A50 ...And Here We Damned Well Stay

 

Our foray into the ASL desert continues with two playings of A50 ...And Here We Damn Well Stay.  The first game had me taking the British.  The second go around we switched sides.

A50 is set in the El Alamein area in Egypt.  Fifteen German PzIII J, L and N and two armor leaders try to push past a small British force nestled in amongst a bunch of sand dunes.  The British get six squads with some light support weapons and three 57L anti-tank guns which will carry the workload, looking to tear up some Panzers.

The British force can set up hidden in the sand, so the German tanks will drive into an ambush.  Their goal is to get eight tanks with functioning weapons past hexrow U on the British side of the map and remain there until the end of any British turn.  Each knocked out or unmanned AT gun at that time reduces the number needed by two.  There is also a hillock on the side of German board entry.  The British also suffer ammunition shortage.

Five turns, very dry, moderate dust and a mild breeze ensure that there will be vehicle dust, and a halved extra die roll modifier on every shot.

A look at my setup before I hide everything.  Two guns are required to setup a bit more forward and one further back.

The sand and dunes are placed on the map in a way that ensures the German tanks will be making bog rolls at some point.  The infantry have a small mortar, anti-tank rifle and a couple of light machine guns.  They can definitely be effective when they inevitably get side and rear shots.

Will opted to enter on a wide front, spread out.  It will be a target rich environment for the British.

At first, it looked like Will was not going to use the vehicle dust from the first tanks to cover the rest, but he quickly moved into two tank blobs with the dust from the forward tanks helping to blur my view of the rest.  I opened up with the back AT gun on the first tank entering, but didn't get a result.  It didn't take long for me to reveal all three guns.  No time like the present.  At the end of German turn 1, I had only punched the ticket on one Panzer.

Will also somehow managed to avoid my three boresighted hexes.  My turn 1 prep fire did a little damage, immobilizing one tank and burning another.  An immobilization on the German side of the board is almost as good as a kill except if the crew doesn't bail out, it's gun can still be a pain.  My gun on the bottom board also got the low ammo marker due to the ammo shortage penalty.

German 2 and Will gives up on the vehicle dust screen and gets everybody moving in different directions.  I kill another tank but the crew gets out.  Now I have to deal with German crews who start moving towards the uppermost gun.  Some of the tanks start moving to over-run the gun, but the guns are difficult to get to as the Panzers have to take bog rolls in every sand and sand adjacent hex.  Crossing a dune crest hexside makes the bog chances even riskier.  Two turns and some of his tanks are already across the victory line.  I have to make sure that some of them die before the end of one of my turns.

The British infantry are now in the game, but I am unable to make them effective.  I get a shock result on a Panzer.

In German 3, Will starts to move his tanks across and behind the dune crests, out of sight of the guns, or hull down if he wants.  The shock turns into an unconfirmed kill, and I score second shock on one tank and burn a second.  He scores a direct hit on my uppermost gun eliminating it and reducing the number of tanks needed to win.

At this point, he is down six tanks, with a another shocked an one unconfirmed kill.  I am down one gun with another suffering from low ammo.

Turn 4, Will rolls gusts, removing the burning tank smoke.   The UK tank recovers and the the shock turns into a UK on the other, but my guns get hot and kill them both.  I kill a third and the Germans are on the ropes.  My infantry has left the comfort of their foxholes and are closing with the German tanks.  

Will has two tanks that can't move, one is immobile, the other is mired in the sand.  He decides he's had enough, and will be unlikely to get what he needs and concedes.

We realize that I had pulled the wrong foxholes, the sand foxholes would provide less protection, but he really wasn't doing anything to cause me to use that TEM, so no harm.

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Our next session, we flip sides, giving me the Panzers and the attack.

My plan is to enter in a single blob, using the vehicle dust to screen the majority of my tanks.  The two tanks with armor leaders will set up behind the hillock, hull down to the guns and try to hit from long range.  It was a cool idea, but the moderate dust modifier made it a fool's folly and I could have used them forward.

