So what scenarios have you played Recently?

[Houlie]

But the big question -- As the US Army GIs from this 2nd Infantry Regiment, did you feel like saying: "These Springfields suck! Why can't we have M1 Garands like the rest of the fucking Army? That Fuller is an A-Hole!!"

Ha. Pete, I certainly had..."commentary" throughout the game, though not so much about the Springfields -- mostly focused on the 6ML. Tough to keep those 546s up!

 

[Old Noob]

Some American officers were as bad as some British officials, concerning the use of semi-automatic rifles.
("Can't have the men wasting their ammunition, don't you know?")

 

[Michael R]

Like the cost of bullets comes out of their pockets.

 

[fenyan]

Played Commando Schenke, teaching a friend who's had mostly Starter Kit experience. He did the usual rookie mistakes, for example prep firing a lot at concealed units in stone buildings.

He wasn't any slouch tactically though, and eventually outmaneuvered the Russians. We were playing with his kit and he didn't have the Fortification markers and I totally forgot that the victory building was fortified. In any case, on the last turn, the Russians had concealed units in four locations. I advised, you want to move everybody you got next to the Russians so you can conduct Advancing Fire and CC. He was able to break the three concealed stacks that had squads (which had to rout out of the building), and he entered CC against the lone 8-1 Russian leader. He won the CC and controlled the building.

At the end of the game, he said "concealment is a big deal in ASL" so a successful session in my book!

 

[Old Noob]

Just because you can't see it, doesn't mean that it isn't there!

 

[fenyan]

I'm hip to that line of thinking.

 

[chris_olden]

My amigo, Jim, and I finished off the playtest scenario tonight.
The last 2 turns were a firestorm of violence, on both sides. The Russians barely eked out the win. I’m feeling pretty good about this one.

 

[VonHutier]

FrFA = 85?

??

 

[Paul John]

??

see posts 9758 and 9760. I was confused by the scenario card vs. the actual setup.

 

[Doug Leslie]

Played J146 Ragnarok in the second round of the VASLeague against Sandro Coriasco. This is a well balanced scenario with a very close win/loss ratio for both sides on ROAR. We just rolled for sides and I was dealt the Russians. Basically, the situation is that a mixture of German SS and Wehrmacht units are trying to flee Berlin before the Russians polish them off. It is kind of reminiscent of "The Fugitives" from Beyond Valour. The Germans are assisted by an unusual LV rule that basically outlaws FFMO in any hexes that are not in the vicinity of four burning wrecks that are set up in pre-designated hexes at start. The bad news is that they have an ELR of one! There is a very unusual twist for the Russian set up. In addition to their regular units, they start with seven concealment counters that set up onboard and which could be anything from nothing at all through 227 (most likely), 527 and even a 628. They are only activated if a German unit fires at them or moves adjacent. Given the unusual nature of the Russian OB, I thought long and hard about my set up. I devised a defensive set up of such fiendish cunning that it seemed to me that the Germans would face certain doom as they tried to breach the positions held by my heroic red army units. I fired it across to Sandro and a few days later he pointed out that my set up had a minor deficiency in that it was totally illegal. Back to the drawing board and I produced a legal set up which featured five of the unknown units holding the buildings on the Russian left flank supported by the best leader (a 9-1) two 527 squads and a LMG. The bulk of the real units set up in the centre and on the Russian right. Sandro had to choose between attacking the Russian left where the defence depended on what units might be activated as the Germans came forward or going for the Russian right flank/centre where the real units were located. This was the opening position after concealment had been sorted out.


The Germans have a mortar HT entering on turn one followed by a regular HT on turn two, both of which are worth 1 VP out of the three needed for the Germans to exit. The Russians receive two 628s and a leader on turn one followed by three OT assault guns on turn two. As you can see from the diagram, Sandro had a reception committee waiting for them.

The German assault headed up the centre before swinging to the left. They got off to a good start when a 237 HS made it into CC with the 527 holding the precious ATR and rolled snake eyes to kill the squad and remove my main anti-tank weapon. The fighting south of the bridge was a bloody affair and ended up with all three Russian AFVs being toasted by German LATW. On the plus side, the second reinforcing HT was taken out by a LMG shot to the rear as it headed for the bridge.

