August 17th Game Day at Paper Hero's

We had our third double digit Game Day in a row, with 10 members in attendance for our SoCalASL Game Day at Paper Hero's in Sherman Oaks.

Ron Oxford came all the way down from Visalia to join us, and took on Dan Plachta in “Tough Enough”. Ron's Germans and Dan's Russians fought to a draw.

Sal Pelaez's French defeated Blair Bellamy's Germans in the Dispatches scenario “March on Marche”. This looks like a cool scenario that I'd like to try.

Dave Nicholas' Russians defeated Chris Watson-Wood's Germans in “High Tide at Heilingenbiel”.

Dave Rosner's Axis defeated Larry Reinking's Russians in “Second City”.

And Eric Visnowski and I paired up the classic scenario “Scouts Out”. Neither of us had played this one in quite a few years. Because this is slightly pro-German, we gave the Americans part of the balance (no HIP for the Germans south of the river.). The dice gave Eric the Americans. For the north of the river force, I put a h.s.in L7 and another h.s. with the PSK in U8. The remainder (4-4-7, LMG and 7-0) went in U7. For the southern force, I put a 4-4-7 in the stone building next to the bridge. The HMG/4-4-7 and 8-0 went into the woods to the left of the bridge, with two more squads. Two more squads, the 7-0 LMG and PSK went in the woods on the right of the bridge.

EV brought his initial force in on the German right, and set up to engage the Germans across the river. On turn two, the American follow up group came in through the center woods, and ran into my HIP forces there. Though my north force caused some disruption, they never inflicted any casualties, and Eric mopped them up on turn 3. He was then able to assemble the massive American firepower and pound my southern forces in the woods. The decisive moment came on turn 4. My HMG was unmanned in the woods, but I had two squads nearby and needed to recover it. I got a squad to advance in, then recover it on the bottom of turn 4. We both knew the Americans had to neutralize that HMG before coming across the bridge. But my squad shrugged of prep shot after prep shot from Eric's .50 Cal's and then MMG's. Finally, he pulled his two halftracks with squads up to take him out in advance fire. I knew my squad was on borrowed time. So instead of shooting in DF, I dismantled the HMG so I could rout with it. Sure enough, in AF, Eric broke the squad, but I got the dm HMG out during rout. It later was able to set up at 2nd level further back. Eric fought his way across the bridge, but we both knew his attack had been fatally delayed the previous turn. And that's exactly how it played out, as time ran out one turn too soon for the Americans, and we called this a German victory.

This scenario is considered a classic for a reason. It's always fun and exciting to play, and Eric and I had a very enjoyable game. If you haven't played it, or played it recently, it's well worth your consideration. We had our usual lunch next door at Nat's, and the survivors retired to Pizza Rev for a late dinner. It was another great day of ASL.