The Thrappled Lemmings and the Noob Recruits (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

 "You want me to do what?" Aethelwyrd was aghast. She had no idea how the Commander could do this to her and her patrol. This went beyond the bounds of propriety.

"I want you to take charge of Aksel and his patrol," repeated the Commander for the third time, patience wearing even thinner than usual, "Show them the ropes and teach them how to survive. You'll be going out with Lord Arklin to take the fight to the Shadow Deep. This is not your usual patrol. You and Aksel will be scouts for the main army. Show Aksel how it is done. Dismissed!"

Aksel was standing rigidly at attention in one corner of the command hut. He seemed quite uncomfortable after hearing the discussion between the Commander and Aethelwyrd. He also seemed overly eager to hang out with the legendary leader of the Thrappled Lemmings. Aethelwyrd did not give a damn, but knew she had lost this discussion. She saluted and turned on her heel.

"Come on, Noob!"

Aksel followed her out, his eyes wide with trepidation and hero worship in equal measure. This was understandable. Who had not heard of the Thrappled Lemmings and their exploits both on and off the battlefield?

A short while later, Aethelwyrd had gathered her own patrol and Aksel's patrol of noob recruits.

"Right, Kalfr and Atli, you're going with Aksel. Keep him alive at least until he is old enough to shave."

She looked at Aksel's companions.

"Wait, what? What the hell is that bear doing there?"

Aksel grinned, "That's Sigrid. She's my best friend."

Sigrid (left) and Aksel

Aethelwyrd took a moment to compose herself and nod before pointing to several of Aksel's companions, "You, you and you are coming with me. I shall try to teach you the ropes. I really don't have time to change your nappies and wipe your noses, so you're going to need to pull your weight and keep up. When you're out in the Shadow Deep taking the fight to the enemy there will not be time for rests or anything. Think of the upcoming fight as a gentle introduction to what comes after. Got it?"

She marched off to grab her gear without waiting to hear the answer. If they needed further instruction, she was certain they would die anyway, so no point wasting her breath. Behind her she could hear Kalfr and Atli sorting the others out and getting them in line. She knew she could rely on them because she had fought beside them now. Kalfr especially was as battle-hardened as she was and carried as many scars.

A short while later

Aksel was feeling very uncertain. It was his first proper battle and there were wounded and dead people everywhere. He and his patrol were posted away from the main battle. As scouts, it was their job to report to the commander about enemy troop movements and to warn of outflanking manoeuvres that might be about to happen. He took his job seriously and was watching as a line of white, wispy things advanced towards his patrol, flying too high to be hit. He sounded his horn to warn his commander, but there was little that could be done. Suddenly the Alladorean lines were hit by Gnolls and Spectres and other servants of the Shadow Deep from both sides. It could not sustain this assault and crumbled. The survivors routed towards Aksel's position. Inexperienced as he was, he knew his duty. He and his patrol would cover the retreat of the army.

The battlefield. The wounded soldiers need to escape to the bottom of the picture

"Right, chaps and chapesses," his voice broke a little as his mouth went dry, but he did not think his followers had noticed, "Stand to and prepare to fight for Alladore!"

"I ain't afraid of no ghosts!"

The new recruits looked frighted but excited. Kalfr and Atli just grimaced at each other and stood to. A slew of wounded Alladorean soldiers was advancing as fast as they could, which was not particularly fast, towards them. They were pursued by a line of Spectres. Aksel and his patrol ran to get between the soldiers and the Spectres. Their plan was to draw the Spectres after them to give time for the soldiers to escape. Sigrid was wounded in this first rush and Grim, the newest recruit, fell even before he had struck a blow. As new Spectres joined the pursuit, a hellish green light washed over the battlefield and a blood-curdling scream echoed all around. Half the patrol and soldiers froze in their tracks, startled by the call from beyond the grave.

Kalfr faces a target-rich environment

Aksel and Sigrid were both badly wounded by now, as they sought to hold off the horde of Spectres. Kalfr was doing better thanks to his experience, but numbers were telling against him. A scream from across the battlefield signalled the end of an Alladorean soldier, his lifeless corpse crumbling to the ground as the Spectre assaulted him. This was too much for another soldier who howled and turned on her own, driven mad by the eldritch energies that coursed across the plain.

