has a thick front plate at 18 AF, offering protection against normal tanks.

Four PanzerKampfWagon VG (The Panther). According to the rule book – “The US Army judged that it generally took five Shermans to destroy a Panther.” It is armed with the 75 MM LL Main Gun (23 To Kill). The Panther carries 18 Armor on the front, and bristles with three different machine guns at 10 factors. It also has Nahverteidigungswaffe, so any infantry would have to be either insane or desperate to try to take this thing out in close combat. You’ll need a big wrench to open the hatch and get the grenade inside. On the downside, the Panther has to take a stall check every time it begins to move, owing to the mechanical problems experienced by the Germans in the late war.

Two PanzerKampfWagon VIB (The King Tiger or Koenigstiger). Armed with an 88 MM LL Main Gun (To Kill of 27) and a ridiculous frontal armor of 26, the King Tiger is a beast. It carries the standard machine gun assortment as the Panther and Tiger, as well as (altogether now) the Nahverteidigungswaffe. On the down side, the mechanical reliability of the tank means that each time it starts to move, a 12 on two dice results in the track falling off, leaving it immobilized for the duration of the scenario.

There’s the German side. Let’s take a moment to let Mike clean the drool from his chin.

The Russian starts the game with two Guns that will give me some trouble.

First is the 100 MM LL PTP obr 44, with a Kill Number of 27. Second is the 85 MM L obr 44 Artillery Piece, with a To Kill of 17. The artillery isn’t a strong anti-tank gun in this scenario, but against the flanks or rear, it can be quite effective. Both guns are deployed hidden, only revealing on the map when they fire.

On turn three, the Russians get reinforced with some elite infantry and 6 tanks of their own.

Three IS-2m tanks, armed with a massive 122 MM L Main Gun (To Kill of 25) and a front plate of 26 armor. It has an interesting collection of machine guns, including a rear facing gun for protection against infantry armed with bolt cutters. It also suffers from ammunition shortage, carrying 28 rounds according to the book, so it breakdown on an 11 or higher whenever it shoots. The To Kill number makes it a great match for just about every tank out there on my side.

Three SU-100 Tank Destroyers. This thing is armed with a 100 MM L main gun that is actually an adapted Naval Gun fixed to a tank body (To Kill of 27). It carried 11 armor on the front, meaning it dies if hit, and has no protective machine guns, requiring an infantry screen to keep it safe.

The six Russian tanks are going to be a problem as we shall see later.

The scenario starts with my SS running across open ground as fast as they can, trying to close with the Russians in the tree line. My tanks set up an overwatch position and begin to lay down some covering fire, trying to push the Russians back into the trees. The falling snow gives me enough cover that my first turn passes without any casualties. Almost immediately, the Anti Tank gun reveals itself and takes a solid front shot on one of my Tigers. He hits, but then rolls boxcars on the kill roll, indicating a dud round. His quality control must be lax.

The first Russian turn results in a few mortar shots and some machine guns raking my soldiers, but to no great effect. The Anti Tank gun sends another round into the Tiger, and this time the tank is knocked out and the Crew killed. Fortunately, I now know where it is and start laying in fire. A Panther scores a critical hit (snake eyes) on the gun, resulting in a dead crew. In my next turn I swarm the area with tanks and infantry, indicating that no Russians will be permitted to approach the unmanned gun. I’m fortunate to loose only one tank to it.

On the left flank, the artillery piece reveals itself in a little copse of trees on my flank, in a position I overlooked as suicidally forward deployed. I bypassed this location, only to see the gun pop up with some great flank shots on a couple of Panthers and a King Tiger. Unfortunately for him, he scores a hit but doesn’t penetrate the armor. I wheel the tanks to present the front plate and move in to try to take the gun down. He manages to retain concealment, making it hard to hit (“Where’s the gun Otto?”).

In the next turn, my infantry gains the first tree line and the Russians begin falling back to a second line. I haven’t killed many yet, but I certainly have more firepower than the Russians. The Artillery piece continues to annoy, taking a long shot across the map to puncture the turret of a Tiger and killing the crew. I manage to score a hit with my Panther, but I roll a dud round! A second shot flies down range, and again it ends up being a dud.

My Slave Labor needs a bit of motivation in the ammo factory.

Since my tanks aren’t getting the job done, I detach two squads to sprint back toward that damn gun. Someone has to take it out. Another fire phase passes and the gun manages to deliberately immobilize a Panther, knocking the track off. That ends up being the last shot as the crew finally looses their nerve under fire and break. My two squads trot up and send them on their way to the graveyard.

Both guns down, but now the Russian tanks arrive on the far side of the map.

