DarkStranger
Member
Hey everyone,
Here's a quick account of the action at the latest Central Texas game day. It was a smaller turnout than normal, but Mike S. did a great job hosting and so some exciting ASL was still played. Mighty Mike himself faced off against Eric in Bleed Gurkha Bleed from the new SP11 and the outcome was still in doubt when I departed, although Eric's wails of woe over a KIA'd leader followed me into the street as I left. Bryan Register designed his own scenario and then proceeded to stomp all over Rick in it. It sounded like lots of fire was being exchanged in that one. As for myself, I was lucky enough to play Matt 'Gurkha' Schwobel. Matt always has cool war stories to share and I was thirsting for revenge after our last game, in which he stomped me without really working up a sweat.
We'd decided to play SP125 Nunshigum, also from the latest SP11, which features ten 6-4-8 Gurkha trying to kick six Japanese squads off a hill in Burma. In VC terms, the Gurkhas get 4.5 turns to ensure there are no good order Japanese on a small section of board 50. The terrain was that of a mostly bald hill surrounded by jungle. There are some jungle double crest lines and the like, but for PTO, the map is actually an interesting mix of dense and open areas.
Since Matt (of course!) wanted the Gurkhas, I was left to puzzle out a defense. The Gurkhas have a fairly overwhelming force and easy VC, but very little time to accomplish everything, so the order of the day was to delay, delay, delay. My defense was somewhat complicated by the fact that I had to place units in two isolated areas, separated by a shallow stream. I ended up with a screen of units on the east and south sides where the Gurkhas could enter, while a knee MTR and HMG were placed across the stream, away from the main action and the vital victory area, but where they had good LOS and could utilize their superior range. The other tricky aspect of the set up was the VC, which are "Aachen's Pall-esqe" in that the Gurkhas win at the end of any player turn in which there are no Good Order Japanese in the appropriate area. It's quite possible to lose this one as the Japanese before the first Wind Change Roll!
My set up wasn't quite that bad, thankfully, and Matt brought his Gurkhas storming on. A strong platoon entered on the east edge, which is somewhat more open, and the remainder of the force pushed their way up through the thick jungle of the south. I got a couple shots in, including a 6-3 from the HMG and some 4-2s from an MMG on the eastern front, but succeeded only in breaking the MMG. An intrepid Gurkha 3-3-8 then advanced vs Difficult Terrain to take on my hapless MMG crew and killed him in CC. First blood to Matt, and I was having flashbacks to our last game...I'd been slapped around like a red-headed step-child then and it was starting all over again here!
Things turned around a bit in my turn. Matt had advanced a concealed stack into LOS of my MTR and HMG units. Suspecting Matt was bringing up his 51mm MTR to smoke in my heavy, I managed to counter-battery fire with some WP and ended up breaking what turned out to be a 3-3-8 HS while retaining ROF. My MTR fired again, hit despite the WP thanks to the fact I had the hex boresighted and the resulting 2-1 attack killed the Gurkha outright. Matt's airborne MTR never got to fire a shot. That luck freed up my HMG stack to slog across the stream and onto the key hill in the VC area. It was a big relief to have the 2-2-8/HMG sitting right in the middle of the VC zone, helping to keep me from instantly losing the game. Elsewhere, things were quiet as I deployed, skulked and generally tried to set up a wall of 2-3-7s to block Matt's advance.
The next few turns were more like chess than standard ASL, with positioning at a premium. I'd try to block Matt's approaches with HSs, take what shots I could, and then voluntarily break whenever Gurkhas ended their turn adjacent to me. Meanwhile, Matt was probing like a mad man, trying to find a hole in my defenses so he could push through, make some rapid progress, and cut my rout paths. The real standout during these turns was my knee mortar, which kept delivering key 2 1 attacks that invariably seemed to break Matt's 8ML units.
