King Scott
Senior Member
Here is my AAR from West Coast Melee this past weekend.
I had packed the car up the night before with all of my kit and several cases of beer, soda and bottled water, so after ducking out of work early for once, I arrived about 3:00 for the Thursday Recon. Being that I was bringing all of the liquid refreshments my arrival was well received. After getting everything unloaded and the drinks iced down, I spent some time saying hello to the other attendees and chatting ASL and what not with friends. I decided to save a couple Wife Points and head home relatively early on Thursday night, as I would not be back home again until Sunday night.
On Friday morning I settled in to what has become my WCM tradition…a first round game against my good friend Paul Simonsen. I had spent the week prior to WCM preparing playtest Communist Chinese counters for use in the Korea ASL project and paul was kind enough to play one of these with me. (I played several playtest scenarios over the weekend, so I will be intentionally vague about the details of those scenarios.) The scenario features a group of Marines defending a hill top against a massive Chinese night assault (44 squads!!!). The flow of the game saw the Chinese horde smash like a wave into the hill and up the slope…crashing over the crest in some places, Marines holding back the assault in some areas like a breakwater, Chinese following the “path of least resistance” and flowing around and even behind the hill. The Chinese were able to take one of the two peaks, but the other peak managed to hold on and whittle the attackers down to the point that they just couldn’t quite push the Marines out of the last few defensive positions…something in the neighborhood of 35 Chinese squads dead when the game ended…brutal. A very productive playtest with good notes taken for the scenario and KASL rules.
Long-time MIA player Bruce Kirkaldy has recently re-emerged upon the ASL scene. Bruce is an old-time So-Cal ASLer that many of us are very happy to have back with us. Bruce and I wanted to play against each other, and having no preference (or time before WCM to prepare a “want-to-play” list) I told Bruce to select a scenario…so Bruce picked out “Bread Factory #2” and we rolled for sides, which found me as the attacking Germans. The German 9-1 failed to go Berserk the entire game, which was a huge help to the Germans, by allowing him to help Encircle the bread factory buildings through the course of the game. I was very lucky in my dice rolls and was able to get some key breaks on the Russians (as well as passing some 1MC/2MC rolls) that allowed me to get into the buildings and push him back, even eliminating several Russian brokies in a cellar for Failure to Rout. This opened an opportunity for the Germans to rush into the recently captured buildings, man the captured MGs and hold off the Russian reinforcements.
On Saturday morning I paired up with Rich Domovic and we agreed to play one of the Melee Pack III playtest scenarios. The scenario we played featured the Britts holding off a Japanese attack aimed at capturing a village to the rear of the Britt front line. After dicing for sides it was determind that Rich would defend as the Britts and I would be the attacking Japanese. Rich fought an excellent running battle while delaying the Japanese as he fell back on the village. I was very aggressive with my assault from the beginning, wanting to keep Rich back on his heels and not wanting to allow him to have time to fall back and set up a proper defense. By keeping close on his heels I was able to keep pushing him back at the pace I needed. Rich got some good shots in on me and kept striping my squads, and my shots in return were mostly ineffective…however, in a diversion from my normally horrid luck with CC, the Japanese were doing well and killing or tying up Britts in Melee. The end of the game saw some key breaks on the Britts that allowed the Japanese to just barely take the last remaining hut on the last turn after breaking the last remaining Britt in Prep Fire. Rich has been a regular the last few years at WCM as he spends the winters in SoCal, but this was my first opportunity to play against him…and very glad that I did as Rich is a very good player, a great guy and a lot of fun to sit across the table from.
Next I was paired with David Meyers and we selected SP18 "An Arm and a Leg", and dicing for sides I ended up with the defending Germans. The game started out fairly well for my Germans. I was able to get some breaks on the Americans and survived some pretty nasty point blank shots. At the end of Turn 3, about 75% of the American force was broken...I was starting to think that I might just be able to hold out. However, some excellent rally dice rolls from David and he had most of the Americans back in the game. The Germans were a house of cards ready to collapse after the American sniper took out the *only* German leader in Turn 1. Surprisingly, the German troops put up a spirited defense for a couple turns...but it was only a matter of time before the Germans inevitably began to break, and without a leader, once they broke they were out for good. I lost the scenario, but did take some satisfaction in killing the ASL representation of future-Senator Daniel Inoye of Hawaii in CC.
