AAR: BFP67 Coke Hill

John Hyler

Australians: John Hyler
Japanese: Zeb Doyle

Last Saturday, at Jay Harms' house on our Monthly HHS ASL meeting, I had the pleasure of playing Zeb Doyle. I had not played Zeb since Owl-Con, 2008, so I anticipated a fun match. I was not disappointed. I have wanted to get into the PTO, so we decided upon BFP-67 Coke Hill, from the new Blood and Jungle scenario pack published by Bounding Fire Productions. Upon arrival, we diced for sides with Zeb being the Japanese player. This was good since Zeb is one of our best Oracles of ASL, so I was looking forward to seeing the tricks of the Japanese trade at work.

Prior to game-day, Zeb had vowed vengeance for an Owl-con defeat and had sharpened his skinning knife. I decided that I needed my finely honed fileting knife, and since this was Coke Hill, a 100pound note to savor the fruits of victory should providence smile upon me.

Coke Hill is a small, but violent scenario played on half (R-GG) of board 50. The attacking Australians are tasked with clearing out and controlling all of the level 2 hill hexes south of the stream, and also to have at least 24 exit VP on/north of hexrow U. To accomplish this, they have an impressive force: 14 4-5-8s and 3 2-4-8s, well lead by 5 leaders ranging from 9-1 to 8-0 with an assortment of SW, 3 LMGs, 2 51MTRs, 2 PIATs and 2 DCs. Supporting this INF force are three Matilda IIs, two of the late versions, with HE for the 40L MG, and a very nasty Frog (Grond), with a 32FP flamethrower MA, along with a module of 80mm OBA

The defending Japanese have 7 4-4-7s, 4 2-2-8s and one 1-2-7, lead by three leaders ranging from a 10-2 stud to 8-0. They are well armed with a 50Cal HMG, 2 MMGs, 2 LMGs, 2 DCs and a 50MTR, with a 75* ART, 2 1+3+5 pillboxes, 4 Trenches, 5 hexsides of Panjis and 18 mine factors, along with level A booby trap capability.
After Zeb set up, I arranged my forces to on the south edge for their turn 1 entry. I deployed an additional squads to have an additional four HS for scouts. I split and placed the HSs on the flanks. The remaining squads were stacked with leaders and set up to advance through the jungle primarily on the west side of the road. The tanks set up to enter on the road.

Grond crawled on: Turn 1
In Aussie one, my infantry swarmed on, CXing to move as far as possible. The tanks entered, with one sucessfully popping smoke in BB4, adjacent to concealed Japanese units. Grond followed, belching flame into BB4, stripping concealment, but doing no further damage. There was no DF, and the squads advanced further on board.

During Japanese one, Zeb's attempt to mine the bridge in V5 with a DC failed, prompting a brief discussion of why this should qualify for a Labor -1(-2) counter. The unit in Grond's crosshairs beat a hasty retreat, with other Japanese units repositioning themselves out of LOS.

Grond crawled on: Turn 2
My OBA gained battery access, attempting a SR on X6, where there were concealed Japanese in the huts. It was inaccurate, ending up in DD8. This marked the first turn of overall futility for my OBA. With only a narrow LOS window from my off-board observer, I was forced to draw one additional card after the other. I managed to do this successfully six times in a row during the game before drawing the first red card. The HSs east of the road bumbled into two of Zeb's minefields, one in Y1 and the other in Z2. Y1 survived the attack, Z2 broke. Zeb revealed one of his pillboxes in X2 during my MPh, I think perhaps breaking who they fired at. This prompted me to start one of the 40L Matildas in that direction to provide support, ESBing to stop in Y2. After initially thinking to move Grond forward to X4, I decided to wait with it in a holding pattern in AA5 while the infantry caught up. The HSs west continued to move north on the left flank, being positioned to enfilade another concealed Japanese unit. In CC, a Japanese HS revealed itself and demonstrated how deadly the Japanese are in CC by ambushing and subsequently killing the HS in HtoH combat.

In his turn, Zeb's 75*ART that had been exposed in Y7 by advancing Aussies in Z5 pivoted and fired upon those units. A hit with no rate HOBed and rendered Berserk one squad. I think that the other occupants broke. The squad with leader successfully placed the DC on the V5 bridge, moving into U6 during the APh. Faced with Grond's emminent arrival, the concealed unit in X6 skedaddled down into the dry stream. Zeb attempted with no luck to generate a TH hero from the HS in Y1. In the DFPh, I corrected and dropped the OBA on the ART in Y7, it was inaccurate, scattering to X6. The gun crew survived the FFE.

Grond crawled on: Turn 3
During the PFPh, I found myself on the horns of a dilema. My OBA FFE was sitting on the location that my Berserk squad needed to charge, and I would need to charge through one clear hex of FFE (16 down 2) enroute and another when entering the gun's hex, and this was before facing any DF from the gun. After no little hemming and hawing, I decided to cancel the FFE. The Matilda in Y2 start firing AP rounds into the pillbox with no effect. In the MPh, the berserk squad charged the gun, only to meet with a grisly end, courtesy of a CH. I then moved a 40L Matilda in an overrun attack. The tank survived the DF, which maintained ROF, but the overrun was unsuccessful. Due to the gun maintaining ROF, I left the tank in motion in the hex.. A squad moved into Y4, only to get mowed down by the 50cal in T5. I opted for a more circumspect approach, easing the rest of the OB forward. Another squad, having in an earlier turn survived entry into Zeb's third minefield in Z3, assault moved out into Y3, surviving exit and DF. Grond Moved to X4, but I do not remember if it fired or not. I advanced three concealed squads and leader into the hex with the gun, three squads into Y4, one of which had survived fire from the 50cal during a bonehead stroll through Z4 during the MPh. Two squads, each with a 50MTR and a leader into Z4, and a HS, squad and leader into AA8 where another concealed Japanese squad waited. The squad in Y3 advanced onto the pillbox in X2, only to break and leave various precious body parts dangling on the now-revealed panji they had blundered into. CC saw the gun crew killed and the Japanese squad in AA8 CRed to a half squad and the hex left in melee.

In his turn, Zeb's PF into the stack at Y4 from both the 50cal and a MMG from a newly revealed pillbox in X3 was ineffective except to battle-harden a squad into fanatic status. In the MPh, he unleashed a HIP T-H hero on Grond in X4. It took just about every bit of firepower able to fire at the T-H hero to finally kill him. The leader and squad in U6 moved into T5. A second attempt to generate a T-H hero in Y1 failed. About this time Zeb started to mutter that he was running out of bodies to do things with. In the CCPh, the melee in AA8 ended with both sides completely dead.

Grond crawled on: Turn 4
In my PFPh, my 50MTRs fired smoke at T5 and U5 with success in T5. OBA gained battery access and tried to place a SR in T5, which was inaccurate and scattered off the board, sigh. In the PFPh, two of the three squads in Y4 fired at X3, with no effect on the Japanese in the pillbox. The tank in Y2 finally got results and reduced the crew in the X2 pillbox to a vehicular crew. In the MPh, the fanatic squad in Y4, now kitted with a RPh transferred DC, moved into Y3 and attempted to place it. Deadly accurate fire from the MMG in the pillbox ended that terminally. The three concealed squads and leader in Y7 assault moved into the hut in X6 and the Matilda in X6 moved into the dry stream in V4. Grond started the MPh with a bounding fire shot into X3. I think that it may have killed the crew in the pillbox, but I cannot be sure. It then went into motion and ended up in by-pass in W4 on the W4-X3 hexside. Elsewhere, the HSs on the left flank continued to roll up a gaggle of broken Japanese HSs to the north. There was no advance fire since everybody had shot or moved. In the APh, I eschewed moving the two squads in Y4 either into X3, figuring that I would skewer myself on more panjis, or into Y3, into the CA of the pillbox, so they stayed put. One squad with MTR advanced into Y5.

In his turn, Zeb fired the HMG out of smoke, but now directed by the 10-2 into my squads in Y4. The result was a MC that the first squad passed and the second squad rolled another snakes. The ensuing HOB DR was yet another snakes, resulting in a hero. With very little else able to fire, the turn went quickly. My AR in the DFPh scattered off the board again. In the APh, Zeb advanced a concealed unit into X3, leaving another concealed unit in W3.

Grond crawled on: Turn 5
In the PFPh, I finally drew a red card on the OBA, ending their misery, my MTRs started to home in on his kill stack in T5. In the MPh, the Matilda in Y2 started up and moved to X4 and stopped. The two squads and hero in Y4 assault moved to Y3, surviving the DF. The three squads and leader in X6 moved singly, all ending up in X4. Grond continued the bypass movement in W4, ending up in V3 with the TCA facing W3, stopped and fired again. A three on the 32 column removed the dummy stack. The last Matilda I seem to remember continued moving up the stream bed. Zeb's DF with the 50cal again did not have any effect on the squads in X4. In the APh, the squads and hero in Y3 braved the panji, remained good order and advanced into X2. The squads and leader in X4 all advanced into X3. I was happy that there were no panjis on that side. CC eliminated the Japanese units in both pillboxes, and with that, Zeb conceded.

I liked the scenario, but it has a pro-Aussie feel to it. My moves were far from perfect, but my mistakes were made up by above average dice rolling. I cannot complain. The Matilda Frog destroyed a good third of the Japanese OB all by itself. If the Japanese player can destroy that tank, they have a much better chance of holding off the Australians. Zeb was also the victim of some bad dice. Afterwards, Zeb said that in retrospect, he should have setup some things, like the ART elsewhere. Hindsight being 20-20 that perhaps may be the case. But I had a great time versus a fun and knowledgable opponent, and I was able to see some of the neat tricks that the Japanese can do. Thanks a lot, Zeb. I will approach my next PTO scenario will much less trepidation. We are now 2-2 against each other. I look forward to our next game.

John

AAR: DB074 Sole Success

Mike Cadieux

Good little scenario here. It features early war Filipino troops against Japanese in Dec, 1941. The Filipinos had 10 squads, three leaders, two MMGs, two LMGs, an ATR, mortar, some foxholes and some concealment counters. The Japs had 11 squads equivalents, two tankettes, two mortars, three LMGs, one MMG, one crew and three leaders.

It played quickly with the Japanese making their main assault up the eastern side of board 43 taking advantage of all the kunai and hoping to get close enough to capture the majority of the huts/buildings on the second board, board 17. A small "at start" force moved up the middle of board 43 to prevent the covering force on the west side board 43 from quickly moving east to reinforce.

Two turns to move up midway through the Kunai. No really good shots for the Filipinos due to all the kunai hindrances and restriction against forming FGs in like terrain.

The Japs found they had no WP and quickly depleted their Smoke capability for the force going up the middle. But one tankette kept one enemy squad with MG frozen and smoke enabled the small force to move forward. But the force in the east was also close enough to the enemy to launch a dreaded Banzai charge at the beginning of Turn 3...After the dust settled, the Japanese had eight and a half GO squad equivilants while the Allies had three and a half and the way to the buildings and huts on the eastern side of board 17 was wide open.

