Our Saturday game took Dan Best and I to 1940 Greece for a playing of ASL Scenario 90 Pride and Joy. Tonight's game would be my 80th game in 2020. What an amazing fact...I never imagined playing so much ASL. COVID-19 has certainly upended my world much as it has for so many of you all over the world. We are living a moment in history that will be as significant a hundred years from now as the Spanish Flu. To say that living through this moment in history is painful would be totally insufficient to accurately define the awfulness of these days. 2020 sucks...and sucks hard. My community is reeling with over a hundred cases daily...over 40 dead...1000 active cases with 60 people in the hospital and 8 of those in ICU. There are 40,000 people in our community...we are headed for a catastrophic overwhelming of our hospital here in Western Illinois. On a positive note, 4 of my co-workers who were down with COVID returned to the office this past week and are all on the mend. That said...everyone of them doesn't want to confront the virus again. So let's all continue to do our part to stay virus free. We old ASL'rs still have a lot of ASL to play...and I don't know about you...but I want to be around in 5 years when MMP finally releases Manila.
Now, I would like to tell you that next week's AAR will be COVID-Free...but don't count on it. It does weigh on my mind...more than I would like it to. As I a reflect on this time last year, I was preparing to head to Alabama for Thanksgiving with family. That won't happen this year. But thank goodness there will be football to watch. In these times...a little normalcy goes a looong way.
ASL Scenario 90 Pride and Joy is set during the Greco-Italian War. This is yet another major campaign area about which I am woefully undereducated. And this is yet another reminder of the breadth of World War II as well as the amazing ability of ASL to take us into every campaign of this world war. It's quite amazing really. This scenario was designed by Scott Holst and ROAR has the original version of this scenario with 16 Greek and 12 Italian wins. The current, 3rd edition version has it with 3 Greek and 2 Italian wins. This scenario is certainly balanced. It is also large with three maps and nearly 40 squads. And at 10 turns, it's a long game. Dan and I would play it for six hours straight tonight and complete five full turns. The initial turns are the most time-consuming, because of the large number of pieces to be moved. Ground snow and hilly terrain add to the grind in the early turns.
I would have the defending Italians for tonight's game. I would command the men of the 8th Aplini Regiment and 47th Infantry Division. My force would consist of 8 x 4-4-7's, 8 x 3-4-7's and 7 x 3-4-6's led by 2 x 8-1's, 8-0, 2 x 7-0's, and a 6+1 with an HMG, 2 x MMG's, 5 x LMG's, 2 x ATR's, 2 x 45 MTR's, and 1 x 65* INF Gun. I would also start the game with 8 foxholes.
As the attacking Greeks, Dan would command the men of the 1st Cavalry Regiment and 10th Reconnaissance Battalion. This force would consist of 16 x 4-5-8's, 8 x 4-5-7's, 24 x Horses and 3 x 2-2-8's, led by a 9-1, 8-1, 8-0, and 2 x 7-0's with an HMG, 2 x MMG's, 3 x LMG's, an ATR and in support 3 x 75* ART pulled by wagons and finally 3 x L3/35 Tankettes.
Weather is ground snow with wet EC and Orchards are Olive Groves. Greek AFV crews are inexperienced. The Greeks would win at game end by controlling more building hexes than the Italians and provided there are no good order Italians on or adjacent to the 43Q1-43R3-43M6-43Q10 Road.
"The Greeks must attack and capture more building hexes than the Italians control. There are 14 building hexes on board 2 and another 14 on Board 17. Board 43 has 10 hexes. The Greeks must also clear the road across Board 43. This will require a great deal of movement. The plan will be for the Greeks to enter on one side of board 2 and Schwerpunkt the Italians. The Greeks will take prisoners and try to cut the Italian route paths. Hopefully the Greeks can break the line fast and get into the board 43 building complex before the Italian reinforcements. "
I elected to go with a very strong upfront defense. I placed all my machine guns and mortar up front as well. My 65* INF Gun was also on the level 3 hill top. I placed it where I expected Dan's tankettes to enter the game. I would guess correctly. Additionally, the gun could turn to fire to the north once Dan had broken through.
The victory condition road on Board 43 is highlighted in white. And you can clearly see Dan's schwerpunkt on the southwest edge. But the tankettes were coming down the road right under the sights of my 65* INF Gun.
The tankettes were under platoon movement and trundled down the snow covered road as my gun waited patiently to take the first shot. First shot would be a hit and a kill. The tankettes would continue down the road. I would intensive fire and knock out the second tank. My HMG would take a shot at destroying the third tankette, but couldn't get the kill.
