Archive for ASL

88 results.
May23

ASL Upgrade Round 1

by Rindis on May 23, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Much of my base ASL set dates to the mid ’90s. I originally got the rule book and Paratrooper at a flea market at DunDraCon in ’96. I remember specifically getting West of Alamein in a visit to the Oceanside GameTowne (which closed a year later), but I can’t remember where I got the other core modules. Anyway, while I mostly play on Vassal, the physical set does come out every once in a while. So I’m finally getting around to upgrading my copies of Beyond Valor and Yanks from the AH versions.

Eevee wanted to see what was going on. And yes, I also got an Action Pack so I’d also have something new while spending all this money.

This gets me the newer, nicer counters (without the annoying side-nibs) for the main system markers, the Germans, Russians, and Americans. (I’ll note that I ‘gain’ a half-sheet of counters going from one set to the other. I also get the light gray Finns to go with the ones from Hakkaa Päälle.) I transfer 9 boards to the newer SK-style, which helps on storage space. I managed to get most of the old SL-boards back in the 90s, so I’m getting several duplicates of boards that aren’t scheduled to go out with the sale of my old sets (1-5 and 8, 40-41 will someday go out with CdG, and this is my second SK copy of 24) the only ‘new’ board I’m getting is 46, which was originally from Action Pack 2 (and the other board from that was in Rising Sun; now if MMP will just release the scenarios…). There’s updated scenario cards, which mostly just update small bits of language, though “Gavin’s Gamble” is practically an all-new scenario, and can’t be played with just the contents of BV and Yanks since it also wants a couple overlays. Finally, there’s also all the ‘new’ reprinted scenarios in BV3 (123-136) and Yanks 2 (178-202), but I should have the original versions of almost all of those.

Round 2 of upgrading should be getting For King and Country and Hollow Legions 3rd Ed to replace West of Alamein and Hollow Legions 2nd Ed (this plan is part of what prompted this round, as I want Soldiers of the Negus, which will be included in the new HL). Of course, FKaC has sold out, so it will be trickier to do round 2 as I wouldn’t be surprised if HL3 sells out by the time MMP can get around to reprinting FKaC….

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May07

J167 Hart Attack

by Rindis on May 7, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While looking through the ASL Journal 11 scenarios back in January, Patch saw that J167 “Hart Attack”, featured some Grants, and wanted to have a go at it. We’ve actually used them before (or at least some Lees), but I got to drive them that time, so I took the Germans defending against Allied forces in Tunisia. This is technically a re-release of the early ’90s scenario ASLUG7, but frankly, it’s a completely new scenario from the same designer. The German forces are about the same, the British have been cut down, it’s two turns shorter, and gone from a three-map area with overlays to just needing board 7a. The VCs and SSRs have also gotten a lot simpler. That said, someone could probably talk me into trying it for comparison’s sake.

The Germans have 8 squads and 3 HS of 548 elites, with MGs, a pair of 50mm MTR, an ATR, DC, and a 40mm squeezebore ATG, and then get three Pz IIIs with a 9-1 AL on turn 3. The Allies enter from the west with thirteen British squads (mostly first line, with some elites), good leadership (four leaders with -4 in leadership mods between them), HMG, MMG, a couple 51mm MTR, an ATR, and five American M3 Grants. The Allies have six turns to get 7 VP; getting one VP per building they control (there are seven on the board), one per every other tank they exit off the east side (i.e., 1 for exiting one, 2 for exiting three, 3 for exiting all five), and a VP per German tank they kill. The Tunisian setting means that orchards are olive groves, and hedges are cactus hedges. The Germans are considered Elite for Ammo Depletion (…I think I forgot that), and the British get to use ATMM to represent Gammon bombs.

