Road to Art of War Pt.1

As I'm a sucker for punishment, and playing Two tournaments in a month isn't enough, I figured I would drag the boys along to another one in April - Art of War: http://www.the-art-of-war.co.uk/

The unique selling point of this tournament is it offers a handicap system based on player rankings on HQrankings, giving penalties to the best players if they use mech/infantry lists. This inspired me to move away from an Armoured list, an instead throw down some infantry. With the painting awards also being split by experience, I thought it was a great chance to give Easy Company an airing on the board. It's 1750, so here's the list:

No recon, as Winters gives the combat platoon command teams eyes and ears. The AOP is more for ambush denial using 'column security' rather than spotting for the ineffective 75mm howitzers, who are there to pin/smoke their little hearts out.

.50 Cal AA guns to fend off Rudel and other air threats, and look cool while doing it. These will castle an objective with the smaller Para Rifle Platoon, with Winters and Lipton. The tanks will support the other rifle platoon as it takes the fight to the enemy, with a pop-up Spiers if they need it before they roll in.

That's the plan anyway, sound off if you have any thoughts over it!

CURRAHEE!

Fez

Road to Breakthrough Assault pt.2

Quick update, I've got all the models built now:

I'm thinking of using some of Anarchy models stencils for the Jagdpanthers, using the disc cammo. The 8-rad is proxy for a 231, the only difference is the front armour is one higher.

The list has changed ever so slightly, I didn't realise the Luftwaffe flak 36's didn't have gun-shields, so I swapped them for the Heer ones - this bumps them up to confident, but I had to drop the crew. I did have spare points to add transports. The Grenadier Kampfgroup Platoon will have enough teams to either take a pak 40 and HMG stand, or up to two 8cm mortars for pinning.

If that doesn't work, I'll just swap one of the Stugs out for Stug the hamster:

More soon!

Fez

Road to Corrivalry - 2014 report

Well, for once I managed to get everything painted before the night before the event!

Driving up to the Icon early Saturday morning, the battlewagon was certainly sponsored by Redbull - much to the annoyance of Ben Davy, I'm sure.
For this weekend I was joined by Justin 'The Troll' Carnzu, running his Jumbo laden 7th AD, and Freddie 'Ratman' Dutton, with his S.S Panzergrens. Corrivalry was these guys first FoW tournament, (being my second), however both are veteran war gamers from other systems.

The venue has great parking (despite having to move out of the multi-story at 6pm), and a nice cafe.


GAME 1 - Soviet Hero Tankovy - Cauldron- Mick Rood

Lady luck had blessed my newly decaled army. I rolled as defender, and Mick had random deployment.

Scared of the Katusha horde!

 First turn, in screamed my Typhoons, and killed two t34's hiding behind the hill. The third one fled the battlefield..

The m10's duelled with the cat killers and IC t-34, while the Katusha Observer team waits for the rocket trucks to move into a firing position, having been deployed in the only cover in their random area - a large wood.

Bye bye t34's

Move out!

The m10's and assault guns trade fire

A battle the m10's win!

The Katushas set up, their barrage failing to harm the m10's, when Joe arrives with the cavalry!

The Flank Shermans were surprised by some reserve Zis guns, that only managed a bail and a sherman destroyed. Then my universal carriers turned up and machine gunned the guns, who fled. The M10's killed the IC, and after some lucky non-bog checks, took out the second assault gun. Add the shermans killing the Katushas, and I forced a check, which was an auto fail. Sorry Mick, luck really just swung my way!

Result:
20-1

GAME 2 - Kampfgroupe Swoboda - Road Block- Phil Powell

If luck was with me the first game, it transpired against me the second - I was about to be ambushed by a force of heavy anti-tank guns!

Phil chose my M10's to be ambushed...

By four Hummel Tigers. Ouch.

So. Many. Guns

Bye bye m10's, bye bye.

The m10's died. I brought on Joe and the forward air controller, who spotted for a 3 Strong Typhoon flight to kill the tigers. This was my one chance to win really - If I killed the tigers, Phil didn't have any other platoons who could sweep up and capture the objective. Being trained, I only needed a three to range in. I failed. Then I failed the re-roll. Sob.

Over the next turns, the Guards were slowly shot/bombarded to death by combined tiger and 88mm fire. The typhoons failed, as once the tigers closed to the objective, my contesting platoons forced them to try and fly the gauntlet of AA fire at the back of the board. One of the highlights was having the lorried rifle platoon vapourised in their trucks by reserve 88mm fire. All but one stand died. That one stand then survived man alone tests, along with multiple attempts on his life by tigers, 105mm shells and flak 88's so live the whole game. I marked the team up after the battle, to give them some special attention for their heroism.

Hands up, this game had the biggest rules mistake ever. Joe Vandeleur, having lost all his supporting shermans and forward air controller, went on a rampage and tried to assault the gun teams. He survived masses of fire, but in the end, he shouldn't have been assaulting - hes a warrior TRANSPORT team. To be fair, we both missed this one. However, it didn't change the outcome of the battle.

In the end, I had to pull out all the stops to get a platoon kill, with my last ditch shot of the game the remaining Universal carrier took out the remaining flak 88 to kill a platoon.

Result:
5-16

GAME 3 - 21st Panzer Division - Fighting Withdrawal - Phil Parker

Phil gave me the most high adrenaline game of the weekend. Defending on a fighting withdrawal, Phil flew in head first, guns blazing!

