3D Military Art

A fair few of you will be aware of my hobby crossover into Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) especially the sniper reminders that have popped up on occasion. However it came full circle when a friend asked me if I was prepared to paint up a trophy for a new ASL tournament he and another friend were organising. At first I was resistant having turned down the chance for doing the same for Heroes a few years ago.

However Martin's enthusiasm got me to waver and eventually I went from a bit negative to fully onboard. We actually got the idea from concept to basic positioning fairly quickly. From there it became a case of tinkering as we went.

The setting is somewhere in France 1940 as the Germans tear their way through the allied armies on the way to another blitzkrieg victory. Martin wanted African colonial troops to be depicted and even beat me to finding the Senegalese infantry that Warlord supply as a boxed set. I then added the tank and crew also from Warlord whilst Crusader provided the French ATG and Black Tree Design had the German casualties I wanted.

The rough idea actually changed little once I started to paint the bits up. Above was the photo I sent to Martin for his thoughts. To be fair he more or less left me to my own devices, never saying no but giving encouragement in line with his own preferences.

I had bought extra crew even though it comes with crew. However my plan was to have the tank knocked out so needed to make changes to the crew member bending the arm down and cutting some of the figures side and stomach off to allow him to be draped out of the turret. Not something that would have worked with the plastic figures that were too set in posture.

Crushing the gun was a bit of a challenge as the shield comes in two parts. In the end this was actually a bonus as it allowed me to bend one half out of true but still link the two parts to the barrel and trail.

I commissioned Warbases to supply me with two special sized MDF bases so I could play about and see which would work the best. Given the price I was charged it was a no brainer and even though they had a show literally days away I got the bases so quick I did not have to break stride. I wanted the MDF base so I could do all the basing and not have to worry about making a mess of the wooden plinth it would eventually be fixed to.

I also had to convert the standing and kneeling crew of the ATG which for the most part was a case of cutting bases off and filing one side of the figure down so it could be painted and then pressed down into the basing paint prior to sanding. I also made shells and empty shell cases out of cocktail sticks. I also made a ammo box with a couple of shells in it.

I added a little damage to the tank via a glancing strike on the turret (tap drill scored mark) and a pair of drilled penetrations. The killing shot though was registered to the side of the drivers viewing slit.

I also added some cast aside weapons from a German sprue again Warlord Games, also added other scatter such as a cast aside helmet and the guy who is seen with the LMG near him has a ammo belt around his neck and ammo box beside him. I added Games Workshop Stirland Mud into the areas I had scraped the basing paint marking the path of the tank as well as on the various parts of the tank you would expect mud. Finally adding some gloss varnish into the trail and parts of running gear etc.

The total cost of models etc but not paint came to £95 so added up quite a bit as I went on but overall I was really happy with the effect and would be happy to do more such bases in the future.

I always have a number of games of Advanced Squad Leader going at any one time. These games are played via email using a platform called VASL. Strange how a game that relies on fairly constant interaction  between players can actually work in this manor. 

I actually am playing ten games via email at the moment but here I will concentrate on just the six I play with my Australian opponent Rob. Each log had something interesting happen and as all the scenarios are from different periods of WWII  as well as different environments I thought I would share them here. I can't think of a single other game or rule set that can cover this diversity.

1st September 1939 Poland. My three Polish armoured cars had already bested three German counterparts though I lost two of mine and malfunctioned the main gun on the surviving AC. The German attack has stalled but Rob has a safe location to rally some of his broken squads. I go into close combat with his covering half squad roll snakes which kills them instantly. As I rolled double 1 I get a leader creation roll gaining a 7-0 leader and get to advance out of the hex. I took advantage and moved next to that safe hex forcing the broken squads into disruption and making their rally much much harder.

3rd September 1940 China. The Chinese Government troops and the Communist Red Chinese (CCP) had formed an alliance to fight the invading Japanese. The CCP had left the Government troops to do most of the fighting whilst husbanding their forces. This changed with the Hundred Regiments Offensive. Here Rob is again on the attack and fighting through jungle into a village. The Chinese start with a 2:1 advantage but the Japanese get more troops half way through the game. 

I made several Banzai charges that weakened one flank of the two attacking columns. Part of my force is made up of dummy units so Rob can not be too sure where my main defence is. I had a stack of three counters that could be a unit, a unit with a MG or leader or fake. Rob went with fake and put a crew next to them with the intent of moving into the building the following turn. The unit was real, I passed on firing in the firing turns and stayed in position until the final move section of the turn where I advanced into close combat and being concealed managed to get a straight ambush killing his crew and slipping back into the building still concealed. Rob now knows the unit is real but still does not know what it is and if it does indeed have a support weapon.

11th May 1943 Tunisia. I as the attacking French and American's need to push through a deep defence comprising of both Italians and Germans. At no point do the Italians and Germans have a strong force to use as a blocking force. Rob needs to draw back as many of his troops as possible whilst using the scattered forward units to try to slow down my advancing troops. I have a mix of American armour and some British Valentines in French service and some of the obsolete Somua S-35's. Infantry are supplied by the French in a mix of British and captured Italian trucks. 

Both sides lost some tanks with a number of them brewing up and with wind suddenly starting the issue of smoke slowing me down and causing hindrances to firing threatens to throw my attack off track. 