There’s one building at the west edge, and then two widely separated clusters of three buildings on the board. This gives the Allies two general approaches depending on which cluster they want to go for first. One set is tucked way back, and is hard to get at unless it’s the primary target, while the other is much more central (and nearer the odd, ‘close’ building), but is made of stone in fairly dense terrain with walls, olive groves, and a couple hills, and features the only two-hex building in the lot. I set up blocking positions on both western roads, one MMG overlooking the further buildings, the other in the two-hex building, with a MTR adjacent that it could spot for (which was bore-sighted on the hill overlooking the compound). The ATG went on a hill where it could boresight a woods-road that Patch would almost have to use if he went north. I figured if he went south, he’d still come for the final buildings anyway, and I’d push the gun down to where it could trade shots from either side of the walls. The ATR went in the center, where it’d have a chance at an underbelly shot at a tank going over the wall that lines the area; about the only good shot I figured he’d let me have with the thing.

Patch took the northern route. In fact, more northern than I’d figured. I’d kind of mentally shrugged off the most-northern section of the board, which would require going around a fair amount of terrain before getting anywhere. So naturally, half his force went there, and made me wonder if he’d be trying to overrun my ATG before it got a shot at a tank. I didn’t have any fire against most of that, but the rest of his forces lined up at the wall, with a large stack headed for the close building just across the wall, and a lucky shot broke his 9-2 as he entered, and the resulting LLTC pinned the two squads with him. Two of his tanks went over the wall, but my ATR shot went wild (Final 12), while one of them stopped long enough to reduce my forward squad with a BFF K/2, and three of his tanks parked around a concealed HS in D5. His AFPh scattered a number of acquisition markers about, with no other effect, despite a NMC against the squad in E4.


Situation, British Turn 1, showing the full board with my boresighting and ATG.
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Apr21

J32 Panzer Graveyard

by Rindis on April 21, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing up Lagus Assault Guns, Tom suggested trying out J32 “Panzer Graveyard” from Journal 2, and we got going at the beginning of March. A January ’44 scenario in Italy, it has a worn-out German force with a lot of tanks assaulting a stiff British defense in the board 46 town. The Germans attack with twelve squads (ranging from first line to conscripts), a few MGs and four Pz IV Hs with a 9-1 AL and four Pz III Ns. The British are defending with ten first-line squads, a HMG and a MMG, two PIATs (who are assigned to 1-2-7 crews), a 6 pdr AT gun, a Churchill IV and a Sherman III, and some concealment markers. There’s a small cluster of buildings added across the street from the main town that serves as a possible jumping-off point for the Germans.

This ordinarily should be a 1/2 map scenario. But instead, it uses all of board 46 and 18 (including an overlay with another level 2 hill). This is for the use of the Pz IIIs, which set up on the various hills, ready to shell the defenders, or smoke them in. The Germans have six turns and need to control 20 buildings (out of 30) in the British setup area at the end of the game. While they have lots of armor support, they have problems; all German MMC are Lax, and their ELR is only 2. Finally, there is a +1 LV on the final turn.

I took the British defense, and spent some time trying to figure out what I wanted to do. There’s three main ways for the Germans to approach this, the main obvious one is the center area, jumping off from the built up area. I figured an approach from the east had a lot of open ground to go through before reaching the first buildings, and then tended to hit the least-dense parts of the town, with the graveyard, woods, and orchards, though all of that was harder to defend. Meanwhile, the west side had some open ground as well, including an extra small hill, but with some cover just on the other side of the road that forms the setup areas. I put some light forces (including a Dummy in 46W7) to slow down an east-side assault slightly, while defending the west more heavily with the HMG in EE4 and a PIAT in the brush in DD2. Another HS was in the brush in EE1, which was as far forward as I dared to go there (and there was no concealment terrain forward of there anyway). LMGs were in Y5 and W5 to provide Fire Lanes against advances in the center area, with the HMG centrally located in BB5. I had a hard time figuring out where to put the tanks and ATG, since anywhere exposed could lead to them getting easily swarmed, with eight German tanks out there (though the Pz IIIs would struggle to kill either of mine even with a rear shot with a Final TK of 3; 5 with HEAT on a 9 or less), and a good number of PFs available. The Churchill anchored the main line of defense in the northeast in Z7, with help from a PIAT in Z9 (with a crucial error that I’ll get to later), and a 7-0 Z6 to act as a preliminary rally point. The Sherman was in CC7 to cover the central street, and possibly anchor the defense once the first line of buildings had fallen. The ATG went in GG7 facing SE, in case armor tried to go around the west flank and cut off my defenders (and I had problems finding anyplace that could see terrain I wanted to cover).

