Out of Nowhere!

I just finished a nice gaming session with the Prawn this morning. Since he transferred to a new school we just don't get in as much ASL (if any) as usual. Today we rocked The Fires of Midway -- a game by The Hell of Stalingrad designer Steven Cunliffe. The Prawn's IJN sank Midway Island, USS Hornet and USS Yorktown whilst taking only one carrier loss and a whack of planes. Highly recommended for anyone who likes the PTO. Just plain fun!

So I checked the mailbox upon the Prawn's leaving and discovered Out of the Attic 2 from MMP! Nice! I love surprises (I forgot I had pre-ordered). What was an even better surprise was the way my mail carrier enjoys envelope origami.

Now, I know that the envelope doesn't explicitly say "Do Not Bend" but that doesn't grant carte blanche... It was very difficult to pry it out. Good news though, the magazine itself is in excellent shape.

What's in there that would interest ASLSK newbs? Here's a pic of the contents:

I've scanned the magazine which is meant to serve as a kind of "best of" compilation of scenarios and articles for ASL from various sources over the years. For example, there's a couple of scenarios from Lone Canuck's George Kelln (Go Canada!).

For newbies, the most obvious content is the "Tactics 101" article by Mike McGrath who exhorts new players to "kick their opponents while they are down". Good stuff. There are a couple of articles on AFVs -- a ruleset that sometimes boggles the new ASLer. The "Squad Leader Clinic" looks very interesting.

Newbs looking to step up or to get a preview of full ASL (other than looking through the scenarios) can check out the article on Snipers and the one on Bypass -- two very important rule additions when moving from ASLSK to full ASL.

Overall, it looks like a new bit of "must have" stuff for ASLers. Kudos MMP.

p.s. Here's the back cover -- can't wait to see PTO ASL!

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...

TABSCON XIX Recap

Another TABSCON has come and gone and despite a city-wide garbage strike, the TABBERS have hosted another fun event. Hightlights? The nice weather, the guy who won six raffle prizes, and scrub's first game of full ASL!

Andy who frequents the blog and is a fellow TABBER has been planning my imminent demise in ASL and today he fulfilled his lifelong dream of concurrently teaching an ASL newb the ropes and hanging him with them. Haha! Seriously though, thanks a lot to you Andy! The severe beating was a gentle one. A slightly more thorough AAR is to follow but here's a pic of the scenario, D1 - Guryev's Headquarters, a DASL scenarios! Shiny big maps!

I also got a chance to play Conflict of Heroes (dug it out to teach a new player), and No Retreat!. The latter to teach Kozure and John -- I think they were both impressed that the whole Eastern Front could be played in a reasonable amount of time on a ledger sheet of paper-sized map.

I also dragged the prawn along and he filled in as my substitute in a game of A Most Dangerous Time with Ben. Alas, the prawn discovered too late that housekeepers are not combat troops and his home castle was take by marauding Oda.

Thanks again to Andy for a great time. My brain was suitably mushy afterwards. Thank too to the TABSCon Steering committee. See you guys in September!

Now where the hell is my VASLeague opponent?!

TABSCON XIX! Five days to go!

Toronto
Area
Boardgaming
Society
is hosting TABSCON XIX this Saturday. I'll be there with the Prawn (probably unless he wigs out and possibly others). I've hopefully got a game with Andy of "real" ASL and I'm game for anything else*. Post a comment!

LINKS:
http://www.tabsonline.net/

* - ASLSK, ASL, Combat Commander, CC: Ancients, M44, AMDT, NR!, Kiev to Rostov, Case Blue, SCS Bastogne, blah blah blah...

Roll low...

As each June comes to a close and the day light hours lengthen and grow, so too does the massive pile of marking that oppresses and mocks me. After a furious week of non-stop marking I'm done. Take that education!

So, as usual, my VASLeague game has been put off to the last minute. You might as well call it the Procrastinator's League.

Anyways, here are some fun dice links for those of you who like math:

1. http://www.nextshooter.com/trueodds - Nice pictorial representation of all the possibilities of rolling two dice.

2. http://boardgames.about.com/od/dicegames/a/probabilities.htm - Short article with the odds of rolling a specific number with two dice.

3. http://demonstrations.wolfram.com/TwoDiceWithHistogram/ - Want to roll a lot of dice and see what happens, without having to literally roll the dice?

4. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dice#Probability - Wikipedia has a say.

5. http://www.jimloy.com/math/probabil.htm - Nice concise math explanation.


So, this chart is probably the most interesting one:

2 – 1 – 2.8% - 2.8%
3 – 2 – 5.6% - 8.4%
4 – 3 – 8.3% - 16.7%
5 – 4 – 11.1% - 27.8%
6 – 5 – 13.9% - 41.7%
7 – 6 – 16.7% - 58.4%
8 – 5 – 13.9% - 72.3%
9 – 4 – 11.1% - 83.4%
10 – 3 – 8.3% - 91.7%
11 – 2 – 5.6% - 97.3%
12 – 1 – 2.8% - 100%

The bolded numbers are the probabilities (with bad rounding) of rolling a particular number or less -- very important in ASL!

[Post inspired by the severe beating I received from the prawn in our last C&C: Ancients game -- wow, what a crushing defeat!]

AAR RPT11 - Butchers and Bakers

Well it was a LONG weekend of gaming for yours truly. The Niagara Boardgaming Weekend was a smash hit. The organizers say it was the biggest yet. I personally played about 16 sessions of various games in just over 36 hours. I will be back next year and I'd recommend anyone who has a passing interest in wargaming or Euros or both to show up.

Seeing as the Prawn was left out of the fun we set up a game of ASLSK using a scenario from Schwerpunkt's Rally Point 2 collection. The first scenario in the pack is RPT11 Butchers and Bakers -- the one infantry-only scenario of the bunch. Schwerpunkt is known for producing very focused scenarios that are well play-tested. Butchers and Bakers was no exception.

The game was quick with very few squads overall. Essentially the British enter from one corner of the map and have 6 turns to exit 6 VP of squads and leaders off the opposite corner while clearing out two buildings in the middle of the map. The Germans' only goal is to prevent this.

Here's how the evil-- sorry, Prawn set himself up in the small half-map area (sorry for the glare!). The primary defense was the (A) group where the Germans only leader was. The (B) group was a single conscript squad with a medium MG. The Mines are actually set up hidden by the German player -- in this case, any unit entering or exiting the hexes are hit with a no-DRM 6FP attack on the IFT. (The other option for the Germans is to put one mine in one hex with a 12FP attack -- nasty!) Grain is in season and a hindrance.

Here's the board after about 3 turns (of 5.5). The Germans are woefully poor in the squad quality department. Basically, forcing them to MC at anytime is going to result in a break or casualty reduction. [Note the British 6+1 leader -- he's actually a 10-2 leader but the SKs do not include such a counter or my counter got lost!] The British has a superior elite squad edge and two leaders, an 8-0 and a super 10-2. You have basically two approaches on either of the extreme edges. I lucked out and chose the less mined one.

Our impressions of the scenario were not that positive to start. To be honest, I thought it was turning out to be a rout. The German side was just so brittle. On the start of turn 4 I had already cleared the middle buildings and my squads were starting to run for the exit hexes. But here is where I made a fatal mistake. Instead of just going for it and escaping I decided to add insult to injury and engaged the final German squad in the building at the edge of the map. Guess what? Yep...

The CC lasted precious turns so that while my 10-2 and elite squad was dueling his conscripts and later his 8-0, I could only exit off 5VPs! ONE SHORT!!! Oh the humanity!

Let that be a lesson to you kids. My wife likes to tell me: "Don't get fancy." It may not be pretty or honourable but losing when your stupid 10-2 led squad can't roll a 7 three times hurts! Just exit the damn squads! Congrats to the Prawn for hanging in there. I'd post an aftermath photo but I can't find a suitable toy that matches the dumb.

Reflections, Comments and Learning:

1. Prawn and I have to start putting the residual fire counters on the board. We're just so damn lazy! But again, in this scenario it barely mattered.

2. Butchers and Bakers is not the most intense scenario. It's really a good learning scenario with a nice twist (hidden mines) and a bit of deceptive depth. You have to hoard your British squads like gold. The dual VP conditions of clearing out two buildings and exiting 6VP of squads in just 5.5 turns is a pressure packed situation.

3. The Prawn and I are looking forward to trying this scenario pack again possibly next week in a mixed infantry/AFV scenario. It'll be our first.

