Post by Whiterook on Aug 8, 2022 10:36:21 GMT -5
On Saturday, August 6th, 2022, I played my first scenario with Artillery at the “Tussle in the Tundra”, Advanced Squad Leader/Starter Kit Tournaments, I had the great opportunity to play a pre-tournament game with Tiffani Drennon, an amazing woman and very good gamer! She’s actually in the learning stage of Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit (SK), like me, though she’s a bit better than me currently, and she has read through SK3’s armor rules (which I’m a far bit away from at the moment). She graciously jumped into the role of the Americans for one of the three choices for the first round of the Saturday Mini Tournament, “88’s at Zon”, so that I could figure out how to play Artillery… the German 88’s, in this case.
I’d read 2/3rds of the SK2 rules for artillery, but only had a most basic and rudimentary understanding of Guns operations. I’d futzed with a few squads setup in the board earlier that morning, and was able to pick apart the artillery counters’ combat factors and placement rules. Of course, playing an opponent provides a fast-learning track, based on the very simple mantra of Being Under Fire!
The gist of the scenario is, the Americans enter through a narrow 4-hex funnel at the top of the long-end of the map, and exit the opposite Southern edge side through a wider (7-hex) gate. Only half of the right side of the map are playable… Eagle Eyed viewers will note in the pictures to follow, that I use Flying Pig Games neoprene strips for boarder demarcation! Germans are setup pre-scenario, onboard, with hills and valleys as the major terrain. The big question for the Germans (granted, knowing full well where the Americans are going to be coming from) was where the 88’s emplacements are best placed in order to cause the most carnage!
This was my initial placement of forces…
The brown hexes are 1-level hills and the green is open terrain, which dominate the board; and the yellowish hexes are out-of-season Grain, which means they don’t block Line of Sight (LOS) at ground level combat.
The Americans enter between E10-H10, so they have a difficult choice of:
…not easy decisions. Now keep in mind that the Americans have a decent number of reinforcements coming in on Turn 2, so if they experience severe push back, the cavalry is right behind them to the potential-rescue!
So the Germans are basically on the defense… the typical Hold Until Relieved!
I decided with an 88 AntiAircraft Gun (which can fire High Explosive anti-personnel explosive shells at infantry) on one of my right flank Hill Open Terrain hexes, in H5, which was set back from the Hill crest line (the hex where the hill depiction’s perimeter line meets the open terrain art) so that it wasn’t exposed to incoming ground-level fire from ground troops, yet still be able to fire on adjacent Hill hexes in the same or distant hills. I wanted to cover the potential enemy advance in the distant hills, and any potential close combat upon my gun of my hill as the battle raged on.
The other 88 went in the far-right Woods hex of A5; this, to cover a sweep of basically, a 4-hex wide valley channel of potential enemy movement. That side of the board isn’t the optimal path for the American troops, since the exit hexes are to the left side (my left flank) of the board, but it’s far cheaper in movement terrain hex costs for them, so presenting a speedier path (barring major fore from me, of course
). Note that the 88s’ front gun barrel denoted direction of fire (obviously) by providing a Covered Ark…so it needs to face a vertices, the two front adjacent hex sides expanding out in a hex cone of deadly fire lane!
As the Germans, I only had four 2nd Line Squads, two 1st Line Squads with a little better firepower, a 2nd Line Half Squad (sadly, generally, cannon fodder); and a couple Corporals (no negative modifier boosts to my rolls at being -0’s) and a Lieutenant; and I had a couple Light Machineguns; and the prize of the show, two 88’s with Crew). I tried to spread them out across the battlefield for best fire effect and defense. I kept the LT back, between the 88 emplacements for assist in any troops needing Rallying; and threw the CPL’s up near the front line… they could potentially help for Rallying troops (squads that Break under fire can only rout away until they are Rallied by a Leader or self rally under certain conditions) that were hit by their presence in the affected hex, but could not help with attack modifiers.
Right Flank
Left Flank
The Americans had 11 Elite Paratroopers of the 506th PIR with almost double the firepower of any of my German squads, so once engagements happen, there’s a shitload of bullets flying at the Germans!!! They also had a Heavy Machinegun (again, better firepower); and two dreaded Bazooka’s, which are effective in blowing through at stone walls at soldiers, and worse, the potential to taking out my 88’s! They also had an advantage on more superior Leaders (three with negative modifiers to make better attacks).
Note the arrow above… what Tiffani didn’t notice was, the American reinforcements actually come in on the opposite flank! …in a wider channel! Karma but me in the ass on that one in the actual tournament, where I once again played the Germans, and failed to notice the same thing… my opponent didn’t! I’d placed my 88’s in the exact same position, but the wooded hexes one became a lawn ornament! It did a little damage, but was mostly ineffective — though, I did win that Saturday Mini Tourney scenario regardless.
For both sides, there are wonderful obstacles to hide in, with stone buildings (2 MF for the enemy to enter, but they gain a +3 on the Attacker’s dice roll for the buildings defense!); and Orchards (the four tree hexes) are also of course, out-of-season, so they only cost 1 MF to enter, but are still a hindrance to LOS. The Road hexes can be a boon for the troops, if you move contiguously you gain an extra hex of movement with a Road Bonus, which may be the dealbreaker on a double-time run!
