Posts Tagged Journal 8

4 results.
Jun19

J114 The Marketplace at Wormhoudt

by Rindis on June 19, 2020 at 12:00 pm
Posted In: ASL

After finishing up To the Square, Martin proposed a scenario from Journal #8. It features board 12, and more notably, the marketplace there is not only not SSRed out of existence, but is likely to be a central part of the climax of the scenario.

The evacuation of Dunkirk is underway, and the Germans are starting forward again. The British are holding Wormhoudt as part of the perimeter, with twelve squads (mostly 1st Line), a HMG, MMG, a pair of light MTRs, a pair of ATR, and a 40mm AT Gun. A pair of A10s show up on turn 2, and then a pair of Matilda IIs on turn 4. The main defense is of the board 12 village, while the tanks have to cross board 16 to get there, and the Germans start in a small corner of board 19. They have fourteen squads (mostly 4-6-8 SS with a couple assault engineer 548 SS), with good leadership, the usual MGs and MTRs, as well as two DCs and and two ATRs. Two each Pz IIIs and IVs enter on turn 1, followed by a pair of unarmored halftracks towing 150mm INF on turn 2.

The Germans have 7.5 turns to get more VPs than the British, with each building on board 14 giving as many VPs as it has locations, with a bonus for the Marketplace, added to the CVP totals. The Germans also have a CVP cap of 45, which mostly means don’t lose the tanks and a bunch of infantry.

The Germans also get one free Smoke FFE at the start of the game, which he put in 19L8, and errored to N7. I hadn’t properly thought about that part, and it pretty well closed down my plan to keep him to a slow pace across the open areas of the board. I had set up concentrated on the woods line near the edge of board 19, with a Dummy off in the X6 farmhouse, and an ATR and MTR on my left flank, where they could cause some interference, and then presumably fall back… with little to no cover, but at long range. Naturally, the main line would need to fall back after a couple turns, and then the fight for the town would begin, with my ATG in 12P5, the HMG and 9-2 in O4h2 (the type of thing I’ve found to be too vulnerable, but at the opening ranges…), and the MMG over in U5. He opened up with his MTRs on the flanks of my main line, but missed.

His first move was a HS who was pinned as I set up a fire lane, but after that, he moved in his tanks, and used smoke dispensers (succeeding three out of four times) to create another barrier of smoke behind the FFE, and then the assault engineers put down another hex. This left me with little to do, as most of the shots were poor, if not outright blocked. Worse, shortly after the tanks drove CE through the FL with no result other than his sniper pinning a backfield squad, the LMG malfunctioned, shutting down the FL.


Situation, German Turn 1, showing the full board. North is to the left, the victory area is between the blue dashed lines, and many buildings have been redefined as two-story buildings instead of multi-story. There should be a bunch of shellholes scattered around board 19, but both of us missed them during setup.
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Nov30

J123 Charging Chaumont

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

Way back in 2010, Patch and I decided to play another DASL scenario, and picked J123 “Charging Chaumont” from Journal #8 as our next game. Unfortunately, VASL didn’t properly support the DASL overlays at that point, and we ended up playing J124 Cobra Kings instead. A couple months ago, we finally remembered to get back to this, now that the overlay extension has no real problems with the setup.

Patton’s drive to relieve Bastogne during the Battle of the Bulge runs into opposition, and a mixed force is sent to take the town of Chaumont. The Germans defend boards b and g with five 2nd Line squads, a crew, two MGs, a PSK and eight “?”. Two more squads, an 8-1 and LMG show up on turn three along with two of four vehicles. The Americans are trying to take the large E1 building on board b in six turns and have eight and a half squads (mix of 667 and 666), a HMG, two MMGs, three BAZ, a DC, two Stuarts, two halftracks and three of five vehicles.

The vehicles need a special mention. Both sides get to choose what they want before setup (and keep in mind the Germans don’t see theirs for three turns). The Americans have a choice between four Shermans (one with 9-1 AL, one with 76L, one ‘fast’ 15MP one, and one with a stabilizer), and a M16 halftrack. The Germans choose between a StuG III w/8-1 AL, a JgPz IV, a StuH 42, and a Hetzer. Also, conditions are muddy, and all hedges (which there’s a lot of) are barbed-wire fences from Kampfgruppe Peiper & Pegasus Bridge (mud = +0.5 for open ground, and crossing barbed wire is +1 MF, for not uncommon costs of 2.5 MF for an open ground hex!). The overlays add a four hex orchard (while clearing out some fences), and a two-hex woods near the second-largest building.

