July 21st "Summer Offensive" AAR

We had 13 members for the SoCalASL Summer Offensive at Apex Fasteners in Irwindale.

Dan Plachta's Americans defeated Mike Soffa's Germans in the Market Garden scenario “Take That Bridge”.

Dave Nicholas' Italians fell to Bryan Earll's Russians in the winter scenario “Our Hopes are Alpini on You”.

France 1940 was the choice for the remainder of the scenarios…

Nadir Elfarra's French defeated Larry Reinking's Germans in “Quick Off the Mark”.

And because their scenario wrapped up fairly quickly, they paired up for “The Drive for Cambrai”, with Larry's Germans defeating Nadir's French.

Blair Bellamy and Dave Lewis also paired up for “The Drive for Cambrai”,with D.L.'s Germans defeating Blair's French.

And Dave Kocot and I took the attacking Germans against Scott Thompson and Matt Cicero (later replaced by Ric Hammond) as the French in the monster scenario “As Good as They Got”. Both sides get a decent infantry force, and a variable armored group. The Germans need to clear a village in the middle of the map, and then have to amass 120 VP (CVP + EVP) in 10 -12 turns. The map is about the size of the full RB map, with a village in the center, woods and orchards scattered around, and lots of open ground. The French get about a company of infantry and a total of up to 21 tanks, mostly H-39's and S-35's, backed by six 25LL AT Guns and a 75mm OBA. The Germans get a truck-born infantry company backed by a platoon of 5-4-8's and another platoon of 4-6-8 assault engineers. They are supported by ten Pzkw IIIF's, and a gaggle of other Pzkw I and II rag wagons. Their real hitting power is one towed 88L AA Gun, and what I call 'all you can eat' Stuka's; 1 -3 planes can arrive every turn on a dr 1-2, which are recalled on the turn after arrival. That's a powerful weapon, and really the only reliable way to kill the French tanks. Unfortunately, in the 6 turns we played, the Germans received exactly NO planes. None. Nada. Zip. That meant we had to take them out the hard way; MTR fire, MA CH's, and on Dave's side, a lot of CC. We played through turn 6 (out of 10-12). In that time the Germans fought their way forward, cleared the village, and killed about a third of the French infantry. But the French put up a hell of a fight, and lashed back as we entered their AT Gun kill zone in the final third of the board. By the end of turn 6 it was getting late and we knew we wouldn't finish. The game could have got either way and we called it a draw. We all had a blast with this huge scenario. We all thought we'd like to try it again.

The maps and scenarios, produced by George Killn of Lone Canuck and provided by Nadir Efarra, were tres cool and a lot of fun. Everyone had a great time. The club provided donuts, bagels and coffee for breakfast, and beer and soda throughout the day. We adjourned to the Mexican place down the street for our usual excellent lunch. I want to extend a special thanks to Nadir Elfarra for coming up with this unique format, and providing all the excellent maps and scenarios to choose from. I also want to thank Matt Cicero and Bryan Earll for opening their place of business for us. There's a reason Apex is always our most popular venue!