Chas Argent
Play to the end.
I flew out of Medford, OR at 9:30am on Saturday, October 4, bound for the Land Of Cleves & my first ASLOK ever. Three planes later I landed around 8:30 pm, took the wrong shuttle to the wrong Radisson, then convinced the driver he should take me to the *right* Radisson since he had nothing better to do on a Saturday Night in Middleburg Heights anyway. After he dropped me off I covertly slipped across the street & checked into the world's nastiest Motel 6. But, hey, I was ready to play some ASL and was in exactly the right place to do so. Denny's to the left of me, Friendly's to the right of me, into the valley of death...
Game 1: Brasche Encounter [DB001] vs. Hennie van der Salm
I showed up at the game room at about 7:30 Sunday morning with hopes that a few others might show up early as well, but wound up reading my book ("The March To Tunis" by Alan Moorehead, if you care) until Hennie van der Salm walked in around 9am and we decided to play a small scenario, just to get the ball rolling. We chose "Braasche Encounter" from my play list, rolled for sides, and I wound up with the French while Hennie got the Germans. The French have a fairly restricted setup and like I said it's a small scenario so we were off & running pretty quickly. Hennie's Germans kicked my Green HS around on the south side of the river & on Turn 2 ran one of his own HS onto the bridge to gain control, but my plucky 227/LMG/8-0 combo on the north side hung tough long enough to allow the French reinforcements which arrive on turn 2 to stem the flow. The two Panhards armored assaulted some infantry up to the bridge but half of this infantry force got whacked by a clean shot from the Germans. The rest of the reinforcements went to the CC5/BB5 woods area & skulked around to take some potshots at any available German targets. Turn 3 had me running one of the Panhards just over the bridge to Y7 while the other parked on the bridge, but Y7 Pan-Pan eventually fell to an ATR shot. The game culminated with a close combat on the bridge itself which the French eventually won to ensure control. Excellent little scenario and Hennie was a fabulous person to play; he would avenge himself upon me later in the week, but for the moment the win was mine. 1-0.
Game 2: Centauro On A Flank [DB038] vs Mark Pitcavage
Mark had parked himself at a table near the front door so we hooked up for a game of "Centauro On A Flank", a brand-spanking new scenario from those Dispatches dudes. We rolled for sides & I got the Italians while Mark got the Yugos. The Italians have to gain control of at least 9 building on Board 42 to win. They get two M13/40s and three L3/35s to help do the job, while the Yugos get two Pak 35 37L guns. I went & got some lunch while Mark set up. Once we started my Italians were making quite good progress for the first 3 turns or so-always a sign that I'm in deep doo-doo. I actually managed to kill one of the Pak 35s with a CH from a Lt Mtr and captured the other one, but sure enough, on Turn 4 I generated a Yugo Hero that promptly picked up an HMG and proceeded to make a thorough nuisance of himself for the rest of the game, holding up the assault once it reached the middle of the village. I took an ill-advised Intensive Fire shot with one of the M13s, malfed it, then Recalled it-adios 8-1 AL & fairly decent gun. The long & short of it is that Mark was able to hold onto just enough buildings for a win, and I learned a few valuable lessons. This was a good scenario and one I would like to play again. This would also be the 1st of 3 scenarios I would lose which involved building control on board 42. I'm sick of that damn board. 1-1.
Game 3: A Stroke Of Luck [SP45] vs Stan Jackson
For my last game on Sunday Stan Jackson & I hooked up to play this Schwerpunkt scenario. The dice gave me the defending Russians and Stan the Germans. This is a city fight on two half city boards (20 & 21) which basically requires the Germans to control two out of three buildings that are fairly far apart. The Russians must set up wih all their tanks (two Emchas and an SU-100) Abandoned, while the Germans get two Panthers, a Mk IV and a Whirbelwind. The Russians have 16 squads but must cover a pretty wide area. They also get a 57LL AT gun, which went HIP into 20T4. A small German force sets up onboard and then eight more squads enter on Turn 1 along with all the German armor. It seemed the only thing to do was try to set the Russian tanks as far back as possible to prevent the Germans from bum-rushing them and taking them out while still Abandoned. Stan entered & headed for victory building in 20Z2. I didn't want to set up too far forward since the Russians are required to set up with one squad per building, so Stan made good progress on the first two turns and took that building pretty easily. His Mk IV went snooping around for the 57LL and found it when it shoved an AP round up its schwanstucker from 6 hexes away and burned him. Meanwhile the Wirbelwind was running around, surviving Street Fighting attempts and shredding Russian infantry around building 20V7. The Russians have to make a special movement DR at the start of each MPh to determine how many units they may move each turn, but my rolls were really high (12,10, 9 on the first three turns) so this SSR never restricted me at all and I was able to fairly easily reinforce the crucial building in 20U3, since Stan had pretty much decided to ignore the othe Victory building in 21Y3. Meanwhile the Panthers and Shermans were stalking each other but Stan had one really bad fire phase where he malfed both MA of these tanks. This allowed me to further protect the 20U3 bulding after his Wirbelwind overran the 57LL and some of his infantry captured it. He made several efforts to eject my infantry but even though he ran his Panthers into the building to freeze some of my units I was able hold off long enough for a win. This is a tough scenario for the Germans and they may not really have enough squads to win it. So at the end of my first day I was doing well and more importantly having fun at 2-1.
