ASLOk 2007
AAR – ASLOk XXI – 2007
It was the best of times – it was the worst of times…
Murphy’s Law…
Well, that pretty much sums up my past weekend at ASLOk XXII. Last year (see my previous blog) I went 4-1 and won a mini-tournament plaque (almost won a second one!) and felt pretty much on top of my game. Didn’t happen that way this year – but that’s OK.
I drove over to ASLOk after teaching my last classes at KVCC and Kalamazoo College. I arranged ahead of time to room with Jim Taylor – we connected up with a couple games this past year and the rooming worked out very conveniently for us. When I got into Middleburg Heights I checked in at the registration table and picked up my shirt and name tag. Same tag style as last year; but with a US ‘Stuart’ tank on it. The olive drab shirt features a crewed HMG amongst some rubble and, although dark, is a nice color. I look around for the Schwerpunkt guys as I need to pick up the next Schwerpunkt pack for the mini tomorrow but it doesn’t look like any are around that evening. I do find Glennbo and he gives me a couple of the Eastside Gamers #3 packs. I play tested several scenarios in the pack for Glen and these were the comps for that. Glen, Scot and Eric have done a great job with the first two packs – and after play testing the 3rd pack I’m sure this will be just as good. I want to play the ‘Destroy All Monsters’ scenario some day – just sounds too cool.
Too late for a game so I chat with a bunch of guys and then head up to the room to watch Boston beat L.A. and go up 2 – 0 in the play-offs and then turn in to get some sleep.
Friday October 5 – Round One of the Schwerpunkt 13 Mini
Last year I won the Schwerpunkt 12 mini so I figured what the heck, lets sign up for that one again. The advantage to this mini is that no one really knows the scenarios as they are all new and first released at ASLOk. The disadvantage is that you really don’t know if they are balanced at all. Last year I was pretty lucky and choose the side that in the end would be slightly favored in tournament play. That certainly didn’t hurt my chances.
I’m matched up with Craig Houliston (Lino Lake, MN) for the first round. I’ve heard Craig’s name around the circuit the last few years and I know he won one of the mini’s last year so I’m guessing we’re probably pretty on par with each other. Looking at the list we select The Legrew Maneuver (SP 150). This scenario features a German withdrawal in front of a faster and more numerous US force. The Germans have to exit ≥ 26 EVP and at least 4 of the EVP have to be infantry MMC’s. The Germans have 2 JgPz IV(L) and 3 PzIVJ’s and 8 squads with a smattering of support weapons. The US has 10 squads and a variety of 6 tanks including one very quick M10 GMC – the little guy is literally twice as fast as anything the Germans have.
The Germans set up on board first. I pick one side – I’ll withdraw along a side so I only have to protect one flank. However, the US moves first. Craig quickly pushes down my ‘protected’ side along a woods road catching me a bit by surprise. At the end of this first turn he ends up where I anticipated he would be on turn 2 – not good for me. On the other flank he quickly moves the M4A3, M10, and 3 of the 4 M4’s into flanking positions to try and get flank shots on the area I’ll have to withdraw through. That I expect. On my turn 1 I crank up a JgPz to engage the sole M4 on the woods-road. Pull into the mouth of the woods-road and face the M4. Good odds for me. My supporting mmg team gets hot and shreds the only squad that might have a CC chance against the JgPz and the M4’s gun pretty much can’t touch my front armor; and my gun will shred him. Facing that Craig calls for a D.I. (deliberate immobilization) shot. He rolls a snake eyes to hit getting both the hull hit and (after we figure it out) the exact number he needed to hit me. I roll a 10 for my crew immobilization task check – and the crew of fools abandon the much safer JgPz for the open ground and are then promptly KIA’d with a follow-up MG shot from the tank. Murphy’s law… I’ll take this M4 out the next turn with my Psk team, but the real damage is done. This is a serious problem for me as the PzJg and crew are 7 EVP of the 35 EVP I have in vehicles. I’ve only have 28 left now.
