A33 Tettau’s Attack

by on October 4, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Continuing our tour of Market-Garden, Patch and I went to the second scenario in June 2009…:

This one may be very short….

Patch and I have played this one FtF before, but I can’t really remember anything of it. But, it’s the second scenario in the A’91 Market-Garden set which we’re going through, so here we are again. I lost last time as the Brits when Patch managed to nail my feet to the floor at get past me. So this time I’m the Germans.

Both of us look at this one and wonder just how the British are supposed to win, with the German advantage in numbers, and 11 turns to exit a mere 3 EVP.

Poor German dice look to help a lot.

I set up with a couple of sacrificial squad and a half groups on either flank. Their main job was to keep him honest as he’d have to make sure both board edges were adequately covered or risk one group getting through and beelining for the exit. The rest clumped near the center, looking to see a way forward. Patch put the 9-2 and MMG in the center of the village at Q4, with a backup force nearby and more off to the north in S7/R6.

His first shot was the MMG at my northern flankers, and broke the MMG on a ’12’.

Past that, he spent time developing his flanks.


Situation, DFPh, British turn 1.

My movement started out fine, other than a HS eating a 2KIA, but that’s what he’s for. Then Patch nailed the north flank. The squad that started out all the way to the north broke, and being a conscript squad, disrupted. The 7-0, squad and LMG meant to really hold that flank down broke, with the squad being reduced on a ’12’. Then, on a later shot, I rolled a ‘2’, and Patch’s sniper activated and wounded the 7-0.

Holding together that flank could get complicated….

And after surviving the rest of his First Fire, he got a 1KIA in DFPh to kill another squad and it’s LMG.


Situation, end of MPh, German turn 1.

The second turn started poorly with Patch getting his MMG back, and went downhill from there. He actually prepped everything he had (except the unit at P2, which has to be his 8-0), and got some sort of result on every shot. My lowest roll was a 5, and my average was 9.75, with three 11s and a 12 in there. At the end of it, I had 2 squads, 2 HS, and my 8-0 intact. The ELR of 2 is being very punishing with quality reductions all over the place, and my 8-1 leader reduced to an 8-0, eliminating the only negative modifier I had.


The disaster, British turn 2.

My plan no longer exists….
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A32 Zon With the Wind

by on September 27, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

“Zon With the Wind” always looked like an interesting scenario to me. Actually, it always made me think that it’d be at home among the Paratrooper set, except for being set well after Normandy. At any rate, it turned into one of our bigger projects, as we went through the entire Market-Garden set from Annual 91, though we didn’t formally make a ‘campaign’ of it. We stepped off in June 2009…:

Okay, I still need to finish off the tale of our last game. But I’m going to try to pick at that while keeping up with this one.

After some hemming and hawing, Patch decided upon the Germans in “Zon With the Wind” (from a list of suggestions from me). I’m thinking we may very well go through the whole A’91 Market-Garden set, though I don’t know if we’ll do the ‘CG’ bit, or even stick to the same sides each time.

I have to say, tonight is not anything I’m going to celebrate as wonderful tactical acumen from me. While thinking through the scenario, I remembered the fact that I could deploy, and had good smoke capability (which certainly was not true last game). But I forgot both of them until turn 2. It sure would have helped on turn 1.

So, I went in with no scouting HS, and no smoke. Thankfully, the dice weren’t too kind to Patch, and one squad walked through a couple shots unhurt. My leader stack was going to head to J2, a nice, safe point from which to overlook the battlefield. Patch put down a FL, which did nothing. Then he revealed R4, which I get the idea he wanted to still be concealed for turn 2. He got a K/1 on a long-range shot and managed to wound the leader and break the squad. All things considered, not too bad a price for the muff. And as a last bit of luck, a squad in H2 managed to get ‘?’ while out of LOS, but not in concealment terrain.


Situation, end of American Turn 1 MPh.

The German turn 2 got exciting. R4 fired on M2 to no effect. Patch then got aggressive with his east flank, sending one stack to the edge of the American turn 2 entry area, and another stack shifting position into its former location. One thing you’ve got to give Patch: he makes a wonderful German small-unit commander—he’s as aggressive on the counter-attack as the Wehrmacht could hope for.

