Advanced Squad Leader Action Pack 128 Flight of Fancy (Round 2)

Got in a second playing of this scenario after messing up the VC last game.  This time I made all new mistakes!

The setup once again.  Circled buildings are worth 1VP if the Brits control them at the end while the Germans get exit VP for good order non-crew MMC south of the river - everyone starts north of it.

End of the UK turn 1.  There was not much shooting and what there was we No Effect.

The Brit 8-1 stack with MMG opens up and breaks a concealed squad and pins the other concealed squad.  Not a good start!

End of German turn 1.  No damage done to the UK and things are not looking great.  I had to move the HMG stack up to keep the Brits from getting across the street.  Concealed in a Stone building with an 8-1 leader should hold them up a turn.

The 8-1 and MMG fireagain and DM my leader and HMG squad.  NOT looking good!

End of Brit turn 2.  The German defense has nearly collapsed.

German turn 2 and the 447 rolls snakes on an 8+3 shot, so it becomes a 4+3 and an MC!  Brit rolls snakes and creates a hero!   Looks like it is going to be a short and painful game.

Continuing on something finally goes my way!  The small AA gun opens up and breaks a squad in the street and pins another in the building.  At this point I take what I can get...

End of German turn 2 (and start of Brit turn 3).  My DM guys who entered in the turn 2 rout phase managed to have 2 guys rally.  Not bad for DM second line troops.  Not bad at all.  The main line of defense is still a shattered wreck.

British turn 3.  My sniper wakes up and kills the UK leader in charge of the front line.  The LLMC also breaks the squad with him.  I was whining just before that when a whole bunch of defensive fire did squat.

End of UK turn 3.  The hero created earlier jumped into CC with a squad, probably not a good idea but the hero managed to CR the squad before dying.

End of German turn 3.  My turn to jump in CC (with a squad that was encircled upstairs in the VC building) and died without hurting the enemy squad - even worse on a roll of snakes he creates ANOTHER 8-01 leader!  All of my remaining broken guys that entered last turn manage to rally and make a run for the bridge.  My tanks come on and take up positions to slow the coming Brits.

End of UK turn 4.  The UK reinforcements arrive and I get lucky on the left.  On the right it is easy come easy go for British 8-1 leaders.  My sniper popped up again and killed him.  The squad with this one also fails the LLMC leaving a shattered German defense to face a shattered British offense.  Still a LOT of Brits there but they have a LOT of terrain capture.

End of German turn 4 and I make a run for the south bank of the river.  The Brits might have gotten a shot at them if he had moved his guys one hex down (on the right) instead of one hex up.  On the left I pulled a sneaky move out of my bag of tricks (admittedly a very small bag) and moved my PZIV into the hex with the UK tank that was guarding the road to the river.  With my tank in the hex (left in motion) he could not shoot out...

After thinking I was brilliant I then flubbed with my second tank.  It should have been moved where it could guard against the UK tank moving one hex and shooting at my exposed infantry on the bridge road!  Luckily I had a lot of fausts and 3 squads and a leader to roll them up.  With a 50% of having one and then a hit on a 6 or less (7 for large?) I should get a hit or two.  7 attempts, not hits, two pin results.

DOUBLE AAUGH!!!

My opponent made a mistake this time and moved one more hex (probably should have stopped by a couple hexes and BFF first - like I should have moving into his hex earlier I guess).  My next attempt at a faust comes up good and a hit brews up the British tank.  Now we have a nice Smoke Screen covering us in addition to nobody being in range to hit us now.  With this the game was called.  The Germans would have 12vp south of the river and the Brits only held a single VP at this point.  To win they would have to end up in control of more VC buildings then good order German MMC existed on the south side of the river - with only two turns left to go and a LONG distance between the Brits and the south end of the river.

A fun scenario.  For the defender it is a choice of when and how much to send south of the river, it is nearly impossible to hold all the buildings so sending someone is a requirement, I was very lucky all of my broken reinforcements rallied in time for me to race them all south of the bridge.  I was going to go with whatever was available in any case.  I was positive I had lost it when I didn't properly cover my troops crossing the bridge.  Then my opponent made the mistake of getting into Faust range instead of hanging back and BFFing the Germans.  A 2 FP shot with the MGs might have broken some of the front guys and left the second guys to run through an acquisition to reach the south of the river (and another MG shot at full strength).  He had tank riders too, a turn of the turret could get them off the tank and if they passed the MC perhaps had fired as well.  Of course that is not something I would think of in the game. 

