briefly a report of the games played at the recent ASO event held in Copenhagen (Denmark, Europe)
Chateau Gandelu RPT 137. Friendly game vs Sami Pelkonen. My French held a hill village in 1940 against a resolute group of 468 SS attaching from two sides. The Germans have H mortar and a 150 mm INF gun to lay smoke but no armor or vehicles. The best resources of the French are a 9-2 and a HMG.
The German did not find smoke, and this helped the French cause. So his attack from east and west toward the board 68 village was exposed to potential deadly defensive fire. despite the Germans HOBs two times (two heroes!) the French resisted trading terrain for time and German bodies. The last desperate move of the Germans in OG to jump on the defenders failed and the French held all buidings without no losses! Good scenario that seems well balanced. The German can attack even without smoke, with all due caution, but of course the ability to lay a smoke screen looks as the key of the German advance.
The Yelnya Bridge J102 Round 1 vs Jesper Led. My Russians avert the German AFV stream crossing in the "non bridge" part of the stream. The MMG and the INF Gun on the hill prenvented an early crossing of the SS. All AFVs and infantry tried to move on the left of the Russian front, ignoring the well guarded bridge, only to encounter the sharp shelling of the gun and the BS hex of the MMG. In the key moment of the attack a 426 fired snakeeyes at PB against a stack of SS (two S + the 9-1) in the stream at -2 DRM that basically ended the game. No losses for the Russian! 1-0
Mormal Forest FrF 87 Round 2 vs Ran Shiloah. My Germans crushed against the baionet wall created by Ran in the forest. Not founding any smoke shell, depleting the FT at the first attack and missing everything with the Stuka the mission becomes too hard for the Germans. Ran defended lightly the village objective but it still held against my too light wing force and the late reinforcements I sent once I realized that the far forest objective was out of range. The French Artillery gun was illegally placed in a building dominating the road that enters in the forest, and Ran kindly removed it, but even without it the French held well, resisting to several FG at 16 or more FP in the forest until the time run out. At the end none of the three objective was German controlled. So it was a crushing defeat. 1-1
Cricket in spring AP 130 Round 3 vs Stefan Fiedler. I had the Russians. I placed guns in both the hill hexes on the left to dominate the road in front of the hill with the buildings. The SS attacked all following the same line, on my left, ignoring the chance to try a flanking manouvre at my right. This simplified my defense as I had all the time to shift everything on that side. Placing two t34s on the other end of the road I controlled it in both direction making any German advance in the open a blood bath (no smoke in mud). The over cautious stance of my opponent took soon him short of time. Too many points of gap, so he resigned at the start of his T6.
I have to note how the unfortunate wording of SSR 2 "crews cannot voluntary abandon their mobile vehicles" combined with the VCs and with SSR 1 (EC & Weather Mud) invites explicitly the German players to voluntary immobilize his three HT via ESP in a safe place, with the double positive effect to keep them away from the Russians shells, and reclute three fresh brand new PF/dr3 machines (their crews now free to dismount) and three LMGs. A possibilty my opponent readily caught. Anyway this did not changed anything and the only Russian loss in the game was a T34. 2-1
Creams of the Crop AP 12 Round 4 vs Josh Kalman. Not much to say as my opponent rolled boxcars at the first start of the tank, immobilizing it in turn one. The Germans flanked the village from the right (unopposed) and from the left, where a bloody battle begun, The Armor support and the superior FP of the Germans overcame the defenders. Also the Russian Armor reinforcements did not changed anything and so Josh resigned after my sniper killed his 8-1 when the village was completely in German hands. 3-1
Red Tears Shed on Gray FrF 89 Round 5 vs Svante Sandblom. Svante is a new Swedish player probably in his 20, playing ASL from two years and at his first tournament experience out of Sweden. He is very promising and surely has all qualities to become a top player. He decided to bid for Russians, and so I held the Rumanians. His setup was solid, and the place where he set up the guns and the MMG (the best Russian assets) was the best possible (imo) covering the vast maiority of key hexes and making any Rumanian move dangerous. This scenario is hard for the Russian, and the defender must be ready to escape behid to protect his brittle force awaiting the reinforcements for the counterattack. Here is where the scenario was decided. Russians did not escape quickly enough to avoid by pass freeze from the Rumanian tanks and the necessary purification through FT and or PB fire. Also the Russian decision to reveal guns too early favored the attacker. So before any reinforcement arrived, the Russian had lost everything but three or four of squads, on leader, and the INF Gun, while the Rumanians still had all squads on the board, and so he resigned. 4-1
Once again a very fun and relaxing ASL experience at ASO, my seventh in 13 years.