daveramsey
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- Jun 10, 2006
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- Hertfordshire
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Hi All,
I was lucky enough to play 61 scenarios this year, so here in Chronological order were the scenarios and highlights of the last 12 months:
In January I started off with some preparation for Berserk with For A Few Rounds More, which I think is a pretty underrated scenario. Sure, it's dicey, but when the 280mm guns hit, who doesn't like rolling on the heavy payload tables?
Ham and Bloody Jam became my first night scenario, pretty pro British if their landings go well. Martin landed them on the perfect position to the bridge and had no problems moping up the old German men who were still snoozing in bed.
The Fields of Black Gold was my second ever Friendly fire scenario, and proved to me that the guys from Sweden weren't lucky with the first game I'd played (Maczek Fire Brigade) and that their scenarios are really worth a good look (I've since bought all 4 packs)
Strangers in a Strange Land, For Honor Alone and Last chance breakthrough were all random selections from the Archive.
Rostov Redemption (those friendly fire guys again) was my CyberASL game which I remember enjoying and coming down to the wire and then it was off to Berserk.
Morire in Belleza against Dominic McGrath who I think was in the top 3 rated players there that year, went pretty close from my memory - I think I needed good luck on the last turn, which statistically was never going to happen, but close enough for me to think I'd given him a good game.
Fruit and Nuts against Miles was a strange little PTO affair that was more about sneakiness than fighting.
The Five Pound Prize I robbed my nemisis, John O'Reilly of a win with a lucky snake-eyes on the last turn. That scenario will live long in my memory thanks to the wonderful Vinnie (Mr Vickers) who was telling Martin, who was watching our game, a funny story that John and I only caught the punchline to: "And then we realised it was only the Dining room table!". Much laughter and hilarity there, for sure!
Lousy Crossroads against James Neary, one of the best scenarios from the Hero Packs, and my second playing of it. If you have the HP scenarios and haven't played this one, give it a go. I won this thanks to an incredible cannister firing tank that just destroyed everything. Looking back, I think I may have had the rules a bit wrong with the to hits etc there (no TH for cannister?) anyway...
Assaulting Tes, urg, too hard and too late in the day for this bad boy. the Russians have plenty to do here and I was no where near playing to the top of my game. One to forget there!
Back on home ground Patton Breaks Loose was chosen because it was on the back of a card that was already out. It came down to the last CC but I'm struggling to remember more than that. I think Martin had problems with his sangers but it's all a bit vague.
The Bushmasters was a game chosen by John O'Reilly for its famous hordes of Japanese reinforcements. Unfortunately John knows his stuff and lined up in firing squad formation against the Banzai (by SSR) that was herded into the only place it was allowed on the map. It's down as pretty unbalanced, but John made sure the Japanese knew what it's like to lose that one as I was destroyed in just a couple of turns.
The Darkest Day - a cracker of a scenario and a thrilling introduction to VotG, that went down to the wire. One of my top scenarios ever for intensity and enjoyment. I snuck it right at the end with a couple of CC that swung my way but the combination of CVP cap, timing and buildings to take made this one really stand out for me.
Swallowed Whole my first from the DP guys. My Germans didn't put up a good showing there, as JoR racked up another win against me.
The Red Wave, a loss in the Cyber tourney was followed by Guards Attack which John suggested we play given its poor balance. I duely won but for such an unbalanced scenario, John gave a great showing and took it right to the last turn.
The Dead of Winter, a game where if it could break it will break - weapons and squads inclusive followed by a real thrashing against John again in Wunderwaffe - the choice as to whether to hide the guns or not was pretty simple in the end. They revealed themselves, took every shot they could and cleared the battlefield of everything that stood in their way. Wunderwaffe indeed.
Humped Guns from the Blood and Iron pack that I was lucky enough to be the receive from Bruce on the Forums (thanks again, Bruce) was my first caves game. Attacking caves can be pretty daunting, so lucky enough a combinations of rules errors and bad dice for the Americans gave me the win.
The Clog was a nice dessert after that cave complex main course, and was played ftf straight after Humped Guns. Tactical and to the point, this scenario didn't disappoint.
