List building 101 continued - briefing selection

Hello everyone, in another article by Sexy Sixes I thought I would jump back to the list building 101. I already shared some of my thoughts on how I understand the general process of building a tournament list but today, I would describe it in some more detail, how do I select a proper briefing.

So without further ado, I will just get on with it :)

I start off just like everybody else does: by looking at my collection and thinking "oh, I have not used these for quite a long time now" :) Once I get an overall idea what I want to play and figure out what my risk apetite is (i.e. do I want to play a "brick" or a "toolbox") I start searching for a suitable briefing.
Now the thing with Flames of War is that the resources for list building are scattered all over the place. There are paper books, unofficial/official army builders and Digital Briefings. With no single point of reference, it takes quite a while to compile a list of possible companies that I might use (this is somehow alleviated by the fact that on Forces and Easy Army you can search for briefings containing a given arsenal item - e.g. list those that include StuH42).
But assuming that I managed this somehow - what are the key features I would be looking for in a briefing to consider it somewhat suitable for tournament play? I would say that it depends on a mix of 2 factors: company type mixed with the "brick"/"toolbox" attribute.

For "bricks" it is a general rule that there needs to be a focus on a spam of dual-purpose (anti-tank & anti-infantry) units that are either very tough to kill or quite the opposite - glass cannon type - able to dish out tons of damage but easy to hurt. So what I normally look for is: artillery parks, Always Attack medium/light tanks, Always Defend heavy tanks from B@R or BbB (KG Swoboda), night attacking parachute infantry, etc.
An example of a "brick" list built to survive is a B@R heavy tank company whereas a Task Force A is a fast moving and hard hitting, but also very vulnerable list based around lightly armored Tank Destroyers.

"Toolboxes" are more demanding, at least for me. And here is what I normally look for:

Infantry (including any fortified)

Has to have good anti-tank support first of all. I want at least one big AT 10+ gun unit (4+ guns), one top armour 0 tank destroyer unit or tanks if there is no option for tank destroyers and a platoon of low end infantry/anti-tank guns (perfect example is a platoon of 9 Schneider 47mm guns for my Romanians). You probably ask - why the low end guns? For me, it is the perfect answer to harassment from any pesky recon that tries to target my vital assets or go around the flanks as well as a counter to enemy guns. When attacking, they help tremendously to dig out any entrenched infantry.

Moving on, I try to look for briefings that have the option of at least C/T infantry with some AT capability. In the perfect world, these would be units that can dish out 2+ anti-tank shots while being charged and can cause AT4+ hits in close combat.

The next thing I would want my list to have is a template for harassment. It does not have to be high AT but I like at least 4+ firepower to avoid frustration when I get plenty of penetrations but only bailed out results. Overall, heavy mortars are the perfect tool for this. They make the enemy think twice before bunching up but only cost so little.

The last option I am interested in is a recon unit for those times when I have to attack. My personal preference is in order of appearance: cavalry recce, armored cars, foot units. I also try to find cheap options as most of the time I would be defending and there would be no need for any recce rules.

Mechanized

First thing that needs to be mentioned is that Mechanized forces for me, are divided into 2 main types and several subtypes:
- Always Attack/Always Defend Mechanized which in most cases fall under the "brick" type of list - e.g. Peredovoye Otryad or Task Force A
- Regular Mechanized with subtypes: True Armored Cars (all wheeled/tracked), Mechanized Infantry, Semi-tank.

Now for Regular Mechanized, the thing is that True Armored Cars are not a selection I would make for a tournament list. The sole reason for this is: Mobile Reserves rule. With this rule affecting my force while also defending, I normally get to deploy only two platoons on the table which pretty much means I am dead. The way around it is to build one of the two remaining sub-types.
For Mechanized Infantry, I do exactly the same selections as I would do for an Infantry company but also keep in mind that I will be attacking more often and this is why recon and templates go up the priority ladder. The perfect example of such a list is US Armored Rifles.
For Semi-tank, since there are so many different lists to choose from, there is no single recipe. If I would have to use a 1420 example, say for a Soviet Light Assault Gun Battalion, I would mini-max the SU76 units (take 2x3), get some heavy Guards tanks as the backbone (4x IS85), Zis-2 platoon, 122mm and 152mm howitzers to deal with heavy tanks, 6x 37mm AA and 5x foot recon. This way, if I am defending in a mission with Mobile Reserves, I can put everything but the SU76s down on the table and be quite confident I can hold on. I think the general rule is: in each case I would be aiming for as many platoons on the table as possible while defending. Otherwise, it would be almost a standard tank list of its type.

Tank

I think it is the most difficult one to build. If I want a toolbox type with tanks then I am most probably aiming for some heavies or briefings with big tank platoons.

When it comes to heavies, here is how I do it: I look for lists in which the basic platoons can fulfill an anti-infantry role and are able to fend off a medium tank horde. After that, I add some heavy artillery preferably (to deal with other heavies) and finally buy a recon unit. Sometimes, if I only select one artillery battery, I have the option to go for anti-tank guns. This way, while defending, I would normally have 2 gun batteries and one heavy tank unit on the table + any HQ tanks. Such setup should give me enough time for the reinforcements to arrive and save the day.

