Major Fawlkes' Flames of War Blog: Late War Tournament at Common Ground Games (December Edition)

The scene grows, little by little

As per the last tournament over in Stirling, it was another early start this Saturday gone (13th December), This time we're getting more players along, and it was my hope that we'd have ten players (including myself), but alas we had a last minute call-off, and that made us nine. I wasn't too fussed though, as it meant I could concentrate on arranging the games and the other eight guys could get playing.

One of the comments made after the last tournament was the slight lack of 15mm terrain, but this was sorted between Steve of Common Ground and Battlefront, and we were greeted with some lovely additions to the existing terrain.

The forces, and some advancement in painting!

It's always good to see fully painted armies on the fields, but it's also heartening to see progress with people's forces from the last time, and this time round Alistair Grant's Tankovy had colour and his supporting infantry were almost done.

The more colourful T-34s following up the ISU-152's

Next on the Allied side is Greg's very pretty Tankovy Batalon, but this time he's gone for hordes of T-34/76's, which may or may not be a sensible choice, given the armour that the Axis players have at their disposal, but it makes for a very pretty sight on the table.

Greg's Batalon, with the objective marker which always fools people into thinking he has air support

Third player on the Allied side was tournament veteran David Cuthbert, who has featured in the US masters in previous years, and has had armies featured in Wargames Illustrated (Which came as a surprise to him). He fielded an airlanding company, with all the red berets and 6-pdrs.

The mark of an experienced player; a very useful carry box

And finally on the Allied side is Common Ground's home player Chris, Taking a British Rifle company from Road to Rome, with RAM Kangaroos, supporting American M10's. It made for a very interesting force, especially with the American Tank-Hunter Doctrine rule coming into effect.

Some improvised Kangaroos, using the plastic Shermans

And now onto the Axis players; starting with tournament veteran Laurence fielding Otto Carius in his Jadgtiger, accompanied by a mixed force of Volksturm and artillery-firing PaK40s.

Carius and his Jadtiger buddies, very nicely painted by Laurence

To add an interesting force to the mix, Norman swaps sides and fields an Axis Tancuri Medii with T-4s and R-35's. The uncertain Skill and Motivation for a Romanian army making this an unpredictable list to use.

Hoping for high rolls when determining rating on his Tancuri

Robert makes his return with his Grenadiers, using a very similar force from last month. Though his force is unchanged, Robert learned a lot from his last outing, and is hoping to put into practice the lessons he learned, such as; 'Always field the Tigers'. In addition, a 4-gun battery of 15cm make it to the table in a bold move.

We didn't notice until after the picture was taken that the lead Tiger was backwards

And finally, rounding out the Axis team is Callum. This is his first attempt at a tournament and has only had gaming experience against Greg, so with that in mind, he fields a basic German Grenadier Kompanie with Tiger support.

Tigers, StuGs and a Stuka supplement Callum's Grenadiers

And so, with everyone's armies assembled and prepared, we head into Round One, with murmurs of 'No Dust Up'...

Round One, Breakthrough

The last mission of the previous tournament makes a return for the first of this one.

Alistair's Tankovy face off against Robert's Geenadiers
David's Paras choose the mad option and assault Norm's Tancuri at night
Greg gets to break Callum in gently
Chris faces Laurence to round off the matches

The T-34 tank-park gets ready to roll out on the field

My memory of most of the games is sketchy at best, but Greg's T-34s rolled their way over Callum's Grenadiers (So much for gently, eh?),

David's night-attack against Norman's T-4's doesn't quite go as planned as it stalls short of the objective.

The Paras begin to advance under darkness, and a blurry camera

Alistair's T-34's don't get the same fiery reception they got last month as they take the game without a platoon loss.

And finally Chris finds it hard to over-come Laurence who holds on for the win.

The 88s try ranging in on the SU-100s, but eventually succumb

Results from Round One:

Alistair 6 - 1 Robert
David 2 - 5 Norman
Greg 6 - 1 Callum
Chris 2 - 5 Laurence
Allies 16 - 12 Axis

We break for lunch!

The difference between this tournament and last, is that we forewent the prize pool for the winner and have instead included lunch in the entry fee. This means that new players don't feel like they're paying money just to lose, and instead are getting a fully-rounded day out of it.
I have to say that the pulled-pork wrap I had was especially tasty.

