ASL Tactics

[ArizonaTank]

Any ASL tactics primers out there?  I finally learned the rules....but keep getting my arse handed to me...so now I need to learn to play.

Things like, how to go tank on tank in a town.  How to cross open ground without littering the ground with my guys corpses.  How to cross a street when the other guy is waiting for you.  Where to place fire lanes...  things like that.

[GJK]

I might have some stuff that I can upload to the dropbox folder, I'll take a look tomorrow.
Full ASL gives you many more options than the SK's did (as you obviously know).  Dashing is one method to get across a street, that coupled with some strategically placed smoke.  MG's now have covered arcs so if you can send a just juicy enough target one way and then your prime force from another direction, the MG will have to suffer penalties to change its CA (if it didn't fire at the first target).  Firelanes are great down streets where you expect the enemy to cross or covering "choke points".  Beef up your defense in all areas but leave a "choke point" that may only be covered by a single MG.  An inexperienced player will avoid all those units and hidden "?" in front of him and start moving into your choke point.  That's where a firelane from the MG can really do some damage.  I'm sure that I have more; I've gathered some stuff that people have posted over on Gamesquad and other places.  I won't give you any tactics for AFV's because my skillz with them are pitiful at this point! 

[ArizonaTank]

Thanks any help will do.  Forgot about dash....

[GJK]

See how these come out:


Hi
It seems to me that there are lots of primers for newbies on how to put together a defense, the kind of things to look for, etc.

However, there is no such list that I am aware of detailing the basic things to look for when planning an attack. I often find this even more difficult. Can forumites suggest the devious tricks they look to play in that first turn.

Also how do you plan for units to be in the right place for phase 2. I often find my initial attack is OK but then all my guys are in the wrong place for phase 2.

Looking forward to some thought provoking strategems.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Keep a reserve. Standard doctrine is about 1/3 of your combat power should be held in reserve. This force should be in a position to be able to move to anywhere in your fight to either reinforce success or exploit a break-through.

Don't reinforce failure. In other words don't keep attack-ing the same tough poisiton that you have attacked and could not break. Find another way.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Count the number of hexes your troops have to travel, and then divide by the number of turns. That gives you an average of how far you have to go per turn. If the game is five turns long and you only have to go five hexes, then you can prep fire your guts out and get there by advanc-ing. If you have twenty hexes to go in the same time, plan on giving up on prep fire entirely.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
I have learned the hard way that best players are those who are always able to use at 100% their order of battle optimizing everything. So NEVER wast time, firepower or space.

As attacker you need the full use of all forces in each moment. An attacking squad not moving, encircling, guarding a rout path or firing is an advantage for your opponent.

My ASL doctrine is based on these rules.

More in detail

Pregame:
Carefully study enemy setup, terrain, OBs, special weap-ons and vehicle notes. Is amazing how many ideas you can have only looking board configuration and Ch H well in advance. Battlefield and Enemy OB knowledge are too important to be ignored.

Strategically:
have a plan, try to figure where you can more easily de-stroy / bypass / move around the enemy defense and de-cide accordingly the objectives. Be flexible and where possible prepare a "B" plan for when something goes wrong.

Tactically:
Remember each unit everywhere should always be em-ployed in the most effective manner. Also a broken unit can be used offensively or defensively.

Remember smoke, Vehicular Bypass, HS scouting use. Sometime the encirclement rules can help a lot. Try al-ways to predict the enemy next move and, if possible, make it impossible or at least more dangerous.

In General:
Don't stack (unless moving out of los and to gain a NEEDED leader movement bonus).
As personal habit I move always one unit at time even if out los.

Don't overstimate the utility of the Prep fire and remem-ber that Advancing fire is often good enough or even bet-ter, exspecially if you have infantry with the assault fire bonus.
Remember that two separate attacks should cause a result more often than a single attack at full strenght.

Don't fear too much enemy "?" or hipsters because they are much more effective when still not stripped/revealed.

