Desktop Tacticians? Starcraft2 time.

(above) Here is my ultimate BM, I got wiped but my ally was mopping up so I used my remaining one SCV to build this and taunt my enemies to scan it before they died. This is from a while ago. I find its a good title pic for SC2 segment!!


A bunch of the lads have been playing some SC2, and until a copy of retail FRAPS mysteriously finds its way into my email, I'll post pics for now.

21 Panzer Grenadiers done, with funky camo.

(above) the whole unit, done thanks to Flames of Lunch, where I use my stupid hour lounch at work wisely and paint at my cubicle. 4 x U304(f) Halftracks and a full unit of Gepanzerte Panzer Grenadiers. The tan helmets is because they are veterans of North Africa. The weird camo scheme is actually how they were painted, not like the studio painted them in Earth & Steel. Haven't put markings on the halftracks yet since I don;t know how I'm going to highlight/weather them yet.



Next up afterwards: 6 Tigers, 4 StuG 39H's (PaK40 on a Hotchkiss) and 4 Tiger II's

Late War Escalation starts!! AAR 37

(above) Awesome Bocage board by Shawn TerrainGuy Morris.. thanks man, eternal thanks for this board!


So, after a tonne of months playing Mid War, and we finish off with the Skirmish FoW tourney (Ottawa's first FoW tournament), we dive right in to Late War, and as usual we are going to run an Escalation League. In the Video, we started with our old point limit of 600 for tier 1, 1000 for tier 2 and 1500 for tier 3, but the OMG guys are running a LW tourney in October, so we have decided to ramp it up to 750, then 1500.


Below are some shots of Marty 'Joyous Oblivion''s Stuart list vs Ca$h's Cromwell/Challenger list. In the video, as a bit of everything.












Afterwards, we decided to play 2 v 2 with 750 point lists. I asked if we HAD to take 2 combat platoons, or if we could go with just one given that its 750 points. Ca$h said one is fine, so I took an HQ Tiger II and a troop Tiger II. They killed off 4 cromwells, a challenger and 3 ISU-122's. Hells Yeah!

Skirmish 2011 Pictures

Check out our pal Drew and his blog for some great pics of the Skirmish 2011 last weekend:

http://covering-fire.blogspot.com

A Newb with Zee Germans!

I'm very excited about my first post on TableTop Tacticians. Having just recently moved back to the Ottawa area I joined up with the locals in their FoW mid-war tournament at Skirmish last weekend.

With the Skirmish tournament and the Mid-War Escalation League tucked away the boys planned on starting a Late War Escalation League which is the perfect opportunity for me to start my Germans.

Ever since I was 5 years old I remember playing wargames with my Dad. He'd play allied, I'd play the Germans. I liked the Germans because all of their vehicles looked cool. Tanks in micro armour scale were awesome to look at, half tracks were sleek and angular. Good toys to play with.

Fast forward 29 years and I find myself once again looking at half tracks with a kind of quiet wonder.

So it was with this memory in mind that I decided to go with the Late War Gepanzerte

Panzergrenadierkompanie mechanized list from the Fortress Europe book. I love the look of the list because it's a primarily mech-infantry list that looks quick, on paper, and sports a kind of finesse approach to tabletop strategy.

For our first escalation, I think that we're settled on 600 points so I'm putting together my 2 Gepanzerte Panzergrenadier Platoons and the Command Section. LOTS of halftracks and a ton of infantry to dig in. I've opted for some anti-tank support to get rid of those annoying armoured companies that I might come across.

So far I believe my list is going to consist of a Company HQ Platoon with the optional Panzerschreck Team, a full GPZ Platoon (seen above) with a Panzerknacker upgrade and a smaller 4 stand MG GPZ Platoon with the Panzerknacker upgrade. It'll be 600 points on the nose, no less than 10 half tracks and 15 infantry stands. That should be a decent amount of dakka!

Late War 21 Panzer WIP

Well, with 8 months of Mid War madness behind us, and Skirmish is in the books, it is time to think to Late War. We are going to be doing another escalation league of some sort, whether it is Infantry Aces or just plain Escalation so people can do whatever, we don;t know, but I have been busy. Above is a tonne of resin before going in the warm water/dish soap bath to get rid of the mold release.



6 PzIV and 7 StuG 39H assault guns, drying.



French halftracks, enough to do Gepanzerte HQ and 2 full units of GPGren's.. not shown: the infantry, that is at work for Flames of Lunch, Season 2



Some toys: an 88 battery, plus 3 french SOMUA Panzerwerfers.

My first 600 points looks like:
Command HQ GPGrenadiers, 2 x panzerfausts 80pts
Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadiers, 3 sections, Panzer Fausts: 225 pts
Gepanzerte PanzerGrenadiers, 3 sections, Panzer Fausts: 225 pts
2 Raketen VielfachWerfers (the SOMUA things), 65 points

595 pts.

Skirmish FOW Tourney Pics (Results to come later)

(above) The whole 8 tables. I had to stand up on a chair for this shot, but you can see we actually managed to make enough scenery for 8 tables.. and as you will see, we didn't even have to stretch it out sparsely.

Well, Ottawa's first Flames of War tournament was yesterday, and it was a blast. We ended up having 14 players with room for 2 more if needed. Some came from across town, the OMG (Ottawa Miniature Gamer's) guys, some from CFB Petawawa (Army base 2 hours NW of town) and Shawn Morris came all the way from the Prairies (he has family in town, so timed his holidays with our event, now thats thinking!!)

We played 1500 pts, Mid War, was not theatre-specific, and the missions were, in order: Encounter, Free-for-All, Fighting Withdrawal

Without further ado, I will let the pictures do the talking:
Note: Forum names in brackets if I remember the names!


