VOTG2 AAR - Part One - Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more...

June 2010 TABSCON saw the Master and the Apprentice square off yet again on the bloody soil of that city on the Volga. Stalingrad, ah Stalingrad... Our scenario of choice was from Valor of the Guards seeing as our last one (from it) was such a frickin' good time. Andy noted that VOTG2 Russe! Drown in the Wolga! was all about machine-gunning hapless Soviet troops trying to reinforce General Chuikov's city defenders. And the map was nice and cramped. (If you missed me waxing eloquent about the history of the scenario click here.)

We diced off for sides and the high roll got the Germans. I lost so I got quickly familiar with the OOB and the map set-up. Funny thing because now that I re-read the scenario card I realize I once again read the set-up instructions wrong*. This is getting to be quite the cock-up for me. As I frequently tell my students, literacy is a valuable skill. Anyways here's the map:

Not quite the tight quarters as VOTG19 nor were we starting off in the same bloody buildings. However, you'll note the nice blue river hexes on the right (east) side of the map. My troops literally had their backs to the wall here. The scenario revolves around the dusk of September 15th 1942 when STAVKA releases the 13th Guards Rifle Division to General Chuikov's control. The Germans are already having a hell of a time prying the 62nd Army out of Stalingrad so it was critical that they interdict the flow of reinforcements.

The white circled buildings and piers indicate the VC. Andy had to control ALL five of them to win (barring an exception that didn't come into play in our game I don't think...). The red line indicates the westernmost set-up the Russians could have. Now here's the stupid part. I only skimmed the set-up notes depicted here:

I mistakenly thought that the road I had to set-up on was the easternmost north-south road closer to the shore. I only realized my mistake while writing up this AAR. If I wasn't so dumb Andy might have had a chance...

Couple of other things in that picture above: (1) note the board configuration -- again, it's a tiny subsection of the whole VOTG map; (2) dusk effects start on turn 3 where hindrance starts affecting shots so that by the last turn there's an automatic +2 on shots. You know where this is heading... close combat!

So, Andy left me for about 10 minutes as I set-up my forces waaay back. Now to be honest I probably would have left a squad or two up front a bit to slow things down but I generally prefer a reverse slope defense anyways and it sort of applied here. Well except that reverse slope is better when the enemy doesn't have three MG nests on the top of the slope looking down on you... [Pro Tip 2 kids! While you're setting up? Look at the opponent's set-up instructions too!]

Whatever, I'm sure Vasily Zaitsev would show up and take them all out anyways (hehehehe...). My set-up included 12 ? markers which I tried to do better with. I'm sure I don't really cause much consternation to Andy when I haphazardly place them in sub-optimal positions. At position (A) I put a stack of 4 of them down. It was a fairly conspicuous house with some very good sightlines on the northern flank. Again, I'd normally put an MG in there but this time I was playing waaaay back. I meant for it to slow Andy down for a turn at least and I think it did its job.

At position (B) was my larger leader-led stack of fun on Level 2 (third floor kids!). I didn't realize it at the time but I was a sitting duck for prep from the MG nests on the top of the hill. Regardless, their main purpose was to make taking their building very difficult and to be the biggest speed bump. At position (C) was my INF Gun led by one of the Commissars. I was not allowed to set it up in HIP but it had good sightlines and would be something to reckon with. Finally at position (D) I put a 6-2-8 squad with MMG HIP'ed in hex LL24 Level 2. I think it was a nasty surprise...!

Here's a pic of Andy's set-up. Note the three MG nests up on the bluffs (when am I going to remember that the pink terrain is a level up?!). These guys made it incredibly painful for my guys. In retrospect it was probably a good idea not to set my guys up the west -- I have a feeling that they would have been shot-up, routed and interdicted by the MGs all day long and as it turned out I would need every able-bodied man on the last turn.

The Germans get the first moves in the scenario and they had to make hay. They only get 2 turns without dusk hindrance on shots, then Russian reinforcements (and ammo!) start rolling in off Assault Boats(!) from the east. The reinforcements increase as the darkness starts to fall.

As expected, Andy had to respect my INF Gun and hit both flanks: the north wing hindered only a half-turn or so by the fake stack (who soaked up a 16FP attack); the south wing running, unknowingly into a HIP'ed MG nest. German progress was generally good.

I can't lie, I thought that I was in an excellent position on Turn 3, midway through the game. Andy had only so far controlled the northernmost pier which I didn't bother to defend and he was having difficulty rolling up the northern flank. The advance in the south was stymied and the Gun was popping anyone trying anything close to the middle. What is more, Zaitsev did show up and took out the southernmost MG nest. Woot!

Of course, as ALWAYS happens in ASL, the swing of fortune cause my INF Gun to malf. Uh-oh. There really wasn't anything stopping them now when you consider the pretty impressive firepower still being projected from the German MGs in the rear.

