With the departure of March, we begin to see the first signs of Spring. This is a special time of year in Western Illinois and I'm looking forward to enjoying it. The job search saw another fruitless week. I'm sure you are all as tired of hearing about that as I am of living it.
As for ASL, Dan and I selected a scenario from the Full Rules March Madness Pack. We would pick scenario MM66 Brazil's Here (designed by Steven C. Swann). This scenario is set in Italy, September 1944 and covers the actions of the Brazilian Expeditionary Force as they assisted the Allied effort in driving the Germans out of Italy.
The Full Rule Book pack attempts to provide scenarios that utilize different aspects of the rulebook. This scenario would provide the Brazilians with three 60 MTR's, which per Chapter H, US Ordnance Notes can be exchanged for OBA.
Dan would utilized this option and give up the 3 x 3-4-7's and mortars for 4 FP HE OBA with White Phosphorous. As you will see, Dan made excellent use of the Willy Pete. But, I think had Dan gone had the 3 x 3-4-7's available to him, the game might have had a different outcome.
So weigh carefully the value of the smoke vs. the additional manpower.
The Brazilians win the game by controlling 8 of 12 stone buildings at Levels 2 and 3. Manpower is crucial in allowing the Brazilian Player to take as many locations as possible.
As the scenario attacker, Dan would command the men of the Brazilian 1st Battalion, 6th "Ipiranga" Infantry Regiment. This force would consist of 7 x 6-6-6's led by a 9-1, 8-1, and 2 x7-0's with 2 x MMG's, a BAZ44, 3 x 105 Shermans and 4 FP OBA with HE & WP.
Dan's Brazilians would suffer from a 3 ELR and this would really cripple Dan's force during the game. He would ELR early and often.
I'm not certain if a 3 ELR is especially accurate to the fighting ability of the Brazilians, but historically, the Brazilians contributed a very solid performance against the tenacity of the defending Germans.
The SET DC would be controlled by the German 5-4-8, which would both set up HIP. The DC would utilize the Set Demolition rule (A23.7) with the 5-4-8 as the controlling unit tasked with detonating the DC.
This would be my first occasion to play on the Bounding Fire Productions Board J. It's an interesting board and is really the biggest challenge facing the attacking Brazilians. The bridge in this scenario may not be used by the American Tanks. The stream is shallow (B20.42) and requires a bog check to exit. Dan's tanks would all three successfully cross the stream.
And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:
"The Brazilians must capture 8 of 12 buildings at level 2 or above across the stream. The plan will be to exchange the MTRs for OBA. Then have the 9-1 with two squads and two MMG attack with the tank and 8-1 armored leader toward the bridge. While one 7-0 with the radio and HS goes for the church steeple. The 8-1 and two squads will try to cross the stream on the west side while the other 7-0 and two squads and a HS try to cross the stream on the east side. Each crossing will be accompanied by a tank. Hopefully, the units can cross and get into the village while the 9-1 suppresses the enemy and the OBA can WP a large area."
Defending a narrow front always seems easier...but this map is very deceptive with multiple elevations as well as plenty of buildings to provide cover and/or block lines of sight. I set my mortars in the rear with good line of sight to the opposing hill as well as the area leading up to the bridge. My HIP 5-4-8 with an LMG was in the K7 building with a clear view to the DC location on the opposite side of the stream. My hope was to catch a kill stack moving into that location...which I assumed would be the American 9-1 and both MMG's. That stack was moving in the direction...but I zapped them with my HMG group before they got there. Probably one of those occasions where holding my fire was probably in order.
This scenario is 8 turns long...so patience in the early turns is probably the wiser of course of action.
Turn 1 Brazilian - Dan's boys move into position.
Dan's OBA starts early with the first spotting round.
Dan's arty spotter would turn in a good performance up until Turn 6, when he would break the radio and then chuck out the window. But he kept me smoked for much of the game.
Turn 2 - American - Willy Pete blankets the German rear as the Brazilians move forward. They take their first losses as the German 8-1 and HMG open up.
Turn 2 German - my HMG gets a snakes on Dan's MMG Kill Stack. The 9-1 dies and the two squads break, casualty reduce and ELR. This would be one of the two big game changers for the Germans.
Definitely tough going for the Brazilians in the early turns.
Another round of Willy Pete hits further back. Dan had some problems with accuracy. But two good things happened. His tanks would push me out of the way on the west flank and break my 8-1 and his two squads. They had already broken the HMG and now were broken themselves. So just like that my position was seriously compromised.
Ok...so let's talk dice rolls. I'm really starting to believe my dice are cursed. Yes, I did get some good hits on Dan, but those were the exception. My HMG got a nice three ROF and then promptly MALF'd. I would a roll a 6 while trying to fix it...when a 1, 2, or 3 would have done the job.
My 8-1 would fail to rally (needed an 8 or less) over 4 Rally Phases in a Row. A 10, a 10, an 11, a 9 before finally rallying.
My Set DC. I needed to roll an 8 or less to set it off. I had two chances...11's both times. My DC would never go off.
The ending of this game is nothing short of a miracle given my less than stellar performance. I say this often and I hate saying it...but Dice Rolls Matter. No matter how well you move in this game...at some point you have to execute and random dice rolls determine the effectiveness or failure of your execution. Great players that I have played against have very average dice to good dice. Sure they roll badly here and there...but by and large they get the 3's, the 4's and the snakes that cap off their skillful movements and tactics.
