VetCon - 2022

NorCal Flames of War has dwindled down a bit these last few years, but one of our members wanted to start a new convention in Auburn, as he was soon moving out of state and wanted to celebrate a bit first.  I agreed to run a three-round Late War Bulge event, and ended up playing to make the numbers even.  I ran German Panzergrenadiers and in Round One I was matched up against Sam and his US Engineers.

Sam's Stuarts blunt my attempt to sneak my halftracks across the rails.

A series of assaults saw me make progress into the town, but his numbers held out.

I nearly had it early, but his engineers held long enough for the rest of his reserves to enter the town, and I just didn't have the numbers to push him out.  1-8 loss, as I could't quite break a second unit.

In Round Two I'd face Dave and his British Rifle Company supported by Archers and AMTRACS.

Open sights to engage the enemy!

My defensive line

I quickly was reminded that a single unit of heavy guns isn't enough as the Archers and Fireflys took out my Panzer IV/70s early.  It was only a matter of time before the flamethrowers and MG toting AMTRACS put a hurt on me. 1-8 loss, and we went to have beers!

Round Three I faced Russ and his British Armoured Cars in a bit of a wild one.

Most of the fighting took place in this small wood

Russ took the objective eventually, a solid win for him.

Another 1-8 loss saw me firmly in last place, and that was mostly due to my poor list design. Once the PanzerIV/70s were gone, I couldn't even stop armored cars, really.  Fun times all around though!

CarrierCon 2021 - USS Hornet

 NorCal hosted a small skirmish tournament aboard the USS Hornet in the ward room, and I brought a recon force with Pumas, backed by Hetzers. In Round One I played Chris and his British Armoured Cars.

Pumas supporting infantry as the approach the objective.

Hetzers managed to destroy all of the carriers and took the objective.

I won that first match with 7-2, and would play Mike and his Americans next.

Mike brought real tanks and they were scary!

My infantry held the woods vs. US Rifles.

Once my Hetzers arrived they engaged the Shermans, and I was able to claim the objective.

An 8-1 win in the second round put me in a tie for first going into the final match against Wyn and his US tanks.

The objective in the center had our attention, and we had quite a fight over it. 

Had my Pumas or Hetzers actually hit anything, I might have won the game, but as it stood, I took a 3-6 loss.  I still managed second place in the event, and had a great time!

Late War Event on USS Hornet

There was a Late War 105 point event on the USS Hornet last month, four rounds over two days so that we all had a chance to check out the museum.  I brought an Armored Panzergrenadier list and didn't expect much out of it, since I had only played once since the pandemic hit. 

Here's my list:

In Round One I faced a British force with six Churchill Crocodiles and a bunch of Achilles.

My opponent ran the Crocs up and sat in front of my troops and blasted flamethrowers at me until I died.  
I was able to destroy the Universal Carriers.

I tried to get flank shots, since nothing in my army could kill them, but it wasn't happening.  1-8 loss.

Crocodiles are never fun to face, and even less so when only your Panthers can kill them and they never arrive from reserve.  Round Two was against a Finnish all-infantry force.

Finns preparing for an assault.  1-8 loss, but I felt better about it.

I managed to hold out for a bit, but once they unpinned it was repeated assaults from multiple angles.  Again, my reserves failed arrive in time to matter.  Round Three saw me matched up against a very new player with US Rifles.

My infantry were aggressive, and I was able to do some damage against the Rifles in the center.

The Marders managed to keep the M10s busy from long range.

My opponent's main attack came at my artillery and PaKs, but I held them off.  Time was called as my reserves arrived, 2-2 draw.

If I had gotten more than four turns I feel like I could've gotten a win in this one, but it wasn't to be...

In Round Four I faced another Finnish army, this time with mostly tanks.

Panthers holding the center, while the infantry advance.

For the first time all weekend I didn't have reserves, and it showed.  The Panthers went to work, destroying T-34/85s at range, and T-26s up close as they tried to flank.  Casualties were high on both sides, but I finally got a win, 4-3.

The event was fantastic, and I never expected to do very well.  Panthers are overpriced in V4 and I only brought them because my Panzer IV/70s weren't painted yet, but the rest of the list did ok.  I learned that you need to have a good plan for reserves, and a plan for killing Crocs, but this game continues to feel like a giant Rock-Paper-Scissors match.  

Early War at Game Kastle

We had a small Early War event last week at Game Kastle here in Sacramento and decided on 1350 points.  I brought a Panzerschützen force from Hellfire and Back.

Game One I played against Hal and his Italian Fucilieri.  The Mission was Breakout.

I didn't have much to defend the objectives, and Hal had mostly terrible troops, but a whole bunch of them.  If he played aggressively I wouldn't last long.

Luckily for me, Hal did not send the bulk of his armor at my lightly defended objective.  An ambush by Panzerjäger Is  managed to knock-out one of his M14s and Bail Out the rest, but they stubbornly remained.  His L3 flamethrower tankettes skirted around my mines, but my PaK36s knocked a few out.  

Hal's Fucilieri made a push on the other side, but repeated strikes by my Stukas, and fire from the Schützen kept them back.  I finally assaulted them back far enough to secure the game.

If Hal had come forward early he would've won big, but he kept a unit of five tanks back to defend against my reserves, and never used his second infantry unit.  8-1 win for me.

In the second game I defended in Bridgehead against Russ and his British Infantry Tank Company of Matildas.

On turn one my Stukas came in and took out an 18/25 Pounder and a Matilda I.  They would come in every turn this game.

My Panzerjägers ambushed another group of Matildas, and knocked one out!

