ASLOK XXIX October 1-12 Loot

 The final list of loot. I didn't think I would have much difficulty getting it back weight-wise, but space was at a premium. I need to work on my luggage system still. I have the weight allowance but not the room.

• 3 x Dice towers from Jack Daniels
• Schwerpunkt 20 x 3 (Aaron C, Jackson Kw)
• Friendly Fire 9 x 4 (Aaron C, Jackson Kw, Ivan K)
• Rally Point 9 x 2 (Jackson Kw)
• ESG Dezign Pak 10 
• Panzerknacker, Molotov, Dust Devils, Sniper, and ROF dice
• East vs West 12mm 5 dice set (Ivan K)
• Tweezers x 2
• 300 x US sized page protectors
• Overlay Binder and Inserts
• Travel Board Binder
• 2mm, 2.5mm, 3mm deluxe counter cutters
• Festung Budapest, Decision at Elst, Rising Sun
• ASLOK XXIX Tees x 5 (Aaron C, Jackson Kw)
• ASL Open Tees x 2 (Jackson Kw)
• Plano 3601 low-profiles x 5
• Longstreet: A Biography by Jeffrey Werts
• Guadalcanal by Richard Franks
• Gettysburg: the Second Day by Harry Pfanz
• AVRES in Normandy by Richard C Anderson Jr 
• Pleva HIP Trays x 3
• Ops Spec Ed vol 4 and Vol 5
• Board 68 x 3  (Aaron C, Vlad S) 
• Miscellaneous Critical Hit modules (mainly desert and winter)

I gave away one of the Pleva trays to an ASLer who has been doing it tough, and one set of tweezers was passed on to another ASLer.

Sadly I managed to lose a pair of Battleschool dice (green and white 14mm plain) as well as the little counter picker, but they are easily replaced.

AP42 Frontiers & Pioneers (AAR) The End Game

Joe and I finished this beastie off yesterday morning. I'll make most of my comments after the turn by turn breakdown. I had hoped to be playing ASL today but domestic duties and the imperative to get all my ducks in a row regarding future employment options are combining to make playing ASL an unlikely option today.

In other news, I've volunteeered my services to Chas Smith as a playtester if required. I'm pretty sure I've got some playtesting work lined up with the Cleavinator for Journal 10 as I enjoyed doing the Suicide Creek stuff, and have been enjoying working on some other stuff with Adam Lunney on one of his designs. Plus I have something from Ian Percy I think I am meant to be arranging a PT session to play soonish.

So as of my last AAR post it was effectively the end of Game Turn 4, and I was looking at driving home the advantage I had with the KV having no functioning AT capability. And so the game went on:

German Turn 5: At Start

German Turn 5 Situation after Rally Phase: Well my worst fear was realised, as Joe repaired the MA on the KV and now it was imperative I used this opportunity to take it out once and for all. My plan was hopefully to draw the Kv's fire at anything other than the FT squad which would have to do an AF phase shot, but the TK odds would be good. I was also concerned that Joe might go for a Motion Attempt to minimise the chances of the PzIII getting a decent BFF shot into his rear, as that PB modifier would be key and the free VCA change would make life difficult for the PzIII. Joe's 9-2 was less successful in rallying his platoon, only bringing back one squad. I would have to take the odds on getting the KV and let the Pz IV and the two other 38Ts in the West do the real donkey work in wearing down his 9-2's redoubt.

German Turn 5: After Preps

German Turn 5 Preps: The Pz IV did a modicum of damage with its 75mm HE, breaking the freshly rallied 447. But the CMG did the real damage with a nasty 2MC that broke everything in the hex and effectively spelled death for the 9-2 and his platoon. At this point I was confident I had the game in hand but if the KV survived I'd still have to be mindful of the CVP cap as two more killed AFVs would make it very interesting and three would be too close for comfort. But this is where I think my instinve gut-driven play style actually is a strength, as I backed myself to do the job. The rest of the Preps were ineffective.

German Turn 5: Movement and Defensive Fire

German Turn 5 Movement and Defensive fire: The start of the end...

With the 9-2 out of the picture, I had the platoon to his south advance in steps to draw the fire of the 447 in the 37O1 building and if they survived, the 9-2 would die Due to FTR. This would also allow me to bring up the FT in relative safety through baiting the D1F with the sqd and LMG. Meanwhile the flanking motorcyclists squeaked past a NMC and started taking control of the North West Village area, a requirement of the VC if I wanted to really force the issue.

