Road to War(fare)

So, I’ve paid for my first Flames of War Tournament Ticket. 
It’s 1500 points Early War.

I’ve played my share of G.W games, including tournaments that I got away too competitive at and ended up not enjoying. Flames of War has been a relatively new game for me, having only played locally.

So, after listening to all the wwpd guys tournament talk, planning, list composition, know the mission tactics etc, I’ve decided to throw all that out the window and take a Luftlandesturm Glider force.

Why? Well, they are gliders, so why wouldn’t you use them? Obviously, I’m massively bias as I am a glider pilot in real life.

Posing? Me? Neevveerrrr. *Puts on Dangerzone*

Due to treaty of Versailles, Germany was prohibited from having an Air Force. To train their new pilots, they decided to get the Hitler Youth into gliding – lots of outdoor team exercise while learning basic flying skills launching each other by bungee (a practise you can still experience here in the UK albeit from a hill and not a flat field: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KFFJx4pwHnU). After the war they just kept developing the sport, and are now world leaders in glider manufacture (including the one pictured above)

However, I digress. The idea of taking a unique force that many people think is a rubbish one trick pony appeals to the hobby sadist side of me. Well, that and the chance to make some kick-ass models.

So what do you get for your 1500 points of Fallschirmjager?

Easy Army. God bless you.

My thoughts? Deploy the Flak 38’s and Pak 36’s on any objectives on my side, and scream the gliders onto their half of the board turn one, moving up the Flak 38’s if the enemy air cover requires it. The Stuka will bomb the crap out of anything that isn’t close enough to shoot/assault with that lovely pioneer goodness.

What about the glider landings? Well, having worked out that the glider landing run will be between 4-12 inches, (2” if I mess up and ‘prang’ one, so doesn’t count...), picking landing points that are 8” away from the unit I wish to assault will guarantee me a first turn assault with that lovely pinned/bailed defensive fire rule. I’m thinking that one flamethrower per platoon will be enough.

How will this fare in practise? I’ve yet to see, but that’s half the fun!

So, what does all of the above look like?

Mmmmmmm. Toys.

But wait, I imagine I hear you cry – whats with the JU-52? The 109? The peter pig models? Whats in the brown box in the background? Well, maybe not that last one. As the tournament is only an excuse to spend a weekend playing games, I thought I would push the boat out and go to town with the army transport/display tray, and the objectives. With that in mind, I’ve gotten some peter pig figures and the 109 for the objectives, and the “Taunte Ju” (ju-52) for the display tray.

As an experiement, I’ll be blogging the whole process, so I hope you’ll enjoy following along and giving hints and tips or feeling inspired about your own hobby. I’ll be sharing my techniques, along with any interesting history I discover while creating this unique army.

Right, thats about enough for an intro, now back to “Girls und Panzer”.....

Fez-man