ANZACon

On the ANZAC Day long weekend up to a dozen strange figures slithered out of their holes and gathered at Ashburton Public Library for ANZACon 2010. A good time was had by all and I didn't weep too much at my defeats. Herewith the record of my miserable attempts at ASL relevance.

Ultimate Treachery

The first scenario was Ultimate Treachery pitting Japanese against French colonial troops who had so far ridden out the war without doing much in the way of fighting. The scene was Hanoi, 1945. The Japanese had first and second line squads, machine guns, mortars and an awesome 10-1 leader to direct their assault. The French came equipped to fight 1939s war in 1945. They had a mixture of first line and green squads plus some machine guns including a heavy. But wait, is that...? Could it be? Yes a mighty FT-17 clatters forward. The French are saved!

I couldn't resist the opportunity to command possibly the most hopeless tank of World War 2 so I took the French leaving Murray with the Japanese. The Japanese had to capture 45 out of 74 building locations and only had five turns to do it in. I planned my defence with care. Actually I planned my defence with my usual incoherence and wishful thinking. I divided my defence in two. South of the road BB9-BB1 I arranged my speed bumps, all the green squads, a lmg and the French 7-0. Their purpose was simply to die. To force the Japanese to spend too much time grinding through them. North of the road I set up my first line troops with the hmg and 8-1 in DD3. A squad with mmg anchored the defence at CC8 the ferocious FT-17 occupied BB1.

Murray set up kill stacks in V9 and W10 opposite the row house where just two of my squads (plus the lmg) lurked. A diversionary force of Japanese set up to the south to split my defence. Unnecessary since my defence hadn't really been planned with anything specific in mind. The Japanese spat fire and the mortar WP (which I had forgotten the Japanese had) and he launched his first assaults. My green troops held up nobly for one turn then fled but sufficient of them returned to the fray to slow Murray down. Adding to my chances it started to rain and smoke went out of the equation. Turns two and three were a grim battle for the buildings north of the town with my green troops charging into close combat when possible. Green troops and Italians are made for close combat although possibly nothing else. He took casualties but I took more and by turn four he had closed up to the road and my real defence zone. The rain became torrential as Murray prepared his final assault. A little sting went out when my mmg stack killed the 10-1 and even the FT-17 got into the act as it was parked near a stairwell hex Murray desperately needed to gain the second floor of building Y2. Finally though the Japanese swarmed over my defence and strolled through endless FPF shots to snaffle 46 building locations by game end. I was left weeping with nothing to console me but a dead 10-1 and a live FT-17.

Road to Buin

The next scenario was Road to Buin. After all the overlays were added I have no idea what board we were using or even what direction I was attacking in. Nevertheless I decided to take the attacking Australians, largely because I couldn't remember what panji stakes were meant to do. As it turned out that wasn't the only thing I forgot. According to others a charge up the left hand side of the board might have been successful but my opponent, Cameron, had set up his defence with that in mind so I went up the middle.

I sent a small group sneaking up the skinny jungle on the left hand side of the board while the bulk of my force attacked on the right on both sides of the stream. My target was the patch of jungle my side of the stream near one of the victory locations. The first enemy I discovered was the 37mm gun set at the top of the left hand jungle I was sneaking along. I sent a squad to deal with it but they staggered back in bloody rout from a thoroughly predictable minefield. Henceforth the left flank would simply be a pinning force. On the right I made good progress and was challenging for the clump of jungle that was my target. I ran into his pillbox (fortunately pointing in the wrong direction and another squad defending my approach route. Here I made my first (but sadly not my last) mistake. Eager to clear out his onboard defence before his reinforcements arrived I charged two squads into close combat with one of his. Shortly afterwards I had two dead squads for a mere Japanese half squad in return. My right hand position was now shattered and was reduced to making scary noises while praying desperately for reinforcements.

My carrier trundled on and dropped off an officer who started fiddling with the knobs on his radio. He eventually got the artillery into action but the only result for the entire game was to wound the 37mm gun crew. Another squad discovered the 120mm gun set up to cover the victory hex in a very painful way. Where the hell are my reinforcements? Actually I had forgotten them. Halfway through the Japanese turn 3 I realised I should have brought my armour support on in my previous turn. Cameron was very kind and allowed me to bring it on on turn 4 by which time I had to send them to shore up my disintegrating right flank. Cameron's reinforcements were flowing on filling the small holes I had made in his position and things went from looking bad to looking hopeless. When my infantry reinforcements came on I decided to take desperate measures. Sending the newly arrived troops to cover the right flank I crashed the matildas across the stream and charged for the ford while what was left of my starting OB challenged Cameron's position in the jungle.