The rest of the scenario proceeds OK – I’ll lose a Pz IV to tank fire but exit a second one (that malf’d it’s MA) by turn 4 of 5. That tank gave me only 5 EVP because of the malf’d gun but the remaining Pz IV w/armor leader (8EVP) and the last PzJg (7EVP give me enough points to exit to win (I’ve got another 6 EVP of infantry that can literally advance off the board at my leisure) and two more turns of movement left. I’ve pretty much recovered from the initial loss of the PzJg although getting the last PzJg off will be tough because he’ll have to risk at least one if not 2 shots as he exits – the PzIV can exit easily. Craig slides his armor in behind a flanking hedge to interdict my armor. I’m not worried – his bounding fire or advancing fire shots are pretty low chances and the odds are in my favor as I can spend a defensive fire phase and prep fire phase to take them out and still exit. That is until Craig decides to take a low odds BFF shot on my Pz IV w/armor leader. Boom…I don’t recall if it was a critical hit or simply a ‘3’ that he needed – but he hits the Pz IV and burns it. Gone is 8 more points and that’s game as now I don’t have the points to exit. Bummer. Out in the first round. Regardless – Craig was an excellent opponent and I really enjoyed the game. This one looks tough for the Germans because it is easy for the US to swarm around to the rear and the German tanks are slow and very vulnerable from the sides. As an opponent – the best of times. Taking a first round lose – the worst of times. Murphy’s Law – the snake D.I. and crew bailing and the BFF shot. 0 - 1
Friday October 5 – Open Game
Well, the nice thing about losing in the first round is that you can now play who ever and what ever you want to – and with over 140 fellow ASL’s in attendance getting a game is never a problem. I hook up with Rich Domovic (Chicago, Ill). Rich and I played in St. Louis where he won and went on to place a couple places ahead of me in 9th and has been in town this past week playing in the Euro vs. US tourney. He is 9 – 4 so far and was the most valuable player for the US. However, I had a great time playing him and was excited to see he was out of his first round mini also. We pick another SP scenario called ‘The Zebra Mission’ (SP 147). We dice for sides and I get (again) the defending Germans.
Zebra mission looks cool – a medium small scenario with a bit of everything. A variety of 9 German squads assisted by a PzJgIII/IV and a FlaKPz IV/20 has to survive an onslaught of 9 heavy firepower but lower morale US squads, a M3(MMG) halftrack, 2 M4A3(75)w’s and a Pershing (M-26). Don’t get to see Pershing’s very often so this looks cool. I do OK in the first 3 of 6 turns. Playing cat & mouse I keep the US from pushing into the city too hard but on turn 3 everything collapses. Back-to-back box cars against a probing US squad malfunctions my only strong SW (a HMG) and a supporting LMG. With this suddenly appearing huge hole in my defense Rich floods across the street and pins my guys against a second row of buildings where they can’t rout from. A turn later about a 1/3 of my force is eliminated through breaking and/or melee. To make matters worse – my FlaKPz I moved over to protect their rear is taken out by the Pershing who splits a LOS diagonally across the board through two buildings I was sure blocked the LOS. A nice low roll To Hit and down goes the highest firepower producer I have. Then the PzJg runs out of HE after his first shot. He’ll be swarmed by infantry, immobilized, and then the crew will abandon only to be shot down. Turn 5 finds me with 3 good order MMC’s in a building – but they are encircled and surrounded by US squads and tanks. By the end of the turn they will all be broken/eliminated and that’s game. Enjoyed playing Rich again – and I’ll look for him anytime I have an open spot to play (the good times). The worst of time is I’m now 0-2. Murphy’s law – back to back malf’s on my HMG and LMG opening up my main defense, the ‘I’m sure it’s blocked’ LOS that wasn’t, and the PzJg running out of HE on his second shot. We do a late dinner together at Damon’s and then after socializing some I head upstairs to watch some baseball. 0 - 2
Saturday October 6 – Round One of the ‘Twilight of the Reich’ Mini
Saturday morning I’m up for the next mini. I’m paired with Eric Bongiavanni. One of the very cool things about ASLOk is that it draws a significant off-continent contingent. Guys fly in from England, Sweden, Belgium, France, Australia, and Japan to play. Eric is one of the guys that have come over from France. He is from Marseille (history there!) and speaks very good English – unlike my (as he puts it) “heavily accented” remedial French. Eric is 7-6 so far (having arrived the past weekend) and this looks to be a good game.
