Advanced Squad Leader report: S20 Joseph 351

Michael and I started on the Starter Kit #3 scenarios today with Joseph 351, an action from 1944, which featured some poor Germans (played by me) surrounded by Americans, Free French and Russian POWs.

I had to set up first, and I placed my men around the hill in what cover they could find; a number of troops behind (to the left) to stop the Russians from creeping up on me, and a few troops ahead to interfere with Michael’s American and Free French advance. Michael’s initial placement was a little further back with his Russians than I would have done, especially as he had first move.

My stack in Z1 had two LMGs and a couple of 2nd line German squads – my hope was to make the advance as painful as possible. I have real trouble setting up defensive positions in general, and even more so in the countryside. Give me a nice city, and I’ve got a far better idea of how to handle it. This terrain? Hardly a clue. I just hoped that Michael was likewise in trouble.

Michael is less aggressive a player than I am, which occasionally betrays him into not leaving enough time to claim the objective. The primary objective here was the hill – if he could claim it before Turn 4, he’d win. Alternatively, he just needed to wipe out a lot of my troops. How many? 22 VPs worth. This scenario is variable: a die roll by Michael after I set up showed how many American and Free French troops would be entering the battlefield from the right. He rolled a 6, which – unusually for ASL where low rolls generally is better – meant he had a lot of troops entering the board. And, if he didn’t take the hill, he needed to wipe out almost all of my troops.

Joseph 351 (who actually has a leader counter) and the two Russian POW troops he was with fired at my 4-4-7 in the woods, and failed to break It; they then retreated back into the woods. His Americans and Free French entered, and Michael learnt exactly how much brush protects you from fire from a hill: not at all! He made a lot of use of cover, and at the end of his turn, had very few units with LOS to my units. Yes, he’s much less aggressive a player than I am!

Of course, the flip side to that is that I’m entirely too aggressive when I need to be playing defensively – or at least, more cautiously. I managed to break one of the Russian POW units, and moved troops onto the hillside overlooking the American advance. Not all that much else to do at this stage!

One of the most terrifying things about American troops is their Assault Fire capability. This allows them to fire with enhanced effectiveness just after moving. ASL has particular cut-off points for fire: FP 1, FP 2, FP 4, FP 6, FP 8, FP 12, FP 16, FP 20. Each of those bands brings you into more effective firing. A 6-6-7 that moves would normally have a FP of 3 after moving. The Americans? FP 4. Two of them forming a firegroup can fire at FP 8, and that’s the level at which you start doing real damage. It wasn’t much of a surprise that my LMG unit in the woods was broken by their fire, but to also have a squad broken with its 7-0 leader in the house in Z1? That was bad – and my defences were looking a lot more vulnerable.

His Russians were having real trouble getting past my squads there, with Joseph 351 moving to rally the broken units that were hiding in the woods – or at least he would have if he wasn’t pinned by my fire. You could tell the Russians really didn’t want to be here.

Losing a LMG to malfunction was just adding to my defensive problems. I was, however, delighted to see that Michael’s MMG was quite happy to malfunction as well. Hooray! I was also quite happy when he moved his 9-2 leader back to rally his units; the bonus he got to fire attacks with that leader was significant, especially given his already high firepower and my poor cover.

My units on the hills were doing better, breaking the odd American and Free French unit, occasionally at very long range. Michael thought moving some units around at range 8 would protect them. Often it would have, this time it didn’t!

The orchards were quite interesting, as they were blocking Line-of-Sight from below to the hillside; the actual fire-lanes at my disposal were quite limited. Luckily, this also applied to Michael firing back!

Michael poured on the attacks into the hut at Z1, and it had the desired effect: all my units there were slain and I was left with two LMGs to remind me of them. However, I’d got one squad in the woods beside that (Z0), ready to make Michael uncomfortable if he attempted to attain the hill!

I then made a terrible blunder – I pulled the squads holding back the Russians out of position. It was such a stupid move, I can’t believe I did it. Michael was then happily able to run across and reach the woods I was defending, and my defensive advantage was gone. Argh!

Added to that, Michael was rallying his Americans and moving up on my positions. It took a couple of turns, but his fire-power was such that the units on the hills were quite exposed, and soon were fleeing back to safety. He’d taken some damage moving forward, but nowhere near enough.

What could I do now? My options to manoeuvre were sharply limited. Michael hadn’t even reached the hill by turn 4, so now he just had to eliminate a lot of my units. My basic hope was to shoot the units as they climbed up the hill, especially as they’d have no cover from my fire. Unfortunately, I also had very limited firepower. I had three squads and one half-squad at my disposal: nowhere near enough!

Make that four squads and a half-squad: I was lucky enough to have one squad self-rally. Holding off the Russians and protecting myself from the Americans! I could do it for a few more turns, surely?

Once thing was certain: Michael’s passage up the hill wasn’t going to come easily!

The trouble was that there were far more of his units than there were of mine. Even if I was effective in breaking some – and I was – I couldn’t deal with all of them. His advancing fire worked a treat: breaking one of my units, causing the other to be pinned. And then there was the close combat with that pinned unit, which eliminated it. Things were now very bad for me.

However, there was still that basic problem: Michael had to nearly wipe me out to win. I had a total of 28 VPs of units at the beginning of the game. The units on the left – facing the Russians – were worth enough that even if the hill completely fell to Michael, he couldn’t win the game.

Unfortunately, it didn’t take him long to take the hill. One turn. Which left him one turn to come down the other side and deal with my remaining units.

Michael moved extremely aggressively now to attack my positions: he needed to. Surrounding my units, he was ready to go into Close Combat.

My unit in EE4 surrended meekly. The units in FF6? Not so easily. DD5 was safe. And Michael hadn’t quite been able to destroy a broken half-squad cowering behind a hill.

The maths was simple: If I lost even a half squad, Michael would win. If Michael couldn’t take me, I’d lose.

What I needed to do about it wasn’t so simple. Attack the melee with my units in DD5? It seemed too risky. I decided to move DD5 into the melee and hope for a miracle.

I didn’t get one. Michael rolled poorly… but just enough to kill a half-squad. (He rolled a 10!) The game was over, and Michael had won!

Down to the last roll – it doesn’t get much closer than that. I’d felt in control at the beginning, but slowly that had slipped away. Joseph 351 ended the game hiding in the forest; the game taken by the firepower of the American cardboard soldiers!

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