NorCal Circuit 2013 February tournament

Last saturday we had our first circuit event of the year at Gamescape North in San Rafael, CA.  This is one of the premiere game stores in northern California and is run by a bunch of great guys.  The event was an Escalation style tournament, Late War, with points totals of 1280, 1530, and 1780.  I decided to be lazy and build my army from stuff I already had painted and kinda suffered for it.  Ended up somewhere in the middle.  We maxed out our table space with twenty-four players and two alternates, though two guys had to cancel the morning of.  We even had three players from out of state register, one all the way from Florida.  Eric Riha ended up winning the event but passed on prize support.  Dave Ripperda took second and Russ Moore won Best Presentation.  I had fun in all three of my games and can't wait until next months event!

Round One I played Aaron Gorfein and his Rota Razvedki in Free For All, 1280 points.  The board used the new winter rules, snow banks and frozen ponds.  My left objective defended by 1iC, Grenadier platoon and Nebelwerfer Battery. 

Right side objective held by Grenadier platoon, StuG platoon and Mortars.  Marder platoon is off camera in the center. 

Turn one Aaron moves his T-34/85s and Recon at me.  Rota platoon guarding the objective to their rear. 

My attacking force preparing to advance towards his objective only guarded by a Rota platoon.  Su-122s off camera. 

Here we are about Turn Four.  StuGs and Grenadiers have driven the Rota platoon off, destroying it.  Su-122s move to contest for one more turn before the StuGs destroy them.  Aaron makes his last attempt to score some points.

Aaron's attack on my objective has stalled.  His T-34s got hung up in the trees for a few turns or it could have gone very differently.  Marders were able to swing to assist this objective and the Grenadiers have barely hung on after several rounds of fire from tanks and Rota.  They were also able to drive back the Rota assault.  Recon were driven back by rifle defensive fire, killing one and bailing another. (Got some lucky 6s for Firepower) 6-1 final score for me.

Round Two any visions of a tournament victory quickly faded.  Surrounded vs. Russ Moore's Commandos...  Night attack + four Commando platoons + four Breeching Groups = alot of dead Germans.  Russ' right side deployment.  Commandos, more Commandos, Breeching Group, another Breeching Group, HMGs, and Mortars.  Russ had 10 platoons at 1530 points!

Russ' left side.  Commandos, more Commandos, Breeching Group, another Breeching Group! Oh, Bunkers are played as buildings, Trenches as low walls.  

My north objective.  Grenadiers, PaK38s, and StuGs defending.  Marders are off camera to the south with a Mortar platoon.  My south objective was defended by Grenadiers, Scouts, a Looted T-70 and an Artillery Battery.   Infortunately I didn't get any other shots as Russ came at me fast and furious.  Spearheading Commandos Night Attacking...  He was ready set for a massive assault for Turn Two, but I preempted him by hitting his leading Commandos with my Greadiers led by Windgruber.  Both platoons hit on 2+ and it got ugly quick.  I hit him seven times and he declined to come back, hoping his Fearless rating would allow him to stay on table, but it wasn't to be.  On his turn he assaulted me back with the follow up Commandos and hit me six times, including Windgruber.  My Grenadiers failed their motivation to counter.  The game after that devolved into me trying to score some points before he took an objective.  The T-70 was able to break out and rampage all over the Mortars and my Marders and StuGs became MG platforms trying to kill Commandos.  Eventually he killed five of my nine platoons, breaking my company.  I was able to kill two Commando platoons and the Mortars.  4-3 for Russ.

I wasn't able to get any more pictures of the games, My camera battery was dead.  But I did play Dave Ripperda in Round Three with his Allied Finnish.  Dave beat me 5-2 in Breakthrough.

Some shots of my final round, pictures by Dave.  My artillery park.

The vast defenses of the Finnish troops.  

Near the end of the game.  My flank attack just couldn't get through John Wayne and his boys.

NorCal Circuit 2012 awards ceremony

Before we started the 2013 tournament season we had our awards ceremony for 2012.  Lots of great awards for lots of great players.  Had some other pics of other winners, but they didn't come out right.

Here we are getting started.  Eric Riha, who won the Best Overall for the year, got to choose one of the new Army Boxes.  Nick is MCing and Dai, Ed and Neil are lurking in the back.  

Reno Besseghini received the Always A Bridesmade award for attending the most tournaments without placing.

I got Third Overall and Best Overall Presentation.  Picked up most of the stuff I needed for a 150. Ersatz Panzerbrigade list and a prize package from AK Interactive. 

Russ Moore was Best Overall Sport and received the awesome Forged in Battle Landkreuze P.1000 "Ratte".  Jealous! 

Little help painting the other day

I had some help the other day while painting my new Fallschirmjager...

Late night game with Reno

Had another great game with Reno a little while ago to practice for the NorCal circuit February event.  Reno had a late start and didn't get to my house until around 10 pm, so we decided to play a lower points level at 1280.  I ran Grenadiers from Grey Wolf and he had Soviet Light Self propelled artillery.
Mission we rolled up was Counter Assault with his Mech list attacking.

Table setup for the evening.

