I am far from the world’s best player of Advanced Squad Leader. My record with Michael is about 50-50, with a slight advantage on Michael’s side, I believe. Although I am quick to pick up and remember rules, little points such as “don’t attack the Machine-Gun nest from the open street” occasionally elude me.

In this scenario, the fourth of the Starter Kit #3 scenarios, Michael chose to play the British. My job as the German player was to get a decent amount of troops – including two or three tanks – from one side of the board to the other. All I really needed to do was avoid the British. How hard could it be? Well, pretty hard. Michael set up his forces first, then – during the first Rally Phase of the game – I began to bring my forces onto the board.

Yes, those are my troops on the left-hand side of the board and, yes, Michael has fully set up. The trick here is that Michael sets up all of his forces using HIP – Hidden Initial Placement – and so I have no idea whatsoever where they might be. He has them written down on a pad to the side. HIP is something of a pain to track, as you’ve always got to remember where your forces are. They are placed on the board if they move, shoot, break or if I move into their hex, but otherwise they happily sit hidden. It can occasionally be quite tricky remembering exactly which hexes you have your forces in, so it works best if only a few units use HIP.

I have a basic strategy to deal with HIP: use expendable units to flush them out. In truth, I didn’t have very many expendable units this game, but the second-line squads I had and the half-squad were the next best thing. (In full ASL, I’d deploy the second-line troops to have more half-squads available).

So, I happily moved my lesser troops down the road in full sight of Michael’s troops. I was hoping he’d shoot at them, thus breaking his cover. He obliged me in this. Some of my units actually made it quite far before being stopped by defensive fire. I was far more cautious with the first line squads and their leaders, and the tanks took up good positions in the street to take out his infantry. The lack of Motion counters is not a mistake – I wanted my tanks to be able to shoot accurately.

I thus waited until the Advancing Fire Phase to fire my tanks’ guns at the defending British forces. The fire was completely inaccurate and I don’t believe it was even possible to get a hit under those circumstances, although possibly a double-one might succeed. What it did do is allow me to place Target Acquisition counters, the better for defensive firing in the next turn. Michael’s counterattack from his Anti-Tank Gun was not successful.

I advanced the exhausted half-squad into I5, a little surprised to not encounter any units there. My other broken advance units retreated back to their leaders, and my other squads advanced forward. At this point, I was able to create a Fire Group or two, and my tanks were in position. It was now time to make it a very bad day for the British.

Unfortunately, there was a basic problem with my position: I’d stopped a tank in full view of a British Gun.

Yes, it’s the big obvious things I miss as an ASL player. Little things, like remembering how CX, Final Protective Fire and Ambush work? No problem. Big things, like basic defensive tactics? Those I have trouble with!

At least Michael’s shot wasn’t an actual kill. Instead, it was a glancing blow, but one that left the tank unable to move. “How long is it immobilised for?” asked Michael, who probably hasn’t read the AFV rules. “For the rest of the game,” I replied, downcast. “Cool!”

I did, at least, have the dubious joy of breaking the stupid crew manning that AT gun in return fire from my broken-down tank. Michael also tried moving some of his troops out of hiding to better hinder my advance, but as they moved into a building in view of my other two tanks, it wasn’t a great result for the British. However, I was now down one tank. Obviously, I’d need better play as we continued this scenario. Only three-and-a-half turns left!

Although British 4-5-8s don’t look that impressive singly, they did have one notable aspect: they wouldn’t cower. As a result, Michael was easily able to keep my broken squads under Desperation Morale and thus greatly reduce my chances of rallying them.

Michael unveiled an unfortunate surprise as I began to move my tanks in the next round – his second Anti-Tank gun, which had been happily hiding in I5. He also rolled really well and destroyed my Sturmgeschütz III tank as it rolled into the intersection.

Suddenly, my men had a new target to worry about.

My remaining tank rolled around to the 6-Pounder’s rear and got ready to destroy it. Meanwhile, I moved my squads into the street, out of line of sight of the gun, running them to cover and…

Then Michael revealed a unit in the building behind me, and used it to destroy one of my squads as it was standing in the street and send the rest scurrying back home. The sneaky weasel had let my other squad just walk by in the first turn, waiting for his chance to surprise me. It worked wonderfully well – I was very surprised!

I was even more surprised when another building proved to have a British squad in it, thus stopping my troops from reaching a point where they could keep an eye on the first 6-Pounder. All of a sudden my advance was in disarray. At least Michael would have to eliminate one of his units for failure to rout… but even that proved an illusory hope, as he proceeded to skirt around the side keeping exactly two hexes away from my broken units and found cover in L8.

I was able to move my half squad through the buildings to engage his second AT crew in melee. Let’s see how they like that!

Michael began to move his troops from the top of the map down towards my surviving troops. At least I was beginning to get on top in the bottom part of the board – my immobilised tank was able to break his elite squad in K2, and I won the melee in K4, thus giving me a good position from which to escape along the road I2-C5.

Michael also mistook my broken unit in L5 – which had a light machine gun on it – for a fully functioning unit, which made his approach a little more circumspect than necessary.

Things were looking up. My primary goal at this point was to stop Michael’s British from getting any closer to my men, so I sent the survivors of the melee in K4 to stop them. I also moved my tank around to attack them from behind. My LMG squad also ran across the street to flush Michael’s unit out of J1, and I was gratified to see them beginning to rout away into more positions of less impact.

However, I was then dealt a sharp check as Michael’s squads in K7 made a really effective attack against my defenders in K5; I’d sent men there to help stop the advance… they’d just become the latest casualties, including the leader.

The melee in I7 continued for another turn.

Michael spent his turn bringing his men forward (and routing the other ones back). Along the way, he moved into direct line-of-sight of my remaining tank. I rolled well, and his leader there broke and routed back. I moved my broken squads back a hex – luckily, they couldn’t see Michael’s broken men in H1 from their starting hex, or there may have been trouble. I was really now counting on some rallying checks going my way.

The rally checks did not go well. At this point, I counted up the number of mobile units I had on the board. I checked the victory conditions. I counted up the units again.

The numbers were not in my favour. It was now impossible for me to win – losing the two tanks had made it an almost impossible task, and now it was actually impossible.

Michael had won another scenario!

This was actually the first time I’ve played this scenario with another person; my previous play of this scenario was solitaire as I was learning the system. I have no record of what actually occurred on that instance (it was back in 2008), but I doubt it was an interesting a match as this. Hidden units add great uncertainty to the game and, although they’re somewhat troublesome to use, the results are worth it.

I hope you enjoyed the report. I’ve been ill these last few days, so I’m not entirely sure if I’ll be able to play a game of ASL this week, although I’ll endeavour to!