AAR - Castles On The Horizon - J186

Major Issues

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Two weeks ago was Giving Tuesday. Let me just say how utterly disappointed I am in you all, as you gave me nothing. NOTHING. Luckily for you, Crimmas is just around the corner, so you still have time to make amends.

A gift certificate to the Happy Time Massage Parlor (behind the pool hall) would be most appreciated.

We are saving a chunk of money on presents this year. We told the kids that Santa has Covid, and is quarantined at the North Pole for the holidays.

The elf that wanted to be a dentist – he should have become a Respiratory Therapist.

Walt, apparently tired of Stalingrad, picked Castles On The Horizon,
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a scenario in the Libyan desert. Can’t get much different than the smoking ruins of Stalingrad.

Is the Libyan desert the Happiest Place On Earth??? Probably not.

Unless you are a sand flea.

Apparently, Hitler's idea of needed Lebensraum includes thousands of square miles of sand.

Monster board, with lots of overlays. A wadi runs across the map, as do numerous small lizards. Four hillocks are spread around. The hillock summits are VC locations.

British start with a buncha infantry in foxholes, two Honeys,
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and a 40L AT. Germans have a lot of tanks, with varying guns and armor, plus 8 468s with 8 HTs. HTs are recalled as soon as they unload, much like Yugos.

Germans need 5 points to win. Each hillock is worth 3, but must be controlled by infantry, and by SSR, there will never be any vehicle crews wandering around the desert.

Each destroyed or immobilized British tank is worth 1 point. Each German wreck subtracts 1 point. Infantry lives do not matter. The German and British infantry may want to organize a protest.

Oh, and the sun is in our eyes. Although we have our top captured scientists working on this, they have still not invented Ray-Bans.

On the plus side, no dust.

My hasty plan was to capture the one hillock on my left, and the one in front in the middle. The PzKw IIIs were going after the Honeys from their flanks. The PzKw IVs were to shoot up the infantry on the front hillock. The PzKw IIs were to support the HT push on my left.

I took out the two Honeys, but at a cost of two tanks. One HT was Stun Recalled, another was immobilized by the light mortar.

In an impressive display of a textbook infantry-tank coordinated attack, HTs and PzKw IIs cleared the left hillock. Which was made easier by the fact that all stacks there were dummies. Just my luck, I rolled snakes overrunning a dummy stack.

Walt may have played this wrong, as the dummies were all in foxholes. There may be a joke in there somewhere. Foxholes are not given in the OB, but the setup instructions say that infantry may set up entrenched.

On the other hand, if the dummy stacks are not allowed to set up in foxholes, then it would be real obvious that they are dummies, since everyone else would be in foxholes. Not sure what the designer’s intention was.

The front hillock is cleared, with help from a tank overrun. Typical desert problem – Walt loses a coupla guyz for Failure To Rout, because they can see someone 16 hexes away.

The 40L AT does not have a great TK#, but it has a 3 ROF, and Walt was not afraid to use IF with it or the Honeys. So I am losing tanks, but it is taking him 4 hits each time.

Two HTs work their way behind the AT gun, ready to drive up and smack the crew around a bit next turn. But the reinforcing Crusaders come in, and decide to pick on the poor halftracks.

G4, the AT gun takes out two PzKw IIIs that were trying to sneak behind the Crusaders. Will Motion and Small Target save the brave HTs???

No, although he did have to IF to get the second one.

At this point, I have squads on two hillocks, but the #9 bus has left, so they are on foot. I have the three PzKw IIs left, but don’t like the odds going up against three Crusaders. There is one PzKw III left, but he is on the wrong side of the wadi.

The game ended after G4. My score was zero, as the two hillocks and 2 destroyed Honeys were offset by the 6 dead German tanks and 2 halftracks. We stopped playing, but still, I refused to concede. My team of lawyers is filing lawsuits in several states to try to get the results overturned. I also believe that bribes and fraud were involved when Chas wrote the victory conditions. I WILL have my day in court!!!

I think the 40L AT is the wild card here. If it is able to keep shooting, and shooting, and shooting, the British should win.

