Late War Tournament at Common Ground Games

A new home for Flames of War tournaments in Scotland

Another early morning this week, but this time we're not going as far as last time. We're off to the fantastic venue of Common Ground Games in Stirling. Readers who have been for a little while will remember the couple of prior visits we've had to CGG. We've always been made to feel the most welcome you can be, and never had a bad experience.

 The owner and proprietor, Steve Fettes,  was kind enough to offer the Flames of War tournament scene a home after it was announced that Worlds at War, our previous home for many a year, was closing and would not be hosting the tournaments any more.

Out with the old in with the old?

 For our first tournament we decided the old mantra of; 'If it isn't broke, don't fix it' was suitably apt. We decided the usual 1750pts, Late War Era was a good jumping off point with the scope to try other eras and points value in the future.

 A ten a.m. start time seemed to suit most, and the 15th of November, the week after Targe was chosen to be the day. And of course, at ten in the morning yesterday, we got going with our first Flames of War tournament at our new home.

Forces, Lists and the like

Six brave players signed up to the tournament, and what follows is their list choices and a couple of pictures of some of their forces. Some declined for the reason of unfinished painting. First up, the Allies:

What's better than Chaffees? Reluctant Chaffees!

First up is Norman MacLean, and his Reluctant Veteran Light Tank Company from Bridge at Remagen. A dozen little Chaffees, and some Sherman support.

Motostrelkovy, a more pronounceable Soviet force for once

Next up is Greg Fyfe's Motostrelkovy from Desperate Measures. Combining SU-100s, IS-2s and a smattering of T-34s as an armoured arm of some Confident Trained Soviet infantry.

Lastly for the allies is Alistair Grant, who was fielding a Tankovy Batalon from Desperate Measures. A lot of tanks in the form of 76's, 85's, ISU-152s and a trio of SU-85Ms. Due to not being painted, Alistair declined a force photo.

And now for the Axis. Theee German forcesof varying composition and skill.

Many, many Panzers, and a very nicely painted force

 First for the Axis forces is Chris Walsh, a regular at Common Ground Games, fielding a Hermann Goering Panzerkompanie from Fortress Italy, with StuH 42's in support, and the only player to field an aircraft. Almost everyone else fielded AA.

Second player for the Axis was Laurence Kettle, fielding Feldherrnhalle Reluctant Trained Panthers   from the Blood, Guts & Glory book. I didn't manage to snap his force fully, but a few pictures later on should showcase his lovely Cats.

And lastly, Robert McLennan, a first-time tournament player coming along to be broken into the scene. He fielded a standard Grenadierkompanie from the V3 forces book, but given the simplicity of his force, he did rather well as you will soon see.

Round One, No Retreat

 Since we had a perfect balance of Axis to Allied players, we also set a Red vs Blue competition in addition to the usual overall winner.

 First mission rolled was No Retreat, and the match-ups made. 

• Norman's Light Tanks faced Chris' Panzerkompanie on Table 1
• Greg's Motostrelkovy was to be Robert's first tournament opponent on Table 2
• Alistair's Tankovy would be assaulting Laurence's Reluctant Panthers

The players set up for Round One

 Unfortunately for newcomer Robert, Greg was unforgiving, rolling over his defences in the first few turns. Robert's set up lacking Anti-tank support, which against a force containing IS-2s and T-34s was a bad move. Which, more disappointingly for Robert would have been a bit more wary of advancing if he'd started his Tigers on the table. So a very quick victory for the Allies there.

 Norman and Chris had a closer game, with Chris' air support managing to knock out two of his Sherman 76s in the first turn. But, he was unable to capitalise, as Norman's reinforcements brought on an entire platoon of the up-gunned tanks, and soon the Panzer-wave was brought to a halt, short of the objectives.

One by one the Panzers and the StuH's burst into flames, unable to push the little Chaffees off the objective

With the allies two games up, it fell to Laurence to salvage some pride for the Axis in the first round. Alistair's tank rush and encirclement tactic didn't quite pay off, and soon the table was covered in smouldering wrecks of burnt-out T-34s. But not before Alistair knocked off a few platoons,

Results from Round One:

• Norman 5 - 2 Chris
• Greg 6 - 1 Robert
• Alistair 3 - 4 Laurence
• Allies 14 - 7 Axis

Lunchtime!

