KAASL 3

KAASL III AAR

The third Kalamazoo Area Advanced Squad Leader gathering got started on January 9, 2009. Alas, so did one of the heaviest winter storms to hit the area in quite a while. Doug I and decided to open the doors anyway; we had already had to postpone it from a December date and didn’t want to push back any farther, he lived there, and I’m just a few minutes down the road. We were pretty sure it was going to be just Doug and I playing all weekend – 8-10” of snow and wind doesn’t make the best of travel.

To our surprise though several other brave souls braved the winter roads and joined us so here is a recap of the games and players. By the way, I played more then the past two KAASL’s so the AAR’s are not too detailed as I didn’t get to watch the other games much.

Friday January 09

Doug closed his office at 6:00pm and he and I cleared his office, pulled out tables, and set out ASL gear and snacks. Earlier in the day P.J. Norton of Officefest fame called and said he was on the way from the east side of the state so I know we had at least one other dedicated player headed our way. Shortly after 7:00pm we were joined by Geoff Ferguson, a local who occasionally gets a game in, Darin Scriber from the Battle Creek area, Jason Cameron from up north in Grand Rapids, and PJ who easily won the farthest traveler award this blustery evening.

Rocket’s Red Glare (G6): Darin and I sit down and play this early General classic. I’ve played it a couple times before and like both sides. I think we dice for sides and Darin gets the US. Enjoy the game with Darin – but can’t quite get anything to work for me. The Wirblewind doesn’t seem to be able to find ROF, the StuG manages to malf his gun on his second shot, the ART gun on it’s second shot also, meanwhile, Darin calmly pushes the US kill stacks forward hex by hex and grinds into the Germans. It doesn’t look good for me and gets worse when a sniper takes out the leader in my rear building and the squad with him boxcars the LLMC. With my MMG broken and the HMG trying to hold off Darin’s attack through the center of the village I have no one to prevent Darin from running a squad into the rear building so I resign. Oh well, better luck next time – but Darin had everybody in place to take advantage of opportunities, so kudos to him for a great game.

Edge Of Extinction (SP157): Doug Lynes squared off against Jason in this new Schwerpunkt scenario. Doug, playing the US, has to play a cat-and-mouse game with some light US tanks against Jason’s two Tigers. Doug is hot and gets the dice exactly when he needs them. One hit against a tiger and then a follow-up snakes for the TK roll takes one Tiger out (from the front if I recall) and then a few turns later he takes the other Tiger out from the side with a critical hit. Sounded like they both had fun and you knew when Doug rolled the snakes.

Acts Of Defiance (A68): PJ and Geoff settled down to play this favorite. Now Geoff has only played a few SK games and a few ASL games so I was a bit surprised when Geoff wanted to play this. Lots of toys including two Goliaths and this one is certainly larger then it looks. To win as the Germans you really have to know how to use all the tools and I don’t think Geoff has that experience yet. Needless to say, PJ was able to win handily with the Russians but the game went quite late – I think 3am or some such time! Geoff, however, got a good look at some of the toys that that ASL portrays so well.

That evening PJ stayed overnight at Doug’s and the rest of us made the trek home through the snow.


Saturday January 10

Well, for all the snow Friday, Saturday was worse. Jason wisely decided not to make the trip back down from Grand Rapids, and after his very late game, Geoff doesn’t make it back until the afternoon. So, Saturday morning finds Darin and my self back around 9:30am and PJ and Doug join us for more ASL.

Comrade Klimenkov (RPT15): Doug and PJ face with another Tampa Bay club’s scenario, but this time from the Rally Point series. Doug picks up his second win with this one when his Germans, with two King Tigers, hold off PJ’s Russians escorted by four IS-2m’s. Doug gets a big break when PJ pulls three Stalin’s around to out-gun one of the King Tiger’s, but Doug gets a ROF and takes out two of them before slipping away. I was impressed that both of them just didn’t fall asleep in the middle of the game as both were up after 3am with the game against Geoff.

Chance D’une Affaire (U): With PJ playing Doug, Darin and I squared off again. This time with another classic from the early ASL days. This 9-turn, early war French vs. German classic plays pretty quick because the unit size is small. My Germans have to hold back a combined French armor and infantry attack down the length of board 6. Initially I get two Pz IIF’s, but they start abandoned and have a restricted number of times they can move reflecting them being caught by the French in the middle of refueling. Darin plays well on the first turn and manages to just get enough firepower on one of the PzII’s that I never get it re-manned. Unfortunately, that Pz is also the one that could move the most and had the 9-1 armor leader assigned to it. I’ll never get it in play as his infantry move up to over run it. However, my other PzII tightens it’s belt and makes up for it. It only gets two movement phases – but the first one it uses to do a critical overrun on my left flank eating up about 6-8 shots against it and totally disorganizing Darin’s right flank. It’s second movement will take it through another overrun and into a defensive position in the backfield. Meanwhile, I manage to hold Darin’s infantry from moving too quickly through the terrain and he simply runs out of time before taking the needed buildings. This time I get the win.

Ranger Stronghold (T3): Darin and I have to take off in the afternoon, but Geoff arrives and so he and Doug square off for the last scenario of KAASL III. A small tourney scenario from the General magazine is selected. I’m not there to watch this one, but I know that Doug wins his third in a row defeating Geoff in this one.

Conclusion

Considering the intense snow storm that hit at the same time KAASL III was a great time for those who could show up. While we didn’t have as many players show up as the first two gatherings, I really didn’t think anyone other then Doug and I would be there so when Geoff, PJ, Darin, and Jason also arrived it really made for a great winter weekend. In all six scenarios got played by the six of us. Don’t know when Doug and I will host the next one but we’ll notify everyone on our mailing list as soon as we know. Meanwhile, look for PJ Norton’s Officefest sometime in February.

Chris