September 23rd Game Day in Chatsworth AAR

We had 8 members for the September edition of our ASL Game Day at All Ways Gaming in Chatsworth:

Ed Esparza's Germans defeated Jimmy Hansen's Russians in “Operation Natzmer”. And because their game was over rather quickly, the switched sides and tried again. Ed definitely had this scenario dialed in, because his Russians defeated Jimmy's Germans in this second playing.

Dave Lewis' Germans and Mike Soffa's Brits fought to a draw in the LFT scenario “Getting Your Bell Rung”. This looked like a pretty cool scenario with an interesting board configuration. The Roar shows it very balanced. A couple of us put it on our play lists for a future game.

Eric Visnowski took the Russians against Dan Plachta's Germans in “In Deadly Combat”. Eric complained that the scenario was un-winnable as the Russians, as it would take the infantry 4 turns (of six) just to get to the first row of victory buildings. Granted the scenario is 17 to 4 pro-German. *But* they discovered afterward that they had played on the entire board. The scenario card shows the board edge is actually row V, not GG! That would have made for a whole different game. They decided to call it a non-game and will try again. I think this is a cool scenario if you give the Russian the balance (remove the 105 ART). I'm looking forward to seeing how it works out.

And I paired up with Dave Nicholas for “Tisza Tease”. I had previously played this as the Russians with Dave Rosner a few weeks ago. But when Dave left all but one of his tanks in Motion on turn 1, I launched an armored counter-attack to bag the Panthers. It didn't go well, and Dave made short work of my tanks and the scenario. Then Nick took the Russians against Blair Bellamy a week later, but Blair did the same thing, a Russian armored counter-attack that produced the exact same result. Although this scenario is 9 to 6 pro-Russian on the ROAR, these two playings seemed to say otherwise. So Nick wanted to try it as the Russians, and I took the Germans with the balance (switching out a PzIV for a 3rd Panther, which I think, despite the previous two playings, the Germans need.)

The Germans have to exit 24 CVP to win, of which 4 must be infantry. Because the entry is “on or after” on turn 1 I brought on the 3 Panthers, and about 2/3 of the infantry. Nick had used his dummies to create 5/8″ dummy tanks, and I sent my Panthers forward to engage each position in turn, at range 7, shooting the MG's to strip concealment and then firing the Guns for the to-kills as needed. In the meantime, the infantry legged it forward, mostly unopposed. I continued the process on turn 2, and felt pretty good about my progress. By turn 3 I felt it was safe to bring on the PzIV's, each with a squad riding. That left the half-track with a squad and 7-0, and the unoccupied truck, off board in reserve. But on turn 3 things started to go badly. Nick made a stand with one of his SU-85's, which got his APCR and a turret hit, and then rolled a 5 on the To-Kill for a shock, which I failed. I had sent one of the Pz IV over nearby to clear out some infantry, but that also went badly. On Russian turn 3, with my Panther now an Unknown Kill, Nick launched a counter-attack on this side and got the SU in behind the Panther. Meanwhile, his squad got a critical hit with an ATR against my PzIV and burned it, and a sneaky line of sight shot from another SU-85 hit another Panther from the side and killed it. Although Nick would loose both SU's in the following fire phase, my U.K. Panther flipped to a kill, and I knew I was in trouble; with just one Panther and one Pz IV left, and I still hadn't found Nick's hidden SU85. I found that hidden tank the following turn, as a made my final push for the exit. As expected, Nick had it in a good spot and got the rear shot on my Panther which resulted in a kill, and left me without enough points to exit. We called it a well-played Russian win.

I like this scenario, but its clear the Germans need the extra Panther. We had a fun game, as we always do. I think I had a good plan, but Nick had a better one, by playing very conservatively and being patient. This scenario is well worth the effort.

We had our usual excellent lunch on the patio at San Carlo Deli, enjoying the beautiful weather. But it was very crowded there. We had our usual late, leisurely dinner on the patio at The Habit. It was a great day of ASL!