Patch took the defending Germans, and set up with a string of units in the north, and another in the south, with one set of three “?” in bH4 and a final set in bE2h2 in the victory building. It was a fairly solid-looking defense, especially as I didn’t really think about how much of it was liable to be Dummies with my off-board entry. I entered in roughly three groups: the smallest was to head down the H0 road and approach his forces in the bC4 building directly (if slowly) while the main force entered around the gE-G area with the stabilized Sherman (I wanted the on-the-move accuracy to try dodge his anti-tank capabilities), a Stuart and both HTs. The last group was two squads with toys and 8-0 along with the Sherman+AL and M16, entering in gA3, where they could immediately duck out of LOS in the sunken road and come up near the D4 stone building.

Reality wasn’t so kind. I sent in a scouting HS, and then a squad to hold down the wire in gF0/F1 to let another squad through. With all the mud, and wire, getting much of anywhere was a challenge. Armored Assault not only provided cover, but allowed for ready traversing of the barbed wire for a 7-0 and MMG squad. They got through the orchard and into the road where the MMG in bD4h2 opened fire to ELR the leader to 6+1, and pinned the squad. The MMG kept rate, and so fired at the next group as it entered at gA3 with Armored Assault for a NMC that pinned both entering squads, and Patch’s sniper went off to pin mine. The M16 entered behind them and stunned to a NMC from the residual.

The entire north force was stopped before it had a chance to get into the sunken road.

Thanks to the mud, the main group had a bit of a traffic jam, and I had some trouble figuring out where to park everyone, but ended up with fairly good positions for the main elements. Thanks to the earlier excitement, the southern Stuart and squad made it to the gK2 bridge without incident. Not at all to my surprise, bK4 was a PSK squad, who thankfully missed a shot at gE4, and couldn’t find a PF. Naturally, the hex got a couple of Acq markers in AFPh, but the gyro-equipped Sherman malfunctioned its MA trying to get a ranging shot on the MMG nest.


Situation, American Turn 1. North is to the left, EC are mud, orchards and grain are out of season, all roads are paved, and all hedges are barbed-wire fences.
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Dec20

J124 Cobra Kings

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

After the wrap-up of the last scenario (which coincided with a bad week for me), I asked Patch to put forward a scenario suggestion. He came up with the interesting J123 “Charging Chaumont”, which we had to cancel be the deluxe overlays don’t seem to have been redone for the new VASL deluxe boards yet. Instead, we ended up with J124 “Cobra Kings”, with me as the attacking Americans.

It’s Christmas Day 1944, and the Americans are attacking into Assenois in the drive to relieve Bastogne. I enter into a pair of deluxe half-boards with a mixed force of Shermans, halftracks, and infantry, and have five turns to clear one of two full boards that the Germans set up in of any GO Infantry. This is at dawn, so there is a +2 LV for the first turn, and a +1 for the second turn. In addition, I pick hexrows, and the Germans roll to see if any buildings are rubbled in them; finally, all Germans without a leader are TI for the first player turn, those with a leader are merely Pinned.

I enter in two turns, with the first turn’s forces being a 76 M4A3E2, two 75 M4A3E2, four halftracks, an armor leader, a hero, 8 squads of infantry, and various toys. Since all Infantry must enter as Riders, some of them have to be on the Shermans. Patch gets 12 squads, two 88s, and two Hetzers enter on turn one.

Patch initially forgot to HIP his roadblocks, which forced a re-setup, and a move away from his first plan. Sadly, we also forgot the +2 LV for most of my turn, which did hurt some. I am continuing my habit of failing PTCs and MCs with Riders, but passing all the Bail Out MCs.

