Archive for ASL

119 results.
Nov18

217 Gloster Hill

by Rindis on November 18, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

I finally got the ASL Korean War module a couple months ago, and Patch has had an interest since it was announced (he preordered it), so it was inevitable that we’d try that for our next game. Patch looked through the scenarios, and picked “Gloster Hill”, and I took the defending Brits.

It’s during the initial Chinese offensive, and the Gloucestershire Regiment is getting overrun and surrounded. The Chinese attack the board 82 hill with 16 squads, two crews, a good number of leaders, a few MGs, a captured British MTR, a couple DCs, and some Dummies as they come on board. They also get another squad and three HS with one leader, one LMG and more Dummies entering on either turn 1 or 2. The main force come in on three sides of the playing area, while the second one comes on on the fourth side where the British will want to escape. The British have six squads and four HS, and two squad-equivalents are Walking Wounded (the second time I’ve seen that concept borrowed from Pegasus Bridge for unrelated scenarios), an MMG, a MTR, minimal Dummies, three hexes of Wire, and a good number of foxholes. The Chinese have six turns to have more squad-equivalents at level 5(!) than the British, and the British can auto-win by exiting 6 EVP on turn 4 or later.

Between using part of the large, rough hill provided in the Korea set, and the steep hills rules, this would provide a climbing challenge for Patch, akin to what I’ve had with board 25 twice now. On the other hand, the short distance to go helps a bunch. Both of us had to mediate over LOS for a while at the start, since there’s a lot more up and down than normal to wrap our heads around. Double-crest lines abound here. The Communist Chinese also have fairly extensive special rules, starting with using step-reduction like the Japanese, and having to use Infantry platoon movement and restrictions on firing. However, there’s so many exceptions that this didn’t hinder them nearly as much as I had figured on. Lastly, they use two-tone counters with the ‘main’ color being… British tan, which adds plenty of extra aggravation to this scenario. (Especially since even their concealment counters are two-tone, which brings up the question of why they’re two-tone at all?)

The British get a ‘drum major’ (effectively a 0-0-9 hero who becomes a 8-0 if he ever moves, but causes Fanaticism within four hexes) by SSR in E4, and naturally I set up around that to an extent, with three surrounding hexes occupied, one by a squad and 9-2. A squad and a half backstopped the center board edge, and my MTR went in B1, where it had a good LOS down the eastern board edge. A couple of Dummies went out on the NW ridgeline (not my smartest move), with the MMG and 8-1 in I5, with a couple hexes of wire to slow down advances on the position. The north edge got a squad, two HS and the 8-0. Patch set up in four rough groups, the largest on the east side, and the smallest on the west, and two lose groups coming from the north. Technically, they can enter on any turn (“Turn 1 or later”) but Patch entered them all at once, while the southern force (which must enter on turn 1 or 2) waited for turn 2.

I was expecting some movement trouble from having glanced at the North Korean rules, but there’s a number of exceptions, including for entering the board. Not that Patch necessarily poured on any speed, being generally happy to AM and keep concealment in Steep Hills. Things were smooth until we had to think again about how many blind hexes some of these crest line were producing, and Patch starting having to wonder about how he was going to lug some of the heavier equipment up Steep Hills with crags. I had a couple shots, but nothing effective, though my MTR did surprise Patch.


Situation, Chinese Turn 1, showing full setup. Note the transparent Chinese sniper in G4 is a lot harder to see than the older dithered style British sniper in D6. N1 was an unnoticed crags hex and therefore illegal; it was shifted to M2 when we noticed.
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Aug02

AP73 Happy Valley

by Rindis on August 2, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I’s latest ASL fight revisited Action Pack 8, with “Happy Valley”, an early armor clash between the Americans and Germans (with a couple Italians thrown in) during the race to Tunis in November 1942. It’s not DTO, but there’s plenty of arid terrain, with brush turned into cactus patches, woods turned into olive groves (regular orchards are still that, and out of season), and all walls and hedges are cactus hedges (that’s a lot of spines on that board).

