April 29th Special 5th Saturday Game Day at Apex: AAR

We had an outstanding turnout of 14 members, plus a cameo from Matt Cicero, for our Special 5th Saturday Game Day at at Apex Fasteners in Irwindale.

Sal Palaez's Germans defeated Blair Bellamy's Kiwis in “Stentzer's Wary Reconnoitre” from HOB's Operation Mercur.

Bryan Earll's Brits defeated Mike Soffa's Germans in “Frank Force”. And because their game got over early, they set up “Piano Lupo”, where Bryan's Italians defeated Mike's Americans.

It was nice to see Bill Yuen, back from a hiatus, and he and Scott Thompson set up “A Real Barn Burner”, with Scott's Germans squeezing out a last CC win against Bill's French. If you haven't tried this scenario, you really should. It's balanced and quick playing, with interesting choices for both sides.

Jon Jaramillo's Germans defeated Jim Svette's Canadians in “Bedburg Bite”.

Dan Plachta's Russians defeated Dave Perham's Germans in “Cost of Non-Compliance”.

Dave Nicholas' Republicans defeated James Quinn's Nationalists in “Far From Home”.

One of the nice parts about playing at Apex is having both the time and the table space to set up a big meaty scenario. I was in the mood for a big-ass, four board Deluxe scenario, and I knew just which scenario and just which guy would fill the bill. Everyone knows that Eric Visnowski has never turned down a chance to play Deluxe. Eric and I had playtested “Ramcke's Redoubt” from Journal 11 a couple of years ago. We had a blast with it and knew it was worth trying again.

This scenario has a company of well armed and led German 5-4-8's defending a large stone victory building against two companies of 6-6-7 and 6-6-6 Americans, laden with DC's, three FT's and plenty of MG's, and backed by a couple of Hellcats, a Greyhound and a self-propelled 155. The Germans get 16 wire counters, which they can freely convert into trenches, tunnels and fortified buildings. They also get a 37L AA Gun, 75* Inf Gun, and a dug-in French tank. This is a big, 8 turn scenario, and has a pretty complicated set-up. Luckily Eric and I play very quickly or we wouldn't have finished.

The dice gave me the Germans. I used 6 wire counters to create two tunnels to run under my lines of wire that protected the flanks of the victory building. I knew from experience that the terrain is pretty channeling, and the Germans need to set up with that in mind. I HIP'd the dug in tank in the center, backed by the 37L. I used the 75* to cover one wire-filled road that I knew the Americans were going to have to fight across. There isn't a lot of terrain to withdraw through, so the Germans have to set up their infantry pretty far forward, while staying out of sight of the American kill-stacks.

There weren't many casualties for the first 3 turns, as my Germans skulked and fell back to their MLR. Eric did a good job of keeping his troops in good order and pushing steadily forward without much risk. He knew he had plenty of time. On turn 4 my 10-2, 5-4-8 and LMG were manning a critical strong-point and broke on a cheap-ass long range shot. Eric pushed hard up that flank, and my MLR came apart about a turn sooner than I had anticipated. My 10-2 rallied and Battle Hardened to a 10-3, then died to point blank FT shot. But he bought a turn in the process, and I was able to use one of my tunnels to slip an entire platoon into the threatened sector. I recalled the 155 with a deadly sniper, and double-stunned the Greyhound for a Recall. But the Hellcats hammered my troops throughout the battle, and finally died (one to the Inf Gun and one to a Panzershrek) on turn 7.

Both sides took pretty heavy casualties through the second half, and the Americans got about half way through the victory building before the clock ran out on them. It was a hard-fought, but very close, German victory. Tons of hard fighting and tons of fun. This was our second playing of this scenario, and both of us thought it was well worth another try, straight up, as either side.

We made our usual trek to the excellent Mexican restaurant just down the street for lunch. Some of the games ran fairly late, but the survivors made their way to BJ's for a late dinner.

On behalf of everyone who attended, I want to thank Bryan and Matt for hosting us. As we expected, we had a great turnout and a ton of fun!