LegioCon MW Soviet AAR

My buddy Duncan and I drove into Winnipeg last weekend and got stuck in with some great players and armies at Legiocon.  They had a 1500pt MW event, which was Duncan's second tournament. He wrote up this great AAR and asked if I could put it up... That was a no brainer...

LegioCon Tournament - Summary and After Action Review

Mid War - 1500pts 

8 September 2012

Winnipeg - Royal Canadian Legion, St. James Branch #4

Venue

-  Excellent venue.  Clean, spacious, well lit and very well organized.  Lots of terrain on the tables and variety of locales represented... from the rolling hills of Kursk and the villages of France to the oasis of North Africa.  Large multi-use room upstairs with a lounge/bar/games room downstairs that cooked up some very tasty lunches.  And it's a Legion!

Crew

- The usual bunch of criminals.  Thieves, murders and smugglers; the scum of the galaxy.  They would sell their mother for a few more Panzers and had press-ganged women and children into their legions.  Most had travelled over two hours to attend, showing up the locals who were all a bit timid to step onto the battlefield with someone else is watching.

Dunc's Soviet Army and Tactics

Nothing fancy, no surprises, just a classic infantry list.  Durable, some flexibility, hard hitting in assaults with some mobile elements and some real bite.  A large Strelkovy Company forms the core of the Battalion with a smaller Strelkovy Company adding flexibility and flank security.  Combat attachments from the Battalion HQ allow each Company to be task tailored for each mission.  With this Battalion, I use the large Strelkovy Company to take the initiative and provide momentum.  Once deployed it's impossible to ignore, as it covers so much ground.  On the offensive if used aggressively they will be forced to react to it.  With a bit of logic, you can usually figure out what the opponent's likely courses of action are to deal with the company and then use your other elements to exploit their reactions and get them off balance.  All the time, you are buying time to move the company up the board and get on an objective.  On the defence and when dug in, the Company is so large and durable it can soak up damage and assaults while the other elements support the defence and again force the opponent to react to more mobile elements.  The Medium Tank Company is big enough to have some durability and teeth in shooting and assaults, but not so big as to take needless casualties from an inability to exploit cover.  The speed and mobility of the T-34s works well to exploit opportunities the large Strelkovy Company provides.  The Tank Destruction Company with the Zis-2s can easily tear apart groups of almost any vehicle Mid-War thanks to its excellent armour penetration and rate of fire and can also be used to dig infantry out with volley fire and its excellent mobility.  Finally, the IL-2 Sturmoviks provide a real punch to pick off heavy armour and artillery and pin infantry, while keeping the enemy spread out and preventing exploitation of open ground.

1. Battalion HQ
• Battalion Commander
• Battalion Kommissar
• Battalion 2IC
• 4 x AT Rifle Teams
• 2 x 45mm AT Gun Teams
• 5 x Pioneer Teams
2. Strelkovy Company
• Company Commander
• Company Kommissar
• 27 x Rifle Infantry Teams
3. Strelkovy Company
• Company Commander
• 9 x Rifle Infantry Teams
4. Medium Tank Company
• T-34 Command Tank
• 7 x T-34s
5. Tank Destruction Company
• Company Commander
• 4 x Zis-2 Guns
6. Air Support
• Limited IL-2 Sturmoviks

Game 1 - Germans (Infantry) (Derek) vs Soviets

German Army List

1. 3 x Dismounted Infantry Pls
2. 3 x Pak 40s
3. 4 x HMGs
4. 1 x Inf Guns Pl
5. 1 x Rocket Artillery Pl
6. 2 x StuG
7. 20mm AA Gun Trucks

Mission: Free For All

First Turn: Duncan

Deployment - I knew I would finish deploying first, so I gambled with a very aggressive deployment on the odds that I would move first.  Not a very risky gamble, as due to the distance there wasn't going to be a lot of effective fire at that range, especially with the "Meeting Engagement" special rule.  With only four units, I was going to have to be fairly crafty in deploying my battalion to give the impression that I was going one direction while actually planning on going the other.  With the terrain favouring an assault on the right flank, I set my large Strelkovy Company slighty to the right of centre, and the other three units to their left, in hopes of drawing my opponent's mobile assets to the left flank.  It worked, as he spread his infantry heavy weapons evenly and placed his StuGs on the left.