Advanced Squad Leader Action Pack 128 Flight of Fancy

Played AP 128 yesterday.  Looks to be an interesting scenario and we will be playing it again on the 22nd.  More of that below...

Here is the map layout.  The Brits get 1VP for each circled building they control at game end (6.5 turns).  They do not have a large advantage in numbers (and none at all considering the Germans have two guns) but the German ELR of 2 and second line troops are a hindrance for them.  The Germans can also get VP for MMC south of the river - but they have to move there since they all start North of it.

First Blood to the Germans!

End of UK turn 1.  Not much ground gained.

And the end of German turn 1.  Most notable for both of the Germans to break also ELR.

End of German turn 3.  The German tanks move into position to block the incoming UK armor.

And through my bad directional sense of East/West I setup in the wrong position...

The UK run right across the board and capture another building to boot.

To further mess up the scenario I read the VC wrong and though they UK got points for each building location instead of just each multi location stone building.  While trying to run troops off to the south (I would need at least 3VP to win since the UK had that many but did not look like they would get more) .  The first group pinned and the second group broke (just north of the bridge).  Both of my tanks were taken out by PIATS too.

An interesting scenario and without my messing up the instructions would have been a much tighter game.  I asked for a do-over and so we will be playing it again in two weeks.

Midway: Coral Sea Variant

Got together with Lawrence to play the Coral Sea variant for Avalon Hill's original Midway game.  We flipped a coin and Lawrence got the Japanese and I the US.

The US setup.  All the land based air was at Port Moresby.  The Japanese had all or most of their air at Rabaul along with the AP ships.  The carriers were somewhere nearby.

First turn the Japanese attack PM (Moresby) with all of their aircraft and the US attacks the APs with Torpedo, Dive, and B17 bombers from Moresby.  Two APs are sunk and minor damage is done the PM.

A few turn later (after bombers are re-armed, all Torpedo and Dive bombers attacking the APs were sunk) a second raid is made on the APs.  No AP ship was lost and most of the Bombers were lost to cap and AA fire.  Another attack is made on a scouting Japanese CL and the ship is easily destroyed.

No more pictures after this.  The second day the US and Japanese fleets spot each other at the same time and in range of each other.  The Japanese strike on the US sinks the Yorktown instead of the Lexington and sinks another CA as well.  The US strike sinks 2 more Japanese APs leaving one left. The remaining AP managed to unload at Henderson for 5 Japanese VP.  The US and Japanese fleets retire at that point leaving the Japanese with the win.

A fun, relatively quick playing game, we started setting up around 11 and finished by 5, but with a couple of rules holes involving fractions and how to handle them.  I would like to try the Smithsonian versions of the game and give the Flat Top version another try again as well.  The Smithsonian version would be a shorter game with 4 hour turns while the Flat Top game is much longer and more complex with hourly turns and more book keeping.

Next month it is back to the Civil War with a GCACW game over Vassal most likely.

ASL Action Pack scenario 127: The First Virtue

Played ASL Action Pack scenario 127 last Saturday (the 20th).  Since the VASL die roller was smiling upon me I had a blast.  I don't see how Tycho could stand it.

The Setup.  The Free French have to get 12VP to win.  They get normal exit VP in the shown area, 4VP if the take out the gun at the bottom of the map, and 1vp for each level 3 hill hex in the shown area.  With 7 turns to do it in it sounds plausible but the amount of open LOS in this scenario is misleading, the guys on the hill in the entrenchment have LOS to pretty much everywhere.

First Blood!  After letting half squad scouts go by unmolested the Germans open first on the first squad they see and break it.

Second Blood!  The VASL die roller grants me a 3 which kills this squad outright.

End of French Turn 1.  A couple more guys at the top of the map were DM'd by fire from the northern trench.

The French get a hit back on the Germans.  An MC of snakes and HOB causest the leader to lose a level from 80 to 70, ANOTHER snakes Battle Hardens the 468 squad.  

End of German turn 1.  Knowing that the FT has not been revealed yet the Germans fall back to not give him a shot without revealing himself next turn.

End of French Turn 2.  Only really notable thing was the Gun firing a single round and breaking a French Squad moving onto the hill.  And the 70 leader rolling snakes and rallying himself and the squad with him too - down for less then a turn. 

