Kohlenklau (Phil) Victories: 2
Gary Victories: 9
lateJuly2022 The Guards Attack (Gary as Soviets/Phil as Germans) Phil won
NOTES: Our first game ever. MY VERY FIRST EVER ASL EXPERIENCE (I lost my virginity in Stalingrad?). Gary tried dash. Phil had a few heroes. Gary made it into one building and took it but Phil pushed Gary out of another building. Gary has 2 floors of Guards firing as a fire group for a massive 36 or so on the IFT.
July/Aug2022 The Puma Prowls (Gary as Germans/Phil as Soviets) Gary won
NOTES: Learning to use armor. Gary immobilized my T-70 with the AL. I brewed up one of his Puma's. He exited off 2 vehicles. I exited off only 1. He nailed all my others I think.
Aug2022 Stonne (Gary as Germans/Phil as French) Gary won
NOTES: Phil attacked with "Le Grand Staques" and learned what an HMG34 in a 3 level tower with a 10-2 leader can do. Lots of old slow tanks plodding forward. Gary nailed many and set several ablaze. snake eyes Critical Hit by a Pak36 37L to the flank of a Char B1. Phil's Hotchkiss went up the west flank and nailed a half-track. Both G and P close combat assaulted with infantry to KO a tank. P used IFT to elim an infantry gun crew with G's boxcars morale check. Casualty MC does affect gun crews! No, they are not battle hardened and get a 10-2 leader.
P finally took the 7VP chateau. we agreed to cease fire at turn 9 with G the victor.mid Aug2022 Mad Minute (Gary as Germans SS/Phil as US Army Airborne) Gary won
NOTES: What an awesome battle. Finished in the last die rolls as Gary broke my crew holding 1 VL and broke a squad that MIGHT have threatened his hold on another VL. He went rabid to grab the required 18 VL's, using halftrack crews and CX movement. But he did it. It all started off with some blazing piles of Krupp steel. Phil lost a gun by routing the crew. Another gun broke. Crew of #3 gun was wiped out. A hero was made and a fanatic MMC but they were wiped out by a sniper. Gary had a MMC go berzerk but it didn't do anything too interesting. great battle, boggy but great.
mid Aug2022 Cutting Out A Strongpoint (Gary as South Africans and British/Phil as Germans and Italians) Gary won
NOTES: We figured out VASL overlays and both can see the glimmering desert sands. We see the "deirs"...Now learning OBA rules and in progress. Gary had FOUR heroes created and a berserk MMC with berserk leader. I KO'd a Portee and a "Monkey-Harry A/C" but he eventually had my German crew in the Matilda bail out after a failed 1MC. Lots of great events. Intense Heat Haze...fun stuff. He swept out the trenches. I ended up all broken and DR'd in the last trench and that was all she wrote.
28 Aug2022 Shklov's Labors Lost (Gary as Germans/Phil as Soviets) Gary won
NOTES: Gary's StuG's didn't do much at all UNTIL the snake eyes CH of turn 5. He nailed my linchpin of the 10-3 with the HMG and MMG. 3KIA. I had danced around the map and lost several squads but DID manage to break one of his entire platoons and have it rout way back but it rally'd and returned to the fight. I conceded at the bottom of turn 5 (of 6) when all I had left was the commissar. A fun little battle that we had ALREADY played the Combat Mission Red Thunder version I had created last year or so.
09 Sep2022 Stand for New Zealand (Gary as Germans/Phil as British) Gary won
NOTES: It was looking rough for Gary right up to the bitter end. My reinforcements finally arrived. My first use of the MkVI resulted in a malf for the MA. Later a die roll turned this malf into inoperable and she was recalled. Damnation! The other MKVI got hit by his ATR and was immobilized. Those Hussars did not accomplish diddly squat. Gary carefully set up the final building and in the very last possible die roll annihilated my last 2 GO squads in CC. He had achieved the Vic Con. Last year was the 80th anniversary of the actual Galatas, Crete battle this scenario was based upon and I made a CMFI scenario using Google Earth to TRY and represent it. Gary and I will soon play that CMFI scenario, "Galatas Sleigh Ride" I called it...
16 Sep2022 A Meeting of Patrols (Gary as Germans/Phil as US) Gary won
NOTES: Gary racked us up the snowy terrain map in VASL. It started off real slow and seemed it might be a fizzler. But it perked up and was exciting. I got 9 points off and he got 10 points off which were both short of 11 instant win. Gary won because he had 2 squads of my prisoners and double the KIA on me...a fun battle.
26 Sep2022 Graebner's Folly (Gary as Germans/Phil as British) Phil won
NOTES: Gary and I used detective work to find the scenario card online for a scenario in HASL A Bridge Too Far. Gary then goes off and thinks hard to extrapolate SSR we don't really know because we don't own the actual module. He racked us up the Arnhem bridge and counters in VASL. Gary killed my 6-pounder crew but I moved an MMC to take over and they did quite well even with inexperienced/unqualified +2 drm. We called it at turn 7 of 10 with the bridge a wreck of immob, KO'd or burning wrecks. Graebner was KIA. One 251 Half-track did make it past the 2 sets of mines and the rubble to leave the bridge and take a side road. Gary had it BU and so it used more MP and I was able to next turn close assault it with 2 squads and a hero. The 2 squads failed but the hero went last and brewed her up. Colonel Frost survived. I broke a PIAT....a fun battle.
07 Oct2022 ..and here we damned well stay (Gary as Germans/Phil as British) Gary won
NOTES: Gary racked us up the desert maps in VASL. It started off ominous with Gary's phalanx of 15 panzers. My 6-pounders started KO-ing his tanks and we went to the end of 4 of 5 turns before Gary had achieved the victory conditions. I had KO'd 8 or 9 of his 15 tanks. He over-ran one gun and I malf'd another which allowed him to reduce the necessary number of tanks to cross the magic line. ...a fun battle.
16 Oct2022 Festung Budapest FB1 Uncles and Pups (Gary as Hungarians&Germans/Phil as Soviets) Gary won
NOTES: We scrounged this one up from internet research as we do not own the HASL module. I wish I did but it is too much money and out of stock. Gary has nailed 3 of 5 SU's. I had a lone leader Sgt Chekhov eventually clear mines off the railway. He did have a MMC of 6-2-8 assault engineers with him but they got shot up and broke. It has been a blast and last night a storm hit my area and we had to shut down. It is a cliff hanger as it was the top of the 5th and it is the final half of a turn. We had ALREADY played the Combat Mission Red Thunder version I had created just a few weeks ago where I won as Soviets but mostly due to my errors in setting up the scenario in that game system. The next night we finished the remaining half of a turn, Gary had amazing luck with a perfect die roll for getting a panzerfaust for a MMC and then for a leader. THEN he rolled hits for both and the insane 32 TK for PF left both of my 2 remaining SU's as burning hulks. That killed that half of my required victory conditions. I then went on to successfully take the railway building in CC. But that was just half the VC required and so I lost.
Now we are looking at Festung Budapest FB2 "The Devil's Free to Have a Try"...Using internet detective work to again rack the scenario up in VASL. We pretty much have it all figured out.
I wish somehow we could just buy the scenario cards and rules as pdf's for these big modules.
