ASL Scenario 181 Gavin Take AAR
I haven’t played ASL for at least 25 years – and even back then I played badly with a poor grasp of the rules – so this represents my first proper foray back into ASL, so it marks something of a milestone for me. I’ve spent the last eighteen months getting to grips with ASLSK, as a means of mastering the basics, aided by the kindness and guidance of good people like Eddie Houghton and Kevin Boles along with Jay Richardson’s amazing tutorials. This got me to the point where I was willing to take the plunge helped by Lee Hyde-Sellars agreeing to take me under his wing. We chose ASL scenario 181, Gavin Take, because not only is it a classic but it’s about as simple as ASL gets! And it seems incredibly well balanced and fun to play making it the perfect choice.
Having done a little background reading on the scenario, I went with a fairly conventional German defence, anticipating that Lee would flank me to both the East and West of the hamlet. The plan was for the MMGs in the upper levels of building R3/S3 to impose a delay on Lee’s movement and ideally inflict casualties and break some paratrooper squads. In the meantime I would send a 4-4-7 squad to Q10 to dig in. Once a delay had been imposed on the US forces, the German defenders would conduct a withdrawal to take up positions overlooking Q10. Most importantly the MMGs should relocate to P6 and R6 so they could lay down fire lanes to interdict attacks against the Q10 exit. That was the plan anyway…
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Setup
Although Lee’s US paratroopers did broadly what I expected, things didn’t really go to plan. Firstly, he gave me a masterclass in infantry movement and gave me very few good shots along with deploying a swarm of half squads. As a result, in the first turn and a half (including the US 2nd turn) I only managed to break a squad dashing across the road to J4 and a half squad in U1, a pretty paltry return. Good fire disciple by the grenadiers of the 91st Air Landing Division, however, meant I was pretty much unscathed in return. Things went from moderately bad to worse in the German Prep Fire phase of turn two when my 9-1 took a shot at the US squad in T1 causing a 3MC. Yay, I thought – mission accomplished. Lee promptly rolled snake eyes and went on to create a hero – aargh! Worse still I forgot to roll in the Prep Fire Phase for the critical foxhole in Q10 – unbelievably stupid!!
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Turn 2 German Rally Phase
The US squad and hero then retaliated in the following Prep Fire phase of Turn 3 and broke the German squad, although fortunately the 9-1 passed. Mostly in the German turn 3 the grenadiers started withdrawing to towards their final defensive position. The broken squad routed to R6 along with the 9-1, while the 8-1, his squad and MMG covered their retreat from R5. As a result US forces were easily able to flow around the flanks of the German position in Chef-Du-Pont and reorganise in forming up points for their final assault to secure the exit to the causeway. At this point things were looking distinctly iffy for the Germans.
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Turn 4 US Rally Phase
The German Turn 4, however, saw a distinct improvement in their fortunes. Firstly throughout the turn they rolled outrageously well including the LMG in T6 going on a ROF tear (three shots), breaking one full squad and pinning a half squad. Another half squad was broken in V4. At the same time the German 8-0 and a 4-4-7 squad in P6 were able to safely get across the road to P8 to block any advance from M7. Most importantly was the 9-1 rallying the DM’d 4-6-7 in R6 and the 4-4-7 managing to dig his foxhole at only the second attempt in turn 4. Things were suddenly looking much better, although ominously both Brigadier Gavin (10-3) and Col Ostberg (10-2) were set to attack Q10 from the East and West respectively. Throughout the game Lee taught me a valuable lesson in how to bypass terrain while offering the defender the absolute minimum in defensive fire opportunities.
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Turn 5 US Rally Phase
Going into Turn 5 while the German defence looked reasonably well set, Lee’s US paratroopers were equally ready to begin their final assault led by frankly scary leaders. Breaking the squad in U8 in turn 4, however, had removed an important threat. Better still neither US squad rallied at the start of Turn 5.