Sandro managed to exit the mortar HT by the end of turn two and this proved to be the only German unit that made it offboard. I think that this was probably a mistake and that this AFV would have been better used to shroud the Russian defenders with smoke to help the infantry cross the open ground en route to the exits. Given that my ATR was no longer a factor and that my reinforcements never made it past the bridge area, that HT could have made all the difference to the German attack. As things transpired, the Russian fire proved to be highly effective and the Germans just couldn't force a way through. Three casualty MCs on the penultimate turn didn't help their cause and the Russians managed to stop the final charge for the exit on turn six.

I really enjoyed this scenario and can only thank Sandro for being a pleasure to play against and for taking the kicking that he took from the dice Gods in the final two turns with good grace!

 

[von Marwitz]

Given the unusual nature of the Russian OB, I thought long and hard about my set up. I devised a defensive set up of such fiendish cunning that it seemed to me that the Germans would face certain doom as they tried to breach the positions held by my heroic red army units. I fired it across to Sandro and a few days later he pointed out that my set up had a minor deficiency in that it was totally illegal.

This is funny! I love this!
Been there, done that myself. More than once...

von Marwitz

 

[dlazov]

Organized my library of ASL stuff, only got 9% organized, lol

 

[clubby]

Sounds like Dave derizinsky lol

He didn't even make an appearance at wcm, I don't think he's going to game day. I think he's on the outs with the management. That's word on the street.

 

[Gunner Scott]

Howdy all-

My buddy Bob came by last night and we started our playing of DASL 34 To the Last Man. This of course is the new version from MMP with one huge change, in the old version the SS suffered ammo shortage not so in this new version. But it seems once again someone missed the glaring mistake in the VC IE its says there are 9 multi hex buildings in the SS set up area but we only counted 8 (I think maybe Cb3 might be that 9th building but it is multi level not multi hex.)

Bob completed his set up as the SS and we got in one turn before calling it a night and resuming our game this weekend. As per usual, the SS will need to set up all thier units on a wide front which is the case here but I think the SS will need to have their armor assets and ATG assets set up in a way that can put some on any Russian death star and thus allow the SS to maneuver around the battlefield to plug any gaps in the defense.

So far my attack on turn one went full in around around the bottom part of the maps where the factory's are at. My armor also pretty much did the board edge creep so as to noodle out the Germans from those upper level buildings. Bidggest highlight from our first turn was my IS-2 rolling boxcars on an area shot MA attack and gaining both a melf and low ammo counters. Bob's lone SS squad rolls snake eyes in CC, I rolled a 10, kills my 628 and creates an 8-0 leader. In his his turn I rolled a 1 on MA repair on the low ammoed IS-2 and the rest of the SS turn is spent getting guys to the area where the Russian main attack is happening.

With 8 turns, the Russians will have to be really aggressive in this scenario. Nonetheless, it is still a super fun scenario after all these years. Did think about Festung Budda HASL but way to complicated for our tastes. Here are some pics below:

edit could not get pics to post



here is turn one below:

 

[Philippe Briaux]

But it seems once again someone missed the glaring mistake in the VC IE its says there are 9 multi hex buildings in the SS set up area but we only counted 8

Scott, there are 3 such buildings in each of maps a c d

• a C2 G2 M5
• c E1 K3 M3
• d B3 H3 M5

 

[STAVKA]

highlight from our first turn was my IS-2 rolling boxcars on an area shot MA attack and gaining both a melf and low ammo counters....

In his his turn I rolled a 1 on MA repair on the low ammoed IS-2...

Low Ammo never happens when the MA malfunction.

 

[Paul John]