Aksel finally slew a Spectre as Sigrid got further wounded. Numbers told against Kalfr and he fell unmoving to the floor. Aksel soon followed too. There were just too many Spectres and he had misjudged his own ability. Despite that, he had given a good account of himself and many Spectres bore marks from his axe. Atli banished another Spectre as he desperately fought off the maddened Alladorean soldier at the same time. As the patrol was whittled down, more members of the Shadow Deep force appeared on the battlefield. The Orc archers took aim at Tomasa, who had just slain a Spectre. They missed, but the nearby Spectres soon knocked her out of the fight, and Sigrid too fell, overwhelmed by the enemy force. Atli was the only member of the patrol left standing as the Spectres swept forward. He fought on but a Spectre flanked him suddenly and cut him down instantly.

Spectres hunt for more survivors

As the last of the Alladorean wounded fled to safety, the uncanny green glow of the Spectres settled over the dead and dying from Lord Arklin's army. Dark fell and the enemy regrouped. The remains of Aksel's patrol straggled back into camp, following those soldiers they had rescued. They were welcomed with open arms for their heroic effort, but Aksel and Kalfr were badly wounded and would be hurting for a while. Fortunately the rest of the patrol had only suffered minor flesh wounds in the end and was keen to take the fight to the enemy once more.

Blimey, that was even more brutal than normal. One major issue with this scenario was that the Spectres rolled really high when they won melees while the patrol just chipped away at the Spectres with lowish rolls. I'm not saying that I was diced, but I was diced! Half the patrol was one-shotted and Aksel went from 19 health to 0 in the course of a single turn. Fighting undead without magical weapons is clearly not a wise choice for inexperienced rangers. In retrospect, it would probably have been better to hold back and stay near the wounded soldiers rather than engaging the Spectres directly, although I feel that doing this would only have delayed the inevitable. Still, it was in character for Aksel, who is desperate to impress his idols The Thrappled Lemmings. Hopefully Aethelwyrd will give him another chance to impress her later.

The Guards Counterattack (Advanced Squad Leader)

 Over the past few weeks, my brother and I have played an ASL game via Skype. We each set up the board on our tables, relying on description to ensure that we kept up with each other, and it worked. We also rolled dice ourselves and just announced the result. This also worked for us. It would be nice to have a setup where you can see your opponent, their board and their dice rolls, but the whole thing was a bit ad hoc. Maybe next time. The only real issue we had was when his board appeared to deny a line of sight and mine allowed it. This is the difference between the original boards and the newer Start Kit style boards with updated artwork. All in all, it made for a pleasant, social game.

We could have played on VASL, the digital tabletop for ASL, but that would have meant staring at the computer for yet more hours. I don't want to do that, because I do that all week long at work and get really bad digital eye strain these days, to the point where it takes a solid half hour of staring at anything other than the computer screen before I stop seeing double. The other reason not to do it is that this hobby is tactile and aural for me. I want to feel the counters and hear the dice. If I wanted to play on the computer, I would play Cyberpunk 2077 or Parkasaurus or something, not ASL.

As we have both been out of the game for a while, we decided to follow Jim Stahler's "8 Steps to ASL" which was published in the ASL Annual 1990 to refresh our memories. This approach is based on the original Squad Leader rulebook that took a staged approach to learning the rules, and it uses the same scenarios but updated to ASL. These are now in the ASL Classic supplement that you can get digitally on WargameVault. The first scenario is "The Guards Counterattack". I have lost track of how many times I have played this scenario. It is just such a perfect introduction to the game with only infantry and machine guns, and no weird terrain rules.

The Scenario

The scene: Stalingrad, October 1942. Soviet assault troops are massing to try to retake part of the city. The Germans are digging in hard and resisting. They are outnumbered and their positions are flanked, but  they have the advantage of defending. Their only goal is to hold on and not lose too many troops.

My brother took the Soviets, whose goal is to take ground in Stalingrad (measured by stone buildings captured) or to reduce the German forces. Failure to meet one of these goals means that the Germans win. Set-up is limited by the scenario description, which made the scenario more suitable for our purposes and we were able to use email to set-up ahead of time, so that we could just get on with the important business of rolling dice and talking shite.

Red circles mark buildings controlled by the Soviets at the start of the game. Red arrows show Soviet movements. German-controlled buildings have blue circles and their movements are marked by blue arrows.

My set-up in this game was based around using my machine guns to get interlocking fire lanes to stop the Soviet forces advancing. Naturally, this failed on the first turn as my machine gun teams were broken by Soviet fire. Only one team managed to lay down any fire. Fortunately, this was the one that inhibited the Soviet assault troops' advance. In the end, I feel like this was pivotal in the result of the game alongside my sniper who get busy from the outset. The assault troops failed to advance quickly enough. Being held up in the first building meant that the Soviets could not push on fast enough to take more buildings.

