Thursday was open gaming day at the Tussle event. Mark Evans and I share a desire to play the exotic rules of ASL like caves and beach landings. We agreed to play J15 TURNING OFF THE SPIGOT from the Kakazu Ridge mini-HASL. I had the defending Japanese. The scenario has 16 American squads (a mix of 747, 667 and 666) against 8 Japanese squads and six crews with two spigot mortars. The Americans also have 80mm OBA of HE and WP, with a Breeze for drifting WP. The American objective is to control the two spigot mortar caves, which they accomplish by being in the entrance hexes of the spigot mortar caves with no Japanese in those caves.
When I first saw the playing area, I checked for errata because it is surprisingly narrow.

The Japanese have twelve caves, two of which are spigot mortar caves. According to an SSR, the spigot mortar caves must set up on board and within three hexes of W15. I could have put them both in the same hex, but I wanted both to face away from the American approach, so they were in hexes W17 and W18. The Japanese can use three of the defined on-map cave complexes and they can create one more. The spigot mortar caves must be in a complex, so I created a complex that included them and that also touched an existing complex. This allowed the Japanese to move HIP among all the complexes. Since Kakazu Ridge is not PTO, the Americans will quickly find out the locations of the other 10 caves.
I made my setup in VASL ahead of time. At game start, only the 2 spigot mortar caves were on the map.

I can’t give a detailed report of our game, just a rough description with a few highlights. The Americans entered on a broad front. Three flamethrowers were able to fire at the caves in Z13 from long range. Each FT hits all three caves, one at 12 firepower and the other two at 6 FP. Amazingly, I had survivors. The FT units then advanced adjacent to each of the three caves. In the following turn, the Japanese prep fire from some of the survivors broke two of the FT units. It would take them awhile to get back in the game.
The spigot mortars in KR fire a bit like OBA. The crews use Hazardous Movement to Opportunity Fire the spigot mortars. If the crew survives to the AFPh, the Japanese player selects a target hex and rolls for accuracy, needing a one. If accurate, it hits with 20FP. If not accurate, it will drift like a SR.
I used the two of them in turn one. The Americans killed one of the crews with a “K” result. The other spigot mortar was accurate, hitting a stack of three MMC and a leader, breaking them all. Over the span of the game, I made six spigot mortar shots; only one other shot hit anything, but it was another stack. I forget what happened to the stack.

Round 1
I was matched with Brian Wiersma (last played in 2022). We played FrF36 NEWBORN PARTISANS (new scenario to me). Fifteen Polish partisan squads with 3 leaders are sandwiched between two Russian groups totalling 20 squads with 3 leaders and 2 BA-20 armoured cars. One Russian group has 12 conscript squads with two commissars. The other Russian group has mixed quality troops with a 9-1. The Polish can win immediately by exiting 4 squads and 2 leaders or at game end by having more CVP than the Russians; the CVP calculation is non-standard and involves leaders, specified victory hexes  and one HIP Polish-positioned building overlay. ROAR shows the scenario favouring the Polish partisans. We both bid for the favoured side; I was lucky and obtained them.

I thought exiting would be next to impossible so I set up my Polish partisans to fall back slowly to the VP hexes. Brian quickly reminded me that he would Human Wave his conscripts if I let him. Thereafter, I never had a Polish unit in sight of the Russian conscript group at the beginning of their MPh. The Polish were able to fall back from both sides towards the center. The Russians were unable to outflank the Poles or pierce their lines, though they did cause casualties. The Polish cause was helped by their MMG eliminating one of the armoured cars. Near the end of the game, my two defensive lines had joined to make a circle around the building overlay hex, which was still HIP and worth as much as the two other hexes that I had given up. Brian did the math and conceded.

