But the good news is that I'm running out of friends who haven't been married yet.....so I may have more time to do the important things....like painting models, and fighting with toy soldiers.
Some shots of the store:
The Tournament would be played in three rounds, and I brought my airborne, along with their over sized but pretty tray. It would be the second time I had played Brit airborne in a tournament and I had learned some lessons from last time. I hoped they would pay off.
My Display and List:
My List:
Despite looking like its 1870 points, for a 1750 tourney...don't be deceived. According to Battlefront's new rules on redundant teams, I get a refund on the piles of fearless spotters, staff teams, gun commanders, etc. And when I add ALL that up, it comes out to 120 points. I find this incredibly confusing and I really wish BF would just update their lists on Forces to reflect the changes.
Round 1 - vs. German Armor and Grenadiers
I was defending in breakthrough (I think, but my brain was mush by the end of the day, so apologies for mistakes in recollection) Here I am deployed in the lower left. My opponent deployed in the upper right, with reserves coming in close to where he is standing. I had plenty of guns on table, and would wait for his Panzer IVs to arrive from reserve.
He did his best to come at me, and manuever using the trees, but he took horrific losses and couldn't budge my infantry. a lot of his list was designed to take apart an armored or mech list, but with no tanks to shoot at, he improvised.
His artillery, shown above, would do some serious work eliminating guns and infantry.
My reserves creeped in behind him and a series of bloody exchanges followed, resulting in the death of his halftracks, most of his infantry, and Pak40s. I lost a 17 pdr platoon, and a full infantry platoon. I would not break, despite him wailing on me pretty good.
As our time wound down, I charged the objective, and he was forced to move at dash to get in close. He had plenty of MGs and I had a lot of infantry, but this game timed out, 3-3 before the deciding clash could happen. Both of us played fast, it was just a lot to move around.
A really fun game overall.
Round 2 - vs. American Tanks
My opponent knew his stuff. And his tanks were the upgraded variety. On a more open board, I could have nailed a ton of his stuff with 6 pdrs and 17pdrs. But the desert board you see was almost segmented perfectly into 3 areas. and he was able to maneuver the tanks to where they were needed. I managed to get on reserves, and launch some bloody assaults to eliminate some of the platoons, but I couldn't get him more than 8" away for force a win for me. It would be another draw 3-3 (I think)
His stuff was well painted too.
The main push on my right was blunted by my 6pdrs in ambush and some assaults on bailed tanks.
On the left, however, I couldn't get into contact to assault (too many MGs) and couldn't drop arty or send in AT guns since he hid behind woods. We were at a standstill.
Round 3 - Vs. Japanese suicide squads
Another list built to kill tanks, forced to fight my trackless mess. I had 2 draws to my name, and didn't care what happened. We charged at each other gloriously, and shot each other to pieces. His fearless vet captured Stuarts would prove to be murderous, even while bailed.
At a certain point he went Senshin, and Banzai'd one of my platoons out of existence. another died in assaults. Bringing a 7-2 win for me.
When the smoke cleared, we had 3 top finishers
1st place - my round 2 opponent, saw success with his balanced American Armor and bludgeoned the others he faced.
3rd Place - Me. With 2 draws and 1 win, I submarined myself into my most common finishing position, 3rd place.
I learned that my lack of mobility was my biggest drawback...but also, this was my 9th game with this list. It doesn't break, and hasn't lost a game. It has only drawn or won. I think these guys have potential. But I may experiment with some faster lists for a change of pace.
Thanks to everyone I played! I had 3 great games with skilled, talented, and friendly opponents. And thanks to Troy Baker for putting this on down at Toywiz.
Tom Mullane (aka Captainecho on the forums) has been playing flames of war and painting minis since 2011. He is a social studies teacher in Brewster, NY and lives in Danbury CT. He plays with Ordo-Ineptus at Hobbytown in New Milford CT.
