Here is the promised AAR. It is about DASL A10 - "The Tiger of Toungoo" from the annual '92. Thanks to my friend Peter (he kept the notes I could redo this one).
INTRO:
Burma time, 23 - 347 Japanese squads plus three 448 assault engineers led by seven leaders (four of them -1 leadership, four of them morale 10), equipped with some nice toys (LMGs, 3 DCs, a FT and 6! foot MTRs with extra WP ammo fight the elite 200th Chinese division. That are 20 - 447 squads, 2 HS, led by four leaders one of them a 10-2 (General Tai An Lan whose nickname gave the scenario the name). These defenders have a HMG, some LMGs, two peashot MTRs, 16 dummies, two pillboxes two FFB-locations and the ability to set-up HIP 3 squad equivalents and, as usual, all leaders/SW stacked with them. Victory conditions: The IJA has to control all buildings not containing a blaze. Nice and straight VC, actually saying: "Get 'em all!"
FIRST THOUGHTS:
First we will estimate the forces, using, as always, Mark Nixon's method of calculating. (Disregard one shot weapons, calculate ROF 3 weapons with 200% of printed FP, ROF 2 with 150%, ROF 1 with 120%, all other with their nominal value) Nixon's theory is the attacker needs about 62 % to have a decent chance. We can use this as a crude estimate. Using that formula the IJA has about 59 % of the forces available. He also has very good leaders plus 3 DCs so this seems to be OK, maybe a little too weak. We had played this before, so the Chinese gives the IJA the balance - EC is dry.
This scenario is not for weaklings. It is a brutal rampage over the mapboard where no side gives one inch of way voluntarily. Since there are only two boards used, this means 44 squads are duking it out on the size of a normal halfboard. The IJA must show all his abilities to infiltrate the lines and finish off his opponent in close quarter if no other thing is working. He has to do it as quick as possible, since time is crucial. He needs not further care for buildings that contain a blaze, and, since a mild breeze is blowing, thus giving additional cover if something is burning, he should kindle anything possible. Strongpoints should be annihilated ASAP, those 347s are not very well fire-fighters, you need lots of them to get a meaty shot. The IJA should seek to completely destroy the Chinese forces. If no one is left, nothing needs to be protected. This can be critical during the final stage of the game. It is not easy to stop some token survivors from getting back some buildings. There are 42 buildings on the mapboard, so you cannot possibly guard anything. Waltz over them and do not leave anyone behind!
IJA ADVANTAGE: FT, SMOKE, WP, Leaders.
IJA DISADVANTAGE: Time,
Attrition, VC quite tough.
As the Chinese it seems to be important to concentrate on one part of the board. This is the prototype of a scenario where "he who defends everything defends nothing"! Build a strong-point, use your HIPs wise, let attrition work on the IJA. Time is on your side! (If you survive long enough). Do not make stunts, conserve your forces, guard your precious leaders. Try to maintain your line. Japanese infiltration is a big problem in that scenario. Once your rout-routes are cut, you are done. I you want to risk things, try to make eerie routs or breakthroughs to reconquer buildings, but wait if an opportunity arises - since the Japanese do not break this usually will not happen.
CHINESE ADVANTAGE: Excellent defensive positions, FFB hexes, HIP
CHINESE
DISADVANTAGE: Ambush, HtH CC, maintaining routing/rallying opportunities.