Tom’s setup surprised me, with the bulk of his forces in the center, but largely a hex back, and out of sight from my line, and three squads (and two HS, with his HMG & MMG) on the eastern flank backed up by two of his Pz IVs. He had figured my ATG was around EE2 (exactly the type of forward position I avoided) and stayed away from the brush. Most of his Pz IIIs were behind them on the board 46 hill, but one was backing up the main force in 18Q2. One Pz III fired, placing Smoke in V5, while the eastern Pz IV first pinned my HS in U7, which then ELRed to fire from his MGs. Most of his center forces fired on my other visible unit in AA2, forcing a 1MC which they passed. The last Pz IV fired on W7, but missed.

Tom then started showing off aggressive armor tactics my moving the second eastern Pz IV into Motion VBM of V8. I attempted CCRF, but pinned instead. Having locked up my primary defense, he advanced two squads and a 9-1 towards the building, but a good roll from W5 managed a 1MC that pinned the leader and broke a squad. This activated his Sniper, who broke the squad that had been the target of all his fire earlier. Past that, there was little left to move, other than some of the Pz IIIs advancing up to the rest of his troops.

My LMG squad Final Fired on his MG stack, and with another low roll, broke both HSes with MGs. Not only that, but my Sniper activated, and hit the same hex, with a three-way tie (out of four units), to fatally wound the 8-1 and then break the squad in the hex. The only CC was with the VBM Pz IV in V8, and my squad only missed because of being pinned.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full scenario area, and my HIP Gun. The blue ribbon is the dividing line between the British and German setup areas.
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Feb22

174 Lagus Assault Guns

by Rindis on February 22, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After a bit of a delay, Tom Arnold and I got together for another Vassal ASL game, this time with a scenario from the recent Hakkaa Päälle. The Russians have taken the offensive in Finnland in mid-’44 and are back to trying to break the defenses that stopped them in the Winter War.

In this scenario, the Russians enter with eight squads (split between 1st line and elite rifle squads), a couple leaders, a HMG, a T34/85, a SU-152, and a IS-2, and then get six squads of (628) assault engineers with a couple FTs and DCs on turn two. The Finns defend with ten 648 1st line squads, a MMG, hero, PSK, two Sturmis (StuG IIIs in Finnish service), and a 81mm MTR. They’re actually in two groups, but one setup area is just a subset of the other. One squad equivalent gets HIP, and the Finns get to assign two of their available PFs to any unit(s) they wish (probably the hero, but one each to the hero and best leader seems like a good idea). The Russians have seven turns to either take 5 of 7 buildings in the board 17 village, or get 5 squads (not squad-equivalents) and two AFVs past a ‘finish line’ that lies behind the village.

Tom had the defending Finns and set up a defense scattered along his setup line. Interestingly, he used all his available Dummies (6) as large “?”, giving me five possible locations for his two Sturmis. It looks like the normal approach is along the west flank, going through some cover, and driving right at the village where there’s some open ground for the AFVs to operate. I decided to go on the east flank, in the board 32 woods, and try to drive for the goal before he could get everyone to focus on me. Better yet, there’s a nice gap at the beginning of the path that leads towards the village. By securing that, I can keep him uncertain as to which way I’m going. In fact, if he puts too much in front of me, I can switch goals in a hurry. Patch was by while I was setting up, looked things over, and had much the same idea, which was neat.