By the time turn four rolled around, I had been pushed back onto the main hill having done very little damage to the Gurkhas but had lots of good order units left myself. I even was able to take the precaution of recombining two of my HSs into a 4-4-7. I didn't want a lucky attack or a high roll on a MC to lose the game for me in fluky fashion. Meanwhile, Matt had just two movement phases left to cross several hexes of open ground and lock down the Japanese on the hill. He also was faced with the challenge of chasing down two Japanese halfsquads that had become isolated and cut off in the jungle during my fighting withdrawal. Neither HS was in the VC area, but both were threats to enter it on my last MPh and make things even tougher for the Gurkhas.
Things started well for Matt as he began his penultimate rush for the hill. I broke a few of his squads as they pushed forward with a flurry of -2 shots but he managed to work several units into my defenses, capturing one of my foxholes, and eliminating any possibility I had of safely skulking during my turn. Even worse, Matt managed to get a 6-4-8 adjacent to my first isolated HS while the second one was broken by a sniper. Things were looking bad until the end of the turn when the Gurkha adjacent to my lone HS failed to break him in AFPh, and had to advance vs difficult terrain to engage in CC. The combination of attacker in jungle and CX proved to be too much, and my HS withdrew after a successful ambush to once again become a major problem for Matt.
During my last turn, I took full advantage of this good fortune by running the HS past a stack of broken Gurkhas, reDMing them all, and then heading for a remote jungle location on the far edge of the victory area. Back on the hill though, things took a decided turn for the worse when I tried to skulk a bunch of units into a hut hex where Matt only had a 2+1 shot at me. That lone shot turned out to be a 1MC that broke all three HSs and striped the HMG crew. That really hurt even though I ended up rallying them all because I couldn't advance them back out as speed bumps. Instead, my defense was really concentrated into three hexes instead of the six I had planned.
As we moved to the ultimate turn, Matt failed to rally any of his reDMed Gurkhas, leaving him with a single wounded leader to chase down my lone HS. All he had to do though was to lock me in Melee, which was certainly a strong possibility. I still placed most of my faith on the hill defense, where I figured my HMG would be a very tough nut to crack. That faith lasted until my first shot, with the 12-1 breaking the machine gun and leaving Matt's squad untouched...
The Gurkhas still had to come across a few hexes of open ground to get me though, and my down two shots managed to pin the first wave of them. As so often happens, the residual proved to be more deadly than the fire that placed it, and a bunch of 2-2 attacks broke more than their fair share of the attackers. The bodies were starting to pile up now, but Matt had plenty of troops to throw at me. My hapless HMG crew resorted to FPFing with their inherent FP at anything that moved, and had a lot of success, including a KIA on a leader/6-4-8 combo. That really broke the attacking waves, and when an 8+2 attack pinned a 3-3-8 in a captured foxhole, the Gurkha chances really faded.
In the end, Matt came extremely close but couldn't quite get it done. He actually managed to break all my hilltop halfsquads with AFPh from his pinned but adjacent units, but I still had a 4-4-7 tucked away in a foxhole on the far side of the hill that the Gurkhas just couldn't get to. Here, the pinned 3-3-8 really hurt, as he would have been able to advance in on my squad and have a very good chance of tying him up in Melee for the win. In short, it was a very close and tense game and I tip my hat to Matt for pushing so hard and then suffering through some tough residual and FPF attacks at the end.
I thought the scenario itself was decent for being so small. It's 4.5 turns, 17 total squads, and the most exciting toy is an Airborne MTR, but packed a good amount of action. I'm not a big fan of 'instant VC' where one side must always keep a good order unit in a given area, but it did make for a tense game. It also had a feel more reminiscent of chess than normal ASL, with positioning in the PTO terrain being vital to victory. Overall, a fun scenario, but not one I'm in a hurry to play again.
Thanks again to Matt for being a such a good sport in such a squeaker, thanks to Mike for being a fantastic host on very short notice, and thanks to you for reading.
