May Officefest AAR

Traveled over to the east side of Michigan for PJ Norton’s 25th ‘Officefest’ this past weekend. PJ has been hosting this twice yearly event for many years and I’ve managed to attend almost everyone one of them. The first Officefest was where I broke into the real world of ASL. Before then I had just played solitaire or with my brother. PJ was also the person who convinced me to head down to Oktoberfest for which I am forever grateful to him.

I arrive late afternoon on Friday and am ready to roll dice. Looking forward to anything – PTO, Desert, Night, or a regular East front scenario. Doesn’t matter. I’ve gotten in 27 games so far this year and am well on my way to breaking last year’s record of 51 scenarios and a campaign game. I’m hoping to get in three or four games in, but I can’t stay too late on Saturday as I have a gig early Sunday morning.

I walk in the door and can see that there are already several games going on. PJ and Fred Schwarz are back in a corner playing ‘Huns of Steel’ from the latest module release. Looks real interesting and definitely one I want to play in the future. Mark Pitcavage has a game going and there are another couple of games ongoing but I can’t recall specifics. A shout from the hall and my attention turns to a beaming Glenn Houseman (Glennbo from Strat Forum and part of the East Side Gamers design team). Apparently I’m on his ‘hit list’ along with David Lamb and Mark Pitcavage. Good company, but I’m not sure I want to be on any list that Glenn has – those are the lists that I figure federal agencies have fun with. Those of you that peruse the Strategy Forum message boards will know what I mean. But, I digress… Glenn is looking for revenge from last Officefest when he and I played L’Abbeye Blanche from the first Action Pack. I won at the end of turn 2 and it wasn’t pretty….you can ask Glenn for details. Anyway, I enjoy playing Glenn so we start to look for a scenario to play. Mark Pitcavage perks up his ear and asks us to play-test one of his “Few Returned” scenarios titled ‘All Roads Lead To Rome’ that he is preparing to submit to MMP. It is an interesting moderately-large scenario with a rather complex victory condition. He has only gotten 5 play-testings of it and he is hoping for more. We look it over and it looks interesting so there it is. We dice for sides, Glenn gets the attacking Italians, and I the defending Germans. The Germans have to defend a bridge and have more VP than the Italians. However, the Germans get VP for exiting units (full points for exiting at the far side of the board and ½ points for exiting at a specified hex within the German set-up), controlling the bridge, and keeping a road clear of Italians. The Italians win by controlling one hex of the bridge or adjacent bridge hex or having more VP then the Germans. On top of this, the Italians have a variable reinforcement chart and roll to see what they get. Working through all this is probably why play-testers have avoided this scenario. However, this is the perfect time to play this and it does look interesting. The Italian gets some armor and the German gets to play with the 105 RCL which you don’t see too often. I set up a rather up-front defense relying on my 8ML and some concealment counters to survive an Italian prep fire and keep him from moving towards the bridge on the first turn. Glenn obliges me and takes his prep fire. When the smoke is cleared a snakes on Glenn’s part has me starting with the new Italian balance – take away one 548 squad. Oh well, at least he didn’t move and the rest of my troops are in good shape. The rest of the 8 turn scenario proceeds. Glenn never quite gets a coordinated attack against the bridge going. My 548’s in the woods are just too strong. A little tête-à-tête with my reinforcing 81mm mtr and his Semnovente goes no where – my mortar duding out a critical hit and his Semnovente continuously missing the mortar team and others. A portee’d 37L takes out a light tankette of his and then (in one of the few glory moments for the Semnovente) in turn gets taken out by the Semnovente. By turn 5-6 it’s a tight game. Glenn probably won’t get the bridge, but he is ahead on VP. Turns 6-7 go my way though. I start exiting troops and racking up some CVP in a little side battle across the bridge. By the start of turn 8 it is clear the Glenn cannot physically reach the bridge victory hexes and I’m now clearly ahead on CVP & EVP. Glenn resigns. It’s been about a 6 hour scenario – but worth it. Mark tells us the scenario has been favoring the Italians and Glenn is a decent player so it’s a quality win. 1-0.

