September 21st Game Day in Sherman Oaks AAR

We had 10 players for the September edition of our ASL Game Day at Paper Hero's in Sherman Oaks:

Dave Rosner's Brits defeated Mike Soffa's Germans in the Schwerepunkt scenario “Boeinked”.

Chris Watson-Wood's Americans defeated Larry Reinking's Germans in “Wise's War”.

Blair Bellamy and Sal Pelaez paired up for “Kawaguchi's Gamble” from the new SK 4. In the first playing, Sal's Marines defeated Blair's Japanese. They then re-booted the scenario using the same sides. In this second playing, Blair's Japanese defeated Sal's Marines.

Back last month at Apex, me, Dan Plachta, Dave Nicholas and Dave Kocot set up “Battle for Wiltz”, a George Kelln design featuring one of his beautiful HASL Maps. It took a long time to get set up, and we were only able to get through a couple of turns of the 1st part of what is ultimately a 4 part scenario. We all had a lot of fun, and decided to re-boot it for our Game Day in Sherman Oaks (the only location with tables big enough to accommodate the map.) Special K had to return to TN, so Eric Visnowski agreed to take his place with me as the Americans against Dan and Nick as the Germans.

This scenario has a powerful Volksgrenadier regiment, supported by a couple of companies of paratroops and a lot of Hetzers, attacking through a hilly pine forest crisscrossed with deep streams. The Americans get a couple of engineer platoons and a couple of companies of 2nd line squads, supported by some Shermans and excellent OBA. The Germans have four 5-7 turn scenarios to exit 100 EVP off the west map edge. We came prepared for this second playing; I had an American set-up done in advance, and Dan and Nick had done all of their purchases for the Germans. We got to turn 4 of the 1st scenario, when we halted to record our positions. We all had a lot of fun. The interesting HASL map terrain is proving very challenging. We will resume the battle next month.

We enjoyed our usual lunch next door at Nat's. The survivors adjourned to Bob's Big Boy for our usual late dinner. It was another great day in Sherman Oaks!