With medium tanks it is different. I look for briefings including big tank platoons and preferably a double HQ unit. German Panzers are a perfect example where you can get 2 HQ guys and 2 platoons of 5 panzers/StuGs in case you need to defend with just two platoons on the table. I aim to spend as many points as I can fit into these units to upgrade them to full strength and only go for another 2 as support. Now I have two options - go double recon or recon + artillery (preferably mobile). Such composition is a counter to what seems to be a valid tactic while in combat against a 6 platoon "toolbox" tank list: ignore the main body and wipe out reserves. What I end up with is a list like my Digital Briefing HG Stug Battery that can attack easily and also defend with two strong units on the table.



Phew, that was a long one. Hope you enjoyed it anyway. I would like to read your comments on your recipies regarding briefing selections and how do you identify the ones that are worth using. Over the few upcoming weeks I will share with you some AARs of a tournament I am attending on Sat-Sun where I will play the HG Stug Battery I built using one of the recipies listed above. Hopefully, It will not be just a big bunch of lost games in the end :)

1420 points tournament preps - opponent lists review

Hey,
A quick one today. I will be attending a LW 1420 tournament in Poznan next weekend playing my HG Assault Gun Battery and figured out that it would be good to see what the opponents are fielding. So here is a summary and also some of my thoughts on the meta and how does it relate to the list I built.

　
With this table I can clearly say that in Poland, German tank companies are certainly experiencing a new Golden Age :) Also, a thing to note is that LLW books are the most often used ones - especially Bridge at Remagen and Devil's Charge. I think why Berlin (another LLW publication) is missing is that it features Soviets, who are not so popular in the area (I hope to tip the balance in the forseeable future) and Germans but without access to any outstanding tank lists.
I really do not fully understand the dominance of tank lists in this tournament. One might think that for this pretty slim, 1420 points format the majority of the forces would be infantry/fortified companies as only these guys can have all the toys they want anyway. When I compare my Stug list with the other alternative I was thinking about:


Romanian Puscasi (1/6 RT, 1/6 RV, 3/6 CT, 1/6 CV)
HQ: 2x Rifle + 2x Panzershreck
CP: 9x Rifle/MG
CP: 9x Rifle/MG
WP: 9x Schneider 47mm
WP: 2x 120mm mortars
SP: 6x Pak40
SP: 4x PzIV
SP: 4x KF 75mm
SP: 4x Cav Scouts


It turns out that my Assault Guns have so many elements missing (of which I am completely aware but still excited to test the StuGs) :) The infantry are the "toolbox" while the StuGs are the "brick". Fortunately, I have some sort of an answer to pretty much any list in the tournament. The ones that worry me the most are KG Benningsen Panther lists (2-3) and B@R heavy tanks (also 2-3). I can see myself struggling against these, unless I can get some stealth maneuvering (thanks to Major Sandrock and the PakPumas) done to get sideshots on the big cats.


On the other hand, I am quite happy that I should be pretty confident winning over infantry lists. But in any case, we will see how it goes.


And now, some of the more interesting lists built for this tournament:

List building 101 for singles tournament games ;)

Hello Everybody,

Today I thought I would do a writeup in response to somebody else's blog post. It was actually Chris Fret's article on list building, published on WWPD. I read the article and I really liked it, but for me, it did not fit under the title "list building 101". What Chris wrote, was for me: "how I built my French infantry company".

With my twist on competitive gaming, when I considered the title: "list building 101" I understood it more like "list building 101 for singles tournaments". And it occured to me, that it is indeed a good mental challenge and fantastic material for sharing my thoughts on this subject:)

In any case, for an article called "list building 101 for singles tournament games" I decided to create a generic description that can be used for the majority of cases. Exceptions are there, but it is not my intention to cover them in this article.

So here it goes my take on "list building 101 for singles tournament games":

Hi, and welcome to another article on Sexy Sixes. Today, I wanted to share my thoughts on what are the basic topics I cover when I build lists for tournament play.

Considering new options on how to build a force normally starts with one of the following triggers: a new book comes out, a tournament that I intend to go to is announced or I was asked to write an article about a given briefing/group of briefings. But no matter which trigger is used, they all lead to one common mental process where I sit down, build a list and refine it to the point where I would use in tournament play. This process itself is the 101.
What is more, although today I focus on singles tournaments, I am sure that for team competitions, the process is roughly the same but considers some additional outside factors, like for instance: the pairings. It also leads to other processes like what models do I need to order to put my company down on the table :P But these are not the focus of this article!

As a note, all the lists I published on this blog follow these steps :)

Ok, so after these lenghty words of introdction, let me present you my receipe to build a decent competitive list :)

1. List selection vs managing pairing risks.

Before I do list building itself, I ask myself whether I want to go crazy with my guys or want to take it easy and be more reliable. When I have the answer, it always leads me to two main types of forces in Flames of War and maybe miniature wargames in general:

- "The brick", which normally means a specialized list, focused around one powerful aspect of the briefing that also has ample support to make it work and cover the weaknesses. It's highlight feature is that it is virtually unstoppable for specific types of opponents - no matter how many mistakes you make. One example could be a LW Soviet heavy tank list based on IS 85 tanks. It can deal with most infantry and medium tank opponents quite easily but is very vulnerable to enemy heavy tanks, since it cannot penetrate anything with FA 8-9+ reliably. IS 85s in the list are "The brick" and all other units, like heavy artillery, sappers, etc. work to cover the main weakness of it. Another one, would be the one I presented in the article about German Tanks.

- "The toolbox" is an army that has multiple units of low/medium strength that work well together when combined. The outstanding feature of this list type is that it has answers to virtually any type of threat. The downside is that it has no preffered enemy and you normally do not score any auto-wins. You will have to play to the best of your abilities each and every time. An example of "The toolbox" is my Romanian Infantry list, which has answers to virtually every unit in the game and can take a lot of punishment and go on at the same time.