He next tried to empty out building M4, but that was the entire reason why I had two adjacent squads of paratroopers across the way. With some hot dice, I broke both squads as they tried to move, and a ’12’ caused the 7-0 to ELR to a wounded 6+1. The dice are definitely trying to make up for my blunders. He also sent his west-flank force into Crest Status at H4, which complicated what I wanted to do.


Situation, end of German Turn 1 MPh.

I took some time to figure out how I wanted to arrange my turn 2 forces. I also recalled that he had 5 dummy ‘?’. I realized that the T1 stack was probably a bluff as was one of his two flanking forces.

My broken squad came back, setting me up for a fairly active turn. The first thing was to send a HS into T1, which, indeed, was empty. My first attempt to press into his broken troops was repulsed when Patch revealed L6 and broke my squad in Bypass of K5. Suspecting that Patch hadn’t put all his Dummies on the same side, I advanced the recovered squad to the rear-side of his Crest Status counter, and then advanced my concealed squad up a hex. When he refused to even strip concealment, I was as sure as I could get.

My attempt to push in the center didn’t go so well. I smoked Q1 from off-board (planning to Advance in if the roll went badly), but fire from R4 still broke my leader, though it didn’t affect the squad.

My last move was not so good. I moved from O0 (offboard) to P0 and promptly got fired on by the first 88, which broke the squad. I was trying to save the extra 0.5 from O1, even though it wouldn’t have mattered. Bleh. 😛

I advanced a squad, leader, and dm MMG into N2h1, where it should prove an annoyance to Patch. My concealed squad in the west found that indeed there was no one home. And my main forces were well into the hole I’d blasted in Patch’s defenses and re-DMing everything in sight.


Situation, end of American Turn 2 MPh.
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E Hill 621

by on September 20, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

“Hill 621” is a classic scenario from the original Squad Leader game, and is much enjoyed in both the original and ASL formats even now. Like all the original scenarios, it’s not very historical, but it has a great ‘feel’. Both Patch and I had played it before, but not in ages, and not against each other. We got going at the end of March 2009…:

Well, Patch and I started our newest game last night. We’d talked over various possibilities while the previous game was wrapping up, and we eventually decided to visit an old classic, even if it will take a bit longer than the last couple games.

We’ve both technically played it before, but it’s been a decade or so for Patch, and the last I played it, it was SL scenario 5.

Neither of us had a strong affinity for a side, so we rolled off and I got the Russians.

With 48 squads… it was hard to come up with much operational subtlety, so I mostly lined up at the edge of board 3, and am trying to keep everyone out each other’s way until attrition shakes out a few bodies.

The pre-game MC broke two German squads, which promptly rallied in the RPh. The Germans set up near the west edge of board 4, in three stacks. With his middle stack, he made a mistake bypassing some woods 15 hexes away from the leaderless MMG I had set up in 3N1h2. The resulting 1MC was passed by the -2 leader and the first squad. However, the latter activated the Sniper who promptly Pinned that squad. The remaining two squads seeing their comrades hit the dirt pinned and broke, effectively halting the entire stack before they could get to the board 2 hills.


Situation, German Turn 1.

The broken German squad promptly rallied in my RPh. My only Prep was the MMG again, which pinned the squad that had advanced up to AA4.

Thanks to his middle group being out of position, I had a lot of freedom to move. They tried to fire a couple times with tricky LOS, but they were blocked. Overall, I had four squads broken, one by the Sniper. Not bad at all….


Situation, Russian Turn 1 after MPh.
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J102 The Yelnya Bridge

by on September 13, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

I can’t remember how Patch and I decided upon our next scenario, probably we looked through the latest Journal (Journal 7) for something interesting. We actually ended up posting separate threads around the same time, so the beginning is a bit more redundant that normal, getting going in March 2009…:

Once again, Patch and I are doing something quite different than last time. From an early AH West Front scenario of epic turn count, we’re doing 4.5-turn recent MMP East Front action.

Sadly, I’ve decided this principle should extend to my own play. I’m making goofs all over, starting with my setup.

The Germans can either capture 3 buildings or exit 16 VP off the north edge in the 4.5 turns. There’s really only two areas suitable for exiting, and one takes them near the victory buildings. So, I ended up overly-focused there; especially as the secondary route would force the vehicles to cross a stream without a bridge.

