My inglorious return...

Today, I made my return to the world of ASL in typical fashion...by playing a scenario and having my strategy explode in a spray of blood and body parts to a counterpoint of flaming wrecks. The impersonal nature of VASL + Skype did not do much to dull the sting. My opponent, Spencer Armstrong, a true gentleman, was as nice as can be as he mocked my feeble attempts to get to the Victory Objective while laying waste to my critical assets.

We had previously decided to do some PBEM, but due to his impending move back to the land of promise, we had put it off, and put it off. Since I had today free, we decided to play it today live and pick another for my first foray into PBEM. The scenario we had chosen was one of Pete Shelling's ShellShocked scenarios that are freely available from the ASLOK website (here), Backs to the Saare. This scenario has the US devil squads (6-6-6) with some assault engineers backed up by some M36GMC's, some M4A3's, and an M4A1. They get tubes, footballs, and a torch. Opposing them are the Germans, with 1st and 2nd line squads some decent leaders, AT/AA assets and some dummies with a tube. There are some Pillboxes and tradable trenches (for wire, and roadblocks for fortified bldg locations, but most importantly, on turn 4, the cavalry arrives in the form of a PzKfw VG, a PzKfw IVJ and a couple of StuG IIIG's. The goal for the US is to take either 21Z2 or 20Z3 by game end.

My initial thinking was that if I were defending, I would probably reinforce the wooden building in 21Z2 heavier due to the TEM difference. I briefly thought that attacking up the middle would keep him guessing for a couple of turns while I felt out the defense, but if I were him, I would have the excellent fire lane of 20Y1 - 21Y1 set up so that no matter which way the attacker turned, I'd have a back shot with a decent chance of totalling my target. Experience bears this out in spades (more later). Based on that, I tried to do a force wedge on the board 20 side and attack what I believed would be the more lightly defended stone building. I should have tried the middle somehow.

The scene below shows the situation at the beginning of Turn 2 (after some maneuvering). I drove pretty well, not allowing my infantry and armor to spread out and become isolated by firelanes or HIP guys. I lost smoke rounds on basically everything, but made effective use of smoke mortars and smoke grenades to go forward. Then, I had the unfortunate luck of losing a M36GMC to a sniper of all things. Recall. That set the tone for things to come...

This is where things started to break down. I had some issues driving to the victory building and getting across that street. The momentum got held up through turn 3 and I couldn't afford to lose it. Below is the scene mid-way through Turn 4. Ready to cross the street finally. Unfortunately, this is about a turn too late and the German has way too many troops in 20Z3

Below is the scene at the beginning of American Turn 5. German tanks are closing in and the Americans are still not across the $@#&ing street.

Below we have the German Turn 5. I tried running a tank around to flank and attack the lower Pz IVH. I was concerned that if I left the tanks to the south unopposed, I'd get flanked and having tanks running around unopposed in my back field was NOT something I wanted to deal with. Not the worst plan ever, but it left me with a flaming wreck to show for it. See also the other M36GMC in the middle of the board flamed in turn 4.

Below is American Turn 6 in which the Americans finally grow a pair and go for the endgame. One tank, who can't really go anywhere where he would be effective, so I have him putting smoke down still.

I get a whole bunch of assets into the street where somehow they survive two firelanes at which time the germans brought down some HE from one of the Guns (can't remember which) and it took care of that stack, hard. The last shot here is the final image of the game where the American's trying to finger their way into the victory building evaporate into a fine red mist. At that point, there was no possible way I had either the time or the resources to take the building. So I ceded victory.

Final thoughts:

1.) OT M36GMC's should have been kept in the backfield and used once the other tanks were brought out.
2.) Should have pushed harder with the infantry. There was plenty of leadership to rally and they come back on 8's.
3.) As mentioned before, I probably should have split his forces by going up the middle instead of allowing him to reinforce bd. 20 from the south.
4.) Flamethrowers IGNORE TEM. An FT can take care of those pesky fortified building locations with ease.

I'm sure that there are more, but those are some really big ones.

To quote Spencer: "Play ASL to (in this order), have fun, learn/teach something, win - 2 out of 3 is good enough."

In summary, I'm not in any danger of winning a GROFAZ title or mini wood any time soon. I am in the market to have a lot of fun in this game again, though. I'm still finding great guys to meet and play. It just doesn't get any better than that.

The Count

ASL 21 - Among the Ruins AAR (Part 1)

After a semi-forced hiatus (I couldn't find a F2F player in Lubbock), I finally bit the bullet and began to seriously look at VASL+Skype again. My job unfortunately, does not allow the amount of time that I would like in the evenings, so my ability to play is quite restricted. I advertised on GameSquad and found several people who were OK with my conditions. Either they are as hard up as me for an ASL fix, or we have some VERY patient people in this hobby. My guess is that it's a little of both. I LOVE our community.

I selected Roy Connelly as an opponent from Wichita, KS. After the usual trepidation of "meeting" a new person (yes, I'm somewhat shy - sue me), we connected tonight to begin our game. Roy is an ideal opponent. Knowledgeable, fun to talk to, and plays a good game. If anyone out there that reads this (and there are more of you than I imagined) has the chance in the future to play him on VASL or can get down to the Texas Team Tournament, I highly recommend doing so. You won't regret it and will walk away having had a great time.