 We broke for lunch after the first game, and many of us opted for the 'famous' Double-pig toastie from Common Ground's kitchen. Bacon, Cheese and Ham. A filling meal that hit the spot as we all chatted about the nonsense that went down in the first turn. The 'what-ifs' and 'should-haves' out the way, we rolled up the next mission.

Round Two, Dust Up (groans ensue)

 There was a bit of an audible groan as Dust Up was rolled to be the second mission. It's not that people dislike the mission, it just tends to go either really well, or really badly for those involved, and that was the case as you will soon see.

• Greg was drawn against Laurence
• Alistair faced Chris
• Norman took on newcomer Robert

Greg measures out deployment facing down Laurence's beautiful Panthers

 The thing about Dust Up, is the delayed reserves can very quickly put you in a very bad position. All it takes is for a few turns of not getting any and your opponent can roll right over you. Which is what Alistair discovered as his game with Chris was finished before reserves were rolled for. The Panzers rolling into the best positions over the burning husks of T-34s.

On table three, Norman and Robert were squaring off, the Tigers this time starting on the table, and giving the little Chaffees something to think about. across the middle line, Robert had set his PaK 40s too, meaning Norman's reinforcements would have to scoot as fast as they could right across the German lines to safety. Thankfully, the powerful engine of the Chaffees allowed this, but had they been anything else, a nasty surprise in the form of a 7.5cm shell would have followed. Eventually, the players decided that neither could take an opposing objective, and the game ended a draw, with Robert destroying more platooons to take the game 3-2.

The M4A3's find themselves in a bad spot as the Tigers range in

Greg and Laurence were still at it when time was called. However, with Greg having gone first, it was down to Laurence to grab an objective and force the win. Which was done in expert style. Greg's tank hunters were picked off by Panthers, and his dug in infantry in a forest pinned and assaulted, clearing his force off both objectives in a single turn, and leaving him far beyond even contesting one of them to prolong the game. The most galling part, was that he didn't even manage to take a platoon.

 A resounding round for the Axis, with the Allies taking a beating on all three tables.

Greg's IS feels the wrath of a Panther barrage in the little town

Results from Round One:

• Greg 1 - 6 Laurence
• Alistair 1 - 6 Chris
• Norman 2 - 3 Robert
• Allies 4 - 15 Axis

Current Red / Blue standing: Allies: 18 - 22 Axis

Round Three, Breakthrough

 Less moans about this one being rolled, but still a bit of trepidation with the defended spread thinly across the diagonal of the table and the attacker coming right at them. I don't know how we managed it, but every player played on each table once. And so, the final games came down to;

• Norman's Light Tanks faced the hulks of Laurence's Panthers
• Alistair took on Robert for the battle of last place
• Greg was against Chris, T-34 on Panzer IV

Norman's Chaffees decide that surviving is better than a blaze of glory

The games were a lot closer in the last round, with no-one really being soundly beaten as in previous rounds. First game to finish up was Greg and Chris, with Greg's dice-luck costing him the game. A few bad early losses from his T-34s and his infantry giving him a bit of a challenge mid-game. Finally though, it came down to not being able to knock out a Panzer with an SU-100 shot. The firepower test coming up short, meaning that the game ended a 5-2 instead of a 3-4.

Robert and Alistair finished up next, with the first move of the game on Alistair's turn being an incredibly bad one. Trying to assault two 88's, with additional crew, without pinning them down first led to his assault faltering, and the follow up from the 88's spelling the end of the T-34 85 company. The game flowed back and forth for a while, with Robert's Tigers picking at the Assault Guns in the village, before finally getting the better of them. But alas, it wasn't enough as an objective was left open for the Soviets to roll onto to steal the game after a last ditch assault from the Grenadiers on some T-34s failed.

Who won this face-off? The Tigers, eventually

Finally, it was down to Laurence and Norman on the middle table. The Panthers had been picked apart slowly by fire from the 76s and the Easy Eights. It came down to the last turn. Laurence was on an objective, which would have gone live at the start of his next turn, winning him the game. However, the choice of Reluctant and Trained proved to be the deciding factor in the battle, as in Norman's turn, platoon after platoon was picked off, but only just, and finally a Company morale check was forced, with the 2iC not being able to hold the company together, the Germans quit the field, leaving the Objectives.

