August 4th Game Day at Gameology: AAR

We had 8 members for our ASL Game Day at Gameology's new location in Upland.

Bruce Kirkaldy's Germans fell to Mike Meek's Russians in “The Meat Grinder”.

Dave Nicholas' Germans defeated Jim Svette's Americans in “Buchholz Station”.

Eric Visnowski's Japanese defeated Scott Thompson's Americans in “The Mighty Have Fallen”.

And I paired up with Blair Bellamy for the LFT scenario “A Grain of Sand”. The dice gave me the attacking Free French and Blair the Germans. On paper, this doesn't look like a big scenario; with low infantry density and 5.5 turns. But there's a lot going on. The action is set in central France, in August, 1944. The Germans get a couple of platoons of 5-4-8's with decent SW's and leaders, supported by two Pz IVJ's, a 37L armed HT, an SPW 251-1 and a choice of another 5-4-8 with a FT or 50L AT Gun. The Free French get 6 Shermans (2 with AAMG), a company of infantry and several HT's. These troops arrive over the first two turns. They have to either clear a village or exit 20 EVP (5 must be infantry).

Blair had a good set-up; keeping the village well covered, with AT assets balanced on both boards to prevent the end-run exit. I decided to hedge my bets, and sent my early arriving troops to the right, toward the village to figure out what Blair had in there. The village position looked pretty strong, so I sent my turn 2 follow-on troops to the left, to either hit the village from the flank or run for the exit. Blair had anticipated this, and had a Pz IV over there in a good position, and his 37L track were it could get some D.I. shots. Against the odds, one of my Shermans pulled up and killed the Pz IV with a lucky shot. But that damn 37L track, supported by the 50L well positioned on its flank, held out for two turns. After a tough fight I was finally able to suppress the left flank defenders and headed to the rear. Blair got some late-arriving reinforcements in front of them, and a fast moving squad with three (!!) Heroes following behind. But on the final movement phase I was able to Smoke the defenders and exit for the win. It was an exciting, razor close finish that could easily have gone the other way. It was great to get a game in with Blair. It's been too long and is always a pleasure. This scenario is dead even on the Roar, and certainly felt like it. We both liked this scenario a lot, and would happily try it again.

Gameology's new location is a real winner; larger and brighter than the old store and with plenty of parking. It's also closer to The Hat, which we went to for lunch as usual. For dinner, the survivors tried Louie's Chicken and Fish Grill, located across the parking lot. This proved to be an excellent choice. Its sort of a Mexican-Cuban fusion place with counter service. The prices are very reasonable and the food was high quality and delicious. We enjoyed our meal on the deck and got to chat with the owner. We will definitely be going back. It was a great way to wind up a great day of ASL!