The Filipinos surrended at that time feeling they would not have enough strength to counterattack to get the buildings back.

It was fun to acually kick off a Banzai Charge and to see it succeed. Thanks to Greg for a good day.

Mike

The Cactus Farm: The Viewpoint from the Other Side

Nick Drinkwater

Jay is doing himself a bit of a dis-service...my luck wasn't great admittedly but he did set up a really good solid defense and I pretty much found every one of his BS locations the hard way with fairly grim consequences each time - amazingly I walked away from the 9-2/MMG boresight spot with only a couple of pins, but pretty much everyone else got shredded. I smoked in as much as I could but even when shrouded in Smoke, Jay's squeezebore still managed to Shock two Churchills - double acq and the -1 size mod is a killer whether you're +4 trying to shoot out or not.

Never really got any momentum going at all in this one - once the left flank attack had been stopped cold, the re-alignment just cost time and more importantly MF/MP I didn't have and I was going to be forced to cross a cactus hedge the hard way to get anywhere. And I was actually lucky in that Jay X'ed out one of his AT Guns and his 20L AA Gun early in the game as well, but even with this, my infantry just kept failing simple NMCs and worse from his two MMGs, and then scuffed their rally attempts on my own turn (four elevens on rally attempts in a row!!) and it all went south fast. The timing of the Gusts couldn't have been worse as it was just when I needed those Churchills to be at their smokey best...sadly, only one of my Mk I Churchills was placed to place Prep Fire Smoke, the other was re-positioning and of course all SD and SM smoke from the other MkIV Churchills was NA for that crucial turn. As Jay relates the other problem I had was getting the 9MP behemoths through the trail-breaks...pretty much one tank a turn at most when the trailbreak is in Brush and with a smoking, burning Churchill sat there too.

Overall, I did very little damage to Jay: my sniper wounded his 9-2 and he X'ed two of his own guns out, but after 5 turns all I had to show were two dead German para half-squads in return and one broken squad. Amusingly, in my only lucky moment of the game, Jay had a Para h/s fail to place a DC optimally on a Churchill and then failed to kill it with a subsequent ATMM Cc with a squad and a half in CC - the only plus point for me! When we called it, Jay was just about to bring 100mm harassing OBA down onto my few remaining attackers after I had just been ambushed and lost two squads in CC with the wounded 9-2 SMC. I wasn't even at the cactus farm perimeter itself at this point, but this game was pretty much over by the end of turn 2.

This is a pretty good scenario and with slightly less hot German dice and a more competent British attack than I was able to offer it definitely should go more towards the distance...however I still don't fancy the British chances much of having to try and take the Koresh compound against 8 morale defenders in stone buildings with first and second line infantry across the Cactus hedge with 6IFT factor OBA dropping around your ears. And also, having to remove them from entrenchments on the hilltop at the same time.. Didn't even get close on this one!

Verily, spiked on the cactus farm indeed!

Well played Jay...at some point in the future, we'll try again!

AAR: RBF14 Third Hotspot

Jay Harms

Germans: Jay Harms
Americans: Tom Gillis

Game two saw me facing off with Tom in a meaty RBF scenario "Third Hotspot -RBF17". Again I was the German defender against some corn fed Americans. This game was more balanced from a luck standpoint with Tom using his Arty very well. He came on spreadout hoping to surround my troops who are holed up in the board 10 town. Highlights included his 9-2 failing just about every 1MC and NMC I threw at him. Despite this, Tom fought his way into the town at the center, but had a bit more trouble with the two flanking attacks. My left flank held up well thanks to a 81mtr and several 548s with LMGs in foxholes, but even then, I was down to 2 squads holding the whole area. On my right flank, that was where the game really was decided. I had a 75L AT gun way in the rear of my defenses and Tom came zipping around the town to flank me. I took a shot with a 238 and psck an missed his sherman. he then brought up another sherman and a HT with a 667 in it next to the first fired 238. Little did he know, he parked this collection of soon to be wrecks with their sides and rears to my 75L. I kept rate a few time, and there was not much left. My other 81mtr then started dropping rounds on another half track out of site to the 75L, to good effect. With the Americans limited by CVP cap of 52, and my AT gun and mtr accounting for half the points all by themselves, Tom ended up calling it with a turn to go. It was late, and he had reached 48 CVPs and would have need to run the PF / AT gauntlet. Good game also, and Tom is a great opponent. So Tom did not snatch the pebble from my hand yet!

Thanks again all, look forward to the next game!

AAR: J50 The Cactus Farm

Jay Harms

Germans: Jay Harms
British: Nick Drinkwater

First off Thanks to everyone who showed up to make the game day a blast! Doors opened at 9am and by 10 we had 5 games going! I was lucky enough to face off against Nick in ASL J50 - The Cactus farm. And I mean it when I say lucky enough as Nick is an oustanding opponent who plays a quick and very friendly game. Also, his luck is not something you really want to have, so just by playing him, it feels like you are lucky! Nick drew the attacking Brits, and I had the Germans. The scenario is set in Tunisia so this was the long awaited Africa Cup game. The Germans get to set up behind a known AT minefield and have two 40LL AT guns and a 20L AA gun to augment 8 548's led by Lt Stahler. The brits bring on 9 Churchhills, which are veritable smoke making monsters, or at lease should be with normal luck! A dozen 457s and four 447s round out the attack. Victory conditions are for the Brits to take a cactus farm buildings while also denying the germans the nearby lvl 2 hill.
Turn 1 saw the brits enter and Nick failing 7 of 8 smoke rolls. This was not a good start and because of this, I was able to flame a chruchill in one of the 3 known trailbreaks through the 3 AT minefield belt, (hey rolling snakes on the TK is nice). Lt Stahler also contributed when the Brit 9-1, a 457 and dm'ed HMG wandered into a sneaky LOS. I promptly rolled a 3 resulting in diced tommy. Another mmg shot, also wiped out a 247 HS and this really stopped the attack on the german right flank. Although we didnt know it at the time, this was one of the turning points as it forced the Brits to focus on the trailbreak through the minefield, and in effect losing a valuable turn. Turn 2 saw the Brits get some smoke and begin to move through the brush cover (there was very little cover, hence the need for smoke) and begin to threaten the Germans. Just when it looked like the Brits would get in place to threaten the cactus farm, Nick rolled a 12 on weather and gusts magically blew away his smoke cover. Lt Stahler again made his presence known, and my one remaining 40LL got big Shocks on 2 of the Churchills that were through the minefields. This really slowed the attack as it cost the brits another turn, with Nick never really recovering after that. We ended up calling it on turn 5 as there looked to be too little time for the brits get into the cactus farm. Crossing all the cactus hedges is nasty... So thanks to a few lucky rolls and Nicks timely gust roll, the Africa Cup is mine!!

TAP22 Last Outpost: Japanese and Italians fighting????

Zeb Doyle

It's a fun scenario, but I think a bit of a stretch in terms of the history. All the Great Powers had diplomatic outposts in China (I think Shanghai) that the Japanese shut down after capturing them early in WWII. The Italian outpost was the one exception, since they were an allied Axis power, and the embassy just carried on. Apparently, that state of affairs continued until Italy switched sides, triggering a Japanese attack. Now, the historical aftermath is roughly (going from memory here) something like: The Japanese launched a few minor probing attacks, didn't get anywhere, brought up a gunboat and shelled the embassy, upon which the Italians surrendered. Doesn't quite sound like the action should translate into how the scenario plays, which is mostly the typical "launch banzai, VBM freeze, go balls to the wall, etc."

In fairness to the designer, there is a CVP cap for the attacking Japanese, and some interesting VC: the Japanese have to capture two big buildings or score a certain level of CVP. The twist is that prisoners count for zero and you can't invoke No Quarter (again, if memory serves). It gave Schwoebel a great chance to win our playing as the Italians. Fiercely defending two buildings, he had me in a position where I was going to pretty easily take one and have to work really hard to capture the other in the allotted time. Thankfully, I was able to kill off all the Italians in the doomed building and get enough CVP for the win. Had he timed it right and voluntarily broken everyone in the doomed building, I wouldn't have been able to get the CVP and would have needed a lot of stuff go right to take the second building.

To sum up, it's a fun scenario with some design elements that capture the dynamics of the Japanese not wanting to take many losses, and the Italians being willing to surrender after enough of a fight to salve their pride, but I am highly skeptical that the historical intensity of the action ever came remotely close to how the scenario plays out.

Zeb

Hasty Pudding - A Response

Walter Eardley

Nice over view of the scenario. While my dice were not great, I made mistakes early which really cost me in the end. The initial force was setup too close to the entering British. It should have been further back where it could have hopefully survived. My second mistake was attacking one way and then deciding I really needed to attack the other way. While I was able to shift, it left most of my remaining infantry at least one turn behind where they needed to be at the mid/late game. Combine this with my mighty 9-2 doing literally nothing the entire game, my 838s being less then supermen and some timely high dice rolls and the Pudding was not very tasty to me in the end.

Those Matildas are really tough early war. My only real shot at dealing with them was to use the DCs. My one opportunity was thwarted by a TCA spinning 8 up three shot from the CMG which caused my mighty 838 to pinned. I had another opportunity but could not pass the PAATC. On the very last turn, I finally got a 467 and 9-1 in one of the hexes but rolled a 9 and missed the attack. Bummer ... I REALLY wanted to kill at least one of those buggers. The other option for the Matildas was to just out run them. A squad with a leader going CX will be able to leave then in the dust especially if they are moving through a village.

In the end, I was reduced to using Slimy Truck Tactics to try to provide cover. One valiant driver ever tried to over run a squad in the street with an HMG. I really needed that HMG to fire so the driver took one for the team. I still felt like I needed to shower after making the move.

This was also a good example of how HTs can be really dangerous by either providing mobile rolling fire power or death traps for your infantry. I lost 3 of the 4 HTs with a squad inside. This really hurt my chances. On the other hand, I was able to build some very impressive FGs in places where Jay was not really expecting me to be (I think). The final HT I lost, the squad actually was able to roll its CS number and then rolled a 3 on a subsequent 2MC while bailing out. Unfortunately this activated Jays SAN. He rolled a 1 and the sniper selected the abandoning squad to be broken. It died for FTR. I just laughed. Pretty typical "Luck of Jay".

I would definitely recommend this scenario. If you want a challenge, take the Germans and try to kill a couple of those Matildas! It is large so make sure you have plenty of time for the Pudding to setup properly.