5th July 1943 Kursk Russia. I have the Russians defending with five AT guns all of which have little punch. Helping me out is a group of bunkers backed up with barbed wire and a mix of AT and AP mines. I have plenty of infantry 13 squads and 14 crews with three T34's arriving at the half way point. The Germans don't have a massive advantage in infantry but turn up with 11 tanks, three of them early Tigers! 

I failed to do much against Rob in the early turns but my hidden ATG's started scoring kills once he had passed them and they fired into the rear of his tanks. However a burning tank in the same hex as one of my ATG's hidden in a wheat field has set the wheat on fire and I now have to either try to push the gun out of the hex which will probably get the crew killed or just leave the gun. I can of course also try to put out the flames before they fully take hold.

7th February 1945 Buda, Hungary. The German war effort is in tatters. Hitler ordered Budapest to be fortified and held till the last bullet. By February Pest had already been captured and the German and Hungarian garrison squeezed into an ever small area. Ammunition and food was scarce and the last bullet could soon be a reality. This scenario is fought on a historical map of Buda and lots of the buildings have sections of building rubbled making some interesting shooting opportunities. Snow lies on the ground making some movement more difficult and the fighting is very close and personal. The axis have to be careful of which shots to take as a high roll can cost them guns and support weapons and even reduce squads in quality to simulate the low levels of ammunition on the frontline.

16th April 1945 Iserlon, Germany. A motley mix of German infantry from elite battle hardened veterans to newly raised conscripts defend in a city with a good assortment of mg's and three Jagtigers. Facing these is a large American infantry force well armed and four heavy self propelled assault guns. I as the attacker took advantage of the low morale of the Germans and took prisoners wherever possible. Soon I was finding the prisoners to be quite a handful as squads were having to be taken out of the fighting to guard them.

Lots of fighting around the Jagtigers with many a shot bouncing off the sides (no chance of penetration from the front unless via a critical hit.In the end I took the most troublesome one with a bazooka shot. The defence is cracked but still resisting, it really does feel like a last stand.

I had a nice bunch of presents today for Fathers day and then we went out to spend the day out and about. The original idea was to go to the park but that was hit on the head as it's closed due to a rock slide! 

Instead we went for an ice cream and a walk along the shops and the kids wanted to go into a shop selling various collectables and well junk. 

I was looking in the military memorabilia with a mix of British WWII Medals and cap badges etc when I spotted what I assumed was a replica of the Cholm Shield. Especially so as it was listed at £10. I actually left the store but decided that it would look cool attached to my dice tower and went back to buy it.

My interest was stirred because I have the excellent ASL module on Cholm by Le Franc Tireur (LFT) and I though this would be an excellent prop to have lying around when I play some of the scenarios or campaign.

Imagine my surprise when I took a much closer look and found it to be the real deal. Two variants of the badge exist, one with three pins holding the back plate in place and another with four pins (mine). Also note the H has the line across the uprights is lower than the middle, this is also a variant as it's available as both on specialist auction sites. The four pin, lower bar version seems to go for about $1500 in the States. 

The cloth background is available if Field Grey (Army and SS), Black (Panzer) and Blue (Airforce). Mine looks really fresh from the front but if taken off the badge shows some staining under the rear plate so I think it's been turned round to show it's best side.

So a really good find that added to what was already a great day.

4th July 1944 as the Germans continue their offensive at Kursk, here a strong combined arms force has to batter it's way through a well defended and dug in Russian force. Set away from more than a handful of buildings this is open country, lots of room to manoeuvre where smoke and lots of machine guns are needed to keep the Russians in the bottom of their trenches whilst Stuka's hunt out juicy targets.

I continue my journey through the Crucible of Steel pack by Bounding Fire Products with one of the larger beasts. It even warrants two sides of a scenario card, yep it's not suitable for an evening play. It's the type of scenario I like to reserve for a bank holiday game with James but this was PMEM with Rob. Me as the defending Russians and Rob as the toy rich Germans.

I don't think anyone do big scenarios as well as BFP and Crucible of Steel has plenty of them. Now some folk don't like third party providers whilst others just assume no one can better MMP so why look at them. Boy are you mistaken, the golden boys of not official ASL can supply as good as MMP can. I love the games I am playing from AP9 To The Bridge and Festung Budapest is fantastic but the last two packs by BFP are as good/better and LFT's historical packs also can stand side by side with pride. It does not stop there, plenty of other TPP also are producing excellent scenario packs and no one does historical mini modules better than Lone Canuck. So if you have never tried any of these I suggest you take time to tread the various AAR's I have of these providers and check out other reviews and AAR's as your missing out on so much ASL goodness.Back to the plot, the Germans get 30 squads some set up on board whilst the rest arrive through the first four turns on the 8.5 turn game. Three HMG's two MMGs and two 81 MTR are part of the on board troops so from turn one they can lay down a fair bit of fire, especially as they also have a 9-2 leader. The Russians though are not without teeth of their own with 27 squads at start, a pair of HMG's and four MMG's. Add to this a dug in T-60, two 76L ART one each of 45L and 45LL ATG's and a 76* INF and what turned out to be an excellent 37L(8) AA  and I had a formidable defence. Two 1+3+5 bunkers, nine trenches and as many foxholes as I could die in all wrapped up with eight wire 12 AT mine and 48 AP mine factors and I could plan a nice defensive hedgehog. 

