After three games on Friday I was a little frazzled so on Saturday I thought I’d just take it easy. Michael Davies had suggested having a game on the Saturday so I thought I’d just wait until he arrived.
Anyone glancing through any photos of previous Heroes is likely to find one of me sat clipping counters. For those not in to boardgames, this is the epic task of clipping the corners off EVERY counter to tidy them up. And in ASL that is a LOT of counters…
Anyway, I still had a few of my main module counters to clip and also I had bought with me the last two From the Cellar packs from Le Franc Tireur and the Swedish Volunteer pack so I decided to punch and clip those. That kept me busy until just after lunch. Andy from Second Chance Games had arrived with his stash of ASL stuff so I was restrained and just bought Beyond the Beaches from MMP and Purple Heart Draw from Lone Canuck Publishing. I’d like to have bought the latest Schwerpunkt stuff but as I’m just returning to the game I thought it might be a little excessive so they can wait until next year!
When Michael turned up we chose SP180 Encircle This from the latest Schwerpunkt. I took the Germans yet again and with some trepidation as I had 2 panthers (I think) a three halftracks and I knew I would be rusty in their use. The German target was two factories and then to exit 12VP off the far board edge. Again all seemed to be going badly. I misjudged the arrival of his reinforcements and so unloaded my halftracks a turn early. My first panther rolled up to hammer one of the factories, malf it’s gun on the first shot and then rolled a 6 on the repair to put it under recall. The other panther rolled forward round the right flank and stopped only to find the HIP Russian 45mm AT gun in the building adjacent. He got APCR and I got a torched panther!
Then in a surge of enthusiasm I launched my faltering Assault Engineers at the factory with a cry of ‘Are you Assault Engineers or are you…’ and the only thing that came in to my head was ‘..cats!’ The next five minutes were devoted to hysterical laughter, tears down face etc. before we calmed enough to play. You had to be there…
Some luckily won close combats and I finally had the factories and my troops made a rush for the board edge. The halftracks (250/1s) had both been killed by T34s but I’d managed to PF one of them. The remaining one had broken it’s CMG but moved to intercept my exiting squads and in the Advance Fire Phase fired it’s 85mm and malf’d that to! In the final turn he failed to repair it so only had his 2FP BMG to stop me. I had 4 groups to run off and the only one he could get a good shot at was a half-squad with a HS prisoner that had to run right across his front. As they moved adjacent he rolled a 3 for a 1KIA. Random selection roll? Two 5’s! Both died…
I had totalled up what I had and it came to 11VP. My only other chance was the 250/10 halftrack which had to run the gauntlet of an MG and an ATR. Inevitably the ATR hit and killed it so I lost it by one point. Excellent game and great fun…
By then it was late and after sampling some of Olli’s 25yr old Macallan malt, and Neil’s vodka I retired for the night…
A really good read Andy,
Sounds fun and a lose by 1 point! Ahhhhh!
Whisky is the best medicine.
Cheers
Paul