ASL Journal 12 features a number of interesting scenarios, one of which reuses part of the Journal 2 Kakazu Ridge HASL map for an action in Syria. After our latest game, Patch and I were kicking around ideas for DTO or French, so it was pretty natural for J184 “Dayan to Meet You” to come up. The scenario uses a bit under a third of the original map, and has one overlay to add a stone building to the mix. Several ‘debris’ hexes are treated as hammada (the art used isn’t bad for that either).
The scenario goes 5.5 turns, with both sides getting reinforcements for the bulk of the game. Also, there’s a +1 LV for the first two turns of the game. The French have an 25mm AT Gun in the stone building, with a light MTR on the roof, and then also have three green squads in the main victory area. On turn two, they get two first line squads in trucks, on turn three, they get an AMD 50 AM armored car and two and a half elite cavalry squads with an 8-1 (their only leader with a negative modifier).
The British are trying to either take all six buildings on the board (the stone one, and five wooden ones in the French setup area), or take a bridge slightly behind the French setup area in GG8. They enter with two elite squads and two HS, with a 9-1, hero, and a DC (possession of DCs also make British troops Fanatic by SSR). On turn 2, they get another two squads and 8-1, on turn 3, a squad and a half with an ATR, and on turn 4, a squad, hero, and DC.
Patch took the Vichy, and setup in his assigned area, using spare “?” to create a Dummy stack, and fill out another to look equal to his main 8-0+squad+LMG stack. I contemplated a rush down the east side, towards the bulk of the buildings, but went with a center advance with the idea of most of my troops being out of sight of the main village while getting closer to it, and also being able to support a quick rush on the separate stone building in Z13.
With my guys only visible to Z13, Patch didn’t have a lot of fire against my advance, but what he had was effective, pinning a HS in AA15 (and keeping it from advancing adjacent), and his MTR broke the LMG squad as it stepped onto the map. I ended up grouping everyone for large firegroups against Z13 without doing much else.
Situation, British Turn 1 showing the full board. The roundels are the limit of the French setup area.
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