RILEY’S ROAD CG
19 Night
Legion defending as the Germans
ROAR (C:G – 5:9) – 5th April, 2007
Played with Live VASL (2 sessions: 8 hours)
German Forces
I chose an Attack Chit, JP decided to go Idle
On-Map Forces
Ebben Area
7x 548, 228, 9-1
5x 228
5x LMG, 2x MMG, HMG
88LL PaK43
Milk Factory
(Isolated, so Ammo Shortage)
548, 228
(88LL PaK43 was voluntarily eliminated)
Unit Remnants
A 12x 548 (40% Casualties)
B 10x 548 (10% Casualties)
C 10x 467 (35% Casualties)
Purchases
German Attack Chits: 5
Canadian Attack Chits: 1
With 81CPP (1 CPP left from last game) to start with I made the roll and got a 5, this means I have 76CPP with which to buy my forces.
Unit Designation Type (Remaining) Units Cost
D (I1) PzGr Coy – Lehr (3) 10x 468, 4x SPW 251/1, 3x LMG, 8-1, 8-0, 7-0 27
E (I3) PzGr Coy (1) 10x 467, 3x SPW 251/1, 3x LMG, 9-2, 9-1, 8-0 25
F (I4) Engineer Platoon 3x 838, 3x DC 14
M1 Fortifications (13) 15FPP (4x Foxholes (4), HIP (4), 7x ? (7)) 1
M4 Activate A20 (5) – 2
= 69
I have maxed out on infantry again, the toys can come later when I have some territory worth defending and when the AFV will be of some use. For the time being my intention is to gain as much ground as possible, with the corners of the map being the priorities so I can ensure I have my flanks protected.
I have 7CPP left over with which I can make some more buys next game.
Canadian Setup
The Canadians have gone for a reasonably spread-out defence, they are trying to guard as much as possible.
The Plan
I shall be making 2 major attacks initially, as well as 2 minor attacks. My AAR will be written from a localised POV
All of these will be open to change should opportunity present me with other options.
The attacks are:
1. Major Attack: Ebben – This attack will be aimed at capturing the Goch Crossroads and Ebben forest area. The potential gains here are 3LVP and the holding of the Ebben 1LVP. By taking this area I provide myself with some of the best defensive territory on the map as well as LOS to the Upper Plateau area which will allow me to interdict his movements in the following games. This will be the biggest attack of this Night game
2. Major Attack: The Schwanenhof – I expect this area to be well guarded and thus I expect it to be a tough fight. I will not be in any hurry and will be content to just take the buildings and link it up with foxholes. I will probably commit my FlaK Pz to this attack, but not until i have used my fake Panzer attack with scrounged SPW 251/1 to flush out his AT defences.
3. Minor Attack: The Southern Farmhouses – This will be only a minor attack to start with, but i hope it will link into the Ebben attack and push through to grab the 1LVP in N24, I am not interested in attacking here unless things goes very much in my favour, as I will be happy to gain the buildings here and to expand my perimeter with Foxholes.
4. Minor Attack: The Southern Crossroads – I am unlikely to make much head-way in this attack, but it will be useful to tie his forces down and to possibly grab the 1LVP Crossroads should I get lucky. I am mostly interested in securing the near-by AA28 house and possibly expanding the Control Zone with foxholes.
I am surprised with the apparent strength of the defence in the Goch Crossroads area… I didn’t expect that, but it could be a feint.
I have a pair of units in the milk Factory, I expect them to die quickly, but I intend to use them to force the initial starshell shots… once he has shot his starshells it will make my movement a lot more defined.
THE GAME
The Milk Factory
In the first turn the Canadians easily account for my 548 though only after a lucky German shot managed to break 2x MMC, which might buy me some time.
In deep trouble in the Milk Factory though the initial Canadian Assault suffered a bloody nose.
I am left with no option but to turn and run, the lone Conscript HS manages to bolt from the Milk Factory and make for the Goch Crossroads area. He is pursued by a few units though others stay behind to secure the Milk Factory which is now fully claimed by the Allies.
In Turn 3 the lone Conscript HS was able to elude his pursuing 457 by scragging an against-the-odds break! His running continues in the General direction of the German lines.
