Who and what I played at the thirtieth Nor’Easter ASL tournament.

Since this is their thirtieth year, I examined when I attended my first Nor’Easter; maybe 2003. There may have been an earlier occurrence, but back when all my games were recorded in a notebook, I lost one of the notebooks.

Open gaming day: Larry Flaherty and arranged to play an all day scenario, JUNGLE CITADEL, #71.

Elite 5-3-7 Chinese infantry with 3 FT, 2 OBA, air support, try for one building hex or 8 buildings vs infantry with 2 guns, mines, panjis, wire, pillboxes, trenches and OBA.

I was disappointed that we didn’t get farther into this twelve turn scenario. Neither of us was playing super fast plus we had a long meal break, but still. I attacked mostly up the Chinese right. I was too cautious with my Chinese troops at the beginning because of hidden panjis, mines and pillboxes. In turn six of twelve around 9 PM in the evening, I suffered several severe setbacks; combined with the time of day, I decided to concede. I used napalm and an aerial OBA observer for probably the second time in my ASL experience. I also used the 537 Chinese squad; they have a morale of eight on their broken side! It was definitely an interesting scenario and experience. I will never again try to play a scenario that big in one sitting.

Round 1: Mark Evans and I were paired in advance. We agreed to play SP160 BOTTCHER’S CORNER.

Mixed American infantry, with reinforcements, try hold an area from attacking Japanese infantry that are reinforced twice from multiple directions.

I won with the Americans, which the dice gave to me. Japanese set up first, but the Americans move first. The Japanese needed to set up away from the victory area. The 10-2 led stack got to the victory area during their turn one. The approaches to the area were covered enough that the Japanese had no easy fast approach. The American reinforcements split; one group headed for the victory area and the other moved to interfere with the Japanese reinforcements. A few Japanese units reached the victory area, but not enough to push out the Americans.

Round 2: I was paired with Seth Semeza. Our top three matched on BFP39 SUGARCANE SHUFFLE. We both bid for the Japanese. I received them and Seth upgraded three conscript squads.

Japanese infantry try for CVP and exit vs 447 Americans with fortifications, dummies and two SPA.

I set up strong on the Japanese left to move through a big kunai field. I had about a platoon in the center to interdict American lateral moves. Contrary to common practice, I was moving stacks of two squads to have decent fire groups in the kunai. I also deployed three or four squads because you can rally them when they fail a MC. My Japanese leaders eliminated four or more of them. Eventually I needed to banzai to get through the kunai to the Americans. Seth had four firelanes going, two from LMG, two from MMG. He had some good DR so I took some casualties. They reached the Americans and found three wire at the left end of the kunai. The two SPA were parked adjacent to the kunai. Lucky for me, the Japanese sniper removed one of them. The remaining SPA was doing point blank damage, but I managed to eliminate it with a mortar that I carried up there. I had my only smoke of the game to help a lot of units head toward the exit. In the penultimate turn, Seth and I counted up the CVP the Japanese had inflicted and the probable exit VP. Seth decided to concede.

Round 3: The TD paired me with Maurizio Grassi. I’ve seen him for a few years at ASL events. This was my first game with him. Our three choices ended up with CDN29 DISTINGUISHED SERVICE.

German infantry with 4 Pz4H and OBA try for buildings vs infantry reinforced by 3 Shermans.

I bid German, he bid Canadian. He decided the best plan for the Canadians was to maintain concealment. It worked pretty well. I left the two MMG and the observer near the entry edge behind a hedge. I used smoke from the Pz4 tanks to shield the advance. I used a lot of HS to attract fire, bump strip concealment or search. A couple of turns went by before I could use my OBA. On the first occasion, I eliminated only a dummy. Two of my Pz4 had malfunctioned their MA by mid-game and three were out of smoke. I used the two gun-less ones to try to advance by occupying enemy positions. One failed its ESB roll just short, but the other made it. I lost it to a CCRF snake-eyes but it burned which was fine with me. We reached the turn where the reinforcing Sherman tanks would come on, but the TD advised us the regular round time was up. The TD offered us another hour, but I knew that I did not want to play the final round on Sunday. I asked Maurizio if he planned to play the last round. He did, so I conceded the game to him.

Round 4: Peter Dahlin and I were paired for the fourth round. Peter was another new opponent for me. He told me that he had been involved in the development of several modules. Our choices led us to play J253 MELTING POT.

British infantry with 3 American TD try for  four multi-hex buildings vs infantry with a Pz4J and an AT gun.

I believe that I bid for the defending Germans and Peter bid for the attacking Allies. I set up dummies in a woods line at the back of the entry board, including one dummy tank on my left. The real tank was on the right, but behind the woods line that the dummies shared. I decided to use the AT gun to fight infantry in the town center. I bore sighted one multi-hex building across the street from it. I had the MMG in the steeple and a unit on level one to see over some center hedges. There was only one good spot I could find for the German light mortar. There is a few hexes of straight road on the German right with woods in sight at both ends.

I had forgotten that the Allies received four smoke counters on turn one that they could put anywhere. Two went on dummy stacks and two went on my level one and level two units. Peter took advantage of the smoke to move big stacks with armoured assault. He even moved one TD in front of the dummy tank. In the AFPh, however, disaster struck. He rolled the German sniper which recalled one TD. During the German turns, I deployed often. The Allied thrust on the German right had problems with the German light mortar. Its TD moved into the one hex where the mortar could see it. I sighed to myself when I realized I forgot to bore sight it. By luck I hit the TD and shocked it. The shock went to UK and later to eliminated. That mortar also later rolled a CH against a squad that ran in front of it. The other two Allied thrusts had more average success. They worked their way into the town and the German units pulled back. Some of the HS survived longer than expected, so the British were running out of time when Peter decided to concede.

I had a great time at the event; pleasant opponents and five scenarios that were new to me. There were several good restaurants within walking distance of the hotel. My Friday meal of jambalaya was so good that I brought half of it back to my room (which had a fridge and microwave) and ate that on Saturday instead of the free pizza offered by the organizers. Ralph MacDonald made wood coasters for everyone that were personalized with each player’s name and whatever image they had requested before the tournament. For a change, I participated in the Saturday night bull session since I wasn’t playing Sunday. That was fun too.