Battle Report: US Tank Destroyers vs. Panzers

Recently I got in a 1750 LW game with a very tough, probably cheesy list that I have been toying with. Although I like 1650 as the new official LW points level, there is a big tournament coming up in July that will be using 1750. The last time I attended a tournament in this area the locals were heavy on both German forces with big cats and on allied lists with Naval Gunfire Support (NGFS) [Editor's Note: Battlefront has now released changes to NGFS]. Although I'd like to see NGFS banned there hasn't been any indication that it will at this tournament.

Therefore I have been fine-tuning a Tank Destroyer (TD) list. TD's are good for many reasons and can take down a variety of opponents, but are particularly effective against slow-moving heavies. Their security sections can also keep them safe from NGFS, since killing the security section doesn't automatically result in the death of the unit. My opponent regularly plays German panzers, and despite my warnings about what list I'd be playing with he brought a tank-heavy force. We rolled Dust-Up for the mission, which would be a good test for my list, as I'll explain below.

Battle Report: HG Panzergrenadiers vs. Nisei

I have been hoping to play an Italy-themed game for weeks now, given the release of the stunning Italy campaign compilation books. These are gorgeous books, with excellently themed and balanced lists. The problem was that in my gaming group everyone has been absorbed in a non-themed campaign. Luckily one of my weekly opponents wanted a break from the campaign as well, and was down to try the Nisei infantry list. For my part I couldn't wait to give my HG Panzergrenadier list a chance to show what they're made of.

This little jerk has taken up a lot of hobby time

We set up the table with what terrain was available. This was the second game to be hosted at my apartment, and so in preparation I completed two hills, made some woods bases, re-configured my green trees, and ordered the "Small Autumn Wood" tree set from Battlefront/GF9. We rolled randomly for mission and got Pincer, with my HG Panzergrens attacking. This is exactly the type of situation I wanted to test out with them! Little did I know that this would become one of my all-time favorite Flames of War games.

February Late-War Tournament Report

Recently my FLGS, Brothers Grim Games and Hobbies, hosted a 1650 LW tournament, with no list restrictions. Having committed to trying Trained troops for a while I decided to run either US 7th Armored out of BG&G (a total cheese list) or Kampfgruppe Pieper, depending on whether we needed to balance Axis and Allied forces. Ultimately I ended up running the 7th Armored, and was soon to find out why many top players call it the best armored list in the game.

Battle Report: US 7th Armored vs. Panzers to the Meuse

I was finally able to play a game! For about three weeks the weather and other scheduling problems have wreaked havoc with my ability to get in some table time. For the next couple of months one of my gaming goals is to play more games with Trained units. Searching around on the intertubes I see a lot of the top players doing very well with Trained armies, and I have never been able to find success with them. My theory is that if I learn how to use them well then I'll eventually have more tools to work with because of the points savings.

And so I set out to try my luck with what is considered one of the top Trained lists in the game: US 7th Armored led by the big man himself, General Patton. Squaring off against me would be a tough opponent in the form of another auto-attack list: Panzers to the Meuse. We rolled randomly for mission and got Hasty Attack. then we had to roll-off for attacker, and I suddenly found myself on the defensive (gulp!). I was in for a tough fight.

The table. I would be defending the nearest long table edge

Tournament Report from Dec. 8th

Recently I had my first experienced as a Tournament Organizer, due to a last-minute family obligation on the part of our normal TO. I was a little disappointed since I had been hoping to play in the tournament, although as it turned out I was still able to throw some dice thanks to an odd number of participants. I'm just going to do a quick recap of each of my games, a summary of the winners podium, followed by a picture dump, and round out with a short list of things I'd like to try the next time I'm a TO.

BatRep: German Panzers vs. Brits in Counterattack

Hi everyone, I know it has been a while since my last post but work and vacation have left little time for our great hobby. Luckily I was able to get in a game the other night against my previous opponent, who was looking for a rematch after having me on the ropes in our last battle. We played a 1650 Late-War game, and I wanted to really try and challenge my army. Since my opponent has Crocs he becomes auto-attack, which can really knock my army off balance in missions with Mobile Reserves, or missions with screwy deployment zones. So, we decided to limit our options to Surrounded, Cauldron, or Counterattack (a highlight reel of most players' least favorite missions).

We rolled for Counterattack, which was fine by me since a similar list really struggled for me in this mission at a recent tournament. Just FYI, my iPhone camera ended up taking a slew of blurry pictures so there may be times in this report where words have to take the place of pictures (never ideal for batreps), so I apologize in advance.

Batrep: 1650 LW German Panzers vs. Brits

Recently I got in a very close game against one of my regular opponents. Unlike many of my battle reports where I go into detail on every move, I thought I'd try and let the pics do most of the talking, and save the blathering for the "lessons learned" section.

We rolled randomly for mission and got No Retreat. With Crocs gaining popularity among British players in the store I am starting to get used to being on the defensive, despite being a tank company. But let's be honest, this fits in with history a little bit since the Germans were almost continually on the defensive in the Late War period. The game was fun and came down to the wire, and I learned several lessons that will serve me well in the future.

