Final Prep

Had my last game before the tourney on the 8th of October.  Brought the newly based and painted Brit Paras for a spin as I think this is the list I will field.

I played a young player named Ben.

We rolled up Fighting Withdrawl.  Since I was infantry and Ben was infantry, we rolled to see who would be attacker.  I "lost" and was defender.

Rough idea of Ben's army (1,500 pts MW):

3 Platoons of infantry (grens probably)
1 Platoon of pak40 guns (2 guns)
1 Platoon of Armored Nebs
1 Platoon of "Baby Brumbars" (two tanks) - I think Stiigs or something??
Limited Air

Deployment:

Ok, realize this is the first time I have ever been defender in FW!  Suffice to say my deployment left quite a bit of room for improvement.  I covered each of the three objectives with one platoon of paras.  Yes, the objectives were pretty spread out.  My left objective also had the platoon of HMGs.  The AT guns were in ambush.  My 8 gun 25pdrs were spread from left to middle and were also helping out on the left objective.  Spotters were far left and far right.

In hindsight (and with great help from Mike who debriefed my for about 45 minutes after the game), I should have placed my objective in the far left and caused a "shift" to his objectives.  Remember that no two oblectives can be more than 48" apart.  Second mistake - I should not have placed all para platoons literally on the objectives.  I should have palced at least one in between two objectives.  Third, having the 25pdrs, the HMGs and a platoon on one side was a bit of overkill.  Again, after discussion, I think the strategy of leaving the center objective weak is sound because you can reinforce from either (or both) flanks.  Food for thought.

Anyway, my deployment stunk and Ben chose the far right objective to bull rush.  Great plan!!  I knew I was in for a world of hurt.

Short AAR:

Turn one - with less than a 1% chance to pull it off (.925% to be exact), Ben killed my observer right away.  Concealed, GtG, BPC target, rifle MG team firing and FP 6 - he rolled a 6, I failed my save, and he rolled another 6.  OUCH!!  But speaking bluntly, that was the highlight of the execution of his plan.  He learned later that assaulting two platoons of FV Paras is a quick way to die.  The reason he assaulted two para platoons was that he allowed me to shift my entire force to the right.  6 turns in and he had yet to fire a shot from the armored nebs or the pak40s.  In addition, he only fired the baby brumbars once.  He is young and will have to learn.  Unfortunately, I had to sacrifice my 6pdr AT guns to prevent an assault, so I ended up losing one platoon.  5-2 victory that would have been a 1-6 loss to an more experienced player.

Feelings going into the tourney:

Well, I am excited for the 8th.  There will be about 30 players in Madison.  3 will qualify for Nats.  I don't have a chance in hell.  I have only played my list 3 times and I have yet to learn the finer points.  But we will see if study can make up for a few games of experience!!  I do like my list and I think it will stand up well against others.  I am afraid of the hell known as cavalry.  All I know for sure is that I will have fun and I will learn a lot!!

Wish me luck!!