Showing posts with label commissars. Show all posts
Showing posts with label commissars. Show all posts

Thursday, July 2, 2009

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!

Monday, May 4, 2009

VASLeague Round 2 - AAR Part 2

Axis Turn 1 - DFPh

With just around 2 weeks to go 'til the deadline, Paul and I set-up and played turn one. It was a two and a half hour session: grueling and nervewracking.

My number one concern was the MMG and squad in P3. They were (1) elite, (2) armed with a nasty SW, (3) occupying a victory hex with a full field of fire on my incoming troops. The very first roll of the game was my Prep Fire from Sgt. Esser's group into that building for a 16FP + 2 shot.... If they failed to break the target there'd be some nasty retaliation. The final DR was an 8 for a 1MC and whew! I broke the unit. No MMG return fire (for now) and I started drawing up plans to advance on the factory. My first gamble of the game.

I moved a nice kill stack with a HMG and 9-2 leader to L5, advancing them to M5 later. This stack proved to be a nasty piece of work, mowing down units the entire game. I've said it before and I'll say it again... HMGs are awesome. That 7FP and 3 ROF for the German version is, in the words of my students, "sick".

After pushing a bunch of 4-6-7s into buildings across the street south of the factory I played a few nervous smoke games farther down with stacks of my slighty better troops, led by a 7-0. They were to roll up the left flank of the Russians in the south with the intent of getting some better sightlines to the factory itself -- and hopefully, trip over the HIP gun.

As luck would have it, Sgt. Esser's large stack in the N3 building was way too juicy a target. Paul unHIPed and laid into Esser's stack. The Gun turned out to be in R5 zeroed in on the N3 building. The Gun hit and a MMC broke. For the next couple of turns, the 45L Gun laid waste to the hex and was waxing squads up and down. But Sgt. Esser passed every MC and even picked up a dropped LMG later to wield it himself.

The only other thing I noted early was the nice defensive set-up in the north. The Commissar waited in R2 for the inevitable routing squads where he could easily rally them...


Allies Turn 1 - Start of the RPh

Of course, we went to the second half of the first turn where the Commissar promptly claimed his first victim. He ELRed the broken Russian squad when they refused to listen to his wonderful rhetoric. My "elite" Germans did no better in N3, refusing to budge under Sgt. Esser's tender ministrations. Ah well.

Prep Fire was both "hit and miss". (In fact, if there's a general lesson that has to be made known to new players it is this: Don't depend on Prep Fire!) Paul's squad in O7 took a PB shot at my 7-0 and three squad stack and missed. Whew again from me. Then his whole line in the neighbourhood started shooting across the street -- no effect! But his newly unveiled Gun popped a few rounds (thanks ROF!) and literally popped the head off a unit (thanks Critical Hit!) and broke the other squad. Esser was left, again, with a bunch of headless corpses under his command.

Allies Turn 1 - MPh

I think Paul sought, immediately to take advantage of Esser's very precarious position. He moved in two different squads from his immediate reserves to try and CC N3 (I think -- Paul's offered to write up an AAR from his side and I'll post it when he's finished it). Alas, I had a leader-led (9-2) HMG in M5 with LOS to N2 and O3, both hexes he would need to get to if he wanted to advance into N3 and take out Esser.

In both instances the HMG (and supporting squad at first) chewed up the Russian advance. I kept a LOT of rate. Now, my memory of this is hazy as I didn't pay attention to it at the time but Paul mentioned it later when we convened for Turn Two onwards -- Defensive First Fire where you keep ROF in your SW is not carte blanche to keep blasting away -- the key limiter is the MF expended to get to the hex. So, in at least two instances, I think, I kept ROF and fired a second/subsequent time on the same squad moving into the open ground hexes of N2 and O3. Having expended only 1MF to get to the hex I was allowed only ONE shot. Was this game changing? I'm not sure. I do recall that both squads who tried this ended up very dead. I apologized to Paul, I think some of my enthusiasm with the HMG might have "jedi mind tricked" him... To be fair we were both tired from the long turn and it was a Sunday night before a work day (and I certainly didn't do it on purpose!).

Regardless, in the end Paul couldn't get his guys into CC with Esser in N3. He would maintain a bastion of German fire from that building until his advance midgame.

The rest of the turn saw my 7-0 stack rout the guys next door in DFPh and my HMG, still maintaining ROF rout the other squads on the O-line buildings. Things were starting to get ugly...

Axis Turn Two - Start of RPh

We concluded the session by doing Turn Two's Rally Phase -- we'd know what we had going into the next turn and would have time to think about it. Here you can see that the routed O-line squads were backed up with the 9-1 into hex P5. The squad in R3 had run up into the Bread Factory and taken up the MMG left behind by the others. While the Gun was still threatening N3 with a nasty -2 acquisition counter my guys on the M-line and the 7-0 stack in O8 were making noises on the Russian flanks.

It was turning out to be a very interesting game...

Sunday, May 3, 2009

VASLeague Round 2 - AAR Part 1


Welcome to Part One of the VASLeague Round 2 AAR I'm writing. At least I'm pretty sure it's going to be more than one part given that all my other AARs are. Let's get to it!


