March Madness is a hugely popular Advanced Squad Leader tournament, held annually in Kansas City.
This one’s done by Tom Meier, the preview.
This one’s a tribute, done by K Scott Mullins, aka GrumbleJones
http://boxcarsagainaslblog.blogspot.com/
March Madness is a hugely popular Advanced Squad Leader tournament, held annually in Kansas City.
This one’s done by Tom Meier, the preview.
This one’s a tribute, done by K Scott Mullins, aka GrumbleJones
http://boxcarsagainaslblog.blogspot.com/

Notre Dame de Dinant & the Citadel. Source : Wikipedia
Calm down, you didn’t miss it. Dinant is not out yet.
Dinant is a project in development. Dan Dolan’s the designer, Nadir Elfarra did the map and Carl Nogueira, the campaign game. Stanley Neo and I have been playtesting the Dinant scenarios, so this perhaps one of the rare times when you see an AAR on a product not released.
This was my Belgian/French setup. The three VC locations were on the top part of the map. One of the VC hexes was under the stack of Belgians to the right of the VC stone building. The Germans start with 13 elite squads, 5 leaders, 4 armoured cars and a host of motorcycles. . The Belgians fields 9 first liners and the French, 3 first liners immediately and 3 on Turn 3. The Allies have 6 leaders, 2 self propelled guns and a module of OBA with scarce ammunition.
The Belgians had 2 HS HIP’d with ATRs around Rue Saint Jacques (the road through the valley from the right) and one on the first level of Notre Dame de Dinant. The big set of concealment counters in front of the roadblock at Place Reine Astrid (in front of Notre Dame de Dinant and the Citadel was a decoy to turn enemy AFVs that way.

Place Reine de Astrid. http://www.citadellededinant.be

Citadel de Dinant. http://www.citadellededinant.be
Turn 2 Germans : The German infantry decided to heap through the Rue Saint Jacques en masse. The French mortar managed however, to catch their counterparts from across the Meuse. The armoured cars got a bit of harassing fire from the French across the river.
Hearing the Germans in the Plaza outside, the Belgian HS in the Notre Dame threw off their cover and went to the windows with their ATR. One entrance to the narrow streets was blocked but the other one needed to be sealed as well, best with a wreck. The first armored car passed by and was about to turn into the narrow streets to the north.
Boom!! The anti tank grenade missed,
The targeted AC continued to speed away and the second followed suit. The other ACs started firing into the church and the German infantry got the headsup about Notre Dame.
Turn 2 Belgians : The intrepid ATR team survived the initial German fire. It now sounded like half the German army was running for the church. The Belgians went to the windows again and fired. This time wrecking the 2nd armored car and therefore successfully blocked the armoured car platoon from the action to the north!
In the north, the Belgians were nervous about all the Germans coming down the valley but they felt a little too smug about lying concealed in stone buildings. They decided not to skulk.
Big mistake. The Belgians in the first 2 building hexes got blown away by the massed German firepower.
While one of the Belgian self propelled guns moved into place. The one to the north refused to budge without their partner and a radio to contact them with.
Turn 3 Germans : The Belgians to the north were simply not retreating fast enough. The Germans caught them in 3 locations where Close Combat killed 2 Belgian squads.
Turn 3 Belgians : Hey! The French reinforcement arrived, together with a radio to call down the artillery. Yes, ammunition was scare but it’s something. Given the rowhouse configuration, the French could only look for line of sights through the gaps they could find.
The other Belgian self propelled gun was touched by the change in sentiment and moved into one of the narrow streets to cover the German advance.
Turn 5 Germans : The Belgians finally got the hang of just how far to move back and how to shoot the Germans in bypass.
The Belgian SPG closer to the river was shooting at the Germans moving through the little plaza. When it Firist Fired, the lead German AC moved forward, turned and faced it.
The other HIP’d HS ATR team who sat through the Close Combat downstairs sprung out of hiding.
