AAR - Dean's Defiance - WO28

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Walt and I had planned on playing Savannah Rain. But then Walt saw President Trump visiting the Korean War Memorial, and decided that we should do something from Korea. On such whims are ASL games chosen. He picked James Dean’s Defiance.

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In a break from tradition, Walt decided that I should be the Americans. He would be Beloved Leader. I think the attraction was all the medals.

DASL scenario. Americans are defending with 18 546s and two Chaffee tanks. Five years after WWII, and I get tanks that would have been outclassed in 1942. And the Koreans get four T-34/85s. It’s GOOD to be a client state.

Can things get worse for the Americans??? OF COURSE they can. Ammo shortage, Lax, no HIP or dummy stacks, bazookas that bounce, Korean infiltrators that pop up from behind the kimchi stall with SMGs, DCs, Suicide Heroes, and reinforcements that can come in on three board edges contribute to future American misery.

On the plus side, the VC require that the Koreans get a lot of points off, there are lots of stone buildings to defend from, the Americans get 2 points for every multihex building they control at the end, and the Americans get a 10-3 leader, aka Captain America. You never see 10-3s anymore. They’re as rare as WWE cage matches on PBS.

Because the Korean reinforcements can come in anywhere on the east or west edge on turn 3, then immediately exit, I mostly defended the southern board edge. Crummy BAZ on each flank in woods edge hexes, the one good BAZ in the SW corner.

I wanted to use the M24s to annoy the northern force by getting behind them. They set up in brush hexes covering the NW corner. I stuck three squads with them, to keep them from being overwhelmed by 447s on turn 1. Good LOF, and open ground in front of them to make sure that Koreans would never, ever want to come in on that corner. The logical thing to do would be to charge everyone on thru the Asian pear orchard in the NE corner, where they would take no shots.

But Beloved Leader had his own plan. All of his turn 1 guys came in on the NW edge of the board, with some AMing, and others charging boldly through open ground. He said that he didn’t want to concede the buildings there to me. Still, there is more than one way to skin a cat, and, as cat-skinning methods go, this one sucked. Between the infantry and the CE M24s, he lost 2 squads, 6 squads broken, a 7-0 broken and wounded, and the Party Leader broken.

Two tanks entered with these guys. One was using AM, until all the troops hunkering behind him were broken. He stayed in Motion, no doubt out of fear that my Chaffees would kill him with a 2, or Shock/ Immobilize with a 3. The other parked, took an AdvF shot, rolled a 3, then eyes to flame one M24. Ouch.

One 527 popped up on board j, and AMed in the road to get behind the tank defenders. Not sure why they did this, when there was an obvious LOS from one stack. Which might not have mattered, except that this was the 10-3 with a squad. 2-1/2 minus 4 is a pretty good shot.

I’m going to say it again, just because I like the sound of it. Minus 4.

The 527 broke, and should probably consider themselves lucky not to have worse happen.

So K1 was basically a giant Korean disaster, except for nailing the M24.

A1, the remaining Chaffee hits the parked T-34/85 with a smoke mortar. The plan was to then lurch forward, DM three stacks of broken Koreans, shoot the MGs and gun to further ruin their day, then continue to run away.

But the T-34 rolls a 4 TH, and flames yet another M24. Just my luck to run into the best darn tank crew in the whole Korean army.


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For those of you who cannot read Korean, the sign says, "Hi, Mom!!!"

The tank guards, now tankless, have no good reason to stay under burning wrecks, so they drop back. Elsewhere, throwing my original plan out the window, I charge forward toward the broken 527 with Captain America, an 8-1, two squads and the Super Bazooka. The 527 eagerly surrenders, and express their desire to open up a noodle shop in San Francisco after the war.

K2, the Party Leader passes around a jug of rice wine and rallies everyone with him. Two 527s pop up by the southern board edge, adjacent to a concealed 546 in a stone building. And they have Wall Advantage. A bunch of infantry enter on the east edge of board j. One squad that charges into open ground breaks and becomes a conscript. A DC squad in open ground gets lucky, and only pins. Everyone else ends up the factory.

On the northern front, a T-34 VBFs one 546 squad in woods, giant piles of Koreans move adjacent, and the squad goes into the bag. Prisoners do count for exit points in this, tho not double, so there is incentive for the Koreans to play nice.

On the southern front, the concealed 546 does nothing, hoping that the 527s outside the door will go away, or at least not ambush them. There is no ambush, but the poor squad members get smacked repeatedly with rifle butts, ending their hide-and-seek career. There are now two 527s in a building right on the board edge, adjacent to another hapless 546.

A2, a stack in the SE decides to Prep on the DC squad in open ground and ignore the giant piles of Koreans in the factory, where they may be preparing to fire their numerous machineguns, or they may be sewing cheap dresses to be sold in K-mart. This does not work out well, as the DC squad passes a 3MC. All the Americans are then broken by MG fire from the factory, and one squad is reduced.

The BAZ squad in the woods adjacent to the inspired Korean DC squad suddenly remembers an important engagement elsewhere, and drops back across the road.

