Today in ASL I ... (Day to day ASL doings)

Jeffrey D Myers

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Figured out that Steve Dethlefsen was in the same Marine Task Force as my brother-in-law in taking back Kuwait City....

Edit: From re-reading HOB#1.
 

Jeffrey D Myers

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It wasn't TF Taro, was it? (I was in 3rd Marines. We ended up at the Kuwait airport.)
Steve was in Task Force Ritter, which included 7th Marines. I'll double check with my bro-in-law to verify which regiment he was in.

Edit: I know that he was deployed to Somalia, so pretty sure he was in 7th Marines.
 

djohannsen

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Steve was in Task Force Ritter, which included 7th Marines. I'll double check with my bro-in-law to verify which regiment he was in.

Edit: I know that he was deployed to Somalia, so pretty sure he was in 7th Marines.
Memories are a bit hazy at this point, but think it was TF Ripper. Good golly, that was a long time ago! Oh, and Semper Fi to your brother-in-law!
 

fenyan

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displayeasel.jpg
Picked up a document holder which our club president Jim Aikens uses. It reduces the footprint of the scenario card which helps when tabletop space is at a premium. I spiral bind my scenarios, so in the picture there is a metal sheet behind the page. On the turn track, there is a turn marker with a neodymium magnet holding it in place. I found this particular document holder online under "Rolodex Mesh Document Holder, Stainless Steel" but the actual label said eldon Document Holder.
 

djohannsen

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Today I've punched some Finns from Hakka and imprisoned them in Plano. I've also set up and solitaire played a turn from Mazek Fire Brigade. With all the concealment counters, maybe not the best scenario for solitaire, but given its reputation I wanted to see how it plays. BTW, I've often said: "I've never found a use for ATR." Well, in these early war scenarios, the Poles got an immobilization with the ATR on turn one. Yippee!
 

hongkongwargamer

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Today I've punched some Finns from Hakka and imprisoned them in Plano. I've also set up and solitaire played a turn from Mazek Fire Brigade. With all the concealment counters, maybe not the best scenario for solitaire, but given its reputation I wanted to see how it plays. BTW, I've often said: "I've never found a use for ATR." Well, in these early war scenarios, the Poles got an immobilization with the ATR on turn one. Yippee!
Nice!

RE: Use of ATRs ... my opponents often lug an ATR to the highest point and interdict me out to 12 hexes
 

djohannsen

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Nice!

RE: Use of ATRs ... my opponents often lug an ATR to the highest point and interdict me out to 12 hexes
I had several guys tell me that this is the primary use. I was happy to see the armor factor of 1 on those early war tanks. I rolled the TK number on a hull hit and scored my first EVER effective use of an ATR - darn shame that it was playing solitaire.
 

bprobst

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I've often said: "I've never found a use for ATR."
Wow. You need to play more scenarios.

If nothing else (and there's plenty else), the equation "Hero + ATR" always equals "awesome". Turns your hero from a 1-4-9 into a 1-12-9. As the jingle says, reach out and touch someone.
 

von Marwitz

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If nothing else (and there's plenty else), the equation "Hero + ATR" always equals "awesome". Turns your hero from a 1-4-9 into a 1-12-9. As the jingle says, reach out and touch someone.
The reaching out is the real candy, because it is not just limited to the Hero+ATR but because the Hero can bestow his Heroic DRM also to other units being part of his firegroup. Makes that German MMG (range 12) combined with a -1 Leader so much more shiny!

I have seen many players overlook that normally, the Heroic DRM has only range 4 (like that of the Hero) and as well that it is increased to the range of the Hero's SW (12 in case of an ATR). Usually, the long range SW need at least two SMC to be fully manned and if fired by the Hero alone, the Heroic DRM would be cancelled. Not so with an ATR which can be fired by an SMC without restriction. Thus, a Hero+ATR are indeed the 'perfect match'.

von Marwitz
 

witchbottles

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Did some more playing of 4 Days to Naples with Jeff. With this game, and another vs Dennis Donovan of this scen, it's pretty much agreed an errata is needed to the scenario - to end all possibility of rain by turn 5 or 6, (so the OBA Smoke might be useful in the last turn push to exit.)

The scen plays well, Jeff's strategy of "all up front on 1" didn't earn many VPs, it did force the columns to enter pretty much all from one road, as the other has 3 immobilized trucks blocking it up as an entry point. That could be put to use by a crafty German, but the prisoner cost was 100% for that, and with prisoners quadrupled if exited for VP's, not a pretty sight if they manage to get off board. with the rain and mud, however, we all feel a "stop the rain" adjustment is going to be required to bring this scen into better balance - a turn 5 stop by SSR would likely bring a lot of Smoke and WP into play - making the last turn push off a real nail-biter for both sides (* the pressure is already there for both sides, every time it's been played - just need to keep it going to the end of the last MPh/APh.)

So once we've finished this one ( into turn 6 of 8.5 now) -I'll probably issue an errata to add to SSR 1 " All Rain will stop on Turn 5 (or 6 - not decided yet) - and Rain cannot occur again for the remainder of the scenario.

One thing I've missed this playing is the opportunity for interrogation which is in play, and could have been more useful at taking off some ?ment or revealing the HIP ATG before it got 3 half-tracks. That interrogation is why I think turn 6 is more likely the right turn to stop all the rain.

Anyway, always fun to play some ASL :) a good wargame day. ASL, TP:S and some WS& IM on the PC vs an Elite class AI. (he gutted my Dutch fleet). :D ( thank god for VMI's like DOSBox - they run the old PC wargames well).

I'll top it off with a couple of Over the Reich for PC Missions for my ME-109 squadron tonight before bed.

Gotta love it when a "game day" comes together!
:D :D

KRL, jon H
 

djohannsen

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Over lunch, I reread Ole Boe's outstanding "Stop and go traffic" from the ASL Annual '96. I'm sure that I got a lot more out of this article than the first time that I read it, but it's still going to take me a while before I can consistently get the rules right in play. Still, for me as a novice, this is one of the best ASL rule articles that I've ever read (JR's "Bring on the night" is the other one at the top of the heap).
 
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