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Jacksons

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I got to go to a FTF tournament this year, Yeah! Even though I had my first VASL games this year there is nothing like playing face to face against the great guys at the St Louis Tournament. I won some great raffle prizes and a bingo as well.

Round 1 Gecki- Cacti versus Tommy C.
I was the Japanese and set up my 105 tank with LOS down the Road. It took out a few half squads before dying to a Bazooka shot. Tommie's FT did some good work but in the end the terrain was my best defender and Tommy did not have enough time to find the HIP squad in the backfield.
A classic PTO scenario. 1-0

Round 2 Philippine Fireman vs Craig Walters
I was the Attacking japanese. There are basically 2 fronts in this one. The Japanese must use 1 force to clear the road and the other to take the huts. Craig was very thorough on reading the Chapter H rules and removed the 50 cals from the SC. I think that this is the right move for the US forces which are outnumbered 2-1 and need the extra FP. We had a rules question that we are not sure if we did correctly( the SC has an inherant 227 crew passenger and the question came up can the 227 crew dismount as a normal unload and remove both the 50 cal and the MMG. I don't see any issues with the veh crew abandoning and taking the 50cal and the PRC taking the MMG) Craig's Mtr on the level 2 hill chewed up a bunch of my forces and his dice were very hot!. I conducted ~ 8 Banzaiis in this game which was necessary to move through the terrain. I was failing MC left and right but in the end there were just too many japanese conducting banzaiis and craig conceded since it was late and he had 1 unbroken 1/2 squad(the killer mortar operator). A fun scenario. 2-0


Round 3 To Ashes vs Mark Devries
I was the Attacking? Brits. This is a crazy scenario with lots of options for both sides. I set up 1 ART piece on the level 2 hill and the other in a wheat field with LOS to the wooden buildings. I had most of my forces set to eliminate the onboard defenders with only 1 MMG and 1 tank and 2 carriers ready to unload to defend against the reinforcements. I was able to get 2 smoke rounds down on turn 1 which allowed my to move my carriers and tanks in to attack the complex. I moved 1 carrier into the hex with the smoked 75 gun and unloaded. I moved 1 tank ADJACENT to the 467/9-2 and fired and broke the 9-2 but the squad was still in tack so I VBM freezed the squad in the building and this allowed me to move 2 squads and a leader up to CC the squad. The level 2 building that I smoked had a squad on level 1 which I moved a carrier into bypass of the building and unloaded so it could advance in and CC the squad on level 1. Mark Fired his 37L through the wheat
fields and got a CH on my tank as it started up but even though he had dead-eye aim the round was defective and the tank was able to escape. On turn 2 I smoked the 37L ATG and took it out in CC. I drove my tank into the hex with the AAMG veh and then moved up a squad to CC the AA veh. I then moved 1 of my tanks to protect the road from bicycles. Mark made a daring attack with 1 tank and the kubblewagon with the 6+1 leader with a DC but the dice were not kind and the kubble wagon was immobilized. Mark sent most of his infantry reinforcements up to go after my tank on the level 1 hill that was guarding the road. He also unloaded the 88's after moving a few hexes onboard. My MMG in the level 1 building and the ART piece on the level 2 hill broke 2 of the 3 stacks and since his shots on the the tank on the hill were ineffective I was preparing to move the tank on the hill and a carrier to surround the broken stacks and cause failure to route. At that point Mark would not have enough units to obtain victory because I had eliminated all of his initial onboard defenders with only a loss of a 1/2 squad. These forces would soon be advancing and joining the fight against the reinforcements. Unlike the first 2 games I had some good dice in this game and everything was going right for me and nothing was working for Mark. 3-0