The Cunning Plan - With my opponent's company spread evenly across his deployment area (less his StuGs which were deployed on a flank opposite and in response to my T-34s) I just needed to concentrate my forces on the right flank and punch through to the objective.  The excellent mobility of the T-34s would allow them to quickly cross from the left flank to the right and then into the assault with the large Strelkovy Company acting as a blocking and follow-on assault force.  The smaller Strelkovy Company would secure my own deployment area with the Zis-2s waiting in the centre to pop-up and hit any mobile units.

Picture Colour Guide

Red = T-34s

Orange = Strelkovy

Blue and Green = Germans

The Cunning Plan.  Moving at the double with the T-34s to move them to my right flank with the large Strelkovy Company in support.

Opening Moves - T-34s move at the double to cross from the left to the right.  Large Strelkovy follow them and the remainder jockey around to find a good position in the center/left.  Germans dig in and bombard.

Assault - T-34s are quickly on the far objecive and succeed in pinning and then assaulting the infanty platoon, inflicting casualties and driving them off the objective.  The StuGs are dispatched to assist on the right flank.

Counter Attack - The German counterattack to eliminate the T-34s begins with the StuGs continuing their advance from the left flank to the right.

Assault! - With the T-34s destroyed, the large Strelkovy Company finally gets moving again after losing its Kommissar and hustles to the right objective, sustaining enormous casualties.

  

Meanwhile, the Germans have re-tasked their StuGs and are pushing hard for the objective on my left.  It's a  nail biter as the survivors of the large Strelkovy Company barely push the Germans off and secure the objective in the nick of time.

AAR - An effective deception plan and exploitation of the terrain allowed the battalion to close with and engage the Germans (twice!) despite casualties.

Game 2 - Germans (Pioneers) (Lance) vs Soviets

German Army List

1. 2 x Dismounted Pioneer MG Pls
2. 1 x Rocket Artillery Pl
3. 3 x Panzer Luchs
4. 3 x Panzer IV
5. Other Stuff?

Mission: Dust Up

First Turn: Duncan

Deployment - I stuck with T-34s and the large Strelkovy Company deployed well forward.  Lance countered with two Pioneer Platoons (one on each objective) and the Rocket artillery in the rear.  I knew I would finish deploying first, so I gambled on having the first turn and deployed right at the front of the deployment zone, with the tanks in the lead to hit hard in an early assault.  Not all that risky as he didn't have any real weapons to exploit a forward deployment.  I was surprised Lance took just infantry and his rocket artillery... without any AT weapons, the T-34s could fully exploit their mobility and firepower and that led to the large Strelkovy Company being able to advance directly to the objective.

Deployment - German's defensive positions... the thin grey line.

The Cunning Plan - Russia Smash!  Drive forward hard and get straight into the assault to push the infantry off the objective and then just sit and hold it.  I accepted the risk of not leaving any units to hold the objectives in my own deployment area.  I figured that gave me three or four turns to capture the objective before Lance could bring in reserves to park on my undefended objectives.

Opening Moves - Flank speed, damn the torpedoes!  T-34s drive forward and engage the Pioneers with MGs.  Strelkovy follow behind.  Lance digs in and awaits the assault.  Sturmoviks harass his rear area.

Assault - T-34s push the Pioneers off the objective... but don't cause many casualties.

Counter Attack - Disaster!  Pioneers counter-attack and wipe out most of the T-34s!

Counter Attack! - The Pioneers charge back in and almost wipe out the T-34s!  The command T-34 pulls back to a safe distance to preserve the coy.  Meanwhile, Soviet reserves move up to support the main force.  

Assault! - The infantry pull up and start their assault... 

The Assault! - All Soviet forces close with the Pioneers and attempt to suppress and assault them.  The small Strelkovy Company manages to make it into assault but doesn't make good on its opportunity. The large Strelkovy Company is bounced by withering defensive fire.

Flank Attack! - Lance's Panzer Luchs arrived from reserves and promptly hustle straight onto on objective in my deployment area.  With nothing left back to contest the objective, it's game for Lance.