My initial advance had the two T-34s, covered by a pair of squads, holding my west flank. The main drive went up the 32A5 road, seizing the initial groups of houses for some cover. Tom only made one attack, revealing two full squads at the ‘gap’, and broke two squads who were armored assaulting up the road, while pinning a leader. I put acqusitions on the two squads, and on 17X2.


Situation, Russian Turn 1. North is to the left; the red circle is where the victory buildings are (two are covered by Finnish “?”), and the dashed line is what the Russians need to cross. As usual, green is movement, blue is advance, and red is routs.
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Jan13

A95 The Long Road

by Rindis on January 13, 2017 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

I got a sudden call from Patch on Saturday, saying that he was in the area, and didn’t have anything to do during the day. So, he came on over, and we started figuring out what to play. Quickly settling on ASL, we started looking through the most recent Journal, but most everything we looked at needed boards I didn’t have. So I pulled out Annual ’96, and we found “The Long Road” dealing with the British campaign in Vichy Madagascar in late ’42.

I randomly picked the Brits, and Patch figured out a setup for the Vichy forces. They defend board 5 with six squads, a pair of MMGs and four hexes of wire; everything in concealment terrain can be HIP, but they suffer from Ammo Shortage. The Brits are looking to exit 16 VP off a three hex area in 7.5 turns, and have 10 squads, some LMGs, and two armored cars with ATR main armament (I never bothered firing them, sticking with the CMG the entire time). Looking online now, I see that looks pretty tough on the defending Vichy, but the balance of trading a MMG for a HMG probably wouldn’t have helped here. It probably needs to be cut down a turn, and then some other adjustments made.


Patch’s reference photo of his setup. Note: there are no bridges in this scenario.

The Brits can come on within two hexes of any one x1 road hex, giving three entry choices. The furthest one (I1), requires going through most of the board 5 woods, and Patch blocked the road with the fourth wire hex (with the other three on the exit hexes; I imagine that just about every game features that setup). The closest one (Y1) features a lot of open ground, with just a gully for cover near the entry. So I went for the middle area (Q1), which is also open, but the woods close in enough to protect it from most of the rest of the board, and there’s good cover nearby. The ACs were to break out of that little area, while at least some of the infantry was to gain the woods on the other side of the clearing and head straight down, hopefully flanking the bulk of the defenses out in the open areas of the board.
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Dec29

21 Among the Ruins

by Rindis on December 29, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

A while back, Tom Arnold contacted me interested in playing an ASL game over Vassal. We ended up going for a scenario from the just-rereleased Yanks. I ended up taking the Germans in this late-’44 scenario set in Aachen (a popular location for scenarios).

The Germans defend two of the city boards with twelve squads, two HMG and MMG each, and a quad-20mm AA Gun. The Americans have twenty-three squads with four MMGs and three Shermans. They need to cross the majority of the boards longways and exit nine squads in 9.5 turns (this is down one squad from the original, which is surprising, since ROAR shows the scenario as being very balanced). The Germans get to place ten rubble counters to block off easy passage of key points, and get to place some of them on non-building hexes, as long as they’re adjacent to rubbled buildings.

They also get to HIP two squads and use Bore Sighting and Sewer Movement. I got so involved with trying various schemes with placing rubble that I completely forgot about those parts (I have a decided tendency to forget about HIP while setting up). At least I remembered that everything gets to be Concealed. Those goofs did me no favors, though at least my rubble layout was pretty solid, giving me some cover in convenient places, some protection to lateral lines of movement, and clearing up some fields of fire (particularly around 20T3—I rubbled two adjacent hexes to give a HMG+9-2 nest lots of field of fire). The major problem of the setup was figuring how to protect a 20-hex wide front so that I could then concentrate where the main push was.