German Losses
1x 548
The Ebben Attack
My large force sweeps on with a screen of mostly-dummy Cloaking Counters to search for any HIPs. Illumination rolls are triggered early and though his Starshells are mostly poor this is not the case with his pesky 50mm MTR who is in the D13 trench – this MTRs IR illuminates the whole of the Ebben-Gock Crossroads road and will make it difficult for me to move men across this road; luckily I started with the majority of my on-board force on this road. By the end of my turn I have managed to push a large force into the Ebben Woods and have taken the 1LVP E22 building. The sheer weight of numbers available to me is pushing him back and I have managed to move a mass of units through the ploughed fields near the C12-C18 hedge which gives me a good chance of taking this area. JP has had few shots, and most of them poor (he even managed to malfunction his Fire Lane capable MMG in it first few shots), though he has called in OBA to the NE of the Woods, I imagine his plan is to pull back and lure me deeper into the woods before plastering it with OBA. I had hoped to bring on my SPW 251/1 HTs to make him think I had involved my FlaK Pz but the illumination destroyed the illusion before it even began, so instead I send 1 HT to block the D13 trenches LOS down the D13-D22 road and the other I send to cut off Rout paths in the SE corner of the Ebben Woods
Starshells start to litter the area as he gets some good rolls, but he loses his 50mm MTR to another malfunction roll in the D13 Trench, they must be under the water table there. A HIP PIAT 228 is revealed and he manages to easily hit and destroy the HT I had placed at the bottom corner of the Woods, this wreck will serve as good cover for me though! I don’t bother with Starshells as I am the one hoping to stay concealed. JP continues to gradually withdraw from the Ebben Woods but leaves units behind in E16 and F16 to protect the 1LVP F16 building – he knows I have to push up against it and is obviously determined to hurt me as I assault it.
With such a strong force and position I know I can afford to push hard in this area. His starshells are generally poor too which is a great relief though the fields around B15 are well illuminated. Unfortunately for my attackers I am faced with some formidable terrain that means I shall not be moving far or with AM. I push into the Woods and do quite well, but then it all goes horribly wrong. In a run of phenomenal DRs JP manages to roll 15 DRs below 7 out of 16 rolls!, and 14 of those were 5 or less! The only reason I have men left here is because finally my Germans started passing MCs like 8ML Elite units should.
When then dust had settled and my movement was complete I had lost a 2x HS and an 8-0 leader as well as suffering numerous breaks. I got some good shots back but again his dice just don’t know how to roll high and he passed the MCs with consummate ease. However the positives are that I was able to capture the 1LVP F16 building thanks to him voluntarily routing away… which I think was a mistake, routing units at night are easily caught up with, though he could be trying to draw me into a trap. He was desperate enough to drop Harassing Fire OBA on this area and that also broke some units of mine. On the other side of this battle my men out in the B16 area are cut to pieces by a combination of no TEM and his phenomenal dice.
I just cannot believe my opponents luck, even when he is broken and withdrawing he still manages to pull dice out of those places where the sun doesn’t shine, a 1,1 SR attempt not only rallies a newly broken DM 457 but also gives him a free 8-0 as well… this is insane. He then correct the OBA which falls to the North of the Woods hitting my men and his; the DRs are low for everyone EXCEPT his units sitting out in the open, I have a CR, he gets off scot-free! Through movement he is withdrawing in all of the Ebben Woods area, which is lucky, if he had attacked me he would have seen that the majority of my forces in the middle of the Woods are dummies. As he does withdraw I am able to squeeze off a shot to get a MC which he passes thanks to a 1,1 and thus scores a Hero as well! He brings up a vehicle and it is revealed to be a Wasp, this guy is able to get in close (B12) and flame a 548 but for some reason I pass the MC which leaves me in a state of shock. Tactically I am taking all the territory I wanted with the exception of the Goch Crossroads area, but I am being bled white in the process while he is often beating the odds to pull his men back to relative safety. I also now have the prospect of having 2 OBA modules working the woods to the East and the North and this is not a pleasant thought.
This Turn 2 nearly broke my PELR and I had to take a few weeks off afterwards just to calm down a little.
