Hill 621

[ASL Veteran]

Originally posted by Shep:

My favorite COI was Capture of Balta. I always wanted to see that one in ASL but never did. I think I checked out of the gerbil wheel of rules before it saw print. I'd love to see it in CMBB, and I imagine I will.

Capture of Balta was converted over from SL to ASL a while back - I have both versions. Critical Hit also did a "Capture of Balta: August 1941" which is the version I think I will do. It uses more boards (6 - three of which are half boards) and the fighting will be a little more open.

[Shep]

ASL Vet:

Great! I will look forward to it. Assault engineers and Stug IIIBs and T-26s and Rumanians all in a nice swirling battle. What could be wrong with that?

[MrSpkr]

I did a conversion from SL, too (Hide and Seek), and found it suffered from the same problem many SL conversions have: too few troops on too large a map.

In SL, those 48 Russian squads coming at you look pretty impressive. I suspect they will not have the same impact in CM unless you nearly double them (say, two battalions of Russian infantry) and up the other numbers accordingly.

I look forward to Scenario 13 (with the Rumanians), the Winter Melee (with partisans, cavalry, and paratroops), and perhaps Sowchos and Paw of the Tiger (you were actually hitting things at 30 hexes? ). However, I think the best scenarios will be the ones designed specifically for CMBB or the ones that recognize the limitations on unit numbers, etc., in SL and adjust the scale accordingly.

Steve

[Michael Emrys]

Originally posted by MrSpkr:

In SL, those 48 Russian squads coming at you look pretty impressive. I suspect they will not have the same impact in CM unless you nearly double them (say, two battalions of Russian infantry) and up the other numbers accordingly.

I personally have no conceptual problem with multiplying the number of units since the designers of the original scenarios seem to have pretty consistently downsampled in order to keep the game manageable. One often finds a company or two standing in for what was historically a battalion or more.

Michael

[KEEF888]

Hill 621 was/is one of my all-time favorite SL/ASL scenarios, too! :cool: I often thought how great it would be as a CMBB scenario, but also wondered if it would "translate" well. And as far as using old SL/ASL scenarios for CM ideas, (especially with CMBB due out soon), I'd love to see any scenarios from the "Streets of Fire" module! "Draconian Measures", "With Flame and Shell", "Storming the Factory", "Little Stalingrad", etc....drool. Maybe I'll give it a try sometime - I used to design independent ASL scenarios, which were published in various ASL mags (Rout Report, On All Fronts, ASLUG, Critical Hit, etc.), but I have not as yet really given it a shot with CM. Even with their similarities, they are two entirely different animals - and I'm not a good enough CM player yet, to feel comfortable with attempting to design a scenario for public consumption (especially with all the quality scenarios/designers already out there!). Maybe someday....

[KEEF888]

Originally posted by Stryker:

Did anybody here ever complete an entire Red Barricades campaign? We got about half way through, which took about a year, before the Russian player surrender to me. Great fun, but what a time investment...

Which campaign(s) did you play? I believe there were three of them. We (me and my ASL buds) played them all, and played "the most popular one" (the medium-sized one - I think it was the second campaign) three times, over the years. That's great that you kicked butt as the Germans, :cool: 'cause all-in-all, the campaigns were all somewhat pro-Russian, balance wise. But who cared about precise balance?! What great fun it was! And that was on a flat piece of cardboard (read: map), with us pushing cardboard chits (read: combat units) around, in between the constant looking up/interpretation of the rules in that 300 page tome we called a "rulebook"! I didn't think it could get any better, but then here comes this damned thing called "Combat Mission", and my ASL days are now merely memories. Damn kids, they don't know how easy they've got it! Back in my day...

[ArmchairKIA]

Oh, how I would love to see a Red Barricades operation! Hmm, could they make it take a year to play, too? It's been a long time since I played ASL (vs my bro, and one turney).

Cheers!

gabe

[Harold]

To the Last Man is a great 3 player scenario. It uses 3 of the deluxe city boards and Has Russian Guards on both sides with SS in the middle. The object basically is to hold out if you play the SS or wipe out if you play the Guards. Would probably make a good quick CMBB scenario.

[Patrick Moore]

Originally posted by ASL Veteran:

Glorious shot story: I am playing as British in some scenario set in Greece (I don't remember which one it was exactly and I'm too lazy to sort through the scenarios). A full German platoon is moving across some low hills in front of my Matilda tank - one AP round into the group wipes them all out! My opponent is furious :mad: exclaming over and over again "How can one AP round kill 30 men???" I had no answers other than laughter at his expense!