AAR - It was my game to lose and I lost it!  A failure to properly prepare the assault (i.e. pin his infantry with my tanks and allow my infantry to assault... I had the time, I had the units, etc etc) allowed the Pioneers to hold their ground in the face of the Soviet horde.  Second point to improve is that I should have left my combat attachments camped out the objective in my deployment zone.  I knew that the greatest risk to the objectives would be Lance's armoured unit zipping in from reserve and the AT guns, AT rifles and pioneers would have been perfect for deterring this course of action and likely would have bought me more time on the objective.  Additionally, AT guns and rifles don't benefit a Strelkovy Company when assaulting infantry positions so there was no point to bring them forward.

Game 3 - Germans Infantry (Brody) vs Soviets

German Army List

1. 2 x Tigers
2. 2 x Dismounted Infantry Pls
3. 1 x Rocket Truck Pls
4. Other stuff...?

Mission: No Retreat

Attacker: Brodie

Deployment - Zis-2s in ambush and the large Strelkovy Company dug in and covering the centre.

The Cunning Plan - Draw the Germans as far into the defensive position as possible, to allow the ambush to shoot at the flanks/rear of them and to give a shorter distance for reserves to reinforce and flank the defensive position.  With the objectives in the center, it would leave both flanks open for a T-34 rush into the infantry.  Not too worried about the Tigers, as the board was fairly open and if they parked to use the Strelkovy for grouping and zeroing the Sturmoviks would motivate them to find a different/closer piece of ground.  

Opening Moves - A slow advance from the Germans with the Tigers rumbling forward and taking pot-shots at the Strelkovy.  A platoon of infantry tentatively advances behind them and aims to cross the river.  The Sturmoviks harass the rocket artillery and infantry to pin his force and encourage him to spread out.

Ambush - With the Tigers finally across the river and looming on my defensive position, the Zis-2s spring their ambush and succeed in knocking out one Tiger.  The counter assault from the German infantry routes the Zis-2s.

Assault - The Tiger wades into the defensive position and manages to push back the Strelkovy!  However, due to their numbers they're still able to cling on to the edges of the objective.

Counter Attack - The Strekovy rally and push up to the objective and deliver withering fire to the German infantry knocking their numbers down and then assaulting into the Tiger.  The pioneers earn their (very equal) pay and demolish the big cat while the Strelkovy finish off the scraps of the German platoon.  With that, no Germans remain in the Soviet end of the field and it's game.

AAR - Straight-forward game.  I can appreciate the challenge of trying to knock a massive, well-equipped, fearless Strelkovy Company off an objective... there's just no quick way to do it as they can just eat casualties, they're not likely to break and assaulting them is suicide.  That said, the company is a sitting duck to those heavy guns on the Tigers unless there are a couple other elements supporting it.