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Turn 5 US Movement Phase
Despite Lee’s failure to rally his broken squad in the rally phase, Turn 5 initially began quite badly for me. His 10-2 stack in J10 Prep Fired inflicting a K/2 result on the blocking squad with the LMG in L9, which not unreasonably broke. Significantly, however, the 4-6-7 and LMG in S9 shrugged off the Prep Fire from the 3-3-7 in U8, something which was to prove – with the benefit of hindsight – to be absolutely critical. Lee’s opening gambits in the movement phase were to surround the broken HS in L9, dooming it to elimination by failure to rout. A 3-3-7 then moved adjacent to the 4-6-7/LMG in S9, which chose to hold its fire waiting for bigger fish to fry. Brigadier Gavin and his accompanying 7-4-7 then assault moved into the woods in T10. The grenadiers in S9 took their shot (praying they wouldn’t cower and hoping for the best). They managed an NMC, which, with Gavin leading the squad, frankly I thought was a foregone conclusion. Lee proceeded to roll box cars - holy shit! He followed this with a five and Gavin got the good news (for US readers that’s British Army slang for getting killed). The squad also broke and then casualty reduced for the LLMC. At this point Lee very gracefully conceded.
It was an excellent re-introduction to ASL. I was fortunate in winning, essentially not so much through my own actions as through good luck. In Turn 4 the dice were very kind to me (successfully rallying a DM’d squad; entrenching; and breaking one of Lee’s squads), while the denouement of Turn 5 was wholly down to good fortune. Tactically Lee comprehensively outplayed me and until the fatal incident was in a good position to win; arguably he might still have done so with the 10-2 stack.
A few post-game reflections:
- Gavin Take (the pun – give and take – shamefully only registered with me after the game!) was not only extremely well balanced and fun to play but also the perfect scenario for my reintroduction to ASL. This was ASL stripped back to the bare bones. Not having to think about sniper checks, ordnance or vehicles was an absolute blessing.
- It’s a big step up from ASLSK. There is a lot more to think about and remember. Even calculating blind spots and remembering the possible options afforded by multiple level buildings and hills is quite a major mental challenge.
- Bypass is a game changer. Not only are infantry (and by extension, vehicles) much more mobile but it is much more difficult to anticipate likely enemy avenues of approach. I found it very hard to get decent shots on Lee. Dashing is also useful, not least in reducing the level of vulnerability.
- Concealment is another game changer. Retaining it is essential and it makes shooting at every opportunity a much less attractive option (as does the presence of snipers). Keeping concealment affords huge protection to your troops and makes them less vulnerable to CC. This is one of the areas I’m really going to have to work on in terms of fully digesting the rules.
- Fire lanes are (potentially) very useful and make machine guns both much more potent and capable of dominating the battlefield. Ironically in this game I never got to lay a fire lane down but it was an integral part of planning my final defence.
- Heat of battle is fun and adds both failure and a welcome element of randomness.
- I made lots of mistakes. From forgetting to entrench in the Prep Fire phase of the second turn to unnecessary/inefficient movement and taking some poor shots. I completely underestimated how fast Lee could move and how frequently he could find covered approaches. Arguably, I withdrew my troops a turn from the north end of the hamlet a turn too soon. As a result he got a free pass on my western flank crossing the I4-J3-K3-L3 road hexes. Likewise not putting anyone on the Hill 522 ridge line gave Lee the opportunity to run down my eastern flank. Without the extreme good fortune of breaking Gavin resulting in his fatal wounding I think Lee would have won.
- We chatted about the game afterwards and both agreed that there is a lot to be said for the US player to push his 10-3 (and possibly 10-2) directly through the hamlet, eliminating everyone in their path. If nothing else it will make it much harder for the Germans to conduct an orderly withdrawal.
Altogether it was a great game and I’m very grateful to Lee for his patience and generosity, not least in both explaining and demonstrating a number of the rules I’m still a bit hazy about. Many thanks to him.