We pick another Schwerpunkt scenario “Twilight of the Reich”. This was on my ‘want to play but never have’ list. It’s gotten a lot of play at ASLOk since it was released and is fairly well balanced (a slight edge to the attacking Russians. A typical small tourney scenario, two standard boards (48 & 44) are modified by all the grain fields being treated as sand and two low sand dune overlays are placed on the board. This will make it all but impossible for the tanks to avoid taking at least a few bog checks in and adjacent to the sand hexes.
The Germans have to keep at least one mobile, good order, and functioning MA in a fairly small area by the end of 5 turns. The kicker is that two of the JgPz's have to enter from off board and almost have to risk at least two bog checks to get to the victory area. The Russians get two ISU-152’s and 4 T34/85’s along with 9 infantry squads to combat the three JgPz and 7 low end German squads.
We dice for sides – I get the defending Germans (hmmm…see a pattern here?). I set up and Eric enters the board. Turn one goes well – I take out a T-34 with a PF shot and then a bit later another T-34 with a Psk. Somewhere in there I think I get a 3rd T-34 (maybe my on-board JgPz) – but then things collapse. Three low odds hits with a T-34 and a 152 (needed a ‘3’ each time) flat out KIA 3 of my 7 squads. The PF hit on the first T-34 breaks a 4th squad and he’ll never come back around. My first JgPz will finally fall after malf’ing his MA on an intensive fire shot and being swarmed – but I expected that (the swarm that is – not the malfunction). The two game breakers however were one of my two JgPz reinforcements breaking his MA on his first shot and my last JgPz bogging by rolling a 12 in an adjacent hex to a sand hex. Eric – of course – had passed about a dozen bog checks without breaking a sweat. With the other two PzJg down Eric simply drove the last T-34 around to the JgPz flank and took him out. Ratz…Good time to play, bad time to lose.
Murphy’s Law strikes again. Two MA malfunctions and a game losing ‘12’ on a bog check. 0 -3 sigh…
Saturday October 6 – Open Gaming
On Friday I ran into David Goldman (Chicago, Ill) who does a great job as tourney director for the Chicago Open. We haven’t played before and mentioned that if we were both out in the first round on Saturday he'd be interested in playing me. Not only would I be interested – but I’d be honored! Well, as fate would have it we both lost our first rounds and got together after lunch to play. Looking for a medium sized scenario to finish the rest of Saturday off with we selected another new Schwerpunkt “Nova Buda Butte” (SP 152). Good size at 8 turns with a nice OoB of combined arms. I ask to play the attacking Russians (anything but the defending Germans again) and David is fine with that. He sets up and we start rolling.
I’ve got a mix of 7 T-34/M43’s and 2 T-43’s with 25 supporting squads attacking what will eventually become 17 SS squads, a Pak 40, SPW 251, StuGIIIG and two PzIV H’s defending a flat topped hill with buildings on it (the Butte). The Russians have to cross 4 very open ground hexes twice under the watchful covering fire of a German HMG and MMG. Well, the Russian just has to grin and bear it – there is no way to cross the first turn except in the open so you hope for little to no ROF from the two German MG’s.
Murphy’s Law – David gets something like 7 ROF or more from the HMG and MMG. At the end of turn one I’ve lost 4.5 squads outright KIA’d and there are a couple more squads broken. It was devastating. My T-34’s (who can’t unbutton to fire) need 2’s and 3’s to hit the MG nest in the stone building – and will never get a single hit the whole game. I also make a mistake on my left flank. Not thinking David will take the StuGIIIG off of the butte (who starts on board unlike the PzIV’s) I keep a T-43 in motion with a squad and leader riding moving around the flank. Actually – I think I just plain forgot about the StuG… David does move the StuG and catches my T-43 in motion. Three turns later – that StuG will account for 3 (or maybe 4?) dead T-34’s/T-43’s even though I do get the original T-43 out of harms way. I’ll never destroy the StuG as he ends up destroying his MA on an intensive fire shot and getting recalled. Regardless, between the StuG success (I’ll bounce 3 APCR hits and another 2 or 3 AP hits off of him for no effect) and the HMG (who will continue to have good success on turn 2) My forces are pretty shattered by turn three. At the beginning of turn three though I’ll manage to pin the HMG/MMG nest with some MG fire and – seeing I need to cover open ground take a risk and trigger a human wave attack after freezing some infantry with one of my T-34’s.