The Panthers advance on the Chaffees hiding in 'Not-La-Haye-Sainte'

And so the last round ended thus:

• Norman 6 - 1 Laurence
• Alistair 4 - 3 Robert
• Greg 2 - 5 Chris
• Allies 12 - 9 Axis

The end, the results

 So, after three thrilling rounds of games,we had our final standings and of course our result for the Red / Blue face-offs.

1. Norman Maclean - 13pts*
2. Chris Walsh - 13pts*
3. Laurence Kettle - 11pts
4. Greg Fyfe - 9pts
5. Alistair Grant - 8pts
6. Robert McLennan - 7pts

* - Norman wins by virtue of beating Chris in their head-to-head game

And of course the final result for Allies vs Axis

Allies - 30pts
Axis - 31pts

The Axis tip it by a point overall, mainly due to their round two results. 

Common Ground Games

I'd like to thank all the players for coming out and making this first tournament a success. But, I would like to offer special thanks to Steve at Common Ground for giving us a new home when we needed one, and for his wonderful hospitality. We will definitely be back for more tournaments in the not-to-distant future.

 I can only say good things about Common Ground, they are a fantastic gaming venue, supporting a variety of systems, and with good transport links from anywhere in Scotland and the North of England, they're well worth checking out.

Find Common Ground Games on Facebook!

That's all for now guys, but stay tuned because in December, we have Mechanised Aces coming up, and I hear tell of another of the Hoff's relatives will be taking charge of a certain German army.

I'll leave you with some of the other images from the day:

Targe 2014, Kirriemuir Wargames Society

 Off to Kirriemuir in Angus

 At quarter to six on a dreary Scottish Saturday morning, I pulled myself out of bed and dressed to meet up with my good friend Gordon. We were off to run a participation table at Targe. Targe is the Wargames Show for the Kirriemuir Wargames Society on the East Coast of Scotland, near the town of Forfar. It was a two hour drive, but thankfully as we set out from our rendezvous point, the weather cleared and the journey up was rather quite pleasant.

Two hours of lovely Scottish countryside between us and our destination

Two hours later, and we were there at Webster's High School in Kirriemuir, the venue for the day. It was already bustling with other clubs and traders ready to start their day.

 Of course the day couldn't start without a bacon roll and a cup of coffee.

Flames of Tanks

 Flames of Tanks is becoming one of my favourite little mini-games to play using the Flames of War rules and Battlefront miniatures. Quick, easy and so much fun to play, it's based off the highly successful free-to-play online game 'World of Tanks'. The difference is that the rules have been simplified, everyone starts with the same statistics block and the only difference is the class of tank you have. Light tanks are faster, but can't carry as many upgrades, while the Heavy tanks are slowest, but can be upgraded the most. And of course, the middle ground is the medium tanks that go the usual 12" a turn, and can carry the middling amount of upgrades.

 The rules for the game can be found on the Flames of War website, via the link below.

Flames of Tanks (right-click and select 'save as')

Flames of Tanks can be played with as few as one tank a side, or as many as ten players!

Grudge Matches abound!

 Throughout the day, we had just over a dozen participants in our games of Flames of Tanks. Table size limiting the amount of players we could have at the same time. The majority of matches were brother against brother, or father against son, and a few friend versus friend. Making the games a little more personal add to the excitement as you try to outwit your closest friends, or take great pride in seeing your brother's tank go up in flames.

 Our first game of the day was two friend facing off against each other, with another player and Gordon taking a side to even the numbers up.

The table was set up simply, with a central focal point, and plenty of scenery for tanks to hide behind

The picture above shows them in action, with the Axis side electing to take a Panzer IV and a Toldi II light tank. On the other side you can see the plastic T-34 and the Sherman V from the Open Fire set being put to good use by the Allies. The Toldi commander was brave, reckless but had the luck of the Gods on his side as he drove his little tank around, firing off shots at the larger, more intimidating opponents. With each kill, players receive upgrades to their tanks; these can be +AT, + Armour, +Range or an augmentation to give them a special ability such as Stormtroopers or the equivalent of Indirect Fire, called Advanced Optics.