Taking a look at things, I decided I liked the western (bottom) route better, mostly because I knew a fair amount of my force would end up using the sunken roads, and the east one forces turns. One squad of Riders was pinned and Bailed out successfully, only to be broken by Patch’s Sniper, while another Broke and Bailed Out in the middle of the entry board. I managed to unload five squads + hero successfully (one of these was due to a mis-count on a Sherman’s movement—the error was probably more than made up for by forgetting the +2 LV on the shots that pinned/broke me).

In the APh, I advanced squads into both ground-floor stairwells of building bC4, Encircling two groups of units on Level 2. I also advanced a MMG squad into D2, while the Hero that had been with them stayed outside with his BAZ. The one flame set by the pre-game rubble checks went out in the wet conditions.


Situation, American Turn 1, showing full setup.

The leader that had been broken in fD3 immediately came back in my rally. The squad didn’t, but getting them on my turn would be fine.

For Prep, Patch fired a PF at my Sherman parked in the middle of the main road, and thankfully missed. bD2 took a 36FP +2 shot at C3 and killed the halftrack parked there. However, the crew survived, and the Hero passed the 4MC. The bad news was that his Sniper went off again, and re-DMed the broken squad in A4.

His defenders on the east end started moving up from dM2. Some of the middle defense in dJ4h2 went downstairs, and the rowhouse defenders in bE4 skulked and split up. Both Hetzers entered on the east road and took up covering positions out of sight.

My defensive fire was notable for a hit on D2 from my Sherman in B3, after revealing the 9-2 AL (…this, also, was a mistake; we forgot the +1 for my overstacking). All three squads and the leader failed the resulting 2MC, seriously unhinging his defense. Worse, there was no good routing from it.


Situation, German Turn 1 in the west.


Situation, German Turn 1 in the east.
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Dec13

VotG21 Defending the Voentorg

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

Valor of the Guards came with an impressive number of scenarios. However, still more were under development, and have since appeared in the ASL Journal. Patch and I have tried a couple out, starting in July 2010…:

With the appearance of new VotG scenarios in the latest Journal, a return to Stalingrad was contemplated. This particular scenario is an interesting one. The Germans have three turns to take a single ground-level Location of building Q10 (at the south end of 9th January Square). If they fail, they can try again, needing two Locations in three turns. If they fail that, they get three turns to try to take the entire ground-level of Q10. Each try is preceded by a mini-RePh to clean things up.

For some insane reason, I took the offense in this crazy scenario.

Setup is restricted by the fact that all German MMC must be at least 2 hexes apart. I set up the MTR in the backfield, looking across the square. The HMG and 7-0 was on the second level of M8 to see most of the perimeter of the square without Hindrance from debris. A couple squads were tasked to advance up the west side to the Russian lines. My reinforcements enter from the north end, with the leaders clutching DCs, wondering if they’d ever get close enough to use them (note: by SSR, all the infantry enters as riders—about four months earlier than the rules normally allow).

Patch set up no one actually in the Voentorg (to avoid a pregame PTC, to be sure), and a nice group on both wings of it.

The opening fire isn’t bad, the HMG nails his ATR crew in the S8 trench, breaking him, but can’t force a CR. The bulk of the action of course centers around his efforts to stop the oncoming StuGs and their riders. Amazingly, while three squads pin, and the 9-1 leader breaks, causing them all to Bail Out in open terrain, they all make their Bail Out MCs and SW checks. I was expecting someone to die crossing the square, but it doesn’t happen. Of course, the only planned unloading I get to do is the 9-2 in Q5.

With most of Patch’s fire occupied, I try moving up on the extreme flank of his position in N11. A SFF shot misses the first AMing squad. A second-liner comes untroubled by the residual, but breaks to a HS on a k/2 FPF shot. If the roll had stuck with the rest of Patch’s defensive fire, he should have broken…. Finally, I stroll a squad and leader up from O3 to R6, because there is literally no one left to fire at him.

In AFPh, I put a couple Area Acquisition counters on the Voentorg. I decide to advance into CC in N11 anyway. It should keep him suitably distracted while the FT in O6 moves up. Despite a Russian edge on Ambush, the Final drs are 4-5 (he rolled a 6, and I still couldn’t get it…). And both sides did no damage to the other (H-t-H CC would have CRed me for no return, good thing I didn’t want it).


Situation, German Turn 1, take 1.
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