The story you always heard, but never saw...

I heard it from my cousin, his friend had a neighbor that... ... ...

Weighted dice.  Yup I said it. At tournaments or after a game gone wrong people joke about putting their dice in the oven, sixes up... That'll fix em. Not that anyone ever did this.

You'd joke when someone went on a hot streak "someone check those dice!" But nobody ever needed to.

There is a chivalry among gamers that makes this something I don't think anyone ever worried about.

Until now.

I'm not big on re-posting but this being one of the saddest things I'd read, and I think it speaks to the worst in gamers, something that I'm happy we so rarely see. I also think it raises questions about how we properly self regulate.

tits-for-tournaments-beakycon-results-cheating-and-public-service-announcement

The reality is that there are a ton of ways to cheat, but why would you? Be it weighted dice, rolling techniques, or any of the other cheating ways out there you only really cheat yourself.

So what would you do or want done if you found someone was cheating? Would it be different if they cheated you? Would it make a difference if they cheated against someone else? Do they lose the game? Are they out of the tournament? What do you do about this?

AAR! 1500pts MW Brit Paras Vs GpPzGrens

My friend Kyle was in town as his "wife type" was at a baby shower... He and I both took this as an invite from our wives to play a game, and for them, heck, we'd do anything.

We rolled up a fighting withdrawal, which saw his paratroopers digging in and attempting to hold against my halftracks.

His list had a little bit of everything, piats and mortars in the HQ, three pl of paratroopers, 4 x 6pdrs, mortars, and pack 75's.

I was running the list I ran in the last tournament with the HQ sporting an AT rifle, 2 pl of GpPzGren, 2 x 8rads, 3 x Pzwerfers with extra crew, 2 x armoured quad AA halftracks and 2 x panthers.

The table in all it's glory.

 A real objective, one can be seen in the distance as well...

Paratroopers side of the board. We treated the stream as difficult with the bridge and ford being clear, but slow for the ford. The third objective was the bridge if you can't see it, Kyle had done up some really cool airdropped containers as objectives.

The farming village was laden with artillery, with both the pack 75's and the 6 tube mortar pl being in the wheat, with a screen of paratroopers in front of them.

 The far objective had the 6pdrs and a screen of Paras in front of it on the hill. 

 The central objective on my side of the river had a Para pl with the OC.

I set up my halftracks along the road, hoping to use the increased speed to throw him off guard with a potential first turn assault on the central objective.

The bulk of my force set up ready to take to 'turtle hill' as it's become known around here.
I hoped to use the bulk of my force to get his paras on the other side of the board moving so I could catch them out in the open and gun them down with my mobile MGs.

My first turn saw a general advance, the 8 rads had used their recce move to bring them up to the crossroads and use eyes and ears to remove gone to ground.  I then hit them with everything I could and took out about one whole stand... Yeah. Dug in like ticks. The assault went in but only managed to kill a few, and with four stands left with the OC they held in there contesting the objective and ready for their turn.

The rest of my force setting up for an assault on the second hill, while it had no objective on it this hill held the gateway to the bridge.

His rebuttal saw smoke being laid down on my new found position, and a piat shot rocked a halftrack killing off half of the crew.  He sent in an assault with the remnants of his pl but the combined fire of the halftracks and the 8 rads bounced the paras, killing all but the OC.

Another angle of the position after the assault bounced, you can see another halftrack burning, caught by one of the 6pdrs.

THE PLANES! He sent in planes every turn, in every game I ever play with him, he's hot when he rolls for planes and I love seeing them hit the table. He came after my panzerwerfers but a self defense AA mg took out a plane miraculously to shouts of one shot one kill, and the second plane was killed off by the quad 2cm tracks.

The drama shot if the planes death.

I had consolidated the position and sent my pl into the woods to prepare for the counter attack I knew was coming.

Yeah. These guys. What I failed to tell you was that the eyes and ears rolls of both 8rads failed to unmask these guys and despite a rediculous number of shots, I scored four lonely hits and couldn't risk an assault against these guys. They also were in assault range of the woods I had consolidated into...

His breakout of the position left the Piat to bravely kill anything and everything, which he of course did rocking a halftrack and killing its passengers. You can see the rest of the pl booking it to the right and behind the hill. 

Kyle went in for the assault with what he had, he hit me with the mortars and pack 75s on the halftracks as he had nothing that could see into the woods.  With only two stands that could see in he had no way to pin down the pl and the combined fire of the pl and its halftracks did in the assaulting force and stole me a quick win.

The best thing that came out of this was it allowed us to play another game! A treat for the two of us who haven't played in months. The second game was a late war throwdown with very similar lists. But we went heavier on the beer and lighter on the camera work so I'll end by saying you just had to be there...

Until next time.

I'm still not dead yet...

So after the last tournament I went to I returned home to prepare myself to deploy with my unit to the field for a month of live fire training. Yup I'll admit it, I let my job get in the way of gaming... Kinda jerky of me, but I apologize. 

So I found the pictures I took from the event, not many but I think they give you a great idea of the event and the fun had. I had a blast!

Legio Con is an event held in Winnipeg, Manitoba and is a blast full of a ton of different games for the avid gamer. For the last couple itterations the event has been held at a legion hall in Winnipeg. This is an amazing choice for a number of reasons. While not all the gaming is historical that which is holds strong ties to the many vets who frequent the Legion, and are an inspiring chat when one gets the chance. Second, the place is licensed and has a bar and resturant in the basement... Read pre, and post game drinks... SCORE!

