2019...yep, 2019 was the last time I was able to be face to face with my Kansas City ASL buddies. Three long years spent in the shadows of COVID. So much time and effort taken to avoid being sick...and as you will see, illness would cut short my first attempt to step outside the quarantine.
But first for the good stuff...
The Kansas City ASL Club holds its Game Day events at the Hollis Renewal Center in Bonner Springs, KS. This retreat, set in a quiet little valley is remarkable for its tranquility despite being so close to the KC Speedway. Aside from the opportunities to play ASL, it also a great place to walk, hike and enjoy nature. It's a renewal center in so many good ways.
I have often encountered deer at Hollis and was pleased to see so many upon arrival on Saturday. I took the opportunity to take a few photos and cause at least one deer to "high tail" it out of there!
Of course, nature photography was not the purpose of my nearly five hour long drive. ASL was on deck and Dave Mareske, Dan Best and I would kick it off with a 3 player game of Rally Point #11 Scenario Theirs not to Reason Why. Dan would be the defending Russians, while I would team up with Dave, who would be the Germans with my Romanians providing support.
Dave Mareske models the quintessential ASL Player pose...hand in hands as he contemplates his next move against Dan's beleaguered Russians.
The scenario would begin with my Romanian 81 MTR going on a rate tear and placing three smoke before running out. The smoke would assist Dave and I in our initial advances. But then disaster. The Russian sniper was activated and KIA's my 10-2 before I even had a chance to move him or anything. They were four targets in the hex and of course my 10-2 gets popped again. Honestly, ASL can blow at times. This was one of those moments. All I could do was shrug it off and see what happened next.
While Dave's attack was largely successful in gaining the first hill, he would roll high and lose his flamethrower on its one and only shot. Again...ASL blowing at its best. Why bother bring the d@#n thing if it's out of fuel.
Dan would unleash his NOBA on my hapless Romanians. He was particularly fixated on my 81 MTR and my 75*ART. He would atomize the 75, but spend the rest of the game missing the mortar.
A final look at what was a fun game. Dave and I had adhered to our pre-game objectives and had both been successful. My Romanians had a longer route to their objective hill, but some key shots from Dave's Germans helped break up Dan's blocking force in front of us. Dan's reinforcing tanks went after Dave's Germans and slowed down his taking of hill positions. Dan would malf both guns on his tanks as they dueled unsuccessfully with Dave's STUG. But this distraction allowed my Romanians to gain control of the hexes in our objective area, that Dave was already taking for the Germans. This is played as a 3 player game and in our game Dave would end up with control of 10 hexes to my 7. I'll be honest, I don't like scenarios like this. I thought Dave and I had played a great cooperative game to take down the Russian defense only for me to realize, I was going to be on the losing end of the stick, after a fairly good attack despite the initial setbacks. Yeah...that sort of sucked and I end up with a loss that wasn't really a loss. So there's that...
Dan and I would play another game in the evening, Schwerpunkt 1, Raiders at Regi. This is a small scenario with US Raiders vs Japanese for control of a mountain jungle path. The Japanese all set up HIP and must have a good order MMC adjacent to the trail at game end in order to win. I set my Japanese back on the top ridge all in a line. I was far enough back that Dan couldn't reach me in the first movement phase, including Advance.
Our game went the distance, but the Japanese strategy worked out. The Americans were CX when the Japanese revealed and came down into H-t-H Close Combat. This is of course risky as both sides usually go down. But my Japanese came out on top and then managed to cut the rout path of the broken US units down the hill. With only a single squad left, Dan came at me for more CC action and was eliminated after taking down some Japanese with him. This is a good scenario to learn PTO and particularly close combat opportunities. It also plays fast if time is tight.
So with the day's gaming over, I retired to one of the three Tiny Cabins that were recently constructed on the property. There are two larger lodges also on property, but I believe these were new as of last year.
I was the only guest during this stay. The other two cabins were unoccupied.
The kitchen comes with a frig and microwave, but no sink.
The Tiny Cabins come with a pull down "Murphy" Bed and have another bed in a loft above the kitchen area. I opted for the loft and slept in a sleeping bag I brought along.
