Em’s Games Log 2022

[Whiterook]

This was a game back in April, not long after starting this new forum, and having just retired. Called Ghosts of the Jungle, it’s a book game that I altered a bit to be played with tokens, and this scenario played was “Mission 1 - Reconnaissance”. You can see the whole AAR here. Having been intrigued and inspired from Mike, I picked up this book game and used RISK game pieces to represent the four subject SAS troops represented in the book, in four colors, and the Vietnamese in black.

The game took 14 turns, for a Vietnamese win.



Mike wasn't kidding when he said this game is hard to win, and it showed me that I needed to use more stealth and less Rambo! The VC just kept coming, and that was due to all the grenades and rifle shots I took as the SAS. I did manage to get my troopers up-board half-way or better, with one reaching top row… and another close by, but hurt real bad, with minimal chance of anyone getting to him soon to tend to his wounds.

I really like this game! The dice can be fickle, but pretty accurate as to what would have probably happened to the guys. I look forward to the next game!

[Whiterook]

Sticks & Stones is a game from Tiny Battle Publishing, with this scenario called, “Aboriginal”, played this past May. See full AAR here.

Aboriginal Elements of the 17th Soviet Tank Regiment assault Team Echo, their goal to secure the bridge. It was a fairly quick game and ended on Turn 5, having an American APC with loaded Infantry move adjacent to the bridge in a futile effort and wasteful cost of lives, as two Russian T-72 MBT Platoons moved onto the Gersbach Bridge and wiped out the last of the Americans. Full Russian Victory, and the first claimed non-irradiated lands for the Russian Fatherland.



I learned a lot in this play, so a worthy effort, but I made a lot of mistakes as the Americans, as mentioned earlier with bad placement of the two Abrams Platoons; I should have had the Infantry disembarked on the bridge and the APC adjacent; and I should have moved my M901 WGM Platoon to a safer backfield position. Oh, If If’s and But’s were Candy and Nuts, as they say! 

[Whiterook]

Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit action, played on Saturday, August 6th, 2022. A scenario played with Artillery rules from Starter Kit #2, at the “Tussle in the Tundra”, Advanced Squad Leader/Starter Kit Tournament. This was my Round 1 tournament morning game with a great guy named Cole Mills, called “88’s at Zon” …in this case the German 88’s. I played the Germans. This was the classic, Attacker enters one side of the map (in this case, a long end) and exit the opposite side… trying to go through me!



The game time ran out before scenario conclusion, however by Tournament Director ruling (and from what I heard after the fact, over ten minutes of review by pictures taken by my opponent, with a few other gamers’ opinions), it was declared that I won the game. It certainly was hard fought! Artillery was most assuredly a factor in the win; but I hadn’t read the scenario card close enough, that American’s reinforcements come in on their right flank, instead of like the first wave’s left flank… and my 88’s were setup on my right flank, so one of my 88’s was playing mop up duty with what came in on the first wave, and any Americans that made it to the opposite side of the maps’ Victory Exit Hexes. The Americans were plodding there way too the other side of the board, but I was holding them off and had the most likely advantage in firepower keeping them from the prize.

[Whiterook]

Another “Tussle in the Tundra” scenario… Round 2 of 3, afternoon match called “Butchers & Bakers”, this was an infantry and artillery scenario. I played the Germans. I had just infantry and support weapon machineguns; the Americans had mortars, which did some damage, but not as much as my opponent wanted…he seems to me a Win at All Costs type gamer and his favorite penchant is popping smoke all game long! I need to learn more on that tactic myself, admittedly. Luckily, he failed dropping White Phosphorus on my men for the whole game, and rolled high (a.k.a., Badly) on his mortar fire. Funnily enough, in the local SK community, he’s pretty up there, and one SK Mini Tournament contestant who faced him told me, ‘…oh, you are so screwed!’, before the game started   …I admittedly knew I was fighting a Kobiashi Maru situation, but I wouldn’t let myself be intimidated. At this point in my ASLSK live-opponent career, he was the 6th person ever played, and I’d only soloed the system (SK1 Infantry only) maybe once or twice; but my grasp on tactics and strategy carried me through nicely, and I he kept saying almost to the end that he probably wasn’t going to win this one… I had him literally slamming the dice on the table, palm slaps to the head, weird guttural grunts of frustration, and visibly shaken. I had to be doing something right to get him so agitated. I dared not even think of winning…I just played hard and best I could.