TIPS (For the not so experienced players):
Chinese:
As the IJA you should seek the infight, but try to ambush your opponent as often as possible. You cannot afford to risk being wiped out in CC too often. HtH CC is nice, but the tendency of both sides going down is to be avoided by the Japanese. So some tips to be prepared:
THE ACTION:
The Chinese player sets up to heavily defend the building bC4. C4 and D4 were first fortified, but the Chinese changed that before play. Were this fortified the IJA could, if he tries to storm the important hex C4, be cool stopped here, unable to enter even D4 as long as an unpinned GO Chinese squad is there in. The HMG is in C4, as well as the 10-2. squads in B4, E5, F4 take care for the OG street hexes. E4, F3 etc. are also guarded. Those defenders behind the houses can peek through that black bars per SSR. They will do some fire to let the forward defenders keep their concealment as long as possible. Those rear defenders will be easy be able to regain concealment. Otherwise some skulking might also be possible, changing the forward defenders with the concealed rear ones. A pillbox in bA4 will protect the building from some flanking move. Inside is a squad with LMG to have FL ability. Only token forces are setup on the northern part of board b. There is a HIP dare death squad in dI1, another one in dJ0, a pillbox with squad in d K1 facing J1/K2. Note the squad in the pillbox sees both gully locations dJ1 - dI2. It further protects the bridge entry hex. This building also holds a concealed squad which will move away during the game. This looks like a trap, and is a trap, and a strong defended one. It will not be easy to get into that house. This building received the second fortification location. It is thought as a tough nut to crack. The MTRs are placed in dO4 (here it can fire at units in bB2 and later in bA4, the other is placed in do5 for similar reasons. The second position is not very inventive, but those MTRs have not a lot of good sites to be placed in due to their 3-hex minimum range.
The IJA is coming in on a broad front. He has some squads split to HS and makes it into the street bO3/A3 during the APh. Most of his forces are concealed, nothing spectacular happens. The Chinese refrains from doing any childish things since he fears the fire that might hit him afterwards. There are just some skirmishes at the north edge of board b, where some brazen Japanese HS is eliminated in CC. Second turn, the Japanese tries to get knowledge about who is who, by running up some ?. This is a good tactic here, but costs an additional squad. The HMG in C4 opens fire. it step reduces a squad, but fails to do more damage. The IJA creeps his FT toting 448 into D2 during APh. The north side looks a little devastated, but the Chinese is confident, he has managed to trade info for casualties.
IJA units in bB2 are coming under intense MTR fire. The Chinese is doing some skulking, a further CC is a shot in his own leg. The squad gets ambushed and annihilated. Now it is not easy to see how to crack that defensive position C4. The Japanese lets it's MTRs go wild. WP and SMOKE is popping out at horrendous rates. After the IJA manages to gain a foothold on the other side of the street, he starts butchering 447s. But C4 denies to fall. The FT sends bursts at long range, but those location must be fireproof. The Chinese manages to step reduce some units, and a lucky CH from the MTR kills a unit in bB2. That stubborn strongpoint C4 is the last straw. The Japanese player goes berserk - IJA stunt-time.
Some additional SMOKE is fired. Knowing C4 being fortified, a DC hero tries his luck, but goes down before reaching his target - the FFB. So a brave (dumb?) 448 is rushing forward, sacrificing itself to breach that FFB-location. The attack pins the 10-2. The IJA smiles and a small Banzai gets formed on the flank. One of the banzaiers storms the hapless fortification through the breach. The Chinese is happy, since the FPF does not break any of his units. The other position under the Chinese 9-1 command is first overrun by a banzai leftover squad, then ripped apart by a suicide squad that eats four different kinds of MCs and, reduced to a HS, detonates the satchel charge it carries. The effect is awful, the whole position goes down with the building, burying the Japanese banzai squad as well. "Snakeeye time" as the IJA player comments.
Now the bulk of the IJA rushes forward, screaming loud. The Chinese position is completely overrun. Some fire from all sides encircles the still intact fortification, but pins the leader. The FT fires into the hex containing the 10-2 and the former Japanese intruder of the FFB. The Japanese squad, already step-reduced, goes down to a HS, but still is there, the Chinese all break. since they are completely cut off, they are eliminated for failure to rout. The whole area sees devastating CC . Lots of Chinese die in ensuing HTH CC, taking some IJA with them. The cracking of some fire from the west is already heard. Toungoo is in flames. The next four turns see some seesaw battle. Actions that regain buildings from the IJA or wrestle single locations from them are seen only to be followed by bloody counterattacks by the IJA themselves. Meanwhile the IJA is aware that the bulk of the Chinese is in the south. OTOH he is quite surprised to meet some stubborn well defended islands. Multiple units defend the north (building dC4, dF2). The IJA players tidal wave is stopped at building dH3. This building hex is just too much for the attacker. Being supported by flanking fire from dI1 and dI5 it proves to be a grindstone for the IJA. No DC at hands, no MTR in sight the IJA starts to infiltrate the gully. The Japanese feels the attrition. His manpower dwindles away. Some positions must be given up because the fire spreads too quick. This is the best opportunity for the chines to leave the house dI1 (the HIP squad still there) to move into the gully himself. This looks completely natural in the rhythm of the game. Now dI1 looks innocent empty, but the dare-death there still is in a lurker position.