A unit of Matilda Is assaulted my position, driving off the infantry and reducing the PaKs to a single gun, but two of them were Bailed Out in the process.  This was my best chance, but it was no use.  They both got back in.  My Panzers could only park threateningly at them near the objective.

Once Russ' Matilda IIs arrived that was game.  2-7 loss for me!

It was nice to have an event in Sac again, even if it was the unsupported Early War.  Still was good to get together!

Pacificon 2019

We had a MidWar tournament way back in September at Pacificon and I totally forgot to do a write-up about it.  There were twelve players and we ran it at 109 points.  Here's what I brought.

In the first round I faced off against Sam and his Soviet Mixed Tankovy in Counterattack.

My reserves arrived on the first turn and mowed down Sam's leading infantry unit as they approached the Objective.

The Henschel 129s did some serious work against Sam's light armor, knocking many of them out and keeping them from being very effective.

The KV-1s, however, would charge forward and run down my Nebelwerfers!

With nothing of Sam's force able to contest the swampy Objective, I was able to win 7-2, losing the Nebelwerfers and Marders (who ran away rather early).

In the second round I would battle Emiliano and his US Armored Company in Hasty Attack.

Emiliano's Priest Battery arrived early, but the Henschels repeatedly harassed them.

The small nature of the US force and the piece-meal way in which they arrived on the board allowed me to engage them one unit at a time, leading to a pretty uphill battle for the Americans.

The open board didn't help them either and my Panzergrenadiers head for the US mortar position.

I would go on to win 8-1, breaking the US formation.  It was a really good match-up for me on a good table for long range shooting.

Round three would see me engaged with Chris and his British Crusader Squadron in Breakthrough.

Chris' Crusaders would make mad dash into the back corner of the board, perhaps to camp my Reserves, but it was a strange choice to me.  His Carrier patrols swung around the oasis but were met by Marders.

The Crusaders and Motor Platoons eventually turned towards the Objectives, but the Ferdinand was in position to engage them after knocking out the Grants.

My Panzergrenadiers arrived on Chris' flank and caught the attention of several of his units.  They would be destroyed eventually, but tied down a unit of tanks and both Motor Platoons.

The early delay that I still don't understand, and the large force committed to dislodge my reserve troops ended up costing Chris.  I was able to pick off any tanks with potent enough guns to threaten the Ferdinand and had enough close cover for it to prevent from being assaulted.  I eventually pushed his forces far enough away to claim victory, 8-1, with only the brave Panzergrenadiers lost.

Three victories and a nearly perfect score was enough to get me a big win, my first tournament win in a very long time.  I would win the new German D-Day book and card sets for my trouble.

Kublacon 2019 - Legion By the Bay

This year there was no Flames of War tournament at Kubacon for the first time in over a decade.  I think this sums up the attitude towards FoW in the NorCal area these days, as no one wanted to run an event, and only a few players seemed interested in playing in one.  I think the over all impression of Kublacon hasn't helped either, as it has become nearly impossible to get a room at the hotel, there isn't any on-site parking for con' attendees, and the price of admission and food offerings has grown as well.
But wait! Some great guys decided to host a Star Wars: Legion tournament to try and entice FFG into officially sponsoring an event in the future, and they needed a few more players to max their attendance.  Not only did they offer discounted admission, but also gave me a box of troops to help me begin my collection!  I had only played a few games and was able to convince my friend Reno to get me up to speed and ride along with me as well, while Dave offered to loan me an army.  I asked my good friend Eric, who just qualified for Worlds at Adoption, to help me throw together a simple list and he came up with this:

In the first round I played a really nice guy named Bret who helped me out quite a bit since I'm still a total noob at this game.  He had an Imperial list with Krennic, Veers, and a whole bunch of mixed troopers.  We played Breakthrough, Major Offensive, Rapid Reinforcements.

My opponent kept his troops all clustered together and mass fire from them put wound son my AT-ST and Vader early.  Several of my Stormtrooper units were able to get around the walled courtyard and take out his Sniper Scouts, and Vader would close and take out a unit of Stormtroopers.

Stormtroopers move to put fire onto some Deathtroopers.

This was a loss for me, as expected, as my opponent was able to get more units across the board, and he was able to take out Vader and the walker.

Round two had me up against Nick and another Imperial list, this time with Veers, two Occupier Assault Tanks, and a bunch of Stormtroopers.  We played Key Positions, Long March, Rapid Reinforcements.

My AT-ST moved to engage one of the tanks, but both of them got into range and overwhelmed it.

Both Occupier tanks close on my Stormtroopers.

I was able to win the trooper war, with Vader and his legion of Stormtroopers wiping all but two enemy Stormtrooper squads and the two tanks from the board, but the amount of firepower that the tanks put forth proved too much for my own troopers, and my opponent claimed two objectives to my one.

The third round was Brett and a Rebel force with a generic commander, two landspeeders, and a bunch of troopers.  We played Key Positions, Battle Lines, and Clear Conditions.

I sent a squad of Stormtroopers through the turbolaser control room to harass some snipers and in the process kept two squads of Rebel troops occupied as well.

Lord Vader held down one of the objectives and was able to take out one of the land speeders as well, while threatening some more Rebel scum.

I sent my AT-ST to support several Stormtrooper squads and it was able to shoot down the second land speeder, while the troopers fought back a squad of Wookies and claimed two objectives.

My first win!  I claimed all three objectives and felt like I had control of the board pretty early on.  The Stormtroopers on the fortress kept a significant portion of the Rebels occupied while I made a push on the other side of the board where the objectives were.

Thanks to the guys who put this great event on, the tables were all fantastic and so were my opponents.  I took some pics of a few of the great tables there.  3D printing is a total game changer as far as terrain goes, by the way!