At least one good thing happened on Turn 3 for the Reds... Chuikov himself showed up! Well, Major Chuikov... I took it as a good omen when he disembarked from his Assault Boat to "shore" up the defense on the south flank. I was able to find a shadow in the MG fire and beach the reinforcements without trouble. (Alas, Chuikov was to spend much of his time blowing his craptacular morale checks late in the game... I'm not sure he survived close combat.)

A little note about Assault Boats. A pretty common comment from ASL players to their ASLSK brethern is that there is no need to memorize the monster-sized ASLRB. For the most part you only read up on the rules particular to a specific scenario just before you play. Assault Boats is one of those rules. I literally read the rules on them (about a quarter of a page) on Turn 1 and didn't really have a problem incorporating them into my play. So again, if you feel the leap from SK to full ASL is going to be a bear, stop being silly.

Andy was starting to feel the time pressure as we eased into the second half of the game. The north flank was stubbornly holding out and applying ridiculous amounts of defensive fire. He even traipsed a unit into 8FP residual (I rolled crap!) to get where he needed to go. But as all things in Stalingrad, hex LL18 eventually was put down to a combination of MGs, CCs and failure to rout. Those fine NKVD boys will be missed *sniff* *sniff*. :P

This is a shot from Andy's perspective up on the bluffs above the Volga. I can imagine that his frustration was quite in keeping with the history. The Germans could see the mighty river from many vantage points across the city but they couldn't ever push enough Russian into it: "Bul-bul!!!"

On Turn 4 fortunes swung haphazardly again. I was sure that I had enough reinforcements now to at least keep ONE VC building from the Wehrmacht... So of course what happens?

Andy shoots up one of the Assault Boats, you know, the one with a 6-2-8, DC and 8-1 leader in it? Yeah, that one. So, it was going to be close...

Here's a nice low angle picture of the odds facing Andy on something like Turn 5.

Of course the game would be decided in deadly close combat. It's Stalingrad!

Here's another view, close up, of the carnage.

In the end, it wasn't quite enough. There were 4 Melees going into the last half-turn and I actually won one of them. The shot above are the stacks on the final few buildings blown up for analysis. I think in the end, Andy ended up taking 2-3 of the 5 buildings he needed and I heaved a huge sigh of relief. It's the first game of full-ASL that I've won and it wasn't decided until the last half-turn. Nothing is quite like ASL to get your blood pressure going.

Here's a shot of the whole board at game's end. I think it took us 4 hours or so? Andy will correct me if I'm wrong. That's a whole lot of cardboard carnage.

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Highlights:

1. My ASL notebook had the British wartime slogan "Keep Calm and Carry On" on the front cover. Lo and behold, Andy wore a T-shirt with the same slogan. It was a hilarious moment.

2. My overall strategy was to delay bits and pieces of the German forces at a time. I had no illusions that I'd get a huge game changing shot at a killstack but I tried to pick a bit there and a bit here. I held off shots as long as possible on defense til I had at least the x2 PBF mod.

3. A big equalizer to the MG nests? The Russian SAN of 5. That number comes up a LOT.

4. Major Chuikov was a 10-3. Andy remarked that he'd never seen a more useless 10-3 leader ever. Brutal. You are a disgrace to the name sir!

5. The game closely held to history. Like their counterparts in 1942 the Germans got close. But close is not nearly enough in Stalingrad.

Good times. Once again, a hearty thanks to Andy for being a great sport and supplying the kit. Thanks to TABSCON for hosting the space for our game. Thanks to MMP for Valor of the Guards especially designer Tom Morin -- daaaamn this game is fun.

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* - New rule:

ALWAYS DOUBLE-CHECK THE SET-UP INSTRUCTIONS FOR BOTH SIDES!!!

VOTG2 AAR - Part Zero - Stalingrad in Print

Well it's been two weeks since "The Drubbing of Andy" and where's the AAR?

Well funny thing. I went to Chapters/Indigo the day after with the family and they had a nice selection of military books on the discount table and lo and behold... there was Jon Bastable's Voices from Stalingrad and William Craig's Enemy at the Gates. I added a couple of reference books (planes and tanks from WWII to present day) and I started reading.

The AAR was delayed because I love reading about Stalingrad. And these two particular books (along with some of the others I have on the topic and Eastern Front in general) specifically address the action in VOTG2. The scenario falls on a fairly early date in the Battle for Stalingrad while the Wehrmacht is attempting to close the Volga life-line to the Soviet defenders of the city (something they were never able to fully do). The title itself comes from the taunting of the German soldiers in the surrounding state buildings as they tried to push the last few defenders in this sector into the river.

Russ! Zavtra bul-bul! Translation: "Russians, you're going glug!-glug! soon!"

So, this peculiarly named HASL scenario actually has some neat backstory! See pages 91-93 from Enemy at the Gates.

