St. Louis Tourney 2017

davegin

Senior Member
Joined
Apr 19, 2010
Messages
378
Reaction score
645
Location
North Olmsted, Ohio
Country
llUnited States
Left Cleveland around 9 AM Thursday. Got to Tom Cvetinovich's in Indy sometime after 2 PM. Tom drove the rental the last leg to St. Louis arriving around 7:30 PM. Check in, check gaming room, and finally "Beerthirty" at Chili's.
Friday morning buffet breakfast. Then on to first round festivities. I ran into Jeff DeYoung in the hallway and as we hadn't played in a while we agreed on StL 12: What Doesn't Kill You. A little Jap/Chinese skirmish in Burma with the Chinese trying to clear the Japs from a road section. I was able to break through Jeff's left flank defense fairly quickly and was pushing his forces back across the whole road length. Meanwhile, a Stuart w a pesky supporting squad was getting in behind his retreating force. With too many losses to get back adjacent to the road, Jeff threw in the towel. Great game that seemed to go exactly as I had planned. 1-0

Round two: With plenty of time before the round at 6 PM, Phil Seymour and I having both finished early decided to set up Wunderwaffe for fun. (We knew we wouldn't have time to finish). We played into turn three but then decided to get dinner. When we returned, we realized that we were playing each other in the 2nd round. Both wanting to play PTO, we choose BFP 30 Melee Near The Coast. We diced for sides, and I got the attacking Japanese. Phil weakly defended the valley building with 3 squads and had the bulk of his force on the hills. I sent a small force with one mortar center-right to try and secure the valley and the main attack straight up the path with the option to veer left and assault the hill. Two WP rounds in the valley resulted in 2 of Phil's 3 squads breaking so a quick banzai finished off the last one. This gave me 6 buildings very quickly. As Phil could sense that I had no fear in assaulting adjacent to him on the hill, he decided to pull back to the village where it would be easier to defend. By turn four, I was turning his left flank and moving on the two buildings along the road to brace for his reinforcements. Meanwhile, I smoked his mmg and used the wall and bamboo to get up next to his defenders. By turn 7, I had all twelve building, but knew he could easily take two back, but he would have to take his last available squad and cross the road to try and get into CC to deny me the ten I needed. His squad broke on a 12 up 1 and the game was over.
A real pleasure playing Phil for the first time. 2-0

Round 3: Buffet breakfast and back at it. This time I am matched up with Mark DeVries. Not wanting to break a streak we chose another PTO: HOB's Buckeye Blitzkrieg. We both wanted the American attackers so we diced for it with the loser getting the balance. I got the US and Mark the Jap with balance. This scenario has 5 pillboxes in designated hexes with free CA and the US must capture 4. The US player can also place 6 wire and 3 foxholes hidden before the jap sets up. These are eliminated or kept after jap setup if in the same hex as a jap unit. With the one pill off to the far right, I decided to put a line of wire between it and the other four. That way it would not ever be in my way but would severely slow him down trying to get back to it. I then assaulted everyone from the left of center with the three tanks going up the center through the wheat to advance as far as possible without having to enter jungle. I was surprised that Mark had about three units visible at start (although concealed) that I could prep or opp fire at. So I used the mortars and the AA gun for prep. His two forward squads got eliminated and his mortar had to pull back. This gave me optimum movement down the path. A strong push on the left with flamethrower support took his two right flank pills without too much struggle. This left me two full turns to attack the other two from three sides as I was now behind him. Just in case of something freaky happening, I sent a full squad CXing down the center path toward the pill on the far right. As I had anticipated, Mark had not even defended this one. Reacting, he sent a 9-1 with a full squad racing to beat me there and sure enough they hit the wire line letting me get there first. However, Mark rolled a 2 on the first wire and a one on the second to get through quickly. I fired my squad (12 - 1) got a 2MC and both the 9-1 and squad went beserk on successive snakes. Oh well, I held it for a half turn anyway. BY turn 7, I had control of the four pills and he had no one left to try to retake. Great game with a ton of action. 3-0