That being said, Roy selected the Americans as in several other games, he is defending and wanted one on the attack. I didn't care and the ROAR is dead even in the 70's per side, so I let him have it. That being said, this is a VERY interesting scenario for both sides. The Americans have a vast superiority in number of squads. They are all 6-6-6's, though. Known for their brittleness. Even though they rally extremely well, broken units do not move toward the victory locations. Roy also gets 3 tanks, another plus. VBM anyone?

To fight the Americans, my Germans are greatly outnumbered but are 8 morale. They have a plethora of support weapons (including 2 'Shreks), and a Quad 20 AA gun. They get dummies, and the Gun and 2 squads + SW can HIP. Because my Germans are outnumbered, I made a hard decision. I decided to play the time card. My setup was mainly in the middle of the board, a little back from the front lines. I decided that I needed to concentrate my forces where he attached so I had to be able to shift to one side or the other. Doing so, however, would very likely concede turn 1 and probably 2 as well with little or no action. I put a token resistance up front and kept the main force back and sent him my setup.

Sure enough, he decided to come in force down the cemetery side. I had put a set of dummies up in the 3rd story building on that side and rubbled buildings in front of it to look like the HMG. He decided to take his chances. I hoped for some luck with the dice to soak up some prep fire on turn 1. That took 2 stacks. He had plenty more to move. Oh well. You can't pick 'em all. By the end of turn 1, he had advanced to the second line of streets and my paltry defense was ready to meet him with backup double timing it behind to adjust. Turn 2, one of the two elements shifted out of the front line defense leaving a lone 5-4-8 with an LMG to slow the American hordes. Run through the checklist: Fire lane - tried with no effect, DFPh with inherent into the stack that avoided the fire lane - no effect. Now the squad is boxed in a row house with a tank closing in. He preps at the one value target he sees, a devil squad with a BAZ. He shoots....he scores. DM, rout to a woods hex with no leader. It's not much, but what can you really expect from a squad that's been left to die by his buddies? I mean, seriously...

Turn 3 looks to be when the game is going to start in earnest. I have a whole bunch of MG's to bring to bear and he still has no idea where the 2 HIPpies with whatever they're packing or the Quad 20 are. One thing I've learned over the time that I've been playing and can pass along: HIP units are more useful as a threat than an actual force. Anything that makes the attacker think twice about charging toward his/her (hopefully...) objective is a useful weapon for the defender. That includes dummies and HIPpies. You may put a HIP squad in a bad location, or even a location that is out of the path of the attack, but the Attacker still has to wonder where that squad is. It's not so easy to run a tank down a road with buildings on the side if you suspect a HIP unit with a BAZ/PSK waiting for a rear shot or a Quad 20 to cut up your infantry. Maybe that HIP MMG has a crossroad hex bore sighted. Which of all of those question marks on the side of the board I need to attack is real and which is a dummy? All of these push an attacker toward cautiousness and for a defender that needs to last a specific number of turns while keeping his opponent from the objective, caution is something you NEED the attacker to have.

I'd almost forgotten how much I love this game and the people in it. Everyone should play ASL. All the time.

First Skype Game

I started my first VASL game with Skype last night against Darren Gour from Calgary, AB. We played OA6 Mounted Extraction from Out of the Attic. As the Germans, I have to cross armor across 3 boards to pick up some surrounded infantry and then carry riders back across the same 3 boards.

My initial problem with this scenario was that I misunderstood it. My initial concept was that the tanks would have to fight through the Russians, pick up the Germans and exit off the board edge opposite the one they came in on. My turn 1 was played under this assumption so the surrounded infantry tried to exploit the Russian weak side on board 5. After my turn 1 however, I realized my mistake and began heading west toward the tanks. My men were in bad position however and I had wasted an opportunity to Double Time toward the west on turn 1 to get into position for pickup.

That blunder aside, we are on Allied turn 3 and I'm not in terrible position. Two of the tanks have stopped for pickup and a third is on the way (my safety). I've got one tank that's going to go nuts with smoke and the rest of the infantry that isn't picked up is going to try and delay and occupy the Russians on that part of the board so they don't shoot up the riders. We'll see how it works out. The Russians have a couple of 50mm mortars that might cause some problems for the riders in turn 4 or 5. Not sure when we'll finish this, but I had a blast playing last night. My earlier feelings were confirmed. If you can't play F2F (which is slightly faster than the VASL interface), this is a perfectly acceptable substitute. It beats the heck out of the VASL text interface.

All in all a very satisfying experience.

The forward march of technology

Last night I got to listen in on my first Skype session of VASL (there wasn't really anyone hanging around looking for a game so that I could play). A player from Massachusetts was playing someone from Italy. How cool is that? You know, if there was no way anyone could play F2F this would be a completely acceptable substitute. As it is, to me, there is just something esoteric about pushing counters around on a board with your friends. The tactile feel of the game is an experience I would rather not have to do without.

I am looking to play more, however, and can't always get out with the club. This option actually seems like it would work (as opposed to the ICQ interface which, while serviceable, is WAY too slow). I'll have to try on a weekend when more people frequent the server.