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ViennASL |
Trasferta all’estero per la ABM; invitati alla prima edizione del ViennASL, Andrea Aliboni, Sergio Puzziello e il sottoscritto Daniele Dal Bello non si sono tirati indietro e il 31 gennaio siamo partiti da Perugia destinazione Vienna, città di Mozart, di Klimt e della Sacher Torte. Non staremo qui a raccontare dettagli da turisti sprovveduti quali siamo, come la mancanza del bidet, finestre bloccate, letti in pendenza e cuscini di piume inconsistenti. Turisti deprecabili in quanto a gusti culinari, in quanto mangiare in un Pizza Hut o in un ristorante australiano (è stato Andrea, giuro!) e ad un Mc Donald non possono certo essere considerate scelte da fini intenditori. Unica concessione alla cucina locale l’hanno fatta Sergio e Andrea, che hanno optato per un classico panino con wurstel condito, tra le altre cose, con cipolla, venduto da un chiosco caratteristico, e mentre Andrea non è riuscito a finirlo, Sergio ci è riuscito ma entrambi credo lo stiano ancora digerendo. Ma veniamo al Torneo, organizzato da un volonteroso Jeff Crowder, americano di Los Angeles trapiantato in Austria, che tra le altre cose ha messo una cura particolare nei rifornimenti di birra, che secondo gli usi locali erano tali da garantire due o tre litri a testa per i tre giorni del Torneo. Il fatto che sia avanzata una intera cassa di birra significa che gli italiani, almeno in questo, non sono stati all’altezza delle aspettative. Il pomeriggio di Venerdì eravamo in 9 partecipanti, cioè tre italiani, un tedesco e cinque austriaci, e va detto che il club locale austriaco ha avuto un tasso di partecipanti pari solamente a uno su tre. Era previsto anche un inglese, ma sarebbe arrivato solo il giorno dopo, atteso dal buon Jeff che per recuperare la partita se la gioca con lui con un semplice lancio di dadi. Nel torneo alla svizzera occorre infatti che ogni giocatore abbia un egual numero di partite. Al primo turno si sono giocate quindi 4 partite sullo scenario WCW7 – EYE OF THE TIGER, che mi ha visto vincere (German) contro il buon Ronald Novicky (Russian). I miei compagni di trasferta soccombevano, Sergio contro Kurt Gorjanc, che avrebbe poi vinto il torneo, mentre Andrea contro Robert. Gli accoppiamenti erano fatti casuali al primo giro, e successivamente i vincenti con i vincenti e i perdenti con i perdenti, ma secondo un criterio che ha permesso agli italiani di non incontrarsi mai tra di loro. Al secondo turno infatti ho incontrato Chuck Hammond, altro austro – americano come Jeff ( a proposito di Jeff, solo un americano poteva presentarsi il secondo giorno con un costume da tirolese…) che parlava anche qualche parola di italiano. Lo scenario era FIRST AND INCHES. E ho perso, sia pure all’ultimo close combat decisivo per la vittoria dello scenario. Perdeva anche Sergio, contro Harald, tedesco di Francoforte, e ugualmente Andrea contro Jeff. Circa le usanze locali, da notare che tutti i nostri avversari hanno rifiutato il reroll, e con me solo Kurt ha accettato l’uso della IIFT. Ma la cosa più particolare è che tutti i miei contendenti hanno chiesto, e ottenuto, l’uso di una sola coppia di dadi, cosa che si è rivelata più che altro fastidiosa per la necessità di scambiarsi continuamente i dadi. Nulla da dire invece sulla correttezza dei nostri avversari, sempre disponibili al confronto sulle regole senza atteggiamenti di chiusura o di ostentata certezza di essere nel vero; il buon giocatore di ASL è per definizione pienamente convinto a metà quando si tratta di regole. Al terzo round lo scenario era STEAMROLLERS, da me giocato, e vinto, contro Harald, Andrea vinceva contro Ronald e Sergio vinceva invece contro Jeff.