To this point, the infantry advance is going quite well. SS tend to do that. The Russians are falling back to a small collection of buildings for the third line of defense, and now I think I made my largest mistake.

The ability of my tanks to take care of themselves against infantry led me to run them up a little ahead of the main body, trying to establish positions against the Russian tanks about to arrive. It worked out fine, as he really wasn’t in a position to confront the tanks with his infantry. The Russian tanks took up good firing positions and stopped, popping their hatches to get a good look around.

This is where I made my mistakes. I still had five turns of play, and if I had waited for the infantry to catch up, I could have used their Panzerfaust threat to harass the tanks. (The late German infantry seems to have a Panzerfaust in every pocket – think similar to a bazooka, but a lot better). A ‘faust can penetrate about anything if the infantry can get in close enough.

But I didn’t wait. I pushed my tanks into a duel with the Russian armor, knowing that my big guns could likely kill them if I could score a hit. Unfortunately, I didn’t. In the space of two turns, the Russians destroyed each and every tank that came into sight. I managed to get a few shots in, but I couldn’t score a hit anywhere. Nine tanks were either burning or knocked out in a nice display of shooting. If I had waited for the infantry, I could have presented enough high risk targets to overwhelm the Russian tanks, who had a higher than normal chance of breakdown with each shot.

After the German disaster, we did a count and realized I could not possible accumulate enough casualty points to win. He had 75 points, to my 16, and while his tanks were worth a lot and I still had the Panzerfaust options, he was about to drive his tanks away from my reach, meaning I lost.

It was a great 6 hour game, and I regret losing it like that. I learned once again that tanks MUST have infantry support, even if they have enough defensive weapons to take care of troops. In this case, my tanks didn’t need protection as much as they needed help against the Russian beasts. File that one away as a learned lesson.

This is a wonderful scenario, and I’d love to try it again to see how it goes. Now off for another game!

Tragedy

2004-10-04T00:37:00.000-05:00

I spent about fourty minutes and a very detailed post of my last game here when my laptop seized up, dumping the entire text. I'm still trying to get over it. Tomorrow I'll try to reconstruct it and get it posted for your entertainment. It was a scenario worthy of a few thousand words. Stay tuned...

Climbing the Hill

2004-10-03T14:42:00.000-05:00

I arrived at the venue this morning around 11 AM after a pretty good night's sleep. After snapping a picture of the ballroom for your pleasure, I moved out to find a game in the sparcely populated room. Most of ASLOK doesn't really get going until Tuesday or so, from what people are telling me, but there are plenty of people here to play.

I was directed to Darrel Lundy, from Wellington, New Zealand. Darrel was in the middle of recovering from an appalling incident where his British and Allied Minor storage box had sprung open in his luggage. If you've ever seen the British Order of Battle, you understand his pain at recovering all of the counters and restoring them to thier proper homes. He handed me his scenario books and told me to pick something that didn't require the Brits.

After a little searching, I decided I was itching for more Pacific Theater action, and settled on Hill 27, a scenario from the Operation: Watchtower historical study of Guadalcanal from MMP. The scenario pits 10 American squads with two medium machine guns and two small mortars in defense of a hill from a flush 14 Japanese squads, also with a couple of mortars and machine guns. The Americans get some foxholes, as well as four labor counters to represent entrenchment efforts already under way when the Japanese show up at the base of the hill. It looked like a lot of fun, so we diced for sides and I ended up with the Americans.

The Americans are great soldiers, but I have a history of failure with them. They pack an enormous amount of firepower, but they have very weak morale, which means they tend to break and run under fire. Fortunately, the rally to action like no one else, usually returning to the fight after a short cigarette break. The problem for me is in covering the running guys while they get theiract together.

The Japanese advantages have been covered in the Totsugeki scenario I discussed yesterday. They hardly ever break. They just get a little weaker when shot, but they keep coming. Thier skill at hand to hand combat is something to be feared, and they have the ability to form Banzai charges which we will discuss later (ominous foreshadowing).

I didn't realize what I was getting into until I saw the board. The hill in question is naked. It's like it has been napalmed down to the strata, with practically no cover anywhere at all. My foxholes were crucial to defense, because there was no where else to hide. The up side is that the Japanese have to assault up hill across open ground into two medium machine guns with -1 leader direction on both. That usually spells death, except for Banzai charges (hint).

I took a picture of my deployment for your pleasure. My mortars hawe a minimum range of 3, so I deployed them back out of site and was planning on using spotted fire from the guys on the hill top. The machine guns are up where they can rake the slopes as the Japanese advance.

