500th POST and 50th Grumble Jones Scenario-All on Friday the 13th!!!

It's finally time for the third installment of the Backstory for GJ050 - The Heroes of Hollis or how Jeff and Dave saved ASL for future generations.

We pick up the story after The Büffel received his orders to destroy the Hollis Center and its instructors.

Under cover of darkness, The Büffel  heads to the railroad tracks near the Hollis center and sets the demolition charges which will derail the train and ensure the deaths of all the German POW's onboard. They were to become the undead army needed to destroy the Hollis Center.

After setting the charges,  The Büffel  returns to the Hollis Center to prepare for the radio transmission.

Near midnight on Halloween night...a POW train hurtles down the track headed to POW camps in Arkansas and Oklahoma. But its destination would be forever altered...

A mighty explosion would destroy the train and its unsuspecting occupants.

                                  A hellish fate awaited them.

Back at the Hollis Center....The Büffel begins transmitting the ancient Egyptian radio frequency.

As the signal reaches the train wreck...the recently living once again rise up and head for the source of the signal filled with an undying rage.

       But something unexpected had also occurred and it would alter the German plans irretrievably...

Flash forward to suburban Chicago as two ASL players leave Chicago on their way to the March Madness ASL Tournament at the Hollis Center in Kansas City. Jeff and Dave are on the road...after many hours, they begin the drive into the little valley of Hollis. Dave is driving as Jeff changes the radio station. As he hits a certain frequency...a bright light flashes and Jeff and Dave find themselves transported to Halloween night 1944.

"What's happening...???"

Jeff and Dave are unsure of what has happened...but suddenly they see zombies coming out of the woods and decide they must act quickly to warn the inhabitants of Hollis of the impending danger!!!

Dave and Jeff sound the alarm and the Heroes of Hollis rush to defend the center and repel the zombie horde...and to find the source of the strange humming sound coming from one of the buildings.

A furious battle ensues, but ultimately, the Heroes of Hollis are able to hold off the zombies and locate the radio transmitting it dark signal.

But before they can disable the radio one of their number reveals himself to be a German agent.

The Büffel reveals himself in a desperate attempt to stop the Heroes of Hollis...but he is brought down and eliminated.

With The Büffel gone, the Heroes of Hollis successfully turn of the radio.

And in an instant the zombies collapse and Jeff and Dave vanish. The Hollis center had been saved.

As soon as the radio was disabled...Dave and Jeff found themselves once more in 2018 and sitting in front of the lodge at Hollis. They looked at one another and wondered what had just happened. Both agreed that it must have been something they drank. So they grabbed their kit and plunged into a weekend of ASL!!!

Following the unsuccessful attack on Hollis, General Patton himself directed that the program be moved to a safer location in Maryland. The Advanced Squad Leadership Program was too valuable to risk every again.

Here now is the scenario GJ050 - The Heroes of Hollis. My thanks to the Kansas City ASL Group and to the 2 Half-Squads for agreeing to be part of this year's annual Halloween Scenario. May it bring some fun to your gaming day.

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, the PDF for this scenario can be downloaded from The ASL Scenario Archive 

(just search on Grumble Jones).


Now you may think the story of the Heroes of Hollis ended that Halloween night...but you'd be wrong....

The events surrounding the Hollis Center were cause for grave concern at the highest levels of the US Military. Rumors of dead German POW's roaming the Kansas countryside were spreading and had to be squashed immediately. The Battle of the Bulge had begun and anything adding to fear on the Home Front was unacceptable.

The War Department sent in Military Intelligence to clean the site and remove all traces that a military installation had ever been there. 

All other activities undertaken were to be strictly top secret and controlled from a new super secret site...known as Area 51...

And there the story of the Hollis Center was to end...

or did it...

Happy Halloween to the readers of this Blog!

Grumble Jones 2017 Halloween Scenario " The Heroes of Hollis" Background Story Part 1 (all fictional)

Following the disaster at Kasserine Pass, US Army Intelligence conducted extensive interviews among the surviving US troops. Again and again, individual soldiers admitted to falling back under he initial German attack and finding themselves unable to re-enter the fight. Entire squads simply melted away from the point of contact and surrendered all initiative to the Germans. When investigated further, it was found that American first line leadership was not only lacking, but is some cases entirely absent from the front. 

In short, squad level commanders failed their men in the heat of battle. As a result, the American troops at Kasserine Pass were unable to rally and re-engage with the enemy. This in turn allowed the Germans to fully exploit their victory and rout the Americans from the battlefield. 

