Hosted by Joey Laderoute and Jeff Mayo and taking place in Lebanon NH at Black Moon Games, this would wind up being one of my last V3 tournaments before V4 comes out in March.I brought up some of my terrain (I can proudly say I have two tables worth.) that's not Eric "Tarzan" Lauterbach levels of terrain...but everyone needs to start somewhere. Some shots of the setup before things get going.
This 1700 pt tournament was so well attended we wound up with an impressive wait list. 20 players from all over attended. I decided to come up the night before, and stay in a hotel, then left from the store and headed back down to my Home in Danbury that night. The whole thing was well run, the store was a fun place and the owner was a very generous and friendly guy. If there are people looking for some gaming space and product, I highly recommend it.
Some shots of the store...
As you can see, its a pretty solid collection of stuff for sale, and the space in the back is a pretty good size.
Some of the prettier armies I got to see...
Chris Johnson....with his devil Sturm Tigers
My First Opponent -
My List was fairly unimaginative. I took a Aufklärungs Company with Panzer Lehr Support. So.... pretty much everything spearheads.
My Opponent's list Round one - I can never get easy army to print itself out right.
Mr. Stephen Kent, I asked him to smile...but he says he doesn't do smiling. Don't let his look of bewilderment fool you, he is a very nice guy.
My List
6 platoons, all strong, some arty, and some scouts. Everything but the arty spearheads. I like aggressive lists, so lets see how this plays out.
I'd also like to point out Stephen has a tool belt with all his books, dice, gaming devices....its brilliant. I always struggle for places to put things, but Stephen figured it out better than I ever could. Well done.
We pulled Encounter - full board, but with delayed and scattered reserves. I started with 2 tank platoons and a panzergren platoon. I expected his Chaffees to eat me alive...but he kept all of them in reserve to start, as well as the TDs. He only had a recon platoon, some artillery and his command teams on to start. I spearheaded, and promptly murdered his recon platoon.
Below, my tanks prepare near the fields, and he positions himself near the woods and the objective across the way
Moving out!
His command team moves up to get a view of the OP tank and some of the grens across the fields.
My tanks quickly get into positions to do damage to the SP guns, and try taking out some of the Chaffees.
One of my Command teams prepares to spot for my batteries as they arrive.
The Game is over by turn 3, as his reserves don't show up and he is knocked out of the fight. 6-1 to me.
I went around in the aftermath and took some shots of games in progress.
I believe this was Phil Messier's Board? his stuff is always insanely well painted.
Game 2 - My Arch Enemy - Tim Morrisey..
Just look at him. With that luxurious beard.....He just knows that his Panzer IV-70s are going to have a field day against my crappy Panzer IVs. And because of his lists' close relationship with the Fuhrer (they went to summer camp or something together) he gets to reroll all his morale checks....
The Board...
Spearheading with all my might, I throw myself towards the forest and try and dig out some of the infantry in preparation for a mounted assault. Even though I knew that probably would never work since all his infantry had fausts, I had to try, since I knew nothing would annoy Tim more than that.
Pop goes the ambush, and pop goes an entire platoon of tanks. Tim needed 5's to hit and succeeded....on 11 successive rolls. my veteran rating was no defense. The casualties piled up.
His men look undeterred.
At this point, I decided to just go for it....
.....and this was the result.
With only a handful of teams remaining, I decide to push to the edge of the woods on the far side....and expose myself to Tim's reserves...which promptly arrive on the first opportunity....say hello to the StuH42s
Their arrival means my platoon is not long for this world.
On the other flank, Tim's lone Panzer 4/70 is having a field day.
Bloodied and decimated, my force breaks, and Tim raises his fist in triumph. I have yet to have an unfun game with Tim. He is in the running for favorite opponent of all time. Below, he poses with his MVPs the 4/70s, who killed 1200 pts worth of my troops.
Game 3 - Vs. Matt - Matt brought the Panthers out to play. But with it being breakthrough, I thought I might have a chance to grab the objective before his panthers arrived.
I thought I would be able to spearhead, and sneak over. But Failed to leave much on the other objective to keep him honest. I put all my eggs in one basket, and it would cost me dearly. His nice clear fields of fire were used to full advantage.
Pinned down in the open and riddled with MG fire, my infantry stalled. My deployment mistake could not be overcome, and Matt played too well.
I have to apologize to Matt, since I turned into kind of a grouch. It had nothing at all to do with him, he was a perfect gentleman, and someone I look forward to playing in the future. I got myself stuck in one of those situations where I made such a costly mistake I essentially gave away the game, and then wound up forced to play out the string. A situation like that can be frustrating.
I almost snuck in for a side shot on some Panthers! and quickly paid the price.
Seeing I couldn't take a platoon, I gave it to him.
At the end of the day, a lone wolf emerged from the smoke of battle to take 1st place. Zach Blume, from CT Valley gamers, won his first tournament. I think he was the youngest player there, which is awesome. I've seen Zach play before, and it was exciting to see him take on the vets and win.
Below, the Victors!
Best Painted
4th - Matt
3rd - Tim
3rd (tie) - Chris Johnson
2nd - Phil Messier
1st - Zach Blume
Thanks for Reading!
And thanks to my opponents for 3 hard fought games! I'll be up in Catskill for 1 more V3 tourney at Kirwan's Games on Feb 18th. Hope to see you there.
Tom Mullane - (Captain Echo on the forums) has been writing for WWPD since the Fall of 2016, is a High School History Teacher in Brewster, NY and lives in Danbury, CT.
