Mike's Winter Offensive AAR

[Michael R]

I decided to return to Winter Offensive for the first time since 2002. This time, I drove down over two days with a stop at the Best Western in Albany where the New York State ASL Championship is held. It was fun to see the snow disappear as we drove down to Maryland.

I entered the game room around 6 PM on Thursday evening. I was surprised to see almost 40 people there already. Every table had at least one set of gear on it, and many had two. I found a table to share and then started looking for an opponent.

 

[Michael R]

Game 1

I eventually found Chris Thompson, who I believe said he was from Delaware. He told me he was a newish player. I didn’t have my scenario binder in the game room yet, so we looked at what he had with him. We chose WO9 STING’EM AT ZINGEM, which I remembered was in my binder as well. We bid for sides and I chose German. I did not know the ROAR record when I made that choice, although I thought the Germans were slightly under powered.

This is an early war scenario against Belgian defenders. There are several objective hexes of which the Germans must take four. Chris set up his defence stronger on the German left and centre, so I chose to enter most of the Germans on the German right. Only one squad and a half came in at the centre bridge. The Belgians on the German right turned out to be two dummies and one squad that was quite studly. It delayed the Germans enough to allow the Belgian tanks to get into position behind the centre hedge. The German 37L HT shot first, however, and got the first kill. The second tank forced me to send the armoured car and other HT on a flanking run down the road toward the bridge. The Belgian bridge garrison had slowly withdrawn under the eye of the Germans at the bridge. Some fire was exchanged that removed one Belgian squad and one German half squad.

German infantry approached the Belgian tank, which Chris chose to leave unsupported by infantry; he was keeping the infantry on and near the objective hexes. The Germans had taken two and needed two more. When the tank became thoroughly involved with the German infantry, the 37L HT was able to reposition and then kill the remaining Belgian tank. Chris had a unit set a DC in the nearest objective hex to the Germans. I thought that was quite clever. I have never seen that done. Time was running out for the Germans. I used some VBM to lock the Belgian fire in the nearest buildings so the Germans could swarm objective hexes three and four. Objective hex four also contained the squad that had set the DC, so it could not detonate the DC. The Germans occupied the third objective hex and protected it from counterattack on their last move while at the same time entering the fourth objective hex to CC the Belgians there. I had three German squads to two Belgian squads. I declared 3 to 1, knowing I would have one more CC phase. Chris declared 2 to 1. We each lost one squad. In the CC of the final Belgian turn, I needed to win the 2 to 1, but I rolled too high.

 

[Michael R]

Game 2

On Friday morning, I had my binder of scenarios that I wanted to play. All of them were scenarios that I had never played. Perry matched me Ron Duenskie, so I knew I would need to bring my “A” game. Ron is from New York state and often plays people like Gary Mei. Ron liked the look of FT170 ROAD TO JUNIVILLE that I had brought. This is a 1940 scenario between French and Germans that is mostly a meeting engagement. The Germans need to obtain more VP than the French, based on CVP and exit VP. We both bid German, which would give the French and extra tank at start. I won the dice roll, so Ron had four tanks at start on board instead of three. This allowed him to defend both sides with two platoons, instead of having only one platoon.

I had a great first turn. My Pz3 tanks were able to get behind and destroy the two French tanks of the platoon on the German right. The left platoon, however, would not fall so easily and eventually killed two German tanks and immobilized one. One of them fell to the infantry reinforcements later. When the French personnel carriers came on board, I had only one motion tank that could shoot at them. It had no effect. Perhaps I should have ignored the left side French tank platoon in favour of sending three tanks to interdict the French reinforcements. Ron brought them in at the central road and unloaded everyone (I think) adjacent to the central woods, except for the two 25LL ATG, which he unloaded on the road leading there. I sent two light tanks down the German right to attempt to get behind the French forces that came on in the centre. They were not successful because of an MG and the later French tank reinforcements. My reinforcements came in mostly on the German left. One squad and the towed ATG came in on the right, both trying to bag the mobile French tank. It would get away. After four turns, I was behind in the CVP count, and I could tell that I would not be able to win the game.

 

[Michael R]

Game 3

Friday evening, I had a game with Bob Scripp who lives within easy driving distance of the hotel. Bob and I had played before at ASLOK. I remembered that he did not get to play very often, so I asked if he had a scenario that he wanted to play. He had an ASL Journal with him. He flipped through it and decided on J118 ELEPHANTS UNLEASHED. I told him that it was a fun scenario that I had played twice and won both times, once as each side. I let him have choice of sides and he chose the Russians.


I decided to try for the building control VC, rather than the exit VC. Bob set up most of the at-start Russian assets in the forward buildings, which played into my plan. I sent the Elefants and the Pz4 down the German left. I sent the two Pz3 against the forward buildings along with two thirds of the infantry. The other third headed towards the further buildings.