Each of these selections is connected to what is called "risk apetite". If my "risk apetite" is high, i.e. I want to have a lot of fun but more or less gamble or make somebody cry, I go for "The brick".
If I accept the fact that wins will not be easy but I will not have any unfavourable pairings, I go for "The toolbox".

2. Build the list itself - this is what Chris described in his excellent article about French colonial infantry, and although I am sure he did all the other steps of this 101 process, he did not talk about them. This point is a topic for a separate "list building 101 for singles tournament games - continued" article. What I need to mention however, is that there is a defined template that I normally use to create my first draft so I do not really start from scratch. Once the draft is ready, I go to step 3.

3. Considering the metagame.

When I think about my list, I always do it in a context. I take my list and evaluate how well would it fare against other lists. The rivals I consider are:

- lists consider top choices for tournament play (e.g. US LW lists)
- obvious counters and how popular are they
- other popular lists (e.g. Schwere Panzers)
- other lists that I created

In the comparison, I look for obvious weaknesses that I have not covered so far and can still be addressed by shuffling some selections around. For example, I might have forgotten to equip my troops enough against dug in veteran infantry. In these cases, I go back to point 2, upgrade my force and try again. Unfortunately, sometimes I have to go as far as point 1 and start over.

Also, I take a mental note of my least favourite opponents to use it in point 4.

4. Considering scenarios.

Now, once my draft is complete and most glaring weaknesses are covered, I do the last step: take the list of possible hard counters created in point 3 and extend the context by throwing in unfavourable scenarios into the cauldron. An example could be my LW German HG Assault Gun Battery list playing an AA US Mechanized or Tank list in Counterattack or Surrounded.

With this step complete I now have three options:

- I figure out my plan on how to deal with the toughest opponents and mark the list ready for the upcoming tournament. Yay!
- I am not satisfied with the findings and go back to step 2
- I deem the risk connected with playing the list too big and have to start over in step 1


So what I really do each time is I go top to bottom - start with a generic concept and a feel to the list and start applying more and more context once the draft is complete. When this process is over, I am sure that the end product fits my needs 100% and will save me a lot of disappointments :)

But maybe somebody else has a different method to do this. I would love to see a description in the comments below! :)

Mid War vs competitive gaming

Ok, now that I played enough tournaments to have my own, stable opinion about Mid War competitive gaming in general, I thought it would be good to put it on "paper" and share/look for other opinions. To be honest, I have no coherent structure for this article in mind so I will just go ahead and shoot with whatever seems to be relevant. Sorry for the mess :)

1. Mid War is arguably the period that is least suitable for singles tournament play.

I found out that Mid War is like paper/rock/scissors for a lot of armies. There are fewer possibilities to build a true all-rounder list. With only 2 books and a few PDFs flying around and just one or two notable exceptions, choices for some nations are very limited. I even built a matrix depicting which type of forces/which nations get the best opportunity to build a balanced list (top of the list is best flexibility - by combining the two you can figure out which combo is most feasible):


--------- NATION ------
1. Germans
2. Brits
3. Hungarians
4. Romanians
5. USA
6. Italians
7. Soviets
--------- TYPE ----------
1. Infantry
2. Mech
3. Tank
----------------------------

There are several exceptions from the matrix caused by Always Attack and Always Defend special rules. For the forces that have them: AD (Fucilieri) adds to the flexibility while AA (Cossacks) is more of a hindrance than help in my opinion.

However, if you go to a singles tournament and hope for a win, your best bet would be to build a German Infantry list ;)

2. When you play Mid War, be prepared to get anti-aircraft!

With heavy artillery being so expensive, a lot more aircraft hit the tables than in any other period. One other reason is the Soviet I-153. I mean it is really ridiculous not to get the sporadic version which only costs 90 points. Every Soviet player should use it. For mere 90 points you get an aircraft that has both a 3+ MG and a real heavy-hitter in the form of 4+ AT 6 FP 3+ rockets. Considering how playing Soviets against some heavier tanks is an uphill struggle, a cheap, killer aircraft strike option is something I would always buy (one exception might be AA Cossacks, who need to get into assault range as soon as possible, limiting aircraft placement).

So if you were considering getting anti-aircraft, consider no more - get it. Even a light unit should be more than enough to keep the little fokkers away. And there will be plenty coming your way :P

3. Do not ignore the possibility of meeting AT 12 spam! :)

When building your list, do not get deceived by the fact that many AT 12 guns cost quite a lot. Mixed Tankovy, you are not safe in a singles tournament :) Same for US and a few other tank briefings. In a recent singles tournament with 18 players, I have seen 6 armies that pack 12+ high AT shots, met 2 of them and 2 of them placed first and second.
You just cannot ignore the possibility of encountering high-end anti tank, and my understanding is that it is absolutely necessary to include at least a token answer in a list that aims to be competitive.