Big Takeaways for Soviet Tactics

1. Know how to assault.
• Despite the "Quality of Quantity" rule, the Germans can throw up so much defensive fire (and it's very, very accurate against conscript troops) that they will still bounce you.  You MUST pin the enemy.  
• Use the geometry of the opponent's defensive positions against them... coming in on a flank with a smaller force will significantly reduce the amount of defensive fire you receive as his units will block each other.
• Properly equip/support your Strelkovy to assault.  SMGs and flamethrowers, as well as close tank support will allow you to properly pin your target and successfully get into the assault.
• Invite everyone to the party.  Try to get more than one unit in close for the assault.  If you can use one assault to draw in additional friendly and enemy units to turn it into one giant melee, so much the better, as each casualty you inflict on the expensive German troops will quickly tilt the odds in your favour and impact his combat power while your Strelkovy soak up the casualties and keep pushing forward.
• T-34s rock.  "Hen and Chicks" means you're never going to win a straight up shoot out with the Germans, but you can zip around the battlefield at the double (fast tank!) and drive over/through their infantry instead.  Without the threat of the Panzerfausts and Panzerschreks in mid-war, the T-34 is a monster against German infantry and light vehicles.
• Understand what endstate will come out of your assault.  Before you assault, have a good idea of where each of your units will end up... judicious positioning may allow you to exploit a victory.
• Soviet Pioneers.  Don't leave home without them.  Ever.  These turn your helpless infantry horde into a tank destroying death swarm and boost up your numbers for "Quality of Quantity".
2. Be ruthless in how you spend your points.
• With having two early T-34 assaults in both games, tank riders or additional tanks might have brought both of the games to a much earlier close; in my favour.  While a massive Strelkovy Company is intimidating and powerful, its cost can take away from points spent on other elements... you need to get the right balance.
3. Deception
• The mobility and firepower of the T-34 allows you to use some deception in your planning and to force the opponent to react to your repositioning.  The more you can hide what your real intent is, the better!
• The Strelkovy Companies can be so large it's actually possible to "hide" where they will attack because they can cover such a large frontage... Will it go left?  Will it go right?  Additionally, you can take a risky move at the double and eat the casualties to get into an assault position your opponent might not be expecting.
4. Mutual support
• The mobility and punch of the T-34s and the threat of the large Strelkovy Company worked well together.  With the opponent focussed on the horde, it allowed the T-34s some freedom on the battlefield to reposition, fire and assault... which in turn allowed the Strelkovy Company to keep pushing forward.  The Sturmoviks added to this by presenting a very credible threat to any armour.
5. Predict your opponent's plan and keep the initiative
• Take a good look at your opponent's units and the mission and think about how he might employ them against your force.  I was able to fairly accurately predict each opponent's strategy based of the disposition of their units and what I thought they would perceive as the most threatening elements of my force.  With the Soviets, you MUST keep the initiative.  Right from putting your first objectives and units on the table to the opening moves through to the assault.  On the offence this means pushing forward to the objective, then flanking and making them react to your actions in order to unbalance them to allow you to get into the assault.  I was able to do this in both games where I was acting offensively.  To keep the initiative on the defence, you have to set up your positions carefully to get the enemy to come where you want them.  You can do this by setting up in positions that threaten his lanes of advance and the objectives, as opposed to just dropping down on the objectives.  They will normally respond by attacking your units to open up the lanes and objectives, which gives you the information you need to counter their offensive.  You will usually have an ambushing unit than can be used to hit the flank of your opponent's units which will cause extra damage and slow his advance if he turns to deal with them.
6. Soviets are out-gunned.
• This is an odd one.  The Soviets are like a schoolyard bully... very threatening and intimidating and able to terribly exploit a weaker opponent due to the number of dice they can throw when they're doing the shooting and assaulting.  However, if they get in a straight up shoot out (especially at long range) with a tough unit, such as Tigers/Panthers or Pak40s/88s or even a group of Panzer IVs/StuGs, they will wilt and fade away as they simply take far more effective hits due to the difference in skill levels, Armour Penetration values, "Storm Trooper" and "Hen and Chicks".  So, you must act with a measure of low cunning and cruelty and pick on the weak elements of his force while avoiding the tougher ones.  There are a few solutions: move to the flanks with your superior mobility to force him to move or die, swarm with pioneer equipped infantry, bomb with Sturmoviks, ambush, eliminate his supporting infantry/halftracks, etc.  A key thing to plan around is that the German player is either going to move those tough units to a great piece of ground and use the elevation, armour and firepower to dominate the battlefield or use them to block lanes and hunt your own forces; deploy accordingly and try to find at least two counters to each problem (don't depend on Sturmoviks alone to save your bacon...)!
7. Bring the right toys to the party
• As you don't know what types of armies you're going to be dealing with at a tournament, be prepared for each: infantry, mechanized, armoured, heavy armour, etc.  Though I didn't get a lot of mileage out of the Zis-2s and even the Sturmoviks didn't destroy that much, had I run into larger armoured forces or more than a pair of Tigers, I was well equipped to deal with them.  A heavy armour force has been problematic for me to deal with in the past, as they simply shoot up anything that threatens them then leisurely pick off everything else.  On the flip side, I didn't overspend on AT elements so I had enough anti-infantry punch to successfully assault and shoot down infantry when required.

Remember comrades, if your friend drops his rifle, you pick it up and carry on!  Za Stalina!

THE RISE OF THE.. ... .. Rise?

So with what hopes to be the first real (read more than 6 people) Flames of War tournament on the horizon I've set about to ensure that my greatest pet peeve shall not be the issue people find with the tournament.

