In addition to a figure game, I got in a board game last weekend - Scenario 3 from Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit #1 (ASLSK). "Simple Equation" is set in October, 1944, with the US assault on Aachen.
Please allow my usual disclaimer that I know most people who read this blog probably aren't a fan of this game system. Certainly as eye candy goes, there's not a figure 54mm or otherwise, in sight. On the other hand, I do like to document the games I've played as much as possible. I digress.
Because the Germans only have to hold off the Americans, it makes another good solitaire scenario - in my game, the Germans shifted here and there, but by and large, they held their positions. Game play bore out the wisdom of my decisions for the Germans.
Then again, quite possibly, my poor dice rolling for the Americans was in part responsible.
There is a lot of open ground to cross on the flanks to reach the buildings, as the pictures show (and this analysis of a play through calls that area a "killing zone").
The wiser choice would have been to go up the middle, moving building to building as much as possible (especially given that the US can use smoke grenades with near certainty in this scenario - a 5 or less on a d6). Instead, my force (a company + ) tried desperately and in vain, to suppress, pin, break, or otherwise make it possible to advance, until turn 3 or 4 when I finally got the message and started concentrating in the middle.
About the dice rolling: German LMGs and HMG were effective at slowing any semblance of advance. Somehow even their LMGs maintained their Rate Of Fire for multiple attacks. Meanwhile, the US MMG was lucky to avoid breaking down.
In the end, I think the biggest flaw in my plan was being too cautious.
Just as in War of the Rats, I waited too long for the ideal conditions. With 7 turns (for the Americans), I had to move even if it meant leaving some forces behind in a broken state. As you can see below,I sacrificed some units in order to capture buildings, but by then it was far too late.
The Germans won this one, which looked like a "gimme" on paper for the Americans. The US just barely managed to make a dent in the German defenses.
ASLSK scenarios most definitely reward repeat play and I may put this scenario on the table again this month. Unlike War of the Rats, and Retaking Vierville, this was the first time I had tried this one.
Lessons learned = a victory in its own way.
ReplyDeleteVery true. I am increasingly inclined to try this scenario again to apply those lessons.
DeleteNice report John, I do like the look of ASL but I think the rules would be too hard for me.
ReplyDeleteRegards,
Paul.
Thank you, Paul!
DeleteI can't speak towards the full ASL rules (that's more of a commitment than I care to make) but the starter kit rulebooks appear to have been written as a meandering stream of consciousness not intended for use during a game (an index would have been nice). I find them conversational yet obtuse at the same time. Fortunately, others have done the work of sorting things out for the rest of us (I follow the tutorials on Boardgame Geek for one).
Cheers!