What is key to the scenario though are the reinforcements. Their story? It was on that day in history that General Chuikov, commander of the Russian forces in the city asked for and got the ultra-critical reinforcements he wanted from STAVKA, the 13th Guards Rifle Division. The scenario takes place at dusk (SSR indicates growing light hindrance as the game progresses), the only time the Russians could safely cross the river without getting blown away. All this is simulated in the scenario, again, on just a small sub-set of the main VOTG map (which Andy cannot stop raving about and I'd concur). What is critical in the scenario was critical in history: the trickle of men to merely keep the fascist invaders at bay.

Speaking of SSR, the Russians start the scenario with an INF Gun and according to the history, the commissar in charge, a Col. Petrakov, impressed a few of his conscript troops to handle the thing. So, if the commissar is incapacitated in the scenario, so too is the Russian player's ability to use the Gun as their "crews" don't know what they are doing.

What impresses me is really seeing the link between the history and what is possible in ASL. The designer, Tom Morin, took what is a semi-exciting narrative in a few history books and is able to create such a credible and exciting gaming experience. It's funny because ASL, as I understand it, was originally built to service DYO scenarios where you'd put points of troops up against others in some hodge-podge melee. The H(istory) part of the HASL in the game is where the vast majority of the game's current adherents truly focus. It's not a stretch to say that many scenarios need to be as close to airtight as possible on the historical aspects or players won't even bother.

So kudos to Tom Morin and other scenario designers who put in such efforts. In this particular instance, someone (me!) has noticed. Nice job.

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Here's a brief annotated bibliography for Eastern Front/Stalingradists:

Antill, Peter. Stalingrad 1942. Osprey Publishing. Great Britain: 2007.
- Your standard, basic, Osprey title on the campaign for Stalingrad. Beginners start here.

Bastable, Jonathan. Voices of Stalingrad: Nemesis on the Volga. F+W Publishing. United Kingdom: 2006.
- Bastable does a superb job with collecting and showing us the words from the combatants and victims themselves from the 200-day long battle.

Beevor, Antony. Stalingrad - The Fateful Siege: 1942-1943. Penguin Books. Great Britain: 1998.
- Absolutely required reading from one of today's most popular historians. Beevor also has books on the fall of Berlin, Crete and most recently, D-Day. This book on Stalingrad is awesome.

Craig, William. Enemy at the Gates: The Battle for Stalingrad. Konecky & Konecky. USA: 1973.
- The basis for the movie (which is NOT history but Hollywood). Some of the stories in the book have apparently not stood the test of time academically -- however, it was the first, and for a little while, best, book on the subject. Well worth a read too.

Glantz, David & Jonathan House. When Titans Clashed: How the Red Army Stopped Hitler. University Press of Kansas: 1995.
- Glantz is well known these days for his huge treatises on the Eastern Front which have absorbed the now (more) open Soviet archives into their narrative. Can be a bit dry but has fascinating detail into the Ostfront and how the Russian Operational Art of War stopped the Wehrmacht cold.

So there you have it. I've been reading. Part One up next!

The Circle is Complete...

Just got back from TABSCON June 2010 Edition and had another awesome time. I only got in two games. The second was The Pocket at Falaise from ATO Magazine with Lembit Tohver, its developer (great game btw and nominated for a CSR Award). The first was VOTG2 Russe! Drown in the Wolga! with Andy. I'm proud to say I took the peksy Russkies and won a tight one on the last half turn, holding on to the Victory buildings.

Andy, if you've recovered from the game you'll notice the two chits above that I now hold hostage... Face me again, if you dare! (Just kidding, someone found the INF gun and I scoured the floor and found the concealment counter. I'll get them to you next TABSCON!)

AAR to follow...

What's in Rising Sun?

For those of you who don't frequent the user-unfriendly atrocity known as CSW, here's the latest on what's going to be in that frickin' box. It looks like a lot!

- 1,300 ½” counters and 592 5/8” counters (1,892 total)

- boards 34-39, 47 in “Starter Kit” style

- overlays 1-6, B1-B5, Be1-7, Ef1-3, G1-5, GT, M1-5, O1-5, OC1-4, P1-5, RP1-5, Wd1-5, X6

- 32 scenarios: • Smertniki • On The Kokoda Trail • Shoestring Ridge • Bungle in the Jungle • The Eastern Gate • Hazardous Occupation • Red Star, Red Sun • The Bushmasters • Cibik's Ridge • The Rock • Today We Attack • KP 167 • Jungle Citadel • Sea of Tranquility • Hell or High Water • Bloody Red Beach • Grabing Gavutu • Tanambogo Nightmare • Take Two • A Stiff Fight • Battlin' Buckeyes • Broken Bamboo • Last of Their Strength • Munda Mash • OP Hill • Orange at Walawbum • Ramsey's Charge • Shanghai in Flames • Smith & Weston • The Drive for Taierzhuang • Totsugeki! • White Tigers

+ the Sand and Blood CG (Gavutu/Tanambogo)

Source: The Chas

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And more! This was from a quote from Brian Youse about how MMP is considering the packaging of core ASL:

The point is to make the system smaller. Easier to keep the core in stock. One PTO module. One Desert module. Hell, if it wasn't too late i'd stick the Americans in with the British and call the module "The Good Guys".

