Archive for ASL

141 results.
Feb18

A84 Endless Struggle

by Rindis on February 18, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While contemplating Patch and I’s next game, I remembered a scenario back in the ASL Annuals that featured Ukranian partisans after WWII. So, I proposed that, and Patch accepted, taking the NKVD forces. Looking at the record later, it turned out to be very pro-NKVD, so we went with the Partisan balance, not that it helped.

The scenario takes place in early 1946, as the Soviet Union continues to try and regain control of western territories. The UPA had fought against the Germans after realizing they didn’t even want a puppet government for the region, and then against the USSR as it advanced back west. One sweep across the area came across a training camp in a thickly wooded area. The scenario uses board 34 (cutting off rows A and GG, per errata), with the forest (B13.7) rules, which I think I’ve run into once before. The Russians set up fourteen squads of conscripts and ten elite HS along one side, and the UPA enters, trying to get across the short side of the board (10 hexes) in very dense terrain and break out with at least 14 EVP (12 with the balance). They get twelve partisan squads, 9-2, 8-0, 4 LMGs, and a MTR to do this in six turns.

Of course, the biggest wrinkle in this scenario is both sides are using Russian brown. In FtF play, I assume you just be very rigorous in making sure your counters (and “?” especially) are facing you. On VASL, if you see a stack of “?”, then it’s not yours, and the rest you tell by the type of unit. Still, we tried switching Chinese counters partway through, as they have a good match for the 337s. Annoyingly, their LMG(r) and 50mm MTR(r) have slightly different stats than the actual Russian LMG and MTR. (I had originally thought of it with the idea that the “?” would match, forgetting that Chinese “?” are two-tone just like their units, and don’t “borrow” “?” like the Hungarians—why do this?!? Though that does make using Chinese “?” with the Partisan counters a possible good idea in FtF play.)

Patch set up along the north side of the road, with no real obvious weak points (there’s more than enough units to scatter around, the question is where the good ones are). The wise idea is probably to go for one edge or the other and hug that, forcing the distant units on a long trek. I didn’t like some of the open ground there though, nor the fact that a pair of T-70s enter on either edge on turn 3, and could well be on top of me. So, I tried the next best thing: hugging a stream as an ‘edge’, and interdicting the bridge over the stream.

I worked my way into positions I wanted on turn 1, but I made a serious mistake in not hustling more. I could have gotten another hex in, and didn’t. I will say that I have not dealt much with extensive woods-roads, and was still struggling with LOS questions. (It felt like if you’re adjacent to a woods-road, you can see into it, and then see down the road itself, if it continues in a straight line. This is incorrect, but it took a while to adjust how I was “seeing” the terrain.)


Situation, Partisan Turn 1. “It’s the board 25 version of board 5.”
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Feb10

D The Hedgehog of Piepsk

by Rindis on February 10, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing off a first lesson with OBA, Mark and I turned to the classic Squad Leader scenario “The Hedgehog of Piepsk” (as updated for ASL). The last time I played the scenario was with my dad in the early ’90s in its Squad Leader form. The remake features even more Russian squads, but half of them are conscripts, and of course, defensive fire can be much more powerful in ASL.

The Russian force is brittle, since there’s only three leaders for thirty-two squads (this and “Hill 621” were the ‘mob of Russians rushing a small defense’ scenarios of the original game), while the Germans get seven squads with four leaders, five machine guns, and OBA. It uses all of the three original non-city boards, though in practice the rear thirds aren’t going to get used. With the winter of ’41 starting, the Germans are holing up in whatever shelter can be found, and the Russians are counterattacking to push them out by taking all the stone building Locations (so each Location must be claimed, not just the buildings themselves) in the board 3 village in ten turns.

Mark took the defending Germans, and set up with nothing visible, which meant they were all in concealment terrain (by SSR), and not on exposed hilltops with great fields of view. I organized the 32-squad horde into three rough groups, with the center being the largest, and the initial objective was to seize hill 522. The north flank was to work along the board 3/4 board seam, and the south was to work along the foot of the board 2 hill with some scouting further up the hill.

The first turn was occupied by getting onto the board, and no Germans revealed themselves as I started sorting myself out in movement. The only sound was some faint German cursing as a HIP leader failed to get contact with his OBA battery. I advanced the one MMG onto the top of hill 498 (3DD2), which stayed concealed thanks to the lack of anyone to reveal them, and they could see most of the local area.

The lack of contact continued on the German turn, and no movement left me to try a couple probing shots that did not get any results.

