Wojna Światów - Tournament Report - battle 1

Hello,

As I already mentioned, last weekend and the upcoming weekend are happy times! :)

I managed to attend a 2-day Mid War tournament in Poznań on the 28-29th of November and there is another one (this time Late War) coming up on sunday. This will give me enough analysis material to keep posting for another 2 weeks and then I will take a christmas break. But fear not, there will be more posts coming in 2016! :)

Soooo, how was it in Poznań? I have to admit that I really enjoyed the tournament. I've had a baby break for almost half a year so I really could not wait to roll some dice again. We arrived at the venue early in the morning (I am saying 'we', because my wife was also desperate to change the surrounding for a day or two so she was happy to do the trip). It was a local primary school building where the event was located. There were numerous tournaments going on for different gaming systems (Infinity, WH40k, WHFB, board games, etc.), so FoW was only one of the many! The first news related to our games was that the first mission that we would play would be Surrounded (I thought it would be Encounter) and I would be playing against Cossacks. Hmmm... not so good :)

MY LIST

Surrounded vs Cossacks
Cossacks - F/T
HQ + Pioneers
Big Dismounted Company + several light mortars and ptrds
Small Mounted Company
5x T-60 tanks
4x KVs (F/C)
6x T34 + 3x 57mm upgrade + Mariya
3x Dismounted Scouts

The troubles began when I deployed my forces, more or less in a balanced line with both infantry platoons sitting on an objective each and popped my immediate ambush where the KVs were. It was time to roll my skill/morale ratings. With an unfortunate round of rolls, I got reluctant/trained on both infantry platoons, 45mm guns and confident trained on my big battery of 75mm artillery. The only confident/veteran platoon were the mounted scouts.

The enemy began the battle by infiltrating his huge infantry blob so that he could get into an assault position and not be immediately revealed. In fact, he only gained several inches of movement but gave me the opportunity to seize the initiative on a 6+. Well, since there was nothing loose, I rolled my die and ... managed to sieze it! :)

This meant that I was able to put down some templates and direct shots on the Cossack infantry early on, pinning it and reducing it to around 17 bases. Still, my opponent was hesitant to launch an attack straight away and began an artillery duel instead. I think his plan was to get rid of Pak40s to be able to get the assault in with the KVs. This plan was not working out so great for him though as in the initial turns of the battle, I only lost one of the precious guns. In the meantime, the Romanians were launching local counterattacks. One such counterattack was a skirmish between the reluctant veteran Pz35 tanks and elements of the huge Cossack blob. This did not go so well for the Romanians as they only killed 2 bases, lost one tank and had to withdraw. Still, this action meant that the Soviets went under the number of men needed to use the Quality of Quantity rule so I thought it was well worth it. The other offensive action was an attempt to clear a small wood of Cossack cavalry. I launched the assault which was well prepared. Defensive fire was only 2 shots on a 5+ against my 3 charging bases. I lost one of my guys. Then I rolled 0 hits and got wiped in return. So much for counterattacks. From now on, the initiative was completely in the hands of the Soviet player. He could choose where and when to attack. He was still a bit hesitant to get the assault in but when the time has almost run out, he started what he should have done long time ago - moved all platoons into charge range and launched the attacks one by one. Unfortunately for me, my reluctant troops failed each one of 8 counterattack rolls (or 4 with a re-roll) and the Soviets managed to swarm the objective. There was still a small chance to do a last turn contest. My commander was 18" away from the objective, so he mounted his trusted steed, moved 10" and tried to push it one last time, but failed his 3+ gallop roll. A loss for the Romanians :(

Looking back, there was not a lot I could do better in this battle. It revealed a big weakness in my list that cannot be easily covered up - small amount of meaningful anti-tank. This results in an David vs Goliath type of struggle when facing the ever present KVs. Maybe, I would be better off keeping my little tanks near the objective that was an obvious target of the Soviet offensive. With some luck, this could have meant a last turn contest and a possible win. But that would have been a big 'if'.

In the end, I enjoyed the game a lot, although it was an uphill struggle :)

PICTURES - LOW QUALITY :(