Continuing the journey into ASL
In the second scenario of the starter kit I was, as the Russians, tasked with defending 3 key buildings from a German onslaught. Having setup my units the enormity of the task came to bear as I saw the German infantry stacks placed across the road with several machine guns at their disposal and a flamethrower! During my setup phase I also chose to position several squads poorly, especially an MMG which could have been placed in a much more useful position but instead spent much of the game rather underutilized. My other LMG’s were also poorly positioned. One on the right flank without any support! What was I thinking?
As visible in the above image, positioning the MMG in the woods would have given an opportunity for a protective firing line up the road to offer two objective buildings protection from advancing forces from either side. I should have also considered moving one of my LMG’s to the building in H8 as support for troops falling back (*cough* routing *cough*) into the final objective building.
My initial plan was to try to slow the German advance, then depending on where my units were suffering most, regroup in either the building at F8 or M6. As it turns out my troops were suffering on all fronts… So damage limitation and survival while waiting for reinforcements was the best I could hope for. Fortune did shine briefly on me when my mentors flamethrower rolled an 11 on only its second firing to end its use for the remainder of this battle (out of fuel 🙂 ).
After only 2 (perhaps 3) turns my forces had lost the far right objective building and were soon to lose a key building on the left. I had a few troops hunkered down in the central building which was looking like it would have to be my last stand. Still no sign of the reinforcements (a roll of less than the turn number was required to activate their arrival and so far I was not managing low rolls very often) without which I was certain to lose this battle – actually it was looking rather bleak even if they were to turn up.
The final turn. My host and guide had harassed my remaining forces from all of the objective buildings, routing them (1 half squad and 2 leaders) to two wooded areas on the southern edge of the map. His victory was all but assured. My final roll of the dice to see if my reinforcements would arrive…
YAY! Not only did they arrive but by focusing on forcing my broken squads from the board one key objective had been forgotten!
I placed my small detachment to the far right of the map then ran them to the undefended objective building. Taking some minor fire from one German unit and exhausting them in the process but ensuring that my guide could not complete his mission. Defeat had been avoided. But my victory felt hollow 🙁 even though the empty building was actually something I had spotted several turns earlier and was hoping to exploit when/if my reinforcements arrived. Does ASL etiquette dictate that I should remind my opponent of this sort of oversight? I guess I’ll learn the answer to that as I continue my journey.