April 13th Game Day in Bellflower AAR

We had six members, plus a cameo by Matt Cicero, for the April edition of our ASL Game Day in Bellflower:

John Tessier's Germans defeated Fen Yan's Russians in “Rage Against the Machine”.

Dan Plachta's Americans defeated Guy Jimenez' Germans in “Lost Opportunity”.

And Dave Nicholas and I paired up for the Schwerepunkt scenario “Death's Head Debut”. Nick and I played this scenario with Eric Visnowski about a year ago, with my Russians dicing the snot out of Eric and Nick's Germans. Nick wanted another crack as the Germans, and the dice gave him his wish. This scenario has about a dozen Russian squads defending a hill and village against a powerful SS assault from two directions, supported by 6 PzIII's and a couple of PzIVF2's. The Russians get 4 leaders, 6 trenches, an 82mm MTR, and a couple of 45L's. On turn 2, four T34-M41's arrive to aide the defense.

I set up my defense exactly the same as in the previous game: I put my 5 conscript squads in the village to fight to the death, while the 1st line troops settled into an excellent level 4 hill defense. I put the 82mm MTR on the southern level 4 hill (out of the victory area, but quite safe.) I knew from experience that a frontal attack on the hill was brutal, and expected Nick would try to envelop my position with a couple of flank attacks. So I put one 45L on each side of the hill, where they could cover the flanks. The first couple of turns went pretty well, if predictable, with my conscripts performing well considering what they were up against. My hill defense was holding up well, as i cycled fresh concealed squads into forward positions. But starting on turn 3, this all turned into the scenario from hell. Pretty much from that point on, nothing I did worked. It wasn't like I didn't get some good dice, but they never showed up when I needed them. And Nick is just too good a player to let me back into a game once it's turning against me. Although my Russians got their licks in, and killed several German tanks, it just wasn't enough to turn the tide back in my favor, as Nick systematically pried me off the hill. We called this one a German win at the end of turn 4. We both think this one is fairly pro-German (it shows 8-5 on the ROAR), and the balance (a Russian 9-1 AL) isn't enough help. As always, Nick and I had fun, though I whined a bit more than I would have liked. We both think the Germans are way more fun to play in this scenario.

We had our usual lunch over at 600 Degrees Pizza, and the survivors enjoyed our usual excellent late dinner at Hambone;s Barbecue.