Behind the Beachhead - Team Tournament - "American 2 Player"

Vrosso

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Had the great pleasure of participating in a team tournament using the ASL for fun, Behind the Beachhead module organized by Jason W using the LCP Behind the Beachhead, ASL for fun product. The nice thing about this was being able to play several similar but diverse scenarios along a common theme as part of a greater team. Overall we each played 3 short scenarios vs 3 different opponents over a period of a few months. Below is some of my experience with these games.

Round 1: Was playing "Across the Aure Valley" where I had to exit a few VP off the bottom of the map. This map presented some very serious terrain to cross in terms of deep streams as well as a couple of roads that would be strongly defended. One common thread for the defenses I was attacking is they have lots of heavy weapons, particularly the HMG's, mortars, mines etc....

Below is going into my 3rd turn with some progress on the right center of the map.

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As can be seen above, I elected to try to make the crossing in the right center, avoiding the roads for the most part which were heavily mined (8 factors at least, nobody got past this). The deep streams are tough to go into and tough to come out of (into brush in places) and a few well placed HMG firelanes were what I feared above all else, but did not materialize. The mortars were in the rear to provide support (the OBA of 3 x 60 mm is possible and I would have done it if it provided a LOS hindrance, it does not, so I brought them on board). The units on the right were carrying a lot of SW so as to appear bigger (and more VP) to make the defenders on the right respect them and stay in place longer.

Below is progress going into my turn 6 (if I recall correctly, only needed to get 6 VP of the board edge)

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By this time, I had forgotten the rules regarding total casualties and more concentrated on winning the game, in terms of blasting what was in front of me and just exiting, and not trying to eliminate the units on the board (which could have been readily done) so gave up a few tournament points there, but still a win for the team!

This brings us to round 2 where we had "Withering the Fire" where I faced the German MVP as my opponent. In this game 4 HMG's are in the village I have to approach (and what I did not want to see, 2 x 81 Mtr's as well). Lots of wire and lots of mines made it tough going.

For my OBA, I selected smoke to cover the bridge crossing and managed to get a strong force over the bridge and onto the other side prior to the smoke lifting (free of HMG shots). Another force of mine, the 3 60 mm mtrs and several squads would try an amoeba maneuver but got chopped to pieces by MTR and HMG fire (although they eventually took out the mtrs). This force never made it to the village in time to be a factor. Many of them would spend a lot of time in the deep stream seeking shelter from the fire.

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My force that did get across the bridge then stormed the left side of the town and by turn 6

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Here, although in position to win the game, ended up making two errors. First lost track of HIP units and sent my 9-2 with a couple squads upstairs to sniff out hidden units where they took a 4 up 2 and the entire stack broke (which hurt), but they got it together for the final turn and the 9-2 sitting on a couple of mmg's started shooting the town up and another error on my side, I thought the VC where building control, so with multiple rate shots, I targeted broken units, trying to get control of buildings rather than firing on unbroken units that I was planning to cc to wrest control of the building (it's these little details that get you in this game).

In the end, the 9-1/hmg lasted out the game, blasting anyone who tried to get close to him.

This brings us to the 3rd game, "Supply Dump" which literally was a blast. This time, I'm attacking a village with infantry, and will get help from 5 Shermans. Defending the area are two HMG's, two 81 MTR's and two 75L AT guns. So my boys have to walk into this town from a limited area and get funneled into the area of the central woods. Below is where they were after two full turns (then the tanks come on) after putting in a strong performance and clearing away a defending HMG and MTR.

The thing that makes this game really interesting is the supply dump and 6 trucks that will enter, load up, and become ammo vehicles. We don't get to see this too often and it can be, create a lot of chaos.

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So I was doing a pretty good job of controlling the main road in and out, but a couple trucks got thru and loaded up. As I moved a squad into smoke that I placed in P10, to my horror there was both a there a HIP squad with a HMG and a 75 gun that opened up from the adjacent lumberyard. The Gun would break this squad but lucky for me, a different squad went berserk and would unleash a torrent of pain and suffering on the defenders.

First the berserker charged a squad in N10, allowing almost my entire force to advance in terrain (or unopposed up the road) below.

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Then the berserker charged the gun and soaked up all the d-fire. In a key move, one of my shermans moved into Q9 (where it could see the trucks), malf'd the main armament, fixed it, then fired on a truck missing. So we intensive fired HE at the far ammo vehicle and rolled snakes on the TK number, followed by a "3" on the ensuing explosion (that happened to be in the middle of the defense). Utter devastation on the D. This left only one 447 who could pick up a LMG as the only defending unit on the board (after massive FTR) against 5 shermans and most of the US infantry. With a full turn left the game was conceded.

So overall, a wonderful experience vs. three great opponents. Many thanks to LCP for making this available and to Jason for organizing.

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