After much to-ing and fro-ing, the Axis came out on top, and the Ace badge awarded to the Toldi commander for managing to knock out both enemy tanks in the last turn of the game. The 'extra man' was Andy, who had been looking at the Open Fire set, but undecided on it, and by the praise he was giving the game at the end, I'm sure he's now going to go invest in a set, and that'll be the first step into Flames of War for him.

Shh, I know it's not the Tank Aces badge, but players were grateful to be awarded it any way

 

Daniel's tank served him well, winning him the match and an Ace badge

 One of the most fun games we had all day was a grudge match between two brothers; Matthew and Daniel. The latter had just bought a toy tank from one of the stalls in the hall and wanted to use it. And who was I to stop him?
 Overseen by their father, the two took to the game with great enthusiasm, with friendly taunting from both sides, drama, emotion and the dice doing what dice do (i.e. not rolling the numbers you want them to), the two fought a very close battle over the middle of the table, with kills being exchanged and the objective changing hands a few times until finally Daniel emerged the winner by holding the objective for a count of six.

Daniel (in the GAP hoody) taking his victory with poise and grace... of course not. And a rare picture of yours truly.

The final match of note for the day was between the two brothers Angus and Sam, who have always visited on G3's games whenever we tour the shows, much like Daniel and Matthew in the previous match. The two went through by far the most brutal slog of the day, with neither really managing to get ground on the objective until Sam's dice luck started to fail him. Below is a picture of the main objective after a couple of turns, just to show you how devastating the fire was in the first few exchanges.

In the middle of the wreckage, a tiny FT-17, that almost knocked out the mighty Panther

 With the middle of the table filled with burning tanks, and both players running low on replacements, it came down to ticking up points on the objective. And with Angus sneaking it by  6-5, he secured himself the victory and an Ace badge.

A final few words and pictures

 Flames of Tanks is a fun little game that can be set up and played in half an hour, if you're burnt out from full games, or if you're just wanting a little something to fill some time, and I can think of nothing better.
 In the run-up to this event, I've added some strange tanks to my collection, with some from Armies I don't even collect, but it has given me a chance to try out some painting techniques and have a go at some camouflage schemes that are a little different (The odd green, tan and brown of the French?).

 Stay tuned because next month, I'm starting up another Aces campaign to continue on from the popular Tank and Infantry ones run in the past. This time it's Mechanised Aces, and the players are getting their half-tacks all spruced up in preparation. What will I take? I'm actually looking at armoured cars, just for a little variety.
 Thank you very much for reading, and I'll leave you with a few choice pictures from the day.

 

 

Flames of Tanks Day at Common Ground Games

 Back to Stirling we go

 It's been a while since I was last over in Stirling, and Common Ground Games, but I'd been chatting with Steve, the manager, for a few months about getting some sort of event run for them. Flames of War had been taking off and proven to be extremely popular since I first wandered over last year with fellow Ranger Jason Brown. The Open Fire Demo Day had been a small success, with a few people dropping in and out of the games; Not as many as we'd hoped, but the interest was there.

The familiar and expansive gaming room of Common Ground Games

 Jason was absent this time around, so I enlisted the help of fellow Flames of War player Gordon. Gordon has been playing just over a year now, participating in both the Tank and Infantry Aces campaigns that I've run at my home club, and has by far been the most enthusiastic about it.

Flames of Tanks, a whole new world

 Well, probably not a whole new world, but the rule set we were running on the day was the well received 'Flames of Tanks' mini-game. This rules set allows players to emulate the famous and popular 'World of Tanks' game for PC and Xbox. I myself am a veteran of the game, clocking up many hours toddling about in some sort of armoured behemoth, or scooting around the map in a nippy little scout tank.

A great game,and great inspiration

 For those who have never heard of WoT (To give it it's known abbreviation), or have heard of it, but never experienced it; World of Tanks is a team based "shoot-em-up" with a difference. In most games of that type, you control a soldier armed with a variety of weapons and are put with other players to achieve objectives and rack up 'kills'. World of Tanks though, you command the crew of a single tank. Everything from the tiny little Panzer II C, all the way up to the imposing, but never actually used 'Maus'. World of Tanks allows players to experience the joys of driving around numerous maps, firing off shots at other tanks, while contesting objectives, and all the while avoiding becoming a messy pile smouldering metal. The game is usually 15 on 15, and is tiered so that players are not usually put into matches out of their depth.

