So what scenarios have you played Recently?

[Yuri0352]

March on Marche DB 134 Meeting engagement, Belgium 1940. The French will get mauled, but can they hold back the Germans for long enough? I've never had 37* gun armed tanks do so well. With heavy vehicle losses, the German Infantry will still tear up the French Infantry, but they will not be able to cross a lot of ground quickly. French victory. Good scenario.

That's pretty much how this one played out when we were playtesting it. The variable entry point for the French tank platoon and their subsequent disruption of the German armor attack was crucial to my rapidly crumbling French infantry. I also held a platoon of 4-5-8 cavalry in reserve to the west and prepared a set DC in the final victory building. The Germans ran out of time in the end, resulting in a French victory.
Side note, I was surprised at how long my AMR light tank lasted and the extent to which it slowed the German infantry's advance.

 

[WuWei]

The return match of the Verdict at Nuremberg campaign, J143 Circle of Doom. It didn't went too great for my Americans, but then my puny infantry mortar lands a critical hit on one of the German 88s and totally obliterates it.
I almost feel bad for my opponent.

 

[RevJJ]

BFP-118 Kazina Klash from PiF. My attacking Germans had 5 turns to either take 2 VC buildings or take out all the Polish armor (destroy, immobilize, or recall) on 1/2 of board BFP P. The Germans get three platoons of 467s w/ some lmgs and three leaders ... an 8-1/8-0/7-0. Their armor consists of a Pz IB, 4 x Pz IIA, 2 x PSW 221, a PSW 222, and an 8-1 AL which I put in one of the IIAs. They then get to choose, in secret, one of two battle groups to add to their OB. They can take either an additional 467 w/ an mmg aboard a truck hauling a 75 INF gun or 2 trucks hauling PaK 35/36 37L AT guns w/ crews. Tough choice but I went for the the extra infantry and 75 INF gun. I thought I'd get better utility out of the extra squad and mmg. The INF gun was going to be tough getting into position under fire but it was going hurt if it hit. The Poles get 5 x 457s, a 248 hs, 2 x 228 crews, a 9-1 and an a 8-1, a hero that can setup hip with a sw, and an ATR. Their armor support includes a 47 Vickers, a CMG Vickers, a 20L TKS, 2 x BMG TKS, and a 37L AT gun (the AT guns is under low ammo). They get a reinforcement group comprising a 457 and another 47 Vickers that can enter Turn 1 - 3 depending on a pregame dr. The Poles get a HW support choice between a 81 MTR or a hmg.

The Germans have to enter from off map on the left side of the battle ground (German perspective) between 5 hexes. They can stagger their entry if they want but I choose to bum rush every one in Turn 1. Two platoons and a majority of the vehicles went left of the road while one platoon w/ the 8-1, a IIA, one of the ACs, and the MMG squad hauling the INF gun went right of the road to secure fire bases from the mid map hill. On the left I ran into the two BMG TKS which managed to break a squad but then were quickly under a lot of return AFV fire. The Pole hero popped up supporting the tankettes and bounced a few ATR shots. I killed both TKs and then sent the IIBs up the hill to infantry overrun a squad and a crew that survived the non flaming TKS. The 37L Pole gun surfaced on the right side of the map covering the two hills. It was poised perfect to get side shots on two vehicles I had on that mid map hill but my opponent got unlucky and malfed it on its first roll. It subsequently was eliminated on a repair roll of 6. I malfed plenty myself including both the MA and cmg on one of the IIAs. My 8-1 w/ the added mmg put a 12FP attack on the closest VC building and I was able to take it. I used the IIA with no weaponry to sleeze freeze the Pole 8-1 and a squad so I could maneuver around them on the left. The remaining Pole armor was hunkered down in the woods surrounding the last VC building. The 47 Vickers came in Turn 3 and also took up a similar defensive position. However I went on a lucky rolling streak with my armor on the hills and killed both 47 Vikers and the 20L leaving only the CMG Vickers, which was maintaining its concealment.

At this point I had plunged deep on my left flank and uncovered the Pole 81 MTR setup in the back woods. It wasn't in a great position and I got infantry into its donut hole pretty quickly. The Pole hero killed my IB and the PSW 221 was immobilized and then subsequently shocked. It was still going to be a tough push for the last VC building so I decided to go for the AFV VC. I had malfed the MA on another IIA but I still had 2 x IIAs with working MAs (my 8-1 AL was in one) and the PSW 222. The only real threat to the Pzs was the hero who had re-positioned. The AC would just have to takes its chances so I rolled all three vehicles within 2 hexes of the last Vickers on Turn 4. The Pole hero bounced a few ATR shots to no effect but the PSW222 crew got shot up taking that gun out of the picture and I malfed the MA on my IIA with the AL. But I had managed to strip concealment on the last Vickers and my remaining IIA converted its -2 area fire acq to direct and killed it on my last Prep fire phase of the game.

