Our Saturday Game - ASL Scenario 44 - The Gauntlet

For our most recent game, Dan Best and I found ourselves in the early days of ASL, when scenarios were few and you played 'em whether they were balanced or not...cause it was all you had!! This of course brings me to a discussion of our latest game, which would be ASL Scenario 44 - The Gauntlet. I had played this one eons ago when I first began playing ASL. I was the Germans then and I lost it as I struggled to remove a roadblock in time to get my boys bused off the north board edge. I didn't succeed. Norwegian 4-3-7's can be a lot harder to eliminate than you would imagine...especially when there are 18 squads of them. 

The Gauntlet is in The Last Hurrah module and Dan and I would play the 2nd edition version. ROAR has this scenario with 15 German and 43 Norwegian wins. The ASL Archive has it with 4 German and 3 Norwegian wins. ROAR paints a picture of pro-Norwegian balance. Dan and I normally never use the balance in a scenario, particularly if it is the first time playing a scenario. As this was my second time, I had bad memories of struggling to get through the Gauntlet as the Germans. And as luck would have it, I would play the Germans again this time. So having said all that, I will recommend in favor of using the German balance. The ability to move off road without penalty is essential if the Germans are going to have a reasonable chance off success. 

Tonight's scenario would be my 51st game of 2020, which is just amazing. A good year used to be 24 games...but now I'm succeeding in getting over 50 annually. I'm certainly on track to beat last year's record of 61 games. 

If you are like me (and for your sake I hope not!!!), this is what you think of when hear The Gauntlet. I think this was one of the final Dirty Harry movies and was actually a lot of fun to watch. I'm not sure it has survived the test of time, but in its day, it was a fun movie! And since there will be buses involved in today's game...it's a little bit appropriate!

The Gauntlet takes place in 1940 Norway. The German invasion is underway the Norwegian Royal Family is a target. Earlier this same day, the Germans had successfully captured Danish King Christian. Their next target would be King Haakon of Norway.

Tipped off regarding German intentions, King Haakon rushed north from Oslo towards Norwegian Army HQ in Hamar. Norwegian reservists answering the peels of church bells were rallied together to create roadblocks along the Hamar-Elverum Road to slow of stop any German pursuit.

The Germans realizing that King Haakon was on the run took action. Two companies of Fallschirmjaeger at the Olso airport were placed on Norwegian buses and quickly sent in pursuit of the Norwegian King.

Historically, the Norwegians succeeded in killing German Captain Spiller who was the engine behind the German effort. With his leadership gone, the Germans decided the capture of King Haakon wasn't quite worth the additional loss of life and so returned to Oslo. King Haakon would eventually make it to England to lead the Norwegian government in exile.

The battle space for today's scenario. 

As mentioned earlier, I would command the men of the German Fallschirmjaeger-Regiment-1, Flieger Division 7. This force would consist of 12 x 5-4-8's led by a 9-2, 8-1, and 2 x 8-0's with 4 LMG's, 6 x Schoolbuses and one Kubelwagen. To win the game I would have to exit 17 VP off the north board edge. The buses would suffer from poor off road capability, so would be likely to bog if they left the road....especially if I'm the one rolling the dice. Personally 12 squads is not enough to cover the battlefield and dominate a well spread out and concealed opposing force of 18 squads. 

Dan would have the good fortune to command the Norwegians of the Ad-Hoc Command of Reservists and Citizen Volunteers. This force would consist of 18 x 4-3-7's led by a 9-2, 8-0, and 7-0 with 3 x LMG's and 2 roadblocks. This force would suffer from a 2 ELR and disruptions would be rampant as the game progressed. Dan would lose roughly 8 squads during the fight and the Germans would lose approximately 2 squads.

