FT SmR6 Fox’s Fretful Night After Action Report (AAR) Advanced Squad Leader scenario
Victory Conditions
Eleven squads of North Koreans got 5 turns to clear 4.5 squads of Marines off 7 hill top hexes. All Marines setup HIP’d and had Trip Flares and a 100+mm OBA with Variable Time (VT) Fuses.
After Action Report
So the North Koreans had 5 turns to push the Marines off 2 hilltops. The Marines looked very understaffed at first glance but my opponent is never deterred by odds, big or small. I look at terrain differently at Night. Open Ground offers +1 LV straight up especially when most Marines should be on hilltops (equivalent to having Woods everywhere). Walking into Concealment Terrains required +1 MF though which made Open Ground more appealing. This was especially significant when you look at the hilltops. Getting onto a hilltop Brush costed 5 MFs, same of course for Woods. Five of the seven hilltop hexes were covered with Brush or Sparse Woods. So getting into CC in most cases meant going in CX’d. While it’s harder to rally at Night, Marine squads self rally at 3 and get rid of their DM counter at 8.
Running around in the open when a Star Shell was overhead means certain death against Marine firepower. The threat of Proximity Fuses in the Marine OB is a big cause for concern. We needed to fish out the radio guy as quickly as we can.
We approached the left hilltop from both sides. The way we setup, it would be tough for Korean leaders to get to everyone, but we only have 5 MPh’s to get things done. Not many Americans popped out of HIP but we broke the Marine MMG team early on.. We surrounded the left hilltop but we were too relaxed about the broken MMG team wandering about. No Hipped unit popped up the top though.
We approached the left hilltop from the bottom with the other half of the force coming in from the right. Marine firepower broke up our initial entry but the sunken road offered the Commissar a safe space to talk sense into the chaps.
Two turns down. Marines were not going to show themselves unless we get even more aggressive.
We ran NK squad up the hilltops to see if there’s anyone there.
NK piled into the left hilltop CX’d and commenced Close Combat!! We kicked off some wires for trip flares but nothing flared up. We had the left hilltop almost cleared apart from a fireteam taking us into Melee.
The bad news was that we allowed the broken MMG team to self rally and join the right hilltop defence! The good news was the Marine radio malfunctioned and was inadvertently pushed off the Steep Hills without a shot! The Koreans kept close with the Marines but their concealment were getting rapidly stripped by the insane firepower.
The Koreans reinforced the Melee on the left hilltop but that fight continued. Well placed Marine star shells prevented us from getting too feisty in the open when the Marines had -1 leaders in choice places.
The right hilltop unfortunately saw the Americans got their act together and blew some of our troops away now that most of the sticks and branches we held up for concealment were decimated.
The left hilltop finally got that Melee over with. The star shell situation convinced the North Koreans to stick with their Concealments as they pushed to the right. It was a mistake as I have only 1 MPh left.
Over on the right, the shot up Koreans were rallied by their fearless Commissar to have one last go. We finally had a DC bearing squad in position to launch a DC hero but the union cited personal safety concerns (the boys sat back down for more tea and cake). The Marines consolidated into solid chunks. We got a Melee going anyway which kept some of them from shooting.
Bob came back from his bio-break and the chaps quickly volunteered him to be the next DC hero. Someone suggested the moniker ‘The Flash’ but they decided that might not be entirely auspicious. So Bob went off screaming, the Marines opened up and Bob was practically doing the Matrix bullet time all the way up the hill! He was about to dive into the Marine foxholes when he tripped on an empty coke can, smacked his head against a rock and died. Bob did cause enough distraction for the rest of the band to move up to CC position though! Some of the Koreans got close enough on the left side of the hilltop as well when CC time comes around.
We couldn’t clear ALL the HDPs at the end though. Plus you know what? It wouldn’t have mattered. A HIP’d fireteam popped up from a hex the left NK team never checked and reoccupied the left hilltop.
`Ah well.
The top board has the second most restrictive terrain. The German convoy enters via a restrictive channel for a third of the board and the terrain opens up before leading into bocage country again for the last half of the board. The temptation is to start shooting at the Germans as they come out of the first third of the board but the openness will allow their guns to gang up against our tiny blocking force. I decided to duck further into the bocage with a HIP’d baz team, a Sherman and an MMG. Hopefully the choices for the Germans are either to come through to us one at a time down the channel or risk bogging and underbelly shots crossing the bocages to flank us. Forces were deployed along the road and a HIP’d baz team is on the bottom of the map since I suspected the Germans would be tempted to flank us along there.
On the top board, our Sherman backed off into the sunken road, escaping the 2 German AFV’s sitting behind the bocage. Unfortunately, they decided against coming over to chase after our lone Sherman! The sheer weight of the incoming halftracks/ armoured cars got our infantry on the hill to start thinking about heading back. They did have a few open top vehicles in the proximity so we tried to light up a few more.
The Germans need to get at at least 12VP at Game End to win. VPs are earned by occupying buildings on the right half of the map. Each VP corresponds to the # of ground hex locations a building occupies, the exception being the long wooden rowhouse which is only 3VP and not 5. This being early in the morning, there’s a +1LV for the entire game. The bocages are Light Bocages, meaning they are half height obstacles, don’t throw a blind hex behind and are not as onerous to cross. A particular evil element to note are the few Up-Slope hexes in the German setup area that allows them to look beyond the Light Bocages.
From the left of the map, F Company immediately started to setup their MMG and got their fire teams to probe NK concealments. The E Company came up from behind and a bit more than half went for the right of the map. The AFVs rolled down the road but the higher level Burning Wreck that’s there on setup made it a little hazardous to roll up in front of a ROF3 AT gun. Plus it’s impossible to be on the boulevard without being in DI’able range. I thought the right of the map would be a more straightforward travel but it’s confining nature made it easier for the NK defenders and didn’t facilitate armour support. By Turn 4 it’s evident that the NK’s were very effective there. A large number of broken fireteams routed towards the rear. The BBQ tank and the tank dozer lend their support on the left and found they could safely sneak shots into the boulevard. The left side met some initial set backs but were able make better progress. The AFV’s were making Bounding Fire shots where possible but they couldn’t bring it up close in most cases because of the chance of meeting Suicide Heros in Street Fighting. The strategy was to try to flank the NK’s down both sides while putting AFV fire to defenders down along the boulevard. 
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