Our Saturday Game - ASL Scenario 82 - For Honor Alone

For our Saturday game, Dan Best and I met once again on the fields of 1940 France. We had both recovered from he Thanksgiving festivities and were ready to roll some dice and wage cardboard war once more.

Our scenario of choice for this renewal of the 2017 ASL season would be ASL Scenario 82 - For Honor Alone. Dan and I are both fans of the 1940 French Campaign and were both psyched to play this scenario. The scenario takes place in Saumur, France on June 20th, 1940. At this point, Marshall Petain has already called for an Armistice. But the Cadets of the Ecole de Cavalerie were not interested in giving up their nation and their freedom without a fight. Following a misunderstanding, the Cadets had failed to defend against a German river crossing and so established a defense at the Aunis Farm. It would be here that they would fight for honor alone.

 ROAR has the scenario as 42 German and 60 French wins. The victory conditions required that the Germans control buildings 16O3 and 16L6 at game end. 

The game length is 8-1/2 Turns. Our game would end after the end of Turn 4.

After rolling for sides, Dan would take the French and command the Cadets of the Ecole de Cavalerie and elements of the 19'eme Dragons, 1er Groupe Franc de Cavalerie. This force would consist of 10 x 4-5-8's, 2 x 2-4-8's, led by a 9-2, 9-1, and 8-0 with an HMG, MMG, 2 x LMG's and with 8 x Trenches for cover. 

On Turn 2, Dan would receive 4 x 37* H39 Tanks with a 9-1 Armor Leader. And on Turn 3, Dan would get the Cadets of the St-Maxient Ecole d'Infanterie consisting of 8 x 4-5-8's, 8 x 4-5-7's with 3 x LMG's led by a 9-1, 8-1, and 8-0. A very nice force to say the least.

Having drawn the Germans, I would be the scenario attacker commanding elements of Schwadron3, Kavallerie Regiment 1.  Dan and I would both be commanding 8 morale Cavalry Troops. Of course, Dan and I both have experienced "glass jaws" with our 8 morale troops. It's always amazing how often 8 morale troops end up breaking in a game. My force would be made up of 12 x 4-6-8's, 4 x 2-2-8's led by a 9-2, 8-1, 2 x 8-0's with 2 x MMG's, 3 x LMG's, 2 x ATR's, 2 x 50MTR's, 2 x 81MTR's and 2 x 37L AT Guns. On Turn 2 I would get 12 x 4-6-8's led by a 9-1, 2 x 8-1's, and an 8-0 with 2 x MMG's, 3 x LMG's, 2 x ATR's and 2 x 50MTR's. On Turn 3 I would get a truck with another 37L AT Gun. And lastly, I would get to roll for air support of one ME-109 with no bombs.

Overall, I wasn't particularly happy with my force. I would be advancing against a concealed and emplaced enemy with lots of open ground and wheat fields to traverse under fire. My AT-Guns and 81 MTR's would find it challenging to set up in places where they could really make a difference throughout the game. I would spend a lot of time manhandling my 37L AT Guns into better firing positions. I sure could have used some horses...my boys were Cavalry after all!!!

Now...before I begin the AAR...some full disclosure. While transferring the pictures from my camera to the computer to begin the editing process...I accidentally deleted Turns 1 and most of Turn 2. Soooo....this AAR will be incomplete to say the least. In fact I almost didn't blog this particular scenario. But, like Walter Mitty...I went ahead and so we'll see where we end up at Blog's End.

      So join me as we dive into this scenario AAR in progress!!

The map above should give a good idea of the initial German (blue) and French (red) positions and the white arrows indicate my advance routes. Dan did a great job of placing his 9-2 with his HMG behind the center building. I couldn't see him, but he was in a position to lay a fire lane across the width of the wheat field. Dan continue to educate and impress me on the effective uses of machine guns.  I remain the pupil...

After 2 turns, I had made some progress, but overall, Dan's forces were still mostly in their original positions and still concealed. While Dan was playing some ASL...I think I was trying to play Stratego or connect four...

 So we pick up the action at the end of  Turn 2. My reinforcements came in from the west edge and I moved one group to begin heading to where the French Tanks and infantry were to come in during the next French Phases.

 French phase of Turn 2 saw the entry of the 4 x H39 Tanks. My ME-109 was already overhead and preparing to start its strafing run as Dan's tanks lined up perfectly for the attack run. One of my better planned moves during the scenario. My plane would fail to do anything, but it was still cool!

 The H39's were all buttoned up and my machine guns didn't phase them.

Not a bad little tank for this particular scenario. My 37L's managed a lot of hits throughout the scenario, but not one round even from the rear managed to do anything. 

One of my 81 Mortars would succeed in immobilizing one...but that was all the damage I would do to these tanks.

Dan's plan was to hang on the 16L6 building. He was willing to sacrifice the 16O3 Building and focus all his efforts on creating a fortress around 16L6.

Dan's 9-2 had the situation well in hand.

 Meanwhile back in Grumble Jones land...boxcars would plague me...and hard...

 In the north and in the west, I was pretty well stymied by Dan's defense. For most of the game, Dan never even had to use his boys hiding in the trench line. Essentially, his 9-2 with the HMG and his 8-1 with the MMG fought the battle against my boys almost by themselves.

French machine guns were winning the day.

 Heading into the French part of Turn 2, I had made very little progress.

 The white lines show the fields of fire that were available to Dan's HMG and MMG.

 Turn 3 - Dan's reinforcing infantry arrive. A total of 16 Squads. And honestly, Dan had already stopped me with just 2 squads...so I was less than excited to see 16 more come onto the field.

 Dan's fortress of Tanks had been completed. 4 hull down tanks with supporting infantry on the way.  UGH!!!

 As Dan's reinforcements came on, my ME-109 swooped down and took out two squads.

 At the end of three turns, a look at the situation. The French were still solidly in control. I still had not taken the 16O3 Building. Dan managed to hold me in melee until we called the game. So I would not even succeed in taking a single victory location.

 Back in the southwest, I would finally take out Dan's 8-1 MMG position and start to swing around from behind his trench. But it would be too little too late. And the black circles show my three wounded leaders. All three wounded by boxcars on their Morale Check rolls. A terribly frustrating night for me with more "12"s than I care to remember. I could only look at my dice and wonder...

 I'll admit...I did go No Quarter on Dan's 8-1 and 4-5-8 with the MMG. I...know...I'm a bad man...

 As we entered the bottom of Turn 4, my ME-109 came in for it's final strafing run of the game. I would fail the task check and pull off to circle back around.

As Turn 4 came to an end, Dan and I checked the time...it was nearly 10:30 PM and we had played over 5 solid hours of ASL. We had two options...stop the for the evening and play the bottom half of the scenario next Saturday or call this one complete and play a new scenario next Saturday.  I went over my options as the attacker and decided that the odds of me pulling out a victory were not over 50%. So I gave the concession and congratulated Dan on a great win. 

Dan's boys had spanked by backside pretty good throughout the scenario.

Dan and I spent the rest of the evening going over the game highlights and selecting our scenario for next week. We will be playing Scenario PAD3: Earning Face to test out Alan Findlay's great mouse pad map!

As always, my thanks to Dan for a great Saturday of ASL. Always the best part of the week!

See you next Saturday!