S21 Clash at Borisovka Redux - An AAR

Well, it had to happen sooner or later. The treacherous Prawn/Megatron laid waste to the noble Optimus Prime in S21 Clash at Borisovka, the all AFV scenario from ASLSK3. The Prawn had been dying to learn the vehicle rules and now his appetite is whetted. I think we only screwed up a few rules that I'll explain in this mini-AAR.

The scenario, as mentioned is all tanks. (Here's a replay of Talloaf and my go at S21 last month.) Basically, on a two-map setup, the Germans have a couple of Tigers and four panzers trying to prevent my force of 10 Russian T-34s from exiting off the far side of the board.

I gave the Prawn a longish intro to vehicle counters with some photocopies of richfam's fifth ASLSK tutorial and we diced for sides. I won the Russians and showed the Prawn a quick run of moving tanks around in the first turn. The Prawn's a quick study and we were soon chucking chunks of steel around the map.

For at least a little while in the first couple of turns my T-34s were scattering about. One of my long range shots (just to demonstrate shooting) clanged off one of his turrets and Shocked the crew (alas they shrugged it off -- as did a Tiger later on). On the other hand, the Prawn's hot dice had a couple of my tanks flipping to wreck side. One notable shot required only that he not roll boxcars but he did (evidence above).

For some reason (and I'm not quite sure why yet) this game turned out a lot differently than the one I had with Talloaf. I think because I was more concerned with learning and teaching the vehicle rules than with just cheesing the victory conditions we had a lot more face-to-face tank battles. Now, I am NOT making light of the Prawn's first victory over me (what the hell, I am), he played very well and made some great tactical decisions. And the force field he projected over this particular Panzer in the above photo helped too. Note the combined acquisition counters from FIVE of my tanks (two of which were -2s). Bastard.

Here's a shot from the Prawn's perspective late in the game (probably turn 3). Note the two Tigers prowling in the foreground with their 88Ls. Nasty pieces of business there. Note the Panzer in the background that had climbed a small hill to get a dirty rear shot of my helpless Ukrainian farmhands. As turn 3 wound down I had two T-34s poised to exit, one which already had, and another that was recalled for a broken MA. Everything else was a flaming wreck (wait, ASLSK doesn't have flaming wrecks...) and so the Prawn celebrated his first ASL victory with a 6-4 score in the Clash at Borisovka!



What did we screw up?! & Miscellaneous Comments...


1. I'm pretty sure were messed up Intensive Fire. For some inexplicable reason I didn't look up the full rule on it in 3.2.4 and I'm sure we were IFing in the AFPh (logically they spent too much time moving to have time to line up a second shot) and definitely we were IFing at targets further than "adjacent" hexes (again, logically speaking the franticness of dealing with a very close threat would hurry the tank crew). So, next time, no more crazy IF in every conceivable phase. The rule is IF is only available to MAs that have lost ROF, during the same phase (not AFPh).

2. Acronyms abound in the vehicle rules. Whether or not there are more than just in infantry rules, it just feels like there's more. The chart look ups got a little bit tiresome -- though sometimes similar shots were quick to take in succession. On at least one occasion I just simply chose not to shoot because the look up on the TH DRM chart was just ridiculous. (Probably meant I would have missed anyways...)

3. Tigers are cool.

4. I pulled another Curt Schilling with Prawn after the game. In the debrief I told him to pull out some counters, I showed him the Chapter H notes from ASLSK3 and we just talked about the sheer multitude of STUFF crammed into the vehicle counters, ruleset and mechanics. It's both daunting and at the same time super impressive.

5. Things I will have to review for next time: vehicle movement on hills, motion status attempts, and 7.10 AFV Effects (I'm sure I missed some stuff about shocks, stuns and such).

6. I'm positive we got the acquisition stuff down. Now I know why I see them so prominently placed in people's Plano solutions for their ASL stuff.

... and lastly, I'm going to add another Learning Tip to the list. This one I kind of was inspired by my play of Combat Commander: Europe (and Pacific). In that game there can be multiple interruptions of the combat sequence after the Firepower attack totals are determined so the game gives you a Attack Total counter to help record-keeping. Relevance to ASL? Whereas keeping track of MF in infantry engagements during Defensive Fire is relatively easy, AFVs have Movement Points that run past a dozen in most cases and can be expended in increments of a half a point! You better have a notepad handy not only to keep track of these things but to write down questions to be researched and answered later.

LEARNING TIP #4:

Keep a notebook handy for record keeping and questions!

That's all for now people, get out there and roll low!

C4 Unleashed!

This is a pretty empty Plano tackle box. In the past few days I've been putting the C4 Corner Cutter through its paces to fill up a Plano or two. Now I should have gone to my Beyond Valor's 14 counter sheets but I decided on the slighty easier to approach counters in The Devil's Cauldron (TDC being the first in the Grand Tactical Series from MMP -- it's a huge monster game with a bajillion counters but some very approachable rules). TDC has all 5/8" counters (or larger) and I felt a little more comfortable with this size just to start.

Here's a sample of a counter sheet to C4 to clipped counter stack. First start with a few rows of related counters like the EVENT ones from TDC.

Grab yer trusty Xacto hobby knife and separate your counters by rows. (You don't actually "punch" them out do you?!)

Here's a few rows getting stacked and prepped for their trip into the C4.


Note the switch from sharp pointy Xacto blade to flat, chisel-tip!

Above is a stack of counters in the C4 with the "snugger" on the opposite side of the cutting end. The snugger helps you keep the whole stack even when your blade zips through them.

Voila! The stack is transformed into a clipped stack of counters and a small pile of very neat triangular bits suitable for kindling!