So what then is my pet peeve? Well if a picture is worth a thousand words allow me to show you.

The billiard table of doom is what I hate. I'm not sure who thinks anywhere on earth is this flat is just crazy, and I'm from Manitoba, and have driven through Saskatchewan.

Between people thinking that a table like this is fun, and or in any way resembling the cool battlegrounds they've read about or if lucky enough visited boggles my mind.

So then if you have a problem don't talk about it unless you come with a solution right?

So I set about constructing a ton of my favorite piece of terrain (remember I said I'm from the prairies) the noble, the majestic, the dynamic rise.

So if at this point I've lost you, you're looking around saying 'rise? what the heck is a rise?' yeah you're not alone. Far too few people know of or enjoy the rise on the battlefield and instead only allow it's bigger brother the hill onto the table.

The rise to break it down is essentially a small slow rising hill that is maybe the height of a man, And that might be the most important part.  The rise makes for dead ground on the table, creating that wonderful 3D world it should be where you can't see everything.  This gives a place for for the Infantry to show why they really are the boss, freedom of movement and protection from fire. Yup, The rise.

I've produced a little over a dozen rises so far, but there numbers grow... Have no fear.

You can see some of the big brothers here... Yeah I can't get away with only rises... So into every table a hill or two must come.

In addition to these I've done up some other stuff to fill up a table, some of it you may have seen from other entries here, my one hope is to be able to produce enough to make for some fun tables.

Best ambushed shot of my wife there... She was not impressed. So I worked on making a bit of a stream system to add the fun of crossing water, and slowing down armour.

These still need a coat or two of paint but they'll be a bunch of fun.

So with all this hydration it was onto some crops.

 And as you can see I have a few of those ready to go. Two different heights, one that infantry disappear into and one that conceals them.

I need to do up some plowed fields but I haven't been interested enough to really get on that... They are very fitting and yet lack a cool factor for me.

Add to that the influence of man.

I'm loving these ruins, they've been fun to play on and add a great look and feel with their rowhouse construction. In the back you can see my WIP stuff, the destroyed government building, factory and church.

So I'm thinking I can put together a couple tables with this. I also have a ton of forest area terrain but I figured you didn't really want to see more felt cut up with trees standing on it.

I'm hoping this is enough for 5-7 tables, am I crazy? I'm still working on more terrain, and hopefully will find some time to continue on with my Canadians.

So if you think I need more stuff or am lacking in any major way set me on the right path in the comment section.

Until next time. 

Regina's late war 1750pt tournament

Captains log, star date Christina Hendrick's, late night movie and dessert... Yeah.. ... .. . Right the tournament... The voyagers of the U.S.S. Nostromo took flight on the Trans Canada bound for Regina, ensign Irwin was my Navigator as we set out on our expedition to the sounds of WWPD, the crunching of Ruffle chips and the cool refreshing taste of an Arnold Palmer...

We arrived in Regina after a fun drive of cruise control and few turns (the Trans Canada is like that for those non prairie folk) and checked in at our hotel and had a quick bite to eat before setting down to do those last minute painting details that always happen the night before.

A week out from the tournament we had to turn in lists and I was still unsure of what to do so I threw together a list I had never played, and said to hell with it, lets have some fun. Here's my list.

Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadier

		Morale	Points	Platoons
			1745	8
HEADQUARTERS
Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Company HQ	1x CinC SMG, 1x 2iC SMG, 2x Sd Kfz 251/1	CV	65
- CinC Upgrade	1x Upgrade CinC SMG to CinC SMG Panzerfaust		10
- 2iC Upgrade	1x Upgrade 2iC SMG to 2iC SMG Panzerfaust		10
- Panzerschreck	1x Panzerschreck , 1x Sd Kfz 251/1		40
COMBAT
Compulsory Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon	1x Command MG, 1x Sd Kfz 251/1 or 251/10, 6x MG, 3x Sd Kfz 251/1	CV	220	1
- Command Upgrade	1x Replace Command MG with Command Panzerfaust SMG		10
Compulsory Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoon	1x Command MG, 1x Sd Kfz 251/1 or 251/10, 6x MG, 3x Sd Kfz 251/1	CV	220	1
- Command Upgrade	1x Replace Command MG with Command Panzerfaust SMG		10
WEAPONS
Panzergrenadier Anti-tank Gun Platoon	1x Command SMG, 3x 7.5cm PaK40, 1x Kfz 15 field Car, 3x Kfz 70 Truck	CV	155	1
SUPPORT
Schwere Panzer Platoon	1x Command Konigstiger	CV	345	1
Panzer Platoon	1x Command Panzer IVH, 3x Panzer IVH	CV	360	1
Rocket Launcher Battery	1x Command SMG, 1x Observer Rifle, 1x Kubelwagen, 3x 15cm NW41 rocket launcher	CV	105	1
Anti-aircraft Gun Platoon	1x Command Armoured Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad 2cm) Half-track, 1x Armoured Sd Kfz 7/1 (Quad 2cm) Half-track	CV	100	1
Luftwaffe Heavy Anti-Aircraft Gun Platoon	1x Command SMG, 1x Kfz 15 Field Car, 2x 8.8cm FlaK 36, 2x Sd Kfz 7 (8t) half-track	RT	95	1

With 5 points left in reserve for the Fuhrer.

I worked on weathering some of my force and finished off some crew on my AA guns while watching IRON SKY for the night in the hotel, a documentary on US politics and foreign relations

A solid nights sleep later we awoke albeit way to early ( who gets up at 5:30 in a hotel room without a fire alarm anyways?) and put down a good breakfast before taking off to the tournament.

For those of you who haven't been to Regina on a game day this is what it looks like.

We made our way through that and headed to Tramps comics and games

and it was on. We met up with the guys and chatted it up a bit as we awaited all the players. We had brought a bunch of terrain and so with the tournament organizers help we  augmented a few of the tables before being walked through the terrain as a whole by the tournament organizer Lance... I can't say enough about this guy, he was great and did a ton of work to get everything set up for the event and ran a great and fun day.

I really think that doing a walk through of terrain is super important. Lance negated any sort of arguments based on terrain before anyone had rolled a die by doing this and took input from the crowd so everyone was happy. All in all if I run a flames of war tournament I'm stealing this from him and only hope I do it as well.

With that done we set out to play three games, Free for All, Hold the Line and Hasty Attack.  All of the Matchups were done by computer, Curtis (of Kages Flame of War blog for those who know him, and those who don't check on the right there I have a link to his blog) is working on the tournament app for Battlefront and it can do it all and impressively. Ensign Irwin and I (his names Duncan I just like going with this ensign thing A) because I'm still enjoying writing this with a Shatner voice in my head and B) because I know it'll annoy him.) having come so far had worried that we would play each other, " OH GREAT I JUST TRAVELED OVER 400KM AND I GET TO PLAY THE GUY I PLAY EVERY WEEK... GREAT!" But Curtis' app actually avoids that to get people to change it up and play new people... It was pretty cool.

 The heroic few about to do battle.

My first game was against Brody and his SturmKompanie.  Brody is a fierce and noble leader, and at 10 years old is a competitive gamer. We were playing Free for All and with his few platoons being very defensively minded it was up to me to attack. Brody got the first turn and swung 4 StuGs around a forest, and blew one of my Quad AA guns off the map. After a generous helping of flames and smoke being applied to the vehicle it was my turn for a counter attack. He had a Panther Turm holding down the Far right flank, so I avoided that like the plague and went up the left and center with everything I had. After a ton of fire  and a few turns, I managed to pin and assault my way into a victory. But have no doubts, he made me work for it. And noticing one of my mistakes (I forgot to shoot at or assault his lone OC, he openly mocked me for being weak... (in a funny and playful way) This was actually really good advice and would actually come into play later in the tournament. The game ended 6-1 for me.

While he and i were cleaning up the table he introduced me to "Luck challenges" which are actually pretty cool and I think I'm going to do more of to help me wargame out problems and make me take a different look at some tough situations... Again Kids a monster and a genius and he's going to be destroying people in a couple of years unless his dad can somehow take away his models and force him to take dance classes or something.... Lance, I'm looking at you here...

