Getting Mauled in Released from the East

I was certain that I'd get a second post in for the month of April, but alas, my hopes burned brighter than my capacity to focus on various projects for the past month. I'm hoping, though, that that has now changed, and that we can get back to some small semblance of normalcy. 

The past five weeks or so have been beyond busy. I had to make a temporary relocation prior to moving this month, I had fall plans to take care of, and plenty of other distractions, goodbyes, and priorities to attend to, so much so that after a week of what feels like constant sleep and similar preoccupations to speed along my spiritual recovery, I'd say I'm nearly back to where I'd like to be. All of this to say, it's good to be back. We'll see how long it lasts, as I'm not one to sit on my rear-end for long, but I've got some more games in the works right now, so I have one last report to publish from my time in Washington.

One last game on Zach's table. Lots of good games and meals were shared on that table.

As a final parting game last month, Zach and I got together to play ASL Starter Kit scenario S6, Released from the East, which pits the Siberian infantry of the 78th Infantry Division (renamed the 9th Guards Infantry) against the grenadiers of the Das Reich Division on the outskirts of Moscow. Zach took the attacking Russians and I took the defending Germans.

To win, the Russians need to take 2 of 3 victory locations (large multi-hex buildings). Ever wary of Frederick the Great's wise words ("He who defends everything defends nothing"), I decided to concentrate my defense on the 2 closes victory locations, but that meant forfeiting a building outright.

Zach nearly takes the 2nd victory location early on.

Zach to the offense immediately -- I always forget that he's got a mind of aggressive offense. He laid a demolition charge in the closest victory location to his entrance hexes early on and I luckily wasn't too bloodied. A see-saw exchange for position in that building proceeded for several turns and as planned, his reinforcing units secured the uncontested victory location. Thanks to my reserves led by Sergeant Mauke, I still controlled the second victory location as Zach's assault troops forced their way in. 

As luck would have it, I managed to throw out Zach's main attack force in the 2nd victory location and it took quite some time for Corporal Loza to rally his broken troops. The mistake I made, though, was winning early in the 2nd victory location. 

After some collaborative strategy discussion, Zach went for broke with everyone that he had left for the 3rd victory location, bypassing most of my active forces in the 2nd building. It worked brilliantly.

A final look at the board.

He suffered some hits, but on the last turn, he secured his 2nd victory location. All efforts in vain, I didn't manage to fall back in time to retake the last location. In the end, it came down to my last good order half squad with their HMG throwing all caution to the wind, dashing across the only street in their way to get to the victory location in hopes of winning back control in close combat, but it never happened. The Siberian fire was too much and once my half squad broke, that was game over.

All in all a good game. After finishing this, we walked two streets over to Paul's place where we were just in time to see some real fire works in game 5 (or 6 at this point?) of Twilight Imperium that our group hosted last month. 

Coming up next, a more in-depth AAR on fighting in North Korea. Stay tuned!