Game 4: Point Of No Return (42) vs Tom Jazbutis
Jazz & I had pre-arranged to play this monster Desert scenario on Monday morning about a month beforehand, so I had been looking forward to it for some time. I took the New Zealanders and Jazz got the Nasties, complete with Herr Rommel as a 10-3. The Kiwis have to set up in three different groups in fairly open order, with all their vehicles in Motion. Meanwhile the Germans set up in two different clumps, one of which boils out of the wadi on board 27 and the other around the escarpment overlay. The Germans win by controlling the hillock summit on the board 27 hillock as well as the three-hex cluster of crags at 25 F4/F5/G5 at the end of any player turn. Both sides get reinforcements during the game and because the Germans had a pretty good record on ROAR we had agreed to give the New Zealander the balance, which allows all of their reinforcements to come in one turn earlier. EC are Dry with a mild breeze and Light Dust. The German opening volley didn't inflict much damage on my boys, so they were able to deploy fairly cleanly around the hillock and the victory crags. The third group out in the middle of nowhere, however, got pretty much trounced whenever individual units tried to escape back to the hillock. A few of those squads, however, went Fanatic around Turn 3 and did a fine job of holding back Rommel's hordes. A Victoria Cross manuever by one of the Valentines further delayed The Desert Fox around 27Z1 by forcing him into CC, but he eventually prevailed and the tank died. Meanwhile the remainder of my Valentines were having a field day agianst the German armor; by the end of turn 3 every German tank was dead, and I had overrun one of his two 50L guns. The other one stayed in action but was far enough away from the main battle now that it wound up being fairly ineffective due to the many hindrances at long range. The German 80mm OBA harassed the units on the hillock but aside from evaporating a 2pdr Portee it was largely ineffective. My OBA never did arrive. I got my big mortars into action after much travail and one of them blasted the Germans in a trench line around 26K6-K7. We finished four turns and at that point the Germans were looking pretty ragged; their reinforcements were cleanly bottled up by my defense in the 25I7-F7 area, all of Jazz' tanks were gone, and he still had a long way to go facing a lot of resistance to even reach the hillock, so we called it there. This was a great deal of fun and a scenario that I'd always wanted to play. ASLOK, as it turns out, is the perfect place to indulge yourself in such scenarios. 3-1.
To be continued...
-Chas
Game 1: Brasche Encounter [DB001] vs. Hennie van der Salm
I showed up at the game room at about 7:30 Sunday morning with hopes that a few others might show up early as well, but wound up reading my book ("The March To Tunis" by Alan Moorehead, if you care) until Hennie van der Salm walked in around 9am and we decided to play a small scenario, just to get the ball rolling. We chose "Braasche Encounter" from my play list, rolled for sides, and I wound up with the French while Hennie got the Germans. The French have a fairly restricted setup and like I said it's a small scenario so we were off & running pretty quickly. Hennie's Germans kicked my Green HS around on the south side of the river & on Turn 2 ran one of his own HS onto the bridge to gain control, but my plucky 227/LMG/8-0 combo on the north side hung tough long enough to allow the French reinforcements which arrive on turn 2 to stem the flow. The two Panhards armored assaulted some infantry up to the bridge but half of this infantry force got whacked by a clean shot from the Germans. The rest of the reinforcements went to the CC5/BB5 woods area & skulked around to take some potshots at any available German targets. Turn 3 had me running one of the Panhards just over the bridge to Y7 while the other parked on the bridge, but Y7 Pan-Pan eventually fell to an ATR shot. The game culminated with a close combat on the bridge itself which the French eventually won to ensure control. Excellent little scenario and Hennie was a fabulous person to play; he would avenge himself upon me later in the week, but for the moment the win was mine. 1-0.
Game 2: Centauro On A Flank [DB038] vs Mark Pitcavage
Mark had parked himself at a table near the front door so we hooked up for a game of "Centauro On A Flank", a brand-spanking new scenario from those Dispatches dudes. We rolled for sides & I got the Italians while Mark got the Yugos. The Italians have to gain control of at least 9 building on Board 42 to win. They get two M13/40s and three L3/35s to help do the job, while the Yugos get two Pak 35 37L guns. I went & got some lunch while Mark set up. Once we started my Italians were making quite good progress for the first 3 turns or so-always a sign that I'm in deep doo-doo. I actually managed to kill one of the Pak 35s with a CH from a Lt Mtr and captured the other one, but sure enough, on Turn 4 I generated a Yugo Hero that promptly picked up an HMG and proceeded to make a thorough nuisance of himself for the rest of the game, holding up the assault once it reached the middle of the village. I took an ill-advised Intensive Fire shot with one of the M13s, malfed it, then Recalled it-adios 8-1 AL & fairly decent gun. The long & short of it is that Mark was able to hold onto just enough buildings for a win, and I learned a few valuable lessons. This was a good scenario and one I would like to play again. This would also be the 1st of 3 scenarios I would lose which involved building control on board 42. I'm sick of that damn board. 1-1.
