2019 Street Fighting in Sioux City - ASL Tournament

After a couple years of prodding by my good friend Dan Best, I finally made the journey to Sioux City for the annual Street Fighting ASL Tourney. I was a little hesitant to attend this tournament due to the long drive. It would take me about 7 hours from Quincy, Illinois to Sergeant Bluff, Iowa where the tournament was actually held at the local Community Center. Burnie Hegdahl puts this tourney together and does a great job from what I experienced.

Now I won't lie, the drive was much longer than I preferred. 7 hours is just a bit long for a one day tournament. But, there were some great perks to Sioux City and Sergeant Bluff that made me glad I made the trip.

Number one of these was the chance to meet some of the great players from South Dakota, Iowa and Minnesota that I don't run into in St. Louis or Kansas City. I really enjoyed the opportunity to meet and play against these great guys. I even got to meet Russ Gifford, who has been a Facebook friend for years. We didn't get the chance to play one another, but there will be a next time!

I arrived on Friday evening (the tourney officially began on Saturday). My good KC friends, Dan Best and Paul Works were already playing a pick up game, which wrapped up in time for the three of us to head over to the Sgt. Floyd Monument. Sgt. Floyd was the single member of the Corps of Discovery to die during Lewis and Clark's epic journey up the Missouri River and to the Pacific Ocean. I have studied the Lewis and Clark journey for years and had the chance to see first hand many of their artifacts and journals, which are housed in the Missouri Historical Society in St. Louis. So needless to say I was very excited to finally see the monument.

 Sgt. Floyd suffered an appendicitis during the journey and this proved fatal. Lewis and Clark chose the bluffs of what would become Sergeant Bluff, Iowa as an appropriate burial spot for their fallen comrade.

They would stop and visit the site once more during their return journey. It's pretty amazing that only one member of the Corps of Discovery was lost given the epic challenges that they faced during their two year expedition.

Should you find yourself in the Sioux City area, I highly recommend taking a moment to visit the spot.

Thanks Paul and Dan for taking the time to see this important part of American History. It was truly one of the highlights of my visit to Sioux City.

The ASL Tourney takes place at the Tricon Gaming Convention, which seemed very well attended with several hundred people playing everything from Bolt Action to D&D and multiple Euro style board games. The ASL folks were in their own room, which allowed us to spread out and focus on the games. The main room was a bit loud and would have been pretty distracting for trying to play ASL.

 It  was great to see lots of young gamers attending this event.

 This pair of German armored trains was way cool!

It was nice to walk around and observe the miniature gamers while I waited for my opponent's to set up their defences. This convention has a great, friendly vibe to it. It's nice to see so many people engaged in the gaming hobby.

OK...time to talk about ASL! The Street Fighting in Sioux City Tourney is a one day tournament with three rounds played on Saturday. A 4th Round is tentatively scheduled if a clear pair of winners does not emerge at the end of two rounds. I never confirmed the actual attendance, but it felt like 10 people were actively playing. As I mentioned earlier, the room was really great. Lots of space for kit and for folks to spread out and play. round tables are always a bit difficult to work with, but they also had a lot of space for kit, which you don't always have with the more narrow, rectangular tables.

ROUND ONE:

My first round opponent would be Paul Lauger. We would select Scenario RPT 139 Mauled at Merdorp. Paul would be the defending French, while I would take on the role of German attacker. We took the German Balance, but I don't think that it really helps at all in this scenario. ROAR has it with 6 German Wins and 9 French Wins.

 Paul would prove to be a very challenging player. His defense was well put together. Many of his tanks were in buildings and his infantry were well spread out and in various levels in the village area. This allowed him to put down a lot of fire as my Grenadiers struggled across the open ground.

Paul's second roll would be snakes (his third roll would also be snakes). This roll would result in wounding my 9-2 and staggering my most important stack as they armored assaulted with one of the two half-tracks. I won't lie...getting hit with back to back snake eyes in the first two minutes of any game can be disheartening.

The German armor enters on Turn 1, but minus 9 movement points, which severely slowed them down. My armor would not even reach the fight until Turn 3 and by then my infantry had been handled very roughly.  Honestly, I don't understand slowing down the German armor. The game is not very long and the German Armor is definitely needed to help the German attack.

I  managed to make some progress on the left flank, but never got into any of the victory locations. It was a very frustrating game for me. Paul's excellent defense allowed him to skulk and avoid most if not all of my defensive fire. Paul would not lose any of his infantry, while my grenadiers would cover the fields and village streets.

I tip my hat to Paul as he played a great game and would take a well-earned victory. Paul would go on to play for the Championship, but at Press Time, I hadn't heard who won the final match. It was great meeting Paul and I look forward to another opportunity to play him.

At the end of one round, I would be 0-1.

ROUND TWO:

My round two opponent would be Mark Harms. Mark and I would select Scenario FT264 Hands Off the Loot. I would be the defending French Partisans against Mark's attacking Germans. This would prove to be a tight game, but in the end the German numbers would prevail and Mark would manage to exit the board with one squad of Prisoners for the immediate win. Good game, but I wouldn't want to play this scenario a second time. But I do hope to play Mark again in the future.

At the end of two rounds I would be 0-2.

ROUND 3: 

My Round 3 opponent would be Jeff Kouba. Jeff had just come off a game against Dan Best and his dice had not been kind to him. They would not serve him well in our game either. It's tough to play both your opponent and your dice. Jeff and I would select Scenario WO 29 Pynda Avenged. I would be the attacking Greeks against Jeff's defending Italians. Jeff would have to do his best with 3-3-6 Italians, which is never easy.

Jeff had a spread out defense, which covered a lot of approaches. I would hit him on the Northwest edge and try to run along the board edge and into the back of the village. The first couple of turns would be frustrating for my attack as Jeff's defenders gave me a few bloody noses. But Italian 3-3-6's will eventually break and break they did. Then a berserk Greek Squad managed to take down his lone defender on the left and from there the flood gates were open. My Greeks stormed into the village and by Turn 5 had taken control of enough victory locations. Jeff offered the concession and I had my first and only win of the tourney.

Jeff and I had a fun game, but I could sympathize with Jeff's frustrations with his die rolls. I've been there many times myself. I hope Jeff and I will also have the opportunity to play again in the future.

So at the end of Round 3 I was 1-2 and that was all she wrote. I said my goodbyes and headed back to the hotel to rest up.

A few shots of other action during the tourney.

Dan guards the swag table. One of the nice things about this tourney is every so often you roll to see who wins something off the table. I left with two Lone Canuck modules and one Recon by Fire courtesy of Mr. Dan Best.

All in all a pretty awesome day of ASL. 

On Sunday AM, Dan Best and Paul Works invited me to walk along the Missouri River on the Nebraska side as we waited for Kahills to open up. Apparently Kahills Brunch is quite the experience.

 Pretty impressive views of the river for sure.

Well...Kahills was definitely an awesome Brunch. I'm glad I spent an extra hour in Sioux City to experience Kahills and some quality time with my fellow ASL'rs. So that's a wrap on Sioux City. It was a great time and I'm glad I made the trip. My thanks to Burnie Hegdahl for all the work he puts into this tourney! And my thanks to Paul Lauger, Mark Harms and Jeff Kouba for three great games!