On the northern front, a 546 in a stone building blasts two adjacent squads trying to hide behind trees, and breaks both of them. They rout back to an 8-1 stacked with one good squad and one broken squad. In yet another move that is more heroic than smart, my 546 counterattacks, leaving the stone building to advance adjacent into woods. There are now four Korean squads in the hex, only one of which is not broken and DM.

The tank blazes have spread, and are now burning a chunk of valuable Korean real estate.

In advance phase, I jump the 527s with the concealed 546. No ambush, I die, they don’t.

K3, the last 527 pops up. The remaining two T-34/85s, with riders, enter on the SE edge. The BAZ dudes guarding the corner miss with both their rifles and the bazooka, at one hex range. A 9-1 with his merry men breaks one of the riders. Walt decides that Points Are Points, and the two tanks and the remaining rider squad exit.

The DC dude heroically places his DC on top of my broken 7-0 with 1-1/2 broken squads in the middle of the street. They are unheroically blown to bits, with just a couple survivors left who are eager to surrender.

The two 527s on the southern edge advance adjacent to Bazooka Man.


On the northern front, the 8-1 rallies a DM LMG squad, and, now with two GO squads to shoot, breaks my adjacent 546.

A3, the 8-1 with the Super Bazooka moves to advance into the building in the middle of the map. From there, they can take a shot at a T-34, albeit a HD one. But the only Korean sniper of the game pins the squad in the street.

Everyone else who is still forward pulls back.

The Bazooka Heroes advance into the street to pick up the MMG. This isn’t as ballsy as it sounds, as only one stack can see them, and they would get +2 cover from the wall.

A4, Bazooka Man decides to take a bazooka shot at the adjacent 527s. CH!!!


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One squad breaks, the other is broken and reduced. He then decides to fire his inherent at the squad guarding the prisoners. Another great roll, and the guards break. The prisoners remember to duck, and are fine.

CC, the prisoners decide to attack their guards, while yelling “ATTICA!!! ATTICA!!!” They reduce the squad, so we end up in Melee with an American 236 and a broken Korean 237.

K5, Koreans move forward to shoot at the squad with the 8-1 and good bazooka in the middle of the street. In Advancing Fire, Korean fire can’t even break their concealment.

Dear Leader reinforces the Melee with two squads and an 8-1. They heroically stab my 236 one hundred and eighty-four times. My attack roll back is a 12.

A5, my MMG/ BAZ squad fires at the adjacent 8-1 pile, with no effect. The return fire breaks them.

Captain America and men fall back to their Final Redoubt position. The 8-1 with the Super Bazooka drops back into a stone building, instinctively knowing that it will be safer than standing in the middle of the street. The Unsuper Bazooka men move forward, then advance concealed adjacent to a T-34.

My 9-1 and squad advance into CC with a CX squad and a conscript. For Ambush, I get a 0 drm, they get a +2. I still can’t get Ambush, and we end up in Melee.

K6, Super Bazooka Men are broken and surrender. They never got a shot all game.

Unsuper Bazooka Men roll a 12 against the adjacent T-34.

I lose the 9-1 and squad in CC, tho they take out a MMG squad.

K7, last turn, and it looks bad for the Koreans. In theory, Dear Leader still has enough points left on board for the win. But only a small path in the SE is clear, there are still 8 GO 546s left, and most Koreans are going to have to run the gauntlet down streets.

It was ugly. Walt decided to move stacks. My first shot from a MMG squad cowers, and still got a 2KIA. He rolled doubles, and lost all three squads. A couple more futile moves with drms from -2 to -5(!), and he conceded.

All the tanks were able to exit. Koreans exited 39 points, but I still controlled 6 buildings to reduce the points to 23. 60 are needed for the win.

After the first turn, Dear Leader did not use his tanks well, and only used one of the four DCs. Some bad Korean attack rolls kept guys of mine in the game longer than they deserved to be.

Although ELRing was not a major problem for either side, no American squad ever rallied. They were either taken prisoner, or perished in CC.

Neither side ever got Ambush in CC.

Only one sniper per side the whole game. Walt’s pinned Super Bazooka squad in the middle of the highway. Mine killed the wounded leader, who was slowly limping forward.

Captain America was not the huge deciding factor I thought he would be. He broke a couple squads and eliminated some brokies, but that was it until the last turn suicide charge. But I kept moving him around, and Beloved Leader could never get a really good FP attack on him. I think the threat of Captain America, and him influencing Walt’s moves to try to get big FGs on him were more of a factor than his fire direction.

A little pro-American on ROAR, but I would take the Koreans. I think the ability to bring in the reinforcements onto two board edges on the southern half of the map is a huge benefit for the Koreans. So are the Suicide Heroes, which Walt said he forgot he had.

Despite the number of squads (48 total), this played fairly quickly. We finished it in about 5 hours.

I like DASL boards, and this worked out well – only a few stacks were knocked over by fat, middle-aged fingers. We still need DASL-sized counters for players like me who are old and blind.

Next post – tips for getting yourself quarantined for 14 days with a supermodel!


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