So what scenarios have you played Recently?

Philippe D.

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In a rather rare (for me) FtF opportunity, I played FrF 89 Red Tears shed on Gray. Attacker (Rumanian) win.

Attacking with Axis Minor troops is always tough, with the lowered broken morale. But defending with mostly Soviet conscripts, with an ELR of 2, is even tougher.

In this scenario, the Soviets have to defend a number of factories from an assault by Rumanians, supported by light tanks (LT vz 35). They have some decent AT capability in the form of two guns (one 37L AT, and one 76* ART), but their initial onboard infantry force is almost completely made up of conscripts (9x426, 2x447) with only 2 leaders. They have some reinforcements coming with some more infantry and a little armor, but it appears late (turn 4 out of 6), so they have to hang out for 4 long turns. To make matters worse, there are 20 factory hexes and the Rumanians only need to control half to win, and this means they can decide to push on only one half of the board.

As the Soviet defender, Xavier (not the one of FLT fame) chose to really split his visible force, and I ended up attacking on a rather wide front, threatening both sides while trying to make back movement of Soviet infantry difficult. This was initially quite successful, and Soviet conscripts quickly melted away (Disruption; at least they have No Quarter by SSR, so they have some routing away capacity).

I did suffer some setbacks though, notably 2 squads died in CC against a single Soviet conscript (and there was a series of other CC mishaps in the rowhouses, where a Soviet squad managed to Ambush attackers and slip away, then on the next turn he didn't Ambush me, but I rolled boxcars and he slipped away again). All in all, by the time the Soviet reinforcements appeared I was holding enough Factories for the win, but the counterattack worked pretty well and pushed me back.

In the end, the scenario went to the last turn - it would have taken a lot of luck on the Soviet part to turn the tables in the end, but it was much closer than the first two turns let us think.

Overall, a very enjoyable game, and a very nice scenario.
 

Houlie

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In a rather rare (for me) FtF opportunity, I played FrF 89 Red Tears shed on Gray. Attacker (Rumanian) win.

Attacking with Axis Minor troops is always tough, with the lowered broken morale. But defending with mostly Soviet conscripts, with an ELR of 2, is even tougher.

In this scenario, the Soviets have to defend a number of factories from an assault by Rumanians, supported by light tanks (LT vz 35). They have some decent AT capability in the form of two guns (one 37L AT, and one 76* ART), but their initial onboard infantry force is almost completely made up of conscripts (9x426, 2x447) with only 2 leaders. They have some reinforcements coming with some more infantry and a little armor, but it appears late (turn 4 out of 6), so they have to hang out for 4 long turns. To make matters worse, there are 20 factory hexes and the Rumanians only need to control half to win, and this means they can decide to push on only one half of the board.

As the Soviet defender, Xavier (not the one of FLT fame) chose to really split his visible force, and I ended up attacking on a rather wide front, threatening both sides while trying to make back movement of Soviet infantry difficult. This was initially quite successful, and Soviet conscripts quickly melted away (Disruption; at least they have No Quarter by SSR, so they have some routing away capacity).

I did suffer some setbacks though, notably 2 squads died in CC against a single Soviet conscript (and there was a series of other CC mishaps in the rowhouses, where a Soviet squad managed to Ambush attackers and slip away, then on the next turn he didn't Ambush me, but I rolled boxcars and he slipped away again). All in all, by the time the Soviet reinforcements appeared I was holding enough Factories for the win, but the counterattack worked pretty well and pushed me back.

In the end, the scenario went to the last turn - it would have taken a lot of luck on the Soviet part to turn the tables in the end, but it was much closer than the first two turns let us think.

