AAR and Rules Questions

Had a great game last night at The Last Square with Joe (Keamma).  I tried the 11th Armoured PDF list from Battlefront and Joe played SS Fallschirmjaeger from either HH or ABtF.  So it was a good historical matchup.  The interesting part of the 11th PDF is that you get CT and not RV.

1750 LW

My list of Armoured Recce

Command HQ - 2 Cromwells
HQ Support - Cromwell CS

Combat Platoons:
2 Armoured Recce Platoons - 3 Cromwells and 1 Challenger

Support Platoons:
1 Full Platoon of US Paras
2 Guns Sections (8 guns) of Priests, one with base AA MG guns, the other section with .50cal.

4 platoons.  Pretty small, but I am attacker.  Unless we roll Encounter, I am on the table.

Mission:

Encounter.  Of course it is.

I don't know everything Joe had as it all did not make the table.  But this is what I think he had:

3 platoons FJ
1 platoon Jagpanzer (4)
Some "hero" that allows people to rise from the dead.  Say what?!?!?!  Are they Necrons?!?!?
2 platoon of mortars
1 platoon of recoiless rifle or something
One more platoon that I don't remember, but he had 8 platoons total.

Table had good terrain.  He rolled as "attacker" and chose the table side that was most beneficial to him to "defend".

He placed 3 FJ platoons and the Jagpanzers.

I placed the Paras and one Recce Cromwell platoon.

Game recap:

I rolled to go first.  I tried to digin my paras to defend both objectives.  Failed.  I was timid with the croms, moving around some woods and put a crom to take a long shot at the Jagpanzer.  Miss.

On his trun, Joe tried to digin one FJ platoon on the objective.  Fail.  He moved the other 2 platoons forward towards my defensive zone in the cover to trees.  Jagpnazers shuffled a little, took a shot with no results on the croms.

My next turn, I moved my HQ with the "leaderless platoon of the CS" in double time to quickly bypass the FJ and get to the rear.  Rules questions - see my post on the flames of war forum in the rules section.  While Joe and I agreed that I could do what I did, I am looking for verification.  Took a few shots from the croms and I brewed one.

The next few turns bleed together in my mind.  The net result is that I kill 2 of the Jagpanzers and he kills 2 croms.  My HQ makes it to the objective and Joe has to move the Jagpanzers over to defend.  His FJ moves towards my now dugin and gone to ground paras.

Turn 4:

With his FJ ready to pounce, I roll for reserves and get one platoon.  I then roll for scattered and I get the table edge.  8 Priests, plus 2 observer tanks arrive just in time to machine gun the snot out of the FJs.  I gut one of the platoons.  The other loses just one stand.  The warrior guy gets another stand back from the dead.  Whatever.

On his turn he unpins everyone and assaults.  The gutted platoon actually pulls back to woods, leaving the other FJ platoon to do the dirty work.  They asault the paras.  After about 4 rounds of assaults, my paras are wiped and he has (I think) 4 stands left.  Joe has not received reserves yet.

Turn 5:

Crom HQ and CS contesting and focus fire on one of the two remaining jagpanzers in the woods.  Nothing.  I get my last reserves on the table.  I machine gun the remaining FJ platoons and end up destroying one platoon and the CiC.  I force a morale check on the other and Joe fails the platoon morale - rolled a 2.  His warrior gets to reroll and all he needs is a 2+.  He rolls a 1.  Both FJ platoons are gone.  The third leaves the objective and assaults one of the crom platoons.  He passes tank terror, saves all his infantry saves from defensive fire and proceeds to do nothing on the assault.  I break off.  His 2 Jagpanzers don't do anything against the Croms.

Game ends on time.

Result:

Draw 3-2 me.  He wiped my paras and I killed and ran off 2 FJs.

Thoughts:

I like the CT option for the company.  Protected ammo and Confident are really nice on unbailing tanks.  I am becoming a fan of the 11th Armoured PDF.

I still need to pick up the pace of play.

