Well after a week off, Dan and I were back in the saddle for our regular Saturday game. Dan was back from a great vacation and was ready to get his ASL on. Since, it was raining all day here in Tulsa, I texted Dan to see if he wanted to start at 1:00 PM and play two scenarios!!
Sort of silly question to ask Dan if he wanted to play two games...of course he did!!!
These two game will be the last played here in my hotel suite. After six weeks, I'm almost ready to make the move into my new home here in Tulsa. Closing is next week...so thank goodness this period is nearly done. And of course, I cannot thank Dan enough for playing as much as ASL as we managed these past many weeks. ASL made the weekends bearable and kept me from dwelling on loneliness, work stress, moving stress...etc. So thank you Dan!
Our first scenario to discuss, was actually our second game, but of the two scenarios, I found it to be the more interesting one. Scenario AP163 Dingoes at Damour would prove to be a down to the last turn head to head battle. Designed by Andrew Rogers, this scenario covers the actions of the Australians as they push into Vichy positions in banana groves outside of Beirut. The groves (orchards) would prove to maddening to both sides and made Advancing Fire worthless you were adjacent to one another.
ROAR has this scenario with 9 Vichy wins and 11 Australian. Probably still too early to determine if this scenario is pro-Australian. In our playing it certainly looked like anyone's game throughout the scenario.
One of ASL's greatest strengths is its ability to cover every theater and nearly every possible WW2 battle. There is no other game...none...that holds a candle to the diversity of action available in ASL.
The campaigns in Syria have always seemed like a dreadful waste. The Allied effort to unseat Vichy control in these areas is distressing when you consider that only the Nazis benefitted from these useless conflicts in the Middle East. The creation of a separate Vichy French state that had such far ranging military presence in the Mediterranean had to be an unexpected coup for the Nazis...and one that they did not exploit in any meaningful way. Thank goodness they didn't.
As the defending Vichy French, Dan would command the men of 2'eme Bataillon, 29'eme Regiment de Tirailleurs Algerians, Armee du Levant. This force would consist of 1 x 4-5-8, 9 x 4-5-7's and a 2-2-8 led by a 9-1, 8-0 and 7-0 with an MMG, 2 x LMG's, a 60 MTR, 3 x foxholes, a 75* ART and 2 x Armored Cars.
As stated earlier...the banana groves would drive Dan and I both bananas!!!
And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:
"The French must defend the buildings. The gun will set up at the point of the center building cluster. Hopefully they can get a hit on a tank or two. The 4-5-8 will set up with MMG and 9-1 to try to defend the flank. The 8-0 will set up with one LMG and two and half squads in the center building group. The 7-0 with squad and LMG will set up and the back buildings. With the MTR on the back flank. Hopefully the up front defense will slow the attack so a building can hold out."
To win the scenario, my Australians would have to control all the buildings in the Vichy French setup zone. I sent two of my mortars onto the heights. They would have the task of shelling the easternmost building. The remainder of my force would move straight into the banana grove and take the building locations.
Turn 1 Australian - I would move forward pretty safely for the most part.
Well...things got ugly fast as Dan's 75* ARTY showed up and started knocking out vehicles. It would take down a tank and 2 carriers with an amazing rate of fire tear and some critical hits. A wind change DR would create a mild breeze and all my burning wrecks would contribute to a smoke filled building complex. Some of my smokes are jacked up...so my bad...I messed them up early on and struggled to correct them. I was just sort of out of it a bit yesterday.
With over half my armor gone by Turn 2...yeah...I was worried.
But the smoke allowed my boys to get into close combat with the Vichy gun crew and exact revenge. They died badly...well at least as badly as square bits of cardboard can die...
On Turn 2 - Dan would get his two armored cars. These had good firepower and armor. They could easily dominate the battlespace.
Have I ever told you how much I hate ASL...(not really..but yeah maybe really)...So Dan's armored cars come at me. One goes straight up the road to confront my three ATR's. I would MALF both squad based ATR's with back to back 12's.
Damn right!!!
Dan did some shifting of his infantry, but he was short of troops in the center.
The momentum of the game would suddenly start to shift in favor of the Australians. I was gaining control in the center and I managed to knock out the Armored Car on the road. My two MALF'd ATR's would never be repaired. Fortunately, I would have no need of them.
I would successfully extricate my remaining tank from being targeted by the remaining Vichy Armored Car. But Dan would send it right at me anyway. He would MALF his machine gun and miss with the main armament.
The Vichy high tide had come and was now receding. My tank would knock out the last Vichy Armored Car and I would successfully break the Vichy infantry in the area. I would then cut off their rout paths and eliminate them for failure to rout. I passed on taking prisoners...because I was thin on troops myself and didn't want to lose any to guarding prisoners.
Dan's mortar would target my two mortars on the hill and eventually break them, but fortunately, they had done their job and I would not need them going forward.
My sniper would show up and break the French mortar squad. This was huge as it took away a possible reinforcing unit for the final showdown that was coming. The rest of my boys moved forward to get ready for the final Turn 6 movement phase. Dan still controlled three victory locations.
Both of Dan's remaining officers would break and rout away from the final battle.
Turn 6 and my final chance to win the scenario. Good fortune was with me!