I did end up loosing, as I rolled the worst possible roll you can possibly roll, a 12 for Casualty Reduction within a Victory Condition stone building at the very end of the game (I needed good order, unharmed troops in there) and he pounced on me for the win. I admit that I panicked a little by fending off his attacks rather than trying to salvage the situation with getting a good order unit in there, but I learned a valuable lesson about myself as a Wargamer: I play with the ethos (and I don’t mean to sound high and mighty here) of what would Commanders actually do in the battlefield, rather than just cannon foddering all your troops for the sake of a win. Maybe that’s my Achilles Heel, but in retrospect, I’ve always thought that way in my gaming historical Wargames… I look at these little cardboard chits as living, breathing men. Maybe that’s the wrong way of thinking, I really don’t know.

I also setup a couple units on the hills to the left flank, which was a mistake… lost those boys as soon as the stronger American units came rolling in, and actually lost a LMG, then used against me! Ouch… this was a DEFINITE example of a situation where I should have channeled Scott and laid in the shadows backfield and throw everything I’ve got when they close in on the Victory Hex! (…I’ve learned from you, Scott!)

The best part of this game is, it was the hardest challenge I had all week and i met the challenge head on. I am 99.9% sure I would have beat him if not for that one roll of the dice. It just takes one roll sometimes! 

I found myself saying several times to myself that week, ‘I hate to love this system’, and it truly is the most annoying and difficult system in my games arsenal, but it’s worth plugging away at… it’s an incredible system, and gives one of the best feels of actual combat of all the games I know of. Even at the Bunny Slope level of Starter Kit, it’s still enormously challenging. I don’t know if I’ll ever actually go full system, and just stay with SK, but time will tell. If you ask me for a prediction, I’ll likely stay SK and see where it takes me.

[Whiterook]

This was the last scenario played at the “Tussle in the Tundra 2022” ASL Starter Kit Mini Tournament, in Round 3 of 3, called “Retaking Vierville”. My opponent was Mark Kolenski. It wasn’t actually a schedule choice, but it was mutually agreed upon by both of us: there were three scenarios to choose from, and two of them were armor, which neither of us know… and the third had a board and counters my opponent didn’t have the board and wasn’t familiar with. I actually didn’t like that scenario, either so I was more than happy to play a Player!’s Choice, and was happy he chose the infantry only first SK1 scenario…

You see, the tournament started at 9am that Saturday morning, and it was a almost 7pm at that point. I was exhausted, and so was he. This was the first game where I had the Americans, and the first game where I was the Attacker… the problem with the latter was, I entered from the far left side of the shirt edged board and had to go through a meat grinder to get to two Victory Condition buildings at center. There were plenty of reinforcements on both players’ sides, but it was just a bloody slugfest; and a true maneuver nightmare for me.



We slugged away at each other for 4-hours, and called it a draw a little after 11pm. We’d been gaming 14 hours straight, except for a pee break and a quick 15 -minute bite at lunch and dinner. We were the last two people in the game room…everyone else finished early and left for the night and we were told to lock up after us. We looked at each other and we were just done in. Game called by us… Draw.

The best part of this round was, I made a great, new friend! Mark is a truly spectacular individual, and I saw a lot of commonalities in personality and tactics between us. 

The tournament was a killer, physically. It was way more aggressive in scheduling than I am either used to, or comfortable with. I’m a more causal gamer, and what I like at conventions I normally go to, where you take long breaks between games, walk around and see other games played, go out to eat! But I did learn a hell of a lot on the system mechanics, and had a fair bit of fun doing it. I think at my stage of knowledge in system, it was more stressful than fun, but the Trial By Fire aspect really made be buckle in and hit the gas pedal, and was a good kick in the pants to play this game, instead of letting it gather dust.

[Whiterook]

I forgot this one, when posting above… this was my first Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit action of the weekend, played on Friday, August 5th, 2022. It was my first scenario played with Artillery rules from Starter Kit #2, at the “Tussle in the Tundra”, Advanced Squad Leader/Starter Kit Tournaments. It was played pre-tournament with Tiffani Drennon, an amazing woman and very good gamer! 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 won the game, but it certainly was hard fought! Artillery seemed very intimidating to me at first, but as I did a deeper dive into the rules, I found that despite being a lot more complicated than straight Infantry play, their power cannot be denied as being phenomenal power on the battlefield. They can fire any type of ordnance, including anti-personnel HE which can annihilate squads. The trick is in emplacements and arcs of fire… the German 88’s in this scenario for instance, we’re so powerful, but they are not movable to other hexes, and can only be traversed in place. Technically, they can be limbered and transported by truck, but there is no such condition in ASL Starter Kits…no trucks!