The Ethiopians are going in Hollow Legions which will have the Italians and in all likelihood the Desert and anything else we can squeeze into the box. Despite the fact that I just cringed because I implied the Ethiopians are somehow "core module".

Source: Ultimate Evil

Winter Offensive 2010 Bonus Pack in the House!

Speak of the Devil. Look what was sitting in my mailbox today. Winter Offensive 2010 Bonus Pack... Yummy!

Now, before I get into the contents, I must say that the shrinkwrapping resisted all manual attempts to be opened. I had to dig around for a pocketknife. Geez...

Here's the back of the pack. Basically, not only do you get a new awesome mapboard (59) and two new scenarios, two bucks goes to the ALS Association's charity. Nice all around.

Sorry about the glare!

This small scenario pack should just be the first trickle of a deluge of ASL stuff coming out in the next couple of months from MMP. Should be exciting!

ASL Primer Videos

Joe Steadman is a steady contributor to the wargaming community, when he isn't busting perps in his day job, and his two most recent videos are ASL Primers. Check them out here on his blog:

http://zoctalk.blogspot.com/

UPDATE (Feb 15): Joe has the Rally Phase Primer done up in two parts today. Also, my computer decided that booting from the hard drive was for losers!

The 'Geeks End o' Year Stats

Aldie, at Boardgamegeek, has posted the Top 100s in all sorts of categories. And I'm on a couple of them!

For Files, I have three entries: Dominion Horizontal Card Box Dividers, Command and Colors: Ancients Combat Reference, and Fields of Fire CC Play Aid. I was a busy beaver.

Even better, in the Session Reports I have six entries! They are for A Most Dangerous Time, Napoleon's Triumph, Unhappy King Charles, Memoir '44 - Hedgerow Hell, and the two ASL sessions posted here on this blog. Woot!

I have no shame in tooting my own horn, those things took a lot of time and effort. Thanks to everyone who thumbed me and I look forward to telling more fun stories of my games on the blog and the 'geek in the new year!

Files:
Dominion - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/45908
CC Ancients - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/40962
Fields of Fire - http://www.boardgamegeek.com/filepage/39295

Sessions:
AMDT -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/408061/a-short-but-mostly-dangerous-time
NT -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/384766/a-first-game-of-napoleons-triumph
UKC -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/431970/happy-in-the-end-a-session-report-of-unhappy-king
M44 -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/399595/hedgerow-hell-is-memoir-heaven
ASL D1 -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/420737/d1-guryevs-headquarters
ASL U15 -
http://www.boardgamegeek.com/thread/477162/u15-battle-for-the-warta-line

U15 AAR Battle for the Warta Line Part Duh

MID-GAME OVERVIEW

As we headed into turn 4-5 of 7.5, it appeared that it was still anyone's game. To recap, I had funnelled Andy's forces into the centre of the board with tough flank defenses. On the Polish left, some of the SS were even being held up by a couple of Polish infantry squads.

In addition, I was hoofing my forces into the middle to meet the deluge. The MMG and 9-2 leader on the left was effectively preventing anyone from using that side of the board's routes to escape. On the right, I had squads CXing in to block the roads out of town.

Of course, Andy's goosesteppers were having none of that. They had an easy time piercing my frontal screen (am I being dumb by leaving half-squads out there to die?). Andy even broke out the rarely seen Trailbreak counter when his surviving PzI crashed the thin line of woods outside the village.

Hoping to surprise him, I let the PzI get within a good range of the squad with the ATR in the two storey building but their shots either ran wide or merely SHOCKED the tank. In turn Andy was having his Panzer lay smoke about to cover his fast advancing infantry.

Everyone was converging on the tall building (point B) where I had a squad and my "hidden" artillery phone/forward observer. Would the OBA they were calling down right on top of their position make a difference?!

As lucky as I was early in the game, the dice started to right themselves. As a very large stack of German infantry climbed the stairwell into the building (my men were pinned by a stack in the front who took grievous casualties), the spotting rounds from my OBA started going everywhere but where I wanted... The result was that there was going to be some very nasty point blank shooting in the building...

True to form, the OBA veered off considerably, impacting harmlessly on the near board edge. Also true to form was the SS. As they took my troops in 2N1 they invoked No Quarter and gunned down the Polish prisoners with glee and abandon. Would the war crime be avenged?

Things were getting grim. Despite an SS 9-2 leader eating a sniper's bullet the PzI was running roughshod in the rear. In fact, it did an Overrun on one of my reinforcing squads from the right flank. One snake-eyes later (that's a 2KIA for you guys keeping score at home) the squad was promptly turned into fruit salad and the PzI turned around in the hex and came back to clear the foxholes around 3N7. If anyone has ever played Command and Conquer, the real-time strategy game on PC, you'll recall the tanks and harvesters who squished infantry to gruesome effect -- that was basically what the German armour did to my hapless Polish this turn. I won't lie... I laughed.