As with every play of this scenario that I have every played, the Soviets advanced counter-clockwise and the Germans did the same. As my sniper took several solid shots, the Soviet leadership suffered. Troops broke, the leaders rushed to rally them and were shot down by the sniper. Even the Soviet commissar was wounded. By the end of turn 3, only the Soviet commissar remained, and he was doing sterling work shooting his own troops, who kept cowering behind cover instead of rallying and returning to the fight.

As the game continued, a German squad managed to manoeuvre round the Soviet forces, and started taking buildings previously held by the Soviet forces. Lacking leadership, the Soviet troops stayed broken rather than returning to the front. Those who remained had no fire support and were only left with the option of charging the German positions and hoping that they survived. Dear reader, they did not.

Situation at the end of the game. So many broken Soviet troops! The Soviet MMG top centre is actually possessed by a German squad. The wound marker on the right shows the wounded Soviet Commissar.

As the day closed, the Germans held on. The Soviet forces were in disarray with only a tiny number of squads still combat ready. All the rest were broken and hiding from the German firepower, unable to rally because their leaders had all been sniped. The Battle for Stalingrad would continue another day.

Thoughts

This is a great scenario and well-balanced. As was expected, the action moved in a circle with the Soviet assault troops taking their target building, while the Germans managed to circle round through the Commissar's building while he was broken and take Russian buildings at the top of the map.

The key things that won it for the Germans were the slow advance by the Soviet assault troops and the active German sniper, who killed two of the Soviet leaders by half-way through the third of five turns. With troops broken and no way to bring them back into the fray en masse, the Soviet advance stalled. My brother still heroically soldiered on and tried to get his troops into place. He did succeed in making small advances, but there was no way what remained of his forces was going to win the scenario without extremely lucky dice rolls that were not forthcoming.

The Thrappled Lemmings and the Sorcerer's Mirror (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

A short distance further into the dark passages of the temple, the Thrappled Lemmings encountered a lone temple guard outside a door. The guard was dispatched easily. Onund broke the door down after Ash failed to pick the lock. They had found a store room and were able to eat and drink their fill of food that was mostly not mouldy. A healing potion, a dose of farlight leaf and a dose of ironbark powder were bonus finds. After chugging down the healing potion, Onund felt much better. None of the Lemmings were now worse off than a few scratches. Much cheered up, the Thrappled Lemmings carried on.

"Hi ho, hi ho, it's off to work we go," hummed Atli to himself as the Lemmings marched deeper into the earth and closer to their destination.

Kalfr was chuntering to himself under his breath, "See the little goblin, see his little feet..."

Meanwhile, towards the front of the party Onund was singing to himself to keep his spirits up and to drown out the other's out-of-tune humming and chuntering: "I am a dwarf and I dig in a hole. Diggy diggy hole. Diggy diggy hole..."

It was unfortunate that he only knew those lines, but he made up for his lack of knowledge with an excessive willingness to carry on regardless.

 Ash accompanied Onund on his banjolele as best he could, while Aethelwyrd and Incunabulum just looked pained. Or maybe they both had trapped wind.

Light appeared ahead of the Lemmings once more and Aethelwyrd hissed "Shut up!" at Atli and Onund. Silence descended as Ash was pushed ahead of the party to scout for the rest of them. Ash slung his banjolele on his back and crept forward to spy out the lie of the land. A short while later, he returned to the group.

"Nefarious doings to report. There's a big hairy fella with a massive chopper and some sorcerous type. The wizardy fella seems to be using a mirror as a spyglass to cast spells through. There's also more of those guardians there. Nothing we can't handle. It's a clear room so we just need to charge in and cut 'em to bits."

Aethelwyrd nodded. Sometimes the simplest plans were the best. She formed the Lemmings up into an orderly rank and yelled, "CHARGE!"

The Lemmings charged into the chamber. The sorcerer gestured confidently. A curtain of flame rose up in front of the Lemmings. Further down the chamber, a chain net curtain fell, blocking access to the sorcerer and his hirsute bodyguard.

Wall of fire crossed. I'm using the dungeon walls as the chain net and will remove each part as and when the fastenings are cut

Unable to stop their charge in time, the Lemmings raced through the wall of fire before they realised what they had done.

All the Lemmings passed the Will test to run through the wall of fire unscathed first time! I am utterly gobsmacked! It also seems like the most Lemming thing ever. I can just imagine them wondering what they have just done as they realise that the wall of fire was meant to hold them up.

