West Coast Melee 2000
Report by Sam Belcher

Here is my AAR for West Coast Melee. Think I'll get this done while I still have vague memories of what happened. Besides, HQ requires the report.

Game one:
Played Russ Bunten, I was the US player in "Inhumaine" (J28)

Russ has already posted an AAR for this. The only comments I'd ad are that I was making good progress till about turn 4, and I think I was a little too conservative with my tanks that turn. In the end, I ran out of time to clear the building.

One other thing. Russ has a photographic memory. It REALLY speeds up play when you don't have to refer to any charts. (and I enjoyed the fast-paced game).

(It didn't count for the tourney because we played a 1944 scenario when we were supposed to be playing a 1939-1940 – but who cares?)

OK, Russ. Anytime, any scenario, any side.
Loss 0-1

Game Two:
Played Carl Fago, I was the German in "Forest Fighting in Latvia" (SP24)

Sorry, guys. I don't remember much about this game. My notes (taken during play) indicate that I got some critical DRs and managed to tie up all his forces in melee on the first half of turn 4. During his player turn (bottom of the fourth) Carl says "Rally Phase. No Rally. Prep Fire. No prep fire. …." Since ALL his units were in Melee, we could move unusually quickly to the CC phase. :)

In turn 4b, Carl wins one of the CC's (Kills my unit) but I win the other two. The turn 5, my prep fire breaks his last units and I surround him. He's gonna surrender or die, and there's nothing Carl can do about it. He resigns.

Hey, Carl. I'll give you a re-match next time I'm back near Atlantic.
Win 1-1

Game Three:
Played Chris Olden, I was the Russian in "The Citadel" (ASL 10)

Chris has a penchant for large Russian vs. German slugfests. He also seems to pick the least favored side as the one he'd like to "try". At Wild West Fest, Chris and I played "To the Last Man" – twice. This time around we have selected The Citadel in advance and I have prepared my defense.

My defense puts most of my fortification setup in LOS of the VC building. All of them can fire at the building and assist me considerably in almost clearing it of Germans by turn 4 or 5. IMO, some delaying forces need to slow the German main body while most of the Russians setup to take and hold the VC building. If the Russian sets up carefully, the Germans in the building will NEVER grow concealment – and will always be DM, BTW.

I setup and then wander off while Chris gets ready. When I come back I am shocked. I had a concealed platoon near the end of the canal to "discourage" his infantry from crossing the stream. He sets up EVERYTHING over there and opens with a couple of high IFE prep fire attacks that strip concealment and break the leader and 2 of the 3 squads. Then all his other guys move into the stream and I have a very serious problem brewing.

This scenario limits Russian movement to a dr + turn number (all units can advance normally). I rolled '1' three times in five turns so there wasn't a great deal of shifting I could do. I do what I can and hope I can hold off the German main body long enough to take the VC building.

Turn two and Chris makes his only significant error (IMO). He's worried about my last squad (still hunkered down under a concealment counter) and he preps the two big stacks at me (everyone else in in the stream). I don't remember the result, but I think it would have been better to move these guys into the stream. They could have been completely safe and moving forward – and his guys in the stream could swarm my lonely squad. But a good solid game, I don't intend this as criticism.

About turn 4, nearly everyone in the Church (the VC building) is broken. They are DM every turn. Chris feels he MUST get into the building before I kill everyone off. (What a humanitarian). He tries to rush me, and its tense but the closer he gets to the building the more he comes under fire from Armored Cupolas, Bunkers, MGs, etc.

BTW, Chris pulled his counters and got a lot of the MMP leaders on the map. When things didn't work out well, you could hear him talking to the counters. "Schilling! For cryin' out loud! Get on the Ball!!!"
Win 2-1

Game Four:
Played Herman Frettlohr, I was the German in "Kampfgruppe at Karachev" (J23)

I setup to make it hard for him to exit the road hex. He surprised me by driving his tanks through the woods into the stream and out-flanking most of my defense. I was under the impression that you rolled for bog for every stream hex a tank enters. This is why I haven't bothered to defend that rout, but I learn this is not true. You only roll for bog when drive thro' the woods and when you exit the stream to a higher elevation.

Turn 4, and he starts taking prisoners. (2 HS on turn 4).

I'm hanging in there, and still doing OK, but I need to stop at least some of those tanks. Not to worry, my reinforcements are entering on turn 5.

Turn 5a, I enter and move my TD to a decent position, and fire in AFPh to gain acq. Turn 5b, he gets a CH vs my TD and then rolls a 12 (dud). Before I can celebrate, he fires again and kills my tank.