4. Do not be afraid of US forces.

Unlike in Late War, the US companies in Mid War do not seem to be dominating. This is mainly because:

- all of their main North Africa rosters are Confident/Trained
- tanks/tank destroyers are fairly expensive and relatively easy to destroy with Mid-High AT
- artillery is expensive
- infantry cannot field so many bazookas, leaving them vulnerable to tank assault
- their main anti-tank gun is No HE
- they have no option to field double tank destroyer units nor an AOP

In fact, the ratio of US to non-US forces in Mid War and Late War are two completely different things. So far, in 3 MW tournaments, with approximately 60 participants, I have seen around 5 US lists (2 tank, 2 mech and 1 infantry). Some would say: hooray for Mid War :)

5. There 2 really strong Warriors in Mid War that you need to be prepared to meet:

- Mariya Oktabrskaya - I described her in details in this article. She will be present in most Tankovy/Mixed Tankovy lists that field T-34 tanks as she only costs 25 points but is a huge overall boost.
- Otto Ernst Remer - this guy needs another article. But in short words, he is a Higher Command team that turns one Heer unit into assault monsters with 3+ morale and 2+ to hit in close combat. He will be appearing in Infantry and Mechanized German forces.

So if you are thinking of going competitive, it is advisable that you at least know the basic things about these two guys. There are some other decent Warriors out there, but they will certainly not be as prevalent as these two :)

Ok, enough is enough - these are my thoughts around Mid War competitive gaming - would love to read yours! :)

1420 GT LoL lists!!

Hey, I am back with another article.

This one is maybe a bit late. I think that the most suitable date to publish it would have been the 1st of April but hey, no crying over spilt milk, right?
The article today is about some fun lists you can build for the upcoming UK GT. There have been a lot of 1420 point lists thrown around on various blogs and on Facebook. Hell, even I will post my favorites. But not today. Today I thought it would be fun to play around with ideas for lists that maybe are not so competitive (although might hold their own when some good luck shines on you) but would be exciting and fun to play. In all honesty, I have been thinking of using them so many times now but they always lost to some more tournament suited builds. Hopefully however, maybe somebody else can use my article as an inspiration and share his experiences some day :)

Ok, the first one coming up is Perimeter Outpost from Devil's Charge - a US fortified R/V infantry company. What I really love about this briefing is that it has so many cheap platoon options that even at 1420 points it lets you max out your fortifications. This is one of the few companies that can actually win a game without having a game at all :) This is mainly because of access to 6 sections of anti-tank obstacles (48" !). With such a congo line of dragon's teeth, czech hedgehogs or whatever can stop a tank, you can effectively block the ability of enemy armor to cross the table and reach your positions. For companies based on tank teams only, this means game over at deployment!
At 1420 getting all 6 sections is maybe not so feasible, so this is why in the list I prepared, I only go for 4 :) Plus 2 mandatory minefields! :) These obstacles should not be left unattended, however because enemy infantry will be able to dismantle it given some time. This is why we also need some good anti-infantry firepower and still some anti-tank to be able to handle armor in scenarios where the minefield/anti-tank obstacle screen will not work.
Did I also mention that regardless of mission choice, this company always starts the game in prepared positions? No? Well, it does :)
In the end, this is my preferred setup:

HQ 2x rifle + trenches
CP: full rifle platoon + a-t obstacle
CP: full rifle platoon + a-t obstacle
SP: I&R platoon (4 jeeps, one armed with a 0,5")
SP: Anti-tank platoon of 3x57mm (late) guns
SP: Towed Tank Destroyer platoon (4xM5 gun - C/T)
SP: Cavalry Recon platoon (C/V)
SP: Calliope Platoon (2x Calliope Shermans - C/T)
SP: 105 Battery (4x105mm - C/T)

My second choice is also a defending company. It is Kampfgruppe Swoboda, a R/T, always defend, infantry company from Bridge to Bridge. This company is so fun because it fields 8.8cm anti-aircraft guns as combat platoons! :) Boom, right off the bat, the briefing lets you build a decent anti-tank ability and avoid investing into R/T foot troops to bring 8.8 onto the table. What is more interesting is that it is supported by the trained Tigers of Kampfgruppe Hummel and either SS platoons or security (sicherheits) companies/platoons. Since you will be almost guaranteed to defend, you can build your list so that when you have to move some units into reserves, you will still have a very tough force on the table at the start of the game. Just do not forget to bring transports for your guns, because a lot of them are immobile :)

HQ: 2x SMG
CP: 4x 8.8 Flak 36 (static) + 4x extra crew + transport
CP: 4x 8.8 Flak 39 (r) + 4x extra crew + transport
CP: 4x 2cm Flak 38 + transport
SP: 4x Tiger I (C/T)
SP: full SS panzergrenadier platoon + faust (F/V)
SP: 3x SS 15cm Nebs + transport (F/V)

Ok, so I did a list presentation on a couple of defending companies. Now this one is an Always Attack Mechanized company! Kampfgruppe Graebner F/V (again from Bridge to Bridge book) can be a fun to play choice. To be honest, I even know a guy in our local tournament scene who plays it and had some limited success with it.
Anyway, let us talk some more detail about how this force can be constructed and played.
KG Graebner is built around 2 platoons of mechanized/motorized SS panzergrenadiers. The rest of supporting platoons are mostly armored cars with a lot of anti-infantry capability but virtually no anti-tank. There are 2 ways to mitigate these weaknesses: use Graebner himself and bring heavy artillery.
As for Graebner, for around 50 points he is a very good warrior team. He is riding in a decent armored vehicle but what is more important, he gives his guys tons of special rules:
- makes the company Always Attack
- gives spearhead moves to his combat platoons
- lets you do your recon moves before defender does his (and blocks your recce as a result)
- platoon he joins hits on a 2+ in assaults
- platoon he joins while making a stormtrooper move can go 6" instead of the normal 4
With this guy in your force, you will be able to dominate the no-man's land and possibly launch assaults with your infantry starting on turn 2. Such furious assaults can even catch tanks off-guard or at least make sure that you get stuck in early on, before enemy reserves start trickling in. If this quick pressure application fails, you can always rely on your 2 batteries of 3x15cm SS artillery :)
Anyway, here is the list:

HQ: 2x SMG + transport + Graebner in Humber IV (AT 7 gun)
CP: full gepanzerte SS platoon + faust
CP: full aufklarungs SS platoon + faust
WP: 2x 8-rad
WP: 3x SdKfz 251/9 (7.5cm)
SP: 3x 15cm sFH18
SP: 3x 15cm sFH18


Ok, so this is it - hope you liked the ideas and if you feel something is definately missing (has to be fun and at least a little, tiny bit competitive), let me know in the comments! :)

Achtung! Tentacles of War 2016 - tourney report

With the passing of this weekend, the Tentacles of War have come to pass - another tournament in the city of Łódź (actually taking place in a small city close to it called Zgierz) organized by the Octopus Club of Łódź.


Now a tradition the tourney was a Late War Double:
- Teams playing 2 companies of 1000 pts each - with 50 points that can be passed on to the fellow player.
- Companies can't be repeated, and any combination between Allies-Allies, Axis-Axis can be used.
- There is a catch however - the opponents can choose which company type you count (infantry, mechanized tank) as and if your special rules are not uniform if they work for the team.

For example - if you take a Canadian Rifle and Motor Coy, then you will always be an Infantry coy with the option to go with Night Attack. If you take Grey Wolf Pioneers and BaR SchwerePanzer - then the opponents can choose to count you as either infantry or tanks, both either as regular or always defend.
So it's usually best to pair the companies as 2*Always Attack, 2*Always Defend/Fortified - along the strategy that you take - not to be thrown off by the opponents choice.

I went with P. (another Polish-Rep player), and we took some time to consider our lists. Since a few years back we were reluctant to take attacking lists for the reason that with 3 hours for 2000pts, is not always enough time to resolve the game in your favor- when you're the attacker. And because back then, we had a number of games that finished just before we could win them, we were biased towards playing infantry.
BUT playing defensive is just not our thing :)

And so we were cracking different lists:
KG Westfallen with Marinegrenadiers with 88 Railway cars or Heavy Cat companies,
2* British with Breaching Group and Sexton spam,
US and British Recon or Armoured Car Companies
Tanks?? Russians - maybe, but we didn't have enough to go round - so back to the drawing board...

Then maybe mechanized again?
Something with a lot of firepower - so had o have minimum spending on unnecessary stuff - and then it came: we would play mechanized forces from Brittany - Task Force A and the 644th Tank Destroyer Battalion. The drawback, was that one company would be an Always Attack one and the other a regular one, but we prepared to both attack and defend, and play fairly well in 50% forces case.

These are the lists we came up with:

First Battle Encounter against Reksio and Loucyphr

Tankovy and Gvardyjski Tankovy (?)
HQ Matilda
10 Matildas
10 Valentines
10 Lees
Spetsnaz

HQ T34/85
10 T34/85
10 T34/76

We deployed our TD's more or less evenly on the Table, our opponents placed the T34/85's hidden in the center, Matildas on the right and Valentines on the left.
Turn 1: Matildas move torward, we pop 1 TD ambush but only manage to burn 1 Matidla, and move the security sections to better positions.
Turn 2: T-34/85's redeploy for long range shots at the deployed Hellcat's, and are joined by more moving Matildas. Soviets burn 2 Hellcat's and bail one more, we pass the moral. Next turn we have a discussion with P. as I want to break the smaller Soviet Battalion, whereas P. wants to play more cautious.
Eventually we go with my plan - we pop 3 TD ambushes, and burn or bail all T/34's in LoS and kill the Battalion commander. But Lucyphr passes his 4+ moral check on the T34's - so there is a next turn (the turn after that we will destroy the bailed tanks in LoS - forcing another check he will pass - and with that the opportunity to quickly resolve the game is over).
In return fire we loose the rest of the first Hellcat platoon.
Throughout the game we will exchange mostly long range shots, with both sides taking casualties.
Eventually 2 withered TD platoons that deployed center, and engineers arriving from reserve (doubling on arrival to get into assault range next turn) and another TD platoon arriving from reserve will first break Matildas (on the 2nd check I think), and then in a 2 turn battle of maneuver fight through the Lee's (forcing a moral check and breaking them). Then the Specnaz that was located on the right flank (now completely alone - and facing 6 stands of Engineers and 4 Wolverines) tries to assault the Engineers, that were exposed in the open from last turn as they discharged their bazookas to kill as many Lee's as possible. The assault comes in, but the resolute Engineers fight back, and Spetsnaz moves back and is subsequently destroyed. One of the Soviet companies is broken (killed HQ Matilda, Matildas, Lees and Spets) - and the battle is over. At that moment our left flank was held by 1 105mm gun, a Hellcat and 2 armoured cars.




Second Battle Pincer versus "Młode Pelikany" Team

KG Westfallen
4 Panzerfaust Trap Teams
2 Platoons of Ersatz Grenadiers
3 RT 88's
Mortars
HMG's

2HQ King Tigers RT
King Tiger RT
King Tiger RT
3 Pak40s CV

The table had a moderate amount of terrain with a series of 4 forests in the center some wheat fields on the right and a number of small hills to the right and back (defender's deployment zone).