I found artillery really brings the game to a higher level of play and carnage… I can’t imagine what it will be like when I get to Starter Kit #3, Armor!

[Whiterook]

I’m currently on Turn 2 of 5 Turn British/4 Turn German SS on a Playtest of a scenario for the New England Volunteers ASLSK group. It’s a cool little scenario in 1940 Belgium, where a patrol of the British 2nd Royal Norfolks have a tough task of clearing out a German SS Totenkopf Division out of a village in a very short number of turns. The British have a small Infiltration Force consisting of 2-Half Squads under an NCO Leader; with a larger patrol coming in from the outskirts.

I’m not so sure about the force makeup of the Germans… they’re a rather small group, which I believe forces like the SS Totenkopf Division may have been small in force makeup, made up for by shear badassedness — yet their firepower strength is the same as the British, but can’t shoot as far — so when looking at balance, I’m not sure the British are going to be able to dislodge their foes. I’m thinking balance may be right, but that’s the reason for playtesting, which is to see if it is so.

The Germans are on the defensive.

At game start, the British infiltration force first used their Prep Fire Phase to do some damage to the adjacent Germans, but bullets just pinged off the stone buildings! Nada. The following Movement Phase found the rest of the 2nd Royal Norfolk’s units advance onto the battlefield. I chose to enter in the best areas that had LOS restrictions from the Germans, which were few and far between! I thought of entering on the right (North) side into the Grain fields, which are in season, but even with the LOS hinderances, combined with slower movement restrictions made it a slow slog and open to incoming Defensive Fire; with the German SS entrenched in stone buildings clustered on the opposite side of the map, the best that would have done would have been to try and flank a minimal amount of units… and that German MMG would likely tear the Brits to bits. Even with those long lines of Polder hexes (5’ wide and deep water channels prevalent in that country), they would only offer a modicum of protection, so I went with a concentrated onboarding top left (Southwest edge).

As the British 2nd Royal Norfolks advanced, the German SS Defensive Fired… but apparently there was too much confusion as the Brits stormed in and there were no casualties inflicted. The British gained good ground and decent positioning.

What happened next was what was thought earlier… Close Combat! The British infiltration units stormed into the Germans’ positions in each of the houses and blew them away! The difference maker here was multiple British full squads going up against singular German SS half squads… they were simply overwhelmed and overrun. On the other hand, Advancing Fire (at 1/2 Firepower) yielded no punishment on the Germans so, the Germans are sure to let loose a hail of bullets on their forthcoming 1st turn!

As the Germans, in a face-to-face game, I can see this is a hard decision in setup!

When it flipped to the German’s turn for Turn 1, the Germans open up with all units available, and non of them hit anything squishy… all stone wall dents and chips! Yikes. The British put down their fresh brewed tea from their breather, and open up in the Defensive Fire Phase (called, Final Fire) I response to the Germans. All units at the corner cluster of buildings fire as a fire group and break a leader and platoon that are now under Desperation Morale; and the British adjacent firegroup into the lone German half squad in the stone building and Pin them, so they can’t move and have 1/2 FP. The British LT with two squads at top center of the map firegroup with a LMG at the lone SS squad in the wood building (just within range!)…and fail a successful Pin Task Check (PTC). That was a lot of lead flying back and forth! Minimal damage due to everyone being in buildings.

The broken SS squad and leader Rout back (as is required) to a stone building within reach. There were no eligible German units to advance or any close combat so the first turn is over for both sides. It was a pretty uneventful turn for battle casualties, again most likely doe to superior cover on both sides (and some yucky rolls); but the British are firmly in place in great cover… it will be difficult to plan next steps for them, as they only have three more turns to reduce the Germans to two GO units, but strategic one-unit-at-a-time advancing is probably in order, now that the left flank of the Germans were pushed back and are Broken and cannot fire unless they Rally! …if the those Broken German units stay Broken in Turn 2, they can’t fire, which allows the British good advantage on moving up into stone buildings to their front, which could really swing the Pendulum of Fate.