Game 3: A Stroke Of Luck [SP45] vs Stan Jackson
For my last game on Sunday Stan Jackson & I hooked up to play this Schwerpunkt scenario. The dice gave me the defending Russians and Stan the Germans. This is a city fight on two half city boards (20 & 21) which basically requires the Germans to control two out of three buildings that are fairly far apart. The Russians must set up wih all their tanks (two Emchas and an SU-100) Abandoned, while the Germans get two Panthers, a Mk IV and a Whirbelwind. The Russians have 16 squads but must cover a pretty wide area. They also get a 57LL AT gun, which went HIP into 20T4. A small German force sets up onboard and then eight more squads enter on Turn 1 along with all the German armor. It seemed the only thing to do was try to set the Russian tanks as far back as possible to prevent the Germans from bum-rushing them and taking them out while still Abandoned. Stan entered & headed for victory building in 20Z2. I didn't want to set up too far forward since the Russians are required to set up with one squad per building, so Stan made good progress on the first two turns and took that building pretty easily. His Mk IV went snooping around for the 57LL and found it when it shoved an AP round up its schwanstucker from 6 hexes away and burned him. Meanwhile the Wirbelwind was running around, surviving Street Fighting attempts and shredding Russian infantry around building 20V7. The Russians have to make a special movement DR at the start of each MPh to determine how many units they may move each turn, but my rolls were really high (12,10, 9 on the first three turns) so this SSR never restricted me at all and I was able to fairly easily reinforce the crucial building in 20U3, since Stan had pretty much decided to ignore the othe Victory building in 21Y3. Meanwhile the Panthers and Shermans were stalking each other but Stan had one really bad fire phase where he malfed both MA of these tanks. This allowed me to further protect the 20U3 bulding after his Wirbelwind overran the 57LL and some of his infantry captured it. He made several efforts to eject my infantry but even though he ran his Panthers into the building to freeze some of my units I was able hold off long enough for a win. This is a tough scenario for the Germans and they may not really have enough squads to win it. So at the end of my first day I was doing well and more importantly having fun at 2-1.
Game 4: Point Of No Return (42) vs Tom Jazbutis
Jazz & I had pre-arranged to play this monster Desert scenario on Monday morning about a month beforehand, so I had been looking forward to it for some time. I took the New Zealanders and Jazz got the Nasties, complete with Herr Rommel as a 10-3. The Kiwis have to set up in three different groups in fairly open order, with all their vehicles in Motion. Meanwhile the Germans set up in two different clumps, one of which boils out of the wadi on board 27 and the other around the escarpment overlay. The Germans win by controlling the hillock summit on the board 27 hillock as well as the three-hex cluster of crags at 25 F4/F5/G5 at the end of any player turn. Both sides get reinforcements during the game and because the Germans had a pretty good record on ROAR we had agreed to give the New Zealander the balance, which allows all of their reinforcements to come in one turn earlier. EC are Dry with a mild breeze and Light Dust. The German opening volley didn't inflict much damage on my boys, so they were able to deploy fairly cleanly around the hillock and the victory crags. The third group out in the middle of nowhere, however, got pretty much trounced whenever individual units tried to escape back to the hillock. A few of those squads, however, went Fanatic around Turn 3 and did a fine job of holding back Rommel's hordes. A Victoria Cross manuever by one of the Valentines further delayed The Desert Fox around 27Z1 by forcing him into CC, but he eventually prevailed and the tank died. Meanwhile the remainder of my Valentines were having a field day agianst the German armor; by the end of turn 3 every German tank was dead, and I had overrun one of his two 50L guns. The other one stayed in action but was far enough away from the main battle now that it wound up being fairly ineffective due to the many hindrances at long range. The German 80mm OBA harassed the units on the hillock but aside from evaporating a 2pdr Portee it was largely ineffective. My OBA never did arrive. I got my big mortars into action after much travail and one of them blasted the Germans in a trench line around 26K6-K7. We finished four turns and at that point the Germans were looking pretty ragged; their reinforcements were cleanly bottled up by my defense in the 25I7-F7 area, all of Jazz' tanks were gone, and he still had a long way to go facing a lot of resistance to even reach the hillock, so we called it there. This was a great deal of fun and a scenario that I'd always wanted to play. ASLOK, as it turns out, is the perfect place to indulge yourself in such scenarios. 3-1.
To be continued...
-Chas
