The latest PowerPoint AAR is up, available here.

After I recorded it, I noticed some problems with static.  I apologize in advance for that, and I hope it is still worth listening to.  Cutting another narration track isn’t something I have time to do right now, so this is better than nothing.

Thanks for listening.

Go check out No Quarter, an ASL themed blog.

Chris Garrett and I finished the Edson’s Ridge campaign game (Operation: Watchtower) with the Japanese forces scoring a fairly strong victory. I’m comfortable in saying the victory was NOT the result of the Japanese player’s ability. The campaign seems a bit unbalanced, and this was borne out by the relentless pounding the American forces received throughout the game. We called it off on the third CG date with two more to go. By then, the Japanese had secured the necessary victory points, and only had to retain control of a handful of ridge hexes. An American come-back didn’t seem likely, so we moved on to other things.

Overall, I would still rate Watchtower highly. The map was a lot of fun, the counter density was just about right, and the extensive night fighting provided a whole different perspective on the Japanese. Despite the balance issues, I’d recommend it to others.

As for the PowerPoint AAR, I’m not going to bother with it. Campaign games, by nature, are fairly complex and I don’t think I can really put together a useful report two months removed from some of the playing.

Chris and I are moving on to a play test for an upcoming Journal product, which also contains a PTO campaign game. I’m not sure what I’m permitted to say, so I’ll just stop there. This means you want be seeing many AARs from here for the next month or so.

ASLOK is rapidly approaching this weekend, and sadly for me, I won’t be there. It is literally making me squirm, knowing I’m going to miss it for the second straight year. Unfortunately, the people who pay for my house, car, food, family etc. are expecting certain activities in the next few weeks that will require my full, undiluted attention. Again, specifics are better left unmentioned. Suffice it to say I won’t be getting much free time for the next month or so.

Such is life.

Technorati Tags: aslok, mmp, guadalcanal

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Update – Yeah, I just noticed that I have the wrong date on this. It should be September 12 Night, not the 13th. I don’t think I can easily change it in the Powerpoint file without ruining the audio, so I think I’m stuck with it. Sorry.

Saturday Jeff DeYoung and I played Parry and Riposte from a Kinetic Energy pack. I’ve wanted to play a few desert scenarios, since I’m deficient in desert combat. This scenario represents a typical engangement between Rommel’s Korps and the British (Indians in this case). The Germans sweep in with a number of assault guns, anti-tank rifles (towed) and artillery pieces (the 76LL Russian gun, also towed). The German player also gets three of a rare German vehicle (the theme of the Kinetic Energy pack that produced this scenario) – the 7.62 cm FK(r) auf gp. Selbstfahrlafette (Sd Kfz 6/3) “Diana”, pictured here. In ASL terms, it is a really strange vehicle. The rules consider it unarmored around the hull, but a turret hit yielded an AF of 1, but only against certain types of direct fire. Once during the scenario, Jeff managed to put a 37 mm shell into the hull with no effect.

The British player defends the victory area (a hillock) with a small collection of infantry dug in with foxholes and sangars, while two 40 mm AT guns threaten my vehicles. Starting on turn 5, he gets a random roll to determine the entry of three Grants and two Stuarts for support.

The desert is strange. Line of sight is practically unlimited, cover is non-existent, and 30+ hex shots are common. I learned a lot about using dust trails to obscure the bulk of my forces, running tanks and halftracks around to lay down some cover, while trying to keep the unarmored trucks out of effective range of the enemy. Overall, the scenario progressed well for me. The 76 mm artillery managed to bath one of his anti-tank guns in smoke, reducing its ability to hit me, while my own tanks made short work of his armored car screen. I was generally happy until about turn four.

By then, I was getting in that danger zone where halftracks could be destroyed by machine gun fire, and the unarmored trucks were growing more vulnerable. I started to unload my troops and work on a dispersed infantry advance on foot preceded by my two assault guns and the halftracks kicking up more dust cover. Jeff immediately went on a rate of fire tear with a 9-1 directed heavy machine gun. I think he fired around eight shots, and never seemed to roll lower than 5. When it was over, I had broken and dead Germans all over the place, with more than a couple of smoking halftracks. If that wasn’t enough, he revealed the other 40 mm AT gun in an isolated flanking position (a position I had discounted as too risky for him) and took out an assault gun with a flank shot, and then followed it up by blowing another halftrack that had not yet unloaded.

Piling on, Jeff rolled the improbable on turn 5 (less than 2) to get his armor support a turn sooner than I had expected. I was in the process of maneuvering my Dianas and AT guns to cover the approach path, but he got the tanks sooner than expected. He used this surprise to swarm my armor position and a furious gun battle ensued. When the smoke cleared, four of his five tanks were dead, but all three Dianas were destroyed and one artillery crew had broke and ran, leaving me with one functioning artillery piece left.

Victory was still theoretically possible after that. I caught the 40 mm AT gun in a ‘no fire’ situation (after he exhausted his intensive fire opportunity) and ran a halftrack with a crew and a demolition charge right up on top of him. I didn’t have the movement points to stop and unload properly, so I threw the charge from the moving halftrack (a first for me). The charge blew, breaking his crew, but destroying the halftrack in the backblast, killing all on board. At least the gun fell silent.

In the end, we ran out of time to finish the scenario. In theory, I could have still one the game, but I don’t think it would have happened. I had enough to sweep the British off of the hill, but I’d have to do it with next to zero new casualties. Once again, I came up short in a scenario.

At least Jeff sweated this one out. He told me he thought he would lose until he went on that insane rate of fire tear with the heavy machine gun. That’s the way things go for me though…

I can see the appeal of the desert. I would certainly like to do some more.

Prior to that, I played The Green House with Chris Garrett. This is a really interesting scenario from Schwerpunkt. Both the Japanese and American players have troops entering from all over the board, creating multiple engagements on the battlefield. The ultimate goal is for the Americans to maintain control over the company HQ (The Green House) isolated from the bulk of the American troops by a clearing. The Japanese player had a number of machine guns, mortars and a pillbox in position to command the clearing and prevent effective American reinforcement of the soon-to-be-overran HQ. To compensate, the Americans get some armor support later with canister (think of a main gun being used as a shotgun…oh yeah).

A lot happened in this scenario, but as the American player, it once again came down to me under-estimating the raw firepower the Japanese army can absorb and still fight. I had a nice firebase inflicting huge shots on the Japanese player in a bid to drive them back before I moved in to occupy his ground and work on the pillbox, but the huge shots weren’t working quickly enough on the Japanese. They don’t respond like European troops, and that cost me. By not being insanely aggressive and pushing hard, I ran out of time and the game was lost.

This is turning into a theme for me. When I started with ASL, I was far too aggressive. Now I seem to be too cautious. The key to victory is finding that middle ground.

Chris and I are started the Guadalcanal campaign from Operation: Watchtower next week. I’m taking the Japanese side, and I intend on filing more comprehensive reports of this action as it is likely to cover several months of playing. Night fighting in the jungle: should be a great time.

That is, unless you are actually IN the jungle fighting at night. Then I imagine it isn’t all that enjoyable.

Tough scenario all around.  Chris made the comment that this is the sort of attack that gets the officer fragged as he’s explaining what the soldiers are supposed to do.

Thanks for all of the interest.

Update – Forgot the link for the Office Beta.  You can find it here.

I finally got fed up enough to fix it.  Feel free to download and use if you share this frustration.

The file has not been extensively proofed, so please report errors if you find them.  Also, it does not yet include PTO or DTO, but I plan on adding that sometime.

And I’ll entertain suggestions to improve.