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| Panzer IV H take and hold the tracks. |
A little about Perkins Hobby House: This store is literally a suburban house converted into the ultimate gamer den. Gary, a fellow who couldn't be more accommodating or hospitable, has literally everything you could imagine for Flames of War and just about any other gaming system you could possibly want! I went nuts in there and ended up walking out with a FoW army case, a Lehr dice and marker tin set and 3 more SdKfz 234/2 Pumas for my Panzerspah Recce list that I'm working on!
I managed to win Best Sportsman, which was awesome! I seem to pull out that at most of the tournaments I win, which is nice. Win or lose, I think it's important to demonstrate a good, genuine attitude with your opponent and it's nice to get feedback from your peers that they think you're a good schmo.
I didn't do too well as far as wins/losses were concerned though. I played quite well in my first and third rounds, I felt, but my second round against Drew I completely flubbed. I was fine with that though, he's a Captain in the Canadian Forces so I'd hope to consistently lose to him.
Here is how the list looked:
Panzergrenadier Lehr Kompanie
HQ:
1iC, 2iC, both in Halftracks
1 Panzerschrek command upgrade in Halftrack
Combat:
Panzergrenadier Lehr Platoon: Command, 6 MG Teams, 3 Tank-Hunter Teams. 4 Halftracks
Panzergrenadier Lehr Platoon: Command, 6 MG Teams, 3 Tank-Hunter Teams. 4 Halftracks
Weapon:
3 Pak40 Platoon
4 Heavy Mortar Platoon
Divisional:
4 Panzer IVH
3 SdKfz 234/2 Pumas
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| Heavy Mortars just prior to getting their Facestomping by Drew's Achilles. |
The halftracks just look sexy and the mobility is nice too!
My heavy mortars are great against dug in troops or tanks respectively because while they have only a Strength 3 rating, their Firepower is 3+ which is awesome for a 150 point selection!
The Pak40s are there mostly for killing fields and to dictate where the enemy doesn't want to go.
Panzers are tricky. They are basically Shermans on steroids but don't plan on using them against heavy tanks unless you can get some side/rear shots on them. Think of them as medium skirmishers and use your Stormtrooper moves to dart in and out of cover.
The Pumas just rock, for 150pts their tactical flexibility is amazing. I don't know why but people fear the Pumas as much as they do though. They've only got Armor 3 on the front but with a Strength 9 4+ Firepower main gun and a Co-ax machine gun they can pose a bit of a threat! Plus they are Recce's so they get Disengage (for better or worse), Eyes and Ears and count as Jeeps! I love em. They're my favourite unit in my list.
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| Drew's Achilles dancing of the corpses of my Heavy Mortars |
Opponent: US 2nd Armored
Result: 2/1 Draw for Opponent
Scenario: Fair Fight
This was a great fight! My opponent set up fairly defensively, despite being the Attacker in this scenario (means little for Fair Fight). In deployment I drew out his armor first, having his 76 Shermans deployed in the middle of the board and his 78s out on my left.
For this fight I decided to play very aggressively. I double timed my panzergren force on the right straight for his artillery, took a round of double fire but managed to quickly dismount and find cover. Sadly I wasn't able to get the charge off on his arty as he ended up shifting his 76 Shermans to support (wise move), but I did manage to hold the objective right in front of the arty for a turn before getting pushed off. That Panzergren force gets medals all around because they held off a TON of fire along with support from the Pumas and some fire from the Pak40s when they had LOS.
On the left side of the board I managed to keep his dug in infantry busy with my other Panzergren force with support from my Heavy Mortars and the Panzer IVs. The Panzers got into a firefight with his 1iC, 2iC Shermans and some 78s. I got lucky and managed to mostly win that fight, but lord my bog rolls across the hedges really screwed and blunted my attacks. Eventually the Panzergrens managed to move up field and prep to assault the infantry holding that board side's objective but sadly the game ran out of time.
My opponent did manage to take one of my objectives, which I would have had to contest in the next round, had we the time. I was relatively confident that I could manage it.
All told the game was great! I had an awesome opponent and it was one of those nail biters in the last 20 minutes where every dice roll counts. Hearty handshakes all around at the end of that one!
Round Two:
Opponent: Drew's Tynes and Tees British Infantry
Result: 6/1 Win for Drew
Scenario: Encounter
I blame it on the pizza! Something was in the pepperoni! I was in a meat coma!
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| More Facestomping from AOP assisted artillery fire! |
Except I made a fatal error in judgement. Those same Achilles double timed within my minimum firing distance of the mortars in the first turn which meant the best they could do was dig in and hope for the best. In turn two Drew shot and assaulted my poor mortars with the Achilles and the artillery commander in support. Since he went first at the beginning of Turn 3 he was holding one of my objectives and won the game.
Since we'd only been playing 15 minutes we decided to keep going anyhow and push some models around. Drew is an awesome opponent and we always have a good time against each other, so it was nice to have any pressure of the round off and just chill with the toy soldiers.
He did facestomp my army again though, which we both laughed a lot about. You can read about it in detail in his blog here. I always believe that if you want to improve your game, play with people who are better than you. It's too bad I'm moving across the country, otherwise I'd keep playing against Drew because I learn something new about the game every time!
Round Three:
Opponent: German Infantry (can't remember the list's name)
Result: 3/1 for me
Scenario: Breaththrough
I love this scenario, it's great. Both as Attacker or Defender this scenario is awesome. The Defender (in this case, my opponent) chooses two opposing board quarters than the Attacker (me) places 2 objectives in one of the other board quarters and deploys in the final.
In the end the scenario simulates a phalanx force breaking through a weak chink in the Defender's forces while reinforcements come in from the rear. It's great and allows for lots of carnage.
I was back in my game as I started to take my opponent's force apart. The heavy mortars did pretty well, managing to pin enemy infantry down while my tanks and panzergrens managed to move across the board to take the farthest objective. My largest panzergren force did come under some heavy fire from 2 Tiger 1Es and some 105 artillery bombardments but managed to get going just fine again once my other Panzergren force came in from reinforcement.
My second Panzergrens definiltely took the game here as they managed to doubletime through some cornfields onto the objective and dig in before coming under any kind of fire. My opponent than moved his 2 remaining Stugs into threaten the objective holding Panzergrens. But because I was in cover and did not move or shoot in the last turn I stayed put and denied him defensive fire on an assault. I managed to kill one and take the other as it was bailed and his platoon failed their rally check. They then consolidated back into the cornfields on the objective and did the same thing to the Tigers! I managed to kill one Tiger and forced the other to flee! Sadly we ran out of time again as I surely would have taken this game with one more round as I was poised to assault the remaining Tiger again and likely take it out with my Tank Hunter teams thereby giving me the objective.
All told an excellent tournament and the best I've been to in years!
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