4. Rally Point 2's big sell, of course, is that it's SK-level and full ASL tested and compliant. A neat feature that I'm sure we'll make use of when we transition to full ASL. Should be good. So far I'd say that Rally Point 2 is looking to be worth the price of admission.

Go play some ASL!

What's going on?!

Jeez, you don't make a post in a week and even the Prawn jumps on you. Besides whipping him in Twilight Struggle (again) I've been dabbling in other wargames this past week.

There is some ASL news though.

First, View from the Trenches, the British ASL Journal has released their latest issue here.

Secondly, I've had the 2-Half-Squads link me and chat me up -- much to my wife's amusement. If anyone is brand new to ASL(SK) and wants to start at the beginning of my journey start here and just keep running forward in time 'til you get back to the present day. Like a time machine!

Thirdly, my VASLeague game with my fine Italian opponent has been stalled a bit on the start of turn 3 -- I think we've both been hit with the Real-Life Stick. It's an intense game and I'm learning a ton. I'll try to post a progress report soon.

Finally, I'm about 60% through my eASLSK3. I hit it when I have a few moments of time and feel like vegging out in front of a computer.

p.s. I love my dice tower. Even the Prawn can hit the target half the time!

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!

Lotsa news...

What's up in the world of TPBF?

1. I decided that giving a 9 to ASLSK1 on BGG was kind of being picky. I look at things this way: if I will drop anything else to play your game then your game is a 10 out of 10. So I revised my ASLSK1 score from 9 up to a "perfect" 10. For that matter, I put another very fun game up to 10 too: GMT's Twilight Struggle. Some may argue about its wargame-ness but you can't argue that it's frickin' awesome... Unless you're the Prawn and still getting smoked by me.

2. I'm still plugging away on my eASLSK3. I'm actually learning a LOT this way. I find that just retyping the rules and revising and checking for typos that I am really getting to be proficient with this system. Just putting together the examples and diagrams with VASL screenshots has been very educational. I think I'm about 60% done the whole of the eASLSK3 -- that includes every single word and diagram in that total. When I'm done I'll post a few screenies and start incorporating the errata and possibly scanning and adding the player aids so I'll have a super portable e-version to cart around with the actual counters and maps.

3. I fixed the masthead of the blog. No more ugly orange on light green map. Should be a little more readable now. I'm going to fiddle with it some more later but for now at least the masthead isn't an abomination against man.

4. Going to probably get to my first turns in the VASLeague with my Italian opponent this weekend. We've been bandying about the scenario choice (it's S4 Welcome Back -- I've never played but looks fun -- I'm the Americans) and I've been feeling under the weather. The six hour time difference makes getting hooked up a little difficult but I think we'll get things going very soon. I've gone over my porous defensive set-up and will be sending it off tonight.

5. I'll be teaching the vehicle rules to the Prawn on Monday too. I'm bringing Optimus Prime. He's going to hurl some AFVs around.

6. Winter Offensive (MMP's annual con) is on. Man, I'd love to be there.

7. And the boys at 2 Half-Squads have posted a new podcast. GO GET IT!

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!!!

AAR When Patrols Clash (Playtest)

Steve Swann asked for volunteers to help playtest some SK-level scenarios. I took on the Prawn in "When Patrols Clash", an engagement between the American line troops and German Fallschimjagers. See above actual photo of the game for details!

AAR #3 - S2 - Rematch of the Rats Part 1

Welcome to Triple Point Blank Fire's third AAR!

It's what you've all been waiting for -- the rematch of S2 War of the Rats between myself and ASL Life Partner(TM) Prawn. If you missed the first War of the Rats check it out here.

Since I'm feeling a little poetic in the midst of the snow and Christmas holiday I think I'll mix things up a bit in this AAR...

Private Demidov nervously clutched his rifle and fingered the safety. His superior officer had already "briefed" him with a hearty slap on his back and a hoarsely whispered, "Shoot them when they come, Demidov!" Demidov wondered if this Christmas would be his last... here in the rubbled buildings on the southern flank of the city named after the master of the state...

War of the Rats is the second scenario in the first ASL Starter Kit. Below is a VASL screenshot of the action that unfolds. Note that the Germans approach from the north with eleven squads, four leaders and seven support weapons. Their job is to take three victory buildings by the end of five turns. The ten sub-par Russian squads with three leaders and three support weapons are bolstered by an elite group of three squads, a good leader and support weapon sometime after the first turn. The Communist forces win if they keep at least one building out of the fascists' hands.

