Grumble Jones April Scenario GJ106 Hill at Moldovka

2022 marches on as we head into April. Before we jump into the scenario preamble...just a quick shout out to Frank Leitz, who has been a friend of this blog for years. He also contributes each month by converting my Publisher files into PDF's. Over the years, it became apparent that PDF's are the best means of sharing the scenarios and offer the best print version. Blogger currently does not support attaching PDF files (at least to my knowledge).  Normally, I use my work computer to do the conversion. Many of you may recall that in 2021, I was laid off for the first six months and Frank was gracious enough to jump in and provide support. Then in June, I was back in the saddle work wise and had the ability to self-convert (sounds weird doesn't it!?!). And once again, Frank is helping me...so a big thank you Frank for your assistance with the PDF's. It's very much appreciated.

Now, Frank's services are required again because I voluntarily left my job in January. I haven't said much about that previously. But yes, I'm part of the great Resignation over the past couple months. My daughter recently gave birth to our first grandchild and is currently a single mom in Quincy, IL. So after much discussion with my wife, we both agreed that I needed to put 100% effort into getting us back to Quincy. So that's what I've been doing the past 10 weeks...with almost zero success. It's extremely disheartening to try and find a job in this country. I've had fantastic interviews that led absolutely no where and worse still...the prospective employer didn't have the professional courtesy to even send a rejection notification. I won't waste time on how I feel about that...but trust me...I'm not a fan of that. So that's my sad story at the moment. 

This month's scenario will be the second taken from the Osprey Combat Hungarian Solder vs. Soviet Soldier.  GJ099 Horodenka Ambush was the previous scenario taken from this book.

Now some grousing on my part. Someone played the scenario and made extensive comments and essentially rewrote the scenario. One of the comments was that it was not Historical. This not true. The scenario is well documented on pages 37-41 in the book. Other complaints were the usual nitpicking that one grows accustomed to in our hobby. So, I will not be adopting those "suggested" changes. 

 

This month's scenario is documented on page 46. Again, scenarios are never actually fully historical and are adaptation of a historical event into what is hopefully a playable and balanced ASL scenario.

Personally, while I enjoy playing historical events, I've never had any problem playing hypothetical scenarios. In the 1980's DIY scenarios were often times the only new scenarios available for my group. And we made some great scenarios...that could be on the gigantic side from to time. We did a massive SS Panzer assault to relive Budapest. We used every board available at that time...(15 maybe) and had a massive battle. As the Russians, I lost 85 tanks and about 100 squads total. I eliminated 10 Stukas, about 25 squads and 19 German tanks. SS glider troops (oh YEAH!!!) sealed my fate by opening a gap in my left flank. My reserve tanks were all slow moving KV's that had been holding the right flank. The German player would win immediately upon holding open a gap for two turns. I was unable to counter-attack in time. But what a massively fun game. We had to borrow counters from the Yaquinto Panzer Battles game to fill out all the armor necessary. Now keep in mind this was a Squad Leader game and not ASL. So the high number of losses, etc. are partially due playing Squad Leader. There were no half-squads and of course no First Fire, etc. 

So I've rambled a bit more than normal. So here finally is this month's scenario. And please remember that these are truly for fun only. 

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).