Walter

AAR: U19 Hasty Pudding

Jay Harms

Germans: Walter Eardley
British: Jay Harms

Sat down with Walter the over the last month and we just finished playing “Hasty Pudding” out of one of the recent scenario packs (Turning the Tide). It is an old scenario that was redone recently, and featured a “speed bump” force of Germans (two 467s MMG and 9-1) covering a board 7 bridge initially against ~9 squads of brits led by a 9-2, two 94* art guns and 7 rolling pillbox Matildas. On turn 4, a powerful German counterattack enters and then has 6 turns to fight through a town and at least get 1 MMC onto the bridge by game end. The German counterattack has about a dozen AFV’s, a 9-2, and ~12 squads, including four 838 Assault engineers toting bombs. We diced for sides and I got the Limeys. The first 3.5 turns were a blur as I rushed the bridge and wiped out the speed bump at the end of turn 2, but not before immobilizing one of my 3 “good” matildas. I then rushed to set up a perimeter prior to the German counterattack. Having 2 turns to do so, I was able to get most of my units in place, except for the 6 MF Matilda I’s which were also radioless and road MF not allowed. Talk about the slowest tanks ever! Walter initially came at my right flank but as all but about 4 of his tanks had 1 armor, everything was vulnerable to MG fire. His “heavy” tanks had a frontal armor of 3. I was able to slow the attack down, and thanks to Walters’ dice, was able to break and wound his 9-2 and almost 40% of his infantry. The 9-2 eventually rolled a snakes on a rally, but promptly then rolled a 12 on the HoB, and ended the game as a wounded broken disrupted leader…never did rally. I expect the SS shot him afterwords for cowardice. The 838s were no better, and rarely passed MCs. This really slowed the German advance, and by turn 7, Walter had switched the axis of attack to my left flank, and in the one brief showing of good dice on his part, his big tank Mk IV 75* went hull down and shot up and pinned one of my gun crews, broke the other gun crew, and trashed some infantry all in one phase. His armored car then overran the pinned crew, and another tank then finally shot it up and broke it. This opened up my left flank and I was scrambling. Thankfully Walters dice then went cold and both 838 were broken while crossing the roads (under cover of wrecks) by long range 2 even and 4 even shots. With Walter down to only 3 good order squads, and only 2 turns to reach the bridge (where I had my 4 Matilda I’s parked we called it a game. Very fun scenario that has a lot of interesting give and take on both sides. I would recommend it. Early war armor is a challenge, and is a totally different flair than late war monsters roaming the battlefield.

Jay

AAR: SP154 On The Road To Hell

Scott Bell

Germans: Scott Bell
Americans: Dan Preston

I had an opportunity this past Saturday, to play against the Minister of Defense (Dan Preston), in an interesting scenario by Schwerpunkt (SP154 "On the Road to Hell")

This scenario takes place in Holland (1944), and involves a remnant German force that attacks and gains control of a portion of Hell's Highway, near Koevering, Holland. The Allies needed to keep the road open to support the Allied troops that were participating in Operation Market Garden. Therefore, the Allies need to take the road back.

The five and ½ turn scenario seems to recreate this battle quite well. As the Germans, I had a mixed force consisting of an interesting mix of squads as follows:

3 x 5-4-8

2 x 4-6-8

2 x 4-7-7

1 x Jagdpanther

1 x Marder

The Allies have the following:

8 x 7-4-7 (American)

3 x 4-5-8 (Brits)

3 x British Sherman III(a)

The setup for the Germans is restricted to within 4 hexes of a building that is close to the road on board 17. The victory conditions require that the Germans have at least one MMC within 3 hexes of LOS of the road (that runs east-west) or a mobile Jagdpanther with functioning MA within 3 hexes of LOS of that same road.

The Americans that initially enter the board have a very large area with which to enter. They come down from the North. The Americans can choose woods on the left (west) or woods on the right (east) as they attack the Germans to the South. They can also head South thru open ground, directly towards the Germans, though I suspect that few would go that route.

Dan chose to separate his force into 2 parts. His larger force of Americans and British squads attacked my "left" flank. Dan used a smaller American infantry group along with his Sherman tanks to come down towards my "right" flank. As the Germans, I pivoted my Jagdpanther, towards my right flank, along with my supporting squads (with PF) to protect against my tank being swarmed by the Sherman tanks.

I was in a classic "2 front" situation, and was reminded of why this is so undesirable. Initially my flanks were holding up quite well. My initial decision was to hold firm in my position with the Jagdpanther, in order to maintain the strongest defensive position possible in anticipation of being swarmed by the Sherman tanks. In hindsight, this is where I believe I probably lost the game.

Dan did an "excellent" job of exercising patience. He held firm on my right flank with his smaller force of squads and the tanks (rather than immediately engaging), and waited for his force to my left flank to be completely engaged. This, in my opinion, is where Dan won the game.

This aspect of the game was the most interesting part, for me. Many years ago when I used to spar in Tae Kwon Do, I trained and fought against multiple opponents, which was a very difficult but very necessary part of my training. Trying to fight 2 people at once is a losing proposition, and you have to actually engage in such a fight to truly understand the disadvantage. The strategy to fight multiple opponents is to fight against one person, and to use him as a shield to keep between yourself and the second opponent. It requires a lot of movement during the course of engagement. The only other option is to attempt to "take out" preferably by KO, one of your opponents quickly, to return the odds to 1:1.

This scenario reminded me of my earlier sparring days. What I should have done, in my opinion, was to use my Jagdpanther and a mobile force, to quickly engage the smaller American force along with the Sherman tanks on my right flank, in an attempt to quickly destroy this force; to eliminate the two front situation that I faced. I recognized this too late, however.

My left flank deteriorated more quickly than I anticipated. I went after the Sherman tanks a couple of turns too late. I did manage to destroy 2 Sherman tanks with my Jagdpanther, which might have made more of a difference, had I done it a couple of turns earlier.

My left flank quickly broke down to the assaulting American squads. Those 7-4-7 squads are awesome on the attack. I did not have enough defensive firepower to break them with any regularity, and Dan was able to move adjacent to my squads for multiple and powerful shots during the AFPh. In this manner, Dan was able to whittle my forces down by breaking them and killing them before they could rout. My situation became bleaker as my Marder tank, which entered on turn 2, broke its gun on the first shot. I immediately began a systematic and desperate retreat to the south, moving further away from the road that was a part of my victory conditions. The game was slipping away from me.

At this point, it was apparent that I was not going to be able to retake ground that was close enough to the road. Therefore, I made a decision to fall back with a major hook movement towards my left flank, in an attempt to get at least one squad close to the road (further west) to fulfill my victory conditions. My Jagdpanther moved back and to the left (west) towards that same objective. Basically, I used every available squad to move at full speed in that hook movement to try to get around Dan's attacking front, in order to gain LOS to the road. Initially it looked like I might make it. Dan, however, did an excellent job of shifting with me, and by using the road was able to get back in front of me.

On my final movement phase, I had 1 squad, 1 half-squad, along with 2 leaders and my Jagdpanther, in position to view the road. Now, all I had to do now was to survive. During the AFPh of my final turn, I fired my Jagdpanther at Dan's infantry, to gain target acquisition for his final assault. On that shot, I broke the gun on the Jagdpanther, which eliminated that tank for victory condition purposes. This enabled Dan, on his final turn, to swarm my very small remaining force that had the LOS to the road, for the win. Even with a functioning gun, it is still doubtful that I could have survived Dan's final assault, which easily overwhelmed what I had left.

It was a very interesting game, and Dan and I both enjoyed this one immensely. According to ROAR, this one is about dead even on balance. In the final analysis, I really enjoy watching a good plan of attack unfold as this one did. Dan executed one of the better and more tactically coordinated attacks that I have witnessed. He has always been an excellent defensive player, which he prefers. He had wanted to develop his skills on the offensive side. I would say he has "arrived." Judging from the confident grin on Dan's face at games end; I would say he knew that as well. Nicely done!

For those who have not played this one, I would recommend that you add it to your list. It is a lot of fun.

Regards,

Scott

AAR: SP83 Boeinked

Nick Drinkwater

German Player [ELR 3, SAN 4]: Nick Drinkwater
British Player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: John Hyler

This is a fun mid-sized scenario that demonstrates the full majesty of a British set piece infantry attack with all the toys. The Brits need to take 4 multi-level stone buildings in the centre of the Board 46 village from a tough little German defense of 7 x 4-6-7, two Pak 40s and two Stugs with OK leadership to back them up. The Brits get seven Churchills of different varieties to assist them, all of which are veritable smoke machines. The best one is probably the single Churchill MkV with a 95* gun and S9 plus the usual ton of SD, SM and even WP - nasty for infantry if this one gets going. They also have four of the Churchill MkIV with a 57L gun and only limited HE, but again good SD and SM capability. Finally, they also have two Churchill MkVIIs with a proper 75 gun and again, you get it, more SD and SM capability.

In addition the Brits get a company of 4-5-7s, with a couple of mortars (for more smoke) and a couple of PIATs. Finally, they also receive two Bren As to do annoying scouty, encircly things. A good force and with the huge amount of smoke assets, one more than capable of getting the job done.

One of the cool things about this game is that the To Kill rolls of all the main AT assets will typically be either 9 or 6 for the Germans against the 8/11 AF of the Churchills and about 5 or 6 for the various Churchill guns against the 8AF Stugs - the PIATs with their TK of 16 are very powerful with a kill of 8, but the best thing here is that overall there is no surefire guarantee kill for either side, and hence getting optimum positions for rear and side shots may be important.

Looking at the board configuration, the fast way into the village is directly down the length of Board 46, but the Brits do have the open terrain of Board 44 to consider too - the Germans need to think about this as well. There is a good transverse hedge on Board 46 that can form a temporary halt line to the Brits, but it is important to think about where British armour could get to at the end of Turn 1 when planning the initial setup of the Stugs in particular. I was a little bit lax on this as I had left a Stug up there supported by a couple of squads, but John's opening turn moves were well planned and left my exposed Stug at the mercy of a Churchill IV by the end of Turn 1 - poor planning by me.

The rest of John's opening assault was textbook smoke, armoured assault and move and my only good shot from a level one, long range MMG resulted in a single pin. John sent a couple of Churchills down the Board 44 axis together with the two carriers whilst the infantry all solidly pushed hard into the woods and over the fields on Board 46.

A key moment happened early in German Turn 1 - my threatened Stug had already turned in Brit 1 Defensive Fire and on a laser thin LOS, had acquired the Churchill. In German Turn 1, I decided to gamble and stay where I was and take the shot and luckily found the APCR on a three - even hitting the hull, I was now able to put a shell through it and the first Churchill was dead - I then followed this up with a sniper that recalled the Churchill V - a HUGE move in the context of the game. Despite this John was still warily grinding onwards and all my overwatch squads were now smothered in Smoke - still no sign of either Pak 40s at this point though.

In British Turn 2, John pushed his carriers on into Board 44 where he found the first Pak 40 which was in a lateral orchard where it had a good view of the Board 46 area south of the hedge. Very frustrating for me as one of my traps was now blown with no results. Being wary of the newly revealed Pak, John manoeuvred another Churchill carefully out of sight, but this one also fell foul of crossfire from another thin LOS from my other Stug. My gunnery was outstanding in this game and this scratched another Churchill - three down, which soon became four when another was recalled with main armament failure.

