ASL16 – NO BETTER SPOT TO DIE

 KC Attacking as the Germans
 Legion Defending as the US.

Pre-Game notes on Legion

He always has a plan at the start of each game.  A long term strategy.  Tactically, he likes to get off to fast starts and puts early pressure on newbies, sometimes to the detriment of a more sound longer term strategy.  Maybe I can take advantage of this since I am re-entering ASL. 
 

Notes on my own style of play…

… you didn’t really think I’d give anything about me away, did you?

Okay, in the interest of fair play I will reveal one long term strategy I have. Legions AAR’s are notorious for mentioning how bad his own DR’s are.  I’m relying on this trend continuing.  I don’t mind if he WINS this game, but I don’t want to LOSE it (thereby handing him the win).  I played poorly last time we played so my motivation is high.

Notes on this Scenario

Legion is able to set up a squad, Leader and a SW as HIP.  In my mind he might HIP a bazooka in order to kill a tank.  Or HIP the MMG in order to hurt my infantry.  Given that the German wins via control of buildings, I’ll bet Legion HIPs the MMG since this fight will be won in an urban setting and hurting my infantry will be his priority.
 
Infantry will be key in this scenario. The Germans have 13 x 447 front line units. Legion has only 6x 747‘s.  I still don’t feel good about this because the attacker normally expects to take casualties greater than 2:1. 
 
The ATG has a TK# 15 v my tanks AF# 4.  So any hit is likely to kill my tanks.
My tanks have a main armament of 37*. If I can setup at range, I might be able to get some 4FP attacks against his men.  Its not much but it does mean I have a (small) chance to maybe break or pin him before having to risk moving my own infantry into the fight.
 
SSR3 makes any side which loses half its MMC have its best leader take a NTC in the rally phase, if it fails that NTC then that side call for a truce.  So the game could end early.  Note to self: keep best leader well back.
 

 Plan

The Northern Approach has woods, brush and gully hexes. So there’s good available cover. 
The Central Approach has a road and a roadblock closing off the only bridge over the Gully. The road passes by some woods which likely will need to be cleared before vehicles can move up.
The Southern Approach appeals to me because I think an edge board creep could work. This approach also offers some nearby buildings as victory hexes.  The down side is, it’s very open… (gulp).
 
I might use my tanks to quickly identify where his units are. HIP units and concealed units won’t impact on my playing. Although I might use the tanks to remove concealment by scouting with them early in the game. Thus I want to Identify his infantry units, hit them with the tanks. Break/pin then advance up.
 
Is 24J8 too obvious a place for the ATG?
I have 2 x mortars.  These are good against woods (airburst rules).
 
I initially spread my forces out from north to south. I will try to keep him spread out then sprint for any gaps that open up. I think if I can slip past him he wont have a chance to chase me down in the village.
 

The Game

Turn 1

Moved my units forward line-abreast north to south. By not choosing an obvious path of attack I hope to keep him spread thinly.
 
Moved a stack CX through some open ground, thinking the Crag offered a LOS obstacle. Whoops…  3 morale check DR’s later (9, 10 + 11) and my stack of fast movers (travelling with a leader) are broken.  Poor play (moving in stacks) combined with misunderstanding the rules (obstacle v hindrance) = baaaaad. 
Fortunately for me Legion does not fire any other units, thus keeping his concealment.  Is this because his ? counters are dummies?  Or is he trying to maintain his concealment bonus (half FP)?
 
The problem with all or nothing approaches is it’s quite often “nothing”.
 
How am I feeling?
I was pretty angry at myself when I found out the Crag was a hindrance and not an obstacle. 3 squads failing their MC, and then failing to rally, I was paying the price. After saying I didn’t want to lose this game, this kind of thing grates on me. On turn 1 no less!
 
No other damage was done though.  I’m enjoying being back into ASL. 

Turn 2

My movement was going pretty well. My units were moving forward quickly and I was covering some good ground for no real loss except for that one stack that got hit in turn 1.
 
The game is 9 turns long so I figured I should use that time to scout out his real units amongst his many dummy counters, and there was potential for HIP forces (squads and a AT gun). But my men had some good momentum moving forward to the next line of cover. And while I knew the next jump was going to be hard, I wanted to cover this first dash quickly so if I needed time to force my way into the village then I didn’t leave myself time-short during the end game.
 
One of my tanks “found” his HIP ATG and I lost the tank.  I pushed my luck because while the ATG kept ROF I ran another tank directly across the guns path with the odds against him making it … but my little tanker jinxed at the right time and I got away with it.  I dodged a bullet, literally.  This was silly play and I should have moved more conservatively.
 
My movement continued unharrassed.  I had left my 2x MMG and leader stack to move last.  If Legion was going to fire, I hoped he might reveal any units on some of my single stacks.  In the end no units were revealed and my stack while moving in open ground, moved where incoming fire had to pass through some hindrance hexes.  It was a risky move, but the charge must continue! 
 