A selection of low to mid-tier tanks head out, with recognisable tanks

 World of Tanks is a free to play game available on Wargaming.net. I advise picking it up if you find yourself itching for a bit of tank on tank.

 How does this link into Flames of War?

 It's very simple; the rules set we're using allows players to experience (in a way) World of Tanks, using the Flames of War rules and models. Players take it in turns to move and shoot with their one and only tank, gaining experience with each kill and objective captured. The game is quick to pick up, can be played in a very short amount of time, allowing many 'rounds' to be played, and best of all, newer players can easily borrow a model tank to use to get into the game and maybe inspiring them to buy one of their own to use at some point in the future.

The table is set up like any other Flames of War battlefield

 The table was set up with numerous points of interest; The Bastogne Church providing the centrepiece of the table along with a few fields, buildings and the usual roads. With the table set up and the tanks ready to go, all we needed were the players. So, we sat back and waited.

What happened?

 Through no fault of Steve, his advertising through word of mouth, facebook event post and general prodding of regular players, we got our lowest turnout for any event ever... one lone soul. To give our player, Kyle, his due he was fantastic, he got into it, the competition he gave Gordon (Who volunteered to be his opponent) led to the games being memorable, competitive and most importantly, fun.

The Tiger objective is hotly fought over between a Hornisse and a Sherman

Round One: Capture the Flag

 Kyle opted for the Axis, leaving Gordon with the allies. I gave them both a light tank, a medium tank and a heavy tank. This led to my first deviation from the main rules. In the main rules all tanks have the same weapon, armour, only the speed and the space for upgrades changes. I elected to reduce the armour of the light tanks by 1 all over, and the heavy tanks gaining one, meaning that the rewards for killing each type mirrored the difficulty in doing so. So, what did the players pick to represent each type?

Kyle: Nimrod AA (light), Hornisse (Medium), King Tiger (Heavy)
Gordon: Stuart M5A1 (Light), Sherman M4A1 (Medium), Challenger (Heavy)

 Now, before some of you start narking on about these tanks not being of the designated type, allow me just to remind you that this is a fun game, and if they wanted to use the Stuart as a heavy, I'd have rolled my eyes, but allowed them to do so. It's all for laughs any way.

An M10C protects the Sherman objective

 A second deviation to the rules happened here; instead of going round players in order i.e. 1, 2, 3... Instead the tokens were flipped face down. Initiative was then rolled, and the winner would have one of his tokens flipped and allowed to activate that tank. This added a little strategy to the game, as you could not plan which tank would go when, and led to some coy moves as tanks were hidden or offered as bait.

 The game rumbled on, with exchanges bailing out tanks and objectives ticking over. Each time a tank was knocked out, a little marker was left where it was destroyed, and the tank itself replaced with another, meaning no tank was put on twice.

A 'lend-lease' (from Steve) Sherman closes in on the Cromwell objective, but to no avail

 By the time I called sudden death, the Axis held two objectives, the allies one. Giving the victory to Kyle.

Round Two: Team Deathmatch

 Next round was more like a normal game of World of Tanks, albeit on a smaller scale. Each player was given command of six tanks, two of each category and the spawn points moved to the short table edges. Sudden Death was implemented from the start, so it was a straight forward 'Scrapyard' mission.

 Upgrades earned in the last round were carried over, this led to a humorous occurrence, Kyle's Nimrod AA, the tank representing his light choice had managed to get the 'Searchlight' Upgrade, meaning it ignored concealment. The nippy little tank had become his sniper and performed admirably, sniping off a few tanks itself. Alas, the light tank's upgrade slots are limited, and soon it was carrying more spare equipment than it had use for.

 Once again Kyle came out on top, bringing pride to the Axis as only his tanks remained on the table at the end of the round.

Round Three: Clash of the Titans

 This final round, I allowed each player to take three tanks, and outfit them with any and all equipment they had garnered during the last two rounds, giving each player their 'Hero' tanks. 

