Tuomo
Keeper of the Funk
Played this Crete paradrop against Jeremy Busby for the ASL League.
Situation: Crete. 10 FJ squad-equivalents (with 9-2 and dm 81mm MTR) drop onto boards 58 and 73 (augmented by several overlays - take my advice and use the draggable overlay VASL extension to set this up). They are bolstered by 10 ML8 squads coming in from the east edge (top edge of the pics below) - the reinforcements also get a dm 81mm MTR, just in case the paras forgot theirs. They have 7 turns to clear 10 Aussie squads off the Level 2+ hexes on the northern (left) half of the hill on board 58. The Aussies are enjoying three captured Italian ART guns, and with SSR 2 explaining just who gets Captured Use, Non-Qualified Use, and Ammo Shortage, believe me, you're going to want to go to Texas ASL and download the Player Aid that explains just what the B and X numbers are.
The pic below shows the situation after the German para scatter on turn 1. Wings A and C hit their drop points; Wing A had the 81mm MTR (hoping they could start lobbing shells at the Aussies from their side of the hill) and Wing C had the 9-2 (because I figured we'd need him on that side of the hill). Wing B missed his initial drop point (73P4) and dropped instead on 58C5, not terrible but not great either. Two squads from Wing A drifted right over the Aussie defense and got shot up; the rest of the folks did as well as one can expect - note that Orchards are Olive Groves and Grain is Vineyards, both of which cause MCs when paras land there.
The first few turns featured the usual silliness as the paras ran around trying to rally and rearm (which they were singularly bad at) and the German reinforcements opted for a "surround the hill strategy". Here's the situation at the end of German turn 3. Note the Melee in 58P2; Jeremy was generally happy to sit in his foxholes and shoot me up, but he saw a nice opportunity to grab some of the para's gear, so his 9-1 and 228/MMG came over and grabbed a loot box, scoring an LMG. The unopened loot box in P1 is the para's 81mm MTR; I never did get to it, and that sucked. Plus, that 9-1 and MMG crew were a royal PITA, repulsing several German squads as they tried to get past.
As the game wore on, my "encircle the hill" strategy sure did result in the hill being encircled, but it also turned into a lot of situations that had an alarming sameness: I'd advance up adjacent to an Aussie unit in a Foxhole, he'd fire and break me, and that was that. The 458/LMG in Y7 was particularly good at this. Meanwhile, the reinforcing 81mm MTR (which luckily came in on turn 2) had a choice to make - take a little longer to move up to Level 3 and get into the LOS of the assumed Aussie Guns on Level 3, or just get into the game earlier by settling for firing on the eastern crestline positions where the Aussie squads were. He chose.... poorly.... taking the former route and essentially being useless until turn 5. In his defense, he did break an MMG crew and leader in U4, but he'd have been far more useful just sitting in N10 or BB8 and prosecuting those sides of the hill. Lesson learned.
At the end, the MTR in L4 got a ridiculously lucky Smoke hit on the concealed stack in Y5, which allowed the Germans a chance to get up the hill, but the Pinned squad/LMG in BB4 broke the (battle-hardened) 10-2 and 238 as they rushed the hill in Z3, and the Italian 75ART nailed my 8-1 and two MMC's with an Intensive Fire shot as they zoomed into Q4. Ultimately, just not enough unbroken Germans around to make things happen.
If I had to do it again (and I'd like to - it's a fun scenario and Jeremy is a good and pleasurable opponent to spend time with), I'd maybe try to concentrate the reinforcements a bit more instead of surrounding the hill. I had too many 1-on-1 adjacent opportunities where I just didn't survive the Aussie prep fire; if I'd have given them more targets to shoot at, I think we could have cracked the hill a little easier. And sure, the Aussies could have reinforced from wherever I wasn't attacking, but they needed to get out of their foxholes and wouldn't have new foxholes to move into.
The other thing to note - once the close-in brawl starts, LOS is pretty open, and defensive fire opportunities are definitely there. So while the German attack takes a while to get organized and make progress, there's a lot of bullets in the air on the last few turns, and the Germans can definitely make up for lost time.