Overall, a very enjoyable game, and a very nice scenario.
Played this a while back as the defending Russians and squeaked a narrow win. I was fortunate to take out a Rumanian tank in street fighting CC which blunted an assault on the last factory in the final stages. Very recommended.
 

commissarmatt

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Just finished "The Second Belt" against Mark Ramsdale. The result was a German win. Highlights: the 122L bagged a Tiger through the front, but not before the Tiger eliminated a crew and HMG via critical hit. The rockets didn't hit many Russians, but they did clear some of the fortifications in front of the village, which provided a way in for the SS infantry. The German tanks bypassed the AT trench line by going through the woods on the far right. I managed a personal first: setting a DC to breach an AT ditch. Other highlights included a 28LL shocking an SU-152 with a side hit, the Russian 10-2 getting drilled by a sniper and his entire stack breaking on LLMC, not long after the sniper had broken the 122L crew. A German FT brewed up one of the Churchills in the village. One of the PzIVs got a critical hit with APCR on another Churchill in the village--I think pieces of shrapel landed about 25 hexes away. The molotov projectors are very effective weapons, by the way. At least a couple German tanks were brewed up by them. It feels slightly tough on the Russians. At first it didn't look that way, but the Germans have a lot of men and materiel here, and can afford to lose a lot of vehicles. I think the Russians have to play a really good game and make the most of their opportunities. One thing in their favor is that the Germans have to take 2 big objectives, one on each side of the board. Still, it's only 8:6 in favor of the Germans on ROAR, including this playing.
 

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Played AP74 Batty-P as the attacking Germans. Not much to say about this one. Sometimes a scenario just slips away from you. The first turn went well and then the dice took over. The British couldn't miss a shot, fail to get at least one extra rate shot, or fail a MC, while my Germans fared the opposite. No exaggeration. Threes and nines seemed to be the rolls of the day. Things got so bad that when I finally did get a low roll, it activated his sniper, he killed the 9-2 which caused the two squads manning the MMGs to break. I finally hung it up after turn 4 (of 5.5) as the dice never let up and ruined what seemed like a good scenario. No rage quit, there was just no point continuing when luck overrode strategy - and fun. Some games just turn out like that. Even though the Germans took it on the chin in my game, my feeling is that they should have a pretty good chance of winning.
 

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The Shan Capital BFP 46 Burma, '42. Elite Thai force, with "tank" support, tries to seize a Burmese town from the Chinese. I concentrated my Thai force against the west side of the Chinese defense, which was spread across the board edge. Took some hits, but made steady progress. Even with the balance- ELR increase, the Chinese are fragile. With 2 of the 4 objective buildings taken, I turned east. I took the third but ran out of time to clear the fourth. Nationalist Chinese Victory. Fun Scenario.
 

Michael R

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Bruno L'Archeveque and I played FT168 BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT, a Philippe Naud design. I recommend this scenario for an interesting evening's entertainment. It is small, so inherently dicey, but fun enough to be worth playing. The battle depicted is one of many that took place in December 1944 on the western front. Seven Volksgrenadier squads with five AFV have two ways to win this four turn scenario against five elite squads supported by an M4A3, and M18 GMC and two 75mm pack-howitzers. The Americans also have enough OB dummies to cover everyone and make a fake tank. If the Germans lose four AFV, they lose the scenario immediately. The Germans can try for either an immediate win by controlling one specific multihex building, or they can try to win at game end by controlling any four multihex buildings. To top things off, set-up is simultaneous and the side to move first is determined randomly after set-up.

In our playing, the Americans went first. Bruno chose to keep concealment for most of his units. We both lost some assets because of missed LOS upon which the other capitalized. My armour won the armour battle, losing one tank and immobilizing another in the process. Bruno broke 1 howitzer early and the other was not in an optimal location; neither were his two BAZ. My infantry were just barely able to win this game in the last CC phase of the last turn.

The image below was taken after three turns.

10713
 

JRKrejsa

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Bruno L'Archeveque and I played FT168 BY DAWN'S EARLY LIGHT, a Philippe Naud design. I recommend this scenario for an interesting evening's entertainment. It is small, so inherently dicey, but fun enough to be worth playing. The battle depicted is one of many that took place in December 1944 on the western front. Seven Volksgrenadier squads with five AFV have two ways to win this four turn scenario against five elite squads supported by an M4A3, and M18 GMC and two 75mm pack-howitzers. The Americans also have enough OB dummies to cover everyone and make a fake tank. If the Germans lose four AFV, they lose the scenario immediately. The Germans can try for either an immediate win by controlling one specific multihex building, or they can try to win at game end by controlling any four multihex buildings. To top things off, set-up is simultaneous and the side to move first is determined randomly after set-up.

