Shifting to Mid War

Reno and I got a game in over the weekend and decided to prep for a Mid War event in November.  The NorCal circuit has run their last Late War event for the year so we put away our big nasties and dusted off some lighter stuff.  We rolled up a Fighting Withdrawl with Reno attacking using a Hungarian armored company.  He had Pz 38s in the HQ, five more in a platoon, some armored cars, a platoon of Pz IV f2s and a platoon of Pioniers.  I wanted to run some Luftwaffe Jägers, but they're not ready yet.  I still hope to get them done by the tournament though!  I quickly threw together a list using some Fallschimjäger.  I had two platoons of FJs, Von Der Hyde, some Pak38s, Marder IIs, Nebs and 8rads.

The table and our deployment.

Left Objective defended by FJ platoon and some Nebs.

Center and Right Objectives defended by Fjs, Paks, and 8rads.  Marders in Ambush.

Reno's deployment.  Pz 38s and recon on the far side, Pz IVs and Pios on the near side.

Reno's Turn One:  Panzer IVs and Pioniers advance.

So do the Panzer 38s while the Recon moves to 16".  On my turn I shoot some Nebs but miss.

Reno's Turn Two:  He lifts Gone to Ground with the recon and takes some moving shots with the armor, killing one stand and pinning them.  He goes in for the assault!

It's bloody for all involved.  He eventually loses the platoon plus both his HQ tanks.  (Morale fail)  I'm down to three stands but manage to keep in the fight, thanks to my 1iC.

My Turn Two:  Reno's all-out offensive has definately done some damage to my left flank.  I pull half of my center FJ platoon over to support the fight.  His armored cars are looking aggressive still...

While mine cower behind a farmhouse.

Reno's Turn Three:  With the bulk of his army gone, he must drive towards the right side objective.  Pioniers and Panzer IVs keep the field between them and the gun line.

As I suspected, his armored cars strike at the now severely weakened platoon.  I manage to kill two of them after a few rounds of combat, but the third falls back.  My platoon is killed to a man, but the 1iC keeps me in the game.

My Turn Three:  PaK38s Double Bail a Pz IV, causing it to run away.  The 8 rads move out to thin down some pioniers, killing one.  Nebs also miss.

FJ group continues to reinforce the Left Objective.

Reno's Turn Four: The lone armored car backs off and snipes a newly arrived FJ.

Pz IVs and Pioniers press forward.

My Turn Four:  8 rads withdraw.  Marders Ambush, but miss.  Paks miss.

The Nebs miss....

Reno's Turn Five: Armored car repositions, Panzer IVs fire on the PaKs, pinning them.

Pioniers Assault!  

They kill two guns, but the 2iC drives them back, keeping the Objective.

My Turn Five: Nebs withdraw.  Two Marders shift towards the Objective, one stays stationary and kills a Panzer IV.  

Reno's Turn Six:  Running low on time, Reno makes a hard attempt at the center Objective.  His Panzer Assaults, but is destroyed after killing only one stand.  

His armored car does too, but is ultimately overwhelmed.

Knowing he will auto-fail a Company Morale check on his next turn, he throws his Pioniers at the Paks, killing the platoon, but scoring another point.  

4-3 for me, but it was much closer than that early in the game.  Reno almost pulled off a quick victory, but his Panzer 38s rolled a lot of ones vs. regular troops in assault.  I only had one panzerknacker but it did some damage.  Impressions?  Hungarians are cool.  Reno isn't used to running Veteran troops and he loved thier reliability.  Von Der Hyde is OK, but really didn't do anything.  Might trade the Nebs for mortars.

Some armies on display at Pacificon

Here are a few armies out for display at Pacificon.  Many games were still ongoing when I was going around taking pics and I missed a lot of great ones.

Sarah Welsh's East Front Panzerbrigade (cartoon giraffe not included)

Matt McCarthy's Romanians with Soviet support

Dave Ripperda's Finnish tank company

September NorCal Tournament- Pacificon

Our September event was held at Pacificon in Santa Clara last weekend.  Late War 1625 points.  I decided to pull my old German infantry out of retirement and build them as a CT 44. Reichsgrenadier company from Cassino.  I haven't played CT Germans before and wanted to see how they would operate.  We had 30 player arrive and most of us decided ahead of time to bring a more laid-back attitude to the event.  Less must-win, more have-fun attitudes and lists.  I saw some fun and creative lists there, stuff rarely seen anywhere.  Dave Partak brought a Sicherungs list with a huge train!  I saw King Tigers, armoured trucks, all kinds of fun stuff.  My list even featured Reserve Panthers.

