Posts Tagged Beyond Valor

7 results.
Jul06

1 Fighting Withdrawal

by Rindis on July 6, 2022 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing “Lost Opportunities” with Mark, I took him back to the beginning. The first scenario for ASL, 1 “Fighting Withdrawal”, is a very strong one that really does show off maneuver and firepower. Set in the initial Finnish thrust towards Leningrad at the start of the Continuation War, both sides are trying to exit off the far edge of board 21, while fires rage behind the Russian lines.

I played it with my then-current roommate when I first got the game around ’96. As I recall, I came up just shy as the Finns as I could match, but not beat, the Russian exit points, and the Finns need to exit more off the far edge of board 21 than the Russians. I can still remember one squad generating heroes on back-to-back morale checks, and Colin was asking, “Why am I even shooting at these guys?”

I had the defending Russians this time, who have a six column setup area (V–AA), with 14 squads, three leaders and MGs, and 8 OB-given “?”. They also get two HIP squads, but I forgot about that during setup. They suffer from ammo shortage, but also have a SAN of 7 versus 2 for the Finns. The MMG went in the back behind a wall, concealed squads went in the rear of each flank, and a mostly concealed line went up front, with leaders on each flank, and the 7-0 in the rear to help catch anyone routing back. The dense buildings make for easy initial routing, though it can become a problem later.

The Finns have 16 of the ‘super’ squads (648, spraying fire, assault fire, self-rally, and they’re not even elite!), with three leaders, and one more MG than the Russians. Across a ten hex frontage, that’s about where you want to double up and put the MGs. Mark avoided stacking, and had a fair amount slightly in the rear.

Mark opened by firing everything with an LOS, and broke and ELRed one of the visible squads, while pinning the other, and revealing and pinning the 8-0 and the LMG squad with him. Movement was minimal, other than one squad shifting flanks.


Situation, Finnish Turn 1. North is to the left, and the goal is to get off the south side.
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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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Mar30

5 In Sight of the Volga

by Rindis on March 30, 2019 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

In my efforts to finally play all the original Beyond Valor scenarios for ASL, I’ve had two attempts on scenario 5, In Sight of the Volga. As is popular for the system, it’s a Stalingrad scenario. This one takes place in September ’42 on boards 1 and 20, with the large board 20 building counted as a factory near the banks of the Volga. The Germans are trying to get into the factory, and have more GO squads in it with a LOS off the board edge than the Russians have GO squads in the building, presumably so they can prevent further reinforcements from being ferried over.

Which is a concern here. The Russians start with 20 squads (in a mix of 1st Line types), with decent leadership, a pair of MMG, a 76mm INF, some “?”, 6 trenches, and 4 squads HIP. Every turn, they roll a Reinforcement DR, and if the colored die is less than the turn #, they get that many 628 squads, and the total DR determines if a leader comes with them. Also, the Russians are suffering from Ammo Shortage, and if the DR is doubles, supplies arrive, and the shortage ends. There are ten full turns, so while the Germans have time, there will be a good number of reinforcements over the course of the scenario.

The Germans are attacking with 25 467 squads, with good leadership, including a 10-2 and 9-2, and comparatively few MGs for the number of squads. Considering the distance to go, the relative number of squads, and the reinforcements, they have a tough job. But the initial concentration vs a defender that needs to defend across two boards can do a lot. Also, they can exit men off the board to stop future reinforcements (at a rate of stopping one squad per HS exited). Complicating matters, a fair number of building hexes have been rubbled, with more rubble spilling out into the streets. The Russians also have a SAN of 7(!), while the Germans only have a 3.

Back in 2013, I advertised for a game of this, and set up with Luke Sineath, and took the attacking Germans. He concentrated his defense on board 20, so I lined up on board 1, and did my best to overrun the defenders there. This is what things looked like at the end of the first movement phase:

As you can see, I was directly threatening the forward few squads on board 1, and was already moving around the end of the line. Things continued in this vein, with the Russian defense struggling to re-orient, and a nasty fight developing in front of the factory. Sadly for me, he had good luck with his Reinforcement DRs, so he was able to feed 628s directly into it before I could arrive. The INF turned out to be in 20B4, and that clear shot all the way to L9 was a major problem for me. By turn 5, almost all resistance outside the INF and the factory had collapsed, and I was struggling with how to leverage what was left of my forces to blast my way inside before the reinforcements got even worse.

That is what things looked like during my Turn 5, when Luke just… vanished. On me, and several other PBeM players. I’ve always regretted this game going unfinished. I’d managed to pry apart the defenders, but the trickle of new 628s meant I still had a challenge, and I had a real struggle in front of me.
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May25

7 Dash for the Bridge

by Rindis on May 25, 2015 at 4:11 pm
Posted In: ASL

My primary reason for asking for a new ASL PBeM game was to get more early scenarios done, so I has specifically asked after scenario 7, “Dash for the Bridge”, from Beyond Valor. A couple people warned of it not being very fun, but DaveH contacted me on GameSquad, willing to give it a go. Neither of us was set on sides, so I did a random roll and took the Germans. Since the record is lopsided, we’d already decided to use the Russian balance.

