Las Vegas Open 2019 - West Coast Nationals

West Coast Nationals was held last weekend in cold and wet Las Vegas (who knew?) at the Las Vegas Open.  This was my first WCN outside of Kublacon and they had 38 players.  It was a MidWar event at 109 points.  I brought a pretty basic Grenadier force supported by a pair of Panthers.

My first round was against James and his combined US Armored Rifles / British Armored Car Squadron.  We played No Retreat and I would defend.

The board.  I needed to hold them back long enough for my reserves to arrive.

I made a huge mistake and left a gap through a building in the middle of my minefields.  The Rifle platoon would easily move right through it.

Hurricanes would come in and harass my Panthers once they arrived from reserve.

James' M3s would charge forward early, assaulting my infantry, but an ambush by Marders and the Panthers would thin their numbers.

My other infantry would arrive from reserve and assault them, but the gap I left in the minefields really screwed me.  James would take the forward objective.

We played right until the time limit, but James took the objective just in time for a victory for his forces.  1-8 loss for me, and his troops were on top of me the whole game it seemed.

Round Two would put me up against Ben's Soviet Mixed Tankovy force of Valentines and KV-1s in a second No Retreat.

Lots of tanks! I tried to mine the right side as much as possible.

Sturmoviks would come and harass my artillery every turn, to little effect.

I saw off an early assault with my Panzerknackers, forcing them back after a few casualties.

The Panthers would arrive from reserve and knock out quite a few Valentines, but would get flanked by KV-1s who would knock one out.  The other Panther promptly ran away, leaving my troops to get rolled over by massed armor.  

2-7 loss for me, as my nebelwerfers were able to break both the SMG platoon and the mortars of Ben's force.

Game Three would see me defending in Rearguard against Scott's Italian Bersaglieri.

Objective defended by infantry, mortars, and Panthers.  Scott's engineers would line up ready to breech my minefields.

Center held my PaK36s and infantry.

Scott would push hard here with light guns, L6 light tanks, and AA trucks.

My artillery had knocked out a Lancia 90mm truck and I figured my Panthers could knock out the other one before making a run into Scott's backfield.

Nope.  The Panthers missed every shot they took, and the Lancia knocked out one Panther before the other one ran away.

Marders ambush the L6s but the infantry are under constant bombardment from Semoventes.

I advance my infantry to slow down another push by infantry and tanks, and with help from my artillery, they hold back the Italian infantry.

The tanks, however, would get behind my Marders and finish off my infantry for the win.

3-6 loss, as I was able to grab a few points from Scott's Italians, a Lancia, the AA, and an infantry platoon.

After the first day I had three losses and only six points, not looking good.  My next game would be against Sean's Germans Panzergrenadiers in Bridgehead.  I would again be defending.

Scott would push hard on both sides with his infantry, supported by a Tiger.

I had to ambush the other Panzergrenadiers with my Marders just to keep them off of my on turn one.

My Panthers would arrive behind the Tiger from Reserve, but roll a pair of ones.  The Tiger knocked one out before the surviving Panther would knock it out and regroup on my objective.  It fought the rest of the game by itself before taking a flank hit from Semoventes and get destroyed.

My Marders would fall back to defend against Sean's Marders, winning the duel.

I was able to keep Sean's forces away from my objectives by assaulting the remains of his infantry, granting me an 8-1 win.

My final round was Encounter against Tyler's British Sikh Rifles.

My infantry moved forward and occupied the building and walls immediately in front of them, as I knew the Sikhs would be moving quickly to assault me.

They did, but I was able to hurt them pretty bad, leaving only the platoon commander and the formation commander.

The other flank saw the Sikhs charge forward as well, but a good barrage from my news had thinned their numbers a bit.  My infantry had to shift to intercept them.

A vicious assault had really hurt me, but I was able to chase them off.  If my reserves would just show up I'd have a good chance.

The Sikhs come back again, and we would roll ones at each other a few times, but eventually they would see my troops all away.

The lone commander would assault my mortars, but he would miss his attack and the gunners would destroy him.

1-8 loss before my reserves would arrive.  If either of them had bothered to show up I could have done some damage, but they took the final game off.  I got the single infantry platoon but no points.

1 win and four losses is for certain my poorest result ever at a major event, and I suppose I just wasn't prepared for the new meta of light vehicle swarms that you see at 109 points.  In games where I was matched with similar sized forces I think I had at least a fighting chance of a win, but I feel like I was still running a V3 list at a V4 event.  This game seems to have passed me by and I can't see a way to be competitive as infantry unless you have a second formation of light vehicles backing you up.  Maybe it's the high point limit?  I only know that even though all of my opponents were great and I enjoyed playing them, I didn't really find myself enjoying the games, if that makes sense.  I think I'm going to put MidWar away for a long time and hope for the best in June when the new Late War lists arrive.