This year's Tournament Directors: Paul Works and Dave Mareske with able assistance from Dan Best and other members of the Kansas City ASL Club.
The 2024 venue has been the site of the tournament since 2018. The Holiday Inn Express in Shawnee, Kansas has a ton of gaming space in their conference room. Folks are able to spread out and extra-large kit doesn't block aisles or otherwise impede traffic in the room.
2024 would be my 7th March Madness. I look forward to this event each year. I have made a ton of great memories over the years and of course many great friends as well.
The total scenario list for this year's tournament.
ROUND 1 = British Army
ROUND 2 = PTO
ROUND 3 = Eastern Front
ROUND 4 = American Army
I would get in four games during the course of this year's tournament.
ROUND 1 = SP258 Operation Blackwater vs. Richard Burton
ROUND 2 = J150 The Sangshak Redemption vs. James Treu
ROUND 3 = J246 Loser Takes All vs. Randy Shurtz
PICKUP Game (Day 1) = RPT52 Death Rattle vs. Mike Bistodeau
ROUND 4 === well...we'll talk about that...
Friday - Round 1 kicks off. My opponent Richard Burton prepares his attack plan for SP258 Operation Blackwater.
Great example of how much space this room provides and easily accommodates some large kit.
Larry Zoet and Gary Bradley prepare for their Round 1 Contest.
Dave Mareske and Rick Reinesch.
Paul Works, Dave Mareske and Rick Reinesch...Tournament Directors' conference!
Richard Burton finishes up his plans for slicing and dicing up my defending Germans.
SP258 Operation Blackwater begins. Richard's British force was tasked with taking the hill (bottom center) and ensuring that neither of the German Tiger I's was within 4 hexes of Hex 71I5.
This would be our fourth game. We faced off in the 2015 and 2017 March Madness Tournaments and again in the 2019 St. Louis Tournament. We are very evenly matched and I have always enjoyed our games together.
Richard's early luck would be lacking. Smoke is critical to taking the hill. Richard would only get a single smoke and it didn't affect my HMG.
Richard would divide his force into two groups with one assaulting the hill and the other driving into the town to evict my infantry screen and get at my two Tiger I's.
The tank fight would favor the Germans as two Sherman III's and a Firefly would be destroyed in the course of the fighting. Richard's infantry would get a single squad up on the hill, but time would run out before he could successfully evict the defending Germans. So, my Germans would carry the day and give me a Round 1 victory.
In between Rounds 1 and 2, my good friend, Mike Bistodeau and I got in a pick-up game. We would play Scenario RPT52 Death Rattle. Mike and I first shared sides in a playing of A Winter Melee at the 2013 Texas Tournament. Then during that same event we would face off in the Ferocity Fest game Die Gurkha Die. In the 2018 March Madness, we would play a pickup game of J178 Old Friends. Until our 2024 game, I had never beaten Mike, who is a very good ASL player and possessed of much greater skill than myself.
Mike would play a disciplined game and take some chances. He would successfully drive a Comet Tank through the woods to grandma's house. I have never not bogged going through the woods. And on too many occasions would lose the game because of those bogs. So, I was impressed by the success of getting through the woods and avoiding German Panzerfausts. Our game would go down to the last movement phase as my Germans held off the last British assault. I would take the win, but only just barely. This was also my favorite game of the event. Just a ton of fun.
Round 1 at March Madness is an open round where you choose your opponent. Round 2 begins the bracketed matches and the TD's determine your opponents. But once you lose, you're done. You can continue to play the scenarios for each of the succeeding rounds, but you are no longer in the running to win the tournament. The good news...there are several Mini-Tournaments on Saturday for you to participate in and potentially win prizes and battle honors!
Richard Burton prepares for his Round 2 game.
Dave Mareske sporting the new KC March Madness hat.
My good friend and ASL battle buddy, Dan Best begins his Round 2 Game.
Other Round 2 Action underway.
ROUND 2 Game - J150 The Sangshak Redemption vs. Jame Treu. James and I have known each for years, but never had the opportunity to play one another. I don't usually win my Round 1 games, so I don't always get a chance to play against the Round 1 winners. James is another very good player and our game would be a fierce fight as his Japanese went after my Gurkhas.
James would get smoke production out of his mortars and at least one critical hit as I recall.
James would launch two Banzai attacks on Turn 1. I would lose my mortar and AT Gun during this charge but did manage to inflict some stripes and casualty reduction on the Japanese.
