PBr CG I “Who Are These Devils?” — July 13 Night

by on June 21, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

When Patch and I started playing through the scenarios from Pegasus Bridge, the intention was to follow them up with an actual Campaign Game from that product. However, by the time we had gotten through them all, Journal 6 had come out, with its own mini-HASL, “Primosole Bridge”. I was enthused by it, and talked Patch into getting a copy, and instead of playing a campaign game with British and Germans fighting over a bridge in Normandy, we played one with British and Germans fighting over a bridge in Sicily a year earlier. The original AAR was one big thread for everything, but I’m splitting it up into the various ‘dates’ here, otherwise it’ll be too long even for me. We got going in May 2007…:

And this one is likely to go on for quite a while. Patch and I just started the full 12-date CG for Primosole Bridge from Journal 6. I’m taking the Italian & German forces.

It’s going slightly slowly for us at the moment. It’s been a decade since Patch has played with Night, Gliders or paradrops, and it’s my first time for all three. However, the unit density for the initial scenario is low enough (compared to PB6) that once we’re past the night rules questions it should move pretty fast.

The initial scenario seems like it would make an interesting regular scenario, with a German convoy showing up in the middle of the Brit paratroopers taking out the Italian garrison. Setup was complicated for both sides, and odd for me, since the normal night options are in turn restricted by the fact that I have to be adjacent to the paved road and in a pillbox or building. And all the pillbox and trench locations are specified, so I didn’t bother HIPing them, as it’d only force Patch to re-read the SSR as he moved.

One turn into the date, and not much has happened north of the river. The paratroops scattered all over, and should be about to head for C Di Stephano.

The gliders landed in the south, and he got his reinforcements on turn 1. Not exactly what I was hoping for. However, Things have gone decently well. He discovered a minefield by losing a HS to it, and the losing the other half of the squad as they tried to rout out of it. The M23 pillbox’s MMG managed to nail a stack of his during my turn, breaking a 8-1 and two 648s. He managed to self-rally one of the squads on his turn and get the leader out of DM, so I’m not keeping them down for long. Meanwhile a lowly 346 squad has managed to keep another squad in melee for two CCPhs despite being Ambushed. I moved another group from O24 to the north end of the bridge. I did this in full (concealed) view of Cloak ‘A’, so I’m starting to wonder about him….


Situation south and around the bridge, beginning of British turn 2.


Town and British landings, beginning of British turn 2.

The really troublesome news is that the NVR has already gone down to 2, and I have yet to get a starshell off. Three attempts, and I think they were all 5s. This means he could get scarily close to the town north of the bridge before I see him.

We’re using the PBr VASL map available for download here, but we’ve noticed that the game-internal hexgrid has trouble. Much of it matches, but right at hexrow ‘O’ it suddenly shifts off a hex….
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , , ,
1 Comment

T1 Gavin Take

by on June 14, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Every once in a while, I get ambitious enough to cast around for a PBeM game of ASL against someone other than Patch. I wish he’d do the same, I’d like to see how he fares against someone other than me. Of course, if he consistently loses, that could get depressing. So, here’s my first completed game against a different opponent after I met Patch from April 2007:

I advertised for and got a second PBEM game a couple weeks ago. My esteemed opponent, Giasone, “–g–“, from Italy has taken the Americans in “Gavin Take” from ASL Classic. Progress is slightly slow, but we’re certainly far enough in for it to be interesting.

This is my second time playing this scenario. …But I can’t remember the first time at all. Patch had to remind me of the fact that we did do some face-to-face games.

I’ll freely admit I glanced over the scenario analysis in ASL Classic before doing my setup. My defense is inspired by it, but wasn’t dictated by it.

g’s opening seems fairly typical, so far he seems mostly intent on going around me, and getting established south of town before I can shift too much that way. The worst thing is that I’m committing silly rules errors that I should know better on.

Situation at beginning of German Turn 1, showing later movement (blue) and routs (red).

It’s been a mixed bag, he’s scouting aggressively with HSes, and I’m shooting at everything in sight. Thankfully my Prep took out both squads that he left on the hills. I tried to get the leader in W5, but only pinned him and then turned him heroic (which un-pinned him) on a MMG rate-tear. But now he’s back for more.

