Benny’s Weblog

ASL - S16 Legio Patria Nostra

AO12 - Sicilian Midnight

Babel (2)

Medici (5)

Rot & Swindlers (6)

Carabande (6)

Elasund (4)

Polarity (4): I love this game but still trying to figure out what the heck is going on!

Dune (6): This is actually quite a good game, I really want to try this again after reading the rules and becoming more familiar with how things works. At the end of the day it’s a negotiation and area control game but still pretty fun.

Settlers 5/6 Player (6): I’ll never turn down a game of Settlers, simply love this game. My only criticism of the 6 player game is the openness of the board. It feels like 3-player Settlers, plenty of goods to go around, not as tight a game.

ASL A32 - Zon With the Wind: An excellent scenario but can be tricky for the attacker. Getting around those 88s isn’t easy on the Americans.

ASK S16 - Legio Patria Nostra: Not a bad scenario. Lots of room for maneuver for the attacking Free French. Good fun.

PDF

Setup
- Before setup, LOS may be checked only by the side setting up first, and only if that side is the Scenario Defender, or has Pre-Registered Fire (C1.73) or Bore-Sighted weapons (C6.41-.42).
- Russian can replace 8-0 with 9-0 and/or 8-1 with 10-0 Commissar during or prior to 10/42
- Don’t forget German Panzerfaust.
- Boresighting for Scenario Defender only. (Bore Sighted MGs only get BS advantage in Defensive First Fire.)
- Check for Russian Guard or SS Formation benefits.
- Tanks and Guns may boresight too!
- Up to 10% (FRU) of the squads that set up onboard, and up to 10% (FRU) of the squads that enter in a given turn, may be freely Deployed (without leader/TC) prior to setup, if the nationality is capable of Deployment.
- Vehicles may set up in bypass.
- A vehicle may not start a scenario set up onboard in Motion.
- Check Gun setup limitations.

During Play
- Spraying Fire.
- DON’T FORGET ENCIRCLEMENT
- Fire as Area Fire into locations to try and reveal HIP units.
- Inexperienced is Conscript or Green. Suffer double column Cower on IFT and 3MF and B#/X# reduced by one. Are considered LAX. Green(only) are exempt if stacked with a leader.
- Searching - use it to find HIP units and mines.
- Only one type of action can occur in RPh per unit.
- FPF can be used as many times as possible, but is required for within hex fire.
- Use random selection to choose sniper target/s, attacker then chooses a single unit.
- Chinese Dare-Death squads may declare a Dare-Death attack if an enemy unit is in LOS (no need to be a KEU). It can then charge that unit.
- Heroship modifier can be used in multi-hex FG but only within Normal Range of Hero or his SW (15.24).

Movement
- Infantry bypass is allowed if the terrain depiction does not touch the hexside being bypassed.
- CX reduces a unit’s portage points by 1. (A4.52).

Residual
- Residual FP attacks occur after all MF activity but before fire attacks.
- Residual attacks use the target hex TEM even against Bypassing units.
- A unit can be attacked by Residual FP only once per Location (unless the Residual FP has since increased).
- ROF does not leave residual unless it has been forfeit.
- Pin negates FFNAM and FFMO (7.83).

SW
- All Guns in a FG which roll their ROF # get ROF.
- Final Firing MG reduces B#/X# by two and original B# becomes X#. (Sustained Fire)
- Firelanes are not allowed with Ammo Shortage.
- A Fire-Lane must target a moving unit on an eligible hex grain to be declared.
- Fire-Lane Residual is the next lower column on the IFT.
- If an MG establishes a FL it is marked with FirstFire and may fire again only in the DFPh.
- Any unit that cowers (as well as all of its SW regardless of whether it was using its inherent FP) is automatically marked with a Final or Prep Fire counter as appropriate. Use RS if more than one squad.
- Units may recover weapons in MPh at 1MF cost and dr. Only one attempt is allowed.
- Only an SMC can recover a weapon from a broken unit with a dr.
- A weapon fired during the AFPh cannot use Intensive Fire and is limited to one shot regardless of its ROF.
- If broken unit cannot carry SW then leader can recover it immediately with dr.
- Whenever a unit uses Subsequent First Fire, it must use all MG/IFE in its possession as Subsequent First Fire or forfeit their use for the remainder of that Player Turn (barring FPF).
- A crew that has fired First Fire (with either its SW/Gun or Inherent FP), can as its next shot do one of the following:

1) Fire its Inherent FP as Subsequent First Fire
2) Fire a MG as Subsequent First Fire
3) Fire a Gun as Intensive Fire

Regardless of which of the three that is chosen, the remaining option is the same: It can now only use FPF/OVR Prevention.

Morale
- A squad with underscored ML is replaced with two broken HS if fails ELR.
- Only units with a lower Moral than the leader need to take a LLMC.
- Leadership modifiers apply as positive DRM for LLMCs and LLTCs (10.2).
- A routing unit may never rout toward a Known armed enemy unit (even if that enemy unit is broken or disrupted).
- Low Crawl is always an option when routing.
- The closest woods/building hex need not be in LOS.
- Concealed units, since they are not Known, must be ignored by the routing player in determining his legal rout route.
- During the RtPh a broken unit not in Melee may not remain in the same Open Ground hex in the Normal Range and LOS of a Known non-Melee enemy unit/it-SW/Gun.
- Nor may it end a RtPh ADJACENT to or in the same Location with a Known enemy unit that is both unbroken and armed.
- A leader with no SW is still considered “armed” for purposes of determining legal rout paths and enforcing Failure to Rout eliminations.
- Elite HS become Disrupted if they ELR.
- CX units are not able to Interdict nor can units who must halve their firepower (Pinned, Motion etc.)
- A unit may opt to retain its DM status provided it is not in a woods/building/pillbox/trench.

Leadership
- Snipers are activated by residual FP attacks.
- The restrictive rules of Inexperienced Personnel always apply to Conscripts/Unarmed-units regardless of leader presence.

Concealment
- Concealed units do not lose Concealment for fire attacks and CC while solely against Broken units (12.14).
- When bump-revealing units use RS to select the unit/s revealed.
- In scenarios with no OB-designated “?” counters, one unit (and its SW) still needs to be momentarily revealed to strip concealment during play.
- Dummies deny concealment gain.
- If the owner claims concealment gain the enemy may check LOS with every of his units/Dummys to the unit claiming concealment gain. He may make as many free LOS checks as he wants.
- Potential LOS checks to a moving Concealed unit are free and require no attack or penalty for a blocked LOS.
- Multiple OB Designated Dummies may be placed on a unit.
- If a Concealed unit fires on another Concealed unit, if a result of any type is obtained (even KIA) then the firer must reveal.

DC/FT/LATW
- A DC’s *FP* is modified only by Concealed units (23). TEM etc. still applies.
- DC can be placed in the MPh but the unit is not considered to have moved out of its current Location.
- A DC can be thrown in any fire phase (inc. First Fire) and resolved at +2 for the target Location and +3 for the thrower’s Location with seperate DRs. KIA may cause rubble or flame.
- An Assault Moving squad with 4 MF cannot pop smoke in an adjacent OG hex (2 MF) and enter than hex (2MF) since it uses all its MF. But it can do so if accompanied with a leader, since it then has 6 MF. A squad also cannot do the same with a DC.
- ATMM are not represented by counters, but are considered possibly inherent in any German Infantry unit during or after 1944.

Smoke
- Smoke fired in the DFPh is always dispersed Smoke.
- Half-Squads may never place smoke even if declared as Assault Engineers (until they re-combine).
- SMOKE does not apply in Mud, Deep Snow, Rain, or Heavy Wind (24.6).

Berserk
- If a berserk unit fails a MC it is not broken, but suffers Casualty Reduction.
- Automatically loses any CX, TI, Concealment or pinned status.
- Never receives the leadership benefit of a friendly leader.

