Grand Tactical Series Wiki Live

Ty Snouffer has done it again and is proving to be a huge asset to the GTS community. He's started a wiki:

Go check out the wiki at http://bit.ly/gtswiki

Here's Ty's video explaining the wiki:

Decision at Elst DaE1 Ambush at Hopp AAR

Played my first game of ASLSK in a long time. This was also my second tank game. This is great solo and practice game. 3 Squads, each with a PIAT, and leader are hidden as 3 Tigers approach the town of Hopp. Germans win if they have >=1 Tiger remaining after 3 turns with at least their Main Armament still functioning.

Spoiler alert, they just did it. Last moves, two Brit squads rushed the tank and were then dispatched with the anti-personnel mines show out from the Tiger. Nasty business.

It was a fun game and reminded me why it's so much fun.

For example, the pic above shows my first ever shot with a PIAT is a critical hit, Tiger taken out!

The above picture was taken so I could post a question on FB about the rules. This definitely brought up tons of rules questions. I wish these rules were electronic. I could then search them and find the answers.

This picture does remind me: This squad's PIAT broke on it's first shot and then was fixed in the next turn. The Tiger's Main Armament also malfunctioned in the same turn, but was soon fixed. That Squad's PIAT then broke and was never fixed again. It took them 3 times to pass their PAATC to get into the hex with the Tiger. They then broke and casualty reduced when the Tiger's anti-personnel mines went off.

Picture at game end. See that MG on the right. The Immobilized Tiger shot their main armament at them and the leader died. The squad then failed their first morale check and then seeing their leader die, checked morale again and they suffered a reduction in quality. They then tried rallying and casualty reduced to nothing. I'm missing a step in their sad story, but suffice to say it was a bad series of rolls.

So what started out so promising for the Brits, turned very sour, very quick.

Next up, the second scenario in the Decision at Elst game.

MMP Valentines Update

The latest in MMP news.

I like the sound of the new East Front ScS game, and all the HASL (historic ASL) stuff coming out.

The Greatest Day Unboxing

Purchased MMP's The Greatest Day. It is part of the Grand Tactical Series and is designed by Adam Starkweather.

http://youtu.be/BONwwbN-KFI

ASL Korea

Another announcement today -

http://www.multimanpublishing.com/Products/tabid/58/ProductID/333/Default.aspx

I'm actually looking forward to this. Haven't studied Korea much. I have a Dvd series that I guess I will now watch with renewed interest.

The Mighty Endeavor II, September 11-20, 1944 AAR

September 11-20, 1944 Turn 10

2nd Free French Armored were the first to roll through Paris, the citizens were ecstatic. They rolled on to sit outside of Charlons-sur-Marne.

Allies - Struggling a little with how to handle supply lines etc. I can isolate some units to the Southeast, but it won’t matter because they’ll be out of supply.

Le Havre is now surrounded, Beauvais fell and now units are North and East of that town. Amis rolled to the outskirts of the long forest that runs North to South outside of Langres. A heavy group is outside of Langres. Couldn’t attack though because I don’t have enough strength to attack there this turn.

Would like to narrow the front a bit to stay West and North of Vosges to the Channel.

South-Little bit of progress on the front. Made a hole in the lines. Plan is to starve out the Germans in Marseilles.

Germans creating lines of defense along road to from Somme to the North, to St Quentin, Reims, Salons-sur-Marnes, Langres, to Belfort.

12SS rebuilt and put into defensive line. Holding our own in South. Will extend defense around Marseilles in the next couple of weeks.

The Mighty Endeavor September 1-10, 1944

Sept 1-10, 1944 Turn 9   

Allies - Crossed the Siene by destroying a small training unit. Taking town of Rouen. 9th SS Armored Division destroyed (D3R3 Result)

Made a lot of progress to the East. Approaching Troyes, Shalon-s-Saone and Dijon.

I want the units near Shalon-s-Saone to move to the East to block supply for the units down South.