And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:

“The Norwegians have to prevent the Germans from exiting off the north edge of board 2.  The roadblocks will set up in 2W1 blocking the V1 hex side and 11Y10 blocking the Y9 hex side.  The Norwegians can deploy two squads and will to create more defense in depth. They will set up with no stacks even with the 9-2.  The leaders will set up with the LMGs.  With the 9-2 in 2R2 to get a shot at vehicles moving along the road.  Being green and with an ELR of 2 many Norwegians will disrupt and be mission killed.  The plan will be to have a triple canopy of Norwegian positions for the Germans to attack through.  Hopefully breaking through the canopy will delay the Germans long enough to prevent exit.”

Turn 1 - the Germans roll on to the map and quickly disembark from the buses. I'm sure there is also some debate in this scenario of when you should exit the buses. Looking back on the game now, I would have stayed on the buses and gone up to the Board 11 hill rather than attacking across the Board 2 Hill. One of the reasons I did not do that this time around was because that was exactly what I did the first time I played and lost this scenario. I didn't repeat that ending.

Sorry kids...we need to borrow your bus to kidnap your King...we'll bring it right back!!

Turn 2 - the first two turns were pretty quiet. I tend to be overly conservative and spent two turns getting into position. I would run my Kubelwagen forward to draw enemy fire and to locate the roadblocks. It did both tasks and survived!!!

Great job fellas!!

 A look at my progress at the end of two turns. Not great...but not bad. I had 7 more turns left...easily enough to gain the exit...right???

I would keep my buses in motion...something about not going under 55 miles per hour...not sure what that was all about...

I sent 4 x 2-3-8's to probe around Dan's western flank. There were two real squads over there, but I felt like I could handle it. Meanwhile, my 9-2 scaled the heights to get a better view of the action. My 8-1 and 8-0's would drive up the middle.

My half-squad adventure down the west side would be less than brilliant on my part. Dan's 4-3-7's were tough. I struggled to break Dan's squads throughout the game. When I did, ELR and disruption would occur and Dan would have a hard time rallying. But that initial break did not always come easy.

Overall, Dan got good service out of his 4-3-7's and had enough of them to absorb the losses inflicted by the hard hitting German Paras.

 At the end of turn 3, I was still hung up in the middle. I was very risk averse in this game. Dan was rolling a lot of 3's and 4's, which if I got caught moving in the open would be disastrous. So I moved slowly...a bit too slowly as time would tell.

Can't exit the board if you're doing this all game...

On the west, Dan would do a surprising thing...his 4-3-7 in the building had pretty much tied up my three half-squads..but then the 4-3-7 attempted to leave and would get caught in the open by an LMG directed by my 9-2 over on the level 3 hill. I would break and disrupt them.

Not much was escaping the notice of my 9-2.

 With the way open, my 2-3-8's rushed the board 11 hill to take on the remaining 4-3-7 in this sector.

 Dan's 9-2 would make a move and be spotted by 9-2, who would manage to wound him.

My LMG's would do pretty well in this game.

 Dan's 9-2 would hold onto the first roadblock pretty tenaciously despite being wounded.

There I was playing ASL...when my opponent rolled snake eyes and changed the game...yep...I managed to break Dan's 4-3-7 at the hedge line with my 2-3-8's...but the broken squad would roll snakes...rally and then go berserk. It would be a jarring moment for me.

 My buses set off again as I moved them closer to the action...but not too close.

I repositioned my 2-3-8's to await the charge of the berserk 4-3-7 in the next turn. I made a tragic error in putting two of my squads adjacent to one another.

Dan's berserker would survive all my shots despite -2 moving in the open and then break and eliminate a 2-3-8 in Advancing Fire Phase and Rout Phase. With his berserk status ended...it then moved into CC with the remaining 2-3-8 and destroyed it in CC. Yeah...these are the moments in ASL when you just cringe. A conscript squad successfully moves in the open despite the fire of three German half-squads...survives and then destroys two of the three half-squads and essentially ends my actions on the side of the battle. Not complaining...but dice seem not to favor me at various times in the game.

Our dice tracker for this game showed 3 snakes for both Dan and I, 5 x 11's for Dan and 5 x 11's for me and 3 x 12's for Dan and only 1 x 12 for me. I would consider a one boxcars night a good one.

