October Game Day at Emerald Knights: AAR

[Jim Aikens]

We tied the record yesterday for the most-attended Game Day at Emerald Knights, with 15 members in attendance, plus a cameo from Matt Morroco.

Nadir Elfarra’s Germans fell to Phil Seymour’s Russians in the LFT Deluxe scenario “To Have and to Hold.” Not to take away from Phil’s playing skills, but we’re seeing a lot of Russians win this one. The consensus is it’s probably fairly pro-Russian. If you play it, try giving the Germans the balance.

Blair Bellamy’s Americans defeated Sal Palaez’s Germans in the classic Paratrooper scenario “No Better Spot to Die”. And because their game got over fairly quickly, the set up “Goring’s Men”, with Sal’s Germans defeating Blair’s Russians.

Mike Soffa’s Germans defeated John Lehman’s Americans in the LFT Deluxe scenario “Full of Fire.”

Larry Reinking’s Italians fell to Fen Yan’s Russians in the Journal scenario “The Art of Dying.”

Because both Fen and Mike finished early, they paired up for the classic of all classics; Guard’s Counterattack. In that game Fen’s Germans defeated Mike’s Russians.

Late-arrivers Glenn Sellar and Kyle Li set up the SK scenario “Another Summer’s Day”, and Kyle’s Germans grinding out a hard-fought win over Glenn’s Americans.

Dan Plachta’s Americans fought to a draw against Dave Deresinski’s Germans in the High Ground scenario “Tigers on the Hill.” Both guys said they had a blast, but it’s a big scenario and they simply ran out of time. With two turns to go it was still too close to call.

Since I had just returned from ASLOK, I came loaded with a bundle of new scenarios from Schwerepunkt and Friendly Fire. We settled on “Teltow Two Step” from the latest Schwerepunkt pack. Ed Esparza and Eric Visnowski took the Germans against my Russians. This is an interesting end-of-the-war scenario where a small group of SS (played by Eric) try to hold a bridgehead so a second group of SS (played by Ed) can exit over a bridge. My Russians had to insert themselves between the two German groups and try to stop them. Just to make it interesting, the Germans get a King Tiger on the victory side of the river, and some solid SS troops with half tracks and a Stu42 to try to cross. The Russians have a powerful force of Guards Infantry backed by ISU122’s and late war Is2M’s. This turned out to be an exciting and close game that came down to the bridge collapsing while Ed was trying to exit the last half track he needed for victory. What a scenario and what a game we had! We all agreed it was worth trying again.

We made our usual trip to Larry’s for chili dogs served by the ever-lovely Veronica. Because we had so many guys, seating was something of a problem, plus Veronica was short-handed in the kitchen. But in the end we all got to sit and eat. The survivors retired to Bob’s Big Boy for our usual late night dinner. It was an outstanding day for the Club!

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