Alan Snider - Sep 5, 2005 12:59 pm (#10730 Total: 10764) On the Playtest Table: Khyber Pass Games' "The Battle of the Little Bighorn"; and announcing the "Northern Knights Wargaming Group" in Vancouver, Canada with a retail store of it's own at http://www.stalag17wargames.com/ GAMENIGHT, Sept 2: Rick White and I sat down to my second learning session with ASL-SK1. This time we went with the "War of the Rats" scenario; with Rick as the Germans and myslf as the Russian defenders. The Germans went with an all out series of prep-fire shots and managed to have much success in disrupting the Russian troops posted in the building on the east edge of their positions. I initially had my forces set up not well spread out (in bigger stacks), but rather than "gack" our playthrough..Rick wisely recommended that I spread out so he could not capitalize with a monster fire-group trained on my positions as easily. Rick is a really great guy to learn from in this respect, as he will let you learn some things the easy way, and others the hard way. sometimes it really does help to see things played out to see what happens, but this was not likely one of those occasions. I was not able to rally on the following rally phase, but did manage to pull back to adjacent building not within line of site to at least have a chance of not being DM'ed again. I am learning, but slowly. I never really manage to get my boys back from being disrupted and the Germans begin to flow in from the east map edge It is right about here I learn lesson #2: if you cannot complete a rout during the rout phase, your boys are automatically eliminated. I lost at least 3 infantry counters this way. Argh. I then made a quick assessment as to the situation and began to head for the final (and westernmost building) with the Russian troops which were the centre of my position but were now forming the eastern edge. I took a rather big risk in runing across a road WITH my medium machine gun into a 16-shot worth of fire but made my morale check vs. M+1 result. This at least got the bulk of my forces to a defendable position and with 2 leaders present I hoped to be able to rally everyone ack prior to the last stand. The Germans gradually creeped through building making a cautious approach so as not to give me any decent shots. I did manage to disrupt a few stacks of Germans that were trained on my final position, but this was merely a moral victory as there were plenty of German foces available for the final assault. One more ussian infantry troop eliminated for failure to rout as well. Yea, sometimes the lessons are hard. On turn 4, the game essentially ended as the Germans rushed across after disrupting the units in line of sight with prep fire and making the dash across the road to enter the buildings. Unfortunately for me, another troop was lost due to failure to rout on this turn as well. his left 2 small focres OUTSIDE the building which must be held at the end of turn six. Needless to say, the Russians attempted to assault the building, one force being disrupted and leader killed (super bad dieroll) and this ended the game prematurely in the Germans favour. Looks like I have plenty to learn with ASL-SK1, and while I have learned a few mechanics that may be helpful, I am still strugling to put everything together for the bigger picture of strategy. My sense is that I do not see much of what I need to see to make it to the next level of competance as an ASL player, as yet. I have a good instuctor with my pursuit of becoming better at ASL, but today is not the day in which I advance in my level of gameplay.