So with that out of the way we set about arranging forces for the paint judgement and took off for lunch. I took some pictures of the armies for you all to peruse.

I wasn't able to get pics of all of the armies as some of the players were still in the heat of it and well, I was too hungry to wait! Overall it was axis biased with only 4 of the 14 armies being allied.

After a quick lunch we were back for round two where I was facing Curtis the computer genius(read hacker) and his Panzer Bake list. He had 4 panzerwerfers with extra crew, GpPzGrens, 3 2cm gun halftracks, and of course the big kids, a pl of panthers and a pl of Tigers.

We were happy to be playing each other as we had been talking for the last few weeks online. As soon as we learned the mission all I heard was "I hate that mission", quickly followed by "ON THAT TABLE?!??" Funny thing was I was thinking the same thing. I was worried with his full army of heavy armour rolling toward my small holding force.

As used a kampgrupped force with pzgrens and a pak 40 on the table along with the KT and the Panzer IVs (who spent the whole game hiding).  My ace in the hole was an ambush of Luftwaffe 88s. Now for the record I love these things, some people think 88s are junk, but I love em. And while I'll talk them up I'll refer you to someone who doesn't believe in them. Kages thoughts on 88s

 So I was fairly concerned with what was coming at me and so sprung my ambush with the 88s and instead of taking on the tanks I saw the halftracks as my biggest threat. With that the 88s opened up and the few cars that survived fled the field, leaving hulking wrecks blocking off the advance of the tanks behind.  Well it might not have blocked them, but it sure slowed them down.

You can see in the pic my KT on the hill, I sat it up there to cover the whole battlefield and it dominated the ground from there (with it's re rolling misses) He sent in his AA halftracks to try and assault my force, but they were blown away by the defensive fire. And at this point he started losing tanks fast, between the 88s, KT, Pak 40, Panzerschreck and Panzerfausts there was a lot of shooting going down range at a very few tanks. The game was fun with both of us having a good laugh and I can't wait to get in another game with him. I think it would be a great time and with both of us being amicable to adult beverages this may need to happen. The game ended a 6-1 for me.

The final game ( I apologize I have no pics as it was a pretty intense game against an awesome player) was against Rob with his SS WIKING panzer list. Last time I checked this guy was ranked 3rd in Canada and can seriously play the game. He had two HQ Panthers, a pl of 4 pz IVs, a pl of 4 StuGs, two quad 2cm halftracks, a pl of GpPzGren, a battery of 10.5cm guns and a battery of 15cm guns... Yeah... So he's explaining the list to me and how the Kannone work, and that he's rolled 6's for them all day... Yeah... Yeah.... He rolled a 5 and 6 for them again... They were rerolling monsters on the table. Well long story short it was a blood bath with both of our forces being mauled, and the game coming down to a single die roll for where my scattered reserve would arrive, with a role of a 5 I was able to challenge his holding my objective and eventually destroy his pl and OC. The game ended a 4-3, and could have gone either way in any turn. Super fun, and yes lance stressful.

With the last game done we tore down and waited for the results. All in all it was a great day and was made even better when Lance pulled out these bad boys...

I loved it, far too few tournaments do trophy's or any sort of cool tokens, but this event had golden tanks... OH YEAH!

Rocking a Soviet KGB shirt while playing Germans is how you have to roll. It throws the others off...

In the end 5 players walked away with one of these bad boys and I was lucky enough to take Best Overall, and players choice which I think is even better.  A fun surprise and a great time. I couldn't of asked for more, but with Devil's Charge being released that day and being available up the stairs my day got even better.

Here's a screen shot of Curtis' program with the final standings.

So we launched back in the car for another 4 1/2 hours of fun after an amazing day of gaming, a lot of lessons learned and a new bunch of army lists that my navigator could read out to me as we drove... Yup it was a good day.

And now to come up with a new list... Hmmmnnn with the tournament being heavy axis, perhaps some Canadians....

Until next time.

The trouble of tournaments.

And so yet again its tournament time!

I love tournaments and though I don't play in many (mostly due to my living in the prairies and the lack thereof) I really enjoy them as part of the social aspect of the hobby.  And for me that's probably the biggest part of the hobby, the social aspect, where people get together to share their creative, competitive, tactical, and psychological skills, while having a blast, drinking far to much coke and regaling each other with the stories of the games that got away and the dauntless adventures we've had on table.