In tonight's game, the terrain would slow Dan down enough to allow me to overcome my horrible dice. I literally lost track of how many boxcars I rolled. By game end, I had no functioning machine guns, because I had broken them all. And my 5-4-8 rolled boxcars while trying to Rally and was casualty reduced. I will be honest and Dan could tell over SKYPE...I wanted to just throw in the towel and concede. I was not enjoying the game. It had become so frustrating for me that I was just not having a good time. I'll also readily admit that my mental state these past weeks has not been good and ASL should be a relaxing and fun time to forget your troubles...not have them amped up because of endlessly frustrating dice rolls.
ASL is a fantastic game and largely due to the dice rolls. They create wild and fun situations that no other game even comes close to duplicating. And yes, bad results are also part of that. On his side of the board, Dan was able to take advantage of my misfortunes to get his boys into position into the town. So, one's man's sorrow is another man's gain...especially in ASL.
Having broken my 8-1 on the east side, Dan was able to cross the stream in strength. He would eliminate a 4-4-7 that failed to connect with their Panzerfaust, but a 2-4-7 with a Panzerschreck succeeded in blowing up the first Sherman. Then Dan moved a 6-6-6 into my DC booby trap. My 5-4-8 misses both roll attempts and the 6-6-6 avoids a 36 factor -3 hit. (I wanted to cry.)
"Boys...we need to get out of this building pronto...looks like Jerry has it rigged to blow."
A look at the situation as Dan edged into the town.
Amazingly...I still had a relatively intact perimeter. That was about to change...but inspite of everything going wrong, I was still hanging in there.
Dan would make some good moves heading into Turn 4. His Arty Observer would head to the church to get some elevation. Meanwhile his rallied MMG teams headed back into the fight as another group skillfully got up on the hill on the west flank.
A spotting round indicated that another WP Fire Mission was imminent.
Turn 5 - the smoke hits again and Dan's center Sherman smokes the opposite end of the bridge. His west flank Sherman would get too close a 4-4-7 in a building. They would destroy the tank, but break themselves in the process. This would allow Dan's infantry to get into some victory locations. My 8-1 had finally rallied, but the HMG was gone.
At this stage of the game, the Willy Pete was really getting on my nerves. It was everywhere and logistically making a mess of the board.
Dan's MMG teams crossed the bridge while his men on the west flank entered the town and victory location alley. On the east flank, I had broken Dan's half-squads and sent a 4-4-7 to keep the DM'd.
I also relocated my boys in the town as much as I was able to. I was quickly losing control of the situation. I needed to stay alive and keep as many victory locations as possible.
A double DM...yeah that was fun and one of the better moves I would make in the game.
It's important to note that Dan's Brazilians had been hurt by losses and a lot of ELR's. Dan had done a great job of getting his degraded force into position to start capturing victory locations.
NOOOOO...not more WP...UGH!!!
Dan was making good progress and taking prisoners as I began to crumble. But on the west flank, I managed to roll a 3 and break Dan's group over there. So I would be able to reclaim the two captured locations.
Dan's last Arty fire missions would be 4 FP HE as he was only allowed 2 smoke missions. I had recovered the west flank and would now hold it for the remainder of the game. I also had the east flank, but in the center Dan was going to start a PACMAN run and start gobbling up victory locations.
The game was heading to its conclusion. Dan had taken advantage of my poor performance and was up in my grill. He sent his last Sherman around the east flank. My 4-4-7 would knock it out with a Panzerfaust. The Allied Armor was gone. But Dan had moved hard up the middle and jumped into CC with my exhausted Grenadiers. Amazingly, both CC's went into Melee. This was good for the Germans.
Dan was in 8 victory locations, which is what he needed for the win...but he had to win the last two Melees in order to control the final two locations. In one Melee we would eliminate each other and in the other, the Germans would win. That was game, the Brazilians had taken six victory locations, but not enough for the win. It had been really tight game. But at the moment when it ended, I was just bummed. I felt like Dan had played a better, stronger game in light of everything he had overcome to get into the town. I felt like I should have held Dan at the stream for much longer and had I made some basic rally die rolls, I probably would have. So my feelings were that it should never have gotten that close. So yes, I was happy to have the win, but was still in the grips of my own personal frustration. My thanks to Dan for what was a good game and in retrospect a lot of fun. I told Dan in our post game, that I knew I would enjoy the game more when I blogged it. And of course that was spot on.
And now for Dan's Post Game Comments:
"The plan did not work. Although it was a close run thing. The German defense got in two good hits on the Brazilian infantry killing the 9-1 and breaking up the 8-1 as they moved into victory buildings. Finally the German 8-1 battle hardened and went heroic just before being assaulted in CC. Even so the Brazilians were able to get into all the victory locations they needed and only needed to win two CCs for the victory. The Germans prevailed in one and it was mutual elimination in the other. missed two buildings. Well played by Grumble Jones! Despite some abysmal dice rolling the Germans were able to survive for victory. Great game and some fun ASL."
Dan and I will return next Saturday for a double-header of Classic ASL Scenarios!
We will see you then!
ASL can be tough when personal life is tough. Sometimes it seems to all be against you. Congrats on the win, fighting through your own PMC. Only played the one game with the Brazilians and that was an old annual scenario which I was lucky to win
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