The sorcerer's jaw dropped as his first defence failed so thoroughly and so quickly. The archers in the centre of the chamber loosed arrows at Aethelwyrd, who was leading the charge. None hit and soon she and the Lemmings were on them.

Incunabulum unleashed a blast of eldritch power and destroyed the fastenings holding one end of the chain net up. As the fight heated up, the sorcerer chanted blasphemous words and Kalfr turned on his friends, only to be knocked out by Aethelwyrd. Ash sprinted towards the corner of chain net, only for Atli to shoot the fastening as he got there.

"That's how you do it!" yelled Atli.

With the sorcerer now open to assault, Incunabulum blasted him and his monstrous bodyguard with a fireball, singeing both of them. Aethelwyrd charged the bodyguard and Incunabulum charged the sorcerer, only to be hit hard by the evil spellcaster. The fight was on. Sorcerer versus mage and bodyguard versus Ranger.

Only one way to sort this out: Fight!

Unfortunately for Incunabulum, the sorcerer was more physically able and smashed him to the ground as Ash repeatedly stabbed the bodyguard only to fall to a mighty blow from it as the bodyguard simultaneously fended off Aethelwyrd's attacks. Everyone but Atli on all sides were now bleeding heavily as a blood fly flew into the cavern, scenting its next meal.

Aethelwyrd and the bodyguard were very evenly matched, but in the end she landed enough blows to weaken the creature before caving its skull in as it stumbled. Onund tried to do the same to the sorcerer but was bludgeoned to the ground. Atli took careful aim and put an arrow through the sorcerer's ears, cleaning out the ear wax and incidentally killing the sorcerer in the process. The blood fly fled as Atli and Aethelwyrd panted hard to recover their breath.

All over bar the looting.

Looking around, the heroes found a wizard's staff and a gold ring with the Lorenthian coat of arms on it. They hastily grabbed these items and turned their attention to the mirror, whose surface was clouding over. A face formed in it and began to speak.

"I have a tale of woe to tell you, but not much time. I was the plaything of young Princess Nyla of Dremmis. Tell people this. Make her name and story live. You must destroy me, but first I would know if you know the words or the song or the sign."

Aethelwyrd held up the golden ring.

"Yes, that is the sign. He who wore it yet lives."

The mirror cleared quickly to show a scene of a dark, dank dungeon. A child was crying in the corner. Suddenly, he looked up and his face became clear. It was Prince Ruthic of Lorenthia, the Alladorean king's own cousin. As the image was replaced by a pattern of stars, Aethelwyrd copied the pattern down, certain that it would lead the Lemmings to the Prince himself.

"Now," announced the mirror, "You must smash me so that I may not be used for evil again. And hurry for the enemy is rallying and approaching."

Aethelwyrd grabbed the huge bodyguard's hammer and crushed the mirror with a single blow. She and Atli quickly roused the remaining Lemmings, all of whom were fortunately only knocked out and not seriously wounded. They raced from the Temple as the forces of evil gathered behind them, certain at least that the sorcerer would no longer influence battles from afar. It would be a long trek home, but they had done what they set out to do, although at no little cost themselves.

That was an interesting scenario. It was a bit of a race against time as the sorcerer got a special effect at the end of each turn, and I did not want him to have too many of those, especially after the first of them confused Kalfr so he turned on his own people. Incunabulum and Atli were very lucky indeed with their shots to bring the chain net down. In fact, Atli's shot at it was the only critical hit of the game. I was lucky that none of the Lemmings was seriously hurt or killed, but I figure I deserved that luck after some of their combat dice rolls were so bad. They should have steamrollered the Temple Guardian Archers, but were instead cut down by them. Likewise with the melee with the sorcerer. The bodyguard was tough too but Aethelwyrd kept winning melees by one or two points and doing little bits of damage that eventually killed him.

One more mission in the Gathering of Heroes book left. Lets see if I have all the terrain and figures I need for it and then get it played. After that I shall be waiting for the newest scenarios to be gathered into a single book so that the Lemmings can take to the field again in Rangers of Shadow Deep.

The Thrappled Lemmings and the Incantation Lock (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

 "What now?" cursed Aethelwyrd in response to Ash's wittering.

"No, look. I found some food and not all of it is bad!"

Aethelwyrd cheered up. The Lemmings chowed down on the best of the food and drink they had found, and morale was much improved as they followed the twists and turns of the passage deeper into the earth. After an absolute age, they heard noises from up ahead and could see light again. The noises resolved into the hissing of Temple Guardian voices as they got closer. Ash moved stealthily forward and peered into the chamber ahead.

