ASLSK S5 Clearing Colleville

Servius

Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
54
Reaction score
52
Country
llUnited States
Played S5 Clearing Colleville last night with #1 son. We're still a little slow, it took us 6 hours for the 5 turns in the scenario.

I played the Germans defending the French town. We had started this scenario a couple weeks before but suspended it after he got the American squads cut up in piecemeal attacks. We did some research and learned about kill stacks in https://boardgamegeek.com/thread/169542/aslsk-tutorial-part-3.

I set up the same defense I had before with the HMG at the apex of the village with officers behind for rally, including the 6+1 Colonel we dubbed Klink, and other squads covering the flanks of the village. He set up an MMG in range stacked with some squads to give him a 20 -2 into my HMG at that point then the rest of his squads came on the board from the Northern Flank on my right.

I got some good shots that broke some of his troops but he was able to set up attacks from multiple vectors that drove me inexorably back through the village.

My reinforcements came in from the south and I set up a kill stack at the edge of the village in the zone he had to clear. As he was driving me back through the village, one of my squads had broken and routed back to the building where Col. Klink was hiding and subsequently rallied. Eventually, he got a shot into that building forcing a 2MC on the worst officer in the game. Klink rolled snake eyes. I then checked the rule to confirm that indeed, I did have to apply Klink's DRM to the squad's MC. The squad also rolled snake eyes. #2 son was observing and declared, as Klink, "I was at Stalag 13! If Hogan didn't break me, You're not going to!" Klink was finally wounded and the squad with him broken but they survived the battle.

He got his kill stacks down to the lower part of the village where my kill stack was. I got a couple of shots in, breaking some of his units, slowing him down. I thought he spent too much time shooting at Klink and his squad after they had already broken and not enough into the final building where my kill stack was. He had broken 2 of the squads and was saving the final shot for defensive fire during my part of the 5th and final turn.

However, I had one more squad outside of the zone to clear which I sent on an assault towards a building drawing his fire to prevent my control of this building in addition to the one where my one other remaining Good Order squad was. That attacking squad was broken.

He had enough firepower left though to fire into that last building and forced a moral check. The officer broke but the squad held. His MMG kept ROF and he fired again forcing another moral check. The squad held again and he kept ROF again. On his third shot he finally lost ROF and did not force a MC.

The Germans held on for a very marginal victory.

A great game, we learned alot and I'll take some lessons from his attack and apply them when I try to assault the village as the Americans.
 

bendizoid

Official ***** Dickweed
Joined
Sep 11, 2006
Messages
4,630
Reaction score
3,244
Location
Viet Nam
Country
llUnited States
Ha! Everybody calls him Klink. That's cool you guys are having fun and starting to see the depth of ASL. One big turning point is when one realizes it's easier to eliminate guys (brokies in particular) by movement than firepower ! Use your Troops and such to get next-to/behind broken guys and eliminate them for failure to rout. Way easier. Anyways, enjoy the ride.
 
Last edited:

lightspeed

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Messages
485
Reaction score
440
Location
Calgary
Country
llCanada
Ha! Everybody calls him Klink. That's cool you guys are having fun and starting to see the depth of ASL. One big turning point is when one realizes it's easier to eliminate guys (brokies in particular) by movement than firepower ! Use your Troops and such to get next-to/behind broken guys and eliminate them for failure to rout. Way easier. Anyways, enjoy the ride.
This.

I'm teaching two new players, and I've been telling them that ASL is a game of movement, not firepower. They are having trouble with that. It's a mental block really, I remember it took me a few years to figure that out. I know I've heard many players much better than me say "if you can't decide if you should fire or move, then move."
 

Servius

Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
54
Reaction score
52
Country
llUnited States
Just came across this elsewhere.

"Fire AND maneuver...maneuver without fire is suicide, fire without maneuver is futile."
 

jrv

Forum Guru
Joined
May 25, 2005
Messages
21,998
Reaction score
6,206
Location
Teutoburger Wald
Country
llIceland
Just came across this elsewhere.