However, Tom attacked on a broad front. His major concentration was in the east, but there was another sizable group in the west, and another three squad group right in the center. After deploying a number of squads, initial Prep was limited to firing on a large stack in 21S8, which turned out to be a HS that broke and a bunch of Dummies. Opening moves started working the flanks, with an 8-0 leader rushing forward to prove that my stack in 20O8 was dummies, though fire from my 9-2 led HMG in 20T3h2 broke him. A Dash in the center section ended (just barely) in LOS of a MMG, which got a KIA to kill the squad (it would later break another squad). A HS Searched L9, convinced there had to be something nearby (even if I had remembered HIP, I wouldn’t have had anything that far forward).


Situation, American Turn 1, showing the entire board. North is to the left.
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Oct31

161 Arctic Crossroads

by Rindis on October 31, 2016 at 1:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

For our latest ASL game, Patch and I decided to try out the first scenario in Hakkaa Päälle. “Arctic Crossroads” is an unusual scenario in multiple ways. First, it’s happening in the polar night/dawn, and instead of the usual LV that might imply, the scenario has you use a subset of the Night rules, with no cloaking, or straying, or jitter fire, but there is a permanent 4-hex NVR that keeps things isolated. Also, it uses the new light woods terrain, where woods are a Hindrance rather than an obstacle to LOS. Moreover, they’re only +1/per hex instead of the normal +2.

As to the actual forces involved, the Finns start with seven squads, with a couple of MGs defending a couple ART that the Russians are trying to capture. (They also have a fairly nasty .30-cal AA mount with 8 IFE.) The Russians have eighteen squads, but look like something out of the original Squad Leader, with only three leaders, none of which is better than 8-0, with a MMG, a couple of LMG, and a light MTR (with a minimum range of 3 hexes, and max sighting is generally 4…). Overall, the Finns (who can self-rally) have better leadership, and the Russians are only ELR 2. On turn 4 (of 10) the Finns get another seven squads (with a HMG towed along on the new Akhio), which should enter behind the advancing Russians. The Russians need to end the scenario on turn 9 with 12 EVP past the setup line for the ART, and can get 3 extra VP for each one whose Location they Control.

I had the Russians and started out trying to set up on the wrong side of the board (I didn’t notice that the setup area excluded the edge where the Finns later come in). I then set to advance down the middle of board 17, with woods and brush on the flanks, but clear terrain in the center. I tried to force the extreme east flank of Patch’s line, but but his first shot was a 2KIA to eliminate my first squad. My second move generated a PTC that I passed, but it activated his Sniper who then broke the squad. The third squad broke to a NMC.

My fourth squad passed a 1MC. By that point, however, it was obvious I wouldn’t be forcing my way close to anything. I started lining up at and just beyond extreme visual range (4 hexes), and lost another HS to residual (and then the remainder disrupted on a HoB), and then another squad to further fire.

161-1r
Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
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Aug06

FB11 Boy Soldier

by Rindis on August 6, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I recently wrapped up our latest foray into Festung Budapest: FB11 “Boy Soldier”. Since I’d had the defenders last time, Patch took the Hungarians this time. The Hungarians are defending around the Postal Palace (last seen back in FB7) with nine squads, two 105mm ART, another four squads specifically in the Postal Palace and adjacent building, and the eponymous Hero. He gets HIP and a MMG that goes away as soon as it loses Rate, whereupon he goes berserk. While under Ammo Shortage level 3, they also get 80+mm OBA with three automatic black card draws and a field phone. The Russians have nineteen squads of varying types (including six BVR squads split between 1st line and conscripts), including two assault engineers, a FT and four T-34/85s, at least one of which must survive the scenario. The Russians are trying to take 10 ground level Locations in a line of rowhouses or in the Postal Palace and it’s adjacent building (17 possible Locations overall) in 6.5 turns.

The pre-game rubble knocked down most of the line of buildings in front of the victory areas, and four hexes of the victory rowhouses. Patch placed some extra debris to provide cover for lateral movement from the north to the rowhouses to the center of the map. He devoutly hoped that I wouldn’t do what he expected he couldn’t stop: set up to advance along the north side, which is largely what I did. The rowhouses are 10 hexes all by themselves, but they point directly away from the Russian entry area. The Postal Palace area doesn’t have enough to win with, so I decided my main thrust would start by advancing on the near end of the rowhouses, and my south flank would challenge other area directly, with hopes of getting a couple Locations in there as extra insurance.