[Whiterook]

Second playtest of an ASLSK scenario…



On Turn 1, Germans (play second): British broken unit didn’t Rally. Germans start with Prep Fire Phase, MMG/Squad/Leader in NN8 fire at broken unit in LL7; hit for a NMC (Normal Moral Check), and the British unit passed ok. SS in 008 shoots and misses same target (I was going to include it in a firegroup on the previous Fire attempt, but was hoping to save it for a shot at 003]. No movement, so we move to British Defensive Fire Phase…003 fires on KK5 for a 2MC! …one of the three squads breaks, and all others are ok. Unit in 003 fires at 1/2FP in Advancing Fire Phase and hits for a PTC (Pin Task Check) on unbroken/unpinned units; Leader is Pinned (not really helpful, as he has no modifiers), all other ok. nothing Routs, Advances, or Close Combats so, end of round.

[Whiterook]

Third playtest of an ASLSK scenario…



Similar to the second playtest, but I didn’t see in the setup instructions that no German unit can set up in or adjacent to another German unit! Ugh. This is turn 1 and I can see already, setting up a German half squad in PP9 was a bad idea!a German half squad that was in NN8 got overrun in Close Combat and KIA, so plans to move PP9 in with it were foiled and now that remaining half squad is caught with his knickers down in that remote stone house!!! Not sure how long they’ll last. A German squad with a machinegun was broken in LL5. The British Infiltration Force in NN8 are now a nuisance to the split German half squads; and a buttload of Brits are massed in stone buildings to the west (top) of the map. Luckily for the squad in JJ5, thier foe with the machine gun can’t fire!

[Whiterook]

Another PlayTest effort on a scenario to be issued in an upcoming scenario pack from the New England Volunteers (Advanced Squad Leader Starter Kit group). I believe it’s much larger than anything I’ve played in the ASLSK realm that comes to mind, counters-wise.

It’s played with the Decision at Elst module game, which comes with one big paper map. The scenario plays out a 28 May 1940 in a scenario where remnants of the British 2nd Battalion, Royal Norfolk Regiment (A, B, and D Companies) find themselves overwhelmed in fierce and desperate fighting, after a several days of brutal slugfests against elements of the German 2nd and 3rd Regiments of the SS Totenkopf Division. This was during the period in WWII when the British Expeditionary Force (BEF) were attempting to retreat through the Pas-de-Calais region during the Battle of Dunkirk. The scene you see played out here is part of BEF delaying actions during Dunkirk, leading up to the climactic battle of Duriez Farm, where what was left of the British being left behind, had to surrender. The terrible history of this was, these poor men whom surrendered with honor, were mostly massacred…

Though they did not know it then, it was their misfortune to have surrendered to No.3 Company, 1 Battalion, SS Totenkopf Infantry Regiment 2, commanded by Hauptsturmführer Fritz Knoechlein, a ruthless Nazi. The day before, the eve of his 29th birthday, he had buried his closest friend and publicly pledged to avenge the heavy losses sustained in the fighting. Standing at his graveside, the man subsequently described as “fierce, disdainful, highly strung [and] excitable” had delivered a eulogy that ended with a dire warning. “From now on,” he declared, “we take no prisoners. Every damned Britisher is to be shot.” It was no empty threat. Arriving at the Duriez Farm shortly after the surrender and with the captured men still in a state of shock, Knoechlein told three fellow officers: “We will arrange a nice little shooting for them.”

Herded together, the prisoners, mostly Royal Norfolks but also including men from the Royal Artillery, Royal Signals and Royal Scots, were forcibly stripped of their equipment, beaten with rifle butts and then formed up in threes, hands clasped behind the backs of their heads, and ordered to march. By then the column had swollen to a little under a hundred men who were constantly struck as they continued along a road that led towards another farmhouse.

After a brief halt, they were led through a gate. To the right was a pasture where a small group of German officers were standing, apparently in discussion, and to the left was a farm building. As they turned to go through the gateway towards the barn, O’Callaghan saw two machine guns set up and Pooley noticed a “large hole”, some 5ft deep and 15-20ft long.

“Good God, I thought,” wrote O’Callaghan. “I asked my officer who was nearby, ‘Are they going to shoot us all?’ ‘No,’ he said. ‘They can’t do that. We’re covered by the Geneva conventions’… So we marched on.

“As the front of the line got to the end of the wall, I heard the word ‘Fire’. I dived down. Then I felt a burning in my arm and I said to myself, ‘Good God, this can’t be happening’…”

Pooley was struck in the left knee as the machine guns scythed through the prisoner ranks. “I fell on top of some men who were already there,” he later recalled, “and others fell on top of me.”

