The 2024 Armchair Dragoons Fall Assembly will be held 11-13 October 2024 at The Gamer's Armory in Cary, NC (outside of Raleigh)
Recent Posts
21
Intel Dump / Re: Wargame Design Studio News Thread + Latest Sale Titles
« Last post by rahamy on Yesterday at 08:18:55 AM »Its time to see if you can rule the waves in the Far East with this Game of the Week - Tsushima! After extensive updating and content expansion we are confident this title gives you a lot of bang for your buck - and now at a reduced price! Read about it here:
https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/game-of-the-week-oct-7-13
https://wargameds.com/blogs/news/game-of-the-week-oct-7-13
22
The Modern World / Re: ASL Lovers...why ASL?
« Last post by JudgeDredd on Yesterday at 01:45:29 AM »
It depends on whether it grabs me or not.
Like other people have said, there's lots of tactical games out there and some do things better. I don't know that yet but I'm sure I'll find out.
23
The Modern World / Re: ASL Lovers...why ASL?
« Last post by bayonetbrant on October 06, 2024, 08:55:40 PM »
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The Modern World / Re: ASL Lovers...why ASL?
« Last post by trailrunner on October 06, 2024, 08:13:17 PM »25
History and Tall Tales / Re: Tales of Military Idiots
« Last post by besilarius on October 06, 2024, 02:24:31 PM »After the 1956 and 1967 Arab-Israeli wars, the Israeli intelligence service, Mossad, had a reputation that was just stellar. They were thought to know all the inner secrets of Jordan, Syria, and Egypt.
On the evening of 5 October, 1973 Destroyer Squadron 12 staff and the Manley, the Sampson, and the Richard Page were at their homeport, Elefsis, Greece, just west of Athens.
Manley was going to have a party for the departing Damage Control Assistant. Before leaving, the chief engineer asked the staff duty officer if we should still have the party.
Commander Zymerzinsky was just overwhelmed by the volume of message traffic about Syrian and Egyptian activity. He replied that it was all pretty scary - BUT the Israelis felt it was just maneuvers.
After the 1956 and 1967 wats, the Mossad had a stellar reputation. If they weren't worried then probably we should not be.
Then he read a message from Naveur in London. "Well, chit the Soviet mission in Cairo has flown out of the country."
What does that mean? It means you have your party but stay near a phone and your driver does not drink.
On the evening of 5 October, 1973 Destroyer Squadron 12 staff and the Manley, the Sampson, and the Richard Page were at their homeport, Elefsis, Greece, just west of Athens.
Manley was going to have a party for the departing Damage Control Assistant. Before leaving, the chief engineer asked the staff duty officer if we should still have the party.
Commander Zymerzinsky was just overwhelmed by the volume of message traffic about Syrian and Egyptian activity. He replied that it was all pretty scary - BUT the Israelis felt it was just maneuvers.
After the 1956 and 1967 wats, the Mossad had a stellar reputation. If they weren't worried then probably we should not be.
Then he read a message from Naveur in London. "Well, chit the Soviet mission in Cairo has flown out of the country."
What does that mean? It means you have your party but stay near a phone and your driver does not drink.
26
The Modern World / Re: ASL Lovers...why ASL?
« Last post by bbmike on October 06, 2024, 02:24:25 PM »27
The Modern World / Re: ASL Lovers...why ASL?
« Last post by bob48 on October 06, 2024, 12:05:13 PM »Not shown: one bin with MMP action packs, and another bin with third party modules such as Bounding Fire and Advancing Fire.
I can stop any time. Any. Time.
See JD - let that be a warning to you.
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History and Tall Tales / Re: This Day in History
« Last post by besilarius on October 06, 2024, 09:59:20 AM »105 BC the Teutones & Cimbri crushed two Roman armies near Arausio, in Provence
Quintus Servilius Caepio (c. 145-post 95 BC) was the scion of a great Roman family, his father and two uncles all having served as consul, as had his grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. Naturally, with such an aristocratic background, he too did well in politics, serving as praetor about 110 BC, and then governor of Further Spain for two years, winning a triumph in 108 BC for the defeat of the Lusitanians.
Elected consul for 106 BC, at a time when massive hordes of barbaric Cimbri and Teutones were threatening to descend upon Italy from both sides of the Alps, Caepio was given an army and sent to command in Narbonnensis, what is now Provence. Now just north of Narbonnensis, in Aquitania, lived the Gallic Tectosagae, who had allied themselves with the invading Cimbri. Caepio conducted a successful campaign against them, in the process capturing their capital, Tolosa (modern Toulouse). The plunder from Tolosa was impressive, given –probably exaggeratedly – as over 50,000 ingots of gold and 10,000 of silver, each of 15 pounds. Naturally, the loot belonged to the Roman people, and Caepio duly had it shipped to the capital in two convoys. Oddly, only the convoy carrying the silver made it to Rome, that moving the gold having been set upon by bandits; at the time the bandits were generally regarded as having been in the employ of none other than Caepio himself, a belief that persists.