Demidov was spread out in the ruined building north of the old church with his fellow squadmates. They were to be the blunt front end of the defense of this small sector of Stalingrad. He'd already seen many of his comrades fall against the German war machine. With their backs to the Volga, Demidov's company knew that action would be imminent. Word was that there was only a small chance of a reserve being made available to them... The young private wondered if it was more propaganda from his commissar or wishful thinking.

In the shot above was the initial set-up. The Prawn was keen to try a modified defensive set-up and I'll try to detail it here. In (X), (Y) and (Z) he placed a conscript squad forward in a building to try to both draw fire and blunt any initial pushes. The German side would obviously be loath to take the bait and pour too much fire into these simple conscripts but moving up next to them we would still have to respect the doubled point-blank fire they could muster. I suspect that (X) and (Y) were primarily squads meant to slow me down as much as possible (the former having their sole MMG and each having a leader for rally purposes). Group (Z) seemed to be the more respectable defense -- I think that the Prawn was hoping to hold out longest here and apply his reinforcements there when they showed up. What the Prawn was most afraid of was my Flamethrower -- with good reason, that thing is a roving barbeque machine. Ignoring the +3 TEM of buildings in an urban map is pure comedy gold.

As for my set-up, the Germans in (A) and (B) were the elites with first-line back-up and toting LMGs. The FT was in stack (C) where there was least resistance crossing that deadly street. Stack (D) was an elite squad who would smoke hexes for stacks (E) and (F) to end run around and take that flank.

They all looked at each other. They had all heard it. The German command had been barked out across that bloody street and quick and deliberate movement was seen through the sudden rain of smoke grenades. Demidov's breath grew shallow as he pressed his rifle to his shoulder and flicked the safety. The distinct sound of a German MG42 accompanied by the whizzing of bullets across the face of the house he was hiding in made him duck his head. They were coming...

The action in the scenario can basically be divided into the battles on the northeast and southwest flanks. On the northeast side the FT detachment was slowly encrouching from the west while the main thrust by MG and DC supported squads advanced across the very very bare street. Two rolls for smoke in the NE zone came up nada and the Germans made a desperate push. Both (A) and (B) stacks were repulsed with broken squads but not before breaking the conscripts in (X). The conscripts in (Y) were vaporized by the FT.



In the SW zone a variation of the action occurred. The smoke here did work but an end run by (F) resulted in a shot up broken squad who ran back to the building they came from. The nice leader-led stack was able to break up the Russian leader stack (again from Prawn's Final Protective Fire barrage breaking his own men) but the super-conscripts in the front building broke them in turn. An 8/-2 roll on the IFT is very scary when you're on the receiving end.

Demidov couldn't believe it. He was still alive. The smoke made it easy to tell where the Germans were coming from but it was not a trivial task to still hold his bladder and pull the trigger when the ominous shapes of men grew from the shadows. His lonely squad was once again on its own -- the scouts on the broken rooftops had yelled down that the insipid lieutenant in the adjacent building had already run back to the church with his men and the machine gun. And now, it had started to snow... A beautiful sight juxtaposed with the crimson in the street and groans of the fallen.

For the first part of the scenario, the Prawn and I rolled a lot of eleven's and boxcars. It was actually pretty comical for a bit. I've photographed the offending dice to document to the Dice Gods that yes, it was funny the first three times in a row, not so funny the next few times. Time to buy a dice tower!

Above: The view around the mid-game from the Prawn's perch. Note the incredibly bad job of defense by the farmboys of the Ukraine.

To be honest, the Russian defense was a lot harder to crack than the first game. It was clear that the Prawn had done quite a bit of thinking for this rematch. At the end of turn three in the NE zone the Germans had suffered some losses taking the easternmost Victory building when a CXed stack huffed around the back and cut off the retreat of stack (X) containing a leader, MMG and a few broken squads.

Funny ASL Moment: The Russian MMG broke (one of those boxcar rolls) and so did their squad who subsequently were eliminated by failure to rout. The funny part was the German squad that got into the hex was able to recover the MMG and then repair it. We spent a good couple of minutes joking about the Russian conscripts:

"Sir! We've broken the machine gun again! It won't fire!"