Since, the American Civil War, the need for officers to rally men to hold, advance or charge was universally understood. But somehow, the US Army of the 1930's and early 1940's was missing this key battlefield understanding. Jr. Officers were proving to be woefully unprepared to lead and keep their men in the fight after first contact with the enemy.

Following Kasserine, General Eisenhower tasked Omar Bradley with finding a solution. Bradley, in turn, looked to US Army Intelligence for ideas. US Army Intelligence suggested that Bradley confer with their premier expert on military games simulations....a man known simply as Professor Rollright.

Professor Rollright had long advocated the use of highly detailed wargames to stimulate and promote sound leadership principles for Jr. Officers prior to their first experience of combat. Bradley met with the Professor at secret military installation on the outskirts of Kansas City, Missouri. Nestled in a secluded valley surrounded on all sides by wooded hills, the area known simply as "Hollis" was the location for the US Army's newest Combat Leadership training facility.  

Professor Rollright, working together with the head of Army Game Simulations, Lt. General Hill, completed a comprehensive training program that introduced Jr. Officers to wargaming as a means of honing their battlefield leadership skills.

The Advanced Squad Leadership course was initially derided by long time US Officers and West Point Professors as a cardboard based folly. Generals like Patton felt only battlefield experience could achieve results. But Bradley trusted Professor Rollright and recognized that officers learning on the job often did so as the expense of their men's lives. Bradley embraced the idea that the bloodless losses of the sand table were preferable to the bloody losses of the sandy passes of Kasserine.

So, with Eisenhower's approval, Bradley gave Professor Rollright the greenlight to begin training all squad level US Officers using the Advanced Squad Leadership program. The results would be spectacular.

Young Officers funneled from Forts Riley, Benning and Leavenworth to be processed through the games simulation program at Hollis. The young officers first impressions were that they were going to have a bit of R n R in the secluded woods of Hollis. But the intensity of the games simulation were beyond anything they had imagined. Professor Rollright's program proved highly successful in two key areas of squad level leadership. The first of these was quick decisive action. Officers were programmed to quickly take in a tactical situation and act decisively as quickly as possible. Secondly, the officers learned the need to lead by example and to ensure the morale of the men under their command and ensure that they were engaged and kept engaged with the enemy. 

Bradley's instincts had been right. And in the Sicily and Italy Campaigns, the squad level leadership of American troops in combat was not only markedly improved, but so much so that the Germans had begun to take note.

The secret of Hollis had reached the eyes and ears of the Abwehr.

Admiral Canaris, head of the German Abwehr realizes that the Germans must find some way to counter the Hollis Program. With American units in the field already exhibiting more resilience in combat, something had to be done. But first, the Germans had to find the location of the Hollis Program.

Canaris gave the assignment to a special unit of the Wehrmacht. Over the course of several weeks, they successfully identified the location of the Hollis Program. Unfortunately, the Germans quickly realized that Kansas might as well have been on the moon. They had no assets capable of taking out the center.  Given this reality, Canaris squashed any further discussion and closed the Abwehr's file on any future operations against the Hollis Center.


At this stage of the war, Canaris had decided to work towards ending the Third Reich and saw no need to pursue anything against the Hollis Center. He gave strict orders that all documents related to the Hollis Center be destroyed, lest they fall into the hands of other German Intelligence Agencies.

But Canaris had made a grave error. The Wehrmacht staff, which he had entrusted to find the Hollis Center were perplexed by Abwehr Chief's stand down order. They therefore decided to find another sponsor for action against the Hollis Center. Within days, they would find themselves in the office of the Reichsfuehrer SS. And the Reichsfuehrer knew exactly what action to be taken to eliminate the Americans secret program at Hollis.

Meanwhile, the Allies continued to enjoy the successes of their new Squad Leadership training. On June 5th, 1944...General Eisenhower shares his dice rolling method for use in the Advanced Squad Leadership training simulations. "Always roll snake eyes boys...that's the way to ensure success!"


As the summer progressed, the best German spy in America, code-named "Büffel" was already in position.. Unknown, even to the Abwehr, Büffel had already penetrated the Hollis Center and simply awaited receipt of  his codeword for action: "Tot kommen". 

So it was as Fall 1944 began...a German Agent..code-named "Büffel" was already the Officer of Communications, Markus DeVries at the Hollis Center...and the fate of the Hollis Program would soon be determined. 

Stay tuned for Part II of the annual Halloween Scenario backstory...

