Paul John
Senior Member
First, thanks to the organizers for a fun weekend of ASL. My first time there and it met expectations. Sorry for forgetting several last names...
Round 1, East Front: I was paired with Bryce and we chose FrF93, Wiener Waltz. I played the attacking Germans and chose to sweep right from the entry and straight to the victory locations. I lucked out when I drove right next to his HIP BT-7A as it missed a couple of fairly easy shots. The AT gun was guarding the other flank and so I avoided it all game. My AT gun rolled on, unloaded, and promptly took out the BT in the following turn, leaving the center mine. I moved easily into the upper bridge and Bryce brought his reinforcements into the second. My squad that had moved across the creek was quickly pushed back, but I held the other side strongly. I then moved my Pz IIIs on, breaking and eliminating a mmg stack, but in all too frequent knuckleheaded fashion had neglected to notice that I had lined 3 of them in front of one of Bryce's T-34s. I expected to lose 2-3 of them, but smoke and horrible TK rolls saved me and they all scurried away. Failing to roll his vehicle kills was the theme of this one and I kept pushing until it was clear that Bryce could neither get enough CVP nor push me out of the VC hexes and conceded on the last turn. A tense and fun scenario with a lot of options. 1-0
Round 2, PTO: In this round I was paired with Alex, who carries the future of the game on his shoulders. He picked AP55, The Generalissimo's Own. I played the attacking Chinese and Alex had the defending Japanese. I was impressed by his daring in this choice as it was his second PTO game and first playing the Japanese. We burned the midnight oil, closing the room at 1:30, with a great game and several teaching pauses. Alex played a nice game, but in the end the Chinese were able to whittle down his squads to the point where building control was impossible, tilting the scales even though he had a clear win in the armor battle. 2-0
Round 3, Minor Nations: In this round I was paired with Dave Ginnard, our current torch bearer and inspiration to us all. We played BFP-114, Engineering Defeat in what turned out to be the funnest game of my tournament. Dave played the defending Poles and I was the attacking Germans. I chose to go straight up the middle and things went well from the beginning when I put a DC on his mmg stack and weathered a 20+2/8+2 in DF to break him out. On the right flank, I had several squads break, but there were enough to keep pushing. On the left, a couple 426 squads kept me occupied for quite a while, but it was a side show. Meanwhile, as I moved forward, my troops kept up the pressure and Dave responded with a master class in unlucky dice combinations. Every 1,1 he rolled in the first 4 turns led to a surrender, on a 2+3 fire lane residual shot, he broke the mg, etc. His reinforcements came on in the nick of time, but were too little to hold the third building and in my last turn I finished the 2 leaders in CC (even though they managed ambush, there was nowhere to go). I was a bit worried as I foolishly invoked no quarter on turn 4 or so and he was thus able to rout a couple squads out that would have surrendered. They came back to the fight, but a lucky sequence in CC took them out. Building control... don't invoke no quarter! Someday I'll learn that one. Dave played a great game and nearly pulled it off in spite of the dice hate he was getting, but I managed to squeak through. 3-0
Round 4, USA: I got paired with Doug Kirk, the eventual tournament winner on this one. We played ASL 187, Morgan's Stand with me as the defending Americans and Doug as the attacking Germans. I got utterly wrecked on this one in spite of better dice. Doug did a careful advance on my key fortress, including a nice trick to take out my Sherman. I managed a ridiculous swooping in and bounding fire kill on his AC, but it was irrelevent (albeit fun). My reinforcements came in late and Doug had a mg covering the bridge entry by then with the primary troops all on their back heel. An easy win for him. I am not sure what I did wrong or what I could do to win this one. So it goes! Congrats on the tournament crown Doug! 3-1
Round 5, British: In the third place game I got to play Scott Martin. We picked FrF 72, The Mubo Decision with me as the attacking Brits and Scott as the defending and attacking Japanese. This was a total blowout as I rolled beyond badly in my morale checks. One 7, and everything else a break. It was over by turn 3 with the Japanese reinforcements firmly in place and the Brits down to 6 squads. I had played this a few years ago and it was a great scenario, but the dice broke my will to live with great vim and vigor this time. I also blew it on interdicting Scott's reinforcement entry which would have likely led to him winning anyway, but it could have still been a close one. Congrats to Scott on the game and tournament! 3-2
All in all a fun and excellent tournament with an amazing amount of swag!
