Paul S NJ
Senior Member
Had a great time at the Chicago ASL Open! David runs a sharp tournament and it’s excellent to see all the guys from the great mid-west.Round 1 - DB130 Tigers and Flames vs George Tournemire of France/Belguim
It's nice to see George come all the way from Europe. He is one of the best players around and we've had some good games and discussions about rules and/or life.
I had the attacking Russians with the tournament rules upgrading the rear ATG to a 75L and also making the flame tanks more realistic with AFV to kill penalties for motion/motion target.
I managed to human wave and overrun George’s board 56 delaying force (including killing the StuG) on turn 1. George fired a ton of shots at the squad who froze his Stug. But a broken half squad survived to spell it’s doom to a T34 bounding-fire conga line. His rear 75L ATG was covering that side of the board. After it took out one T34, I put a T34 in bypass of it’s hex. In CC the crew killed itself via crew small arms (boxcars) - ouch.
I was originally planning to simply bypass the bd 57 delaying force, but I thought the HMG and 75L ATG would be too disruptive in my flank. Turn 2 I sent my three OT-34’s flame tanks against his bd 57 troops. I disabled one FT but took that force out. By that point I had killed or captured the entire rearguard while losing two T34’s for both 75L’s and one Stug. In Germany turn 2 I massacred the rearguard prisoners.
By turn 3 I was entering the edge of the village and feeling good. However I made a couple mistakes. I flamed some infantry and disabled a second FT. Then I had a choice, use my tanks to interdict his infantry reinforcements or go after his last StuG. I went after the StuG and I missed three flanking 4 or 5 TH rolls (missing twice due to small target size) while George kept his fire discipline and didn’t shoot. I tried to freeze it by entering his hex with a OT-34 with a disabled FT, but I had gone CE and George correctly pointed out that the 76L wasn’t able to fire when CE. Then George got his IF shot after pivoting to take out my last tank with a functioning FT.
My infantry did well taking half the village, but losing all three FT”s hurt me too much. I sortied forward my T- 34's and my tanks had two flank hits on Tigers, but missed the TK rolls. George executed my tanks one by one. My infantry, unsupported and facing all his vehicles, weren’t able to cross the road and take the last two buildings. 0-1
Rules learnings:
- During a human wave, an SMC overrun doesn’t require extra MF nor a NTC and can force an immediate CC.
- when overrunning an enemy unit that has a friendly unit in the hex which is not in melee (in this case due to a human wave) the friendly unit is not affected. D7.1 in not 100% clear on this, as it says “an AFV may declare an overrun vs. units in that location” without specifying enemy units and friendly units and/or those in melee.
- a massacre increases enemy ELR by one only once/game (not once per occasion) to max of ELR 6 (not ELR5).
Round 2 - PP08 No simple Victory vs Dan Best of Kansas City
I was excited to play this scenario, and doubly so vs. its designer Dan. Dice gave me the defending partisans (20 337 with lots of mg’s and a mortar). Dan’s 10x628 and 20x527 with four commissars had tremendous short range firepower, but they HAVE to get close to use it. Dan chose to go through the woods on his left flank rather than cross the open ground on his right.
Half my troops were on that flank and they sacrificed themselves to slow down Dan’s attack, often by presenting a wall of broken troops. The NKVD firepower was awesome and whittled away my partisans in Adv fire, but it was slow moving through the woods. My 10-2 led HMG and mortar discouraged any fast movement in the open or along the edge of the woods mass. I did break the HMG, MMG and the mortar (twice), but managed to keep repairing them.
By Russian turn 5 I had lost 9 SE to 3.5 of Dan’s, but he still needed another turn just to reach the end of the woods. In the end he ran out of time to swing around to take the VC location. Personally I think the NKVD must risk the open ground and cross it using human waves, trusting in the increased morale and commissars. 8 turns seems like a lot of time, but in this scenario it really isn’t. 1-1
Rules learnings
- I never use battlefield integrity, it was new to me that a 10% loss triggers a ROLL for potential ELR reduction, I thought it was automatic.
Round 3 - SP259 Corridor to Extinction vs Doug Kirk of Missouri
Great to see Doug again. We both picked our preferred sides with me taking the Germans. This is a fun, tourney sized scenario with 7 658 plus two HIP pz4 and a HIP JgPz VI blitzed by 10 elite Russians with 6 T34/85 plus two scout cars. Like many SP scenarios it’s short at 4.5 turns. The Russians need to basically obliterate the germans and exit a tank. I don’t think there is any one perfect setup, which gives it good replay value.
Doug lost two tanks turn 1, which put him a bit behind. He recovered well with his 9-1 armor leader getting a bounding fire snakes to kill one Pz4, winning a hull down duel to kill the other one, and then on the last turn it broke the final infantry strong point. That's why he's the 9-1! The highlight for me was self-rallying a 658, creating a 8-1; and then prep firing a snakes to break a 9-2 and KIA a 628. Conversely a 348 FPF’ed a 12 - ‘that’s why you don’t do that’.
