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We had 8 members for the January edition of our ASL Game Day in Chatsworth.
Ed Esparza's Japanese fell to Dave Lewis' Chinese in the new W.O. pack scenario “Dew of Death”.
Dave Nicholas' Germans defeated Phil Seymour's Russians in “Grab and Go”.
Dan Plachta's Germans defeated Sal Palaez' Russians in “Shielding Moscow”.
And I paired up with Eric Visnowski for the Schwerepunkt scenario “Elephant of a Surprise”. This scenario has two HIP Elephants supporting a company of infantry defending a couple of clusters of buildings. They're being attacked by a reinforced company of Soviet infantry supported by four T34M43's and a couple of SU122's. The Germans win if they have a good order MMC in at least two of the four victory buildings.
The dice gave me the Germans. I decided on a roughly equal split of my force to cover all four buildings, but was able to position them in such a way that they were mutually supporting. After 18 months of playing the Germans in Slaughter at Ponyri, I am quite comfortable with employing Elephants. They have great strength (88LL Gun and 18 front armor). But they have some glaring weaknesses. Most notably, no MG and no turret. They are very vulnerable to infantry, and without the MG to allow them a free pivot, they are vulnerable to a swarm attack. I put one Elephant on each board edge, well covered by infantry. To that end, I built a well developed secondary defensive position on the German left, which supported the Elephant on that side and forced the Russian to clear it out before investing the main defensive line.
Eric brought 2 T34's and both SU's on his right, and another group of infantry up the center woods, with the remaining two T34's on his left. I liked my chances with this. Two T34's were no match for my hidden Elephant, which would be able to engage at will and get the first shot. The problem was my dice sucked for the first 2 turns. I wiffed my initial shot, which was not surprising considering I had to pivot. But then I missed my layup Prep shot. I was forced to use IF to kill the first tank, instead of pivoting to engage the second. On turn 2 the second T34 started, and I missed the pivot shot. He finished his move behind me, forcing me IF to get the front AF around. But my dice were still cold and I Malf'd the MA. That Elephant eventually rolled a Recall, freeing this 2nd T34 to hit my positions from behind.
Meanwhile, Eric was forced to spend precious time breaking into my secondary infantry position on my left. I revealed the 2nd Elephant to kill a T34, but Eric was able to get a 4-4-7 with a DC adjacent. When I started in the movement phase he threw the DC (unqualified use), and rolled a 3 against the side hull armor, and then a 6 for the kill. Although both my tanks were gone, I still had pretty good luck with my infantry. My boys were further aided by my Sniper, which KIA'd a 9-2 with a kill stack. That kill stack never really got back into the fight. My infantry was able to break just enough Russian infantry to keep from being overwhelmed, and eventually time ran out, with the Germans still holding two buildings with good order MMC's for the win. It was an exciting game right to the end. Eric and I always have great games and great fun together, and this was no exception.
We had our usual superb lunch at San Carlo Deli. And because all the games cleared pretty early, we opted for The Bear Pit BBQ for dinner. It was a great day for everyone.
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