I still need to be a bit more agressive on the whole.  I was really aggressive with the HQ, but I should have rushed the Jagpanzers with the other armoured recce platoon.

I never fired the arty, but rather they became MG platforms.  It worked really, really nice.

I love semi indirect fire.  That is how I killed 2 of the Jagpazers.

Compressor arrived!

I have been travelling for work over the last 4 days and while I was away, my compressor arrived.  I am ready to put this badboy to work.  I will try to provide a report in the coming week as to my success with regulated pressure.  I have very high expectations!

The only hurdle is that my father is coming to visit.  Of course that is not a problem at all!  It will just take some time away from painting.  But who knows, he is a history geek and maybe I can convince him to inhale fumes with me.

I also received a note from Joe (Keamma in the FOW forums).  We are getting ready to propose another tournament.  But he has presented an amazing idea:

1750 late war, split 1,250, with two additional forces at 250 each.
Choose your Company HQ and then add a single (one) combat platoon from the same "list."
Then go nuts!!  No other TOE limits.  In fact, you are required to have at least one additional nationality in the list.  You will get additional tournament points if you have 3 or more.  Only rule is that nations that share national rules do not count as separate (for example Commonwealth are all one "nation" in the tournament).

Boy has my head been spinning.  Stuarts, with Panzer IVs, with Russian Strelk, with Typhoons!!  Oh my.

I have started to narrow on Brit armor - Cromwells, with US FSSF as infantry and possibly Soviet 76mm Shermans.  Maybe some Falshimjeager (is that how you spell it?!??!) in support as well.  Then Typhoons or Sturmoviks.  Dare I go with an 88??

Any and all comments welcome!

Ready!

Last night was the last tune up prior to Adepticon.  Mike was there to give a final test of his Mid-War Nationals list and I was there to test out my Mid-Ware list for the "non" nationals folks.  Joe chipped in and gave me a game, while Mike was on another table playing Ben (who I played in the last tourney).

Mike is ready.  He has a good list, but he is still questioning decisions.  I don't envy his position.  He wants to make a good showing in the Natl. tournament and is second, third and forth guessing his list.  I like the list.  I think he does too, but he just needs the reassurance.  I think he will do well!

I am pleasantly surprised by my list.  I like it.  Joe put down a German Grenadier list, with a pioneer platoon, 81mm mortars (4) and a Tiger-E.  4 Platoons against my 4.  We played Encounter. I was attacker, but Joe rolled to go first.  He put on the board his Tiger and Pioneers (they could have been Grenadiers - but it was whichever platoon did NOT have the two flamethrowers).  I put down my Stewarts and Armored Rifles.  He moved his Pioneers forward, as well as his Tiger.  He got off a long range shot on my Stewart and bailed him (failed firepower).  On my turn, the Stewart stayed bailed (this single tank would spend half the game bailed, on two separate shots from the same darn Tiger!).  I was able to quickly close the gap with the remaining Stewarts on the Pioneers and quickly stopped their progress.  I also swung over my CiC in the halftrack to add to the firepower.  On the other side of the board, I used trees to block my ARP's advance and was able to threaten the other objective.  This forced Joe to move the Tiger back on his next turn and now he was in full defensive mode.  The next few turns were me advancing, shooting Pioneers and getting ARP in position.  Unfortunately, two things happened:

On Turn 4 (after no reserves for either of us in turn 3), Joe rolled a 5 and 6 for reserves.  Bad news for him - mortars had to come in right on top of my ARP (still in HT).  Bad news for me - so did the Grenadiers.  Combined with the Tiger, the slaughter started.  I actually survived the first round of the massacre and got stupid.  I did not dismount.  After the game, Joe pointed out that I should have dismounted one turn earlier.  In hindsight, I agree.  But in my blaze of glory (literally because Joe flamed me with flamethrowers), I took out a mortar team and the platoon commander.  Next turn - bye bye ARP.  Oh, no reserves for me.

