12th Annual Burning Wreck BBQ AAR

We had a couple of last minute cancellations, but still ended up with 14 members, plus we were joined later in the day by Guy Jimenez and Ric Hammond. Guy and Ric stayed for the duration and enjoyed the festivities with us. Our scenario for the day was “Shouting Into the Storm”. We gave the Germans half the balance (choice of a FT or 5-4-, to compensate for the Russians having an unlimited amount of set-up time. We had 7 games and split them: 4 German and 3 Russian; we can't ask for closer than that:

Matt Cicero's Germans defeated Blair Bellamy's Russians.

Stance Nixon's Russians defeated Hank W.'s Germans.

Dave Nicholas' Russians defeated Sal Pelaez' Germans.

Dave Perham's Germans defeated Fen Yan's Russians.

Larry Reinking's Germans defeated John Lehman's Russians.

Peter Strand's Germans defeated Dan Plachta's Russians.

And the dice gave Dave Rosner the Germans against my Russians. Although I generally like to attack, I had put a lot of thought into my set-up and was happy to have the defenders. I chose the 6-2-8 group, and the IS II's. My plan was to lightly defend the victory locations on board 10, and fall back to a final stand in the board 46 victory building. To that end, I left only 3 squads in the north, and one of the 57L's 10Y7. I put an 8-0, 4-5-8 with an LMG, and a 6-2-8 with a DC and FT in 10X2, where they could move to support the board 46 forward defenders, or fall back into the board 46 victory building. The other 57L went in 46X10. The .50 Cal, 4-5-8 and 9-1 went in the board 46 victory building. Dave sent a couple of platoons to the north, supported by a couple of tanks, and send the rest toward the south. His attack was conservative, which kept his casualties to a minimum. By turn 5, I was feeling pretty good about the armor battle, but I hadn't landed a glove on Dave's infantry, and almost every German squad was pressing in on both positions. I had killed a couple of StuG's, and generally traded heavy tanks. The final couple of turns involved a lot of whining (mostly by me) and a lot of laughs. I thought I was finished when the final turn came down to two 2:1 CC's against the “Butcher of Burbank”. But in a last second twist, Dave gacked both CC rolls, and the victory went to my Russians. We had a lot of laughs, and a lot of fun, as I whined my way to victory.

We gave away subscriptions to Dispatches from the Bunker to: Hank, Honus, Nick, Larry and Stance. Dan and Peter won Broken Ground counter-sheets, and Matt Cicero won our grand prize, a copy of the new AP14. We had Pizza Hut pizza for lunch, and the survivors were treated to dinner at Fuddruckers. We had a great time with a great scenario, and a lot of laughs. It was another great Burning Wreck Barbecue!

On behalf of the Club, I want to extend a sincere thank you to Stance and Cheryl Nixon for hosting us once again. We couldn't do this event without them.