Good Gaming In Austin

Walter Eardley

Howdy Folks,

I must say the annual Austin Team Tournament sure was a lot of fun. A BIG thank you goes out to Rick and the rest of his team for putting on a great event. A+ top notch all the way!

I played two games because of a late start on Friday and having to head back to HotAndHumidston on Saturday night. I finished 0-2 but both games I played went down to the very last CC DR on the very last turn. You can't really ask for much more then that.

The first game was against Austin's David Longstreet. I offered up 5 scenarios and we agreed on FrF2 Maczek Fire Brigade from the good folks at Friendly Fire. This one came highly recommended by Zeb and did not disappoint. Dice gave me the attacking Germans while David defended with the Poles. When people would come and ask who was winning we would point at each other and really mean it. During the entire game, I had no idea how I was going to win while David had no idea how he was going to keep me from winning. In the end, I could not kill one squad in CC to claim the 12th building hex and victory. If you like early war pillow fights, this one should go to the top of your list.

Saturday, I hit up Roy from Kansas for a game. I again offered up 5 scenarios and we settled on DB067 Lets Dance. This scenario features a strong British foce lead by a 10-2 and 9-2 with a mix of 648s and 458s supported by an Achilles and a Sherman trying to dig a mixed force of SS an 838, two 658s, some 468s and some various HSs lead by a 10-2 and supported by a Tiger I and a nifty Flak Pz with the 20 IFE and a 105 Art piece. There is an immediate victory building plus an end of game victory building. In the end, Roy was able to get a 9-2 with a Hero in the end of game building and I could not kill him with a DC, shots by the Tiger and shots by the Flak Pz. My various CC attacks did not do enough damage giving Roy the win. The real turning point was missing Roy's 9-2 and 248 HS on a 4-1 down one CC roll. I rolled 11 or something. The next turn he piled on and killed my stack. This opened up the way to the end of game victory building. I think this one is probably a lot more fun to play as the Germans then the Brits. Trying to dig SS out of stone buildings is never any fun. They have the tools including a flame thrower and two minus 2 leaders but it really seemed tense for Roy and if bad things happen to the 10-2 or 9-2 things will fall apart quickly.

Walter