He reported back to the others, "Five guardians in that room and four weird or wyrd disks. There are runes everywhere too, so I suspect foul magics. They seem to be particularly concentrated on the door out, and on two points in the centre of each of the other two walls."

The Thrappled Lemmings enter from the bottom of the picture. Temple Guardians lurk in every corners and there are four magical disks in the middle. Can the Thrappled Lemmings survive?

"Ok, Lemmings, we got this. We'll take out the guardians and read the runes. Incunabulum, you take the door. I'll take the left wall. Ash and Kalfr, you're with me. Atli and Onund go with Incunabulum. Stay together and support each other."

The Lemmings moved out and into the room. Kalfr and Ash headed for the nearest guardian to them and wounded it in a vicious melee. Atli loosed an arrow at another and wounded it. Then the melee was joined and skeletons started crawling out of the floor. The Lemmings set to with a will. Soon most of the guardians were dead or dying, although both Atli and Onund were wounded in the process. But more skeletons and skeleton knights started emerging.

The slaying never ends as new foes constantly emerge

"Get a shift on!" yelled Aethelwyrd.

Ash contemplated the runes in front of him on the left wall and scratched his head. He could not make head nor tail of them no matter how hard he stared.

Aethelwyrd pointed out that he was trying to read them left to right, not right to left as they should be read.

"It's instructions for the technique to smith a new weapon," she informed Ash as Kalfr attacked the last remaining guardian.

Onund and Atli slew the skeleton but not before Onund had suffered another wound, and Incunabulum moved to the door before blasting the oncoming skeletal knights with a fireball that destroyed both of them.

Crispy fried Skeletal Knight is on the menu

A shadow knight materialised in another corner of the room and a sense of doom filled the place.

Aethelwyrd and Ash hurried over to aid Kalfr as the shadow knight moved towards Onund. Meanwhile, Incunabulum had read the runes on the door.

"Hey, guys, we need to light the braziers on the stone plinths and then recite the correct incantation!"

He ran to the nearest brazier and prepared to try lighting it. Onund ran to one of the plinths and lit the brazier. Kalfr slew the guardian he faced and stepped over to one of the other braziers. As he did so, another guardian entered the room.

With his brazier lit, Kalfr moved to aid Onund, while Ash ran over and lit the last unattended brazier. Aethelwyrd ran to the back wall of the room to check the runes there. Seeing Onund beset by the Shadow Knight though holding his own, Incunabulum cast Enchanted Steel on Onund's sword before lighting his brazier. Onund used his newly enchanted weapon to good effect and grievously wounded the Shadow Knight. Meanwhile Atli's shot badly wounded the approaching guardian. Now all the braziers were lit and it was just a case of working out the correct enchantment. Aethelwyrd hoped that the runes she was running towards would help with this.

Two more skeletons emerged from the ground.

Aethelwyrd quickly read the runes on the wall.

"Ok, I got a clue about the incantation. Get ready and we'll try this."

As she yelled this, Onund was cut down by the Shadow Knight. Atli shot a skeleton and hurried to aid Kalfr who stood alone against the Knight. Incunabulum joined the pair, as Ash threw a dagger that slew an oncoming skeleton. The Lemmings gathered near their fallen comrade and chanted in unison. There was a soft wound like tinkling bells and the door vanished to reveal a passage beyond.

Seconds before Onund is knocked out

"Everyone out!" yelled Aethelwyrd. She was getting hoarse by now with all the yelling.

Yet another skeleton emerged from a corner of the chamber.

Aethelwyrd, Kalfr and Atli attacked the skeleton nearest them only for Aethelwyrd and Kalfr to be wounded by it! The others ran for the door carrying Onund as two more Skeletal Knights crawled out of the ground.

Losing patience, Aethelwyrd struck hard at the skeleton and it crumbled to the ground. She and the others sprinted for the passage and exited it as yet more Skeletal Knights crawled out of the ground. The Lemmings only paused for breath once they were certain that the undead horrors had given up the chase.

As they panted for breath, Onund stirred. He had only been knocked out.

"Thanks for carrying me, my friends. That run sounded exhausting."

"What! You mean you were conscious the whole time?"

The other Lemmings gazed at him disgustedly, yet knowing they would have done the same! They all marched grimly on to whatever challenge faced them next.

I must admit to being a bit worried when Onund was KOed yet again, but his skull seems to be made of hard stuff. The neverending stream of undead foes was also problematic, but I got lucky with the last ones which all appeared at the furthest point from the party, giving the Lemmings a free run at the exit. So, they have made it to the grand finale of this mission. I hope they can survive that and return to the Dragon and Flagon for a well-deserved ale or three.