The second move of my second turn finally drew fire as a LMG nest turned up in 4N5. That was the only activity other than contact finally being made, with an AR in 3X2 with the SR landing in 4O1.


Situation, Russian Turn 2. The objective is to take all the stone building Locations.
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Jan13

WO3 Counterattack at Carentan

by Rindis on January 13, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch came over for the first time in way too long right after Christmas, and we got in a FtF game of ASL. Out of a few different possibilities, Patch stuck with “Counterattack at Carentan” from the second Winter Offensive pack, which would have been our previous Vassal game if I hadn’t gone for something more topical.

It’s a week after D-Day, and the 101st Airborne is defending the approaches to Carentan from a German counterattack. Half of boards 54 and 63 are used, with all hedges treated as bocage. The Americans are defending with five 747 paratrooper squads and a pair of 337s, a MMG, 2xBAZ and a 57mm AT. The Germans get nine squads (mix of SS and 548s), some LMGs, a DC, two StuGs, a StuH and a Marder III M. My first thought was the American force was completely inadequate, but then I realized the goal is for the Germans to exit off the opposite end of the map (20 hexes) in six turns. That made more sense, though Patch immediately realized with Germans only need 15 EVP, which means it’s not hard to do with just vehicles.

However, I mis-set up the scenario, going for the opposite halves of the two boards than what is intended. Which helps explain some of my difficulties. There is no good place for the ATG in my mis-done version. Worse, the east edge is relatively clear this way, and Patch was contemplating a sprint down the edge for a quick potential win. It’s remarkable how different the two halves of board 63 are in particular. The wrong half is much more congested, and there’s no place for a Gun to cover everything. I nearly set up the ATG in the I2 building, but then realized it wouldn’t see over bocage. Patch pointed out the level 2 I3 position. It can see to the left and right, but is blocked in front by the building. Also, not too hard to smoke in, once the position is known.

I ended up in the O4 building, which was pretty useless as it was away from Patch’s advance (E2, which I nearly went with, would have been much better). I kept it hidden for the entire game to keep Patch having to worry about it, but his post-game analysis that I would have been much better served to push it down the road to I1 is correct.

So, we had a fairly unbalanced contest as I redeployed against his edge-crawl, and Patch made fairly steady progress, capturing a couple of HS on the way. I occupied the orchard-road hexes for a bit, but Patch got through that, because there wasn’t enough there yet. However, the one bit that made him sweat a bit was when I revealed the MMG in there for a flank shot against the Marder, and he realized it had a meaningful chance of a kill. Sadly, it missed.

Naturally, my final defense ended up along the bocage line in D4/D5. Patch regretted not keeping me from getting there first, as I got there with more than he anticipated, but I couldn’t get good enough shots with the BAZ to kill anything, and he zoomed off the map for a win with plenty of time on the clock.

Afterword

Well, this is the second time I’ve muffed a physical scenario setup. But, it was great to see Patch again (it has been far too long), and to get to use all these physical ASL materials again. (Maybe if I did it more often, I’d stop mixing my left and my right.)

Got to chat, I got to show off some of the stuff I’ve gotten over the last couple of years, and had an altogether fun time. As a plus, an early finish meant he got on the road before the next rain storm started really moving in.

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Oct10

AP112 First Ally

by Rindis on October 10, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After demonstrating a Fighting Withdrawal, Mark and I turned AP112 “First Ally” from Action Pack 12 as our next ASL game. Set early in the invasion of Poland it features the rare match up of Allied Minors (Poles) versus Axis Minors (Slovaks). Published in Action Pack 12, it features vertical board 5a, along with half of boards 10 and 50. Though, really, board 10 isn’t here at all, as it’s almost entirely covered by overlay 6. Hi12 adds an extra small hill to board 5a, and X18 adds an extra cluster of buildings to the corner of board 50.

I had the defending Slovak forces, who set up in building hexes, which can let them scattered over a fair amount of terrain, and need to hold at least one multi-hex building at the end of seven turns. They get nine squads, two leaders, a MMG and two LMG. I spent quite a while pondering a defense, as the Poles also have an extensive setup area, and I had no idea what direction they’d come from. I eventually settled on the buildings near the border of boards 50 and 10 as my likely ‘final stand’ area, with both leaders, and three-and-a-half squads scattered about the ‘board 10’ hill, including the MMG, which would be used to slow down attacks into there.

The Poles are counterattacking to keep from being cut off by the Slovak advance, and have thirteen squads, three leaders, two MMG, and a radio for 70mm OBA (part of the point was to get Mark some OBA experience). They get to set up on the hills of boards 5a and 50, giving them a fair number of approaches to this scenario. Mark put five squads and a 8-0 on the south end of board 50, to sweep onto board 10 from that end, and the rest were on board 50, concentrated at the eastern end.

