Rob "The Dolphins Will Go 0-16 in 2007" Seulowitz - Oct 9, 2007 11:02 pm (#20573 Total: 20801) Bitter, overly critical, and rarely clever, funny or constructive posts. Detailed ASL Octoberfest AAR (Part 1) Synopsis 2007 was my first trip to ASLOK in 3 years, and it was an absolute blast. Great games, plentiful beer, cool new stuff to see and - most of all - good friends whom I only get to see face to face at this event, the finest ASL convention in America. This year I missed several dear friends including Britons Shaun Carter and Trev Edwards, who were unable to attend, and Ross Sutton, who apparently couldn’t make bail. But every opponent I had, new or old, was a pleasure to play, and every game I played was fun, win or lose. Except Tom Jazbutis. He’s a prick. Monday: BC14 “Vichy Vengeance” vs Darryl Lundy [W, 1-0] This is a very silly scenario that requires the Vichy Player to ignore the opponent and drive a dozen R35s across a board without stopping to say hello. The Allies have to ignore everything else and stop the tanks. I generally don’t like scenarios where the object is to avoid each other – it’s too much like marriage – but we had fun with it regardless. I worried my ASLOK experience peaked early when I shot down a FB on turn 1 – for 2 CVP! Tuesday: 119 “Ancient Feud” vs Phil Pomerantz [W, 2-0] Phil is a must-play at any event he attends, especially for connoisseurs of forcefully delivered expletives. Phil swears worse than my mom, and few ASL experiences can top the full fury of his verbal onslaughts. The scenario is great fun and highly recommended, with crap Roumanian troops with good tanks trying to take a town from crap Hungarian troops with mediocre tanks. Phil X-ed out a good number of his SW early, which did much to throw the game to my favor, but I mounted an aggressive attack, complete with Halftrack Raids on two building, and ended one key turn with 5 CC’s, of which I won 4. Phil’s concerto of creative cussing reached a crescendo as his tanks repeatedly failed to kill my Halftracks, delaying him from getting them into end-game positions, but he nearly pulled it off had he not failed to take a 6+0 shot at my last-ditch stack (an 8-1 & LMG/537 combo). He was assuming he’d get a 6-1 on the next MF, but I ducked it and went CX instead. Oh, the things he said then! Desert Tourney Round 1: SP25 “Two Pounds in Return” vs poor Darryl Lundy again [W, 3-0] This is another rather silly scenario, but the other options were even more dull, and this one at least has a puzzle to it: a pack of Germans with 2 captured 2Lb Portees in the shadow of board 25 have to race some EVP off a distant corner and prevent the Brits from exiting more. The choice for the Germans is who should stay and who should run, but the game usually devolves into which player gets the most ROF shots. Darryl’s Portees performed at below par, killing only 2 British tanks, and my Carriers were able to swarm the compound to kill a number of soft targets early. Still, Darryl could have won on two occasions when he had the option to capture one of my AFVs in CC, but missed the chance. Instead I nipped him by a point or two as time expired. Desert Tourney Round 2: J91 “Sooner the Better” vs Doug Sheppard [W, 4-0] Doug and I agreed both before and after this game that this is one of the better Desert scenarios, and had I not had the German Balance he most certainly would have won – it was that close. Germans have a company of 468s with 2 MMGs and a HMG in Sangers near the middle of the map, with two British strongpoints to the West, each with a Pillbox, MMG, -1 Leader and some Trenches and Wire. A full dozen Pz IIIs and 2 IV-Es show up from the East on turn 1, but they are being pursued by a bear in the form of 6 Matildas and smatterings of infantry. And the Brits get some 80mm OBA, too. There is a trio of un-possessed Guns the Germans have to recover, too. Did I mention the Light Dust? The scenario is all about DVP, and the Brits have to score 40 more than the Germans (or 45 if you get the Balance, which I did). So the Germans have two choices: Try to kill Brits and widen the gap, or overrun the forts and exit to the West so the Brits can’t kill