Benny’s Weblog

ASL - HS 3 Tasimbioko Raid: This could be the most-fun ASL scenario I’ve played thus far. Burning Huts and Dive Bombing!

ASL - VV13 Sur Les Chemins De Rome: An Interesting scenario, may have been more enjoyable if I had not totally diced my opponent.

ASL J12 - Jungle Fighters: Fun but hard to see how the Japs can get through the defense. Fun Banzai opportunities though.

ASL S21 - Clash at Borisovka: Back to this tank-only scenario and lost again!

ASL 3 - A Simple Equation: My second play of this one. It’s fascinating that twice my opponents neglected to cover their right-flank. This allows the Germans to use board-edge creep and avoid sometimes even long-range fire.

2 x ASL S2 - War of the Rats: According to my ASL game record this is my sixth play of War of the Rats. I think it’s the best scenario in Starter Kit #1. A very good introduction to Flamethrowers, DCs and Support Weapons.

ASL S21 - Clash at Borisovka: This one seems like a pretty hectic scenario to introduce Starter Kit players to Armor. In fact there are barely enough Acquisition counters to keep track of all the shots!

ASL J102 - Borodino Train Station: An interesting scenario that in the early game feels more like a puzzle than your typical ASL game. Russian squads advancing catiously onto the mapboard and straight into enemy fire. I managed to hole up a large enough force to successfully pull off a Human Wave and capture the required single building. Later I had enough of a force to march down and satisfy the VC for a win.

4 x ASL Starter Kit #1 - Retaking Vierville: Helping an old ASL-er get back into the game.

ASL - J89 Himmler’s House: Wow, this one is great but… hectic. The stacking in “Himmler’s House” became quite dense, this one would be so much better played on the DASL boards which for which it was designed. We screwed up a bunch of rules along the way but I lost fair and square!

ASL Starter Kit S4(2): First play of this one. All the SK scenarios bar maybe one or two from SK#2 seem good to me. This was an interesting get-your-guys-off-my-map-edge game. Possibly slightly favors the defender though.

ASL - BC7 Brigade Hill (2): A pretty good introductory PTO scenario although it does feel somewhat unbalanced. In the hands of a better player the Brits may have had a chance though. The Japanese did an excellent job defending, they timed their attacks very well with few errors.

ASL Starter Kit S6 - Released From the East: Still a pretty good scenario, lots of room for a varied attack strategy. My opponent concentrated his attack on only two of the buildings which was probably a bad idea. It meant I could rush the defending squads from the 3rd building over to reinforce.

ASL SP111 - Why At Erp: Reminiscent of the Starter Kit scenario Retaking Vierville with roles reversed. Same map but with the Americans attempting to break units in the victory hexes.
Good fun but a little basic, a nice bridging scenario for new players.

ASL - S16 Legio Patria Nostra

AO12 - Sicilian Midnight

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.

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.

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!

ASL Starter Kit - S12(2): Over Open Sights was fun but bloody. As the attacker I was chewed to pieces thanks to some incredible ROF tears. I really want to give this one another go soon.

ASL Starter Kit - S15(2): Hammer to the Teeth is a pretty fun scenario. The Germans get a big 81mm MTR to play with, the Americans a couple of AT Guns with limited HE ammo. First play through using VASL, we’ve kicked off another game after swapping sides.
The Germans were well and truly chewed up before getting close to their victory conditions.

ASL Starter Kit - Clearing Coleville (2): I had forgotten how much fun ASL is when you break it down into such a simple scenario. I miss it.

Scenarios played at Cancon ASL tourney.

ASL (2): FT31 - The Yelna Bridge. I’ve played this twice before but it was no help as I still have not figured out how to win as the attacker.

ASL (2): SP95 - Burn Gurkha Burn! An excellent scenario, lots of fun to play and came down to the very last Close Combat die roll. My first tournament win.

ASL (2): SP123 - The Badger’s Breath. I thought I had this in the bag for most of the game but things fell apart on the very last turn. A very tricky smoke/flank attack secured the buildings quite easily.

ASL - To Lose A Battle [U15]: A playtest of an old Squad Leader scenario converted to ASL format. Seemed quite balanced but an 8 hour marathon to play, like many of the old scenarios. The French have very few units, their goal is to slow the Germans down enough to prevent them physically having time to get off the map for a victory. Inevitably the French will be eliminated.

ASL - Trial by Combat [U10]: Another excellent scenario. My first two turns went very, very well but things fell apart from there on. Heavily pro-German so I was disadvantaged from the start

ASL - The Yelna Bridge [J102]: A great little scenario. I’ve already played this as the attacker and was soundly hosed so was keen to give it another try. It came down to the wire pretty much. The Artillery piece did its job, the crew never broke. German infantry became bogged down in the Stream which didn’t help their cause. The medium machine gun was partially successful.
Played at Army Group South night.

ASL - Hill 621 [E]: This is pretty much the biggest scenario possible without actually playing a full-blown campaign. It took roughly 5 hours today to play 2 complete turns. The scenario is 10 turns long.
The Russian player is attacking and needs to take 5 hexes of a hill. He has 48 squads and about 8 tanks, it’s very, very messy!