Angels at the Airfield, thanks to the random scenario picker gave me this tricky one and I pulled out a win for the US pretty much thanks to the unreliable Japanese HMGs.
He Who Hesitates, a trip to the desert and again Martin suffered from bad luck with reliability. Tanks lining up to fire at each other seemed to sum this one up, but with all desert scenarios after I played this one, I wondered why I don't play more desert games.
Back to Stalingrad for The Specialists' House which was a bit more gamey and couldn't quite capture the same Darkest Day feeling. We were quite happy to not have to play the second half of that one and in the end played a great game of Cat Becomes the Mouse whose ending was played out in this thread.
They Fired on Odessa... a loss in the Cyber tournament and then my least favoured scenario of the year: Ad Hoc at Beaurains urg. Just horrible.
Eye of the Tiger, lost in this popular scenario to Martin and then beat him in The French Decide to Fight where the key really is to find the Vichy guns.
Bydgoszcz Coup a real knife fight in a swirling sea of melees - delux style, from the ASLOK pack on the archive, and then my first playing of Fighting Withdrawal where my Russians didn't so much as withdraw but were kicked off the map. The Finns forgot about getting off the map quickly enough though so I pulled out a win from what looked to be a massacre!
The Last VC in Europe, against JoR and his winning streak continued, although the game was pretty finely balanced until one prep fire phase where I think he broke every unit of mine on the board - it was bizarre!
Broken Beek, bit of a slog that ended in defeat against one squad who generated 2 heroes on the last building defending the exit hexes. Surviving 2 down 4 shots to win was never likely, and that was that.
The Agony of Doom Martin gamely taking the Russians, a last CC roll for the win in Surrender Or Die, the enjoyable Rocket's Red Glare and the gritty The Ceramic Factory made up a fantastic weekend of ASL as Martin and I wangled a 2 day special at my house followed by The Crossroads where you buy everything you start with in a DYO fashion. It's from the Tactiques set and worth checking out just so you can say you've tried some DYO!
Urban Guerillas, much overdue and with no extra half squads generated, it came down to the last turn dash.
Probing Layforce a loss against Martin and a real marathon to run for the british. One that probable plays better ftf than vasl due to the large map and long los to work out, the not so hot Tretten in Flames against Simon. 3rd RTR in the Rain tournament prep that we messed up by thinking grain was in season, The Duel crazy 2 board/2 game scenario from the GI pack and then a couple of playings of The Reluctant Tiger for the tournament prep, which we then didn't end up playing.
Onto Intensive Fire in Bournemouth: The Last Tiger, 3rd RTR in the Rain in the minis and then Martin and I pulled out of the tournament for numbers to play The Streets of Stalingrad, Hill 621, Tod's Last Stand and finally The Feineisen Factor which was one of the stand out best scenarios of 2008 for me.
Silesian Interlude against a new opponent foe me, Ian (custardpie), Bridge to Nowhere (good scenario), Through Fire And Ice in preparation for a game in Blackpool, Glennbo's Road Kill and a live game of Holding the Hotton Bridge against Ian whose introduction to bridge crossings didn't go so well.
A lesson in ASL against Toby Piling at LASL, the London club, in The Lisjanka Epitaph - to be fair it came down to the last turn, but Toby was like a cat toying with a wounded mouse. My one highlight was killing his Panther with a DC, but in a scenario where building control is the aim, that sums up my showing! Toby beat me good and proper, so I only thought it fair to take on his advice and then play arch nemesis John O'Reilly in this with me taking the favoured Russians. If the scenario previous was a major defeat, this was was a slaughter. I was utterly destroyed in two turns (and that's being generous to me) thanks to my attrocious setup on the attack, and worse tactics during the brief time that my Russians had left to live!
Back to the Holding the Hotton Bridge against Martin who couldn't find a way across the bridge either so we moved onto The Streets of Carpiquet from womb of this forum, and finally gave Rob (macrobo) the beating he was so keen to have in the puzzle-come-dice fest Escape from Komsomol Park from VotG.
A great year in ASL for me. 61 games, 40 wins, 19 defeats and a tie (Streets of Stalingrad). Not sure if I'll ever beat that count in a year again, but I'll give it a go for 2009!
