Unreal. I had not realized it had been so long since my last post. And those two sentences are becoming more and more common on this blog.
So... what have I been up to?
Lots of course!
My painting queue is getting rather rediculous. Between Christmas gifts, ordering from a fire sale and gifts from friends, my unpainted stuff is rather large. I am having to resort to playing with basecoated models! I believe I literally have 50+ vehicles that need decals and weathering.
I am very pleased to see the new MG books! I will say this about the Allies: The Canadians Rock! Like I said with TFA, the Canadians are very, very strong. Due to special rules, you get to re-roll to unpin and unbail. So the Canadians effectively get Protected Ammo on everything. Plain Jane Shermans just got better! Oh yeah, the Armored Reccee get Eyes and Ears as well as Cautious Movement. Nice!
I also went to visit a good friend in California that is moving to the UK in a few weeks. Yup, had to go play and drink with Bill and his lovely wife. That was a hoot!
We played Up Front!, a Napoleonic game (very cool!) and 4 games of FoW. Here is a quick AAR:
Bill ran his list that he took to Bane of War. It was CT US Tanks with Patton.
HQ: E8 and Jumbo
Platoon 1: 2 E8 and 2 Sherman Lates
Platoon 2: 2 E8 and 2 Sherman Lates
Platoon 3: 5 Stewies
Platoon 4: Engineers (he later removed and went with 4 more Stewies)
Platoon 5: Cav Recon
Platoon 6: Armored mortars
Patton
(after 4 games, he did tweak the list a bit more, but you get the idea)
I ran 2 ID (CV). While my list was altered as well, this was the most common version:
HQ
Platoon 1: Full platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 2: Full platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 3: HMG platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 4: HMG platoon with pimped out zooks
Platoon 5: AT Gun platoon
Platoon 6: Recon Jeeps (all .50 cal)
Platoon 7: TD platoon with Jacksons (Trained)
Platoon 8: Towed TD (Vet) with pimped out zooks
(yes, no arty. Crazy, huh??)
The first 3 games were all played on the same board. It was fairly dense - call it "I-95" quality. I did not get a picture of the board - sorry.
Game 1: Fighting Withdrawal (Bill 5, Allen 2)
I put one infantry platoon on the left and one on the middle. I had two TD platoons middle to middle right. Jeeps were on a road in the middle and AT guns in Ambush. I had Combat Attached both HMGs to each platoon. Bill put everything on my right.
This was over before it started. Bill moved his entire army up to 16.1" away from my dudes. Or he was able to get closer, but out of LoS. And for the first time, I was very worried that my TDs would be prevented from deploying (we used the proposed changes from Phil). He swarmed the objective on Turn 1. I deployed the TDs and popped the Ambush. I put a world of hurt on the Shermans and killed a Stewie platoon. But not enough. He was able to pin, block movement and keep me off the objective. 2-5 for Bill. This was my first game against Bill ever. He does play a different style!
Game 2: Breakthrough (Bill 4, Allen 3)
Now that I had experienced Bill's style, I knew what to do. My deployment was really good (after the game, Bill illustrated the PERFECT deployment) and I focused his attack. He was surprised that I did not deploy right up on the deployment border, but rather gave him room to move. I did not attach the HMGs this time and that was the right call. I put the AT guns in overwatch that covered the middle of the board. Towed TDs were on the board as my only mobile platoon. Jacksons and Jeeps were in Reserves due to Mobile Reserves rule. So I had the two infantry platoons and the MG platoons ready to run to the objectives. Bill focused on the middle and went AT gun hunting. But he did try to flank of Sherman platoon, which was a mistake. Turn 1 saw the AT guns get ripped, but they lived. One gun that is... In my turn, I got reserves and the Jacksons came on for side shots on the Sherman Platoon. That lone AT gun was able to kill one of the Shermans and the Jacksons ripped apart the rest. Point for me! Turn 2 saw the ATguns wiped and Bill put the Stewies within distance to contest the closest objective. I deployed the Towed TDs and the Stewies were gutted. If not for Patton, they would have run! And that started the swirling death match. My jeeps came on the next turn and I went hunting for his recon. While the odds were with me, the dice were not. My jeeps died and one of his recon jeeps was left standing. I did run another Sherman platoon. Bill ended up assaulting my troops with his engineers after blasting them for a few turns. The Stewies were the star for Bill as they kept killing infantry. By Turn 6, he is on one objective and I cannot get a guy to contest (even with rerolls due to 1iC, I failed to unpin 3 straight turns). But I was able to get Bill below half strength, so it came down to Company Morale for Bill. He passed and won! 3-4 for Bill. This was a great game and came down to a 50/50 roll for the win.
Game 3: Counter Attack (Bill 3, Allen 4)
This game was also a blast! I kept the HMGs as separate platoons, which allowed me to get 4 on the board. I put AT guns on the board, both infantry platoons and Towed TDs. Reserves were Jeeps, Jacksons and HMGs. I was able to dig in where needed and moved where needed. Bill went AT gun hunting again, but I survived much better this time. The game came down to TDs + AT Guns killing a Sherman platoon, Jacksons getting a Sherman platoon and the infantry assaulting the 1iC. We ended up calling the game as I had total control of the objectives and Bill was about to lose the Company Morale roll.
Game 4: Dust Up (Bill 5, Allen 2)
Short and sweet - a mistake by me in Turn 1 cost me! Bill and I broke for lunch after Turn 1 and he showed me the mistake. UGGGHH!!! Now I can say with 100% certainty, I never saw the move. Had I done what Bill suggested, we calculated he is rolling Company Morale Turn 2. So a 6-1 or 5-2 ended up a 2-5. And that is FoW! As I said, Bill plays a different style and that was the case in this game. I learned more in this game than any single game in a long, long time!
So Bill ended up 3-1 against me. Or as I say it - I beat Bill! And if not for a 50/50 roll, we would have split our two games!
Maybe I don't suck afterall...
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