I plan on doing Breakout from Borisov first. [/QB]

Wow! great story. My 'glorious shot' from ASL came in one of the Deluxe ASL scenarios. I sent a M3 Stuart and it's fearless crew into the same hex as my opponent's Panther. I lucked out and killed the Panther with a pointblank shot to his rear armor! I think we laughed about that for a long time...

I hope to have some similar stories from CMBO!

[Panzer Leader]

Originally posted by Patrick Moore:

</font><blockquote>quote:</font><hr />Originally posted by ASL Veteran:

Glorious shot story: I am playing as British in some scenario set in Greece (I don't remember which one it was exactly and I'm too lazy to sort through the scenarios). A full German platoon is moving across some low hills in front of my Matilda tank - one AP round into the group wipes them all out! My opponent is furious :mad: exclaming over and over again "How can one AP round kill 30 men???" I had no answers other than laughter at his expense!

I plan on doing Breakout from Borisov first.

Wow! great story. My 'glorious shot' from ASL came in one of the Deluxe ASL scenarios. I sent a M3 Stuart and it's fearless crew into the same hex as my opponent's Panther. I lucked out and killed the Panther with a pointblank shot to his rear armor! I think we laughed about that for a long time...

I hope to have some similar stories from CMBO![/QB]</font>

[ASL Veteran]

I was the victim of another glorious shot .... I'm cruising along in my KV2 in one of the early scenarios and I come up to my friend's Mark IV from the flank. He turns the turret and misses. He then attempts an intensive fire heat shot with another turn of the turret and scores a critical hit. Oh the humanity!! :eek:

I once made my friend walk home ... about a two mile walk too! He was driving around in some open ground with this T34 .... I have a platoon of Panzergrenadiers in halftracks coming his way. He fires and misses. I drive my halftrack right up to his tank, unload some infantry, and place a magnetic mine right on his hull. Kablooey!! His cry of "Jon and his patented 5!!" rings out in frustration as he heads for the door and walks home.

Then there was the time when my friend had his Belgian rifle squad dive bombed by a Stuka. My friend gets a Heat of Battle check on his squad and the Belgians both battle harden and create a hero!! His opponent's lament "I bomb you with my Stukas and you just get stronger!!"

Ah the memories .......

I've actually found the force to space ratio reasonable for most of the scenarios I look at. I only do a scenario if there are at least company sized forces on each side. If you play the conversions alot you get used to it. I guess it is more of a matter of taste than anything.

[Stryker]

Originally posted by KEEF888:

Which campaign(s) did you play? I believe there were three of them. We (me and my ASL buds) played them all, and played "the most popular one" (the medium-sized one - I think it was the second campaign) three times, over the years. That's great that you kicked butt as the Germans, :cool: 'cause all-in-all, the campaigns were all somewhat pro-Russian, balance wise. But who cared about precise balance?! What great fun it was! And that was on a flat piece of cardboard (read: map), with us pushing cardboard chits (read: combat units) around, in between the constant looking up/interpretation of the rules in that 300 page tome we called a "rulebook"! I didn't think it could get any better, but then here comes this damned thing called "Combat Mission", and my ASL days are now merely memories. Damn kids, they don't know how easy they've got it! Back in my day...

It was the long one, I think campaign 1. I had developed a good day 1 opening move. I massed my troops in a relatively tight area and bulldozed my way into the city. You had to get a good foothold for day 2. One problem though was when my opponent landed his artillery and rolled 2 snakes in the FFE, took out 6 squads. I agree CM is a 'better' game, but it can't simulate the tension of rolling the dice and hoping for/against the snake-eyes.

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by ASL Veteran:

Chad - no, my conversions are as exact as possible. My boards will be flat. My friends are perfectionists and if there is any significant variation from the original they will complain and refuse to play it.

ASL Veteran, somehow I expected nothing short of a perfect replication from you; which I greatly look forward to playing! With school and work and baby on the way, I dont know how much time I will have to create scenarios, but I do plan on playing around with it and converting ASL in a much more general sense (same battle, same general feel, but lots of other goodness!).

BTW, ASL Veteran, if you need a tester, feel free to drop me a line. I would be more than happy to help.