THE LATE-GAME

In the late game, above, you can see the nice funnel being formed by the action. I didn't count the VPs Andy had available -- I think it's a bit gamey really -- so I just did what any military commander would do here: pinch off the breakthrough.

From the left, the leader-led MMG squad started to sweep through. However, Andy was no fool and the Panzer was sweeping in the opposite direction. Though I had one squad on the treeline at 3T9, I was trying to quickly reinforce from 3V3 from the right. By this time the foxhole filled with squads at 3Q4 were already smushed (what was worse though? He rolled a snake in the CC to clear the foxhole and birthed an 8-1, OUCH!). It was looking to be a very tight final couple of turns.

In the above photo you can see the results. From left to right, the two squads running in from the left were pinned or broken by the PzI which had, at this point, swept completely to the left side. Though I was able to liquify a few SS stragglers from that side, my own men were cut down. In the second green circle, I assault moved a unit from the foxhole in 3N7 towards the one in 3P8. If I was not broken I would have engaged the Germans in that next hex in CC and kept more VPs from exiting. Alas, Defensive Fire shot them up.

The squad at the end of the board (in the third green circle) was the last line of defense. They prep fired to no effect and then it was up to the final stack (in the fourth circle) to hump it to the exit area. They were gunned down in 3V5... there would be no help...

I think the above shot if just before the last half turn (German). Note that there's really nothing stopping the hordes of SS from crossing the Warta line save for one Polish squad in 3T9. Surely it wasn't enough...

Ah, the icing on the cake. The villainous Andy, one wartime atrocity under his belt already, now demonstrated to this newb the exact permutations of the dreaded VBM sleeze. Basically, he wheeled his PzIB inbetween 3S9/3T9 in Bypass. What this means kids, is that the enemy squads in adjacent hexes cannot do anything but shoot at this vehicle. The SS would be free to waltz off the board and to victory!

Honestly though, there wasn't much I could do, even if the VBM didn't happen. Andy eventually exited off 19VP worth of units so the game was won already, albeit close. Plus, I don't want it to sound anything other than that I had a blast. Having played little or no games of any kind, much less ASL for a couple of months I was ecstatic to get a chance to play at TABSCon. The game was pretty casual; Andy and I took the better part of five hours to go through it and I enjoyed every minute.

It's been a year since I re-discovered my wargaming roots and picked up ASL(SK) and I look forward to another year of hard fought scenarios with the system. More thoughts soon and perhaps a year-end wrap up...

It's coming.....

PREORDERS: http://www.multimanpublishing.com/preorder/viewGame.php?id=82

U15 AAR - Battle for the Warta Line Part I

INTRO & SET-UP

It was a brisk day on the 6th of September, 1939, when the leading elements of the Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment threatened to cross the Warta River and encircle the elite Polish 10th Infantry Division in the opening battles of what would become WWII.

Likewise it was a crisp winter day a couple of weeks back when Andy and I hooked up once again at TABSCon to play ASL scenario U15 - Battle for the Warta Line and reenact this interesting firefight. I had been out of ASL for a few months since my last VASLeague game, busy with real life and was raring for some action.

Jonesing for a go with Allied Minors, Andy picked this scenario from the recent Turning the Tide pack from MMP. It's a pack that updates 20 old school Squad Leader-era scenarios to the ASL system and are ostensibly "classics". Long story short: it was F-U-N.

As mentioned U15 pits the fledgling Leibstandarte SS Adolf Hitler Regiment against the dug-in bits of the Polish elite 10th Infantry Division. I was the latter and within minutes of getting out of car, putting together a sick defensive set-up that would have the nascent SS goosesteppers twisting on barbed wire... or so I hoped. It was just my second full ASL game ever and I think I acquitted myself well.

Above is a VASL screenshot of the boards. Right is NORTH, down is the Polish (EAST) side which I had to prevent 16VPs of Germans from exiting. VPs were standard 1 per half-squad equivalent, 1 per leader +1 per negative mod, but no VPs for vehicles and crews. Upon a quick survey of the board it seemed like the best way, in my mind, to slow down the Germans and give them the roughest time was to funnel them into the "village" on the eastern board, anchoring the flanks with oodles of barbed wire and foxhole fortifications I was given on the OB. On top of that, I had a few interesting toys to set-up too: an artillery phone (OBA!), and a 1+3+5 pillbox.

What's that you say? Second game and the scrub is already dabbling in the arcane arts of OBA? It's easy, when you have your more experienced opponent do all the work! Hehe.