"RUN!!!!"

[Germans enter the broken building.]

"Herr Lieutenant, I'm not sure why those Russians didn't shoot us in the face point blank!"

"Well Corporal, it appears they didn't undo the safety..."

Funny ASL Moment: The Prawn and I think Die Hard is the best Christmas movie ever. I think though that he might have found it less funny than I when I kept channeling Hans Gruber as he read the letter from John McClane, "Ho, ho, ho, now I have a machine gun..."

The situation was getting a bit dire for the Russians in the NE. The eastern building was basically goners and the FT stack was only slowed temporarily for a turn by a broken squad. I should also mention that the arrangement of the German offense in this area made skulking unsafe -- there was literally no where safe to skulk to.

On the SW side the Russians were doing a much better job, probably aided by the amazing conscript squad which repeatedly resisted massed firepower and kept breaking my squads in Defensive Fire. I think they broke once and rallied immediately in the next RPh and came right back to laugh at me. (They inspired the Demidov story.) Below you can see that the German Wehrmarct was being stopped cold.

Demidov brushed away the dust and caked on blood from his face. It was yet another Christmas miracle, he was still alive. The German squad had advanced into his building and in the heat of battle Demidov's little band was able to hold them off in a deadly melee. Demidov's squad looked at him in amazement -- he himself had killed a half dozen of the invaders. Even the commissar was wide-eyed, "Demidov, you are true hero of the Soviet Union!" It was Demidov's turn to be surprised. What a Christmas present!

The Prawn finally triggered the Leader Creation rules in this game. A 8-0 leader was created out of a CC.

If things were going badly for Germany in the SW then the opposite was true on the other flank. As you can see below, one squad with the fixed Russian MMG was sitting on the building awaiting the Russian reinforcements while the other stacks were also anticipating their arrival. There was no way the elite Russian squads were going to come through on this side of the board (and the Prawn objected on the moral grounds that he wouldn't have his men killed by their own machine gun).

At the end of turn four the Russian reinforcements still hadn't arrived (nice rolling Prawn!) but all wasn't lost yet. The SW zone was still being tenaciously defended by Demidov's super-conscript buddies. (Everyone else were broken and ELRed multiple times.)

He actually started to believe he might survive this firefight. Demidov allowed himself the hope that this Christmas would see him live to fight another day -- better yet, live to enjoy the simple comforts of a warm fire and the company of his family. That's when he heard the sound of another German officer extorting his troops forward. Would it ever end? Demidov took one last look around the hunkered down troops around him. Who would live? Who would die? Here, in the bombed out, burned out remains of an apartment buildling in Stalingrad? And then the fear began to constrict him again...

Alas, the Russian defense of the SW flank ended all too abruptly when the super-conscripts finally failed their morale check in the face of the German superstack. In fact, another German leader and supporting squad with LMG had infiltrated the victory building from the other side of the map (where they fell in CC but not before breaking a few more squads and scaring the Prawn). By the way, do you see the Russian reinforcements? Me neither!

I think this above picture says it all.

Here's the board position at the very end of the game on turn 6. The Russian elites finally showed up and were mercilessly gunned down in the SW area as they crossed the open fields. The other Russian squads had all evaporated from failure to rout or routing off the board. Here's the magnificent defense that awaited the reinforcements: (A) first-liners with a Russian MMG; (B) Elites with a LMG; (C) Leader with two squads, a LMG and FT; (D) Leader with squad and MMG; and (E) squad with LMG.

We hashed out the scenario again and here were some preliminary thoughts:

1. Die rolling was atrocious but even.
2. Did I say die rolling was even? The Russian reinforcements were late again!
3. Super-conscripts were amazing, though even in the end they faced the music.
4. Stalingrad, with all deference to the reality of war, is a fun place to play ASL.

Demidov woke on a hard cot. He remembered firing and firing and running out of bullets. He remembered running. He remembered getting shot in the calf as he reached the trees. He half-remembered someone pulling him over their shoulders. And then he remembered nothing.

He thought he heard the soft singing of a Christmas carol but doubted himself. There would be no overt shows of religion here in the very battleground where Soviet Communism strove mightily against the fascists. And yet, as he looked up through the open rafters of the triage centre he couldn't help but hum a little Christmas tune, glad to be alive and glad, perhaps, to be able to fight again...