On board 46, John had skillfully executed a smokey advance to the hedge and was now surrounding my forward Stug by a PIAT crew and two Churchills - it looked doomed, but I was able to put it into motion. Amazingly, he was able to find his SD as his first move point of his next movement phase, and I successfully evaded both Churchills - just as it was looking that I was going to be able to get out of jail free, John rolled a 4 and a 6 with the PIAT and that was that. The hedge defenders were now almost done...but not quite.

John had dumped smoke and then a squad and a half into CC with my only squad there, but in one of those cruel twists of fate, he rolled a 12 on his CC attack and I withdrew one hex to the south. Now, that squad was un-obscured by smoke and was in a position to cover a lot of moves by John's infantry over the open fields - it was a really critical move as the threat from this single squad held all John's infantry up for another turn at the hedge line, and the one squad that did try an run the gauntlet ended up broken. Now with four Churchills dead or recalled and the schedule pushed back a little, John was going to need to push hard from now on.

I had re-ordered the village defenders to try and get as much concealment as possible and also withdrew all the outlying defenders for the last couple of turns. In addition, I was able to drill a hole through one of the carriers with a Stug, but amazingly John pulled a two for the crew survival and the half-squad sheltered under their wreck. The other Carrier decided discretion was the better part of valour and hid for a while - more deadeye shooting when I needed it.

On Board 46, my heroic squad went down to a snakes at 1-hex range from the flamethrower - they were more plasma than atoms at the end of that one! With this, John was able to push his infantry over the hedge and two of the surviving Churchills ground forward to help them. At this point I dropped HIP on the other Pak which was in a board edge woods hex south of the hedge and two hexes from a stopped, lovely fat Churchill filling their gunsights. That beast somehow survived my Final Fire but went down to the subsequent Prep Fire as did a sixth motion Churchill adjacent but behind the hedge on a rate shot - as I said my gunnery was outstanding in this game. It was a good spot for the Pak and I think I faked John on it pretty well as he was expecting in the village as part of the last ditch defenses.

It was now desperation time for John with only one Churchill left and the infantry were starting to break a little too. Another snake-eyes survival from one of the Churchills ended in mutual destruction of the Pak crew and the vehicle crew, but by now, their job was done. John's infantry twice tried to push into the outer edge of the village but individual squads broke to some desperate shooting by my defenders and then John's FT failed on a 10 after that only one successful shot. In a final insult, John tried to enter another CC with one of my guys and rolled yet another 12 on his attack so I carried on withdrawing. At this point, John called it as it clearly wasn't going to be his day. Three of his squads were broken, one was dead, a couple were still laboring across the fields, the Flamethrower was malf'ed and he only had the single tank left. It was clear he wasn't going to push the Germans out of stone buildings on this day.

I liked this scenario - it is impressive to actually play a late war British attacking force, and John pressed on resolutely even after a couple of rotten early events went against him. The huge amount of smoke-making potential makes you have to think hard as the German defender on how to impact and delay the British and they will need to re-position their defenses at times and be flexible. As the Germans you definitely need to think hard about the opening turn one moves and where the British could be.

Anyway a fun one and I recommend you give it a go.

Cheers
Nick

AAR: SP10 Bring up the Boys (twice!)

Nick Drinkwater

Game 1:
German Player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: Mark Carter
British Player [ELR 3, SAN 4]: Nick Drinkwater

Mark and myself found ourselves playing this one as our introduction to MAGCON, a new event for ASL in Houston, held at a really nice hotel in Kingwood. We had an evening free to play this so we opted for a shorter scenario that Walter was running as a mini called BritFest (the second time we had run BritFest - last time it was Pyrrhic Victory). In this mini, a winning British and German player will be nominated by the accrual of Fun Points for doing things like killing tanks with Boys ATRs, or keeping calm under fire (not cowering etc) or even doing outrageous things like successfully executing overruns in Bren Carriers. Lots of fun and a good way to warm up for the weekend.

Anyhoo, "Bring up the Boys" was a good scenario for an evening's play, set on Boards 10 and 19. Its pretty straightforward - over six turns, five German tanks and six squads have to control a majority (7) of the eleven Board 10 stone buildings north of the East-West road and the curious walled enclosure in the B10 village. Stopping them from doing this are seven non-cowering British 1st liners, a Boys ATR, a LMG, two Bren Carriers and a 9-2. The challenge and interesting part of this scenario is that the Brits get to move last so the Germans may need to go into that last half game turn with possibly eight or nine buildings under control - as they are likely to be short of infantry by this point and the Brits may still access to the best mobility if one or both of their Bren Carriers are still alive, then any undefended portion of German-taken buildings could easily be re-captured by the Brits for a cheap and easy win.

The big trick in this scenario is just how much damage the Brits can inflict on to the Germans, who have to launch their attack across completely open ground on Board 19. In contrast the test for the Germans is to see just how creative they can get to mitigate against this. Most of the German armour has a 1,1 AF and so they need to sweat even the humble Boys ATR and LMG shots at close range, but the Brits only have two of these weapons at game start. The Brits can and should start at the tree line to try and inflict maximum cheap casualties but they need to balance this against being completely locked in on Turn 1 from aggressive VBM movement allied to large Advancing Fire Phase fire attacks. The Germans do need to keep an eye on casualties as they are outnumbered from the start and they will need those infantry to control village buildings in the end game. As a result, every aggressive move to enforce VBM needs to be examined carefully on a "risk vs reward" - there are no infantry to waste here, even lowly half-squads, so getting advantageous CC odds is important for the Germans.

The other thing the Brit needs to think about is how to use the Carriers - they could be used upfront to additional 2-2 shots against the open ground assaulting Germans, they could instantly de-bus in the village to give two more useful, tank-killing SW or they could just be held as a mobile late game reserve to go and reclaim all-important VC buildings in that last turn - all options are viable but all come at some risk. Interesting problem.

So in Game 1, Mark was faced with the challenge of the Germans. We were both a little rusty and Mark spread his attack out across the board to try and maximise the number of British squads he would see and also to disperse some of my return fire. My guys were largely up-front, with a couple of half-squads forming refused flank guards on the lateral edges of the village proper. The roadblock was in the obvious spot blocking the main round into the village through the woods, and my ATR and 9-2 and 8-0 & LMG were close by and centrally placed. Mark tried to use armoured assault and SDs extensively but generally rolled poorly where ne needed to roll well and vice versa. I was lucky to roll a three on one squad double timing in the open and that was crucially 1/6th of his infantry dead. Importantly he did not VBM freeze me anywhere in this turn, looking instead to reduce my thin khaki line by fire but that was largely unsuccessful, and most importantly my 9-2/ATR team retained concealment looking for something juicy to shoot at from behind in a future turn.

In Turn 2, Mark continued to push on and was able to VBM a squad but lost the follow-up CC, and worse, in an effort to remove a ? threat for good, stacked two squads next to them in woods, hoping to survive their shots and then wither me in return. Sadly this was my 9-2 and Mark's guys yahtzeed themselves to death on the resultant random selection once I had rolled the 3 for the 1KIA. Huge loss to the Germans and 50% of their infantry now dead - the only way Mark was winning this was by voluntary abandonment of the tanks but that was going to reduce their effectiveness massively. In the meantime my two Bren crews had dismounted and were in key buildings at the back looking threatening with their LMGs. To add insult to injury, Mark now moved a tank into a flanking position to try and envelop me, but this went down eventually to a Shock/UK kill from the 9-2 directed ATR shot in the rear - go Boys ATR, go! When another German squad was minced in brutally effective British fire, we called it as he was now down to 4 tanks and 2.5 effective squads vs an untouched British stone-building defense. My dice were hot, Mark's were average and we were done in four turns.

Game 2:

German Player [ELR 3, SAN 3]: Nick Drinkwater
British Player [ELR 3, SAN 4]: Mark Carter

As Game 1 ended quickly, and we only had limited time, we flipped it around and quickly played out a return, both feeling that we had essentially learnt what the scenario was trying to get over in Game one. This time around, I went strongly for the direct limited frontage schwerpunckt with the Germans to try and swamp and overrun just a section of the British line, but Mark also partially planned for this with a better distribution of the Brits than I had carried out in the first game. Mark's only weak point was that he had left a single Bren carrier in a position where I was guaranteed a good first turn Prep Fire shot at him with one of my tanks with an initial 7 To Hit - I'll take those odds any day. I missed him with the first shot, and even though he was able to squirt smoke at the start of his movement phase, I was still able to stick a tank shell through him in Brit Turn 1 movement. Apart from that stroke of good fortune, I can only say that my more direct attack was only partially successful - all my grandiose armoured assault and VBM moves had their accompanying infantry shot to pieces by withering British fire and at the end of Turn 1, I was down a half squad dead, a half squad back on the start line broken, and worst of all, a squad and a half as prisoners!

However, I had managed to get a tank into the 9-2's location (subsequently immobilized by them in Reaction Fire), but I managed to get 2.5 squads adjacent to him for some tasty follow-up fire. Now that he was locked, my guys took their chances in British Turn 1 and under multiple shots, critically broke and wounded the 9-2, generated a British hero but also were able to break the accompanying squad too. In a follow-up, I was able to get a squad onto one of Mark's guards and the tables were swiftly turned as I was able to free my guys to get a useful (yes, its true) conscript half-squad back in return - in hindsight, Mark's cool and collected guys should have massacred or NQ'ed my team to stop this happening.

Despite these initial losses, I knew I was now slightly ahead and I started to break through into the village and really started to use my tanks to aggressively encircle and enforce FTR on two of Mark's MMC. However, he was still definitely in it as I didn't quite have enough infantry to enforce all the gains I had made and I had to leave units in key positions to stand guard over isolated British MMC that I wasn't strong enough to break. By the end of Turn 5, I had seven of the requisite buildings and I knew that this would become eight as I had a broken half-squad trapped on top of a 1-2-7 crew in a one hex rowhouse. In addition, another crucial sniper double broke another British h/s and that was critical as I was then able to snag one more building for my tally. Luckily, I also had a fortuitous three on a advancing Fire shot on Mark's concealed 8-0 (that was denying me building control) and he was now unable to survive or dodge a subsequent advance by a German half-squad. However, Mark had also made a crucial mini-counterattack and reduced me by one less victory building and I was again down to the crucial seven. In his last move, he just had an encircled 2-4-7 (ex-carrier crew) left to try and enforce one more building conquest on me against a 2-4-7 and 8-1 and a 2-3-6 and 8-0. Sadly for Mark the 4-2 shot he needed to take broke him on the subsequent 2MC before he could advance in and victory just stayed mine. Phew.

Mark played really well in this apart from his slight set-up mistake with his other Bren, but in hindsight, the niceness of the British on NQ and this may have been the difference between victory and defeat - if both Carrier's had still been around to enforce late game house tagging, then I would probably have been too stretched to stop it after my turn 1 losses. I was lucky that only one of my five German tanks suffered a Breakdown and that was at the very end - the rest carried on gallantly shooting and encircling and did sterling service once the threat of the 9-2 had been diminished.

