J35 - Siam Sambal

I played the other infamous Dr, Dr Rob, at Siam Sambal from the new Journal. The first scenario that has earned the highest ROAR recommendation from me.  Siamese (played by Chinese) vs French with PTO, cavalry, FT17 tanks, OBA, and air support.  This is what ASL is all about!

Victory is determined by CVP + 2 VP per building location, and there are 28 building locations, 14 on each board. First 2 turns feature 7 elite French + 2 FT17s battling 7 elite Chinese. Turn 3 sees a larger French force, but first line and green combo, against another 7 Chinese 447s on horses + a Vickers tank.

First couple turns are admittedly dull, as the French advance to contact and the Siamese skulk. I read JR's excellent WO AAR of this scenario, and tried not to
set my Siamese too far forward, although I didn't completely succeed in that. The French did the board edge creep on my far left flank, using 248s to tease my suspected dummies. The French seemed poised to breakthrough around Turn 3, but my heavy MTR was set up back to cover this approach, and blunted the French effectively. Lost the LMG as it was too far forward and its owner 12'd an MC.

Meanwhile I fell back with the 9-1/MMG combo to the board junction, so I could lay a firelane across most of the board the French reinforcements would enter. I also had 2 447s guarding the approach, wanting to lay down resid in the one hex gap between a swamp and bamboo.  Thus I could put resid on any French trying to get behind me into the Hutville overlay. I probably would've been better off to put a 447 in the forward bamboo to put resid in the road hexes (in play by SSR) and force the French trucks into off-road movement. During this turn my dice performed the inverse bell curve, twice I followed up snakes with boxcars. Plus a green French squad HOB'd to first line with a hero, causing me to briefly lose fire discipline, which left me a little vulnerable to French on trucks getting behind me into Hutville. But a 50 MTR CH flamed an AA truck on the road, which slowed everyone else down. Another truck ran through the firelane (malf'd the MMG), but couldn't get behind me. Things weren't looking good for Siam, but things could've been much worse.

This is where the game became similar to what JR described, as it actually breaks down into 2 battles, one on each board. With all the hindrances, there wasn't much LOS across the 2. Events would see-saw back and forth as to which board was in more trouble for me, and I would transfer a squad or 2 hither and yon, as the situation ebbed and flowed. I tossed 2 squads, 1 leader, and the LMG on my left (vs the French elite), while 5 squads + the tank went into Hutville on my right. I kept some horses around in case I needed more mobility or last turn sleazes of charging behind the French to retake buildings.

Things really went sour for Dr Rob's French in Turn 4.  The Vickers croaked a 37* FT17 and had the CMG FT17 in its sights. My 75 ART was set-up in the bamboo to the right of Hutville, looking down the road, a bit of a risk because while it can set up HIP, it is not emplaced.  So a MTR or OBA dropped on it uses the -1 bamboo TEM instead of the +2 emplaced TEM. But the arty piece got hot once some acqs knocked down all the hindrances, kept rate twice in my Prep, 3 hits overall, all with low IFT DRs, and turned a hero/MMG/457/457 stack into an unpossessed MMG. Rob couldn't get any radio contact (contact number of 7 reduced to 6 by PTO is tough), my FB KIA'd another French squad, the low French ELR for the reinforcements was killing them, and by Turn 5 the Chinese were actually stronger than the attacking French!  The Chinese left, backed by the big MTR, was holding, although barely, especially after my MMG malf'd again. During Turn 6 (I think), Dr Rob tossed it in, as my Siamese had a big lead in CVP, plus had 13 out of 14 buildings on the Hutville board, although I was down to only 3 or 4 on my left. Outnumbered in front of Hutville, with my ART still active, his ART being manhandled far from the battlefield, and his radio still dead, it was hopeless for the French.

It was a great scenario, kind of a feeble level combined arms battle, 1 AF AFVs, poor quality Chinese weapons, green ELR 2 Frenchies. Very high replay value, especially since it really breaks down into 2 independent battles.  It was pretty easy to learn the lesser well known pieces of the rules (cavalry, air support, Chinese), took me about 1/2 hour to digest all 3. Kudos to designer Mark Bretherton!

All that plus the usual entertainment value while playing Dr Rob! (BobW, while you were getting "serviced"by Manuel, you missed the spectacle of Dr Rob wailing
with defeat. :-) )

See ya, Mike