They shot and killed the lead AC!
Turn 6 Germans : The Belgians continued to back off just enough to shoot at the Germans in bypass. The French OBA was of no help whatsoever. By the time they got a response from obliging French gunners their radio went dead.
Our second Belgian ATR HS managed to run away though!
The Germans, running out of the time, got even more aggressive and jumped onto a concealed Belgian stack. The Belgians chose NOT to unconceal and NOT to fight. To the German’s disappointment, Belgians survived the German attack and retained the option of moving away in the next Belgian turn, blocking the Germans for another round.
Seeing the distance between themselves and the VC building, the Germans decided that they won’t be able to make it to the VC objectives in time.
Overall : I think the long lines of rowhouses presented an interesting problem. The Belgians had to be far enough to not invite close combat given the German superiority in numbers and to not be shot in their retreat. However they needed to be close enough to in turn shoot the Germans in bypass. This is especially important when they do not have enough firepower to take the Germans inside the stone buildings.
The mass of Germans was unnerving but had some of the Germans came in further to the north and down the cliffs, they would have been a handful.
Trying to get the French to help from across the Meuse is a problem as well. Finding gaps between buildings though you can shoot was tough. The OBA was practically useless in my game.
Thoughts from Stanley Neo : I packed the Germans’ entries via the XX13-XX16 while 3 choices were given. After some thoughts, I should have spread the force into two groups, one taking the top XX03-XX13 and the other remaining in XX13-XX16 to put more pressure on the Allies that is on the same side. At least some Germans would then be able to attempt to climb down and do a flank from the North.
Germans on the East were stuck around the entry zone for too long and should have pushed more aggressively. LoS study of the terrain may eliminate issues of troops getting pinned or broken by Mortar fire from the West.
The roadblocks were wisely placed at a chockpoint around QQ17/RR17 with ATR. This effectively blocked out the rest of the German’s AFV support making it harder for the Germans coming from the East to push.
Overall the scenario is relatively great to play. Would be interesting to replay the scenario with the afterthoughts built into the attack plan.
What are your thoughts with regards to this module? Are you looking forward to it?
Notes from fellow gamers ..
ESG6 Clean Up Crew is the first round scenario of the Asia Pacific VASL tourney, Deathwish 777. This is the first Eastside Gamers scenario I have ever played. This is also the first time I played Will Fleming.
This is an interesting situation. The 2 hex building on the top right is considered ground level only stone while all other buildings are wooden. The German wins at Game End if they control this building. If you look at the map in quarters, Germans setup on the top left and bottom right. A Russian patrol comes in on Turn 1 from either the left edge or the bottom edge of the bottom left quadrant. Both sides get to attack and to defend, the 6 turn limit on this scenario promised rapid and violent action!
The Germans have a mix of elite and first liners. The Russians have a mix of first liners and conscripts (one elite squad too) but unfortunately an ELR of 2. They get 2 leaders on board, an 8-1 and a 7-0. A 9-1 comes in with the patrol later on from the lower left board. There was a bit of a debate as to whether to switch the 8-1 out for a 10-0 Commissar or not. Bruce Probst cautioned against the idea on GameSquad, stating that there really is no where for the Russians to properly rout to and that they should take the -1 Leadership from a fighting 8-1 instead. In hindsight, he’s right (no surprise). At the time, I swapped the 8-1 for a 10-0 in the hopes of cycling whimpering conscripts back into the fight again.
German Turn 1 : The Germans were on the move. The Russians looked to reveal as little information as possible until the Germans came within their (largely) 2 hex range, less when negative modifiers were in play. There wasn’t much action apart from the outer ring of “speed bump” conscripts. They didn’t expect to survive the slightest German fire and so their first shot needed to count.
Russian Turn 2 : The Germans built a deathstar with a 9-2 in the left sunken road. Our HMG team had to relocate. Will Fleming also pointed out that mortars cannot fire from CREST positions so the mortar team had to figure out a plan B. One of the “speed bump” conscripts broke another German unit instead of running but got disrupted and was captured in the return fire. The rescuing Russian patrol had entered the map but not the fray at this point from the left edge.