In our playing, the Americans went first. Bruno chose to keep concealment for most of his units. We both lost some assets because of missed LOS upon which the other capitalized. My armour won the armour battle, losing one tank and immobilizing another in the process. Bruno broke 1 howitzer early and the other was not in an optimal location; neither were his two BAZ. My infantry were just barely able to win this game in the last CC phase of the last turn.

The image below was taken after three turns.

View attachment 10713
What publication is this in?
 

Jude

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Played scenario A5 Holding the Rear as the attacking Germans. Jokes aside about the scenario name, and I can think of plenty, this scenario was a bust. The Germans only have to exit 16 VP (which increases by six each turn after 7 (of 9) off the opposite (lengthwise) side of the playing area. They have 20 squads, five leaders, one armor leader, and four panzer IVs for a total of 74 points. The poor Americans have to defend three boards with only 15 squads - the 6 ML type. It seemed pretty clear what the designer wanted the Germans to do. Five leaders with three squads each, three as riders, deploy two squads prior to play to man the 50mm MTRs and perhaps a HMG and MMG. That takes care of the whole force. With three boards to choose from (11, 19, and 33) the best route for the Germans to take are the hills of board 11 due to LOS restrictions. Two turns of big stack movement (which is almost always a no-no) and my men were halfway across the playing area. My friend tried to maneuver the board 19 and 33 men over, but a panzer IV, a HMG, and the two MTRs (he CRed a HS MMG rider on the panzer IV trying to get into the board 19 wooden building) on board 19 forced the Americans to loop towards the northern edge before they could head west. By then it was pretty much over. I deployed the hell out of my men to swarm any Americans on board 11. Turns out there was no need. The three remaining tanks froze what little there was over there and the few shots I took easily broke the Americans. All told, I think my friend and I only rolled maybe 20, but certainly no more than 30 times the whole game. For all intents and purposes, the game was over by turn four so we called it. Pretty boring scenario. If I were to play this one again (never) as the Americans, I'd put almost everything on board 11 with a token force and all the concealments in the board 19/33 woods. If I guessed right, there would be a game, if not, it wouldn't be any different than what happened in my playing of it anyway. Easy for me to say - skip this one.
 
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Ed Donoghue

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I played 2 games of SP61 OBJECTIVE EXODUS last week, finished 1 then flipped sides. This is a short (4.5 turns) infantry only scenario set in 1945 Italy. Germans are stuck on the wrong side of a bridgeless canal with 5 SQ, 2 SMC, 1 MMG, 2 LMG & 6 ?. Supported by a crewed MMG across the canal they must defend 5 buildings in a small town from British commandos. Brits have 4 SQ, 3 HS, 3 SMC (1 is a skilled LMG Hero), 2 LMG, 2 MTR, & 3 DC, and must close on the objective over some open ground. With average DR's the key is the MTRs. If the Brits can get smoke on the MMG & a LMG in town the approach can be not too costly. A MMG & a LMG in on second floors with clear can make the Brits job something like Tennyson's 'Charge of the Light Brigade'. Even with a clean approach the fight for the town will most likely be a CC finish. Nothing fancy here, but not bad for a quick scenario.
 

RevJJ

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RPT 166 We are Friends. It's been like a year since I played ASL and even longer for my opponent so we decided wtf and jumped into Korea which neither of us had played. I took the UN forces. With the chance of bog @ a dr of 9 or higher, my plan was to reverse armor assault with the Shermans and 667s trying to keep the Chinese from bum rushing the tanks. I snapped and ELRd a lot of Chinese units but back to back snakes from the Chinese Baz toasted a sherman and rate tear from their mortar wiped out a 667. I started bogging tanks and got mired. One got immobilized. My Nord reinforcements came on and got whacked by back to back snipers pinning and breaking a squad (luckily the 9-1 dodged the cliche hit to the brain pan). I decided to do a sniper check with the 9-1 and remaining good order squad which put me TI and kept me from advancing to get my mmg in support of rushing Chinese. That was a mistake. My 60mm mortar that came with those reinforcements couldn't maintain rate trying to thwart 1/3 of the Chinese force on my left flank. The Chinese made their PAATCs and got on another tank killing it in CC. By the bottom of 5, I only had two squads and a leader left in good order and the Chinese had 10VP in tanks and buildings so I conceded.