Round 4: Insurrection at Cividale vs Bob Bendis
Neither one of us had played this one before and Bob bid G0 and I Bid I0. Bob had the 2 MMG in the level 2 stone building and an upfront defense. Bob was crushing me and broke my 9-2 with the heavy on turn 1 as he armor assaulted up to the front. My 9-2 and HMG was never able to get in the game and I was not rolling well and was desperate. I kept moving forward on the 1 flank and was able to make some progress but my other flank was decimated. I was ready to resign but I kept pushing forward and went with a CC strategy since my fire attacks were getting me nowhere. I was able to win some CC and my 47mm tanks took out 2 of his tanks on lucky shots. This put Bob over the CVP cap. Bob explained after the game that if the Germans had just deployed and hunkered down in the VC buildings the Germans would win but it would be a boring game. 4-0 At this point I was the only undefeated player in the tournament and in first place.


Round 5 Eagles against Lions vs Doug Kirk
This is an interesting little scenario with some options for both sides. Doug set up 1.5 squads and a leader in CC with one of my partisan squads and took him out before the game started. Doug was rolling a lot of 3's to start but fortunately that was my sniper and I broke a 1/2 squad and pinned a key defender. A lot of crazy stuff happened in this scenario with both of us rolling some high dice at inopportune times. I had 3 MA malfunctions on my tanks which is especially bad in this scenario since the tanks no longer count for EVP. We alternating thinking the other person was winning several times in the scenario. I made the mistake? of firing on a broken unit which proceeded to BH and hero create. In the end the hero had the winning PF shot on the last turn. I still had a chance to get enough points off but I rolled like 5 10's on MC which kept me from getting my infantry off. I got 7 out of the 10 points needed to exit. 4-1. I dropped from 1st to 3rd place because of the point system (2 of the people that I had beat did not play in the last round which cost me some points). This seems to happen to me a lot at St Louis and Chicago. I have never won a major tournament even though being the clear leader going into the last round.


I had a great time and many thanks to Jim Burris and Doug Kirk for this excellent tournament.


Stan
 

Mister T

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I dropped from 1st to 3rd place because of the point system (2 of the people that I had beat did not play in the last round which cost me some points).
It is not unusual to see players not going till the very end of an event. Tiebreakers may anticipate that by counting only the three/four best results of opponents.
 

Eagle4ty

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One of the reasons I play all rounds in a tournament that are scored that way even if I'm definitely not in the running. By bowing out of the last round you can hurt another guy that is in the hunt for the laurels.
 

Stewart

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One of the reasons I play all rounds in a tournament that are scored that way even if I'm definitely not in the running. By bowing out of the last round you can hurt another guy that is in the hunt for the laurels.
Understood, but what is the incentive?
And some players "MIGHT" want to lose intentionally to prevent the player that beat them to benefit with other wins.

Yeah, it happens from time to time.
Kindof a flaw it seems....What is the remedy taken by the TD?
 

Eagle4ty

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Understood, but what is the incentive?
And some players "MIGHT" want to lose intentionally to prevent the player that beat them to benefit with other wins.

Yeah, it happens from time to time.
Kindof a flaw it seems....What is the remedy taken by the TD?
The incentive is to play ASL. I've had some great tournament results and some not so great but had a great time and met/played some great people none-the-less. My incentive is to win more games than I lost regardless of my standings (not always accomplished) and have fun at a tournament (always accomplished thus far).

In all my time (and it's substantial with ASL) I've never seen a player throw a game in a tournament setting simply to submarine a player that had previously beaten him, nor have I ever heard of such action. I do not believe "Yeah, it happens from time to time." for one minute. Sure some people will leave early because they aren't winning or for whatever reason, but usually you don't find that type of activity conducted by players that have played the top tier opponents. Indeed I have seen highly rated players ask to be allowed to just play for fun because they know they won't be able to finish the full tournament schedule of scenarios.
 

MajorDomo

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I would suggest a random die roll among all tied players.

It is clear, fair and avoids all the cloudiness of who played, left early.....
 

Stewart

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I understand your incentive, but that's obviously not shared by everyone.

The early departures must be scored fairly
 
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