The Americans are defending the board 6a village with four squads, two MMG, two 81mm MTR, a 37LL ATG, two M3 GMC, and a T30 HMC. In addition, there are three HIP Stuarts who can set up nearly anywhere, and three more that come in on turn 1. The at-start Stuarts are meant for an ambush, as they are revealed in the same way as emplaced guns, and their TCA can be whatever is desired when first revealed. The Germans enter on turns 1 and 2 (BS is NA for the Americans, something I forgot during setup, and wasted a fair amount of time on…) with twelve squads (mostly 1st Line, but there’s three 5-4-8s), as passengers in trucks and halftracks, a couple of ATRs, DCs, six Pz IVs, three Pz IIIs, and two Italian AB 41 armored cars. They need to cross most of boards 2 and 40 to get at the victory area and take all the buildings there in 6.5 turns, and get random air support every other turn.

There’s three or so general approaches, the most obvious is right down the center along the board 2 road. There’s a fair amount of hindrance, but it’s a straight shot in more ways than one. One thought that worried me is swinging around the east side of the hill. It would be slow going for the trucks, but it would allow getting fairly close without worrying about defensive fire. To the west, the board 40 hill overlooks the victory area, and has a good amount of cover, and there’s a gully in front of the hill. Two of the Stuarts set up HD on level 1 hills, with the bow pointed along the hill for a quick getaway, and the third was in 2D7, where it could cover the D4 farm area, and possibly ambush that east route. One MTR was hidden inside the village with 6aP12 to act as spotters (with the MMG—I seem to have missed the second one when pulling counters), the ATG was in P10 to look down the center

Patch mostly went for the center route, entering just his armor on the first turn, and keeping the mounted infantry back. The first couple tanks started climbing the board 2 hill, while the first AC started down the center road before climbing up the shoulder, and ending next to one of my hidden Stuarts who promptly rolled a 10 and 11 to miss and reveal himself, and then malfunction the MA on IF. He also set up a park near the main road, and around of the base of the smaller hill, with one Pz IV a hex away from my hidden Stuart, with a Pz III with it’s turret pointed that way, and an AC behind the position.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left. The river is fordable, but neither of us bothered, especially with the north end having three places with no dry land. EC is “Dry”.
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Jun19

J114 The Marketplace at Wormhoudt

by Rindis on June 19, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing up To the Square, Martin proposed a scenario from Journal #8. It features board 12, and more notably, the marketplace there is not only not SSRed out of existence, but is likely to be a central part of the climax of the scenario.

The evacuation of Dunkirk is underway, and the Germans are starting forward again. The British are holding Wormhoudt as part of the perimeter, with twelve squads (mostly 1st Line), a HMG, MMG, a pair of light MTRs, a pair of ATR, and a 40mm AT Gun. A pair of A10s show up on turn 2, and then a pair of Matilda IIs on turn 4. The main defense is of the board 12 village, while the tanks have to cross board 16 to get there, and the Germans start in a small corner of board 19. They have fourteen squads (mostly 4-6-8 SS with a couple assault engineer 548 SS), with good leadership, the usual MGs and MTRs, as well as two DCs and and two ATRs. Two each Pz IIIs and IVs enter on turn 1, followed by a pair of unarmored halftracks towing 150mm INF on turn 2.

The Germans have 7.5 turns to get more VPs than the British, with each building on board 14 giving as many VPs as it has locations, with a bonus for the Marketplace, added to the CVP totals. The Germans also have a CVP cap of 45, which mostly means don’t lose the tanks and a bunch of infantry.

The Germans also get one free Smoke FFE at the start of the game, which he put in 19L8, and errored to N7. I hadn’t properly thought about that part, and it pretty well closed down my plan to keep him to a slow pace across the open areas of the board. I had set up concentrated on the woods line near the edge of board 19, with a Dummy off in the X6 farmhouse, and an ATR and MTR on my left flank, where they could cause some interference, and then presumably fall back… with little to no cover, but at long range. Naturally, the main line would need to fall back after a couple turns, and then the fight for the town would begin, with my ATG in 12P5, the HMG and 9-2 in O4h2 (the type of thing I’ve found to be too vulnerable, but at the opening ranges…), and the MMG over in U5. He opened up with his MTRs on the flanks of my main line, but missed.

