AP3 A Breezeless Day

Played ASL scenario AP3 "A Breezeless Day" on the 21st of February with Tycho.  Now sit back and let me tell you my tale of woe...

First the Setup.  The allies are onboard and the Germans come in from the right side.  LOTS of vehicles including two JagdTigers!  (losing with Jagdtigers is almost as much fun as winning without them).

End of Axis turn 1.  Nothing exciting yet.  The guy in the foxhole down at the bottom revealed himself...

The Stug fires at the US infantry getting out of the foxhole in the movement phase and rolls snakes!  Then rolls the US sniper number for the effects DR.  This kills the US squad but the sniper takes aim and fires...

One German Sniper is Down!  (I looked at it as soaking up a US sniper 1 check...)

End of Allies half of turn 1.

German stack fires on the Open Topped M36 and stuns it!

And then it starts going all wrong from there.  First the brainless German player (hi there!) moves his Stug where he KNOWS a baz could take a shot at it.  Said Baz fires and kills said Stug...

Then I move my FT armed Stug where it could be shot at (and there was a mine there, the mine missed but the tank rolled Snakes on the to-hit...)

Proper burning stug model courtesy of History Channel...

this is also worthy of another.

There was no need to move the FT stug there, I just wanted to burn shi...

I would later get fixated on that darn building when I could easily have gone around.  Getting 3 squads and the 9-1 leader locked in a melee with the US squad carrying the Baz.  I lost a squad and the leader and the Squad did not die!  That is good for one more...

Especially since that fixation on the building cost me the game.  Lancelot in "Excalibur" said it best.  "You would fight to the death for a building you could easily go around" - or something like that.

Back to the game.  The interesting luck keeps on churning along.  The tank that flamed my stug fired at another stug and missed (he had rate from the earlier snake eyes) and then intensive fired at another stug and rolled an 11.

Down at the bottom of the map my infantry look for fausts (the first squad fumbled and stubbed their toes) the second squad to look finds one and flames the stunned M36, just one of them left to go.

And another tank breaks the MA.  I was not even doing an IF shot (that I am known for, held off on them in this game since the need is not so great with a couple Jagdtigers on board)

End of Axis Turn 2

End of Allied Turn 2

Partway through Axis turn 3.  The Germans sent squads south to draw PB fire from the red circled squad.  The red circled squad was then fired upon by the 8-0 leader stack.  DMs all around.  The Jagdtiger in the center claimed his first kill (love that 28tk value).  The M36 up top blasted a Stug.  My reckless use of vehicles was coming to haunt me.  I was getting close to not having enough CVP to get off board.  Oh and during all of this I rolled the Allies Sniper...

And the Axis sniper says farewell...  (SAN reduced to 0).  The allies would not get another Sniper attack the rest of the game, so good job Germans Snipers!  Best sniper sponges money can buy.

End of Allied portion of turn 3.  Jagdtiger gets another kill and the M36 makes a run for it.

Next turn that M36 sneaks back and takes out another Stug.   I also appear to have my screenshots out of order - the US 60mm mortar OBA also immobilized ANOTHER stug...

End of Game.  The M36 WAS in LOS of the Jagdtiger (we both thought it would not be but when it was strung up there it was).  This meant the Jagdtiger would get an easy shot on the M36 and as expected it was killed.  The OBA took out another stug (killed this time) and we called the game there.  There was JUST enough German CVP left to get 70 off the board but to do that and hold the 10 building locations would have been impossible.  Also note that the melee in the building is still going on...

A very fun scenario and tougher on the Germans then it looks.  The German player HAS to keep his mind on the VC and ignore the US infantry as much as possible.  Getting as much armor offboard is the most important aspect of the scenario.  Lots of fun.  I recommend everyone play this at least once.

Japanese Knee Mortars

Painted up and based 49 Knee Mortar men and 8 70mm guns last week.

Here they are before basing.  I was going to add them to existing bases so I took this picture to show the count.

Here they are based with the existing units.

Some close up shots of Individually based guys.  In the background are some re-based riflemen.