The Double Wide boards that come with Crucible of Steel are excellent semi open country, this scenario uses two of these and two other normal CoS boards and this really gives a great feel of attacking/defending in this type of terrain, something that has been difficult to reproduce on previous Geo boards.

Scenarios of this size and choices need a good deal of planning so you need to put a lot of thought into your defence. Given the shear firepower of the Germans I knew I needed defence in depth but I also knew I needed a few turns of grace to allow me to force the Germans to take risks towards the end of the game. No way can you or should you plan to hold out in your at start positions, that is playing to the German FP strength.

The German's have four reinforcement groups, one of three StuG's, another with three Marders then six engineers squads with flame throwers, demos and trucks to get them up front with a AA halftrack for protection from my turn five FB. Lastly another twelve squads in yet more trucks and AA halftrack support.

Rob started off as it was to go through the first few turns with some heavy fire generating slightly below average results. His best moment was when one of his three Stuka's saw and killed my dug it T-60 but I paid him pack downing another Stuka with my AA gun. My front line was mostly covered with a cloud of smoke, added to through the first three turns as Rob choose the AFV's for the first two groups laying heavy smoke on the left hand hills but a steady loss of smoke ability eventually freed my units from the smoke and this is when they started to take a beating from the SPG's as Rob sent all six against this hill, however I just cycled new units back into the forward trenches and rallied the broken squads. This was also the tale on the right hand hill though in most cases it was cycling back in half squads and ELR'ed at that as the three HMG stack with the 9-2 leader was really taking it's toll. 

However whilst I was losing units at a steady pace I was also picking off his squads and my flanking 45L was working through the Marders. Indeed casualty wise the German's had the best of it through the first 2 turns but the next tow were swinging in my favour.

Rob's decision to lead with the AFV's started to have a negative effect at this point, his smoke was about used up, his firepower was starting to drop off but he had hardly moved forward from his start positions whilst I was still for the most part defending my forward posts, and longer than expected.

This was the point of the first major push as he used the two at start half tracks and the StuG's to freeze my most vulnerable squads and moved infantry up for some point blank fire. In all cases at worst I was pinned and Rob then joined me in melee. These for the most part dragged on and whilst in the end he was to kill all the defenders I was able to kill a number of squads and both halftracks either from close combat or firing into the hexes. By turn five Rob had to move with the threat of my Fighter bomber that picked on his moving trucks causing a number of casualties including one engineer squad and flame thrower. Rob continued to be aggressive with his StuG's forcing broken units to remain under DM and even running foul of my own mines giving up their locations. However this was to cost him all the StuG's one to a rear shot from an adjacent ATR rear shot as it desperately turned to face the 75L ART on the adjacent hill. This StuG was to be the cause of the large fire in the grain and whilst it forced my troops out of the trenches was to prove a great help in forcing the German's to take a wider route.

A AT mine took out a truck and squad as they approached the first line of buildings on the far right, buildings I had been forced to retreat from by massed fire but still protected by the AT mines as I had expected some of the tanks to take this route which they did not do. I unhipped the second ART when the HMG kill stack moved through the open just a couple of hexes away but whilst I broke a squad failed to do the damage I had hoped to do. It did however loose Rob another turn as his troops had to stop and deal with the gun. 

More successful was the 75INF taking out the last StuG with a rear hit as it stopped adjacent to the gun. The first shot was a critical hit as it span round and fired. It then saw off several infantry attacks as Rob tried to force his way round the flan, the gun protected by a wall of fire.

Rob never got infantry onto the smaller hill, the AG's that made the heights were taken out by the ART and AA gun whilst the infantry were mowed down as they closed to the hill. I came close but never quite ran out of infantry to push into the forward trench. He was more successful with the larger hill but the AA gun on the small hill was able to break most of the infantry moving in the open with it's flanking fire. 

As time ran down Rob through all he could onto the large hill and towards the small one but all this was in the open and good rolls meant almost all were to break on the way in with yet more troops being KIA'ed adding up a lot of negative VP for him.

In the end Rob called it at the end of his turn eight movement, too few squads left and as far away from the victory locations as he had been at the start of the turn.

The end positions, the AA gun is next to the malfed ART, yes it never rolled high enough to loose concealment! I think Rob could have done with at least one of the truck mounted infantry (the 12 squads) earlier, especially as he was keeping the right side defenders under a hail of effective fire. The small hill did end up being a dream position allowing quite a bit of interdiction of the Germans as they tried to take the large hill. The HMG on the top of the large hill went through so many changes of Russian troops that I visualised a pile of bodies filling the trench around it. Apart from some early good shots it's main contribution was fixing a large number of German units in place firing at and breaking it's troops but keeping the German force in place.

A great scenario with lots of reply, but due to size and so much HIP (fortifications are not revealed) I think it will get less play than it deserves, such is the lot of large scenarios though VASL was made for games like this. 

One of the packs I am playing through from start to finish is the excellent Blood & Jungle by Bounding Fire. This pack is all Pacific Theatre of Operations (PTO) and covers battles within the jungle, around airfields and even in towns and cities. This scenario is one of these city fights set in Shanghai.

Known as the first Shanghai Incident in which a series of confrontations led to a full scale assault on the 5th February 1932. In the event the Chapei district of Shanghai had been barricaded and that with the narrow streets made the effective use of armour by the Japanese almost impossible. Whilst gains were made it was not the expected result and the Japanese Army had to send further troops to support the Kurume Navel Infantry Brigade. Could I do better as the attacking Japanese?