I chose to defend the corner with the town, the open objective was just off camera to the north.  Grenadiers with attatched shreck team and the 2iC (Windgruber) ready to move to it and dig in before the Reds get there.  Other Grenadiers, Neb battery and a small mortar platoon hold the town.  Marder platoon in ambush, Stugs in reserve. 

Reno's deployment.  IS-2s with tankos up front supported by two platoons of SU-122s.  SU-76s and Scouts behind.

 Here they come, right at me!

On Reno's turn he took some shots on the mobile Grenadiers (off camera) and killed four of them!  That's the punishment for a failed Stormtrooper move...  He pushed his other forward platoons across the ford in the stream and came right at my force in the town.  His other platoons (off camera) made for the open objective.  I counterd by scurrying my now half-strength Grenadiers into some trees and ambushing with the Marders from behind the walls, trying to slow down the IS-2s, who bounced 7 hits!  Most of them miraculously survived the return fire (poor Reno's dice mocked him) before they hid behind the building to the south.  Soviets still totally untouched. 

And here is where Reno's luck ran out.  He tried to push over the walls to assault the Nebs, and bogged two IS-2s.  The Grenadiers and 1iC were dragged in as well and counter attacked, knocking them out before they failed the motivation to continue.  Crisis averted! (just barely)  The rest of the game consisted of Marders hiding and sniping at his remaning tanks until theMarders were destroyed, and the Stugs (off camera) dueling with about eight SU-76s and some Scouts.  Game ended as a 4-3 for me.  Lost the Nebs and the Marders, about half strength with both Grenadier platoons too.  Very close game, Reno almost had me!  If he would have just stood and fired all those breakthrough guns at me, he could probably have broken my company.  This ended up being pretty good practice for the NorCal event too!

Looted T-34/76

Built up a T-34/76 for my Grenadiers too, perfect ninth platoon, right?  Painted it up to represent a      T-34/76 of 1. Ski-jäger-Division.  This division had a whole company of modified T-34s.

Almost tried the white-wash, but it wouldn't match my other vehicles.

Added some tool boxes to both rear side boards and the front left side, also a jack and some spare track.

Right side showing tool box, more spare track and a bucket full of fresh snow.

Painted this up to match a modified T-34/76 from 1. Ski-jäger-Division.  Divisional symbol visible on fender.

Used the large sized Balkenkreuz all around and company symbols on the turret.

New Marder III Ms

Finally finished some Marder III Ms for a Late War Grenadier list.  Decided to match the winter theme that most of my Late War germans follow, mostly because I'm too lazy to paint new infantry, hehe.

I decided to make rain tarps for these to distinguish them from regular Marders.  Figured open vehicles in the snow would at least keep the tarps at the ready.

Used some different vehicle crew to mix it up.

Unfortunately the light at this angle shows some silvering of the decal...  didn't see it until post-varnish.

Vehicle two.  More silvering.  Grr..

Better looking from this side.

Vehicle three.  Built the tarp to cover the whole crew compartment, came out pretty good for tissue paper. 

Group shot with all four Marders.

Group shot two!

And one more.

Riha Rematch!

Had another game with The Riha this week, decided to mix it up a bit.  I've been playing the Cassino FJs for a few months now and wanted to try out something different.  I put together a list of Grenadiers from Grey Wolf to practice for an upcoming tournament. (NorCal 2013 event numero uno)
My list was:
HQ with Windguber 2ic upgrade, CiC faust and shrek, 2x Grenadier platoons with fausts, Scouts,      4x Marder IIIM, 3x 5cm Pak 38s, 4x Stugs, 15cm artillery battery, 2x 8cm mortars, 2x MG42 (attatched out), and a looted T-34/76.  Nine platoons of fun!  Riha ran the same 101st Airborne fan-boi list with 2 bulked up platoons, 2 Hellcat platoons, Recon patrol and a pair of medium mortars.
    We played Counter-attack with Riha attacking.  I deployed my Grens in the corner with the fields and we both had to get to the open objective, but Riha couldn't capture until turn 6.  There was a series of bloody assaults up the middle by his Airborne, supported by both of the TD security sections and the Recon too while his other Airborne platoon tried to get through the town and to the objective.  Luckily for me my Stugs and Looted T-34 were able to catch them in the open and kept them away from the objective.  His assault up the middle did cost me the Pak platoon, a Grenadier platoon, most of my 15cm artillery battery and my CiC before Windgruber was able to lead the Scout platoon back into the crops to finish the now battered Airborne off.  They were also assisted by a rather lucky one-gun mortar bombardment that killed 4 stands!  The game was very close from start to finish and my Marder platoon ambush worked super well.  4 hits, 4 kills on a TD platoon.  The Scouts (assisted by Windgruber) were ultimately the Heros of the game though, killing an Airborne platoon, and a Security Section in two separate asaults, while securing the objective long enough for the Stugs and Marders to break his company.  The game went about 8 turns before I got his company to break, 4-3 for me!

Riha moving his Airborne turn one.

My deployment corner.  Grens with attatched Shrek on the left, second Gren with Windgruber in front of the artillery.  Scouts dashing towards the open objective on the lower right.

Riha rushed me on turn one, hitting my poor light Paks with every .50 MG he had.  I really hate those things..