German Turn 3 : The Russian HMG went on a hellish rate tear in Defensive Fire, they KIA’d 2 German squads and broke the rest in the open!! The Russian prisoners found their guards killed and started eyeing the German DC laying in the grass…
Russian Turn 3 : The rearmed prisoners (Conscript HS) grabbed the German DC. There was a German DC HS on the left end of the sunken road to the right. A Russian squad assault moved away to draw fire in the safest way possible but was disrupted anyway. The rearmed Russian HS then rushed down the sunken road with their captured DC!! They survived the Final Fire from the “targeted” German DC HS, threw their DC and broke that HS. Unfortunately it was pinned itself and couldn’t advance to rout the broken Germans out of the foxhole. The Russian commissar decided to vol break and head towards THE house as Russian troops around him were either disrupted as conscripts or ELR’d into being conscripts.
German Turn 4 : The Germans moved towards the house and the Russians didn’t have too many live units left around the target building. A German MMC on the left put a fire lane down through the grain fields and made it tough for the rescuing patrol getting into the fight on time.
Then a horrible thing happened.
A German stack Adv Fired into the Russian HMG team through the brush – and rolled snakeeyes. The random selection that followed slated the full Russian squad for destruction, leaving a broken 7-0 with the gun. There was pretty much no one, save the routing commissar and a solitary conscript squad, in the target building.
German Turn 5 : The Commissar finally pulled himself together and joined the conscripts in the stone building. Between stacking up for better mutual support or spreading out to keep the Germans out of the building, they chose the former. The conscripts dutiful fired at the incoming Germans and did brilliantly well for the most part but things came apart at the end when the Germans rolled another snakeyes in the Adv Fire and broke the squad.
German Turn 5 (contd) : The commissar found himself the sole defender of the house when the German broke through the windows and doors. The ensuring close combat was 6-1. For a moment I had hope that the commissar would roll snakeeyes as well to kill off the entire German stack but it was not to be! The hardy commissar got wounded and finally succumbed to his wounds into the long quiet night.
A number of thoughts after the game :
Thoughts? Comments? Alternate strategies? Additional thoughts on 10-0 commissar vs 8-1?
Mr. Patrick LeBeau sent a beautiful message to the “Squad Leader PreASL” YahooGroup to remember John Hill. I asked and he kindly gave his permission to republish it here, for all of us whose memories Lt. Hill will forever be a part of.
Farewell fearless leader
The original John Hill Squad Leader counter: Lt. Hill, a modest 9-1 leader.
When I purchased the famous purple edition of John Hill’s 1977 Avalon Hill game, Squad Leader, at the Origins held in Ann Arbor, Michigan that same year, I and many others were immediately hooked on the game system and ease-of-play. We attended all of John’s lectures and in a day or so mastered the game. By the end of the convention many of us were combining our game boards and units to play monster self-designed scenarios after having played all 12 scenarios in one long weekend.
Squad Leader would also win the title of Best Tactical/Operational Game of 1977
This was not my first encounter with John or his many excellent board and miniature games. Most notably in the mid 1970s was Johnny Reb, now known as Johnny Reb One. I still have the original mimeographed legal size cheat sheet printed on both sides, which was all you needed to play the first iteration of the Johnny Reb system. In that playtest addition, resolution used a single 12-sided die.
I mention these two games and I call them systems because they have an incredible longevity through continuous reprints, revisions and new editions, including new games derivative of earlier manifestations. Although the 1977 edition of Squad Leader is my all time favorite, the game would generate many supplements, which would lead to the development of Advanced Squad Leader. The whole Squad Leader family of games has sparked a gamer following that keeps the game alive (SL or ASL) to this day after almost all of the SL and ASL games are long out of print. ASL is directly responsible, I believe, to the development of the online VASSAL game engine for playing board/miniature games virtually.