His first move was a HS who was pinned as I set up a fire lane, but after that, he moved in his tanks, and used smoke dispensers (succeeding three out of four times) to create another barrier of smoke behind the FFE, and then the assault engineers put down another hex. This left me with little to do, as most of the shots were poor, if not outright blocked. Worse, shortly after the tanks drove CE through the FL with no result other than his sniper pinning a backfield squad, the LMG malfunctioned, shutting down the FL.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left, the victory area is between the blue dashed lines, and many buildings have been redefined as two-story buildings instead of multi-story. There should be a bunch of shellholes scattered around board 19, but both of us missed them during setup.
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May20

94 Bofors Bashing

by Rindis on May 20, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After invading Crete in Tavronitis Bridge, Tracey went and did it all over again with “Bofors Bashing”. This is a companion scenario that originally appeared in Annual ’89, and was reprinted in For King and Country, depicting the main glider landings at the nearby Maleme airfield.

This time the Germans get thirteen elite squads with decent leadership, LMGs, and a couple small MTRs. The British are defending the board 14 airfield with three 20mm AA guns, and the Germans need all three to be eliminated to win (a blown repair roll is good enough, so the Brits can end up eliminating guns for the Germans, especially with IF). Beyond the guns and their crews (which set up in the open unconcealed), the Brits have nine squads, a trench, three foxholes, and six wire (note: none of these can set up on a road), and three light MTR. The wind is blowing down the longer runway of the airfield, and the first two turns have moderate dust, going down to light on turn 3 before going away entirely.

I had the defenders again, and played around with a few ideas. My eventual defense had the AA guns on three sides of the airfield, pointing towards it, and my troops were disposed so that there were some defenders available for each gun. Since even the reprinted version was showing a tendency to British wins, we played with the German balance, which has the British player break three of his MMC before the game begins.

One AA went in 14G8, with the trench in 14H7, with a squad, and another squad in building I7. Also, a MTR team was in F9, and a foxhole+squad in H10. All this should do a good job of protecting the main runway if the Germans felt like landing directly on it, and made a good screen for the north end of the field. the second one was in M9, with the 9-1+LMG squad in a foxhole in N10, with wire stretching from there to 11J2. A broken HS was in N9 and a 8-0 and broken squad in J10. All of this protected the west side, where the Germans have a lot of room for a landing and coordinated charge. The third was in K5, to protect the second runway, with a (broken) MTR HS in K3, a LMG foxhole (w/8-1) in M4 and a MTR squad was in O4. This was generally to protect from the east, with the tree-line keeping anyone else from seeing out there. The south was relatively unprotected, but the last two wire were in O6 & O7.

Tracey didn’t land directly on the airfield, but seven gliders coming in south of the field, with one more coming in near the west tree line at 11M2, and four landing at the north end, and the last one going for the hill in 11B2. With three light AA Guns already in AA mode, things started looking bad for the Germans… until I remembered the dust rolls. My first two rolls killed a glider and damaged a second, but the dust lowered that to no effect and an evade. Despite some good ROF, I was unable to get any other results (lots of +3 dust). All the gliders came down safely, with the evading one going long from O7 to J9.

DFPh wasn’t any better. I managed to put some ACQ down with my MTRs, but couldn’t hit, or get any results against the gliders, despite all the shots available. Of course, Advancing Fire was just as hopeless.


Situation, German turn 1, showing the entire play area. North is to the left, and orchards are olive groves.
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Apr22

AP18 Village of the Damned

by Rindis on April 22, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I finally got around to revisiting Action Pack #3 recently, which has a number of inventive scenarios around the collapse of the Italian 8th Army in Russia. “Village of the Damned” has seven Italian squads and two and a half German squads left behind by the main retreat determined to sell their lives dearly as the Russians approach the village they’re sheltering in.

The action is on board 48, with the Axis needing to have at least one unbroken MMC at the end of 4.5 turns. Most of the squads are (secretly) declared Walking Wounded (an idea from Pegasus Bridge, where IPC is reduced, MF is limited to 3, and they have a penalty in CC). Leadership isn’t bad, and there’s some markers for Dummies, and a single Italian LMG for SW. The Russians have ten squads and two half-squads and a T-60, which enter from the east, north, and/or west on turn one with a MMG and two LMG.

Extra wrinkles: There is ground snow, two buildings are randomly set ablaze before things begin, there is a Mild Breeze blowing smoke from those buildings across the board. The Russians get to declare HtH CC once during the scenario.

Thanks to the extra distance, and short time frame, I’m sure the Russians don’t usually do much with the east and west, and my defense was generally oriented toward the north. The Germans all went on the west end, with their Dummy stack in K7, and the squads backing up the Italians. The German HS was in the gully, where he could potentially interfere with the Russian advance, or even try to stay out of LOS for most of the game, and then pop into the victory area at the last moment. My two forward Italians were a Dummy and a conscript squad (not WW, as I hoped he’d get a chance to run).