Patch’s first shot was a ‘2’, which thankfully Cowered and left no resid, but it still killed my HS. The second shot was ’11’ for Ammo Shortage. The third shot was ‘3’ to kill a full squad. After that the dice settled down a bit, and the most that happened was a pinned squad in O19. Patch called an AR on P17, but a six-hex error put it slightly behind his lines in J14. The bad news was that the second ART turned out to be in P11, and it hit P17 for a 3MC vs my best leader and 4MC vs my FT squad. The squad broke, but the leader HoBed into a 10-2 Hero. I managed to Encircle and Pin the forward HS in N19h1, and after that eliminated his only forward outpost in CC with no trouble.

FB11-1R
Situation, Russian Turn 1 showing the full playing area. The red hexes are the Russian entry area, and the blue lines are the limit of the Hungarian setup area. North is to the left.
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Apr12

J173 Assault on Baerendorf

by Rindis on April 12, 2016 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch was over Saturday for our first ASL game in a while. We’d decided to try J173 “Assault on Baerendorf” from the new Journal since it fit in our available time, and used one of the ‘vertical’ boards (1a). The Germans (which I ended up taking) are defending the 1a town with a mix of eight squads, a 75L and JagdPanzer IV. However, despite the nice armor support, there’s a lot of space to cover, and only have two leaders, a 8-0 and 7-0!

The Americans have 5.5 turns to get all Good Order German MMC out of the town, with twelve squads, including three assault engineers and five M4A3 Shermans, ranging from base models to a M4A3(76)W. They can set up in one corner of the area (consisting of a small slice of 1a and part of boards 11 and 38), and can enter some/all of their forces once the scenario starts. The Germans get another three squads and 9-1 in a 251/1 and truck on turn 3.

I let myself get too distracted by all the space out there. Since it’s a short scenario, I didn’t really want Patch to be able to just move through some of the better cover out there for free. But I ended up spreading my defense out too much to be useful. I put the AT Gun out in a lone woods hex in 1aG14, which could see a fair amount of space, though if Patch completely swung through the other side of town, it may never see anything, and it might be too unsupported to do much good. The JgPz went in 11FF8 where it could see the center of the American setup area, and had some decent support.

J173-setup
My setup, north is to the left. I didn’t realize that SSR2 allowed free setup concealment to everyone.

Patch lined up almost everything as near the town as he could, but had the two M4A3s enter off to his left (north) with riders. These charged right by my ATG position out of it’s CA, so I let them go. Patch had been worried that it was hidden in the orchards near its actual position, but while more convenient in some ways, there was just too little visible from there for my liking.

Patch quickly broke the up-front conscript squad, but did have to prep a number of units to make sure they didn’t cause havoc during MPh, which slowed him down a little. My turn got off to a very good start when the ATG managed a five-shot rate tear (with the first shot on a ‘1’ ROF due to CA Change). Sadly, part of this was wasted with a Dud and an ’11’ to bounce a shot off a turret. However, I killed the M4A3(76)W, shocked a M4A3(75)W, pinned his best leader, and broke the two squads with him.

J173-1G

Things went downhill from there. Too scattered and too few, Patch pushed me hard over the next couple of turns, and used the sM on his tanks to good effect (Never missed a roll! However, he never got a successful special ammo roll.), and his shocked tank eventually recovered after going to Unconfirmed Kill on his turn 2. The ATG didn’t have many good options, but still managed to take out a M4A3 in the back on a +5 shot through the orchards on my turn 3. If I’d known I’d manage that, I might have sent my reinforcements straight in, but naturally started where they wouldn’t be charging the Shermans directly, and unloaded near the NE edge of the town. As it was, it was tempting to brave the remaining Sherman and see if I could get lucky with unloading and getting a PF shot of in AFPh, but caution won out.