Round 1, East Front: I was paired with Bryce and we chose FrF93, Wiener Waltz. I played the attacking Germans and chose to sweep right from the entry and straight to the victory locations. I lucked out when I drove right next to his HIP BT-7A as it missed a couple of fairly easy shots. The AT gun was guarding the other flank and so I avoided it all game. My AT gun rolled on, unloaded, and promptly took out the BT in the following turn, leaving the center mine. I moved easily into the upper bridge and Bryce brought his reinforcements into the second. My squad that had moved across the creek was quickly pushed back, but I held the other side strongly. I then moved my Pz IIIs on, breaking and eliminating a mmg stack, but in all too frequent knuckleheaded fashion had neglected to notice that I had lined 3 of them in front of one of Bryce's T-34s. I expected to lose 2-3 of them, but smoke and horrible TK rolls saved me and they all scurried away. Failing to roll his vehicle kills was the theme of this one and I kept pushing until it was clear that Bryce could neither get enough CVP nor push me out of the VC hexes and conceded on the last turn. A tense and fun scenario with a lot of options. 1-0
Round 2, PTO: In this round I was paired with Alex, who carries the future of the game on his shoulders. He picked AP55, The Generalissimo's Own. I played the attacking Chinese and Alex had the defending Japanese. I was impressed by his daring in this choice as it was his second PTO game and first playing the Japanese. We burned the midnight oil, closing the room at 1:30, with a great game and several teaching pauses. Alex played a nice game, but in the end the Chinese were able to whittle down his squads to the point where building control was impossible, tilting the scales even though he had a clear win in the armor battle. 2-0
Round 3, Minor Nations: In this round I was paired with Dave Ginnard, our current torch bearer and inspiration to us all. We played BFP-114, Engineering Defeat in what turned out to be the funnest game of my tournament. Dave played the defending Poles and I was the attacking Germans. I chose to go straight up the middle and things went well from the beginning when I put a DC on his mmg stack and weathered a 20+2/8+2 in DF to break him out. On the right flank, I had several squads break, but there were enough to keep pushing. On the left, a couple 426 squads kept me occupied for quite a while, but it was a side show. Meanwhile, as I moved forward, my troops kept up the pressure and Dave responded with a master class in unlucky dice combinations. Every 1,1 he rolled in the first 4 turns led to a surrender, on a 2+3 fire lane residual shot, he broke the mg, etc. His reinforcements came on in the nick of time, but were too little to hold the third building and in my last turn I finished the 2 leaders in CC (even though they managed ambush, there was nowhere to go). I was a bit worried as I foolishly invoked no quarter on turn 4 or so and he was thus able to rout a couple squads out that would have surrendered. They came back to the fight, but a lucky sequence in CC took them out. Building control... don't invoke no quarter! Someday I'll learn that one. Dave played a great game and nearly pulled it off in spite of the dice hate he was getting, but I managed to squeak through. 3-0
Round 4, USA: I got paired with Doug Kirk, the eventual tournament winner on this one. We played ASL 187, Morgan's Stand with me as the defending Americans and Doug as the attacking Germans. I got utterly wrecked on this one in spite of better dice. Doug did a careful advance on my key fortress, including a nice trick to take out my Sherman. I managed a ridiculous swooping in and bounding fire kill on his AC, but it was irrelevent (albeit fun). My reinforcements came in late and Doug had a mg covering the bridge entry by then with the primary troops all on their back heel. An easy win for him. I am not sure what I did wrong or what I could do to win this one. So it goes! Congrats on the tournament crown Doug! 3-1
Round 5, British: In the third place game I got to play Scott Martin. We picked FrF 72, The Mubo Decision with me as the attacking Brits and Scott as the defending and attacking Japanese. This was a total blowout as I rolled beyond badly in my morale checks. One 7, and everything else a break. It was over by turn 3 with the Japanese reinforcements firmly in place and the Brits down to 6 squads. I had played this a few years ago and it was a great scenario, but the dice broke my will to live with great vim and vigor this time. I also blew it on interdicting Scott's reinforcement entry which would have likely led to him winning anyway, but it could have still been a close one. Congrats to Scott on the game and tournament! 3-2
All in all a fun and excellent tournament with an amazing amount of swag!