Now the bulk of the IJA rushes forward, screaming loud. The Chinese position is completely overrun. Some fire from all sides encircles the still intact fortification, but pins the leader. The FT fires into the hex containing the 10-2 and the former Japanese intruder of the FFB. The Japanese squad, already step-reduced, goes down to a HS, but still is there, the Chinese all break. since they are completely cut off, they are eliminated for failure to rout. The whole area sees devastating CC . Lots of Chinese die in ensuing HTH CC, taking some IJA with them. The cracking of some fire from the west is already heard. Toungoo is in flames. The next four turns see some seesaw battle. Actions that regain buildings from the IJA or wrestle single locations from them are seen only to be followed by bloody counterattacks by the IJA themselves. Meanwhile the IJA is aware that the bulk of the Chinese is in the south. OTOH he is quite surprised to meet some stubborn well defended islands. Multiple units defend the north (building dC4, dF2). The IJA players tidal wave is stopped at building dH3. This building hex is just too much for the attacker. Being supported by flanking fire from dI1 and dI5 it proves to be a grindstone for the IJA. No DC at hands, no MTR in sight the IJA starts to infiltrate the gully. The Japanese feels the attrition. His manpower dwindles away. Some positions must be given up because the fire spreads too quick. This is the best opportunity for the chines to leave the house dI1 (the HIP squad still there) to move into the gully himself. This looks completely natural in the rhythm of the game. Now dI1 looks innocent empty, but the dare-death there still is in a lurker position.
The IJA starts to panic somewhat. Up to now he has not found the HIP units. He tries to put up some more pressure on the Chinese. The shrinking perimeter of the Chinese is becoming critical. The Chinese makes a breakout attempt, but all he can achieve is a further uneven exchange in manpower. The body count starts to go heavily on the IJAs side. The Japanese are now completely out of control. Every counter is doing something, the SMOKE from the burning buildings is greatly hindering movement. More banzai is seen, no wonder with this endless supply of leaders. The IJA is completely reckless and merciless. He does not care if there are his own units in target hexes. After running them up, he moves ADJACENT using his deadly FT and inherent FP to toast the Chinese and his own men. Then the FT squad is KIAed. A lucky shot from a HS killed him. The game is now in the final stage. The Japanese runs up all the buildings that are left. Then the HIP Chinese in the gully woods hex pos up and KIAs the IJA squad that had finished off the pillbox in K1. That pillbox had been of great use, but fell rather easily. The other HIP dare death from J0 kills 2 squad-equivalents (there no real squads left) and a leader, surviving the CCPh, only to get killed itself during the next CCPH, but taking the Japanese with him.
Now the japanese is running out of men. He manages to pin the Chinese squad in I1, thus being allowed to enter the building with his last two HSs and a leader that got wounded by a sniper in dH0. The ensuing CC sees all the units being killed. No one survives.
The players stare at the empty board. The last turn hears the bursting cracking of the burning buildings. The battlefield is littered with SW, empty pillboxes, devastated buildings. There is more SMOKE on the board as any one of the two players have ever seen in an ASL scenario. Just for fun and they do all the activities that have to be done. The fire is further spreading......
AFTERMATH:
In the definitely bloodiest games the contestants have ever seen, no one survived, both sides were completely annihilated, but the brave Chinese won because dI4 remained his. No IJA is left to walk up and take the defenseless little house on that ghostly devastated mapboard. A great game. Both players are completely exhausted. Playing time: About six hours. Lots of rule thumbing has been necessary to make this scenario possible. The south was a little too weak defended. Lucky pot shots bagged some IJA units, but they took this side quite easily. The north proved to be very costive for the japanese. Although he lost the prime leader early (a major drawback) due to a splendid done action by the japanese, the Chinese managed to keep his forces intact and fall back to form a second defensive line. The patience to wait with the HIP and the nervousness of the japanese to lose on time if he fails to find and kills the HIPs brought up victory.
