Guest post by Anatoli from Anatoli's Game Room
Another Early War tournament was played this weekend (February 18th). I think it may have been the first tournament to use the version 3 rules. Things worked out rather well, and everyone was happy with most of the new rules. I myself have complained about the new cavalry rules which replaced the 8" charge with 4" and a 4" hussar move in the shooting step on rolls of 4+. As my games played I failed to roll a single hussar move, and would have made great use of a 8" charge range on at least 2 occasions. So there you go.
My new dice worked out very well which added to the enjoyment of the games. After 9 hours of playing and rolling it was crystal clear that the results were more evenly spread and I actually managed to roll stuff like 6+ firepower with machineguns and rifle teams to destroy dug in enemy positions on at least 4 occasions. I still rolled stuff like 3 1's, and would fail to range in with my mortar teams. But on the other hand I would score above average amount of hits with my tanks and anti tank guns, even the train managed to hit stuff with its main guns in this tournament.
One hilarious anecdote that I need to mention though, as I showed my new dice to the other players I was encouraged to roll a test-roll to prove they were better. What do you think I rolled? A 1, then my buddy David picked up one of my dice and instantly rolled a 6! LMAO!
There was lots of talks about the Polish armored train during the tournament. I mainly brought it along for others to experience a game against it. The train was unanimously agreed to be pretty bad. Not including the assault car made things better, as the train was shorter and the distance between artillery wagons decreased which on the other hand increased the chance of them firing on the same targets. But with armor 3 and only 1 wound per wagon the train is a 500 points of target practice. Just read up on the battle of Mokra where Polish train would survive for a 20minute shootout with enemy tanks before falling back with a single damaged turret. Not saying that the train needs increased armor value. But at least make it so that each successful firepower test against it destroys a single turret rather than the entire wagon. Considering what it does, it is more reasonable to bring 10 tanks to the battlefield. Not only do you get more shots and more wounds, but it is also cheaper. I said that the train should be reserved for special scenarios where the conditions are written around the train itself.
The tournament was won by the Axis this time around, they pretty much kicked the ass of the Allies. Last tournament was won by the Allies and the reversed asskicking was handed out.
3 games were played by each player, and I will be posting summaries of my own 3 games and pictures from those games during the week. In the meantime, here are 61 pictures of the entire tournament and games played by all players. One thing I love about the FoW community is the extent to which people care about painting and modeling their miniatures. I had the great pleasure to play against Andreas Slovak army which was one of the best looking FoW armies I had ever seen.
The next big FoW event here in southern Sweden will be a early/mid-war multiplayer desert scenario featuring a humongous table, a game master controlling special and random events, multiple commanders per side each with their own objectives and overall dynamic extra rules to bring the game alive and raise it above the usual big game turkey shoot.
Here are the army lists for all players