Battle Report: LW US Tanks vs. SS-Panzergrens

Earlier this year I used the winnings from a tournament to get Easy-8's and Jumbo's, because the models and the lists for LW American tanks are simply awesome. The models were a blast to put together and paint up, and remain some of the finest examples of my airbrush weathering technique. Unfortunately, in the entire time since I have had them I have been able to get in all of one game with them. Well, I wanted to change that, and so decided to go full-cheese and run a 1650-point variation on Wilcox's crotch-stomping American Armor list.

My opponent, who is participating in the current league at Brothers Grim Games and Hobbies, wanted to try out some Fearless Veteran Germans. With armies in tow we rolled for mission and got Breakthrough, which is becoming one of my favorite missions.

The board, before deployment

Battle Report: US TD's vs. British Assault Company

I wanted to give my Germans a little break from the tabletop and do something fun with my Americans. The Hellcat is my favorite vehicle of World War Two, and so I set out to design a Hellcat TD list from Blood, Guts, and Glory that didn't include Patton. Frankly, I can see an advantage to being able to defend part of the time, as a Hellcat company can be pretty fragile on the attack.

My opponent was very sporting and went along with my request to play Blind Domination, which seems like an awesome mission that I've never been able to convince anyone to play. We were in for a treat, as this would turn into one of the most entertaining battles we had ever played.

The battlefield

Battle Report: 25. Panergrens vs. American Airborne

As league commissioner for the Brother's Grim Flames of War Escalation League, sometimes I have to sub-in for an opponent who has either dropped from the league or simply can't get enough of his games in. On these occasions I like to experiment with lists I've been thinking about running. For a while now I have been considering the 25. Panzergrenadiers out of Nuts! because of their special equipment. I have grand visions of Sturmtigers demolishing artillery parks, and of flame-throwing Hetzers immolating any units in their path. Recently I got to put the list through its paces against Brandon, who was running American Airborne out of Nuts! Time to throw down!

Table and nearly finished deployment

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

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

Battle Report: Volksgrenadiers vs. British Tanks (Welsh?)

Recently I was able to get in a game playtesting my Volksgrenadiers list. I will be up front with anyone reading this: the game was pretty lame and very short, but I still learned some valuable lessons. So maybe don't pay too much attention to the report itself, but more the lessons at the end.

Tournament Report - LW 1780pts at Brothers Grim

This past weekend I got to play in a 3-round, LW 1780pt tournament at my FLGS, Brothers Grim. We had 12 players show up with a great mix of armies, including a resurgence of Soviet players. The last tournament at Grim we had zero communists on the tables. The day was action-packed for everyone, so let's dive right in!

Battle Report (some pics)

I was able to get in a game with my friend Joe over Columbus Day weekend. Most of the weekend was spent doing a ton of painting and basing (love the Army Painter flower tufts) as I get ready for a few tournaments this month, so it felt good to get the product onto the table. For this game I wanted to test a list that I constructed for the Warstore Weekend's LW tournament, which requires players to choose Italy-themed lists. I thought about taking the SSF for a while, but ultimately I just don't see them being survivable with their trained rating. So I brought a list of Walt Disney's own 3rd Infantry Division (for those who don't know, the emblem for the 3rd I.D. was personally designed by Walt Disney). They would be facing-off against Herman Goering Panzergrenadiers in the Surrounded mission.

3rd I.D. Emblem

Battle Report (with pics)

I was able to get a game in for the first time in about three weeks last night. For most of my FoW "career" I have played Axis, either Finns or Germans.  However, recently I read a book about the US Tank Destroyer forces in WW2, and it totally inspired me to build a TD company out of BGG.  Those guys took on Panthers while basically riding a tin can with a gun on top. Plus, I was looking to play a force that was very different from what I'm used to.  Not large blocs of infantry (Finns); not heavy armor (Germans); but something light and fast (Hellcats).

Now, while I have a blast whenever I get to roll dice and move tanks and army dudes around a table, I definitely don't play to lose. I only get to play sparingly, so anytime I get to roll dice it's to try and refine a list and to get better at the game.

So yesterday I ran my TD list against Brandon, who was running a 101st Airborne list out of TT.  Our tournaments at the store are never Red vs. Blue, so we'll assume that this was a war-game or training exercise.  I have played a couple of games with the TD's before, but definitely haven't gotten the feel for them yet.  I was also trying to use Patton for the first time.  We were playing 1780 points, and the mission was Counterattack. My list:

HQ - 2 M20 scout cars
Patton
4 Hellcats
4 Hellcats
4 Stuarts (vets)
4 Stuarts (vets)
Armored Rifles (vets)
TD Pioneers

He had his HQ (possibly with extra bazookas), two large airborne platoons, glider HMGs, glider 57mm guns, 5 Shermans (CV), a six-gun 105 battery, and priority air.  Brandon was coming off a strong 3rd-place finish at the store's most recent tournament.

My plan was to utilize Patton's spearhead rule to the fullest, make a bee-line toward the uncontested objective, and drop the hammer early in the game while the rest of his foot-slogging force struggled to keep up.  The board:

Just FYI, I use my iPhone for all pics. The open objective is visible in the bottom left quarter.