Johnny Reb would lead to JRII and JRIII. From my perspective, I see Across the Deadly Field as John’s Opus Majus and final version of the Johnny Reb system. From my point of view, I believe ADF is his finest version and I hope it will emerge as his most popular American Civil War gaming system. I spent the entirety of 2014, from Fall In 2013 to Historicon 2014, and all those conventions in between, promoting ADF.
This brings me back to Lt. Hill, the U.S. 9-1 leader counter of the original Squad Leader. Many of us literally wore out our original counters due to continuous game play and finger handling. We of course replaced them by purchasing new games. This is not true with 99% of the board games I own. Further, in 1977, we understood the game as cardboard version of a miniatures game. Today I play the game using 15mm figures and terrain. My point is that as long as gamers continue to play John’s games he lives on.
In untold thousands of games, his old Lt. Hill counter has often suffered a KIA result or has broken under fire. At times it has conducted heroic acts, or has rallied squads at critical times. Whatever the outcome, Lt. Hill reemerges game after game to fight on and on to the enjoyment of the table top gamer whose only purpose is to have fun, learn history, study tactics, engage in competitive play and build friendships.
John was a good friend and his games build many life-long friendships.
I will miss him. We will miss him. However, as Lt. Hill, he will always be in our games, not only as a counter, a figure, a GM, a moderator, a game designer, a human, a man, and as one of the greatest game designers of all time.
Patrick LeBeau
January 13, 2015
John Knowles and I recently purchased the few “Into the Rubble” packs (Bounding Fire Productions) that Sam Tyson found laying around. So we decided to play the pack out one by one over the next year or however long it takes. The first one in the pack is Scott Holst’s “Debacle at Sung Kiang“. There are a few places called 松江, but since Scott mentioned “the city of Sung Kiang”, I take this as the area to the southwest of present day Shanghai. This scenario takes from a battle on November 8th 1937 when the Chinese GMT still had their German trained & equipped elite troops. As with all the scenarios in the “Into the Rubble” pack, it’s all about city fights. What I didn’t realise until the first Prep Fire was how unversed I am with city fights – I have definitely been running around jungles too long!
So here’s an account of my miserable loss (not an infrequent experience for me of course, but I don’t blog about my losses often enough) :
There are 16 multi hex buildings on the map. The IJA’s task is to capture 11 or more of them with 16 first liners, 2 elites, 4 leaders and 3 armoured cars in 6.5 turns. The Chinese fielded 9 elites, 7 first liners, 3 leaders, 2 76 guns and 2 of their funky Type 22 dual MG armoured trucks.
Chinese Turn 1 : This is what it looked like at the end of the first Chinese turn. The Chinese decided to use their “armoured” trucks a different way. Instead of running the trucks around with “0” armour, they decided to rip the 2 LMGs and the crews off them. That’s 4 new LMGs with 2 elite units that self rallies. The Chinese now have 8 LMGs, fantastic news to the IJA I am sure.
IJA Turn 3: The action exploded. First the IJA Banzai’d down the left edge of the board. Several fire lanes sprang up but the IJA made it across the open ground at acceptable losses. I then figured this was going to take too long : I should have an armoured car behind the Chinese lines to interdict routs and to limit Chinese movement. Therefore I ran an armoured car down the streets (just follow the blue dotted arrow that emanated from the concealed counter on the top left quadrant of the map). It survived one shot from the Chinese MMG that laid down a fire lane. Then the AC sped due south and made a right turn, surviving another LMG shot at close quarters. It then arrived at the center of the map. Another AC decided to do the same but via another route. This is the blue dotted arrow that encircled the top part of the map from right to left. Unfortunately it discovered one of the Chinese 75’s the wrong way. It was still hoping that its speed was going to save it. Boom – no hit, it laughed. The gun then went for Intensive Fire as the car came closer. Boom – Critical Hit!! The AC bursted into flames as car parts careened down the middle of the street!!