My dice rolls for the first turn were quite good with a lot of 4's, which unfortunately for me was Dan's sniper. For the game I would roll 3 snake eyes and 4 boxcars. Dan would roll 7 snake eyes and 3 boxcars. 11's would be my undoing as I would break my mortar, two LMG's and my 65* INF Gun in the course of the battle.
The tankettes are an important component of the Greek attack. They have the ability to cut rout paths and secure the road on Board 43 before the Italian reinforcements arrive.
Dan's sniper would get his first kill by eliminating my sniper. So those 7 snake eyes that Dan rolled did not result in a single sniper for me....cause...well..."General Lee...I have no sniper..."
Dan's schwerpunkt came at me hard. I put down a wall of residual fire and staggered the attack a bit, but the sheer number of Greeks made it tough to completely stall their assault.
The ground snow was particularly helpful in slowing down the Greeks as they moved uphill.
The blue circles show where my boys were still resisting as the Greek wave receded.
Turn 1 Greek took an hour and 15 minutes to complete...UGH...that's too long to complete half a turn of game play. And Dan and I are fast players. We don't sit and agonize over moves. That said, Dan had to coordinate his moves in order to trigger my defensive fire in response to threats that would open up advance routes for the follow on units. So it took time to do that correctly. For my part, I moved my guys on the east edge back towards the middle of the battle. I also sent two squads to attempt to to destroy Dan's last tankette in close combat.
Both of my 3-4-7's would pass their PAATC's and go into close combat with the tankette. But I would not be successful in taking down the tankette.
Turn 2 - Dan swarms the west flank and gets through.
Dan's turn 2 assault would take prisoners, clear the west flank and put three of my center positions into close combats.
My positions were falling fast.
For the most part, close combats were not going my way, but I managed to keep a couple of them in Melee. And every turn that Dan's boys were tied up was to my advantage.
Turn 3 - Dan busts out around my west flank. I would MALF my gun as Dan's boys began to sweep up over the hill.
Turn 4 - a look at just how wide open Dan had ripped my front. His boys completely owned the west side of the battlefield.
Turn 5 - I was a bit remiss in my photographic duties for this game. I was tired during this game for some reason and as the clock passed 10:00 PM...I really started to lose steam. Dan's attack had netted him 11 building hexes and he had moved units onto Board 43. But back on Board 2, I was hanging on and messing up the Greek timetable.
Interestingly, Dan's control of the western half of the battlefield remained intact, but Dan was not able to extend that further to the east.
As we played Turn 5 - it was clear to both Dan and I that we had both suffered pretty heavy losses. Our forces were seriously degraded. The blue circles show all that the Italians had left.
Turn 5 - Italian phase. My reinforcements arrive and I place them adjacent to the victory location road and then another force further east to cover the approaches. This 7 squad force concealed and in place to hold the road.
As Turn 5 ended, a look at Dan's penetration to that point.
So the clock struck 11:00 PM and both Dan and I wearily decided to call the game. We had been playing 6 hours straight. With my reinforcement group securely in control of the victory location road, Dan decided to concede and call it a night. It was clear to us both that Dan would have no trouble getting the 20 building hexes, but the big problem confronting him was gaining control of the road. With his forces still battling my boys on Boards 2 and 17, his force would take several more turns to reform and make a credible assault on my boys on the north board edge. And a successful attack would eat up more turns. So we both agreed that the odds favored an ultimate Italian victory. My thanks to Dan for another great game in our 2020 year of ASL. This was an interesting scenario and I think it is well-designed. This scenario is a game that needs time thought, so it's not a good candidate for starting at 5:00 PM. This is one that you start at 10:00 AM and play into the evening.
My Italians would have the win, and it was largely due to the upfront defense, which forced Dan's cavalry to dismount early and fight for five turns to secure the board 2 hill mass. That impacted the Greek timetable enough to all but guarantee Italian control of the victory location road.
And now for Dan's Post-Game Comments:
"The plan did not work. The Italians had an up front defense and held board 2 in strength. The Italian infantry gun was able to knock out two tanks and the last fell to a MG. The Greeks had to dismount early and could not use the horse to move large numbers of troops into the Italian rear areas. While they got to the board 43 complex ahead of the Italians they did not have enough troops to stop the Italian reinforcements from setting up a block on the road. Well played by Grumble Jones with a strong up front defense setting the Greek attack back. This scenario is a fun study of movement under fire with mounted troops. It is also big and long so give yourself plenty of time if you are going to play it. Congrats to Grumble Jones on the win!"
Dan and I will return next Saturday for a playing
of Scenario MLR09 Overrun by Jim McLeod.
We will see you then!
Nice AAR, thanks!!
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