Lawrence Hung  - Jan 20, 2008 4:22 am (#21594 Total: 21595)  
Now playing Band of Heroes,ASLSK1,Old Contemptibles,4 Lost
Battles,Hannibal:RvC,ATS1a Screaming Eagle,Athens & Sparta,Triumph of
Chaos,Command&Colors,Pax Romana,Assyrian War,Twilight Struggle,Heroes of
Soviet Union,Carthage,Rise of the Roman Republic 

ASLSK1 AAR 

Scheduled play: 19 Jan, 08 

A series play of ASLSK! I plan to play the series by scenarios from all
3 available games. No better place to start with a bit of training by
the first one. Scenarios to play: Released from the East (Siberians
arrived at Stalingrad), Welcome Back! (Battle of the Bulge at Hoisengen)
Retaking Vierville (D-Day landing battle in a French village). Hope to
complete them in one session with Anthony. 

AAR: Anthony and I took the scenario "Retaking Vierville", 7 June 1944.
We are new to the game (the first time I played this was more than 3
years ago already with the War of the Rats scenario so I forgot most of
the rules). So thanks to Lawrence Ho for assisting us during the game.
It took us 6 hours to complete the 5-turns scenario as we asked
questions along the game. It shows that it is not easy to re-enter the
system even if you have prior experience with the system already.
Anyway, we completed the scenario in one session. 

The scenario is all about infantry units only (after all this is a "S1"
scenario). The town of Vierville is garrisoned by the 1st Battalion,
506th Parachute Infantry Regiment, 101st Airborne Division. They are
initially deployed on the road and spread out. The German 1058th and
919th Grenadiers Regiments seized the initiative and attack the garrison
in envelopment from east and west of the town. Anthony's Germans were
hurry to move forward to the town and took my Yankees by surprise. They
focused on prep firing the in coming Germans and forgot that they should
have moved into the town defending the buildings. They were on the open
road and so were severely injured. Only the half squad was able to move
to a small building hanging on the southern tip of the road for
protection where they began. 

The other elements of the 1st battalion came in from the northern road.
They CX (doubled time) to move fast and into the town center but the
buildings were already occupied by the Germans forward elements. So a
hard block to block house fighting ensued. The U.S. reinforcements came
in piecemeal and so no firegroup was formed as they were looking for way
to cover along the road. 

Movement is fairly simple with the use of the MF/PP Chart. A +1 road
bonus is available if the units move all along the road. Grain (if in
season Jun to Sep) cost 1.5MF ("Movement Factor"). Woods and buildings
cost 2MF. All others cost 1 only, even Orchard. A MMC (Multi-man
Counter) with leader can move 6MF. 4 if moving alone. 

Combat itself is straightforward (but see the firing sequence below) on
the Quick Reference Data Card (QRDC) Infantry Fire Table (IFT). The
firepower of individual units is added up and 2 dices are rolled,
modified by terrain, hindrance in LOS and whether the units are moving,
and Squad Leader's leadership direction. Mostly the results call for
morale checks of the individual units. Results exceeding the unit's
morale rating would broke the units and if they were already broken,
suffer casualty reduction and thus replaced with a half squad. An
already broken half squad unit who suffers casualty reduction would be
eliminated. If the unit fails the morale check in excess of the ELR
(Experience Level Rating) given in each specific scenario, the unit
would be replaced with a less quality unit, usually it means they have a
shorter range to shoot and a lower morale rating (the Russians would
generally reduce in both, Comrades...) If they are Elite class, they
wouldn't be replaced with lesser quality ones. An original roll of 12
(i.e. 2-sixes) in an MC would always result in a casualty reduction.
Units that fail a MC always have a "DM" (i.e. Demoralized) marker placed
on it, resulting in a +4 DRM rally check and routing towards the safe
place during the rout phase if there is an adjacent enemy unit. 

The complexity of the system, in my opinion, lies in the many firing
opportunities (note: it is an opportunity, not the no. of times a unit
can fire) in a sequence and thus the timing to fire is important as it
develops the flow of move-and-fight and momentum of a tactical battle.
The firing can happen 8 times in each turn, 4 for each side, during each
side's own turn: 

1) Prep fire phase - attacker's units firing at full FPs in this phase
cannot move in the movement phase below. 