Just a few hints.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
The first thing you have to do for your set up is look at the VC and decide how do I achieve them. Sounds basic but it is really true. I have lost games because I have lost sight of the VC. Do you need to gain CVP, is there a CV cap,is it control of some hexes or buildings. What the VC are is going to determain your type of attack.

Now you need to do everything the defender does. Try to get into his head. Where does he see your attack coming from. Where is that Hip gun? etc...

Now you need recon. Deploy if you can. You need scouts. Don't be afraid to lose a few guys. You need to know where he is. Hopefully you have been able to set your guys up in such a way that when you have scouted you have options on where the main body can go to. You need to watch out and try to keep your guys from getting funneled into a position thay can't maneuver from.
You also need to keep flank security. Nothing I like more than threatening an attackers flank. Takes him off his at-tack.

You want to keep the defender reacting to you, not you reacting to the defender.

Those are the basics there mich more detail to be filled in.


Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Yup, I lost my last 2 games to LaPanzer because I mis-played the VC or didn't pay attention to where reinforce-ments entered. I attacked overly agressive and his rein-forcements hit me in a flank because I thought they en-tered on a different edge.

I'd also look at the defensive setup. Is it a forward de-fense? If so, I like to try and punch a hole and get behind him. Some units still advance in front of the enemy to try and prevent him from just cutting and running.

Can you flank his defense? I've won agame because I rolled a flank that was lightly defended. The fact the flank overlooked the VC hex was even better

Are there ways to seperate the defense? Sometimes a road or other clear los exists through part of the defense. A firelane and/or other type of fire down that clear LOS can either keep him from reinforcing or routing unless he wants to risk losses.

A biggie. ASL is a game of movement. Prep fire shouldn't be your first instict esp if it's not with a killstack or against a critical part of the defense.

If you see a hole, exploit it aggressively. One recent game half my OB was broken. The attacker didn't push though and keep me DM. My force was back within 1.5 turns.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
If you are planning to hit hard on one side of the defense, try to isolate the section of the defense you are attacking. Often you can do this by locating a MG or two in a posi-tion to interdict the defender as he tries to reinforce (such as down a road or through a stretch of open ground). At-tacking AFVs are also particularly good for isolating a section of the defense.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Never prep fire (okay maybe never is a bit harsh). You can only move in your turn. you can shoot him in either.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
I am making the assumption here that the attack supports your objectives (Step 1). That is this will move you closer to your victory conditions is imperrative. Don't get ag-gressive for aggressive sake only. Then:

2) Delineate your attack objective (i.e. size up the battle-space). Exactly what is my assault objective? What en-emy positions am I going encounter when I lauch my attack. How am I going to approach my final jump-off positions? What is the limit of advance of my attack? Are my forces adequate to overcome his defense? Who's go-ing to assault and who's going to support (Rule of thumb is 2/3s or better of your force should be on the attack). In otherwords, make a tentative Plan.

3) Recon: This can be a simple map recon simply seeing what the enemy has and how you're going to get there, or may have to include probes to reveal possible enemy po-sitions both upon the route to the objective and upon the objective itself. Best to know as much about the enemy as possible before committing yourself to the attack (Time is a big factor here). Finalize you plan of attack as much as you can.

4) Suppress and Fix the enemy (At least as much as time and assets at hand allow). If allowable you should have a support element and an assault element (Know who's who). Your priority of fires should be:
Enemy Heavy Weapons positions supporting his defense
Potential strong Points
Enemy reserves or avenues of approach for enemy counter-attacks
potential enemy positions not revealed by the recon
In other words you want to isolate this portion of the bat-tlefield as much as possible and minimize his ability to resist your attack. You want to Pin/break as many of his dangerous positions as you can prior to, or at least during the assault.

5) Use covered and concealed routes to approach the ob-jective if possible, if not, get there quickly. Use every conceivable device to cover your approach; SMOKE, Armored Assault, Suppressive fires, speed, whatever!

