ASLOK XXXI:

This year I had the great privilege of riding up to Cleveland with my best friend Tim Brieaddy.  It was Tim’s first time to ASLOK and he was so excited to be away from all of the rigors of everyday life, meet some friends whom he had made through his t-shirt business.

 

We arrived Friday night where one of the first games in the USA vs. World was taking place between Wild Bill and George Tourmiere.

 

 

I started off Saturday with an all day marathon with my good friend John Dober.  We managed to get in four games, all from Fanatic Enterprise.  They were all quick firefights.

 

FE89 Crossing the Meuse – vs. John Dober

Oddly enough this is a battle on a mountain top with no water in sight.  I played the Germans and and routed the French from the mountains with the help of some flame throwers and satchel charges.

 

FE112 Old Tactics – vs. John Dober

New Victims which pitted the Finns against the Ruskies.  Being such a short scenario and having 4-2-6 conscripts, I wanted to fight it out at point blank range in the woods where those 4’s become an 8.  If I can just slow him down for a turn or two, his Finnish supermen will run out of time and be unable to take the village.

 

 

 

FE105 Reckless behavior – vs. John Dober

Definitely my least favorite scenario of the gang.  My Japanese convoy sets up in convoy in plain view of a ton of US nastiness that gets to prep fire on turn 1 before I can even move out of the way.  All I could do was wait for my turn to duck into alleys with what survived and unload and hunker down in stone buildings while the Yanks close in for the kill.  I managed to hold off the Americans long enough but the whole thing was just too choreographed for my liking.

 

 

FE125 Lessons learned the hard way, where the SS (that’s me) defended against a slew of Bulgarian tanks.

 

 

J175 Bedburg Bite – vs. Tim Brieaddy

It looks like I drove all the way to Cleveland to play my next door neighbor Tim Brieaddy.  I was the German player in this one.

This one swung back and forth several times and included snake eyes against my 9-1, 4-6-8, and mmg by his flamethrowing Badger followed by boxcars on the flame to kill table against my Jagdpanther thus recalling his most feared weapon.  ASLOK giveth and ASLOK taketh away!

 

J180 The Hour Zero – vs. John Dober

I had heard about this odd little fight and had been meaning to play it since I bought Journal 11.  This scenario features the Wehrmacht and British teaming up against some die hard SS that just won’t accept that the war is over.  The SS are held up in the forest and have few men but lots of fire power.  John chose to skulk his SS away instead of fighting it out with the attackers.  I managed to catch up to him around turn 4 and close in from all sides.  John admitted later that he probably should have just exchanged punches with me early on while he had the advantage of concealment, morale, a rout path, and firepower.

 

J86 Frontal Assault  – vs. Brian Martuzs

I always enjoy playing Brian as much for his stories of ASL past as for his great sportsmanship and kind friendship.  Now, If there is one thing I love in life, it’s Panthers.  If there is one thing that I hate in life, it’s Firefly’s.  I feel so inadequate in my masculinity having 18 factor of frontal armor hiding out of sight.  Truth be told, you have a good chance of surviving a hull hit, but it never seems to work out that way for me.  Somehow in this one, I managed to pull off the win while only losing one Panther.  Brian rolled one greater than the kill number on at least three occasions and one by one his  Shermans brewed up leaving a permanent smokescreen for my advancing grenadiers.  Without tank support, it turned into a one sided affair.

 

 

 

BOF1 The Marco Polo Bridge Incident – vs. Steve Pleva

I was really excited to get a chance to play Steve Pleva in a mini semi final game.  Steve is ranked #1 on the ASL Area ranking and handed me my lunch the only other time I played him a few years ago at ASLOK.  This was my title fight and I although I had him on the ropes early, his skill is something that is hard to explain and harder to overcome.  As the match wore on, it became clear why he is ranked #1 in the world, cutting off every possible route to a comeback.  I look forward to playing Steve again soon.

Game of Thrones:

Friday night I managed to convince some friends to play Game of Thrones.  Unfortunately, I got really sick with a headache so I missed most of the game.  It drew a lot of attention from the ASL’ers, some of whom have played it before and really enjoy it.

Final Tally:

20 games in 8 days, including 2 four game days and I was…ready for more ASL!  I ended up with a 15 and 5 record.  At one point I was 11 and 1, but then the heavy hitters put me in my place.  Regretfully, I didn’t get a chance to play Andy Beaton, whom I always look forward to matching up against.  I did get to play Dan Stanhagen twice which is always on my ASLOK to do list.  I look forward to next year and seeing all of my friends again.

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Dean and Sara Essig’s fight against pancreatic cancer.

Although I try to keep this page dedicated solely to ASL, I am making a worthy exception to make you aware and encourage you to give back to the Essig family for all they have given for our hobby.  Both in some of the best games made but also opening their home in past years to host Homercon.  Dean, the creator of the OCS, TCS, SCS, and countless other great systems and games is raising money to support Sara’s fight with pancreatic cancer.  Please click on the photo above and you will be redirected to their Go Fund Me page.

 

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New post from Hong Kong Wargamer.

In this blog, Jackson visits the War Museum in Bovington, UK. Panthers, and Tigers, and Lees, Oh my!

 

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Inventory news:

We have received many sold out items and even some that were believed to be out of print.

We received very limited quantities of LFT’s Rat Chart, LFT’s KG Sherer, ASL 30th Anniversary German and Russian Battledice.

 

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Woodworking:

I know you have heard this before but… I am resuming my woodworking products.  I have already started a small batch (4 units) of Ammo Box/Map Cases.  If interested in one, let me know ASAP as I won’t be making any more until I have made some tables and towers, so it could be a year before they become available again. You can contact me at dritter3@triad.r.com.

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The third annual ‘Where the Iron Crosses Grow’ team Tournament is less than 5 months away.  I will release the date in the next post.