Gordon elected for the 'All or Nothing' approach, his Challenger being given all the armour upgrades, his Churchill (Which he was using as a medium, much to my ire) being given a balance of armour, AT and range. Finally, his M10C was given all of the AT upgrades her could, making it a sniper.

Kyle on the other hand went more balanced, mixing skills, AT, Armour and Range amongst his three tanks (Kingtiger, Panther and Nimrod).

Gordon's Challenger sets its sights on the Panther, but does less than nothing

 The balanced approach worked out for the best as Gordon's tank-killing M10 managed to bog itself on a hedge twice in a row before getting annihilated by the Konigstiger. The Churchill faring no better as it too bit the dust, leaving the Challenger to be swamped by the remainders of Kyles forces.

The Konigstiger cares not for the burning Churchill

 The End

 That was the day that was, despite the low turnout, both players thoroughly enjoyed themselves, and I have a game to take to the shows this year. A quick, easy and fun little game.
 I would highly recommend Flames of Tanks to break up your gaming a little bit. It's something different, while still retaining the core experiences of Flames of War.

Find out more about Flames of Tanks here

 Stay tuned as the convention season gets under way and I give the new Mechanised Aces rules a go at the club.

General's Day at Knightly Gaming

A smashing time, smashing tanks (and infantry)

Once again, I found myself out in the quaint town of Lanark to visit the ever welcoming 'Knightly Gaming', run by Brett Knight. The last time I was down was for his opening back in late September.
This time around the plan was to have a 'General's Day'. A day where novice (or experienced) players of Flames of War could come down and have a few games to hammer out some of the rules with lower points cost and experience playing a different opponent than usual.

The shiny new sign that went up a week after opening

Let the games begin

I rolled into the shop around half-past nine with my good friend Iain; who was acting as driver and an extra player today. With two tables set up and the points being a lower value, we were looking to get a good few games in over the course of the day.

With one of the tables set up as a Soviet style town, I got to work setting out the other in a Western European style, using a good whack of Gale Force Nine terrain. A few bocages, a destroyed church and a smattering of houses; the table was then ready to go.

A good looking table, ready for the day's battles

In addition to Iain bringing his German Grenadier Kompanie, we also had on the day; Keni with his British rifles, Martin fielding German Panzers, Murray with American Paratroopers, Tommy with Russian Tankovy and James with the 51st Highland Division Rifle Company.

The original idea was to have players show up and have ready-made armies for them to use, but time constraints alas made this an idea for the future. Instead, players were to make an army of 750pts to use, and led to some interesting ideas. One such idea was Keni taking the bare minimum rifle platoons, command and... 3 Churchill Crocodiles.

Keni's Crocodiles, a daunting prospect with their armour and flamethrowers.

The first games were set up, with Tommy and Martin being regular opponents, instead we split them, letting Martin face the daunting prospect of the Crocs, while Tommy's Tankovy Batalion faced off against James' Reluctant Veteran Highlanders.

Martin was apprehensive about the Crocodiles after finding out that against the front armour, his Panzer IVs could do absolutely nothing. But, after giving him some encouragement and advice about getting round the sides of the lumbering behemoths, he felt a little more confident about the idea, even if sometimes his dice rolls let him down.

A lucky shot from the Churchill's 75mm gun ends one of the Panzers

The game was a decent one though, with both players having a run of luck which came to a shuddering halt. Eventually, the armour of the Crocs held out against the Panzers. It was a closer game than the result made it look though, with Martin's long, looping flank manoeuvre taking a large chunk of his tanks out of the game for a while. But, that's what the day was all about; learning some tactics, seeing what worked and what didn't.  

 Over on the other table, it looked to be a one sided affair from the set-up. But, as they say, looks can be deceiving. Tommy advanced his Soviet T-34s (Some looking a little Sherman-ish, towards James' dug in Brits. I didn't watch the majority of the game, as I was helping Keni and Martin with their game, but on the occasions that I took a walk over to the other table, it seemed the game was an interesting one. 

A formidable line of Brits await the Russian armour

A few early exchanges let to some burning armour left strewn across the cornfield, while the few remaining tanks wheeled round the house after dealing with the couple of Shermans James had as support; the fearsome 85mm guns on the T-34s making a mockery of the front armour.

