Last weekend I attended my first maor Flames of war tournament, Corrivalry down in Daventry.
First things first my list, I took the 29th US infantry out of turning the tide
| Confident Trained | Rifle Company (29th I.D.) | USA Late-War |
| Infantry Company | ||
| Platoon | Qty | Unit | Points | ||
| Headquarters | |||||
| 2 2 | Cmd Carbine team Bazooka team | 40 | ||
| Combat Platoons | |||||
| 1 1 9 | Cmd Rifle team Bazooka team Rifle team | 155 | ||
| 1 1 9 | Cmd Rifle team Bazooka team Rifle team | 155 | ||
| 1 1 9 | Cmd Rifle team Bazooka team Rifle team | 155 | ||
| 1 4 3 | Cmd Carbine team M1919 LMG team M2 60mm mortar | 120 | ||
| Weapons Platoons | |||||
| 1 2 4 | Cmd Carbine team Bazooka team M1917 HMG team | 130 | ||
| 1 3 3 | Cmd Carbine team Bazooka team M1 57mm gun | 115 | ||
| Regimental Support | |||||
| 1 1 2 3 3 | Cmd Carbine team Jeep with .50 cal AA MG Bazooka team M1 57mm gun 1 1/2 ton truck | 105 | ||
| 1 1 2 2 | Cmd Rifle team Jeep with .50 cal AA MG Rifle team Jeep | 65 | ||
| Divisional Support | |||||
| 1 2 4 | Jeep with .50 cal AA MG M20 scout car M-10 3in GMC | 320 | ||
| 1 1 1 4 | Cmd Carbine team Staff team Observer Carbine team M2A1 105mm howitzer | 140 | ||
| 1 1 1 1 4 | Cmd Carbine team Staff team Observer Carbine team Jeep M1 155mm howitzer | 210 | ||
| 1 | L4 Grasshopper AOP | 40 | ||
| Company Points: | 1750 | ||||
So just before I start with the battles I was rubbish at this event writing notes so I didn't get the names of any of my opponents. So apologies in advance.
Game 1 - Dust Up (Fair Fight)
This Games was against a panther heavy wiking list.
I went with the good old wall of infantry deployment backed up by the 155's, a unit of 57mm and the tank destroyers.
My opponent deployed his panthers, a 10.5 battery and a short infantry platoon in the buildings to the left.
Panthers rolled forward, I managed to get three of them under a time on target bombardment with the 155's and did feck all...The artillery started the way it meant to continue most of the weekend.
Panthers lined up an started blasting away at the infantry and 155's well my artillery fails to kill any.
Turn three I get my first reserves on, the other unit of 57mms arrives with some flanking shots hopefully forcing him to turn and maybe getting a cheeky kill. Alas it was not to be as the Panzer Kanone blows them away without breaking a sweat.
Next the 105's show up and start direct firing into the buildings to clear out the German infantry in it.
Then the third infantry platoon that starts pushing on the buildings surrounding the objectives.
Alas at this point the panthers come back and German armoured infantry rushes over to reinforce the objective I was pushing on putting an end to the attack. I has hoped to weaken the panthers before now or use the TD's to force them to keep facing the correct way but the artillery did nothing and the TD jeeps got stuck in the snow.
The game ended as a draw with no one taking any objectives my opponent killed one platoon to my now kills. So I came away with 3 points in the corrivalry scoring system.
I always struggle with in fair fights, I needed to pull the panthers in close to the infantry before my reserves showed up so I could assault his objective unfortunately as I find in these battle my objective is that well guarded most people don't even try and take it. and in the face of all those tanks my attacking infantry gets cut to bits giving up VP's.
Game 2 - Surrounded (Defensive Battle)
This time I was up against a normal German armoured list.
There is something satisfying about struggling to fit your army in the deployment zone :)
Rather than just deploying his force on one side like most people my opponent split it, this threw a bit of a spanner in the works as I expected to be turning half my army around on the first turn.
My anti tank guns engaged the pumas.
On the other flank the north unit of tanks engaged in a fire fight with my other anti tank gun unit that they would go on to lose, while the south group took on the 105's managing to blow all the guns off before direct fire from the 155's and the north anti tank gun unit took them out.
The 105's took a pasting and my anti tanks made some heroic saves but slowly got whittled down.
I decloaked the TD's and engaged the advancing armoured infantry and also managed to bag themselves a tiger.
At this point I had blunted the worst of the German attack, they made a good drive at the objective but in the end I believe I managed to break them for a 14-6 win to me.
It's was a bread and butter match up for me I had all the tools for the job and the dice where quite kind to me this game.
Game 3 - Hold the Line (Defensive Battle)
Fighting a Stug battery this time.