I was all around the forward buildings after two turns, and would control them in turn three. Bob brought the reinforcing T34 tanks in on the German right with their 628 passengers. He sent two to the rear buildings and the rest to the forward buildings. He did not unload anybody and kept them in motion, which allowed me to attack two of the rider squads and the rider leader in the next turn. The ones I attacked never took part in the battle.


The SU-152 tanks came in on the German left. Two Elefants traded shots with them, while the Pz4 relocated to help the German infantry to take the far buildings. Surprisingly, after a couple of turns, one Elefant was destroyed by a SU-152 CH and the other was immobilized by a regular SU-152 shot. One Elefant hit an SU-152, but rolled a twelve on the TK! One Elefant destroyed a T-34. Late in the game, a T-34 immobilized the third Elefant.


The German infantry were able to proceed forward, although they took some casualties from the T-34 tank fire. After five turns, the Germans had taken seven buildings. There were no more Russian infantry around to take any back, so Bob conceded.

 

[Michael R]

Game 4

On Saturday morning, I had to wait a little bit. I think most people were showing up to be paired and then going to breakfast. I was going to breakfast with my wife before showing up, so everyone in sight was paired when I got there. After a bit of time, Perry sent fresh arrival Andy Goldin, another local player, to have a game with me.


We picked SP186 BEAUFORT’S FEAST, which is an early war meeting engagement between French and German combined arms teams. Both sides start off-board and try to control the same areas. The French need to prevent the Germans from controlling any one of three areas. The Germans move first. I bid French and Andy bid German.


Both sides have OBA, but the French have the advantage there with an off-board observer. The French have six S35 tanks to the Germans’ five tanks (3xPz3F, 1 Pz4D, 1 Pz2F). Andy, who does not play often, did not initially realize how much trouble the Germans would have destroying the S-35 tanks. I could practically park them in front of his tanks and shoot at them. The danger was DI shots, but Andy didn’t think of that for awhile. Andy sent two thirds of the German infantry against the French left, which had two victory areas, and the rest against the French right. The French infantry sort of matched that disposition, but the French squads outnumbered the German squads 18 to 11. My tanks were able to hit his often, but had difficulty getting the kills, except for one early kill on the Pz2. The OBA helped hold off his infantry on the French left while the French infantry approached. The OBA killed a Pz3 as well, IIRC.


When the German observer was in position to start bringing down OBA, I was able to put shots on him and I got lucky breaking him. I was able to keep him from ever rallying. Eventually, my tanks got kills on his tanks. I had one immobilized tank from German fire and one tank with a malfunctioned MA. Once there were no more German tanks, the French tanks started to use VBM against German infantry to help the French infantry move into the victory areas. Andy came close to nailing two tanks with CC reaction fire, but the dice were not with him. After five turns, the French held all three victory areas securely and there were not many good order German squads around, so Andy conceded.

 

[Michael R]

Game 5

I was walking around the room looking for an opponent around 7 PM when I heard Joe Markham telling someone he just got kicked out of his game by Dave Lamb (or maybe Perry Cocke). Joe told me he had set up a scenario defence for a game against Dave Lamb when Perry came around and told Dave Lamb that he had to play someone else who was undefeated, or possible had a better record than Joe, because Dave was undefeated. Dave Lamb then asked Joe to let him and the other player use the scenario that Joe and Dave were going to play. Joe let them, so was available suddenly and agreed to play me when I asked. I had wanted to play Joe since I first heard him at ASLOK several years ago. He always sounds like he has a good time playing and people like that make the game more fun for me.


He looked for a short scenario from my binder. We decided upon FrF51 BITE OF THE BASSOTTO. A small force of Germans must hold onto a number of buildings against New Zealand troops that have twice the number of Germans. The Germans have an Italian 105 StuG in German colours, a six factor AP mine, as well as late game reinforcements of thee more squads and an Italian 75 StuG. An SSR lets them HIP one MMC and the 105 StuG. Another SSR lets the Germans use two PF as recorded. The New Zealand troops have three Staghound armoured cars aiding them.


I think I set up a reasonable defence. Joe entered troops and AC at several spots along the two board edges allowed. The HIP MMC with a designated PF took out one armoured car on the first German turn. A second armoured car was destroyed by the PSK soon after. I even had a Kiwi squad walk onto the mines that I had put in a path hex, but the squad did not break. Joe did a great job of using half squads and infantry smoke to close in on my positions, force the tough decisions and provoke FTR elimination. The numbers game began to tell and by my turn four start, I did not have much infantry left. The HIP StuG had relocated at one point to interdict the movement of the Kiwi infantry, but I moved it to a bad spot where it could be threatened by several units. I lost it soon after. I handled the turn four reinforcements badly. I tried to use VBM against a squad and leader stack, but the AFV was immobilized by their CC reaction fire. The follow on troops did not break the defending NZ squad, so that squad eliminated my AFV in CC. Soon after that, it was apparent that I could not retake that buildings that I would need to win.