In an interesting demonstration of how things can be different "on the other side of the hill" Cameron felt sufficiently threatened by this attack to take a desperate risk of his own. Gathering three squads of reinforcements he stacked them with an officer and charged them straight into the stream. They laughed off my defensive fire, broke a squad in advancing fire and then advanced into the jungle. My infantry attack, such as it was, was over.

Slow but unstoppable my matildas lumbered forward shrugging off 37mm hits (the 120 lost AP on its first attempt). Eventually I had three tanks around the victory location with one turn to go. I allowed myself a faint glimmer of hope. Then it all went to hell. Swarms of tank hunter heroes charged in from all directions and I had no infantry left to stop them. All three tanks went down under a sea of Japanese bodies. Two games, two losses and Saturday was over.

Race for Freedom

Sunday came and with it an opportunity to shoot horses. I was playing Neil Andrews (henceforth to be known as the bad Neil). I had defended once and attacked once on Saturday so I decided it was time to defend again. I took the Germans and started setting up my scanty forces. A quick glance at the board convinced me that bad Neil would make his attempt at either the left or right edge of the board rather than struggle through the forest in the middle. I therefore divided my forces.

To the left went the 8-0 leader with a squad and lmg in DD4, a half squad and mortar in EE7 and another squad just for laughs in DD6. Over on the right where I expected the main attack to come I placed the 9-2 a half squad and the MMG in J5 with squads in H5, F3 and B6. The three armoured cars I placed on the road in the middle of the board to step in wherever needed. At first things seemed to go well. Bad Neil did indeed focus his attack on the right side of the board but unfortunately stopped, dismounted and unloaded his gun one hex short of the one I had bore sighted. He eased a force forward on the left as well to keep me honest and tried to sneak a squad or two down the extreme right board edge. I moved two of the armoured cars over to back up my defence and bad Neil's cursing as his atrs hit but failed to penetrate their armour was music to my ears.

Sadly in the only effective sniper attack of the game he recalled the other armoured car which left my defence on the left skimpy. I really needed to bring some troops over to the main attack but didn't feel I could while he still had some forces on the left pinning them down. By the time I had bitten the bullet it was too late. Despite the failure of his atrs bad Neil ground me down with firepower and eventually took out an armoured car in close combat. With my defence in shreds he easily slid past the required exit VPs now reduced by a mangled armoured car. Sigh! More defeat but at least someone named Neil won.

Loonies and Leicesters

This was my favourite scenario and not just because I actually won this one. As readers of the above might guess I achieved that happy result more by good luck than good judgement. No it was the lunatics wandering around that gave this a little spice. The scene; a mixed batch of Germans defending a collection of buildings with the assistance of a StuH 42 SP gun. One of the buildings was a lunatic asylum and the battle was made more awkward by the inmates wandering around the battlefield. Points would be deducted for loonies killed. Owen took the defending Germans and I was happy to be the attacking British.

Owen set up with most of his force in building E8 with a 447 in K9 as a tripwire. He had the 9-1, squad and mmg in H7 and another squad in D5. The StuH 42 lurked modestly behind E8. I decided to charge most of my force along the southern board edge hoping to brush aside the lone 447 in K9 and set myself up for an assault on the main building with plenty of time to spare. To keep him honest I sent a small force (including my PIAT toting hero) backed by a sherman to enter on B0. This diversionary force struck its first problem when it turned out that the German squad in D5 had the panzerschreck. Cheerfully eating the backblast (as I would have done myself) Owen fired once and half my tank strength was a greasy pyre of smoke. The supporting infantry survived by moving very slowly and cautiously (sherman driver take note). The other tank trundled down the road in support of my main attack and dumped smoke into G8. While a squad and lmg infiltrated through the timberyard and hopped into the gully.

Unfortunately for my big attack the lone 447 proved to have delusions of heroism. Sternly taking 20FP attacks without blinking it held me up for an entire turn and when I eased a squad past it I didn't check LOS efficiently enough and that squad (plus the 8-1 and and lmg) were wiped from existence by his mmg stack. I was advancing along the gully and inching ever closer to the StuH but my main attack was stalled and at that point my remaining sherman ran out of smoke. In desperation I charged it forwards freezing the mmg stack in VBM thus allowing my other units to move. This was the beginning of the end as my main force swept forward and my gully squad hopped out and started mangling the mmg stack. Once it was down the tank lurched forward and did the same thing to a squad in the main building allowing my troops to fight their way in. Victory for Neil and I only killed a squad of loonies in doing it. In parentheses it should be noted that while Owen's dice were fine for most of the game they let him down badly in one respect. Four times he rolled for panzerfausts while I was doing my idiotic VBM manoeuvres and four times he was denied. My tank antics were an act of desperation and I fully expected to be crushed. However fortune favours the loony (except the ones I killed of course).

So there we are; four scenarios and two days of great fun. Much thanks to Joe for organising it and all the guys at AGS for the usual great welcome.