And… it is an unusual scenario. Two city boards representing Warsaw in September 1944 are set up end-to-end, and the Russians either have to exit three (out of six) tanks off the far end in 11 turns, or get 10 CVP while taking less than twice as much damage as they do. The Germans defend with 8 SS squads, some MGs, a roadblock and two 37mm AT Guns, all HIP, and can’t have more than half their forces on the first (eastern) board (20). The Russians have six 447 squads and six T-70s. And as an extra wrinkle, an SSR allows the Russians to exit a number of vehicles off the north or south edge roads, and make a secret dr. That many turns later, the Russians come back, a number of road entry hexes further west equal to dr. This can result in them having successfully exited while offboard, but if the ‘turn of entry’ is later than the end of the scenario, it doesn’t count. But, the Germans can hold a number squads (or manned Guns) from their opening setup, and modify the secret dr for where they come back (but not when) by one per squad/Gun. The Germans have to keep out a leader for every 2.5 squads/Guns not used, and the Russian balance says that the Germans must sacrifice their best leaders.

Figuring out how to set up the Germans drove me to distraction for a while. Not only do I have to stop the Russians, but I have to deal with the fact that they could end up in my rear at some point. The first thing was the roadblock. The only real chokepoints on these boards are at the board ends, and the far east was out of bounds, and the far west has no proper location for a roadblock. So I put it in 20B5/C5; the only place where there’s one road, and there’s buildings to connect a roadblock to. I wanted some decent long ‘shooting galleries’ for the AT Guns to fire down in the crowded terrain. One went in 21H9 as the final ‘last ditch’ defense: if the Russians re-entered on the last possible road from the south, they’d have to drive through its CA at point blank range, if from the north, they’d go through H1,where I set the Gun’s boresight. If they drove through the H5/H6 traffic circle, I’d probably have had a shot in L7 as well. I eventually put the other Gun in 21FF8, with the boresight in FF2. Other than sending all the tanks offboard, the Russians should have to go through that area sooner or later, and the only real worry was it getting outflanked by an advance along the south edge. Also, a HS was in GG7, who would help push the gun if needed.

In fact, I noticed that the road structure on board 20 naturally flows towards the south as you advance west. So the area near the roadblock turned into the major focus for my resistance, and designed to discourage an advance along the south edge. A forward HS was in V4 (I tended to set up in what woods there are, to aid PF shots), as that was the main avenue of the board, and a squad+LMG with the 8-0 was in N8. The 8-1 was with another squad and the HMG in 20E7h2, with the boresight in J7, as that was nearest cover if he went into the J8-L8 intersection. He could see most of the area, with clear terrain to the south, and with the other group, probably make the Russians decide to go around, to the north. Squads went in 21EE3 and 20A4, to try and surprise the Russians once they did go north. The 7-0 and a squad went in 21EE6 as a final reserve for the main point of resistance. A squad went  in 21X0 to cover the Y1 entry, and would move back to the next couple as needed. One squad and the 9-1 were held offboard to give the re-entry dr a –1.

And if Dave exited off the south edge early (20Y10 or Q10), I could be in a lot of trouble.

To my surprise, Dave organized the radioless T-70s in to three platoons of 2, instead of two of 3, which would make it easy to exit a potentially game-winning force. He probed on a broad front, and only got to the edge of my legal set up area on the first turn.

7-1R
Situation, Turn 1, showing my full setup (all HIP).
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Jan24

6 Red Packets

by Rindis on January 24, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

Continuing our tour through Beyond Valor scenarios, Patch and I picked up “Red Packets” in February 2012. It’s effectively the original introduction to vehicles in ASL, and has a good reputation as a fun, fast-moving scenario. Better yet, it’s a meeting engagement, which is a scenario type Patch and I always enjoy.

Set on the opening day of Barbarossa, a German recon group stumbles upon a Russian recon and AA section moving to set up a defensive line. The Germans (me, in this case) enter the west side of board 22 with a Pz IIIF, PSW 231, and SdKfz 251/10 (37mm AT gun) with a HS with LMG and leader on board. The Germans also get a 9-1 AL, which I put in the obvious Pz III. The Russians enter next on the east side with a motorcycle platoon, a IAG-10-AA, and five (two platoons) of BA-8s. They’ve got numbers, bigger guns, but, even less armor, and the BA-8s are radioless, reducing tactical flexibility. Patch needed to either get 18 EVP off my end of the board, or kill all three of my vehicles.

I was having a really off night as we started, mixing up east and west, forgetting that the Germans only get a half move as they enter…. It was bad. I stuck mostly to the northern route, trying to secure that bridge before Patch got there. The south bridge was entirely out of range, and the jumble of wooden buildings down there promised a hide-and-seek fight no matter who got there first.

Patch drove his entire motorcycle platoon over the south bridge, unloading in O8. He backed them up with the understrength BA-8 platoon, while the other parked in the center with the lead vehicle parked behind a wall to take a pot shot at my PSW. …or so we thought. When Patch actually fired, we were both surprised to find the LOS blocked by O3. Meanwhile, the IAG detoured to the northern road, and parked to give him a shot down that road if I continued forward.


