6th Annual Burning Wreck Barbecue: President's AAR

[Jim Aikens]

Who said the Saturday after Thanksgiving wouldn’t work for the Burning Wreck Barbecue? We had 20 members in attendance, plus cameo appearances by Dave Derezinski and Blair Bellamy.

The day started with a hiccup, so to speak. I had planned the “Rally Point Breakfast” at the Hometown Buffet in Santa Ana at 7:45, and we had 10 guys for that. Unfortunately the restaurant was having some sort of community outreach ‘breakfast with Santa’ thing going on ‘til 8:00. And to make matters worse, I took a ‘short cut’ over to O.C. and didn't arrive until 8:15. But we were finally able to eat, and made it to the hotel before our 9:00 AM start time.

Our theme for this event was “Playing the Big Ones”.

When we arrived at the hotel Matt Cicero was already there with the big 3D Gavutu-Tanambogo board. Rob Feinstein went to work setting up an overhead camera to document their efforts, and the Marine and Japanese teams got organized and underway very quickly. It was obvious these guys had done a huge amount of planning.

While that was going on, the rest of us started setting up our scenarios:

Rob Feinstein, Matt Romey and Fred Timm took the Japanese against Nadir Elfarra, Jim Cotugno and Geoff Coward as the Marines in “Gavutu-Tanambogo A’Go-Go”, a 36 turn monster scenario designed by Rob, based on the G-T beach landing CG. It incorporated Matt’s blown up (to Deluxe scale) 3D G-T board, with miniatures for the LC’s, guns, caves, etc. I’ll let the guys who were there give you the details of how it played out (I was pretty embroiled in my own game.) But I know they played through 10.5 turns, and by the sounds of it, they had a blast. They plan to continue playing at WCM.

Dave Rosner’s Marines defeated John Lehman’s Japanese in the Deluxe scenario “Nightmare at Naha”.

Glenn Sellar’s Germans fell to Dave ‘Nick’ Nicholas’ Brits in “Hill of Death”.

Eric ‘Vegas’ Visnowski and Dave ‘Tex’ Reinking took the Brits against Scott Thompson and Matt Cicero as the Germans in the Bridge Too Far scenario “God Save the King”. They decided to call it a draw after playing all day.

Chip Wertenberger’s Germans defeated Dave ‘Honus’ Perham’s Russians in the VoTG scenario “Raid on Rodimstev”. Because their game got over fairly early, they set up “Fortune Favors the Bold”, but ran out of time and called that game a draw.

And Eric ‘The Councilor’ Morton and I set up the Axis and faced off against Dan Plachta and Matt Morocco as the Russians in the Festung Budapest scenario “Object 59”. We had lined up this game in advance, and Eric and I came with a set-up. We were able to get underway fairly quickly. That was a good thing, because it took all day to finish. The scenario takes place on February 6, 1945, with ammo and food shortage already a significant factor. The Russians need to take the large rail station, or three nearby buildings to win. The Russians made a soak-off attack against the rail station, and concentrated most of their power against the 3 victory buildings on their right. Eric and I had a pretty damn good set-up, but Dan and Matt tested it to its limit in what turned out to be a very close and exciting game. In the end our Axis troops were able to stop the Russian as time ran out. It was a great game all around; well played and very close throughout. We all agreed we’d happily play it again, as either side.

We broke at 3:30 for a pre-arranged early dinner at “Mob City”; a nearby pizza and pasta place in Tustin. We had pre-ordered pizzas, salad, and spaghetti for 20, so we were able to walk in, sit down and eat, without a lot of fanfare or waiting around. The restaurant staff was very nice, and helpful. The salad and pizza were good. The pasta was a little bland, but still good, and there was plenty of it. After enjoying our usual amount of camaraderie and chat, we returned to the hotel and resumed our games at about 5:00 PM. Around 9:30 PM everyone started wrapping up the games and packing away their gear. We called it a day a little after 10:00 PM.

All in all, I honestly think this was one of the best Burning Wreck Barbecues we've had. We had a great turnout and everyone had a great time. The dinner and the room (Avalon I at Wyndham Hotel) worked out perfectly. The room was perfect size. In fact, we could have put in 2 more games without too much difficulty. I want to thank everyone who took my recommendation to just bring what they needed. It really kept the clutter down and allowed us to fit comfortably into the room.

I want to thank Rob Feinstein for organizing the big G-T game; it allowed me to concentrate on other aspects of the event and keep things running smoothly. And thanks to Matt Cicero for handling the drinks, the money and the G-T map and gear. Most of all I want to thank everyone who came and supported the event. It was another great event for the Club.

On a side note: I have continued my relentless effort to reduce the number of Daves and Erics on the Club roster. Dave Reinking shall now be known as “Tex”. Dave Perham shall henceforth be known by his VASL nickname “Honus”. Eric Morton shall now be known as “Councilor”. BTW; I've noticed we are now at our limit for Jims (Aikens, Cotugno and Svette) and Matts (Cicero, Romey and Morocco.) If we get one more Jim or Matt, we're going to have to start nicknaming them as well.

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