The scenario uses the more cluttered half of the first Double Boards produced by Bounding Fire which is a joy to play on even if it did make using tanks a nightmare. I would need to capture five multi-hex buildings towards the rear of the Chinese set-up area. To do this I had eighteen second line squads (not the usual troops one expects to start the game with), a couple of MMG's four LMG's and five tanks and an armoured car. Rob had just twelve squads at start, five of which were conscripts. He also had two 75* ART guns, two HMG's and two LMG's. He also had eight dummy counters and as I started off board all units were concealed. To help keep the tanks at a distance two roadblocks and six trench locations were in his OOB. Turn five (of 8) would see five squads and two tanks arrive.

A quick word on the tanks, only one of the eight AFV's had a main gun larger than a MG and that was my Type 89A Chi-Ro with a 57* a real tank killer amongst these tin cans. Even a LMG can take out a tank at this point in time.

Both Banzai and Dare Death are not allowed in this scenario so I can't do any close quarter charges into melee and Rob can not got Berserk to do the same to me.

I was able to get a good starting position for my infantry and make large fire groups to start pushing the Chinese away from the road I would need to cross. At first I kept the tanks back to save them from close assault and limit the risk from the MG's taking them out or immobilizing them. My advancing fire and defensive fire of the following turn created enough gaps in the Chinese line that I was able to get units across the first road without too many casualties and no squads destroyed. 

The Chinese HMG's are 5pp guns meaning they were dropped when the squads were broken. So fast was my advance that I had to leave these behind as I was continually trying to get behind the Chinese defensive line. This forced Rob to leave his positions in the centre as I moved up his flanks. It also meant that he was losing broken troops for failure to rout. I was taking them prisoner at this point to make sure I got the maximum out of breaking Rob's troops.

Rob brought one of his guns out of hiding but failed to get any decent results as he missed my flanking tanks and lost the gun to a Intensive Fire shot as he expected it to be overrun in the following turn.

By the end of turn four I had most of the victory buildings in my hands whilst only a couple of squads were still in good order from the original force. The second ART opened up missing a sitting target and again lost to an intensive fire shot as I moved to take the gun out in close combat.

I finally mopped up the last resistance in the victory buildings on turn six before the reinforcements could get to the buildings. By this point I had overwhelming odds and Rob needed a few breaks to go his way, kind of breaking the trend to this point. However I was able to shrug off most of his shots whilst a MMG took out one of his tanks and I continued with heavy fire into the troops preparing to cross the street and try and recapture one of the buildings. The Chinese started to melt away from my attacks which were just getting stronger as I brought up yet more troops as they finished mopping up the last of the broken original force. 

After prep fire Rob threw in the towel as he now was down to two good order squads and I was poised to DM his two broken squads that had a chance of getting back for the last turn.

It was a good scenario with plenty of chances for the Chinese to turn back a few attacks but the combination of Japanese squads not breaking and my large fire groups with low rolls meant Rob was on a back foot throughout the game.  In the next scenario from Blood & Jungle it's the Chinese who are attacking.

Normandy France 6th of June 1944. British commando's held the village of Lion-Sur-Mer early in the day on D-Day when they heard the sound of engines and clatter of tank tracks. Typical of many Normandy villages the buildings were made of stone and were formidable defensive locations. Just as well as a mixed force of infantry and self propelled guns had been ordered to take the village back.

British advantages, High firepower and morale troops, Hidden troops until three hexes away, PIAT v thin armoured vehicles. Good cover and open ground to fire through.

British disadvantages, Greatly outnumbered, only one MMG, facing 150MM HE SPG's

German Advantages, numbers, nearly three times the British at start force, three 150mm SPG's with ammo lorries to keep the guns supplied.

German disadvantages, Poor ELR with second line troops with too much open ground to cover. No clue what or where the British are positioned.

German's win with multi hex building control, set to a timetable that forces them to attack fairly quickly.

I set up as the British and actually made a fairly large mistake in not adequately covering the Northern (top) flank. However I had loaded the most isolated location with two and a half squads and the MMG. I figured this would be attacked in force and if it fell the buildings to the rear would be easy pickings as I would have nothing behind to stop them.

Showing no troops at the start of the game is not common, indeed it actually had both of us in fairly uncharted waters and it was to have grim consequences for one of us.

As expected Duncan went in heavy against the isolated southern building whilst trying to pin me in the middle with a second large force and the smallest force went for the northern flank. This attack was playing to my strengths whilst allowing my set up mistake to possibly amount to nothing serious.

Whilst the first shot from a half squad failed to effect the first troops in the south the MMG when it opened up caused a great deal of harm. A rate tear saw one and a half squads and the only leader in the area killed another two broken and one squad sent berserk. This squad in the following turn was reduced to a half squad and killed in close combat. The SPG was a real danger but I managed to destroy the ammo truck that was following behind stunning the crew of the SPG. Without the ammo truck the 150mm gun was bound to run out of ammo which happened before it was able to do any damage. The attack in the south first stalled then was turned away with no loss to my troops.

In the middle the Germans were making some progress and forcing me back towards the victory buildings and I had a a few breaks but even with two working SPG's Duncan was unable to get decent shots and again he was waiting for the loss of this support when I forced the last ammo truck to be recalled do to SSR. I was confident that I could hold the centre till at least mid-game, all depended on that northern flank.