La mattina di Domenica quarto e ultimo round; io gioco una partita decisiva per gli esiti del Torneo, in quanto se avessi vinto contro Kurt, il mio avversario, avrei vinto anche il Torneo stesso. Ma così non è stato perché all’ultimo turno una decisiva squadra italiana, diventata anche berserk e poi tornata normale, fallisce un decisivo morale e con esso segna le sorti dello scenario, dopo aver visto cose come un close combat tra un eroe ferito e un leader, e un infantry overrun della squadra berserk contro un eroe ferito greco. Lo scenario era infatti MOUNT PISSODERI, Greci contro Italiani, che vedeva per un caso particolare tutti gli italiani giocare con gli italiani ma solo Andrea vinceva contro Harald, infatti sia io, come già detto, sia Sergio, contro Ronald, dovevamo bere di nuovo dall’amaro calice della sconfitta.
Daniele Dal Bello
RESOCONTO DI ANDREA ALIBONI
Summary of the matches fought by Andrea Aliboni
So, here we are. When we enter the tournament, Jeff gives all of us the order scenarios will be played. So, first will be “Eye of the tiger”, followed by “First and inches”, then by “Steamrollers” and finally by “Mount Pissoderi”. A brief discusion with Jeff brings us to the conclusion that couplings will be done with the following principle: as long as possible, no italian will play with another italian. Then, the couplings are made.
My first opponent is Robert, austrian. I’ve never played with any of the presents before, so any of them is good. I choose the germans, and he chooses the russians, so no balance is in game. I tried this match in Italy before, so I have clear ideas on what I have to do. I record my OBA on the stone houses on map 42, and prepare to advance covered by the large grainfield with a single thrust: no dispersion of attacking forces. My opponent displays his force in a very sparse fashion, obviously to avoid OBA consequences, so he is omogeneously all over the map.
The game begins in the worst way for me. The OBA scatters exactly on the grainfield that I tought to use as a cover, and hinders my advance, and starts to light fires on the woods that I counted to use as a cover for my advance. The game will end with the wonderful 280 mm OBA that couldn’t even strip a single soviet concealment. Any how, there is nothing I can do about it, as I’m now on that side of that map. The first turns are not terrible, as there are not much russians to oppose my advance on map 4. He places the tanks to await me behind the 42N2 grainfield and the 42M2/3 hedge. I come out of the woods on the other side of the grain field with my tanks. I try to fire at the tanks, but can’t hit them, then the next turn the infantry arrives, and starts to cross the grainfield in an attempt to destroy the enemy tanks. Many attempts of PF and DC placement fail, as well an attempt to go around a T34 with a Puma armored car. In the end, I succeed in eliminating the two tanks, but it has costed me one turn too much. When I cross the M2/3 hedge to go and seize the buildings, simply it’s too late. My opponent still has tanks that I have to eliminate, spending precious time that I would rather use to fire at the russian infantry, while the last, desperate runs end with my infantry breaking the morale.
One comment on this scenario brings me to the conclusion that the german must attack morein the middle of map 4, as there is no time to make a longer way. Had I attacked in the middle, I wuold have probably saved enough time to wipe away the russian infantry. The time I lost in making a longer way.
This is probably the most complex scenario of the tournament, and I never tried it before. My opponent is Jeff, the tournament organizer. He lost the first game with a die roll, so I imagine he is truly bloodthirsty. I choose the germans, while he opts for the americans, so again no balance is active. He places his guys around the the 20Z3 building.
As I don’t know well the scenario, I choose to make what looks the simplest choice. I enter and occupy the the southernmost buildings, trying to dislodge the americans from building 20Z3. Then I set up in defense, waiting for the americans on my southern flanks. The american enters, dividing his forces. Some of them take the path along the west map, and group near my strongpoint in building 20EE9, while the forces in the center try to attack building 20Z9. I have my stugs one along the EE9-Z5 road, and the other near 20Z7 building. The one in the road faces a Hellcat, and fires twice, first normal, then intensive fire, but can’t eliminate it, and then breaks the gun. The Hellcat then eliminates it. The other one tried to protect infantry, but fell under the continuous bazooka fire, that my opponent has used making large use of the backblast penalty. More, I couldn’t reject the attack from the south, because Jeff made large use of the infamous VBM freeze tactic. This tactic froze me as well, as we are not used to use it, and I didn’t expect that my infantry couldn’t even take a shot. In the end, he could penetrate my defense, and eliminate the flak in 20DD7 as well. So my infantry, uotnumbered buth qualitatively and quantitatively, couldn’t stand, and I left the game one turn before the end.