Down South the attack went … “south” and resulted in an A2 result. 1 Airborne Task Force destroyed. Aaaargh. This is going  to be a tough nut to crack.

Germans

2SS Armored rebuilt and sent to Paris. This will probably be the last turn i can use Paris to place replacements.

Movement, I fell back out of Paris. Let them have it. Otherwise I risk losing 3-4 units. I’m reinforcing LeHavre just to attempt to keep a port of their hands longer.

In the South, I’ve set up a 4 hex wide defensive line that will slow them down a bit.

The Mighty Endeavor II August 21-30, 1944

August 21-30, 1944 Turn 8

Allies - supplies are hurting. Southern part of North France attack for Amis going okay. River line along Loire is looking pretty good and is now clear to Orleans. 4 Armor units try to exploit into Orleans - repulsed.

Southern Front, two German straggler units eliminated. Free French lose a step. They’ve turned their attention to Marseilles.

Germans backed up behind Seine. Will stay in Paris and duke it out - to slow them down and take advantage of ZOC.

Down South, Spreading out defenses to slow down potential flanking maneuver.

Allies are behind schedule (pronounced shed ule).

The Mighty Endeavor II August 11-20, 1944 AAR

11-20 August, 1944 Turn 7

Allies - South Beach landings on both beach hexes on either side of Toulon. No battles for they were uncontested beaches. Put the French  on the bigger Eastern beach because they have more units to bring on.

Also used the last invastion to land north of Caen, mainly to act as a supply port for the Commonwealth forces.

Port of Brest taken, but because of the lack of construction workers, it won’t be ready for 60 days. Not cool.

St Naziare taken without commandos.

There are some nasty Germans infantry from the 276th just East of Angers giving the Amis trouble, but they’re close to being surrounded. (German note, retreat to fight another day.)

Big news for the Commonwealth - 10th SS destroyed Northwest of Evreux, opening up a gap in the German lines. (German note: Perhaps it’s time to retreat to the other side of the Seine.)

Another gap made when the FJ division in 30.09 was dispatched.

Supply lines are thin. Thin. Thin. Just enough supply rules to keep it interesting for me.

Germans in North retreated back behind rivers and Paris was filled up. German units are kept on the flanks to slow down the allied movement.

In the South, the Germans have reinforced Marseille with 39 defense factors. Other units are spread out to protect flanks. Another German is moving down to reinforce Bordeaux.

Allies are actually behind schedule. I’m not even close to being where I need to be to launch Market Garden...if i would want to do something like that.

Whoops just eliminated our picture of the map at the end of turn 7.

A different kind of Madness

It's march madness time and I've got it, but not around basketball and brackets

My descent into the Abyss continues. First Doomed Battalions, now this. As I've said before, I'm trying to pick up modules as I see them, new if possible, and then used - if reasonable (meaning no Armies of Oblivion). 

Next up? New ones will be Yanks and BV (reprinting when?). 

I've got a lead on a copy of VoTG and Pegasus.

I don't know when I'll open these, but it's fun getting them and anticipating the clipping and sorting that await me.

The Mighty Endeavor August 1-10, 1944 AAR

August 1-10, 1944 Turn 6

Port of Lorient taken on the peninsula. Troops outside of Brest threaten the town for the next turn.

Rennes taken as well. St Brieue and Lannion also taken.

As allies I wonder how to keep the lines intact and the best way to split forces.

Looked at some books and maps for ideas. It looks like we’re ahead of schedule. Except for the attack in the South. I think I’ll attack two beaches in the South and one more up North to get more units and supply up there.

Need the citation for this map

I like the idea of using the Loire as a division line or extent of operations to set up a defensive line. In addition, I’ll use te Loire to point me in the general direction of of Troyes, Langres, Belfort to the Rhine. I’ll need to launch a Southern attack to draw some German defenders and to get more supply.