My ATG pops out and is quickly overwhelmed by Russian troops. More desperate fighting, and on turn 6 he captures a full squad and an 8-1 leader.

I concede - most of my guys DM, he has 3 squads & 8-1 prisoner.

Rules Thingie: His tanks only took three bog checks each. One to go thro the woods into the stream, one to exit the stream, and one to go through the woods in the exit hex. After play, I learn that he should have also taken bog checks in the stream when adjacent to a march hex. This would add two or three additional bog checks for the tanks, so I'm not sure if this is a good rout of attack. (But that's two scenarios where I've been surprised by the approach the attacker takes.)
Loss 2-2

Game Five:
Played David Haasl, I was the German in "Merzenhausen Zoo" (J-19)

David and I have played once before when he went to his parent's house for a visit last November. We know we will both be at West Coast Melee and agree to play "sometime". We pick "Merz Zoo" and I think we rolled for sides. I get the Defense.

For those of you who don't have the new Journal yet, let me describe the situation.

The US force (with three Crocs attached) attacks across board 43 and from the far end of board 10 to capture stone building locations in the board 10 village, and the cluster of buildings in the center of board 43. US enters 9 AFV (including one Croc) and 10 squads on the South edge of board. Another two Crocs and a Churchill with 6 or 7 squads enter on the West edge (all on turn one). To win the US must control at least 38 stone building locations inside the German setup area. The Germans get 4 AFVs and a 50L ATG.

Looking at the board and the VC it looks to me that if the US captures all the buildings on board 43 (very likely) then all he needs to do to win is take about half of the stone building locations in the board 10 village to win. With that in mind, I setup a forward defense, hoping to stop or delay him and fall back as needed. My defense had three strong points: On the board edge flank, inside the walled building area at 43N7 and near 10q7 / 10v7 / 10u3. The smaller forces (but with two of the three Crocs) enter on the end of board 10, so the last strong point is to stop them. The larger force has two avenues that might offer cover for the approach: Along the board edge, and in the middle of the board. (Grain is not in season, but both of these approaches have Brush, woods, and buildings for cover.)

I was most worried about was the board edge. I have some dummy counters, so I placed a stack of 4 up front near the entry area, and 2 hexes from the edge… BUT, there is an SSR that requires the defender take a PTC prior to play – failure of the PTC means (among other things) that you lose concealment – even without enemy units on board. So, I back up the dummy stack with a squad (4 hexes back from the dummies) and a HIP HS with a PSK two hexes behind the dummies. I have an HMG in one of the stone buildings in the center of board 43 that can lay a firelane all the way to the edge of the board. My armor is scattered around, all under concealment (including one "dummy" tank).

I go away while David sets up and when I get back, he has most of his forces lined up to enter on the board edge. The pre-game Task Check and sure enough, the dummy stack is revealed and removed from the board. Suddenly the defense looks a little thin along the edge of the board.

David moves his tanks on, popping smoke and maneuvering for position. But it starts badly for David. A light tank drives up the board edge, past the empty position where the dummies were, past my HIP HS, until he gets two hexes away from my concealed squad. I manage to lay my hands on a PF and hit him with a DR of '3'. The tank burns. Then David moves a Crocodile (the only one entering on this edge) and he stops two hexes from my HIP HS with the PSK. I place the hipster on board and kill the Croc. Then, one of my TD's fires and gets a shock / unconfirmed Kill on a third AFV. This AFV later dies.

Turn 2a, David broke the Flamethrower on one of his Crocs. Now I only have one left to worry about. (Remember that he must control building locations, so I am primarily worried about his infantry – but the Crocs are so nasty you can't ignore them.)

Along about turn 3, David throws his dice into a glass and one bounces out, arcs over the game table and drops in the top of my dice tower. I think the die knew instinctively that the tower was the better way to go.

Turn 4, and as Russ Bunten and I have already described, David parks his last functioning Croc two hexes from the most important position on board 10 and rolls a 12. I do the dance of joy and verbally abuse David. (Not very nice of me, but totally spontaneous – there was nothing I could do to stop myself.)

Turn 5 and my second HIP HS pops up and kills another Tank. David tries to repair the MA on three tanks and they all get recalled. (Poor guy.) I discussed this and told David that I almost always try to repair the MA – that I can't imagine a tank crew not attempting the repair. But after this display – don't know if I'll do this all the time.