Close one. A lot of unfortunate malfing. Had the Poles not malfed their AT gun in particular it might have been all over for me considering its excellent firing position. We both agreed the mortar probably should have gone in the woods on my right flank where it have a much better field of fire and could cover both hills. In hindsight I think I probably should have taken the 2 x PaKs instead of the mmg squad and INF gun. The mmg and extra squad was helpful in me getting the first VC building but the INF gun crew got killed manhandling the gun into firing position. I did get a 1/2 squad to man the gun but it only got one shot off and with the unqualified penalty (plus the 1/2 squad was cx), it missed by a mile. Fun scenario.

 

[jfardette]

Jeff W. And I just played this today as well. I didn't take notes to give the blow by blow report like that above, but there were some highlights. It started with the Germans driving a tank into my HIP hero/ATR combo, where it was immobilized and then killed in CC. The hero bagged another tank with the magic ATR before a sniper took him out. A nearby HS picked up the ATR and killed a third tank but then the luck ran out. The Germans rallied, burned a few Polish AFV including one with an LMG. They carried the attack to the final building location, but the Polish infantry was unable to pass an MC to save their lives (literally...) the Germans took the final building in CC on the final turn for the win. Fun scenario, with way too much action packed onto half a board.

 

[Fort]

J178 vs Ken Young.
Won as the US. Ken had a tough defense and was tenacious. A first turn kill of his Mark IV made his defense behind the stream of the board 59 village tenuous. Time and time again Ken skillfully withdrew from my probing attacks and attempts to corral his forces. I was able to finally get his panthers into a compromised position and while they were mutually supporting each other, the infantry screen he had had them in for the first 3 turns was too far away to keep the US armor at bay. Both panthers went down for the loss of one Sherman (who had a busted MA anyway). Once those two big cats were done the field opened up and with only PF and one StuG to hold my yanks at bay I was able to push him over the CVP cap.
Good game and opponent.

Michael Koch scores again with this one.

I rate it 50:50 and a 9 out of 10 for fun.

But, the US needs to know how to use his armor. In ASL, US armor in 1945 is a match for anything the Germans can field and especially with G and armor leaders.
The PF everywhere are a pain, but US firepower can deal with the infantry.

 

[JRKrejsa]

Coriano ASL AP82 Nice contest. The smoke barrage landed right where I wanted it. But after that, the 3" MTR broke on it's first shot, and I immo'ed a Sherman on an AP minefield. (First time I've ever done that.) Plenty of Canadian losses initially, but a hero with a PIAT charged and killed the Pz4. After getting into the first block I was stopped, but the Germans were too chewed up to stop the Canadians. Canadian victory. Fun scenario- we both thought we were losing at different points.

 

[Mister T]

Played Katyusha's Embrace from latest J11. One may think that a scenario with 200mm Rocket OBA is dicy. It is not. There's quite some thinking required to prepare the most appropriate setup and some dilemma involved. Where should the Romanians defend? Which Gun to select? How to play the Marders? When should the Russian unleash his rockets? Which objectives to target?
In the game, rockets fell on the 2-level building, which cause its partial collapse and an amazing number of shellholes. Axis forces suffered some casualties and Soviets rushed into the gaping hole created by the rockets. The last player turn opened with the Soviets controlling two buildings and four units within the VC area. The brave Romanian 9-2 led a counterattack that recaptured one building hex. Another outstanding delivery from the Mazzei/Struijf duo.

 

[M.Koch]

J178 vs Ken Young.
Won as the US. Ken had a tough defense and was tenacious. A first turn kill of his Mark IV made his defense behind the stream of the board 59 village tenuous. Time and time again Ken skillfully withdrew from my probing attacks and attempts to corral his forces. I was able to finally get his panthers into a compromised position and while they were mutually supporting each other, the infantry screen he had had them in for the first 3 turns was too far away to keep the US armor at bay. Both panthers went down for the loss of one Sherman (who had a busted MA anyway). Once those two big cats were done the field opened up and with only PF and one StuG to hold my yanks at bay I was able to push him over the CVP cap.
Good game and opponent.

Michael Koch scores again with this one.