6) Accomplish the assault with speed and violence di-rected at beating the enemy upon the objective. A good sub-tactic is to use a HS (point element) to get there to eat up DFF/SFF shots intended for your bigger assault de-tachments (may even have to use juicier bait-but makew contact with the smallest element possible). You want to ensure the enemy Def fires are limited as much as possi-ble and your assault formations place the enemy on the horns of a dilemma (fight or flee). Bring everybody that's available-and bring guns, matter of fact have their friends bring guns, and their friends bring bigger guns. Use every tactic available to defeat the defenders in detail. HS/vehicles to deny route paths, DC's on important postions, maximum use of Assault Fire bonuses, encir-cling shots or forcing routs to encircling positions.

7) Make sure you know when your attack is over-know the limits of the specific attack. Because you're probablly a little out of position, take time to consolidate and reor-ganize. Know if you have accomplished your mission or have been defeated. No sense to keep attacking for the sake of attacking if you're unable to attain your objective. Don't get drawn ionto a fight you haven't predicted and are not ready to persue.

Not all encompassing I know, and really not all that spe-cific, but these are a few good rules of thumb to assess your assault. Many are normally made on the fly in your head with little conscious thought, these are just a few considerations to be aware of. If you can think about what you want to accomplish before committing yourself, you're headed in the right direction.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
My 2-cent contribution is to look at the VCs and consider what they "Do Not" require.

I just played a short scenario where my opponent needed to take a few buildings. Nothing else. He just came up short. After the scenario we counted the number of squads he had on the board. Nine - the same number he started with.

There were no CVP restrictions in this scenario. A more aggressive approach, even at the cost of losing several squads, would likely have won him the game.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Opportunity fire is often better than Prep.

Still can't move, but it does two things (potentially)

If most of the defender's stacks in LOS are concealed, they may not be by the time you fire as he will want to shoot at your moving units. If he doesn't shoot, hey even better- your movement was most successful!

He may also want to shoot the Op firing stack--but can't until after movement is over. Thus that is one more (likely large and threatening) FG that didn't fire at your moving units.

Just beware of concealment dummies. That's one thing that can really ruin a good Opportunity fire attack.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
My humble opinion is to make good use of your seem-ingly weak vehicles *like those SPW250's I'm having when playing the Third Bridge from CH* No matter how unlikely their to Hit is *mine was a 4 that time*, they could nonetheless acquire target and get your opponent somewhat alerted about staying in a stronghold position.

Also, never break try to break into opposite target build-ings from the street/open ground dividing them no matter how strong your firepower is. I used my recon vehicles for cover last time but all it achieved is only a mediocre +1 TEM. Doesn't really help much and I learned a lesson the hard way that the best way to approach two separate buildings is to break it from one side pulling in what have you before worrying about defensive fires from across the street.

[GJK]

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
in most ASL scenarios, you can't keep much reserve. If you're keeping a reserve, you aren't using all your forces effectively. (this leads to losses as an attacker).

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
First...
1) Make sure you and your opponent agree on an under-standing of the VC.
2) Make sure you and your opponent agree on an under-standing of set-up/entry/etc restrictions.
3) Read all the notes for the weapons in your OB.

Tactics:
1) Fire Power and/or firing is not the most important part of attacking.
2) Maneuver is very important.
3) Decide on a rally point...should be reachable by most of your troops and relatively sheltered from enemy fire to avoid repeated DM'ing.
4) Your best leader may be more useful at the rally point as opposed to directing fire.
5) SMOKE/Smoke/smoke...if you got it then try to use it.
6) Deploy to the max...and then some. Depending on the OB I usually try to get to about 20%+ of squads deployed. Scouts and Lt.mortar crews.
7) DON'T MOVE IN STACKS!!!! (EXC: leader and an MMC).

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Lots of good thoughts so far - I'll just hit a few keys - some of have been mentioned by others, but are important enough that they deserve a callback.