Terrain
- Multi-story buildings area a level 2.5 obstacle.
- For an Indirect fire effects roll there is an additional +1 DRM for each non-rooftop level of the building above each level being hit.
- Rubble may be created by any HE, HEAT attack >=70mm resulting in a KIA.
- If a KIA occurs and no Rubble has been created then roll a subsequent DR and add the EC (unless building) for flame creation.
- Indirect fire requires an effects DR for rubble, shellholes and fire.
- The level hit in an Area-Target-Type/OBA attack vs a multi-level building is determined via Random Selection among those levels hit.
- Even if the KIA occurs in a higher building level, there is still a possibility that the entire building will collapse. Roll one die. On a dr 6 the entire building hex is rubbled. There is a +1 drm for every non-rooftop building level above the one in which the rubbled occured.
- Shellholes can only be created by HE FFE >= 150mm.
- Height Advantage is NA if shooting the unit across the hexside it crosses going up the hill.
- Any ground level or level -1 hex adjacent to a marsh/mudflat hex is a Bog hex.

Orchards
- Orchards do not block LOS to their own hex from higher elevations when in season.

Stream
- Units fire out of a Stream as Area Fire.

Walls
- Can be claimed by a unit at five times: during its setup; at the end of any RPh; during its MPh/APh; when losing HIP status; whenever all enemy units lose/forfeit WA over shared wall/hedge hexsides.
- Wall/Hedge TEM is reduced by one for each level above the range in hexes.
- Indirect fire at a unit behind a wall gets +1 modifier.

Bocage
- Locations (eg. Fortifications etc.) in a bocage hex can always be seen. Units can only be seen if they have WA (even if they’re adjacent to each other).
- LOS cannot be traced along a Bocage hexspine.
- A unit in a Bocage hex without WA is out of LOS to all but adjacent.
- Bocage units are always considered out of LOS and in Concealment terrain for Concealment gain purposes.

Played the following scenarios at Anzacon tournament. There is roughly 17 hours of ASL play here. The only game I won was the very last monster scenario “Ancient Feud”.

ASL SP118 - Seizing the Sittang Bridge: Opponent was Joe Morrow. A short scenario to start off the tournament. Set in Burma, the Chinese attempt to hold off a Japanese patrol intent on capturing the Sittang Bridge. I’m not bad at playing the Japanese because when they inevitably break, they don’t go backwards, they just continue on to the objective. In this case however, I ended up with the Chinese who were quickly overwhelmed.

ASL PBP22 - Morire in Belleza: Opponent was Murray McCloskey. We had a lot of fun with this one, I played the Italians; They’re not bad until they break the first time. Surprisingly, they had a really good 10-2 leader so I was able to get very very close to winning the game. In fact we both thought I had it in the bag until the very last turn when Muzza sprung his HIP artillery piece and blew away enough guys to prevent me controlling the hill. Excellent fun!

ASL FT50 - Meeting on the Summit: This is where the tournament went downhill for me. A night scenario in deep snow with heavy winds was probably the last thing I wanted to play after 9 hours straight of ASL. Needless to say I didn’t have a hope. Cloaking, night LV, Starshells, Trenches, snow drifts. My head almost imploded. I’ll only remember this as my worse tournament experience ever!

ASL 119 - Ancient Feud: And then on Sunday came the monster. A scenario designed to take from 9am to 6pm. Luckily, my opponent Gordon Stokes conceded after only a few hours so we had a result. Unfortunately for the others they only made it halfway through their games after 8-9 hours of play so the TD needed to make a decision as to who would most likely have won if the game continued. Hopefully this problem does not surface in future tourneys.

ASL SK15 - Hammer to the Teeth (2): Our second play of this one saw the Germans getting a good foothold on the town and managing to hold out against the Americans and their reinforcements. This and 88’s At Zon are probably my two favorite Starter Kit scenarios.

ASL SK13 - Priority Target (2): My first play of Priority Target. Looking back it’s hard to see how the Allies with their three artillery pieces have a chance of winning the game. There is a ton of cover on every flank due to the grain fields being in season. Still fun though.