Good games from a fun opponent - thanks Mark!

Nick.

Thunderbird Tournament AAR - Part II

Matt Shostak

Saturday I found that I had qualified for the prestigious main event, and my first opponent was Glen Gray, a very good player that I've tangled with many times before. We chose The Boszoki Relay and diced for sides, which gave me the Hungarians. This scenario is a different challenge than most. To win, the Hungarians must exit a certain number of their onboard forces through Russian lines. They have a relief force entering behind the Russians, trying to blast a hole for them to get through. Glen's setup looked really good. He had his 3 Shermans on opposite flanks at the board edge, pointing back toward my entry direction. They looked to be quite difficult to flank with my six Zryinis. Therefore I resolved to avoid them, and try to blast a hole through the middle. My onboard units I had set up in two groups, one in the center, and one to my right. The MVP for the Russians had to be the 50mm mortar on the hilltop, which could see quite a lot of the battlefield, and really put the hurt on some of my troops. Meanwhile, my 81mm MTR did relatively little, breaking a squad or two in the woods on my right flank. But Glen's Rooskies wisely avoided giving that mortar many opportunities. A highlight for Glen was popping one of my Zrinyis in the rear with an advancing fire shot, needing a 2 to hit and getting the snakes. Yikes. A key moment for the Hungarians was a sniper that picked off the Russian leader in the center. With no leader in that area, troops that broke didn't come back, and eventually that was the difference in the middle. The sniper also sent one of the Shermans home too. It was a hard-fought victory against a good opponent. If you haven't played Glen yet, you should definitely try to get him on your dance card for the Austin tourney.
1-0 in the main event and on to the second round.

Next up was Mike Rose from Kansas, a very knowledgeable and fun opponent. We chose Frontiers and Pioneers and I took the Germans. Mike set up a defense that looked about equally spaced between the two victory areas, but I think he used his dummies more on the rear area to make it look more robust. I decided to make a simplistic frontal attack rather than try to be clever with a flanking move. He had two forward stacks in the woods across the street from the main position, and they were acting a lot like dummies, basically ignoring my first moves right under their noses. Therefore I advanced a stack of 9-1, LMGx2, 4-6-8x3 concealed adjacent to them, in an orchard hex. I also had lots of other troops in the area, as all of my motorcycle riders had dismounted in this area in front of the main Russian position, with all of my tanks nearby in close support. In his turn, Mike decided to drop concealment and prep fire with those two squads at my concealed stack, an 8+0 attack. He whiffed with a 10, and the returning fire was a 36+0 on one stack. That and a snake eyes on the roll allowed us to simplify the board by removing one of the Russian squads. The other squad was hosed down with the ROF attack at 12+0 and wound up broken, and perhaps reduced as well, I can't recall now. Mike knew it was a risk by taking the shot and clearly he regretted it afterward. It essentially put him down 2 squads right from the get-go. Meanwhile one of my PzIIIs was dueling with his T-35 land battleship. The T-35 got off two shots in defensive fire, one each with the 45L and the 76*, but they were very low odds because of hindrances and other modifiers, but in the following prep he had a better chance. Nevertheless both shots missed, and the PzIII's returning shot struck home, only to come up a dud. The PzIII torched the land battleship in the following prep, however. Mike's defense had the land battleship and the KV in the center of the forward position, and his two BT's in the rear village area, although I did not know that to start because they were under concealment. He trundled the KV forward a bit to bolster the area just behind his two forward squads that had melted away like butter in a microwave, and my panzers generally kicked into motion to avoid a duel with the monster. The next turn a couple of them went on a wide flanking maneuver to try to get behind the main position and avoid the KV. The AA gun revealed itself and plinked a shot off the front of a PzIII. The landsers crept forward rather conservatively, and several were shot up by some well-directed MMG fire by the Russian 9-2. His KV backed off toward the center, and his BTs charged forward to engage my two flanking Pz38s. In advancing fire, one of the BTs broke its gun, so in my next turn I thought a bounding fire attack could finish off the BTs. One tank drove around behind both BTs and engaged the one with a functioning gun. That panzer wound up shocked. The other panzer drove in for the kill, only to miss its target. So a PzIII moved in also to help out, and also missed. Wanting to avoid losing tanks in the next prep, the 9-1 and one of his 4-6-8 squads CX'd over there and advanced in for close assault against the BT with functioning gun, but only immobilized it in CC. Things were looking bad for Mike. Somewhere around this time-frame I had inched two flamethrower teams close to his behemoth, the KV. There was some smoke cover for them, so they managed to get off a shot, and cooked the monster (needing a 4 on the dice). Faced with such dire prospects, what did Mike do? Well, he did what any self-respecting Kansan would do. He promptly repaired the gun on his BT and drilled the two panzers in front of it. His moment of glory was short-lived, however, as my infantry finally dispatched the other BT, and my shocked Pz38t, which had gone UK, finally recovered and destroyed the remaining BT. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, one of my tanks overran a Russian squad in the factory, and when the 9-2 and squad reinforced the melee but got stuck there, they were quickly finished off by a flamethrower shot which broke all of the melee occupants, allowing other Germans to advance in and finish off the Rooskies as they tried to withdraw. At that point, it was obvious that the Reds couldn't stop the Germans, so Mike conceded. Good game, good opponent, 2-0 and off to the semis.

I was matched up with Ed Beekman, who had just defeated my fellow road tripper Mike Seningen. Ed has been steadily improving his game, and I'd seen him play before, so it wasn't really a surprise to me that he was doing so well this tourney. I was in the mood for something short and easy because the hour was late and I was getting fatigued. We picked Bidermann's Escape (at least I think that was the title), which is a vanilla short scenario where the Germans have to exit three squads (Sdkfz 10/5s each count as a squad) through some Russians on a city/town half board. I wish I could give this game a long rollicking account, which Ed so richly deserves for his victory, but it was a short affair without many crazy swings. I had no answer for Ed's white-hot dice, which made quick work of my efforts to make any progress. At one point I had a 4 or 6 down 1 on a skulking squad, got some kind of check, which he passed. Meanwhile, his 2+2 shot at my 9-2 stack managed to break the leader and two of the squads. That's the kind of game it was throughout. I finally managed to exit two squads, but it wasn't as close as that sounds, as my last guys had zero chance of getting off. Good game, good opponent, and congratulations to Ed for the win, and for winning the final as well.

That left me 2-1 in the main event and 4-1 overall, a respectable showing. This was a fine tournament and well run. Most of the guys on these lists know many of the attendees, so you know it was a great group of guys. There were a few faces that were unfamiliar to me, and unfortunately I didn't get to play all of the guys, but that's just more incentive to meet up at the next tourney. Great job John Farris and Mike Rose for running this thing, and thanks.

Matt

Thunderbird Tourney AAR

Brian Roundhill

Qualifying Round 1 - Ed Beekman in 'Tanks But No Tanks'
I don't think I've ever played Mr. Ed before, so I was happy to get this chance. I'd seen 'Tank But No Tanks' played at a gameday, and it looked like lot's of fun, so I suggested it and Ed agreed. Polish infantry with 2 AT guns and an 81* mortar defending half of board 42 and board 49 against the invading Russians with 3 AFVs, and 2 more AFVs as part of their reinforcements. Our game was very different than the one I saw at gameday. For starters, we got the Polish reinforcements correct - they come in behind the Russians instead of behind the board 49 town. They caused Ed to hold a sizeable chunk of his forces back to prevent me from causing too many problems. Of his starting AFVs, 2 malfunctioned their MA in the first turn. Finally, his reinforcing AFVs found an AT Gun by driving into its hex. A lucky 3 and another good shot on an Overrun created 2 dead tanks. All of that together meant that Ed never had enough forces to properly attack my front lines, and the final nail in the coffin was a missed LOS and another 3 on the 2-2 shot.
Impressions - a wilder scenario than I thought because of the Polish reinforcements coming in behind the Russians. I think Ed should have created more havoc with his AFVs, especially the two with malfed MA's, but some great luck on my part eliminated most of the AFV threat.

Qualifying Round 2 - Mike Rose in 'Trigger Happy Joes'
Apparently Rick and I decided to swap opponents for our 2nd game. He played Ed, and I played Mike Rose in 'Trigger Happy Joes'. American firepower defending half of board 42(again) and the city of board 46 against the German onslaught. Americans have an M10, I think, at start, with 2 more reinforcing the action. The Germans have 4 AFVs, 2 Mark IVs and 2 JgPz tank destroyers. Looking at Mike's setup, it looks like the orchard hill is undefended, so his mines must be there. Therefore I decide to attack along my centre and right flanks, planning on coming through the huge woods overlay and into the city. Things were not to be so easy. Mike's mines were not on the orchard hill. Two hexes at the edge of the woods were mined, which caused me mch grief, and one early building hex as well. I made the best time I could, but by turn 4 was only at about the board join with a sea of green concealment between me and the victory building. On the right flank I was further along, but 2 AFVs had things bottled up, and my troops weren't sure where to go. Mike's AT Gun had made its presence known by knocking out a Mark IV, and was ready to blast the woods or anything trying to sneak around the woods. Since Mike had one unit on the edge of the city, and everyone else behind that edge, I decided my only option was to shift the point of attack. A JgPz rumbled up to VBM freeze his unit, but Mike opted to shoot and leave residual, so the JgPz remained parked one hex away to limit fire options instead. Everyone in the middle shifted to my left flank, which meant fewer American units between me and the victory building. The other JgPz drove down the streets, giving a low odds shot to an M10, which Mike declined, and frontal armour to the AT Gun. Driving past the AT Gun, Mike missed his CA change shot and later Intensive Fire shot, and the JgPz took out one of the American AFVs on my right flank, and had the other one in its sights. From here, I pulled out every trick in my bag. A 'faust got one M10, and the JgPz got the other. My troops swarmed at the victory building, and I got enough good dice rolls to break his MMG squad and 9-1, giving me a foothold in the building. But an upstairs HIP unit blocked me from getting to all his troops in CC, and I couldn't break everyone.
Impressions - Tough on the Germans. They have 6.5 turns to travel about 17 hexes and control a 6 Location building. At Turn 4, neither Mike nor I gave me a chance at a win, and it was only some good dice in the last few turns that made this game closer than it deserved to be.

