Deluxe ASL 2019 year in review

fenyan

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The Year in Deluxe ASL—2019

It was a very good year for Deluxe ASL, with the Deluxe ASL Redux remake of Streets of Fire/Hedgerow Hell reaching its P800 goal and being sent to the printers. It's likely being assembled at MMP headquarters as you read this.

According to my notes, six DASL scenarios were published this year:

April: GJ068 Over Hill 192 from Grumble Jones

July: O18 Purple Heart Hill from Special Ops 9

August: RPT161 Let’s Shoot the S.O.B.’s from Rally Point 17

October: AP134 Death Takes a Toll from Action Pack 14

November: GJ076 Kapitulieren…Nein! from Grumble Jones

December: GJ078 A Day at the Museum from Grumble Jones

It was very interesting to see the Schwerpunkt team publish a DASL scenario in Rally Point 17, it appears the map was just what was needed for the design.

I would like to try one of Grumble Jones’ DASL offerings one of these days, and would even try the hypothetical Kapitulieren…Nein! which explores what might have happened had the Germans not surrendered at Iserlohn.

Played O18 Purple Heart Hill as the Americans. It was a fun, interesting scenario with the Americans defending Hill 108 against a combined-arms assault by the Germans. Along with needing to review the bocage rules, tactically I should have pulled back my defense faster and placed some foxholes to aid routing in the rear parts of the hill.

AP134 Death Takes a Toll got two plays this year. This scenario has a mixed force of Germans (many 658s) advancing through bocage against 458 Canadians. Instead of the city “i” board on the Canadian side of the map area, we mistakenly set up hill board “l” which resulted in an uphill battle for the Germans at the end of the game. Chalk this up to bad eyesight and not checking carefully. My second game was played with the correct setup. As the Canadians this time I did not fall back fast enough from the bocage (once again) and keenly felt the loss of what a pair of 458s could have done to help hold the last couple of buildings I needed. Also my opponent pointed out that the 81mm MTR would have had more use with a level 2 spotter.

A goal for me this year was to play less DASL, but I did manage to still play several. Aside from the ones mentioned above, there were three standouts. First of these was J65 Brave Little Emchas. It was my second time playing the scenario and it went to the last CC when I tried to retake and keep control of a building (and unfortunately I did not see that I could have routed upstairs for the win!). This is probably my favorite DASL scenario so far, combined arms for both sides and either side can go on the attack. This scenario is on my “must play at least once a year” list.

ESG89 Blunt Force Trauma is set in June 1941 with the Russians defending a building in the corner of the map with Germans approaching from two directions. Along with a diverse set of infantry, we had T-28 tanks vs Pz IIIFs, a SiG and Pz IVF1 battling in the streets. It made for a good 3-player scenario and I’m looking forward to playing again.

Lastly, a friend suggested a small scenario from On All Fronts (Issue 123), The Strongpoint. It was a playtest scenario, with the setup instructions having a cut-and-paste error and the Victory Conditions implying that the side with the most points wins. Both Russians and Germans have mixed infantry forces, 838s and 628s down to 447s with support of assault guns on one side and T-34/85s on the other. The Germans are defending a Factory and the Russians must blast their way in. It played to completion in about 3 hours and we switched sides. Both nationalities chalked up a victory. It might favor the Russians but would like to play again to see. Be careful with the setup as it is simultaneous. Instead of propping up a map as a divider to screen the setup, I would suggest allowing the Russian side to record their setup first because it is essential to be able to study the mapboard. In any case I would recommend trying this scenario out, it has potential as a tournament selection.

In other DASL activity for the year I saw a Deluxe VASL league started here at Gamesquad and ongoing into 2020. Desperation Morale returned from a couple-years hiatus with updates and had a fair write up of the Winter Offensive “Deluxe” Bonus Pack #9 of 2018. Back from the grave indeed!

DASL appeared on several tournament lists, either for their novelty and/or merit:

West Coast Melee 2019—February, Ontario, California

MWT7 The Streets of Carpiquet



Noreaster XXIII 2019—March, Fairhaven, Massachusetts

WO26 Phoenix Rising



CASLO XXIII 2019—May, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

MWT7 The Streets of Carpiquet



Tussle in the Tundra 2019-August, Manchester, New Hampshire

FT199 Playing Uno

DASL C Smoke the Kents

FT241 Commando Beach 2

J158 It Don’t Come Easy



Oktoberfest XXXIV-Cleveland, Ohio

OB10 The Men from Zadig

RPT164 Let’s Shoot the S.O.B.’s

J123 Charging Chaumont

J158 It Don’t Come Easy (with US balance suggested)

AP134 Death Takes a Toll

J65 Brave Little Emchas (Russian balance suggested)

ESG97 Foot in the Door

A103 Mayhem in Manila (Japanese balance suggested)

DASL1 Guryev’s Headquarters (both balances suggested)

ESG106 Frosty the Deadman



Albany 2019-December, New York

D6 Draconian Measures

HS30 The Good Shepherd

J123 Charging Chaumont

FT200 Coconut K

RPT164 Let’s Shoot the S.O.B.’s

It’ll be great to see the Deluxe Pack Redux coming out soon and hope for a chance to play one of the bigger scenarios from Streets of Fire. Most of all, looking forward to many good scenarios and opponents, Deluxe or not!
 

Gordon

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All his "basement" scenarios are on the ASL Scenario archive. Search for Grumble Jones. A lot of wild and wacky ones.
 
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