2020 is rapidly coming to an end. The coming of November and elections here in America are certainly dominating my focus these days. The stress of 2020 has been off the charts for me personally and I imagine for many of you. I look forward to positive changes in the coming months.
Why do I mention all of this...well because stress can hinder creativity. I really hit a wall in coming up with scenario ideas following the conclusion of the Where the Half-Squads Dare Halloween Pack. I had invested so much energy into that project for much of this year, that I was a bit drained after it's release. And on a bit of a bummer note, it wasn't all the well received. Of course that happens and to some extent I am not surprised. While I really enjoy coming up with the Halloween scenarios, they are not always of interest to the greater ASL Community. Although having said that, my Halloween scenario "Die Glocke" remains the most viewed of all the Grumble Jones scenarios on the ASL Archive.
So there I was...thinking what to do for November. I looked through my magazines...stared at my bookshelf and surfed Mark Felton videos on YouTube...you know the ones. And I was coming in blanks. A combination of work, politics, tremendous family issues and of course stinking...COVID-19 put me in a real state of BLAH...
More than one idea was drawn up only to be cast aside. So I turned again to my library for inspiration...oh man did I need a spark of something to put me on the path to a scenario. My go to campaign has always been Normandy. My library on Normandy related topics is extensive. I had just finished an outstanding book on the Battle for Tilly. But so many of the Tilly actions took place at night. It's like the Canadians became nocturnal warriors in that fight. I just didn't have it in me to make a night scenario. I'm not a huge fan of night scenarios anyway...so why inflict that on my readers. See I'm always looking out for you!
So I put the Tilly book back on the shelf and selected Tigers in Normandy by Wolfgang Schneider. This is easily one of my favorite books. Incredibly detailed and filled with the small unit actions of which ASL is made.
I flipped through the pages and finally found a snippet that jumped out at me. In early August, the 5th Battalion of the Duke of Cornwall's Light Infantry would surprise a Tiger I and Tiger II of Panzer Abteilung 503 as they were refueling and rearming on the outskirts of Plessis-Grimoult.
A lucky mortar round from the Cornwaller's would hit the resupply truck and result in a massive explosion, which would displace the turret of the King Tiger. Yeah...that's a pretty significant blast. So there was my scenario!!
So why did I name it ...Bagging a Bengal Tiger.?? Good question. I did some additional research into Panzer-Abteilung 503. One of the good/bad things about COVID-19 has been the amount of Amazon purchases I have made this year. Since, I basically stay at home these days...I had a little bit of money available for books. And yes...I bought a lot of books this year. The Casemate Illustrated series was one of my favorite targets and they have a bunch of great Normandy volumes.
While flipping through the pages of German Armor in Normandy, I came across a great color plate of a King Tiger from Panzer Abteilung 503. And in the caption, there is a note that the Germans referred to the King Tigers in the 503 as Bengal Tigers due to their camouflage schemes. So that took care of the scenario name.
Next up was deciding whether or not to make it a DASL scenario. One of my quirks is that I tend not to be a fan of DASL scenarios...but I enjoy making them!! Go figure...
Why do I enjoy making them? The large hexes create a much more intimate battle space. The action comes quicker and up close. So in this scenario, range is irrelevant to the Germans, but is critical to the British. And the quicker they can locate the German tanks being resupplied, the faster they can recreate history and get a massive supply truck explosion. The German player meanwhile will have to make critical decisions regarding the resupply operation. He/she will have four crews (2 tank crews and 2 supply crews). These can be employed on one tank or both tanks or in some other fashion. At game start they are busy resupplying both tanks, but the German player can decide to jump into the tanks and just use their machine guns, since neither will be refueled or rearmed at that point. The German player could also choose to drive off one or both supply trucks to avoid a catastrophic result due to British fire. These decisions will have to be made quickly as the British will be on top of the Germans fairly quickly. So you can see why DASL boards fit this scenario.
Not much else to say. Here is the November scenario. As I always I hope it proves to be a bit of fun.
As always these monthly "Basement Quality" Scenarios are offered for fun only and as a thank you to the readers of this blog.
Remember to open pictures in a new window in order to maximize the size.
And as always, these scenarios can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive
(just search on Grumble Jones).
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