Objectives were placed back-center and front left. 2 platoons of SS grenadiers were deployed to guard the approaches to each. 88s were placed behind the infantry with LoS thru the center mostly blocked by the forrests, but fairly good to the flanks. PaK's in ambush. Warrior Tigers back to left and center right.

We deployed center mostly with a single TD platoon on the left flank. Then we spearheaded the Engineers in trucks towards the forests, together with the rest of TFA.
On the first turn we moved a single TFA TD platoon down the right flank to threaten one KT with possible deployment+rush and flank shots. Center we moved most of the recon M20s and Engineers disembarked into the forests. Some vehicles stayed on the left flank to spray the grenadiers with .5" cal fire.
In the center the artillery smoked grenadiers basically covering the whole advance from effective 88 fire.
With that done everything unloaded with .5" cal's on the 88's. None went down that turn.
Germans didn't deploy their ambushes and moved the KT on the right flank as expected. 88's remained silent to keep their gtg, instead of engaging the security sections on 5's.

Next turn we moved in yet more light vehicles into 16" of the 88's and lifted their gtg on the 3rd 4+ attempt. Then the combined fire from 3 security sections killed 2 88's.

German turn was mostly uneventful, with the ambush still being kept (it was the only platoon the Schwerepanzerkompanie had on the table). Tiger fire did burn yet another M20 - but no real losses were sustained.

Next turn we pushed further with a TFA TD platoon down the non-protected right flank, securing a small hamlet from ambush with 2 teams from the Recce platoon.
The combined .5" cal fire destroyed a number of grenadier teams, and the ARV closed in and destroyed the last of the 88's, leaving just the command team which passed the moral check.

Engineers assaulted the Grenadiers followed by 1 security section - the exchange resulted in some of the Germans in the center dyeing for 2 Engineers and 2 M20's. This left just 1 stand of Grenadiers, which meant that they didn't Enjoy the War next turn that much and went home. At that moment most of the center was mostly open held by just 1 KT, observer, 88 command team and an observer.
The German Reserves arrived: a KT and mortar platoon (on the previously designated left flank).88's command team passed it's sole survivor roll.
Tigers maneuvered and engaged some of the security sections at long range, but destroyed maybe 1 utility car.

We retaliated by popping 1 TD Ambush in the forests to mop-up the CiC and 2iC in the the center (and succeeded), and moved the rest of security sections for better ambush positions next turn. At this moment we were pretty much on top of the back-center objective.

At this moment the Germans popped the Pak40 ambush on the very far right, but shooting from an disadvantageous just bailed an M20. However 2 Panzerfaust Trap teams which deployed close to the popped TD's managed to score 2 hits, and destroy 2 Wolverines (ups!).

At this moment the time was running low (our original expectations - were well grounded), and we knew that we only had turn 5 to play - and to win we had to destroy the full grenadier platoon which would force a company morale check on the KG Westfallen that they would auto-fail.
That meant we deployed 4 remaining TD platoons and went to destroy the grenadiers.
We also went with 2 Hellcats to shoot at a flank of 1 KT, that we forced 2 HQ KT's to join in. If the KT would be destroyed then we could rout 3 KT's in 1 shot potentially - in the end I failed the FP roll, and it was just bailed...
Meanwhile the full fury of the Tank Destroyers and 2 subsequent assaults only managed to bring the Grens down to 3 stands. They promptly all passed their Enjoy the War rolls.

Because we have a special rule in place for tournaments that says that doesn't allow the defenders to win if less then 6 turns are played and the attacker contests either objective - the defenders could not hope to win - but could still cause us casualties. And that's what they went for. In the end it didn't make much difference, and we finished the game with turn 5 as a draw.




Third Battle Cauldron versus "MiLord" and "Majster"

US 3rd Aroured Tank Coy RV
HQ Jumbo,
Sherman Platoon
Super Pershing
Recon Platoon
2 Sherman Crocodiles

1st Polish Armored Division Tank Coy FT
HQ 2 Shermans
2 Shermans + Firefly
2 Shermans + Firefly
2 Shermans + Firefly
2 AA crusaders

It was over really quick. We deployed 2 TFA TD platoons and 2 regular TD platoons (1 of them in intimidate ambush), spreading out across our deployment zone, as much as possible to limit enemy deployment. MiLord deployed his Recon dismounted and the Super Pershing in a possition which would limit our ability to flank it. However "Majster" didn't have much luck in his deployment rolls and deployed AA and 1 Platoon of Shermans in our close right corner - basically in a shooting gallery. His command tanks he hid in a forest on another flank.
We spearheaded towards the forest where the Polish HQ was and popped TFA TD's close by. On the other flank we popped 2 TD platoons - one on close and one on long range. In the end we saw the Polish Sherman HQ, Sherman Platoon, and AA crusaders burning (actually 1 AA was left bailed out, but it fled. With no models on the table out of the Polish Tank Coy, there was not even an attackers first turn...

In the end 2 victories and a draw, gave us the second place - after Kuba "Kubbek" Charmo and Oskar "Hajmon" Kida, who had the same battle results, but more small victory points.


I went home satisfied with how we fared. Doubles is an interesting aspect of Flames of War, all the more since there is only just 1 such tournament a year :)

Playing doubles tournament in FoW

Hello everyone. Time has come for an event that I organize every year and is quite popular with the Polish players: Achtung, Macki Wojny doubles tournament (Macki Wojny translates into "Tentacles of War" - since the club is called "Octopus" and the tournament formula is also a legacy of WHFB tournaments under the same name). The reason for this popularity is that it is unique in its format and the rules for playing in pairs are in my opinion quite robust (have been developed for several years). With this in mind, I would like to share the ruleset/format so that anyone who finds it useful can adapt it to their doubles tournament.