The initial advance was on the 10U9 building, and I had no luck against that (or anything else) at first, with the Poles walking through my fire, and tying up the squad while the leader stack maneuvered around the edge of the hill. However, my HS in T5 got a PTC to pin the 8-1 and one of two squads. After that, another squad broke in U10 to the residual, and another broke as it tried to cross open ground nearby. At the other end of the hill, my first shot at his main stack approaching the hill did nothing, but SFF pinned his leader and a squad, and broke another one.

Advancing fire pinned a couple units, including the HS in 50I8, who then self-broke to get out of the area. I also self-broke 10U9 to avoid the 4:3 CC coming up, but didn’t have any great route paths out of the area.


Situation, Polish turn 1. Note that the lower-right is all overlay 6 on top of board 10.
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Sep08

HF2 Bertoldo the Brave

by Rindis on September 8, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing some French Toast and Bacon, Patch and I returned to Hatten, with the second scenario, in March. I continued with the Germans, who are attacking in about the same area this time.

Pre-game rubble took out Eglise Saint-Michel, eliminating a potential early lookout position. The Americans set up behind a road in the area the first scenario covers with eleven squads, MGs, a couple BAZ, one each 60mm and 81mm MTRs, three tank destroyers, a 57mm ATG, and some foxholes to spread around. There was a decent looking line up front, with the TDs further back along with the MTRs, and second line already in place with them, and a bit in front of the victory area.

The Germans get sixteen squads, good leadership, a PSK, a couple DCs, five halftracks (three standard 251s, and two 251/21s with 20mm guns mounted), and two Panthers. They set up on the other side of the road, but can also enter along the east edge (which I did with two loaded 251/1s). They have six and a half turns to go about twelve to eighteen hexes and take nine out of eleven victory hexes. (An extra wrinkle is that shifts one hex against a side that no longer has mobile tanks/TDs with functioning MA left.) I concentrated on the north edge with less cover, and a lot less green in front of me. A middle group was tasked with clearing out the central area with a cautious advance, while another three and a half squads held down the south, waiting to advance when he had to pull out from events elsewhere.

Much of the center OpFired, and I took a MMG shot at E7, sadly getting no result. The first two probing HS drew no fire, but the third one took a 1KIA from N8 (not where I expected…). A squad moved up, survived fire from D17 (barely in long range, but clear thanks to the road), and entered E7 to eliminate a dummy. As I moved into the central area, I took fire from I10 and H7 and C9 finally revealed themselves. Only the latter managed to break anyone, which was a help. At the end of the phase, I tried dashing across in the south again, and he revealed J7 (instead of adjacent J6…), and got a K/2 to break and ELR what was left.

Final fire then broke the initial HS in B8, and malfed an AAMG. My only advancing fire result was malfing the CMG on a Panther, despite two good rolls on C9. Patch did self-break the HS in H7 to get away from a 548.


Situation, German turn 1, showing the full board. This is the entire north edge (towards the left). Victory hexes are marked in red.
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Jul06

1 Fighting Withdrawal

by Rindis on July 6, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing “Lost Opportunities” with Mark, I took him back to the beginning. The first scenario for ASL, 1 “Fighting Withdrawal”, is a very strong one that really does show off maneuver and firepower. Set in the initial Finnish thrust towards Leningrad at the start of the Continuation War, both sides are trying to exit off the far edge of board 21, while fires rage behind the Russian lines.

I played it with my then-current roommate when I first got the game around ’96. As I recall, I came up just shy as the Finns as I could match, but not beat, the Russian exit points, and the Finns need to exit more off the far edge of board 21 than the Russians. I can still remember one squad generating heroes on back-to-back morale checks, and Colin was asking, “Why am I even shooting at these guys?”

I had the defending Russians this time, who have a six column setup area (V–AA), with 14 squads, three leaders and MGs, and 8 OB-given “?”. They also get two HIP squads, but I forgot about that during setup. They suffer from ammo shortage, but also have a SAN of 7 versus 2 for the Finns. The MMG went in the back behind a wall, concealed squads went in the rear of each flank, and a mostly concealed line went up front, with leaders on each flank, and the 7-0 in the rear to help catch anyone routing back. The dense buildings make for easy initial routing, though it can become a problem later.

The Finns have 16 of the ‘super’ squads (648, spraying fire, assault fire, self-rally, and they’re not even elite!), with three leaders, and one more MG than the Russians. Across a ten hex frontage, that’s about where you want to double up and put the MGs. Mark avoided stacking, and had a fair amount slightly in the rear.