This is the highlight of my weekend. The human wave works to near perfection. I cross 4 open ground hexes and get into the buildings at the edge of the butte only losing 1 squad. David tells me it is the best executed human wave he has ever seen. Two turns later I’ve done some damage to him in melee – but a couple of flanking squads (after taking out his SPW) are pushed out of breaking the game open for me by a CH from one of his MkIV’s and all of his turn 4 reinforcements are in place. Counting squads on turn 6 of 8 turns, I realize I’m only up by one ½ squad and have only captured 3 of the required 10 stone buildings. There is no way I’ll capture 7 more buildings in two turns given the distance and the terrain so I resign as there is little play left in this scenario. Had a great time playing David and I hope I’ll get another opportunity in the future. Worst of time – I’m now 0 -4 and that is pretty much it for me this weekend. Murphy’s Law – David’s ROF from H*ll HMG/MMG and the StuG that wouldn’t die. Regardless, this one looks tough for the Russians. Later that evening I saw Bret Hildebrand setting this one up and playing the first couple turns as the Russians. I didn’t watch the whole game – but it didn’t look like his was going much better then mine was. 0 -4… : (
The Coda…
It really was the best of times and the worst of times mixed in with Murphy’s Law. While record wise this was the opposite of last year (4-1) I really enjoyed every game and each of my opponents. I got to play all new opponents (except for Rich) and there is just always something very cool about playing the Euro’s (thanks Eric). I also got to play a scenario I was hoping to play (Twilight) and an opponent I was hoping to play again (Thanks Rich). The games with Craig and David were great and many of my ASL friends did win mini’s (Ben Richardson, Jeff DeYoung, and Jim Taylor). This was Ben’s first time down and he won the ‘monster’ mini, Jeff won his first mini ever, and Jim continues to tear up his opponents and take home the wood. Well back to my two campaign games against Todd and Doug. Better luck next time I hope – that probably will be the Chicago Open next April.
It was the best of times – it was the worst of times…
Murphy’s Law…
Well, that pretty much sums up my past weekend at ASLOk XXII. Last year (see my previous blog) I went 4-1 and won a mini-tournament plaque (almost won a second one!) and felt pretty much on top of my game. Didn’t happen that way this year – but that’s OK.
I drove over to ASLOk after teaching my last classes at KVCC and Kalamazoo College. I arranged ahead of time to room with Jim Taylor – we connected up with a couple games this past year and the rooming worked out very conveniently for us. When I got into Middleburg Heights I checked in at the registration table and picked up my shirt and name tag. Same tag style as last year; but with a US ‘Stuart’ tank on it. The olive drab shirt features a crewed HMG amongst some rubble and, although dark, is a nice color. I look around for the Schwerpunkt guys as I need to pick up the next Schwerpunkt pack for the mini tomorrow but it doesn’t look like any are around that evening. I do find Glennbo and he gives me a couple of the Eastside Gamers #3 packs. I play tested several scenarios in the pack for Glen and these were the comps for that. Glen, Scot and Eric have done a great job with the first two packs – and after play testing the 3rd pack I’m sure this will be just as good. I want to play the ‘Destroy All Monsters’ scenario some day – just sounds too cool.
Too late for a game so I chat with a bunch of guys and then head up to the room to watch Boston beat L.A. and go up 2 – 0 in the play-offs and then turn in to get some sleep.
Friday October 5 – Round One of the Schwerpunkt 13 Mini
Last year I won the Schwerpunkt 12 mini so I figured what the heck, lets sign up for that one again. The advantage to this mini is that no one really knows the scenarios as they are all new and first released at ASLOk. The disadvantage is that you really don’t know if they are balanced at all. Last year I was pretty lucky and choose the side that in the end would be slightly favored in tournament play. That certainly didn’t hurt my chances.