My second round opponent was LTC Paul who is a reservist in the United States and has a PhD to boot. Given that we were in the same time zone I thought it would be a breeze to hook up and finish the match. Alas, it wasn't until last Wednesday when we were finally able to conclude things due to a protracted game of computer tag. I'm just glad that we had the two months to be able to play. When real life rears its ugly head wargames get shoved in the corner.


We decided on S18 - Baking Bread (available originally in MMP's Operations magazine but now downloadable here). Baking Bread is an allusion to the tense firefight for Bread Factory #2 (those crazy Soviet names!) during the battle of Stalingrad in October of 1942. The scenario was adaptable, presumably, from Red Barricades, the HASL module that many consider the best ASL experience, bar none.


Compared to the other ASLSK scenario set in Stalingrad (S2 War of the Rats), Baking Bread is a claustrophobic, dense, urban nightmare. Scenario rules make all non-building terrain "Rubble" -- that is, chunky +3 TEM, 3 MF piles of broken stuff representing the detritus of intense urban street fighting. No nice trees and orchards here. VASL was able to show this with Rubble counters over the affected hexes (see pic above). Other than an ambush modifier for Russian squads (probably representing their inherent fanaticism in defense of their once-lovely city) the scenario also gives ASLSK players their first glimpse at the Soviet Commissar leader.


The Commissar, for those who don't know their Russian history, was a very nice fellow who followed the rank and file troops around and thanks to Stalin's visionary leadership shared command of the units with the military officer. He really was a useless adjutant except that he had the authority to perform summary executions for the political good. In ASL, this means the 6+1 leader is really a 10-0 fanatic who, thanks to his scary powers, rallies broken squads with ease. The problem being that he ELRs then Casualty Reduces anyone who fails to toe the party line. Like I said, very fun at "parties". Haha.


Here's a shot of the map with some crazy markings on it. At first I was quite surprised at the size. It's a fraction of a full map, condensing a lot of urban terrain in one. If War of the Rats was anything to go by, this map with MORE units and a Gun would be quite unpleasant.

According to the historical notes, Sgt. Esser, observing the carnage around him charged his small band of Wehrmacht soldiers into the Bread Factory (marked by "V" overlays on the map). This is represented by the open blue arrow from the top left. Esser's band sets up in sight of the Bread Factory filled with Russian troops and back up by the "X" where the commissar is polishing his pistol.

Another small group of squads is in the buildings below, making the crossing into the street a (hopefully) fatal activity.

Given that I had only six turns as the Germans to take and hold the two victory hexes I couldn't be dawdling. My plan was to sweep the reinforcements from the left edge through the streets below and threaten the units on top in an aggressive advance. A subsequent reinforcement on turn 2 would support whatever position needed it. For the Russians, they would receive a mediocre stack of conscripts from the right edge on turn 3. I felt confident that they wouldn't be much of a threat if I took the factory asap.

The main problem? The Russians had a 45L anti-tank gun HIPped (hidden-initial-placement). Paul was honourable enough to email me an encrypted Word file with the Gun's HIP and CA -- to be shared when he unleashed hell on my troops. Neat eh? Not to spoil things but I gave him such a juicy target on the first turn he was blasting away with it immediately from the position marked with a "?". The Gun had Q5 and R4 in a covered arc.

Here's the first turn, set-up and ready to go:

[I have no idea what the red ringed halo is...]

The game begins in Part 2 later!


Sunday, April 26, 2009

More from VASLeague 2...

We finally caught each other in a big match of Computer Tag. Tonight we ripped through 2 turns in almost 3 hours.

Highlights?

1. Turns out we may have royally screwed up the HMG last week. Units that expend only 1MF get shot at only once in the MPh. I may have shot more than once with the HMG of Doom last week. It's ok, I think it had ROF once tonight. Damn you dice gods!!!

2. Speaking of dice, the ASL Scenario Archive has an awesome VASL Analyzer. It's at http://davidramsey.no-ip.info/asl/analyser.php and rocks. Now you can definitively prove your dice were crapola. For what it's worth I was averaging 6.3 and opponent was 6.9 (4 snakes and 1 boxcar for me, 1/3 for him) if I remember correctly. I do NOT want to play tomorrow night when I will regress to the mean... if you know what I mean? Haha, I'm funny.

3. Prep Fire has demonstrated to us that it SUCKS in terms of getting people to move out of houses. But I think we knew that.

4. I almost forgot my reinforcements in turn 2. The SK and full ASL has rules for this! Unlike other games (I'm thinking SCS and whatnot) if you do not put the guys on the board on that turn you LOSE THEM! [Check 3.3] Wow, luckily I forgot them in MPh but was able to Advance them in APh. Lucky lucky boy...

5. If you know S18 - Baking Bread, Sgt. Esser, who leads the first squads nearest the "Bread Factory" has now been renamed in our game, Sgt. Luckypants McRabbitfoot. Nothing phases him. NOTHING. Now he has a machine gun...

6. The Commissar ate his first victim today, some schleps from the Ukrainian steppes refused to stop peeing their pants so he perferated them. Nice. His name is Ivan actually. Awesome at parties...

Remember, roll LO....