Format & Rules
First of all, the format that we have been using for the last 5 or 6 years remained the same throughout the tournament's history. It is 2x1000 pts Late War. I have to say that I have tried a few times to change it (period mostly) but there was so much resistance from the players that I gave up. The reason that they usually provided is that the ruleset is a non-standard one so we should go with the most popular period. At the end of the day - makes perfect sense and my advice to TOs is: use my experience and go LW.

Also, 2x1000 points is the max. Games are scheduled to last for 3 hours but every now and again still, there are tables where the game would be at turn 4-5 when the time is about to elapse. Somehow 2x computing power of a human brain does not mean 0.5x time to process but instead, 1.5x. Do not try to go over 2x1000, trust me :)

Listbuilding rules
1. You can only combine allied+allied and axis+axis.
2. You cannot use the same briefing twice.
3. You are allowed to switch up to 5% of the points between the lists, provided the total does not exceed 2k. This means that you can transfer up to 50 points to your partner's list in case you have some left over and he needs a boost.
4. (optional) No more than 1 named hero and/or higher command per alliance.
5. (optional) No more than 1 air support per alliance.

Game specific rules
1. Special rules of one company do not affect the other - under any circumstances (e.g. 2 US rosters cannot combine their bombardments using "Hit them with everything you've got").
2. Allies rules (p. 70 of the rulebook) are used to determine how to handle the separate companies: warriors, independents cannot join platoons of your partner.
3. Company morale is played according to the rules of fielding multiple companies, described on p. 176 of the rulebook. In simple terms - if one of the companies fails its morale roll, both flee and the game is over. While it might seem punishing at first, tests have proved that this can easily be avoided if one plays smart (e.g. does not place all platoons of one company occupying one of the 2 objectives to make it easy for the opponent to force a morale check).
4. For purposes of scenarios, the alliance is treated as a single company - so only 1 ambush is available normally, when you alternate placing platoons on the table in Fair Fights, you only place one per alliance, etc.
5. You cannot use fortifications of an allied company, with the exception of trenchlines.
6. When you roll for reserves, one platoon per PLAYER arrives from reserves. This prevents games where some platoons never have the chance to take active part in the battle.
7. For situations not covered above, that create a conflict in the rules, THE OPPONENTS decide the outcome. This is often used when determining who is the attacker where the pair has mixed company types. In these cases, the opponents of such an alliance define which company do they compare themselves to.

A thing that needs to be mentioned here is that in Poland we use a customized scoring format. We utilize a system which is similar to scoring in old editions of WH40k, where Victory Points of destroyed friendly/enemy units are mapped against a score between 0-20 (with objectives beeing assigned a fixed value) to determine the outcome of the game. This way, we do not have to worry about the basic nature of the BF system. Still, with some modifications, I am sure that the rules above can be also used for BF scoring.

Overall, I really like what we designed as the tournaments run without major interruptions and the players can enjoy their games in peace :)

Hope you like it and can use it in your tournaments!

Local tournament report - battle 2 (playing Romanian Puscasi list)

After winning one and loosing one battle, the Romanians were still looking forward to their last Encounter with the enemy. This time, the faced it off with the British paratroopers. Fortunately, there was no option for an allied night attack as this was a Fair Fight battle. The enemy forces were an interesting mix. With a good amount of artillery, infantry and zero mobile anti-tank they seemed to have been built with offensive in mind.

British Paratroops
F/V

HQ
Platoon 1: Full paratrooper platoon
Platoon 2: Full paratrooper platoon
Platoon 3: Para engineers (full platoon - around 9 bases)
Platoon 4: 4x 3" mortar
Platoon 5: 4x 6pdrs
Platoon 6&7: 2 gun troops of 75mm pack howitzers + medium battery support (5/2+ in repeats)
Platoon 8: another infantry platoon but can't remember what was it exactly

When I saw this force, I also remembered this article of mine. The big issue with the paras was that they lacked any meaningful direct anti-tank and only relied on repeat bombardment artillery.

In any case, we started off deploying on what was a pretty balanced table. I selected to have an infantry platoon, the Panzers, 47mms and pak40s in my first wave. My opponent put down 2 infantry platoons, one unit of pack howitzers and 6pdrs.

I started off moving my tanks slowly forward towards his howitzers.
First round bombardment by the Brits saw one of the panzers bailed. It failed to unbail next round, was hit by a repeat from the medium battery but fortunately rolled a 6 for the save. Phew...

During the initial rounds, there was not much going on. I could not really risk moving my gunline forward, since templates dropped from the little guns could cause damage which I wanted to avoid at this stage of the game.

The situation started to develop with the arrival of first reserves. I rolled my one die and got a success! Also, my roll for scattered reserves was not so bad since my cavalry was able to deploy 16" from my right flank corner, getting really close to the british observation post position with its first move. At the same time, the Panzers started harassing pack 75s with gunfire, hiding from advancing 6 pdrs behind a hill. The British anti-tank guns had a hard time to get to the tanks since they had to move across open ground and that meant taking some shots from the pak40s over on my left flank. Also, they were already reduced to 3 guns due to a bombing run by my Stuka plane.