Need the citation for this map

Speaking of that - all my beach ports are gone next turn. Lorient comes into effect on Turn 11.

Anthony Beevor DDAY inside book cover.

Germans are looking at the Seine as the next line of defense. They’ll use the river that is 2 hexes to the West as the first line and then back up slowly. I’m a little more curious how to handle the big open spaces to the south between the St Nazaire and Orleans.

The allies will need to worry about supply in that part of France.

Brest defenses are OOS, but since it’s a fort, they won’t need to surrender the next turn.

The Mighty Endeavor July 21-31, 1944 AAR

July 21-31, 1944 Turn 5

Brits destroy 2SS. Caen taken back. 12SS Destroyed. 17SS destroyed. (German now rethinking strategy a bit. Kev, please send the book to Todd Reed 73….) 77 Inf Div destroyed.

Ami side of things: US 3rd Armored reduced and 28th Inf Div destroyed in failed attack against the stubborn 158 Inf Reserve Division. (Rolled 2 on a 6:1 attack - that’s an A2 result.) But fortunately the 353 Inf Division wasn’t so stubborn and went down south of Avaranches.

During exploitation, the Amis go after the 158 Inf Reserves and at 4:1 get an A2 D1 result, so 4th Armored is destroyed and they only lose a step. Wow.

Germans move back in the Commonwealth sector to the river just to the “West” of the Seine. 3 Pz SS divisions. There are a few infantry divisions coming up to slow them down a bit, but it will be just a bit. The Brest Peninsula is pretty barren as well.

Fascinating game. I’m usually quite good on defense. I’m not so good here as the Germans.

The Mighty Endeavor 2 July 11-20, 1944 AAR

July 11-20, 1944 - Turn 4

To make up for a missed move in turn 3, I moved that Lehr division and the 116 Arm Div into that 28.05 hole (I forgot to exploit.)Also moved 2SS up a hex.

Brits destroy 12SS, freeing up the Beaches a bit. Caen taken.

2 Canadian Armored in an expoitation is taken out by the 711 infantry div (who are also gone) but that’s a huge loss for what I got out of it.

Avaranches is taken.

2SS and 17SS are close to being surrounded.

Brits isolated units after an overrun in 28.08 and then suffered a D1r1 result. I took the loss to 11th Arm as a step and then eliminated them to ignore retreat result.

Need to figure out the supply and attack supply rules, this will come into play now. Just like in real life, supply will begin to be a stretch for the allies as they break out. Nicely modelled.

Basically Germans moved others into position to slow down the Amis from getting over to Brest and opening up another port too quickly...if that’s their plan... (which it is.)

Can’t decide as German if it’s best to slow down Allies by sacrificing Armor or if I should be pulling back. I’m thinking it’s best to battle them in the bocage. This may really hurt me.

Play note: this is tough playing such a strategic game solo. I’ve come up with plans generally what I’m trying to achieve like the Germans slowing them down in the bocage. However, as the battle spreads out now, I’ll need to make more complicated strategic decisions. For example, I’ve brought up the German 11th Arm from the south (based on a die roll) to slow down the Amis. When I came to a crossroads I rolled 2d6 comparing rolls and if the colored was higher they would protect the Brest side of things. Otherwise I would’ve taken them up toward Avaranches.

When it came to deciding if I would pull them up from the South, I decided it would happen on a roll of 5 or 6. It did and I moved them up.

The Mighty Endeavor II July 1-10, 1944 AAR

July 1-10, 1944 - Turn 3

Allies - 7 Air points for the Allies. Nice. Rebuilt reduced 5th Armored Division. Called in my one Carpet Bomb in 27.06 to unclog the British Beaches. 7:1 odds...result D2R2 - could’ve been better. But I’ll go with it. Little bit of Progress through the bocage. I’m anticipating a counter attack against the Guards units that have progressed passed the Orne in 28.06. Exploited 4, 5, and 7th Armored Divisions to take Granville and push the Germans into Avaranches.

