Will Fleming: A Yankee at Intensive Fire 1998

well, i have returned from annother tournament and again i
have had a wonderful time drinking some beer and talking about 'the game' while
throwing some dice.  i figured that since not many guys from the us have
been able to make it over to england for any of their tourneys, i would let
everyone in on what it was like.

neil stevens decided to move the tournament to bournemouth
this year, and i think he made a great decision.  the town is beautiful,
and easy to get around in.  i guess that it is a great spot to vacation in
the summer when the water is warm.

i showed up on friday to find that the tournament was already
well underway.  at least the singles part of it anyway.  that was a
little distressing, since i soon discovered that i was not going to have a
chance at the coveted singles championship since there was certain to be someone
who would pile up a lot of victories early, but that was not much of a concern
since i was out there to have a good time and see the country.  anyway, i
was able to get in a game of scout's out with rupert featherby, a gentlemen
playing in his first tournament ever.  we decided to play for fun, and to
not count this game in the official record.  i ended up with the americans
and rupert went to work setting up as the german.  he set up a solid
defense, using units on the far hill and the hmg down the road to protect the
vital bridge and set up his psk to ambush my tanks as they rolled across. 
his units on the near side of the bridge set up to prevent me from rushing
through the middle on my way to the bridge.  i used that the first time i
played the scenario, but now (with the advice of jr) i like seting them up on
the hill to hinder the americans from getting up there and also to inhibit their
ability to rout when the americans inevitably break forcing their way across the
bridge.  i chose to take a few chances early and drove my tanks right into
attack postion across the bridge.  if rupert had stuck his psk in the
orchard, he would have had a couple of good shots at my prescious
vehicles.  luck was on my side and he didn't.  the rest of my infantry
went to seek and destroy the germans on the wrong side of the bridge, and they
accomplished that task quickly and effectively.  after that, there is not
too much to tell, i got some hmg's on top of the hill and commenced pummeling
his postions across the river.  the american firepower is just too great
for the germans to take and with some timely smoke i was able to get across the
bridge and take the vital buildings.  a good warm up prior to the begining
of hostilities.

the next moring saw the commencement of the team tournament
and i discovered that i was matched up against one of the crusaders elite, kevin
beard.  luckily, i got the scenario i wanted to play, soft noodle.  i
had played that one before against phil petry and won as the chinese, so i felt
certain that they had a slight edge, but i lost the die roll and ended up as the
japanese.  the scenario has a fairly standard set up and as a result, a
fairly standard attack plan as well.  i think i made a poor decision when i
decided to split my force too much and sent a little too many men on a flanking
mission to strike at the areas with only a few huts.  i could have used an
extra squad with my main strike group to help mop up all those darn
chinamen.  i did get a little bit of an edge when my opponent seemed a
little surprised by the 'vehicle freeze' tactic of driving a tank in bypass with
a group of infantry to prevent them from shooting and then marching up the
infantry to roast the defenders with advancing fire and close combat.  his
defense allowed me to do this, so i decided not to banzai on the first turn,
something i was certain that i would do when i attacked.  things went very
well and the chinese were soon in full retreat.  no surprise in this
scenario, but i was extremely pleased not to have taken any casualties or step
reductions taking out the first pile of defenders.  the next 'bump' to
cross proved to be harder.  my troops soon discovered the -1 leader with
machine guns in tow.  the first few guys fell to some good dice rolling and
one of my tanks was taken out by some well directed shots as well.  the
other tank saw what happened and cowered in fear for a turn (failed his task
check).  that exchange evened things out, since i lost a good deal of
strength and was forced to regroup a little, trying to prepare my next assault
on his position while forcing his leader to remain in his present
location.  kevin decided to 'bugger out' and tried to evacuate the area
while he had the chance.  he missed seeing a few shots that i had with my
hmg and i was able to pin down or break his boys as they retreated.  they
were easily cleaned off the playing surface on my next turn.  that opened
the door for me to get into the jackpot of huts and that turn also say me take
out his resistance protecting his flank and get at the four huts by the rice
paddies as well.  things were fairly straight forward from then on, but the
game did come down to the final turn and kevin made an good run at taking back
the huts he needed to prevent my victory.  a nail bitter at the end with me
winning by two huts.  1-0

the next round, i drew annother of the crusader,s top ten,
david schofield.  we chose to play will to fight...eradicated.  a
great scenario where both sides are forced on the offensive at some point--my
favorite!  again, i lost the die roll and did not get the side i wanted and
was forced to play as the germans.  the philosophy of my defense was to
cause some casualties and elr replacements with the guys i had while hopefully
preserving the -1 leader and the mmg for my subsequent counterattack. 
things went well initially, and i dropped a few of the poles rushing at me and
due to some timely rallying, i was able to get the mmg into a safe spot waiting
for my reinforcements to arrive.  the first group was shocked when they
discovered the situation at hand.  my germans were beaten in nearly every
way, and all of the mutli-hex buildings were in the hands of the poles!  i
decided to rush them at the nearest 'big' buiding and went into cc with the
defending half squad.  i needed to resolve things quickly and was forced to
choose hand-to-hand, something i dislike doing when i have the edge.  i
have seen a half-squad take out far too many troops with a lucky die roll. 
once again, i got the luck when i really needed it and won.  i am certain
that i would have lost the scenario had i failed in this.  when the bulk of
my soldiers arrived, i was able to get in good positions to retake what i had
lost and smash the polish resistance.  in the end, dave tried a fanatic
rush at me in an attempt to take buildings, but things had deteriorated too much
for him and they were easily turned back.  2-0

in the final round, my team was forced into the role of
spoiler, trying to prevent the danish team from getting one of the team
prizes.  we conceeded the scenario selection to the danes who were trying
to rack up as many points as they could, so they all chose the waterhole. 
i ended up playing against mikael siemsen, annother good opponents.  i gave
him the right to chose sides so i could clean up after a late night of heavy
drinking.  he chose the americans and set up to force me to enter on the
far side of the gully, subsequently having to cross it to get at the
waterhole.  i was able to get into good attack postion early since he
missed one of the crest lines that blocked his los to me moving.  a few
shot from my mortars to get acquisition made him abandon the tree line for more
favorable ground.   i was really shocked by my ability to get into
attack position near the vital hex without taking any fire other than the
oba.  things heated up quickly and my squads were forced to get in close,
something the japs love to do.  everything went well for me from then
on.  my little 4+2 attacks broke his 7-4-7's and they were left with no
where to retreat, he dropped his artillery in close and broke two of his squads
at a vital point, a squad of mine was able to infiltrate his radio position and
take out the leader (does anyone know if you can use a captured radio?), and
annother squad got into good position to inhibit his reinforcements entry. 
he quit when all of his squads were broken and soon to be eliminated. 
3-0

i recommend getting over to england to anyone who has not been
there.  all of the people i met (the crusaders in particular) were
extremely friendly and were excellent drinking buddies.  also, neil runs a
well organized tournament that really has a unique flavor due to it being more
focused on the team play rather than individual.  i hope to return when i
get some free time.

Editor's Note: My apologies to Will for not editing this! :-) DANO