March 11th Game Day at Bellflower AAR

We had 8 players, including a visitor from Canada, for the March edition of our ASL Game Day at The Guild House in Bellflower.

Paul Suderman, visiting from Winnipeg Canada, joined us for the day and paired up with Dave Nicholas for “Maximum Agression”, with Paul's Japanese defeating Nick's British.

Dan Plachta's British defeated Eric Visnowski's Germans in “First Threat”.

Scott Thompson's Russians defeated Stance Nixon's Germans in a very close playing of “Escape to the Elbe”.

And Dave Lewis and I paired up for “Grab and Go” from the latest Journal. Dave chose the attacking Russians; 21 well-led 4-5-8 squads with an ELR of 5 and the ability to deploy. The Germans get twelve 4-6-8 squads with an HMG, MMG and 4 LMG's, plus an 82 Mtr and the width of a board to cover. The Russians get 3 VP's for each multi-hex building they control by turn 4, and normal EVP for units exited by game end. The Germans also get VP for exiting units (off the same board edge.) Additionally, an SPW 251-2 and an SPW SmG enter on turn 5 without their MA's. If they can exit with the 82 Mtr and HMG mounted (respectively) they're worth a total of 16 EVP.

The Russians have plenty of time, and with the building worth so many points, the Germans are pretty much forced to set up front and fall back slowly. The Russians have to cross a lot of open ground, and the Germans have 6 MG's for firelanes, but the Germans have a very thin line, and have to fall back carefully. I'd like to say my superior tactics won the day, but the dice had a lot to do with the outcome. In my initial DF phase my 9-2/HMG went on a rate tear that left 3 Russian squads and a leader in the dirt cup. Honestly, for most of the first 3 turns my dice averaged about 5.5 and D.L.'s averaged about 8. By the time the dice began to turn it was too little too late, and we called this a German victory with 1 turn to go.

We both had fun, and this is a very challenging scenario for both sides. I'd definitely try it again.

Because the store was going to close early, we decided on a quick lunch at Burger King over our usual choice of Sizzler. It was good to save the time… and I'll leave it at that. The survivors adjourned to Chris and Pit's for dinner, where we were joined by Blair Bellamy. It was another great day of ASL and nice to be joined by Paul.