Here they come!

The Panzer IV's fly into the teeth of the AT 15 fire.

A second platoon threatens the left flank

After a rather nice shooting round....

My 2iC spent this game mainly bogged in the wood. When he finally un-bogged, he immediately bogged again. Go figure.

After a tense few rounds of trading fire, I lost my sherman platoon, but the enemy had fled the battle.

Result:
17-5

GAME 4 - Motostrelkovy - Counter Attack - Rodger Whittham

After wayyyy to much Caffeine, I had the energy drink shakes on Sunday morning! I was stuck trying to charge into a moto-strelk, supported with more heavy guns and lee tanks than God.

I learnt a lot from this game, many thanks to Rodger, who taught me a few tricks with team positions, and took my noob questions in his pace, while proving a fierce defence.

My only hope was to push hard down one flank, which nearly worked. The Typhoons were less than impressive, some assaults went better than others, and Rodger had set up very well. With lucky (in my eyes) morale rolls, I failed to kill a second platoon.

Result:
4-17

GAME 5 - Panzer Kampfgroup - Free for all - Mike Parker

Another great game, against the perfect gentleman of an opponent, who taught me a thing or two about the game, and indeed about my army, being an experienced Guards player himself!

Sneeky Luchs kill the bofors, and threaten an objective - the shermans claimed revenge

Better luck next time Rudel - those .50 Cals worked a treat

So much armour 10+

Wood-elf Panthers

Press on!

Just before everything died..

The game was one of two halves - the first, where I had all the luck, and pushed it as far as I could, killing platoon after platoon, and looking like I might force a platoon check or capture one of the unguarded objectives and win.

And the second half, where Mike's luck returned to 'distinctly average'. To be honest, that was all he needed, as I had certainly pushed mine too far. In one turn, he killed all but one of my platoons, upon which I failed the break check, (and guards re-roll).
Mike won, but I made him work for it!

Result:
7-14

End result?

53 points out of a possible 100

38th place out of 84!!

Not bad for my first late-war tournament!

Over all, we all had a great weekend - The driving wasn't too bad, however we might share the pain next time rather than having Justin sacrifice his organs to energy drinks. The games were fun, the boards and missions gave an interesting variety, even if it lead to some less-than-favourable line-ups.

Here's some more pictures of games/boards:

Tim Harris vs Bill Wilcox - a crazy game!

Justin 'the Troll' Carnzu - just plain crazy/

We'll be sure to book again for next year!

Thanks to all involved, an event of this size takes a lot of effort to organise, and it's quite spectacular - recommended if you can make it.

Thanks for reading,

Fez

Road to Corrivalry pt.3

Phew.

I remember decals from my model aircraft days, but the sheer number of them required for this is a little crazy, especially as I'm against the clock. But still, here they are, ready for tomorrow:

I ended up electing not to decal the full platoons, but instead only focus on the teams actually in the list. I normally used Mico-sol for fixing them, however ended up with the Vallejo 'decal fix' and 'decal medium'. I initially assumed that the medium would be used first, and then the 'fix' to set them in, however after a quick google (What did we do before teh interwebs?) it turned out to be the other way around: http://www.acrylicosvallejo.com/en_US/applying-decals/blog/1/35 

The Vallejo stuff worked quite nicely, with the only issue being the bonnet star on the RAF controllers white scout car - I had to cut some gaps on the decal to get it to lay flat, which I'll touch up with a spot of white paint tonight.

The decals were a mixture of the BF British late war pack, and some extra stars from Doms Decals, which I thought would be enough - Although I was wrong!

"Are you in command today or am I, Over?" The ringed turret top star indicates 1 IC.

Once I had the numbers and guard icons applied, I then wanted to apply the squadron markings, which for the Irish Guards, being the 'junior' regiment, would be the blue shapes. Then I found that the BF decal pack only came with the icons for the B and C squadron, but not the A. Not a big problem, but after 4 hours of messing with decals, it was enough to make me rage quit. If I find time tonight, I'll apply the weight circles, as well as the squad markings - Although I may wait for the complete set from Doms Decals first.

I'm quite chuffed with the way the Typhoon turned out. Its the plastic Revell kit, with the blades chopped off and the canopy painted over to make it look more like the battlefront one. I picked this up for a £1 from HobbyCrackCraft before Xmas.

The wrecked BF typhoon objective is simply phenomenal for a once piece casting. The level of detail is immense, I really love this, especially as it is true 1:100 scale.

The Guards and Motor company platoons took a while to paint, but I quite like these sculpts. I wish I had some more Natur/silfor tufts for them, might ret-con them when I get the chance.

So there you have it, some 2000pts of Irish Guards 99% finished. Once I've gone back and touched up the odd bit, and maybe dirtied them up, I'll take better photos of the units. 

As it stands, I'm quite proud of them as a table top unit. Well, that was until I saw Winner Daves post over Breakthrough assault: http://www.breakthroughassault.co.uk/2014/02/winner-daves-charge-to-corrivalry.html

Not only do his soviets look better, the list scares the crap out of me and he has a better blog post name. Whilst I'm on the road to Corrivalry, he's already there having bloody charged! 

Good inspiration to do better however, so hats off to him.

Looking forward to Corrivalry tomorrow!

Fez