Dan's sniper would show up often as I rolled a lot of 5's. It would immobilize one of my buses along the road.

With time running out and resigning myself that I was not going to win the scenario, I sent all my buses on a cross country excursion and of course bogged two trucks as they left the road. Honestly, my favorite roll is a 10...so I should not even have tempted fate...cause I was going to lose that battle and did. Despite some difficulties here and there, I did manage to break and eliminate Dan's force on the east flank. The way was open. But Dan was hustling his boys to cover the north board edge. The Gauntlet was definitely in place.

I didn't like my chances for getting through Dan's gauntlet.

A last look at my progress at Turn 8. With only a single movement phase remaining...there was little hope of exiting enough of my boys for the win. I would have to risk too many moves in the open and the loss of even a single squad would have resulted in defeat. So I gave Dan the concession and congratulated him on a good win. His defense in depth was the key to victory as my paratroops couldn't deal enough damage to punch throught he Norwegian defenses.

Dan's boys would celebrate a great win and savor the success of ensuring King Haakon's escape!

My boys would wait for the school bus ride back to Oslo.

And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:

“The plan worked.  Aided by one Norwegian squad going berserk and taking out a German squad on the board 11 flank.  Also, the dummy counters all absorbed German firepower.  The Norwegians were able to keep positions of units in front of the Germans until turn 8.  When the German count of units that could exit in the remaining movement was below the 17 VP needed to win.  This scenario is hard on the Germans who must be hyper aggressive and pass morale checks to win.  My thanks to Grumble Jones for another great game of classic ASL.”

June is now ending and the next stop is July...or Gettysburg Month as I like to think of it! While my ancestors fought in the 48th Virginia and 26th North Carolina, I still have a soft spot for Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain. With this in mind, Dan and I will not be playing next Saturday as it the 4th of July. However, we will be playing next Wednesday  - Scenario MM45 Platamon Castle and then on Friday - Scenario RB4 - To the Rescue - that's right Red Factories will be on the table to kick of your 4th of July Celebration! 

We will see you then!

Our Saturday Game - LFT Scenario FT81 - Dubrovka

For our Saturday game, Dan Best and I would travel to the frozen steppes of Russia. Snow scenarios are always hard for me to visualize and one of the reasons I would love to have access to winterized versions of the boards...or some clear board overlays if someone ever wanted to make such things. Certainly this is one of the advantages of playing on VASL as the boards are winterized. This scenario would be my choice and I have always had a fascination with the Spanish Blue Division (250th Infantry Division). 

A few years ago, as I was getting back into ASL, I had the good fortune to interact with Chris at Battleschool. 

ASL Battleschool Blog , I had purchased a copy of Pegasus Bridge over eBay and Chris had placed one of his battle dice in the shipment. This lead me to find his blog and over time, we would trade some correspondences. Chris' blog was the inspiration for my own blog and is still the gold standard in my opinion. One of my next purchases would be a copy of Le Franc #10 La Division Azul. This was very hard to find at the time and Chris even went the extra mile to find the Spanish Counter Sheet to go with it. Even today, my Spaniards are some of my most treasured counters. 

This of course reminds me of the power of the ASL Community. Recently, VASL'ing with Stew did an episode dedicated to the ASL On-Line Community. He credited the 2 Half-Squads for getting him back into ASL and for inspiring his own excellent work on You Tube Stew's Replays . So just as the 2 Half-Squads have inspired many of us to get back into ASL, so too did Chris at Battle School in my own case. His encouragement would lead me to attend my first ASL Tournament, the Texas Team Tournament in 2013. And my first opponent (first new opponent since 1997) would be Dan Best. Grumble Jones exists as a viable blog because of the support and encouragement of the greater ASL Community. We live in a Golden Age of ASL...and Life is Good!

FT81 - Dubrovka (designed by Xavier Vitry) takes place in the winter of 1941 to the south of Leningrad. The Spanish Blue Division had only been in the fight a short time, when the first snows began to fall in October. No one could foresee the winter hell that was soon to arrive.