After the first turn, the Japanese were at the tree line, and we began to exchange fire. I scored a critical hit with a mortar, wounding a Japanese leader and reducing a squad. My other mortar dialed in but did no damage. My machine guns stripped concealment, giving me a clear view of the Japanese horde about to storm the hill. The first Japanese fire phase was harsh on me. I ended up with three broken squads, runing back to the reverse slope to have a morale building conference with a leader standing by for just such an event. You can see the results here.

Japanese turn two opened with screams of "Banzai!!" from the jungle as half the Japanese force boiled up the hill side with a leader swinging his katana from the front. A banzai charge allows the Japanese to move as a mass, with higher morale and extra movement points. They don't pin, no matter what, which means only death will stop them. The Americans opened up with everything they had, small arms, machine guns, and prayer. My leaders stayed cool, directing fire and whittling away Japanese as they advanced up the bare hill. The Japanese leader went down early, and the squads began to melt with each step. I exhausted every shot I had, sustaining fire on the machine guns (risking breaking them), and even ended up in Final Protective Fire as the surviving Japanese jumped into my foxholes with my men. Of the 6 squads (I think) that launched the assault, only two made it to the target up on the hill.

Unfortunately, while I exhausted my fire opportunities, the other portion of Japanese triapsed up the hill unmolested, taking up positions next door to my remaining troops. It wasn't looking good. After all the shooting was over, we conducted close combat, with the Japanese getting thier customary -1 on the die roll. In most cases, we ended up with mutual annihilation, leaving nothing but bodies and weapons laying in the foxholes. The non-banzai Japanese advanced up the hill and pushed the Americans back, while the broken Americans fled down the slope into the Jungle to regroup. In two turns, the Japanese took the hill but at enormous cost. There weren't very many of them left, and if the Americans could regroup, they had a chance to storm up the slope on their own.

The next three turns were spent with Americans at the treeline applying superior firepower up on the Japanese position. I was whittling them down, but I would still have to make that mad dash up the hill by the end of the game to take enough hill hexes (four) to secure victory. After dancing around for awhile, I was on my last turn, requiring a frantic charge into Japanese machine guns, albeit manned by far fewer Japanese than started the scenario.

If you know anything about ASL, you can guess what happened. Low morale Americans can't be asked to run into fire. We're good at shooting people from a distance, and we prefer to build vehicles to go do jobs like this. Unfortunately, when none are at hand, we usually decide we'd rather hang out in the jungle until the Naval batteries cleanse the hill. Everyone who stepped through that treeline immediately reconsidered and ran away under fire, leaving me with my second loss of ASLOK.

In typical Japanese fashion, they got the job done, but they certainly aren't in any shape to do much more. The wasteful nature of the Imperial Japanese Army continues to astonish me.

Darrel was a wonderful opponent, and we were both laughing pretty extensively by the end of the scenario as my Americans tried to emulate the SS on offense. I'm heading back in to pick up another game now. Maybe some more Pacific Theater. I might take the Japanese, or maybe some Marines. Now American Marines CAN get the job done!

Later...

UPDATE: Picture links fixed. Thanks Chris!

War Driving while War Gaming

2004-10-03T10:24:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in an industrial park down the road from the venue, looking for open WiFi networks. It literally took me about five minutes to find three open networks, so here I am with free high speed internet, courtesy of some flooring company. Their network isn't secure either, since I can surf quite a few computers in there, but that isn't why I'm here.

Now that I found a node, I can start uploading pictures later. But for now I'm off for more ASL. Check back later.

Totsugeki!!

2004-10-03T00:51:00.000-05:00

After spending the night in Toledo, we got up early today and headed to Cleveland. It's been a cold day, hovering in the high 50s, low 60s, with a solid overcast that makes it feel even colder. The weather seems appropriate for ASL...

After visiting with my brother and his family, and seeing my wife and daughter off on thier return to Toledo, I headed over to the venue to see what was going on. As this was my first ever ASLOK, I wasn't quite sure what to expect.

The hotel was PACKED with a large number of people in formal dress. That was one clue that they probably weren't the type of people I was looking for. I wandered around for a time, discovering that the hotel was hosting a large wedding, explaining the type of people I was hurtling into repeatdly as they sloshed drinks around. After a time, I decided that I wasn't going to find anyone today, so I headed back to the main entrance, only to spy a guy in a t-shirt with a big tank on the front. The tank was a giveaway.

It turned out to be Scott Byrne, who's name I discovered after a quick introduction. Scott is from Caberra, Australia, here for, of course, ASLOK. He introduced me to another charming 'chap' named Steven Linton, also of Canberra. It turned out that a small contingent of four or five of us were wandering the hotel looking for a game and a room, and we shortly stumbled on a few more of 'our people', two of which were European (I'm sorry to say I didn't get names). One of the organizers did manage to secure a small banquet room and we migrated there to pick up some action.