And a shot of the 70mm guns, need to buy crew figures at Cold Wars in a few weeks!

ASL scenario AP73 Happy Valley

I finished the month of January off with a game of ASL on Saturday the 31st.  A fitting way to end the month since I played ASL on the first as well!

I was the lucky Americans and Ken Dunn played the Germans and Italians.  LOTS of pics with this report!

Game Setup 

The Germans enter from the North and US reinforcements will enter from the South (Left and Right of map respectively)

J4 Shocks K1 with Defensive Fire.

Sniper Stuns HT in D3!

K1 is destroyed with an IF followup shot and Q6 (top left) is turned into a blazing wreck.

End of Axis Turn 1

Nothing else of note this turn other than the Malfed MA on the Stuart at the bottom of the map.

C8 Kills J4

C8 (prep fire marked) killed the Panzer in J4 (bottom of map)

Stuart at bottom left Killed by Panzer in N7

End of Allied Turn 1

End of Axis Turn 2

Most notable item from this turn is the CX guy in E7 (bottom of map).  He will deserve an Iron Cross soon.

J4 (Stuart on Top Hill) Immobs Panzer in K9 (just Below the blaze marker)

And then Kills it with IF!.

Ken mentioned I took more IF shots than he has ever seen before.  I got away with almost all of them (maybe all,I might have malfed once with them out of many times that I did it.)

End of Allied Turn 2

Nothing else really of note other than seeing all the shots that were taken at Iron Cross guy...  (No effect with any of them) and that J4 (Stuart on Hill kills and burns the HT in N7)

End of Axis Turn 3

Items of Note are Iron Cross guy got into CC with the HT it was two hexes away from (said HT malfed its MA on a regular shot) and burned it in CC.  The J4 Stuart did a lot of damage to the German squads coming after it but was engaged in CC and only managed to turn the attacker into a half squad.   

J4 Dies!  He fired AAMG at the HS and only managed to break it so he could not fire his MA outside the hex.  He then fell to Defensive fire from the Panzers.

The German FB starts an attack run!  (no bombs on this one - just MG)

I did not shoot at it and it manages to DM the Mortar Crew and a squad in the building)

End of Allied Turn 3

The Germans in the building in G1 (near map seem) break and the US guys fall back to rally.

German Leader goes Berzerk taking his squad with MG with him...  (G8)

US MG team in D1 fires at them again in D9 causing the leader to die.

P11 (squad in building in back) unconceals and fires at the zerk squad in C10 finishing it off.  This guts the German forces in the middle and bottom of the map.

C1 Tank fires at E10 and Rolls SNAKES!  Wahoo!
Then he rolls boxcars...

A second shot (still got rate on that last shot!) Immobs the Panzer.

C3 fires at E2 and kills him.  (C3 is the Stuart with the First Fire maker)

End of Axis Turn 4.

Notable items is the Axis Squad fired at the Gun in P7 (bottom of map) and caused them to route.  They then get in the hex with the gun and don't find it next turn...  Another German Squad got into hex D3 and killed the HT there (the one previously stunned by a sniper).

End of Game.

The Allied Prep Fire finished off the majority of the German armor and the game was called.

P14 killed the panzer in D5 (top of map)

C3 killed the panzer in F4 (next one down)

P14 also IF fired at the C6 (bottom of the map) and rolled snakes for a critical hit and killed him.

This left the Germans with one fully operational panzer (bottom of map), one immobilized (center) and 2 armored cars (top).  The US had 3 tanks and a 75* armed HT left - and the prep fire phase was not complete yet).  

Since the VC were the Axis had to take ALL the buildings in the area outlined in red and had 3 turns left to accomplish the task it was over barring extreme good luck.  The Stuka with 200lb bombs did not get to make an attack run (big relief for the US player!).

From the US side it was a fun scenario - there is a LOT of hindrance hexes on the map making almost every shot get some kind of hindrance penalty which helps the attackers a bit but the lucky my tanks had (Stuart on the hill got 4 tanks and then the last turn bloodletting) made up for that, not to mention the MG leader going berserk in terrible terrain (one of the few spots with open ground...).