Mega Historicon AAR
Well after a long week and weekend, I am back in the saddle
at home. I had a great time seeing friends
and making new ones. It goes without
saying that the biggest joy I have is seeing everyone!
So let me get straight into the action.
Thursday Doubles:
Round 1:
I partnered with Bill Wilcox. He ran US 7th Armored Division with Patton and I ran Vet Armored Rifles. We each had 1,000 points, but we could swap up to 100. I ran a 910 list and Bill ran 1,090. There were 40 teams or 80 guys playing!
Jeff Flint / SonBae on the WWPD Forum had already called us
out for Round 1. He ran a StuG Batterie
and Michael ran a Panzerspaeh list with 8-Rads.
Mission was Blind Domination. If
you are not familiar, check out the mission!
It is on WWPD in the scenario section.
Basically, there are Domination Points and not objectives on the
board. You claim the points like an
objective though. Table has 12 points
and first to 8 wins (after Turn 6). The
wrinkle with Blind Domination is that you have to choose your entry point (long
table edge broken into 12” corridors) before the game. Then you see how it all develops, but you can’t
change the entry point! Turn 1 you get
Recon. Turn two you get 1 platoon,
Warriors and Observers. Everything else
on Turn 3. In Doubles, it means you each
get a platoon on Turn 2.
Turn 1. Cav Recon
comes on and gets to a 2 point objective.
8-Rads get several points right away.
No shooting.
Turn 2. I put Arp on
left middle and place them behind a hill.
But they could be targeted by the 8-Rads if they moved aggressively. Bill put Shermans on right middle. 8-Rads do move aggressively and race towards
our points. This causes them to sit on a
huge number of points. 8-rads shoot the
ARP and kill one track plus 2 stands.
They pass motivation to hang around.
Turn 3. Game changes
quickly. We get out platoons on and we
had put Shermans in the same slot as the ARP.
We kill the 8-rads on my side of the table by shooting them to bails and
assaulting them with ARP. Middle has the
exact same thing happen. Right sees the
3rd patrol die from shooting.
Company Morale. Germans pass.
Turn 4. Cut to the
chase – 1iC is killed and Panzerspaeh Company runs, thus ending the game 6-1
us. But Bill and I now own 10 of the 12
Domination Points. And for tie breaks,
it matters.
Round 2:
Mission is Free For All and we play Marcus and Al. Marcus is running JagPanthers or something
large and nasty with crazy AT and FA. The Company was literally a 1iC of this thing,
with two platoons of 1 Jagwhatever. Al
is running Grens, SturmTigers and StuGs I think.
The board is rubble city on left and woods / hills / fields
on right. ARP goes on the left in
tracks. Arty is on left with ARP. ARP on right with Cav Recon. All Shermans are on right. Spearhead gets us well forward.
I can’t remember the exact turn sequences, but my left ARP
ends up sitting in a niche of rubble, still in the tracks. This forces Al’s Grens to be very
careful. There is a Jagwhatever in
support. So my 295 point is holding up
about 700 points. This let’s Bill move
his tanks on the right and go after the Jagwhatevers. Swirling battle ensues and we take the
objective on the right. 6-1 us.
Round 3:
Mission is Dust Up and we play Erin / Joe Lewis. The details on this one are even fuzzier. The one thing I remember is that my 105s got
Time on Target for something like 6 turns straight. Bill and I kill a bunch of stuff, but we can’t
break either company. We assault the
objective, but we just can’t pull it off.
But our performance was good enough to get us 2nd
place! Riha and Barnes finished in first
– I think one point ahead.
It was a great day and an awesome tournament! See my picture wearing the “Cheetos Eater”
T-Shirt I had made up!
Now to the Nats!
I brought my trusty Canadians to the tournament. 2 Infantry platoons with Roos, 6pdrs with
carriers, 25pdrs and 2 Canadian Armoured Recce platoons (2 Sherman Vs and 2
Fireflies – all with .50cals).
Round 1:
I play Jason Roshon, who brought US 7th AD
(Confident Trained US Armor). I can’t remember
the exact list, but he had Shermans with Easy Eights (2 platoons), 1iC in an
Easy Eight, 2iC in a Jumbo, Cav Recon, Armored Mortars, Trained ARP, 5 Stewies
and other nastiness. Mission was
Encounter.