The Allies need another port.

Germans - plan to keep on to keep clogging up the bocage. However, big question, do I move 12SS back on hex to make my counter attack against the Guards a 1:1 or do I move the reduced Lehr back to 29.07 and the 84th back to Caen and Leave 12ss threatening the beach? I did the latter. So attacking 1:1 and the result is [A1]D1r1. Great result. When the Germans get the brackets, they don’t have to take the loss. But now that I look at it, there’s a gap in that bocage. Oh bother.

The Brits choose to “No Retreat” because they don’t want to lose ground in the Bocage and they will have to take a loss anyway because they would have to retreat into an EZOC...so they hold their ground.

The Mighty Endeavor 2 July 1-10, 1944 AAR

July 1-10, 2944 - Turn 3

Allies - 7 Air points for the Allies. Nice. Rebuilt reduced 5th Armored Division. Called in my one Carpet Bomb in 27.06 to unclog the British Beaches. 7:1 odds...result D2R2 - could’ve been better. But I’ll go with it. Little bit of Progress through the bocage. I’m anticipating a counter attack against the Guards units that have progressed passed the Orne in 28.06. Exploited 4, 5, and 7th Armored Divisions to take Granville and push the Germans into Avaranches.

The Allies need another port.

Germans - plan to keep on to keep clogging up the bocage. However, big question, do I move 12SS back on hex to make my counter attack against the Guards a 1:1 or do I move the reduced Lehr back to 29.07 and the 84th back to Caen and Leave 12ss threatening the beach? I did the latter. So attacking 1:1 and the result is [A1]D1r1. Great result. When the Germans get the brackets, they don’t have to take the loss. But now that I look at it, there’s a gap in that bocage. Oh bother.

The Brits choose to “No Retreat” because they don’t want to lose ground in the Bocage and they will have to take a loss anyway because they would have to retreat into an EZOC...so they hold their ground.

ATS or ASL, That is the Question?

I was asked on Google+ why play ATS instead of ASL. My answer, though a bit of a waffle.

The ATS Armor rules are slightly easier. Rules are "only" 74 pages (2 column). Biggest reason, impulse turns instead of the more detailed sequence of play. New initiative rolls during the 3 phases of a turn. Plays a little faster.

There are a couple of ATS players locally which is nice. But there's also quite a set of ASL players as well.

The ASL rules seem more stable (on v2 with errata for sure) while ATS is on 4.4 and has undergone big changes to various systems throughout the years.

Some thoughts on the issue. It's a tough market for him. There's a complicated tactical game out there (ASL) and it's the go to game for the reasons I mention below. If someone wants an easier game there are better (ie easier, more accessible, etc.) to choose from that are also less expensive and easier to get. So why would one choose ATS?

I say all that as I'm considering getting some more ASL Kit as well. 

ASL is more popular and more players can be found around the world. 

ASL is better supported by the fan base. ATS is slightly more expensive (I've not done math here, just eyeballing it.)

Critical Hit can be tough to understand. But the couple of times I've emailed Ray(owner) and bought from his site, the experience has been fine. I know there are a lot of strong opinions of him floating around the web. He definitely has his detractors.

I'm riding the very expensive fence at the moment.

The Mighty Endeavor 2 West Front AAR June 16-30 1944 Allies

The Mighty Endeavor 2 West Front 2015 Play

Turn 2 June 16-30, 1944

Allies - Cherborg taken and it will become functional in the next 2 weeks! (IE rolled a 1 and it will be ready the next turn. A German unit in the Cherborg Peninsula is causing problems for the US and will hopefully be taken care of the next turn. They're surrounded, so there is little hope for them but to surrender.

St Lo taken.

British having trouble on their beaches facing down 2 Panzer Divisions, with 2 more in reserve in Caen. Will use airpower to full effect. Perhaps the US can surround them to weaken them.