I had accidentally given a route into the outskirts of the village that was not directly covered. Duncan being unaware of the position of my troops was not aware that this route was open and so was attacking slower than he needed. My only available unit in position was only able to pin one squad but fortunately Duncan was to move towards this unit rather than run round him. This allowed me to start to reposition a squad from within the village towards the threatened flank. I did not dare risking breaking the one covering unit so rather than risk moving through several hexes just assault moved with the plan to advance into a better location in the advance phase. That was put paid too when the squad was pinned in defensive fire. However even that worked out for me as the unit was only in a wooden building and as such drew more German troops towards it rather than moving away and behind. By the time it became clear it was my flanking unit I had managed to get a second squad in position to fire on the advancing German's in the open. 

At this point Duncan conceded as he had few troops in good order whilst I was due reinforcements that would finally close the door on the flanking move and the centre was firm enough to hold off the Germans until reinforced. A mix of bad luck on where Duncan attacked and ridiculous lucky rolls by me handed me the victory. On checking after the game 25% of my rolls was 4 on two D6, in a game where rolling low is a good thing and you are often firing with -1 and -2 shots due to open ground (-3 for the leader lead MMG) it was going to slant the game my way far more than skill could ever do.

The Germans lost seven squads so 50% KIA whilst I just ended the game with a half squad and a leader broken. 

End positions, Duncan tried moving a squad through the grain on the southern flank but even that was cut down. The map shows me about to advance into the two hex building next to the CX German squad. By the following turn I would have another three squads and leader in that area as reinforcements making sure the single squad would not be able to get further.

Converting to a figure battle. Plenty of open ground would be needed as the attackers need to suffer on the way in. Balance the troops so that the Germans have quite a few more than the defenders but have them of low quality and low on leadership. You may have to have special rules for the SPG's these are PzALrS(f) a 150mm gun on a old French chassis and should be slightly slower than a PzIV. Again special rules that allow the trucks to be ammo trucks and if they receive shooting that has any effect at all they drive back off the table unless destroyed. If the truck is destroyed it needs a chance to explode causing damage to any adjacent units, treat as a Goliath going off if you have rules for these.

The commandos need to be hidden until the Germans are within close range then they can be placed on table, this should make the German player to have to plan without the information most needed and if you have enough terrain on the table allow for some fun situations where the British pop up and start blazing away.

My regular Saturday night opponent and I have been playing a lot of PTO and as such wanted something a little bit different and so went for a scenario that had snow! The great thing about ASL is that it has so much chrome that you can put together scenarios for almost any situation you like. 

In this case it's in Russia at a village called Verkhne-Kumsky on December 13th 1942 and depicts an attack by the German Panzer Regiment 11 as part of the relief effort for Stalingrad. The Russian 5th Shock Army was directly in the way. In this scenario it's just seven squads worth of infantry with just one MMG, two LMG's and an ATR, so much for the shock element. I would receive three T34 M43 tanks as reinforcements on the second turn (of 6 turns)

The German force is no better off with just three and a half squads with the same number of MG's. However they have mobility being carried into battle in three Hanomag's with a 4th smaller halftrack and five tanks a mix of PzIII and IV's. Infantry and tanks on both sides are in winter camouflage and all the buildings in the village are wooden so best cover will be +2.

To win the German's have to clear the centre of the village of Russian infantry and tanks whilst the Russians just need that one tank or squad alive and in good order to win the game.

Duncan moved up close daring me to take a shot, I did and that was my first mistake. Failing to do any damage and losing concealment I was to suffer in the return fire.

I found myself in a in for a penny kind of situation and in short order had fired all squads that had a target, all with the same lack of success. I only had to suffer the German armour for my first turn against my infantry but the two 4FP (Fire Power) mg's each tank had was enough to put me in trouble as more squads broke.

The German turn two saw Duncan scoot his tanks into firing positions to await my tank support. Meanwhile the infantry with the aid of the halftracks started to reduce the last of my infantry within the perimeter, The halftracks are especially useful for cutting rout paths and it became clear early on that I would have to win the game with at least one tank surviving to the end of the game and to do that I needed to take out some of the German tanks if not all of them as they get the last half turn.

By this time I was well behind the curve and it was still very early in the game. However I definitely failed to bring my A game and lost a tank to some fairly dumb play. I then positioned my two remaining T34's in to defensive positions hoping to out shoot his poorer armoured tanks but another really bad moment of paying attention saw me put a T34 so it was between two Panzers so had it's rear exposed.

The bonfires on the map tell the sorry story as by my turn three I was tank less and my infantry was out of position.

I have two unbroken squads and a leader, the only support weapon is a malfunctioned LMG, the two squads on the right are broken and will either be killed or captured in the upcoming German tun. It was post Rally of my turn I conceded knowing further resistance was futile a flip to the actual events.

My play was a mix of risky and sloppy, something that rewards you with a quick exit in a game. The decision to fire early could have worked for me, I was hoping for slightly better than average luck and forgetting the German's had a morale of 8 meaning I would need Duncan to be slightly unlucky if I got just a bit of luck. ASL does not reward such needs that often and this game reminded me of the vast difference between morale of 7 and 8, it's not just a pip.

