Release the Geek

 I’ve added a link for ‘Banzai Pipeline’.  Its an ASL blogger from texas with LOTS of AAR’s and scenario discussions.

Be sure to stop by and take a look.

Just a quick update to say i’ve organised and added some more links to the side bar of the site.  I’ll be sure to add more over the next few weeks but in the mean time if you have any suggestions for those to be included (including yourself) just let me know. 

I’ve started to list organised groups of ASL players, ok I know that ‘2′ is not a huge start but it is a start none the less.  In the back of my mind I have an idea to keep adding to this list and when I have enough to expand it out into a seperate page here on the site so if you know of a regular ASL group then please let me know.  The same thing also applies for tournaments, but that’s a little further down the line.

SESTRORETSK ROAD, TERIJOKI, FINLAND, 2 September 1941: The Finns, seeking restitution for the Winter War of 1939, had erupted across the borders and breached the Soviet Karelian Front even as the crisis to the south of Leningrad came. Within three weeks the Soviet 23rd Army had collapsed before the onslaught of the implacable Finns; three Russian regiments were cut off in Sortvala, the 198th Motorized Division was trapped in Khitola, and three divisions were isolated around Vyborg. The northern shield of the great city of Leningrad was shattered. In a desperate attempt to salvage something and form a new defence line along the Sestra River, orders went out to the units in the town to break off and retreat southward. One such unit was the 131st Border Battalion, which was to serve as a rearguard. At 15:30 orders arrived releasing them to savethemselves. . . if they could.

 It was always going to be a difficult propersition. The russians were in full retreat and were heading south to try and cross the river and regroup.  We had but one chance to harry them southwards and attempt to prevent the bulk of the bolsiveks regrouping.  From our positions along the Road we had seen the innitial movements but had taken a few minutes to realise that a full blown retreat had begun…

I immediately ordered scouts to cross the road to inspect the russian positions and they quickly confirmed that the positions had been vacated.  They blew their whistles, we grabbed our weapons and charged across the road to storm the buildings fearing snipers and hidden units defending the line.

We made good progress before encounting some accurate and withing fire from a lone unit in the rowhouses.  Our scouts were cut down to shreds but one man, “Eerik Frösén” heroically picked himself up, called for pride in our unit and individually charged straight into the building without regard for himself.  Inspired by him others followed him forward for what would be a long and hard fought close combat scrap to the death.  The rest of the Russian forces continued to melt backwards to the refuge of the stone rowhouses north of the Cemetary our units charged to Pt Frösén’s assistance, and out towards to the stone walls…

“Hosingen, Luxembourg, 16 December 1944: THe 110th Regiment of the 28th Infantry Division had been tasked with the defence of a narrow ridge running between the ‘Our’ and the ‘Clerf’ rivers in Luxembourg. The Regiment sat astride Route N16, a road known to the Virginians of the 28th as “Skyline Drive” one of only a few paved roads in the Ardennes. For fifteen miles the Regiment lay sprawled along the length of hte ridge in a series of fortified strongpoints, often reinforced with armour and anti-tank assets. One such strongpoint was the town of Hosingen, where Company K, along with Company B of the 103rd Engineer Combat Battalion, was posted. At 0525 on December 16th an intense artillery barrage commenced which set several buildings ablaze and damaged some trucks but otherwise left the Americans unscathed. A thick fog obscured anything beyond a few hundred yards and as the morning progressed the Americans Began to hear Germans bypassing their positions to the north and south.  These were units of the 77th Grenadier Regiment which had assembled in the woods east of town prior to the bombardment and were now on the move to seize the bridge at Clervaux. Around 0730 the fog began to lift and shortly thereafter the Grenadiers attacked Hosingen in an effort to take control of the vital roards leading west.”

 The American forces were spread quite thinly and scouts reported their MG’s were concentrated mainly to the southern woodline.  With this in mind a couple of squads made best speed beyond the southern perimeter to the nearby buildings drawing their fire and attention.  With the diversion underway the bulk of our forces stormed the Eastern MG nest from all flanks.  Some good men were lost but we quickly despatched them all and turned their MMG back on the town to keep the yankees pinned back in the buildings.

With the eastern nest in our control the 77th stormed west to the northern buildings to secure the north of the town and provide covering fire for troops to move across the open spaces to the road checkpoints which were our objective.  Again we faced some fierce firefights but swift movement by the 77th got them into defensive positions just before the Americans arrived at the buildings. This clinched the fight for us and we were able to chew up the American squads peacemeal as they had to cross the open ground under fire from their own captured MMG and on reaching the buildings were immediately coming under fire from our main force and MGs ready and waiting for them.