The killer blow I think was the when Pz38T B fired his mgs with a point blank 8 up 2, and rolled snakes for a 2mc which broke and elred the 447 in 57T1. That sealed the fate of an entire platoon and allowed me to minimise further AFV exposure.

I drew the Kv into a first fire shot by driving Pz38T A down from the north and although the BFF shots were not successful, I had at least prepared the way. The Panzer II then skipped around the rear, forcing the KV to change TCA and IF. Result! MA malfed again. The initail BFF shot needed to be a HH, which it was, but I needed a 5 to immobilise, 4 to KO. I rolled and dice bot gave me a 6, damn! Possible shock. I duly rolled the NTC and Bam! Shock!  The FT could now take the safer rioute to get into position for that all important AF TK roll.

Joe's Defensive Fire ATR shot bounced and that was pretty much it.  Now all that mattered was the Advancing Fire and the upcoming CCs to clearout the last of the infantry from the 9-2's redoubt.

German Turn 5: Coup de Grace

German Advancing fire through CC: The FT did it's job but only just, with the bare minimum for a KO. the other FT Xed out but still managed an all important PTC which was failed and so it went into CC, after the death of the rest of the soviet defenders for failure to rout. The CC was inclsuive but I did manage to reduce Joe to a hs before it went into Melee. Joe conceeded in his return mail as I expected so the Germans prevailed. A good game I thought, some hot dice in parts but generally I felt I played well and took the right options when necessary.

Conclusion: A good scenario and a good solid game. I found a lot to like about the scenario although it is fiddly in PBeM because of the vehicle numbers. The initial entry for the Germans is pretty scripted as far as i can see, too much risk associated with entering on the central road as one firelane will stop any thought of the motorcyclists traversing to the west.

I feel I played a solid, patient game, particularly on Turns 3 and 4 which helped me set up for turn 5 nicely. I took some calculated risks in Turn 4 and 5, as opposed to a couple of airy fairy decisons on Turn 1 and 2. My timing and sequencing of actions improved, but I still got it wrong on occasions, leaving Joe some opportunities to cause damage which thankfully were not as severe. I completely misread the MOL usage rules and could have suffered accordingly.

I gather the scenario is seen as somewhat pro-German (which is interesting as ROAR has it as 28 to 39 in favour of the Soviets before this game. I wonder if the German players haven't kept discipline and stayed at 7+ hexes to maximise their TH advantage or used hidnrances as a good way of reducing the TH chances equally. Plus the Germans need to use their mobility as a form of defence.) but i feel it's pretty close  to balanced.

It's a good contrast in armour usage and also a good training tool for armour as it's not about a Hit = Kill type AFV slugfest. Make sure the Soviet player knows how the T35 CAs work though as the T35 needs to be in the mid game and can scare the bejeesus out of the German landsers. The 9-2 and KV are the determinans in a Soviet defence so maximising their potential to do harm in the early and mid game (for the KV) is vital.

Recommended.

Pete

My Win Ratio is 100%!

Okay so it's only because of the one game I played against Rami in the first round of the 2011 VASL Minor League for Europe/Oceania before I had to drop out of ASL for 6 months, but I'll take it. Like my ASLOK Tin Cans & Pop Guns Mini plaque (coutesy of the Dice of Doom), this will be the high point of my ASL tourney career and I'm going to milk it for all it's worth.

Has it already been a month?

So this blog was effectively started after ASLOK 2011 finished and I started revisting Gamesquad and playing again.

I've completed two games on VASL (including one playtest), and have two currently ongoing games at their mid-points.

I've started posting in progress AARs with actual pics, and contemplated heretical alternatives to the one true faith. All this while 99% of my psyche was entwined in some torunament revolving around a legalised brawl over an inflated pig's bladder.

P.S. I just noticed that I've just  matched the October pageview total this far into November. Content really is King!


As always, I've been rolling more than my fair share of these during my games:

ASL Games in Progress update

So here are my current games going strongly, one live VASL for the most part, the other pure PbEM:

WO2 Failure to Communicate : Start of German Turn 3

Here the Germans are about to bring on the armour, although the LATW work has once more been spectacular on my part, one CH with the ATR and another KO with an HMG - can't complain if your are me. John must be sick of the sight of my OB containing ATRs and LMGs. The 10-2 Leader Thierry Dusautoir is going to attract either a whole bunch of attention or will be ignored in favour of the rest of the Les Bleus by the Mighty Men in Black Blue-Grey - yes an obligatory RWC 2011 reference.

AP42 Frontiers and Pioneers - Start of Soviet Turn 2.