Round Two, Hold the Line (aka: Delayed Reserves annoy us all)

As we decided to go for the Swiss tournament rules, but still go for a Red on Blue split, it was very easy to make up the next round of matches. And they were as follows:

Greg's Tankovy in a grudge match against Norm's Romanians
Laurence's Jadgtigers take on Alistair's Cat-Killers
Chris' Brits face-down Robert
Experienced Veteran David faces Newcomer Callum

The intimidating line of Laurence's force (Putting artillery in as PaK40s)

The delayed reserves rule always makes people a little uneasy, given how easily their forces can be over-run by the assaulting army, It doesn't always go badly, as a little bit of reinforcements at the right time can be just what you need.

Regardless, the games went thusly:

Greg's tank-park Tankovy manage to hold onto their seats and not lose a platoon to squeeze a 6-1 win against Norman's T-4's, despite some very heavy shots from the Romanians.

Laurence manages to get the win against Alistair, leaving his SU-100s burning on the hill. It's worth mentioning too, that Alistair managed to forget his infantry, thanks to the bocage.

Nine t-34's behind a church, turns out there were a lot more after ambush

Robert managed to inflict a good few casualties on Chris, with his last turn reinforcements bagging him one more platoon.

Callum got a lesson from David, but it was more of a learning experience for the German player as notes were taken about deployment, fire-arcs, and sometimes doing nothing is better than wasting shots.

The advancing Paras don't make it any easier for the German forces

Round Two Results:

Greg 6 - 1 Norman
Alistair 3 - 4 Laurence
Chris 4 - 3 Robert
David 6 - 1 Callum
Allies 19 - 9 Axis
Allies 35 - 21 Axis

Round Three, Surrounded

Rounding off the day is the old favourite; Surrounded. Interestingly enough, one of the match ups (Greg and Laurence) was pivotal to the overall winner.

Greg plays Laurence for the title of winner
Chris plays one of the shortest games in history against Callum
David takes on Robert
Alistair's T-34s bring another grudge match to Norman's Romanians

An impressive amount of Norman's army spent the last game Trained (except the Veteran R-35s)

Chris' game against Callum was a very short lived affair, and was over by turn two. His Kangaroos rolled up to the hedge, next turn his infantry dismounted, crossed the hedge, pinned the defenders on the objective and then swept them aside in a to-and-fro assault. Unfortunately for Callum, none of his force was anywhere near to even force a contest for the objective. A few lessons were learned, especially the positioning of his Tigers nowhere near an objective. But, we all started somewhere and no doubt once Callum plays a little more, he'll have more luck in the future.

The British Rifles, shortly before vaulting the hedge and assaulting

Norman's Tancuri held off Alistair's Tankovy well, with only the 10.5cm artillery being unearthed by some Breakthrough guns, and I believe one platoon of T-4's risking themselves to keep one of Alistair's platoons in place to be taken out the turn after.

Norman's Pioneers watch the T-34s seconds before they slowly begin to explode one by one

David's Paras fend off Robert's Grenadiers, with some very well placed 75mm counter-battery fire putting paid to Robert's 15cm guns behind a hill. The Tigers didn't last too long either, and were soon left smoking in the middle of a field.

Despite the good position, the 88s were starved for hittable targets

And finally, the important game was Greg and Laurence, with a 4-3 loss the only thing that would leave Greg above Laurence in the standings. I stood and watched the game for a little while at the end, with buckets of dice being poured down on Laurence's dug-in Volksturm and PaK40s. Whether it be unfortunate luck on Greg's side, or just some Divine being intervening, he just couldn't dig up the Reluctant Conscripts from their holes.

And unfortunately, I seem to have not got a picture from that game, my apologies. But in the end, Laurence's forces held on for the win, and one that lead to a draw overall. So, without much ado, here are the final results:

Scores on the doors, or paper, or whatever

Greg 2 - 5 Laurence
Chris 6 - 1 Callum
David 6 - 1 Robert
Alistair 2 - 5 Norman
Allies 16 - 12 Axis
Allies 51 - 33 Axis

A resounding victory for the Allied forces, but what of the over-all standings? Well, here they are too,

David Cuthbert - British Airlanding - 14*
Laurence Kettle - Schwere Panzerjagerkompanie - 14˟
Greg Fyfe - Soviet Tankovy - 14˟
Chris Walsh - British Rifle Company - 12
Norman MacLean - Romanian Tancuri Medii - 11
Alistair Grant - Soviet Tankovy - 11
Robert McLennan - German Grenadiers - 5
Callum McIntosh - German Pionerkompanie - 3

* - David wins due to least number of points conceded

˟- Laurence finishes ahead of Greg by virtue of winning their head-to-head

And that, as they say, is all she wrote. But, I will add in a comment here that Steve was kind enough to donate a token set to both Robert and Callum as a welcome into Flames of War, and to get them encouraged to keep playing and keep improving.

Stay tuned for in the New Year we have; Early Year, Early War!