Grumble Jones - An ASL Blog: Our Saturday Game - ASL Scenario 38

Hey there! It's just me Grumble Jones coming at ya from the Libyan Desert. Yep, Dan Best and I went back to West of Alamein to try and catch up on all those scenarios we past up playing in our youth!!! For me, I was coming off a loss along the Saar River. A missed bazooka shot and some poor defensive thinking left me defeated. 2020 has been a tough year for me so far. A lot of hard losses and a dice rolling conundrum that I'm at a loss to figure out. Hopefully, I'll get my dice to roll average instead of piling on the 9's-12's, which are killing me. Oh and it would be nice to get rate of fire now and then.

For our desert excursion Dan would pick ASL Scenario 38 - Escape from Derna. This is a big scenario for sure at 8-1/2 turns and using five of the desert boards as well as the E1 Escarpment overlay. Bucket list item is now checked!!! This scenario has a lot of stuff...squads, AT-Guns, trucks, universal carriers, armored cars and tanks. It's definitely a hoss! But it also has a reputation for being very unbalanced. ROAR has it with 21 German wins and 4 British wins. The ASL Archive has it with 3 German and 0 British wins. Perhaps a bit pro-German...me thinks....

Due to this, Dan and I agreed to go with the British balance for this scenario. This scenario also has some environmental conditions such as EC very dry with a mild breeze which will create vehicle dust and intense heat haze (F11.621) will also be in effect.

Soooo...you can see why maybe some of us skipped this scenario when flipping through them. It's definitely not for the weak!!! But Dan and I...we got this (except when we mess up the rules...do we do that...ok maybe now and then...) Personally, I'm looking forward to playing this one. It's long overdue and I'm glad that Dan is game for taking on some of the more complex scenarios out there. And once we show how easy this to play...you'll be escaping from Derna too.

A look at where Derna is in Libya. It's just to the west of Gazala. The scenario depicts the attempt of the 2nd British Armored Division to escape from Derna and into what would be the Tobruk perimeter.

A good look at the escarpment to the south of Derna.

A look at the battlefield and shamelessly borrowed from The ASL Archive...whose maps are so greatly appreciated. Looking at this map helped me correct some overlay position errors which I made. Sometimes I scratch my head at just how often I bungle Overlay positions. Can't explain why this is such a difficulty for me. So again thanks to the ASL Archive for being the great site that you are (my personal favorite ASL site).

As the defending Germans, Dan would command the men of MG Battalion 8 and Aufklarerungsabteilung 3. Dan's force would consist of 6 x 4-6-7's, 4 x 2-4-8's 2 x 2-4-7's, and 3 x 2-2-8's led by a 9-1, 8-0 and 7-0 with an HMG, 3 x MMG's, 2 x LMG's, 2 x ATR's, 3 x 37L AT Guns, 2 x ATR's and 2 x 50MTR's with 7 Armored Cars coming to assist on Turn 2. This is a strong force well equipped to rip up a column of trucks and weak armored vehicles of the attacking (fleeing) British.

As the attacking (fleeing) British, I would command the men of the 2nd Armored Division. My task would be to somehow get 45 DVP off the map. My force would consist of 4 x 4-5-7's, 4-4-7's, 4 x 2-2-8's and 3 x 1-2-7's led by a 9-1 and 8-0 with an MMG, 3 x LMG's, an ATR and 50MTT with 2 x Armored Cars, 7 x Tanks, 4 x Universal Carriers, 2 x 25lb Guns and 10 x Trucks.

And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:

“One of my objectives for ASL play in 2020 was to play more desert scenarios and I am trying to play through the scenarios from WoA. Then Grumble Jones and I came across Escape from Derna. Which had a ROAR balance of 4 British and 21 German. It is not often we find a scenario this unbalanced in our selections. Grumble likes to play some ASL and we chose to give the British the balance. Rolling for sides Grumble got the British and the balance. For the German I set up a classic L shaped ambush with the kill zone along the board junction of boards 26, 27 and 29. The British units using the paved road will have to run the gauntlet of fire in the kill zone. The AT guns, MTRs and MGs all cover this kill zone within 13 hexes of the +1 heat haze. Long range shooting beyond that range will be less effective. The AT guns will set up in scrub to use HIP. The infantry in fortifications for concealment. The primary targets trucks and infantry, then the thinner skinned AFV. While the British A13 AVF can be killed from the front even by the German ATRs, stopping the highest number of vehicles is the priority not stopping the most powerful. The Germans can lose all their units...but the British must exit to win.”

Tonight's AAR brought to you by the Oscars!!!

OK...so the game begins. By SSR my British start on the winding road of hell with a nice shell hole hex in front, which every unit has to pass through and make a bog check. You all know how a roll...so it will not be a surprise that I bogged and ultimately blocked the hex. So, here you have a winding road with few options for the British to traverse and to add insult to injury you add a bog hex. I'm not sure I would ever design a scenario this maddening. So buckle up kind readers...the shell holes will make for a BUMPY AAR.