As ecz pointed out - make sure your entire OB is doing something all the time (or at least as much as possible). Having 100% of your OB exerting their will during the attack is what seperates the Plevas of the ASL world from the rest of us. The more guys you have exerting their will each turn, the better you're attack will be.

Smoke - use it. Double check the backs of all your guns for Smoke & use it to shroud your assault whenever pos-sible. sMs can often be better than firing Smoke directly as you can still move and bounding fire while still getting smoke placed in a location away from your hex.
Make sure you can rout - nothing stops an attack faster than losing guys that break due to failure to rout. If you can't rout from the hex, and can be shot by any significant firepower you likely shouldn't be there. 'Course if you're only risking a half squad or 7-0 with the upside of killing his 9-2 and 2 squads and have at least a 25% chance of success, it's could be worth the risk if you can spare the halfer...

Expose yourself to as little fire as possible while putting yourself in position to break/CC his troops. Easier said than done, but it's an ideal. Note: this doesn't mean don't move - it means move intelligently so you're giving the defender as few -2 shots as possible and if you are giving them up, it's to obtain a goal.

Don't over rely on CC - CC is inherently dicey - often you may be better off surrounding a unit than going into CC. Always figure out if you can afford your opponent to roll a 2 in the CC and kill all your guys and/or how bad is it if you miss and it reverts to a melee?

Always look to put pressure on the defense and give the defender difficult decisions - do I let the halfer get behind me so the 9-2 can pull up 2 hexes away? Do I risk shoot-ing and dropping concealment so he can shoot back at full FP and/or come into CC with a concealed guy? You want your opponent asking those kind of questions every turn.
Suppress his fire so you know you can move guys w/o being shot at. Most often this can be done via luring the defender into first firing preventing him from firing at a more distant unit, but on occasion calls for VBM/Banzai tactics to make sure the defender can't shoot if he's show-ing excellent fire discipline.

Look to encircle the enemy and/or force failure to rout. An enemy dying is the best case.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
You gotta play.

1. You gotta get the experience by playing against a good attacker and seeing how he does it. Take your licks and learn from it. You don't learn a lot from a newbie or a mediocre player. You gotta play against someone really good. Go to a tourney and ask who the top players are. Don't be shy. Hunt these guys down and play them.

2. You gotta attack in the city, because it's completely different than in a rural setting, jungle, up a hill or across a bridge. Each has their own unique circumstance and if you haven't played it no matter what you read it's not go-ing help until you've experienced it first-hand.

3. You gotta attack with infantry. You gotta attack with AFVs against AFVs. You gotta attack using combined arms. All three are different, but equally important.

4. You gotta attack with inexperienced troops, 1st line of elite troops, because they're all different. What works for one doesn't work for another. Attacking with a 9-2 with a HMG is completely different than attacking with an 8-1 with LMGs.

5. Attacking against Germans with Panzerfausts in com-pletely different than attacking just about every other na-tionality, unless the U.S. is equipped with a bunch of Baz.

6. Attacking with the Japanese might seem easier, be-cause they don't break, but this is a fallacy that many players fall into. The Japanese are actually more brittle than the other nationailities and only experience playing them shows you how.

You gotta play and learn how to play in different settings, with different qualities of units and different nationalities. That's why ASL is such a great game. What works well in one instance might not work at all somewhere else. You just have to build up your experience level and discover this for yourself.

You gotta play. That's it.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
This is EXACTLY the type of thread we need MORE of.

One I've picked up is the usefulness of the "Half Squad Blitz". The basic concept is to give a trapped defender multiple targets to shoot at. That way, #1 he can't get them all, and #2 he can't concentrate his fire in one area. This is particularly useful when trying to cross a street or og set of hexes to take an objective.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Offensive Tactics in 12 words or less:

1. Move
2. Don't stack
3. Smoke
4. Deploy
5. Preplan routs
6. Suppress
7. Encircle
8. No CC

Print this out and tape it to your dice tower. Or on your opponent's forehead.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Timing, timing timing, it's all about timing. Know (at least vaguely) where you have to be and when and that'll stop you from being either too reckless or too cautious. The other one that Dave S hit upon is knowing what you can lose - got 3 Panthers in your OB? No CVP cap? There are NO points for still having 3 Panthers alive at game end! So many people seem to value force preserva-tion.......

