Standby.....GO!

This is it, the last of my three part series on Historicon 2013. 'Sitzkreig' is the new thing taking over Flames of War posts far and wide. It seems a lot of people had issues with people taking too much time during their games and now the community is looking for a way to fix it. That subject is for another post, for now I will close out this post with coverage of my games and my own thoughts on how Nationals went from my perspective. My first game was against Russ from CGR and we had a busy and great game! He really pushed with his forces and really put his Panzerspahkompanie German list to my limits, the 82nd really had to fight them off and keep the enemy from capturing their objective. Everything from Infantry, Panzer II's and Marders, this list had it all and was tough to fend off.

Looking back on this game a week later, I think I was luck with my deployment area and it worked out that I could only allow Russ to get to the objective by pressing hard against the dug in Airborne platoon. The Anti-Tank guns were able to suppress the incoming armor, and there was a lot of it! I got a lucky roll early in the game and was able to range in on a column of tanks and blew up three of his Panzer IV's. That was a big boost, as then my Sherman and Firefly platoon that came in on the secondary objective in the Reserve area, only had to deal with one Panzer IV. Russ had no choice but to trade shots with me a few times and we both went to the end, never losing that one Panzer IV to enemy fire. The Sherman and Firefly that were engaging it never hit it to take it out. Back to gunnery school for the guys in the platoon. My other tank platoon did not fair as well, they bogged a few times and got a little bottle necked and Russ was able to capitalize with Marder shots, nearly wiping out my platoon.

These two games were just plain tough! Steve was really patient with me and knew I had my hands full moving across open terrain, the threat of air attack and constant artillery kept me from getting an entire platoon across the board, they assaulted one of his observers and moved into the woods with intention of taking out his Nebelwerfers but we ran out of time. Dave kept me busy with his Canadian list, his use of devastating bombardments time and time again was enough to rattle the fillings out of my teeth! I was aggressively defending two objectives and was able to hold him off the right side of the table. He came at me with everything on the left, Shermans, Archers, Buffalo's, and infantry. We literally went down to time with his platoon commander carrying on the assault all by himself as a last ditch effort to win the game. I held my ground with four remaining stands and came out with a single point in this close loss.

Russ closes in with all the armor he could muster!

Really nicely painted Audie Murphy.

Get off the road!!

Beach landing display board.

I love airfields, this one was excellent!

Hard to taxi through a cratered runway!!

Rob and Dennis plan their next move at the I-95 Doubles

Cool rocket effects!

M-57 Anti-Tank guns cover their 82nd Airborne brothers as the Germans move in!

Now that it's all over for the next little while, we'll likely be looking at heading down to Fall In, being held in Lancaster PA. The ten hour drive was a long one, but worth it for this great event. I'll be busy in the next little while getting some battle reports ready for the Overlord campaign and deciding on whether to prep  an Early War army for next year. I'll likely get some more posts done in the coming week, hope you enjoyed the series!

Check Your Equipment!! Part 2 of 3

In the first installment, I went over my list and some of the expectations and experiences of this years Late War Nationals Tournament held in Fredericksburg, Virginia. After a ten hour drive and a no show for my first game, I was ready to get into playing and have some fun to make this trip worth it. I was not the only one without an opponent, as I soon found out in game two. Chuck Leach was my opponent and we both discovered we each sat out round one with no one to play against. Not a big deal for either one of us, only we could have played the first round if it was caught in time. There were a TON of players, so Dave and Bruce had their hands full for sure. So much so, that I presented them each with one of the WWPD coins for doing a great job running this event. I can't wait for next year and Early War!

I know I mention never having played Cauldron, this was only the case in tournaments. It doesn't get played much though, but after the tournament, it's a fun scenario and not sure why players don't like it.

I won that game by only a narrow margin, Chuck's reinforcements gave something else for my Sherman V's and Firefly's to deal with as I tried to put some more pressure on him. The game started out with Chuck electing to use the Night Attack rule out of the rulebook, so visibility was cut to 4" at a time and rolling the dice to see how far our troops and armor could see in the dark. As shown in the video, I struck first and was able to cut down three out of four tanks in one of his armored platoons. He made his motivation and was able to shoot back, only the visibility was so poor due to low light, the sole surviving Sherman V couldn't see his targets due to darkness. I think it ended up being a 4-3 win for me.

The Canadians Prepare To Move In!

A Kangaroo Takes A Long Range Firefly Hit!! Everyone Off the Bus!!

Game three, and the last one of the day! I faced off against British Paras and came face to face against a former Marine. The military is a dominant force for Flames of War gamers. It seems a lot of players either served or are are still serving in the US military. I wish there was as much interest up here in Canada to play Flames of War, it would be great to have a larger following and larger events in Canada. I get that there is a 'Nationals' being held in Calgary this year, but really.....it's more of a West Coast Regional event than a National one in my opinion. I'll be looking to perhaps figure something out for this region as it boasts more players in the top 25 than any other part of Canada. On to the pics of my game against Mike, the super friendly and former Sgt. Major of the USMC. Video is after the pics!