Part II Scenario Background for the Annual Halloween Scenario The Heroes of Hollis (all fictional)

The German Agent..code-named "Büffel" aka...the Officer of Communications, Markus DeVries at the Hollis Center had successfully passed on the secrets of the American's Advanced Squad Leadership Games Program to the German OKW. And the OKW had put the intormation to good use.

In classrooms throughout Germany, new officer candidates were spending time at the sand tables to learn the same tactical secrets as their American counterparts at Hollis.

But it was too little too late for the German's. Time was running out. As September 1944 turned to October, the Germans began to plan a final gamble into the Ardennes. The planned attack would depend on American units breaking apart upon the initial assault...otherwise the German time table for reaching the Meuse River might be irretrievably altered. 

So, it was at a late nigh meeting in Kansas City, that the Büffel was given orders to destroy the Hollis Center and it's teachers. The Büffel was incredulous...just how was he to do this and from whom had these orders originated. His handler assured him that the orders came from the very top and that the Büffel would be utilizing a highly secret weapon to destroy the Hollis Center.

The question of how to eliminate the American Hollis Program was discussed in late September 1944 near Zossen. The German communication center for the OKW had a secret Funker Division that had been engaged in secret experiments with a frequency that had been discovered in Cairo by the German Occult Archaeology Division. Tasked with finding religious artifacts, the German Occult agents had stumbled upon secret Egyptian texts that spoke of a radio frequency with the power to raise the dead...

Spirited from Cairo by German agents, before he could be killed by British SAS agents, Egyptian Doctor Al Gazzar. 

Working with the German Funker units at Zossen, the Doctor had succeeded in replicating the radio signal found in ancient Egyptian Texts.

While, more traditional Wehrmacht officers scoffed at the lunacy of the project...others...notably those officers of the Waffen SS had embraced the doctor's ideas and were determined to test it and unleash it in the heartland of America.

The plan to be implemented was code-named "Die laufenden Toten". Instructions would be sent to the The Büffel to implement the plan and ensure the destruction of the Hollis Program and its instructors. 

The attack would be launched on Halloween night, when the Hollis Center would be empty of trainees and the instructors would be relaxed and unprepared for an attack. But just who would attack the Hollis Program. The gathered German officers could not imagine what assets would be availble to the The Büffel  to carry out his orders. He could not possibly carry out the destruction by himself. 

The senior German officer informed the gathered officers that it just so happened that a train loaded with German POW's ran every other evening as German POW's were processed at Fort Leavenworth and then sent south to camps in the southern United States. The trains normally carried up to 200 German POW's. 

And captured American train time tables showed that near midnight on Halloween, 1944, one of these trains would pass only yards from the Hollis Program. "But how were these prisoners going to aid The Büffel" asked the other officers. The response left them aghast and a darkness settled over the proceedings. A darkness that grew as the plans were revealed to them. 

The unsuspecting POW's...fellow Germans were to be killed as The Büffel derailed the train. Shocked gasps and shaking heads registered throughout the meeting room. "How could such a thing be contemplated...killing our own comrades...who had we become..." muttered several officers.

A stern look from the Senior German officer was rebuke enough and he calmly...icily said..."These men took oaths to fight and die for the Reich. Since they did not fight to the death for the Reich...they can now fight in death for the Reich...any other questions gentlemen...

Silenced by the words, they other officers remained silent as the full plan was revealed. The Büffel  would blow up the train with the POW's The dead POW's would then be raised from the dead and drawn to the Hollis Center by The Büffel  as he transmitted the frequency discovered by Doctor Al Gazzar.

The Funker Team at Zossen had proven that the frequency when transmitted would cause the recently deceased to rise again and move towards the source of the transmission. The dead had proven to be enraged by the transmission and could not be controlled and were only successfully stopped when the transmission ended...at which time...they collapsed and returned to a dead state. Further experiments proved that the frequency only affected those who had died within a very short time, usually less than an hour.  After being sworn to secrecy, the meeting was adjourned and the final orders were transmitted to The Büffel. 

Operation "Die laufenden Toten" was live...and what horrors were set to befall the Hollis Program and its instructors...what would become of them and the future of the Advanced Squad Leadership Program??? 

But the German plan had one fatal flaw...the Funker's at Zossen did not fully understand all the things that occurred with Doctor Al Gazzar's ancient Egyptian radio frequency...and that fatal misunderstanding would bring saviors to Hollis...and perhaps save the Advanced Squad Leadership Program...

Stay tuned for Part 3 of the annual Halloween Scenario backstory for the Heroes of Hollis for which will include the scenario and the tongue in cheek conclusion of how some friends of our wonderful hobby help save it on that dark Halloween night in 1944...

...and may you roll low and rally well...eh...