In the Advancing Fire Phase, all the remaining Vichy would break and with that it was game over and an Australian victory as the final three building fell to my control.
And now for Dan's Post Game Comments:
"The plan did not work. A dogged attack by Grumble Jones kept up the pressure and broke the last defender in the final turn. Well played by Grumble Jones for the win. The French AFVs did nothing but the gun killed three Aussie vehicles. This is a great tourney scenario with early war vehicles and troops. My thanks to Grumble Jones for a great game!"
And now on to our second game of the day!
Our second scenario, which we actually began the day with would be ASL Scenario 169 Night Fans. Designed by Lars Thuring, this scenario concerns an island controlled by a Finnish outpost that the Russians attempted to seize the island in a night attack.
ROAR has this scenario with 4 Russian and 11 Finnish wins. The ASL Archive has it with 4 Finnish and no Russian wins. This one appears to be a bit pro-Finnish and having played as the Russians...I'm going to say that it definitely feels pro-Finnish. The Russian CVP cap is the real problem and it would be my demise.
I like the concept and the overlays do a good job of representing the island. The Russians have good firepower, but a range of 2 is never very handy. The NVR would be 4 and the Aerosans could be seen at 8 hexes, which also works against the Russians.
I know much as made about play testing and in general, I always feel like MMP does an outstanding job of providing balanced scenarios. But clearly, there is something at work in this scenario to make it a bit pro-Finnish. Night combined with snow combined with a rare vehicle type like Aerosans makes for a bit more technically challenging game of ASL. A successful Russian attack probably depends on a more skilled player to take on the Russian attack.
As the defending Finns, Dan would command the men of 9th Company, Replacement Battalion 11. This force would consist of 5 x 5-4-8's and 4 x 4-4-7's led by a 9-1 and 8-0 with 2 x LMG's and 2 x 20L ATR's with 2 Wires.
VASL's strong suit is showing the maps with snow when snow is in effect. I really hate looking at a desert board and trying to envision snow. If MMP would ever offer them...I'd purchase snow board versions of all the boards.
And now for Dan's Pre-Game Comments:
"The Finns must hold the building and hill top. I will set the 9-1 with 5-4-8 and LMG HIP on the hill top. The 8-0 and 5-4-8 in the building. The hill in the middle will have a 5-4-8 and LMG. While the two ATRs will set up on the flanks with the 4-4-7 mixed with dummy counters. Hopefully we can get some kills on the AFVs to get a high CVP."
NOTE:
This was a 3 board scenario and I had to use the coffee table to set it up and so the lighting and pictures didn't turn out good. So my apologies. Thankfully, this is the last hotel based game.
The circles are the two victory locations. The Russians would win at game end by controlling those and not suffering more than 18 CVP.
My attack was flawed from the start. I would go for both hill complexes at the same time...which was stupid, as I gave Dan's boys on the southern hill complex freedom of movement way too early. I think the Russians really need to Schwerpunkt one hill at a time and definitely keep the Aerosans out of harms way as they can really rack up the CVP when they go down.
My attack routes. I would lose a couple Aerosans on the attack from the east. They are very vulnerable and Dan's dice were hot in this game. (They were pretty good all day in both games. Dan has a knack for rolling 3's and that is such a good roll...no chance of cowering and almost always rate of fire.)
I would actually use the armored Aerosans for overruns. That was kinda cool to do!!
My attack, despite giving Dan freedom of movement in all but two locations, had done ok. I was pressing the attack on the northern victory location and was trying to put pressure on the lower hill mass with 2-2-7's in the Aerosans.
As Dan's units broke in the northern hill mass, I struggled to eliminate them for failure to rout. Night battles are tough. You basically have to surround a broken unit...otherwise they will successfully rout one hex.
Dan's boys put up a good fight, but some bad morale check dice rolls hurt Dan and he even ELR'd some of his boys.
After losing several of the unarmored Aerosans, I sent the surviving ones back into the darkness to deprive Dan of easy CVP gains. Some close combats had also gone against me and I was creeping up fast with the CVP.
My assault on the hill top victory location would be successful. I had taken some losses, but had firm control of that area.
My areas of control at the midway point in the game.
With the first victory location in hand, I focused on a pincer movement against the building victory location. But my CVP cap was coming up fast. I was sitting at 12 at this stage and things were not looking great.
Well, I had made a good attempt, but hit my CVP cap going into Turn 5 and so I gave the concession. I was two away from losing and I didn't see anyway I was going to avoid losing that in the final drive to take the last victory location. And I wasn't really digging the scenario anyway. So I congratulated Dan on a good defensive effort. Dan is always a tough opponent in a night scenario.
Dan's boys would hold on to their island! This is the second loss for me in recent games as the Russians attacking the Finns. I may have mentioned that I suck as the Russians and going against Finns...well that's a serious recipe for defeat.
And now for Dan's Post Game Comments:
"The plan worked. The Russians came on strong and fighting was fierce but they hit the CVP cap in turn 5. This scenario is good practice of night and AFV. My thanks to Grumble Jones for a good game!"
Well that's a wrap on this Saturday's games!
I am looking forward to being in my own home for the next game.
Dan and I will take a break for 4th of July weekend and we will return on July 9th.
Happy 4th of July everyone and here's to celebrating
the great promise of America!
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