September 7th Game Day at Gameology AAR

Greetings ASL Fans;

We had five players for the September edition of our SoCalASL Game Day at Gameology:

David Kocot's Germans defeated Fen Yan's Russians in “Obian Highway”.

And Scott Thompson and Fred Diver took the Russians against my Germans in the Friendly Fire scenario “Wrecking the Rentals”. I saw a couple of games of this scenario played last month in Bellflower, and thought it looked interesting. Fen loaned us his copy. This scenario has a couple of platoons of Germans (mixed 5-4-8's and 4-6-7's) with a MMG, two LMG's and PSK, defending a wood line against two groups of Russians. One Russian group sets up on board, and can potentially be in the German set-up area if the German isn't careful. The on-board force has a platoon of infantry supported by 3 Valentine V's and two Sherman III's. The follow-up force has more infantry with another Sherman and two more Val's. The Russians need two MMC's and/or AFV's in the victory area by game end. The German position is bolstered by one 81mm MTR and a HIP Marder II. On turn 2, three PzIV H's arrive to try to drive the Russians back.

In my set-up, I made sure the on-board Russian force would have to pass through either the one hex gap or the three hex gap in the woods line between the Russian set-up area and the victory area. I put a couple of squads and the PSK around the one hex gap. I put one squad on the far left clump of woods, and the rest of the infantry in the center, with a couple more squads to help cover the 3 hex gap. I put the Marder behind the 3 hex gap with excellent views all the way through to the Russian set up area. In retrospect, I should have put a couple more squads in the far left woods to cover the gap from that side with PF's.

I really think this is an armor battle with some infantry thrown in. The Russians infantry has a long way to go in only six turns if they're not in the trucks or riding. Scott took the on-board force, and shot the 3 hex gap with his infantry as riders. I managed to strip off all the infantry from this group except for 1 squad, but Scott got all five tanks through. In my DF I revealed the Marder, which burned one Val. I decided to IF since I still had a 4 on 1 situation, and threw box cars on my IF shot. So much for my gap plug. On turn 2 Scott raced to the VC area, but the Val's, with their 10 MP's didn't make it. I brought my 3 PzIV's in and challenged two of the Val's, killing them both in AF. I killed the third Val in the next DF, the headed toward the gap, to take on Fred's tanks that were coming in now. But Scott now had his two Shermans, and 1 squad in the VC area. I rushed some infantry to the rear to engage them, plus left some back to slow down Fred's attack on the wood line. My MTR, which was along the right-hand board edge, threaded a shot through to one of Scott's Shermans. After a half-dozen or so shots, I nailed it with a crit. By turn six I managed to break the one squad in the VC area and had checked all of the other Russians around the woods line. With only one vehicle in the VC area and no chance of the other Russian vehicles or infantry getting in, we called this a German win.

We had great fun with this scenario. Fred is actually a SL player who dabbles in ASL and handled his troops with skill. I think this scenario is challenging for both sides, and I wouldn't mind trying it again.

We had lunch at Tom's Farms, and the survivors adjourned to Louie's Chicken and Fish for an excellent dinner. It was another great day in Upland.