To No Avail

I’m standing around in the Ballroom checking out some of the other games going on, when a guy I haven’t seen yet steps up and says “You want a game?”

I shrug and say “Sure” and stick my hand out to introduce myself.

He shakes and says, “I’m Pete Schilling.”

Uh…Pete Schilling. Standing here shaking my hand. The guy who makes some of the best scenarios I’ve played. He asks, “You wanna playtest something?”

I follow him out to help him cart in some stuff and he hands me a couple of scenarios. I went with the shorter one only because my brother had to take me to the venue today because of his work, so I had to be ready to leave by a certain time. We dice for sides and he gets the SS, I take the Russians.

The scenario is called To No Avail, and has been through a few iterations according to Pete. It takes place in Stepankova, Russia on July 30th, 1943. After the Kursk action, a tired collection of SS, supported by some halftracks and 75 MM Guns on halftracks, roll into town defended by a small collection of Russian Guard units supported by a T34, a T70 Tankette and a 45 LL AT Gun. The Russians also get 3 foxholes, 2 fortified locations, 24 factors of AP mines, 8 dummy counters, 4 Wire counters, and one squad hidden in place. The goal is to defend a specific building on the map from the German advance, taking place across two map sections, mostly city fighting.

I begin my setup. A large gully runs across the entry map for the Germans, so I place the T34 and a squad with a light machine gun to screen the bridge over the gully. There is a one hex window on the side where he might pile through and miss the gully, but it seemed awfully crowded to me. I placed another squad on the far right with my only Anti-Tank Rifle, hoping to take a pop at a halftrack if I get the chance.


Falling back, I deployed a second line of squads in the city, making sure I had a clear path to fall back to the defense building. Wire counters cluttered the street in front of the victory building, leaving two paths through for my men, and bolstering those building hexes with fortifications. To cover a flanking assault, I mined the ground near the building, and placed the AT gun in a copse of trees to cover a long street that pretty much HAD to be crossed to get to the building. I wasn’t sure what to do with the foxholes, since they seemed out of place here. I considered putting the foxholes in a position that might help him, but then mine the hexes as a trap. In the end, it didn’t really look right, so I placed the holes out of play and ignored them. The hidden squad went with a 9-1 leader and the Medium Machine Gun in an upstairs location in the victory building, covering the approaches. I was fairly comfortable with the setup.

He deployed his tired SS on the one hex choke point that I didn’t think would work out all that well. The mob of troops advanced in a tight cluster, but I really couldn’t do much about it. The halftracks entered on the second turn, so I was forced to wait it out with my guys. My first turn resulted in one assault move with one squad, nothing else.

The Second German turn went well for me. I had one squad forward deployed with a Light Machine Gun, and he pushed hard with the SS. A fire lane went down, cutting off his advance, and the lane ended up causing some trouble. I broke a squad, continued to fire with the squad and left enough residual to clog up his advance. He ended up with a half squad in a position to jump into close combat (hand to hand is allowed in the scenario). He advanced in to CC, but then rolled boxcars, allowing me to withdraw and live to fight another day.

Meanwhile, the ATR wasn’t going to get a shot, so he bugged out and began making his way back to the main building. The T34 moved slightly to cover the road where the halftracks would have to pass. The T70 moved up to provide some support.

The Germans continued to advance, and the escaped Russian squad from earlier continued to harass them from good positions inside of buildings. The T34 had acquired a stopped halftrack, and I would have laced it on the first movement point if it tried to go anywhere. Instead, he stripped the armament and abandoned the vehicle, taking a crew and Heavy Machine Gun out with him. Fortunately, the T34 broke him with machine guns of his own.

Meanwhile, the Germans began to swarm towards the T34 to take it out in close combat. The SS had Anti-Tank Mine ability, so it was a threat. I caught an 8-0 leader and a full squad from across the map with the hidden Machine Gun, wounding the leader and reducing the squad to a half squad. He got to attempt the attack on the T34, but fortunately for me, the Mine Check revealed that the pockets were empty. The tank lived to fight on.

Moving ahead a bit, the Germans continued to grind forward, but I was extracting lives for the ground. The Russians faded back and stepped up to resist at the right moments, and I seemed to be doing the right things. As you can imagine in a city scenario, my tanks were constantly being engaged in Close Combat no matter where I went. Eventually, a squad managed to blow the tracks with a mine, leaving the tank stranded. Later, one of the halftracks with the 75 MM gun got the T34 with a High Explosive Anti-Tank round, but the tank had done it’s job, so it didn’t bother me much (I’m sure the crew felt differently).

The noose was tightening around the victory building, as you can see here. I managed to get most of my troops back into the building and settled in for the final assault. This is where it got funny.

I had two squads and an 8-0 leader in a fortified location, dug in and ready to suck up the firepower with a lot of protection from the stone building and the fortification. Sounds good? Then he took a shot that resulted in a Heat of Battle roll on my 8-0 leader. He went berserk, and the two squads obediently went berserk with him. Before I could yell “Hey!” the berserk guys charged out of the fortification, out into the road, making a beeline for the nearest SS troop. They wanted blood, and they found it. Pete rolled a 5 on a 36 -3 shot, leaving nothing but dead Russians in the street. Just like that, I’m short a bunch of guys. You know, we take the time to fortify these buildings so you can stay in where it is safe….not run out into the teeth of it. Sigh…

But on the positive side, the Germans just ran out of time in the end. The final turn required a mass push by Pete, and some good rolling left broken and dying SS all around the building. It was touch and go, but I managed to lay enough residual fire to keep everyone off of me.

My very first win at ASLOK comes against Pete Schilling! Even if it was a playtest, I am proud of the effort. Pete was a blast, and I had a great time with him. Great sense of humor.

That was the only game of the day, as I’ve been a bit worn out by four games in a little over two days. After resting up, I plan on trying to get three in on Tuesday.