Dubrovka and Tigoda were villages near the Volkhov River and were necessary objectives to strengthen Spanish positions along the Volkhov. In a fierce and often hand to hand fight, the Spaniards succeeded in taking their objectives.

A look at the battlefield in its winterized version. ROAR has this scenario with 13 Spanish and 15 Russian wins. The  ASL Archive has it with 3 Spanish and 7 Russian wins.

Dan would command the men of the 250th Infantry Division...Spanish Blue Division. The Spaniards would leave a legacy of valor during their time on the Eastern Front. Their accomplishments are the more remarkable given the lack of heavy support available to them throughout their time in the Leningrad-Volkhov Front. Dan's force would consist of 5 x 5-4-8's, and 16 x 4-6-8's led by a 9-2, 91-, 2 x 8-1's, and 2 x8-0's with 2 x MMG's, 6 x LMG's and 2 x Flamethrowers. Dang!!! This is one tough force and by SSR they have -2 drm for leader creation and -1 drm on the heat of battle table. Good Grief!!!

As the defending Russians, I would command the men of the Russian 267th Rifle Division, 1000th Infantry Regiment. The 267th would hold the Volkhov line into 1942. In 1942 it would be trapped in the swamps along the Volkhov and be effectively destroyed. It would be reformed at the end of 1942 and would end the war fighting in the Courland Pocket. My force would consist of 16 x 4-4-7's, 4 x 4-2-6's, and a 1-2-7 led by a 10-0, 8-1 and 8-0 (converted to 9-0 Commissar...just because!!!!) with 2 x MMG's, 4 x LMG's and 2 x Roadblocks. With an ELR of 2...YIKES...against superhero Spaniards....this is going to be a rough battle.


And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:

“The Spanish (in German army) are attacking to clear the board 48 crossroads village of Russians.  They have to clear 20 Russians squads and a crew from 25 buildings, three of which are fortified.  The 9-2 leader will have two 5-4-8 squads with LMG   While the 8-1 will lead the two FT squads.  This group will attack across the eastern half of the board.  The 4-6-8 groups will attack on the north and western sides of the village.  They will deploy two squads as allowed and try for more deployments immediately to use the HS to infiltrate and capture buildings.  The Russians have an ELR or 2 so there will be plenty of conscripts to collect as prisoners.  With all troops having 8 morale hopefully they can cross the open ground and break the Russian defenses.”

So the Spanish would win by controlling all the building locations in the circled area. I would get three fortified buildings and 3 HIP squads. I would hip my 10-0 and two 4-4-7's in the very backfield and hope they would stay hidden and unbroken by game end. 

Turn 1 - Spanish - Dan's boys move forward. I fire, but take down a half-squad and a couple breaks. D-Fire has been letting me down lately. One of my frustrations throughout this game, would be my inability to hurt Dan's Spaniards as they moved in the open. Even  with -3 shots...I rarely did better than pinning the enemy. Dan's dice were good to him for most of the game and he rarely missed a morale check. Dan would finish the game with 3 snakes and 3 boxcars. I would finish the game with 1 snakes and 4 boxcars. 

Dan's Spaniards had made good progress on Turn 1. Dan worked at getting a squad around my left flank, but this was the longest movement direction in the game.  So this effort did not affect the outcome of the game.

I would lose my first prisoners by the end of Turn 1 and be forced to rout from one of my fortified buildings and MALF one of the LMG's. By the end of the game Dan would capture my 8-1 and 10 squads worth of Russians infantry. I can't remember the last time so much of my force was captured. One of the smart decisions, which Dan made was to take prisoners. With an ELR of 2, I was scriptifying my boys with alarming frequency and some of these would disrupt. So routing was not even an option. So my boys surrendered early and often. By taking prisoners, Dan ensured that my boys would give up rather than low crawl away.

Turn 2 - the Spaniards move ahead on both of my flanks. My D-Fire is again mostly ineffective.

