Changing Lists in the Digital Age

So this post has been inspired by a little thing I noticed when I was online the other day. If you go back to my list review of Berlin (digital) you'll get this about Munchberg

'We get two lists here, the first is a CV panzer list - with IR equipment! So we have all those nachtjager nightlight rules! And thrown into that is a far better list IMHO! Your core platoons are panthers or tigers - though the tigers have no skills and no IR. the other option in a combat platoon is 4 StuG late - with one upgradable to a hetzer, and another to a 4/70.'

Well I went to fiddle with this list the other day, and it had changed! you could now take StuH42's and also Panzer 4/70's in this slot. So following that I went to the forums, and there was loads of chatter about other options which could/should be in some of these lists (look at this thread for further reading)

Army Collecting

Hey all

Coxer back with some more musings on wargaming. This time it's about collecting your army.

Over the last month I've painted up 

Scout platoon for my UAR 

T26's for my Finnish

Kleinpanzers, kv1's Flammpanzer for my Germans.

And to me these three all show the different ways in which you can collect an army.

That specific list. This is how I would imagine most people start 

an army - and it's how I started my Germans/French/UAR - you come up with a list, bye the list and well - that's it! It's about working it out before you bye, whether by rule of cool or a tournament researched list - you buy what you need and leave it at that - quick efficient simple. The problem I always get with this approach is that every time I do this it ends up getting changed with play testing, but if you want to copy a net list then this really works for you. 

Winner's Recent Mad Behaviour

Mornin' all, Winner Dave at your service.

Driving to work has given me more time for reflection, "Damn, I'm hot", "Adam's awful" and "I wish I'd had breakfast" are among some of my favourites.  I also end up thinking about painting...a lot!

Coupled to this I rarely manage to listen to the interviews Ben manages to do before we record, so I end up listening to them at the same time as you guys.  So, I sat down to do some painting (Soviet Infantry) and after listening to "News from the Front" I remembered there were a couple of interviews I needed to listen to.  As I was listening, diligently applying Black Grey to the boots of my infantry, I heard Evan say something along the lines of "I hate having to do the same thing over," and that struck a chord with me.  Now I don't know about you, but I got the feeling Evan may have experienced that scenario in a recent time frame to the interview and he needed to get that off his chest.

The Infamous FJs...just begging to be re-based

Like Evan, I hate having to do the same thing a second time and currently it seems this can be extended to I hate having to paint another couple of armies so I can play early war and mid war again. I wouldn't mind if I already had armies for those periods and I was simply extending them or painting new armies as a slow burn project, but because I'd made them a necessity, it just felt like work.

Are There Too Many Auto Attacking Lists In Late War?

I'm sitting here having come back from our very enjoyable one day event in Portsmouth, but there is one thing which is really bugging me from it. I was playing a tank list and defended in a three games. The reason for this - they were all auto attack lists.

Actually if you look at another Late Late War Event (LLW) - the breakthrough assault one day event back in April, I ended up playing another two Auto Attack list, but as was also an auto attack list I attacked (say that quickly!)

The Joy Of Tournaments

I'm in a warm fuzzy place with regards tournaments at the moment.

So far this year I've been to three two day events, and placed respectably at all three, I've done two one day events, and have another one next month - somewhere new I've not been to before - and I think is their first FoW event. And on the horizon is a campaign weekend and of course the ETC, alongside other events.

I'm a big proponent of tournaments, as I think they bring so much to any wargame. The obvious one is its competitive - who is the best general. Whether this is fought over at a local one day event or at Corrivalry and other big national events - it really gives you that chance to show just how good you are to your peers. I'm not lying in saying that this is my favourite part of gaming, I always go to have a good time, and of course to win (remember 'do or do not, there is no try!) I'm becoming more a fan of the local one day event for this now as well, it builds up the banter and the comradeship amongst the gaming community, as it's not just about winning, it's about coming higher than your mates!

The Cohesive Look for an Army.

Hi all

I'm currently on a bit of a mission doing a load of German units - the reason why - got an airbrush, my paintings improved and I hate a 'piecemeal army'. What do I mean by piecemeal - well it's an army without cohesion, because personally that's what makes a collection of models an army to me.

A bit of history - I've always considered myself an average painter - what that means now when I consider that I'm a better painter now than I used to be can be interpreted in many ways. However the point is this, individually I never thought my units were impressive, an entire army of them, in a cohesive display was! So since then my aim was to have an army in which no individual model is amazing, the force in full display together looks impressive.

The Panther - A New Prespective

I'm sitting here after 10 tournament games in 2015, and however many practice games, and I'm coming to the same conclusion repeatedly - panthers still have a place in a tournament list.

