As the Texas Team Tourney approaches, I'm excited to announce that the Opening Assault Mini will once again be taking place on Thursday, June 25, 2009! The action will be something unique and special this year; revolving around the invasion of Normandy and the subsequent battles in the hedgerows of Northern France in celebration of the 65th Anniversary of this period. This is your chance to experience a small part of this pivotal battle for continental Europe and see if you can survive that fateful day and the days that followed.

We are actually sponsoring two minis for this year. For the first mini, we are featuring the Critical Hit product First Wave at Omaha. This module brings the fury of Bloody Omaha to the players in a massive historical module that has three linking maps to recreate OMAHA West and portions of Omaha East with SIX FEET of running map length. Every detail is there, and all of the Vierville and Les Moulins draws. You'll recreate the scene of the hardest fighting in Normandy and the setting for the opening scene of Saving Private Ryan. The expectation is that we will have 4 to 6 players battle on the beachhead all day long. And at the end of the day, we will hold a drawing with one of the participants taking home the game. Join in and experience something truly unique in the world of ASL.

For the other mini, we will be featuring two scenarios, one from last years Action Pack 4, and one from the just recently released Bounding Fire Production's Beyond the Beachhead 2. As always players will be paired up, one Axis and one Allied, to hopefully remove any issues with scenario balance. Your objective is too just a little bit better than the other players of your side, either Allied or Axis. The team with the largest number of points at the end of scenario play will be the winner. It's that simple. Without further delay, here are the scenarios we'll be playing:

Round 1: AP32 Second Crack At Caumont
Round 2: BtB11 Bosq Barbeque

Here's a little background on the scenario for Round 2,

"le Haut du Bosq, France, 26 June, 1944: As part of Operation Epsom, the 9th Cameronians had the farthest first day objective, the village of le Haut du Bosq. For the attack they were supported by Churchill tanks of the 7th Royal Tank Regiment, and Crocodile flamethrowers from 141 Regiment RAC. The weather prevented any aircraft from supporting the attack, although the frontline German positions were pounded by a massive artillery bombardment. The Cameronians initially had to fight through the lines of Battalion II, SS Panzergenadier Regiment 26. The infantry and the tanks were hit hard by artillery fire, but by 1100 they were at the outskirts of the village."

We will kick off all mini play promptly at 9am Thursday, June 25 th. If you are interested in participating in either mini, please contact the Tournament Director (me) directly. We'll post participants for the minis online as they come in.

Cost of entry is included with your tournament registration fees. Any special rules applicable to either Opening Assault Mini-Tournament will be provided at the Tournament.  Please check out our website for all the contact and tournament details at www.texas-asl.com .

Rick