And it's a great list from Rob, but I don't agree with no CC - it's very valuable to tie up a speedbump and let your following troops trundle past with impunity. 1 to 4 in that list are absolutely key though and I agree with the print it out and staple it to your opponents forehead sentiment.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
While I agree with your fundamental point about knowing what's expendable, don't underestimate force preserva-tion. There's many a scenario where force preservation is the key to victory. Keeping your guys alive and firing for the entire game can often make it impossible for your opponent to win and gives you much more flexibility in the end game. After all you can't play a "wall of bodies" defense if you have no bodies.

Now there's always a time where your defense is better served by putting out a speed bump where a guy is going to die in place in exchange for holding up the attack an extra turn (or at least trying) that's a much better choice for your D than getting that guy back to safety. The trick is knowing when to sacrifice a piece for a large enough gain and when to drop back into safety as having that piece at game end is more valuable than letting him die in a mid-game gambit.

In general I think attackers can overuse CC and just jump in by default w/o really thinking through the wisdom/risk of CC. CC is dicey and as a result a lot of times the at-tacker is better served by avoiding it. As a guideline, I think Rob's right, but by the same token there are situa-tions where the attacker definitively wants to engage in CC. Basically the attacker needs to pick their CC attacks w/prudence and make sure the benefit is worth the risk. Blindly going into CC just because you can is foolhardy at best.

I'm not a huge fan of deployment personally. I'll usually take my "free" pre-game deployment, but not deploy any beyond that. On the attack half squads are great for scout bumping and infiltrating the enemy to force difficult deci-sions on them, but I personally tend not to employ the "Electric Football" attack very often as I like having the firepower of full squads. You definitely should deploy some (unless you're Russian or Chinese of course ), but I think just how much you deploy is a style of play issue often enough & my style does not involve a plethora of deployment...

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
6. Suppress

Many times as the attacker you are given a 9-2 with a HMG or a MMG. If you are given two of these MGs it is even better. This is the perfect time to set up a suppres-sion group. The 9-2, MGs and squad(s) set up or move to a Level 2 building or a location that can see many defend-ing stacks.

This suppression group serves two functions.

1. Keeps the defender from reinforcing to your area of attack. If you can cut the board in half and keep the de-fender away or force him to risk -4 TEM attacks (-1 NAM, -1 Open Ground, -2 Leader) getting to that area you greatly help your cause. An AFV with 6 or 8 FP MGs is also good for this tactic.

The main purpose of this group is to cause the defender to be cautious when reinforcing the area, thus slowing him down. Less defending units, means covering ground faster. Many times when a suppression group is well placed you will cause the defending units to take a circu-lar route to get to the point of attack or force him to setup a defense further back then intended.

2. The second function of the suppression group is the break or pin critical stacks that are affecting your ad-vance. If you can put this group in a location that allows you to fire upon the defender while he skulks you're get-ting a 2 for 1. But, usually this group is used in the Prep Fire phase to take out that key defending unit that will cause the most damage while you're moving your units.

If that unit is concealed, sometimes it is best to Opportu-nity Fire the suppression group to maximize your chance of removing that threat for a number of turns. If that unit is in Woods and I have a -2 leader with two MGs, I will usually take a 6-1 FP attack hoping to suppress it and getting rof. This is always a tough decision depending on how badly that defending unit needs to be taken out and is what separates the men from the boys.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Last night two "newish" players were at my house play-ing. The Russian player had an encircled 447 upstairs in a stone building. The German enticed him to first fire, but then moved a squad in an adjacent hex in bypass! The Russian takes the FPF shot at the adjacent moving squad (even though the German was just "passing thro" and not a threat to the Russian). The Russian rolls snake eyes on the shot, killing the German Squad and rolling for Battle hardening AND a hero becasue of the snake eyes!

