ASL AAR: A Long Way to Go

David and I got back on the learning train yesterday afternoon for another round of "figure out how to play ASL." We're very novice still, but have spent time recently re-reading and watching demos.

When the rubber hit the road, I selected the scenario "Along Way To Go" based primarily on the fact that it is all-infantry with very few support weapons - exactly what a we were looking for. David opted for the Germans.

I deployed my two platoons thusly. The half-squad behind the paratroopers has the 60mm mortar. The other half-squad is a "goalie" reserve. Pretty embarrassing reserve, I know. The Germans would have to cross a lot of open ground and a literal killing field to get off the south map edge.

The Germans began a cautious advance but one squad was caught very early by my 6-6-6 platoon in the location circled below:

Even with the hindrances between, the stack was quickly run off and David completely re-thought his attack plan.

Fighting settled in at the "top" edge of the map for a few turns as the HG troops tried desperately to quiet my Yanks long enough to make a dash for it. They did manage to kill the mortar crew; the psychological effect of that little gun was enormous. You can see that one stack did attempt to run the gauntlet but was just hammered and had to fall back.


By the end of turn 4, the writing was on the wall for the Germans and David settled in to attempt some kills. He did manage a few kills on the airborne troops, but had very little chance of exiting units from the far table edge. Final score was 8-4 in favor of the Americans. Flag, Rock and Eagle!


David and I used the same two dice for the entire game and I'm here to tell you, his rolls, particularly morale, were consistently higher than mine. ASL favors low rolls. He did have his moments, such as rolling snake-eyes on a "2" column shot against my mortar, but overall I think fortune favored my hands yesterday. We both really enjoyed the game and we'll certainly be playing more.

Oh, and I finished up 20 more French infantry during the week.

That's 48 down!