Chinese impulse movement is wild w/ the bugle calls. We had a lot of low rolls which was funny. My MAs on my tanks were doing very well including getting critical on an entire stack but with Chinese snapping like Japanese, I just couldn't keep them off me. I really like that Americans get LMGs though.

Fun game and I'm happy to report that my opponent was none other than Rob Wolkey. This was his first ASL game in 3.5 years. I for one am glad he's back playing.
 
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Gunner Scott

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My buddy David Goldman rolled by today and we played AP95 Operation Kutuzov with me as the Germans and David as the Russians. Upfront, this is a highly replayable scenario and lots of fun. Good eastfront smash mouth ASL. Are game went to turn 6 out of a 6 1/2 turn game with my German throwing in the towel on turn 6. I just did not have any armor left to really hold back Davids last two tanks from sleazing my last two strong points on board 70. The luck was pretty extreme on bothsides with one T-34 immobilizing on start up. An SU 122 melfing its gun, another T34 Malfing its gun. For the Germans, it is key to festung around 69L8, this will force the Russians to have to take out units in those positions. The 50L ATG should be placed in near the boards 69/ 70 rear area to stop and possible exit. In our game, David parked all three T-70's adjacent to my 50L(which was in a brush hex on board 69) And whiffed its shot plus failing to gain ROF in his turn 2 movement phase. I figured, no need to IF, Ill just wait till my turn to fire. BUT his t-34 fired in its adv fire phase with two up two shot, rolls snake eyes forcing my crew to take a 1mc which they readily fail. (I think I lost the game at that point). David also had an unstoppable berserk unit unhing my left flank single handily as it survived 16-2 shots, got into cc and wiped my guys out.

I tried to gut it out and a few times I thought I had the Russians on the ropes, but high DR's were just brutal on my defense. All in all, a great game that went back and forth to almost the end. Thanks David for a Great game and thanks Pete Shelling for a great scenario design.

Scott10772
 
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Michael R

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Magnus and I played FT145 THE BEARS OF KINMEN. This is the first of several beach landings that we plan to play over the next little while. This is a scenario that to me highlights some of the strengths of ASL: its ability to depict almost any tactical battle of the WW2 era and its ability to teach a bit of history, as well as the variety built into the system.

This battle takes place in 1949. It depicts an attempt by the Communist Chinese to invade land owned by the Nationalist Chinese (Kinmen Island, in the straight of Taiwan). I had no idea their battles left the mainland. Twelve unarmed landing craft bring 24 squads with MGs, light mortars and DCs to the beach.

The Nationalist Chinese defend with ten squad equivalents, some fortifications, and two 60mm light mortars that can reach out touch the enemy all over the map. The Nationalist Chinese receive reinforcements and then again on turn seven of this 8.5 turn scenario.

The Communist Chinese can choose one of three VC; they all involve seizing high ground far away from the beach.

I needed to refresh my knowledge of Communist Chinese characteristics in ASL. They are stealthy, they don't cower, they can use Dare-Death squads and they have kindly Commissars that don't kill the troops.

I chose the VC on my right side, so my LC were all on the right side. I had eight LC up front, follwed by four LC. I could see that my troops would endure some point blank fire when landing, but I believed with average DR, my casualties would be tolerable. Magnus did not have average DR; nor did I, but in the opposite direction. In the first three turns, I lost nine squads. I played for two more turns, but I calculated that I no longer had enough firepower to do the job. In hindsight, I could have spread out my LC to avoid some of the point-blank fire opportunities.

The attached image is at the end of my turn 3.

10777
 

Eagle4ty

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Magnus and I played FT145 THE BEARS OF KINMEN. This is the first of several beach landings that we plan to play over the next little while. This is a scenario that to me highlights some of the strengths of ASL: its ability to depict almost any tactical battle of the WW2 era and its ability to teach a bit of history, as well as the variety built into the system.

This battle takes place in 1949. It depicts an attempt by the Communist Chinese to invade land owned by the Nationalist Chinese (Kinmen Island, in the straight of Taiwan). I had no idea their battles left the mainland. Twelve unarmed landing craft bring 24 squads with MGs, light mortars and DCs to the beach.