Mark opened by firing everything with an LOS, and broke and ELRed one of the visible squads, while pinning the other, and revealing and pinning the 8-0 and the LMG squad with him. Movement was minimal, other than one squad shifting flanks.


Situation, Finnish Turn 1. North is to the left, and the goal is to get off the south side.
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May27

17 Lost Opportunities

by Rindis on May 27, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing up in Tulle, Mark and I went back to Paratrooper, and scenario 17, “Lost Opportunities”. It’s D-Day, and the Germans are trying to retake Ste.-Mère-Église from 505th Parachute Regiment. They have six turns to take five buildings on board 1.

I had the defending Americans, who get eight paratrooper squads, a 60mm MTR, a couple MMGs, five BAZ, and an AT gun. The defense is along the narrow edge of the board, where it abuts board 2. The ATG went in J4, where there’s actually pretty good LOS up the entire center street, and if the Germans went too far on either flank, it’d still have a shot. My one HIP squad took a MMG and was in D2, where it could do a surprise shot if he advanced on that flank. The MTR was in E6 with a foxhole, as it’s one of the few hexes with open ground in front of the buildings, and has a few places it can see in the MTR’s range. The other MMG was up in 1F6h2, where it could largely out-range the Germans.

The Germans have a mix of nineteen second line and conscript squads with the usual machine guns, a couple 50mm MTRs, a Marder I, and a couple of captured French Renault tanks. Most of them in a line at the limit of the setup area, but the two MTRs set up on the hill, with the Marder right in front. As a last note, the Germans lose if they ever go below nine unbroken squad equivalents. Given the quality of troops, its a heck of a restriction.

Mark led off with a bombardment of forward positions from all his ordnance, including a nice rate-tear from one of the MTRs. However, the only result was to reveal my squad in 1B6 and battle harden him. Movement was fairly calm until a 8-0 came into view, and the high-up MMG pinned him and ELRed the conscripts with him (for the first turn or so, I was stuck on the underscored morale method of breaking into HS for anyone who couldn’t be Replaced, before finally remembering they should be disrupting instead). Then an 8-1 came in next to that, and the MMG broke him and the MMG squad with him. In DFPh, the MMG claimed another victim, breaking his 9-1 and LMG squad, and the ATG took what I supposed to be a ranging shot at the hull down Marder, which hit and burned it.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
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May11

WO1 French Toast and Bacon

by Rindis on May 11, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I got back to ASL at the end of January, and went for the first Winter Offensive scenario, “French Toast and Bacon”. Early in the Battle of the Bulge, a small German force tries to seize a river bridge from a small American force.

I had the defending Americans, who have eight half-squads, a single M18 TD, and a pair of 76mm AT, as well as the ability to keep their three BAZ hidden. An interesting SSR gives them an off-board 105mm ART (akin to “Regalbuto Ridge“, but self-spotting this time), which can declare its using what’s normally a long-range charge to get a CH on a 2 or 3, even if it would normally be a miss. That last is low-odds enough I never got around to declaring it. Anyway, they’re defending half of boards 44 and 59, and a stream overlay on 44 hooks up with 59, with everything past the stream effectively out of play. The Germans get four squads and three each Panthers and Pz IVs. Some GameSquad Q&A points out a vehicle can’t control a hex with a bridge as it can’t control the Location under it (even though that Location is inaccessible here), so the infantry must get to the bridge, as the goal is to Control the bridge hex as well as the hexes adjacent to it.

I had a heck of a time coming up with a defense, as there’s not a lot to work with, and the Germans have two possible entry hexes. With 5.5 turns, part of the goal must be to slow down the Germans, and that means a hopefully cautious entry as a first step. But there’s a lot of open ground near the entries. The two ATs were set up in the back where they could support each other, and cover the main gaps that the tanks had to go through as they got into board 55. The TD takes a TC at the start of every turn (with a penalty equal to the turn number), and recalls when it fails, so it set up forward where it could see both entry areas. The MMG set up nearby, where there was a decent rout path.

Patch used the south-edge entry (as opposed to the west-edge one), and started with a squad and his only leader, who shrugged off a 1MC from my MMG. He nearly searched to reveal the HS in 44Y3, but realized taking search casualties could be really bad. The next squad armor assaulted with a Panther. I fired to put down residual, and bounding first fire… malfunctioned his CMG. The Panther stopped in LOS of the TD, which turned out to have no APCR. He kept his Pz IVs out of sight, while the Panthers started covering the rest of the board.

