August 28th Game Day in Chatsworth: AAR

[Jim Aikens]

We had 5 members for our ASL Game Day in Chatsworth. Except it wasn’t in Chatsworth. Let me explain…

We met as usual in front of the store at All Ways Gaming in Chatsworth. We’ve been meeting there for many years. The manager met us outside the store, and announced that, because blah, blah, blah Covid, blah, blah, blah, only the the HeroClixs players would be able to meet in the store on Saturdays into the foreseeable future. And with that, our long relationship with All Ways Gaming came to an end.

I’m convinced this had nothing to do with anything we did or didn’t do. It certainly had nothing to do with wearing or not wearing masks. As with all of the stores in LA County, only about half of the people in the store wore a mask last month, including the HeroClix guys. I think it had much more to do with the HeroClix guys not wanting to share the game room with us.

So we took an early lunch at San Carlo Deli, and then headed down to Sherman Oaks and grabbed a couple of tables at Paper Heros when they opened at 2:00.

Dave Nicholas’ Germans defeated James Quinn’s Swedes in “Lions and Tin Men”.

And Phil Tinsman and Eric Visnowski took the Brits against my SS in the AP scenario “Never on Time”. I nominated this scenario for the BBQ, but had never played it. We thought it would work for 3 players and set it up.

This scenario has a company of SS, supported by 3 Panzer IVJ’s, attacking into a railside village on board 15a, held by a couple of platoons of Brits. On turns 2 and 3, the Brits get about a company of reinforcements, backed by 4 Sherman II’s and a Firefly, to counter attack back into the village.

My plan was pretty simple; push forward quickly and grab as many buildings as possible, then hunker down for the counterattack. I sent one platoon and the PSK to the left, behind the village. Everything else went right. Both attacks made good progress, as EV pulled his on-board force back, offering token resistance to slow down my assault. By the time the Brit reinforcements came on, I felt I was in good shape. Phil brought the reinforcements in behind the village, and quickly checked my left side flank attack. But I had grabbed most of the victory buildings at that point. I put two panzers on the right to keep the Shermans out of my rear area, and one into the village to help with my attack there. The Brits pulled the Firefly alone into firing position on my right. I wasn’t too worried, it was a 2 on 1 where I had the first shots, and there were Orchards between us. I took my two DF shots to acquire, and the Firefly’s AF shot missed thanks to the Orchards. That set me up for 6 shots in the Prep, assuming I didn’t get rate (which I didn’t): 2 Prep shots, 2 IF shots with APCR (4 TH) and 2 IF shots with AP. All of my Prep shots missed, except for 1 that didn’t penetrate. In DF the Firefly fired once, hitting and killing one panzer with rate. The rate shot killed the 2nd Panzer, and opened my backfield to the Shermans.

It was about this time that the store manager decided to turn on some “music” very loudly. And by “music” I’m referring to noise that to me sounded as melodious as a car alarm, or someone banging a metal trash can lid, except much less pleasant.

Mean while, the British tanks circled in behind my position, enveloping it, and I took casualties from Phil’s counterattacking infantry. My troops were trapped, and would need to hold out for 2.5 more turns. With the “music” blasting, I just couldn’t think clearly enough to put together a winning end game. I threw in the towel.

We were all pretty impressed with the scenario. It felt pretty tight (and shows it on ROAR). We all said we’d like to try it again. I’m glad I nominated it for the BBQ.

We wrapped up a little early, and the survivors adjourned to Sizzler for a nice dinner.

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