Yesterday. I got in 3 ASLSK games with another Taiwanese player, Kang Yu Wang, a.k.a. 'Ken'. He had previously played about 3-4 ASLSK scenarios with Robin, and I thought the best way for him to grow as an ASL(SK) player was to get in as many games as possible using board Y, which (you may have noticed from my previous sentiments) I consider a better learning environment than board Z. The 3 scenarios that we played (in order) were
S-008 "Ad Hoc At Chef-Du-Pont",
S-019 "Purple Heart Lane", and
S-004 "Welcome Back".
Game 1 "Ad Hoc At Chef-Du-Pont".
Ken attacked with Americans (plus balance), I defended with Germans. I put 1 447 squads in h3, j3, and w6, 8-1, LMG/467 in o10, and had the rest of the OoB in the M6-Q6 block. Ken moved with swift care, and apart from 12 MC'ing one squad down to a HS, was able to advance to contact after about 2 turns. Having got into range, my Germans were quite resolute for the next 3 turns, thanks largely to the fact that the Americans weren't able to get much in the way of either infantry smoke or IFT results. Turn 6 came around with the best part of the German OoB still in good fighting shape.
Ken needed a bit of luck to go his way, and it certainly did. His first 2 gambits were able to smoke German MG positions, and when the 9-2 and a 747 rushed into n9 to try and smoke o10, the 2mc from the adjacent 12-2 attack did absolutely nothing !! A 7-0 and 747 double-timed and made a dash for q10, but the leader broke, and the squad pinned in n7. Then the 10-2 and 3 squads made their rush for q10, but due to the placed smoke, nobody was able to stop them; a PTC result having no impact. With all the fire having been drawn, the 8-0 then skips off q10, and then 1 747 squad in the AFPh, satisfying the American VCs, with the rest of the 10-2's stack remaining behind to block any German withdraw. By German turn 6, my only hope was to KIA all remaining in q10, and somehow rush a 447 off, but not surprisingly, it wasn't to be.....
Game 2 "Purple Heart Lane".
Ken defended with Germans, I attacked with Americans (I forgot all about giving him balance). The game started really well for me, with the 8-0 and 747 in Z7 rolling a 1,1 in the opening PFPh, which KIAed a LMG/8-0 (c/- k/2 + wound fail), and I was able to eliminate a 238 in the CCPh. In German turn 1, the remaining 238 got pinned, and by the end of my turn 2, only the 7-0 and 1 LMG had escaped to join the reinforcing Germans in the M6-Q6 block.
With 3 buildings (U6, V6, W6) and no losses, I though that I was in great shape, but that's about when things went cold for my Americans. I couldn't get any smoke to happen, and while trying to get the upper hand against the stubborn German defenders, I would too often roll a 12 MC or rally, to the extent that I had lost 2.5 squads this way by the end of game turn 4. This really left me short of numbers, and combined with a dearth of infantry smoke, I was only able to grab 5 buildings by the end of my turn 6 MPh, by which time I had completely run out of steam, and even if I had somehow managed the required 6, I certainly wasn't in any kind of shape to oppose a German exodus, which would have made my close bid look quite far off. Kudos to Ken for winning both of our first 2 games !!!
Game 3 "Welcome Back".
Ken attacked with Germans (plus balance), I defended with Americans. I put 546 squads in C7, EE8, FF8, a 747 squad in I8, a FT/8-0, 747 in F7, a MMG/666 in K8, a 8-1, MMG/666 in CC6, and 10-2, .50cal/667 in P6. Essentially, I had the 10-2 directed .50cal in the center and strongly defended flanks. Ken had the right idea; a strong southern hook, with probes to try and keep my forces from linking-up. I had some pretty good shots early on, breaking quite a few Germans, most notably, the would-be probes and interdictors, which left me with most of the strategic initiative. The snow started falling around turn 2, and would continue to fall for the remainder of the game.
Ken did a pretty good job of rallying his broken units and formed up a pretty good battle group in the southern woods. But when my 10-2 and .50cal went on a terrifying ROF tear, literally destroying everything in their sight, it allowed me to shift everyone south to block the exit of the Germans, who ended up getting bottled up in the woods as time ran out on them. A pretty convincing American win (and the first one I have seen from them in this scenario, my 4th playing of it).
In all, a good day of ASLSK, in which I was able to pass on a lot of useful ASL concepts to Ken, and much fun was had. Will probably look to use board Z next time we play; I get the feeling that Ken is keen to see the Russians in action next time !!!
(I couldn't get any of the photos to upload - follow the Facebook link if you wish to see (poor quality) images of our games)
https://www.facebook.com/groups/1628719720726712/
John.