2nd Annual Burning Wreck Barbecue: President's AAR

[Jim Aikens]

Our 2nd Annual Burning Wreck Barbecue went off this past weekend with barely a glitch. By 8:30 AM we were setting up tables, and by 9:00 AM games were already in progress:

Matt Cicero’s Germans defeated Scott Thompson’s British in the big scenario of the St. Nazaire module.

Dave Perham’s British beat Stance Nixon’s Germans in Road to Kozani Pass from Turning the Tide.

Rob Stai’s Marines scratched out a last turn victory against Mike Cirrincione’s Japanese in Bloody Red Beach.

Geoff Coward’s German and Mike Soffa’s Russians battled to mutual exhaustion (a draw) in the classic Hill 621.

Dan Plachta’s Germans defeated Dave Reinking’s Russians in the VotG version of In Sight of the Volga.

And over at Omaha Beach:

Thanks to a fair amount of preparation on the part of the German team (myself, Candice Juliano, and Stephan Tourville) we were able to roll the initial wind change DR at 10:08 AM, with Eric Morton, Karl Von Voigt and Glenn Sellar commanding the U.S. assault force. We played throughout the day until about 10:00 PM, then resumed on Sunday at 9:00 AM with the same players plus Dan Plachta as a fourth U.S. commander. We finally called it on the bottom of Turn 5 at about 3:30 PM. On the Le Moulin Draw, Glenn had about 2.5 squads and a 10-2 on the seawall. In front of WN 70, Karl still had about 9 of his M4A1’s in action, but 2 were immobilized and several more bogged in sand. But they were putting the hurt on the Germans; effectively whiting out the strongpoint with WP. Dan’s engineers from the late-arriving wave landed on the beach fairly intact, and were posed to move toward the seawall against limited opposition. Over at the Vierville Draw, Eric’s Rangers had pushed up in front of the first German blockhouses despite heavy losses from Candice’s well-placed fire. The U.S. was threatening to the board edge positions just as the German reinforcements were setting up blocking positions behind the draw. The German spotters in the blockhouses were going to have to bring their fire in “danger close” to keep from being overrun. The final action involved the Germans launching their Rocket OBA against Dan’s position, only to see it land ineffectively in the ocean behind his men. In all, everyone had a great time. Despite mine and Eric’s recent LC experience, plus cheat sheets and flow charts, the LC rules still proved daunting. But we powered through them and enjoyed what will surely be a memorable experience for everyone involved.

We enjoyed our group dinner on Saturday night down at the restaurant. Although the service proved to be awful slow, the food was good.

I want to thank everyone who came and played. It was great to see everyone.

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