2009-2011 After Action Reports

41/ AP7 Directive Number Three

Sun, 26 Jun 2011 21:38:15 -0500

As a break from in our continuing Federation and Empire game, Joe and I will be rolling dice in anger with ASL. Since we’ll be playing on June 27, I searched the ASL Scenario Database for all the scenarios set on June 27th.

AP7 - Directive Number Three is set near Dubno, Ukraine, on 27 June 1941. Just five days after the start of Operation Barbarossa, this scenario pits two advancing armored columns against each other over the flat farm land full of grain fields.

Not only is this almost perfect tank country, the setting in 1941 means there are loads of early war special tanks - including the T-35. This “land battleship” has four turrets, two with 76* guns and two with the MG armament. The way the mini-turrets are arranged, one 76* and one MG cover all firing arcs, but there is no place where both big guns fire in the same direction. The Russians also have a T-34 M40 with its 11 AF front will give Fritz the willies... They don’t have a gun that can crack that thick, sloped front armor.

For the Germans, there are plenty of the small Panzers, including two Czech Skoda tanks. The tanks are solid and reliable, which is more than most of those radioless death traps Ivan will be driving.

Right now, I don’t know who’s going to play which side, but it’ll be fun.

DOH! We weren’t able to meet up this week - maybe on July 4th?

40/ J1 Urban Guerillas

Sat, 16 Oct 2010 11:04:39 -0500

My Long Time Wargame Opponent (LTWO) and I just finished a three-month session of playing Federation and Empire and now are looking forward to a pallet cleanser game of ASL. For this session, I chose the first scenario from the ASL Journal.

The scenario looks slightly tilted toward the Russians, but it’s still in the 45%-55% range, so I consider it not lop-sided.

The scenario is played on two half-boards with two overlays. The boards are the city boards from Beyond Valor - including the lovely canal! The Germans are elements of SS Panzer Regiment Der Fuhrer, Division 2, Das Reich, so not only are they ELR 5 and get all those wonderful SS bonuses, it means the Black Counters come out!

The SS is defending three buildings (23Y7, 23AA3, and 23CC2) against a combination of elements of the Russian 5th Guards Mechanized Brigade supported by elements of the 30th Guards Heavy Tank Regiment as well as Austrian partisans. So, while the German player may get his black counters and SS boys, but Ivan gets two IS-2m, with their 122L main gun and 26 AF front hull.

There are no fancy special rules here - just infantry, guns, and tanks - and the SSR are not too weird. The only downside is that it might be a bit long - but I’m game since there are so many cool toys!

• German SS squads w/ ELR 5
• PzKpfw VE, PzKpfw IVJ, and a FlaK 88
• PSK and a 9-2 Armor Leader
• Russian Guards w/ No Quarter
• Three T-34/85 and two IS-2m
• Two DC, a FT, and a 9-1 Armor Leader

All of this in a late-war struggle for the heart of an European City. This is ASL at its best! There will be carnage and mayhem in the streets of Vienna... hm, maybe I should go watch The Third Man...

Images
Image at the top is from Illustrated History. The picture of the IS-2M is from the FReeper Foxhole’s TreadHead Tuesday. The still from The Third Man is from Sean Axmaker’s blog.

39/ 2009 In Review

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 11:09:45 -0600

Back in January, I resolved to try and play ASL at least once every two weeks. This would mean that I should get in about 26 games over the following 52 weeks.

I did this because it had been years since I played the game - a game that I am quite fond of. I started playing in 1989 (after I graduated from university) and have been playing on and off since then. Sadly, it was more off than on. Joe, my long time opponent, was also in a mood to play some, so I jumped in with both feet to try and play more in one year than I’d played in the prior decade.

So, how did I do?