As the main force seized the controlling vantage point of the town 3 squads chased though the northen woods surprising the yankee flamethrower waiting to ambush us.  We opened fire and immediately they turned and ran back through the woods.  They were chased down for about five minutes before catching us by surprise, unexpectedly findin courage and turning to fight, however our accurate fire soon exploded the tanks of the flamethrower engulfing the operator and all of the enemy in flames…

As the operation came to a close our southern scouts could be seen storming into a building from all sides and routing the remaining resistance away from the town.

With all the roads now controlled by our valiant grenadiers the operation was declared a success, the town was ours, the roads were controlled and the bridge was now open for our forces. 

“The day after Christmas 1943, the 1st Marine Division landed at Cape Gloucester on New Britain to put pressure on the Japanese fortress of Rabaul. The landings were lightly opposed and the Marines moved rapidly inland toward their objectives, Hill 660 and the Cape Gloucester airfield. Right after the New Year the Marines of L Co. 7th Marines stumbled across a small stream and began to cross the obstacle which was not marked on their maps. Not long after the first few Marines cleared the far side, a ferocious volume of fire erupted from cleverly concealed Japanese bunkers on the far bank. The Marines attempted to flank the Japanese positions only to discover that the Japanese were firmly entrenched along the muddy, steep banked stream that the Marines quickly came to call “Suicide Creek”. For further information, see the link to the right “USMC operations…..”. “

Suicide Creek is a blogg and mini HASL module in development by Darrell Andersen and looks to be a very violent and bloody encounter set on an island in the PTO.  Details on it at the moment are still slightly sketchy but there is a lot more info in his blogg. He’s recently put out a call for playtesters so if your interested drop him a line as i’m sure he’d love to hear from you.  Quite a few of the guys at The London ASL group ‘Double One’ that im involved with recently helped playtest the Hakke Palle module in development and its a very rewarding experience.

Have just been reading in this weeks ‘Mirco Mart’ magazine about the new G800 from NDrive.  Its their newest Satnav model and now comes complete with Photos showing you where you are rather than just the basic vector maps we’re all familure with.  The photo images should be familure to those of us who have experience with google earth or microsofts maps.live.com

Im not sure it will have people running out their doors to upgrade to it but im sure it will certainly be a clincher when people are buying new or replacing faulty equipment.

Was Surfing around the new Desperation Moral forums and stumbled upon Blindhex Its a relatively new Blog with a lot of effort already put into a a VotG AAR for the campaign with some lots of photos and commentaries.

I’ll be sure to drop back and follow their progress and us newbie bloggers need all the help we can get so be sure to support him too.

If, like me, you’ve become instantly addicted to GTA IV then you’ve been driving around the city trying to find all those hidden locations for jumps, pigeons, weapons etc.  Well it would appear that there is some ingame help.

Just log on to any computer within the game and visit ‘www.whattheydontwantyoutoknow.com’ to reveal in game maps for all the secret locations.

This Saturday will see me on my monthly pilgrimage into London to attend the London Advanced Squad Leader (LASL) group.  ASL is probably one of the most exacting games for recreating squad sized combat in the World War II areana available.  The rules system can certainly be very daunting for the newly interested but its depth and realism are beyond parrallel with rules for every conceivable situation.

The main thing which distinguishes this ‘game’ for me is its realism.  EVERY scenario is the result of painstaking historial research to recreate actual engagements.  I’ve been playing for about 9 months now and my only regret is that I dont get to play as often as I would like. 

If you would like more information about ASL then Desperation Morale is a great fansite with information about the game, modules, scenarios and maps.

This Saturday i’m playing a scenario set in Arnhem, Holland 19th September 1944.  ASL - ABTF4.  Im commanding elements of the German Kampfgruppen Knaust and Brinkmann, SS-Panzer Division 9 against the British Company A, 2nd Parachute Battalion, 1st Parachute Brigade, 1st British Airborne Division commanded by my friend and LASL co-founder Mark Furnell.

“Field Marshal Model was beginning to comprehend the threat posed by the British at the Arnhem Road Bridge. He likewise understook the implicaitons of the other Allied airborne landings and XXX Corps’ northward drive. Promisin armour reinforcements for both Kampfgruppen Model demanded that Camptain Knaust and Major Brinkmann open the roadway south to Nijmege. Knaust and Brinkmann sent heavily armed patrols forward to affresively probe the British positions. One such attack came late in the morning from the industrial parks east of the bridge.”

Welcome to my first post here at Release the Geek.  I’ve started a couple of experimental blogs before but this time we’re here for keeps. I intend for Release the Geek to be a place for all my ‘Geeky’ adventures, thoughts and advice

Be it Gadgets, Websites, Xbox, Ipods or the like I’ll look to post it here.  Its not my intention to be a journalist, an advocate or even of interest to anyone but to make a central place I can put a collection of information.

In the hope that one day someone might actually come along and read this…. Hi and thanks for taking an interest but I wont be holding my breath.

lol.