My blob enters the board and look like they mean business.

Will opens up with the first gun at the bottom of the board, but getting no result.  My hillock tanks return fire to no avail.

In the bottom of turn 1, Will reveals the second gun and between the two, knock out three Panzers.  Well, that's unfortunate.  Losing them at that rate will make this a short scenario.  Will also suffers the low ammo result on his gun at the bottom of the board.

Turn 2 goes better for me.  My hillock tanks get a pin result on the bottom most gun.  My efforts to keep the blob together to take advantage of the vehicle dust go fairly well.  I manage to bog two of them, but the blob is mostly intact.  Will doesn't get any results from guns this turn, but he gets his infantry involved earlier than I did, ending with three melees at the end of the turn.  The third gun reveals itself at the board's lower sand dune.

I get six tanks to the sand dune at the top left of the map on turn 3.  I have three tanks locked in melee because they are bogged. Will is using his infantry better than I did.  My overwatch tanks at the hillock have given up the futile long range firing, moving out to give the British guns something else to think about.  I'm two tanks short of the eight I need to have at the end of any turn past the U hexrow.

Will promptly K/O's two of them.  Two of the bogged tanks end up immobilized and in melee, just short of the line to gain, leaving me with four across the line, three bogged and in melee, and two on their own at the bottom.

Top of turn 4, Will burns one of the moving tanks and punches the ticket on the bogged Panzer.  This leaves me with one mobile tank and only the possibility of five across the line, even if the second mobile tank managed to eliminate or un-man one of the guns, I would still be 1 tank short.  We call it there.

The Germans have the edge in the recorded games on ROAR 14-7.  Two British victories here.

The guns are difficult to deal with at a distance.  After two games I think the German blob is the way to go, but as soon as a gun pops up, the German player needs to move the blob straight at it, over-running it if possible and covering it in dust, then turn towards the second one and do the same.  It doesn't seem to be difficult to get across the line, but it's difficult to make it to the end of the British half of the turn.

Neither of us took the chance to OVR the guns, although I think Will was trying to get there when he got the direct hit, removing the chance.

There is a Scenario Replay article in the '92 Annual on this scenario.  It's been a long time since I read it and wanted to have my own fresh take.  Now I'll go back to read it and see what they did in their playing 34 years ago.

Next we are heading for Mareth, Tunisia for desert at night.  Stay tuned.

Thanks for reading.

J183 A Real Barn Burner (or, the worst game I have played in a long time)

 

Well, this will be a short AAR.  J183 was easily the worst effort I have put forward in an ASL scenario in a long time.  I had no plan, no idea what I was doing, or why.

I like playing the French, so I asked for them.  My opponent took the Germans, took the scenario card, rolled it up and beat me with it.

J183 is a scenario that I know got plenty of play since it was released, so I figured I would have a go.  My French have a small force in the compound on board 43, 2.5 Elite squads, with eight dummy counters, the squads are fanatic, and I can deploy all of them if I wish.  Their job is to hold on to one of two buildings inside the compound.  The kicker is that I have ten first line squads that have to come to their rescue.  To win, I have to have one of the buildings, but at least one of the rescuers have to be in the building at the end.  

My opponent has nine 1st line German squads with the typical arsenal of support weapons and leadership the Wehrmacht generally gets in ASL.  In addition, he gets a Doorknocker AT gun that can not set up HIP.  He will achieve victory by denying my conditions.

Two of the buildings are on fire, giving the scenario it's name.  I have 4.5 turns to get it done.