This scenario would convert very easily to miniatures, if 20-28mm I would recommend cutting down the tanks to 2 Russian and 3 German and a pair of halftracks. Infantry wise keep to the same number of squads and make the German's Elite and slightly heavy on SMG's or LMG's. 

I have decided to post my ASL games in my general blog rather than just my ASL blog that is just not getting any of my time. I hope to also post in that blog as well but we will see if that works out.

I have been playing through the scenarios from Action Pack 9 with Duncan and it's been a blast so far. Up to this point I have drawn the British with their terrible ELR, prone to disrupting when failing their morale tests. It's a testament to the scenario design than with this happening I have managed to win the scenarios all of them tight finishes.

AP86 has elements of the Gurkha Rifles (elite)  and 4th Burma Riles (1st and 2nd Line) trying to stop elements of my Japanese 112th Infantry Regiment (1st line) and Burmese Independence Army (partisans) from either exiting 6 CVP off the top (north) edge and or causing six more CVP than received.

We both set up independent of seeing the others set up and then diced to see who moved first. I took a slight gamble by positioning myself adjacent to where the British could set up and sure enough we did have a few squads next to each other but the way I had set up would allow me to effectively split the defending force it two.

Duncan seemed to recognise this as he declined to contest the cactus hedge that separated our forward troops. Instead he slowly moved these troops through the long grass (Kunai) keeping his units hidden. Troops in the centre moved faster as he tried to get his MMG onto a hill to the rear. However the troops on the left flank were to move slower and this would allow me on turn one to start to infiltrate between them and the other troops.

Once this was done I had quite an advantage and quickly started to break and then kill the British units as I isolated them one or two at a time. By mid game I had a good point cushion and was still able to keep the now severely weakened enemy falling back in front of me. 

I was able to pull off a Banzai charge, though it cost me a unit I was able to take out the last troops that were in position to block the majority of my troops and again allowed me free movement. I then relaxed a little too much and almost allowed Duncan back into the game, so much so I was starting to get distracted by it. 

Even so I pressed on and by the end of my turn 4 I was in position to take the win the next turn. I got one squad off the board which was worth 4 CVP and just retreated with the rest into a position Duncan could not close and regain the lost CVP's, a rather gamey way to win though it was very unlikely that he would have got his points back if I stood my ground.

End positions, the pieces off board are the squads etc. that were killed in the game, quite a few as is normal in a PTO scenario. Quite a fast scenario that could be played in a single session, though we took one and a half sessions and a fair bit of chat. I recommend it, not to many PTO rules and SSR's are reasonable. A good scenario for the less experienced PTO player.

Around a month ago a new Advanced Squad Leader product was released by Le Franc Tireur one of the best third party providers for ASL. The pack has had quite a journey, original concept and board artwork was done in America, the project then found it's way to the UK where Dave Ramsey got the boards turned from basic from to true works of art and then set about getting scenarios developed. This is where I got involved and with just a couple of scenario designs under my belt that were done for amateur publication I had a go at designing for a much higher spec. 

The packs globe-trotting did not end there as LFT is a French company and the printing of the pack was done in the Pacific (I think Cambodia). Scenario designers have been a good mix of nationalities as well.

The pack contains seven new deluxe boards almost doubling the number of boards available for DASL and being all rural really adds to the possible combinations for fighting in the country. Will well over 100 regular geo-boards Deluxe was well overdue fresh boards. Deluxe uses oversized hexes making the clutter of high counter density far more manageable. The boards were designed with PTO battles in mind so of course I designed a scenario based in Normandy. Worse still it also used one of the original Hedgerow Hell boards. 

I am guessing most of the readers now have a scene running through their heads of Sherman's fighting their way through Bocage whilst a lone German soldier stalks it with a Panzerfaust but hold your horses, it's set in 1940 and the tanks are little tin cans and the shoemaker is still intent on well shoes.

So what's it like having something professionally released? Very nervous, how well will it be received? If it's not a good scenario you get to know real quick. That is if it gets enough play. The pack contains 12 scenarios and I was not the only virgin scenario designer in the pack so I know we would be under close scrutiny and already one scenario has been labelled a dog though it's receiving a lot of support to make changes to make it work as it's a cracking idea.

I only know of one playing and it received a good reception that hopefully will get it more plays and it certainly makes me want to do more. It's got me no hot chicks yet but I am told it's pair for the course once your a name, maybe after the next design?

All the figures were actually painted during the Painting Challenge and even based, just the German base needed finishing as I did not have the stones to do it. It became THAT PROJECT, you know the one that sit's just off the desk out of site for months unloved , untouched and almost forgotten. Well I sent the kids on a mission and they did me proud.

These are 28mm Africa Korps by Black Tree Miniatures and my friend is a big fan of ASL played in the desert. I wanted to add something that was very much in keeping with ASL. He has quite a collection of my Sniper Reminders so I thought I would go deluxe (bigger base). The difficulty in digging foxholes had to be solved by building walls out of piles of stones or Sangar as they were called. In reality these are rather large to be correct but I do like the look of them.

These were also more often than not built to cover all directions but obviously not always. The stones start life grey in colour and I have just drybrushed them in the two yellows that I add to the brown of the base. I reason that the stones would not be the same colour as the ground but would have a fine coating of sand given the way the stuff got everywhere.

Good old PVA holds the whole lot together and as I drybrushed after the sticking no tell tail signs are left. You have to love PVA, far to good to give to the kids.

