ASL 175: Hunters at Ylimaa

Played this one on June 3rd, just a little late with the writeup (perhaps I should make that my tag line).

Finns vs Germans in October of 44, Germans trying to delay the Finns from getting off board long enough for a win.

The setup, At to the top of the board is the Panzerfaust availability stacks, Fausts for Germans and ATR's for the Finn's fausts (since there is no Finn colored faust counter).  Finns come in on the right side and have to make it to the left between the dots in 8 turns).

And the first shot of the game!

I take this game too seriously...

Second shot of the game...  Finns returned fire and this is what happens to me...  Whine, bitch, moan...

End of Finnish turn one.

End of German turn 1.  The German arty does a number to the Finns but the Finnish sniper is on a rampage.

Just before Finn turn 2 route phase.  German Arty is doing some harm, at the bottom the fighting starts up.  I was hoping for a better result from the 8-1 shot when the Finns walked right up to my Concealed guy.

End of Finnish turn 2. 

End of German turn 2.  I don't think the Finnish fire did a thing this turn.

End of Finnish turn 3.  Captions sum it up, looked for a faust three times and nobody knew what they were.  (maybe four times).  So now I have guys in CC with a tank (and they couldn't find an AT mine for CC either!)

End of German turn 3.  A German squad finds TWO! Fausts and toasts two tanks with them.  For their heroism the Finns blast them good and manage to DM them.  Down below a German squad went Berserk and charged, managed to get into the hex with the Finns too.

End of Game, with the two destroyed tanks and the mud the Finns do not have enough time to get the required CVP off the left edge of the map.  The Germans never even revealed the two AT Guns. 

This scenario is kind of like a race to the edge, the Finns have overwhelming firepower but don't get a good chance to use it since they have to hustle, giving the Germans a good chance to cause casualties and slow them down.  Perhaps pinning the Germans with one group and swinging around with another might have worked, hard to say.

Panzer intro games

Played two rounds of Panzer.  First game was basic rules only while the second one we added in the advanced game combat results.

Setup for first game.  VC are for killing enemy units and taking the bridges and crossing point on the river.

End of first turn.  Russian made the mistake of splitting forces while the German made the mistake of only having one unit with LOS to an enemy platoon.

End of second turn.  German tank is destroyed by Russian platoon.  In the basic game the first his is damaged result and the second is a kill.  It could be an instant kill or brew up with a first hit but these opponents were too closely matched.

End of third turn.  An entire German platoon is firing at the Russian Platoon now - the other platoon was on overwatch with the assumption that the Russians would move up to the bridge, but the Russians stayed put and fired instead.

End of fourth turn.  Germans move forward (did not fire - can't move and then fire, can fire and then move).  In the exchange of fire both sides lose a vehicle or two.

End of fifth turn.  First Russian platoon is destroyed by Germans getting first shot.  Other Russians move into position last turn and open fire.

End of Sixth turn.  Russians move forward (blue arrow) and Germans OpFire on them.  The single Russian tank on the hill fires back.

End of eigth turn.  Russians move forward down the valley while other units exchange fire with Germans.

End of Final Turn.  All but Russian tank destroyed.  Part of this is the Germans won the initiative so got to fire first and only surviving Russians would be able to return fire - and there were none..  

That was the end of the first game so we cleared the board and started over.

Setup for second game.  Germans concentrate again while Russians split up again.

End of second turn (first turn was just movement).  Long range exchange of fire for Russians while Medium range for Germans.  Second German stack was not in LOS due to the Orchard since hexsides block LOS.

End of turn three.  More fire exchanged while second German stack moves forward.  Other Russians move to capture bridges.

End of turn four.  Fire exchanged and both sides take hits but Russians take more.

End of turn five.  Germans get initiative again and kill off Russians before Russians can return fire.  Other Russians take the midpoint crossing.  Can they hold it?

End of turn six.  One German group exchanges fire with a Russian at the crossing.  No hits on either side.

End of turn seven.  Exchange of fire, no hits.

End of turn 8.  Russian on the Bridge destroyed.

End of turn 9.  Front German group moves forward one hex to get in medium range while Russians are still at their long range.

End of game.  Germans get Initiative again and destroy the Russians before they can fire.

Overall a good game with the only problem being the standard fire sequence, winning the Initiative roll is THE most important thing in the game and it is nothing but a roll off.  An optional rule is rolling per a subsection of the force each time - what we will probably end up going with is allowing the winner to fire at ONE target, then the other player firing at one, etc...  This gives the winner the advantage without being overwhelming.  The game itself is easy to play but hard to read, combat moves along quickly and figuring things out is easy once you have done it once or twice.  

ASL 167 Breakout from Praaza

Played this scenario back on May 13th (yup, still behind).  It is from the Finish module and Tycho and I were looking forward to giving it a try.  The VC are for the Russians to exit 40 VP off the left side of the board.

The Russians get reinforcements on the listed turns and have till turn 10.  In a twist the defending Finns move first.

Oh yes, yes I do...

I move my Finns two hexes away.  Bloody fool me, should have kept them at three hexes so the Russians would have to use non-assault movement to get a shot at me.  I also sent guys south to hold off a flank move, which was a waste of troops for a turn.

The Russians move forward and the Finns take shots, DMing a couple groups and pinning another.

The end of the first Russian player turn.  And disaster strikes.  The concealed Russians get a kill and advance making a gaping hole in the line.

Just before advance phase of Finn turn 2.  The captions say it all, I played the odds to blast the Russians with 2 20+1 shots that ended up NE.  A return 8+1 shots breaks a Finn.  We do Surround and break the pesky infiltrator but there is an unbroken lead there.

End of Finn turn 2.  The leader gets an ambush and sneaks away, second time in a row that guy has beaten my Finns in CC.  So much for the Finn -1 to the ambush dr.

End of Russian turn 2.  They push forward and two more Melee's start up, the Finn CC modifier for ambush not working a couple more times.

End of Finish turn 3.  We pull back the line and with some luck things will even out.

Russian turn 3, just before Rout Phase.  Finn squad held fire to stay concealed for CC, a single Russian 2+1 shot DMs the squad.  Things are NOT getting better.

End of Russian turn 3.  The Finn squad won the Melee but is now surrounded.  One of the squads near the stream has not been able to rally himself for 2 turns now.  Self rally, bah!

End of Finn turn 4. I skedaddle my Finns across the stream, probably not needed yet on looking back, I keep forgetting streams can be crossed.

End of Russian turn 4.  My squads under the Melee marker rallied and did squat firing at the Russians that got adjacent, the vaunted Finn CC modifier for Ambush did nothing once again as well. 

End of Finn turn 5.  Looks like my Finn lost the Melee but I don't remember, would be about par for the course...

End of Russian turn 5.  Things are very grim for the Finns, the line is mostly Swiss cheese at this point.  A few good shots resulted in DM stacks for the Russians but they have the troops to keep pushing past it.

 

End of Finn turn 6.  Pulling back one more time.  A HIP Finn with an ATR waits to get a potshot at the tank - taking that out could slow things down long enough for the Finns to win.

End of Russian turn 6 and the game.  The ATR toting guy had to fire to protect himself and got no effect from it.  The Finnish line is looking far better than it actually is as well, four squad equivalents and a hero left at this point with four turns left in the game. 

I'll whine a bit  more and say it probably is a balanced scenario but my initial position was one hex too far forward, and the Russians getting snake eyes followed up by an ambush in two early CCs and not getting hurt from TWO 20+1 shots in a row did in my plans.

I freely admit to being a shameless whiner in my blog.