Posts Tagged For King and Country

5 results.
Feb18

95 Descent Into Hell

by Rindis on February 18, 2021 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing the first two of a three-set of scenarios on Crete from For King and Country (and originally from ASL Annual ’89), Tracey and I went for the third, after swapping sides. So this time I’m the invading Germans, and I need to take the bridge from the first scenario, and take out the AA guns from the second one.

This version gives me some interesting extra decisions.  It’s a nine-turn scenario (longer than either of the originals), and the Germans arrive in two waves of gliders, on turns 1 and 4. It’s fairly obvious that the first wave came in on the guns, and the second on the bridge ‘historically’, but there is nothing that demands that here, as the gliders can come in anywhere you want in the three-board play area. The British on the other hand, are limited to setting up in accordance to their original areas in the first two scenarios.

His setup around the bridge was not dissimilar to mine (though definitely different), while the AA Guns were parked at the ends of the runways and facing outward, with everyone else in nice easy reach of them. (That kind of invites just landing on the runways as the AA has to change CA to fire on them at all, but the Germans will probably take some point-blank -1 shots as they get out, which certainly scared me off.)

After some debate, I opted for going after the guns first, and possibly bringing on the second wave to help with that, and then everyone can rush the bridge in the extended time at the end (our play of “Tavonritis Bridge” showed just how fast that defense can collapse). So I concentrated on the southmost gun, with a few landings on the long board-11 hill to keep the NW busy. The AA fire was completely ineffective (common, and helped by the same beginning-of-game dust as “Bofors Bashing”), just leaving me a couple of landing DRs for my more ‘daring’ placements. Naturally, I rolled 6-6 for the main one, causing it to go long, and land past the woods it was supposed to land in front of (and on top of a British unit!). Another one in that set landed one hex short, putting it in a sunken road, but both did well on the crash drs. In the other main group, a couple went a bit long, putting one in brush, and one on top of another glider, and one was a hex short, but all of those landed fine as well.

Tracey’s only DFPh fire was at the glider that landed on top of him, and even TPBF was unable to harm the glider. Similarly, my only fire was in the same hex, and couldn’t do anything to him. An old Gamesquad thread wonders if there’s a CC counter immediately placed from my guys emerging on top of his, but it never came to a solid conclusion. We played it as ‘no’, which allowed me to advance out of the hex (the British were still concealed from me having no units on board when they fired, and I didn’t want to accept a likely Ambush).


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left. I need to clear the British from between the blue lines on board 8, and destroy the three AA guns. There is Moderate Dust for the first two turns, and Light Dust for the third. As most of the action was on board 14, any time I don’t give a board with a hex number, that’s where it is.
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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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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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Jul12

100 Regalbuto Ridge

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

After finishing up “In Sight of the Volga“, Martin and I arranged a second game. This time we went to the For King and Country set, and picked scenario 100, “Regalbuto Ridge”, which originally appeared in ASL Annual ’89 as a Squad Leader scenario, and was turned into an ASL scenario in Annual ’90. The original seems to have been very pro-German, and the reprint shortens the scenario by a full turn. The limited stats on it suggest the balance is much better now.

It’s July 1943 and the Brits have taken a dominating ridge in southern Italy. Naturally, the Germans are counterattacking to retake it. The Brits have fourteen elite squads with good leadership, a MMG, six LMGs, a 51mm and a 76mm MTR to hold the board 2 hills. The Germans have fourteen elite squads, plus six 838 Assault Engineers, a MMG, five LMGs, an 81mm MTR and an off-board 75mm INF (one leader starts HIP with a Radio and uses Spotted Fire for the INF, which can’t malfunction by SSR). The Germans start anywhere on board 3 (which adjoins on a short end), but the real reason for all of board 3 to be there is that the INF is off the far end of that board, and counts it’s length as part of the range.

The real twist on this ‘assault the hill’ scenario is SSR 2: All woods are brush. There’s almost no cover out there. There’s a few buildings scattered around at level 0, but the Germans have to advance in full view of the hill, and the British have nothing to work with either, unless they can dig in. The Germans need to have more squad-equivalents on board 2 hill hexes than the British at the end of the game to win, with units at level 3 counting double. I saw a partial AAR on Grumble Jones’ blog (only talking about the middle of the game), which comments that elite troops were dying left and right. Having taken the attacking Germans, this did nothing for my confidence….

Martin had what looked to be a fairly solid set up, with the large MTR and MMG on the back peak of the hill, and all of level 3 occupied. There was a cluster on the mid ‘arm’ of the hill, and the lighter MTR and most of the LMGs on the forward slope. I mostly lined up in one area, where I could crawl through some brush towards a cluster of houses that I could use as a jump-off/rally area. A secondary group (five squads, including one Assault Engineer and a 8-0) would work the other side of the ridge with level 2 hex 2F7 as the initial goal. The MTR was in 3DD2, which as a level 2 hex had decent LOS to much of the hill, while the MMG was in CC5 with the 9-2 leader. As soon as things were supressed at all, it would move forward, and the -2 with light cover would make even long-distance fire scary. The radio was in DD8, where it could see much of the hill, especially level 3, and stray shots shouldn’t be a problem.

I tried putting smoke down on 2I5 to provide cover for the advance, but it seems no one thought to pack smoke rounds for the MTR. It did manage to hit H3 with normal HE for no effect. The INF turned out to be firing at range 41, and so needed a 5 +2 shot (after getting radio contact) with ROF 1; it never actually got a hit the entire game, though I maintained contact the entire time with the exception of one player turn. The MMG did better, with a 1MC, but his LMG squad passed it without trouble.

As a sign of what to expect, my initial probing HS along the south flank was fired on three times, with each shot getting a result. And they passed both MCs and the PTC. It wasn’t until my fourth move, and his fifth shot that he pinned an 838. It wasn’t until my ninth unit moved that he finally broke a squad. In fact, it wasn’t until fairly late when disaster struck at all, when an NMC broke my 8-0 on the south side (my only leader down there), and pinned one of two squads moving with him. This did set off his sniper, who then broke an already-moved HS. Overall, the total carnage from a large number of shots, and moving through lots of residual with -1 and -2 DRMs was a broken 8-0, a broken 468 and broken HS, and three pinned squads.

Martin’s dice weren’t that bad, but mine were better. He averaged ~7.85, which isn’t horrible, and he never rolled over a 10. The problem is there was one roll under a 6 (5). That still should have been enough to cause more problems than it did, but I averaged under 7, though I never rolled a 2, and rolled 4 (his SAN) once. There was also a good number of doubles in there, which would have hurt anyone other than the Brits a lot. My one problem was trying for Infantry Smoke three times, and only getting it once; the first squad pinned before getting in position, the second one rolled a 6, and the third finally gave part of my line some cover. There were only two Final Fire shots, which were about the same. Advancing Fire was a little limited, but I had two blob attacks that pinned units.


Situation, German Turn 1. Note that all of boards 2 and 3 are in play, but the rest isn’t generally important here.
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Sep06

91 Ad Hoc at Beaurains

by Rindis 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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