Chad Harrison

[Michael Dorosh]

The great thing about RED BARRICADES, and what I would love to see in CM, is the drawing of the Perimeter at the end of each battle of the campaign - complete with trapped pockets! If CM Operations could be done like that, there are all kinds of possibilities to it that you just can't do in CMBO.

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by Michael Dorosh:

The great thing about RED BARRICADES, and what I would love to see in CM, is the drawing of the Perimeter at the end of each battle of the campaign - complete with trapped pockets! If CM Operations could be done like that, there are all kinds of possibilities to it that you just can't do in CMBO.

IMO, that is one the biggest things left lacking in CM: The Operations. So much potential (especially for a campaign) that could be used. Perhaps some day in CM2?

[MrSpkr]

I will likely do a couple of my favorite, too -- then do variants of them.

I will make maps, etc., that are as exact as possible.

Then I'll make variants that spice up the map, terrain, and especially force mixes.

Steve

[Shep]

I'll throw my hat in the ring to test ASL conversions as well. Let me know...

Mark

[Michael Emrys]

Well, I crawled into The Crypt tonight and dragged out my COI box, which contains all my scenario cards and looked up the scenarios being talked about in this thread.

I also found the one that I was thinking about that I would like to see, and that is #18, "The Defense of Luga". It has a really interesting variety of Soviet tanks: T-28C; T-40A; T-26S; BT-72; KV-2A; and T-34/76A.

But what I'm really greedy for is some of the COD scenarios, such as #31, "Chateau de Quesnoy" and wooo, wooo, wooo!, #27, "The Dinant Bridgehead".

Michael

[Herr Oberst]

Originally posted by Stryker:

... One problem though was when my opponent landed his artillery and rolled 2 snakes in the FFE, took out 6 squads. I agree CM is a 'better' game, but it can't simulate the tension of rolling the dice and hoping for/against the snake-eyes.

Don't remember the scenario, but in one battle I got into some fairly desperate straits. I hung a major (10-3 IIRC) with an HMG in a stone building at the edge of town as the sole guardian of that flank. Good position, nice and open field of fire, and during the battle he managed 5 or 6 KIA results all by his lonesome. My opponent was both incredulous and furious. It was a classic display of throwing good after bad, with him repeating "He can't do it again. No way."

[Chad Harrison]

Originally posted by MrSpkr:

I will likely do a couple of my favorite, too -- then do variants of them.

I will make maps, etc., that are as exact as possible.

Then I'll make variants that spice up the map, terrain, and especially force mixes.

Steve

Thats my points also. Make perfect, modify to perfectly fun!

[Chad Harrison]

By the way, I just started a thread in the Scenario Talk forum for those who want to test these ASL conversions when they come out. Obviously this is a little early, but that way the scenario creators can get all of our emails and not have to ask for volunteers when the time comes. I hope we get atleast a few people signed up, because I know that I am not the only one who wants to see these conersions made in a great way!

Chad Harrison

[JasonC]

"(10-3 IIRC) with an HMG in a stone building"

Ah yes, the famed "phaser cannon kill stack". Reminds me why I stopped playing ASL...

[gredeker]

Originally posted by JasonC:

"(10-3 IIRC) with an HMG in a stone building"

Ah yes, the famed "phaser cannon kill stack". Reminds me why I stopped playing ASL...

Is it really that different from parking a few HMGs in the upper story of a large stone building under the influence of a +2 combat/+2 morale HQ?

At least in ASL the chance of a building collapse was random, instead of the guaranteed event it is in CM.

[Herr Oberst]

Originally posted by JasonC:

"(10-3 IIRC) with an HMG in a stone building"

Ah yes, the famed "phaser cannon kill stack". Reminds me why I stopped playing ASL...

But it was no big stack. The leader and the HMG. IIRC, it fired at half strength (3? - been alot of years), but the combo of his mod and some incredible rolls made him the William Shatner of the day...

[Beckman]

But what I'm really greedy for is some of the COD scenarios, such as #31, "Chateau de Quesnoy" and wooo, wooo, wooo!, #27, "The Dinant Bridgehead".

Wow I remember that one, #31 Chateau de Quesnoy. I remember having to write down mine locations on paper and hope he stepped into those buildings. The French won that one, eh Easy-V. I have pleassant memories of that scen.

Man thinking back makes me like CMBO/CMBB that much more