them. Well, running away is no damn fun, so we hung around and fought. I got lucky early, killing or Shocking some Matildas despite failing most APCR checks, and picking up some points off other units. I sent the IV-Es and 2 of the IIIs to knock out one of the PBs and did my best to survive the OBA. The tank battle went back and forth, with one of the Pz IIIs being in a perpetual state of Shock for most of the game. But the mobility of the Germans proved to be the deciding factor, as Doug was forced to take long-range shots rather than try to pursue. When Doug drew his second RED OBA chit (his draws were Black, Black, Red, Red), it was pretty much over, but had he needed 5 fewer DVP he might easily have won. Desert Tourney Final: SP46 “Give Them Some Steel” vs Jim Bishop [W, 5-0] I’ve played this before as the USA and knew that my odds were slim – my best bet was to hide behind the ridge and hope for the RED card draw on the extra OBA draw for being out of LOS (after the initial BLACK card comes out, there’s a 25% chance of getting a RED on the extra draw). I also had the Guns well placed to target adjacent OG hexes only, and used the cannon fodder almost exclusively to protect the Guns from discovery until that last possible moment. Jim got cocky and put his Radio/8-0 on the ridge too soon – I broke him on a 4+0 attack from the MGs, and that was probably the difference in the game. Without the OBA dropping WP on the far board, it takes the Amis too long to climb out to get the far ridge. An annoying 8-0 I created in CC (yes, a 137 HS won a CC!) nearly got to the Radioman, too. When the SR finally came down, I had everyone safely hidden and made him pull that extra card – RED, just like we planned it. Jim resigned gracefully, and I was awarded my first ASLOK plaque in 6 years, the prestigious “Gunned Up in the Desert” Trophy, also known as “The Prize for Rolling the Most Threes.” Night Tourney Round 1: RB7 “The Red House” vs Klas “The Red” Malmstrom [L, 5-1] Flush with victory, I entered the prestigious Night Mini on Thursday and was paired up with one of my two favorite Norsemen. A Night RB scenario? How do you turn that down! Once we drew up sides, I was chagrinned to find that the Ammunition Shortage rules meant my Germans could not lay Night Firelanes, and I failed to perceive just how important that would end up being. Klas executed a perfect attack, sending 5 clocking counters down each side and another 5 massing on the weaker of the German center buildings. By turn 2 I felt totally out of position and was desperately trying to bring reinforcements to plug the gaps, but new gaps kept forming. He made short work of me, which had the upside of giving me most of the day to do something else while I rooted him on against the Evil That Is Randy Rossi. Rob "The Dolphins Will Go 0-16 in 2007" Seulowitz - Oct 9, 2007 11:03 pm (#20574 Total: 20801) Bitter, overly critical, and rarely clever, funny or constructive posts. Detailed ASL Octoberfest AAR (Part 2) Thursday PM: SP103 “For Whom the Bell Tolls” vs Doug “The Successor” Smith [W, 6-1] With my streak ended at 5 Wins, the 1972 Dolphins popped their Champaign and I went off to find an easy win. Doug is an old friend of mine from DonCon, where he is the three-time “Successors” Champ. He’s relatively new to ASL, having just graduated from SK a few years back, and he wanted to work on combined arms. “Bell” is a great scenario for that, since the Yank Tanks have all kinds of toys, but the VC are focused on the infantry. Rather than tell Doug how to play, I taught him the way Russ Bunten taught me. After turn 4, I explained to Doug exactly what he did wrong and why his 5 of his 6 tanks were burning wrecks. I showed him how he neglected to use Smoke to cover his advances into the town or neutralize the German tanks, and that confronting an enemy tank head-on was a high-risk bet. He recognized that his 747s would have the advantage in CC, but didn’t grasp that he didn’t have to own the buildings, just break all the enemy units in them. I’m pleased to report that he took my lessons to heart and won a mini tourney the next day employing some of the tactics we discussed. Turrentless Terrors