You know what’s annoying?

This is.

My regular opponent and me sat down to play S13 Priority Target, and then we played it again with reversed sides. I lost twice, which confirms the ASL Scenario Archive’s claim of perfect balance. My opponent wrote AARs for both games, which are pretty good and are really detailed in their analysis of how I managed to screw up so much.

After that, we decided to finally do the switch to Full ASL, with our first scenario being T1 Gavin Take. A group of paratroopers enters the board on the north, has to cross or move around a village full of Germans and leave the board on the south without the Germans following them.

My initial strategy for the German side was to rush some units on the eastern hill, overlooking the village and thus denying the US movement both in the village and on the eastern flank. My hope to get the western hill as well crumbled in the very first player turn, because my opponent was just too fast.

So, I instead focused on the eastern hill. Alas…

…without any success. Control of the hill was unclear for most of the game, and when it finally was decided, a lone US squad was the last man… um, squad… standing.

And you know what’s annoying? The German side gets five MGs. In my fifth turn (of six), two of these were malf’d (including the one my strategy for denying the US their exit hex Q10), one was unpossessed on the Hill of Things That Are No Fun At All, one was all the way over in Y6 and, worst of all, the last one was in the hands of the enemy.

Surprisingly, I still managed to get a win out of this (my first one in quite a long time)! The US player has to exit one leader over Q10. One of his leaders had died on the Hill of I Hate PBF, Seriously, and the other two both got pinned in my opponent’s very last player turn by a 1FP residual in Q10. I had real good luck in that last turn, but after malfing three MGs over the course of the game and only repairing one, I think it evens out pretty well.

What I have learned from this is to not lose hope when things look really bleak. My play usually gets even worse once I am on the way to defeat, but this time I managed to keep my hopes up and try my best until the very end, and I think it really made a difference.

All in all, the game was really relaxed for being my second and my opponent’s first Full ASL game. The rules never got overwhelming and, at least for me, it felt like a real smooth transition from the Starter Kit to the real deal. I can definitely see why so many people recommend Gavin Take as a beginners scenario.

Our next game will be A The Guards Counterattack. I have played that one before, but this time I’ll play the Soviets and hope I’ll get to try out a nice human wave.