The Nationalist Chinese defend with ten squad equivalents, some fortifications, and two 60mm light mortars that can reach out touch the enemy all over the map. The Nationalist Chinese receive reinforcements and then again on turn seven of this 8.5 turn scenario.

The Communist Chinese can choose one of three VC; they all involve seizing high ground far away from the beach.

I needed to refresh my knowledge of Communist Chinese characteristics in ASL. They are stealthy, they don't cower, they can use Dare-Death squads and they have kindly Commissars that don't kill the troops.

I chose the VC on my right side, so my LC were all on the right side. I had eight LC up front, follwed by four LC. I could see that my troops would endure some point blank fire when landing, but I believed with average DR, my casualties would be tolerable. Magnus did not have average DR; nor did I, but in the opposite direction. In the first three turns, I lost nine squads. I played for two more turns, but I calculated that I no longer had enough firepower to do the job. In hindsight, I could have spread out my LC to avoid some of the point-blank fire opportunities.

....
Kill a commie for mommie! Ah, the good old days.
 

Michael R

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At the second monthly gathering of Montreal ASL players, we had an odd number of players (7). Jean-Pierre Raymond and Jean-François Fortin played MM47 THE BRICKWORKS. Dean Limosani and Martin Marquis played the same scenario. That left Erik Lindbland, Andre Escobedo and myself to play FT101 FIRE AND ICE.

The scenario is not designed for three players; there are no extra phases. The scenario is set in Yugoslavia 1943. Patisans in mountainous terrain are being hunted by two groups of Germans coming from opposite directions; one group is SS and the other is Wehrmacht. The Germans need to put three squad equivalent in a centra VC area, and at least two of the squads must be Wehrmacht.

The partisans startt their defence with nine squads, two MMG, one LMG, one light mortar and a 37mm ATG; they also have OB dummies and some foxholes. They can try for MOL against AFV, and they are allowed a commissar. Erik had the partisan side.

The SS group has six 468 squads with only one LMG, but two French Char b1 tnaks that have FT instead of the bow 75mm gun. The Wehrmacht gruop also has six squads, slightly more SW and two French R35 tanks. I had the SS group. We had to use Lee tanks to stand in for the missing LFT counters.

On Partisan turn one, they receive two reinforcement groups each having five squads and an LMG and a leader.

Erik defended stronger against the SS troops. Both MMG were in their way, as well as the AT gun. All the dummies were with the troops defending against the Wehrmacht group. The FT tanks did not do well. In turn one, a FT tank moved in for a long range FT shot for which it stopped. It broke a LMG team, but failed the mechanical reliability roll when it tried to restart moving. Its 47mm gun could still fire at targets, but it never hit them. On turn two, the second FT tank survived several Street Fighting attacks and MOL attacks while moving to suppress an LMG team. At the end of its run, the AT gun appeared only two hexes away and started firing. After several hits with no effect, the AT gun immobilized that tank by rolling snake eyes for a TK result and the crew bailed, never to return. Meanwhile, Andre's Wehrmacht group did not have too much trouble proceeding towards the center. In the end, the SS could only help the Wehrmacht group by firing a troops in the way of that group. The Wehrmacht group achieved the VC on the last turn.

The image below is after the first German turn.

10790
 

Khill

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J189 Buckley's Block v Fanatic TW was very fun. ROAR has it 31 USMC 40 IJA. we diced for sides and Ted got the defending USMC. the first dice roll the Rain intensified. IJA aggressively moved forward but the USMC only slowly gave ground. a couple of early lost IJA HtHCC's really hurt their efforts to turn the left flank quickly

USMC SAN 4 had several activations but no results. the USMC 37LL had no canister: easily survived a DC placement, but finally succumb in HtH CC

Ted was able to whittle away the IJA force as it ground forward and by the end of turn 5, IJA only had 5 of the 20 CVP needed. with one turn left it looked like there just maybe enough IJA close enough to exit if every one of them made it through some seriously heavy USMC defensive first fire, maybe, so I conceded

it was good to get back to the PTO, been a while since I'd played one. this scenario played really fast and had some exciting action. we both thought it was fun and would play it again as either side
 
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