Tourney Round 1: FrF15 “Kampfgruppe 1001 Nachte” vs Ron Kyle [L, 6-2] Ron was the only man in a room of 140 with the guts to volunteer to take me on Friday morning, so we chose this scenario, which had several playings this week. Mattias was in attendance and took great interest in the results – and, I think, was a bit sad that the universal consensus was that the Russians need the balance. The Reds get 11 late-war land leviathans, including a “stealth” IS-2m disguised as an ordinary IS-2, and must get 4 of them across either board 22 or board 17 without getting Fausted or DI’d by one of 4 Hetzers. The balance reduces the exit requirement to 3, which I very nearly made – Ron got me with a lucky Intensive Fire shot for a DI. You could probably barrel across board 17 hell-bent-for leather and take your chances that the side and rear shots won’t kill more than half the tanks, but that struck me as very low-odds. On the whole, I quite liked the scenario, but the ROAR record strikes me as accurate. Friday PM: SX5 “Where Iron Crosses Grow” vs Jason Eichmann [L, 6-3] Jason is one of the people I look forward to seeing at ASLOK, and we hadn’t played in years, so I got to try this Bunker Buster that a dozen or so people looked at and said, “Oh, I’ve always wanted to play that!” Germans, again with Ammo Shortage, get 8 real squads, 4 Conscripts, 6 MGs, 2 PSKs, a 75L AT and a pair of Pz IVHs to defend board 4, along with some Trenches, Wire and AP mines. The two-hex building is fortified at ground level and has Cellars. The Russians get 22 Squads and 9 tanks, but have only 5 turns to take every building hex on the map. I had a few clever traps, but Jason just rolled over me, crashing a T34 into the Fortified building hex to create a breach (I completely forgot you could do that!). If I played it again, I’d put more troops on the far side board edge where it’s harder to get surrounded. I did have a lovely 6 -2 shot from a 436/LMG on which I rolled a 12; random selection came up a tie, so instead of shooting at a Russian, I ended up with a broken 436 – didn’t even get Resid since it double-cowered! By the way, I totally recommend the scenario – great fun. As is any game with Jason. Shellshock Tourney Round 1: “Pinching Patton” vs Tom Jazbutis [W, 7-3] All Pete Schelling scenarios are fun, meaty and challenging, so playing in the playtest mini was a no-brainer. Sadly, so was Jaz, who was bleary and unfocused after a late night, and blew his setup, allowing me to over-run him rather quickly. This scenario involves a mélange of Falschirmjager 548s and 447 with 4 SS Tigers attacking Easy Company on Board 3. The Paras have to stop the tanks from getting LOS to the center of town OR have a GO MMC in the big building at scenario end. They get 4 Jacksons as reinforcements, but the Germans get 3 StuGs. It’s a great puzzle that forces the Amis to protect their infantry, who have few defenses against the Tigers other than hoping they 12 something out. The Jacksons are deceptive – they are fragile (OT, 8 AF), but with a ROF of 2 and a 90L Gun, they can hit a stationary Tiger on an 8 in BFF without needing Point Blank, and actually have a 25% chance of a Hit or Miss with ROF as Motion Firers in DFF, so if you can sandwich a Tiger or two you have a decent chance of knocking it out. Jaz and I agreed that our game was not representative of how the scenario should be played (bad setup by him, wicked dice for me including back-to-back 3’s to obliterate the 9-1 Leader + 50-Cal), so I talked Steve Linton into trying it again Sunday. I also wanted to see if Ground Snow should be in effect to slow the German advance, which I thought could move too fast. Saturday PM: SP154 “On the Road to Hell” vs Lars “The Viking” Thuring [W, 8-3] My last competitive game at ASLOK would also prove to be the best. This is a very tight little scenario with 6 German Squads and a PzJg defending a crossroads from a mix of 747s, British 458s and a few tanks. It’s clear from the start that the Germans will get surrounded and I set up to avoid encirclement knowing that the stone wall around the German position would inevitably fall to the attackers and we’d have to hide in the woods for