Hull Down

The main tournament was now on with everyone being split into three groups with an individual winner being found from each group. I quite liked the idea as it spread prizes and avoids the sometimes threatening structure of competitions. Other UK ones have apparently lost numbers to campaign games and I wonder if this is due to some people getting beaten so heavily and continuously that they don’t want the hassle. This structure increases winning opportunity whilst losing some overall bragging rights. Anyway after having a lovely night’s sleep my first game was against Martin Mayers. The first round theme was bridge attacks and having looked over them we decided on the ‘Marco Polo Bridge Incident’. Both of us wanted the Japanese so we rolled for it with the loser getting the balance. I lost so gained the KMT. The balance was a SAN increase to 4 which Martin then avoided rolling bar once and instead rolled several three’s. Now I have not mastered much in ASL but I am happy wit...

My next game in the mini was ‘Parting Shots’ versus Pete Phillips. Now Pete is a ‘stalwart’ of the UK ASL scene though from some of his tales ‘drunkard’ of the ASL scene might be more appropriate (caveat: he appeared entirely sober throughout the entire tournament though some of his tales of inebriation seem enormous). Now I had a weak bone to pick with Pete. Years and years ago (around 2006 I think) I had been looking for a new hobby and decided to pick one that involved actual players who were local and did not involve me having to travel miles or play online to do so and had come across a VFTT where I noticed the main controller being Pete, who lived in Leicester very close to where my wife’s parents lived and around twenty minutes from me. That would do! So I started squirrelling gear. Initially all three starter kits, Beyond Valor and the full rule book. After a few months of solitaire self-teaching I decided to get in touch and what did he say –“ I have just moved...

I had pre-signed up for a mini and gone for the latest Pacific Action Pack one (the mini was called ‘Fort in the jungle’ – I see what the competition organiser did there, nice) and it (and the others) were fairly simple affairs with four players over two rounds and a choice of three scenarios in each round, straight knock out though the first round losers tended to play each other after though it was not required. My opponent for the first round was Dominic McGrath who kindly helped me carry my gear from the car to the competition location. We decided between us on ‘Milling About’ and after a brief flick through the SSR’s and a rule read up on ‘Cactus Hedges’ we rolled for sides with neither of us being particularly concerned which side we obtained. I gained the Japanese. As time was passing due to my tardy arrival we put a spare board up and setup. Apart from me mistaking the depression next to the IJA startup area for a marsh (duh… thus unnaturally limiting my opt...

My games against FargoGamer continued in the pacific with this Japanese vs US Marine fight firs posted April 3rd 2014 "The Sun was rising on Bougainville, Papua New Guinea and Lieutenant Akira Takeda was seething. Not visibly  – that would be inappropriate, but internally.  In the distance the somewhat corpulent form of Captain Ashiro Kando could be seen. Eating again, Takeda thought. Things just sucked generally and if there was a tree of ‘suck’ then Akira appeared to have fallen out of it and hit every branch on the way down. His best friend Isamu was somewhere in Burma and he was here under the command of a blimp. The man was so focused on food that he was making the company leave its defensive positions nightly to return to camp so he could eat. It made no sense – the Americans were here with all their guns and rations and ‘gung ho’.  Plus did the man know anything about the threat of ambushes? – the column should send scouts out not walk up and down the same ...

Moving onto February 2014 my fights versus FargoGamer were delving deeper into the pacific. Hence this enjoyable game where I had my first taste at using the Imperial Japanese Army.. lieutenant Isamu Hamasaki squatted, studying a piece of paper liberally sprawled with writing, scratched out, underlined and generally aggressively amended. In the distance his company could be seen filing past either side of several Chi-Ha tanks who were steadily moving up the center of a paved road.  “Finished?”  He glanced up to see his friend Lieutenant Akira Takeda – young, lucky, cheerful, good looking, well born and rich. Apart from the ‘young’ none of these attributes could be even slightly attached to Isamu. Still the elite could afford to do whatever they fancied really and he was glad of their friendship. He nodded, cleared his throat and read out the text  “Life blood stirring. Heat, moist yet incessant burning. My soul yet rejoices”  Akira tilted his...