2) Movement phase in which defensive fire can be made by the defender
(this is also called the "Defensive First Fire" as distinguished from 3)
Defensive fire phase below)- the defenders can fire at those moving
attacker's units with a -1 DRM in IFT at the moving unit. The defender
can have 3 opportunities to fire in this phase: first, subsequent and
final protective. The differences are the amount of FP you can fire with
and the location you can fire at. Only the first fire can have full FP
and only those units making the first fire can fire again in the
subsequent fire. The other twos can only fire at half the FP. The final
protective fire can only be directed to the adjacent enemies. An
interesting bit is the concept of "residual fire" which can be placed in
the hexes being fired at in this phase. All units are subject to this
"residual fire" attack (halving the original FPs up to a maximum 12) if
they move into the hexes subsequently, simulating the simultaneous
nature of moving attacker units. 

Every time you fire, a fire marker would be placed on the unit, either a
first or final fire marker. Units therefore can only fire 2 times in a
row maximum. Units firing 2 times consecutively in this phase would mean
that they could not fire at the adjacent attacking units in 3) below. It
is the trick here that whether you want to hold your fire until the
enemies come closer and closer to you. 

3) Defensive fire phase - units that are not firing during attacker's
movement can now fire at full FP. If they fired once before in 2) above,
they can fire at adjacent units at half FP. 

4) Advancing fire phase - now the attacker's units can fire again (after
movement) at half Firepower strength if they didn't fire before in the
Prep fire phase. Assault bonus (only assault-capable units) can apply
during this phase with 1 full FP added. 

I found the above a bit difficult to grasp with and makes the melee
difficult (yeah, I always want melee) to happen as the charging units
would have been dead before they could advance into the enemies' hexes.
But the more expert player would figure the way to move close to the
enemy under the friendly suppressive firing. 

Squad Leader importance can be found in a number of places (after all it
is a game about Squad Leader). He can add his tactical rating in attack
(not defense) during the IFT roll. He can direct a group firing as long
as his squad members are adjacent to him. This is particularly so if you
want to gather 16FP and look for a DR4 (before modifications) to get a
"Kill" (i.e. casualty reduction) result in a reasonable chance. Leader
checks first in morale check and if he passes he can help the other
units stacking with him during their morale checks. In melee, the Leader
can add his modifier to prevent the die roll from exceeding the "Kill"
number. He can be wounded with a 1-4 dieroll if he suffers casualty
reduction result (+1 if he is already wounded). 

In our game, the Germans at one time controlled all the victory
buildings on the map (without the need to melee at all). The Americans
have 75% higher in the firepower in general. I was hard to manage a
heavy firing group with the reinforcements to fire at the victory
buildings to pressure the Germans broken and routed out of 2 buildings,
thus recovering 50% of the buildings. History proves that I am a little
slow in action to achieve the military objectives. 

The strength of the system is its variety of scenarios and imagination
of their designs with the geomorphic mapboards and victory conditions.
Literally thousands of scenarios are available across the globe for you
to choose from and play. My take is to choose the nationality and the
place of battles you want to play with. There are historical modules for
ASL as well. Not for the moment though, I expect ASLSK can have its own
historical modules as well because after all this is a simpler system
than the full version of ASL. Playing on historical map and units are
still my favourite instead of abstract geomorphic maps mimic of their
"actual" reality. As of now, the general short game duration (5 to 6
turns) per scenario is tense, but too short for the units to perform any
meaningful outmaneuvering actions. 

Well, the above are pretty much the basics as the system can be. Anthony
and I expect to go on playing the system as we begin to invest time on
it. Next up might be the Released from the East or Welcome Back, where
machine guns and flame-thrower are introduced. The quantities of the
Siberians would face the better quality German troops in the ancient
town of Istra. Or whether the German numerical superiority locally at
Hoisngen can overwhelm the American firepower.