Monday, April 29, 2013

Tuesday Night Dust Up?

Reno and I had a free night last Tuesday and we played a quick Dust Up.  Even though the game only went a few rounds we both had a blast!  Reno brought his Light Self Propelled artillery and I had my newly modified Fallschirmjager.  The Errata on HQ gun attachments forced me to make a few changes.  Previously I would take the Light Recoiless Gun platoon and attach all three HQ mortars to it, giving me a nice six stand gun platoon.  Now those guns must be distributed evenly among multiple platoons or stay in the HQ as a platoon led by the 2iC.  Boo...  I tossed the now extremely weak LG40s and kept the mortars in the HQ.  The extra points from the LG40s and a few less fortifications allowed me to buy two more HMGs to attach, giving me stronger FJ platoons, but a weaker sixth platoon and less wire.
Reno set up the board.  We decided to play Dust Up as he had played it in the April NorCal tournament and had a hard time of it. Late War 1780 to practice for Kublacon.  Looks like these will be the armies for both of us. 
Reno got to choose sides and denied me the town.  My deployment was in this corner, FJs with attatched HMGs and a Shreck.   Bunkers and trenches all forced into the corner.  Barbed wire deployed to slow down his advance.  
Reno's deployment, which he immediately regretted once we started.  IS-2s with tankos, Su-122s and Scouts on board.
Reno had all of his Su-76s and a platoon of Su-122s in reserve.  I think he also had Air Support but never rolled for it.   I had Stugs, a FJ platoon with attachments and the HQ mortars in reserve.  The new Errata made me rebuild my list.
Reno begins his advance but is hemmed in by wire.  
Marders crash through the woods and kill two SU-122s.
The other two retreat to guard the objective, but the Stugs arrive early and kill both.  
As the Stugs were close to taking the objective, Reno had to choose between sending his IS-2s back to take shots on them or going for broke and assaulting my objective.  He chose the latter and his heavy tanks with their tankos trashed my FJs.  They were forced to retreat, leaving my objective wide open.  We both now have tanks sitting on each others objectives, but we both can possibly contest. 
But, my Fearless FJ do not unpin! The Marders make their move, but fail the Stormtrooper test.  Reno takes my objective before I can take his.  5-2 for Reno, I killed the Su-122s.  
So close!

Friday, April 5, 2013

WWPD 24 hour charity event

I participated in the west-coast version of the WWPD4Vets charity event, hosted by Riha and attended by some of the local guys.  We hoped for a better turn out, but it fell upon Easter weekend and several of our group had to cancel at the last minute due to unexpected family commitments.  I had to skip the first several hours for the same reason.  Also, there were a few more who had bow out because of a pretty rough thunderstorm that blew through that night.  In all, we had four make it, Eric Riha and Dave Ripperda made it through the entire 24 hours, I made it through about 18 and Brad Feliz stopped by for a single game.  About 2 AM we kind of hit a wall and decided to up the ante by playing Winner Sits.  Poor Riha had a rough night and got to play almost the entire night.  He also was forced to drink more beer so he could use the bottle caps as smoke markers! We also got bored playing against the same lists and started playing with crazy lists and proxies to mix it up.  Eventually we totally burned out on Flames of War and ended the event with a game of Star Trek Settlers of Catan.  Glad we were able to do this and help raise some money for the Wounded Warriors program.  Hopefully if we do it again next year it will be on a more favorable weekend.  Oh, and for some reason I just couldn't lose a game! I played mostly my 1. Fallschirmjager list but also tried out the 150. Ersatz Panzerbrigade and the Panzerbrigade Eastern Front list as well.  I also threw a Panzers Meuse list at Riha to end our night, but decided to get it over quick, which didn't work out so well.  All said I went 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, 6-1, 5-2 and 1-6.  Had a lot of fun, but was totally dead the next day.
Dave and Eric taking a between game break.
Free For All against Brad's 2 ID Americans.
We were both running Fortified Companies and it got a little crazy.  
FJ bravely charging across no mans land as 155 shells rain down.
Brad even had to remove his own mine field to get at my objective.
Breakthrough against Riha's US Armored.
Holding the town.
Reserv StuGs come in and shoot up the Security Section.  
The StuGs prove tough and kill the Hellcats and hold out against Shermans too.
Hasty Attack with proxied 150. PzBrigade vs. Dave's Canadian Armour.
Dave's last desperate chance to kill some infantry.
Free For All.  Riha's tactical prowess apparently becomes flawed around 1AM and 8 beers in.
T-34s charge in!
Even Confident Traind Panthers are still Panthers.
Really fun Fighting Withdrawl vs. Riha's Guards Armoured.
StuGs ambush!
Still holding on!
Just held on long enough for the win.

Wednesday, April 3, 2013

Hold the Line with Riha

Played a game of Hold the Line with Riha the other night.  Looks like these will probably be our lists for Kublacon in May.
I deployed holding the town.  Large FJ platoon in trenches and holding the intersection.  Nebs in the field behind the town and Marders in ambush.  Stugs, small FJ and weapons platoon in reserve.  Barbed wire blocking off the road.  Riha started with two Airborne platoons, mortars, recon, shermans and tank destroyers.
Airborne moving out.
Main strike force approaching the defense line.  Airborne and armor screened by recon and the TD security section.
Second Airborne platoon advancing towards the objective.
Recon got a bit close to the HMG bunker and payed the price.  A lucky rocket strike bagged a Sherman.
With the recon dead Riha knew the ambush was coming.  He could either hide his tanks or run them forward to try and limit where the ambush could hit from.  The Marders were forced to shoot from within the woods but scored two kills.  
Airborne continue the attack, now without most of their support.
Second Airborne platoon moves to assault the objective.  The Stugs have arrived but are just short of supporting the entrenched FJ.  The FJ must stand alone.
They survive the assault but leave a few surviving Airborne on the objective.  Stugs and FJ assault the next turn and destroy them, but lose a Stug in defensive fire.  The Stugs would be killed the next turn by the Hellcats.
End of the game.  FJs still hold the town.  Both Airborne platoons have been seen off and with no 1iC or 2iC Eric's company decides to call in a day.  4-3 for me, lost the Stugs and the Marders, both to the Hellcats.