Zeb
Here's a quick account of the action at the latest Central Texas game day. It was a smaller turnout than normal, but Mike S. did a great job hosting and so some exciting ASL was still played. Mighty Mike himself faced off against Eric in Bleed Gurkha Bleed from the new SP11 and the outcome was still in doubt when I departed, although Eric's wails of woe over a KIA'd leader followed me into the street as I left. Bryan Register designed his own scenario and then proceeded to stomp all over Rick in it. It sounded like lots of fire was being exchanged in that one. As for myself, I was lucky enough to play Matt 'Gurkha' Schwobel. Matt always has cool war stories to share and I was thirsting for revenge after our last game, in which he stomped me without really working up a sweat.
We'd decided to play SP125 Nunshigum, also from the latest SP11, which features ten 6-4-8 Gurkha trying to kick six Japanese squads off a hill in Burma. In VC terms, the Gurkhas get 4.5 turns to ensure there are no good order Japanese on a small section of board 50. The terrain was that of a mostly bald hill surrounded by jungle. There are some jungle double crest lines and the like, but for PTO, the map is actually an interesting mix of dense and open areas.
Since Matt (of course!) wanted the Gurkhas, I was left to puzzle out a defense. The Gurkhas have a fairly overwhelming force and easy VC, but very little time to accomplish everything, so the order of the day was to delay, delay, delay. My defense was somewhat complicated by the fact that I had to place units in two isolated areas, separated by a shallow stream. I ended up with a screen of units on the east and south sides where the Gurkhas could enter, while a knee MTR and HMG were placed across the stream, away from the main action and the vital victory area, but where they had good LOS and could utilize their superior range. The other tricky aspect of the set up was the VC, which are "Aachen's Pall-esqe" in that the Gurkhas win at the end of any player turn in which there are no Good Order Japanese in the appropriate area. It's quite possible to lose this one as the Japanese before the first Wind Change Roll!
My set up wasn't quite that bad, thankfully, and Matt brought his Gurkhas storming on. A strong platoon entered on the east edge, which is somewhat more open, and the remainder of the force pushed their way up through the thick jungle of the south. I got a couple shots in, including a 6-3 from the HMG and some 4-2s from an MMG on the eastern front, but succeeded only in breaking the MMG. An intrepid Gurkha 3-3-8 then advanced vs Difficult Terrain to take on my hapless MMG crew and killed him in CC. First blood to Matt, and I was having flashbacks to our last game...I'd been slapped around like a red-headed step-child then and it was starting all over again here!
Things turned around a bit in my turn. Matt had advanced a concealed stack into LOS of my MTR and HMG units. Suspecting Matt was bringing up his 51mm MTR to smoke in my heavy, I managed to counter-battery fire with some WP and ended up breaking what turned out to be a 3-3-8 HS while retaining ROF. My MTR fired again, hit despite the WP thanks to the fact I had the hex boresighted and the resulting 2-1 attack killed the Gurkha outright. Matt's airborne MTR never got to fire a shot. That luck freed up my HMG stack to slog across the stream and onto the key hill in the VC area. It was a big relief to have the 2-2-8/HMG sitting right in the middle of the VC zone, helping to keep me from instantly losing the game. Elsewhere, things were quiet as I deployed, skulked and generally tried to set up a wall of 2-3-7s to block Matt's advance.
The next few turns were more like chess than standard ASL, with positioning at a premium. I'd try to block Matt's approaches with HSs, take what shots I could, and then voluntarily break whenever Gurkhas ended their turn adjacent to me. Meanwhile, Matt was probing like a mad man, trying to find a hole in my defenses so he could push through, make some rapid progress, and cut my rout paths. The real standout during these turns was my knee mortar, which kept delivering key 2 1 attacks that invariably seemed to break Matt's 8ML units.