The Thrappled Lemmings and the Pool of Ghouls (Rangers of Shadow Deep)

No fancy terrain this time. I just want to get back to playing this mission. I had stalled a bit from being distracted by other games, but also because the mission called for a few terrain pieces I did not have. In the end impatience to get on won out.

The Thrappled Lemmings crept deeper into the mound. They had lost Drogo to the Temple Guardians, but they were determined that they would slay the evil conjuror even if every last one of them had to die in service of the Rangers to do so. Of course, living and drinking excessive quantities of beer was a better outcome, so they were all agreed that this would be their goal. Let the Shadow Deep's creatures die for the Lemmings' goal instead!

The Pool of Ghouls. Amber beads represent ropes. Blue beads represent the wheels. The ledges are built up from the frames I use to mark the playing area. The standard bearers in the middle are statues. I am using two bookcases tipped on their fronts to mark the ladders.

The tunnel seemed to go on forever as they crept forward in the darkness, but it did have an end. A light appeared before them and they pushed forward towards it more quickly. Stepping through the opening at the end of the tunnel, the Lemmings emerged blinking in the bright light given off by a massive chandelier. Ropes tied to the wall near them allowed for it to be raised and lowered.

"Pity the poor sod that has to change those candles, eh?" grinned Onund.

The Lemmings had time to notice a large metal door on the other side of the chamber, before wheels near it began turning and the clink of unseen chains and cogs grinding could be heard, and almost felt. The room had ledges on either side of it, and trapdoors on the lower floor with ladders leading down from the ledges to the lower floor. As the grinding stopped, the trapdoors sprang open and ghouls emerged from them. More ghouls started climbing down the walls of the chamber.

"Quick! The ropes!" yelled Aethelwyrd, and showed what she meant by rapidly undoing one of the ropes. She swung effortlessly across the chamber on the rope to the other ledge. Kalfr and Incunabulum soon followed as the ghouls advanced towards them all. One ghoul, faster than the others, reached Kalfr and was sorely wounded for its hurry. Then the remaining Lemmings followed suit and soon all were standing on the opposite ledge.

"Good job we have practised this," Ash announced, thinking of all those barroom brawls the Lemmings had found themselves caught up in, and all those chandeliers they had previously swung from.

Having a swinging time! Aethelwyrd has turned her wheel and the door now stands open.

As another ghoul emerged from one of the trapdoors, Aethelwyrd directed Kalfr and Incunabulum to try turning one of the wheels. Kalfr cut down the ghoul in front of him and moved to the far wheel. Incunabulum went to help him, while Aethelwyrd put her own shoulder to the nearest wheel and pushed. It turned slowly. As it did so, one of the trapdoors slammed shut and the big metal door opened.

"That was lucky. Lemmings, get through that door as fast as you can!"

One ghoul was quicker than the others. It attacked Onund, but gave up its efforts to hurt him because his axe was buried in its skull. It collapsed to the floor as more ghouls swarmed towards the ladder up to the ledge. Atli and Ash both fired shots at the advancing ghouls before racing through the doorway. Onund took up position at the top of the ladder. He would stand guard while Aethelwyrd and the others got to the door.

Form a disorderly queue! Singed ghouls give the remaining Lemmings time to escape.

As Aethelwyrd and the others rushed to join Onund, the ghouls formed a disorderly queue for the ladder and Incunabulum blasted one with a magic bolt. The leading ghoul managed to wound Onund however. Incunabulum shot a fireball into the midst of the packed mass of ghouls searing all of them with its fire. The leading ghoul was burnt to a crisp, even though it was on the edge of the blast. Taking advantage of this brief respite, the remaining Lemmings charged through the metal door and heaved it shut behind them. They dressed Onund's wounds and pressed on deeper into the Temple of Madness.

Well, that went quickly. All of the Lemmings successfully swung across the lower ground, vastly speeding up the process of escaping. Then Aethelwyrd opened the door with the first wheel, which was even luckier. I had feared that I would have to try all the wheels before the door opened, especially after Kalfr and Incunabulum working together failed to turn their wheel. Better yet, Onund was the only one wounded in this scenario, which means that all of the Lemmings except for him are back to full Health. That will come in handy. What will this mad temple throw at the Lemmings next?

One thing I wonder about and that is not explained in the scenario is if the rope tokens should be used up. In retrospect, I think this is the case. In my head, those who swung across flung the rope back to their comrades, hence all members of the Lemmings being able to swing across. Ah well, I had fun, and my opponent did not complain, so all is well for now.