The firing continued for a few seconds during which Pooley saw Major Ryder “sitting inside the hole with his back to the side nearest to the wall”. He appeared to be very badly hit.

After the firing stopped, O’Callaghan, who had suffered a slight flesh wound in his left arm, heard men around him “shouting and shrieking in their agony” followed by what sounded like bayonets being fixed. Three Germans dropped into the hole and began finishing off the groaning survivors. After they climbed out, more enemy troops lined the hole and began shooting at anyone showed signs of life. “One of the men beneath me moved and two shots were fired into the heap of bodies,” wrote Pooley, “both of which hit me in the left leg.”

At that moment a shrill whistle put a stop to the killing. Th eexecution squad drew away, leaving behind the bodies of 97 men, murdered in cold blood, and two of their comrades who, by some miracle, had cheated death. Hardly daring to breathe, Pooley and O’Callaghan lay still, feigning the fate of those sprawled all about them.

— Key Military Military 

The scenario…



Right side of the map is North. The British units in Map Column F are a Picket Force that could be setup anywhere in Columns D-F. The remainder of the British could setup anywhere in or between the columns you see marked with a triangular RISK game pieces… I chose maximum cover, in buildings spread out across the broad front of where the German SS were heading in from the left (South) of the board… the ones at the East edge are reinforcements coming in for Turn 4; the British 2 Pounder (57L AT Gun counter) is set back to the rear, firing Armor Piercing (AP) rounds that can be used against infantry, but at low firepower (FP).

[Whiterook]

The British 2 Pounder in the stone building hex O19 presents a long range threat to onboarding German SS, so the Germans need to be stealthy in their advance. You can see by the pink triangular RISK game pieces to the left side of the map, in hexes E14 and A26, that triangulated back to the 2 Pounder, that’s the Covered Arc of the light AT Gun… the artillery units can only shoot in that cone, and it’s gonna provide a pretty wide swath of shelling range potential flung at the Germans.

As German SS Commander, I want to take out that British Picket Force (mid-column F), which: Eliminates an immediate threat; gains needed Victory Points (6 VP’s towards British units killed, of 17 needed for my chosen Victory Condition #1); and also lends momentary protection from the British AT Gun as I pass through those buildings in whatever direction best suits advancing forward. Note that those 4-tree hexes are orchards that lend Line of Sight (LOS) Hinderances (-x drms)… so the most likely direction of attack for the Germans is expected to be in moving straight up or to their left diagonal (the latter maybe being the better option, since the yellow hexes at the top left are in-season Brain, which cost more move,ent factor cost (1-1/2 MF) to wade through, so it isn’t expected that SS would be in through hexes A14-17).



The green triangle RISK markers (as well as the onboard Germans) represent the path of hexes the British AT Gun has no LOS to (past the buildings the Picket Force are in), and as you can see, the German SS have probing units out.



The German SS 237 Half Squad in C20 was the first on point probe unit that took fire from the British Picket Force, getting them to expend defensive First Fire from the two German Squads in F19; Residual FP of 2 was left, so when the 447 Squad moved in next, they were hit by it (all movement is considered simultaneously within the turn so it’s basically like the gunfire was still happening); but the SS survived unscathed from that, and then from the Final Fire from the same British units. An SS 348 moved up next, surviving Residual Fire and moving into D19, coming under Defensive First Fire by the SS HS and Leader in F20; no hits but 1 Residual FP left. The final part of the probe was a German SS 447 Squad moved at the top path, through both the Risidual Fire hexes, to then be fired on by that British HS and Leader… it survived that gauntlet, leaving the British Picket Force in Final Fired status and unable to do anything unless someone moves next to them…



What’s happening here is, the German SS have a free path up, and I’ll next move more 447’s up in Doubletime, to hex E21… they will be adjacent to the British 226 HS and crummy Leader (note the positive leadership modifier of +, instead of -) and so affording those one hex of adjacent British enemy units the last option in their Defensive First Fire opportunity, that being Final Protective Fire, which can only be made against enemy moving adjacent to you. The CX counters on the SS isn’t good in being forced on, nor if they survive, in Advancing into Close Combat (add +1 to the CC Attack), but I feel this is in bounds and interprets of historical events where the German SS were ruthless and balls-to-the-walls attack frenzy.

[Whiterook]

With the German Probing Force clearing the way mostly, three German SS Squads move up the lower path Doubletime, becoming Counter Exhaust (adds a +1 drm to attack rolls coming up); but the British do not fare well, with both the HS and Leader Breaking and needing to Rout unless still in Melee, coming up. Three more SS 447’s and an 8-1 Leader move up to D20.