Ding Dong the wicked witch T-35 is dead! Snaffled by an Adv Fire Phase side hull hit from the Panzer 38T in centre top left after having stripped concealment with a snakes by the Coax only mg. This left me with a base 9 @ only +3 thanks to the size cancelling the hindrance and one of the case C mod of +4. Somewhat balanced by the second Pz38T who had a good shot at a BT after again unconcealing with the mgs before malfing his MA. On balance though, I've come out ahead. I've turned his flank nicely with my armour and I'm outside his optimum range band. although there's an opening for a counterattack, time to read up on Motion attempts versus potential Gun Duels if I stick around to fire.

Damn ASL is fun, especially when you can see your own game improving with each game.

ASLOK Saturday Day 9

Saturday 9th October
Where the hell have the last 7 days gone? It's a Saturday morning I'm up ready to go straightaway and i get paired against Kevin Meyer again in the last PTO Mini - well at least i know this game is going to be fast and furious ...

2.5 hours later and I'm out of another mini, only this time Kevin goes on to win the whole thing! Seizing the Sittang Bridge, another Schwerpunkt design and it could be one of the last Schwerpunkt non-SK board scenarios I play (I bought that Rallypoint issue for a reason). Anyway i had a faint chance to win if I'd set up and executed the twin Banzais in the right order and with the right units...twasn't to be and Kevin deservedly won.

Great game, great opponent. So out of the four PTO minis I'd played, two of my first round opponents (Rich Domovic and Kevin Meyer) went on to win the mini and I played Kevin in consecutive minis. I don't feel I disgraced myself even though I was now 2 and 13 for ASLOK and 0 and 4 for minis.

Some more photos from ASLOK:

I was however totally gamed out, so I spent the rest of the day in a fugue state staring at the ASL crack I'd obtained from Alex Keys. The man is pure evil allowing me to buy all that stuff. Actually it wasn't so much gamed out as wondering how the hell I was going to get all the asl crack into my luggage.

Then Steve Linton came up with the idea of staging a Sunday mini for the those still jonesing for a plaque (Bret still had one left) but with entry limited to those with no outstanding minis games (which eliminated Cleavin from signing up and winning another plaque as he was still to play Matt Book) - for while we had JR Tracy on tap to play but in the event he went back to Noo Yawk...obviously the thought of facing the Dice of Doom had him running for cover.

ASLOK Tuesday Day 5

Clarification: Previous instalments are slightly out for when I met people, due to the issue of jet lag and the days all merging into one.

Tuesday 5th October
I'd finally managed to get some sleep and gawd was it needed. I had breakfast with some of the ANZAC crew and the Euros. Feeling more alive, I thought it'd be good to ease myself into the day with a game against fellow Anzac Scott Byrne, who like me was feeling a little shellshocked after a run of bad results.

We played one of Murray McCloskey's new Break Contact pack (in final playtest) BC15 Bagging the Bago Bridge. I'm not a big fan of high leadership in smaller scenarios generally and this one just struck me as nothing special. Scott won, restored his Personal Morale Level and went back into the fray for the World Cup - Mission accomplished. I may have lost but I was okay about it as it was nice to play a game without the whole World vs USA thing.

ASLOK 1 and 6, World Cup still 1 and 3 (that second win might be a while coming)

I'd arranged to play Tabby at some point in the afternoon, but he was engrossed in a game that was going rather long so Fort moved our scheduled game forward. To be honest I was nervous as hell about playing - I wasn't even remotely up to speed in terms of playing quality and i just wanted to make sure I offered a little more than being a speed bump.

Before we played, I laughingly remarked that I would need to bring my "A" dice game just to keep it vaguely close. Prescience can be a bitch.

I'd bought a bunch of Dispatches from the Bunker the previous day along with the new Friendly Fire pack, Schwerpunkt 16 and Rallypoint 5 so it didn't take long for Gary to select DB083 Block to Bataan as our game.

Fort's initial defence require some tweaking due to Brush remaining Brush not going to bamboo and he ended up with a hedgehog defence with the Stuart behind the roadblock and the ATG propping up the flank away from the roadblock.

I took a left hand sweep with the middle force being slow and steady after Fort's firelanes made a shambles of my initial thrust. I had got hooked up on the wire, but then my dice went nuts and it continued for the rest of the game...