Tournament Round 1 - Mike Laney in 'Encircle This!'
Since I got placed into the 'Main' tournament, Mike Laney got the honour of playing me. Somehow we settled on 'Encircle This!', a beefy conflict between the Russians and the Germans. The Germans must clean out 2 factories on board 51 that they start near, and get 10 VPs off the other side of board 49, including 5 VPs of Personnel. Laney got the Russians, and set up mostly in the back of the factories, with an LMG at 51Z4 and an MMG at 51DD2 looking for -2 and/or encirclement shots. Obviously Laney had a healthy respect for German firepower and my 9-2 leader. I set up my kill stack (two 467s, LMG, MMG, 9-2) to suppress the LMG, and everyone else prepared to storm across the streets. Early on, things went my way. Instead of going directly into the factories, I sent my forces wide and eventually attacked the side of the far factory from the W and X row back towards factory R2, sweeping through both in about five turns. My reinforcing halftracks unloaded and got ready to start forcing their way through the rubble while the Panthers and Stunty tried to find good positions to attack the factories. The Russian AT Gun popped up at 51AA2 and nuked the two halftracks, but my Panthers were thankfully safe. Laney's T-34s came on, took a drive-by potshot at my Panther in some rubble, and took up positions on opposite sides of board 49. After four turns, it appeared the Germans were running rampant. Only three or four squads made it out of the factories and onto board 49. The AT Gun had been bypassed and was out of position, and the only thing slowing the Germans down was the MMG and the T-34s. One Panther snuck across the road and took out a T-34, and the German infantry started working across the road. With Stunty and a Panther in good position, my only concern was exiting 5 VPs of Personnel. I had 5 VP in great position to exit, and another 3 VP that could make it off, so Laney had to do something to stop me.
First he rumbled his T-34 towards a better firing position, but a 'faust eliminated that idea. Next, Laney went into desperation mode. One squad charged across the open ground, and was shot up. Another squad also charged, and was similarly removed from the battle. Finally his last leader imitated the Japanese and scampered towards one of my troops, ignoring all my fire. This heavily panting, CX'ed maggot advanced into CC, avoided the Ambush, then failed to kill my troops. 4:1 at -1 back against him, and an 11 resulted in a much unwanted Melee. Laney then repaired his MMG, which prevented my backup VPs from exiting. 4VP of Personnel was not enough for the win.
Impressions - Sloppy play in the last two turns may have cost me, but time was running out and I rushed a little. I should have used the BMG and CMG to turn my Panther around, giving me more firepower against Laney's desperate charge. Also, I should have used the Panther sN to cover my 'extra' VP units dash for victory. Oh well, that's the way things go. This play felt tough on the Russians, but others feel it is hard on the Germans. I think Laney had some good ideas, but fell short in other areas. Rubble in 51U6 makes it harder for the Germans to get their vehicles into good positions, but probably wouldn't have made much of a difference. The factories appear to be mostly a red herring - the Russians can't hold on to them, and should be prepared to fall out and stop the Germans exit VC. If they get a chance, they can take back a factory and win that way.

Free Play - Mike Denson in 'One More Day of Freedom'
I was interested in some PTO, and Mike was interested in giving the Japanese a try so he could start to learn them. This looked the most straight forward of the PTO scenarios, so we gave it a go. Mike had some good Banzai's that resulted in several dead American squads, but his MTR ran out of SMOKE right before the last charge, and I was able to pack the final building for a win. Both of us learned more about the Human Wave rules, and I hope Mike enjoyed his first taste of the Japanese.

Free Play - Mike Rose in Hell and High Water
The Zombie Pack demanded a playing. I got the humans, who were trying to ferry civilians across the board 7 river to safety while holding off Mike's zombies as the shambled across board 19 towards their tasty food. Basically, a 2 legged puppy. The assault boats ferried everyone over in about 3 turns, and my armed forces sacrificed themselves at the chokepoints one at a time so the zombies had zero chance of reaching the civilians. Favorite part - sacrificing a unit to force 3 squad-equivalents into one hex, then dropping a DC on them. a 1KIA meant lots of scattered zombie pieces-parts. I am now one of 3 known people to play a zombie scenario. Shurtz and Rose played once at the Austin tourney.

Non ASL - Saturday night Bang. Fun and laughs.

Thunderbird Tournament AAR - Part I

Matt Shostak

The Oklahoma tournament is run a little bit differently than ours (Texas Team Tournament). Friday's games were used to qualify for the main tournament, which would occur on Saturday and Sunday. In conjunction with that, there would be an "other" tournament for the non-qualifiers. Since there were 24 players, that easily split into 16 for the main tournament and 8 for the other (or perhaps the "rest of the best" or something like that). Each of these tourneys was single elimination. Scenarios were to be chosen from a preselected list, which was available on the Oklahoma ASL website ahead of time.

First up for me on Friday was Patrick Ireland, and we chose "Out of the Shadows" from Dispatches for our contest. We diced for sides and he got the Germans, attacking. Highlight of the game for me was my Wolverine getting a lot of rate to erase a German squad that had crept a little too close to my frontline troops. The highlight for Pat was probably when his Panther lobbed a critical hit on the steeple of the village church, whacking my 9-2-led MMG and half squad, which had been harassing his troops quite effectively in the early game. Overall though Pat's approach was probably a little too cautious, and when my reinforcing squads arrived it was obvious that the Germans would not be able to seize their objectives. It was great seeing Pat again and I look forward to more games with this fine gentleman.
1-0.

Next was the redoubtable Greg Schmittgens from Kansas. Many of you know the Kansas guys from their repeated appearances at our tourney, although I think it's been a while since we've seen Greg. At any rate, he's a great pleasure to play, as are all the Kansans: very knowledgeable about the rules, good with his tactics, and all the while thoroughly enjoying himself. And why not? He acted the part of a crazed pyromaniac (is there any other kind of pyro?) in our game of "Penetrate This!" which I think is from Schwerpunkt. We diced for sides, and he got the defending Russians, armed with plenty of molotov cocktails, holding onto a couple of factories in an urban area strewn with rubble, in the late war.

I think this one may be a bit tough on the Germans, but others who played it at the tournament disagreed, so perhaps it's just a case of Greg making it seem difficult. The Germans have to take two factories, plus exit 10 pts. from the far end, at least 5 of which must be infantry. Fortunately, prisoners count in this one. Greg packed the factories with most of his force, with a couple of outliers guarding the flanks and looking for exit attempts through the constricted terrain. Early on I broke his MMG squad upstairs in one of those buildings, and mopped up at the next opportunity, taking them prisoner. I haven't done mopping up in a while. In general I thought that I didn't have much time to prosecute an assault on the factories, so I had to risk my two Panthers in the front line. The first one quickly succumbed to a molotov attack. The other managed to briefly freeze a squad, which allowed some of my assault engineers to get their foot in the door. Later this same Panther got drilled by a point blank APCR shot from one of the reinforcing T-34/85s as it tried to plow through another factory location. It seemed to me that, sensing victory, Greg pushed his Russians forward a bit in the factories to try to put the game away for good, instead of playing it safe and skulking like crazy and burning the clock. At one point I think we had each reinforced a melee enough so that I had an 8-0 and 3x8-3-8 against 2x6-2-8 and 1x3-2-8. That's working it old-school. This melee eventually went the Germans' way big time, and the factory defenses started collapsing. The endgame arrived with the Germans still needing to get one last factory location, but that was almost certain, and still needing to exit 2 or 3 points on the last turn. It's all a bit of a blur, but the Germans just pulled it out, barely. Great game. 2-0 and ready for the main event.

End of part 1.

Military Museums in England

Nick Drinkwater

Tom and anyone else going to England....

Depending on your schedule and location, if you are confined to London, then first and foremost I would recommend the Imperial War Museum which is on the south bank of the River Thames in central London. It is an outstanding collection with a ton of funky stuff, and best of all its free! Leave a day for this one - its big. Its exhibition on the Victoria Cross winners is very good.

http://london.iwm.org.uk/

Second on my list in London is the National Army Museum on the north side of the Thames in Chelsea. Smaller than the IWM, but very compact it deals solely with the British Army through the centuries - this is very cool and there are some cool exhibits on Waterloo, the British in SE Asia in WW2 etc. Definitely a long half-day here and a good bookshop too.

http://www.national-army-museum.ac.uk/

Another half-day trip (2-4 hours long) is the Cabinet War Rooms - excellent snapshot of Blitzed London with a new annex that deals solely with the life and times of Winston Churchill. I was there in the summer and I loved it - also got to meet Private Harry Cohen of the 4th Indian Division who survived Cassino...a very lucky chance encounter. This is actually a branch of the IWM.

http://cwr.iwm.org.uk/

If you are into aircraft, then the RAF museum in Hendon, North London is a must see. Outstanding collection of WW1, WW2 (lots including lots of captured German aircraft - Stuka, Me 109, Night-fighting Ju-88) plus post-war collection. One of the best there is a Halifax they pulled out of a Norwegian fjord...too damaged to restore, it is left in an 'as is' state - very poignant. Another good VC collection here. This is a 2/3rds day trip plus metro travel to get there but it is really cool. There is an annex to this in the English midlands at Cosford - not been to that yet.

http://www.rafmuseum.org.uk/london/index.cfm

The final London WW2 thing to see is HMS Belfast, another annex to the IWM - this is a floating heavy cruiser docked permanently on the Thames near Tower Bridge, access from the south bank. I've not been to this, but I've heard good things.

http://hmsbelfast.iwm.org.uk/

Outside of London, there are several excellent collections scattered across the country (Fleet Air Arm Museum in Somerset, National Army Air Corps Museum in Hampshire etc) and these are a bit more specialized - you can hunt them down online if you are in the area. However, three stand out in particular - the IWM has a newly opened branch in Manchester - not been there yet, but saw a documentary on it once on TV - looks way cool.

The IWM also has another branch, this time in Duxford which is ten miles south of Cambridge (about 50 miles by major highway north of London) - another brilliant museum, largely dedicated to flying. It has an excellent collection of working WW2 aircraft and has its own hall for the American Air Musuem. Has a working B25 in here, a Blackbird and a lot of really cool WW2 aircraft plus a Battle of Britain hall. In addition, they also have a Land Warfare Hall, probably second only to the Tank Museum. There is a strong collection of WW2 German and Russian tanks in here particularly and they have shows commonly for both the airdays and for running tanks. Really very, very cool and a very full day to see it all - also see the American Cemetery just west of Cambrige - approx 2000 (mainly) airmen are buried here: Cambridge is right in the heart of the old US bomber airfield area - a sobering but evocative way to finish the day

http://duxford.iwm.org.uk/server/show/nav.55

Finally, there is the Tank Museum which is about 80 miles SW of London - the best thing for treadheads in the country. You've seen lots of photos but that does not do it justice - outstanding museum. A bit of a pain to get to by public transport as its right in the heart of the army's training grounds, but simply awesome. Well worth the trip!

http://www.tankmuseum.org/

So there you have it, a week of interesting things for Americans to see that doesn't involve Bath, Oxford, Edinburgh or the Queen and 'those cute little dogs'.

AAR: ITR6 The Ceramic Factory - Response to the Response

Nick Drinkwater

Chris, Matt, Zeb.

