April 2nd Game Day at Gameology AAR

Even by the high standards of our ASL Game Days, I have to say yesterday’s meeting was truly outstanding. We had a total of 10 players in attendance, including the return of Bill Yuen, a SoCalASL regular who has been out of commission for most of the previous year, and the arrival of a yet another player new to our Club; Ryan Voznick. Ryan is a 2nd (soon to be 1st) Lieutenant stationed at Ft. Irwin.

Chris Castalana’s combined French/British forces fell to Bill Yuen’s Germans in the early war Journal 9 scenario “Ugly Faces”.

In an epic all-day struggle, Dan Plachta’s Americans defeated Eric Visnowski’s Germans in “Lesson for Lehr”.

Ed Esparza might be new to the Club, but he’s quickly gained a reputation as a solid player who will snatch a victory in the final CC phase. Such was the case yesterday when his Germans defeated Blair Bellamy’s Russians in the Rally Point scenario “Retreat from Bairak”.

Kevin Legge squared off against Mike Soffa in the Schwerepunkt scenario “Kerpesi Cemetery”, with Mike’s Hungarians defeating Kevin’s Russians. By coincidence, these two guys have known each other professionally for some time, but this was there first game together.

And I took on Ryan Voznick in the Paratrooper oldie “Lost Opportunities”, where my Germans defeated Ryan’s Americans. I haven’t played this scenario in quite some time; I forgot how much fun it is.

With a little time available left before closing Bill and I paired up for the Out of the Bunker scenario “Avril Action”, with me taking the Germans against Bill’s Americans. I tried a bold halftrack mounted assault that ran straight into Bill’s AT Gun. My troops paid dearly for my aggressiveness, and I conceded when about half my OB was dead by turn 2. We re-booted, with me taking the Americans, but we ran out of time and called the second playing a draw, in what was shaping up to be a very close game.

We adjourned in the early afternoon for our usual lunch at The Hat, which was great as always. This was the largest attendance we've had at Gameology since we split the Los Angeles Game Days into Montclair and San Fernando Valley this past year.