I dagene 15-19 september 2004 drog 5 brave danskere til Arnhem for at deltage i ASL-turneringen “A Bridge Too Far, 2004″. De fem var Bo Siemsen, Jes Touvdal, Michael Hastrup-Leth, Magnus Hindsberger og Torben Jørgensen.

Dette er Bo Siemsens after action report. PRE-TOURNAMENT
Arriving in Arnhem Wednesday evening with fellow Danes Michael Hastrup-Leth, Magnus Hindsberger, Jes Touvdal and Torben Jørgensen we were treated to a great event at the Bridge in Arnhem. Due to the 60 year anniversary the Bridge was closed for the everyday traffic, instead there was a memorial event including fly-by’s of a B-25 a mustang and paratroopers jumped from a couple of Hercules planes and landed nearby. To top it all off there was a bag-pipe lead parade across the Bridge of veterans from the Market Garden operations. They received a standing ovation from the thousands that were there.

Thursday was the day of the tour of the Operation Veritable battlefield. We drove up the H1-H10 paved road – stopped at the milk-factory (the original building was still there), continued down the Goch-Kalkar road making stops around JJ12, AA24 and C19. Most of the roads were still there, but it sure wasn’t easy to see what was to supposed to be level -1, 0 and 1. The afternoon was spent in a nearby dutch museum which unfortunately was a bit low on detail in describing the various pieces and mostly in dutch … but the impressive Panther made up for most of it.

Thursday evening it was time for a bit of friendly gaming. I hooked up with one of the participating americans Randy Rossi. We played a smallish scenario called Panzers in the Park (TEF1 – nr.3). A pretty simple – “take the house in the field of orchards” scenario.

Since I had to go to the cash machine and get some Euro’s to pay for the tournament (not to mention bar tap) Randy got to play the German defenders while I would attack with the Russians. My initial approach was fairly cautious, though in turn 2 when I tried to more or less overrun the German flank Randy rolled back-to-back snakeeyes with the 2 Panzer IV’s he had in support. That routed a 3rd of my infantry – but the rest bravely stood infront of the german machinegun fire and survived forcing the Germans back into the building and into hiding on the first floor. When my tank crew after bailing out advanced onto the last german tank and destroyed it (a leader helped) was more or less a matter of time before the completely surrounded and encircled germans would crack. And they did. Randy was a great pleasure to play against … and apparently he knew I was kicking his ass before I realized it myself.

ROUND 1
In the first round I was matched up against a friendly Canadian Serge Lemay. We opted for the Balkan Dawn (PB-CH (c)) scenario, I took the croats and he selected the Partisans. The partisans had to take a number of buildings to win the scenario, the number could be increased if I managed to exit some infantry off the board edge. Setting up in nice sturdy stone buildings I felt pretty good about this game. Serge had misjudged line of sights from the woods of his choice, which meant his gun (after initially failing a smoke attempt) never really was a part of the scenario. Add to that that one of the partisans squads guarding my exit route broke early – and the other one went berserk charging across the street into a hail of bullets and a less than glorious death, so I could exit squads and crews if necessary. Serge conceded the game short after. 1-0.

ROUND 2
I was paired against French player Phillipe Rohmer. The late friday scenarios were significantly bigger than the first round, which was fine by me. We agreed on HitlersSamurai (waffen-ss 2: FF12), but both went for the Russian attacker. He won the dice roll and kept the Russians.

I set up with just about all my forces in the village, including the roadblock protected by anti-personal mines including some very nice MG positions covering the mines and roadblock and a HIP Panzershreck adjacent to the roadblock. My guns both were set up behind the village in trenches on level 2 from where they could overlook most of the battlefield. We were ready for the onslaught of Russian infantry and 10 tanks.

Phillipe’s original plan of attack was disrupted before he had moved one single counter. He was counting on a Barrage of smoke coming down in a pre-registered hex in the prep fire phase, but drew a red chit for the OBA. Instead the infantry was scatterede all over taking a few losses to machinegunfire. I lost my only AT-Gun (75L) thanks to nice set of boxcars … and subsequent ‘6’ roll to repair. Lucky for me, Phillippe did exactly the same thing with his .50 cal MG – Boxcars followed by a 6. He also managed a set of boxcars for one of the T-34’s immobilizing it – and when two of his T-34/85’s drove right into my PSK/Roadblock trap things quickly looked decent for me despite the loss of my only long range AT weapon.

Phillippe continued his cautious approach looking for mines and the other HIP guy while using his 120mm OBA for smoke only, so by the time my 2 JagdPanthers and Mortar halftracks arrived he still hadn’t penetrated the outer perimeter of my defence. The two Tankdestroyers … well … destroyed some tanks while the infantry failed to get organized and coordinated in their attack. When Phillippe conceded the only thing I had lost was the 75L gun that I had disabled myself. 2-0

ROUND 3
In the early Saturday morning scenario I was teamed up against the laughing swede Claes-Erik Rydberg. Each eliminating a scenario we ended up playing Moshoof Melee (MLR 3) with me as the German defender. I set up just about everything in or around the farmhouse that we would be fighting for and the 80mm Mortar in the woods covering the most logical approach for the brits. I was not too interested in dividing my forces against the horde of brits. The objective was either to capture/hold all 4 key buildings by either side or otherwise get 3 more vp’s than the other guy.