This is where I should have checked myself.  The game was going well I think.  I wanted to consolidate while I could because my movement forward was about to get bogged down with close in territory.  So my 2xMMG+Ldr are moving across open ground when the HIP reveals from an otherwise empty brush hex (yikes!).  But Legion (taking pity on me?) only fires his 4FP squad and not MMG …. But then he rolls (1,1).  Combined with –2 TEM I take a 2KIA. 
 
Legion will say he was stupidly lucky. I agree. He was lucky, I was stupid!
 
Another in the “know your terrain” department. Brush is concealment terrain 

Turn 3

Decision time.  I had made good ground in terms of trying to reach the outskirts of the village.  But now I would be crossing open ground.  Do I sprint for it while his troops are out of position or take it slower (higher TEM) but allow him to move his troops back into the game?  I went for the win, and started running troops across open ground or using armoured assault. 
 
Legion used his fire well, firing Squads and support weapons separately.  My own squads broke, and were left to low crawl across open ground so I didn’t have to take interdiction.
 
I also chose to enter into CC with some of Legions units.  To get better odds I reinforced, including a one of my two remaining leaders.  In hindsight leaders are too important in this scenario and I should have left him out of it.  I had already lost a leader, and the other leader was wounded. 
 
I think CC is quick and easy, a kill wipes out all the enemy and you can move on quickly and do some real damage.  Legion’s view at the time was CC slows attacking units down by melee.  He also split his attacks against me to try and kill the leader while I had all my chips in the middle, and was trying to wipe out his whole stack with one easy (?) die roll.
 
I needed a 6 and missed.  Legion concentrated his attack on one of my HS and my leader, but he missed also.
 
During Legions turn he was able to move his troops back into the game.  His ATG relocated behind a hedge and had LOS across the open ground to my tanks.  And his squads were in woods, looking at my guys trapped in the open.  

Turn 4

At the beginning of my turn I could see there were 6 game turns left.  Since I had the extra time I chose to have some of my squads in the gully engage his squads in the woods.  This might mean a squad or two in the open doesn’t take any prep or defensive fire.  And I might be able to have a single squad reach the edge of the village and then he’s away into the backlines …. which means Legion will have to chase him down!
 
During CC I again needed a 6 and missed.  Legion killed a half squad and more importantly the leader.  This leaves me with one leader in play.  When you’re the Germans and you start with lots of leaders, and you find yourself down to 1 left, it’s a sign you haven’t used your leaders wisely.
 
Legion will say bad tactics on my part.  Maybe he’s right.  But I had two cracks at rolling a 6 or less in CC and failed.  If the game hinges on those odds then I take them.  I had a better chance at making those rolls than outthinking Legion over the course of the game.  This could be the turning point. 

Turn 5

Instead of sprinting across open ground for the village my squads turn and engage the enemy.  Moving through gullies they approach the US squads in woods.  I’ve been unable to bypass Legion, so I will take him on.  I have more squads than him so hopefully I can put some hurt on him and enter the village on the last turn and take the win.
 
The important CC battle is still raging and I look to reinforce it.  If I can kill off his leader and squad, there’s another squad nearby I can potentially overrun.  I don’t think he can hold off my numbers if I can break through these two squads.
 
CC comes and I split my attacks.  1:1 to kill his squad and I roll greater than 6 (again) and then 4:1 odds against his leader which also fails!  I think I have needed to roll 6, 6, 6, 5 and a 9 to inflict any kind of damage and I have failed these rolls consecutively.  If I could have passed any of these I think I could have broken through.
 
My tanks are not as much help as I hoped.  2FP machine guns are halved due to movement.  And their main guns are equal to 4FP on the IFT.  I was going to have them scoot around behind Legions troops to help with failure to rout.  But his ATG is covering my only way around and that’s discouraging me from doing that.  Instead, I will use my tanks to stand off and try for 4FP hits. 

Turn 6

I failed SSR 3 having lost half my squads. 
 

Conclusion

I tried to spread my forces out to keep Legion guessing where I was going to try and break through.  Once I had a gap, I went for it.  But he recovered quickly enough to hurt me as I crossed open ground.  Eventually I was bottled up. Maybe my idea was right but the execution was horrible. Knowing what you would like to do, then being able to carry it out, are two different things.
 
I’d do the CC again.  But failing the rolls did cost me the game.  I also lost my leaders too early. 
 
Not knowing some basic rules hurt I really just made some Rookie mistakes. I enjoyed the game but was frustrated by my own lack of rules knowledge. Despite that I tried some new things like bypass movement, armoured assault and overruns.
 
Well done to Legion.  Apart from the first 2 and a half turns where I might have been a nose in front, I was thoroughly outplayed.  Also a big thank you for being patient around my lack of understanding with some of the rules.
 
Until we meet again…