Early War Tournament at Outflank Games

Last weekend NorCal hosted a small Early War event at Outflank Games in Fairfield.  At 1250 points, the armies were small, and since a number of us were still learning V4, we only played two rounds.  I brought a German Infanteriekompanie from Barbarossa.

After the game with Hal a few days ago, I decided to swap the expensive StuGs for a few more cheaper platoons, but was kind of limited by what I have painted for Early War.  In the first round I'd be playing Russ and his British Infantry Tank company in Dust Up.

Russ led his HQ tanks towards the objectives, but my Looted T-34 was enough to force them to fall back.  My heavy mortars had also hit his Rifle platoon very hard that were on the objectives on his side.

Russ' Matilda I tanks arrived from reserve and would slowly make their way forward.  His 2iC would avoid destruction.

My infantry would arrive from reserve and push towards the objective, now only defended by his HQ tanks and a single stand that remained from his Rifle platoon.

My T-34 would position itself to defend both objectives, only it and my Company Commander remaining after artillery and tank assaults destroyed my infantry and mortars.

Somehow my company survived long enough to chase Russ' Matilda II into the river, where it failed a Cross Check during an attempt to retreat after my infantry assaulted it.  I would win the game, barely.

I won 6-3, after losing my armored cars, an infantry platoon, and the mortars, but had Russ taken out the handful of infantry stands I still had, he would've broken my company.  My only hope was to win an assault and have him get stuck in the river, which miraculously happened.  The heavy mortars and one good air strike were able to take out his Rifles pretty early, but the Stukas were pretty disappointing.  The T-34 also never made a firepower check.

In round two I would be facing Brad and his Soviet Tankovy Batalon in No Retreat.

Brad's tanks would get to my objectives very early, but so would my reserves.  

My T-34 would knock out a pair of T-26s, but his KV-1 got the T-34.  Several ineffective assaults would see my infantry still holding the objective.

An early assault by T-34s would go poorly for Brad's Soviets, losing both from a platoon.  My PaK36s are just off-screen and would ambush the BT-5s, eventually knocking them out.  His T-34 battalion commander would lose and assault, and his company would break.

I would win this one 8-1, but only because of some really bad dice rolls by Brad's conscript tanks.  They would charge in to assault, miss all of their attacks, and then lose one or two to poor armor saves before falling back.  

Thanks to Russ for running this small event, hopefully most of us learned something about V4!

Encounter at Great Escape Games

An old friend of mine, Hal, and I met up for a practice game before this weekend's Early War tournament and played a quick game of Encounter.  Hal ran a Greek Etaireia Pezikoy, or rifle company, and I ran German Infanteriekompanie.  1250 points won't get you much, and Delayed Scattered Reserves wouldn't help either of us!

I deployed one of my infantry platoons in this farm, you can see Hal's mortars and 75mm artillery in the distance.

My 3.7cm PaKs tried to move through the town, while my infantry moved to engage the Greek infantry. 

On the other side, my second infantry unit would move to engage Hal's pioneer platoon.  My 10.5cm heavy mortars would soften them up first.

I would lead with an assault, but only get one stand before falling back.

On the other side, Hal's artillery had hit my infantry hard, his infantry closing for an assault of his own.

After taking heavy casualties what was left of my unit would fall back to the farm.

A second assault on the pioneers would be more successful, but they were so spread out I couldn't get to all of them.

Hal would clear out the farm with another assault, my single stand failing it's Last Stand check on my turn.

My infantry would finally break through the pioneers, but it was a turn too late.  

Hal would claim a 8-1 victory on Turn Four, neither of us getting any reserves.  It really pays to be aggressive in V4, especially early in the game.