As expected Claes-Erik comes through those woods with just about all his forces, unfortunately my 80mm Mortar doesn’t do any damage like I had hoped – and it only gets one or two firephases before it is eliminated by a critical hit from a 50mm mortar. Having fortified the front building I am able to hold off the british until my turn 5 of 6. When the squad in there finally breaks in defensive fire the intensity of the game boils over when Claes-Erik loudly shouts “YES!!!!” clenching his fists. Not only does the broken squad allow him to take the all-important building it’s also worth 4 vp’s as the squad surrenders rather than routing. I try to move into a position to reclaim the building in my 6th turn by advancing squad/HMG/9-1 adjacent to that house. Unfortunately anoher well placed snakeeyes from Claes-Erik on a 4+1 breaks the squad and I have to take a more cautious approach. Heading into overtime (the 7th turn, as the game was undecided after 6) he’s in a position to win due to the vp’s from the prisoners. I go for the knockout punch trying to capture his isolated infantry – I get the 9-1 with a squad adjacent to his squad/leader but my guys pin. So, I draw some more fire from his various units trying to get an opening for the encirclement of his squad/leader we go down to the last move when my 8-1 and a squad has to run through a 6-1 (and possibly there could have been subsequent 2+1 or 2flat shots on the way, but that’s all).

But the 6-1 was all that was needed – another pair of snake eyes. Claes-Erik wins and continued his quest for glory … while I quickly head over to Mel Falk (the eventual tournament winner) to purchase a set of precision dice for myself. Apparently those things really know when to roll snakeeyes : – ). A very tense and exciting game – I can’t wait to get a chance for a rematch against this guy. 2-1

ROUND 4
After being the defender for 3 straight rounds – generally I prefer to attack in ASL – I requested that Peter should find me an opponent who was willing to be the defender in Bloody Bobruisk (OB 8) which was the smallest of a set of really big scenarios and luckily Peter was able to provide me with an opponent – Lars Thuring.

Having finished the 3rd round late Lars and I don’t get to start the scenario until around 7.30-8.00 which was unfortunate considering the monster scenario – so I decide to play somewhat gung-ho so we could get as much of it done as possible. Up against some really remarkable german panzer’s I lose quite a bit of the Russian armor to only a few of the German tanks. The first 3 of his panzers really stand their ground fending off the Russian armor in very superior numbers. One of the German panzers I’m sure will not be remembered fondly by Lars. That guy drives into a really poor position attracting the 120mm OBA to fall right on the Germans key defensive position and the OBA ends up taking out the 75L AT gun he had on the first floor of a fortified building – and also temporarily clears out the ground-floor machinegun nest. The 2 other Panzer IV’s take out 4 other tanks, shocks 2 more and effectively was the reason one of the Russian tanks were immobilized due to ESB before I finally am able to destroy them. Lucky for me the 2 shocks return to fight (including the flamer).

Meanwhile the infantry battle is going much better, in the 4 turns we manage to play I have mobbed up 4 buildings and the 5th was about to fall as I melee was goingg on with 3 of my squads to one of his. I think that I would eventually get that building – despite his intention to reinforce with a hip halfsquad he had hidden in a wood.

Around 2 o’ clock at night we had to stop playing and decide a winner. We both agreed that there was plenty of game left on the board. We’d played just 4½ of 8½ turns. Lars brought out his remaining hidden guns. The 88 did cover the majority of the attack-path that was the most obvious. We agreed that the chances were 60-40 in his favor and then we rolled a dice to determine who would get the tournament ‘win’. Roll 1, I got the win. In retrospect I actually think my chances were better than 40% – in our discussions we didn’t consider that the gun could be distracted by a tank charging it’s position outside the covered arc or the OBA I still had could put down a layer of smoke on the road I had to cross. Then I probably would have been able to make the significant advantage I had in infantry count and capture that final building I needed … but there really was half a game left to play, that was a real shame that we didn’t get any further than we did. Lars, I hope we can get a re-match fairly soon. I’d really like that. 3-1

ROUND 5
On sunday morning I was paired up against Luis Calcada of Portugal. We decided to play First and Inches (PBP #25). First and Inches is an absolutely smashing scenario with Germans and Americans taking turn to have the initiative … attacking and defending, both Luis and I had played it before. I got the Americans.

I set up my only bazooka with the only 9-1 leader, hoping to make it look like a machine gun. I was able to get a few decent (6 to hit) shots at his vehicles early on, without success though. I felt Luis was a bit too cautious, not trying to score enough points early on before my reinforcements would arrive. When my reinforcements did arrive they charged on aggressively, captured one building and securing 2 others while also sending vehicles and infantry round the flanks and the Germans started crumbling fairly quick. I surrounded his isolated FlakVierling with 2 bazookas and it was quicky destroyed, while I had some luck to hit one of his stugs in advancing fire with a Tank destroyer. Luis conceded the game after 3 turns. 4-1

POST TOURNAMENT
The 4 wins was enough to finish 6th in the tournament, well above my own expectations. The prize I got was a scenario pack called Panzer Aces. I already had that one though, but I was so lucky that swedish Daniel Qvarford was willing to trade the scenario pack he’d won (Wacht am Rhein) for Panzer Aces. All it took was a bit of convincing from fellow swede Peter Rogneholt. Thanks a lot guys.

I also have to thank our hosts Peter and Liz Struif for arranging such a terrific tournament and event. They did everything they could to make sure everybody had a great time and got to play what they really wanted to play. Most tournaments tend to have a completely random draw in the tournament, but Peter went to great lengths to make sure people didn’t play someone from their own country unless unavoidable … and even that we got to play exactly the scenario we preferred. Great work Peter and Liz.