The TD bounced a couple shots off the front of a Panther (-1 Final TK). The AAMG pinned a squad, and the ART put an Acq on his leader (including the extra six hexes range from SSR, a range 27 shot, for a 4TH +1). Patch’s advancing fire mostly went wild with high rolls, including a MA malf, but he managed a 1 MC on the TD to stun it. He also got an improbable hit on CC4 to reveal the HS, but it passed the resulting NMC. He piled two squads and the 9-1 into Y3, and got ambushed. Sadly, I didn’t see the HS living long after ducking out either, so he stayed for a 1:2 and missed, while the Germans got him.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the entire board and my guns.
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Mar22

DA1 L’Ecole Normale

by Rindis on March 22, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

The aftermath for “The Liberation of Tulle” mentions there were a few major buildings the Germans still held at the end of the day; among them was L’Ecole Normale, which made me say, ‘I know that name…’. And indeed, scenario DA1 from ASL Annual ’89 is about the Maquisards assaulting that building the next day in Tulle. So this sequel became the next stop in Mark and I’s play of ASL scenarios.

This time, I had the defending Germans, who have five squads, three machine guns, ten “?” and set up on deluxe board c. The partisans get ten squads (two of which are 527s) and a pair of LMGs, and have seven turns in which to render building cK4 aflame (in this case, having two blaze counters in the building—and they do have MOL capability), or for there to be no unbroken German MMC in the building.

Setup is simultaneous, and I deployed two squads (the Germans can deploy everything by SSR), one of which was my allowed HIP squad-equivalent, which went in cI3 with a LMG to halt any advances towards the east side of the building, and the other was buried in cK3h1 to force a search/mop-up once the obvious defenders were taken care of. The west side had a dummy and the other LMG+HS with the 7-0 leader. Sadly, there’s almost nowhere to set up north of the building so that relied on a squad and a half, and more dummies, with the MMG centrally located in L3.

Mark mostly set up in a rough line to the north on board b, with three squads and his 7-0 to the west largely on the board e hill. Prep did nothing, and Mark did a limited advance under cover of smoke (by SSR, partisans have a Smoke exponent of 2, and he rolled well), with my only fire being to break a 527 after the smoke went away.


Situation, Partisan turn 1, showing my HIP. This is not the full board, but is all the important parts, and stone building cI3 is actually woods. Only buildings with printed stairwells have a level 1 (and there’s no level 2 Locations).
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Feb26

27 The Liberation of Tulle

by Rindis on February 26, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While looking over shorter, simpler, ASL scenarios for me and Mark to go through, I came across the Partisan set (now in Armies of Oblivion), and we went for the first of those (we’ll need to get back to them; this is the first one I’ve played from that set). It’s set in central France as news of D-Day fires up all the Resistance groups to come out and to get rid of the occupying Germans.

Mark had the defending Germans who have eleven squads (mix of 2nd line and conscript) and poor leadership (three leaders is good enough, but one’s a 6+1). The partisans get twelve squads (three 527s, the rest are regular 337s) at the edge of board 22, and another eight in locations away from the fighting on board 2. They have a few LMGs, a German 50mm MTR and two PSKs. They have seven turns in which to gain and keep control of four out of six multihex buildings on the active half of board 22.

I set up for three thrusts. The initial main one was aimed at the V2 building on the south side, and would continue towards U6 and X7. The secondary one was to grab building Z2 and then help the others, while the third was more vestigial, and would get the support of most of the board 2 troops in taking CC6 and possibly DD7. The first two buildings would be fairly straightforward, the rest needed getting at through other terrain, and would be harder to do.

My first moves were to get at the garrison in S3, and get a flanking position on V2. S3 turned out to be the 6+1 with LMG, based off an idea in an article Mark had been reading. It’s not a bad idea, but this wasn’t really the place for it as he was alone and couldn’t keep me from getting a squad across and adjacent. Still, a K/1 from U3 meant I had to make two attempts on it. I also lost another HS to a 12 MC while dashing across the road, but he achieved the immediate goal of making the German squad reveal. I also tried a Dash to OVR the 6+1, but couldn’t make the TC.

His sniper had pinned a PSK I had put in OpFire, but he still hit V2 for a 1MC that Mark passed. But, my sniper went off (our third successful SAN check of the game was during my first AFPh, think about that for a moment…) to wound his 7-0. I got into CC with the 6+1 and killed him with no trouble while also advancing on U3 and into Z2.


Situation, Partisan turn 1. North is to the left, and the board 2 hill mass has been replaced by woods.
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