Round 4: Raffle and BBQ. Then on to battle. This round saw me matched up with Scott Martin. We had played twice before (at St. Louis last year, and March Madness this year.) I was 2-0 in tose playings, so I felt a little confident. We liked a PTO and an ETO. So we diced it and ended up with YASL's Making a Break For It. We diced for sides with Scott getting the attacking Brits and I the defending Germans. Scott came in hard and heavy on his right flank with some infiltrators up the middle. My D-fire was atrocious. There is an LV +1 hindrance always. But still most of my shots were down 1. 7 shots with an end result of one pin. Scott's advance fire breaks the lead 2-1/2 defenders. Next turn, my 9-1 rolls fate followed by a 6 on an NMC, squad breaks. I now have only two functioning squads to face his horde, and no leaders on that side of the board to rally the 3 brokes. Turn 3 and 4 saw Scott steadily advancing, but with some deft manuervering, I was able to manage to get some of my right flank defenders into the game including my 8-1 ldr who eventually was able to rally the 3 brokes. On Scott's final movement he had plenty of the exit points in position. My only hope is that the far left ss squad in a stone building can cover 2 open ground exit hexes. My one ss squad on first level on the right of the exit area to cover 2 more open ground hexes. And my HIP AA gun (with a 2 rate IFE) to cover the road he must cross to get off. First shot, AA gun 4 -1 rolls a 12. Second shot, 1MC from my right sqd on his exiting squad. Three +1LV and Scott shrugs it off. But Scott generates a one sniper from my roll which immediately zeroes in on the left squad in the stone bdlg., breaking him. With no one left to fire and leave residual in the two remaining OG exit hexes, I concede. Third meeting with Scott and each time was such a hoot I can't tell you which time I enjoyed better. 3-1. Scott on to the finals.

Round 5: Buffet breakfast. Check out. And back to it. Sunday morning and I find myself matched up with 3-1 Bob Zinselmeyer. Don't think we ever played before. To hell with non-PTO, and we choose Buckley's Block. Bob has the defending Marines and I the Jap. Turn one I move in heavy up the jungle on the left. Lightly defended and I don't see much. Turn two, banzai charge 1-1/2 marine squads on Bob's right flank. They break and route back. Japs control up the center also and maneuvering two mtrs into place. Bob has a pesky 1/2 squad with an mmg holding his left. Turn 3 I banzai the 1/2 sq./mmg to free up a path through the palm trees. Bob kills the leader, the reduced sqd, and breaks the full sq to a half and then breaks him again with fpf. However, Japs are making solid push on their left. Bob pops up his 1/2 track and positions his hmg for the endgame. However, I have a lt. mtr lined up on the 1/2 track in a jungle hex. Four straight shots, one per 1/2 turn all result in tens with no rates. But by turn 5, I have second lt. mtr. in place. Roll double twos for hit and rate. Snakes!!!! Goodbye 1/2 track, hello 4 needed points. (Bob had malf'd the MA on an intensive fire shot the turn before.) Last turn, I carefully start exiting so as to force Bpb's residual where I want it to create exit paths. Great playing. It was a real pleasure playing Bob and I hope we meet again. 4-1.

Grab Tom who had just finished up and head back home. My only regret, not having even more time with my friends. Got Tom home by 8:30 PM, I pulled in my driveway at 1:30AM, I was so tired that I didn't even wake Diane.
 

Eagle4ty

Forum Guru
Joined
Nov 7, 2007
Messages
6,913
Reaction score
5,094
Location
Eau Claire, Wi
Country
llUnited States
Nice breakdown Dave. Playing Jeff & Mark is always a fun start to any get-together (haven't played any of the others yet). Looks as if you had a very good and fun tournament time.

ps. Did you wear your "Cpt America" slippers to give you that extra boost?:rolleyes::D
 
Top