I’m matched up with Craig Houliston (Lino Lake, MN) for the first round. I’ve heard Craig’s name around the circuit the last few years and I know he won one of the mini’s last year so I’m guessing we’re probably pretty on par with each other. Looking at the list we select The Legrew Maneuver (SP 150). This scenario features a German withdrawal in front of a faster and more numerous US force. The Germans have to exit ≥ 26 EVP and at least 4 of the EVP have to be infantry MMC’s. The Germans have 2 JgPz IV(L) and 3 PzIVJ’s and 8 squads with a smattering of support weapons. The US has 10 squads and a variety of 6 tanks including one very quick M10 GMC – the little guy is literally twice as fast as anything the Germans have.
The Germans set up on board first. I pick one side – I’ll withdraw along a side so I only have to protect one flank. However, the US moves first. Craig quickly pushes down my ‘protected’ side along a woods road catching me a bit by surprise. At the end of this first turn he ends up where I anticipated he would be on turn 2 – not good for me. On the other flank he quickly moves the M4A3, M10, and 3 of the 4 M4’s into flanking positions to try and get flank shots on the area I’ll have to withdraw through. That I expect. On my turn 1 I crank up a JgPz to engage the sole M4 on the woods-road. Pull into the mouth of the woods-road and face the M4. Good odds for me. My supporting mmg team gets hot and shreds the only squad that might have a CC chance against the JgPz and the M4’s gun pretty much can’t touch my front armor; and my gun will shred him. Facing that Craig calls for a D.I. (deliberate immobilization) shot. He rolls a snake eyes to hit getting both the hull hit and (after we figure it out) the exact number he needed to hit me. I roll a 10 for my crew immobilization task check – and the crew of fools abandon the much safer JgPz for the open ground and are then promptly KIA’d with a follow-up MG shot from the tank. Murphy’s law… I’ll take this M4 out the next turn with my Psk team, but the real damage is done. This is a serious problem for me as the PzJg and crew are 7 EVP of the 35 EVP I have in vehicles. I’ve only have 28 left now.
The rest of the scenario proceeds OK – I’ll lose a Pz IV to tank fire but exit a second one (that malf’d it’s MA) by turn 4 of 5. That tank gave me only 5 EVP because of the malf’d gun but the remaining Pz IV w/armor leader (8EVP) and the last PzJg (7EVP give me enough points to exit to win (I’ve got another 6 EVP of infantry that can literally advance off the board at my leisure) and two more turns of movement left. I’ve pretty much recovered from the initial loss of the PzJg although getting the last PzJg off will be tough because he’ll have to risk at least one if not 2 shots as he exits – the PzIV can exit easily. Craig slides his armor in behind a flanking hedge to interdict my armor. I’m not worried – his bounding fire or advancing fire shots are pretty low chances and the odds are in my favor as I can spend a defensive fire phase and prep fire phase to take them out and still exit. That is until Craig decides to take a low odds BFF shot on my Pz IV w/armor leader. Boom…I don’t recall if it was a critical hit or simply a ‘3’ that he needed – but he hits the Pz IV and burns it. Gone is 8 more points and that’s game as now I don’t have the points to exit. Bummer. Out in the first round. Regardless – Craig was an excellent opponent and I really enjoyed the game. This one looks tough for the Germans because it is easy for the US to swarm around to the rear and the German tanks are slow and very vulnerable from the sides. As an opponent – the best of times. Taking a first round lose – the worst of times. Murphy’s Law – the snake D.I. and crew bailing and the BFF shot. 0 - 1
Friday October 5 – Open Game
Well, the nice thing about losing in the first round is that you can now play who ever and what ever you want to – and with over 140 fellow ASL’s in attendance getting a game is never a problem. I hook up with Rich Domovic (Chicago, Ill). Rich and I played in St. Louis where he won and went on to place a couple places ahead of me in 9th and has been in town this past week playing in the Euro vs. US tourney. He is 9 – 4 so far and was the most valuable player for the US. However, I had a great time playing him and was excited to see he was out of his first round mini also. We pick another SP scenario called ‘The Zebra Mission’ (SP 147). We dice for sides and I get (again) the defending Germans.