Agreed with everything you've all said. With these equal split victory objective games, as the defender, its perhaps a little easier as you really do get to fight the ultimate battle on a battleground and force balance of your own choosing (try AP20 Victory is Life as another example of this where the Russian attackers have to choose force balance quite accurately from the start). Looking at the two factories, I opted to defend the smaller of the two, primarily as it sits up against a board edge and hence the Russian has only three main approach routes - the big factory can easily be surrounded from all four sides by the Russians.

The key decision that the German has to make is how to split his force and yet make it look to the Russians like he has really divided his units in half. I did this by approximately splitting my force numbers 60:40 but in terms of concealed stacks made it look more 50:50. As well as this numbers balance, I also went for a force quality imbalance as all my crappy 447s, 237s etc went in the big factory with only a couple of 4-6-8s to stiffen the line. The small factory was jammed up with all the 548s and 468s so basically in FP terms and morale quality of troops it was more like 70:30. All the heavy SW (HMGs and MMGs) went in the small factory and six of the seven FBL were all placed in the small - all of course unknown to Chris at the start of the game where everything looked about equal under their concealment counters. Finally, all of the mines, wires and roadblocks, a HIP squad, MMG and leader and one of the two AT-Guns were placed to help make the small factory a really tough festung for Chris to take out, but still with the intent of leaving enough initial doubt in Chris's mind on the way things were resolved. Chris would only get to see the wires, and find the mines, and bounce out from the FBLs when he really got upfront and personal - by then I was hoping he was committed to the big factory attack with enough numbers that they might just be too late to come and hurt me in the endgame in the small factory.

And so it proved. Chris did a good job at bottling up the big factory and by G Turn 6 I was down to a squad, two leaders and a crew. I then had the inspired idea of using the sewer to pop up concealed with two units across the other side, but of course I rolled the six to get lost in the sewers, and ended up placed outside the factory by Chris. Very typical. However, the small factory defence of 4-6-8s and 5-4-8s in multiple FBLS with tons of support weapons and good leadership was just too tough for Chris to overcome, especially after one of his FTs choked on its last shot in the last turn (after at least 14-15 shots with no Xs prior to then). Chris tried to bust a hole into one of the FBLs in the last turn with an IS-2 but I calmly revealed my last hidden AT Gun and DI'ed the crap out of the beast to stop that one in its tracks. I was also successful in finding ATMM and fausts when needed (one particular 237 hs first un-HIPed to pop a faust through a IS-2m, got sniped and broke, rallied, popped out to slap a mine and burn a ISU 152 only to go down in a hail of gunfire as it charged up an open road to try and rejoin the fight for the big factory. Posthumous iron crosses with Oak leaves and diamonds for those boys). Luckily I didn't get to bounce a faust of a IS-2m.

The only real downside I could see to the small factory is that there were no internal walls to shield me from Russian 10-2 killstacks once they had entered the perimeter, and also help provide places to rout to safely. This was an issue in the last couple of turns as Chris was able to 'touch' me with a brutal 10-2 monster a couple of times, but the extra FBLs really helped offset this allied to a couple of lousy high rolled shots. A timely berserker also helped me here as that soaked up some more FP desperately needed elsewhere, after also going on a rate spree with a MMG and breaking Chris' other FT squad who then routed back and got hurt by some mines. But at the end, Chris had unluckily ran out of options to bust units into the forts and he was faced by a wall of pinned defenders to get through before he could even try. We had a couple of fun things - the sewer game winner / game loser moment of course, an Improbable Critical by an SU152 on a JgPzIV, another improbable critical from a manhandled 76L Art gun on my only decent squad in the big factory, stupendous runs with both flamethrowers, and the "little 237 that could".

It was a lot of fun, but with the setup advantages of the Germans allied to the toughness of SS in forts at the death, I'd probably rate this 60:40 German. Or I would, if the low ammo rule wasn't there as Zeb described - Chris didn't do a lot of cheap 2+5 shots to try and trigger this and so LA only applied to me on T5. However, as Zeb pointed out, if he'd gone hell for leather for it as the rule encourages, I'd have been there a lot earlier and that would have made a difference - still a bit pro german but the loss of the HMGs early especially would be huge. Zeb's change with maybe a couple less FBLs would be good things to try.

Cheers
Nick

AAR: ITR6 The Ceramic Factory - Response

Zeb Doyle

Totally agree with Chris: The Ceramic Factory is a big fun scenario that might favor the SS a bit. I played it as the Soviets against Eric's SS. He opted not to defend the smaller factory with anything other than dummies, and that allowed me to really focus my entire force on just one objective. In hindsight, we both agreed that made my job quite a bit easier. It was still tough going for my troops and it came down to the last turn before I could clear the large factory for the win. One major problem for me was the German assault guns: Eric parked them all in the festung factory and as I killed them off with IS-2s and FTs, they caught on fire and really hampered my attack. This led to a bit of a stressful end game for me when my approach to the last SS stack was narrowed down by the burning factory to just two ground locations and the roof.

The only thing I didn't like about the scenario was the SSR about the German ammo shortage: after 12 German sniper activation attempts, the SS suffer from Low Ammo. As the Soviets, I set up to make it impossible for a painful German sniper attack to occur, and started taking every single AFPh 2+3 and 4+4 I could find. With a 5 German SAN, Eric was faced with Low Ammo by turn two, and that really hurt him with a lot of Wehrmacht MGs X'd out by game end. It felt pretty cheesy and seemed weird that the German ammo expenditure was up to the judgement of the Soviets...seems like it would have been better to give the SS Low Ammo after X amount of Soviet sniper activation attempts. That would have felt (at least to me) the Germans would be saving their shots, waiting for the 'whites of the eyes,' etc, and fit the mood a little better.

Still a fun scenario if you are in the mood for a close-in urban slug-fest. Another fun one that has a slightly similar feel, albeit less claustrophobic and with more maneuver, is FT106 Counterattack Along the Danube. This one is 2/0 in favor of the Soviets though, and might be tilted towards them balance-wise just as much as The Ceramic Factory feels tilted towards the SS (either side can win but the favored side does have an edge IMHO). I'm pretty sure I saw FT106 being played at the Austin Team Tournament.. .anyone have any comments on this one?

Zeb

AAR: ITR6 The Ceramic Factory

Chris Buehler

It took us about 9 to 10 hours to play the Ceramic Factory. We started at Tom’s on September 24 and finished at Nick’s last night.

It’s a great scenario with quality troops, large forces, and very tough decisions for both sides. Particularly, how to split your assets between the two factories for both the Russian attacker and SS defender. Even with Nick’s SS troops walking away from the large victory location factory on the final turn (actually, they got lost in the sewer and wandered away from the factory), I could not dig the SS out of their fortified holes in the smaller factory. In retrospect, Nick played the set-up shell game to perfection and had me believe his force was more concentrated in the larger factory. I fell for it sent more troops that way, falling a bit short on the firepower necessary to take the smaller factory. Well played Nick!

With respect to balance, ROAR currently shows 13 to 6 in favor of the SS. While I feel both sides can win the scenario, it really comes down to whether the Russian player splits his force in an appropriate manner to assault both take both factories. You do not have time to deal with them one at a time.

Chris

AAR: DB76 Out of the Shadows

Scott Bell

Americans: Scott Bell
Germans: Hondo Nelson

Yesterday (Saturday) at San Antonio ASL day, Hondo and I had a chance to square off in a "new" scenario from "Dispatches from the Bunker." It was the first time we have had a chance to play against each other, and it was nice to play something that few if any players have played yet. This scenario just came out.

"Out of the Shadows" is a scenario set in Allan, France (August 27th) 1944. The Americans are composed of the 3rd Infantry Division along with support of Company B (Tank and Tank Destroyer Battalions). The Germans have the 11th "Ghost" Panzer Division along with Grenadier Regiment 757 and Grenadier Division 338.

This battle takes place on board 53, where the Americans are defending large buildings in a congested town. The Americans can also win by exiting > or = to 16 VP's off the north edge of the building. Absent poor planning on the part of the Germans, the American exit strategy is probably unlikely, so the battle comes down to control of victory buildings or the Germans earning > or = to 35 CVP by games end.

In this battle, the Americans, who initially control the town, strategically engage in a fighting withdrawal that is timed in order for them to maintain control of the majority of the buildings within the town at games end. I was the Americans in this scenario. I started out the battle with a 9-2 leader in a 2nd story building, a 6-6-7 squad, along with a MMG. Unfortunately for me, one of Hondo's Marder tanks quickly and improbably locked onto the building I was in (long distance), and broke me after the 1st turn. This prevented me from whittling down Hondo's forces as they approached the town. I was able to strategically organize my forces to where I gradually fell back into what might be described as a "slice of pie" defensive line. The long lines of the pie slice that met at a point, were roads, which I controlled effectively with MG fire. I controlled one major line with a squad and a MMG (fire lane). The other I controlled with MMG fire from my 9-2 leader and a 6-6-7, who had previously broken but were now rallied, along with tank support.

At the mid point of the game, I appeared to be in control. Hondo was unable to breach my defensive line which was quite strong. At turn 5, I had broken much of the German infantry, and had seized the initiative to where I was somewhat on the offensive. One could probably make an argument that I should have stayed put, but my defensive attack against Hondo's infantry had gone well, and I did not want to let him regroup; therefore I went after the wounded prey. THEN IT HAPPENED TO ME.......

This game "in the form of some critical dice rolls" had one of the most spectacular reversals in fortune that I have ever been a part of. The reversal involved the battle of our tanks. In the armor engagement, I had one (1) Sherman tank and three (3) M-10 TD. Hondo had one (1) Panther and two (2) Marders.

During the key tank engagement, I had managed to gang up with my Sherman and two (2) of my M-10's against the Panther tank. That was the good news (for me). The bad news was that due to the congested terrain of buildings and fire that had spread, along with his PF equipped infantry, I was only able to get front shots on his "in motion" Panther. I kept getting hits on the Panther with APCR (which I amazingly kept), but could not knock it out. I then switched my strategy to an effort to immobilize it, but could not get the required rolls to do that either. Hondo was feeling the heat, and realizing that I would eventually be successful, brought a Marder into the battle, in an attempt to draw fire away from the Panther. My Sherman tank pivoted, missing during Defensive Fire, and destroyed the tank on my next PFPh. Now I was really feeling good. I felt like I was in complete control of the infantry battle, and appeared to be improving my situation with my tanks as well.

Quite suddenly, my fortunes changed. It began when Hondo "killed" my 9-2 leader with a sniper shot. He followed this with an unlikely 4 hex away AFPh shot by a German Squad with a Panzerschreck, against my Sherman tank. Hondo needed a "snake eyes" to hit, and that is what he got. One Sherman destroyed. Next, the "in-motion" Panther took a shot at my M-10. Hondo rolled 3 dice, and got "triple snakes." One M-10 destroyed. Hondo smiled at his fortune, and said he was "going for it." He was "feelin" it, and he was on fiyaaa. The Panther took an "Intensive Fire" shot with 3 dice. The dice came up as 1, 1, & 3. A second M-10 destroyed. In the course of one turn, I had lost 3 tanks and my 9-2 leader. My misfortune was not over.