So? You ask...

The German could have gone around the hex in question and the Russian would never have gotten that shot.

Then, the German moved ANOTHER unit (and 8-1 SMC) in open ground adjacent to the encircled Russian (now a 458 and hero). This shot broke both the 458 and the moving unit.

Again, the SMC did not have to move thro that hex adja-cent to the Rusky.

DON'T give your opponents -2 or better shots!!! DON'T ever do it without dang good reason!

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Mortars are another good suppression tool, especially in scenarios with Woods or Jungles. During your opponent's Movement Phase you can see where he wants to be to stop your advance. He will usually skulk out of LOS or move reinforcing units close to these hexes.

This is a good time to shoot at that Woods/Jungle hex with your Mortar to place an Acquisition marker in that hex. The defender will think twice about moving that skulking unit back into that hex and a lot of times will advance it in a hex next to it with lesser Defensive Fire possibilities or with a helpful Hindrance (Orchard or Kunai) in front which keeps you from having to take that -2 TEM.

An AFV with 8 MG FP factors is also a great suppression tool. In a city fight I like to move the AFV adjacent to two adjacent Building hexes that the defender needs to stop your advance. The defender cannot stay there during his Movement Phase and will usually skulk away, but must really think twice about returning to take a 16+2 or 16+3 FP attack. Plus, the AFV gives a +1 TEM coverage to Infantry behind it and moving into it's hex.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
Agree. Mortars are one of the great weapons in ASL. They can put a hinder on a defense based on woods hexes.

Also, the opposite is true. A defender can shut down a woods avenue of approach with some mortars. An at-tacker should take that into consideration if facing a de-fender with mortars.

Nothing like a rate raging mortar!

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
And they are the only weapons in ASL system that can retain ROF while laying SMOKE (Area Target Type). Need a lot of SMOKE pronto - go for the mortar (or OBA if you are fortunate enough to have a SMOKE capable OBA).

One of the ASL concepts I am trying hard to learn is to think SMOKE constantly. Scan all your ordnance and AFV for SMOKE capability before play starts. Remem-ber vehicular Smoke grenades if OT or CE. Many AFV have smoke dischargers of some sort - with little if any penalty for usage failure - so use em every chance you get. SMOKE SMOKE SMOKE.

The assault engineer counters that came with VOTG are excellent reminders about the +2 SMOKE exponent for these hombres. I wish that a future module or journal had them for all nationalities - would save the hassle of noting down the MMC IDs.

WP is great for concealment stripping. Hit = NMC = con-cealment gone.

Re: Offensive tactics for starters
A note to newbies on this one. A favorite weapon of mine, and it appears in many scenarios, is the Russian 82mm BM obr.37. Ordnance note 2 in the Russian Ord-nance list. Read the description of it, for herein lies a great little nugget about this weapon. From 1942 on, you can assemble this weapon and fire it once in the same fire phase, OR fire it once then disassemble it. This gives con-siderable flexibility to this piece and if you know this capability exists, you can play around with it quite a bit. Prep, hit your main target and still dissasemble it, move to the back side of the woods your in during advance. Then in Dfire, reassemble it and fire on a new target in a new direction for instance. There are many variations off this. It's a nice capability. Even though this is a bit off the topic, it's a nice dirty trick to note for a weapon that ap-pears very often. Can often get that priceless WTF look from an opponent too.

[ArizonaTank]

Excellent! Thanks GJK!!

[GJK]

I'm drudging up this old topic instead of starting a new one to post a link to THIS nicely written and illustrated AAR of ASL-SK Scearion 2 ("War of the Rats").  If you played the original Squad Leader back in the day, you certainly remember the first scenario "The Guards Counterattack".  Well "War of the Rats" is a cousin to that scenario covering the street fighting in Stalingrad. 

Enjoy!

http://battlefieldswarriors.blogspot.co.uk/2014/11/aslsk-1-for-beginners.html