The second half of turn 5 my reinforcements are scheduled to arrive. Six squads and two King Tiger Tanks. The US troops are not even in the village on Board 10. A few squads are get about to get into the buildings in the center of board 43, but things have clearly gone badly wrong for David. He resigns.

I think David played well, but I happened to get lucky with a couple of shots and had planned my strongest defense for the board edge where he entered most of his troops. Don't make any judgments about its balance based on this game. This is definitely one I'll play again.
Win 3-2

Game Six:
Played David Rosner, I was the Russian in "Guards Counterattack" (A)

David suggested the scenario, and I guess I'm not one of those people who've played this one so much they can't stand it anymore. We roll for sides, and I get the Russians.

Pretty standard setup for both of us, I prep fire some of my 628's and move the others into the street. My prep fire did nothing, so my brave 628's assault move into the open where they all become broken 628s, 527's and 227's. This is where David gets ROF about 9 times – and kills 2 squad equivalents of my elite 628s. When he FINALLY loses rate, I let loose with a shout of joy.

Unfortunately, this is how the scenario continues. I manage to take one building (H5), but an awful lot of my guys die in the street. Twice, a unit would fire which would not affect the target, but would activate the enemy sniper. The sniper would then either break the firing unit, or break the target. (What do you expect with a SAN of 6?)

I have a couple of turns left and must take one more building. In the mean time, David has moved a squad / HMG and leader out of building M9 to reinforce his troops along the M7-I7 axis. I managed to sneak a squad out on the flank last turn, and not he has just enough MF to get into M9. He moves, David shoots – no effect. He keeps moving, and just when I think I have it made, he breaks when he is adjacent to M9.

All is not lost, I can rout into M9, and wonder of wonders! This squad manages to Self rally in my last player turn!!!! By this time, I have lost more than half my at-start forces, including all of my leaders. (That's lost, as in KIA.) About 30% of the remaining squads are broken. I have two buildings, but holding them will be hard. (After the first turn slaughter in the street, I felt that I was playing catch-up from turn 1.)

David Preps all of his units but two small stacks. Each of these stacks contains a leader and a squad. All he needs to do is to take back either building and he's won the game.

Fate takes a hand. One of those expert Russian Snipers here in Stalingrad.

His last Prep Fire shot activates my sniper. And for once, my sniper earns his pay. He goes directly to the hex which is occupied by the leader / squad combo poised to take back building M9. The sniper is a '1', so David says "Of course, you'll kill the leader". (Which is what I'd normally do if it weren't for the Victory Conditions.) I elect to break the squad, because the leader by himself can't capture the building. (Well, I suppose he could get into the building and kill my squad in CC and survive to occupy it, but not very likely!)

Now, David looks at the board and says he thinks its over. He says there's no way he can get all of my guys out of building H5. I think the problem was that David was tired, and he had been thinking of moving the squad and leader together – he didn't see that he had the game won.

I could see that if he moved his leader to H6, and his squad to F6, all four of my broken squads (all on the ground floor) would have to rout out of the building and he'd occupy it. What's more, there isn't a dang thing I can do to stop him. But David doesn't see this, and I suppose here is the evidence that I am no longer an 0-fer at heart. I ain't proud of it, but dang it! I wanted to WIN!!!! Anyway, I stay silent and gently remind people looking on not to kibitz, just let David have some time. After a couple of minutes, David concedes the game and we shake hands.

Then, in what is probably the most cruel part of this deed, I show David that he had the scenario wrapped up and he conceded. I apologize for the "slightly sleazy" way I won, and yes, I know many of you will say it was not sleazy. For some reason, I REALLY want to win this one, and I did.

End of the game, and I have five 628's (four of which are broken in building F5), I have five 447's, a 426, and two 226's. The MMG is not in my possession, and all of my SMC are KIA. Its been bloody, but it’s a win.
Win 4-2

I have attended five tourneys in the last 13 months. After Action Reports for some of these are available on http://www.psasl.org/aar.htm.

0-7 at Winter Offensive '99

2-3 (I think) at Enfilade '99

4-8 at Octoberfest '99

3-2 at Wild West Fest '99

4-2 at West Coast Melee 2000

So, what does this mean? For one thing, it means I have clawed and fought my way up to mediocre! For another, it means I need to bestow the title of "0-Fer" on some other worthy player. I'll be giving this some thought, and encourage any of you who wish to nominate a candidate to speak up. (Of course, the decision of the judge(s) is final – its like play testing in that way.)

Sam "I'll always be an 0-Fer!" Belcher