The first thing I do is run a half squad out to bump the German unit closest to my woods units, he gets unceremoniously KIA'd.  I try to move out as individual squads, leaving my light mortar in the woods to try to duel with the AT gun on the board edge.  They fire away for two turns with nothing to show for it, so I abandon it and start out towards my guys in the complex.  I quickly break the front squad, but it takes me forever to reduce the other unit in the foxholes.   Meanwhile the gun has started plinking away at the buildings.  Those fellows are holding well, as the Germans close the noose.  The foxholes up by the complex have a machine gun and promptly lay down a firelane.  It is already French turn 3, so I have a turn and a half to get in there.

Turn 4 and I have to cross the road, the firelane takes a toll, the Germans have the compound reduced to a half squad, I have broken people littering the board.  My opponent has the road now covered from the compound wall and the firelane.  Still needing to survive his defensive fire, prep fire and then defensive fire again, I cry uncle and surrender.

This game was a French disaster from the beginning.  I was moving without a plan, I struggled with everything, couldn't remember numbers, like TEM, Hinderances, couldn't do basic math.  The game was ugly, my opponent punished my French as he should when the French player is bumbling around the map.  I appreciate his patience, and wish I could have given him a better game.

It's definitely not the scenario that caused my issues, the French have a healthy 90-63 lead on ROAR.  Every once in a while I have a game like this.  Nothing works, my head isn't in it, and I lose track of what I'm doing.  Thankfully they don't happen very often.  Thanks to my opponent for sticking with me to the end.

Thanks for reading.

A20: Counterattack at Sidi Bou Zid

 

Will Willow and I have been playing ASL against each other for quite some time.  At times on and off over the years, live on VASL and once per year when we get together at the Austin Team Tournament and square off on day one in the Ferocity Fest event.

We just finished playing through the first Hazardous Movement pack and decided we are going to spend some significant time in the Desert.  I put together a list of Desert scenarios I have and we are going to try to work our way through them.  We aren't going to be picky, but we are going to try to stick to scenarios set on Desert boards.  This will rule out most of the scenarios in Tunisia, although there are a few in that setting that are on Desert boards including the first one we tackled.

Counterattack at Sidi Bou Zid is set in Tunisia, 1943.  American Shermans trying to exit or outduel six PZIII's and six PzIV's arriving on turn 3.  The Shermans start the game a bit discombobulated with random rolls determining their initial facings.  They must either cut across the the six desert boards and exit on the far side of board 31, or rack up more Desert victory points than the German.

The Germans initially get six Panzer IIIJs with the extra cool 50L gun and 2 Rate of Fire.  On turn 3, six Panzer IVF2s enter from the top of the map and catch the Shermans in a crossfire. Both groups get a -1 Armor leader.  The only terrain on the maps are three Hillocks that initially only benefit the German player.

Will took the Americans, giving me the Panzers.  7 Turns

As you can see, it is a long haul for the American player to traverse the map and exit on the other side.  knocking out the Panzers is probably the best bet.  The ROAR record on this scenario is pretty heavily skewed to the German players.

My strategy was to pull my IIIJs up behind the closest Hillock to get hull down and get some acquisition as soon as possible.  The 50L is good enough to knock out a Sherman, but I would prefer side shots. At the end of turn 1, I am in position, the Shermans start in motion and facing all different directions so I had no fear moving onto the board.

In the American half of turn 1, it looked like Will was going to try to get as far as he could towards the far boards, perhaps trying to exit.  One Sherman went south to get to the German flank.  I had left two tanks behind the Hillock to try to at least have a couple of guns to oppose such a move.  We finished turn 1 with one dead Sherman having taken a shot to the side.  Will initially did a good job using the vehicle dust to cover some of his tanks.

Turn 2,  I manage to burn another Shermie in prep, but the rest of my fire was ineffective.  Got the hits, but couldn't penetrate.  I decided to move my two flank protectors to the hillock to my left to get hull down to that enemy tank.  Will got the 1,1, with motion defensive fire and burned one of them.

In his half, he started to move south to take on the Mark IIIs at closer ranges, and to get his front ends pointed towards the threat.  I scored a shock on one, stopping it, but the rest of the fire was ineffective.