The FOW tournament was 1500pts MW and saw an array of lists from the era, including two of my favorite lists, the Finns and a Dieppe raid list!

I ran a GpPzGren list from Eastern Front with:

Standard HQ with an antitank rifle;

2 x GpPzGren Pl,

2 Panthers (I painted up a friends panthers for him and these three games were the first time I've ever tried using these beasts.)

2 8Rads

2 Quad AA armoured halftracks

3 Panzerwerfers with extra crew. 

6pls in all, a small but well formed group to get in some hard action.

So I took some pictures of the tables that were laid out for the event. 

The first one here was done by a buddy of mine Derek, I loved the river and think they should be more of a priority in most games, but if you notice the forest running the whole way up the end of the table that became the bane of my reserves but I digress.

The next two tables I did up with some of my common fair. Hills, crops and the occasional building or orchard. 

 Bruce (the fine gent running the event) did up some great desert tables. I personally loved them, simple and to some bland but highly tactical if played right and the rolling hills made for a great 3D filled table. Definitely not a billiard board! The battles in the desert were to be knife fights behind the dunes.

 For those gamers old enough to remember the buildings below are from the titan legions box set... Orks in the desert? Yes yes...

 One of the more open tables. This one gave people nightmares with the river and and the open ground but was highly enjoyed.

 Which brings me to the final table, this one was put together by one of the newer gamers from a GW table. His thing is Tunisia and you can definitely see the influence here. He thought there was already too much terrain on it and wanted it left this way, so we obliged. I played the first game on it, which turned out to be the last game on it, as it was while historically accurate, it was just no fun for an infantry force.  This table would be amazing, I repeat AMAZING for scenario play, but for a tournament it's death in the valley.

 I was playing my friend Hugh who came to play with a Dieppe raid list! I was ecstatic about seeing this on the table, it was pretty freaking cool, especially for two Canadian players, who both happen to be in the military.  The mission was Free for all, pitting our entire forces against one another. Hugh's list had a full infantry company, mortars and two, yes two full troops of Churchills. There was probably more but I'm playing from memory here.

 

 My 8rads danced around the central orchard gunning down stands where they could but mostly lifting gone to ground to allow my other assets to pick apart his forces. There wasn't any cover on his side of the board and he was forced to advance into the orchard with his troops, which was the central aiming point for my Panzerwerfers. The doublewide template made short work of the brave Canadians, but there was little else he could have done, digging in would have kept him strung out and separated to be picked off and advancing was nearly just as poor an option.

 The opening shots of the armour saw my Panthers ripping open two Churhills and sending the last back to gather up more armour as it fled from the table. The next few turns were a cat and mouse game of using the central orchard as cover for his remaining churchills as my panthers tried to gain a bead on them.

After a few turns of jockying for position I called my halftracks forward and mounted up, pushing for the flank objective, by this point there was little left that could oppose my force, and when the two Churchills finally came out to play their shots missed. 6-1 for me. Though I think Hugh and I will have to now play a more historical pitched battle at Dieppe and that should be a lot closer.

Inbetween games I took some fun pics of the action going on.

 TIGER!

 SOVIETS!

My second game saw me facing off with Levi, a quick witted and hilarious member of the Regina clan that came out for the event. He was packing a Soviet Tankovy company with T-34s, Grants, heavy mortars and some other assorted fun. The mission was Dust up and I started with my Panthers, Panzerwerfers and 8rads on the table, facing off against his large T-34 pl and his heavy mortars.

 He went first moving forward and taking losses as he went. The 2+ to his was doing well by me and with some high ground to sit on he decided to move sideways to cover rather than give me the bums rush.

 Four shots and four kills in the first turn saw T-34 hulls burning. Up in the corner there you can see my 8Rads, they for a few turns had been moving at high speed behind the hills. Between their recce move, the desert terrain and some good luck on stormtrooper rolls they found themselves on the objective with nobody to contest! The quick and devious win was another 6-1. Again, this is my first time really using German recce. I don't think I'm going back to not... Ever.... Seriously... They are a blast.

Some more pics of the action on other tables.

 One pic... Yup. Thats all I took from the last game... It was that heated and fun and just crazy.

I played another friend Jim, he was rocking a super cool Rota list that saw mechanized Soviets getting all up in my business quickly...

I made a ton of mistakes in this game and fell for a few traps. First off I picked the side of terrain my opponent wanted, not because I thought it would be good for me, but just because he wanted it. That turned out to just hammer me with a full board edge of forests that literally cut off my reinforcements and made them take forever to get to me.

The second was trying to be all fancy with the Panthers. Yeah... I'm not the finesse guy... And this game showed it. To make a long story short, the real fight turned out to be for a little patch of woods, where everyone came to die. Tanks, troops, transports, they all went in and nothing really came out.

A hard fought battle that ended 5-2 with my pl in the woods falling to the repeated assaults. Lucky for me my backups finally arrived with a pl of troops and the panthers smartened up, crossed a river and eventually became useful.

Below you can see what became known as the bloody woods. For multiple reasons... 

In the end I tied with Lance Mathew for victory points and edged him out narrowly for the overall win with some sportsmanship scoring (Nobody saw that one coming).

It was a fun day with a lot of great armies and possibly more importantly built some interest in the game locally with a lot of people really wanting to know more and try it out. Hopefully this will help to kick start the game locally.

Until next time.