- This topic is empty.
-
Posts
-
Our plan was to meet and play at The Guild House's new location on Bellflower Blvd. But when we arrived, the store wasn't quite ready for prime time, and it was obvious we were going to have to find an alternative location for the day. We were debating our choices, between St. Crispin's and Brookhurst Hobbies, when Stance Nixon showed up, and generously offered his house. For us, that was a no-brainer, and we loaded into our cars and headed down to Long Beach.
We had twelve members in attendance, plus cameos by Jimmy Hansen and Jim Svette.
Ric Hammond's Americans defeated Peter Strand's North Koreans in “The Grist Mill”.
Dan Plachta's Germans defeated Dave Lewis' Brits in “Flight of Fancy”.
Fen Yan's Germans defeated Larry Reinking's Russians in “About His Shadowy Sides”.
Dave Nicholas' Russians defeated Stance Nixon's Germans in “Cost of Non-Compliance”.
Blair Bellamy's Germans defeated John Lehman's Brits in “Miracle at Sinagoga”.
And Eric Visnowski and I paired up for the Schwerepunkt scenario “Fangs of the Tiger”. This is an early '44 scenario has the Germans attacking with 4 Tigers, supported by 3 platoons of infantry. They have to either cross a bridge and exit 9 VP, or clear a road of 6 Russian tanks. The Russians get T-43's (up-armored T-34's), a couple of platoons of infantry and an excellent 57LL AT Gun. The Russians have a pretty restrictive set-up, and have to put most of their units up front. The dice gave Eric the Russians, and he wisely set up his tanks in buildings, and his infantry where they could high-tail it to back to cover the bridge.
I brought my tanks on in pairs with a two-pronged attack. My primary concern was to kill the four T-43's that were up front as quickly as possible. The Russian 76L MA's really can't hurt the Tigers from the front, but I couldn't afford to bypass them. A player of EV's caliber would make me pay dearly with a counter-attack into my rear. So my attack was slow and methodical, isolating each T-43 in turn. Not my usual style of play…
This scenario turned into a “battle of boxcars”. Both of us rolled tons of them; costing each of us an MA and a couple of squads to CR. Eric tried to move a tank into a building, and boxed the bog roll, putting the tank into the cellar and out of the game. I thought I had the game in the bag with one turn to go. But EV wasn't out of it, and on the last Russian player turn he launched a vicious counter-attack that killed two of my Tigers and forced me to IF and Malf the MA of another. That set up the last German player turn. I rolled a repair on one of my Tiger MA's, and that proved to be the key. My first Tiger went mano a mano with the last T-43, but failed to hit. I moved my infantry for a swarm, but most of them got chopped up on the approach. That left my newly repaired Tiger, and I moved in for the kill. My initial shot missed, but I was able to maintain rate, and that rate shot finally killed the T-43 and won me the game. Whew! What an epic fight! We both enjoyed this scenario immensely. It was exiting and fun to the last dice roll.
Because we still had some time, we set up the uninspiring scenario “Forest Fighting in Latvia” My Germans defeated EV's Russians, but this one was a real yawner.
We had three choices for lunch; there is a Jersey Mike's, Habit and a Mexican fish place all in the same plaza near Stance's house. So we grabbed what we wanted and gathered on the patio at The Habit and enjoyed some beautiful afternoon weather. Because most of the games went pretty late, we adjourned to Denny's for a late dinner.
I want to extend a special thanks to Stance and Cheryl Nixon for kindly opening their home for us on short notice. They saved the day! The Guild House will no doubt be up and running by next month, and by the look of it, it's going to be fantastic.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.