ASL Dispatches from the Bunker 24 No Respite

Played this one with Tycho on VASL.  I was the Italians and he the British. 

The battlefield.  The Italians have 5 turns to take 4 of the 6 building hexes in the red lined area. 

Game start.  The Italians have a lot of troops but about equal numbers of tanks and guns.  We thought this would be more of a walkover till we noticed the Brits start concealed.   That makes things a little tougher for the Italians.

Game end before turn 5.  Failed my PMC but it could still have gone on for an Italian win.  Not likely though.  The First fire counter near the bottom middle is where an Italian squad went Berserk and died in CC - a pity since the other CC went my way.  As I recall my Italians could not make an MC to save their lives (literally) .  A good scenario and I would play it again.  I also love how VASL can recolor the maps to the theater.

PHD Game 3 TM 2

Reusing the picture from the end of the first TM.  This is third (and final) playing of this campaign.  The first two ended up as one US blowout and one German blowout.  This one ended pretty much where this first TM ended.  The US managed to get three squads across the bridge when a gap appeared in their smoke screen (two OBA modules being used to create smoke and WP to cover the bridge).  The German OBA was accurately placed in the gap between the Bridge and The building to the left when just about anywhere else would have been out of LOS (I think, would have to review - the WP might not have been enough to block LOS).  The Germans then placed a Harrasing OBA so the entire route to the bridge and the bridge itself (and one hex beyond onto the German side of the draw) was covered by the OBA.  Excellent OBA rolls and lousy MC rolls broke all the US troops on the German side of the draw and most of those in the OBA pattern on the US side including those in the stone buildings.  With that the campaign game was called as a German win.  If playing as the US don't go through the draw, take the gap around to the left instead. 

PHD Game 3 end of TM1

A boring update.  Tycho and I started up our 3rd run of Purple Heart Draw by Lone Canuck Publishing.  The US made a push through the town for the bridge over the draw.  An early game end kept them from taking all of the bank on that side of the draw but they came very close.  Losses are on the right and amounted to a single US squad and two German squads and a busted gun.

Normandy 44 continue

A very boring placeholder post.  Continued the Normandy 44 game today.

Normandy 44 continues

A boring post.  Lawrence and I continued our game of Normandy 44.

ASL Scenario by Lone Canuk. To Battle By Air 8: Weakest Link

After having to miss last year Tycho and I started off the New Year and New Decade (I hope it will be known as the snoring twenties) right!  With a game of ASL of course.

We picked Lone Canuk's To Battle by Air 8.  Featuring US Paras vs SS in Normandy.  I took the US and Tycho the Germans.  The Germans have 6 turns to get 19 exit VP off the top of the map OR has to control the four stone buildings.

The VC buildings are circled.  German forces enter turn 1, US tanks on Turn 4.  In the middle of the board is my squad with the bazooka.  The Germans stopped two hexes away and sent the infantry in on turn 2.  The German squad broke and ran but the Baz shot missed leaving me with no ranged AT capability till turn 4.  The Germans would have to get more then the 3 stugs off the board to win though so driving through was not an option.

End of game.  Not quite down to the last shot and last MC but darn close.  I thought for sure I had lost when my Sherman broke it's MA Intesive Firing on the Stug (that burning marker top left is my Sherman - the other one parked in a bad spot and was taken out by defensive fire).  First the Germans would have needed to use ESB to get the one Stug off the board, he rolled an 8 which was just enough to Immobilize it.  This left 21 exit VP possible.  A squad and leader go across the street and the US MMG and squad fire.  The roll a 9 -1 after the mods so an NMC.  The 9-2 leader fails it.  With that the game is over since that only leaves a maximum of 18VP that could make it off the board.  

This was a fun quick playing scenario (we completed it in just over 2 hours).  the US have to spread out to keep the Germans from doing a quick drive off the board and only have a single Bazooka till the tanks show up.  The Germans have to hustle to make it off the board so can't duke it out with the US forces for more then a turn or 2.

GCACW: McClellan's Opportunity

Played this over VASSAL yesterday with my normal FTF opponent.  Since I'm away for over a month it was the only way to get some game time in.  After getting VASSAL and Skype up and running we only had a couple hours of game time.  There are lots of counters to move around in this one too.