Some bizarre events took place: A brittle Chinese force ambushes the IJA, withdraws, then, reinforced goes back into that hex next APh. Now they get ambushed themselves, but the IJA rolls a 12. They again withdraw. Next turn the IJA advance in and kill them all - they could not escape fate. The FT was marvelous. He fired xx times. Although the effect was not that marvelous it was a pain for the Chinese, and brought fear and terror.
A bit tense for the japanese, but with the balance it is quite OK. If you want some nerveshaking action - try it! And remember Brian's words: If there is more than a HS and a wounded leader left you have made some seriously error - ;-)
I hope you enjoyed that. Thanks Bruno for the kick in the butt to get this out. Greetings to Lars for motivating me again.
Fritz Tichy
This is a bit delayed but a personal email asked for an AAR of a playing of DASL A10 "Tiger of Toungoo". I was the Chinese and (the real) JR was the Japanese. A little note JR had in his scenario book said to set up heavy on flank and use lots of dummies on the other so I kinda followed that advice.
My defense was heavy on the left with about half of my squads covering that flank to the bH1-bJ2-bJ4-bH5 road. Mostly dummies with a few real squads thrown in to make it tough occupied the right side of board b. The pillboxes were in dK1 and dN1 covering the fortified locations in dK2 and dN2. I planned to make a fallback defense with my final stand in the cluster of buildings bounded by the foritfied locations and pillboxes.
JR must have read my mind in setup cause his attack fell on my right flank with 80% of his forces. They quickly exposed my dummies and few real units and were pushing onto board d by turn 3. JR's attack was hampered when the winds rose to heavy, removing the threat of WP from 6!!! 50mm MTR's. My troops slowly sidestepped towards the board center but the Japanese kept forcing the Chinese back.
At about this point is when one of the major turns occured for the Chinese. A squad HOB'd, battle-hardening and creating a Chinese hero! These brave troops moved into the hex where the 10-2 and HMG were HIP and popped up to shoot up some unfortunate Japanese. The next turn JR moved 7 squad equivalents to encircle these troops, including the flamer. The defensive fire phase saw that encirclement evaporate in a hail of fire from the HMG and some supporting troops nearby. I think 5 or 6 MMC's were KIA'd or broken. The 10-2 was wounded in the AFPh and the squad broken but they escaped the trap, leaving the hero to man the HMG alone (he went down in HtH CC). Things looked bright for me now but they quickly turned black.
In the center, the Japanese were pressing close and a DC hero ran into a major hex of my defensive line and broken everyone there. In fact, nearly every squad in the defense line broke. They routed back to dJ4 and dK5 (greatly overstacked btw) to try to rally. Only 3 or 4 good order squads were left to cover this mass of paniced troops. I figured the game was lost at this point, since half of my force was broken. Amazingly, the Japanese could not get close enough to hurt them and they rallied or routed further back to the now recovered 10-2. The true fall back began at this point with squads slowly taking up positions in the fortified locations and buildings nearby.
JR conceded with 2 turns to go as his Japanese forces numbered fewer than my defenders.
A humorous (for me anyway) side battle sprung up around dA1 where I had HIP'd a squad, hoping he would be bypassed. This lone squad held up 8 Japanese squads, killing 4 of them in CC (not all at once) before a demo toting squad finally took him out.
HOB was also nice to me, in addition to the already mentioned battle hardening and hero, two other squads battle hardened and a second hero was created, he also died in CC.
The scenario was fun but I think the VC are pretty tough on the Japanese. They have to control all non-blaze buildings. They have 23 2nd line squads and gobs of leaders (7) but they are facing 21 elite Chinese squads with decent leadership, fortified locations, pillboxes and HIP. It might have gone better for JR had the wind not changed and he could have used his WP, though with all the buildings there are few good firing positions.
Jeff Kimmel