The Oldest Kin: Lizardpeople for Five Leagues from the Borderlands

 The Salamander Folk of the Northern Wastes are more legend than reality to most. They are the remnants of an ancient civilisation that once ruled the whole of Utavoll but their civilisation fell to internecine intrigue, murder and warfare. Now they live more peacefully in small extended-family groups. However, they can be fearsome foes when their ire is aroused and the more powerful among them know terrible magics that can rend a person limb from limb with just a gesture.

All of the Salamander Folk are from Alternative Armies, except for the Needle Fang Pack which is from Checkpoint Miniatures.

Salamander Folk with light armour

These lizardpeople will stand in for all the foes with light armour, which is most of the list. They are the ordinary clan members. Their scales are hard enough to ward off some blows and they are moderately trained, but they are not normally called to war. Many use the axes and hammers of their day jobs when they go to war, while wealthier Salamanderfolk may have bronze swords.

Salamander Folk with mixed hand weapons (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk with partial armour

Some lizardpeople are more warlike than others. These ones supplement their hard scales with a shield and train for warfare . They are the Ravager Brood, the War-Strong Brood and the Battle Champion Brood. Their role in the clan is to defend the others, so that their less warlike clan members can pursue their lives in peace.

Salamander Folk warriors

Salamander Folk with missile weapons

Salamander Folk favour javelins, but some also use bows for hunting. These figures will stand in for any missile troops they need.

The javelineers carry light shields and a small number of light spears that can be thrown or used in melee as needed. The javelin is a favoured weapon in the swampy terrain the Salamander Folk live in. It used both for spearing enemies and for spearing fish and other water dwellers for dinner.

Salamander Folk javelineers (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk who specialise in the use of the bow are generally those who have got tired of a diet of water-dwelling food. They are skilled at shooting birds from the surrounding trees and at feathering their foes with arrows whose large heads cause grievous wounds that take an age to heal, if the target survives at all.

Salamander Folk with bows (Alternative Armies)

The Cold-Blooded Priest Band

The priest caste has ruled the Salamander Folk since before records began, which is not surprising because the priest caste are the ones that keep proper records. Unkind people say that they destroyed the records from before they took over society, but all right-thinking people know this is a baseless conspiracy theory. Not all priests sit in the temples writing histories of the Folk. Some go out into the world to ensure that the Folk are maintaining religious standards and not backsliding. These are the Cold-Blooded. Most are armed with standard polearms, but a small number of them have magical polearms with jadeite blades that shoot bolts of green fire. It is said that the Jadeite Polearmes were a gift from the gods, and that only a chosen few, those most pure of heart, can use them.

Salamander Folk priests with Polearms (Alternative Armies)

Salamander Folk priests with enchanted polearms (Missile troops for the Cold Blooded. Alternative Armies)

Hunter Beasts

Hunter Beasts, as the Salamander Folk, call them or Iguanasaurs, as the humans call them, are lizard beasts the size of a large bull. They are used as draught beasts by the Salamander Folk when tamed. Wild Hunter Beasts are not to be messed with. The females in particular are hugely aggressive and protective of their herd, and they will attack if the unwary traveller gets too close to the herd.

Iguanasaurs (Alternative Armies)

Needle Fang Pack

Needle Fangs are the size of a large dog and similarly intelligent. They are trained by the Salamander Folk just as dogs are trained by humans. Their name comes from the many rows of needle-like fangs in their mouths. They are loyal to their trainers and protective of them and their pack. While not particularly deadly when encountered individually, they are mostly found in larger numbers that can be a threat even to experienced adventuring bands.

A pack of Needle Fangs on the hunt (Checkpoint Miniatures)

Retaking the Assembly Hall (Solitaire Advanced Squad Leader)

 Attention all units. The Thrappled Lemmings will return in a moment.

I got distracted by talking about Advanced Squad Leader (ASL) with my brother. With a view to relearning the rules, which I played almost constantly for a couple of decades from the early 90s onwards, I set up a solitaire game. I made a lot of mistakes, read a lot of rules and worked my way through to a conclusion. I got so much wrong that I cannot claim it was a victory. Nor can I claim it was a defeat. It was just a learning experience.

Then I got overly ambitious and set up a solitaire game using the solitaire rules for the Barrikady factory in Stalingrad that were published in an early ASL Journal. It took me most of a day to set up the Suspect (possible enemy) locations, and most of a week to play the whole thing through. This included a false start where I almost completely annihilated my assault engineers with a misplaced rocket strike. Disappointingly, that same rocket strike did almost nothing to the enemy force when I reset the scenario and started again. Such are the vagaries of the dice gods.