It a great map! The designers of these are devilish in their artwork, where hindrances and obstacles create tons of wonderfully delicious frustration!
I’d read 2/3rds of the SK2 rules for artillery, but only had a most basic and rudimentary understanding of Guns operations. I’d futzed with a few squads setup in the board earlier that morning, and was able to pick apart the artillery counters’ combat factors and placement rules. Of course, playing an opponent provides a fast-learning track, based on the very simple mantra of Being Under Fire!
The gist of the scenario is, the Americans enter through a narrow 4-hex funnel at the top of the long-end of the map, and exit the opposite Southern edge side through a wider (7-hex) gate. Only half of the right side of the map are playable… Eagle Eyed viewers will note in the pictures to follow, that I use Flying Pig Games neoprene strips for boarder demarcation! Germans are setup pre-scenario, onboard, with hills and valleys as the major terrain. The big question for the Germans (granted, knowing full well where the Americans are going to be coming from) was where the 88’s emplacements are best placed in order to cause the most carnage!
This was my initial placement of forces…
The brown hexes are 1-level hills and the green is open terrain, which dominate the board; and the yellowish hexes are out-of-season Grain, which means they don’t block Line of Sight (LOS) at ground level combat.
The Americans enter between E10-H10, so they have a difficult choice of:
- Angling left through the flat Grain terrain at 1 MF (movement factor) cost per hex (Infantry have 4 MF to spend in movement, and Leaders have 6 MF);
- Jumping right up the gut (center), up a hill at double COT (cost of terrain), with a minimal Open terrain cost of 1 MF, but doubled to 2 for the Hill; or
- Come in through the Woods in H10 at 2 MF cost, and either go up the Hill or shift right onto the Road at 1 MF
…not easy decisions. Now keep in mind that the Americans have a decent number of reinforcements coming in on Turn 2, so if they experience severe push back, the cavalry is right behind them to the potential-rescue!
So the Germans are basically on the defense… the typical Hold Until Relieved!
I decided with an 88 AntiAircraft Gun (which can fire High Explosive anti-personnel explosive shells at infantry) on one of my right flank Hill Open Terrain hexes, in H5, which was set back from the Hill crest line (the hex where the hill depiction’s perimeter line meets the open terrain art) so that it wasn’t exposed to incoming ground-level fire from ground troops, yet still be able to fire on adjacent Hill hexes in the same or distant hills. I wanted to cover the potential enemy advance in the distant hills, and any potential close combat upon my gun of my hill as the battle raged on.
The other 88 went in the far-right Woods hex of A5; this, to cover a sweep of basically, a 4-hex wide valley channel of potential enemy movement. That side of the board isn’t the optimal path for the American troops, since the exit hexes are to the left side (my left flank) of the board, but it’s far cheaper in movement terrain hex costs for them, so presenting a speedier path (barring major fore from me, of course
). Note that the 88s’ front gun barrel denoted direction of fire (obviously) by providing a Covered Ark…so it needs to face a vertices, the two front adjacent hex sides expanding out in a hex cone of deadly fire lane!As the Germans, I only had four 2nd Line Squads, two 1st Line Squads with a little better firepower, a 2nd Line Half Squad (sadly, generally, cannon fodder); and a couple Corporals (no negative modifier boosts to my rolls at being -0’s) and a Lieutenant; and I had a couple Light Machineguns; and the prize of the show, two 88’s with Crew). I tried to spread them out across the battlefield for best fire effect and defense. I kept the LT back, between the 88 emplacements for assist in any troops needing Rallying; and threw the CPL’s up near the front line… they could potentially help for Rallying troops (squads that Break under fire can only rout away until they are Rallied by a Leader or self rally under certain conditions) that were hit by their presence in the affected hex, but could not help with attack modifiers.
Right Flank
Left Flank
The Americans had 11 Elite Paratroopers of the 506th PIR with almost double the firepower of any of my German squads, so once engagements happen, there’s a shitload of bullets flying at the Germans!!! They also had a Heavy Machinegun (again, better firepower); and two dreaded Bazooka’s, which are effective in blowing through at stone walls at soldiers, and worse, the potential to taking out my 88’s! They also had an advantage on more superior Leaders (three with negative modifiers to make better attacks).
Note the arrow above… what Tiffani didn’t notice was, the American reinforcements actually come in on the opposite flank! …in a wider channel! Karma but me in the ass on that one in the actual tournament, where I once again played the Germans, and failed to notice the same thing… my opponent didn’t! I’d placed my 88’s in the exact same position, but the wooded hexes one became a lawn ornament! It did a little damage, but was mostly ineffective — though, I did win that Saturday Mini Tourney scenario regardless.
For both sides, there are wonderful obstacles to hide in, with stone buildings (2 MF for the enemy to enter, but they gain a +3 on the Attacker’s dice roll for the buildings defense!); and Orchards (the four tree hexes) are also of course, out-of-season, so they only cost 1 MF to enter, but are still a hindrance to LOS. The Road hexes can be a boon for the troops, if you move contiguously you gain an extra hex of movement with a Road Bonus, which may be the dealbreaker on a double-time run!
It a great map! The designers of these are devilish in their artwork, where hindrances and obstacles create tons of wonderfully delicious frustration!