Disaster strikes in German turn 3 prep as I break the main armament on three PZIIIs in four shots, with nothing to show for their effort.  Will's shocked tank recovers and my Panzer IVs are scheduled to come in.  I move three in a bit closer and leave the other three at, and on, the far right hillock to take advantage of the L guns, backing off the two PZIIIs to get out of LOS of the advancing Shermans.

With the PZIII threat gone, Will cranks his turrets around and gets another 1,1 critical hit on a PzIV, burning it.  Things have taken an unfortunate turn for the Germans.

End of German 3

American turn 3, Will breaks his remaining Shermans into two groups, sending some north to tangle with the Mark IVs and South to see if he could make the PZIIIs pay.  Driving right into the two closer PZIVs he knocks one out with bounding fire, and gets one Sherman killed by the distant German 75Ls.

The trip south didn't go as planned for him, knocking out another PZIII but losing a Sherman on a German 1,2 roll.  In defensive fire, one of the Mark IVs burns another Sherman in the center of the board.

Will is still in this, but he is running short on Shermans.  German 4, I break another gun, this time a 75L, but it's also my turn to get the 1,1 critical, burning another Sherman.  Will's Unconfirmed Kill M4 dies this time.  I try to extract my two remaining PZIIIs and get them far enough away that I might be able to try to repair the guns without looking down the muzzles of the 75s of the southern Shermans, moving so as to keep my dust between my tanks and his guns.  The map is starting to look like the wreckage you would expect to find in tank battle in the Desert.

American 4 the Northern Shermans try to close with the MkIVs and lose one to defensive first fire, but my guys couldn't pop the other.  Down south the three remaining Shermans move out to try to track down my helpless MkIIIs.  All three of my MkIVs in the center are dead now.  It's essentially a dead heat with a slight American advantage.  Exit is out of the question now as Will doesn't have enough mobile tanks to achieve the 42 DVP needed for an exit victory, he has to duke it out.

 

In German 5, the 75L's finally take a toll, burning a Sherman, killing a second and immobilizing a third.  The MkIIIs scurry further away, Will is down to two effective Shermans, with a third that can fire, but the distance really hurts it's chances of securing a hit, and the crew would have to re-enter the tank as they had to bail out on the immobilization.

American turn 5 and not much action, no one could achieve a hit, the Shermans moved forward.  The number of functioning units has dwindled.  I need to put an end to it and Will needs to knock out as many German tanks as he can before the end.

In German 6, I bag another American tank and my two helpless tanks are running for their lives desperately trying to get under the cover of their big brothers.  The immobilized Sherman is re-manned but the distance is so great getting a hit is very difficult.  I break yet another gun, leaving me with one effective tank.  

American turn 6 and I get the hit I needed.  K/Oing the last mobile M4.  Will threw in the towel.

The maps are littered with broken and burning tanks.

It was seriously a good time and turned into a good game.  My disabling five guns without getting a single repair helped a lot.  But that's why we play and why we roll dice.

I think in a game with less bad luck on German guns, the 75L's are probably too much.

Having played it, and seen the results, as the American I would get those M4s turned south and drive right into the PZIIIs, take advantage of the numbers through the first two turns.  I think exit is a bad plan, once the MkIVs arrive, the Shermans are at a severe disadvantage at the distances in the Desert.  Unfortunately, getting hull down behind the southern hillock and trading shots with hull down PZIVs is also a losing battle.  The Sherman turrets don't provide any protection and the turret armor is 8.  You'll get the benefit of being immune to hull hits, but the turret armor isn't doing you any favors.

If you can bust up the MkIIIs with minimal casualties, at least you'll have more guns than the Germans when the MkIVs get into position.

Good game from Will.  Always kind of shied away from this scenario because of the record, but don't let that stop you.  It was a lot of fun and the American side is a challenge.

Thanks for reading.