the end-game. Lars is a crafty Swede with a Bergmanesque of humor, as witnessed by the placement of a pink counter on the map when I wasn’t looking that had 19 FP, 5 smoke, 5 range and 9 morale. “What’s that?” I asked. “Dose are da Pixies” he droned. “With a morale of 9?” “Vell,” he said offhandedly, “I didn’t vant to exaggerate.” It would be no exaggeration to say that Lars played me like a violin, getting my JgPz out of position by baiting it with one of the three Shermies. The Allies get 3 tanks on turn 1, and the JgPz has only 2 weapons (MA and BMG), so one of the three is going to get a rear or side shot if you can get them in LOS and at least 3 hexes from the German infantry. By baiting me with one lone Sherman, the other two rolled up and stole the stone wall, putting me in a tight spot. Fortunately, the German reinforcements included a Marder, which rolled up through the grain and popped a lucky shot into one (shortly before succumbing to a series of Shock results from the 60mm MTR). 6 or 7 PF checks later, the other wall-stealer was burning and I – mistakenly – imagined the worst was over. Far from it! With no way to win without at least immobilizing the JgPz, Lars threw his infantry into a headlong charge to get a squad into CC with the tank. I broke a few and pinned others, but took a risky FPF shot that robbed me of half the firepower I had on that side. The first squad to step into the JgPz’s hex didn’t live long enough to regret it, and the second – a Fanatic HS – fared no better, but on my last MPh, I broke free and got the JgPz out of the compound to a clearing in the north – anyone who came after it would have to move fast over open ground and take some -2 shots. Poor routing by me left the bulk of the Germans to die or surrender, so on the final Player turn, I had 2 half squads, one 548 with a 9-1 and the JgPz for him to clear out. Every First Fire shot I took cowered, allowing Lars to get a favorable CC match-up in every hex. Lastly, the 9-2/458 came after the JgPz, which by now had found that the boxes marked “HE” contained Herring. The pivot shot hit with rate, but yielded no result. The ROF shot had an awesome -4 TH drm and resulted in a 4FP CH – woo hoo! On the 1MC, the 9-2 Pinned, but the (cx)458 passed. Lars wrapped up the other 3 CC’s easily, but he needed a 4 on that tank to Immobilize it and win (the Leader would have made it a 7). He rolled a 5; one pip shy. He took it in manful, stoic, Scandinavian style, but just to be on the safe side we kept him away from sharp objects for the rest of the day. Sunday AM: Shellshock Follow-up with Steve Linton [No Decision] Steve graciously played out the “Pinching Patton” test, this time with Ground Snow. He had played the US and I had played the Germans, so we switched sides. He played to see how fast he could push the tanks and the Infantry, and I played to see how many casualties I could get before he got into kill position. Again, the 9-1 & 50-Cal did not make it to turn 2, succumbing to a direct hit from a 88L gun. Blech. However, he did twelve-out one transmission, and gave me a side shot with a BAZ he should not have risked, paying dearly. In his favor, he avoided taking any kind of casualties to his troops, but the Ground Snow delayed them too far behind the speed of the vehicles, and I brought on the Jacksons without having to take any 6+2 or 8+2 shots on the Crews. They promptly whacked a Tiger just as our time ran out. It was a wonderful experience playtesting a thoughtful and well-designed scenario with a player as astute and articulate as Steve. Together we were able to see strengths and weaknesses for both sides, determine the appropriate pace of the scenario, and identify where the probability curves were most likely to have impact. I hope we were able to give Pete some useful information and that the scenario will be ready for publication soon. Epilogue Sunday ended with the traditional steak and football at Damon’s, watching Chad Pennington toss “Widowmakers” over Cotchery’s head on screen 4 as the Pats put another 34 points up on a crap opponent on screen 2. If you have not yet gone to ASLOK, you should. These things are fun. And fun is good.