I rate it 50:50 and a 9 out of 10 for fun.

But, the US needs to know how to use his armor. In ASL, US armor in 1945 is a match for anything the Germans can field and especially with G and armor leaders.
The PF everywhere are a pain, but US firepower can deal with the infantry.

Thanks, Gerry. I´m with you that the US player must make good use of all his assets he has in 1945...Also the German player, who needs a well sophisticated defense in that one.

 

[von Marwitz]

Thanks, Gerry. I´m with you that the US player must make good use of all his assets he has in 1945...Also the German player, who needs a well sophisticated defense in that one.

I played that one, too, a while ago as the US - though not with the elegance of Fort which I could observe yesterday joining to watch in VASL. I liked the secenario.

In my game, the US were pretty effectively delayed by a small German token force on the far side of the stream of 1 1/2 squads which incredibly managed to break half a dozen US squads including the 9-2 and kill another squad as a bonus... With that delay, it became quite obivous for me that gaining the required number of buildings would be out of the question. I had my main attack in the north (for the three buildings on the exposed side of the stream but also sent some others for the southern route. The German StuG was killed pretty quickly and on Panther which was a little cocky staying CE in the North was recalled due to infantry FP. On one hand, this had the effect of valuable CVP being "lost" due to recall, on the other hand, it finally opened the way up in the north for my armor (which could somehow not bring much Smoke of any sort down). In the south, the area was guarded by the PzIV and the second Panther. There I had to take some risks but managed to first take out the PzIV and then swarm the Panther. This would have probably failed if my opponent had handled his tanks a little better. That done, I was able to cut some paths of retreat for German units and rout paths. This enabled me to win by CVP cap at last.

von Marwitz

 

[Mister T]

Played Trenches in Flames from CoS, a 6-turn scenario. Pre-game thinking is critical for the defender, who sets up in a largely open ground map, but get a lot of fortifications to improve its 'defense factor'. It would be a hard mission for the German attacker if he could not rely on two captured OT-34, which can quickly soften up (or rather melt it) the soviet defensive hard crust. Then it becomes a matter of how long the FT tanks can spew their deadly fuel without being put out of the action. Average-to-good scenario

 

[jfardette]

Out on vacation in Portland, internet was down. Played S55 using starter kit rules, solo on VASL offline. No rules or charts, but infantry only isn't too hard. Most effects are TCs, MCs or 1MCs. Nice little scenario to distract you and hide from relatives.

 

[Ray Woloszyn]

Played the revised Hunters from the Sky [ASL 201] last week, a scenario I had never played before. Because Dave Stephens, my opponent, and I had been doing airdrops prior to ASLOK it would be easy to play this one. Dave played it once when it first came out so the scenario was essentially new for both of us. It was a great scenario as the troop count is small and every move or fire attack is extremely important. Dave dropped where he wanted in good shape which included the random stick. He out thought me as the majority of my forces including the reinforcements were on the center of the playing area (board 4) in the two level building but he made it seem as if it was not his objective causing me to counterattack some of the other objective hexes and causing me needless casualties. We had to call it a draw as we did not have time to complete all ten turns. I lost my personal morale when my only armor got stunned and then eliminated by a bazooka on rolls of three from his American forces which had at that point created two heroes. I highly recommend this scenario as long as the airdrop is not a disaster.

 

[Carln0130]

I played two scenarios recently that I can highly recommend.

OST 2 from the Ost Front I pack from LCP. Storm! Five, Five, Five is the name of it.

This is a meaty, mostly armored fight. Mark IV H's up against T34 M43's in June of 44. The action nominally focuses on a bridge, but can also be a free form armor swirl depending on how the players play it. My opponent Jon Cole and I played it in such a fashion that it became a tank on tank dust up.

The downside to an armored fight is it is dicey by nature. Every DR means so much more to the outcome of the game. However, every DR was also tense and it played very well I thought. Definitely balanced and tense, but yes, it did end up being dicey. My Russians maintained ROF, (Only a 1) several times after rotating the entire tank and blowing off any chance of a hit in the process, while turning their less vulnerable side to the enemy. Having the ROF kept meant it made a difference on the second shot going down range, as it did not pay the shift penalties. This was the case several times. This, coupled with Jon not rolling well and missing many of his opportunities as a result, meant a win for me. It was however, a fun, tense, game. I give it a big recommend.