Meanwhile, of course, the danger from the Cimbri remained. Although his consulship expired at the end of 106 BC, Caepio's command was prorogued as proconsul, while the Senate dispatched one of the newly elected consuls, Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, with a second army. Unfortunately, Mallius's very existence irked Caepio's aristocratic blood, for the consul was a so-called "New Man," that is one who had no consuls in his ancestry, a jumped-up commoner as it were. So Caepio refused to cooperate with Mallius against the invaders, despite being urged to do so by his subordinates and even his troops. The outcome was predictable; at Arausio (Orange) on October 5, 105 BC, the Cimbri defeated both Roman armies, one at a time. The blow to the Republic was horrific, with reports that as many as 80,000 troops perished, among them two sons of Mallius, and 40,000 camp-followers, with just ten men escaping. Although the numbers are certainly greatly inflated, it was a critical blow to Roman power.
Caepio survived the battle. But he was deprived of his command by the people's assembly and forcibly retired to private life, while the great Gaius Marius cleaned up the mess. Ten years later, in 95 BC, Caepio was finally brought to trial for his misconduct by one of the people's Tribunes. Although the aristocratic faction rallied to his side, he was convicted, and a ruinous fine was imposed, apparently in the hope of unearthing all that missing gold. On top of that, Caepio was imprisoned for a time. Later escaping, he fled to Smyrna, in Asia, where he lived out his life in great luxury, as befitted the man who had swiped all that gold.
1973 Syria and Egypt invade to begin the Yom Kippur war.
The Egyptians prepared for their role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War with great diligence. The principal geographic feature of their front was, of course, the Suez Canal, essentially a broad river, one of the most formidable obstacles in military geography. Strengthening the Israeli hold on the east bank of the canal was the Bar-Lev Line, actually a series of concrete observation posts, positioned every 10-12 kilometers along the canal, though there were additional fortifications at the more likely crossing points. Each post held only about fifteen men and their primary task was to give warning of an Egyptian attempt to cross the canal, and direct artillery fire on them from batteries well in the rear. Behind the canal the Israelis held small armored and artillery units, and further back there were bases at which were stockpiled the weapons and equipment for reserve brigades, which could be mobilized within 24 hours of any attempt to cross the canal. The Israelis expected their artillery and air force to keep any canal crossing force busy until the reserve brigades could get moving towards the canal.
To get across the canal the Egyptians, under Anwar Sadat, realized that they needed a better army. They did this by allowing the Soviet Union considerable control over their training, a logical step since they were largely using Soviet equipment and had adopted Soviet tables of organization, not to mention the fact that the Russians knew how to turn masses of often illiterate peasants into decent soldiers. So the Egyptians trained hard, and often. But they also took some special measures to provide the divisions that would actually assault the canal line with special equipment.
There were to be five divisions in the assault wave, each assigned a front of approximately 8 kilometers. Each was given a lot of extra equipment, so that each of the five assault divisions could deploy on its front a formidable array of weapons.
Assault Division Weapons Allotments
Item Number
RPG-7 A/T Rockets 314
106mm Recoilless Rifles 108
Sagger ATGM Launchers 24
Tanks 218
Artillery Pieces 260
Ground Support Aircraft 85
This table shows the resources available to each of the five Egyptian assault divisions between its original organic allocation and the additional allotment of equipment. In comparison, the Israeli forces this host totaled about 460 infantrymen in the Bar Lev line, supported by 28 pieces of artillery, with about 300 tanks in reserve.
The Egyptian assault on October 6, 1973, was enormously successful, the result of surprise and overwhelming material superiority..
Quintus Servilius Caepio (c. 145-post 95 BC) was the scion of a great Roman family, his father and two uncles all having served as consul, as had his grandfather, great-grandfather, and great-great-grandfather. Naturally, with such an aristocratic background, he too did well in politics, serving as praetor about 110 BC, and then governor of Further Spain for two years, winning a triumph in 108 BC for the defeat of the Lusitanians.
Elected consul for 106 BC, at a time when massive hordes of barbaric Cimbri and Teutones were threatening to descend upon Italy from both sides of the Alps, Caepio was given an army and sent to command in Narbonnensis, what is now Provence. Now just north of Narbonnensis, in Aquitania, lived the Gallic Tectosagae, who had allied themselves with the invading Cimbri. Caepio conducted a successful campaign against them, in the process capturing their capital, Tolosa (modern Toulouse). The plunder from Tolosa was impressive, given –probably exaggeratedly – as over 50,000 ingots of gold and 10,000 of silver, each of 15 pounds. Naturally, the loot belonged to the Roman people, and Caepio duly had it shipped to the capital in two convoys. Oddly, only the convoy carrying the silver made it to Rome, that moving the gold having been set upon by bandits; at the time the bandits were generally regarded as having been in the employ of none other than Caepio himself, a belief that persists.
