Paul S NJ
Senior Member
Had a great time at my first WO! Thanks to Perry and my most excellent opponents for a great time. WO is less structured than most tournaments but still great fun. The pizza, raffle and seeing many old friends were great. Most of my games were very close and quite fun. I was excited to see the new Journal with two articles from yours truly. The room opened up early so I got in a couple quick games on Thursday afternoon.
Game 1- BFP107 Costly Baptism vs Jim Thompson
Jim is an ex-NJ person who I roomed with. We warmed up by playing a small PiF scenario with six defending squads and three 37* armored cars vs 9 467 with three 4 AAMG armored jeeps. Jim set up his 10-1 with HMG in a building behind some woods and used a reverse-slope defense. The AC’s dueled against each other and my two ATR’s. We had at least six shock results! Finally the HMG malfunctioned and I was able to gain the last VC building on the last turn. Well balanced small scenario! 1-0
Game 2- BFP 101 Panzer Spirit
Unfortunately this game had an sportsmanship incident which caused me to resign before the end of the first player turn. I’d prefer not to say more. 1-1
Game 3- OB13 a Hotly Contested Crossroads vs Neil Stanhagen
This is an interesting1945 German/Russian scenario with six T34/SU 85’s and elite infantry vs. two Hetzers (14 AF), a 75L AC, a couple HT, and an odd 1945 PzIIF acting as an observer for 80mm OBA. Neil kicked my infantry hard early and by German turn 2 he was considering sending out his AFV to mess with my stacks of broken units. However the crises passed as one of my SU85 won an engagement with a Hetzer (due to APCR) and then proceeded to stroll into the hex of a HIP 127 PF crew who failed to find a PF. I sent a CX squad over to kill the 127 in CC but it ambushed my squad and withdrew next to my SU85. In Prep it found a PF, hit the SU85 and rolled a dud! in the meanwhile my sniper and some low odd results basically knocked out an entire flank. That opened up things up for me and I gobbled up the VC buildings. A good game vs. a new player for me. 2-1
Game 4 - J187 In deadly combat vs Paul Washington
This new journal 1941 scenario has 24 russian squads with four T28’s vs fifteen or so germans with two 37L (with APCR9) and a 105 ART. One interesting part of this scenario is that both sides can change the number of required victory buildings by opting to take reinforcements. The russians can take two KV tanks and the germans three StuGB’s. Neither of us chose to take the reinforcements, so the VC stayed at four buildings. I hit Paul’s left hard with two T28’s taking up interdiction positions in the center. Paul promptly knocked out one with a snakes TK (11 TK # vs 8 AF) and the other he immobilized and then got several CH’s to wipe out the crew.
Paul redeployed his troops from the other flank (including pushing his guns) and added his reinforcements to make a tough fight for the last building. In the end I took it on the last turn. 3-1
Game 5 - FrF29 Sting of the Italian Hornet vs Chad Cummings
I’ve had the pleasure of playing Chad a few times in great games. Chad suggested this scenario which we had both played a while ago. Since he couldn’t call for his OBA until I shot, I held my fire the entire first game turn. Chad sent troops around both of my flanks and ground up my guns and infantry pretty well. My guns and 90L Hornet all failed to affect his AFV. However I got them via some unconventional means. One hit an AT mine, one with a thrown DC (without even breaking the thrower!), one was burned in CC by a pinned crew, one bogged in woods and then burned up when the flames spread. Chad wanted to use his OBA to break up the defense in the front factory but had some challenges in getting it down on target. In the end the OBA drifted twice out of the front factory which let me barely hold on to it. Awesome game! 4-1
Game 6 - BFP 71 Pulling out vs Bret Hildebran
Bret and I have met in a couple finals and always have good games. We chose this and used the Russian balance. I set up a central defense and had a lucky 2+2 to stun his 9-2 halftrack turn 1. This disrupted Bret’s plan a bit. By the end of turn 2 he had wiped out my infantry after taking some hits to both his tanks and (due to some terrible MC rolls) infantry. My T34’s did well and things were looking good for me until Bret managed a couple snakes in CC to burn two of them. We traded his captured T34 for one of mine and Bret chased down my T60’s and killed one of them. When my KV came on, I still had four AFV. I made a mistake though and sent the KV and a T34 forward to go after his guns. I should have waited for them to load as Bret got two more snakes to leave me with just one T34 and one T60. I passed my platoon-move TC’s and charged them after the loaded guns. I got one of them, but Bret managed to evacuate one right through a 6 flat, a 8 flat and a final 2 flat. The 2 flat missed immobilizing the unarmored HT by one pip! Great game! 4-2
On a rules note: we had a long discussion about whether a tank that tries to start up but stalls releases infantry in its hex from melee and when infantry may CC and the tank may bounding fire. In the end the infantry missed it CC roll anyway so like so many ASL rules discussions, it didn't matter
Game 7 - O10 City on the Edge vs Mark Pitcavage
This is a nice tourney sized scenario. Mark played a sharp game and killed both of my Shermans and knocked my infantry back. He missed a chance to grab a FT from a broken unit but did jump into CC with my last GO squad. It managed to survive two decent CC rolls to squeak out a win. 5-2
Again a great fun time! Thanks again to Perry and the MMP team!