Round One I played a relatively new player, John Marquez, who brought a KG Pieper King Tiger list. Five King Tigers and some Wirbelwinds, that's it!  The scenario was Pincer and it was already an uphill climb for John.  I deployed four platoons, 10.5 howitzers, a Pionier platoon, a Reichsgrenadier platoon with full Panzerknacker upgrade, and had PaK40s in Ambush.  John's Tigers had just crossed into my deployment zone when my Reserves all showed up at once, Marders behind one platoon of Tigers and the Panthers behind his CiC.  They killed the CiC and one other KT, while bailing the second.  On his turn he turned the remaining Tiger platoon to kill the Marders and the Pak40s popped their Ambush on my turn.  Combined fire killed two more platoons and with no CiC, was forced to retire.  6-1 final score.

Our table's town square.  Un fortunately the other shots from this round are super blurry.

Round Two I faced of vs. Brad Feliz and his Fortified 2 ID cheddar list. (Just kidding Brad!)  He had a fortified platoon, two rifle platoons, 155 artillery with an AOP, Towed TDs, and M-10 TDs.  Ouch.  My CT dudes were obligated to attack in Counterattack and just couldn't get into a position to bring thier combined force to bear.  ToT artillery had wiped about half of my infantry out before I could get far and then they wouldn't unpin all game.  Of course the Panthers, which always must be in Reserve, didn't show until Round Three.  My artillery didn't have good sight lines and by the time I had troops in position to assault the objectives Brad's TTDs were already firmly entrenched there.  Looking back I should have deployed differently and focused all of my platoons on one objective.  Brad was gracious enough to let me get a platoon as time expired.  2-5, the 2 ID strikes again!

Frontal attack by Pioniers and a Gren platoon has stalled out.  The Grens were hit on Round One, four stands killed, and pinned.  They never unpinned in 2.5 hours.  I didn't want to send the Pios in by themselves, and kept waiting for what never came.  Marders should've gone TD hunting, but would've been completly exposed.

Second Grens platoon making for the far objective supported by Paks, but Super Fast 2 ID can get there way before I can.  Panthers still haven't arrived.

Here they are! But so is Brad's TTD security section...  I just couldn't match Brad's mobility and firepower.

Round Three I had the pleasure to play Craig Burdine and his 101st Airborne in a Free For All.  The only vehicles Craig had were two sections of Armored Jeeps and they came out guns blazing!  He gutted one of my infantry platoons on Turn One and pinned the second, who again couldn't unpin for like five turns.  For a second game in a row, my infantry had failed me early and often...  The Panthers showed up early and killed a Jeep section, but that's all they'd do before being bombed into oblivion by P-47s, who arrived for the first four tuns and killed about half of my army, haha.  Craig's airborne were more than a match for what remained of my infantry and he won the game just before time expired.  2-5.

Jeeps doing jeep stuff.

P-47s right before blasting my Panthers.

My experiment in Trained Germans has left me missing my Vets.  The firepower that many armies (US, Soviet, etc.) can bring to bear will just gut a Trained platoon, especially a small-ish German infantry platoon.  I never noticed the reliablity that comes with running Veteran troops.  Assaults, artillery bombardments and Stormtrooper moves can be counted on.  The 50% chance of Trained troops making it is just that.  A big maybe.  I also felt outgunned all day, the one victory I got was a very good matchup for me in about the perfect scenario. (automatically hitting Tiger IIs on the flank)  The Reserve Panthers were actually really cool.  I might try them again with the Veteran Panzergrens from the same book.  Very fun event, and Eric Riha's last in our circuit, as he is off to North Carolina.  Good luck out there man!  We all will miss you.

August NorCal Tournament- Late War De-escalation

Hey, finally got to get some more games in, my two regular opponents have both been super busy.  Reno just had a new little one and Riha is getting ready to move all the way to the east coast.  This event was a three round Late War event with point totals of 1775, 1525, and 1275.  I brought my FJs and went 1-1-1.

First round was Hasty Attack vs. Niel Pamandanan and 4th Armored Division Shermans.  After about two and a half hours of fighting I was left with only my CiC, a single platoon command stand, and one Marder II, with Niel's 105 Sherman platoon sitting on an undefended objective, but the lone Marder got a lucky shot in on a weakened platoon of M4s without a commander and killed one, causing them to run.  I made my Company Morale check but he couldn't make his.  I somehow pulled out a 4-3 win.

Round Two faced Dustin Harnois with a KG Pieper list of King Tigers, Pz IVs, recon and FJs in Dust Up.  We played to a 3-3 draw, though it took a platoon of his KTs, his Pz IVs and his recon to kill off one of my FJ platoons, while his CiC KT and FJs were able to hold off my reserves.  Great game and a learning experience for both of us.

Round Three was vs. Ken Boothby and a Panzer Lehr list from the PTTM PDF in Surrounded.  Even though Ken said he was a relatively new player, he pushed his armored infantry and Panzers like a pro. Looking back I could have probably deployed a little better, but Surrounded is a mission that takes practice to figure out.  5-2 for Ken, as he was able to secure an objective with massed force.

All of my opponents were new to me, even though we've attended several events together and they were all great.  Thanks all.  Oh, I did win Best Painted and got the new Atlantik Wall book, looking forward to building some Buete StuGs!