Well, here it is by the numbers:
✓ Number of ASL scenarios played: 32
✓ Number of HASL CG scenarios played: 2
✓ Number of Solitaire scenarios played: 4
✓ Number of ASL scenarios played not listed: about 5
✓ Number of new ASL players: 3
✓ Number of play tests participated in: 1

So, I achieved my goal - and better than I’d expected. Not only did I exceed the number of games that I intended to play, but:
• I grew the hobby by 3 players
• I got to finally start a Red Barricades campaign game
• I learned the Solitaire rules
• I participated in the play test of the Finn Solitaire rules

All of this increased my knowledge of the ASL rules to the point that, for the first time in years, I’m comfortable with them. Heck, I played entire games where I only had to refer to the rules under 5 times! Wee!

It was a smashing success - and a big thank you to Joe and Paul, my semi-regular opponents, as well as Brian, Andy, and everyone else who participated.

So, what’s the goal for 2010? Let’s see if I can beat the 32 game mark! On ward!

38/ VotG13 - Escape from Komsomol Park

Wed, 23 Dec 2009 09:57:32 -0600

A Different Part of Stalingrad
Paul and I got together last night for our final ASL game of the year (what with Christmas and visiting family and all). Paul apparently has a copy of Valor of the Guards sitting under the Christmas Tree and so he wanted to try one of the scenarios. Knowing Paul, he would want to play the Russians and it would give me a chance to play the Germans for a chance (since I’m playing Ivan in the RB campaign game).

So, I looked over the available scenarios with an eye to something that we could finish in about 2-3 hours. What I found was VotG13 - Escape from Komsomol Park. It looked interesting - Russian NKVD troops, strnage SSR, German SdKfz 10/5, and the VotG map. We quickly setup and got to playing.

What was I thinking???

Scenario Special Rules
The objective of the scenario is for the NKVD and their 3 Commissars along with some elements of the regular army to break out from being surrounded by the Germans. The terrain had the Russians in some stone buildings and their way out was through or around a little office park. Without SSR, this would have been a fairly lopsided game for the Germans as they had more S/W than Ivan and two of the SdKfz 10/5.

The SSR, however, changed all this. There were two in particular:
1. The German deployment was restricted so that no more than 1 MMC and 1 S/W could be in any hex and no MMC adjacent to another MMC.
2. At the start of every German PFPh and every Russian MPh, each German unit must take a TC. A failure of the TC means that the unit is marked with either a Prep Fire or First Fire marker (as appropriate).

The first SSR meant that it was difficult for the Germans to have a solid defensive line at the start of the game. This normally wouldn’t be a problem as the Germans could shift their troops as the Russian assault develops.

However, the second SSR means that, if you blow the TC, your unit not only won’t be able to fire, but on your turn, will be restricted to a single hex move in the Aph. As if that wasn’t bad enough, failing the TC also means that the unit is unable to effectively fire for that game turn. And the cherry on top? If you box-car the TC, you are subject to Level A Booby Traps.

Yep, due to that SSR, about 80% of my Germans didn’t do a damn thing for 1.5 to 2 turns. This allowed Paul to walk his Russians through the park with little if any resistance and, by turn 4, he was able to escape his 5 VP worth of troops with little difficulty.

Due to SSR 2, this was more a game of Bunko than ASL. This scenario now inaugurates a new ASL list for me - ASL Scenario Stinkers! It also shows a new ASL Truth:

Truth # 10: Sometimes, it just doesn’t matter what you do; the scenario is too out of balance to make it winnable.

Sigh - well, the ASL year ended on a whimper. Merry Christmas, y’all!

37/ Red Barricades II-1

Sun, 8 Nov 2009 10:01:28 -0600

Aftermath (10/17/42)
After much fighting, Joe and I completed our first campaign day of Red Barricades. In the final analysis the Germans, commanded by Joe, were able to win the day with 18 stone locations. For their part my Russians were able to hold the northern front and restrict the German advance across the railway to a single salient. All things considered, a bad day for Ivan but not a great day for Fritz.

After an early fall hiatus, Joe and I reconvened to work out the inter-game sessions. Given the amount of bookkeeping and the necessity for having the map around for it, we decided to do all the inter-session work in one setting and hold the next campaign game day at a following session.