Since Encounter does not have Prepared Positions, I am not
subject to Armored Reserves. With the
list I was facing, I went with the two CAR platoons and the 6pdrs on the board. The board had a rubble town on the
right. It also had trees that would
allow Jason to get his tanks fairly close to the objectives and be totally out
of LoS. He put the Stewies, Mortars and
Cav Recon in Reserve. Early turns see me
dig in and wait for the attack to develop.
I was also waiting to see what would happen with the Stuarts coming on
from Reserve. Jason moves the Shermans
up and stays behind woods. But along the
way, the CAR takes out a Sherman from the left platoon. We start getting our Reserves (Delayed) and I
bring infantry on the far left and the 25 pdrs.
Jason moves the Armored Mortars into fairing range, but he leaves a guy sticking
out where my observer can spot him. I
range in and end up causing the platoon to run.
This causes Jason to move into the woods on the left and engage me. Unfortunately, he bogs a dude along the way. He does claim a Sherman, but he cannot take
the return fire. I kill or bail everyone
and have the infantry ready for the follow-up assault. I now shift all my CAR to the left, throw
everyone in Roos and go Stuart hunting.
Jason now has to respond and starts to move the other Shermans on the
far right to the left, but arty hounds them along the way. I end up wiping the Stewies, Cav Recons and
cause a Company Morale, which Jason fails.
It took a decent number of turns, but once the shooting started the game
pace picked up.
Result: 6-1 to me.
Round 2:
I draw Caleb Vicks. He is a CGR Painter guy and super nice. He had Brit Lorried Rifles. Two platoons of rifles, UCs, a two mortar tube platoon, a platoon of two 6pdrs with carries, two platoons of Cromwells and Challengers (one had 2 Croms, the other had 3 Croms), a platoon of Achilles M10s and a platoon of Bofors SPAA. 9 platoons. Mission was Cauldron. I chose to Night Attack.
This board was total BS.
Horrible board that really sucked for both of us. There were four sections of narrow trees literally
(and we measured it too!) going down the middle of the board as measure from
short ends. So for Cauldron, this forced
the game to be played on two halves (left and right). Oh, there was a break in the trees – that had
a building taking up the space perfectly.
This is a BF board too! Ok, back to
the game.
I placed the objectives pretty far apart and on each of the
two halves. Infantry goes on each. Short Crom deploys with a Cromwell in the
woods on my left and looking out the left half, with the other tanks on the
right half. The long platoon is in
Immediate Ambush. Rest are in Delayed
Reserves. Random Deployment sees my
infantry on the upper right, CAR in lower right and CAR in lower left. 25pdrs, 6pdrs and infantry are in Reserves. Immediate Ambush goes on the right half.
I end up killing the Cromwell sticking out fairly early. I get Reserves Turn 2 and put the infantry on
the table on the left, protected by hedges.
These move towards the objective.
Night Lifts top of 4 and shooting really begins. We swirl for a few turns, but I am able to
kill the 2 Crom platoons, then kill the mortars from Reserve and the
Bofors. Realizing that the Achilles were
next, Caleb shakes hands. We then spend
a good thirty minutes talking tactics and list building. Wilcox comes over and joins the discussion
too. That was a blast, and yes I bought
Caleb a beer.
Result: 6-1 to me.
Round 3:
I draw David Danner.
Super, super nice guy and a great opponent. I can’t say enough! His list?
I don’t have a copy because it was the exact same as mine. He had come up with the same list, but wasn’t
100% sure about it until he read my article that I wrote for WWPD. So it was a mirrored list game. Mission was Pincer. We both opted to Night Attack. David had the Maple Leaf dice and rolled a
5. I shrugged, knowing that I had to
defend while I rolled my Brit Para dice.
I rolled a 6. Wohoo! And that basically sealed the fate for David.
Our table had a hill in the middle and a lot of woods on the
right. So he made the right his
deployment zone. Nice choice for
David. He puts his objective in the middle
(perfect spot) and I put mine as close as I can to my area, but closest to
where I happened to be sitting. You see
the hill created two avenues of attack for me and I chose the avenue closest to
me. And there was a field there for me
to use. So everything rushes down that
axis. David chooses to deploy his 25pdrs
on the close objective with CAR support from behind. 6pdrs are in Ambush (I know that will hurt).
Under the cover of night, I move out. With Spearhead and Turn 1 movement, I am now
8 inches away from the close objective and in assault range of the arty. David knows what is coming and decides to pop
the Ambush. He rolls for sight and he
can see one of my CAR. He lights me up,
but I survive. I arty him back and kill
some guns. I also shoot with the CAR,
but can’t kill them all. I assault the
guns with the infantry and they are destroyed.