So, given a few minutes to figure out what foxholes and barbed wire were (and finding a notebook to write down HIP stuff -- the leader with phone especially) I came up with this layout, again, recreated from my crappy blurry photo in VASL:

The dark brown squares are the foxhole locations which would be HIP. The pillbox I placed on the extreme right behind barbed wire (white squares) with overwatch over a quarter of the boardspace. No doubt some more experienced player is choking in laughter at me now -- and after the game Andy suggested that the pillbox should have gone on a hill with CA of even more area. My thinking at the time was that the pillbox would threaten the easiest approaches of the German vehicles -- TWO Panzer IBs (oooh scary) -- and I would actually distribute the majority of my ATRs amongst the other infantry scattering the map. I chose a modified reverse slope defense. Most of my men would be in smaller half-squads delaying the enemy and trying to run back to the first line of defense on the eastern board.

Much of the barbed wire was meant to prevent end runs by Andy's infantry and funnel them into a more concentrated bunch where I could inflict grievous harm with my OBA. I had no illusions though; no plan survives contact with the enemy, or the dice in ASL!

Below is a VASL recreation of the set-up from the blurry photo I took. I blame the insufficient pre-game coffee!


Below is a detail of the set-up on the left flank. Of note is point A where I threw my best leader, a 9-2 with an MMG and full squad in a foxhole behind barbed wire and on high ground. Note that most of my squads were dispersed as an anti-OBA measure. I also reasoned that should Andy choose a flank to hit, this would have been the side as the opposite flank had the more menacing pillbox.

I think I put two ? counters with a half-squad in the uppermost middle stack -- my one really diversionary stack. Andy couldn't discount there being two squads or a squad and a nasty SW in it. Did it work? I'll let Andy answer that one...

At point B I put the HIPed 8-0 leader with the arty phone. Note my inexperience here in forgetting/not knowing about the second floor placement of the squad. Stacked with him was a single squad and ATR. Again, I was hinting at an MMG here but wanted to surprise Andy with an ATR, which I felt he would lead with.


On the right flank you can see point C, where I placed my main point of defense in the middle front of the village. In a foxhole was my second best leader (9-1) and two squads (one?) and an MMG under a concealment counter.

Point D was the pillbox. There I put two squads, my last leader and another ATR. (Yes, early in the game Andy told me that was illegal and one squad popped out!)


EARLY TURNS

The very earliest turns were a bit slow, as most scenarios are, as we sorted out how to OBA and Andy contemplated my bizarre defense. HA! On the left flank, I saw some of the SS infantry try to flush out and determine what exactly they were facing under the ? markers. (? are basically concealment markers, one of the key differences in full ASL from ASLSK, bypass and SAN being the other two.)


My plan here was to hold up the German hordes for a turn or more (if I was lucky) and retreat anything I could to another defensive line. For the left side, I was hoping to delay and harrass in the midst of the woods, especially under concealment.

Luck did favour me greatly in the beginning... Andy's first OBA roll was a 12DR, essentially he broke the radio and his repair dr was a 6. So much for artillery raining down on the Polish. It appeared that the German war machine was still a bit creaky at the start of WWII. What was more, Andy malf'd his PzI's MA (an MG) and that repair dr was also a 6.

Now if you know anything about a game like ASL, being so damned lucky in the beginning usually spelled a severe dicing later on. I won't lie to you, I was very happy about the dice but I knew I was in for it later...


Well, for now, the DRs were Polish-friendly. A German half-squad was vapourised in their MPh on the left making the early boxcar count for the bad guys something like 3 in two half-turns.

In more good news, my OBA hit a small concentration of German squads on the centre-right, on the edge of the open ground. I rolled a 3DR for a 2KIA and it seemed I could do no wrong.

By turn 2-3, the Germans were pushing hard on the middle towards point B and my OBA phone (I am amazed at how much I had to keep secret from Andy -- but here I flat out asked him what I could do with the second floor observer...). As he kept some of the advanced Polish half-squads locked in CC, large stacks and his other PzI were advancing steadily.

I may have surprised Andy with the ATR in the building and his PzI was vulnerable for a crucial turn but my men were unable to find the range and their shots were wide... You may scoff at a lowly PzI, but to quote a famous axiom, "In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king". The PzI was that one-eyed man, jumping the line and causing havoc with my troops shifting from the right flank to try and stop the flood in the middle.

It would NOT be pretty...

Newbie November... in December...

I count myself among the lucky few. That is, the lucky few that can coax a wargame session out of their wife. So I didn't complain much when my wife, who has suffered through Combat Commander, Hannibal: Rome vs. Carthage, and Bravery in the Sand etc, drew the line at ASLSK. One look at the hexes and counters and she shivered in fear.

Well, it only took a year but she broke down the other day and said she wouldn't mind learning it. We tried to get a game going in November but failed -- thanks kids! -- but got in a couple of sessions this past weekend in S1 Retaking Vierville. Long story short, I gave her the American paratroopers and balance and it came down to the last turn as usual in this great scenario. [If you want to see my first AAR from this scenario click here.]