- If an MG establishes a FL it is marked with FirstFire and may fire again only in the DFPh.
- CX units are not able to Interdict nor can units who must halve their firepower (Pinned, Motion etc.)
- Do not forget to use special Ammo.
- If a unit can directly enter another building/woods hex it can continue routing.
- A unit may opt to retain its DM status provided it is not in a woods/building/pillbox/trench.
- Need to sacrifice ROF to leave residual.
- Whenever a unit uses Subsequent First Fire, it must use all MG/IFE in its possession (up to the unit’s normal operation capabilities; 7.35-.353) as Subsequent First Fire or forfeit their use for the remainder of that Player Turn (barring FPF).
- one SMC can add its IPC to that of any one Good Order Infantry unit to increase the IPC of the latter

- Look into Entrenchment attempts in the hill hexes.
- Look into getting HD Crest status for vehicles.

UPDATE: Finally over, I conceded at Turn 6.

ASL - Tyranny’s End [OA9]: Not a bad scenario for re-learning the OBA rules. I found defence quite difficult. The Americans have a total of 2 squads to defend against 9(!) German squads and their 5 vehicles.

- CMG fire at other than the Acquired target results in loss of Acquisition.
- The MP for entry of a hex needs to be spent before the MP expenditure for Overrun.
- The OBA flowchart always starts with the first column with each PFPh/DFPh.

ASL - The Five Pound Prize [SP115]: Oh man. The more we play the more enjoyable the game gets. There are fiddly situations but they’re becoming fewer and far between. Especially good is our increasing comfort with handling tanks, carriers, half-tracks etc. Vehicles in general really. Zoltan, my opponent, is much more confident with armor tactics than myself. I just don’t know what to do with my tanks to aid supporting my infantry. As soon as I get over this hurdle I’ll be fine but until then I still have an uphill battle trying to beat anyone at games with tanks.
This scenario was awesome, we had a heap of fun playing. Fairly short so we took our time, it took around 5 hours to complete. My losing streak is getting irritating however!

Forgotten:
- *Read all vehicle special rules before play*
- Special ammo can be used by tanks.
- Tank smoke mortars and dispensers. Use more smoke!
- Motion Attempts during enemy MPh.
- Encirclement.
- Intensive Fire! (Can also be used for ATT).

ASL - Scouts Out[A106]: Wow, an excellent scenario but very hard on the Attacker. I met with the HMG which had a firelane right down the length of the bridge. With very little WP and most of my armor gone due to PFs and Panzerschreck, I just didn’t have anything to neutralise it. So when I needed to rush the bridge, the FL chewed my guys apart.

The following scenarios I played at Octobear in Sydney over the weekend. Lost them all!

ASL - All Down The Line: vs Dave Wilson

ASL - KE21 Franzen’s Roadblock: vs Neil Andrews

ASL - Requiem For A Dream: vs Bruce Probst

ASL - The Mius Trap[SP79]: Wow, what a scenario! This was truly great fun. Lots of tanks, some average others powerful. Zoltan’s overruns with the T40s were incredibly effective. At the end of the day I made way, way too many mistakes. Even though I lost it was so intense and riveting that six hours when by like nothing.

- Review overruns. Do units get a TPBF attack against an AFV with riders during OR? What happens if the riders break or Pin? What happens to units that have been forced to bail out of the tank? Review riders in overrun.
- Review units and tank in CC. What if a unit rolls 6,6 during CCV attack on tank, can opponent withdraw?
- Review target facings for armor hits.
- Do riders get any sort of defence protection/penalty against IFT attacks? What if the vehicle is moving? No
- Review MTR attacks on armor, what about CE+2 for indirect attack? +2 does still apply to CE crew.
- Review the effects of attacks on CE Crew and Armor leaders. Shock and Stun etc. Done, played correctly.
- Review riders/passengers leaving vehicles, going CX or using Ldr. Ldr may not be used for MF.
- Review Advance/Assault Move into Foxhole location.
- Review LOS checks to HIP entrenchments etc. Allowed secretly?

ASL - Broich Bash[A69]: A ripper of a scenario. Many avenues of approach for the attacking Americans. It came down to the very last turn, the odds were against me. Bruce’s experience paid off and what was left of my ragged Germans fell apart. Still, it was great fun.

ASL - Lost Opportunities[17]: Not the best of scenarios, slightly favors the Germans. We played one rule incorrectly, and that was giving the MTRs Smoke capability.
- I learned that a unit only gets special ammunition if it has a Depletion number on the reverse side of the counter.
- Mortars attacking a multi-level building are penalised +1 on the IFT for each level below the upper level location.
- The restrictive rules of Inexperienced Personnel always apply to Conscripts/Unarmed-units regardless of leader presence.

ASL - The Yelnya Bridge[J102]: Very funky terrain. My lack of knowledge of the terrain features affected my attacking strategy. In fact the woods/stream movement requirements meant I needed to change my attack plan completely.
In hindsight the bridge was the key. I needed to get a vehicle over then pop smoke before advancing my inf.

ASL - Defiance on Hill 30[11]: A good little scenario. We played two games simultaneously but when I setup all the maps I managed to screw one up and orient it backwards! This meant one game went to plan while the other was botched. It wouln’t have helped me however, I managed to break both my mortar and medium machine gun in the first turn Well done Alpha for winning his first game of ASL!

ASL - Pomeranian Tigers[SP11]: A really good scenario this one. Lots of late war armor and funky things. I’ve played it a couple of times and managed to get the defence right for once. I’ve finally got skulking mastered and did well to prevent the enemy from getting any decent shots in.

Things Learned:
- Bypassing a building/woods must be done at the base level of the hex being bypassed.