For the next game I had arranged to play against my good friend and nemesis Matt Cicero. In over 6 years of games I have yet to beat Matt in a game…I’ve come very close, frustratingly close, several times but have always fallen short of the victory, earning me the nickname of “Matt’s Bitch”. Matt has had a lot of recent turmoil in his life, to include a new baby just a couple weeks ago, and he wanted to play something fun. We have both been wanting to try out the “Oktobermessed” Zombie rules for ASL and Matt selected one for us to play. After a brief read of the rules, and many calls for “BRAINS!!!” we were ready to go. Initially Matt was having a hard time groking the scenario and could not figure out what to do as the Human player, but we both quickly spotted a viable tactic that seemed fool-proof for the Humans. Unfortunately for me, Matt and I had discovered several fatal flaws in the designed rules for these scenarios and he applied the “correct” tactics for the Humans and was able to completely annihilate (“vaporize” is a more accurate description) the entire Zombie OB without suffering a single Human casualty or Infection. As the Zombie player I was only able to make two single CCV attacks against the LAV-25, but needing a “2” I was not able to do it (rolled a “3” on one of them though).
Being disappointed with the scenario just played we decided to give it another try. This time we selected the scenario featuring the un-armed civilians fleeing from the K-Mart. Again, exploiting the fatal flaws in the rules and applying the “correct” tactics for the Humans, Matt again completely obliterated the entire Zombie OB. This time, I got to spend the entire game taking 3MCs and 4MCs (when the results weren’t outright KIAs) and watching every Zombie unit being obliterated by 30-3 and 36-3 attacks and 12-2 and 16-2 residual attacks. I was severely disappointed in this scenario pack. I understand that it is intended in a humorous veign, but I was really looking forward to playing some of the scenarios and had such high hopes for it…very disappointed that it’s just not a game for the Zombie player. With a few changes, these scenarios could be an absolute blast to play…perhaps we will see a V.2 of the Zombie rules?
At midnight on Saturday is the traditional “Heroes” game and I made sure to get in on the insanity. This years game featured Jeeps as some of the random items scattered around the boards…very funny watching Jeep-Banzai attacks with the ensuing 1-1 overruns causing much laughter. The funniest part of all was having one of the players video-taping the action (including dice rolls) when some of the guys and ladies from a wedding reception wandered in, drawn by the loud shouts and laughter…the look on the girl's faces when they realized it was a room full of overweight middle-aged gamers filming dice rolls was priceless…one of the girls let out an audible groan of displeasure and they all beat a hasty retreat…it was over before half of the players at the table realized that there had been females in their midst.
On Sunday morning I had arranged to pair up with Australian exchange-ASLer Murray McCloskey and playtest one of his “Break Contact” scenario pack scenarios. Murray has been working in the US out of L.A. for the last 8 months or so (on a Walkabout) and has been an adopted SoCal ASLer during this time, as well as hitting many of the major North American tournaments during this time (including ASLOK and CASLO). Murray and I have become good friends during his stay here and I was sad to hear that he would be returning to the Land of Oz come Monday. Hats off to Murray for delaying his departure until *after* WCM! We played a nice scenario in which the Aussies have to assault a Bunker/Trench complex on top of a hill. The Aussies are given quite liberal smoke making capabilities, and I had relatively good success getting my initial smokes in place to start the assault. However, the observer lost contact when I attempted to begin the smoke OBA, and then was hit by the sniper and killed shortly after that. My Aussies were able to take the main portion of the complex on the front of the peak, but I rolled gusts on both of my last two turns…no smoke for the final assault, and the surviving Japanese severely mauled the Aussies trying to take the last couple of locations. I'll miss you, Mate...safe travels, no worries, and good on you...hope to see you again soon.
All in all I had a blast. As always, WCM for me is not just an opportunity to play a lot of ASL…it’s also an opportunity to hang out and have fun with some very good friends, as well as meeting new players and making new ASL friends.
Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of both the SoCal ASL Club and West Coast Melee. We are already working on plans to make sure that both of these milestones will be properly recognized (hint, hint…”special” goodies for attendees at WCM X) so make sure you plan ahead to attend next year. (We will be confirming the dates for WCM X in the next month or two and we will be sure to post the dates as soon as we have them locked down.) On a side note, I think we had about 15 people that ended up meeting the criteria and earned a free Journal 7 when it is released.
Hope to see you all next February for WCM X!!!