On round 4 I already had 3 reserve platoons on the table (again got lucky with the reserve roll). This meant, I could start a heavy push on the right flank with Panzers, an infantry platoon and cavalry. In the meantime, my gunline was slowly making its way forward in the center and left backed up by a platoon of reluctant/trained infantry coming out of reserves. The shooting phase meant some success of Romanian troops again as my pak40s and Schneiders took out 2 more 6pdrs. On the other side of the table, Panzers were causing some casaulties on the exposed 75mm. Shortly after, my cavalry was assaulting a lone observer team to limit the visiblity of the howitzers and get a slight speed bump.

This tactic worked, as in the next turn, it was already assaulting 75mm positions. At the same time a shooting battle between my tanks and British guns was almost completely won by the axis forces. To add insult to injury, there were 2 reinforcements coming for the Brits in a place that was devoid of any major terrain. They were doomed right from the start (event though my opponent admited that he thought I would not send the Panzers to deal with them). They were easy prey for the tank mgs though. Too easy.

In the following turns, with right flank wiped almost to the last man, I switched the focus of my offensive to the left. There was a failed attempt of an assault on my part (with the reluctant/trained troops which managed to kill 1 base, loosing 3 in the process), but still the most effective tactic proved to be shooting everything that moved over on the British side with 2 remaining cavalrymen lifting gone to ground status and disengaging at the first signs of trouble.

To cut the long story short, with such a huge advantage in firepower I managed to kill almost every single platoon the Brits fielded. They tried a last ditch assault but it failed miserably (props for trying anyway).

Victory for the Romanians!!

I think the opponent lost the game with list design and deployment really. For the whole game, my Panzers were pretty much free to move around the board and kill whatever needed to be killed. If I was him, first of all I would not use so many infantry platoons with so little support. Also, I would put the 6 pdrs in a position where they would be able to support the howitzers without moving so much. Placing them on one flank, meant that I could wipe out pieces of his army at a time, rendering the rest completely impotent. Hopefully, this at least is a lesson learned.

With this game, I reached my 8th tournament game with this list, having a very good win ratio of 7/8. I really, really like it, although I think I can make a better one :)

Local tournament report - battle 2 (playing Romanian Puscasi list)

Game two of the tournament was Surrounded. At first I thought I might be attacking, since I reckoned my opponent was playing a finnish infantry company. It turned out however, that he was actually fielding Panssari.

Panssari

F/V

HQ: 2x T-26

Platoon 1: 4x T-28

Platoon 2: 3x T-34/85

Platoon 3: 3x T-34/76

Platoon 4: 2x BA 10M

Platoon 5: Full Pioneer platoon (with flamers)

Platoon 6: 3x German StuGs including a StuH (C/V)

Platoon 7: 2x Pak40 guns + hero + 2x close defense teams

The table had a big bunch of buildings near the center as well as a patch of woods - a perfect hiding spot for the Panzers. I deployed my force more or less in a balanced way, with each infantry platoon sitting on one of the objectives and guns streched to cover possible approaches. Of course, in this mission it is not possible to have the maximum focus on the right objective so I at least tried to have an even split of units.

A few of the initial turns went quite well - he only managed to destroy one of the Pak40 guns but not before it managed to kill a T28 while my planes took out a T34/85 and one of the armored cars. Things were looking quite good for the Romanians. On the other flank, the Panzers were slowly making their way through difficult terrain to help the beleaguered allies.

The next couple of rounds were not as successful. Mg fire from the tanks managed to kill 3 Pak40s and I was only causing bails to the Finnish tanks. I was also forced to sit tight in my foxholes as any movement would mean a torrent of fire. Fortunately, my tanks finally moved into combat positions and fired 8 shots upon the outflanking StuGs causing ... 0 damage... Return fire was punishing as I lost 2 tanks straight away.

I managed to hide from the assault guns and got into a skirmish with 2 remaining T34/76s with some assistance of the T34/85s. Again, my tanks did absolutely nothing but his fire was devastating. I lost 2 more Panzers while the last one decided to run away. So much for tank support.

The bright side of things was that my 47mms managed to kill one of the T34/76 while combined fire of guns and mortars managed to bring the pioneer platoon down to 1 base and make it turn its tail and flee.

On the north, T28s were setting up an assault against my reluctant trained infantry. They managed to get a limited charge in, but lost one tank due to defensive fire from a 47mm. On the next turn, he repeated the maneuver with 2 remaining machines. This time, there were no 47mms to respond as they were brought down to only 2-3 guns and failed their morale check. Still, defensive fire from a panzershreck stopped one of the behemoths while a successful counterattack killed the other one. Romanians consolidated and wiped out the whole platoon. Up until now the battle was really bloody. I lost all my guns and tanks while the Finns lost the T 28 platoon & the pioneers. Also, the two T34 units and the armored cars were reduced to single tanks. The only intact units of the battle were my heavy mortars and the StuGs. Time was running out.

Realizing that, my opponent decided to switch the focus of his attacks. He went all out for the other objective and pushed with his last remaining guys. In the melee that ensued, I managed to destroy the T34/76, the last armored car and most of the Pak40 unit. But I was also in trouble as this combat costed me my heavy mortars and 81mm mortars. I rolled my company morale and failed it, abandoning my positions :( A win for the Finns!!

When we counted up the losses, it turned out that I sacrificed around 80% of my troops while I managed to kill around 70% of the Finns. This truly was a bitter and bloody fight.

What needs to be mentioned is that I normally win against this opponent. This time though, he was the better general, remaining in a calm, efficient command of his soldiers. Congrats!