I should have remembered that both of us lost our fear of Bog Checks during Pegasus Bridge. At least I had some idea of what I’d do if he did go that way. Because Patch looked at all the brown uniforms in the village and decided he wanted nothing whatsoever to do with it.

On the other hand, I really wanted to defend the village. I don’t like the chances of this mostly-conscript force going up against SS troops.

I like the spot I found for the ART. Good field of view, some cover. It’s been attracting some fire, but nothing’s rattled the crew yet. Sadly, I took a chance on an IF shot (had a decent chance to hit), and malfed the Gun on an ’11’.


Situation, RtPh, German Turn 1.

My turn 1 was, of course, occupied by my redeploy to the east. Once Patch saw the Trench in G6, he felt sure that it had the ATG. Not a bad guess, I’d nearly put it there. So, I wanted to bug out, and I didn’t want him to see what was really there. Sadly, I completely missed a LOS, and Patch got to see the squad and Commissar anyway. Not only that, but I got so focused on that action, I completely forgot to move out the revealed conscript squad in R5.

Thankfully, all Patch managed to do to them is send them Berserk (it would have been a surrender, but these are SS). They also got a second ‘2’ on the next MC, but ‘zerkies don’t check HoB.

The other good news was the MA on his PzII malfunctioning. The bad news was him breaking my MTR team. I’m not sure I’m ever getting that MTR back. Oh and he revealed a dummy in P3.


Situation, end of DFPh, Russian Turn 1.

Advice for anyone else playing this as the Russians: Don’t use my setup.
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91 Ad Hoc at Beaurains

by on September 6, 2012 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

When I first saw the scenario “Ad Hoc at Beaurains”, I was fascinated by it. Four full boards, sixteen turns. It should be massive, but the number of actual units is actually small, and no units begin on the board at all. I talked Patch into trying it out long after I first saw it in January 2009…:

As a complete switch from the city fighting of VotG, Patch and I decided on this unusual scenario from Annual ’92 that was updated in FKaC. The idea of a four-board scenario that starts with nothing on board (except the German Sniper) has always fascinated me. Sixteen turns is a little frightening, but I figure with the absurdly low counter-density, much of the game should pass pretty quickly, even purely by email.

Given a choice, I went with the British, and their all-armor force. I figure, win or lose, I’ll learn something.

I was right, I’m learning a lot. Like, don’t start an armor scenario during a week where you’re too busy to really look at the tanks you’re using. 😛

Anyway, with one email, and one-extra long Monday-night session, we’ve gotten to the beginning of turn 4.

A quick note to those unfamiliar with the scenario: It’s May 1940, and the British are counter-attacking Rommel’s 7th Panzer Division. Only the tanks manage to get through, and Rommel is throwing anything he can find in their way. Mostly, this is 37mm ATGs and some light tanks. Since the British have 6 Matilda IIs and 6 Matilda Is, these are entirely inadequate to insure a kill. The Germans do get a pair of 88s sometime between turn 6 and 11. The Brits have to exit 30 VPs to win, with every 2 CVP caused effectively counting as one EVP.

So, exit about four tanks of 12, not much to stop them, 16 turns, sounds simple, no? We’ll see—in a straight line, there’s 40 hexes to go, and the Matilda IIs have 9 MPs. The Matilda Is have 6, and can’t even use the road bonus.

A final note to remember when looking at the screen shots, is that there are no gullies or bridges on board 5. We can’t find a way to turn gullies off in Vassal though.

Turn 1 was calm enough as both forces started entering. I decided to enter in two groups towards the north end of board 5.


Situation, end of Turn 1; also shows German movement on Turn 2. Remember, gullies do not exist.

Then I got to choose whether I wanted the Matilda Is to come in behind the first group, or if I wanted to have them on their own, and see if they could either sneak through, or distract the Germans from the main force. In the end I decided to see if I could get the IIs to clear the way for them.

One thing I hadn’t realized until Patch pointed it out, is that Matilda Is are radioless, so they’re going to have fun with Platoon Movement. It was also around here that I started figuring out the costs for some things and realized that hills are a real challenge at +4 MP when you only have 9 to begin with, never mind 6.


Situation, end of Turn 2.

As it is late here, I will update with the much more exciting Turn 3 later. (Hopefully tomorrow night.)
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