The ladder is steep and slick with socks on...as I discovered...so don't boxcar the climbing roll...
It was a very cold night, so the cabin was a bit chilly, but was nice and warm up in the loft.
There are two lights in the loft that were very useful as well.
There are no TV's in the Tiny Cabins or in any of the properties at Hollis. You're spending time there to get away from that sort of thing. So, I spent the remainder of the evening going through my new ASL swag. I was of course, very pleased to get my first copy of the March Madness Grumble Jones Pack. I have so many emotions about this and just feeling a lot of gratitude that the KC ASL Club thought enough of my designs to make this pack. It's really a great honor. It's wonderful to see the fruits of over a decade of blogging culminate in such a great pack.
OK...that was the good part of my Hollis Games Day...are you ready for part 2 !?!
Well, I'll warn you...it's pretty bad actually!! So not having a sink and having only a composting toilet are generally no big deal. I've camped for years and used much worse. But...these things are a bit more daunting when you find yourself violently ill with all manner of things trying to escape from your fragile, mortal remains through any orifice you have available...YEAH...that's when a real toilet becomes a true necessity. And a sink ain't bad either.
So what happened...in case you're still reading this. Well, I awoke Sunday morning in my loft, absolutely pouring sweat and extremely dizzy. At first I thought it was just simply overheating and not using my CPAP (hate that damn thing anyway). But, I was wrong. I was sick and not a little bit. I quick Facetimed my wife to let her know. And she was sicker I was and had been throwing up, etc, all night long. I felt doubly awful...number one...being sick and number two not being there to help my sick wife.
I had thought, I could just lay down for a bit, but with my wife ill, I had to get home as quick as I could and before I got any worse. So with my dizziness passed, I got down from the loft and headed to the public restroom in the lodge next door. You don't want to use a composting toilet in this kind of situation.
I next hopped in my vehicle and began the five hour drive from hell.
My normal route is HWY 169...but a detour between Chanute and Iola added about 30-40 minutes to the drive up. On the way back, I didn't to get back on 169, so took 75 all the way south. The problem with 75 is goes through Bartlesville. The traffic and lights through there are ridiculous.
My journey home began with a stop at the Olathe Quik Trip for the Z PACK (7 UP, Pepto Bismal, and Tylenol). The Pepto saved me from vomiting...so that was good...it couldn't help me with the other issues...
The biggest worry I had...was how long could I hold out before my guts exploded....cause this was Kansas and what might be missing during my fun drive home...???
Genau...exactly...I would survey every stand of trees...every ditch along the way as a suitable location for any FFE that might be required...
You know...anything to keep this from happening!!!
The part of the drive that scared me the most was the detour on Hwy 54 to Hwy. 75. This is as desolate as desolate gets. I didn't want to get sick anywhere along this stretch.
The good news...is I finally got home. And my wife and I spent the next two days lying in bed. We were both oblivious to the other as we went in and out fever induced dreams. She dreamed that our house was ransacked and that I was taken into the backyard by the bad guys...presumably to meet a bad end. And I kept dreaming about work...and being barefooted and in my PJ pants...that was odd at the safety committee meeting. And the best was dreaming that I was awake and needed to call my boss and tell him I was home sick...for a job I quit in January...shhh..don't tell anybody.
Now, while I'm poking fun a bit at myself over being sick...it's generally not a laughing matter these days. My wife and I appear to have been either food poisoned or acquired Norovirus. At any rate, after a day, we are both recovering and I'm able to sit and blog this tonight. So, I'm very thankful it hasn't been any worse than that.
The really disappointing fact for me is that this is the second tournament now that has been ruined because I got sick. In 2015, I was food poisoned at lunch during the first day of the Texas Tournament. I would miss three days of gaming and comradeship with people I haven't seen since that day. I don't want this to become a trend!!
So that's a wrap. I had really hoped to give you all a great breakdown of the KC ASL Club Games Day. They really are a great bit of fun and something to consider participating in, should you ever have the opportunity. There will be more this year, so be sure to check the KC ASL Page for dates and times.
Thanks for reading and hopefully, Dan and I will have a great game Saturday to report on!
We will see you then!
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