Turn 5 saw all my reserves come in and that really helped.  Armored mortars moved forward and the Shermans moved towards the open position where the ARP was located.  On the other side, my Stewarts had contested the other objective, which forced Joe to move his Pioneers back.  That was fateful.  I rolled very, very well at this point and it turned the game around.  Pinning the Pioneers, Joe had to move the Tiger to contest the objective.  That gave room for my Shermans to move ahead and take out the Grenadiers.  Now we are both down a platoon.  I killed enough Pioneers to force a platoon morale check and they ran.  In the area was the CiC, who needed to hang around and let the Grenadiers run.  The next turn I took care of him.  The Shermans finished up the mortars, forcing a company morale check.  No CiC, autofail and the game is over in turn 7.  Score - 5-2 Victory.

After the game, Joe and I talked over some strategy and tactics.

1) American mobility - I did use this to my advantage.  I was able to move teams into position and my Stewarts were the stars again.

2) Avoid the Tiger - I did not get sucked into a battle with the "big kitty".  Now it helps that my Stewarts couldn't do squat against the Tiger.  But the Stewies did exactly what I needed them to do - keep the enemy infantry engaged an dtake advantage of the 16" movement.  Against the list I faced, the Stewarts become a MG platform.

3) I did not use my CiC to the fullest.  I should have swung him around to help the bailed Stewart from the 1st turn.  He stayed bailed until turn 3 or 4, then moved forward and got bailed again.  On the other hand, the 3 shots of .50cal from the CiC's halftrack did help out!

4) Stayed in the halftracks too long - I should have pulled at least half the troops out.  That would leave a passenger to fire the halftrack MGs and have ground troops to prevent the slaughter from the assaults.  I would rather learn that lesson on Wednesday, than on Saturday during the tournament.

So off we go to Chicago.

My son finished up his 40k list and his team is ready to go in the 40k Team Tournament.  I wish them well!!

Getting Ready for Adepticon

Well, not much done on the painting front.  I have been out of town and not able to get any painting done.  My airbrush is a little broken right now, so I have a replacement on the way.  I am tempted with upgrading my airbrush, but that will have to wait for a bit.  For the record, I have a Badger Crescendo 175.  It is good for the basics and I can get a fairly small line.  I would love to get an Iwata HP-BH, which looks like an amazing airbrush.  My biggest problem is that I cannot get a narrow enough line to do "pre-shading" on my armor panels at 15mm.  I can do the highlighting on the panels themselves, but not the panel lines.  The Iwata looks like (and sounds like from the forums) that it can do that very well.  But it is very, very pricy - so I will wait.

So my British armor and Typhoons sit awaiting a basecoat.

But I did get my army list ready for Adepticon.  It is a midwar tournament, 900 points.  With the 900 point limit, I only need one combat platoon.  I struggled with my list and asked several people for some input.  I wanted to go traditional American Armor, but at 900 points you really run into a problem with the actual number of platoons.  I then thought about a tank company with Stuarts leading the way, but the same problem existed.  So I went with what I think will be a popular build - American Armored Rifles.

900 points gets you:

CiC and 2iC comamnd carbine teams, with a M3 HT + .50 cal and a jeep

Armored Rifles: 5 squads, command rifle, bazooka, 2 LMG, 60mm mortar, with 2 M3 HT + .50 cal and 3 M3 HT with AAMG

Armored Mortars: Comamnd carbine, M2 HT and 3 81mm mortars on M3 HT with .50 cal

Tank Platoon: 3 Shermans + Reb Jackson

Tank Platoon: 4 Stuarts

4 Platoons.  I like the list as it gives me a little of everything.  I don't like the fact that it seems like I am trying to do too much.  But 900 is not 1,250.  I would feel a little more comfortable running straight armor if I could have squeezed in more platoons.

So if you are going to Adepticon in Chicago, you now know the details of one list!

I will be testing it against Joe tomorrow night.  It is too late to change now, but I would like to see how it plays.  We will see!

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!