Semper Fi!
Scott
I had packed the car up the night before with all of my kit and several cases of beer, soda and bottled water, so after ducking out of work early for once, I arrived about 3:00 for the Thursday Recon. Being that I was bringing all of the liquid refreshments my arrival was well received. After getting everything unloaded and the drinks iced down, I spent some time saying hello to the other attendees and chatting ASL and what not with friends. I decided to save a couple Wife Points and head home relatively early on Thursday night, as I would not be back home again until Sunday night.
On Friday morning I settled in to what has become my WCM tradition…a first round game against my good friend Paul Simonsen. I had spent the week prior to WCM preparing playtest Communist Chinese counters for use in the Korea ASL project and paul was kind enough to play one of these with me. (I played several playtest scenarios over the weekend, so I will be intentionally vague about the details of those scenarios.) The scenario features a group of Marines defending a hill top against a massive Chinese night assault (44 squads!!!). The flow of the game saw the Chinese horde smash like a wave into the hill and up the slope…crashing over the crest in some places, Marines holding back the assault in some areas like a breakwater, Chinese following the “path of least resistance” and flowing around and even behind the hill. The Chinese were able to take one of the two peaks, but the other peak managed to hold on and whittle the attackers down to the point that they just couldn’t quite push the Marines out of the last few defensive positions…something in the neighborhood of 35 Chinese squads dead when the game ended…brutal. A very productive playtest with good notes taken for the scenario and KASL rules.
Long-time MIA player Bruce Kirkaldy has recently re-emerged upon the ASL scene. Bruce is an old-time So-Cal ASLer that many of us are very happy to have back with us. Bruce and I wanted to play against each other, and having no preference (or time before WCM to prepare a “want-to-play” list) I told Bruce to select a scenario…so Bruce picked out “Bread Factory #2” and we rolled for sides, which found me as the attacking Germans. The German 9-1 failed to go Berserk the entire game, which was a huge help to the Germans, by allowing him to help Encircle the bread factory buildings through the course of the game. I was very lucky in my dice rolls and was able to get some key breaks on the Russians (as well as passing some 1MC/2MC rolls) that allowed me to get into the buildings and push him back, even eliminating several Russian brokies in a cellar for Failure to Rout. This opened an opportunity for the Germans to rush into the recently captured buildings, man the captured MGs and hold off the Russian reinforcements.
On Saturday morning I paired up with Rich Domovic and we agreed to play one of the Melee Pack III playtest scenarios. The scenario we played featured the Britts holding off a Japanese attack aimed at capturing a village to the rear of the Britt front line. After dicing for sides it was determind that Rich would defend as the Britts and I would be the attacking Japanese. Rich fought an excellent running battle while delaying the Japanese as he fell back on the village. I was very aggressive with my assault from the beginning, wanting to keep Rich back on his heels and not wanting to allow him to have time to fall back and set up a proper defense. By keeping close on his heels I was able to keep pushing him back at the pace I needed. Rich got some good shots in on me and kept striping my squads, and my shots in return were mostly ineffective…however, in a diversion from my normally horrid luck with CC, the Japanese were doing well and killing or tying up Britts in Melee. The end of the game saw some key breaks on the Britts that allowed the Japanese to just barely take the last remaining hut on the last turn after breaking the last remaining Britt in Prep Fire. Rich has been a regular the last few years at WCM as he spends the winters in SoCal, but this was my first opportunity to play against him…and very glad that I did as Rich is a very good player, a great guy and a lot of fun to sit across the table from.
Next I was paired with David Meyers and we selected SP18 "An Arm and a Leg", and dicing for sides I ended up with the defending Germans. The game started out fairly well for my Germans. I was able to get some breaks on the Americans and survived some pretty nasty point blank shots. At the end of Turn 3, about 75% of the American force was broken...I was starting to think that I might just be able to hold out. However, some excellent rally dice rolls from David and he had most of the Americans back in the game. The Germans were a house of cards ready to collapse after the American sniper took out the *only* German leader in Turn 1. Surprisingly, the German troops put up a spirited defense for a couple turns...but it was only a matter of time before the Germans inevitably began to break, and without a leader, once they broke they were out for good. I lost the scenario, but did take some satisfaction in killing the ASL representation of future-Senator Daniel Inoye of Hawaii in CC.