It’s now about 11:00pm and I step out to get a bite to eat. When I get back, Fred’s son Eli is open. He has only played the starter kit series with his dad, but has come to pick up some more experience. Since I’m also open I figure we can set something up from the starter kit and then play it tomorrow morning. The next one for him to play is SK5 Clearing Colleville so we dice for sides and set it up. I’m the attacking US and he is the Germans. Next thing I know we go from set-up straight into playing. I brush up on the starter kit rules (hmmm…no sniper, no by-pass, no HOB…OK got it). He plays well but a risky move on his part gave me an 8fp -3 shot that I rolled a 3 on for a 2KIA taking out 2 squads and then my 9-2, 3*666,mmg stack does back to back snakes in a prep fire phase blowing a huge hole in his line which I then flooded through. Good game but the dice gods were clearly on my side. Played him to give him experience and coach him along. We talk about set-up options. For only his 5th game he already shows a good fundamental grasp of strategy and with more experience will pick up the wisdom to be pretty competitive in a relatively short time I think. Basically sharking here but had a good time. Cheesy win. 2-0 and time for bed.

After breakfast on Saturday, Chad Vanderbos and I matched up on SP53 "Thorne In Your Side". I'm the US attacking across an open field against three German conscripts, 8-1, and a 2nd line squad with a PzIV 75* and MMG (all starting HIP) vs my 7 or so 666's, mmg, 2*M5A1's and a heroic 9-1. I lose a haf squad right away and my leader wounds limiting his movement. Then I miss my special ammo role for canister and then malf the other tank’s MA. But I get a lucky break in a defensive fire shot by my heroic leader into an adjacent empty hex which turns out to be not-so-empty and contain one of the last HIP conscript squads I'm looking for. On the opposite side of the hex sits a 666 which then proceeds to break and encircle him. Anyway, the highlights are my good M5A1 crashing through a woods hex and bogging adjacent to the PzIV who then ignores the M5 (needing to take out my infantry more then the M5). The PzIV breaks a squad, but then is taken out by the M5. Finally, on the last turn I've pinned down the last conscript squad in the woods and take him out in CC to win. Another quality win as this is a pretty balanced scenario and Chad's an experienced player. 3-0 and time to go home.

Glad to see PJ keeping Officefest going after a year off. It’s always a great time to see the guys from the east side of the state and a few of the ‘buckeye’ crowd. Hope he can host it again in September.

Gun Copse

Chris Garrett and I have been working our way through the Schwerpunkt scenarios in numeric order. Its great practice for me, as the Schwerpunkt scenarios are heavily used in tournament play; they are usually quick, and very aggressive in design. The attacker always seems to be a turn behind, and the defender always seems to have just a little less than he needs to win. I can’t tell you how many times it comes down to the last couple of actions to determine the winner.

Today was Gun Copse. A very light detachment of Japanese occupies a banana plantation in Burma, defending with a Heavy Machine Gun and an 81 mm mortar. In typical British fashion, the Brits decide to assault the location over 500 yards of open ground, relying on artillery smoke to save their lives while they close the distance. The objective is to flush the Japanese completely out of the plantation area.

The game starts with the British player (Chris) designating a pre-registered smoke barrage in a specific hex. He does so, and then I set up. The plantation in the middle is a little too obvious – it is central, has great sight lines over the soon to be bloody plain, and ultimately is the final objective.

So I don’t set up there.

I figure the smoke will come down and block everything in the center, so I focus on a few scattered woods hexes on the board edge. I’m hoping that the oblique sightlines will work out just fine. I place the HMG and a leader in an open hex with a foxhole. There’s no sense is staying in the woods when he has artillery (trees actually are more dangerous than open ground under a barrage). I place the small 50 mm mortar nearby in another hole, and back that up with a vanilla Japanese squad in a building to play free safety. I place the 81 mm Mortar on the opposite side of the board in a woods hex that provides a good covered arc across most of the British advance. The mortar would be blind to an extreme edge approach by a British squad, so I have to place another Japanese squad in the plantation to cover that approach. I give him a foxhole to protect against that artillery. Finally, I get one hidden squad that should be the ace in the hole. The British have to kill all of the Japanese, so that means they have to find this guy in light jungle to win. I place him well back in the plantation, where the Brits would have to dig through jungle to get to him. He also has a view of the rear flank in case the Brits manage to swing someone around and try to come in from behind.

With the setup complete, Chris reveals his pre-registered smoke hex.

It isn’t in the plantation. Sigh….

He placed it on the flank, thinking I wouldn’t use the center as it is too obvious. The smoke comes down accurately and bathes my HMG emplacement and the small mortar in great swathes of obscurement.

