Monthly Archives: August 2024

ASLSK – Rules Maintenance

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

Set up another scenario.  Need to keep hammering the rules into my brain.

This one is S16, Legio Nostra Patria.  It’s a one-mapper, with Free French Legionnaires assaulting a German held town.

Here’s my initial set-up.  Top of the photo is East.

And here’s my plan.

The French need to occupy three of the multi- hex building highlighted in yellow.  They already occupy the building at bottom center  of the photo.

The red-circled German units will be suppressed, and with that accomplished, the squads will move towards the occupied multi-hex building and, from there move Northeast.

As I worked with my cheap photo markup app, I realized this is not a good initial deployment or  plan.  However, I’ll give it a try.  My own little “Defense of Duffer’s Drift”.

This Should Be Fun

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

Finally developing momentum getting Operation Groza, a Europa variant published way-too-long-ago in The Europa Magazine 23, to the virtual table.

Tim’s doing the heavy lifting, providing the JET module, Scorched Earth rules, and scans of the appropriate magazine pages with orders of battles, deployments, and special rules.

JET was/is an interesting creature.  Developed by Europa enthusiasts in Finland, it has fallen by the wayside (as has Europa) over the past couple of decades (gulp!  that long!).  Graphics are very crude by Vassal standards, but it is a good, intuitive, platform.  Tim and I used it in our Fall Of France game.

I’m heading out to The Sunfish Capital Of The World next week, so this will be an excellent off-site wargaming endeavor.

No Nuance

Boardgames, Sessions, World War I

Grinding away at Galacia: The Forgotten Cauldron.

Taking a “historical” approach, with both sides aggressively attacking, with little finesse.  At this point, the Russians are the most successful aggressors.  Their successes were helped by the requirement that Austro-Hungarian units must attack early in the game.  These attacks had limited success, but with heavy loss.

One tactic has emerged in this session.  The Der Weltkrieg rule set calls for mandatory retreats if losses represent one-half of a combat force.  In this particular scenario, the threshold is reduced to one-third.

The operational area has a wide frontage, so most stacks are in the 12-16 (3-4 divisions) factor range, with 8 factor stacks often used to plug gaps.  A two hex attack can typically generate a 3-4 factor loss, which not only attrits the defenders, but also forces a retreat.  The Russians have been very successful at this, albeit aided by some favorable d6 rolls.

In attempt to avoid the odd angle/glare influenced photo in my recent game report, I tried shooting these in half-light.  Further explanation is senseless.

This is the  Austro-Hungarian (white counters, with some Germans in gray) left flank.  Russian progress is limited.

Not so on the center/ right flank, where the A-H right  (bottom right of photo) is under some real pressure.

Interesting game, and I’m now fairly fluent with the rules.

ASLSK Fun

Boardgames, Sessions, World War II

Really enjoying my latest dive into ASLSK.

Set up another scenario and had quite the time.

“Over Open Sights” (S12) uses the same board and orientation as my previous game, but what a difference!

German avenues of approach have more cover and concealment, and the US has fewer units to cover these approaches.  However, the US artillery is lethal in a direct fire mode….if the gun can score a hit.

I’m loathe to put together detailed session reports as they will pale in comparison to others out there.  Grumble Jones is my favorite.  But, this game was so exciting I had to take a few photos.

This first one involves my initial attempt to use a cheap graphics app along with a cheap iPad pencil to mark up a photo.  It attempts to convey the initial positions of the Germans and their assaults, since I was already well into the game.  The initial US positions can be inferred by the MG counter on the right (east) , and routed unit on the left (left).

The German advance from the southeast stalled due to effective artillery fire, but the advance from the east ( really a sprint across the open ground – the scenario takes place in December so the fields are barren) was made possible by some remarkable shooting from the 50mm mortar.  Usually derided, this light mortar eliminated the machine gun crew as well as routed one artillery crew, thanks to low rolls which maintained its rate of fire, as well as abysmal morale check rolls for the US.

It was all but over by Turn 3…..or was it Turn 4?  I  started to pick the game up but then  remembered the US received reinforcements in Turn 4.  Unfortunately, I had grabbed the turn marker and couldn’t recall the turn.  So, I brought in the reinforcements anyway.  Things got interesting quick, because this plucky band checked the German advance.  This  change in fortunes was short-lived because, once again, good German shooting routed the newcomers.  The following shot shows the climatic assault on the artillery (used Melee marker to emphasize).

When the smoke had cleared, the Germans had attained their objective of capturing all three artillery positions.

Fun game.  Still struggling with some rules.  Need to remember ELRs and that casualty reduction is to half-squads, not reduced strength squads.