"Dress up tank as Emcha, confuse opponent. Nothing can go wrong"

As Keni and Martin's game wrapped up, I managed to catch the end of the game between Tommy and James. The 6-pdrs doing their bit to slow the advance of the few remaining Soviet tanks. for the most part, both knew the rules fine, there were just a few to hammer out, and a couple of reminders about little things such as 'Cautious, Not Stupid' for the Highlanders. It was the Brits who won the day, as the last Russian tank went up in smoke.

The Soviets make a final push round the flanks, but it is to no avail as the last tank goes up

It was at this point we broke for lunch, and some lovely fish (or in my case sausage) and chips.

 Second half and a few more games

SIG33 and PaK40 face down the Crocs

 The afternoon began, and games were set up. This time, Murray had arrived with his American Paratroopers, and Iain set out his German Grenadiers to play Martin and Keni respectively. Once again, the muttering about dealing with the Crocs arose and the advice of  'Don't panic' levied out.

 I stuck mostly to the table with Iain and Keni, offering advice to the more novice players, while still staying on hand to answer questions from the other game.

 The game began and Iain's question about dealing with the Crocs was answered for now, with his SIG33's landing a bombardment onto them and taking one out of action immediately. A small victory, but one that gave him a little confidence for now. Meanwhile, on the other end of the table, some German Grenadiers and some British Riflemen sat staring at each other, a forest for the Brits and a bocage line for the Germans, and a gap of 7" meaning neither wanted to risk moving into the open to engage for fear of being ripped to shreds by the other's MG fire.

 The Crocs then showed what they can do when they get close, by clearing out the SIG33s and knocking a few teams out of the Grenadier platoon hiding in the nearby forest.  A bad move, since the PaK40s were left in action, and this was soon to be the death knell for the Churchills.

The Churchills pick their targets and inflict some damage on the Germans

Iain moved his PaKs round the building and engaged the 'weaker' side armour of the Crocs. The shots were telling though as both of the mighty machines succumbed to 75mm rounds. Withholding the usual 'I told you so', the game continued, with the British Infantry advancing from house to house down the road towards the German positions.

 Their shots were rattling off the gun shields of the PaKs as they moved to engage them. The plucky Grenadiers who had survived the horror of the flame tanks picked themselves up and advanced out of the forest to help the entrenched guns, a move that ultimately proved to be the game changer.

The Grenadiers await the advance of the Churchills

 With the Grenadiers out in the open, Keni changed targets, and whittled down the hapless Grenadiers, ultimately forcing Iain into a platoon, then a company morale check, resulting in the game going to Keni. Iain definitely learnt some lessons about dealing with heavy tanks, and the importance of keeping platoons safe. I also think that Keni learned that while something as big and impressive as a Churchill Crocodile can add some punch to a force, it can lead to a lot of points being sunk into a tiny part of your overall force.

A sound defensive line by the Germans was picked apart by some brave Brits

 Once again, I only caught the last turn or two of the other battle, but the dug-in Yanks were pipped to the post by some few inches as the objective was taken from them. The wrecks of the Panzers on the table though was testament to their resilience and a reminder that Infantry don't bounce off armour.

The Paratroopers leave the Panzers smouldering husks

 With both final games wrapped up, we decided to call it a day. I'm sure if it were not for travel time and tiredness setting in, we would have been able to get a lot more played. With players quite hyped about the prospect of something similar being done soon, I have no doubt that Knightly Gaming will be accommodating another day of Flames of War soon, and perhaps the word will spread and the attendee numbers will continue to rise.

 A big thank you to Brett for allowing the games to be run, and with all the set-up he did for it. Thanks to Martin, Tommy, Keni, James, Murray and Iain for attending and having some memorable games. I'm sure when this comes round again, we'll be seeing them down; Especially with Martin taking advantage of the '3 for 2' offer Battlefront have at the moment, and almost clearing Brett out of German boxes.

All that remains is for me to put up a few more pictures of the day and to sign off for now.

Murray (left) and Martin (right) engage on the Eastern Table

Iain (left) and Keni (right) battle it out on the Western table