FT227 Damsels in Distress

 

Mike loves to play Italians in ASL.  He enjoys the challenge of taking crappy troops and doing what it takes to win with them.  Ordering the Italian pack from LFT was a no brainer for him.  He picked out three scenarios for me to choose from and I landed on FT227 Damsels in Distress.

This scenario features Italians on a hill, trying to slow down some Greek troops attempting to liberate a bunch of schoolgirls from captivity in a town.  It is a smaller scenario and LFT provided actual counters for the schoolgirls.  I gave Mike the Italians as I didn’t want to see him down in the dumps watching me screw them up if I played them.

As the Greeks, I essentially have to cross two half boards, clear two multi-hex buildings, and free the damsels.  Ground snow is in play and I have to climb the first hill with someone to get eyes on the village which will allow me to “grow” Partisans in town.  It’s an interesting twist, I can see nothing that allows me to grow Partisans if I skip the hill and go straight for the town, I actually have to get someone to the hill top to get my Partisans.  The damsels must be guarded in town, and the guards may not move the young ladies until turn 4.

My first picture is terrible, apologies.

 

 

Yeah, that hurts the eyes.  But what do you want, I am a mechanic, not a photographer…..

The Damsels and the target buildings

 

 

When Mike plays Italians, he must of course, use his Italian dice…..

 

 

I managed to get a half squad to the top of the hill to get eyes on the village and begin Partisan generation.  I was only allowed to generate Partisans in building hexes and not adjacent to Italian units.  Mike had spread out so that any building on the hill close to the ladies was out of generation range.  So I had to generate them off the hill.  My other Greeks made a bee-line down the left side to get to the town, braving fire from the hill all the way there.  I mistakenly made a single turn run towards the hill at the beginning, getting a squad KIA and ending up with another wrapped up in a melee that simply would never end.  I needed those squads.

Mike got reinforcements and brought them up the opposites side of the village.  I finally got into the buildings and started evicting the Italian troops but was running out of time.

 

On turn 4 Mike started moving the girls to the opposite side of the board.  Said he was going to take them over there and “tickle them” or, I don’t know……it’s Mike.  I managed to get the two buildings taken but in reality, Mike didn’t need to stay in them.  The prisoners were on their way out of town and I wouldn’t be able to catch them in time.  I conceded, once again.

 

 

The Partisans were horribly ineffective.  I should have produced them on the village hill on the other side because with the ground snow, going up was painful.  The turn I spent not sprinting to the village cost me in the end.

It’s an odd scenario.  I can’t say I really enjoyed it.  It seems like the Greeks have a lot to do in the allotted time.  Misplaying the Partisans also hurt me.  Seems a bit gimmicky, but any ASL is better than no ASL.

Thanks for reading.