ASL J40: Might Makes Right

Played this scenario with Tycho on Saturday and got smacked around in under two hours (who says ASL takes a long time to play?).  A combination of overly aggressive play and "average" luck.  Average as in rolling a lot of twos and twelves...

Quick note on the terrain is that Alpine Hills are in effect so no same level LOS on hills beyond one hex.

Initial Setup complete, let the game begin!  Germans need to capture the buildings and lose <= 10 CVP.

Opening shots, I fired on the guy in the woods with a MTR and missed with no rate (MTR would never get rate or hit through the whole game).  The guys in P2 fired on L3 and rolled a 1 on the red die (breaking the HS) so the LMG fired again and I think rolled a 2, followed by the HS rolling a 2 MC and battle hardening.  Missed my sniper check too.  Not a good start!

First Movement phase I get too aggressive (a 2-2 shot, not a big deal...).  Leader rolls snakes and battle hardens and turns into a hero, Allied Sniper gets a 2 result, Hero leader gets hit...

End of Axis turn 1.

Sergeant Schultz Strikes!  First boxcars rally roll...  HS casualty number 1!  (the 8-0 at the bottom)

RALLY OR ELSE!

End of Allied Turn 1

End of Axis turn 2 and MAJOR mistake #1, did not remember the LOS from that MG nest right down the board, and "Heroic Wounded Leader" gets whacked.  Two free CVP...

He Strikes AGAIN!

End of Allied turn 2.

End of Axis turn 3

End of Allied turn 3.

End of Axis turn 4.

Rally Phase of Doom.  The Berserk guy rolled snakes and since I declared no-quarter earlier they went Berserk instead of surrendering...

Berserk guy went through an 8-2 shot and a 6-1 shot without a scratch.  I then have a concealed stack move right next to my broke guys and they can not run...

Broke guys are eliminated in CC making it a total of 10 CVP, I can still pull this off!  Then comes the Rally phase and you guessed it, another boxcars result.

Total Annihilation in under two hours.  Still had a blast and Tycho (at least) played a very good game.  Skulking out of sight and forcing me to come to his units to open a path to the VC buildings.  Looking forward to the next game.

Next up will be J56 and then we are starting the Purple Heart Draw campaign game.  Looking forward to more ASL!

Ardennes 44 continues

Lawrence and I continued our game of Ardennes 44 last week (on the 15th).  I have been tardy in getting it written up.  Work has been a bear this past week...  Enough Whining!  onto the report!

Start of Allied Turn 3

German Left Flank

Center

And Right Flank

Lawrence insisted I get a picture of this.  It is a good indication of how things will go for this session...
Allied 9-6-6 attacks German 3-2-6 that was sitting in the open, and rolls two sixes in a row getting an engaged result (ENG marker should be on the German unit).  I think this was the only possible result not causing a German step loss...

End of Allied Turn 3.

Allied Tank unit is stuck on the wrong side of the river and has nowhere to go.

The unit with the 1 on it (near the middle) is ZOC blocked in position.  Down near the bottom the other stack rolled a 1 (see Lawrence, you didn't roll ALL sixes...) to not gain a Surrender point this turn.

Reinforcements are streaming in and another shot of that battle mentioned earlier.

End of German turn 4

Germans take 2 entry areas in the A,B,C zone.  This will keep Allied reinforcements from entering the map in those sectors.  The Allied tank unit stuck on the wrong side of the river is reduced in this turns fighting.

My panzer unit ZOC blocking the Allied tank went for a Joy ride, leaving the tank unit free to escape DOH!)  On the plus side it makes the Allies position to stop that single unit from winning the game all on its own.

Front line is slowly being pushed forward on the German Right flank.

End of Allied turn 4

Green circles - Allies place units in blocking positions, the can not move out of them (or attack out) till every blocked area has at least 6 defensive factors.  Causing allied reinforcements to wait till being able to enter the map.  Allied units retreat to the river line (green and red lines) and the Tank unit is still stuck on the wrong side of the river and just holds tight (red circle) 

Allies have few units to hold the center.

Allied Left flank (German right) is holding nicely.  Surrounded units are now at the second surrender point - one more and they surrender.

Another pic of the Allied Left flank.

This is actually part of German turn 5 - Allied played insisted, I rolled a LOT of ones this game session.  

It had something to do with this attack but I forget exactly what.  I think the 546 attacked eliminating someone.

And another one... 

OK - managed to surround the allied unit getting a replacement.  This is near the center of the battle zone.

End of German turn 5 (neither player had reserves for a night turn)

The US tank unit is finished off on the Left flank.

Another bout of ones and the Germans get the first D1 result of the game (allowing for Breakthrough combat).  The stack then attacks another allied unit and Bastogne is now in reach!

St Vith still stands - time to start putting pressure on there.  Capturing it eases traffic congestion in the yellow hexes (near the bottom right of the map for example)

Like it says, fighting in this area is seesawing a bit due to Allied and German reinforcements.  Holding this shoulder is probably the best the Germans can hope for while exploiting the hole in the center.

And here the Allies roll another six while attacking a nearly surrounded German unit (Part of Allied turn 5).   

End of Allied turn 5

Airborne units racing to the battle zone.  (this is near the top left of the map from German perspective - bastogne would be just off the picture at the bottom)

The Allies used a strategic move marker to get the arty unit out of danger.  Other units are just holding a river line but will not last long without reinforcement.

The center of the line is very thin.

A 6-7-3 is holding St Vith (also near the center

Allies fell back a couple hexes from the seesaw bridge area but still have strength here.

As the Germans I managed an average Die Roll of 1.5 or so while the Allies managed an average of 5.5 or so.  Extremely lopsided.  Even with that it looks like a long slog to getting a victory and starting on turn 7 fuel shortages start occurring.  Next game is schedule for September 12th!

SCS gaming update

On Saturday the 1st I played the first few turns of The Gamers' "Yom Kippur".  This was in preparation for a complete game of "Day of Days" that will be starting on the 20th.

An overview of the "Yom Kippur" map at game start - before Egyptian setup.

Egyptian Setup done (I think - should have taken notes!)

Another shot of The setup.  Sorry for the glare and the fuzzy pictures...

End of Egyptian turn 1, good progress in the middle and off to the left side.  At the top right of the Canal a couple of Egyptian units start on the Israeli side but are bottled up pretty well.

End of Israeli turn 1, bug out!

End of Egyptian turn 2.

More progress in the center and towards the left.  

End of Israeli turn 2, reinforcements start arriving!  In the center they have retaken the VC town space at the crossroads - but they take terrible losses from Saggars in the process (on the first three turns there are extra losses for Saggars when Israeli tank units are involved)

End of Egyptian turn 3, they try to retake the town but are repulsed - but the Israelis suffer lots of losses holding the town.  An Israeli unit made it across the Canal last turn and the Egyptians task an armor unit with holding it back.

End of Israeli turn 3 and we called the game.  It served its purpose as an intro game for "Day of Days".  the Israelis still hold the torn in the center while the Egyptian army is still holding most everything else.  At this point the game revolves around the game end and Egyptian reinforcement die rolls.

Right side of "Day of Days" map.  This is a 4' by 8' table it is setup on...

Middle of the map.

Left side of map, (oh yeah, all from the Germans point of view).

Should upload that to Youtube, a short video of the map - pixilated to heck...