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Greetings ASL Fans;
We had nine players for our SoCalASL Game Day at All Ways Gaming in Chatsworth on Saturday.
New player Justin Smith's Germans defeated Oscar Valenzuela's Americans in the Starter Kit scenario “Sink's Encouragement”
Blair Bellamy's Brits defeated Dave Lewis' Germans in “Death Rattle”.
In a down-to-the-wire playing, Dave Nicholas' Russians fell to Ed Esparza and Phil Seymour's Germans in “Anatoly's Ambush”.
And Eric Visnowski and I paired off for the Schwerepunkt scenario “Hoepner's Edict”. For those who might not know, Eric works all year putting together the play lists for the WCM mini-tournaments. Generally, unless its a scenario that we are well familiar with, he and I will play each of scenarios under consideration to make sure they will work. In other words, to confirm that they're fun, reasonably balanced, and can be played within the time limits we have in mind. Eric had picked out “Hoepner's Edict” for a mini. It looked like fun, but ROAR shows it 67/33 pro-French. This, in and of itself didn't concern us… much. Schwerepunkt scenarios tend to show pro-defender on ROAR, for reasons I won't go into here. I have often found their scenarios much more balanced than their ROAR record. And you can always throw in the balance. In this case, we decided to give the attacking Germans the balance; an extra PzIIF.
This is this kind of scenario that Eric and I both really like; fast paced, combined arms, and early war. In this case, two platoons of French troops supported by four pretty decent tanks, are detailed to defend a small village from a company of German infantry supported by 7 tanks (one PzIVD, four PzIIIF's and two PzIIF's, including the 'balance' IIF). The way I see this scenario, it's an armor battle with an infantry component. The dilemma for the Germans is they need their tanks to kill the French infantry, but they can't ignore the four excellent French tanks; those have to be dealt with first. And that's not easy. The PzIV will be pre-occupied with Smoke duties. The two PzII's can't hurt the French tanks, and are really best used for bypass freeze. That leaves the four PzIIIF's, with their 37L Guns and soft 3 armor, to deal with the four French tanks with their 37 and 47mm Guns, and hard 4 or 6 armor. That's not a good match-up for the Germans. First, they have the burden of attack and second, their Guns are B11. The French are radio-less, but if they choose good, mutually supportive firing positions, they really don't have to move. In the first game I set up my French troops hunkered down in the village, with the tanks in mutually supporting pairs; two in the village and two more on the hill overlooking the village. If the Germans attacked the village, the French tanks on the hill would catch them in a crossfire. Eric came in quickly, as I was sure he would, keeping his tank force together and using armored assault to get his troops through the open ground in front of the village. I kept my infantry concealed. He then tried to engage both pairs of French tanks, but it was soon obvious the German IIIF's weren't equal to the challenge. By turn 3 it was over without the French infantry firing more than a couple of times. We turned it around and tried again. Eric's French set up was almost identical to mine. I brought all the tanks in as a group using the SD to help the infantry forward. Then I tried to engage the two French tanks in the village. But my Germans fared no better than Eric's attempt, and again, by turn 3 it was obvious the Germans couldn't win. We called it a second French win, and it seemed to both of us that, though the scenario was certainly fun, it was pretty much un-winnable for the Germans. Eric and I had a blast, as always, but we definitely won't be including “Hoepner's Edict” in a Melee mini-tournament.
We had a great day, though the AC was not working and it got quite hot. I am planning to bring a personal fan next month. Blair Bellamy was kind enough to stop at the supermarket on the way back from lunch and purchase a cooler, water and ice, and share it with us. That was much appreciated. We enjoyed our usual excellent lunch at San Carlo Deli. The survivors enjoyed a late dinner on the patio at The Habit. It was an awesome day with an awesome turn-out!
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