On turn 5, in my last half-turn, I made a run into the village and was hit by THREE DRs of 3. Let's just say I became quite proficient with the upper row of the IFT. It came down eventually to a CC in one of the last victory hexes where three burly paratrooper MMCs pounded the snot out of my one 9-1 leader and elite half-squad. Was it fun? Dude, I played ASL with my wife! Hell yes!

Anyways, it's been just over a year playing this awesome game called ASL and I've got a lot to reflect on. Here's a list of fun things:

1. I've played about 20 SK scenarios now. Enough that playing S1 again was almost bizarrely easy. I miss my support weapons and vehicles!
2. I've played just 2 full ASL games (with Andy) and it's been great. Not at all do I feel like I'm in over my head. So, for me at least, SK was a great way to dip my toe in the waters of full ASL.
3. I have a LOT of ASL stuff.
4. I have met and befriended a LOT of people through this game.
5. I cannot wait to see where I am next year with more ASL and wargaming under my belt.

It's been a fun year. For those following along, I hope it's been good to you too. More AARs soon!

TABSCON AAR...

... will be posted soonish. I had a boffo time and all I did (and had brainpower for) was play Andy in a ripping fun scenario. Here's a teaser pic for you. Yes, that is the evil SS doing evil sleeze. I love it!

TABSCON December 2009

I've been totally out of it for the past few months thanks to school start-up, volleyball coaching and swine flu beating up on the kids. But tomorrow is TABSCON damn it and I'm going!!!

If you're in the Greater Toronto Area come on out. Admission is $5 and it's non-stop gaming. Andy is going to whip me in another full-ASL game and who knows what other shenanigans will happen -- the Prawn will even make an appearance!

The website for TABS is here: http://www.tabsonline.net/

Be there or be square...

D1 AAR Part Two - ... things always turn crappy in Stalingrad!

Hopefully I haven't been missing much as I recall what happened at TABSCon... Andy, please add/correct as you see fit. I broke one of my cardinal learning rules in forgetting to bring a notebook and pen.

As it stands, Andy has already sent me some notes about the AAR. I share his attitude that ASL is more a journey than a destination -- in other words, we're going to make mistakes, sometimes a lot of them.

One mistake was that in taking my men prisoners he didn't realize that would slightly impair the effectiveness of his own troops (makes sense though right? Man, ASL is detailed!) so he probably wouldn't have taken prisoners and invoked what is known as "No Quarter" -- the fun state of game where troops realize someone has violated the Geneva Conventions and all bets are off -- no one is surrendering for the rest of the game.

Andy says it best here:

But every bit of knowledge puts you closer to the perfect game...

Yep!
When last we met, the board was looking pretty stinking good for the goosesteppers. Hell, look at that blue mass! (SK fans, you can overstack in full ASL but it starts costing you in DRMs to rolls for and against you -- nice overstuffed hexes do that!) Not only that but we were starting to collect brown counters...

Now, I'm not sure if it was just around turn 3 or after but I generated my first Hero ever in one of these turns. I think it was a snake roll in a rally attempt or something. Heroes are even more extra special SMC dudes that essentially replicate the Hollywood stereotype of war movies. This guy can do anything like lug big SWs around, add -1 DRMs to shooting, don't break, just wound, etc. etc. I'd actually generate two of the guys in the course of the game. Things were looking better and better.

Below is the situation into the third turn. Now some interesting things started to happen. First, I was starting to activate a LOT of sniper activity. Apparently someone dialed up Jude Law and Ron Perlman and my troops started to keep their heads down even while peeing. Note the wounded leader on the right, and the broken half-squad holding the Cursed MMG of Doom.

Things were obviously going to be a tougher slog as I approached the headquarters itself -- where, of course, there was everyone's favourite toy, the HMG... Better yet for Andy, it was on the second floor (buildings aren't all bungalows in full ASL kids!) and had a nice vantage point for anyone approaching. My only real hope was to do the German equivalent of a human wave and try to overwhelm the defenders with sheer numbers. This plan was helped along by Andy's bad luck rolling on getting his reinforcements (six more elite SMG squads and the friendly neighbourhood commissar). One slight hiccup? The tenacious Russians on the right and the total ignorance of yours truly about what the gashy-looking terrain feature was... Gullies slow down troops kids!

You can start seeing some of the seeds of my undoing here in a shot after the fourth turn. Notice the unattended Soviet MMG? Yeah, they died or ran away, and so did everyone else except the hero (who's wounded too!). The sniper was wrecking havoc and Andy's disparate defenders were basically concentrated in the headquarters now.

I could do it though right?

Well first one in is a rotten egg! I lobbed in a squad and Andy started unleashing HMG fire and ambushing me with a LMG toting squad in the attic of the building I was in! The jerk! Is he trying to make me fail here?! The nerve of the man.