I had three movement strategies...(none very good)…#1 my infantry would immediately jump out of their trucks and move up the gully onto the desert floor. #2 my trucks would naturally have to stay on the road...#3 my tanks and universal carriers would go off road into the gully and up and over the escarpment. This would be time consuming, but it guaranteed not having to go through the shell hole bog hex.

Now, having determined my initial movement strategy...my remaining strategy would be rather simplistic. I intended to just roll down the paved road and see if anybody made it. I had no illusions of surviving the gauntlet of German 37L AT Guns, MG's and infantry fire covering the roads. Of course this would be a fatalistic approach.

Turn 1 would be a looonng turn as I ponderously moved up the escarpment. I managed to get a few vehicles through, but then bogged three trucks in the hex and blocked it. My fully tracked armor headed left and down into the gully to make the trek over the escarpment.

Turn 2 would see my first losses. My dismounted infantry would continue towards the desert floor. I would move my mortar up on the left hillock at the cost of a 2-1-7.

So like Clint Eastwood in the Gauntlet...I ran down the road and watch Dan's grenadiers take down every truck on the road. One very nearly made it, but Dan's dice were hot with some snake eyes and other lower rolls. The fire lane from the German MMG would do me a great deal of harm. The German MTR would miss few shots.

"Well boys...it's a daft idea...but we'll run down this road and see what surprises Jerry has in store for us..!"

End of British phase of Turn 2 wasn't one of my better moments. The Germans controlled the road...there's was no disputing it.

Turn 2 - German armored cars arrive and sweep towards me.

Back on the main road, two German armored cars had run up on my boys. I managed to destroy one with a snake eyes.

End of Turn 3 - I was in a bit of trouble. I was still bottled up on the escarpment and what had managed to get on the road out of Derna had been mostly destroyed by Dan's Afrika Korps.

The Germans were waiting as Turn 4 opened.

I managed to get two of my Crusader tanks out in the open. My 9-1 Armor leader went straight down the road to take down the armored car there, while my infantry moved across the desert floor. Meanwhile my other boys struggle to get over the escarpment.

I would mange to destroy the armored car on the road in Advancing Fire, but German fire elsewhere took down more of my boys. Dan had destroyed nearly 40 of DVP at this stage of this game. I still had more DVP than necessary to win the game, but the piecemeal exiting from the escarpment was letting Dan destroy me a piece at a time.

Turn 4 German - Dan's armored cars moved up in the road and succeeded in destroying my Crusader tank with my 9-1 Armor Leader.

So after 4 turns and 4-1/2 hours of game play, I offered Dan my concession. Turn 5 was going to see Dan move up closer with his armored cars and he still had 2 HIP 37L AT Guns somewhere in the desert. And with my force still clawing its way over the escarpment...the writing was on the wall. There would be no escape from Derna today.

Congrats to Dan on a solid victory. For the loss of just two armored cars, he stopped my escape in its tracks. Escape from Derna certainly lived up to its reputation for being Pro-German, but I also was a bit reckless in my piecemeal movements down the road. Patience and vehicle dust if put to good use may aid the British in escaping. I certainly don't recommend rushing down the road before your force is ready. One of the things I did learn was that trucks and fire lanes are not a good combination. But that said, I did manage on Turn 2 to nearly get past Dan's line of defense. Certainly, if I had more of my equipment making a similar attempt on turn 6, I believe the odds for success would have been greater.

That said...I'm not going to recommend this one to anyone. It takes a lot of effort to set up and the time wasted trying to move masses of British units up and over the escarpment is just brutal and isn't really a good time. The first two turns are dull and if you block the shell hole hex with bogged vehicles as I did...well the scenario's fun index drops precipitously. Even for the German, the turkey shoot nature of this scenario (while fun killing your opponent's stuff)…is certainly not tactically challenging. So...for the first time ever in an AAR, I'm suggesting you escape from playing Escape from Derna. There are too many better scenarios to spend your valuable time playing and enjoying.

And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:

“This game was a turkey shoot. The shellholes on the road made the British reach the battlefield piecemeal rather than as one combined arms force. This allowed the Germans to destroy the British units in succession. The German reinforcements arrive in plenty of time to clean up surviving units and engage any dismounted infantry. Every attempt by the British to exit was destroyed. Grumble and I had fun, had some really great exploits with our vehicles including a great critical hit from a moving vehicle. But this scenario is unbalanced. The best tactic for the British is to try to form up at the top of the escarpment for a few turns Then as a combined arms force, with the infantry armored assaulting, try for an exit. Even then the German armored cars arrive early enough to attack while the British are forming up and can inflict serious casualties. Especially on the unarmored targets. It will be interesting to see how MMP fixes this scenario in the upcoming re-release with the reprint of the Italians. My thanks to Grumble Jones for the excellent sporting attempt to win with the British. I recommend only players who want to play a wild scenario where you want to try unconventional tactics and have spectacular failures attempt this scenario. It might be good for teaching new players desert and vehicles...if you give the new player the Germans.”

The Oscars are going to begin in about an hour from now as I wrap up this AAR. SPOILER ALERT...stop reading now if you don't want to know who the OSCAR goes to...