ASL scenario Race for the Meuse

 Under the "They can't all be winners" label will have to go Race for the Meuse.  The map is a work of art and the situation is interesting.  The German attack through the Ardennes in 1940 instead of the Bulge battle in 44.  The problem is the forces are too small in ASL terms to be interesting considering the map size.  Basically two platoons on each side facing off on a single campaign map.  Way too much ground to cover.

Tycho had the Germans and I had the defending Belgians.  Most of the forces for the entire first CG day are on the board, each of us had lost about 3 squads.  All of the Belgian units are Half Squads and many of the German ones are as well.  The Germans at the top got the worst of it, losing their leader early to a MTR shot (I think) while down below the Belgians got the worst of it overall.  This is turn 6 and the Germans had just broken the 10-2 Belgian leader and HS with him (with a lousy 6+2 shot no less) and the 10-2 has nowhere to rout I think.  

By this point we were both bored of it anyway and called it.  ASL was meant to handle slightly larger forces then a platoon vs a platoon in concrete buildings.  Or maybe just not our thing.

Annoyance (Victory) in the Pacific

 Finished the Victory in the Pacific game.  I got annoyed with the Vassal die roller and conceded.  Consistently rolling half the number of hits expected on average and then consistently rolling 1 or 2 damage per hit put a damper on things.  

ASL Action Pack 116: Mook Point

The Germans have 7 turns to either have NO GO US MMC on the level two hills or to have more buildings then the US has MMC on the level two hills.  The US has a 70mm OBA but LOS is highly restricted due to the trees being Pine Woods (level 2 instead of level 1).

I see Nut Ting!

After this last shot on the Leader I called it.  There was no way I was going to take enough buildings and clear enough US MMC from the level 2 hills to win with just 2 Movement Phases left to go.  A little whining, my first turns worth of IFT rolls averaged a 9, one roll was a 6 and the rest were 8 to 11.  Overruns with 8+2fp did squat too, well not really since one of them caused the US to generate a hero...

In two weeks it is off to the Ardennes (in 1940) where my Belgians will fight the Germans in the LC campaign game Race for the Meuse.

Victory in the Pacific

 Lawrence and I started this on VASSAL.  Made it through turn 2 in 3 hours.  The last time we played was 6+ years ago (back before this blog started) so we were both a bit rusty.  Things are flowing once turn 1 was half done though.  We both made mistakes and things are up for grabs.  This game is one of the classics, playable in a reasonable amount time, simple, and reasonably good history too.

His Pearl Harbor raid did not go well.  No ships were removed from the game and a few were able to sail right away.  My choice of battle type rolls were horrible too (lost 2 out of 3 and tied on the last one with a +2 on the roll in two of them).  I made a mistake of putting only one ship in Coral Sea on turn 1 which was sunk by the sub and sending ships to Indonesia which were also sunk.  

ASL scenario To Battle By Air 7

 The second of two small ASL scenarios played today.  This one took roughly 45 minutes to play through once setup was done.

The setup.  The Dutch have to have a single MMC (not DM) with LOS to the circled hex within 2 hexes as well.  It does not have to be Good Order, simply unbroken (so in CC or pinned is fine).

The different color lines roughly show how far the Dutch moved each turn.  The Germans DRs were crap for the most part with the exception causing a big Dutch sniper to DM a squad in the spot were the sniper currently is.  Top it off with a CC going to the Dutch on turn 3 leaving a Dutch squad in position to fire on the bridge bound German reinforcements and the game is over.  This one I might play again someday since it has the Dutch setting up in a defensive spot with reinforcements coming on then German reinforcements coming on.  I'm guessing that even without bad dice it is pro Dutch.

ASL Scenario Race for the Meuse 1

The first of two ASL games played via VASL today.  Once setup was done this only took an hour to play.

To win the Germans have to exit more VP off the left edge by the end of game turn six than the Belgians.  The two big stacks (in the middle and at the bottom) are dummies.

The German motorcycles come roaring on, into deadly fire for the scouts who are killed with K results.  The Belgians (me) press their luck with FPF and and earlier sustained fire.  Breaking the squad and the MMG.  The picture here is the end of German turn three of a six turn game.  A 9-1 German leader at the top was attacked with a big sniper leaving nobody to rally the broken Germans.  To make it worse their attacks on the 2 half squads in a small wooden building did squat for 3 turns.  In the main part of town Belgians gacked another MMG but the Germans were down to 2 Good Order squads versus 3.5 Belgian Good Order squads.  So game one of the day goes to the Belgians.  