I am now on the objective, but not dug in. Bottom of Turn 2 sees the 6dprs finish off a
CAR platoon. His CAR now has to get into
assault range to contest and David decides to assault me. While I can’t stop the assault, I can
certainly swing back. I do and after two
rounds of assaults, I end up bailing every tank. I am now on the objective without anything contesting
and win at the top of Turn 3.
Result: 5-2 to me.
After Day 1, I am sitting with 20 points (you get a bonus
for the win). That made me tied for 1st
with Tony Davis.
Day 2:
Round 4:
Tony Davis and I face off!
He has a Canadian list, but with Crocs, UCs, Wasps and 2 Breaching
Groups. The mission is
Counterattack. I Night Attack Tony.
First, I know Tony. I
have talked, emailed, broken bread and shared beers with Tony. I like Tony.
He can be misunderstood on the forums at times – or not misunderstood at
all – but in person he is a nice dude. I
had a wonderful game.
Table (again) was rubble village on right and woods / fields
on left. The details are sketchy / it
would take way too long to describe, but basically I got on the wrong side of
the power curve and Tony was able to knock out both CAR with his reserves. I was able to assault into the objective in the
village, but I could not hold it. It was
a much closer game than the result states, but Tony schooled me pretty
well. I did learn quite a bit during
that game and I look forward to the rematch!
Result: 1-6 loss.
Round 5:
Now I continue to my roll of playing excellent
opponents. I get Phillip Messier and his
US Glider troops from Nuts!. The mission
is Hold The Line. He has 2 platoons of
Gliders, HMG platoon (he CAs them into the infantry), two Hellcats platoons, two
105 platoons, 57mm AT guns and one more that I am forgetting. Since his list looks to be weak on the attack,
I decide not to Night Attack and we roll for it. And to be honest, Night Attack would not have
been a huge benefit. I “won” the roll
and had to attack. After the game,
Phillip states that he would not have won if he had to attack. I have to agree.
The game details are boring, but basically I move forward,
TDs pop, they have subpar shooting, I can’t make them pay for it, attack bogs
down, I shift attack axis, get an assault into the objective, but I am cut down
the next turn. His Hellcats are down to
just a few vehicles, but I can’t run the platoon until very late in the
game. I shake hands.
Result: 2-5 loss.
Round 6:
I draw Charlie Clay.
So I have three straight games against solid players. This will be tough. Mission is Free For All.
Charlie has Vet US Armored Rifles with Hellcats, Scotts,
Shermans, Abrams, Recon, AOP and Limited Air.
Table is rural (no ruined towns!!) with a hill in my area, a hill in
Charlie’s, some trees and a rural house with a stone courtyard in his
area. I have trees in mine and roads are
in both of our areas.
I put CAR, 6pdrs and 25pdrs and infantry on the left objective
area. CAR and infantry on right. Right CAR is in a hull down position in the
hill. Charlie loads up my right side
with ARP, Shermans, Scotts. Middle has
ARP and Recon. TDs are on the left. Charlie goes first, so no air. He moves aggressively towards me. In my turn, I mount everyone up on the left
and blitz the TDs. I arty the ARP and do
some damage. CAR shifts slightly. Turn 2 sees Charlie get air, but only one
plane. He pops the TDs and kills a Roo,
but only kills one infantry stand. The
TDs also get a carrier, but the gun lives.
On the right, he doubles the ARP into my LoS, moves the Shermans and the
Scotts. Shooting results in a smoke
round on the CAR. My turn, I destroy the
TDs, assault into the rural house with the court yard to kill the 2iC. On the right, I destroy – to a man – the ARP
that doubled. I think I may have nailed
a Scott. That left the left objective
wide open, with Charlie moving Recon in that direction. Based on the look on Charlie’s face, we
decide on a 5-2 for me and call it a game.
I might have gotten the 6-1, but we both did not want to sit and roll
dice for another 2 hours.
Result: 5-2 for me.
That left me with 29 points total. Edited - I now know the results and I finished tied for 11th place. While I
fell back on Day 2, to finish that high with 106 guys playing makes me
happy. I had great games and enjoyed the
time! And as always, learned new tactics
that will make me a better player next time!
Congrats to James Gains / Chaos45 for the overall
victory. And congrats to my good friend
Bill Wilcox on Best General!