Typhoon!!! Incoming!!!!

Armor Moves Towards The Objective Under Heavy Artillery Fire!

Multiple Typhoons Close In On The 82nd!

Another Pass To Finish Off What The Minefield Couldn't!

Historicon Nationals Game 3 vs. Mike Hall

Lost this one 1-6

Get ready!...Stand up!....Hook up!! Historicon 2013 Part 1 of 3

So, I had planned on doing a large video and picture dump from our trip to Historicon. I felt it would not have looked as I wanted, I didn't want to rush it and get it posted. Stay tuned for a three part series with pictures, video and more in the coming week.

This is how my army turned out and what I took to Historicon to compete. The group of us that went down, discussed all of us running Canadians for Nationals. After Dennis (MattVarnish) was the first to bail, I went ahead and completed the army I had started some time back. I figured it would give me an opportunity to get it done and on the table!

I think the only thing I added at the end was a .50cal AA to my command Sherman V in one of the platoons. It cost me five more points and got me to 1780 points on the nose. Over the course of several weeks you have seen a few 'in progress' sessions in trying to finish painting my paratrooper stands to get them ready for this event. Right up until the night before we left, I was finishing up the basing, all the painting had been finished.

I had a lot of positive comments and for my first attempt at painting such a large portion of infantry figures, I think they turned out awesome. Thanks to Mike for stopping by and giving me some advice and tips on how I can make a few changes and really improve my painting skils. I take in as much as I can get when I have an opportunity to get tips or tricks when it comes to painting.

I'm not intimidated of getting into assaults as much as I used to be. It's the one part of the rules I have yet to nail down, all the opponents I had made it easy and helped with any questions or problems I had. I only found myself going to the rulebook a few times during the whole tournament. I was even able to point out to a veteran player that plane stands can NOT be placed in or on terrain. That was a great game on day two I think. I'll have all that for my battle reports when I get all of it ready for posting. Russ from CGR painters passed on quite a bit of info that helped me in my later games. A big shout out to him in this first of three posts. If you need anything painted and you don't have time to do it yourself or you're just overwhelmed with everything that's in your queue, look up CGR painting services.

World of Not Painting and FnF

With some well deserved time off of work, I have been busy painting, reading, and trying to get some things done around the house. With the arrival of my parents from the east coast of Canada, I need to get this all out of the way and finished so I can make my way to Historicon relatively 'guilt' free.
Having time off and having friends living close to downtown, it's easy to get a game in at Boutique FDB's (Freres de Bataille) new store. Obviously with the french name, it's a short trip over the bridge into Gatineau Quebec, where they recently moved into their newer, brighter and roomier space. Dennis and myself were eager to trial our Historicon lists and generally talk about our other passion at the moment, World of Not Painting, also known as World of Tanks to everyone else in the Flames of War, or PC gaming community. If you're not a PC gamer, the Xbox 360 will soon have it as well, I know the July 4th weekend was the BETA for the game and so far has had great reviews. The game however will be hosted on a separate server, so right now Xbox vs. PC for World of Tanks is a no go for Wargaming.net

Most Tank Battles End Up Like This

Cold War Gone Hot First AAR: Soviet Motor Rifles vs Canadian Armour in West Germany, 1986

Hey guys, long time no see!   Hard to believe its been since end of April since I last posted, but I've been busy.   Historicon is very soon, and I have been busting my ass putting in extra details on my 21. Pzrs (but thats for another post) but in the interim, I was lucky enough to receive some Vietnam stuff to review for WWPD.net in the form of PT-76 and T-54/55's http://www.wwpd.net/2013/05/product-review-battlefront-t-54s.html     As my main Modern Warfare opponent, Rob, is also going to Historicon, we have only got one game in so far, but here it is!

The ruleset we are using is from http://stoppingtheredtide.blogspot.ca/ as well as the army lists.   Whats nice about Cold War gaming in 15mm in western Europe is that 90% of Flames of War scenery works, and the other 10% you can get from model train stores, as you can see with the shipping containers.

 PT-76 Recce light tanks, still in use today.   (Wasn't in our game though, but these pre-painted shipping containers are ace)

 Rob's Canadian Leopards roll past having dispatched this BTR-80 and T-80M

 Close up of Rob's M113 on the left, and Lynx Recce vehicle on the right.  He even found decals.  Very nice

Prior to them getting blown up, my Command BTR80.  In this ruleset, all transports are crewed, so can move about with no one in them much like german halftracks in FOW.  I found this very useful for killing Lynx's.

Anyhoo, here is the video, enjoy.