Well, I'm a new guy in town and have been heartily welcomed into the Houston ASL community by the Houston half-squads (thanks Ken!). Due to work and life commitments, there have been many years of me playing solo, but with very limited opportunities to play FTF. Hopefully all that will change now I'm starting to fully integrate into the Houston lifestyle... I thought I'd try an produce an AAR of my first game with the guys, having seen the excellent AAR's by the rest of the crew from the get together at Victor's house on Saturday Auguest 28th.
Anyway, first game for me in this new-found existence is "A69 - Broich Bash" against Bill Dorre, who like the rest of the HHS Group, is extremely friendly, helpful and most of all understanding of my inherent "newbieness". Due to time pressures, we both wanted to play something small and tidy in the 6-7 turn range and we very quickly settled upon Broich Bash, a tight little late-war job pitting Hitler's weakest against a nice combined arms group of 1st-line Americans. I opted to play the Germans, Bill the Americans and we were away. It's set in March 1945 on Boards 24 & 19, EC are wet and there is no Board 24 valley. Key plusses for the defense were having numerous stone buildings, an SPW251/10 (with the 37L), a solid HMG, a useful 9-1 and lots of PF capability. Key minuses in the defense are ELR 2, squad firepower and range (mainly 447s vs 666) and an (initial) need to cover 3 possible board edge entry positions for the Americans. This is one of the oddities of this scenario in that the American announces on which of 3 of the 4 board edges he will enter upon after German setup, and then the German gets first move. More on this anon...
As the attacker, Bill was able to wield seven 666 squads, a series of average to good leaders, and lots of Smoke-yielding mobile fireplatforms (various half- tracks and 2 M24s). With the slightly odd entry conditions, Bill could have troops attacking Stone Building Objective hexes within 1 turn if coming from the west side or within 2 turns if coming from the north and south. The action takes place primarily on Board 24 where the US needs to hold 6 out of 15 possible stone building locations at game end - Board 19 has also been added to one side to give good open country to accommodate sweeping flanking maneuvers if required.
Being relatively new to this, I found the setup to be a real conundrum, mainly due to the multiple entry areas. The VC dictated that Bill could win by occupying solely either of the MultiStory buildings in the Board 24 Village and this fact ended up dictating my defense. I installed the 9-1, HMG in the 2nd level of the 2-hex multistory stone building (the "townhall") and then put the majority of the concealed squads both in here and also in the "factory" (stone- building next to the lumberyard). I was however aware that any big flank attack could probably take much of the village with probable ease and I was never going to be able to kick them out again with the troops I had. Therefore, trying to stay concealed, stay in the stone buildings and make a hard defense seemed to be the best thing to do. In hindsight, I probably let this nagging doubt about the flank affect me too much and this ultimately affected my defense.
After the game, we discussed about pushing a skirmish line defense into the woods immediately north of the town and then contracting back towards the buildings as things got tough - I didn't like the idea of duking it out with fairly strong american troops with better range, ELR, FP, SW and assault fire in only +1 terrain, so I opted for discretion as the better part of valour, and hunkered down for the "hang tough in solid buildings with HMG overwatch" defense.
Anyway, Bill came on from the north on Board 24 only using a combination of riders, BU HT and armoured assault. Deciding to use my heavy weopon, my first roll in American FTF ASL was a tasty 2,1 - scratch 1 squad. I like this game! I repeated this again in Turn 2 with a similar result, but also provided Bill with a heroic 8-1 (which spent the rest of the game threatening with a Bazooka). In the meantime, Bill had managed to get the HT's upto the woods just north of the town and proceeded to slowly advance into the woods and paths retaining concealment. While this was happening, I made a mistake and tried to kill another broken squad with the HMG to leave him with just 4 acting squads, but I missed, and then the M24s eventually hit home and broke the HMG manning squad. Should have moved that HMG down out of there sooner to stiffen the ground-floor defense...
By now, Bill was assault-moving into the "Town-Hall" where he proceeded to infiltrate one of my defending squads - no worry! I'll blast him PB with 2 squads and an LMG - 20FP at +3 - and then maybe open up some opportunities for FTR. Well, you know what comes next as I boxcar the roll. At this point, I'm also concerned Bill is also placed to dash south and wrap up some of the other stone buildings or threaten the "factory" so I keep some squads back in there just in case - another mistake in hindsight, as I should have cycled at least one more squad back into the "townhall".
Anyway, Bill then proceeds to roll the HTs and M24s into town to soften things up more and enforce some FTR. I then reveal the magic weapon that is going to win me this battle - the 37L armed halftrack! Well it does it's job and kills one half-track and a PSK-wielding squad roast one of the M24s, but by this time the fight for the "town- hall" is pretty much over - I now need to have to go back in there and and try to reclaim some real estate from the US and I have 2.5 second line squads in the "factory" to do it. Sadly my third big mistake occurs as I realise I have misplaced my truck - this should be placed on the street between the "factory" and the "townhall" to provide some cover to shuttle troops between the two. Instead, I have to run the gauntlet of a couple of PB 666s in an open street and that's never going to happen. A couple of big rolls later in the Top of Turn 5 (out of 6) and I concede - well played Bill!
Mistakes - keeping the HMG in Level 2 one turn too long, not placing the truck to act as mobile cover between the two buildings, being too aware of a flanking attack that was never going to materialise.
Good things - sticking the HMG at Level 2 - 2 squads KIA in 2 turns. Risking backblast to roast the M24, having some (but possibly not enough) fire discipline to retain concealment against notably superior troops, actually setting up and maintaining a good rally point that got my weak troops back into the game.
Things to think about: using the German Lt mtr effectively - missed a big opportunity with those HT's. What to do with the truck - in a more mobile defense possibly using that to get troops places, in a static defense using it as cover. Using the PF's as anti-infantry weapons when they're in stone buildings.
Cool moments - that first roll: 2,1. Less cool moments - receiving Infiltration. Boxcarring the big opportunity to hurt the US.
Overall, well played Bill - a solid, relentless grinding assault that after some initial set backs, never looked back. I was surpised he didn't use smoke, but in the end he didn't need it. The scenario is fun in that it tests you on setting up and conducting the defense and does require you to use the combined arms of the US effectively to pull this one off - Bill showed how effective he was!
Big thanks to Victor and his wife for putting up with us!
Looking forward to some more!
Nick