Definitely worth playing!
Situation: Crete. 10 FJ squad-equivalents (with 9-2 and dm 81mm MTR) drop onto boards 58 and 73 (augmented by several overlays - take my advice and use the draggable overlay VASL extension to set this up). They are bolstered by 10 ML8 squads coming in from the east edge (top edge of the pics below) - the reinforcements also get a dm 81mm MTR, just in case the paras forgot theirs. They have 7 turns to clear 10 Aussie squads off the Level 2+ hexes on the northern (left) half of the hill on board 58. The Aussies are enjoying three captured Italian ART guns, and with SSR 2 explaining just who gets Captured Use, Non-Qualified Use, and Ammo Shortage, believe me, you're going to want to go to Texas ASL and download the Player Aid that explains just what the B and X numbers are.
The pic below shows the situation after the German para scatter on turn 1. Wings A and C hit their drop points; Wing A had the 81mm MTR (hoping they could start lobbing shells at the Aussies from their side of the hill) and Wing C had the 9-2 (because I figured we'd need him on that side of the hill). Wing B missed his initial drop point (73P4) and dropped instead on 58C5, not terrible but not great either. Two squads from Wing A drifted right over the Aussie defense and got shot up; the rest of the folks did as well as one can expect - note that Orchards are Olive Groves and Grain is Vineyards, both of which cause MCs when paras land there.
The first few turns featured the usual silliness as the paras ran around trying to rally and rearm (which they were singularly bad at) and the German reinforcements opted for a "surround the hill strategy". Here's the situation at the end of German turn 3. Note the Melee in 58P2; Jeremy was generally happy to sit in his foxholes and shoot me up, but he saw a nice opportunity to grab some of the para's gear, so his 9-1 and 228/MMG came over and grabbed a loot box, scoring an LMG. The unopened loot box in P1 is the para's 81mm MTR; I never did get to it, and that sucked. Plus, that 9-1 and MMG crew were a royal PITA, repulsing several German squads as they tried to get past.
As the game wore on, my "encircle the hill" strategy sure did result in the hill being encircled, but it also turned into a lot of situations that had an alarming sameness: I'd advance up adjacent to an Aussie unit in a Foxhole, he'd fire and break me, and that was that. The 458/LMG in Y7 was particularly good at this. Meanwhile, the reinforcing 81mm MTR (which luckily came in on turn 2) had a choice to make - take a little longer to move up to Level 3 and get into the LOS of the assumed Aussie Guns on Level 3, or just get into the game earlier by settling for firing on the eastern crestline positions where the Aussie squads were. He chose.... poorly.... taking the former route and essentially being useless until turn 5. In his defense, he did break an MMG crew and leader in U4, but he'd have been far more useful just sitting in N10 or BB8 and prosecuting those sides of the hill. Lesson learned.
At the end, the MTR in L4 got a ridiculously lucky Smoke hit on the concealed stack in Y5, which allowed the Germans a chance to get up the hill, but the Pinned squad/LMG in BB4 broke the (battle-hardened) 10-2 and 238 as they rushed the hill in Z3, and the Italian 75ART nailed my 8-1 and two MMC's with an Intensive Fire shot as they zoomed into Q4. Ultimately, just not enough unbroken Germans around to make things happen.
If I had to do it again (and I'd like to - it's a fun scenario and Jeremy is a good and pleasurable opponent to spend time with), I'd maybe try to concentrate the reinforcements a bit more instead of surrounding the hill. I had too many 1-on-1 adjacent opportunities where I just didn't survive the Aussie prep fire; if I'd have given them more targets to shoot at, I think we could have cracked the hill a little easier. And sure, the Aussies could have reinforced from wherever I wasn't attacking, but they needed to get out of their foxholes and wouldn't have new foxholes to move into.
The other thing to note - once the close-in brawl starts, LOS is pretty open, and defensive fire opportunities are definitely there. So while the German attack takes a while to get organized and make progress, there's a lot of bullets in the air on the last few turns, and the Germans can definitely make up for lost time.
Definitely worth playing!
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