Our game would be fun throughout and just a great example of how good a PTO game can be. It came down to the final Close Combat H-to-H fight. James needed a 7 and I needed a 7. If I won, I would win the game. We rolled and mutual elimination as everybody died...but James was last to control the huts, so he would get the Round 2 win. And with that I was out the bracket. But super fun game and you cannot ask for better with it coming down to the final CC.
Round 3 Pairings for Saturday. I was finished with the bracket, but still wanted to play the scenarios for Rounds 3 and 4.
Randy Shurtz was also out of the bracket and so he and I would select J246 Loser Takes All. This is a 1945 scenario with German SS and Russians. I would be the defending Russians. Randy and I had also known each other for quite some time but had also never played one another. Randy is usually playing for the title and has many Tournament wins over the years both at KC and at STL. I didn't have any illusions about my chances. I such as the Russians and was facing off against a tournament winning player with SS and a Jagdpanther to boot...up...I was going to go down. I just wanted to go out with dignity.
In this scenario, the Germans attack from two sides. I really picked the wrong scenario to go up against an opponent of Randy's caliber. The odds were just way stacked against me.
Randy consults the rulebook during out game. Fortunately, I really didn't have to go the rulebook too often during this year's tournament...what I'm saying...I never look at the rulebook...
I like to leave that up to my opponents!!! 😁
This scenario played fast and I wouldn't have to concede until near the very last turn. And yes, Randy kicked my butt all over the map. My 3 x SU-100's never got a single before all three knocked out. Randy had some pretty good luck on his bounding fire shots. My SU-100's had to pivot to take shots at moving targets...so the odds of getting hits was pretty low. My infantry did passably well but couldn't maintain a buffer between themselves and the Germans. Randy was pretty much unstoppable through every turn of the game. Overall, another fun game, but I do wish I could have given Randy a better game.
Scenes from Round 3
ROUND 4 - Larry Zoet and prepared to play ASL Scenario 196 Patton's Prayers.
But fate had other plans for me...
So, this year, I had my wife come up to the tournament with me. We spent Thursday in Shawnee and then my daughter and Grandson were coming to spend the weekend at the hotel with my wife, while I played with the boys.
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My wife and I were super excited to see our Grandson. Fortunately, the drive from Quincy, IL to KC is an easy 4-hour trip. Much better than the full 8-9 hours to Tulsa. And of course, we want to see our Grandson at this age before he grows up too fast.
My Grandson assisted me while I loaded my Day 1 results into the ASL Archive.
As Friday night ended...life was good. I had another full day of ASL awesomeness ahead of me...
Randy and I were beginning our round 3 game when my phone rang...it was my wife...oh no...what now...???
My wife was supposed to be at the Shawnee Hills park with my daughter and Grandson having fun..but no...they were at Urgent Care and they wouldn't accept my daughter's insurance..."Is it ok to put the $180 bill on your credit card??"
What was the medical emergency you might ask? Turns out my daughter woke up Saturday morning with a severe case of Pink Eye and couldn't even open her eyes. Yeah, that's bad, so a trip to Urgent Care was certainly in order. The really bad part was that my daughter needed to drive home that same day. I went ahead and finished my game with Randy and the plan was to wait and see how my daughter's eyes felt after the medicine she received.
So, I set up my Round 4 game with Larry Zoet. Larry leaves for lunch and I go upstairs to check on things. No improvement and my wife tells me that we are going to have to drive our daughter and Grandson back to Quincy...like right now.
I had to be back to work on Monday...so yeah, we had to leave right then and there to get to Quincy in the evening and then drive the 8-9 hours back to Tulsa on Sunday. I was not a happy camper. I ran back downstairs and packed up. Poor Larry would return to find me gone. I bid Paul, Dave and Dan a hasty goodbye and hit the road. My Tournament was over...something I had looked forward to for a year. Of course,
it couldn't be helped and taking care of my daughter and Grandson were certainly more important than a fifth game of ASL...but just barely...right...😊.
it couldn't be helped and taking care of my daughter and Grandson were certainly more important than a fifth game of ASL...but just barely...right...😊.
I followed behind my wife and she drove our daughter's vehicle back to Quincy. I spend the four hours replaying the weekend's games. They were all great games and I got to play four different opponents. Despite the early exit, it was a great weekend of ASL.
Dan posted the final tournament results on the Gamesquad Forum.
Congrats to Wes Vaughn 2024 Champion at the March Madness ASL Tournament.
Jeff DeYoung came in second.
Doug Kirk placed third.
Time to start thinking about
March Madness 2025.
For those of you who haven't had the pleasure, Grumble-Scott is not only a calm and terrific guy (and terrific guy to play), but an interesting one as well! Getting to know him was great!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the kind words!
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