[ASLSK1] Turn 2 (and part of 3)

Hey,

So last night, I played out a bit more of my solo ASL game. I got through all of Turn 2 and about half of Turn 3. So I'm officially at the midpoint.

Things are looking good for the German side. As expected, the battle for the victory objectives on the West side of the map has left the Germans in good shape. They've got two buildings and enough troops to hang tough in the inevitable melee. The unit charging in towards the objectives on the East side of the map isn't faring as well. In fact, it's probably going to die in some brutal house fighting, but it's tying up so many American units that once the GIs finish them off, they may not have enough time to counter-attack the Germans off the board. In particular, the Turn 3 reinforcements are going to have to cover a lot of ground in a hurry if they hope to make it (possibly going CX to get enough MF).

I figured out how to cross a street (well, one way anyhow). The key is that the rules for defensive fire state that you can't shoot at a target if there's an enemy unit that's closer. So you send out one unit, try to get it shot at and then move the rest of your squads in such a way as to not get any closer. Which is how the west side was won. My first squad stepped out next to the Americans, enjoyed a hail of bullets (but stayed together) and then the other squads marched around at 2-hexes away. True, they did take fire when they moved back adjacent to the Americans, but they ended up inside a stone building and that pretty much made them invulnerable.

Close Combat and Melee, is a pretty griding affair. It's not likely to end fast unless you've got a huge superiority in numbers and even then you still have to kill off each counter one at a time (Unless I'm reading the rules wrong). So if you're attacking a stack of X units, you can figure that you'll be spending at least X melee rounds getting rid of them. I need to check up and see if there's a way a side can flee close combat.

So now I'm at 3.5 and it's the American's go. They get one more slate of re-inforcements (and a 9-2 leader) and they're going to have to really hustle. Since the German squads on the East side are starting the slow slide into oblivion, I'm going to direct all the reinforcements towards the West side to try and take on the Germans there. The big problem is going to be the huge tracts of open ground they're going to have to cover on the approach. Trying to stack up into a few buildings and then launching the assault will probably take too much time. I'm not hopeful about their chances, but I wasn't thinking the Germans were looking very good at the end of Turn 1 either.

Looking back, I think I should've split the Americans up a bit more. That would've made the East side a lot more vulnerable, but it's the West side that really needs the slowdown. Also, despite the complexity (I mean, I haven't even added in any machine guns yet) this is actually kind of fun.

later
Tom

[ASLSK1] Turn 2 (and part of 3)

Hey,

So last night, I played out a bit more of my solo ASL game. I got through all of Turn 2 and about half of Turn 3. So I'm officially at the midpoint.

Things are looking good for the German side. As expected, the battle for the victory objectives on the West side of the map has left the Germans in good shape. They've got two buildings and enough troops to hang tough in the inevitable melee. The unit charging in towards the objectives on the East side of the map isn't faring as well. In fact, it's probably going to die in some brutal house fighting, but it's tying up so many American units that once the GIs finish them off, they may not have enough time to counter-attack the Germans off the board. In particular, the Turn 3 reinforcements are going to have to cover a lot of ground in a hurry if they hope to make it (possibly going CX to get enough MF).

I figured out how to cross a street (well, one way anyhow). The key is that the rules for defensive fire state that you can't shoot at a target if there's an enemy unit that's closer. So you send out one unit, try to get it shot at and then move the rest of your squads in such a way as to not get any closer. Which is how the west side was won. My first squad stepped out next to the Americans, enjoyed a hail of bullets (but stayed together) and then the other squads marched around at 2-hexes away. True, they did take fire when they moved back adjacent to the Americans, but they ended up inside a stone building and that pretty much made them invulnerable.

Close Combat and Melee, is a pretty griding affair. It's not likely to end fast unless you've got a huge superiority in numbers and even then you still have to kill off each counter one at a time (Unless I'm reading the rules wrong). So if you're attacking a stack of X units, you can figure that you'll be spending at least X melee rounds getting rid of them. I need to check up and see if there's a way a side can flee close combat.

So now I'm at 3.5 and it's the American's go. They get one more slate of re-inforcements (and a 9-2 leader) and they're going to have to really hustle. Since the German squads on the East side are starting the slow slide into oblivion, I'm going to direct all the reinforcements towards the West side to try and take on the Germans there. The big problem is going to be the huge tracts of open ground they're going to have to cover on the approach. Trying to stack up into a few buildings and then launching the assault will probably take too much time. I'm not hopeful about their chances, but I wasn't thinking the Germans were looking very good at the end of Turn 1 either.

Looking back, I think I should've split the Americans up a bit more. That would've made the East side a lot more vulnerable, but it's the West side that really needs the slowdown. Also, despite the complexity (I mean, I haven't even added in any machine guns yet) this is actually kind of fun.

later
Tom