View attachment 44473View attachment 44474

 

[Michael R]

Game 6

Saturday evening I arranged a game with Stephen Frum for Sunday morning. He had to leave around noon on Sunday, so I played a short scenario again from my binder. It was WO3 COUNTERATTACK AT CARENTAN. By dice, I received the Americans. This scenario is on two half boards, one of which has a lot of bocage and the other has a lot of open ground. A small force of 747 squads with one 57L ATG try to stop 9 SS 548 squads with armour support from exiting. The Germans have a CVP cap of which they must be wary.


Stephen played a very tight game, with just the right amount of caution most of the time. Still, I had managed to destroy one Stug and a number of infantry units by the time my units had backed up to the seam between the two half boards. Then I got caught by a rule I had forgotten. My ATG was in a building. I pivoted to shoot at a Marder that was out in the open, hoping to get rate and turn back towards a StuH 42 that was also threatening. Stephen pointed out that the ATG could not pivot again after firing from a building. I also got caught in a bad withdrawal decision with one unit; I tried a dash where perhaps an assault move might have been smarter. The unit broke. With the death of the Marder, the Germans were approaching the CVP cap, so I played a little more, but after four turns, I had no more good order infantry, so I conceded.

 

[Michael R]

Epilogue

Although this format of tournament is not my favourite, I had a good time. In the six matches, I played five scenarios that were new to me, and three players that were new to me. The weekend had an ASLOK weekend feel to it. I met a few people I had not seen in a long time, like Dan Dolan, Brian Youse and Jim Stahler. I got a look at the Dinat map, which is interesting and large. I enjoyed the free pizza on Saturday night and the hotel was fine. It was interesting to see what non-ASL games people chose to play, especially the late night ones. As a bonus, I found a nearby Container Store, where I could buy 17 of the 27-compartment BoxBox trays. I plan to re-do my counter storage.

My wife was trying out her new Olympus Stylus camera, so here are a few extra photos.

Master of Ceremonies: Perry Cocke

 

[Michael R]

Some raffle prizes: the Band of Brothers bobble head and the panzer slippers.

 

[Michael R]

Pizza night! 50 pizzas!

 

[Michael R]

ASL counters shot with "dramatic filter setting".

 

[Michael R]

I think this game was War Of The Ring

 

[volgaG68]

Game 3

Friday evening, I had a game with Bob Scripp who lives within easy driving distance of the hotel. Bob and I had played before at ASLOK. I remembered that he did not get to play very often, so I asked if he had a scenario that he wanted to play. He had an ASL Journal with him. He flipped through it and decided on J118 ELEPHANTS UNLEASHED. I told him that it was a fun scenario that I had played twice and won both times, once as each side. I let him have choice of sides and he chose the Russians.

A friendly show of class! Nice attitude.

 

[Michael R]

ASL luminaries J.R. Tracy, Gary Mei and J.R. van Mechlen. Other players in other shots. First one is Thursday night. Second one is Saturday.

 

[Gunner Scott]

Wow, looks really really crowded on saturday. I bet some of those non ASL games must have taken up some serious space.


Scott

 

[Carln0130]

All that's missing is mood music .

ASL counters shot with "dramatic filter setting".

 

[Ray Woloszyn]

Epilogue

Although this format of tournament is not my favourite, I had a good time. In the six matches, I played five scenarios that were new to me, and three players that were new to me. The weekend had an ASLOK weekend feel to it. I met a few people I had not seen in a long time, like Dan Dolan, Brian Youse and Jim Stahler. I got a look at the Dinat map, which is interesting and large. I enjoyed the free pizza on Saturday night and the hotel was fine. It was interesting to see what non-ASL games people chose to play, especially the late night ones. As a bonus, I found a nearby Container Store, where I could buy 17 of the 27-compartment BoxBox trays. I plan to re-do my counter storage.

My wife was trying out her new Olympus Stylus camera, so here are a few extra photos.

Master of Ceremonies: Perry Cocke

Nice report of an event I sorely miss, Michael. Put a Confederate officer's uniform on Perry and he'll be ready for the General Staff or to sit for one of Mort Kunstler's Civil War paintings.

 

[Cpt Homp]

Mike, great AAR! It was great playing you, glad you had fun. I am indeed from Delaware!

 

[jrv]

Some raffle prizes: the Band of Brothers bobble head and the panzer slippers.

The latter are more accurately the PanzerSchlipper Mk II Ausf C. Later models were up-fleeced to 50mm.

JR

 

[Perry]

Nice AAR, Michael. and some very nice pics. I am glad you and the lovely Mrs. R. could make it down.