Ed Beekman
Our June game day had a very specific Stalingrad theme.
Jim
C and Tracey decided to play S18 Breaking Bread again since they
felt they made too many errors last month. Again Jim's Russians were
able to repulse Tracey's Germans to keep control of the Bread
Factory buildings.
Ralph challenged Matt for the Chair and
they selected DASL2 Berserk! Matt's Germans came at Ralph's Russians
hard and heavy and got away with it due to the luck of the dice.
Ralph's MMG stack went Berserk and charged to their doom. Then the tide
turned as Ralph started to whittle down the attackers and then he
counterattacked, resulting in driving back and reducing the German
force, leaving them no chance to get to the Victory Building. Ralph
will be Chairman next month.
We were expecting another
player but real life interfered. I had set up RB3 Bread Factory #3 in
preparation and Ralph and I played it after his first game was
complete. There was a brief battle for one of the Victory Buildings as
Ralph first ambushed and killed a defending squad and then broke half
my counter attack force but then the squad was Pinned and CRd by a
Booby Trap allowing me to eliminate them in a HtH ambush. The German
main force approaching the Admin block caused my HMG squad, best leader
and a broken unit to go berserk. One charge later and a quarter of my
on board OB was eliminated. Then the German leader went Berserk with a
squad. The leader quickly died but the squad cleared the second victory
building, driving all my defenders to FTR death. My reinforcements
entered as the last of my units were dying or fleeing. Three turns to
go and it would take at least that long to get to the victory
buildings. My units walked into a meat grinder and were chopped up just
shy of being able to reach the VC. My last turn I had one squad locked
in melee and a concealed leader surrounded by Germans on 5 hexsides.
I announced my move for the win and assault moved the concealed stack
away from the Bread Factory and out of encirclement. Ralph was
confused. He looked over the scenario and remembered I had a HIP unit.
I still controlled one of the victory buildings with the HIPsters in
the upstairs location that he never moved through. His "recon by fire"
revealed the HIPpies but could only Pin the leader and my win was
preserved.
Have you figured out the theme? We
played three different versions - Starter Kit, Deluxe, and Historical -
of the battle for the Bread Factory just south of the Red Barricades.
The Russians won all three games.
Look forward to seeing you at Austin or next month at my place.
