Servius
Member
- Joined
- Feb 24, 2017
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- 54
- Reaction score
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We (#1 son and myself) are learning ASL by way of playing our way through the Starter Kits. We'll play a scenario then switch sides and play it again. This was our first play of Scenario 4. I was the Germans.
ROAR rates this as 53-44 for the Americans but I'm having trouble understanding why. The Germans have 6 1/2 turns to cross board 'y' and the Americans have a sparse force to slow them down.
The main advantage for the Germans is more troops and time. 6 1/2 turns is a long time for the Americans to hold out on a narrow board.
The main advantage for the Americans is a heavy machine gun and a broad field of fire across much of the board. It's nearly impossible to get troops across the bulk of the board.
However, there is a line of trees that shields the German left flank from the HM set up in the main area of the board and it is there I made my main push. His HM was set up in a building nearly on my right flank but covering all the way up to the trees on my left flank. He had a medium machine gun in the center of the board. Oh, he had a flame thrower in the stack with the HM.
He had troops positioned to swing left or right in the rear to cover a breakthrough on either side.
In that protected area on my left flank he had a medium machine gun but was otherwise sparsely defended.
So, I put together three assault forces. The largest group with 2 medium MGs went to the left flank.
2, 3 squad groups attacked the medium machine gun and heavy machine gun to keep them occupied. I had hoped to occupy the HMG and capture the MMG but this was not to be.
It started snowing on the 3rd turn and kept snowing throughout, but the snow did not have a major impact on the game.
The main force was also in 2 portions. The largest group was to break through and proceed as quickly as possible through the forest using the road if possible to emerge near the left most VP exit point. The 2 medium machine guns were to proceed along the edge of the forest using the buildings as cover to about the same point but to establish a blocking force to protect the survivors as the exited.
The 2 smaller groups got stopped cold. The flamethrower burnt up 2 squads before it broke and all squads were routing back to the officers I had left them in cover on the map edge. For the most part, these groups would not survive the day. After the initial assault they were not left with sufficient numbers to overwhelm the positions. They did, however, occupy their targets for the entire game so they died heroes.
On the left, the initial assault broke the defenders and eliminated an officer for failure to route. The remainder routed and I kept pressure on them for several turns until on the 4th turn they were finally forced to route off the board to the left and were eliminated.
One of my medium machine gun squads was broken and had to be rallied and this group was slowed down enough that the enemy was able to occupy the buildings I had wanted to get into to block him.
It was a costly fight over these buildings and his remaining flamethrower killed 2 more of my squads before it broke. The officer wielding it was then killed in close combat. His other supporting squad broke during FPF and I had my blocking force in place on the 5th turn and he had to assault a superior position.
On the 6th turn I was able to exit 12 victory points for the win.
I am not looking forward to this defense; although with this playing in mind, I might have a similar setup but with a second line of defenders in the forest and officers available to rally any broken front line units. If he had been able to delay me just one turn I may not have been able to get close enough for the win.
Things we learned:
Still learning some rules so, discovered that Elite units are not susceptible to ELR. It's written right there in the RB but hadn't noticed that line before.
A squad that has prep fired just its support weapon may NOT throw smoke during movement phase.
Flamethrowers are effective but on average you're not going to get more than about 3 shots.
This game is alot more fun once you learn how to maneuver and understand how the limitation on targets for Subsequent Fire works. Before, we would prep fire all day and be stuck in WW1 style lines.
ROAR rates this as 53-44 for the Americans but I'm having trouble understanding why. The Germans have 6 1/2 turns to cross board 'y' and the Americans have a sparse force to slow them down.
The main advantage for the Germans is more troops and time. 6 1/2 turns is a long time for the Americans to hold out on a narrow board.
The main advantage for the Americans is a heavy machine gun and a broad field of fire across much of the board. It's nearly impossible to get troops across the bulk of the board.
However, there is a line of trees that shields the German left flank from the HM set up in the main area of the board and it is there I made my main push. His HM was set up in a building nearly on my right flank but covering all the way up to the trees on my left flank. He had a medium machine gun in the center of the board. Oh, he had a flame thrower in the stack with the HM.
He had troops positioned to swing left or right in the rear to cover a breakthrough on either side.
In that protected area on my left flank he had a medium machine gun but was otherwise sparsely defended.
So, I put together three assault forces. The largest group with 2 medium MGs went to the left flank.
2, 3 squad groups attacked the medium machine gun and heavy machine gun to keep them occupied. I had hoped to occupy the HMG and capture the MMG but this was not to be.
It started snowing on the 3rd turn and kept snowing throughout, but the snow did not have a major impact on the game.
The main force was also in 2 portions. The largest group was to break through and proceed as quickly as possible through the forest using the road if possible to emerge near the left most VP exit point. The 2 medium machine guns were to proceed along the edge of the forest using the buildings as cover to about the same point but to establish a blocking force to protect the survivors as the exited.
The 2 smaller groups got stopped cold. The flamethrower burnt up 2 squads before it broke and all squads were routing back to the officers I had left them in cover on the map edge. For the most part, these groups would not survive the day. After the initial assault they were not left with sufficient numbers to overwhelm the positions. They did, however, occupy their targets for the entire game so they died heroes.
On the left, the initial assault broke the defenders and eliminated an officer for failure to route. The remainder routed and I kept pressure on them for several turns until on the 4th turn they were finally forced to route off the board to the left and were eliminated.
One of my medium machine gun squads was broken and had to be rallied and this group was slowed down enough that the enemy was able to occupy the buildings I had wanted to get into to block him.
It was a costly fight over these buildings and his remaining flamethrower killed 2 more of my squads before it broke. The officer wielding it was then killed in close combat. His other supporting squad broke during FPF and I had my blocking force in place on the 5th turn and he had to assault a superior position.
On the 6th turn I was able to exit 12 victory points for the win.
I am not looking forward to this defense; although with this playing in mind, I might have a similar setup but with a second line of defenders in the forest and officers available to rally any broken front line units. If he had been able to delay me just one turn I may not have been able to get close enough for the win.
Things we learned:
Still learning some rules so, discovered that Elite units are not susceptible to ELR. It's written right there in the RB but hadn't noticed that line before.
A squad that has prep fired just its support weapon may NOT throw smoke during movement phase.
Flamethrowers are effective but on average you're not going to get more than about 3 shots.
This game is alot more fun once you learn how to maneuver and understand how the limitation on targets for Subsequent Fire works. Before, we would prep fire all day and be stuck in WW1 style lines.