Chinese Turn 3: The Chinese moved folks over from the left, one of which CC’d my AC. The IJA uncovered a fortified position and strangely, a 75 gun popped up in the middle of the building complex on the right. That, together with the interior wall in the stone factory (see the hex side on the hex in “direction 2” of the gun) made it a little difficult to clear it out. The Chinese sped a unit to the far right to close the flanks.
IJA Turn 4: Check out the middle of the board – here’s one of my extreme moments of stupidity: with a Chinese squad in the hex, I decided that it would be good idea to back the AC up to the Embankment Railroad. So I stopped the car meaning to go in reverse. The Chinese folks promptly declared CC Reaction Fire and disabled the car. A subsequent LMG shot killed it. *Brilliant*
All the action on the right were the IJA trying to pile more troops into the factory. The Chinese started shooting a lot better than they did a turn before unfortunately. The good bit was that the IJA finally broke the folks in the Fortified hex. The IJA folks in the top part of the map were starting to appreciate how exposed their positions were. Having said that, the Chinese MMG malfunctioned the turn before and so they were having a go at crossing the street.
The IJA then ran the last of their armoured cars down the middle of the street to help take the building complex on the right.
Meanwhile on the quiet left side, a couple of Chinese troopers pulled out a bag of marshmallow and strolled over to the bonfire ..
IJA Turn 4 : This is end of IJA Turn 4. IJA managed to capture the big factory on the right. In retrospect I should then have “spilled” more forces down the right edge to turn the Chinese flank. That would perhaps take me to the buildings to the lower half of the board. The folk in the center had to rout back. The MMG that malfunctioned was fixed prompted in the next Rally Phase. Meanwhile, the AC got into a threatening position but it had to get on an embankment to interdict any Chinese movements.
Chinese Turn 4 : Two Chinese squads went berserk and both targeted the striped IJA squad sitting in the Fortified hex on the right. One of the berserkers was underneath the Pinned squad next to the green Fortified hex so you can it imagine it doing the zombie dance against the wall. The other Chinese berserker rushed up (blue dotted arrow), spotted the IJA elite through the smoke to the right and switched directions. The IJA elite squad threw their DC at the crazies but only managed to CR the berserkers while ELR’ing itself to a first liner. The berserkers rushed in and got wasted by gunfire but it caused enough damage by taking the one squad the IJA had with a decent smoke component plus used up their DC!
The Chinese shifted their forces to the right as other sectors were not under threat (a street party was in progress around the bonfire by now). Notice also the 2 LMG squads closing in on the lone AC sitting in the middle of the board.
IJA Turn 5 : With all 3 mortars out of smoke and the one elite squad ELR’d to a first liner, the IJAs were not able to put more troops into the factory on the right as the Chinese had an MMG under an 8-1 in the middle of the map. Tried as they might, the IJA group in the middle couldn’t put much pressure on that MG, apart from discouraging it from putting up a fire lane. This is the end of IJA’s Turn 5. The troops inside the IJA’s hard won Fortified hex was steadily reduced. The fact that it should have advanced into the HMG squad (with the 9-1) long time ago to take them out by CC only occurred to me now. (Urgh..) Meanwhile, the 10-1 came forward to rally the troops. The 1st liners grabbed the flamethrower they recovered, vol broke and routed it back to the 10-1 in the hopes that the 10-1 would know how to use it.
I was definitely not at my best!
Chinese Turn 5 : It’s increasingly evident that the IJA were getting bogged down at the first factory. The Chinese reoccupied the Fortified hex and a Dare Death squad successful took back another building. While the retaking of the occupied hex didn’t mean immediate reversion of control, it did pretty much put the IJA at where they started with a lot less troops and only 2 Movement Phases to go.
This was where I conceded.
Review :
These are some of the major points I should have done better. In real life the IJA prevailed (and the ROAR was 15:11 Japanese:Chinese). As with real life, this is how much damage a bad leader (yours truly) can do!
