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!

2 Half-Squads - More stuff!

Just checking up on my favourite ASL Podcast by the 2 Half-Squads and they've been mighty busy.

Two new episodes since the beginning of the month, a video of the ASL Open in Chicago and something intriguing for the newbie ASLer -- a Newbie-Do (Part 1) where the boys walk through S1 Retaking Vierville.

Go!

http://the2halfsquads.podbean.com/

After Action Report #1 - S1 - Retaking Vierville - Part 2

It's been a few days since my face-to-face with the Prawn over S1 Retaking Vierville and I've been thinking about the game in an effort to sort through mistakes, rules and other reactions. It's basically inevitable in a game of ASL and ASLSK-level of complexity to have these sorts of debriefs in order ot improve. At least at the ASLSK-level, the quick run through the rules makes finding your mistakes a lot easier!

Which brings me to ASL Learning Tip #1:

DON'T BE AFRAID OF MAKING MISTAKES!

It should go without saying but frequently I see people stuck in "analysis paralysis" because they are overcome with the notion of being "perfect" in the game. The problem is bad enough in Eurogames and such but I can see some of this in people's reluctance to even crack open their ASL Rulebooks. Get over it. The sooner you accept that you're going to make mistakes the sooner you can get on with having fun! Save the optimizing for tourney play!

So, without further proselytizing here's what I think of S1 with the Prawn...

Mistakes with the Rules

1. Residual Fire [3.3.5 - all rule references apply to SK #3] - It's not like I didn't talk about this but basically we forgot to apply the rules for residual fire. That's because for the most part Prawn and I moved in big stacks. ASL experts are shaking their heads here but I discussed the disadvantages of having stacks of three squads and leaders versus the advantages with the Prawn. However, for each particular instance in the game when this debate came up, the massive firepower required for the mission or the necessity of getting a stack somewhere quickly outweighed the need to split defensive fire up. I'm pretty sure that this omission of putting residual fire chits on the board made no difference to any outcome of the game we played -- I don't recall a single instance of piecemeal squads following in the footsteps of others who had taken defensive fire earlier in a turn.

2. Self-Rally Penalty [3.1.f] - This we realized about halfway through the scenario when I was checking something else in the Rally Phase rules. Any unit, MMC or SMC attempting a self-rally (even the additional one granted to attackers) gets a +1 penalty. We just continued to play it wrong to be "fair" for the rest of the game. Otherwise we got the Rally Phase perfect I think. S1 makes it easy in that there's no Support Weapon repair or transfer or any of that nonsense to worry about.

3. TEM vs. Hindrance [1.1.1, 3.2.1 and 2.0 definitions] - I think we goofed this one up too. Since the Prawn was enraptured with avoiding my forward defenders in the north he made a lot of runs through the wheat fields. Now that I've read through the rules again I realize that we included the target hexes as +1's to the IFT attack rolls in addition to hindrance +1's from intervening hexes. By definition TEM is the modifier for the target hex and the hindrance is NOT included in this. Also, wheat fields are NOT open ground so FFMO is not applicable. I think I've got a better handle on this. (Oh darn, I wonder if the scenario's time period made the wheat fields open...)


Lessons and Rules to Learn

4. Know the Goal - This comes from post-game discussion with the Prawn. Part of the difficulty that the Americans had in this scenario was not defending the victory hexes sufficiently. Perhaps enamoured with the idea of shooting and killing stacks and squads I left around the village, the Prawn left the two hexes in the main clump of buildings in the middle of Vierville wide open. This basically passed initiative to me as the Germans -- I could sit on the hexes and wait for him to approach and soak up tons of point blank fire. Newbies who want to be successful should never forget the scenario's victory conditions -- something I hear is difficult even for veterans to remember. (Maybe I'll make this a Learning Tip!)

5. Time Limits - Part and parcel of the lesson above, know the time limits in the scenario. We played for about 2.5 hours but other than the very slow first turn spent explaining the basics of ASLSK, time really really flew. More importantly, the fun we were having really resulted in a surprised Prawn when the turn counter crossed into 4 and 5 territory (the scenario turn limit). Know the turn limit and make sure that you have enough game time to complete the mission!

6. Can an unbroken Leader modify a broken leader's rally DR? Here is a great example of something I like in ASL. Every rule makes logical sense if you apply a real-world combat analogy to it. While we were playing we came upon the situation of an unbroken leader stacked in a hex with a broken leader who was attempting to self-rally. We knew that they couldn't apply their own modifier because a) that's the rule and b) it makes total logical sense -- if you're crapping your pants it's hard to start believing in yourself. So we spent a little time looking up the rule but couldn't locate it quickly without dragging down the game so we applied the "common sense rule of ASL" -- we asked, would it be logical for another leader to be able to kick the other leader's butt and get him back on his feet? Yes was the answer and so we allowed the modifier. As it turns out when I later checked the rule it was correct (check 3.1.f - "A Good Order leader may attempt to rally all the units he is stacked with").

7. Routing [3.6 and richfam's Routing Tutorial] - Okay, the very first time I perused the ASLSK rules routing was NOT one of the rules I was perplexed by. Now it's become this nagging thing in the back of my head when I play. I constantly ask myself "Am I doing this right?". To be honest, I just need to re-read the rules and write down the instances that are causing me questions but in the middle of the game with the Prawn it didn't seem appropriate to stop the action for 10 minutes so I could figure out where to run his little half-squad of cowardly lions. I think there are just going to be instances where you'll have to learn via repetition and application, i.e. play more. One thing I'm going to also check is the ASL Rulebook itself which I recall, while flipping through it, a comprehensive example or two on routing. This is also why I have Jay Richardson's tutorials printed up and in a binder. Constant study can't hurt -- and yes I find this very fun.