Russian Reinforcements
My objective was first and foremost to get more boots on the ground. My second objective is to build up enough forces for a counter attack to regain some of the lost locations. Time isn’t on my side, but neither it is on the side of the Germans. Both of us need to move. I hope that Joe decides to take a turn and gun up. So, I plan to go “idle” for the next campaign day and the “assault” for the following one. And I’m planning on a night assault to help neutralize the leadership advantage of the German forces.

I didn’t have enough troops or firepower to hold my long front, so my first purchases was two more infantry groups, a Guards company and a Rifle company, with their associated support weapons and leaders. This bolstered my force to better hold my ground. To support the troops, I invested in more fortifications, the previous fortified buildings doing so well for me.

As a surprise for the Germans, I purchased a battery of Katyusha rockets (see the image at the top of the page). The Katyusha rockets are supposed to paste the Germans in their deployment zone.

When it came time for action determination, I chose “Idle” but Joe chose “Attack”. The result is another day of German assault! That ends the game session for today and we’ll re-convene for CG II.

Campaign Day II: 10/18/42
Since the Germans are attacking. I deploy first and reinforce my long front. I put the mortars back on the factory roofs as this gives them the best LOS. I also deploy the field phone for the Katyusha rockets up there. I set my squads along the front and deploy some trenches to connect buildings around the western salient of the Germans (building F11-12).

On turn one, Joe moves in strength on the north-eastern end of the line (east of the O1-N1 wall). This assault is accompanied by the two surviving PzKpfw IIIL from 10/17. On the south-western end, the Germans attempt to continue south west of the railway toward Yanvarya street (A27-D26). A third contingent comes in from the northwest headed toward the Northwestern most workshop (F5-F6) which was the scene of so much fighting the previous day.

The Russian fighters put up heavy resistance. At the end of turn one, the southern advance toward Yanvarya street was halted with minimal casualties.

The Germans holding the northwestern most workshop came under Katyusha fire resulting in the building and the surrounding rubble being almost completely evacuated. The troops sent to reinforce this point are pinned down to the west of the railway and there is a chance that a successful Russian assault could recapture the northwestern-most building.

The eastern assault is moving forward slowly though it is facing stiff resistance.

After completing setup and turn 1, Joe and I called it a day. We pick up with turn 2 tomorrow. i hope the Russian luck holds...

36 / A50 ...And Here We Damned Well Stay

Wed, 30 Sep 2009 22:39:18 -0500

Paul and I finally got to try our hand at a scenario in the desert. The tough thing about desert scenarios is finding one. There aren’t that many; and then most of them are massive 6-map, 10+ turn, 40+ unit per side affairs.

Its sad, really. There are plenty of PTO and ETO scenarios, but very few desert ones. The desert rules aren’t really that much harder than the Pacific or, for that mater, than the glider landing/air drop rules. I mention the later because there are about as many glider scenarios (mostly Crete and Pegasus Bridge) as there are desert scenarios. Maybe i should get off my duff and do something about it - maybe an HASL module about El Alamein or Tobruk or Kaserine.

Set Up
Oh well, back to this scenario. This was the first time Paul ventured out into the desert, so I wanted something that wasn’t too much. This scenario fit the bill. The set up has the British dug in the sand trying to hold off 15 (!) Panzers. Paul would run the Afrika Korps and I would setup the Desert Rats.

For the British had 3 x 6 Pndr AT guns (with a lovely 15 to kill number) supported by 6 first-line troops armed with a MMG, 2 x LMG, a mortar and a single ATR. They got 6 foxholes that had to be setup in the sand and dunes. The AT guns are a definite British advantage, but the fact that the Desert Rats suffer from Low Ammunition means that I won’t be taking lots of risky shots.

The Germans were trying for a break through - running their 6 PzKpfw IIIL, 6 x PzKpfw IIIJ, and 3 x PzKpfw IIIH - through the British lines. The German advantage is that they have to get only 8+ of their tanks through the British lines (i.e. the Brits have to K.O. 8 tanks). The draw back is that there is lots of sand so many changes for the Panzers to bog down.