WOW, after all that, I’m down to three German SS 658 Squads, two 447 Squads, two Light Machineguns (LMG ) and an Heavy Machineguns (HMG), and three Leaders. That’s making me rethink my strategy the German Commander. I was originally thinking of hugging the bottom (North) side of the map through the Orchards; but now, I’m considering the top side of the map (South edge) hugging the extreme top, going through a in-season Grain hex and two Prchard hexes to hit that southern road… 

The question at hand here is the British 2 Pounder AT Gun: it can’t touch me on that northern approach through the Orchards at the bottom of the map without changing it’s Covered Arc, and that would take a turn to do and then it would be incoming shells; yet at the top southern side of the map, I only have incoming for three hexes, and then I have a bunch of buildings covering me…and there’s a lot of juicy enemy units up there!

I need to bone up on Artillery (called Guns, in ASL) rules, but I believe the Gun only has a 2 FP, since it’s firing Armor Piercing shells, which is allowed against Infantry in this system, but that very fact must be why the firepower (FP) is so low. Another thing I have to review is the To Hit process… I have to range in an attempt to hit the hex, before I can actually resolve artillery fire combat results… charts and variables! I’ve only started to scratch the surface of ASL Starter Kit 2’s artillery rules.

Again, I thing this second option up south is what is more historical for the SS.



What do you think?

[Whiterook]

Well, this had turned into a 2-Pronged Attack, where the German SS made it up to, and kicked out the British at Center, killing the lower building inhabitants and forcing broken units in the upper building to retreat west, up the board to the buildings there, where they could retreat back afterwards. Meanwhile. The rest of the Germans hugged the top of the map (Western edge) and made it through the Orchards behind and in the building there.

That was about the point I realized that the Orchards not only provided amazing cover (simply becomes there were so damned many of them that added up to past six hexes, which is the point where instead of a +1 Hinderance addition to the attackers’ dice roll, ti where it blocks LOS entirely! But there are two sides to every coin and in this case, that side was showing that once emerging forward and you were back to hinderance factors, it became a slow bloodletting, because enough fore was getting through to slow and break the enemy, but not enough to kill them. That’s actually, pretty huge.

I could see that I (as the German Commander) was going run out of turns before I got the 17 Victory Points needed in British unit kills… I would have done much better having chose the other victory condition of building seized, more likely. I was starting to change my strategy to take my central units and shift them down east towards the British units to the bottom of the board. The onboarding reinforcements were a strong addition to the German push and had a great chance at defeating the British Light ATG, but…..

I decided to end the battle early The lack of good grasp on artillery rules created too much mistakes on my part, especially facing so many orchards! And the game was going on longer than I anticipated and I need to get to some other games as prep to Compass Games Expo in just a few weeks. As a playtest, I got what I needed out of the scenario.

[mikeh]

I think we can all relate to the "good grasp" of rules be it artillery or any other of the myriad of rules encountered in a game, probably more so with ASL. In the game I'm playing I just realized I have been playing with a over stacked infantry hex. Usually by my third go though I'm playing the game the way intended.

[Whiterook]

Oct 23, 2022 13:30:57 GMT -5 mikeh said:

I think we can all relate to the "good grasp" of rules be it artillery or any other of the myriad of rules encountered in a game, probably more so with ASL. In the game I'm playing I just realized I have been playing with a over stacked infantry hex. Usually by my third go though I'm playing the game the way intended.

It’s kinda weird for me… I probably have a mild form of OCD in some things, because I feel I need to memorize the rules; a byproduct of my work life, I always had to have 100% comprehension on any subject at hand, with 0-tolerance for mistakes… friggin’ brutal when I look at it through a “past” lens! I’m realizing (I think?) now that, I transposed that to my learning Wargames, because for more years than I can count now, I’ve felt the need — the Requirement — to have the rules down pat…

What I’m finding over the course what I’ve just spent playtesting these ASLSK scenarios is, not reading the rules (SK2 Artillery, anyway) with a fine toothed comb and just playing the game/referring to the rules is providing better comprehension of play, as in, sticking with me better. I don’t have a multitasked-addled brain to contend with, either, which is a blessing!

All that said, I quite agree with what you say about getting firmer after several plays… o can look back and see that this is exactly how it worked for me in the past, but I never slowed down enough to recognize it was happening?

(I’m still a mess!)