Also I wrapped up a game of Z15 The Landing Zone against James Taylor. (The ASL version) It is a huge 9 turn scenario. Alot of stuff on both sides. I lost on what would have literally been the last shot of the game when 9-1 leader broke along with the HS he was with. I needed 40 points off of which 22 had to be glider forces. I exited 39 of which 21 were glider forces. It could not have been closer. I always have great games with Jim and this would have been impossible to have be closer.

Those two recently played scenarios against terrific opponents is what this game is all about.

 

[Thunderchief]

I played J168 as the Russians against Richard Weiley at the monthly meeting of the Paddington Bears yesterday.

I conceded at the end of German Turn 4 but here's a rough idea of how it went.

Focus of Russian attack was on the Russian right.
Russian T1 Blob attack and assault guns move up and prepared to take down the outlying defenders. Roll a few 12s but no issue.
Russian T2. I have acquired a few hexes with my 122s during T1 so I can place smoke for my follow up attack in T2.
WCDR - 12 - gusts = smoke can't help. Drop the ROBA and it drifts into the back area and kills a HS. Thanks a lot.
Reinforcements come on and SU-76 x 3 take acq shots to get rid of some level 1 guys overlooking the battlefield. Two malf their guns.
Next turn - disable one gun, disable the next the following turn.

Rich sympathised with my bad dice and I changed them a few times to no avail - it was suggested that I should have stuck with the earlier dice as I had not rolled the 12s out of each new pair and so only compounded my troubles. It was also suggested that the dice tower was the trouble and not the dice themselves.

By the end of the game I had rolled 14 12s, of which many were at times when they can hurt the most, and I followed them up with a few 6s to ensure my demise.

By the time I reached 9 boxcars (end of turn two I think) Rich started announcing them to the room, so we had fun with it, but I couldn't make the plan come together.

Given better dice it will be worth another shot, and I should not have charged my 122s so far ahead of the infantry, but Rich is a good guy and we had a fun game, even with terrible Russian dice.
Did I mention I rolled a few boxcars?

 

[volgaG68]

ESG 61 "The 24 Hour Pass"..... Pat's Germans won in the final CC of the final 1/2 Turn, can't ask for any better than that. My Kiwis had to defend against 3 possible VC the Germans might try for; a small-scale exit, no GO NZ MMC (non-crew) on lvl 2 or lvl 3 hills, or no GO NZ MMC left in any buildings. After his initial entry it was obvious he would try to clear the hills, and almost successfully did so. I had a squad go berserk up there and spent a few turns running into Jerries, breaking them, and having them rout off. The hills was also where I sent most of my initial reinforcements.

Once that VC became flustered by mid-game, he switched to trying to clear me from the lvl 0 buildings, through which he had already made a steady advance. He had enough 'plinkers' ranged about to Pin any reinforcements I tried to shift that way; some got through but not enough. He took out my final MMC in a building in that final CC. Very fun scenario and recommended.

 

[A Lost Canadian]

At the Ottawa ASL Meet-up played the very talented Adrian Earle in Squad Bleed 6 - Eviscerating Vienna. Great scenario with an incredible amount of re-playablity. Just a wild smash up - sledge hammers swinging at each other. It also plays pretty fast for such a large scenario.

I bid high on going first so I at first mover, which is a big advantage. I bought 527s, 447s and 458s, with 2 IS-2s, a flame throwing tank and a pair of T34/85s. I had 628s as my turn 3 reinforcement group and bought two 9-1 armor leaders too.

My plan was to rush fast as possible into the middle of board 20, seize the valuable factory and then make Adrian come to me. The back work mostly - but then he did actually manage to bash his way in on turn 5. Half way through the final German turn we called it.

My tanks were dead useless. I got psyched out by all the rumble and then ended up immobilizing a bunch of them trying to get through the rubble. I expected much more of a tank vs tank battle but there was so much rubble that the tanks could barely move. PFs were very effective. His FB were also lethal.

Overall a very fun scenario. Not one to take too seriously. I think both sides need to buy the ERL upgrade. Also take risks with your OB. Invest heavily in engineers! Get FBs! (Adrian got them and expected me too - was all ready for air to air combat!) The infantry do all the heavy lifting in this - the tanks and toys are there to deal with each other.

 

[Jeffrey D Myers]

Just now setting up RBF-39, They Really Know How to Die, by someone named Scott Holst....

 

[Jacometti]

oh w

Just now setting up RBF-39, They Really Know How to Die, by someone named Scott Holst....

oh what a silly title for a scenario.

 

[Gunner Scott]

ya silly title...............

oh w


oh what a silly title for a scenario.

 

[Jacometti]

how about "they died like inglorious bastards"