Patch forgot the setup instructions for a moment, and his first setup was to attack from the south…. Which said nice things about how mine was working. His revised entry stretched over a good portion of the north edge, but didn’t use the other edges at all, and the T-60 was in the middle of things to provide cover across the initial approach. I had forgotten the breeze during setup, and my LMG position was promptly smoked-in by the fire in R3, which was less of a problem than it might have been.

Patch’s first entry was straight into the gully, which was going to be more than a HS could handle, but there was still some hope of keeping him cautious. The T-60 came on with one squad doing Armored Assault, and he stopped once the LMG set up a fire lane across his advance. A HS searched U2 to find my conscripts there, who then pinned them on DF that cowered, and then broke a squad with FPF. A second squad moved up, and further FPF was a ‘2’! Which… being conscripts, cowered down to 0FP. Worse, that was HOB, and they decided they were out of ammo, and had done their part, and surrendered to the Russians. Flames spread to R2.


Situation, Russian Turn 1. The red lines are the victory area.
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Mar29

FB15 The Taking of Object 59

by Rindis on March 29, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Patch and I finally got back to Budapest recently, starting last December, and finally finishing up at the end of February. Speaking of, the date is 7 February 1945, so the Germans are suffering from food shortage (no double-timing, broken ML is down one), gas shortage (vehicles are immobilized on a 11+ DR when they try to Start), and Ammunition Shortage level 4 (3 for vehicles).

I got the attacking Russians, who are trying to take Object 59—the Southern Rail Station (since re-built). A secondary goal is to instead take three nearby prominent buildings in 6.5 turns. They get eighteen squads (from Assault Engineers, and elites, to 527s), three BVR squads, plenty of leaders, a .50-cal, a MMG, a FT, three DCs (one must go to the BVR), two 122mm ART, three T-34/85s, and one old T-34 M43. They also get 80mm OBA with a HIP observer. The guns come with trucks to haul them around with, and I tried, but as you’ll see, it came to nothing….

The Germans get ten squads (a mix of SS from 658 to 468s), and the Hungarians have six squads (Elite and 1st Line), with a PSK and DC, a 75mm INF, a FlaK 38 (20mm), two each roadblocks and trenches, three wire, and four vehicles: Pz IVH, Hetzer, Zrinyi II, and a Nimrod. They get eighteen mine factors, four fortified building Locations, and one HIP squad.

There’s eight buildings with random rubble checks, and Patch’s rolls knocked down a good part of the city, producing ten rubble counters (at least one of which was falling rubble), and ten debris markers. Patch’s defense largely used this rubble to great effect. There were almost no clear roads through the debris and rubble, and he put his roadblocks on the main two left: narrow streets NN18/OO19 and PP19/QQ20. Way off in the south part of the board were some buildings untouched by the demolitions that could be bypassed for a way for vehicles to get through without Bog (but not for Guns being towed, which I didn’t realize for a bit). He set up almost entirely behind the Kékgolyo utca, giving up a lot of space, but very secure in an extensively built up area. I had to complement him on such a fine cork in the bottle.

With not much visible from my starting line, one ART set up to force him away from PP19. I’d bring up men, tanks, and try to clear the roadblock, getting down the Greguss utca, putting pressure directly on the Rail Station. Five squads would head to the TT19 building to flush him out of there, while the rest would proceed along the south end of the map, though thinly-held territory to BBB15 (one of the secondary objectives) and then continue on to the other two. The primary goal was to take the three secondaries; there was still significant force there, but I could get there with enough time to defeat them. If too much pulled on to defend that section, re-orienting to the Rail Station was still possible.

I failed to contact my OBA on the first turn, and the only Prep was the ART missing ATT on PP19. Patch only had two shots during my MPh, but each one broke a 527; though after one shot, he was disconcerted to see a FT settle in across the street. Most of my advancing fire did little more than put down acquisition markers, but the FT got a result to break a Hungarian squad and the concealed leader with him.


Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left.
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Mar14

93 Tavronitis Bridge

by Rindis on March 14, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

When I asked Tracey what he might like to do next, he mentioned an upcoming date at Pegasus Bridge, and asked for something with gliders. My thoughts immediately went to the first few scenarios of Annual ’89, which were reprinted in For King and Country. They’ve long been on my general ‘to play’ list, so arranging for the first one was no problem, and Tracey took the assaulting Germans.