8. Looking Through Stacks - I've checked the ASLSK rulebook and can't seem to find mention of this; it may have been something I read on a messageboard or something somewhere else. I think that looking through stacks is something verboten to the opposing player. You're permitted to see the top of the stack but no further. This was NOT a big deal in our game as we were both learning. I could see this being a sticky issue later if I were to play a little more competitively though.

9. Smoke is your friend - No really, it's big.

As a real-life teacher I'm not a big fan of HUGE after action to-do lists. I think it's best to focus on fewer areas to improve on and be successful with rather than attempting the mountain before me. So, this list has gotten a bit big but I think it's still super useful to start here and trace my learning of the ASL system. I hope it's been useful to those reading along.

Super big thanks to the Prawn who will hopefully play me again soon as time permits and this time I'll explain the "Balance" part of the scenario card to him! 8)

After Action Report #1 - S1 - Retaking Vierville - Part 1

Welcome to Triple Point Blank Fire's first After Action Report (AAR)!

The game was a face-to-face one as part of Newbie November -- my mini-effort to evangelize the ASL hobby.

The opponent was "Prawnski", one of my fellow co-workers who is an avid gamer in the fields of Euros and console and PC games. Prawnski enjoys violent action and my description of ASL got him curious to try after work yesterday. This would be one of his first hardcore wargame experiences.

The choice of scenario was an easy one -- S1 Retaking Vierville from Starter Kit #1. It involves very few squads in the beginnings of the scenario but quickly over the course of five turns ramps up with multiple reinforcements showing up from both the American and German sides. There are no support weapons and no AFVs.

Here's a shot of the empty board (notice that it does not use the whole of map y):

And here's the entire OOB of both sides splayed out on the map:


The objective of the scenario was for the American paratroops to hold four key buildings in the centre of board "y" -- ostensibly the French town of Vierville (this is during the early days following D-Day). Here's a shot of the board using VASL (the comment is wrong, it's not ANY building but ALL of them):



I chose to take the Germans as they would do most of the early lifting early on and from my solo plays of this scenario, I felt that they had the hardest time of it. Going into the game I knew that the Americans could not be allowed to reinforce his initial squads in the village so I tasked the second line Germans coming in from the west with harrassment duties toward the north end of the map (it's the right side here):

We set-up the scenario with my trusty map condom and Plano-ed counters and I began the introduction to ASL with a brief overview of the counters and the geomorphic nature of the maps. I briefly outlined the sequence of play (use this!) and the scenario and the objectives and Prawnski set his squads up and we started! Here is the initial set-up in real life (sorry about the flash!):

Here's another view of the action from a lower perspective with victory hexes circled:



Here's the action at approximately turn 2 during the American's phase:

The first two turns went fairly slowly as I explained and ran through the Sequence of Play. Luckily I'm pretty good at explaining things and Prawnski is a quick study with his prior gaming experience. You'll note from the photo that I have a fairly strong stack in yK6 shooting at the half-squad across the street and a squad in yP6 probing into the centre victory hexes. Prawnski has split his initial squads to protect both sets of victory hexes thanks to the diversionary second-line German squad in yI2. Finally, check out the fun on the north (right) side of the board. The first set of reinforcements has taken the German squads with 7-0 leader in the farmhouse in yU3 a bit too seriously and run through the wheat fields trying to reinforce the village.

Prawnski's relative inexperience was pretty balanced by some of my atrocious rolling. On multiple occasions I had massive firepower arrayed against him and rolled eleven's. Nice. And no I'm not complaining -- I have long since made peace with the dice gods in all my games. Besides, if ASL is good for one thing, it's the fantastic stories that come out of these desparate and nutty situations. [As an aside: Prawnski liked to make the ominous Terminator music when he advanced squads... spooky!]

By the start of turn three we can see things starting to develop even more in Vierville. Here is a close-up of the action in the centre of the map (notice that in trying to run his half-squad away they were shot up):


As turn three commenced the action looked like this:


Again to explain what has happened, a German squad already controls a victory hex (yN6)with at least two other stacks waiting outside the village in stone farmhouses waiting to shoot up and delay reinforcements. Note the one eliminated squad off the board -- they ran into an ambush in CC and were bayonetted. Nasty!

By the late game, around turn 3-4, the situation had become even more grim for the Americans.

Though the reinforcements actually shot up the second-line squad in the north (who had a wounded leader and kept failing morale checks into casualty reduction), they couldn't get around the stack in yO10. They would rumble into the street and get half shot up and rout back into their little hut on the edge of the field only to try again for the same result later. It was rather amusing actually. I explained smoke exponents but Prawnski shrugged off the advice and felt that no elite airborne unit worth it's salt would need it...

Here's the situation at the start of the last turn:

I have advanced my German squads into a massive three stack defense of the centre victory hexes. I offered Prawnski a cessation to the hostilities but he respectfully declined and threw his men into a final, last-ditch effort. Not shown are some of the nasty point blank fires that occurred and the equally destructive close combats in the victory hexes -- if you're wondering where all his guys are... If Prawnski made one mistake, the typical newbie one, is that as an attacker he used way too much prep fire trying to dislodge my units. Having given up the initiative by losing the centre of Vierville I could wait for him to come to me.

And basically the game ended with a dominating German victory after about 2.5 hours. Did the Prawn enjoy himself? Immensely if he is to be believed. Another of the joys I find in gaming and ASL is the debriefing and end of game discussion about memorable moments and lost opportunities and head slapping as you find out the rules you messed up big time. Alas that is for part 2 when I'll reveal some lessons learned about ASL after S1 Retaking Vierville.