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We had nine players at our newest Game Day location at Paper Hero's in Sherman Oaks:
Dan Plachta's and Dave Lewis' Russians defeated Dave Nicholas' Germans in “Tough Enough”.
Blair Bellamy's Germans and Chris Watson-Wood's Russians fought to a draw in “Comrade Klimenkov”.
Sal Pelaez' Americans defeated Larry Reinking's Germans in “Patton's Prayers”.
We were all delighted to have Eric Visnowski re-join us after a nearly 2 month absence due to medical issues. Eric wanted to play the (surprise) Deluxe scenario “The Kiwi's Attack”. He took the attacking Kiwi's against my defending German para's. The New Zealanders get two full companies of well-armed and well-led infantry, supported by four Sherman V's. The Germans get a well-led company of 5-4-8 paratroopers, armed to the teeth with MG's and Psk's, plus a 75L AT Gun and one StuG IIIG that can set up HIP in a building. One of the interesting aspects of this scenario is alternating placement of 10 rubble counters with automatic falling rubble, followed by alternate placement of 8 extra-deep shell holes. The 1st two turns have a +1 dust LV. EC's are Overcast.
The Kiwi's win immediately by exiting 20 EVP by turn 7. In my mind, they need to exit at least one tank to make this happen. Otherwise they've got to exit nearly half their infantry OB. So the Germans need to kill those Shermans at all cost. The rubble placement worked well for me, and would channel the Kiwi tanks into the right side of the board. I put both Psk's with HS's in the center of the far rear, with the 75L and StuG in the right side of the far rear. I set up every MG for a potential FL. Eric set up for a board-wide push. On the first Wind Change DR, light rain kicked up. On the bottom of turn 1, it went to heavy rain. That meant as Eric hit my main line on turn 2, he was able to press his attack with at least +2 cover (+1 Dust, +1 Mist). His strategy was obvious (and correct): with 24 squads to my 12, he needed to push up adjacent and jump into CC at every opportunity. Even with my 5-4-8's slight FP advantage in CC, I just couldn't allow him to do that. So during turns two and three I voluntary broke every time a squad got adjacent. By turn four I had taken no losses, but my para's were in the last row of buildings before exit. But then something weird happened. I had a SAN of 5, but my Sniper had been almost entirely inactive for the first three turns. Then on turn 4, he turned into a serial killer, breaking no less than 5 squads and pinning a couple more, all on one flank. It effectively shut down Eric's attack on that side, and broke the Kiwi momentum. Then it went dormant again for the remainder of the game. But it had bought me one turn; just enough time to stitch together a solid final defensive line along the rear board edge. The fight came down to the wire, and if Eric had been able to exit one of his two remaining Shermans on the final movement phase, he could have won. But when the last Sherman died to a PF shot while exiting, we called this a German win. It was an epic and exciting game from start to finish, and as always, we both had a blast.
We returned to Nat's Diner next door for a pretty darn good lunch. The survivors wrapped up the day with a trip to Bob's Big Boy. It was a great day, and we continued to be impressed with Paper Hero's. The customers are very polite, and they have a very welcoming staff.
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