One of the things that most CG players learn is that when on the attack a time comes when the defenders are at breaking point and although your own losses are mounting the pressure on your opponent needs to be maintained if the attack it to reap rewards – I have a feeling that this game is at that point. I decide to push hard in the Ebben and Southern Farmhouses area and to assist in this attack I commit my ‘reserves’ the 2x FlaK Panzer and 3x HT with HS Passengers. Things go reasonably well with his forces being pushed back as I move forward, however it is the Goch Crossroads Area which is causing me the most problems as every time I push against the D13 Trench my men are taken out. I have my last GO Squad to the West of the C12-C18 hedge broken as he attacks JPs trench, it is SO annoying, thankfully JP doesn’t risk using his Wasp’s FT at long-range or I am sure to have lost at least a HS here. I bring on both my FlaK Pz with one of them facing down the D10-D22 road and the other covering the Ploughed Fields to the West of the hedge in this area; I want to kill that last Wasp and I want to crack the resistance in this area so I can grab at least a solitary Strategic Location in this linking ground between Ebben and the Goch Crossroads. Unfortunately an Armoured Assault with an Engineer Squad and a HT fails thanks to the 4FP Harassing Fire OBA and the non-stop run of terrible MC rolls I have made in this Goch attack. In the Woods area I am spreading out, partially to grab territory and partially to avoid the soon-to-be arriving OBA (again it was 4FP Harassing Fire and it Pinned and broke a few units). I started to move units from the Ebben Area towards the Southern Farmhouses and while the initial moves were very successful the later ones suffered from my bad MC Curse.
JP’s turn start off with a flurry of poor shots. He very intelligently calls down the Harassing Fire OBA into the same area while moving the other OBA attack from the Ebben Woods down towards the Ebben-Southern Farmhouses border; this OBA is hardly a killer but it can mess up my LOS through it’s +1 Hindrance and is severely hampering my movement. I want to try and claim his unmanned 76LL AT up on the Southern Farmhouses ridge, but his fire attacks are effective enough up here to repeatedly Pin me down, at least I suffer no breaks in the movements.
JPs line is finally cracked over here and my men are able (with the exception of the area covered by OBA) to move with relative freedom thanks in part to a terrible run of Canadian starshells.
The Germans are finally also shooting with some effect and this makes movement a little more of a sure thing. In the Goch Crossroads area I am not only able to finally claim the D13 Trench but I can also get a Squad to his last Wasp thus securing it as a Strategic location as well as removing one of these very nasty thorns in my side. My push up towards the Crossroads is going well and though I have been terribly bloodied he has not enough unbroken men left to counter-attack with any chance of success; also while the Harassing Fire of the OBA is enough to keep my head down and slow my movement he is not able to do too much damage to me now that I have been able to get men into cover.
My men in the Woods are relatively safe, this was made more sure when I was able to guess where the other OBA was being sighted from and a great FlaK Pz shot broke the leader responsible for the OBA hitting the Southern Woods.
My other main attack was to push through men into the Southern Farmhouses attack… but I have continued to write about that in the relevant section.
He gets a HOB to bring back a vital 458 as a Fanatic… this is happening so much, too much, in this game for him.
German Losses
2x 248, 2x 548 (5x Dummies)
8-0
DC
SPW 251/1 (scrounged)
Canadian Losses
228, 2x 226, 3x 248, 1x 248(e), 447, 458
8-1
51mm MTR, DC, PIAT
The Schwanenhof Attack
This attack has been terrible from the start for me. Firstly JP placed a large amount of men in this area and the starshells fall thickly.
Even though he has a fair bit of bad luck the sheer number of possible Starshells and IR make it probable that SOMEONE will get a decent bit of illumination. In the end it is one of those annoying 50mm MTRs which gets the job done, though they do leave a column open right where the heaviest mass of my attack is to fall. I bring on my SPW 251/1 right away, again the chance of it being confused for a FlaK PZ is ruined by the Illumination. I am thinking that the SPW 251 (scrounged) is likely to be killed but in doing so it will leave a wreck. Unfortunately one of JPs newly purchased 76LL AT guns DOES kill it but leaves a burning wreck which will be a real problem for me as this is where I was entering a large force of men, they will be pinned down in this Illumination for some time to come. This AT Gun goes on a ROF rampage which slaughters outright 3CVP of my attackers and leaves the remnants of 2 stacks with few places to run thanks to the burning wreck. I am forced to move slowly and carefully and although my best units have managed to avoid this onslaught I have still taken terrible losses before his infantry even get seriously involved. This is a fearsome area to attack from off-board, even at night there is little cover to be had and the Canadians have dug-in all along the Level 1 ridge which means that they are often firing at long-range but are also able to score the FFNAM/MO modifiers which more than compensates.
JP just shoots and illuminates, He manages to kill another HS of my but apart from that it is a non-event in the Canadian Turn over here. I need my concealment and that means I am not going to fire nor risk illuminating myself.