Meanwhile, of course, the danger from the Cimbri remained. Although his consulship expired at the end of 106 BC, Caepio's command was prorogued as proconsul, while the Senate dispatched one of the newly elected consuls, Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, with a second army. Unfortunately, Mallius's very existence irked Caepio's aristocratic blood, for the consul was a so-called "New Man," that is one who had no consuls in his ancestry, a jumped-up commoner as it were. So Caepio refused to cooperate with Mallius against the invaders, despite being urged to do so by his subordinates and even his troops. The outcome was predictable; at Arausio (Orange) on October 5, 105 BC, the Cimbri defeated both Roman armies, one at a time. The blow to the Republic was horrific, with reports that as many as 80,000 troops perished, among them two sons of Mallius, and 40,000 camp-followers, with just ten men escaping. Although the numbers are certainly greatly inflated, it was a critical blow to Roman power.
Caepio survived the battle. But he was deprived of his command by the people's assembly and forcibly retired to private life, while the great Gaius Marius cleaned up the mess. Ten years later, in 95 BC, Caepio was finally brought to trial for his misconduct by one of the people's Tribunes. Although the aristocratic faction rallied to his side, he was convicted, and a ruinous fine was imposed, apparently in the hope of unearthing all that missing gold. On top of that, Caepio was imprisoned for a time. Later escaping, he fled to Smyrna, in Asia, where he lived out his life in great luxury, as befitted the man who had swiped all that gold.
1973 Syria and Egypt invade to begin the Yom Kippur war.
The Egyptians prepared for their role in the 1973 Arab-Israeli War with great diligence. The principal geographic feature of their front was, of course, the Suez Canal, essentially a broad river, one of the most formidable obstacles in military geography. Strengthening the Israeli hold on the east bank of the canal was the Bar-Lev Line, actually a series of concrete observation posts, positioned every 10-12 kilometers along the canal, though there were additional fortifications at the more likely crossing points. Each post held only about fifteen men and their primary task was to give warning of an Egyptian attempt to cross the canal, and direct artillery fire on them from batteries well in the rear. Behind the canal the Israelis held small armored and artillery units, and further back there were bases at which were stockpiled the weapons and equipment for reserve brigades, which could be mobilized within 24 hours of any attempt to cross the canal. The Israelis expected their artillery and air force to keep any canal crossing force busy until the reserve brigades could get moving towards the canal.
To get across the canal the Egyptians, under Anwar Sadat, realized that they needed a better army. They did this by allowing the Soviet Union considerable control over their training, a logical step since they were largely using Soviet equipment and had adopted Soviet tables of organization, not to mention the fact that the Russians knew how to turn masses of often illiterate peasants into decent soldiers. So the Egyptians trained hard, and often. But they also took some special measures to provide the divisions that would actually assault the canal line with special equipment.
There were to be five divisions in the assault wave, each assigned a front of approximately 8 kilometers. Each was given a lot of extra equipment, so that each of the five assault divisions could deploy on its front a formidable array of weapons.
Assault Division Weapons Allotments
Item Number
RPG-7 A/T Rockets 314
106mm Recoilless Rifles 108
Sagger ATGM Launchers 24
Tanks 218
Artillery Pieces 260
Ground Support Aircraft 85
This table shows the resources available to each of the five Egyptian assault divisions between its original organic allocation and the additional allotment of equipment. In comparison, the Israeli forces this host totaled about 460 infantrymen in the Bar Lev line, supported by 28 pieces of artillery, with about 300 tanks in reserve.
The Egyptian assault on October 6, 1973, was enormously successful, the result of surprise and overwhelming material superiority..
29
Conventions, Clubs, and Events / Re: The Wargaming Club (TWC)
« Last post by bayonetbrant on October 06, 2024, 08:45:21 AM »We didnt decide about the title yet if it will be 30YW, GNW or 7YW.. but great topic, thanks bayonetbrant..
Ah, gotcha. Well, we've got a review of GNW, too! 😎
30
The Modern World / Re: ASL Lovers...why ASL?
« Last post by JudgeDredd on October 06, 2024, 08:35:09 AM »I have stopped now. I simply wanted the Starter Kits so I could learn those basics and I wanted one module outside of the Starter Packs and Beyond Valor seemed to be one that was required for other potential scenarios...if I got any more.
But I am content with this as a base and there's plenty of gaming in there.
I did also buy the ASL Pocket Rulebook because I thought it would probably be a requirement. I also heard it was well written and easily usable as a reference which I hope is the case because I'm always using rulebooks as references which is why I'm always bitching about manuals without an index
But I am content with this as a base and there's plenty of gaming in there.
I did also buy the ASL Pocket Rulebook because I thought it would probably be a requirement. I also heard it was well written and easily usable as a reference which I hope is the case because I'm always using rulebooks as references which is why I'm always bitching about manuals without an index