June 22nd Game Day at Steve Thorne's House in Escondido: AAR

We had four members in attendance for the June edition of our ASL Game Day at Steve Thorne's house in Escondido.

Joe Concepcion and Fred Timm paired off for the classic scenario “Urban Guerillas”, with Joe’s Germans falling to Fred’s attacking Russians.

And because it was the anniversary of Operation Barbarossa, Steve and I wanted to play something from around that time frame. We chose “About His Shadowy Sides” from the Best of Friends pack. This scenario features an early war Russian rifle company supported by two KV-2’s attacking a small village defended initially by a detachment of Germans. The Germans must try to delay the Russians long enough for help to arrive in the form of a reduced rifle company supported by a platoon of PzIVD’s. The Panzers are terrific infantry killers, but they’re no match for the KV’s.

In our game Steve was a little unlucky when one of his KV’s broke its MA, and then rolled a ‘6’ on the repair attempt for the Recall. That hurt him, as it did when he U.K.’d one of my Panzers with his 50mm Mtr, and it recovered. Had Steve rolled a ‘1’ instead of a ‘6’ and I had rolled a ‘4’ instead of a ‘3’ on my recovery, it would have been 2 KV’s v. 3 PzIV’s, and that would have made it tough on the Germans. It still turned out to be a near thing. The Russians captured 7 of the 9 buildings they needed, and were only 2 hexes away from the remaining ones. In the end, my Germans held on for the win.

We both enjoyed the scenario very much, though we both think it’s a little hard on the Russians. ROAR shows the original Friendly Fire version of the scenario 50/40 pro-German, and the current MMP version 3/0 German. I think the Russian force is a little too brittle; one bad die roll on the KV’s, or if one of the two Russian leaders goes down early, it’s very hard for the Russians to win. I'd give the Russians the balance. But it certainly captures the feel of the historic situation, and it is very fun to play.

We adjourned for our usual lunch at Farmer Boys, where we all got free onion rings. They were worth every penny. Trust me, The Hat has nothing to worry about..