The early game. That's a lot of possible enemies!

In the photo above, my Soviet force has entered from the bottom of the photo. The Germans are defending the Assembly Hall, which is the building with the huge numbers of Suspect counters in it in the centre of the photo. It is November 1942. The weather is clear. The Soviets have between 8 and 13 turns to take the Assembly Hall. The game will end on or after turn 8. The game will end on a die roll of 1 at the end of the turn. The die roll is modified by -1 for each turn after turn 8, so it ends on a 1-2 at the end of turn 9 and so on.

My force consisted of a company of assault engineers supported by two companies of infantry, a heavy weapons platoon, a troop of T34s and a 2nd Lieutenant with a map and access to a Katyusha battery. This last is reputedly the greatest weapon in the German's arsenal, as my early attempt at dropping rockets to weaken the defence showed.

Having finally worked out which way to hold the map, the Soviet officer got his rocket strike on target. It had little effect on the Germans in their fortified positions. The Soviet infantry pushed forward, following the strike only to find the Germans fighting back. It was a hard fight and they really got the worst of it. Soviet troops broke and streamed backwards as fast as they advanced. They got in each other's way and the advance progressed at a snail's pace.

The Germans held on with amazing tenacity and many heroes emerged from the German ranks to take the fight to the Soviets. Meanwhile, the Soviet sniper was busily firing off every round she had at possible German targets, but only really managed to annoy them.

The main success was the assault engineers, who used their demolition charges to good effect, blasting holes in the German defence and permitting Soviet infantry to advance into the Assembly Hall. This was not without hazard though as German troops sniped from the sidelines and fired everything they had at the advancing Soviets.

It did not help that the Assembly Hall was defended by a reinforced troop of StuG IIIGs, several infantry and anti-tank guns and a StuIG 33B with a 150mm gun. Although they managed to get one of the T34s into the Assembly Hall to help, the main way to deal with these AFVs involved getting up close and personal in hand-to-hand combat, and that cost bodies. It was a bitter and hard fight. 

The limit of the Soviet advance. About half the Assembly Hall is safely in Soviet hands, and various buildings are burning.

Eventually, night fell and both sides settled in to their new lines. The Assembly Hall had not been retaken despite their best efforts, but the Germans were exhausted too. They had lost as many troops as the Soviets and would probably not be able to sustain the defence the following day. The rest of both sides was disturbed by the fires that had broken out because of heavy shelling and burning vehicles. it would not be a quiet night for either side. I imagine that the fires were actually started by an enterprising NKVD officer to stop the Soviet forces from retreating.

Some Thoughts and Wittering

That was fun, but crikey there's a lot to keep track of when playing on your own. And I am sure that I never used to knock counter stacks over quite as much as I did playing this scenario!

Although fun, it was also a bit frustrating. The German dice were hot for almost all the game, while the Soviet dice need to be sent to Siberia for reeducation. I could not believe how many StuGs the German's generated. It's like they lined the whole assembly hall with artillery and SPGs. They also generated 4 or 5 heroes and battle-hardened a similar number of squads by rolling more double 1s on their morale checks than the Soviets did in the entire game. The German low rolling also meant that the Soviet sniper checked for activation constantly. On top of that, there were lots of elite German troops and they generated a 10-3 leader (the best quality leader in the game) who proved almost impossible to stop.

Meanwhile, the Soviet experience was characterised by lacklustre performance of the troops. There was one turn where the Soviets failed 12 morale checks in a row, despite their improved morale for being in the Assembly Hall. To think I thought that Rangers of Shadow Deep was swingy! They also only rolled one result that resulted in a German sniper check, and the only time they rolled double 1 for a morale check, the best Soviet officer went berserk and charged the Germans completely on his own!

From a tactical perspective, I should probably have taken more of a risk and attacked up the right flank, risking activating troops not in the Assembly Hall, but also giving me faster access to the far end of it. I was too careful about that, and sent my troops up the middle to minimise enemy activation, in the hope that I could deal with each hostile as it was generated and then move on. Next time I shall do better.

I'm going to retreat to the ASL rulebook for a spot of reeducation again, although I am satisfied that I got most things right in this scenario, and I shall return with more Rangers of Shadow Deep shortly. Hopefully, things will go better when I play my brother. And my next Solitaire ASL scenario will be smaller ... unless I get too ambitious and start a solitaire Historical ASL campaign.