Zebra mission looks cool – a medium small scenario with a bit of everything. A variety of 9 German squads assisted by a PzJgIII/IV and a FlaKPz IV/20 has to survive an onslaught of 9 heavy firepower but lower morale US squads, a M3(MMG) halftrack, 2 M4A3(75)w’s and a Pershing (M-26). Don’t get to see Pershing’s very often so this looks cool. I do OK in the first 3 of 6 turns. Playing cat & mouse I keep the US from pushing into the city too hard but on turn 3 everything collapses. Back-to-back box cars against a probing US squad malfunctions my only strong SW (a HMG) and a supporting LMG. With this suddenly appearing huge hole in my defense Rich floods across the street and pins my guys against a second row of buildings where they can’t rout from. A turn later about a 1/3 of my force is eliminated through breaking and/or melee. To make matters worse – my FlaKPz I moved over to protect their rear is taken out by the Pershing who splits a LOS diagonally across the board through two buildings I was sure blocked the LOS. A nice low roll To Hit and down goes the highest firepower producer I have. Then the PzJg runs out of HE after his first shot. He’ll be swarmed by infantry, immobilized, and then the crew will abandon only to be shot down. Turn 5 finds me with 3 good order MMC’s in a building – but they are encircled and surrounded by US squads and tanks. By the end of the turn they will all be broken/eliminated and that’s game. Enjoyed playing Rich again – and I’ll look for him anytime I have an open spot to play (the good times). The worst of time is I’m now 0-2. Murphy’s law – back to back malf’s on my HMG and LMG opening up my main defense, the ‘I’m sure it’s blocked’ LOS that wasn’t, and the PzJg running out of HE on his second shot. We do a late dinner together at Damon’s and then after socializing some I head upstairs to watch some baseball. 0 - 2
Saturday October 6 – Round One of the ‘Twilight of the Reich’ Mini
Saturday morning I’m up for the next mini. I’m paired with Eric Bongiavanni. One of the very cool things about ASLOk is that it draws a significant off-continent contingent. Guys fly in from England, Sweden, Belgium, France, Australia, and Japan to play. Eric is one of the guys that have come over from France. He is from Marseille (history there!) and speaks very good English – unlike my (as he puts it) “heavily accented” remedial French. Eric is 7-6 so far (having arrived the past weekend) and this looks to be a good game.
We pick another Schwerpunkt scenario “Twilight of the Reich”. This was on my ‘want to play but never have’ list. It’s gotten a lot of play at ASLOk since it was released and is fairly well balanced (a slight edge to the attacking Russians. A typical small tourney scenario, two standard boards (48 & 44) are modified by all the grain fields being treated as sand and two low sand dune overlays are placed on the board. This will make it all but impossible for the tanks to avoid taking at least a few bog checks in and adjacent to the sand hexes.
The Germans have to keep at least one mobile, good order, and functioning MA in a fairly small area by the end of 5 turns. The kicker is that two of the JgPz's have to enter from off board and almost have to risk at least two bog checks to get to the victory area. The Russians get two ISU-152’s and 4 T34/85’s along with 9 infantry squads to combat the three JgPz and 7 low end German squads.
We dice for sides – I get the defending Germans (hmmm…see a pattern here?). I set up and Eric enters the board. Turn one goes well – I take out a T-34 with a PF shot and then a bit later another T-34 with a Psk. Somewhere in there I think I get a 3rd T-34 (maybe my on-board JgPz) – but then things collapse. Three low odds hits with a T-34 and a 152 (needed a ‘3’ each time) flat out KIA 3 of my 7 squads. The PF hit on the first T-34 breaks a 4th squad and he’ll never come back around. My first JgPz will finally fall after malf’ing his MA on an intensive fire shot and being swarmed – but I expected that (the swarm that is – not the malfunction). The two game breakers however were one of my two JgPz reinforcements breaking his MA on his first shot and my last JgPz bogging by rolling a 12 in an adjacent hex to a sand hex. Eric – of course – had passed about a dozen bog checks without breaking a sweat. With the other two PzJg down Eric simply drove the last T-34 around to the JgPz flank and took him out. Ratz…Good time to play, bad time to lose.