I think tournaments are good for our hobby, and if done correctly not only bring together our community but also encourage and develop our skills with brushes and with tactics. And yet tournaments seem to be one of the most divisive things in our hobby and mostly down the line of so called soft scores, sportsmanship, painting, history etc. And while I'm sure we could classify hundreds of subtypes of tournament opinions here I've decided to go binary and break it down into the two groups I think most would identify with in one way or another, the pure win and the all around.

So what are these two types? Here is my take on the two. The pure win type sees any finding game as that, a game to be one or lost, no more no less and wants only pure hard fact of the win loss record to decide the outcome. If this were say snowboarding half pipe, they want to know who got down the hill fastest, flips are secondary.  They want to know who kicks the most ass, and if anything in our hobby can be considered macho I believe this side of the house has it.

The all around group looks at tournaments differently, they see tournaments as an expression of the hobby and want to include all aspects therein.  Why would I spend my time meticulously painting little men if it is not of concern? Why not just play with cardboard counters? Sportsmanship again comes to the front as people are interested in finding those people they would like to play again and again to continue enjoying the hobby with.

I often find at any tournament I go to that a discussion of how tournaments should be run breaks out and these two corners of the argument come out in droves and espouse their views in sometimes heated tones. Now while I'm sure an editorial view should just go over these ideas and give all the information, I'm not that guy and I believe that having an opinion on things is good and important so I guess I have to pick a side. For me the all around aspect of this hobby is too important to leave out of tournaments. If we had no interest in any of these other aspects wouldn't we just all be playing chess? That way every move would be exact and we could perfectly judge in a non biased way who was king of the pile? But we made a clear decision a long time ago to sling paint, convert, research(for those playing fantasy don't tell me you didn't read a whole lot of fluff or came up with some concept of how your force came together or who leads it) and more possibly more importantly how well we play with others.  The later I put in there because this is a social hobby, there is no way around that. We could be playing starcraft or something else that is all alone in our basements, but we choose to play a game(or games) that force us to come into contact with others as the game simply can't be done alone.

Now time and time again I hear from the pure win types that scores like painting and sportsmanship and the like shouldn't be for who wins the tournament, but simply just have an award on their own. Why? I think the best tournament I ever went to had overall above best general, best army, best painted, best sportsman and the like.  And this put forward again the importance of the complete hobbyist, the one who puts in effort to all aspects.  The second cry I hear is "well I can't win best painted so it's unfair in that some people are better painters then others and I don't have a chance to win". TOTALLY VALID! Yes you will not win. My rebuttal question, "did we cancel the Olympics because you have no hope in hell of winning the 100m sprint? And the possibly better turn around is what about the painters out there who are absolutely amazing at what they do, but can't fight their way out of a wet paper bag? They still come out and play (the pure win types are typically the most happy when playing them as the pictures of them thrashing an army then look nicer).   Just as people can work on their strategy they can work on their painting.

So I've put down my line in the sand and I'm sure this has been a long and tedious read for many but before I end I just want to put down why I think tournaments are so good for us.

1) They bring us together in large groups where we can meet and interact on levels not normally had. This not only can inspire new people to get into the hobby but also for people in it to try new things and go off in new directions when inspired by others.

2) They help us get our sh*t done! Gamers are almost by nature procrastinators and the tournaments help us with putting in firm deadlines and inspiring us to up ante on our previous works, or hilariously so up the ante's of the works of those around us. Assembly, conversion, painting and the like might not ever get done for some people if it weren't for tournaments.

3) Tournaments are fun and they give us an excuse to play a bunch of the games we love and offer us a great justification to wives, girlfriends, husbands, boyfriends and just about anyone else to go play for a day.

So with all that said, I'm pumped to go out and roll some dice against a bunch of people I barely know (I'm traveling about 400km for this tournament so it'll be no surprise I don't know many people there.

So what do you think about tournaments and their structure? Are you a Pure win type that thinks I'm out to lunch? Post in the comments what you think about it all, because we know you have an opinion on this.