SCS The Mighty Endeavor 2nd ED Western Campaign

Started my first game of MMP/The Gamers' SCS game, The Mighty Endeavor, 2ed, 5.1 Western Scenario.

June 6-15th Allied turn

Holy guaco, both US airborne divisions are gone. However, they did reduce the one lone German Beach division and then a small group in the bocage.

The US then took out the German resistance and took both beaches.

The CW forces landed SE of Caen and were able to take out the small garrison force and now hold Caen. The CW landing troops had no resistance.

In the follow on turn, the Allies brought out no trucks.

The beaches have a limit on the number of troops available to land on the beach and then have a larger number for the Shipping Phase (in this case 4) later on in the turn. Normally, only 1 unit is allowed to use a beach port. Now all three beaches have 6 units on them. At the end of their next movement phase, they need to insure they don't have stacking issues.

Middle of Turn 1 June 6-15, 1944:

​

GD '42 MMP TCS AIC?

GD '42 by MMMP (Multiman Publishing) of their TCS game system (Tactical Combat Series)... AIC? (Am I crazy?) 

This is my first attempt at this system. We'll see how far I go down this rabbit hole. Kev and Lee have some videos on it. Mainly AARs but there's something to be gleaned from them. Also, there are a couple of long form blogs that follow campaigns. I will link to those another time.

My first steps were understanding LOS (I'll use simplified method.), get the pieces out for the first scenario, 4.1, and play around without the Op Sheets until I get a good feel for the mechanics and sequence of play. But I definitely want to try the op sheets. I think this is a good concept for any gaming to keep you focused. In addition, I think it might be a good thing for solo gaming.

Bastogne Battle for Neffe, Mageret, Longvilly AAR

SCS Bastogne Scenario 5.2

Germans need to take the towns of Neffe, Mageret, and Longvilly in 3 turns. Plan is take the KG 902 Division from Niederwampach to attempt a capture of both Mageret adn Neffe in Turn 1 before the airborne troops enter in turn 2. The 77/26 VG will follow them to hold those towns as the KG will need to be used to take Longvilly in turns 2 and 3. 78/26 VG will hit Longvilly, mainly to threaten the town. I don't think they have what it takes to overwhelm the forces there.

Turn 1 18 Dec 1944

Germans - Success! Neffe and Mageret taken in turn 1. Wall of KG await the Airborne. During Expoitation, 7/130/902 was able to begin whittling down the outer Western defenses of Longvilly. However, the 26VG attack to the North of Longvilly saw defeat as US Arty did it's job of taking out a SMG Co. The rest of VG stayed a hex away to keep from getting barraged. Attacking will be tough because you can only have 2 steps worth of units in a hex and all these units are attack of "1" and defenders are at least 3 or more.

Turn 2 19 December 1944

US - Brought in 501 Airborne to attempt an eventual retake of Neffe. Swung the bulk to the North of the German lines in a plan to trap one or two units. I think I'll simply concentrate on taking Neffe back. That will be a draw.

North of Longvilly, Co A Armored took out the las SMG of the 26VG.

Germans - Neffe and Mageret reinforced with VG. KG 902 moved out to attack Longvilly from the West.

Pz Gren made it into the WEstern part of town. In addition, three arty units were dispatched. Feel pretty good about holding Neffe and Mageret. Not sure on taking Longvilly. Though there's only one hex to take. Cautiously optimistic.

Turn 3 Dec 20

US - Poor planning on my part left the Amis without much attack options to clear any of the towns. It was basically up to C/482/CCR to hold the Eastern half of Longvilly. Let's see what happens. 

Germans - Success! Barraged, like crazy the unit in the Easter half of Longvilly, with 7 different arty units, hit them one time for a DG and one step loss. Germans then sent in3 units from KG 902 and one from 26VG, successfully rolling at D1R1 result which was exactly what was needed to clear them out and then to advance into town. German Major victory.