J126 Ugly Faces: An Ugly Dicing

John Knowles and I sat down this afternoon to play J126 Ugly Faces from Journal Nine, a Chas Argent design that initially seemed to get some bad press and some fairly rough treatment for the Germans.

The omens were not propitious as I knocked over my best coffee mug onto the tiled floor before the game even started. Cacophonix may even have struck up a dirge about Toutatis and the sky falling around that time. 

John took the Germans with balance (and that additional 20mm FP is damn useful) and we started to play:

Now I will claim that 8 months away from playing ASL stultified my normal defensive brilliance, but we all know that to be an outright falsehood. I set up the 37* INF far too far forward and had nothing really to stop an end run by the Sdkfz 222s on the right.

And so it proved..because I did absolutely nothing on German Turn 1, apart from stunning the Bathtub. I lost the two squads in U9 because I let them get caught in CC rather than leaving one concealed and/or vol breaking the other and john ambushed me. The only shots I was taking were either decent TH shots or 8+ FP DF or 4FP resids, all the DRs tending to match my MCs and PTCs which were averaging 7.5+ already. Not good when you are French.

So after Turn 1 I was in a power of trouble. Turn two was just annoyingly vicious as I was flanked, broken and routed as well as dead from FTR. The 222s were already in the backfield up by the stone wall on the Y hexrow crossroads.

Turn Three was just bad, and I had a chance to rectify it , but I ended up with 14/60 non-wind change DRs being 9+ versus John's 14/50 of 4 or less. There was an opportunity to cause some havoc as Johnhad not safeguarded the ongoing Melee in W1 which if I had surviuved would have allowed me to threaten the three multi-hex buildings in the south. Alas it was not to be, and the final straw was the last possible 4 up 1 snakes vs one of my 18pdrs that took out the truck, the crew, the gun and a 237 hs that was to assist in bringing the gun into action.

An Ugly game of Ugly Faces , but the scenario deserves a lot more respect than it gets. I won't be counting this game as truly representative as the dice were extreme on both sides.

So it didn't even get past the CC phase of Allied Turn 3. Says it all really. Still want to play this again though as either side.

Games over the weekend

Played two games over the weekend, plus got another three turns done in my VASL league game.. The first game was FB12 The Black Ravens are flying (awesome scenario title) with me as the German/Hungarian vs Aaron C's Soviets. This is just a freaking cool situation and design. Definitely a keeper. Reminds me a little of MP11 Vulcan's Forge in the potential for melee shenanigans on turn 1. We ended up with a tank each trying to share the same orchard hex in setup, hilarious. Lost but who cares, this was my first game from FB and a bit of prep for Cancon.

The second game was J129 Mountain Hunters from Journal 9 versus John Knowles. Peter Struif one of the designers watched our game over a couple of sessions, and I hope we didn't stun him with the mediocrity of our play, particularly in the second session where we were at an impasse in terms of poor DRs. In the end, it came down to the Stug clearing the way while John's commissars did more damage to his troops than I did. The soviet guns up on the rearmost ridge were very frightening, especially after my 60mm Mtr permanently xed itself during repairs on turn 2. All in all, a very good scenario, belying its ROAR record. Sure I achieved all the VC options, but it was really tight between getting all three and only getting one.

Confusion Reigns is still going strong, I put a good turn's delay on the US 9-2 stack of doom, but that was only temporary as they are back now and making me keep my head down. In my PBeM games, J148 Last Minute War has been notable by the Slovakian ACs bogging every single turn. It's now getting into the real mid game and is pretty fraught as both sides are still very much intact. SP184 Cornered Beasts has been notable for the Panzer III marksmanship in the first two turns, but everything else has been a little lacklustre although Soviet inf fire has been effective. Finally J147 Into the Grinding Mill has been exactly that with the Japanese Banzaiing into the midst of the defenses but at some risk and I am expecting a significant riposte from Chinese fire now....

With 5 games at Cancon to look forward to I think it might be my fastest ASL playing start to a year in two decades.

The Bell is Yet to Sound

With three days to go before the end of what, in retrospect, has been a very good year for me in terms of ASL, I couldn't resist the opportunity to squeeze in two more games.

For me, it's a huge positive in that I went looking for Live VASL games as opposed to PBeM. And it felt comfortable. The only diownside is that I had more takers than opportunities, so for those great people who offered to play me as a default, my heartfelt thanks. I see some more dice purchases in my future, even if I have been told I do not need any more dice.

So I'm playing Damon Norko in FrF40 Sporck's Eleven and Chuck Hammond in ESG38 Choke Point. With these two probably finished by Sunday evening, along with the near to completion of J111 Prussia In Flames, I should get to 35 completed games for 2012 with a day to spare.

I've  just finished ESG38, and I liked it. Chuck handed me my head in this one, but i take some solace that he would roll 3s and 4s on low FP attacks, but I would compound the damage by rolling 9s, 10s and the useful 12s in response. Don't let my tale of woe or that it uses the same board configuration as FrF30 Biderman's Escape dissuade you from playing it. It is quite different in terms of approach routes and defensive setup.

On my playlist for ASLOK.