I set my forces up with two AT guns on either side of the board, covering each other. The third was set back and toward the middle. Almost any point on the board was within range of 2 guns, and many all 3. The rest of my forces were scattered in the sand to hopefully get a lucky shot or CC attack on a tank.

Action Report
Paul roared onto the board and tried to head down the right flank. He ended his first movement turn 1 hex away from my ATR. I popped out of concealment and took some close shots. The ATR didn’t do anything, but when Paul shot back, he managed to roll my Sniper number which promptly stunned one of his Panzers. :) I also opened up on turn 1 with the AT gun on my right flank. It didn’t do so hot either - managing to generate Low Ammo on its second shot.

In turn 2, Paul sent 6 Panzers toward the Low Ammo gun on my right and...

...wait for it...

managed to bog down 5 of them in the sand.

He then sent the other 9 Panzers down the middle of the board, heading for the victory conditions. Of these, two more bogged, but he managed to get close - i would have to stop him now or he would win on turn 3.

When my turn came around, I managed to eliminate 3 Panzers - two by my AT guns and one by CC from some rather brave British troops. However, doing so I managed to break or eliminate all of my AT guns.

On Turn 3, Paul’s tanks cruised to victory.

Post Mortem
All in all, this was a good game - the desert is fun - and the amazing amount of really, really, bad DR made by both sides made this game a memorable comedy of errors.

Paul has been burned out on ASL, so we will be taking an extended break - probably for the rest of the year at least. That being said, Joe and I are set to start up with Campaign Day 2 for Red Barricades later this month. My original target was to play about 26 ASL games in 2009, I’m 10 beyond that and having a grand time!

35/ A118 - The Waterhole

Wed, 26 Aug 2009 18:36:00 -0500

After a few weeks off, Paul and I returned to ASL and returned to the Jungles. This time, however, it was the jungles of Burma rather than those of the South Pacific.

For this game, we picked one of the scenarios using the Nhpum Ga historical map that was included in ASL Annual ’97. This map is very intriguing as its not all that large and very, very dense with jungle and bamboo. The historical setting has Merrill’s Marauders defending a village surrounded by the Japanese. This scenario deals with the Marauders’ defense of their only source of water on 03/31/1944.

The other interesting thing about this map is that I have no idea how to pronounce the village name!

The American forces number only 4 Assault Engineer squads initially with two more that enter on turn 3. The Americans have a DC, a MMG, and a radio to a 60+mm OBA as well as 4 concealment counters. All this to hold one stinking water hole for 5 turns. Against this, the Japanese have 4 Elite and 4 first line squads plus a crew-tended MMG, two LMG, and 2 mortars (with the ability to fire White Phosphorous). Both sides have two leaders.

The Americans have superior firepower but the Japanese have numbers. The objective is to control the single hex that is the only supply of fresh water for the Marauders. The Americans can deploy in foxholes, so they can setup a great defensive position. The Japanese have to enter the board on Turn 1 (so all US forces start concealed) along a gully and the opposite side from the objective.

I brought my Japanese on the board on the side of the gully opposite the objective and stayed in the jungle (to get that every necessary concealment). Paul had deployed his foxholes in an arc in front of and across the gully from the objective. He also placed his MMG in a foxhole with a perfect line of fire down the gully. It was going to be difficult to get the IJA across.

I paced my movement and, with lots of lucky misses on the part of the US forces, I was able to get most of my troops across the gully and near the objective by the end of turn 4. The rub was that I had to grab the hex (Paul had left it undefended) and hold it for his half of turn 5. I did this by a tactic I called “sacrifice bunt” - I sent out pairs of squads to close assault the US forces; hoping to eliminate them or tie them up in melee. Both of us were stealthy and I was advancing from concealment, so I was ambushed only once. After the “sacrifice bunts” went out, I advanced out a large stack to hold the water source (okay, its a pond).

On his part of turn 5, Paul abandoned the MMG location and assaulted the
pond but the CC was ineffectual. Since I had occupied the hex on the prior half of the turn, I retained control and won the scenario.

