July Game Day at Gameology AAR

[Jim Aikens]

We had 9 members for our inaugural post-pandemic Game Day in Upland:

Scott Thompson’s Chi-Com’s defeated Larry Rohlfing’s Americans in the Korean War scenario “It’s So Easy”.

John Lehman’s Nationalists defeated Blair Bellamy’s Republicans in the Spanish Civil War scenario “An Italian Civil War”.

Ed Esparza’s Germans defeated Eric Visnowski’s Americans in the Deluxe scenario “King of the Hill”.

And the dice gave Fen Yan the Germans against me and Dave Nicholas as the Russians in the Action Pack scenario “Possl’s Posse”. This one has been on my play list since it came out, so when Fen suggested it, I was all in. The Russians have to capture buildings on a large level 1 plateau. The Germans start with a couple of platoons of first line infantry, a Marder and a 75L AT Gun. On turn 2 their rescue force arrives: five 5-4-8 squads with two PzIVJ’s. The Russians start with 8 Guards squads supported by a couple of SU-76’s. On turn 2, they get 4 more squads, riding two T-34 85’s and two Lend Lease M4’s.

Our plan was pretty simple: Dave would take the on-board force and hit the hill from the northeast. I would take the reinforcements, swing south, and hit the hill from that direction to put the Germans in a vice. Dave started the game with hot dice, and hit the hill like a sledgehammer. Fen’s Germans were getting ground up faster than he could back them out. But casualties were pretty high for both sides, and there were multiple CC’s each player turn. Meanwhile my Russians made their flanking manuever without casualties, and set up for a turn 4 assault up the hill.

Fen shrugged off his losses, and organized his reinforcements into a solid position with the survivors of his initial force. By turn five, Dave’s side had been weakened by heavy losses, and we still had 5 building to capture. It looked like it could be anyone’s game. On that turn we hit both ends of Fen’s line simultaneously, and it started to buckle. It took 2 turns of hard fighting, but the Russians pulled out a victory in the last advance phase. Fen played a great game. He held in there on turns 3 and 4 when a lesser player might have thrown in the towel.

We all liked this scenario a lot. ROAR shows it pretty balanced, and it sure felt that way. If you’re looking for a fun scenario with a lot of hard fighting, this one is a great choice, and perfect size for a Game Day.

We had our usual lunch at Farmer Boys, and the survivors grabbed dinner at The Habit. This Game Day felt a lot like a school reunion. We actually got off to a later than usual start, as everyone enjoyed catching up. We’ve held hundreds of Game Days through the years, but because of the circumstances, this one will be memorable.

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