After a couple of weeks where our schedules hadn't allowed us our regular wargaming sessions, Randy and I finally managed to get together for a few 2-player games. When I say "a few", you might imagine we played more than one. However, the length of this ASL SK scenario meant that it was in fact the only game we played last night. This didn't matter, though, as this was an intensely entertaining - and close - game.
Game set-up
We chose sides randomly; I played the Germans and Randy played the Americans. The scenario was set in Aachen in December 1944, with the Americans advancing on a handful of German conscripts and second-line squads. The initial advance for the Americans is quite difficult, as there's a lot of open terrain to cover, especially in the north. My problem as the Germans was that I needed to defend all of the front in the initial set-up, while Randy could concentrate his forces for his attack.
In retrospect, I placed too few of my forces down south, but Randy's initial attack tested me at all points along the line. His superb firepower and ability to fire effectively while assaulting was a big problem, and it wasn't long before my Germans were in trouble in the south.
The initial push
The most dangerous piece Randy possessed was an elite half-squad wielding a Flamethrower. It roasted one of my forward conscript squads, but then Randy faced the problem of bringing it forward to attack my remaining troops. As I had quite a few squads in that area, he proved very reluctant to bring it into harm's way, and it spent much of the game hanging back, just out of range.
Meanwhile, I beat back his attack in the north and began sending squads south to reinforce my position there. Unfortunately, Randy managed to penetrate the southmost buildings, and from there began making his way along to the southeast of the town.
The south collapses
The orchards were really preventing much effective fire between us in the south; once you have a +5 to fire, you need a really good firegroup and leader. Randy's MMG had broken, which was somewhat preventing this. (I'd also wounded both of his inferior leaders, which was interfering with his troop movements). He tried using a captured LMG, but rolled a 12 on the first attempt to fire it; it broke and was eliminated from the game. So, that didn't work so well. I was hoping his MMG would suffer the same fate, but he managed to repair it. That was not good...
Meanwhile, in the north, Randy managed a couple of excellent shots (followed by a 12 on my Morale Check) to do horrible things to my remaining defenders. At this point I could feel defeat tapping me on my shoulder: I had to move defenders back to the north, whilst still countering Randy's push in the south. This was going to be tough!
Moving around
Randy made the first of several pushes to take out my fortified building and the squads that surrounded it, and discovered that he wasn't able to quite roll well enough to avoid being pinned or broken by the defensive fire. Or to break all of the defending units. He was picking up control of a number of building hexes with the southeastern squad, though, using Double Time when he could to pick up even more.
On the north side, Randy rushed his remaining squad over to capture the buildings there which he'd forced my squads out of. I was just able to bring my units up in time, and broke his unit before it could advance further and recaptured the building. The north was safe, but the south was getting shakier and shakier.
Pinned in the final push
When the final turn arrived, Randy's dice luck completely deserted him, as he made ineffectual attack after ineffectual attack. His Flamethrower unit was eliminated through Fate, and though he was finally able to break the remaining units in the south cluster, the number of units he needed to Prep Fire to do so meant that he had very few forces able to take the building hexes he needed to win.
His wounded leader picked up the Flamethrower, and limped a bit closer, but could only move a single hex (and then became CX when entering a building)... no effect in the game except for amusement value.
End-game
Counting up the building hexes Randy controlled, the total came to 24, one short of the number he needed! Up north I was still doing okay, but the southern units were now almost completely eliminated. This had been a very close and extremely entertaining game.
One of the reasons I've been enjoying ASL so much is that there are constantly reasons for both sides to manuever. You're always making decisions. Reacting to Randy's moves as the Americans (and my own bad set-up as the Germans) made this a very tense game. When I saw Randy's squad running around south, I was terribly afraid that he'd send another squad that way to help them claim more buildings. Thankfully, that didn't happen, as my "fortress" was consuming too many of his resources.
We both had great dice rolls, and terrible dice rolls. Randy had some exceptionally bad ones in the last turn, making three attacks that did nothing at all (including a FP 30 attack with a +2 modifier!) You can't bet on that; but still, there were a few of my units that had died earlier to good rolls on his part. I feel it evened out.
Next week, it's Randy's choice of games, which will probably involve Conflict of Heroes as well as some games from his own extensive collection. We'll have to wait and see what he chooses. The week after, it'll be on to S4 in ASL SK #1.
Within this game, these were 2nd line squads and Conscripts in Aachen.
Linear Mode
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