Murphy’s Law strikes again. Two MA malfunctions and a game losing ‘12’ on a bog check. 0 -3 sigh…
Saturday October 6 – Open Gaming
On Friday I ran into David Goldman (Chicago, Ill) who does a great job as tourney director for the Chicago Open. We haven’t played before and mentioned that if we were both out in the first round on Saturday he'd be interested in playing me. Not only would I be interested – but I’d be honored! Well, as fate would have it we both lost our first rounds and got together after lunch to play. Looking for a medium sized scenario to finish the rest of Saturday off with we selected another new Schwerpunkt “Nova Buda Butte” (SP 152). Good size at 8 turns with a nice OoB of combined arms. I ask to play the attacking Russians (anything but the defending Germans again) and David is fine with that. He sets up and we start rolling.
I’ve got a mix of 7 T-34/M43’s and 2 T-43’s with 25 supporting squads attacking what will eventually become 17 SS squads, a Pak 40, SPW 251, StuGIIIG and two PzIV H’s defending a flat topped hill with buildings on it (the Butte). The Russians have to cross 4 very open ground hexes twice under the watchful covering fire of a German HMG and MMG. Well, the Russian just has to grin and bear it – there is no way to cross the first turn except in the open so you hope for little to no ROF from the two German MG’s.
Murphy’s Law – David gets something like 7 ROF or more from the HMG and MMG. At the end of turn one I’ve lost 4.5 squads outright KIA’d and there are a couple more squads broken. It was devastating. My T-34’s (who can’t unbutton to fire) need 2’s and 3’s to hit the MG nest in the stone building – and will never get a single hit the whole game. I also make a mistake on my left flank. Not thinking David will take the StuGIIIG off of the butte (who starts on board unlike the PzIV’s) I keep a T-43 in motion with a squad and leader riding moving around the flank. Actually – I think I just plain forgot about the StuG… David does move the StuG and catches my T-43 in motion. Three turns later – that StuG will account for 3 (or maybe 4?) dead T-34’s/T-43’s even though I do get the original T-43 out of harms way. I’ll never destroy the StuG as he ends up destroying his MA on an intensive fire shot and getting recalled. Regardless, between the StuG success (I’ll bounce 3 APCR hits and another 2 or 3 AP hits off of him for no effect) and the HMG (who will continue to have good success on turn 2) My forces are pretty shattered by turn three. At the beginning of turn three though I’ll manage to pin the HMG/MMG nest with some MG fire and – seeing I need to cover open ground take a risk and trigger a human wave attack after freezing some infantry with one of my T-34’s.
This is the highlight of my weekend. The human wave works to near perfection. I cross 4 open ground hexes and get into the buildings at the edge of the butte only losing 1 squad. David tells me it is the best executed human wave he has ever seen. Two turns later I’ve done some damage to him in melee – but a couple of flanking squads (after taking out his SPW) are pushed out of breaking the game open for me by a CH from one of his MkIV’s and all of his turn 4 reinforcements are in place. Counting squads on turn 6 of 8 turns, I realize I’m only up by one ½ squad and have only captured 3 of the required 10 stone buildings. There is no way I’ll capture 7 more buildings in two turns given the distance and the terrain so I resign as there is little play left in this scenario. Had a great time playing David and I hope I’ll get another opportunity in the future. Worst of time – I’m now 0 -4 and that is pretty much it for me this weekend. Murphy’s Law – David’s ROF from H*ll HMG/MMG and the StuG that wouldn’t die. Regardless, this one looks tough for the Russians. Later that evening I saw Bret Hildebrand setting this one up and playing the first couple turns as the Russians. I didn’t watch the whole game – but it didn’t look like his was going much better then mine was. 0 -4… : (
The Coda…
It really was the best of times and the worst of times mixed in with Murphy’s Law. While record wise this was the opposite of last year (4-1) I really enjoyed every game and each of my opponents. I got to play all new opponents (except for Rich) and there is just always something very cool about playing the Euro’s (thanks Eric). I also got to play a scenario I was hoping to play (Twilight) and an opponent I was hoping to play again (Thanks Rich). The games with Craig and David were great and many of my ASL friends did win mini’s (Ben Richardson, Jeff DeYoung, and Jim Taylor). This was Ben’s first time down and he won the ‘monster’ mini, Jeff won his first mini ever, and Jim continues to tear up his opponents and take home the wood. Well back to my two campaign games against Todd and Doug. Better luck next time I hope – that probably will be the Chicago Open next April.
posted by asler @ 9:07 PM
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