Hard to say if this one is balanced.  The sniper killing the prime German leader early in such a small scenario is one of those things that make or break something this large.  Not on my list to play a second time though.

ASL Action Pack 110: Display of Enthusiasm

 Played this one by email.  It helps with my grouchy attitude in regards to Dice Rolls.  This was the final scenario in our ASL 29 Lets Go playthrough.  Although it has a ROAR record of 9 German wins to 14 US my opponent and I do not see how.

The setup.  The Germans can setup either on the left (which I did) or on the right between the German location control markers to the top of the map. Of the Germans can come on anywhere along the top.  To win they have either have an MMC south of the stream at the end of any player turn OR control the buildings (or is it no US in buildings between two lines, something like that) at end of game.  The US has to spread out to defend leaving the Germans the ability concentrate and with the ability to make it to the stream on either flank in two turns barring really bad luck that is a tall order.  Basically I bum rushed the left.

Near the end of German turn 2 movement phase.  After rolling boxcars on two 8fp MG attacks, two tens on OVR attacks, and some bad attack rolls on the US guy in the foxhole (nearly surrounded right now) I still managed to get a squad next to the stream and the US would be hard pressed to get a unit in firing position on it.  The US player was aggravated with this one since it was basically a back to the wall game for him the entire time.  If it was not for a 666 self rallying with a 1,2DR it would have been even worse.  Just to not be totally whiny my 9-1 up top had an 12+1 shot Stun the US Armored Car and the Panther did get a CH on another 666 squad (after the boxcars MG shot).  

Whoever won this as the US, how did you do it barring extreme luck?  Did the Germans not try a bum rush?

Normandy 44 game 2 over

 Turn 6 and game over.  

4 attacks with rolls of 1,5,2 and 1.  The two 1 rolls were 4 to 1 attacks that would only fail on a 1.  Had all I could stand and quit.  If it makes me a big baby I don't give a shit.

Normandy 44 (second playing) end of turn 5

 Playing this one over VASSAL (lovely program) and have finished up turn 5.  Things are looking bad for my UK troops and good for the US.  If the UK can hold on and push the Germans back from the beaches it will be slog.  If not it will be over soon.  Lots of mistakes with the UK and a couple of bad DR (compensated by good DR on the US side) caused the mess there.

ASL Action Pack 109

 Slow month, news is getting to me so I took awhile to posting this and am keeping details at a minimum.

This is the picture at the end of the game.  The US started off to the left and the Germans one hex over from there (the two lines).  Two M10s and a Crocodile (on loan from the UK) with a bunch of troops versus nearly as many defenders with a 40ll and an AA gun (off to the right).  This is where the game was called.  The US had to capture both of the buildings in the red circle and it was looking like a good chance till this turn.  My Germans folded up like a wet book the turn before but then most of them made their Rally attempts and this turn when the US pushed they were broken, pinned, and blown up on every DR.  Down at the bottom a HS get a 2-2 and 1-2 shot pinning the first guy and DMing the second.  Up where the tank is destroyed there is a mine in the road, every US squad that went in to clear it was DMd.  Finally another tank went to cross the bocage and bogged.

ASL Action Pack 108: Yes Sir!

 Just played this one with Tycho and there is something funny with the Random.org dice roller too!

The US has six turns to capture 3 of the buildings in the red lined area.  Germans get 2 Squad Eqvuialents HIP.  I choose Half Squads and a squad with an LMG and another with a Shreck.  One more hanging out in the grain to be a nuisance too.

Second shot and first blood.  The US armor leader's tank is CE and promptly gets stunned for it.  Adding insult to injury the LMG got rate.

Next is a 2-2 shot and I roll a 1,2 while laying down a Firelane.  The SSR for the US having 10ML on turn 1 is not helping them since they just die.

End of US turn 1.  By the end a SNiper popped the US leader and two squads were KIA.  The scond one was from a 2-2 shot where I rolled snakes ending up a 0 on the 1 table.  The US return fire only resulted in a MC for the Germans that got one leader pinned and also caused the Sniper Check that killed the 9-1 leader.

