Or not!

So I went to Adepticon with some decent hope of doing well.  As they say, cold reality slapped me in the face!

First, the tournament was great.  The folks at Game Korps and Battlefront did a great job.  Special recognition needs to go to Dean Rapp.  He spent a lot of effort, patience and time with all of us.  It is a thankless job being a Tournament Organizer (just ask Joe!) and he does a GREAT job.  So thanks Dean!

That being said, I really performed poorly.  He is a quick rundown of my poor play:

Game 1: Encounter

Greg was my opponent and he was a really nice player.  I could play him many, many times and enjoy myself.  He played Italians and had to roll for their motivation and skill.  Interesting.  I have not come up against Italians.

The mission was Encounter.  To sum up the game, we ran out of time.  I killed 1 platoon of his and lost none.  But the real turning point of the game was when I engaged his artillery with my Stewies.  I decided to use my machine guns (poor choice) and rake over the artillery pieces.  What I should have done was use main guns, then machine guns.  Well, I got enough hits to wipe the platoon and he did not pass gun saves.  Greg started to remove the arty pieces from the board.  Now remember the posts on game play in a tournament vs. a friendly game.  I remembered my last tourney where Paul poitned out the assault from cover rule.  Well, I immediately reminded Greg that I needed a firepower to kill because of the gun shield.  I went on to fail every single one.  His platoon lived and in the next turn, proceeded to destroy 3 of my 4 Stewies.  I did pass the platoon morale check and had to pull back.  My point on this one is that if I let Greg take the platoon off, I win.  No question about it.  But I did the right thing and ended up with a draw and using Fair Fight mission rules, I scored 2 and Greg scored 1.


Game 2: Fighting Withdrawal

I played Dave, who brought German Grenadiers.  He defended.  The map had a river running through, which we rolled to determine it could not be forded.  There was a single bridge.  The only armor he had was 2 Stug Gs.  I bull rushed up one side and isolated the Stugs.  I contested one objective on Turn 2 and a second on turn 3.  Looking good.  By this time, the Stugs made it over and the Shermans got into a fight.  A couple of turns later and the Stugs are gone, but so is a Sherman.  In Turn 5, I make a beeline to the 3rd objective which was uncovered.  I came up 1 inch short.  Turn 6, Dave removes one objective I am on.  Next turn, he removes the now owned by me objective.  The last objective that I am contesting has to deal with dug in, gone to ground, in terrain (woods).  I just couldn't get him out.

Game 3: Cauldron

I played Raif from D6 Generation fame.  Nice guy.  He was American infantry.  I just couldn't kill him quick enough.  Time ran out on the game.  In the last turn, I needed to kill one more stand to force a platoon morale check.  If he failed that test, I win the game because CiC was long gone by then.  I did not.  So I lost 5-2, when I was one roll away from winning 6-1.

So that is the abbreviated report.

Here is what I learned:

1) I am too darn slow.  Greg and Raif are also fairly new to the game, so they also were a little slow.  This would haunt me all tourney.  In game 3, one more turn and I win.  In game 1, one more turn and I at least kill another platoon to score 3.  Those points were due to my slow play.

2) I needed to be aggressive and smarter.  In game 2, if I move at the double to the open objective, I win.  Not because I can contest at the double, but rather it forces the issue on him pulling the objective before I get there.  In game 1, if I were more aggressive, I think I can win, if not kill a few more platoons.

3) Think faster.  Because one way of playing the armored rifles has worked, I did the same thing each game.  In game 1, I should have fielded Shermans and Stewies and left the rifles in reserve.  There was no way Greg was coming to me in Encounter.  Rifles could have come on and rushed forward after dealing with the SP AT guns he had (he had one bog for 3 turns).  Different forces and the game changes.

So faster play, more aggressive play and quicker thinking produces a different result.  Oh well.


Later that evening, I had a great game with Joe on the Luttendorf Bridge table that Game Korps has.  Joe was wonderful and stayed late to play with me as I was the only person to sign up.  Again, Dean Rapp was a sport too!  So I owe Joe something nice for sticking around.

All in all, it was a good time.  I learned a lot about me and the game!

AAR - FoW Mid War Tournament - The Last Square, Madison, WI

Just finished up my second tournament ever and make a good showing.

So let me set the stage:

Mid war - 1,500 points, split into 3 task groups.  White is 1,000 points and must be a legal build.  Red and Blue are 250 points each.  No splitting of points across each task group.  3 games, random missions chosen from Encounter, Free for All, Fighting Withdrawl and one other that we didn't use and I don't remember.

I brought American armor, which is CT.

White:
2 75mm Shermans (CiC and 2iC)
4 75mm Shermans
4 M5 Stuarts
1 Recon Section (Tank), which is 2 rifle teams, command carbine, M2 Half track and 2 unarmed jeeps)

Blue:
1 Recon Section (Tank) mirrored exactly like above
1 Armored Field Artillery Battery - 3 M7 Priests

Red:
1 Armored Rifle Platoon - normal with 3 rifle teams and bazooka swapping out for 37mm gun
1 Sporadic air from Warhawks (I proxied my P-47s)


Round One:

Played Ben, who is a young player in our normal league.  He fielded a german grenadier company.  The mission was Encounter.  Ugg.  But we had all 1,500 points on the table.  I was defender, he was attacker.  He could only bring in 2 platoons and I could field 3.  He ended up putting down a platoon of 3 Marders, a Tiger e and grenadier platoon (Tiger was the CiC).  I put down armored rifle, Stuarts and Shermans.  Recons (both) and Priests were in reserve.  From my view, he went Marders on the left objective, grenadiers in the middle protecting the other objective and the Tiger on a slope with a line right down the road.  I didn't realize it then, but Tiger had a shot on my Shermans.  I had placed an objective on my end behind a river and put the armored rifles on it.  Stewies were on the other side of the river and the Shermans were in the middle.  Picture below shows the end.