In talking to Steven and Scott, I couldn't help but be impressed with thier devotion to the game. Obviously, they had flown here from Australia, but more impressively, they were heading to Belglium after ASLOK. They are renting a car for ten days to travel through the European battlefields, ending up in Normandy before taking on a French ASL tournament, then on to England for another ASL tournament before heading back home. Six weeks on the road, all devoted to ASL and WW II. I wish I could join them!

By now it was already near six PM, and I was interested in a short game. Steven graciously volunteered to play me, and I asked him to choose anything he'd like. He settled on Totsugeki!, a small scenario of Imperial Japanese and Chinese fighting over some 75mm Artillery pieces. It's a classic scenario, but one I have never played before. I asked for the Chinese and prepared my defense.

The Chinese forces represent a fairly low quality company holding three 75MM guns, while being hit from behind by a heavy company of Japanese troops, armed with Demolition Charges and a small mortar. The Chinese have an advantage in that two squads can set up hidden (recorded on paper to be revealed suddenly on the map) and one squad of troops designated as a Dare Death squad (these guys can automatically go berserk when in line of sight of enemy troops, charging through hails of fire to engage in hand to hand combat). Other than that, all the Chinese have to do is hold on to at least one of the 75MM guns be the end of the scenario.

The Japanese have what usually works for the Japenese - the utter refusal to stop. They just keep coming when normal soldiers would break and run. They're like hardy insects that simply ignore having limbs ripped away. The jungle terrain also makes almost all encounters point blank affairs, usually ending in some sort of close combat.

The game started with a uniform Japanese advance into a few forward deployed units. My guys were ready to fire one good volley before falling back to more defensible positions, but once again, I failed to appreciate how fast the Japanese can move. After laying down some fire that proved to be ineffective, a Demolition Charge was tossed into my location. Fortunately, with a combination of good dice rolls for me and bad dice rolls for him, the explosive had little effect. I managed to fall back, even though I had no right to survive that close up brush with the Japanese.

I continued to fall back under his advance, managing to hit him and fade away into the jungle, until I found myself on top of my own guns with no more room to retreat. I had extracted a cost from him for his advance, but the Japanese were still quite healthy. Finally, around the third turn, he slipped a half squad of Japanese in past my defense while I was holding fire, waiting on a larger target to present itself. That half squad caused trouble in my rear, entering into Close Combat with one of the 75MM gun crews. I had this half squad cold with a hidden Chinese squad armed with a Medium Machine Gun, but I wanted to remain hidden for a little longer to catch a larger target in the kill zone. In retrospect, I should have taken out the half squad when I could have.

The Close Combat tied up my gun, opening the door for some more Japanese to swarm through the jungle. I had more Chinese just inside the treeline, and managed to lay down some fire that slowed him down a little, but then the surviving Japanese hit me back and my low quality Chinese began to melt away, breaking and running deeper into the jungle. The first of the three guns went down to the advancing Japanese.

I continued to play hide and seek in the jungle, trying to slow him down as much as possible while spinning the guns around to face the coming assault. Close combat started to become the normal engagement mode, as the jungle left us adjacent to each other more often than not. This is where I got a little lucky. In three seperate engagements, Steven needed a 9 of less on two dice to kill me, and three times he rolled a 10. Quickly, my Chinese demonstrated their own proficiency with the bayonet.

But there were far too many Japanese. The second gun held on until turn 5, until he swarmed the gun with too many squads for me to shoot, resulting in yet another round of Close Combat. My Dare Death squad went berserk when he spotted a large group of Japanese. Unfortunately, accurate shooting cut them down before they could close range enough to draw steel. Two guns down, one left to defend.

I pulled the last of my forces together in the final gun hex, with Japanese closing in from all directions. Some good shooting and another good round of close combat suggested I might pull it off, and for another turn it looked grim. Finally, I could not hold against the firepower of the Japanese applied to the low quality Chinese, and the last of my forces broke and ran, to be rounded up and dispatched by the remaining Japanese. The final gun fell to the enemy on the next to last turn. In the end, the Japanese company that started the battle was reduced to three and a half squads. But they got the job done.

Overall, I felt....

Steven was exceedingly gracious in his game play, offering correction to my mistakes during play, and providing a very eye-opening post-mortem, showing me several mistakes and lost opportuities that had frankly never occured to me in the scenario. Like someone said, in ASL you either win or learn. No scenario is ever wasted.