My 3 tank platoon went up the centre left, swung out to engage the infantry in front blocking my own approach route and up popped the 37LL ATG. The Stuart boxed its MA on the first shot and the ATG missed. I didn't. Snakes (Improb CH) folowed by a 2 on the CH check. Bye bye ATG. Fort blinks but continues on relentlessly. The Stuart repaired the MA on its first attempt later in the game when it had to be taken but I had a turn or two of breathing space.

My dice got even hotter when I generated a Japanese hero from a first line squad (I really didn't see this as exceptional until I went through the actual mods as I've created about 4 Japanese heroes previously) and I had my good leader, a squad with DC and hero next to his Stuart who had already IFed. It was then that the 60 mm mortar rescued the situation, the ROF tear was expected, the final non-rof shot did all the damage though, causing a K/4 on the stack - you guessed it I rolled yahtzee. So athough I rolled 11 snakes (several Heat of Pins admittedly) during the game, I still couldn't pull out a win for the World.

Gary was a joy to play, his equanimity in the face of the satanic dice o' doom was to be admired. I'm not sure how seriously to take his idea of mounting my severed hand on a stick and using it to roll his dice though. I came away with a lasting memory of a game that I could dine out on forever (and I will) and my ASLOK experience was set in stone as truly great.

1 and 7 for ASLOK, 1 and 4 for World Cup.

The evening game was against Tabby and would be my last game in the World Cup with the Minis due to start the following day. I was keen to play something Eastern Front before diving into the PTO for the next 4 days so Scott and I looked at DB079 Mga Station - I liked the board setup, I liked either side and I thought it looked like real smash-mouth in yer face ASL .

The Streak continued with my first Prepfire attack of 20FP up 1 being a snakes. The game continued along those lines pretty much with another 4 or so snakes as I waxed most of Scott's HTs early on, and paced myself to not trigger the reinforcements before the default turn. I felt Scott left me too many reasonable shots early on, even though I never used the 82 mortar (I couldn't figure out where and when to use it).

Tabby's a lot of fun to hang out with at ASLOK. The trashtalking and smart-ass remarks flew between our tables all week. I don't think I could have asked for a better roomie.

ASLOK 2 and 7, World Cup 2 and 4 (final)

Looking at who I played in the WC, I'm pleased to have managed 2 wins:

Fortenberry, Burris, Holmstrom, Goldman, Pitcavage and Holst. I'll take that as a solid looking PIS record anyday. It looks daunting for a first time ASLOK attendee even now.

ASLOK Saturday Day 2

Saturday 2nd October

Awake at 5:30am after 1 hours "sleep" (I think staring at ceiling counts). Discovered BP service station had 24oz coffee for $1.29 (Like Cleveland and venue for ASLOK already). Caught up with the other Anzacs and met Bill Hayward and Bret (I think - the first few days are a bit fused together) plus the Euros.

Ray Woloszyn (I think) second from left, Cleavinator staring out the window

Jim Burris on left getting settled in before Holmstrom comes along to spill rum over the mapboards, Ray W contemplating with equanimity that his subtle ambush may just have sprung perfectly. Either that or his opponent just generated two Japanese heroes and Ray's in shock.

Talk to Chris Doary and admire both the new dice and his Pleva tower. Blink at the cost of a tower but resolve to get one when and if another is available. Spend much of remaining cash on cool Battleschool precision dice including RS pair of dice and the ASL 25 anniversary set along with a Grofaz set (Aaron bitches about me owning Grofaz dice - I point out that I've beaten him twice now so I get to have a pair.

I managed to escape from Battleschool having bought only a gazillion dice plus some fancy suction cup tweezer thingymajig. I still want me one of them there Pleva Towers. Chris Doary (L) and Mike Faulkner (R).

The Dice of Doom: According to Fortenberry, Linton and Blair this was about as high as my dice rolled all week.

Play Chris Doary in an open game of OotA20 Revenge of the Greys. I get schooled like a borstal boy, but have a great time and find combo of precision dice and Pleva tower soothing in lack of aggravating noise (very useful if I intend to sample scotch in quantity later in the week).

I too can split my forces and fritter away any local advantsge in firepower. I suck at this game.

I'm not going to miss the hardboard maps as much as I thought.

Just out of shot, I'm holding a wicker basket that contains my head

The Blue one is staged, the Red is not.

So I'm 0 and 2 for ASLOK already and the World cup games are already underway. There seem to be a lot more gun US players turning up earlier according to Steve Linton and Aaron. Not really up to playing another game as too busy meeting and greeting ASLers. About 2am realise that sleep is not going to happen. Chat to security guard for a while and start getting stuff set up for Sunday gaming...