After playing the Brits for so long I’m having to continually remind myself to watch for cowering….
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , ,
 Comment 

Destruction on the Sea of Azov

by on June 8, 2012 at 11:12 pm
Posted In: Boardgaming

Had Jason over for a FtF day on Wednesday (again, he’s more available during the week than on the weekends). He’s recently discovered OCS, and is thinking about getting into that system, so he wanted to also give the East Front System another go. This time we went with “Battle on the Sea of Azov” from Kiev to Rostov, a short one-map scenario.

I hadn’t managed to get around to going through the rules again ahead of time, but didn’t have any real problems remembering how things worked, short of a few details, which says good things for the system, since it’s been a few months.

Jason decided he wanted to take the Axis forces, so I had the Soviets, without having a look at the victory conditions…. As it turns out there are three cities the Soviet hold at the beginning, and must continue to hold, and a further list of six cities they do not control at the beginning, and they need to take three of these, putting the Soviets in an unusual position of being on the offensive in 1941. Additionally, they start with four mandated offensives, and must make all four before the game ends. Alternatively, if the Axis takes 12 step loses during the scenario they lose.

The scenario also starts on the Soviet half of the turn, so all there is to it is to make it happen. Which is harder than it looks, since the Soviets attack and then move. I was able (with the help of a HQ to activate a good infantry division) able to put together a good attack near the south bank of the Dnepr on an exposed Romanian unit. It went well, with the Romanians losing two steps out of three and additional retreating into a swamp, while I took Balki, one of my six goals. Sadly, I forgot to declare the mandated offensive, though that actually saved me a step loss.

The next turn, the Germans concentrated SW of Melitopol (one of the three cities I needed to hold), and knocked out a defending unit, while taking another loss or two themselves. I realized that I was going to have to stretch my units to the utmost to continue the offensive, defend Melitopol, and maintain a line capable of not letting him just swing around in back and cut it out of supply. However, I figured I could just continue to roll up flank on the Dnepr while doing the rest. So, another two attacks (mandated this time), using all my available armor and all the activations the two headquarters could manage. This wiped out the remnant of the first Romanian unit, and retreated (without any real damage) a German ‘specialty’ stack that had been left vulnerable.

For the third turn, the Germans pounded their way closer to Melitopol, causing more havoc to both sides, but definitely putting an end to my forward defense. I reshuffled my units, developing a good stack in Melitopol itself, but I was unable to man the strongpoint just to the east, across a stream there. Meanwhile, I continued hammering at the north/center portion of his line, and got the step count up to 10. I also realized that I had gotten my three of six locations; they’re closer than they looked.

The Germans surged forward, and attacked Melitopol from three different hexes, and rolled terrible, being forced to retreat. Additional retreat orders kept them from taking any losses, but I scattered his forces to the four winds, generating a number of units that could be picked off with a little work. It also bumped him off the strongpoint, preventing him from destroying it, and allowing me to occupy it. In my turn, I had to take a while figuring out just what I could get where (actually, that took thought each turn), and moved in for the kill.

Quite literally, as I easily got the step losses I needed to ensure victory on turn four of six in the scenario.

It’s an interesting situation, and it’s a pity we didn’t get to see the ending where large German forces suddenly come in from the north edge of the map and presumably drive all before them, with the question being, ‘can they get to any of the goals in two turns?’

I think the main thing that Jason should have done is tried to interdict the headquarters. There’s enough armor running around to be dangerous, but without infantry backup, it will be hard to get a truly good odds attack together. He felt he didn’t have the air power to spare, but I’m slowly learning that the Axis just has to shut the Soviet HQs down any time there’s a chance of offensive operations. Keep the infantry from activating, and park two hexes away from the Soviet units, and there’s not a lot to be done. This will probably involve giving up ground, including the Soviet goal hexes, but then it becomes a balancing game for the Soviets: too much down south (likely) and the last minute reinforcements will (hopefully) cut into Orekhov; keep things up north, and the original force will grind into Melitopol. It’d be nice to give it another go, which is good, because I think everything past “Battle on the Sea of Azov” is a little long for a single day.

└ Tags: ,
 Comment 

PB6 It’s About Time

by on June 7, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

The final scenario presented in Pegasus Bridge is a giant sprawling thing that takes up the entire map, and presents the British forces from the beach finally linking up with the Airborne division at the end of D-Day. It’s a very good, if very large, scenario that I enjoyed over four months at the beginning of 2007. Get something to drink, this one is going to be long:

This AAR on the final scenario in Pegasus Bridge has been a while in coming. It’s a large scenario, with a lot happening spread out over a large area. So setup took a while for both of us. I’ve been busy with a con that I sat in the dealer’s room in… and I’ve been a bit intimidated.