Turn 1:

He moved his Marders up on a hill and killed a Stewie.  Uh oh.  His Tiger had a shot at a Sherman due to poor placement (recurring theme) and killed it.  Stormtroopered his Marders back, but due to an aggressive first move, he could only get one below the hill.

On my turn, I rolled for air and got 2 planes.  I rushed the Marders with the Stewies and I was able to get a shot in.  My CiC came along for the ride too.  I ended up bailing one of the Marders.  I moved the Shermans into the village and hid from the "big kitty."  Planes came in and...  wiped out the Marders.  Literally.  That was pivotal because the whole left side was empty.  Now it was a race to the objective and the Tiger had to pivot over.  Could I get there before reserves on 3?

Turn 2:

Race is on.  Tiger moved over.  Somewhere, he bailed my CiC from a Tiger shot by missing FP to kill.

On my turn I double timed the Stewies to contest.  I then had to aggressively move the Shermans towards the Tiger, including putting my 2iC 1 inch away.

Turn 3:

Big roll - his reserves.  No!  He took the shots at the Stewies and only managed one hit.  Bye bye Stewie.  But he could not get to the objective and he could not get enough hits on the Stewies to force a morale check.

My turn 3, I have an objective and the game is over.

6-1 Victory, but I only killed one platoon and lost zero.




End of the game



Round 2:

Up against Dave from Chicago playing Finns.  I can't tell you the specifics, but he had nasty troops with super deadly Anti-Tank rating, 2 mortar platoons (122 and 80 somethings) and 2 KV-1 or 2s.  Can't remember.

Mission was Fighting Withdrawl and we could field White group and either Red or Blue.  I went with Priest / Recon task force and kept the planes and the armored rifle platoon out of the game.  I was the attacker.

I spread out the objectives as much as possible.  He decided to place all of his infantry in the woods.  He had his nasty anti-tank infantry on my left and his KVs on my right.  What was key to this game is that he decided to defend the table length that we had placed our stuff on while getting ready.  Afterward we both agreed that he should have switched sides with me.  His second mistake was that due to terrain, I actually had a path to the KVs that limited his vision.




Start - after Recon


I don't remember the details of the game too much, but I did an "American Sherman Bull Rush" up the right flank and sent the Stewies up the middle to keep his infantry in the woods.  After two turns, I was able to close in on the KVs.  Untimely rolls (good for me) on his armor saves and by turn 4, I had both KVs destroyed.  He tried a last ditch assault, but the Sherman's and Stewie's machine guns were just too much and the resulting pin ended the game.

Another 6-1 Victory, but I only killed 1 platoon and zero lost

I do have to say that Dave was one of the nicest, most sporting people I have played against.  He made the game a pleasure.



End of Game - pinned on the assault, we did not move them back



Round 3:

Mission was Free for All and only used the White (1,000) group.  I drew Caleb from MN.  He was the best of the 7-7 group.  Since I had killed 2 platoons and lost 0 in 2 games, I was in 3rd.  Two other players were 12-2, but they had killed more platoons.  Joe made a comment that I was "too efficient in winning."  Darn!

Caleb had 2 platoons of german pioneers and a platoon of various Panzer IIIs.  By the way, how do you German players keep up with the 267 different types of tanks!!

Turned out to be a great game, but I made two massively stupid mistakes and I wish we could go again.  I had to play for the 6-1 win to stand any chance of getting the tourney win and qualify for USA Nationals.

Mistake 1:  I placed my Stewies where the Panzers could see on a long range shot.  Dorkus that I am hung my Platoon Leader out on the edge.  Gone.  Destroyed.  Now I can't move them.

Mistake 2: I am an idiot and did not remember the rule about CiC or 2iC "choosing" a new platoon leader.

So because of those two mistakes, my Stewies are pill boxes.  My Shermans made a game of it and caught 3 of the 4 panzers in the open with side shots.  All 3 gone.  Caleb failed the Platoon morale check, but the darn Company Commander saved him.  I was unable to get the last panzer.  Since I was playing for the win, I had to get aggressive with the tanks.  His pioneers were sitting on the objectives and dug in.  I got too close and learned how nasty flame throwers can be.  3 Shermans gone in the assault, but the Platoon Leader passed the Platoon morale check.  I lost the 2iC earlier in the game and by Turn 8, he was shifting the pioneer teams across the board to get his objective and along the way took out my last Shermans.  With stationary Stewies, we shook hands.

1-6 Loss.

I did not get a picture of the last game.

So, 13-8 after being at 12-2.  But not bad for my second tourney.

On a related note, I did win best painted army!!

I want to thank Joe for setting up the tourney and for Bev & Karl at The Last Square for hosting the event.

Here are a few pictures!



Mike (right) who did qualify for USA Nationals this past Fall.



Joe (center right) - Thanks for being the host and ref!!



Best painted.  Explosion markers will be on the post tomorrow!