Kalum wandered by on Friday afternoon and we had a second game of ASL Starter Kit 1. Kalum is quite young, and doesn’t pick up rules as quickly as I do, but his unconventional tactics actually posed a problem for me in this game. I’m also growing old and forgetful, which didn’t help.
This scenario sees a lot of badly-trained Russian defenders trying to stop the Germans from taking three buildings. Half of the Russian force are conscripts – 4 firepower, 2 range and 6 morale, truly terrible stats in ASL. The Germans had a lot of support weaponry – machine guns, demolition charges and a flamethrower – but it would be getting those into place that might be challenging. I had to set up my forces first, and I did so with my better forces towards the top-right of the map, with my conscripts defending an area that was harder to get to. Kalum had a very unusual set-up. (His Flamethrower actually began out-of-range!) There was a concentration of men that allowed some 20 FP firegroups to be created, however, and that would work well in the ensuing firefight.
Kalum took the first turn, with his units firing on my conscripts, and the flame-thrower unit standing back, out of the way. The fire was completely ineffective, and, upon my advice, he advanced his units to bring the FT into range and make his units a little less susceptible to a good roll on my part. My own fire was ineffective, but his flame-thrower was able to break the squad manning my medium machine-gun, which routed back to the leader in P6. Kalum’s other attack roll was horrible – a double-six, which broke his two machine-guns on his left-most troops. I advanced my 1st-line squad in to take the MMG, and the first turn ended.
Kalum then proceeded to demonstrate the benefits of superior German engineering (and good rolling) by making the repair rolls for both his broken machine-guns! I was sad. The flame-thrower took out the replacement squad for the MMG, and one of his fire-groups broke another of my defenders. I retreated them back to their leaders, whilst cursing my ineffective attacks. However, my leaders were being able to rally my units, and so I sent them back into the front lines. I also began to manoeuvre my good LMG squad protecting the F8 building around to cover an approach from the right, as it seemed that I’d likely be attacked from that direction.
This is also the point my forgetfulness came into play: I should have brought in some elite reinforcements now, but I’d placed the scenario card in an awkward position and so didn’t see the reminder for my troops – or the troops themselves, carefully set-out next to the scenario card. And so I continued to defend my position using only the available troops. It should be said: I liked my chances. I hadn’t lost anyone permanently, and Kalum hadn’t moved after two turns!
Unfortunately, I had abandoned the buildings at J5 and K5 and Kalum now began to move his troops across the street, as my only units with a good line-of-fire were out-of-range conscripts! The only good news was that Kalum’s flame-thrower finally ran out of fuel, as some very effective shots broke my line of defense, and my units began to retreat as fast as they could. Suddenly, buildings L6 and O7 were looking very exposed! One of Kalum’s units broke as it got too close to my squads, and he retreated it back to the comforting effectiveness of a 8-1 leader.
This was by no means good; I pushed back as much as I could, and hoped to make some rally rolls. They weren’t happening, and one of my squads found itself unable to retreat and was eliminated as a result. The orchards were proving a big barrier to my fire, and I became quite worried about the morale of my conscripts. My defensive fire proved ineffective as Kalum pushed forward again, and he was able to destroy in an ambush my newly rallied troops in L6. He was taking hits doing it, but not enough of them. At least his MMG had broken down again!
I lost my hold on building L6, the remnants of my shattered troops retreating to what shelter they could find, hoping to rally. Kalum double-timed his troops down towards the final building. I finally had some effective conscript shots, and half of that force retreated back, but he still had a lot of troops remaining. A pinned result stopped one of my leaders retreating with his troop, and my chances of rallying enough troops to defend dropped further. At least I’d sent some conscripts back into the defensive lines.
In his final turn, it still looked like I would be able to hold onto the final building, but Kalum was able to double-time his troops from the second objective building around to the bottom of the final objective, avoiding my fire on the way. I realised in horror that I only had a leader and a broken squad in position – the squad routed, and the leader killed in the ensuing close-combat. Somehow, Kalum had taken the third building, avoiding my fire as he did so – not surprising in retrospect, as the conscripts were dreadfully out of position.
I had one chance to take back the building in melee, but my Prep fire was ineffective, and a PIN result in Kalum’s Defensive Fire phase meant I couldn’t even initiate the melee! From a position that I thought looked quite unassailable, I’d quickly fallen to defeat.
There’s no doubt that I’d handicapped myself severely by forgetting to bring on the reinforcements, but I really was amazed at how quickly the game had swung in the German’s favour. It had been a tight and tense contest, which is what you want to see in ASL, and another example of how the game can give surprising results – and how I am still a beginner when it comes to proper defensive tactics!