Thanks for getting this far
Dave
I was lucky enough to play 61 scenarios this year, so here in Chronological order were the scenarios and highlights of the last 12 months:
In January I started off with some preparation for Berserk with For A Few Rounds More, which I think is a pretty underrated scenario. Sure, it's dicey, but when the 280mm guns hit, who doesn't like rolling on the heavy payload tables?
Ham and Bloody Jam became my first night scenario, pretty pro British if their landings go well. Martin landed them on the perfect position to the bridge and had no problems moping up the old German men who were still snoozing in bed.
The Fields of Black Gold was my second ever Friendly fire scenario, and proved to me that the guys from Sweden weren't lucky with the first game I'd played (Maczek Fire Brigade) and that their scenarios are really worth a good look (I've since bought all 4 packs)
Strangers in a Strange Land, For Honor Alone and Last chance breakthrough were all random selections from the Archive.
Rostov Redemption (those friendly fire guys again) was my CyberASL game which I remember enjoying and coming down to the wire and then it was off to Berserk.
Morire in Belleza against Dominic McGrath who I think was in the top 3 rated players there that year, went pretty close from my memory - I think I needed good luck on the last turn, which statistically was never going to happen, but close enough for me to think I'd given him a good game.
Fruit and Nuts against Miles was a strange little PTO affair that was more about sneakiness than fighting.
The Five Pound Prize I robbed my nemisis, John O'Reilly of a win with a lucky snake-eyes on the last turn. That scenario will live long in my memory thanks to the wonderful Vinnie (Mr Vickers) who was telling Martin, who was watching our game, a funny story that John and I only caught the punchline to: "And then we realised it was only the Dining room table!". Much laughter and hilarity there, for sure!
Lousy Crossroads against James Neary, one of the best scenarios from the Hero Packs, and my second playing of it. If you have the HP scenarios and haven't played this one, give it a go. I won this thanks to an incredible cannister firing tank that just destroyed everything. Looking back, I think I may have had the rules a bit wrong with the to hits etc there (no TH for cannister?) anyway...
Assaulting Tes, urg, too hard and too late in the day for this bad boy. the Russians have plenty to do here and I was no where near playing to the top of my game. One to forget there!
Back on home ground Patton Breaks Loose was chosen because it was on the back of a card that was already out. It came down to the last CC but I'm struggling to remember more than that. I think Martin had problems with his sangers but it's all a bit vague.
The Bushmasters was a game chosen by John O'Reilly for its famous hordes of Japanese reinforcements. Unfortunately John knows his stuff and lined up in firing squad formation against the Banzai (by SSR) that was herded into the only place it was allowed on the map. It's down as pretty unbalanced, but John made sure the Japanese knew what it's like to lose that one as I was destroyed in just a couple of turns.
The Darkest Day - a cracker of a scenario and a thrilling introduction to VotG, that went down to the wire. One of my top scenarios ever for intensity and enjoyment. I snuck it right at the end with a couple of CC that swung my way but the combination of CVP cap, timing and buildings to take made this one really stand out for me.
Swallowed Whole my first from the DP guys. My Germans didn't put up a good showing there, as JoR racked up another win against me.
The Red Wave, a loss in the Cyber tourney was followed by Guards Attack which John suggested we play given its poor balance. I duely won but for such an unbalanced scenario, John gave a great showing and took it right to the last turn.
The Dead of Winter, a game where if it could break it will break - weapons and squads inclusive followed by a real thrashing against John again in Wunderwaffe - the choice as to whether to hide the guns or not was pretty simple in the end. They revealed themselves, took every shot they could and cleared the battlefield of everything that stood in their way. Wunderwaffe indeed.
Humped Guns from the Blood and Iron pack that I was lucky enough to be the receive from Bruce on the Forums (thanks again, Bruce) was my first caves game. Attacking caves can be pretty daunting, so lucky enough a combinations of rules errors and bad dice for the Americans gave me the win.
The Clog was a nice dessert after that cave complex main course, and was played ftf straight after Humped Guns. Tactical and to the point, this scenario didn't disappoint.
Angels at the Airfield, thanks to the random scenario picker gave me this tricky one and I pulled out a win for the US pretty much thanks to the unreliable Japanese HMGs.
