June 11th Game Day in Bellflower AAR

We had 7 members in attendance for the June edition of our ASL Game Day at the Guild House in Bellflower:

Dave Rosner's Germans defeated Blair Bellamy's and Dan Plachta's Russians in “No Glory in War”.

Stance Nixon's Americans fell to Dave Nicholas' Germans in “Zebra Mission.”

And fellow VotG fan John Lehman took the Germans against my Russians in the Journal 11 VotG scenario “Drama, the Park and Deadly Things”. I've had this one high on my play list since J-11 came out, and was pleased that John wanted to give it a try. I chose group A from the fortification section, and Group D from the AT section. I HIP'd the Assault Engineer HS with the DC at 2nd level on the north side of the board, and HIP'd a crew with a MOL projector in the southeast corner. I used both Fortified locations to put the 45L at 1st level along the north edge, where it could cover both the north and south side approaches to the front of the victory building. I used the Mines to cover two hexes south of the victory building. I put two 447 squads, an LMG, and the 8-1 in buildings along the the north board edge. Their job was to do a fighting withdrawal through the stone buildings on the north edge. John launched an excellent, well-coordinated attack, and I felt under pressure throughout the game as he kept pushing forward. John ran out of Smoke fairly quickly, which hurt him for the end game. In the end, it came down to a bum's rush of the victory building on the last turn, and my Russians just barely held on for the win. It was a great finish to a very exciting and challenging game! I have to say, John and I both really liked this scenario. It's fun and challenging for both sides, with a variable OB that helps with re-playability. It's just the right size and scale for a Game Day. The playing area is relatively small, and both sides have just enough forces to get the job done. I'm looking forward to trying this one again.

We walked down to Sizzler for a very enjoyable lunch. Stance's wife Cheryl joined us for our usual late dinner at Chris and Pit's BBQ. What a great day with a nice turn-out.