I still think the standing guy is too wooden, also if he fires that rifle from that stance I am thinking he will be lucky not to end up on his back. I think he is probably new to all this war thing as his stance is poor, his rifle is not tucked into the shoulder and worst of all is stupid enough to stand up making more of a target of himself.

All in all I am happy with it, hope he likes the finished article.

This one I am more pleased about and it's the look I had in mind from the start. The idea was infantry charging through a mixed defence of wire and mines and I bought the wire about two years ago but never got round to buying the figures until about nine months ago.

To get the correct effect I had to attack one of my mine counters from ASL and make a sign, this is perfect as it says Mine in German. Given that I have two sets of basic counters for ASL I think I could spare a counter for the cause. 

I really like the way I finally did the wire with the breaks for the troops to rush through, it's one of those were everything you thought of comes together perfectly.

I was at the local library when I saw pictures in a book of wire strung on poles, not curled but criss-crossed. This was a strange idea for me as I assumed all wire was curled. As the book was just images of the Desert War I could not resist using it.

So I will be giving my mate these later today when I see him. I should get a game in as well so hopefully he will be distracted enough for me to take the win.

OK the Painting Challenge has now come to an end and we can all take a break if we wish and I guess think and blog about other things. I'm not painting anything tonight, simply because I am off out to celebrate a couple of mates Birthdays, oh and mine too  ;-)

I always get either a lot of hobby related stuff or money, well this year it's been a bumper crop. I just thought I should brag blog about it and say a big thank you to all my family who have plied me with goodies.

Proper brush cleaning soap which I believe is really good and much better than the liquid one I have which I suspect is doing more harm than good. Why bother you ask? A clue at the top of the image.

The luxury gift that Cath got with the soap was four Series 7 Winsor & Newton brushes ranging between 1 and 000, have yet to paint with them but I have had one out of the tube and it's got a great balance. Really looking forward to trying them in anger. I just need to make a few changes to my paint rack for position then I will get at them. I still have a few new Rosemary & Co brushes and will continue to use them as they are great brushes but I really wanted to try these as well. I think they won't make up the bulk of my painting time but will be used for all the fine work and finishing.

I also have some cold hard cash which in part needs spending on some new paints as I am running down on a few and want to look for some more different colours. I also will be splashing on more Baccus when the infantry come out and need more bases and.....

Lets just hope I have some left in time for Trilpes.

I guess the fact that I have been back home for four days and not posted gives you an idea of what it was like. I actually did better than I thought, though it has left me really tired and struggling to get up in the morning. Hopefully by the weekend I will be recovered. Was it worth it? you bet! I plan on doing a full report on my ASL blog sometime soon as more than fluff here would be wasted I think.

Well I did not need anything I did not take and it's fair to say I also did not need most of the things I did take but it's great to have it on hand just in case.

I used plenty of different national counters including the Japanese and Chinese but not the Italian's or French, I even got the black SS counters on the map. Map boards of course was used with a wide selection but none of the map sheets got on the table though as mostly I played the smaller scenario. Next year could be the year of the map.

I learnt I was doing a couple of things wrong whilst showing another very experienced player he had been getting another rule wrong. I also played a good player who had only played a few others in the past and was getting a number of rules mixed up which really highlights the need to play as many opponents as possible.

The best part of the weekend was connecting with old mates not seen for three years and making new friends along the way. Too many good guys not at the event but hopefully they will be there next time. In fact attendance was down on last time I was there which is possibly a blessing from a space point of view but again hope the figure goes back up a little at least.

I got in nine games which is a fairy respectable number given that I made eleven the last time but James managed to get thirteen games in over what was effectually three full days as we arrived Thursday lunch and left about the same time Sunday. Anyone who has played ASL will know what a massive achievement that is and is in fact the record for games played at a UK tourney and whilst he played two scenario's that were quick short games he also played a couple of five hour games and did not have a lot of time off the clock. Next year he plans on playing a game or two with plenty of meat on them.

Well in just twelve hours I will be packing the last items into the car ready to get off to Blackpool for Heroes, a Advanced Squad Leader Tournament that pulls around sixty players of the old Avalon Hill boardgame. Not everyone though joins in the tournament, they either play monster scenarios that will take four days to play or lots of smaller friendly games. Not that the tournament tends to be played in a less than friendly manor most ASL'ers are an amiable group with laughter coming from all sides.

I am one of those none tournament types and plan on playing smaller catch games all weekend and given that my nephew is also doing the same as well as Martin or swearbox as he is known in our house I won't be short of opponents.

So as I packed the car earlier I considered the amount of kit I was loading and thought it might be worth listing here.

Over 100 boards, the playing area is made up of these 8x22" boards can be as little as half a board or upto and beyond five of them

Eight paper historical map sheets that cover such places as Stalingrad to Normandy, I have a lot more but only taking what I need.

Thirteen boxes of counters, or shall we say THOUSANDS of counters, all punched and none clipped.

About Fifty scenarios selected from over three thousand which made picking the scenarios fun in itself

Sixteen precision dice, these are Backgammon Professional dice costing about £5+ each but are almost perfectly square and balanced, ASL'ers are precious about such things.

