October 23rd San Diego Game Day AAR

[Jim Aikens]

We had another nice solid 6 in attendance for October edition of the San Diego Game Day.

Jon Nishsama’s Italians defeated Jimmy Hansen’s Allied troops in the ASLSK scenario “Ambitious Assault”.

Fred Timm’s Germans defeated Hank W.’s Americans in the Out of the Attic scenario “Riley Shuffle”.

And Victor Behar and I paired off for the Out of the Attic scenario “Where Iron Crosses Grow”. Victor and I had never played before, so I was glad to get the opportunity to get a game in with him. This scenario was very high on both our play lists, particularly after it got rave reviews last weekend from Hank W. and Blair Bellamy. In the end, my Germans triumphed over Victor’s Russians. I’d like to say the win was the result of my superior tactical skill. In reality, Victor’s dice were terrible all game, while my vehicles seemed to not be capable of missing a To-Hit or To-Kill number. Worse still, what little Smoke is available to the Russians from their SD’s disappeared with a Wind Change DR that bumped us up to Heavy Winds at the start of turn 2.

We had one of those classic ASL moments in our game. I had an 8-0 cut off and stranded at level 1 in a two hex building behind the Russian lines. The lower levels were controlled by Russian squads, and there was a T-34 behind a wall two hexes away. Victor advanced in the only unit available, a Russian Hero, to tie the 8-0 up in CC. Things looked good for Victor when the Hero won the ambush roll. But everything went south from there when he rolled boxcars on his attack, and the 8-0 withdrew into the adjacent building hex. In the following Prep Fire, the 8-0 rolled for a PF, found one, fired out the window at the T-34 two hexes away, got the necessary turret hit and burned it. The backblast hit the 8-0 with a fatal wound. It was a classic ASL sequence if ever there was one. This scenario plays pretty quickly given its size, and we both agreed it was well worth playing again.

After a less-than-satisfactory dining experience at Panda Express last month, we returned to the local Mexican place for a terrific meal.

After talking it over, we decided to keep our regularly scheduled November meeting, even though it falls on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. But since the December meeting falls on Christmas day, we figured we’d be pushing our luck on that one, and voted to cancel that meeting.

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