[ASLML] AARs: AP12 "Cream of the Crop" & T16 "Strayer's Strays" (long)

[George Bates]

Spilt a double-header with Chang Dong-Il two weeks ago Saturday.  Here's how
it all went down.

AP12 "Cream of the Crop"
This is perhaps the sloppiest game I have played since picking up ASL again
about four years ago.  Saying this does not take away from Dong-Il's strong
play.  He did everything the Russian needs to do to win.  Here's a summary
of lessons learned as the German.
VC are control of majority of building hexes (all wood, L0) in the board 46
town.  German has 3 choices of approach for attack; through a mix of
orchard, grain fields and scattered woods on the left, over fairly open
ground in the center, or up the woods road on board 42 to strike at the
right flank.  Dong-Il spread his forces pretty evenly and in depth across
the center, with an outpost contingent in the board 42 church on the right.
I think everybody in his setup was eligible for concealment at start.  The
KV was off alone on the left in a board 42 wheatfield.  I choose to send
most of my force up the center right, using the bits of grain and the StuGs
as cover to approach the board 46 outbuildings and the church and use them
as stepping stones into the village.  I positioned about 4 squads, an LMG
the 8-1 and an 8-0 adjacent to the board 42 woods road with the idea of
double-timing unhindered deep into the Russian left rear, there linking up
with units coming out of the churchyard and perhaps cutting some rout paths.
Probably this was not a bad idea, although Dong-Il later advocated leaving
at least a token force on the left to keep the Soviets nervous about me
rushing in and grabbing unattended locations on that flank.  The problem is,
I wasn't paying attention to the details and thinking about what I'd need to
do when I got where I was going.  Somehow, I managed to overlook the 50mm
MTR when pulling my OB.  This was badly needed FP, and with 3RoF, almost a
guaranteed CH at some time during the game.  I don't know how I did this,
MTRs are my favorite weapon.
On top of that, the ATR should have gone with the group up the woods road.
I thought it would be useful immobilizing the KV, but of course I hadn't
realized that this was impossible.  On the other hand, it could have
shredded T60s quite nicely, and since the team heading up the right flank
was going to reach position on Turn 3, it was stupid not to give them some
AT capability.  Adding a StuG to that group would have been smart, too.
The attack got off on the right foot as I pushed into the churchyard and
Dong-Il retreated from it.  I also got a foothold in the forward
outbuildings with the help of liberal smoke from the StuGs, but things went
very badly from there.  The KV chugged over from board 43 to confront the
StuGs, and as I've already noted we missed the fact that the German is not
eligible for HEAT until almost a year later.  This led to an attempt to
engage the Russian beast.  The AGs danced around the KV, bopping in for BFF
shots  and trying for deliberate immobilization, then using motion attempts
and sDs to try and stay out of his sights.  By midgame, all I had to show
for this was one burning wreck and another StuG out of AP.  People, do not
let yourselves be misled by the scenario prelude and aftermath!!!  The
proper approach to ridding yourself of the heavy Ivan is to have a StuG
smoke his hex (either PFPh or a sD7 drive-thru) and rush him with a couple
squads (use 468s to better pass the PAATC; maybe add a leader to make it a
surer kill).
By T4 I was definitely losing momentum.  The StuGs split up to hunt more
lightly armored targets and the one the KV followed eventually managed an
immobilization shot, but could not escape the 76mm AP shells as it attempted
a smoky getaway and gave up the ghost.  My troops had linked up on the right
but were largely pinned down now that the T60s had arrived.  Worse,
casualties were increasing far too quickly, especially in the center.
Dong-Il was playing a smart game of skulk and defensive fire, doing a good
job of rotating unconcealed units out and newly concealed units in.  His DFF
shots were picking up K/# results with nagging frequency.  At first I my
attacks were also yielding casualties, but when I advanced into CC with a
pinned squad, didn't get ambush and then got wiped out (aaaaarrrrggghh!), I
fell way behind him with 3.5 squads out of the game and no flanking position
to show for it.  My remaining StuG used ESB to get behind his T60 platoon
and take out two of the little pests, but because it was immobilized it too
was lost in CC.  With losses too high to accomplish the mission, I conceded
at the end of T6(G).
This is a great early war combined arms simulation.  I want another shot at
it as the Germans just to get all these things right, but it is clearly an
equal challenge for both sides and I'd be happy in the Soviet seat, too.