Sneaky Russians aside, that was a cool thing to pull. I hadn't even realized it was possible. But, multilevel buildings can hide nasty HIP troops. In this case they put most of the frontal approach hexes in crossfire -- and another new rule was introduced: "encirclement". If your troops are taking fire from opposite hexsides or from three or more hexsides then they start to feel really unconfortable.

Things were bogging down, with time getting tight I tried and failed to get close from the front and the right side approach had my half-squads trying desperately to climb out of gullies.

In addition, what was funny was, during this whole time I was ELRing down madly. My dice were running cold and I was rolling a LOT of eleven's. That's good at Vegas, not good in ASL. Andy kept having to dig deeper and deeper into his German counters for worse and worse troopers (and half-squads). Look at it this way, I started with 17 elite MMCs, and ended up with a bunch of Conscript level, and 2nd-liners by the end. Stalingrad does that I guess, turn men into quivering pieces of jelly... or is that the HMG's doing?

Above is the late game pic. By now, about turn 6, Andy had the majority of his reinforcements in the headquarters and I was not going to get in without a lot of luck. I even berserked another half-squad but their glorious charge ended in bloody smears on the front steps of Guryev HQ.

Amusing tale from the endgame?

The squad that I had taken prisoner from me earlier was rescued after a CC -- they even armed up with Russian stuff from their jailors. Two turns later as the attempted to take the headquarters? The were encircled and taken prisoner again!

Russian sergeant: "Put your hands up! You are surrounded!"

Hans: "Not again!" [Drops weapons.]

Russian trooper: "Hey, why are you all using our weapons?!"

Sad.

So, in the end, Guryev's Headquarters was just fine thanks. Andy's troops stiffened their resistance just in time and reinforced with a bunch of commissar-led elites easily held the building. (And yes, the commissar did his old "shoot your own to make an example" trick he does so well...)

What can I say about my first game of full ASL? To be honest, it played a LOT like ASLSK with just a few additional rules and chrome. Yeah, we didn't have tanks and guns but who cares? It was definitely a confidence builder and having an experienced mentor like Andy makes it much easier. Rather than consult the rulebook every five seconds, I'd just ask him something like, "What's bypass?" or "What is the stacking limit?" or "Why are you hurting me?"

Here's a list of the stuff I have to study up on for the next full ASL game I get to:

1. New terrain like gullies -- probably something you have to do on every new board you play on. Just quickly review the terrain you haven't seen in a while. On top of that, (pun intended) I have to check out multi-level stuff.

2. ? markers -- I think some of the subtleties of deploying that stuff will come with time but it was all lost on me at first.

3. Bypass -- didn't really come up, but at the end I asked Andy about a host of this stuff that I've read about from other sources but never understood. Bypass, Dash, Firelanes etc.

4. Prisoners & Encirclement -- I don't know if I'll ever top this ridiculous double prisoner story.

5. Heat of Battle, Leader Creation -- chromey but fun.

6. Snipers! -- extra chromey fun. I can finally understand the SAN reminder cards I've seen at Desperation Morale! Heck, Andy's head was spinning with all the sixes I rolled. In contrast, I think he rolled two or three three's total -- heck I don't know. Stupid Ed Harris was bumbling around or something...

7. Concealment -- What many have told me is the biggest addition to SK in full ASL concealment. However, it never came up enough in our game, probably due to Andy not wanting to be too picky about it and secondly, because it probably doesn't come up enough in this scenario -- we were pitched into each other almost immediately and no one was really sneaking around.

There has been a LOT of discussion about ASLSK4 or the like. Having played "full ASL" now I think that you probably don't need it if you have an experienced player to show you the ropes (heck, people made do without SKs for years right?). It comes down to your comfort level with making mistakes.

If you're afraid of making mistakes and need deterministic outcomes play a Euro or a game with 2 pages of rules. You're already "slave" to the dice. What's a little fudging around if you're having fun? Granted if this was a tournament or competitive endeavour then by all means, hone your ASL-Fu to a fine edge. I think that I've been lucky so far in that my opponents and I are in it for the sheer joy of playing one of the most fun and intense games around -- and frankly, we're comfortable making mistakes. We don't get too caught up in it.

Other than rules, what could I have done better, tactically? Well Andy suggested that I not take my sweet ass time. Really I should have gone full bore to the HQ, instead of lollygagging around. Ideally you'd have at least a toe in the door before the reinforcements showed up. And another thing I realized is that reading the scenario card carefully would help figure this stuff out. Next time, next time...

My thanks for this first full ASL experience to Andy and TABS. The former for winning graciously and teaching me stuff, the latter for giving us a venue and opportunity to even get together. It was a gentle introduction to the big enchilada -- well, as gentle as Stalingrad can get!

I hope this has been an enjoyable read (I'll probably post an abridged version to BGG in the next few days.) My VASLeague Round 3 game is already being prepped for posting and Round 4 begins soon! Roll low!