By the time turn four rolled around, I had been pushed back onto the main hill having done very little damage to the Gurkhas but had lots of good order units left myself. I even was able to take the precaution of recombining two of my HSs into a 4-4-7. I didn't want a lucky attack or a high roll on a MC to lose the game for me in fluky fashion. Meanwhile, Matt had just two movement phases left to cross several hexes of open ground and lock down the Japanese on the hill. He also was faced with the challenge of chasing down two Japanese halfsquads that had become isolated and cut off in the jungle during my fighting withdrawal. Neither HS was in the VC area, but both were threats to enter it on my last MPh and make things even tougher for the Gurkhas.
Things started well for Matt as he began his penultimate rush for the hill. I broke a few of his squads as they pushed forward with a flurry of -2 shots but he managed to work several units into my defenses, capturing one of my foxholes, and eliminating any possibility I had of safely skulking during my turn. Even worse, Matt managed to get a 6-4-8 adjacent to my first isolated HS while the second one was broken by a sniper. Things were looking bad until the end of the turn when the Gurkha adjacent to my lone HS failed to break him in AFPh, and had to advance vs difficult terrain to engage in CC. The combination of attacker in jungle and CX proved to be too much, and my HS withdrew after a successful ambush to once again become a major problem for Matt.
During my last turn, I took full advantage of this good fortune by running the HS past a stack of broken Gurkhas, reDMing them all, and then heading for a remote jungle location on the far edge of the victory area. Back on the hill though, things took a decided turn for the worse when I tried to skulk a bunch of units into a hut hex where Matt only had a 2+1 shot at me. That lone shot turned out to be a 1MC that broke all three HSs and striped the HMG crew. That really hurt even though I ended up rallying them all because I couldn't advance them back out as speed bumps. Instead, my defense was really concentrated into three hexes instead of the six I had planned.
As we moved to the ultimate turn, Matt failed to rally any of his reDMed Gurkhas, leaving him with a single wounded leader to chase down my lone HS. All he had to do though was to lock me in Melee, which was certainly a strong possibility. I still placed most of my faith on the hill defense, where I figured my HMG would be a very tough nut to crack. That faith lasted until my first shot, with the 12-1 breaking the machine gun and leaving Matt's squad untouched...
The Gurkhas still had to come across a few hexes of open ground to get me though, and my down two shots managed to pin the first wave of them. As so often happens, the residual proved to be more deadly than the fire that placed it, and a bunch of 2-2 attacks broke more than their fair share of the attackers. The bodies were starting to pile up now, but Matt had plenty of troops to throw at me. My hapless HMG crew resorted to FPFing with their inherent FP at anything that moved, and had a lot of success, including a KIA on a leader/6-4-8 combo. That really broke the attacking waves, and when an 8+2 attack pinned a 3-3-8 in a captured foxhole, the Gurkha chances really faded.
In the end, Matt came extremely close but couldn't quite get it done. He actually managed to break all my hilltop halfsquads with AFPh from his pinned but adjacent units, but I still had a 4-4-7 tucked away in a foxhole on the far side of the hill that the Gurkhas just couldn't get to. Here, the pinned 3-3-8 really hurt, as he would have been able to advance in on my squad and have a very good chance of tying him up in Melee for the win. In short, it was a very close and tense game and I tip my hat to Matt for pushing so hard and then suffering through some tough residual and FPF attacks at the end.
I thought the scenario itself was decent for being so small. It's 4.5 turns, 17 total squads, and the most exciting toy is an Airborne MTR, but packed a good amount of action. I'm not a big fan of 'instant VC' where one side must always keep a good order unit in a given area, but it did make for a tense game. It also had a feel more reminiscent of chess than normal ASL, with positioning in the PTO terrain being vital to victory. Overall, a fun scenario, but not one I'm in a hurry to play again.
Thanks again to Matt for being a such a good sport in such a squeaker, thanks to Mike for being a fantastic host on very short notice, and thanks to you for reading.
Zeb