End of German turn 1.  The German MMG and leader wounded the US 9-1 leader and fire from the gun (or the MMG again) broke the squad under the one tank.  The 238 shot at a US squad and leader and broke both of them too.  When they routed I revealed 238 in the grain, maybe should have waited and got them in CC but with the dice roller shining on me today it didn't matter.

First shot of German Defensive Fire Phase in US turn 2 and game over.  First shot is another 4fp shot where I rolled a 1,2 breaking another US squad.  At this point they were down to 2 unbroken squads and 5 total versus an unharmed German side (8 squads).  The tanks never got smoke and the Germans only suffered a single Pin result (maybe a second when it didn't matter, during a US Advancing fire phase).  

 

The VASL die roller gets slammed a lot (I'm one of the slammers) for odd streaks - this is the third game in a row where Random.orgs results have been consistently high for one side and consistently low for the other.  In this case low (very low) for me and high (very high) for Tycho.  Perhaps it is time to use a camera focused on a dice glass...

Hammered Scots!

 Ooops.  Didn't give Wallace a retreat path and he died.  King buttstomper then went on a killing spree.  Have to try this again and play a bit more conservatively with Wallace.

Hammer of the Scots!

 Played a few hours of Hammer of the Scots.  Then the power went out.  Luckily my opponent has a save of it but I have nothing to show.  King butt-kicker went North in the second year and stayed for the third which we are in the middle of.  Hoping to continue the game on the 21st.

ASL scenario AP107

 Played this one on VASL and got diced in record time.  I thought the Random.org dice were supposed to be better than VASL's.  First opponent roll malfed his big mortar and other shots were not good.  Second player turn he had a ROF run on 9 shots with another mortar and a critical hit.  Moved my remaining guys into a fortified stone building.  First shot from the mortar on that was, you guessed it, a crit.  Went from a 4+4 to a 16-4 on the IFT.  I gave up at that point.

Hammer of the Scots!

Lawrence and I (virtually) pulled out Hammer of the Scots yesterday.  The last time we played (FTF) was years ago.  My Scots got creamed both of those games but this time things are going a bit different (and I noticed some rules we got wrong that may be helping that...)

The start of the Braveheart scenario.  Nothing exciting here - all the games start this way...

The situation at the start of 1301.  The Scots got all 2 and 3 activation cards in 1297.  1298 went well and 1299 was ended early when we both used event cards in the second card play.  The English attempts to invade have been pushed back each time.  So far so good. 

The war continues next week!

Two in one day! ASL Action Pack 106

Got in a second game - knowing that AP105 woudl be a quick playing game we setup AP106 as well. 

The US forces start on the outer line while the German forces setup on the inner line.  The US had to capture every building in the Red Outline area.  US Turn 4 had a little turd HS go berzerk.  It surves a 20-2 shot, then a 30+1 and THEN rolls snake eyes in CC against my 8-1 leader, squad, and MG.  It would probably have been a good fight if the little shit had died all proper like but without that leader and squad (the CCs are half squads on the German side and under the Hero on the First floor is a Half Squad as well) I called it a game.  My fire did nothing more than DM some guys the entire game and more than once PB fire did nothing as well - plus I never got rate with the MMG in four turns (8 tries).  

Yeah, yeah, I'm whining...

OMG! I played another game today. ASL scenario AP105

Played ASL scenario AP105 with Tycho today.  We both knew this one would be decided by the first Prep Fire.

The setup.  The US has to get 12VP including a leader off any edge.  It starts with German prep.

So I decided to show my actual prep fire rolls.  The first two were the MG shots that could have gotten rate.  Even the 1,3 result Tycho rolled a snake eyes for an MC and battle hardened.

US return fire broke one of my leader stacks leaving the way open clear.  I jumped into CC (the only way to block an exit) and none of them cleared out anything.  The DM leader did not manage to rally so it was pretty much game over.

If you decide to play this one be prepared to play something else - this one can't take very long to play and I can't see it being anything but a blowout one was or the other.

Russia Besieged

Too disgusted to post more, my Germans got creamed.  Never even made it to 1942.  Mud/Mud followed by Snow/Snow and it is game over.

Russia Besieged

My normally FTF opponent and I started playing Russia Besieged.  He got to choose his poison and went with Russia so I was Germany and her Axis allies.  Neither of us played the game before and it has been a long time since I played Russian Campaign.  I'm certain I made a boatload of tactical errors in regards to the double turn.