Now we switch to the infantry battle, where I had previously seemed to be in complete control. Earlier, I had advanced several American squads into the hex with the Panther as part of my combined arms attack which was designed to ensure that I would get the Panther. I forgot about the Sn, which I now call the "Fritz." I have only faced this defensive tank weapon probably on 2 other occasions, and I should have remembered it since it was devastatingly effective both times. I got "fritzed." The weapon broke my entire stack, and Hondo effectively closed in with nearby German infantry to finish the job.

I was in trouble now. I had complete control of the victory buildings, but my losses of tanks had now put me in a position to where Hondo could win by CVP's. Hondo had secured 21 CVP's in that one turn with just the 3 tanks kills, alone! I immediately began to retreat towards my defensive lines to try and stem further losses. This scenario would now clearly come down to CVP's. Hondo became the hunter, and I became the hunted. The Panther ruled the battlefield, and I was in full retreat with no answer for that tank. The "only" friend I had at this point was time. I had a remaining strong stack of troops which had stayed with one of my leaders in the course of falling back. I made an unintentional error of leaving them stacked (I forgot to spread out during the Advance Phase) and Hondo moved his Panther into my hex to freeze me, while his weakened but still viable German troops closed in for support. I managed to "immobilize" the Panther and knock it out in close combat (finally), and barely held on in close combat against the German infantry as the game ended. We were still engaged in CC when the game ended.

I had just managed to squeak out a "win" by only 3 CVPs. That was an amazing turnaround for a game that prior to turn 5; I had seemed to be in control.

This scenario was a lot of fun, and I would recommend it to those who are looking for something interesting to play. It is found in the newest "Dispatches from the Bunker" (No. 29, I believe). It is Scenario # DBO76. It was a good match-up for Hondo and I; who have styles of play that are somewhat similar with regards to aggressive play. Hondo played a very good game, especially at the end when it mattered most. He was aggressive when he needed to be, and just "barely" came up short. The Panther tank was amazing in this scenario. I delayed engagement with it as long as possible, and when I did finally engage with it, I did so with numerical superiority that included a 3-1 advantage in tanks, with engineers and a hero with a bazooka in support. The Panther tank fought back with defiance and determination, and it was amazing for both of us to watch. The Panther fought heroically, and its story would seem to be consistent with some of the great individual heroic actions of WWII that we have all read about. It was a pleasure to watch, even though I was on the wrong end of that "beatin' stick."

I would like to thank Hondo for the excellent game, and I look forward to playing him again, soon. I hope you enjoyed reading this, just as I enjoyed reliving it via this review. This game is one that I will not soon forget.

On a final note, I am eligible to "retire" from SAPD in 4 days. I will not be leaving immediately, though I do expect to "wrap up" my career in the next couple of years, which I'll work in order to supplement my annual pension payout during retirement. I mention this, because I look forward to playing a lot more ASL in retirement. I am planning upon doing a lot of traveling in retirement, which will include traveling to play ASL across the country, and across the world. I am very excited about that, and I feel very fortunate to be able to participate in a hobby (ASL) that I enjoy so thoroughly. I thank "all of you" for being a part of that.

Regards,

Scott

AAR: RPT14 Keitel & Cox

Nick Drinkwater

German (SS) Player [ELR 5, SAN 2]: Mark Carter
American Player [ELR 4, SAN 2]: Nick Drinkwater

Mark and myself hooked up with this one as a last minute substitution for our original all-infantry choice as Mark wanted to practice more both as the defender and get some more practice in using AFVs. This 4.5 turn scenario out of the second Rally Point pack appealed as it had a Tiger(!) and a couple of Shermans stiffening an attack by 10 x 6-6-6s to eject a bunch of 7 x 5-4-8s from a stone Italian town in mid 1944. The scenario is set width-wise on one of the new SK boards and for victory, the US have to ensure that they control three multi-hex buildings that span the middle third of the board AND prevent the Tiger (with functioning MA) from being within four hexes of a central crossroads (hex Q5). These are pretty tough VC for the US, as they have a lot to do to dig out tough defenders in ideal terrain and also be successful in a game of cat and mouse with the Tiger - ROAR currently has this as 4:17 US to German, probably reflecting the problems of playing with Shermans against a markedly superior tank AND clearing three stone buildings in 4.5 turns.

To help Mark, we had a thorough discussion on all aspects of the units that has been provided, particularly with respect to the merits of the armour assets and also the importance on understanding the key issue of timing and the pace of the defense vs the required victory conditions. As it stressed in the VC that the US will lose if the Tiger is in the correct area with a functioning MA at game end, Mark quickly grasped the huge potential of the game winning aspect of this one piece and its need to be preserved. This was reinforced when he saw the problems of having M4A1 Shermans with their 75s - base To Kill of 14 will be bouncing off the 14/11 frontal armour on almost every shot and even side shots would need a six. Of course, the reverse was not true as any shot from the 88L was going to blowtorch through my tanks. Hence the Tiger was going to pose a problem for me, compounded by the better Tiger morale and the presence of the sN to throw out smoke when needed to get out of a sticky position. Mark swiftly picked up the nuances of all these aspects in the pre-game chat, but we also took time to make sure that the one saving grace of the Shermans was noted: the white square nature of the ROF of 1 which offered the potential for both improved gun duel chances and the chance for multiple hits, particularly threatening if the Shermans could be manoeuvred successfully to do the "dance of death" on the solo Tiger. More on this anon!

Mark swiftly set up a forward defense with the bulk of his troops stiffened by a line of LMGs and MMGs at the rear, covering the main lateral road I was going to need to cross. Setup meant that I was also setting up onboard and in this case, I had the advantage of setting up second - with Mark's forward defense I was able to deny concealment to 70% of his force at the cost of two revealed half-squads myself, and was able to place a menacing "?" stack within two hexes of the most forward of his troops. I also tasked my Bazooka squad to run forward on my left flank to start to threaten his Tiger and get him moving from its rear area position.

Turn 1 was completely ugly for me as Mark's first shots of the game were 2, 5 and 4, and of course being 6-6-6s I went rolling backwards on both my left flank and centres and I swiftly had 3.5 squads broken on Turn 1, including my only MMG and bazooka squads. Luckily my right flank concealed 'creep' stayed intact and the two Shermans were still healthy as it otherwise it could all have been over very quickly. By the end of Turn 2, I had been able to crush the two squads and leader Mark had on my right flank through concealed ambush and CC so things had started to even up a bit, even though I couldn't rally a unit for squat (including and especially annoying the Bazooka squad). A key move also happened in Turn 2 when a 7-0 went berserk on a rally - this was looking disastrous for me, but actually turned out really well as he charged Mark's MMG team tasked with solely holding out in his left rear defense line. Just before he went on his mad dash, I was able to dump a Sherman WP shell on top of the MG nest and this was meant my 7-0 survived his dash for glory and completely locked up his MG unit. I was thus able to get a 6-6-6 into the berserk CC location unscathed and the first victory house was mine. However, I still had two to go and the problem of the Tiger to solve and time was running out and still all of my first turn morale check failures stubbornly refused to rally.

Mark kept the pressure on by keeping my Baz team DM through movement of the Tiger (but wisely not using his MA on a wasteful shot after a discussion) and then pushed him back to a position where he could support the defense of his rear right house, the most difficult for the US to attack. Turn 3 saw him start to fold the defense backwards to the far side of the lateral road, but I was able to pin then destroy a half-squad while he was doing that - he had now lost 3.5 squads but I only about 5 squads in positions to effect the outcome of the game and the Tiger was still alive. In my Turn 4, I was able to eliminate another SS squad in CC (gotta love that 6 to 5 CC odds) and most importantly I saw an opportunity to threaten the Tiger from opposite sides with some cautious lateral manoeuvring of a Sherman. This was a bit risky as it meant I had to unbutton for some road bonus points and also I needed to risk an ESB for an extra half MP to get me in the perfect position, but this left me with a snakey 9 hex LOS through two orchards to the back hull of the now motion and sN smokey Tiger. At the same time, I pushed the other Sherman against the direct opposite facing of the Tiger to snap shut both sides of the vice.

In German Turn 4, Mark's last outboard infantry units were shot down when trying to retreat and he was left with a solo concealed 548 in the last victory building and the Tiger vs approximately 5 of my squads and the two encircling Shermans. We had a long discussion about the options open to the Tiger from here. If it could survive the two incoming Sherman shots it would probably mean victory for Mark as I would be left doing the chasing and needing bounding fire shots in my last turn for the win. If it stayed, however, I would still need to pull out some good shooting as Mark had smartly rotated the TCA opposite to the Tiger's VCA, meaning that both of my Shermans could still yet hit one part of the superior 11/14 armour rather than the 8 rear armour facing. If he wanted to escape there was also a chance he would fall victim to a 9-1 led streetfighting attempt (5 to Immobolize, 4 To Kill assuming PAATC was passed), but this was unlikely. As he was in Motion, shooting first at a Sherman was a possible but not great option, as I was always able to out gun-duel him first, so another sN attempt and then move was deemed to be the best bet. Mark was able to get the Smoke down so my sneaky Sherman was looking for a 5 To Hit and hopefully a 2,2 would come up as that would be a multiple hit in the Tiger's rear, as opposed to a single shot on its frontal turret. Roll the dice....and yes, you guessed it right, I called it correctly - a 2,2 was smiling back at me! Needing a 7 To Kill from the two attempts, I rolled two 3,3s in succession and Mr Tiger and his crew were very dead.

The concealed 548 was the last hope for victory but these went down to the first shot they took when Mark's dice hurt him some more and they failed a 1MC. Game over and a win for the good guys.

Mark played this scenario well and I hope he picked up some useful ideas and thoughts on how to defend, particularly during short scenarios when the need to really thick tactically about the opponents VC and his timing is critical. This scenario with its low AFV numbers also demonstrated the importance with vehicles to always try and keep in mind that its not necessarily what your opponent is doing with his tank this turn that you need to worry about - its where and how he'll be placed next turn to impact you which is the key thing. This takes some thought and I'm still on the learning curve on that one myself - I think it is this ability that makes the difference in armoured play (for example and this is a long list) that the Matts, Mikes, Jeffs and Zebs of this world possess.

So a fun ans small learning scenario played on the scarily 'open' SK boards with no hedges and walls to duck behind. I think ROAR's number of 4:17 is a poor reflection of this scenario and I do wander if that is more a reflection of the inexperience new players have when trying to use Shermans against a big cat. The Germans can be quite brittle, and Mark agreed that they may be better set up in a rear defense next time, as once one or two units succumb early to the US, there are a lot of opportunities for them infiltrate and surround outlying SS defenders who won't be able to get back and hang tough for the final turn defense. Mark's enthusiasm for the game is infectious and he's a willing learner and I would encourage anyone to play him as they will have fun! Also, thanks Mark for acting as host - wonderful to come and visit you and great burgers and beer man!