ASL Diary Episode 2: RB3 The Bread Factory

Dear ASL Diary,

ok, I'll admit that the cliffhanger at the end of episode 1 was not 100% open ended - I only started writing it when I knew I had already pushed some real counters around at least once. Unfortunately I did not think of taking photos from that first ASL session in many years, so a text summary will have to suffice.

Although I had read through most basic passages of the rule book during the last few months I felt really rusty and thought that a solo playthrough of a simple infantry only scenario might be a good way to reactivate the few synapses in my brain that still remember some ASL rules stuff.

On short notice I arranged to get a table in my favorite game store (Spiele-Pyramide in Karlsruhe) to give others a chance to take a peek at the game, too. It turned out to be too short notice for anyone to join explicitly for this event, but maybe someone will at least come across the announcement in the future and notice that there is some hardcore ConSimming to be had there.

To show off one of the graphically nice historical maps I chose one of the small standalone scenarios from the original Red Barricades historical module, scenario RB3 Bread Factory #2.

The Soviets set up mostly towards the South and Southwest, with the medium and heavy MGs in the central buildings. They fortified the Eastern one of the VP buildings and one hex of the three hex building in the center of their position, and used the trench to connect the VP buildings with this three hex building (in RB trenches allow direct access to adjacent buildings).

Consistent with my usual playing style, the Germans advanced slowly behind the railway embankments. In the South I had the officer with one 4-4-7 in one building and the elite squad with DC in the other. Unfortunately the elite squad broke under fire and when the officer went berserk per scenario rule, in turn 3 in this game, he found himself alone in close combat with one Russian halfsquad.

He was then reinforced by another German officer, but he also lost the squad accompanying him before reaching the building, so the Soviets had an easy time defending their buildings.

The ROAR entry for this scenario shows it somewhat in favor of the Germans, so I guess I need to learn to be more aggressive with my units if VCs are control based.

Overall I liked the scenario, it seems to offer both sides an opportunity to attack resp. counterattack. It also served nicely as a way to come across all typical events and rules for infantry fighting in constrained terrain, brush up on the RB special rules for terrain and generally get a feel for the game. So looking at why I pulled it out it's a neat "Mission accomplished" for this refresher game.

For the next few games, also to introduce a few new players, I have a few scenarios from an old Heat of Battle Firefights pack. These are very small, played on beautiful scenario specific maps and show off some special rules like snow / winter without becoming too complicated.

ASL Diary Episode 1: A New Hope

Dear ASL Diary, sometimes people start a diary when they set out on a journey even though they don't know how far they will get. Maybe you will be a documentation of failure, maybe you will become a nice account of the rediscovery of a great game I haven't touched in a long time. Time will tell.

For the last few years my ASL collection has been gathering dust in the basement (the usual story - no time, no space to leave games set up, no opponents, and too many other easier options for the limited gaming times I manage to find).

However, about a year ago or so I discovered an ASL podcast, and just as I am probably spending more time listening to Magic the Gathering podcasts than I spend actually playing that game [although I do play Magic occasionally], I spent a lot of time listening to past episodes of the 2 Half-Squads, a podcast that hits just the right mix of topical discussion, information, fun banter and the occasional offtopic excursions.

I have still not caught up with the most recent episodes of that podcast (I'm currently listening to episode 61 and the most recent one as I write this is #76). But listening on a regular basis brought my mind back to a lot of ASL stuff, reminded me of a lot of half (but apparently not completely) forgotten rules lore and at least made the thought of pulling out my old ASL rules binders again a thinkable one.

And then a few months ago my regular games shop (Spiele-Pyramide in Karlsruhe), who knows my gaming preferences well and is good at suggesting stuff that suits my tastes, told me that they came across a distributor who can supply them with ASL stuff. So I wrote a huge email suggesting a hand full of items they might want get (starter kit, rule book, Beyond Valor and another entry level set and one or two more recent publications), and they have a copy of Starter Kit 3 and the Festung Budapest historical module available now.

I re-read the basic chapters of the rule book in June/July and started looking for occasional opportunities to play. 

Future episodes of this diary will show whether it worked out (and if there are none, it didn't :).