That said, we did most (and certainly the most exciting parts) of my (British) movement last Wednesday, and are now finishing off the turn.

This last scenario features hard-pressed airborne troops still defending Benouville and Le Port when the landing forces from Sword beach start arriving on the scene. This happens late in the day, and Turns 9-12 will have a +1 LV Hindrance for dusk (11 1/2 turns… yeesh. I hope it’s long enough).

The Germans are technically defending, but have a marked local superiority in Benouville, while the contest in Le Port would be reasonably even without the reinforcements.


General situtation at the end of British Turn 1.

Patch is having some amazing luck, having broken a MTR, a MMG, a HMG, and a PzIVs BMG and CMG during his defensive fire. I haven’t broken anything, but I haven’t had any effective fire yet either (despite getting a BFF Improbable Hit), and have managed to loose a Stuart.


Detail of Benouville, end of British Turn 1.

Obviously, I’m going to have to start pressing the Germans back in a hurry, and then send what I can afford down the road to Benouville before the Germans really get into the swing of things down there.


Detail of Le Port, end of British Turn 1.
↓ Read the rest of this entry…

└ Tags: , , ,
 Comment 

Two Rounds of Ilipa

by on June 5, 2012 at 11:18 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Not being anywhere near ready with my setup for our next go-round in ASL, Patch and I played the next scenario in line of CC:A tonight. Actually, we managed to speed up a bit from our 1 1/2 to 2 hour games, and got in two rounds of Ilipa in 2 1/4 hours tonight.

I had the disadvantaged Carthaginians first, and Patch opened with a fairly nice set of cards: Order Mounted and Mounted Charge. This allowed him to move up on the flanks and pick off my elephants before I could do much. He did loose a MC in the process, but so did I.

Patch moved up, and mostly continued to press on the flanks while I tried to deploy out of the fairly dense formation the Carthaginians start in. A Line Command followed by Double Time put him in contact on his right flank and we traded two units each.

At this point, I had a decent hand of cards for fighting in the center, and had gotten two of the three heavies in the back deployed to the front. I just needed time to use them.

But he used a Order Four Units Right, did several attacks, and finally mopped up a couple of weak units with his one-block, leader-led, heavy. 4-7

Being earlyish, we immediately swapped sides and went at it again. I was disappointed not to have a strong opening hand like Patch had.

I started moving up on one flank, and picking on the Elephants, but Patch charged forward with an Out Flanked, followed two turns later with a Order Heavy. This lost him the elephants with a return of only three blocks (two through rampage) thanks to some very poor rolling.

I pressed a bit on my right, closed up with a Line Command… and did very poorly on the missile exchange that followed. We finally came into contact on the right, and bad rolls, combined with me having the only leader in the area put his flank into trouble, especially after I knocked out his heavy. However, I now had two one-block mediums there, and the heavy was lagging behind. I used a Double Time to get the Heavy into action and knocked out an Aux, completely collapsing that flank.

Patch surged forward again with a Mounted Charge, which knocked out both weak Meds, and nearly got one on the other flank. On the other hand, it weakened both Cavs on the left.

I Counter Attacked to cut off his cav units. I got both of the weak ones, and nearly got an Aux on momentum with a hit and three banners. A banner on the unsupported MC on the right finished the game. 7-2

Despite my better score on the second game, I sure felt like Patch had much better control of the first round than I did of the second. It’s certainly tough on the Carthaginians. Not only do they have the four card to six problem, but their setup is dense and against the back row, so they need to deploy the army into battle with a poor hand.

I ended the first round acting a lot more aggressive than was really wise, betting on good rolls to keep valuable units from being smashed, but I felt it was do or die time. It actually paid off. One more turn (which I nearly got) would have seen me smash two more units (one way or the other), and maybe bag Scipio on his second unit.

Actually, Scipio lost his first unit in both our games, though Patch evaded him onto a much better unit than I did.

I don’t think my hand ever really came together in the second round. Lots of vanilla “Order Two/Three/Four” cards, which work; but at six cards, you hope to have a couple tricks up your sleeve.

Patch never managed to get his center formation deployed, and was only able to use one of the Carthaginian heavies. I have a feeling that Carthaginian success rests on getting those heavies into action. Better use (and dice!) of the elephants would help, though with four cards, it’s going to be hard to get them out of the way of Roman archery without going on the offensive.

└ Tags: ,
 Comment