The "Machine" gun fires four times...

End of German turn 2.

French turn 3 and the "Machine" Gun blazes again.  Only stopped firing when it ran out of targets...

End of French turn 3.  The Fanatic MG squad has taken every shot the French fired at it without a scratch.  In return the Squad has managed to break a couple French squads and their fire groups.

End of German turn 3 and the game.  The Fanatic MG fired at the FT guy and broke him, the LMG got rate and fired at the squad next to them breaking those as well.  At this point the French called it.  Their casualties (off to the left) combined with German reinforcements entering next turn (right were the French need to exit) combined to make it near impossible to win this one.  Perhaps if the Germans started rolling all boxcars (instead of lower then 7 nearly always) they could get the exit VP off the board.

Next up will be AP 128 where I'll be the Germans once again, defending against Brits this time.  My first game of ASL in a couple of months and only my second in about a year but...

Midway!

Got in two games of Midway today. 

That is it for the pictures - the game moves quickly and I just forgot.

First game the US got pasted by a Japanese airstrike - second game the US got pasted, not as badly, by a Japanese airstrike.  How does the US win this game?

Lots of fun and it was interesting to see how game design has changed over the years (decades!).  The desire to "simplify" by using areas actually makes some things a little more opaque then it would be otherwise and the combat resolution using odds ratio is truly baffling if you try and make realistic sense out of it.  It works overall however and that is what matters.  Next time out will be the Coral Sea variant of the game.  Looking forward to that.

Panzer Scenario 3

Panzer scenario 3.  My first game in a while I had to relearn some things and learn about suppression if in a hex with a Brew Up for the first time (or perhaps I forgot...)

The scenario is a meeting engagement, basically the first scenario with infantry and guns added to the mix.  We played it with variable penetration and the turret facing rules.  Each side gets points for enemy kills and holding the VP hexes.

Both sides move into position on turn 1.  I should have moved my Panzers for the hills...

First Blood goes to the Germans and their superior optics!  At this range the German gunnery is superior to the Russian
armor.

End of turn 2.  Things are looking very good for the Germans.  They get two kills and a bail out result with no damage to them.

End of turn 3.  The first German casualty and it is a brew up too - causing the other units in the hex to be suppressed.  This will mess up their gunnery and being in the way of the other German stacks messes theirs up too.

End of turn 4.  The Germans move about and get another kill to no loss of their own.  Things still looking good.

Turn 5 and things go from good to bad.  The Russians kill two tanks for the loss of only one.

End of turn 6 and things go VERY bad.  The Germans lose three tanks, another one being a brew up.  The Russians lose nothing.

End of turn 7 and time to throw in the towel.  The loss of the command tank last turn caused all of the Germans within a hex to be broken and all of them failed to recover.  With only 2 runners still on the board vs 4 Russian runners who are not broken it is time to run (walk for the tank crews that have broken tranks) hills.

A fun game that plays quickly.  Gerardo and I have another game scheduled for the 23rd.  Scenario 5.  When I work my up through the rules we will be playing some of the big honking scenarios in the France 40 module and I'm looking at the Western Front module for some of the scenarios in that one.

Holland 44, End of the Road

Lawrence and I finished up the Holland 44 game we have been playing.  His Germans managed to hold the line against a poorly led XXX Corps.  One big mistake really cost me the game and I won't make that mistake again but will most likely make others.  Pushing the tanks too far forward while the 101 area was still threatened by German units.  The elite bonus does not help one whit on Defense so a turn or two needs to be spent attacking the Germans to knock them out of contention.  Not doing that allowed them to cut the road and knock the spearhead OOS.

End of Turn 13 and the game.  Seven more turns left in the game but it would not have been enough to counter the losses XXX Corps had suffered.  Another two turns might have been enough to throw units across the Rhine for a VP win.

XXX Corps still held up, for the most part, just beyond Eindhoven.  Another two turns would have cleared out the Germans but that was two turns 1st Para just didn't have.  The 82nd probably didn't have them either.

The other edge of XXX corps advance.  Next turn the bridge over the canal would have been started and the turn after would see it complete but once again too late.

Nijmegan is under strain.  The Germans are pushing the 82nd back steadily.

At Arnhem the Red Devils are holding their own for now but are being whittled away and every loss brings them closer to a catastrophic loss.

Next month we go from Holland to the Pacific with Avalon Hill's classic game Midway.