He Who Hesitates, a trip to the desert and again Martin suffered from bad luck with reliability. Tanks lining up to fire at each other seemed to sum this one up, but with all desert scenarios after I played this one, I wondered why I don't play more desert games.
Back to Stalingrad for The Specialists' House which was a bit more gamey and couldn't quite capture the same Darkest Day feeling. We were quite happy to not have to play the second half of that one and in the end played a great game of Cat Becomes the Mouse whose ending was played out in this thread.
They Fired on Odessa... a loss in the Cyber tournament and then my least favoured scenario of the year: Ad Hoc at Beaurains urg. Just horrible.
Eye of the Tiger, lost in this popular scenario to Martin and then beat him in The French Decide to Fight where the key really is to find the Vichy guns.
Bydgoszcz Coup a real knife fight in a swirling sea of melees - delux style, from the ASLOK pack on the archive, and then my first playing of Fighting Withdrawal where my Russians didn't so much as withdraw but were kicked off the map. The Finns forgot about getting off the map quickly enough though so I pulled out a win from what looked to be a massacre!
The Last VC in Europe, against JoR and his winning streak continued, although the game was pretty finely balanced until one prep fire phase where I think he broke every unit of mine on the board - it was bizarre!
Broken Beek, bit of a slog that ended in defeat against one squad who generated 2 heroes on the last building defending the exit hexes. Surviving 2 down 4 shots to win was never likely, and that was that.
The Agony of Doom Martin gamely taking the Russians, a last CC roll for the win in Surrender Or Die, the enjoyable Rocket's Red Glare and the gritty The Ceramic Factory made up a fantastic weekend of ASL as Martin and I wangled a 2 day special at my house followed by The Crossroads where you buy everything you start with in a DYO fashion. It's from the Tactiques set and worth checking out just so you can say you've tried some DYO!
Urban Guerillas, much overdue and with no extra half squads generated, it came down to the last turn dash.
Probing Layforce a loss against Martin and a real marathon to run for the british. One that probable plays better ftf than vasl due to the large map and long los to work out, the not so hot Tretten in Flames against Simon. 3rd RTR in the Rain tournament prep that we messed up by thinking grain was in season, The Duel crazy 2 board/2 game scenario from the GI pack and then a couple of playings of The Reluctant Tiger for the tournament prep, which we then didn't end up playing.
Onto Intensive Fire in Bournemouth: The Last Tiger, 3rd RTR in the Rain in the minis and then Martin and I pulled out of the tournament for numbers to play The Streets of Stalingrad, Hill 621, Tod's Last Stand and finally The Feineisen Factor which was one of the stand out best scenarios of 2008 for me.
Silesian Interlude against a new opponent foe me, Ian (custardpie), Bridge to Nowhere (good scenario), Through Fire And Ice in preparation for a game in Blackpool, Glennbo's Road Kill and a live game of Holding the Hotton Bridge against Ian whose introduction to bridge crossings didn't go so well.
A lesson in ASL against Toby Piling at LASL, the London club, in The Lisjanka Epitaph - to be fair it came down to the last turn, but Toby was like a cat toying with a wounded mouse. My one highlight was killing his Panther with a DC, but in a scenario where building control is the aim, that sums up my showing! Toby beat me good and proper, so I only thought it fair to take on his advice and then play arch nemesis John O'Reilly in this with me taking the favoured Russians. If the scenario previous was a major defeat, this was was a slaughter. I was utterly destroyed in two turns (and that's being generous to me) thanks to my attrocious setup on the attack, and worse tactics during the brief time that my Russians had left to live!
Back to the Holding the Hotton Bridge against Martin who couldn't find a way across the bridge either so we moved onto The Streets of Carpiquet from womb of this forum, and finally gave Rob (macrobo) the beating he was so keen to have in the puzzle-come-dice fest Escape from Komsomol Park from VotG.
A great year in ASL for me. 61 games, 40 wins, 19 defeats and a tie (Streets of Stalingrad). Not sure if I'll ever beat that count in a year again, but I'll give it a go for 2009!
Thanks for getting this far
Dave
