ASL 126 Commando Schenke AAR

Uncle_Duke

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Last week, Stephen and I picked up ASL 126 "Commando Schenke" at the monthly Twin Cities ASL meetup. This is one of my go-to introductory scenarios as the rules overhead is minimal (not much Chapter B, and nothing from Chapter C or later) and the attackers get some fun toys in the form of a 10-2, a bunch of 8-3-8s, 2 flamethrowers, and plenty of DCs. It even fit the month's theme, having originally been published as A80 in Annual '95 Winter.

We rolled dice for sides. Stephen took the Soviets and I ended up with the Germans. In retrospect, rolling for sides is a mistake if using this scenario as a teaching game-- the Germans are the more forgiving side to play by far, and some aspects of the defense are a bit counterintuitive.

Here's how things looked after setup:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  Setup.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

I deployed as much as I could, then kicked off into a double envelopment. The Soviets are required to set up at least 6 MMC on / west (left) of hexrow U, and my goal is to ensure they never make it to the victory building (1X4). A secondary objective is to get a unit to the north of 1X4 as fast as I can to make it more difficult for the Soviets to gain concealment. Finally, I intended to get the HMG into P7 on Turn 1 to interdict the road and all but ensure that the Soviets in the center will surrender.

Position at the end of Game Turn 1:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 1.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

I generally regard the center as being a death trap for the Soviets, and Turn 2 bore this out. Of the three Soviet squads in the area, one was destroyed in Melee, and two more surrendered. On the flanks, the Germans continued to push north, and the Soviets begin withdrawing towards 1X4.

This withdrawal is not an easy thing to manage. For the Soviets to win, they have to stall the Germans just a bit, while ensuring that as many of their troops as possible survive to defend 1X4.

Position at the end of Game Turn 2:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 2.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

The next step was to complete the encirclement of 1X4 and finish reducing the Soviet outlying defenses. At this point, I should note that the dice were doing Stephen NO favors throughout the game. Soviet fire was nowhere near as effective as might have been expected, and they never won a melee. Furthermore, the Soviet ELR of 2 was biting them particularly hard.

Though the Germans were breaking from time to time, and even suffering casualty reduction, their leadership is excellent and the rout paths generally forgiving. Some units were out of action for a turn or two, but losses weren't high enough to really affect German momentum.

Position at the end of Game Turn 3:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 3.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

The German attack had reached its objective. Now came the hard part: Clearing it. The Victory Conditions state that "The Germans win immediately if they Control building 1X4 and the end of any Player Turn, or at the end of any Game Turn if there are no unbroken [Soviet] Personnel units in building 1X4."

This can be a remarkably tall order given that every location in 1X4 is fortified by SSR, and any Soviet player worth their salt will have a 9-0 Commissar hanging out inside. If the Soviets can create a pocket of at least one location they can skulk into or rotate units through to regain concealment, they can hold out for a very long time. A good comparison would be to creating eyes and retaining liberties in Go.

There really weren't all that many options here except to advance into the streets and hope for the best. If nothing else, this would force the Soviets accept point blank range Defensive Fire if they wanted to get shots while the Germans were still in the street. A side benefit was that any broken units could rout directly into buildings (often occupied by leaders) and not have to risk interdiction or surrender.

Position at the end of Game Turn 4:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 4.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

When the smoke cleared at the end of Turn 4, there were still a LOT of Germans in the street ADJACENT to building 1X4, and now it was payback time. It had taken a fair amount of willpower to hold off using the flamethrowers and DCs before now, but it was worth the wait. A DC breached into W5, and a flamethrower burned the defenders out of X2. Half-squads were able to sneak through gaps in the defenses into X5, Y3, and critically Y4.

At this point, Soviet annihilation appeared inevitable, and we called it a day.

Position at the end of German Turn 5:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End German 5 (End of Game).  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

This scenario offers a lot of challenges for the Soviets, particularly related to the employment of the blocking force (the group that must set up south of hexrow U). The two biggest are:

  1. How to manage a withdrawal of the blocking force into building 1X4?
  2. How to position themselves so that they can put fire into open ground that the Germans need to cross while denying any German 'death stars' LOS to their positions?
The end result is that it's a surprisingly nuanced game of maneuver for both sides.

Thanks to Stephen for an excellent game!
 