Nathan W and I wrapped up our playing of the Cemetery Hill Platoon Leader mini CG. It had very high fun factor for both of us. I played the Allies and part of my fun was the continuous K/ and KIA I got on the drop, and subsequent attacks across loads of OG. The germans have a tough time getting where they need to go, with lots of potential for hellfire as they are forced to move in the open with little to no smoke and minimal long range fire to counter the Allied MGs in the rear of the village exectuting overwatch on the level one hills in the middle. In the 3 days we played, I think Nathan got 6 *-2 leaders, of whom only 1 was functioning (and one wounded) after the 3 days. While the Germans face a lot of exposed and risky movement to get to their objectives and probably will always get some guys wrecked, in all 3 days I was getting really timely rolls to make those tough moments ruinous. One the flip side. Nathan finally got a 9-2 with a MMG and HMG to give his guys a chance to move across the open and proceeded to never get rate or roll better than a 9 with them. The CVP lost were heavily skewed all 3 days (32-9, 31-17 & 16-8) in favor of my defenders. At first I thought that the CG must be unbalanced as Nathan's aggressive attacks kept me reeling through the first two days. The Germans do start with a nice numerical advantage. I figured with 4 days left, having captured the first two boards and having ~22 turns to grab half of about 30 stone buildings that I had no chance, even after the bloodbath I had given him. But Nathan more astutely saw that he had been bled dry and that my numbers were already tilted to a slight advantage that would only grow in the next days. After making little progress and losing several more units, we called it after day 3. I think a less lucky Allied player will have the Germans in the village more quickly and with greater numbers, then it may be need an Allied counterattack to decide the game. Even though my dice were a bit ridiculous, it was a fun time. Nathan bore the wrath of the dice gods with good humor. One high point for him was a surprise coup de main on the back of the graveyard on day one with a nutty glider attack that I was timid about trying to evict given the pressure from the other side. It forced me to abandon the graveyard on the refit phase which was a blow to me. Another interesting twist is that we played with the Refit rules where the ability to reshuffle units is limited. This creates lots of interesting challenges as the forces available to change the front may or may not be capable of getting there. This gave it a really different flavor from every other CG I have played and I highly recommend using it. It probably helps the defender a bit as their forces get compressed anyway as the game progresses, but it nonetheless changed the flavor in a positive way. I am looking forward to another one of these CGs. Manageable size and interesting layouts.

 

[william.stoppel]

Dan and I finished up Dave Lamb’s classic Brandenburger Bridge last night. We played the updated version CH recently published with their release of all the ASLNews scenarios and is an update of the original published in the Rout Report back when most of us still had hair. This scenario is early I. Barbarossa and starts with the Brandenburgers holding both ends of a bridge (duh) in Russia. Theyhave to hold onto the bridge entry hexes to win. They receive mounted relief force on turn one. Who has to fight their way through a Russian force of first line and conscripts with a 45L ATG. There is another force of Russians on the other side of the river and the Reds get reinforcements on turns 2 and 4. I started out well breaking all but one squad on the East side of the river. I got three fire missions from Russian artillery and was rolling right along. But Dan had a better plan and a better sniper. I rolled lots of 3’s early and his sniper was killing leaders and breaking squads while he only rolled one 5 (my sniper). My force on the West Bank was caught and destroyed between his relief force of Mk IIIs and a 9-2 led assault engineer force and then they crossed the bridge. Funny thing happened when I rolled back to back 3’s and he got two hit snipers to drop my SAN to a 3. That actually worked better for me. The end came when his MkIII overran 2 squads (rolled a 3 with ROF) and then overran another squad with a GAZ AA truck with a 3 or a 4. My T-26’s shot that tank at least 7 times with no affect. Ouch! Great game Dan! Highly recommend this scenario. Much good fun!

 

[Mister T]

Played Expendable Allies from a recent ASL journal. The scenario may not have received so much love given that the current record is strongly pro-german. While a sub-standard Polish setup would be punished, if some thinking is done in the setup, the polish case might not a lost one. The knockout VC of T3 is a real possibility and therefore the setup and beginnings should take that into consideration. Can't say it is fully balanced, but it should be at least a fun playing given the attractive design.

 

[Chas]

Herons Forward! No Retreat! Finn scenario vs Gary Bartlett at Bitter Ender.
Setting is June 44, battle for a hill that changed hands at least 12 times over several days. The scenario is the Russians had tried to attack from the hill in the AM but were rebuffed. Two T-34/85s are immobilized along with a company of infantry out front away from the hill simulating where their attack had culminated. The Finns in the meantime had maneuvered to a wooded area on the flank and attacked trying to wrestle the hill back. At some point during the battle Finnish planes dropped 48.5 tons of bombs on the Russian positions in less than 5 minutes. PVT Seppyanan over several days knocked out scores of Russian AFVs with PF/PSK. While the battle was raging, the Herons (SU-152 unit) counterattacked.
Gary had a good plan of attack. One of my immobilized tanks held him off from the but he made good progress on my flank. A score of Finn infantry perfectly moved giving me a potential disastrous (for him) cannister attack from my perfectly placed 45LL. I missed the ammo by one. He was also flanking me on the back side of the hill, but a 76*INF was also set up well and at medium range scored a KIA on the first squad also keeping rate. He was hesitant to keep moving here which proved to be his downfall. this allowed my reinforcing SU-152s to move, PF/PSK free, into optimum positions on the hill. He continued the attack but eventually with good odds to hit the 30 +0 attacks took its toll on the Finns. I was lucky that none were Recalled due to Low Ammo.
Was extremely fun for me, scenario even better than I thought it would be.