As an aside, I met Mark Pitcavage of Desperation Morale fame. Mark is practically a legend in the game, with his name attached to a great many things. He was a warm and friendly guy, who immediately invited me to the thrice yearly OfficeFest ASL gatherings in Detroit. If you have some time, check out Mark's ASL Museum, full of some great pictures.

It's now 1:30 AM and I have to get back to the hotel early to pick up some more game play. Tomorrow I'll have some pictures of the venue, and hopefully a report of at least one win. One win per day is all I really want!

Images...

2004-10-03T00:30:00.000-05:00

Suddenly, my image host doesn't seem to be working right. I'll try to get that corrected tomorrow. For now, I apologize for the broken pictures. Try to ignore them for now.

2004-10-01T14:28:00.000-05:00

NARA | Research Room | World War II Photos

A collection of appropriately themed photos for the coming events. Nice archive...

Preparation.

2004-10-01T12:39:00.000-05:00

Today is Friday, and I'm heading out to Toledo after work. I'm travelling light for an ASL event, taking only my Rule Book, the Chapter H Vehicle Notes, and the small binder with all the charts and tables. I'm also taking my dice glass, but I hope to find a decent dice tower sometime during the week. After using Jeff's towers for awhile, I'm now in the tower camp.

I feel like I'm missing something. My duffle bag is stuffed with the aforementioned binders, my laptop, various and sundry cables, digital camera and my iPod recharging plug. I think that's all I'll need aside from the regular luggage.

I'm actually dreaming about ASL right now, which is quite sad. I have visions of my last big clash with Jeff a few weeks ago (and for the life of me I can't remember the scenario name!). I was the SS rolling up on the Brits and Americans in a Market Garden scenario, which saw three SS tanks go down to Critical Hits in the same turn. It was brutal.

More recently, Chris rolled snake-eyes in three Close Combat rounds in one scenario just this past Tuesday, putting an end to my Germanic-Polish Coup dreams in a Journal playtest.

Lately I've been feeling a lot like......

But what can you do?

Can't wait to get there and get started!

My Schedule

2004-09-30T07:43:00.000-05:00

I'm actually going to be bold (for me) and attend the first three days or so all by myself. If any of the Atlanta group is planning on being there, and you read this, look me up. I'll be sitting by myself somewhere in the ball room trying not to look too pathetic. I might be on an old cheap laptop...

Later in the week, one of my new friends up here, Jeff DeYoung - the king of the 3D map, will be arriving with a group of people from Grand Rapids. I can't recall who is coming with them, but I'll be looking forward to seeing them. Jeff and I have a scheduled battle of Bloody Red Beach, where I will be taking a large task force of US Marines in on an amphibious landing against well dug-in Japanese (who will have to be well dug-out, to use a quote from Barry Johnson from the Atlanta group). Napalm, naval artillery, and a ton of flamethrowers and demolitions charges. It promises to be nothing but carnage! Can't wait.

Later, my other local friend, Chris Garrett will be showing up. I've been doing a lot of play testing with Chris for the upcoming Journal, and I regularly absorb a thumping from him. I only hope to offer a better game after I soak up some new ideas and tactics in my ASLOK madness. We've been playing so many partisan and Minor scenarios, anything above an 8 IFT shot looks devestating.

My goal is to win one game per day over the course of the week. Based upon my level of play, that's pretty ambitious. Stay tuned.

My ASLOK experience

2004-09-30T07:26:00.000-05:00

Ever since I returned to ASL back in 2001, ASLOK was in my sights. I'm fortunate to have my brother living in Cleveland, not more than twenty miles from the ASLOK venue. Given that I have recently moved to Kalamazoo from Atlanta, my ASLOK dream is easily accomplished.

So this year I took a full week of vacation and made plans to head to Cleveland. My brother and his wife were kind enough to put me up at thier place and even loan my a vehicle. So I am now primed to have a complete, satisfying and relatively cheap ASLOK experience.

I will arrive on Saturday, Oct. 2nd and conclude gaming on Friday, Oct. 8th. Six complete days of nothing but WW II gaming, with nary a care in the world.

I have to thank my wife, Diane, for making this possible. Without her complete understanding and support, this just wouldn't happen. I'm awfully lucky.

So this short-lived Blog will be updated each and every day with pictures, reports, and lamentations regarding my ASLOK experience. If you aren't an ASL gamer, I'll still try to make it entertaining by giving a general description of Cool Events (TM) and why they are cool in layman's terms.

Let the dice fly!

ASL Oktoberfest 2003 Information

2004-09-30T06:01:00.000-05:00

ASL Oktoberfest 2003 Information