The Brits come on board en masse, screaming to intimidate the Imperial Army. Since two of my primary weapons are now unusable, I end up having to reveal the 81 mm mortar and start laying down rounds as quick as I can. I manage to hit a squad and leader, pinning the squad but the leader keeps right on going, seemingly unaware his men are pinned down behind him. The mortar loses rate of fire, so I can’t do much more for now. The Brits essentially cover half the distance without a scratch.

My turn begins and I continue with the heavy mortar. It is a target rich environment, so I expect to mow down some Tommies.

Excuse those boxcars as I malfunction the heavy mortar.

Things aren’t looking good at this moment.

I pull up the heavy machine gun, leave the foxhole, and use the smoke to relocate to the plantation. It is vital that I get that piece in operation as soon as possible, given I have little more to resist the Brits with other than harsh language and my tangible despair. The same goes for the little mortar. I pull it back to a walled hex and wait for him to come through the smoke. My free safety unit activates and I move him forward into the plantation.

Chris starts his next turn with a glorious weather roll of boxcars, resulting in wind gusts which essentially blow away his protective smoke. Suddenly his Brits are naked and I have the Heavy Machine Gun ready to rock. As a bonus, the little mortar now has a clean sightline to a horde of awkward Brits scratching their collective heads and looking for their smoke. Can’t wait to see what happens next.

I fail to repair my heavy mortar, so everything isn’t roses yet. Chris cranks up his radio to contact the artillery battery and it craps out on him. It is harder to use radios in the jungle.

So Chris turns to his two light mortars and goes for smoke to cover the machine gun. Subsequent rolls reveal the British quartermaster wasn’t handing out smoke rounds this morning. So Chris switches to high explosive and tries to pepper the gun. Turns out the quartermaster was handing out shoddily maintained mortars as well, since one of them malfunctions.

Chris is rolling like me.

The Brits suck it up and move forward for King and Country. The resulting turn is as expected. Broken, quivering Brits are hugging the ground, running back to cover, or simply dying in place. He has more bodies than I have bullets though, so a good portion of grim men crawl forward a little closer.

Specifics start to get hazy at this point, so I will jump to the highlights.

At some point, the artillery wakes up and pummels my location with 94 mm shells, killing my only leader and taking out some Japanese troops. The heavy machine gun remains in service with a determined crew vowing to die in place rather than abandon the position to the Brits. I continue to sustain the machine gun fire in an epic sequence of shots, pinning, killing and breaking in a ridiculously improbable sequence. The machine gun SHOULD malfunction under so much abuse, the crew SHOULD lose their nerve and flee, but everything stays together. I can imagine the slightly glowing barrel when the gun finally ceases.

But the Brits managed to get a squad in close and engaged the valiant crew in close combat. The crew falls to the bayonet and the British take possession of the gun.

On the flank, my 81 mm mortar was utterly destroyed in a repair attempt. I think it got off two shots the whole game. Maintain your weapons, kiddies, especially in the jungle.

The Brits reach the plantation and we are reduced to a close in hide and seek as he looks for my hidden troops while I try to fade back and hit him when I can. The game seems to be turning as he quickly isolates my Japanese and closes the noose. He’s taking horrible losses, but he’s getting the job done.

The end comes on the final turn (Schwerpunkt). My hidden squad took some fire and ended up revealing himself. I’m down to him and a half squad of Japanese, surrounded by Brits.

This is where I screwed up. I’m not used to the Japanese. I think in terms of Western troops. Western troops have NO chance to remain in that situation and survive. So my instinct is to flee across the open ground to a nearby location where I can make the Brits come to me over open ground at the end. The Japanese don’t break like Western troops – they simply get a little smaller but keep going. So I figured I could have waltzed through some gunfire and have a reasonable chance of some guys living long enough to get to my destination. I was trying to use what I knew about the Japanese, while still thinking in terms of European troops.

Chris gunned me down and that was that.

Then the lesson began. “Jungle is the Japanese friend”. Chris illustrated how if I had remained in the jungle, surrounded by Brits, I had an advantage. The Brits could shoot me up, and given the protection of the jungle, I would probably survive enough to remain intact. Then as he was forced to move into close combat, I had a very good chance of affecting an ambush – a Japanese specialty – and withdrawing from the combat, thus winning the game!

We played out that course of events and the Japanese would have won precisely as he explained it.

So while this was a loss, it was a great lesson in the Japanese. As always, Chris played a great game and never missed an opportunity to teach. Thanks man.

(Cross posted at Amateur Megalomania)