Combat Commander Europe (2): Played my first tournament scenario against Imants. Scenario 1 as the Germans after we both made a successful bid. It was great fun!

Combat Commander Europe (2): Scenario 2 against Alpha. An excellent game which looked a little shaky at the start but became more decisive as the game wore on.

Combat Commander Europe (2): A non-tourney game with Imants. We played an upcoming scenario so he could gain some familiarity with some of the fiddlier rules.

Lord of the Rings (4): Kinda fun, we didn’t come close to beating the game but generally had a good time trying.

Tigris & Euphrates (4): First play for a very long time. Multi-player games are just sooo slooow!

ASL 22 - Kurhaus Clash (2): I kinda liked this scenario, looking forward to giving it another try; But, I’m not convinced the allies have a hope of winning! The Roar balance shows German:63 American:31, I never stood a chance!

Tunisia: One of the games from Dean Essig’s Operational Combat Series. I haven’t been this excited about a wargame system since ASL. The defining factor separating OCS from other wargames is the way supply is handled. Supply exists as numbered counters on the map; Units must expend points from these counters to move and fight. If a motorised unit cannot draw supply, they cannot do anything including attack, move and their defense strength is halved!
If you leave a supply dump ungarrisoned you risk your opponent paradropping troops in to capture it.
In other war-games, all the action is focussed on the sliver of map at the front-line. In OCS the entire map is in play as you try to keep your supply in check and manageable, but at the same time fight the battle. You can’t appreciate the ingenuity of this system until you see it in action.
Fascinating stuff.

Combat Commander (2): Up against Christian in a random scenario. It’s an experience best forgotten!

18AL (3): Wow; A manageable 18xx game which can be played in under 5 hours! My favorite one yet, well worth getting your hands on if you struggle to find the time or opponents to get an 1856 or 1870 game in. Took us around 4.5 hours.

Tunisia Specific Rules

Rail
- Rail lines are converted from moving over them.
- Axis player has no rail capacity, purely uses it for Trace Supply.
- Points of interest are detrainable hexes.

Air
- Air units cannot be intercepted in an AEP hex.
- Holding box Airbases cannot be upgraded.
- Units can only be rebuilt on the playing map.

Terrain
- Always use the worse terrain for movement and the best terrain for the defender.

Shipping
- Units may not move in the same Phase they ship.

Axis Air
- German air units may conduct Hipshoots. Italian cannot **
- Motorized Parachute Inf Reg Barenthin and Brandenburg Commando Kampf von Konig may not conduct airdrops (in addition to the normal restrictions).

Axis Reinforcements
- Most must be placed in the Sicily Holding Box first.
- Any reinforcements not assigned an entry area must be placed in the Holding Box.
- Repl units always go in the “A” area of the Holding Box.
- Axis player must empty the “A” area before being able to ship or air transport from the “B” area. (except airlift)

Axis Supply Sources
- Tunis and Bizerte
- All organic or regular trucks enter loaded with SPs.

Allied Air
- Only the Desert Airforce (color coded with blue band) can make Hipshoot attacks.

Allied Reinforcements
- Most must be placed in the Algiers Holding Box, Tripoli Holding box or Entry Area A.
- Allied Variable can be brought on at any Allied Supply Source but rebuilding may not occur in a Holding Box.
- Allied Rail may be used to ship units directly from the Algiers Holding Box to the map.

Allied Supply Sources
- Port of Bone and hex A1.15.

1856(4): Our second play through. The game turned into a 8-hour unfinished marathon. Probably about an hour of play left most likely. Great fun though, I’ve learned so much recently and just barely avoided bankruptcy.

Shifting Sands (2): The Allies failed to hold Khartoum so the card I had been hanging onto (Egyptian Uprising) could be played as my very last action of Turn 2. And because my opponent had nothing garrisoning Port Said and Suez, I put the Egyptians right into those two supply spaces thus securing the win.