Standard deployment, wall of infantry, 155's and both units of 57mm's in ambush.
Wall of tanks!
That drive into short range to commence blasting.
Both ambushes pop and the artillery taking out five tanks with one platoon breaking.
With the return fire taking out almost all the anti tank guns!
At this point the Stugs start laying into the infantry and blowing chunks out my line while the armoured rocket launchers generally keep the 155's pinned down.
My reinforcements start arriving, the TD's scouts position themselves behind buildings waiting on stugs to come closer.
Starting to run out of infantry now, the break through guns making a real mess, though most of what's left are bazookas forcing the tanks to keep away still.
The reserve infantry platoon legs it to reinforce the objective.
At this point the artillery remembers how to work and starts popping tank after tank.
With a lot of the stug platoons now being down to single tanks the TD decloak and start engaging as well. I manage to finally break the stugs for a 17 - 4 win.
This was a hard game, after my fantastic second turn I thought I was off to a good start but then I failed to get most of the StuH's with the breakthrough guns and they made a real mess, thankfully the artillery came back at the end of the game and did the job.
Game 4 - Hasty Attack (Mobile Battle)
This was against the Beute StuG battery, I thought I was on to a winner here I have played Stug battery's a few times now and normally do really well...yeah hadn't really understood what I was up against here.
So normal deployment, 57mm in ambush.
Hmm I see no StuGs'...
Oh right it's french stuff the Germans took over and they are called StuG's and that unit there has 32" range RoF 2 break through guns...oh...baws...
Said guns proceed to take out the 155's, the 57mm's and start blowing chunks out my line, I mean big massive holes. I spent quite a few turns rolling to unpin and then doing nothing.
The 105's Rock on and start throwing out smoke to try and slow the Germans down a bit.
On my right the infantry advances while the half tracks lay down a stupid amount of fire (that killed shockingly little)
On my left I stay cowed while the Germans creep closer.
Reserve infantry platoon shows up in the correct place to reinforce the objective that's looking decidedly thin.
More smoke!
Realising they are running out time the infantry on the right go for an assault but it gets repulsed.
And on the left they aren't quite close enough.
This game ended 19-3 to me but that doesn't really do my opponent justice. I suffered badly from not knowing what I was up against and didn't really get to do much this game. Thankfully my opponent made his move a couple of turns too late allowing me to keep hold of my objective with quite a few platoons that where hanging on by the skin of their teeth.
Game 5 - Counter Attack (Mobile Battle)
Beutpanzers, woo hoo tanks my antitank can deal with I thought
It just about all fits, stacked to the left you can see an infantry platoon and the TD's ready to run left to get to the objective.
Hmmm thats a lot of tanks...a hell of a lot and there is a lot of terrain, my AT should be able to hurt them but I need to get LOS first.
And the race is off, I managed to land the 155's in the middle of that...nine tanks under the template, killed one and like a chump I left my AOP in range and site of the flack 88's, needless to say I no longer had an AOP.
I start running left, you can see the TD scouts there, on their recce move they all bogged in the wood, then only the jeep freed it's self only to bog again. *face palm*
The tank swarm heads to the objective as my recce platoon is almost there. Just for note I managed to get a ToT combine barrage against those tanks as they where bunched up on the hill, managed to bail one...
I decloak the TD's and start dragging AT guns across to try and stem the wave of tanks.
The brave scout platoon stands between the objective and the swarm of tanks.
I manage to delay them just long enough to get the infantry platoon dug in at the objective with the AT guns in the woods behind.
The game ended 15-6 to me, mostly thanks to the snow table and hills forcing the tanks to go the long way rather than any major tactical genius on my half. The artillery was in the bad books by the end of the game.
Conclusion and stuff wot I learned
So I ended up 8th out of 78 players. For my first major FOW tournament I would say I am well chuffed with that.
On a rules side I need to make sure and get a good understanding of how my opponent plays hills. We tend to play them true line of site but I think I encountered about three other ways people play them this weekend so I need to get good clarification at the start of the game.
I also need to go read the US artillery special rules, I was playing a mish mash of this edition and last edition.
On a tactics side I need to work out how to win fair fights, I have yet to win one with this list. I always make a good shove on my opponents objective but all that does is encourage them to pull back and give up on mine.
Starting deployment I am going to try having the 105's on rather than the 155's as looking back most games I would benefit more from having smoke on from turn 1.
Once I get my current projects done I will go back and play around with the list, maybe get a second source of smoke or some tanks to help in the missions I have to attack.
That event it's self was fantastic, some lovely armies and the terrain was spectacular. I will do a photo dump below of some of the tables and armies.