The starshells and IR are poor for my Turn 2 and this gives me an opportunity to move up and consolidate my attack. He is even forced to reveal a HIP to try and get some illumination in front of the the Schwanenhof and fails. I move up as close as I dare and although he takes a few shots generally they are poor. I am close enough to him to shoot now but I want to wait with my concealment for a little longer so that I might be able to do some real damage before he brings al of his units to bear upon me. He is continuing to fire at the units who were broken in the first turn but this time with no effect.
The starshells are again excellent but my advances have positioned me in such a way that his shot options are poor. He mostly Prep Fired but again with little positive effect though he does reveal a 57L AT Gun (NN27) and also exhausts his HE with the 76LL AT. Finally I remove my concealment and start to pound away at the defenders in the Schwanenhof itself and joy of joy I get hits! My combined attacking force of 3x 467, 2x 548 (all MMC with LMG) and 2x 9-1 and 9-2 are able to eliminate a HS of his and break half the defenders in the target building. I have paid a fair price for this opening but I have a real chance to exploit it now!
The Germans have an opportunity to take the Schwanenhof
Finally with a useful 16FP +1 shot to open the door my men are able to enter the Schwanenhof and take the QQ23 location. His defenders had been pretty much smashed last turn and using the slight LOS shadow to the East of the building I am able to get adjacent to the building with little loss. So good are my attack rolls that the only damage I take is from a hot sniper breaking one of my up-front Squads. Now that I have a powerful foothold in this building (and have managed to dig a foxhole in MM27) I have a reasonable chance of claiming the 2LVP in OO23 before this game is finished, if not now then I shall certainly get it in the next game. My biggest problem is that I have all my Schwanenhof forces as a single stack and that means a single lucky shot (of the kind JP is prone to make) can make a mess of my position.
Although he plasters the area with Starshells the Canadians are unable to get a decent result as my men manage to pass all the MCs set for them and there are a lot of them as this turn JP again had an impossibly good run of attack DRs. He is starting to attempt to reinforce this area by drawing troops from the Southern Crossroads Area but they are unlikely to make it here in time to influence the battle enough to stop me gaining the LVP. JPs defence was (as usual) well structured to allow maximum shots for minimum danger to himself, but he left an LOS shadow thanks to the target building itself and once I can get close enough then I am home free and my own FP and leadership advantage can come into play. He fails to damage me, but likewise I am unable to take out the pesky MMG in OO23 despite hitting it with a 12FP +1 shot… the MC dice continue to be statistically average for him!
I need to take out the final few units sheltering in the buildings here and thankfully they fall easily. In fact I manage to capture his MMG and over his turn and mine a run of great DRs for the Germans and poor ones for the Canadians causes a lot of carnage in this area. He loses the majority of the units Routing from the now fully German Controlled buildings as well as suffering a double-break on the 57LL Gun crew which helps to protect me from possible lucky CHs. He does still have his 76LL in GO even though it has no HE. To protect against any further German attacks the Canadians are forced to pull men out of the Southern Crossroads area but with the amount of starshells were are both firing and the digging of a foxhole in MM27 for a German LMG 467, 8-0 combo these men are not finding movement to be very easy at all. I would like to push on further, the abandoned 57LL in NN20 as well as the LL21 1LVP building are both tempting targets, but I don’t have the numbers and it is far more important to hold on to what I have and punish his men as much as possible while I have them on the run.
German Losses
237, 247, 548
SPW 251/1 (scrounged)
Canadian Losses
228, 237, 2x 247, 248, 458
9-1, 8-0
The Southern Farmhouses Attack
Again it is JPs MTR which does an excellent job of illuminating my planned line of attack. However, unlike the Schwanenhof here he is unable to get hits thanks to either poor shooting or good TEM. In fact I am the lucky one as one of my snipers goes on a rampage and wipes out the crew of a revealed HIP 76LL which is a huge relief as this is likely to be the only AT Gun in this area. My men claim the buildings and foxhole adjacent to the map edge but JP drops impotent OBA down on their position, though this OBA will certainly affect my ability to exploit my gains in this area. He has a large force defending here and my men are mostly here to hold his defenders in place.
JP makes no moves in this area, he just fires on those units which he has LOS to. He does lift the OBA however and moves it up to the Eastern edge of the Ebben Woods
In my Turn 2 I am able to dig a useful foxhole in C26 which will link up this area to the Ebben Area. His starshells are poor but they are good enough to block my Movement despite his lifting of the OBA last turn. I am content to sit here with the majority of my men and hold his defenders in place. The E28-I23 hedge provides enough cover for me to move men up through non-illuminated patches and at this rate I shall be able to bring a formable force to bear on his Southern Farmhouse defenders by Turn 3.