Yep, another one that came down to the last die roll on the last turn. Gotta love ‘em!

So, what did I learn:
• While White Phosphorous is really neat with that lovely NMC affect, it doesn’t fire off near often enough.
• You don’t have to win CC if your objective is to hold the enemy back.
• The control rules in ASL are different from the miniature games Paul and I’ve been playing over the last few years.

Up next, Paul and I head out to North Africa. I’ve been reading War in the Desert: The Eighth Army at El Alamein and so I’m eager for some sand and panzers. it may be Blazin’ Chariots or something with the Italians. We’ll see...

Oh, and regarding Red Barricades - Joe and I took a week off to play Federation Commander. He whipped me pretty good as I forgot to pay attention to the victory conditions and worried more about his overloaded photons...

34/ Red Barricades I-4

Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:09:39 -0500

Last weekend, Joe and I completed Campaign Day 1 at the end of turn 5. We both agreed that the end of game die that looked like a 6 was really a 1, thus ending the game after the fifth turn. :)

The final score had Joe controlling 18 stone locations, which was 3 more than was required to win the scenario. Along the way, Joe managed to rack up 21 casualty victory points (CVP). The defending Russians did manage to get 28 CVP, so at least we made the Germans pay in blood for their gains.

Since this is one scenario in a campaign game whose purpose is to control terrain, the resulting demarcation lines are important.
On the North flank, the Russians held off the Germans and kept them north of the northern most road. On the west flank, however, the German army was able to take control of many of the stone buildings west of the railway embankment and north of Arbatovskaya street. Only the multi-hex building B17 is contested. The Germans were also able to take over two stone buildings east of the railway embankment (F5 and F11.

Basically, the Russian western flank is weak and but the North held out. Earlier I mentioned that I had made two mistakes, well now that the first scenario is over, I can relate them.

1. When I purchased fortifications, I spent all my points to fortify certain buildings (L5 and N5 were fortified for multiple stories) but I didn’t buy any trenches. The result was that I was unable to redeploy forces from the northern flank to reinforce the western flank quickly.
2. The second was the placement of my two AT guns. I put them both in wooden buildings on hex row W. I gambled that the German tanks would come across the open ground on the northern flank. Joe rightly brought them down Tramvanaya Street. They were behind both railway embankments and, since embankments are LOS obstacles, out of my LOS!

Given all that, Joe did very well and got very far. I’m definitely on my back foot and need to come out swinging in the next campaign day. My forces are weaker than I’d like to defend such a wide front, so I’m considering making a Night attack to either reclaim some stone locations or collapse the northern pocket. It depends on what I can purchase and how many CG days I might have to regroup.

More info as I have it. We should start the next RB session in about three weeks.

33/ Red Barricades I-3

Sun, 19 Jul 2009 17:54:30 -0500

Time marches on

Joe and I continue our 1 turn a session and we’re hammering away at the game. Since the last post, we’ve played twice so that make it ... um add two... carry the one... find the least common factor... turn 4!

The big news is that the Russian left flank has all but collapsed. Joe’s assault troops took enough stone building locations west of the railroad to give him the victory for this scenario. He has also managed to jump the tracks and take one stone building (F11) and part of another (F5) east of the rail road. The Russian defenses are holding well on the North, but I’m frantically trying to move around to the west to contain the Germans.

One thing, today the dice were very much against me. I couldn’t make a decent roll to save my life! For example, I had a PTP obr. 42 (45LL) fire six times in a row (lovely ROF) only doing 1MC each time.

The German Pzkpfw III’s are lined up behind a immobilized and malfed Pzkpfw III on Tramvanaya Street. The Pzkpfw III was immobilized by a squad and a half of conscripts who charged the tank when their Commissar went berserk. On Turn 4, these guys faded back into the buildings along the western edge of the board to draw fire as they tried to infiltrate to the German buildings. Well, they did and went all wobbly kneed when the Commissar bought it.