T16 "Strayer's Strays"
Dong-Il and I had another 3 hours free, so I evened my record against him
with this quickie.  This is an old General SL scenario converted to ASL in
the tournament series that includes "Gavin Take" and numerous other light
classics.  It also would make a great ASL SK scenario except for the dmMMG,
German OB "?" and lack of L1 and L2 buildings.  To allow Grasshopper to join
in the fun using the rules he knows, give the US an assembled MMG, but
forbid them to double-time on T1, and give the squareheads an 8-1 & LMG.
Restricting the area in play to the A - Z hexrows might also be in order.
This is the swiftly-wielded, elite American paratrooper hot knife against
soft, low-grade German butter.  However, the US gets just 4 turns to get at
least 12VP across the 10 hexes of the board 6 manor house grounds.  That's 6
of his 8 squads, with 3 more VP worth of leaders.  Since the US will be able
to concentrate his firepower at a single entry point to force his way
through, as the German I understood that I could guarantee myself a loss
with a bad setup.  Most of this AAR will focus on that problem.
A couple of obvious things first.  A 467 each in N5L2 & M6L2 can cover
nearly the entire board and deny a lot of open ground.  The next to
worthless conscripts are more useful in their role of speedbumps in when in
HS form.  Better to be fanned-out if you only have 3MF, so the pre-game
German deployments created four 236 blockers to cover more ground and
hopefully delay US units until the spread-out defense can collapse on the
paras' point of attack.  Although the German doesn't have too much ground to
give, it doesn't pay to set up any nearer than hexes numbered 7, or the
wicked US player will simply run around you, fill you full of nassssty
assault fire and capture you when you rout, thus neatly solving his exit VP
problem.  The only exception might be K8 at the back of the 3-hex building
to keep the paras honest.
One other little German advantage that I pretty much spaced was their
inherent SW.  Not a single LMG to be found in this bunch of re-treads, but
get a dr of 1 or 2 and you can put a rocket through the window of any
building the Amis want to hide in or make them feel less safe behind a wall.
Even the foreign "Freiwilliger" and old men & boys of the Volksies can use
these babies w/o penalty.  Just be sure you fire your IFP first, because a
PF check dr of 6 will pin you.  Always nice to have options.
With these things in mind I dropped a 447 in the woods line in front of the
grain on the far left, and a 467 at the head of the rear string of woods on
the left side of the road to cover what N5L2 couldn't reach.  Another 447
went behind the wall at the end of the orchard to supplement coverage on the
far right.  I scattered the remaining units to cover lines of approach
between, trying to create some depth and interlocking fields of fire.
Probably the one thing I could have done better was to create a "mobile
reserve" that would be located in the center rear and rushed to the point of
attacked.  Dong-Il's post-game recommendation was a 467 & leader around T3
and a 447 & leader near N3.  I think he's right.  As it was, with a bit of
luck my positioning was good enough to delay the paras and pull out a
victory.
Dong-Il picked the enclosed orchard which dominates the German right as his
crossing point, which is where I would have gone, too, since it cuts FFMO
and provides hindrances against FFNAM at the cost of only 1 MF per hex.  In
retrospect, I was actually a little light on my right side because of the
two 467s I had invested in the manor house.  Fortunately, there were no big
holes torn in my line in T1(A), and I kept concealment except for one brokie
who routed to the K4 outbuilding near a leader I hoped could get him up in
time for the next US rush.  My half of the first turn had everything in the
orchard slowly dropping back to the rear wall to organize a defense line.
Probably most of the units on the far left would not make it into play, but
nevertheless I rushed them all pell-mell toward the back side of the manor
house.  A few units center forward slowly advanced to good DFF positions on
the US right flank.
The game was decided in T2(A).  First, Dong-Il pushed his HSs into me to
strip concealment from my 447, dummy stack and 236 in the orchard and along
the wall .  I held fire to see where the squads were going, but my first
shots failed to yield results.  Then Dong-Il got greedy.  He walked two 747s
and an 8-1 out of the J8 building into the LoS of a concealed 447 on the
hedge in front of the manor house.  These Volksgrenadiers dropped their camo
and put down a wicked 4FP+0 shot that mortally wounded the 8-1 when Dong-Il
boxed the MC.  4 DRs later and the two squads were back in J8, upside down
and squealing under a blue and white counter.  6VP stopped in their tracks,
2 permanently.  I felt better after having suffered through an uncanny
number of twos, threes and fours on DFF shots in the previous game.
Dong-Il's luck did not get better in CC.  He hopped a number of HSs into
both the 447 and 236 hexes but failed to get kills.  When we got around to
the T2(G) rally phase and his 8-0 failed to raise either pile of quivering
paratrooper jelly, Dong-Il looked at the number of VP he had tied-up, then
counted the hexes to where my cavalry would be (not just toward the exits,
but also those who could advance in to the J8 building) at the end of the
turn, decided his chances had slipped away and threw in the towel.
I imagine that a lot of playings of this scenario never make it to the final
turn (there are only four) because one side or  the other makes a mistake
from which it is impossible to recover.  Some might say there's too much
riding on a single roll of the dice, but my feeling is that in a game like
this you want to minimize the number of times you have to leave things to
chance, and when you do venture to risk something make sure the odds are
heavily in your favor.  Like golf or tennis, if you want to drink for free
afterward, make fewer errors than your opponent does.

Well, I hope this generates some list activity.  Been far too little traffic
the past several days and some of that was less than grown-up.  Look forward
to seeing what happens after you guys in later time zones get done with
coffee and the funny papers.  Good night!

George Bates
Yokohama, Japan

Now in progress:
J53 "Setting The Stage", German vs. David Olie
SASL M13 "Recon", Free French vs. German ENEMY