Covid Tip Of The Day – Lessen the chance of passing Covid on to your friends by having no friends!!!
For most of you, this will not be a problem...


Question of the Day – Why do Goldfish Crackers come in a resealable bag???
 

Michael R

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Walt loses a coupla guyz for Failure To Rout
Would this rule have saved them?

F.1C ROUTING: In any scenario, a broken unit forced to rout but unable to reach a woods/building hex in that RtPh may rout to any terrain hex consistent with A10.51 but is not required to rout to the nearest woods/building hex. In a non-night scenario which uses only Desert Board(s) that are not Broken/Steppe Terrain (13.1-.2), a unit can be eliminated for Failure to Rout (A10.51) only if the enemy unit(s) forcing it to rout is within six hexes of it.
 

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Would this rule have saved them?

F.1C ROUTING: In any scenario, a broken unit forced to rout but unable to reach a woods/building hex in that RtPh may rout to any terrain hex consistent with A10.51 but is not required to rout to the nearest woods/building hex. In a non-night scenario which uses only Desert Board(s) that are not Broken/Steppe Terrain (13.1-.2), a unit can be eliminated for Failure to Rout (A10.51) only if the enemy unit(s) forcing it to rout is within six hexes of it.
Nice point. I (as many others) play so few desert scenarios that little things like that are often overlooked.
 

The Purist

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The desert requires a player to rethink their entire tactical approach to a battle. Sadly, the desert is woefully underused and misunderstood in ASL. It's actually my favourite theatre both for ASL and the history of the war.
 

Major Issues

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Would this rule have saved them?

F.1C ROUTING: In any scenario, a broken unit forced to rout but unable to reach a woods/building hex in that RtPh may rout to any terrain hex consistent with A10.51 but is not required to rout to the nearest woods/building hex. In a non-night scenario which uses only Desert Board(s) that are not Broken/Steppe Terrain (13.1-.2), a unit can be eliminated for Failure to Rout (A10.51) only if the enemy unit(s) forcing it to rout is within six hexes of it.
No. It was not a question of where the unit forcing the routing was - in each case, it was a tank in the hex or adjacent. But they were eliminated because they could see units on other hillocks far, far away, which kept them from being able to move closer.
 

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On the other hand, if the dummy stacks are not allowed to set up in foxholes, then it would be real obvious that they are dummies, since everyone else would be in foxholes. Not sure what the designer’s intention was.
Yeah, this couldn't have been intentional. It seriously undermines the use of dummy stacks. I'd love to see an errata for this.
 

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That is a good point. Foxholes could have been treated as concealment terrain for set up purposes.

That said, dummies could be stacked with a squad or half-squad and could 'split' off from the stack, or the real infantry could leave the dummies in the foxholes. Still,.... the current version limits the potential use of/scope for using entrenchments in a situation where the enemy doesn't have a good idea of what is in front of them.

I've added this one to my 'must play list'
 
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Matt Romey

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That is a good point. Foxholes could have been treated as concealment terrain for set up purposes.
Not exactly what I meant. That wouldn't help anyway because the German enters the board and the foxholes all get immediately revealed. Thus announcing the dummy hexes, which wouldn't have foxholes.

How about: all units (real or dummies) get to set up in foxholes. Or, add an extra 4 or so foxholes the OoB (for the dummies to use).
 

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Not exactly what I meant. That wouldn't help anyway because the German enters the board and the foxholes all get immediately revealed. Thus announcing the dummy hexes, which wouldn't have foxholes.
Oh, and by the way... Dummies can only set up in scrub (A12.12), so their utility is very limited. I'd say this hinders me greatly from trying this scenario. A shame, since it's one of the only desert scenarios to come out recently. (That I know of).
 

The Purist

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Aye,... the concealment rules need work for the desert. It was not at all easy to spot infantry or guns that had been dug-in until you were nearly on top of them or the attacker had carried out prior reconnaissance.

Emplaced AT guns were especially good at ambushes despite the comparatively open ground.

For example, in May 1942 when Rommel attacked the Gazala line his 'view' of the British side was short by some seven brigades and, tactically, his formations were constantly tripping over emplaced British units they had no idea were in the area.
 
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