Vic Provost

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Last week, Stephen and I picked up ASL 126 "Commando Schenke" at the monthly Twin Cities ASL meetup. This is one of my go-to introductory scenarios as the rules overhead is minimal (not much Chapter B, and nothing from Chapter C or later) and the attackers get some fun toys in the form of a 10-2, a bunch of 8-3-8s, 2 flamethrowers, and plenty of DCs. It even fit the month's theme, having originally been published as A80 in Annual '95 Winter.

We rolled dice for sides. Stephen took the Soviets and I ended up with the Germans. In retrospect, rolling for sides is a mistake if using this scenario as a teaching game-- the Germans are the more forgiving side to play by far, and some aspects of the defense are a bit counterintuitive.

Here's how things looked after setup:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  Setup.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

I deployed as much as I could, then kicked off into a double envelopment. The Soviets are required to set up at least 6 MMC on / west (left) of hexrow U, and my goal is to ensure they never make it to the victory building (1X4). A secondary objective is to get a unit to the north of 1X4 as fast as I can to make it more difficult for the Soviets to gain concealment. Finally, I intended to get the HMG into P7 on Turn 1 to interdict the road and all but ensure that the Soviets in the center will surrender.

Position at the end of Game Turn 1:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 1.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

I generally regard the center as being a death trap for the Soviets, and Turn 2 bore this out. Of the three Soviet squads in the area, one was destroyed in Melee, and two more surrendered. On the flanks, the Germans continued to push north, and the Soviets begin withdrawing towards 1X4.

This withdrawal is not an easy thing to manage. For the Soviets to win, they have to stall the Germans just a bit, while ensuring that as many of their troops as possible survive to defend 1X4.

Position at the end of Game Turn 2:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 2.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

The next step was to complete the encirclement of 1X4 and finish reducing the Soviet outlying defenses. At this point, I should note that the dice were doing Stephen NO favors throughout the game. Soviet fire was nowhere near as effective as might have been expected, and they never won a melee. Furthermore, the Soviet ELR of 2 was biting them particularly hard.

Though the Germans were breaking from time to time, and even suffering casualty reduction, their leadership is excellent and the rout paths generally forgiving. Some units were out of action for a turn or two, but losses weren't high enough to really affect German momentum.

Position at the end of Game Turn 3:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 3.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

The German attack had reached its objective. Now came the hard part: Clearing it. The Victory Conditions state that "The Germans win immediately if they Control building 1X4 and the end of any Player Turn, or at the end of any Game Turn if there are no unbroken [Soviet] Personnel units in building 1X4."

This can be a remarkably tall order given that every location in 1X4 is fortified by SSR, and any Soviet player worth their salt will have a 9-0 Commissar hanging out inside. If the Soviets can create a pocket of at least one location they can skulk into or rotate units through to regain concealment, they can hold out for a very long time. A good comparison would be to creating eyes and retaining liberties in Go.

There really weren't all that many options here except to advance into the streets and hope for the best. If nothing else, this would force the Soviets accept point blank range Defensive Fire if they wanted to get shots while the Germans were still in the street. A side benefit was that any broken units could rout directly into buildings (often occupied by leaders) and not have to risk interdiction or surrender.

Position at the end of Game Turn 4:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End Turn 4.  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

When the smoke cleared at the end of Turn 4, there were still a LOT of Germans in the street ADJACENT to building 1X4, and now it was payback time. It had taken a fair amount of willpower to hold off using the flamethrowers and DCs before now, but it was worth the wait. A DC breached into W5, and a flamethrower burned the defenders out of X2. Half-squads were able to sneak through gaps in the defenses into X5, Y3, and critically Y4.

At this point, Soviet annihilation appeared inevitable, and we called it a day.

Position at the end of German Turn 5:

ASL 126 "Commando Schenke"  End German 5 (End of Game).  GW (German) vs SL (Soviet).  Played 2023-02-11.

This scenario offers a lot of challenges for the Soviets, particularly related to the employment of the blocking force (the group that must set up south of hexrow U). The two biggest are:

  1. How to manage a withdrawal of the blocking force into building 1X4?
  2. How to position themselves so that they can put fire into open ground that the Germans need to cross while denying any German 'death stars' LOS to their positions?
The end result is that it's a surprisingly nuanced game of maneuver for both sides.

Thanks to Stephen for an excellent game!
I had 2 bad experiences in this as the Russian, it is way more fun playing the Germans in this and will not play it again, especially with so many scenarios out in the past few months...
 
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