We had 8 players for our Game Day at the Guild House in Bellflower on Saturday. Turns out, it was a good day to choose the Germans:
Peter Strand’s Germans defeated Hank W.’s Italians in “Second Hand News”.
Guy Jimenez’ Germans defeated Stance Nixon’s Americans in “Morgan’s Stand”.
Ed Esparza’s Germans defeated new guy Robert Barratt’s Russians in “Guard’s Counterattack”.
And the dice gave me the Germans against Fen Yan’s Americans in the AP scenario “Forest Gumm”. For the second week in a row, Fen brought a scenario that I had on my play list. It’s January, 1945. The Germans get a company of SS troops, supported by a couple of Pz IV’s, and a couple of SPW’s: a 251-2 (82mm) and 251-9 (75). On turn 2 they’re reinforced with a couple more squads in halftracks, and two Panthers. The Americans have to hold a town. They start with a couple of platoons of infantry suppported by a couple of M8’s. On turn 2 they receive a couple more squads, and on turn 3 they get 4 Shermans (two with 75’s and two with 76L’s).
The SS have to cross some open group, and Fen had a good initial set-up. My first shot, looking for Smoke from the 251-2: 9 to hit, 10 depletion, rolled a 10. So 2nd shot, from the 251-9, 9 to hit, 10 depletion, rolled another 10. Damn. Ok, there’s more than one way to do this. So I committed the PzIV’s for the sN’s. They got it done, and my troops moved out. But the Panzers were more exposed than I’d normally prefer so early in the game. Especially with those American BAZ 45’s lurking. I doubled down on turn 2, going CE on both tanks to help drive the infantry attack home, which they did. But it was a near-fatal error. One panzer soon got a Recall from a sniper. Then Fen bagged the other with a BAZ. Damn. By now my Panthers were on the field, but there were only 2 of them facing 4 Shermans; they really needed one of the now-dead PzIV’s as a wing man. So I improvised, sending in the 251-9 to help out. It was a suicide mission, but you fight with the army you have. Fen brought on his Shermans in a swarm, and a swirling armor melee ensued. In the end, I got lucky with the 251-9, his HEAT round caused a Stun result on a Sherman at just the right time, and my Panthers shot their way out of trouble. In the meantime, my infantry kept the pressure on in the village.
We were still engrossed in our game when the 8:00 PM closing time came. At that point we agreed the Germans would probably win on their last movement phase, and called it. Fen and I had a lot of fun with this scenario. It shows a little pro-German on ROAR, so we gave the Americans the balance. That felt about right. Fen played a great game, and really handled his armor attack well. We both thought it was well worth the effort, and would try it again as either side.
Historically, one of the best parts of playing in Bellflower is the food choices. Unfortunately, almost all of the restaurants were still shut down. We had to make due with Subway for lunch; which was about as dreadful as I’ve previously remembered it. Because Hambones was closed for remodeling, the survivors ended up at Sizzler for dinner. All in all, though, it was great to be back at the Guild House for a great day of ASL.