Game 1- BFP107 Costly Baptism vs Jim Thompson
Jim is an ex-NJ person who I roomed with. We warmed up by playing a small PiF scenario with six defending squads and three 37* armored cars vs 9 467 with three 4 AAMG armored jeeps. Jim set up his 10-1 with HMG in a building behind some woods and used a reverse-slope defense. The AC’s dueled against each other and my two ATR’s. We had at least six shock results! Finally the HMG malfunctioned and I was able to gain the last VC building on the last turn. Well balanced small scenario! 1-0
Game 2- BFP 101 Panzer Spirit
Unfortunately this game had an sportsmanship incident which caused me to resign before the end of the first player turn. I’d prefer not to say more. 1-1
Game 3- OB13 a Hotly Contested Crossroads vs Neil Stanhagen
This is an interesting1945 German/Russian scenario with six T34/SU 85’s and elite infantry vs. two Hetzers (14 AF), a 75L AC, a couple HT, and an odd 1945 PzIIF acting as an observer for 80mm OBA. Neil kicked my infantry hard early and by German turn 2 he was considering sending out his AFV to mess with my stacks of broken units. However the crises passed as one of my SU85 won an engagement with a Hetzer (due to APCR) and then proceeded to stroll into the hex of a HIP 127 PF crew who failed to find a PF. I sent a CX squad over to kill the 127 in CC but it ambushed my squad and withdrew next to my SU85. In Prep it found a PF, hit the SU85 and rolled a dud! in the meanwhile my sniper and some low odd results basically knocked out an entire flank. That opened up things up for me and I gobbled up the VC buildings. A good game vs. a new player for me. 2-1
Game 4 - J187 In deadly combat vs Paul Washington
This new journal 1941 scenario has 24 russian squads with four T28’s vs fifteen or so germans with two 37L (with APCR9) and a 105 ART. One interesting part of this scenario is that both sides can change the number of required victory buildings by opting to take reinforcements. The russians can take two KV tanks and the germans three StuGB’s. Neither of us chose to take the reinforcements, so the VC stayed at four buildings. I hit Paul’s left hard with two T28’s taking up interdiction positions in the center. Paul promptly knocked out one with a snakes TK (11 TK # vs 8 AF) and the other he immobilized and then got several CH’s to wipe out the crew.
Paul redeployed his troops from the other flank (including pushing his guns) and added his reinforcements to make a tough fight for the last building. In the end I took it on the last turn. 3-1
Game 5 - FrF29 Sting of the Italian Hornet vs Chad Cummings
I’ve had the pleasure of playing Chad a few times in great games. Chad suggested this scenario which we had both played a while ago. Since he couldn’t call for his OBA until I shot, I held my fire the entire first game turn. Chad sent troops around both of my flanks and ground up my guns and infantry pretty well. My guns and 90L Hornet all failed to affect his AFV. However I got them via some unconventional means. One hit an AT mine, one with a thrown DC (without even breaking the thrower!), one was burned in CC by a pinned crew, one bogged in woods and then burned up when the flames spread. Chad wanted to use his OBA to break up the defense in the front factory but had some challenges in getting it down on target. In the end the OBA drifted twice out of the front factory which let me barely hold on to it. Awesome game! 4-1
Game 6 - BFP 71 Pulling out vs Bret Hildebran
Bret and I have met in a couple finals and always have good games. We chose this and used the Russian balance. I set up a central defense and had a lucky 2+2 to stun his 9-2 halftrack turn 1. This disrupted Bret’s plan a bit. By the end of turn 2 he had wiped out my infantry after taking some hits to both his tanks and (due to some terrible MC rolls) infantry. My T34’s did well and things were looking good for me until Bret managed a couple snakes in CC to burn two of them. We traded his captured T34 for one of mine and Bret chased down my T60’s and killed one of them. When my KV came on, I still had four AFV. I made a mistake though and sent the KV and a T34 forward to go after his guns. I should have waited for them to load as Bret got two more snakes to leave me with just one T34 and one T60. I passed my platoon-move TC’s and charged them after the loaded guns. I got one of them, but Bret managed to evacuate one right through a 6 flat, a 8 flat and a final 2 flat. The 2 flat missed immobilizing the unarmored HT by one pip! Great game! 4-2
On a rules note: we had a long discussion about whether a tank that tries to start up but stalls releases infantry in its hex from melee and when infantry may CC and the tank may bounding fire. In the end the infantry missed it CC roll anyway so like so many ASL rules discussions, it didn't matter
Game 7 - O10 City on the Edge vs Mark Pitcavage
This is a nice tourney sized scenario. Mark played a sharp game and killed both of my Shermans and knocked my infantry back. He missed a chance to grab a FT from a broken unit but did jump into CC with my last GO squad. It managed to survive two decent CC rolls to squeak out a win. 5-2
Again a great fun time! Thanks again to Perry and the MMP team!