"Fire AND maneuver...maneuver without fire is suicide, fire without maneuver is futile."
I am inclined to say that fire in the AFPh is often better than fire in the PFPh. Not always, but more often than not.

JR
 

wrongway149

Forum Guru
Joined
Aug 25, 2005
Messages
9,403
Reaction score
2,099
Location
Willoughby, Ohio
Country
llUnited States
This.

I'm teaching two new players, and I've been telling them that ASL is a game of movement, not firepower. They are having trouble with that. It's a mental block really, I remember it took me a few years to figure that out. I know I've heard many players much better than me say "if you can't decide if you should fire or move, then move."
This is one reason I feel many partisan scenarios are great for newbs. The firepower isn't there, so you will have to maneuver for encircling shots, retain concealment for ambush, etc.

Speaking of ambush, the classic Ambush! is one of the best for this.
 

lightspeed

Senior Member
Joined
Mar 14, 2008
Messages
485
Reaction score
440
Location
Calgary
Country
llCanada
This is one reason I feel many partisan scenarios are great for newbs. The firepower isn't there, so you will have to maneuver for encircling shots, retain concealment for ambush, etc.

Speaking of ambush, the classic Ambush! is one of the best for this.
Thanks for the tip...i'll look at a few partisan scenarios for these guys.

indy
 

Servius

Member
Joined
Feb 24, 2017
Messages
54
Reaction score
52
Country
llUnited States
Last night it was my turn to attack Colleville with the Americans and cast the Germans out.

He set up also with the HMG at the apex of the village but was more bunched in the buildings at that end which enabled him to form a large firegroup but provided a vulnerability on his Northern flank. He did have a couple of squads on his Northern flank to contest the entry of my reinforcements but they proved inadequate against the numbers of Americans entering on the 2nd turn.

I set up the kill stack where I could engage his HMG on the first prep fire and entered most of the remaining units where they could enter through a wheat field and in the shadow of a building to the Northwest of the village. I also had a couple of squads on my Southern flank which were intended to draw some fire when the others stormed the village.

My first prep fire was unsuccessful as it succeeded only in pinning the leader he had with the HMG so I assault moved my entering squads into the trees on the edge of the board and waited for turn 2. He formed his big fire group but achieved no more of a result than I had. Turn one ended without much changing but I resolved to be more aggressive in turn 2 whether or not the prep fire was successful.

In turn 2, I had more squads entering on the northern edge and I set them up close to where he had squads in a couple buildings. Prep Fire was more effective and I broke the squad manning his HMG. It was not a factor in the rest of the game. Then I charged with squads from my southern flank drawing his fire and breaking my units but with the cost of a few more units broken, at the end of turn 2 I had another stack in the building on the Northwest edge of the village with a large firegroup trained on the apex of the village. The entering squads assault moved onto the board, survived his combined fire, a portion jumped into close combat with one of his squads and killed it.

He entered his reinforcements behind my troops hoping to catch my units between the two halves of his force but my rush into the town broke some units in FPF and surrounded his other brokies forcing all his remaining original MMCs to be eliminated for failure to route leaving only 2 leaders who were killed in close combat. His jaw dropped a little bit when he saw what the result of that move was going to be and he called his brother over to show him what was going on. I made a mistake here in trying to move my original kill stack into the town and got them broken and crawling for cover. With the rest of my troops possessing the town I should have left them where they were to cover any assault.

That error didn't matter in the end as his reinforcements were well outside the victory condition circle and had to mount an assault on the town against a mostly whole American force. He conceded after the American turn 4.

This was the first game we played with our new acrylic sheet over the map where we could draw things like victory condition hexes and entry points, and keep the board from being jostled. I picked up an 18x24 sheet at Home Depot for $12.

Next it's back to the Eastern Front for "Released from the East" and then into SK3 for Guns and Tanks.
 
Top