The eponymous bridge stretches across the board 8 river, which here is a dry Level -1 valley. The British (actually New Zealanders) sets up within three hex rows of the bridge, but the Germans win after 5.5 turns if there is no Good Order British Infantry (not MMC…) within two hexrows of the bridge. They get five elite squads, with two LMGs and three foxholes to defend the bridge, and given the record (even of the revised scenario), we used the German balance that says I can only set up one MMC in the valley. So, I concentrated my defense around the one large building (R9), with a squad+LMG up on the O8 promontory, and the other LMG squad down in R7, while another two were in/near the the building. The last squad was Deployed and guarded the other end of the bridge. I was a little nervous leaving them out there with no support, but hoped they could tie up more than a squad for long enough to be critical in this short scenario.

The Germans get ten elite squads, with 3xLMG and 2xlight mortars, which all come in by glider on turn one. The initial wind is coming from the northwest (the board ID # corner), so the gliders have the entire central stretch of the riverbed to land in (assuming no initial wind changes). Tracey landed in two groups, with six gliders landing to the north, and the remaining four to the south, hard up against the cliffs that surround the hexrow Y road.

The Brits have nothing on board that can provide Light AA fire against the gliders as they come down, but an SSR gives them two 4FP AA attacks from other nearby AA, which did nothing for me. No one in the northern group had any obstacles on their approach, and came down fine. The southern group had potential problems: W4 had an obstacle in the form of the level 0 river bank five hexes before the landing hex, and landed safely. Z4 only had three streambed hexes behind it, and there was a building on the stream bank, to add another level of obstacle, but only undershot the ILH by two, landing safely in the middle of the streambed (probably a heck of a downdraft). AA5 had a similar building problem, but four clear hexes between that and the ILH, and also landed two hexes short. BB5 was like W4: four clear hexes, and the Level 0 stream bank in the fifth. It rolled double-6 to land two hexes long, in Z6, which… really should mean the glider smashes into the base of the three-level cliff (it’d just be coming in way too low), but instead wrecked from landing in the blind hex of building AA6.

I didn’t know it at the time, but this was about the worst possible thing that could have happened, since the wrecked glider was carrying a squad and his 9-2.

However, I didn’t have any great shots at the downed gliders, and everyone else was able to disembark without trouble.


Situation, German Turn 1, landing in gliders. North is to the left, orchards are olive groves.
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Feb23

WO25 The Replacements

by Rindis on February 23, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

When Mark was deciding his picks for our next FtF game day in December, I showed him my recent purchases from the MMP Fall Sale, and that induced him to put a DASL scenario on the list. I eagerly picked that, and we started “The Replacements” from Winter Offensive Pack #9 on the 27th. We got halfway through, and then finally finished off the second half on January 25th.

I took the defending Russians, and was mostly set up when Mark arrived for the day. It’s September ’42, and the Russians have twelve 447 squads, one 45mm ATG (and two crews, I gave the spare crew an ATR), two ATR, a MTR, a few LMGs, and one HMG. They set up in a bit more than two DASL boards, with the Italians entering the new hill DASL board l (note that level 3 doesn’t exist here) with sixteen elite squads, a FT, a HMG, two MTR, six LMG, and six L6/40 tanks. They need to take two building buried along the back/east edge of the board in 5.5 turns.

Oh, and they get three squads, a 9-1, and two LMGs from the north edge on turn 3. You shouldn’t forget that like I did.

Start up was a bit slow as Mark looked at that fairly barren hill and tried to figure out what to do. My instincts were for a fairly spread out advance in the center with the tanks as cover. The edges have too many woods, so the tanks are fairly well channeled that way. I naturally had a few things on upper levels to see over the orchard, including the HMG in iI4h2. The board l tower is within the setup area, so a squad started there, and the ATR crew was in the north-side woods with the ATG buried in the orchard.

Mark eventually sent half the tanks around the south edge, successfully creating a TB through one hex of woods and coming out near some of my defenders. I really need to learn to not be so afraid of Bogging; it’s not as likely as it seems. If my advice had been better, there’d have been proper infantry to support them, and the charge through the center wouldn’t have been as bad.