This campaign game scenario has brought to light yet another ASL Truth:

Truth # 9: A broken attacker is as good as a dead one. If he’s DM’ed, there’s a good chance he’s not going to advance. Unless you’ve got casualty victory conditions, a Defender should try to break as many troops as possible rather than kill them.

My holding up the Germans on the northern flank is due to keeping them DM’ed. On the western flank, I haven't’ been able to do that.

We’re taking an extended break (3 weeks) for vacations, and then we should be able to hit it hard and fast for turn 5 in mid August. I hope that the scenario ends on Turn 5 as they Russian position is really weak on the west right now.

Other News
Oh, and as for Paul and I, we’ve not played ASL since 25 June. Last Wednesday we played a game of The Rise and Decline of the Third Reich (4th Edition). We should be back to ASL (or finish our F&E game) this week.

Greater Games Gathering 2.2 is scheduled for 29 August in Plano. I will definitely be running a multi-player “scavenger hunt” scenario for Federation Commander. If y’all are in the neighborhood, come on by!

32/ VotG9 - Eviction Notice

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 21:34:43 -0500

With summer here, it’s kinda hard to keep to a schedule, but I’m trying....

For my birthday (# 45), I got a copy of Valor of the Guards. This is the second historical ASL module (HASL) set in Stalingrad. While the original, Red Barricades, deals with the fighting in and around the Red Barricady tractor works in October, Valor of the Guards covers the earlier fighting for central Stalingrad.

I got it on Wednesday, the night Paul and I play, so I took it over to his house to show him. Well, with all the pretty new counters - assault engineers, NKVD, and Cletus the Slack-Jawed Commissar (as we dubbed the 8+1 Commissars) we just had to give it a whirl.
 What to play - why Votg9 - Eviction Notice, of course! It’s short (4.5 turns), low counter count (10 German squad equivalents vs 11 Russian squad equivalents), minimal Scenario Special Rules, and uses only a small section of the map. Paul took the attacking Russians and I took the defending Germans.

My setup of pretty much specified by the scenario (all front line stone hexes to be occupied) but I was able to do some surprises. I had one AT gun and I set it up to fire down the left hand road. At this point, it had a clear shot to Paul’s entry area. This would discourage him from bringing his tanks down that road - and prefer the right hand road. Therefore, I placed my mortar on this flank so it could shell the rest of the board (no fear of it being swarmed). On the right flank, I deployed the two anti-tank rifles (ATR) I had in spots so that when Paul brought the tanks down the road, I could get side shots on them. Just for grins, the AT gun was setup such that once Paul committed his armor, I could push the gun to the other road (if necessary). The center of my line was held by my HMG and most of my squads.

Paul deployed opposite my center and a little to my right. On turn one, he brought his tanks down the right-hand road (radioless platoon movement) and concentrated his fire to break my line. The first turn, my dice were not horrible (only 2 squads broke) but not great (no appreciable damage to the Russians). Turn 2 was about the same, except a berserk Russian squad managed to take out my forward most ATR. Turn 3, when the AT gun was manhandled into position, my dice got much better. I managed to destroy one of the T60 M40 tanks and break most of Paul’s front line.

At this point it was getting late (setting up the scenario and reading the SSR took a lot of time) so we called the game, slightly in my favor. However, a good turn for Paul would have reversed that tenuous hold.

Now, two confessions and a problem:
1. Paul and I didn’t read the SSR closely enough - specifically, we missed VotG20. This SSR says all Russian tanks have radios. We played the Russians as radioless. This significantly hurt Paul’s attack.
2. Playing the game, I misread the victory conditions and, if the game had completed, Paul would have won because I didn’t plan on taking any buildings outside my deployment zone. I was playing a purely defensive battle (I guess my playing style is still stuck into the Russian mindset for Red Barricades (see here and here).
3. There are many setup descriptions that are confusing, but the Russian setup for this scenario is a doozy. There are two possible ways we saw to set up; one forces the Russians to deploy only on the German’s left flank and one allows the Russians to deploy across the whole line. Need to get MMP to answer that one...

All told, a good scenario and one I’ll play again.