At the time, that back sector was my main hope, especially since I thought I might get into 1aL6, and maybe keep patch off of me. But he got more of his guys into the area, and pushed me further away on his turn 4, and I conceded. It was possible I might do something, but it was getting to be very long odds.

J173-end
Concession, turn 4.

In general, it’s not a bad scenario, but I had trouble coming to grips with it at first, and certainly needed to set up a much tighter defense. The ATG helped retrieve some of the situation, though the Duds (it had a second one later; of course I also malfunctioned it on an IF shot, and then immediately repaired it) and an no-effect ’11’s kept it from being as important as needed. Turn 2 also fell apart some on me thanks to doubles putting the most important men on Final Fire early. The MMG also never got to do any work thanks to an early break, and I could never recover it. The JgPz never got a chance to shine, but certainly kept the M4A3(75)Ws busy. It was finally killed in CC, since there was just too much going on for it handle, and a PSK squad from the reinforcements couldn’t come up fast enough.

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Jan13

AP17 The Valley of Death

by Rindis on January 13, 2016 at 7:40 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I returned to ‘regular’ ASL for our next game. I forget our actual decision process, but I think Patch was wanting to see the Italians again. I remembered Few Returned, an action pack of Italian scenarios, most dealing with the Soviet Little Saturn offensive. It also has a good reputation for interesting and different scenarios, and we went with the first one in the pack, AP17 “The Valley of Death”.

The Russians are defending the board 18 hills (two of them are ignored to make it a single ridgeline) with twelve squads (almost half conscripts), a few machine guns, a pair of ATRs, pair of light mortars, an 82mm MTR and a 76mm ART, and have to put at least one squad and foxhole on each hill. The Axis force is nineteen Italian squads (mostly first line with some elites) and two light mortars, with a German 81mm MTR, 20mm AA, Stug IIIG, and a Panzer IIIJ. The Russians have to set up on or adjacent to the hill hexes, and the Axis wins as soon as there’s no Good Order Russian MMCs on the hill hexes if there’s at least one Italian GO on a hill hex. In addition, there is ground snow, and it is snowing at scenario start. As a final twist, the Italians can use Banzai Charges, as long as at least one MMC participates. The scenario has a pro-Russian record, so we took the Italian balance of extending the scenario a turn, to 6.5 turns, though I recall several people saying that the real problem is that the Axis player needs to know what he’s doing.

Patch had the Axis, and generally knows what he’s doing….

It’s a pity no one told his dice.

I set up with the northernmost (18Z7) hill as my main bastion as it has the only level 2 terrain. The two adjacent level two hexes got a 50mm MTR and the 82mm, while the third level 2 hex got the HMG and 8-1. The only other hill with cover is J2, with a wooden building and a woods hex, and that was my secondary command post with a LMG, MMG and the 8-0. The other 50mm was down at the extreme south in C2, and the rest was a line of positions that I hoped could help each other laterally if Patch concentrated on one at a time. The widest gap between the hills is near the center, and I put the ART in N2 facing the road, figuring that sooner or later a tank would cruise through there (and if not, it could cover my second concentration in K3).

Patch set up in roughly three groups, with the PzIII, and two mortars in the north, the other 42mm MTR, StuG, AA, and best leader in the south, and eight squads strung out in the middle.

The first thing that happened was the snowfall increased to heavy. The second was that his 82mm turned out to have no smoke rounds, and then malfunctioned when it tried to shell my MTR. On the other hand, his AA gun promptly broke my MTR squad in 18C2. His initial advance was fairly cautious, not going CX with anything except an armored assaulting squad in the north. What little fire I had was ineffective (including a ‘2’ on an ATR shot which of course cowered to nothing).

My DFPh went very well, with a CH from my large MTR against the PzIII which immobilized it and caused the crew to bail out. The second shot was another CH which reduced and broke the squad in the hex, while also breaking the crew.

AP17-1A
Situation, Axis Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
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