Before the start, I have a fast look at the scenario, and think that the russians should have an edge in this scenario. My opponent is Roland, austrian. We both choose the russians, so we roll the dice: I’ll make the russian, but he’ll take the balance, so he’ll have some dummies to place on the map. When he has ended set up, I see that he used dummies for infantry, as the number of 5/8” dummies equals the number of german tanks. I see that the majority of people is on map 42, while there is a little people on map 17, that is, an infantry stack behind the 17Q6 wall, and a tank in 17Y4. The other people is in the village. As I think that the village entrance is too narrow, I decide to attack from map 17. I take all my tanks CE, and start to move along the road with infantry as riders. As I imagined, the infantry behind the wall had a panzerschreck,. I approached it uncaring of my health. It destroys an assault gun, but is subsequently eliminated in melee with a 6-2-8. Another assault gun is recalled by a sniper attack, so I decide to button up the tanks, though this will make me lose a certain advantage. At this point, I move to attack the tank in the woods, that turns out to be a King Tiger. So I place my T34 on the flank, my Stalins in front, while another Stalin covers my flank. In the meantime, the infantry runs undisturbed towards the map edge, using road rate, as there is no enemy infantry to oppose them. The battle with the King Tiger ends with its elimination, but I had my losses as well. At this point of the game, I have two Stalins and two T34 left, and I rapidly move towards the 42E1/2 wall, where a PZ IV is waiting for me, along with some infantry. While the other Tiger remains in the village, the Jagdpanther moves in bypass in 42J1/2. I notice that I can attack it with my T34s and strike it on the rear, so I move them back along the road, and succeed to immobilize it. I don’t attack it anymore, as I feel that it is in a position that really doesn’t bother me. At this point, I start attacking the wall. The highest moment is when I cross the wall at 42D0/1 with a Stalin. I took a serious risk, as the Pz IV could take an underbelly hit, but I needed to see the Pz VI in the village from the hill. I have ben lucky, as his shot took the hull, and it did nothing. The Pz IV has been then eliminated, while the Pz VI started a duel with the Stalin on the hill. This duel ended with the Pz Vi breaking the gun. At this point, with the T34s advancing from 42N4 road, the germans were surrounded, and the rusians had only to fire at them with overpowering fire. The gane ended with no germans left on the map.
Ah ah, we have the italians here. So, I decided to take the italians, while my opponent, Harald, a German, decided for the greeks. A fast look at my forces, and I decide that the best tactic is not to fight at all with the greeks. Better let the greeks assault the mountain, remain in group, and then try to assault back the foxholes. So I place the majority of the squads along the line 9Q6/R7, then two half squads in 9Y5/O6 with 45 mm mortars just to harass the greeks along their advance. I place the gun in 9Y7, so that it’s protected from the greek HMG, but can fire in 9 O 5. I place a half squad with the MMG so that it can try to reach building 9DD3. The greek places in an obvious maner, with the HMG on level 3 hilltop and a 9-1, the others in the center, ready to assault the hill. The first two turns see the greek take the hilltop, and then the mortars were eliminated by HMG fire, and so the MMG, that reached the building broken (and won’t be able to rally for all the game). My armored car rises on hill 748, but on the first MG shot malfunctions and on the later rally breaks, so it’s immediately recalled. This leaves my gun without protection. In any case, with the HMG having plenty of targets, my reinforcements 5the other side of the hill, and start grouping with the starting infantry. At the end of turn 2, the greek is with 3 squads in the hilltop 733 foxhole, and starts to fire at my infantry. In the meantime, the reinforcments have arrived on the second level of hill 654, and find only the L3 to face it. As the L3 is eliminated by a ATR shot from the hilltop, the greek infantry is free to move towards the 9L5/P7 valley, where my infantry seems to be in a desperate last ditch position. The situation seemed desperate, but two things worked very well in my plan. First of all, the gun was still functioning, and a good group of my infantry was still in good order and concealed at the second level of the hill. In the following turns, I started pounding the hilltop with the gun, and slowly, I could blow out all of the geek occupants. A certain part of my infantry was broken, and could not take part at the fighting. But the others could finally start shooting at the greeks on hill 654, and put them in rout. By that time, it was too late for them to go back into the battle. This left my with a flank free, and I started advancind towards the foxholes. When the greek felt that things were turning badly, he abandoned the HMG and rushed towards the hilltop, and it left me with total freedom of movement. I took the hilltop on the last turn, with the last ditch greek assault failed.