Three sheets of plexi glass to put over the boards so the maps are fully flat (each sheet for different numbers of boards)

Devils Sperm to hold boards, plexi and overlays in place. Actually it's Museum Gel, specially made for holding exhibits in place and not leaving marks but my name is cooler

Custom made dice tower to add to the random effect of expensive dice

Every official overlay to change the board layouts (that's a lot)

Four Binders of Rules and lots of charts, boy does the game need rules!

Cotton thread for LOS checks (two spools as you never know)

Tweezers for getting counters out (Guns and Vehicles) again two pair

Pack of cards for off board artillery chits, yep that would be two packs (miniature)

Sniper Reminders as they are fun (and I hope to sell some as well as supply some for the winners)

Then I have to drive over to pick up James and he has to add the same again (well most items)

So are we crazy or what?

The French ASL zine Tactiques was responsible for a huge number of ASL scenarios and I have always wanted to dip my toe into them but with so many purchased scenarios waiting to be played I was always finding something else to play but after another successful game with Jon and a look on his play list with a note saying I really want to have a go at this Tac scenario......

Well it was not a big jump to playing it, especially as RAW had it dead even on a rather large sample of plays. I was the defender and immediately I was drawn to a few points.  Lots of turns (well it was on Jon's play list after all) the Canadians had a lot of legs AND a 10-2 leader. They also had a good supply of support weapons AND a 10-2 leader. OK I may have mentioned that leader twice but he does rather go with both points rather well.

On the other hand I was SS and was using the black counters so whilst I may not have the numbers I was SS AND Black. I also had stone buildings and a dug in tank which was set to dominate the approach. 

Weak points for the Canadians was that they would have to cross the open ground though their high numbers and 8 Morale was going to negate this a little but no matter what morale you have, KIA has no respect.

Weak points for the Germans is just the lack of troops, high morale is good but when you have only a few weapons with rate you can quickly run out of things to go bang, especially if the rate monkey is out to lunch.

I set up to defend forward of the victory buildings but also set up a fairly strong side force to force the Canadian's to either attack direct or waste time tacking on the side position or swinging even wider. Though 11 turns is plenty of time even if Jon did this.

Right fro the start Jon was whittling away at my troops, the +3 cover and 8 morale seemed not to be the barrier I needed it to be. Not that Jon cut swaths through my troops, just a little cut here and a knock there. In return I was causing far to small a loss as a soon to be familiar story of not even causing Jon to rely on that 8 morale. 

Not that it was all down to high rolls, no Jon certainly deserves credit for making good use of the terrain but more so the use of smoke. His mortars were dropping so much smoke it was like London in the sixties. Here the fatal flaw in my plans started to show through. The smoke made the need to go round rather redundant but the area between his flank and my flanking force was as clear as a bell and rather than threatening his flank this force was stuck unable to reposition for the defence of the victory locations. Sure they did break a few units but did not kill any units and was eventually wiped out having not added a single turn to the game.

By turn five Jon was in position to attack my main line in front of the VC locations, my flank force was gone and Jon still had far to many troops still alive. At this point the clouds seemed to part some, the choking smoke was somewhat reduced as the odd tubes was either out of smoke or the crews were broken and the Turret and supporting infantry was doing just enough to keep throwing back the half squads that tried to line up with the PIATS hoping to take out the turret. 

However the sun did not shine so long as come turn seven when I needed to be hot and Jon cold I was in refrigerator heaven and Jon came back at me with so much punishment he asked for me to capitulate. Now I don't want you to read this as I had bad luck Jon had good luck, that's not quite the case. Jon had to have average luck to grind me down over the next couple of turns whilst I needed to have a stellar run of turns to cut back his force that a chance of victory could be held onto.

Indeed Jon really had to be very unlucky by this point for him to loose the game, his 10-2 leader had a kill stack that had suffered the loss of a MMG when the crew broke against the odds but this then got a good dig back and I responded with boxcars of the morale check though simple breaking at that point would have been the same thing as it had no flank support.

If anything I got lucky on turn 7 as I could have hung around for another two or three turns as Jon just blasted me steadily to bits. No my problems were delivered turn two to five where I failed to get the kills in part to positioning and the desire to keep some units concealed and in part to smoke and poor rolls. 

End result I would say was 75% poor tactical play and 25% bad luck. You know you have gone wrong when you hope for good luck and curse the lack of it.

The flanking position is marked by the malf'ed LMG at the bottom middle of the image. At this point I had lost more troops than the Canadians, not a good place to be when your already out numbered. Jon on turn 7 would have been able to run past the last few squads I had in good order snatching the victory locations off me. Or if he had a mind simply flank my last resistance and move behind me, either way he had the win wrapped up within two turns so well played.

Regardless of result what was my feeling? First up don't follow my example, the idea that I could slowly work back to the victory area on the right flank was fatally flawed as they were always under threat of being cut off. The failure to do much damage on the run in did effect the enjoyment to an extent as each phase of each turn clicked by I knew I had less and less chance of winning. On the other hand part of me enjoyed the fact that Jon was moving ever more comfortably towards that win as he took the few chances he needed to whilst watching me subject myself to the dice gods.

It was my tie to take it on the chin and hopefully I did it with good grace, I am not sure I would choose to play again as either side but again with so many scenarios to play I can say that about a lot of them. It's enough that Jon will have had a right old time and as anyone who has played Jon would tell you, win or loose Jon is a joy to play against laughing at your misfortune or gains as hard as he does his own.