For the next game I had arranged to play against my good friend and nemesis Matt Cicero. In over 6 years of games I have yet to beat Matt in a game…I’ve come very close, frustratingly close, several times but have always fallen short of the victory, earning me the nickname of “Matt’s Bitch”. Matt has had a lot of recent turmoil in his life, to include a new baby just a couple weeks ago, and he wanted to play something fun. We have both been wanting to try out the “Oktobermessed” Zombie rules for ASL and Matt selected one for us to play. After a brief read of the rules, and many calls for “BRAINS!!!” we were ready to go. Initially Matt was having a hard time groking the scenario and could not figure out what to do as the Human player, but we both quickly spotted a viable tactic that seemed fool-proof for the Humans. Unfortunately for me, Matt and I had discovered several fatal flaws in the designed rules for these scenarios and he applied the “correct” tactics for the Humans and was able to completely annihilate (“vaporize” is a more accurate description) the entire Zombie OB without suffering a single Human casualty or Infection. As the Zombie player I was only able to make two single CCV attacks against the LAV-25, but needing a “2” I was not able to do it (rolled a “3” on one of them though).
Being disappointed with the scenario just played we decided to give it another try. This time we selected the scenario featuring the un-armed civilians fleeing from the K-Mart. Again, exploiting the fatal flaws in the rules and applying the “correct” tactics for the Humans, Matt again completely obliterated the entire Zombie OB. This time, I got to spend the entire game taking 3MCs and 4MCs (when the results weren’t outright KIAs) and watching every Zombie unit being obliterated by 30-3 and 36-3 attacks and 12-2 and 16-2 residual attacks. I was severely disappointed in this scenario pack. I understand that it is intended in a humorous veign, but I was really looking forward to playing some of the scenarios and had such high hopes for it…very disappointed that it’s just not a game for the Zombie player. With a few changes, these scenarios could be an absolute blast to play…perhaps we will see a V.2 of the Zombie rules?
At midnight on Saturday is the traditional “Heroes” game and I made sure to get in on the insanity. This years game featured Jeeps as some of the random items scattered around the boards…very funny watching Jeep-Banzai attacks with the ensuing 1-1 overruns causing much laughter. The funniest part of all was having one of the players video-taping the action (including dice rolls) when some of the guys and ladies from a wedding reception wandered in, drawn by the loud shouts and laughter…the look on the girl's faces when they realized it was a room full of overweight middle-aged gamers filming dice rolls was priceless…one of the girls let out an audible groan of displeasure and they all beat a hasty retreat…it was over before half of the players at the table realized that there had been females in their midst.
On Sunday morning I had arranged to pair up with Australian exchange-ASLer Murray McCloskey and playtest one of his “Break Contact” scenario pack scenarios. Murray has been working in the US out of L.A. for the last 8 months or so (on a Walkabout) and has been an adopted SoCal ASLer during this time, as well as hitting many of the major North American tournaments during this time (including ASLOK and CASLO). Murray and I have become good friends during his stay here and I was sad to hear that he would be returning to the Land of Oz come Monday. Hats off to Murray for delaying his departure until *after* WCM! We played a nice scenario in which the Aussies have to assault a Bunker/Trench complex on top of a hill. The Aussies are given quite liberal smoke making capabilities, and I had relatively good success getting my initial smokes in place to start the assault. However, the observer lost contact when I attempted to begin the smoke OBA, and then was hit by the sniper and killed shortly after that. My Aussies were able to take the main portion of the complex on the front of the peak, but I rolled gusts on both of my last two turns…no smoke for the final assault, and the surviving Japanese severely mauled the Aussies trying to take the last couple of locations. I'll miss you, Mate...safe travels, no worries, and good on you...hope to see you again soon.
All in all I had a blast. As always, WCM for me is not just an opportunity to play a lot of ASL…it’s also an opportunity to hang out and have fun with some very good friends, as well as meeting new players and making new ASL friends.
Next year will mark the 10th anniversary of both the SoCal ASL Club and West Coast Melee. We are already working on plans to make sure that both of these milestones will be properly recognized (hint, hint…”special” goodies for attendees at WCM X) so make sure you plan ahead to attend next year. (We will be confirming the dates for WCM X in the next month or two and we will be sure to post the dates as soon as we have them locked down.) On a side note, I think we had about 15 people that ended up meeting the criteria and earned a free Journal 7 when it is released.
Hope to see you all next February for WCM X!!!
Semper Fi!
Scott
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