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.

Rant: Unpainted Models and Proxying Etiquette

Hi everyone, I know it's been a while since I posted on this little blog, which makes it all the more upsetting to me that what has finally motivated me to write is something that is a bit negative. I have still been playing as much as possible, which is a little tougher now that I have a puppy, but I don't feel like my hobby life has been suffering too much. What has affected the blog is something that I have found to be an ever-increasing problem in my club.

I started this blog mainly as a way to catalog and share battle reports. I love reading battle reports and seeing great pictures of models slugging it out on the tabletop. Lately, however, I haven't been able to provide anything like that to the community because of widespread problems with players not using models that make for good battle reports. So today I wanted to discuss my opinions on painting and proxying etiquette.

1485 Mid-War Batrep: Soviet Tanks vs. German Panzergrens

Continuing with my dual goal of playing more Mid-War games while also using non-veteran lists when possible, I was happy to get a game in a few nights ago with a new army. My opponent and I are both gearing up for a MW tournament on March 16th, but I'm also trying a completely new army for me: the Soviets! Yes, I finally took the plunge and have started collecting a communist horde. I found that my motivation stemmed from the models, not competitiveness, which helped me clear that final motivational hurdle. I really don't have the urge to play Soviets in LW at this stage, but in MW they're so...so...funny... Just look at the KV-2:

We had a shortage of objective markers, so the Sturmtigers subbed-in

The list I was running was built around the goal of fielding the KV-2's, which narrows it down to either Motostrelkovy or Mixed Tankovy. And so, in the spirit of adventure, I took the Fearless Conscript Mixed Tankovy into my first battle fielding Soviets.

Quick MW Batrep: Schwere Panzers vs. US Armor

Our next tournament at my FLGS will be 1485 points Mid-War, which most of us haven't had the chance to practice for. Generally we prefer LW at our shop, but Mid-War offers a chance to get back to basics. Frankly, I think the game is easiest to learn in MW because of the lack of special rules (that said, I love LW - I just think that MW is easier on beginners). So a buddy of mine accepted my challenge to a MW game, and brought a list that you'll see at every MW tournament: Schwere Panzers. This list will rarely win the overall prize, but there is always going to be the guy who just wants to bring his big cats to town.

We rolled randomly for mission and got Breakthrough, and I'd have to defend. This was going to be tough. I'm going to keep this report quick and let the pictures do the talking, so don't expect too much tactical analysis.

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.