I did not leave a detailed AAR at the time but my notes indicate that despite a Canadian Prep Fire turn with 7x 5 attack DR in a row (!!) I end up swamping the Canadian Defenders and almost completely wipe them out to secure this area.
German Losses
467, 548
Canadian Losses
226, 237, 3x 247, 2x 457
The Southern Crossroads Attack
Like the Schwanenhof attack I lead out with non-dummies under my cloaking counters; JP is used to me placing a screen of dummies cloaked units at the front of my advance and I made sure that this is what he saw first in the Ebben Area attack. Thanks to gaps in the illumination I am able to sneak a 548 into a foxhole deep in his lines (FF25) but a bore-sighted Firelane opens up after that and cuts him off. The rest of my small force here is able to take their initial objectives or get into place to dig foxholes
A Canadian stack moves out from their position behind the Level 1 ridge above the Crossroads, they look quite potent and are almost certainly going to make a move on my newly-won foxhole. Apart from that things are quiet here as Illumination generally failed.
In rally I dig a foxhole at V27 which will give me the chance to link up the Southern Farmhouses and Southern Crossroads if I am able to hold on in the Crossroads and take some of his foxholes in the Farmhouse area. I start to move out again, this time trying to secure the seemingly empty BB25 foxhole, unfortunately it is not empty and the LMG 447 defending here is able to score a NMC; as we all know a NMC for a 8ML German facing JP has about a 90% chance of failing the Morale Check and this one does not buck the trend. With his FL still blasting away from V23 to GG29 I am unable to do anything except withdraw towards the AA29 stone building and hope to hold him off.
Like everywhere else this Allied Player Turn the Canadian starshells fall with god-like precision to blind my men and to allow him almost total freedom of movement. He sends a Carrier to Sleaze-Freeze my 548 in the FF25 foxhole and after watching him get low DR after low DR I just knew that any chance I had for killing the Carrier was doomed and indeed it was as my 8ML unit is pinned for failing his PAATC. He piles onto me with 3x 458, 9-1 and I am eradicated in CC with ease. Things being the way they are I might have to consider cutting my losses and running if he decided to counter-attack as I have almost nothing left here with which to force the battle.
Civilian info exposed a 57L AT in Z23
I have had no option but to pull my forces (1x LMG, 1.5 MMC and an 8-0) back to the AA28 building and wait to see if he commits a fatal error. The possibility of that is slim despite the numbers he is siphoning off to try and hold me back in the Schwanenhof attack. JP takes the freshly dug V27 foxhole, slaughtering the 467 in it during a nasty CC assault.
The rest of my notes in this failed attack is about the dice indicating that despite having accepted my failure in this area i was just getting picked off by below average attack dice and my usual above average MC dice
This is where the CG ended.
Indeed this is where we both stopped playing ASL for many years.
JP & I had been opponents across the ASL boards and CG maps for over 2 decades.
He is easily the best opponent I have ever had the privilege of playing and as you can see from this ASL AAR site I have played a lot of opponents from all across the world with only about 1 in 3 games being written up as an AAR.
As a defender JP is a force to be reckoned with and through his AARs you can no doubt get a feeling for the depths of preparation he undertakes in each scenario and CG. He is without a doubt the Montgomery to my Rommel.
In the end though we had just reached a tipping point through the insane run of CGs we were playing in the last years (KGP CGI x3, KGP CGIII, ABTF CGIII x2, RB CG III, PB CGI x2, OW ER CG x2, HOBs B:RV). On top of all that is the insane amount of Scenarios. In the 90s we were playing a a scenario nearly every second night for over a year (paired with theatre-appropriate drinks). It was a lot!
Couple this with personal real life dramas as we tried to organise games through the slow drip of VASL.
We mutually reached a point of exhaustion with ASL.
I am not sure if JP played anyone since but he does play MTG and if you wanna support him then sub to his You Tube Channel.
In my case I still play but mostly to teach newbies who reach out to me. I no longer hunt the forums for VASL games and almost exclusively play FtF. I also play other games like Space Empires 4x, Tank Duel: Enemy in the Crosshairs as well as RPG board games like KDM and Gloomhaven.