(above) Before we started round 1, I went to each table for pics. I know once a tourney starts, I get the "tournament headache" and blinders on so will forget pics.. this one is of my Brit Rifles vs Tristan (Ca$H) german infantry list on the Italy board.



(above) Jeff's german Pionieren vs Marty (Joyous Oblivion) US Armoured Rifles. on the river crossing board



(above) Adam (Clockwerks) Desert Rat 25 pdr battery is trying to range in on Mike A's Aufklarungschwadrone trucks all clumped on the road. Sadly, the dice shaking mojo pictured here only produced 3 fail-to-range-in results!!


(above) Chris (Lothann) Soviet Tankovy list have the home court advantage vs Shawn (TerrainGuy)s german force on the Ukrainian table. Ukraine not Weak!


(above) Battle of Heavy Metal: Duane's (Diragi) Brummbars will have to square off vs some Churchills near downtown Ruinberg



(above) Drew (Big Willie) squares off against Bob's germans near Brettislava. Turns out Bob used to be Drew's CO in real life.. so did Bob make you reroll any motivation tests Drew? :)



(above) Louis' Brits have already dealt with Duncan's Kossack units, leaving his T-34s to face Churchills...



(above) In-Game pics.. some would say these tanks are brave to curbstomp my dug in infantry , given that I have 4 17pdr guns that can see them. However, they would have to not be pinned for 8 turns in a row for them to stop Ca$h's tanks!



(above) Arty, PIATs at least Bail all three Brummbars. I can salvage at least 1 VP for a platoon kill by assaulting and capturing them. However, the infantry failed their terror test, Victory to German Armor (and a looted KV)



(above) I fight Bob's germans on the Normandy village board. I am piling all 3 infantry units towards the middle objective, while my scout carriers and 6pdr Portees tussle with his AA guns and Marders on the right wheat field flank.



(above) Duncan's awesome looking Kossack Cavalry supporting T34's, in this case they have been destroyed, hence no turrets.



(above) facing Jeff's Panzerpio's, my 17pdrs have a sweet shot at those PzrIII's.. unfortunatelyt they are 33 inches out. Jeff would have a streak of bad luck, as he would Bog 3 of 5 tanks on that hedge trying to advance in the lee of a hill, out of sight of my guns.



(above) Jeff's Pio's advancing up the road to block my Recce Carriers from advancing on his objective


Another shot of Ruinberg and the excellent Reichstag building.

This is my tournament list...

51st Highland Division, 1500 pts (North Africa book, Italy list)

The list: HQ platoon 30 pts
Rifle Platoon, 2 sections, PIAT 130 pts
Rifle Platoon, 2 sections, PIAT 130 pts
Rifle Platoon, 2 sections, PIAT 130 pts
Mortar Platoon, 2 sections 125 pts
Anti-Tank platoon, 6pdr Portee x4 185 pts
Anti-Tank platoon, Royal Artillery 4x 17/25pdr 310 pts
Royal Artillery 8 x 25pdr 360 pts
Sporadic Hurricane IIC 95 pts

1495 pts




Command teams, with my Dug In trench markers, for when I have to assault out of my foxholes, I have the models!



25pdrs, 'A' Troop and Staff Team with Air ID roundel.



AT, Royal Artillery, here are the big guns, 4 x 17/25s




AT Portee, 6pdrs. Yes I just realized I glued the drivers in the wrong seats..

Anyhoo, there it is. I can't really take any objectives, so my only goal is to roast a few platoons and get some points that way.

Hope you guys are getting your stuff painted as well, and look forward to my very first FoW tourney.

FoW AAR 34 & 35

"Komrades, this river shall pose no problems for us at all, follow me to Victory for the Motherland!"


So we had the last Friday Night Fights before our tournament next weekend, and Adam, aka Clockwerks showed up, fresh from his cross country move with his Desert Rats. He and I had a game (video below) where much was learned, but mostly: The "Iron Sherman" withstood shooting from 6 Crusaders and 3 Shermans, and 3 seperate double Bail Motivation tests. Why can't my Shermans perform like that? (Spoiler alert, mine did not)



Lothlann's new Motorcycle HQ models.. sweet deal.

Lothlann took a mixed list of many light vehicles (T-60s, Scout Cars, SU-76s) with a smattering of T-34s and Razdeki infantry



Yes really: only one out of nine T-60's passed their skill check to cross the river!!!



By the end of the game, this is how many made it past the River of Doom.

Note, Adam's stuff isn't all done, so I left out the pics of his stuff, he should have them done by the tournament :)


Game 1, Clockwerks vs me, the legend of the Iron Sherman is born.




Game 2, Clock vs Lothlann... Will the Iron Sherman survive?

1 week remains: What list should I take???

While you guys enjoy these pics of Big Willis of http://covering-fire.blogspot.com/ fame and our very own Ca$h playing last friday, I need to come up with a list: There are, as I see it three routes.

1, the "Game" list. We are using Nationals rules for everything except wooded area which will always count as woods not forests (so bog vs skill check) which favors tank lists. So do I take my cool 9 Crusader, 6 Sherman, 9 UNiversal Carrier list?

2, the Infantry list: I also have a neat infantry list that crams in all my painted infantry, plus 8 25pdrs, 6pdrs 17pdrs oh and 3 Churchill III's

3, the "back to basics" list, in these pics Ca$H and Big Wills are reverting back to the first lists they used back in the day: Will is using his Royal Canadian Regiment instead of german tanks, while Ca$h is using his Panzer Grens again, instead of german tanks. I could also go back to my first lists which was HMG, MOrtar, Rifles, Shermans, Crusaders, 6Pdrs.. basically one of everything I had built when I first played back on new years day!

Enjoy the rest of the pics, noting that Will's green vehicles used to be Desert Rat colored, but he switched out so that he could play in any period realy. Super smart