I left a lot of resid on the battlefield...but again, I wasn't inflicting enough damage to slow down the Spaniards. I needed just one turn of slowing Dan down to win the game. I just couldn't get it.

The limit of the Turn 2 Spanish advance.

My right flank was in serious jeopardy. Dan's 9-2 and both flame throwers were attacking that part of my line. 

Dan's Advancing Fire Phase was putting a lot of factors on me. Dan would PREP Fire only a few units and the rest would advance and were dealing good damage in the Advancing Fire Phase. 

Dan would create one hero during the battle.

Turn 3- Spanish - I was struggling to slow down the Spaniards. I needed to slow them down and just couldn't do it.

Dan was breaking through all along the front!

More and more of my Russians were' ELR'ing...then surrendering. Dan's boys had the battle well in  hand. High rolls and an ELR of 2...recipe for disaster...

At one point in the game I told Dan that I was doing more for his cause than for my own!!! One of the peculiar things about ASL is that your own dice rolls will harm you almost as much as anything your opponent does to you. Cowering was absolutely driving me to tears during this game. I would roll a 4 and cower and then do nothing and my 4-2-6's would double cower...so I was getting to the point where I  just wanted to stop rolling the dice...

Overall, I would fare poorly in close combat. Our CC's would almost always go to MELEE, but Dan was able to reinforce those and close them out in his favor. 

Dan was gobbling me  up....

My fortified locations didn't do much for me either as both of my MMG stacks were broken. Dan's fire power in his stacks was just too much me and his 9-2 was really whacking me upside the head.

The battle was becoming a rout for my guys. Dan really started to steamroll as we neared the final turns. I just wasn't generating enough firepower to do the damage necessary. 

Turn 5 - Dan succeeded in clearing the cross roads. He was well on his way to a victory. At this point Dan had all the momentum. I was reeling and just trying to keep my 10-0 and 2 squads HIP for as long as possible. Time was running out....

Turn 5 - Russian - my HIP 10-0 and two squads were still HIP. They were going to be my last chance to win.

Of course by this time in the game, Dan had figured out where my last dudes would hiding. But before he figured that out, he would empty both flamethrowers...so that was a good thing..

As Turn 5 ended, all I had left was my final HIP stack. There was a half-turn left. Could I hold out?

I'm thinking...No....

Nope..as Dan rushed me. In response I tried firing my 4-4-7's independently to create a wall of Residual fire from 4 factors to 2. But my first squad cowered...final fired and leaving only two residual. My 10-0 and 4-4-7 would fire next. I would KIA a 4-6-8, but Dan just kept throwing guys at me. I did Final Protective Fires and this would result in both 4-4-7's breaking and giving Dan the victory. 

Many times in ASL...I feel like I don't know what I'm doing and tonight was one of those nights. Congrats to Dan on a powerful victory. He really kept the momentum from Turn 1 to the Turn 6 and earned the win. He was wore out at the end...but I think it was because he had so many counters to move and prisoners to herd to the rear!!!!  That  stuff will wear you out fast!! I teased Dan that it had been another humiliating defeat for me and truthfully it really felt like that to me. But there is always next Saturday!

Dan's Spaniards had won a solid victory!

And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:

“The plan worked.  The high Spanish morale allowed them to move forward and in a grinding attritional battle broke the Russians and mopped them up.  Taking over 100 prisoners including the 8-1 leader.  The grinding attack stayed on schedule with all troops in place for a last turn assault on the final fortified building.  The Russians broke themselves with FPF fire.  This scenario is classic east front action and a hard infantry battle.  The Russian ELR made a break hard to recover from with several disrupted squads and the commissar executing twice for failure to rally.  My thanks to Grumble Jones for a good scenario choice and a refreshing change from our desert battles.  This scenario might make an appearance in March Madness ASL Tournament.”

Dan and I will be back next Saturday for more Close Combat as we play a classic -

 ASL Scenario 44 The Guantlet!!

See you then!