I had poor luck finding PF, but the German tanks and infantry kept the JgPz safe. The big boy ran into the VC area and stayed in motion on my last turn. In Doug’s last turn he needed to stick that pig. He took one T34 on a drive-by, but missed his shot. The JgPz managed to break a 8-1/458 with a 2(-1) in-motion BMG DFF shot. Doug advanced a 9-2/628 into CC with the JgPz and needed a 6 to win the game, but rolled a 7. A fun, close game. 2-1
Rules learning:
- Wet/moist EC makes it easier to extinguish the flames, not just tougher to blaze.
- D9.4 an AFV/wreck in bypass does not hinder a shot through the hex if it doesn’t go through the hexside.
Round 4 -J19 Merzenhausen Zoo vs Steve Dennis of Detroit
This is an all-time classic scenario. I played this with a Gary Mei recently and he used just the two Stuarts’ canister (can you say 12+1 with ROF?) and one Croc to kill half my troops and AFV's by turn 2. In this game, the pregame NTC checks took out two of my dummy vehicle stacks (as per the Perry Sez) and cost me a couple MG boresights. My setup channeled Steve into the Koresh compound. Turn 2 Steve sent some tanks ahead and my 50L gun and PSK took out two of them. I sent my 75LL JgPzIV forward chasing Shermans. Steve did a nice job using smoke from tanks and infantry to screen his troops and cut LOS to his tanks. However, once he fell behind Steve got more aggressive with his tanks. By US turn 5, 7 of 12 were dead without any German AFV losses and he resigned. 3-1
Round 5 WO18 A Quick Strike vs Dave Ginnard of Cleveland
It's always a pleasure to play Dave. He is an excellent player, a connoiseur of movies and plays, and brings along good beer. I violated the first principle of Ohio ASL, which is to never let Dave play the IJA. There are billboards around Cleveland proclaiming this!
Dice gave me the attacking US in this nice tournament sized PTO scenario. 13.5 US SE (with only 3 leaders) vs 7 IJA SE (plus two 228/MMGs). The US had 6.5 turns to go 14 hexes, which sounds easy enough. Dense Jungle, Swamp and bamboo severely constrict lines of movement, making for a cross-hatch of one and two hex wide avenues down and across the board. Four HIP pillboxes (with tunnels) and a HIP SE add to the defense.
He had a couple pairs of dummies up front in bamboo which I recon'ed using WP grenades. Dave had a HIP 447/lmg start off laying a firelane across my starting line. It broke one half nut who never rallied, broke the lmg on the first FL shot, and then broke a 666 in final fire before a DC discouraged him significantly (break and ELR).
In my turn 2 an 8-0 failed to rally the non-dm squad, Dave then moved up to surround the hapless dudes.
By turn 2 though I had found a hole in Dave's central defense and ran everyone else straight up the middle. Dave's luck was terrible with 80% of his shots at 9 or above for most of the game. I was often able to run 666's up taking 8+1 shots, and then AdvFire 12+1 to punish the defenders.
By turn 5 I had a mass of US troops in the central jungle close to exit with the two leader/228/MMG stacks in front of them and only a few 447 remnants in support. On turn 6 I was able to snake around to my left and find a unguarded path to the board edge. On the last turn this allowed me to exit the required CVP (though not with much to spare). 4-1
Round 6- RPT103 Nikolai's Stars vs. Curtis Brooks of Wisconsin
Against Doug Kirk's advice we picked this one which has a heroic 10-3 with 18 squads, OBA and 5 T-34/85 vs. 14 Hungarian SE (plus 75L, 81 MTR, HMG, MMG) reinforced by 3 German 467, 3 HT and two Panthers. The russians need to cross some open ground and take a two story stone building and a two level wood building. I used riders, assault movement, my one smoke dispenser per game on the tanks to cross the open ground surprisingly successfully turn 1. Curtis said he made a mistake in putting the HMG at 2nd level on his right rear instead of in the stone VC building. My advancing fire and then defensive fire was lucky and broke 5 hungarian forward squads. This let me blitz forward on turn 2 and 3 and get into the stone building (losing a tank to the gun). By german turn 3 I felt good as I had the final axis GO squad in the stone VC building in CC, the gun crew in CC, and had only lost one tank. In the next couple player turns though Curtis managed a couple low odds CC rolls, a critical hit on my 10-3 with the mortar, and some good bounding fire by the german reinforcements to break my observer. I had to leave to catch my flight and Curtis had the advantage (60/40?) so on Russian turn 5 I conceded. Good game, although I think Doug's right that the russians need help, maybe another tank or a SU122 for some smoke/long range fire.
Great tournament! Congrats to bret on the win. Since I had the chance to play Bret at Winter Offensive, my only regrets are not playing Bendis and Vaughn. I'll have to catch up with you guys another time!
Paul
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