A84 Endless Struggle

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

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

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

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

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

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


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

by on February 14, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

Many Star Trek novels are basically ‘just another episode’. An adventure happening alongside all the normal ones of the TV series. Some of them go after bigger subjects, like this one which presents Kirk’s evolution as a command officer into who we see during the first season of TOS. And it does it very well.

There’s a few problems. The novel is really two stories (with some connections) told in a jumbled-up fashion. This is generally well done, but the switching between various portions of five years can get dizzying, and while I was fine with it (at least once each section of plot got itself going, and I could orient myself), I wouldn’t blame anyone who found it too much to follow.

We get to see Kirk’s first encounter with Bones, how he gave him that nickname, and his first command of a smaller ship (USS Sacajawea), as well as his initial mission on the Enterprise.

This last is trouble, since we already have novel about that, Enterprise: The First Adventure. This novel doesn’t even give a nod to that one. Overwriting portions of it would be one thing (like the background of Kirk’s previous mission to getting promoted to starship command), it wouldn’t have taken much to step around the time frame of that novel and leave interested readers to do whatever they must to reconcile the bits around them. Instead we get completely conflicting versions. Its more of a shame since the two books have very different aims. TFA features the entire main cast, most of which have their own troubles at the start of the famous five-year mission. That is, it’s focused on the crew coming together as a whole, while Bennett’s book is focused on Kirk and how he became the commander we see on screen. This is well done, and he points out that the Kirk we get in first season is more driven and less relaxed than what we see later, and what we generally think of with the character, and the novel even points up that arc.

USS Sacajawea is from the listing of scouts in the old Star Fleet Technical Manual. It doesn’t really indicate what a “scout” is; the class is externally identical to a destroyer, but with only a fraction of its armament. Star Fleet Battles decided it was packed with extra electronics so it could detect things like fleet movements at a greater range. That would have been handy in the course of the novel, as unknown alien vessels are managing to get through the Federation’s outer sensor net undetected. I can’t blame Bennett for not going with that idea, but on the other hand, he never really gives an idea what a scout’s role is as a ship. The best guess from what’s given is that it’s simply a cheaper, lighter-duty version of a destroyer, meant for use along the unknown reaches of the frontier.

Those “gripes” aside (that’s dignifying these comments with more force than I really intend), the plot is well done. We have some truly alien aliens, with some interestingly different technology, that makes for a good sense of mystery and suspense. We have some action, we have some very good characterization, and the overall plot (once you sort it out) is good. In a way, my real complaint is that it’s better than The First Adventure, which is an old favorite of mine, which it sort of replaces.

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D The Hedgehog of Piepsk

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

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

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

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

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

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

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


Situation, Russian Turn 2. The objective is to take all the stone building Locations.
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1809: Thunder on the Danube – Part 1

by on February 6, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: Books

I really have to wonder at the level of obsession that makes someone write so many words on one campaign, and so few on anything else. But, Gill’s obsession is our gain, as his books are worthwhile additions to the studies of Napoleon’s campaigns.

This first volume covers up up through 23rd April 1809, and the aftermath of the Battle of Eggmühl. Before that, we of course get the general build up, and the political pressures that caused Austria to go to war with France, again.

That first part is very informative, as we are treated to the crosscurrents operating in Austria, and how a commander who didn’t feel the Austrian army was ready got swept up in tide anyway. After that we get a nicely detailed account of the initial Austrian offensive, and all the problems that slowed what was supposed to be a sudden, daring, lunge over the border into a fairly slow march.

After this, things break up a bit, as the maps in the book just can’t handle the job of backing up the narrative. There’s a good number of maps, but they are not horribly well-done, and often don’t make things much clearer, as it’s often impossible to find the places being referenced in the text.

That is by far the worst problem here though. The text and descriptions are great, the narrative is a bit slow, thanks to the fine level of detail being presented, but it does not lose coherence in spite of that. I will note that he also stays focused on the main theater; I thought he might borrow some from his earlier With Eagles to Glory to fill in what was going on away from the main armies and at least present the Tyrolean revolt in its bigger chronological context, but no. Obviously, it would have expanded an overstuffed series even further, but I could do with the further context. Even so, this is not to be missed by anyone with a real interest in the Napoleonic Wars.

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Two Rounds of Aquae Sextiae

by on February 2, 2023 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: CC:Ancients

Back in November, Patch and I went back to C&C:A after our latest SFB adventure. Up this time was the Battle of Aquae Sextiae from Expansion #2. This is the climatic battle of The First Man in Rome, so the situation was familiar to me. The Germanic tribes have an army stretching across the entire board, with plenty of Warriors and Auxilia, and filled out with some LC. The Romans are largely Mediums on a line of hills, with some LB in front. There’s also an ‘ambush’ force off board which can come in on the German base line with play of a Leadership or Order Lights card.

I had the Germans for the first game, and unfortunately I forgot to record a log. The game started as you might expect, and my initial archery was a bust. But once I got to close combat, really good dice quickly gave me a lead, and then finished off the game with one Roman flank and the center in big trouble. 6-2

Patch started the second game with Order One (Heavy), and gambled a LC against a MC (with a hill, and the MC being far back, not a bad gamble). I Ordered Three Left to surround and eliminate him. Order Two Right eliminated my MC on a lucky two-banner roll, and he still didn’t have the distance to take it. I Ordered Lights to bring in Marcellus on my left, but couldn’t do any damage.

Line Command split the German army in two, with his right going to confront the ambush while everything else moved up. Marcellus lost three blocks in two units, but did five in return. A second Order Lights let me start shuffling Marcellus out of the corner, and he lost his Lights to a bad retreat, but knocked out an Aux and MC in return for a block on an Aux. Patch Ordered Three Center and knocked out a Light trapped in front of the main line.

I Double Timed the bulk of the Mediums down the hill into his center, knocking out an Aux and doing two blocks to another, but took five blocks on two Mediums in the process. Then Patch Double Timed, and forced my (now) 1-block Med back onto the hills, losing a Warrior in the process. Worse, while he finished off the other wounded Medium, an attack on an intact one did two hits… and took four hits in return. 6-4

Afterword

Sadly, it’s been a little too long, and I don’t remember any detail of that first game. I do remember my dice went super hot any time I attacked in close combat, and the Romans just collapsed under that. The second go was not so uneven on the dice, but I still got quite lucky. I used a First Strike with the 1-block Medium, but it turned out not to be needed, as Patch couldn’t hit.

The scenario certainly has interest. The Romans are facing a large force, and the hills help and hinder them. On the other hand the Marius Legions rule give them some extra ranged ability, if they can get the chance to use it. As ever, the ‘ambush’ trope has trouble in this system, as they’re at least as likely to run into problems retreating. Two Order Lights in my hand helped here, but the Line Command ended with them largely cut off anyway.

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