Round 2
I played against Keith Hill (last played in 2023). Our scenario was DB048 ERSTWHILE ALLIES, which has six morale Americans attacking Vichy French in Algeria. We both wanted the favoured Vichy side; I got them and Keith had the balance of an upgraded leader.
Second line American infantry with two M3 GMC need to take three specified buildings from 7.5 mixed quality Vichy squads with one 75mm artillery gun.
Since the Americans had a whole board edge to enter, my defence covered all the approaches. The closest building to the Americans had only a token unit. The middle building had a lot of units in and around it, including the gun; the gun was in a center woods hex to blast infantry that got near the middle building. I had no one in the rear victory building, but my right flank troops planned to fall back to it later in the game. The French can setup up two HS HIP in front of their main line.

Keith sent the Americans up their right side with a minority going up the middle. Only two HS from the right flank force made it back to the rear building, but that was enough because Keith was so focused on the center building mid-game that he forgot about the rear building. He was also distracted by having trouble passing morale checks. I think I had in the middle building two leaders, two squads and the gun crew on the penultimate turn and Keith realized he did not have enough time left to control the two buildings.

Round 3
I met Paul Anderson next (last played in 2016). We played J207 UNHORSED (new to me scenario). I had the Americans with the balance.
Thirteen mixed quality American squads with 3 leaders, a Stuart and 2 M8 armoured cars try to exit 10 VP of MMC against 8 SS squads with 2 leaders and a Pak 40 in bocage territory.
I sent the Stuart up the left flank through the bocage. The infantry went up the left and middle. The AC supported the infantry in the middle with plans to scoot around the right flank later on. Unfortunately, Paul’s dice made this a one-sided game that he conceded about half way through.

Round 4
Ron Duenskie (who went undefeated to win the event; last played in 2023) and I played together in this round. The chosen scenario was FrF37 CROSSING SWORDS AT KYAUKSE (new to me scenario). Based on ROAR, we gave the Commonwealth side the balance and diced for sides.
Thirteen mixed quality Japanese squads with a 70mm infantry gun in two groups try to exit 8 VP against  7 Gurkha  squads that are reinforced by three squads on turn one and three Stuart tanks on turn two.
I did a turn one banzai to gain some MF with my main group. It was difficult to use the infantry gun; the Japanese must push it forward to do anything useful with it. Mid game, I tried to have cover from both my light mortar and the infantry gun, but neither brought their special ammo. Most of the Gurkhas were able to fall back towards the board edge where the CE Stuarts were parked. The MMG could also put down a nice fire lane near the board edge. I got one squad through but was unsuccessful after that. The photo below shows Ron (right) receiving his trophy from TD Chuck Tewksbury.

Round 5

My match-up in this round was affected by my need to leave by 1:30 PM. Chuck paired me with Ted Wilcox who had the same thing in mind. Ted and I have seen each other at many New England events, but this was only our second game together; the previous match was in 2013. We agreed to play WO34 FEAST DAY  (new scenario to me) because it seemed to be the shortest of the five choices.
It is ironic to me that I ended up playing a scenario set in Ortona because I’ve spent about ten years working on the development of ORTONA: LITTLE STALINGRAD for MMP. I hope to turn that over to them in a year, give or take.
Ten elite Canadian squads, reinforced on turn two by three Sherman tanks, try for multi-hex buildings (1 VP) and multi-level buildings (3 VP) against 8.5 paratrooper squads. The Canadians need 8 VP to win.
Ted accidentally help my cause by forgetting that the Canadians had less than a full board edge to enter. This gave me one 3 point building early. Ted was able to shift some troops before the Shermans arrived to interdict, but not enough. The Shermans smoked two high MMG teams. I took several 1 point buildings against light opposition and we had a long lasting melee for a 3 point building. When I finally won that melee, I had well over 8 points and Ted conceded at that point.

I had a great time at the Tussle. The motel was nice. The hosts were very pleasant. We had the place to ourselves as well. The game room wasn’t air conditioned, but Chuck has solved that issue for next year by changing the date to late October.