Unfortunately, that’s what it was. Mark is an old SL-series fan, and still getting used to the realities of ASL, including just how much defensive fire units can pour out. The low point was three squads disappearing from a 3KIA on turn 2. (I rarely get to see a KIA result, and I’m not sure I’ve had a multiple KIA result actually kill multiple squads before.) At least his leaders were mostly intact. The forward ATR managed to kill a tank during my turn one, and then had to run for its life, but eventually recovered. He got one of his MTRs unpacked, but it malfunctioned.

This was all well and good, but I remembered I needed to cover the direct approach to the victory buildings down board i a little late. Turn three saw me with just enough in there to hold the Italians up, and one of the tanks raced through the middle to support them. One tank had halted in kH5, where the ATG bounced a shot off(!) before shocking and eventually burning it. The second ATR was in kL4 and burned one of the separated platoon of tanks even as the infantry made their way down the hill.


Towards the end of Italian Turn 3.

We kind of raced through my turn 3 before packing it up, and then continuing a month later with the Italian turn 4 wind change roll.

My ATR crew had caught up with the tank speeding down the middle, but missed as it continued to the intersection between the victory buildings, and it was joined by a second tank, while the other ATR shocked the third one before it got anywhere (eventually succumbing to failed rolls). The remnants of the main Italian force charged into the big orchard, forcing the bulk of my attention to remain there. I stopped most of them with a combination of various squads and the MTR (who was firing at minimum range from kE0). Final Fire thankfully finished off the threats that remained, the ATG breaking (at range 1!) the FT squad, and the HMG taking care of a couple more, including one that was ready to leap on my ATR crew in CC.

Most of his men streamed back to the board k/l border, but some had to surrender; between that, more surrenders the next turn (from much the same thing), and a squad of mine that had had to surrender back on three, this was by far the highest number of prisoners I’ve seen. The reinforcements suffered from indecision. Mark wisely didn’t care for his chances at getting anywhere with what I had gotten in the area, and didn’t even have anywhere great to advance to (with him in aC1 and me in E2, and the nearest other cover being all the way in F0).


Before the HMG opens up.

He did still force me out of E5, breaking a leader and squad. And turn 5 was something or a repeat, with Italians going through the orchard, me shooting them up, and some of them surrendering. He still couldn’t dislodge me from the blocking position, but had his two surviving tanks on hand to help… until one malfunctioned the MA in his turn. I got a squad and 7-0 of my own into one building, and one tank broke them with IFE fire in prep, and then the other crew abandoned ship to try and take the building. I had enough on had to break them during exit, but it was closer than things had looked on occasion. He also charged the other building, but couldn’t get through my fire, despite having a fair number of distractions to throw at me.


At the end; G1 and I1 are the victory buildings.

Afterword

So far, the ROAR record is leaning pro-Russian on this one. I think some of that is the Italians need some smart handling. I certainly wouldn’t mind giving them a try at some point, as I think there’s things to do, but even with going through the woods and such, getting over that hill is going to be rough.

The Russians also have MOL capability (vs tanks only), and combined with two ATRs and the ATG that may be too much anti-tank capability. Maybe take away an ATR, and SSR that crews can’t voluntarily abandon vehicles so they are more survivable, but only really support?

At any rate, the Italians have enough bodies to make sure the Russians need to put up a real up-front defense, so that flanking force reinforcement adds a lot of life to this scenario. It was certainly a great time for the both of us, and the new SK-DASL boards are great.

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Feb17

K The Cannes Strongpoint

by Rindis on February 17, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

When I asked Tracey after Might Makes Right if there was anything he wanted to try next, he asked to learn about pillboxes. That immediately brought to mind the old SL scenario that features a fairly solid defensive position to take, and redone for ASL in the pages of The General. I suggested it, and he agreed to take the Americans in that. Technically, this was a teaching game, though with a lot of things I’m not familiar with, so it was the blind leading the blind.

Of course, there’s a lot more than pillboxes in there. The Germans are defending the board 2 hills with seven pillboxes, 18 hexes of wire and 90 factors of mines (15 hexes at the minimal 6FP allocation). They man these defenses with a single 838 squad, 2×467 and four crews with two each LMG, MMG, HMG, and a 75mm ATG. The Americans are digging out this bypassed unit in southern France with twelve 747 paratrooper squads with 4x.50-cal, 2xFT, 4xDC, 3xBAZ, two OBA modules, as well as a pair of Shermans, a pair of Priests, and four M3 halftracks. They have five turns to make sure there’s no Germans with a LOS and normal range to an edge road hex, but have a 20 CVP cap.