What else could I have done better? What are your thoughts? Please comment.
This was the setup. The German wins if both British guns were eliminated and more than 10 CVPs of Good Order Germans exit off the east edge (right edge of the map). It’s a draw if both guns were eliminated without the requisite exits. There were two nice locations to where the guns could be emplaced : both were orchards with stone walls. I had the two ATRs positioned to not take immediate fire but to be where they would cause the most delay. Their threat was more powerful than their actual effectiveness against German tanks. So here we are: eight British second liners (they were search light operators) and two guns against ten German élite and first liners plus five tanks.
German Turn 2: The British reserves moved up to front line positions after seeing how the Germans commit. The British right flank got shot up pretty bad. All that was holding that side up was a British second liner. The Germans used smoke and cover well but a squad got tired of the searchlight operators shooting back and promptly went berserk.
German Turn 3: The berserkers charged! You can see how they made their way straight into the first stone building only to be cut down when they got to the house. The single British second liner continued to hold up the right flank while their compatriots were busy rallying. The first German tank rounded the corner on the British left flank and the ATR team got to work, only to bounce a round off the tank. German tanker: “That wasn’t even scary.”
British Turn 3: The British were in general retreat .. erm .. retrograde. The idea here was to stay ahead of the Germans and get to the next building before the Germans get their guns on and to keep the inside lines open. On the right, a rallied British green squad switched a second liner out as the rear guard. These guys would see a few medals before the day is over.
German Turn 4: The action heated up on German Turn 4. On the British left, a German tank tried to get to the back field. The British ATR team held their shot until the tank went to the other side of the building. However they bounced a second round off the German tanks even when they had a side shot. The 18 pounder (typo in the picture) on the British right “appeared” and wrecked the German tank in the Defensive Fire Phase.
British Turn 4: The British green squad on the right dispatched the German first liners who held them in melee!! The rest of the British squads got to the last line of buildings. They cut it quite close, as the Germans shot some of them between the gaps. The British continued to get to positions that were a little out-of-the-way but cover grounds the Germans would move into.
British Turn 5: The Germans started building a death star on the British left and the left British gun appeared!! It promptly put a round of white phosphorous into the building. The British ATR teams repositioned towards buildings where they could prevent the German tanks from exiting. On the right, the malfunctioned British gun couldn’t be fixed and was eliminated from the game. The Germans sent another squad in on the right flank and killed the pesky British green squad that was holding up traffic but these heroes had already saved their brothers.
German Turn 6: The Germans were almost of top of the British now. A German tank got inside the British lines but one ATR team was broken and the other one couldn’t get close enough. Good thing the white phosphorous forced the German death star to move.
German Turn 7: The Germans got up to the right ATR team and was wrecked at pointblank range! The Germans rushed up on the British left as well. They advanced up and captured the gun hex in the CC phase!!
British Turn 7: The British couldn’t let the Germans have a fire phase to spike the left gun. The British squad fired pointblank and KIA’d the squad! This led to an interesting revelation after a few rounds of discussions on the forums. There’s no way to kill the gun by small arms fire without a crew / possessing infantry (A9.74) present! So the only chance of the Germans getting a tie is to kill it with the tank ordnance.
We never got to that so here we go. It’s a three hex range with an infantry target. The base TH is 8. The gun was emplaced, so there’s a +2 DRM.
SNAKES!! The Modified TH# is 8 .. rolled a 2+2 which is not less than half but it’s an original 1,1 nonetheless.. so we need a subsequent roll ..
That’s equal to half the Modified TH# of 8!! CRITICAL HIT!!!
As AZslim pointed out to me on GameSquad, guns (and crew) are automatically destroyed on Critlcal Hits. So both British guns were gone. This game went all the way to the last roll – and it’s a DRAW!!
Gotta admit, this is some finish!! Witness the narrative power of an ASL game – and that’s why we love it.
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