Here's what the contraption with blade looks like in action. Thanks to wifey for taking the action pics. Note the awesome cutting skillz. That's right, skills with a Z. The blade makes a super cool and very very satisfying "zzzzzzzippppppp" sound as you chunk the counters.

Here's a side view of the action. Again, note the mad skillz. Mad, yo!

And here's a close-up of my cuticles and semi-awesome manicure. Wow! You thought the Prawn had nice hands...

Not content to just clip a couple of stacks, here's the 82nd Airborne lining up for a C4 crew cut. How long would this take a regular non-C4 clip? Probably longer than the actual Operation Market Garden. However, with the C4 I was done in about 15 minutes and I was pretty sure 95% of the clips were exactly the same and even.

Here's the 82nd Airborne hanging out with the 1st Airborne. Note the COOOL clippings.

Here's another Plano full of information marker counters (and the large activation chits this game is famous for).

All that's left is the clean up. I use a slighty tacky sticky paper thingy to quickly sweep up the bits and then chuck it into the trash.

Counter clipping, surely the hobby of the damned! Next up? Beyond Valor's 50 hojillion 1/2" counters!!!

Prep Fire! Getting Set Up Part 1

Alrighty, your ASLSKs just got plunked into your mailbox and you're ready to play. Hold up there partner! There are some things that you probably want and should do to help increase your enjoyment. (Read: time to spend more money!)

Firstly go through the contents of the box, there should be a small slip of paper that MMP uses as a manifest. Make sure everything is there. I've heard some people have missing items but I've heard even more that MMP and wargame companies like them have excellent customer service. Just give them a phone call or email explaining the problem and they'll rectify it quick -- just one of the advantages of the hobby that is so small.

Next, get out a hobby knife (XActo or whatever) and carefully run it along the die cuts in the counter sheets so they will detach easier. Some thought should be given to where to store these guys ranging from "throw them in the box" to "custom-made storage solutions". The most common method is Plano brand tackle-boxes. Model 3701 is the box of choice here as they are cheap (about $4-5 each), have a lot of space and spaces, stack, and generally are perfect for the anal retentive wargamer. You might want to sort by nationality and separate out the informational counters.

Now, go read the rulebook.

Back? Ok, so you're going to have to push counters around on a geomorphic mapboard while consulting a few charts, the rules themselves and a scenario sheet. How are you going to get organized? Well, after about a half-dozen solitaire scenarios through which I learned the rules I have a nice system all ready to show you:

Here it is all on the dining room table (mental note: must get wifey to OK purchase of new dedicated gaming table...).

Starting at 12 o'clock and going clockwise we have (1) informational counters in a small tackle box resting on top of a binder with richfam's ASLSK Tutorials all printed up insider, (2) the Plano boxes for the US and German orders of battle (OBs) from the Starter Kits only, (3) Starter Kit #3's rulebook as the latest and greatest SK ruleset, (4) the Quick Reference Display Chart from SK3 in a page protector, (5) miscellaneous player aids printed up from the Internet (like the ASLSK3 Sequence of Play chart from BGG), (6) the other SK rulebooks and charts for reference, (7) a binder with all the published and downloaded scenarios I own in page protectors, (8) and my recently acquired ASL Rulebook 2nd Edition, of course in its own binder and custom front cover art and page protected contents, (9) and finally, the map I'm playing on in its own little display sleeve/condom with some two-coloured dice in the middle. Let's go through these and you can decide what's worth doing and what's not for you.

The Binders

To be perfectly honest you probably don't need these things around. I generally keep the red scenario binder somewhere away from my toddlers and remove only the ones I want to use/play when I need to. The page protectors are a good piece of mind thing for the investment you've made into the game. With the three SKs you're already looking at around 25 scenarios plus any others you've been able to download from MMP.

With the green binder is the richfam stuff and any articles and learning examples etc. I find on the Internet printed beside my bed for a little getting-to-sleep reading. Other stuff I've shoved in there includes the full examples of play from Tom Repetti's personal site, Tuomoland, here. Check out the infantry-only example first if you're a newb and move from there. I treat it like my own little syllabus of learning for ASL.

The full ASL second edition Rulebook was basically an extravangance for me. You don't honestly need it at the Starter Kit level. But if you plan on getting to the full ruleset someday just keep a lookout for it -- better yet, get your FLGS to order you one and when it comes in use it as a sort of "super" rulebook or reference when you play SK scenarios. I've found it a lot less intimidating that way and especially fascinating when you see what we're missing "down here". And yep, it's in page protected glory. I don't keep this around when I play; it sits with the green one upstairs and the original RB binder holds the original Paratrooper training chapter K and sits on the shelf.

Storage

Storage is a fun topic of conversation amongst ASLers, as some of you who frequent GameSquad's forums are aware of. One man's storage is another man's signs of impending mental disease. Here's what I'm doing storage-wise. As you see above, I've divided the nationalities of the SK armies into their own Plano (model 3820 if I can remember right). So far that's been doable since the OBs for the SKs are much smaller than full ASL. The infantry and guns and AFVs all fit into one Plano. Key things to look for in your storage solutions: enough dividers and a rounded bottom so you can easily swipe counters out of their little cubbies. On the right are the Starter Kit Germans.

On the left are the informational counters. Again, these are easy to keep in a smaller than normal Plano because SK games don't use the full info counter set. These you want to keep very handy while playing with the very commonly used counters easily in reach, or better yet, stack a half-dozen or so next to the map for both players.

All closed up, the tackle boxes are quite easily stackable together on a shelf somewhere.

Once again I've written waaaay more than I wanted to be able to fit into one post (and Blogger is starting to have fits with all the pictures I've shoved in here) so I'll split this Getting Set Up post into two and finish the write up tomorrow.