The game setup.  Neither of us knows what we are doing.  I guess it is a decent setup...

End of first German movement phase.  

First turn first German combat phase.  Figured out that Blitzing really doesn't do much unless the enemy is down to a couple of steps.  Still need to grok that.

Second German movement phase.

Second German combat phase.  The Russian line is looking mighty thin.  

End of Russian turn 1.  Everyone was in supply and he decided not to do any attacks.  

Turn 2 First German move.  The Star is where an AV occured. 

Results of first combat phase.  Russian line is smashed in.  One of two units stuck in the mountains is eliminated.

End of second German movement.

Second German combat phase rips a hole in the river line defense near Riga and the southern front is pretty much cleared.

End of Russian turn 2.  No attacks again but the line is now filled out.  There is still an opening in the river near Riga.  The Germans have two or three months of decent weather before the Russian Winter hits.  Almost all of the Russians are outside the range of German air cover now as well.  Going to be a tough slog the next few turns.

As for RB itself.  So far I really like the changes that were made from Russian Campaign.  Not needing to attack across rivers or out of a city is a nice change.  The Blitz attack table I have not figures out yet - will probably do so after 1943...  The scale of the game is good, not too large for me like Dark Valley (good game but my opponent and I would take the rest of our lives to finish it), and Lawrence likes it more than No Retreat's scale (I'm good with NR's scale - can game out the entire war in a sitting or two but there is admittedly some nuance missing at the scale).  We will have to get this one to the "table" again so we can put in the lessons learned from this first game.  We are playing again on Friday - two good things about VASSAL are that you can game after work easier since each player can play at home and there is no problem leaving a game setup.

ASL Action Pack 104: Linkup

Tycho and I continued our ongoing 29Let's Go! Action Pack games with the 4th scenario in the pack.  We are going to play through all of the scenarios in the pack keeping sides the same throughout. 

The scenario at start.  The US has 7 turns to get 10 exit VP off the bottom edge on or adjacent to a road.  There can also not be a German MMC in any building hex in the outlined area AND a 24 CVP cap.

And the first MC of the game creates a berserk conscript...

End of first turn prep.  Things did not go as well as the US wanted them to go.  A conscript is unharmed in the middle building (regular squad with LMG on first floor broke).

Start of US rout phase.  The WPd in 426 manage to break a US squad in the stream adjacent.  The dice are rolling LOW.  US fire at the conscript at the bottom left only pins him.

End of US rout phase.  The German HS (K result from earlier attack) is killed by OBA.  The other squad failed an MC while routing and becomes a HS.

End of German turn 1 prep.  Most of the shots do diddly but the Conscript off to the left DMs a US 666 squad that went adjacent.  Those guys deserve medals.

Start of German Rout phase.  The Zerkers charge and are instantly vaporized by Snakes from the OBA.  I was very bummed.  The two Conscript squads directly in the front line manage to pass every MC they are forced to make but the one in the building is pinned.

The end of US Turn 3 and the game.  The Germans broke an MG and the Conscripts both failed their MCs this turn but holding on for 3 turns totally screwed the US time table.  In four turns they still had to get 10cp off the bottom edge of the board (only personnel, ACs count and at least one leader had to be in the mix) and they had to clear out the remaining Germans so they could not get into the buildings  I had my two guns near the bottom building to allow them to help defend or pull a sleazy building bum rush.  Woohoo!  I won I won I won!  (after 3 shellacking I'll crow a little - and I do mean SHELLACKINGS!)

In two weeks we play scenarios 105 and 106.  The first one is very small and likely to be decided on the first Prep Fire phase.  The second one is a smallish one so it looks like we can get both of them done in a day.

Fireball Forward: Darkness Before the Dawn continues

We continued the Fireball Forward game on Tabletop Simulator and managed to finish up one and a half turns (turn 2 and half of turn 3).  All pictures are from the end of the game session.

Overview of the action.   The smoke markers are killed tanks.  

A close up view of the end of session carnage.  The US used an initiative chit to do a double activation of their M10s.  They go lucky and killed a Panther and the rest of the Panther platoon failed Morale Checks caused by the loss of the one.  So the US is in great shape right now, though a lot will rest on who wins initiative next turn though the US has the shifting initiative chit next turn.

From the other end of the table.  The other M10 platoon took out another Panther.  Off to the left is a dead M10 from turn 1.