Opening moves, Turn 1.
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Jan17

2 Mila 18

by Rindis on January 17, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

In February 2012, Patch and I picked up our next ASL scenario. Neither of us had actually played “Mila 18”, from Beyond Valor before, so we decided to go for that.

Dealing with a 1943 uprising in the Warsaw Ghetto, it is a situation that hits a raw nerve with many people (for good reason), but the scenario itself is interesting. There are no support weapons of any kind. Each side is nearly even in numbers (10 SS squads to 11 Jewish partisan squads; three leaders each). The SS squads have double the firepower, but are fragile (ELR 1, and they go all the way from 658 to 447 upon ELR failure), and all the partisans have HIP. An additional twist is that German units leave their guns behind when eliminated (in the form of labor counters). The partisans can recover these and promote from 337 partisan squads to 447 Russian squads, and they can be promoted to 458s. These promoted squads retain their ELR of 5, and split into HS/Disrupt if they fail ELR instead of reverting to the weaker state.

Feeling a bit lazy for brain-busting setups, and as I pointed out to Patch, I’m usually the one who gets to sweat over them (like in the last night scenario we did), I took the SS, and Patch set up the Partisans.

The Germans win either by getting double the CVP of the partisans (with a minimum of 10), or by Mopping Up 27 of the 33 buildings in hexrows L to Y of board 20 in nine turns. That latter condition requires an average of 3 successful Mopping Up actions a turn, and there is no way to be in position for any until turn three, so it’s closer to four per turn. There’s only eleven units to mop up with (after before-game Deploying; more could be had by Deploying HSs during the game), and anyone who Mops Up is TI, and therefore not in position to Mop Up the following turn. All that makes for a very tight schedule, and it seemed to me the point of it is to keep the partisan player from just hiding in odd corners where he can’t be found, and the Germans can’t generate 10 CVP in time. So my mission was to go in, and round up the partisans more directly.

Thanks to the HIP and German entry from off-board, we had our fastest Game Turn 1 ever, with no Partisans showing.


A quiet patrol, Turn 1. The partisans are somewhere between the light blue bars….
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Jan10

3 The Czerniakow Bridgehead

by Rindis on January 10, 2013 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

While we were gearing up for “Six Came Back”, Patch got a copy of Storm Over Arnhem, and we tried that out next. I have to say it didn’t do a lot for me, despite finding the idea of the system interesting. But it may be that I just need to get more experience with the game. In any case, after that we went back to ASL, and a scenario from Beyond Valor that I hadn’t played before (I can’t remember if Patch had or not) in October 2011.

“The Czerniakow Bridgehead” is a late ’44 scenario with the Russians having entered Warsaw, and are now defending it against a German counterattack with Partisan help. The Russians set up 15 squads on the east (bottom) side of the board 23 canal, with 12 Partisan squads backing them up on boards 20 and 8. The Germans get 15 squads, 7 leaders, the usual mix of MGs, and three crews (presumably for the HMG and MMGs) on the west side of the canal. The Germans have 10 turns in which to get 20 FP factors onto board 8 while earning more CVP than the Russians.

I ended up with the Germans and went into the scenario with a lot of trepidation; the last time I’d attempted to attack across a stream it had not gone very well, and I was worried that I’d spend too much time trying to get someone, anyone, across the canal. There are four bridges across the canal, two of which are close to each other (4 hexes), and troops trying to cross one could easily support an effort against the other. I looked at Patch’s set up, set up the Germans… experimented a little… went back to the original set up…. And scrapped the entire thing and started over, this time orienting around the bridge at the opposite side of the board. The two-bridge area was the obvious choice, and Patch had obviously set up for it. So I decided to go to the other end of the board and try to cross at H4, with a HMG and MMG upstairs to try and break his defenders and interdict his movements across the board. I also put enough near the P7 bridge to make sure he had to defend that as well.

A final complication for Patch was that at the end of the initial RPh, all the Russian (not Partisan) squads take NMC. Patch rolled somewhat poorly with two squads pinning, six squads breaking (all but two of them undergoing ELR failure), one Battle Hardening, and one going berserk. Importantly, two of the four squads guarding my chosen bridge broke. The other two were actually my planned targets for the 1st level MGs, and Patch obligingly broke both of them under my fire, with the addition of ELR failure and CRs to boot. The only thing standing in my way was an 8-0 leader. I finished off Prep with a shot from the second MMG that broke a concealed Partisan squad in 20Q9.

Most of my movement was getting everyone lined up at the canal across the bridge and through the first couple of blocks on the other side. I did lose a HS to fire from his only remaining unit in the area (J8), but the remainder of the squad passed the MC and kept going. Over at the P7 bridge, I tried pushing with a couple of squads I had available for the task, figuring I would at least get him to reveal some of the Partisans concealed on board 20. Patch’s fire was very effective, causing ELR failure on both units, and getting a K/1 with the residual on the second one.

My advancing fire broke his 8-0 (reducing him to a 7-0 in the process), forcing him and the HS adjacent to surrender.


Situation, German Turn 1.
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