January 17 Game Day at Emerald Knights; AAR

[Jim Aikens]

We had an excellent turnout of 12 members for the January edition of our ASL Game Day at Emerald Knights. Only we didn’t play at Emerald Knights. In a spectacular display of incompetence (to put it mildly) on the part of their management, they had no space available for us when we arrived. Luckily for us, Jay at J.J.’s Game Lounge agreed to clear some table space for us on only a half hour notice, and we migrated to Chatsworth for the day.

In a game that came down to the last dice roll, Ed Esparza’s Russians defeated Dave Rosner’s Germans in “Fields of Black Gold”.

In another close game, Dan Kaufman’s Russians fell to Sal Palaez’s Germans in “Commando Shenk”.

Dan Plachta’s Japanese defeated Dave Nicholas’ Brits in “The Mumbo Decision”.

In yet another down-to-the-last-CC game, Geoff Coward’s Brits held off Blair Bellamy’s Germans in “Mercury Rising”.

Kevin Ryan, visiting SoCal for the day, paired up with Eric Visnowski in “After the Disaster”. This game was pre-arranged as the final for last year’s WCM “Tiger Hunt” mini. Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get all the way through, and will complete the game next month on Thursday afternoon at WCM XVIII.

And Phil Seymour took the Germans against my Russians in the Friendly Fire scenario “Pain in the Neck”. This is a late-war scenario where German SS infantry has to punch their way through a line of Russian Guards and exit. It is my experience that FrF scenarios are generally quite balanced and enjoyable. Although Phil and I enjoyed our game, this one wasn’t much of a contest. The further we got into this scenario the more it seemed to favor the Russians. To his credit, Phil fought on, with his usual skill, until it was obvious his Germans could not win, and we called it a Russian win. But the issue never seemed in doubt. I checked the ROAR on this afterward. It has 13 Russian wins to 5 German. Obviously the winning strategy for this scenario is ‘take the Russians’. But we had fun none the less.

The upside to being at JJ’s was being able to enjoy an excellent lunch at San Carlo Deli. Of course we all missed Veronica’s buns… ah.. I mean hot dogs, at Larry’s. After the last game cleared we adjourned for our traditional late dinner at The Habit.

Thanks to E.K.’s screw up this Game Day could have been a disaster, and we owe a lot to the kind folks at JJ’s for making space for us on a day when their store was already full. I want to extend a special thanks to Eric Visnowski, who got on the problem early and secured an alternate location for us before most of the members had even arrived. Next week we will be returning to JJ’s for our regularly scheduled event.

Needless to say, at this point we’re actively seeking a replacement venue for Emerald Knights. It will not be easy. If anyone has a suggestion in the general vicinity of Burbank – Pasadena, please email me off list.

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