ciao a tous !
je me suis fait un ami a ARNEHM : MATTS DAGERHALL, j'ai joué avec lui dés le premier soir : tres agréable, j'ai perdu! et on est allés boire un drink au bar et faire une ballade; vraiment sympa et friendly.
c'est avec Matts que j'ai joué le dernier scenar du dimanche matin : partie cool et agréable ou un italien berserk seul survivant a renversé la vapeur!!! :twisted: mais j'ai du partir!. matts et moi on a vraiment sympathisé durant ce tournoi : on regardait comment se passaient nos parties respectives et on s'encourageait ! vraiment sympa : un bon souvenir.
il a ecrit un AAR que je vous livre!
"This is my humble and newbie-ish AAR from the Arnhem ASL tournament.
Enjoy! (and try not to make the same mistakes that I did ...)
Inspired of the very interesting battle field tour on Thursday and a friendly game on the ABtF map, "Tigers to the bridge", against Eric Chazottes Thursday evening, I was prepared for the tournament and round 1 Friday morning.
This was against Christian Koppmeyer, Germany. We agreed on the ABtF scenario "Nr 8 platoon overrun", and I got the British. Thanks to Christians kind help our game lasted some 4 GT:s. My eager newbie-like status and poor rules knowledge didn't really give this skilfull ASL:er much of a fight. My setup was concentrated around the factory in the middle of the playing area, with the most effective part in the block to the north of it. South of the factory I kept a minor force for flank protection. Of course Christian saw right through my intentions and practically overran the British positions, using the less defended path through my southern flank. 0-1 and nothing to say about it.
Round 2: GD3, Textbook attack. My opponent was Serge Lemay, a guy who Peter and Hennie called "a newbie". If that's true, I still wonder what categorie that puts me in ... Anyway, I got the Germans, Serge got the French. I started a cautius advance towards the village with my major force on the northern flank and a minor force to the south, just to avoid the open part in the middle and keep Serge busy in two directions. My guns on board 39 succeeded pretty well in keeping Serge's guys in the upper levels of the board 12 buildings busy, but my advance towards the village was a little too slow. After the fourth gameturn I still had some distance left to reach the village and, what's more, two of my Stug:s had their MA disabled and couldn't put up much of a support. On top of all that, we where running out of time. Since Serge's HIP AT guns still were HIP and his reinforcements still hadn't come into play, it was pretty obvious that my chances were minimal to score. We ended after midnight, and Hennie's and Peter's judgement later on gave us right: Serge was the winner. So that's 0-2.
Round 3, Saturday morning, was against one of the Americans, Russ Curry. We agreed on playing SP95, Burn, Gurkha, Burn. This was my first PTO scenario, and Russ helped me out with the new terrain. It wasn't too hard, and since the scenario is quite small it was pretty handy to play. I got the gurkhas, Russ the Japanese. I succeeded in putting up pretty good defense on three of the hilltops of board 36, every defense position could put some firepower in front of the other, and there was good possibilitys of withdrawing to new positions without recieving too much fire in return.
And, of course, Russ was kind enough to roll two boxcars in a row, thus ruining 1) the first flamethrower with his second shot, and 2) the second and last flamethrower with his first shot.
Both of us enjoyed the scenario, however, and I guess it was part of Russe's victory in the CCVP championship. And it was 1-2 for me. Quite a good feeling!
Round 4 was against Jean Deveaux in CH43, The opening blow. Encouraged of my former victory, I put up my defence on the edge of board 24, facing the open areas of board 33, where Jeans British forces should arrive. In his first player turn I had a cruel awakening: I had misread the SSR and took the bd 24 valley for ground level instead of a level 1 hill! Somehow my mind slipped when reading the part saying that there was "LOS from 24G3 to 24A3". I was pretty stressed by the unpleasant surprise, made a couple of severe mistakes (among others tracing LOS for my OBA right through a stone building - sorry about that, Jean!). I succeeded in hit and burn three of his tanks, and two out of three minefields broke two of his squads, but that's about it for me. Jean encircled the bd 24 village before my reinforcements arrived, and in a last desperate try to get my "KG Hauser" into town on turn 3, avoiding his two Shermans just waiting CE at point blank range behind a hill, I tried to rush through the woods beside the road. Of course, I didn't manage the bog checks ...
In the meantime, Jean had completele taken over the victory building on board 24. And since my last reinforcements couldn't manage to get into town till at least GT8, I had to give the game to Jean.
This was a terrible game, totally spoiled by my SSR-mistake. My frustration didn't disappear till after a couple of hours of "beer-therapy" down in the bar ...
Sunday before noon Eric Chazottes and I sat down and played another friendly game, "The Wolves last tooth". Eric got his favorites, the Italian, and I got the Greeks. The Italians was quite vulnerable, and pretty soon most of Erics main force was routing for king (duke) and country. However, suddenly one of the brokies turned up berserk and totally finished the entire first line of my Greek defense. Next turn most of the other brokies succeded in rallying, and the game that was almost over in two gameturns was still on.
Unfortunately we couldnŽt finish the game due to Erics trip home. Another time, maybe?
In spite of the last tournament game I had a great time down in Arnhem. I had time for a couple of friendly games, I played some good scenarios, had good food and accomodation, a good battlefield tour and, the most important part: I met a bunch of great guys and made some new friends.
Could it be any better?
Ah, yes, one more thing: I finally met a woman actually playing ASL! It was Peters wife Liz, who turned up for a couple of games Saturday and Sunday. I'm not quite sure, but I think she actually won both of them. One against an American player (no names!) and the other against ... Ah, heck, I better shut up about this and let them keep it in the family ...
Thanks again, Hennie and Peter! I had a great time at your absolutely smashing Arnhem tournament!
Matts Dagerhall
Sweden"
