[ASLML] Chas' Excellent ASLOK Adventure, part II

[Chas Argent]

Monday, October 6:

Game 4: Point Of No Return (42) vs. Tom Jazbutis
	Jazz & I had pre-arranged to play this monster Desert scenario on
Monday morning about a month beforehand, so I had been looking forward to it
ever since. I took the New Zealanders and Jazz got the Nasties, complete
with Herr Rommel as a 10-3!
	The Kiwis have to set up in three different groups in fairly open
order, with all their vehicles in Motion. Meanwhile the Germans set up in
two different clumps, one of which boils out of the wadi on board 27 and the
other around the escarpment overlay. The Germans win by controlling the
hillock summit on the board 27 hillock as well as the three-hex cluster of
crags at 25 F4/F5/G5 at the end of any player turn. Both sides get
reinforcements during the game and because the Germans had a pretty good
record on ROAR we had agreed to give the New Zealander the balance, which
allows all of their reinforcements to come in one turn earlier. EC are Dry
with a mild breeze and Light Dust.
	The German opening volley didn't inflict much damage on my boys, so
they were able to deploy fairly cleanly around the hillock and the victory
crags. The third group out in the middle of nowhere, however, got pretty
much trounced whenever individual units tried to escape back to the hillock.
But a few of those squads went Fanatic around Turn 3 and did a fine job of
holding back Rommel's hordes. A Victoria Cross manuever by one of the
Valentines further delayed The Desert Fox around 27Z1 by forcing him into
CC, but he eventually prevailed and the tank died.
Meanwhile the remainder of my Valentines were having a field day against the
German armor; by the end of turn 3 every German tank was dead, and I had
overrun one of his two 50L guns. The other one stayed in action but was far
enough away from the main battle now that it wound up being fairly
ineffective due to the many hindrances at long range. The German 80mm OBA
harassed the units on the hillock but aside from evaporating a 2pdr Portee
it was largely ineffective. My OBA never did arrive. I got my big mortars
into action after much travail and one of them blasted the Germans in a
trench line around 26K6-K7.
	We finished four turns and at that point the Germans were looking
pretty ragged; their reinforcements were cleanly bottled up by my defense in
the 25I7-F7 area, all of Jazz' tanks were gone, and he still had a long way
to go facing a lot of resistance to even reach the hillock, so we called it
there. Jazz my man, any time...
This was a great deal of fun and a scenario that I'd always wanted to play.
ASLOK, as it turns out, is the perfect place to indulge yourself in such
scenarios. 3-1.


Game 5: Close Order Driel (CH26) vs. Bill Hayward
	After the monster-fest of Point Of No Return Bill Hayward & I
decided we both needed a small scenario before calling it a night, so we
plucked Close Order Driel from my play list. We rolled for sides; Bill got
the murdering SS and I took the Poles. This is played on rows A-Z of board
42. The Poles have to prevent the Germans from controlling more than 7
buildings between A & L at game end.
	My setup put the 9-2/MMG/338 & 648 into K5; all 3 factors of AT
mines went into N4, which seemed the obvious choke point. An 8-1/LMG/648
stack went into P8 to cover the road-to-the-path transition. I also put a
squad into R5, which in hindsight was a bit too forward. A PIAT/648 went to
L1 to cover the grain in case any of the HTs would try to unload passengers
by the hedge there. I put two HS and the 8-0 in M8, ready to Recombine &
reinforce as needed. The Lt Mtr and last HS went to M5 to try to interdict
the main road. 
Bill, as aggressive a player as I've seen (and this is the 2nd time I've
played him), came blowing down the X7 road, unloaded a squad and a HS right
in front of my 8-1/LMG/648 stack in P8 who felt compelled to respond. They
broke both SS units and held their ground. Meanwhile the rest of his
infantry unloaded around the T7 grain field and also around S4. His big 81mm
Mtr HT went to T3 and the Lynx (what a cool little tank!) hovered a bit,
waiting for an opening. I let my 648 in R5 get cut off, and he never
recovered from this, ultimately dying on Turn 3.
	The first few turns were pretty much about my units in the woods
falling back as slowly as was prudent and the German 81mm hammering my MMG
position in K5. For the Poles it was one of those games where you have this
awesome combo (like a 9-2/MMG) but they can't roll for crap on either MCs or
IFT. So the 9-2 rolled a ten TWICE on a NMC, and so on. Then the German 81mm
got a CH on the building, and a yahtzee was rolled for RS which broke the
338 and wounded the 9-2. This opened the main road for the German vehicles.
But I blew up the Lynx in N4 when it rolled into the AT Mine hex (I think
that's the 1st time I ever actually blew up something with an AT mine)
Thanks Bill! Quite frankly I think he just forgot that I had AT mines and
drove right into the obvious place for them.
	General Sosabowski (on a ladies bicycle) and the Daimler SC didn't
arrive until Turn 4; by that time my center was pretty much gone, though the
flanks were holding on under relentless pressure from Bill's SS troopers. I
had good success breaking his guys but they would rally immediately and be
back in the fight. One of my squads in the woods had generated a Hero so
things were reasonable over that way, but there were other broken Poles on
the right so Sosbowski headed that way while the Daimler tried to plug the
gap in the center. The single PIAT/648 on the left was doing a good job but
was in danger of being overwhelmed so he fell back to the H1 woods by Turn
5. The Daimler shocked a HT, then decided to kill it; but the crew, of
course, survived and went on to 'faust the Daimler the next turn. Damn I
hate it when I produce the creature that kills me.
	By turn 6 I was in a decent position, though Bill had captured 6
buildings. Unfortunately I made a terrible choice on the Turn 6 MPh; I ran
an 8-1/338/648 combo over to E7 to cover the D5 building, but instead of
advancing to E6 where I would be able to cover the road I moved to F6
instead and got my butt shot off. I was trying to do a little too much and
it cost me the game. Bill was able to take the 7th and 8th buildings on his
last MPh; I had a slim chance to get one back but it required moving point
blank in open ground and against the SS this failed, needless to say. So if
it was a loss at least it was a close game again.
	This was similar to the playing of Centauro On A Flank I'd had the
day before, in that every mistake I made was obvious about 3 seconds later.
There was really only one that mattered in this game though. This was great,
tight little scenario that I would highly recommend. Thanks to Bill for an
awesome game-one day I'll get you Wild Man! So after two days I was 3-2.

Next: Tuesday, October 7...