Battle Report: US Tanks vs. German Grenadiers

My friend, who I have been teaching Flames of War for several weeks now, recently found out that he was going to be moving away for his residency program (Emergency Room doctor). Up until this point we had been playing small games and tutorials, but given that he'd be moving away soon the time had come to remove the training wheels and get a proper game in. At the same time I wanted to test out a US Tank list (if I win a tournament with the BG&G US Tanks I will have won tournaments with each US list from the book - then I'll have to try and win with the German list!).

We decided to just do a simple, Late War 1780 point Free-for-All, and we each learned some valuable lessons along the way.

The table, all direction references will be as if described from the near table edge here

Tactica: Panther

Ah yes, the Panther tank. Aside from the US Tank Destroyers probably no other tank has engendered as much discussion amongst the Flames of War community as the Panther. Lately there are those who have been bemoaning its lack of competitiveness and high price in terms of points. They are right...sort of. The Panther probably is a little over-priced, and is not as competitive as it once was. The exact wrong approach to take, however, is to yell about how the sky is falling and making hyperbolic statements about how Battlefront is the worst company, nay, the worst organization, that has ever existed.

What follows is how I've been using Panthers lately.

Weathering with an Airbrush

Kind of a short article today, but one that details what I think is a breakthrough in my painting development. As many of my readers know (all 4 of you, at most haha) I am a big fan of my airbrush, even if I am still enduring the steep learning curve. But this past weekend I was inspired to take up a challenge that I was very nervous to execute: using the airbrush for weathering tanks!

Basically what they looked like before weathering. Just green with a lighter-green highlight on the edges

List Discussion: 150 Panzerbrigade (aka - the Skorzeny guys)

First, sorry for the sporadic blogging as of late, but I have found Twitter to be a much more economical way to engage with other gamers via the intertubes. That said, blogging still has a role to play for longer discussions, which has brought me back to the keyboard today.

Since the three Battle of the Bulge books were released (BG&G, Devil's Charge, and Nuts!) I have been thrilled with the allied lists but less than enthused with the German lists...with one exception. For some reason  I find the 150 Panzerbrigade to be just cool as ice, with great models and a competent tabletop potential (they aren't a powergamer's dream, but neither are they under-powered).

One of the actual disguised Panthers