There’s already a good AAR for this scenario out there, and I referenced that as I started figuring out my setup. I decided for more of a ‘zone’ defense, with the pillboxes placed at cliffs where possible (forcing NCA attacks at close range, or longer-range fire duels where I had a TEM advantage), and wire mines were deployed to cover the inevitable empty lanes. I found that I would have dearly liked another pillbox or two, but it’s not as if there would have been anyone to man them. I missed the bit about everything in a pillbox being Known/not-Known together, so I could have scattered around some OB-given “?” in the woods. I did use some Dummies to ‘fill’ a pillbox with the HIP Gun, which still kept that from being obvious.


Diagram of the defenses. Blue lines are the CAs of the pillboxes; red lines are the boundaries of the ‘open’ paths in. North is to the left. …And there’s an error that I’m not going back to fix: O4’s CA is actually to N3/O3, not O3/P3.
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Jan29

9 To the Square

by Rindis on January 29, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Martin and I went back to a mutual project to play through more of the initial Beyond Valor scenarios after I grabbed a hill in Italy from him in Regalbuto Ridge. This time was scenario 9, “To the Square” set during the Russian advance into Warsaw near the end of the war, and is a ten-turn slugfest on four boards, which took us nearly five months of PBEM to get through.

The Germans defend across three boards (1, 20, and 21) with fourteen squads (split between 467 and 447s), good leadership, two 50L ATGs, six hexes of wire, and a roadblock. He also gets 8 “?”, 2 squads can set up HIP, and he gets to place six rubble counters in the forward two boards, and then randomly generate two more hexes of fallen rubble. The Russians attack from board 8 with twenty 447 squads with adequate leadership (not too bad for Russian mixes, actually), four T-34/85s (w/9-1 AL), and a module of 80mm OBA. Oh, and both sides get a HMG, 2xMMG, and 3xLMG. The Russians have 10 turns to take building 20H3, or exit 30 VP off the opposite (west) edge.

Martin had the Germans, and set up a loose line on board 1, all at level 2. There was a noticeable gap in the I-O section, but it was backed up by a second line at the edge of board 21. There was also back up for the south half in 1Z9, 21L8, and 21J5h2. Invisibly, HIP squads went in on the north and south ends of the board 21 line, with the wire protecting the victory building from a front assault, the roadblock at the south edge of 20, and the ATGs near the north edge of 20.

I debated possible courses of action for a while (including rushing into that I-O gap, or setting up on the level 2 portions of board 8 for long-range 85mm, MG, and OBA spotting), but eventually decided to go hard against the south edge, looking for a board exit. Holding the flank with the board edge would be good for the start, but I figured a shift north to cross the board 21 graveyard would probably be a good way to go. In fact, if Martin built up too much in front of my south-edge drive, I would drive NW and assault the victory building. A functioning T-34/85 is worth 7 EVP, and with all four being 28, just shy of the 30 VP goal; the AL brings them up to 29. I hoped to keep them intact and use Riders to carry a squad off-map and bring me over 30, while they could also help with a quick shift in focus, and I set up with one tank having Riders.

I prepped a T-34 at 1X2, and naturally missed, but at least it should start forcing him out of there (Op Fire would have been smarter). Thinking the south gap was a bit large, I did some searching as I prepared to send tanks into unknown territory, and found nothing. I moved into 1Z2 to draw fire… and did, surviving a PTC. A second move to X2 got SFF in X1 for no effect, and another squad got into the building through Y3.

The T-34 with Riders dashed forward to BB6 with exactly enough MP to unload, and to my surprise Z9 did not fire. Presumably he didn’t want to come under accurate fire from the tank, but I felt keeping me out of building Z6 would be worth it. I showed Martin had the right I idea when the MA got a ‘2’ in AFPh, but didn’t manage an Unlikely Hit with a subsequent 5. Overall, the initial turn went very well, as I figured to have at least one broken squad from the rush on 1X2, but that didn’t happen. If only I knew where the AT and HIP were….


Situation, Russian Turn 1, showing the hidden parts of German setup. North is to the left, 20H3 is the one hex with a Level 3 Location. Two T-34 moves (which started in 8CC10 & DD9) are not shown for clarity. AL is with ‘C’ in 1Z3. My Sniper is out of position thanks to forgetting to move him after changing plans.
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