In all those games the Panthers have survived pretty much intact in every mission - in only one have I lost two, and in 7 all three survived!

Five Shades of Panzer

Hi all Coxer here again with more ramblings for you, this time about LW panzer lists.

The ongoing problem I have is this, 'getting what I want, for the points that I play, and covering all the bases, is tough!' I'll start by going though my 'methodology' on a list, and then look at how that plays into the construction of a list.

Some of my new panzers, and other stuff I've been working on/updating

I look at LW panzers as a real rapier list, you do not have the luxury of hitting lots of places - you lack the numbers, your main aim is to hit hard and fast in one area and punch a hole though - whether that's to the objective or the soft underbelly of the artillery park. 

The Redemption Of The HMG

Hi All

I like to work on the principle that I'm always right. And many of you will remember back in one of our podcasts we slated the HMG. We were right at the time, however experience has changed what 'right' is - and I have to say I now love HMG'S!

I've changed my mind as the environment in which I play has evolved. When I slated the HMG it was after my experiences of using them in British lists in LW. They were unable to combat attach, I never found a good time to use their bombardment rule (which was not available to the para's anyway!) and in comparison to the 6pdr less versatile - all of that is still true.

Getting Great at FoW - Part 3

Mastering FoW - Hi everyone, I thought I would display my arrogance finally and talk about being 'great' at FoW. Am I 'great'? No, am I better than I was this time last year definitely - and over the course of the tournaments and games I've played I've developed a few insights into getting really good at this game. The areas I think you need to master are 'lists' , 'rules' and 'Implementation'. So here's another trio of articles exploring these.

Implementation - so what do I mean by this? Well I'm going to sound like a broken record, but you need to play games. But I'm going to change this slightly, you have got to play games out of your comfort zone. What do I mean by that? Well I do not think to be really good you can play the same way repetitively. 

Getting Great at FoW - Part 2

Mastering FoW - hi everyone, I thought I would display my arrogance finally and talk about being 'great' at FoW. Am I 'great'? No, am I better than I was this time last year definitely - and over the course of the tournaments and games I've played I've developed a few insights into getting really good at this game. The areas I think you need to master are 'lists' , 'rules' and 'Implementation'. So here's another trio of articles exploring these.

Lists

It is important to realise that there are better lists than others, but bringing a good 'net' list  will not mean you auto win. 

Getting Great at FoW - Part 1

Mastering FoW - hi everyone, I thought I would display my arrogance finally and talk about being 'great' at FoW. Am I 'great'? No, am I better than I was this time last year definitely - and over the course of the tournaments and games I've played I've developed a few insights into getting really good at this game. The areas I think you need to master are 'lists' , 'rules' and 'Implementation'. So here's another trio of articles exploring these.

How to Camp Properly

Having been playing a lot of infantry armies, I've realised more and more that there is an 'art' to camping. As much as it is about hunkering down on the objective, you can't just do that and expect to win.

The reason for that is initiative. This was really brought home to me in the first game of my MW adventure at the BA Mid War One Dayer. I was facing off against a Mixed Tankovy Battalion and realistically I had nothing which could hurt him except my Heavy Mortars and AT guns (all two if them). Now at the same time he couldn't just roll into me due to close defense teams and weak side armour on T-60's etc. But he was able to dictate the game fairly easily by just sitting off and slowly wearing my army down before he assaulted. And this has been what I've realised I do with all my other defensive lists - I have something that will take the initiative back! I'll take you through my favourite examples of this below

Is 1800pts (or 1900pts) Late War Too Big?

Hi all thought I'd bring my thoughts on the new LW points level to the discussion table.

Firstly this appears (at time of writing) to be the new points level - at the Welsh open in June they said this is their plan for 2015, and corrivalry are going to 1800 too.

But, is it too much? 

Auto Defend Lists and the Meta

Hi all,

it's been a while since I rambled but here's a thought which has been playing on my mind - will auto defend lists change the meta?

I'm certain many of you will rightly point out fortified lists have done this for years. But the difference there is the points for static fortifications, and their deployment before objectives. This time the points are just going on the army and nothing else.

Early War Italians and the Welsh Open

Hello everyone!

I've been busy for the last month since I went to Brighton for the awesome event there but I've found the time, here and there to get ready for my next event: The Welsh Open!

Off we go to war again!

There are lots of people going up from Bournemouth (as Robin Spence mentioned on the above Battlefront forum thread, nine of us) and quite a few people I met at Breakthrough Assault II and Brighton Bash so I'm looking forward to some awesome games with everyone, even everyone I know as I've not had a chance to play many games at all yet. (No early war games at all!)

A day out at Wessex Wargames Club!

My First Trip to the Wessex Wargames Society!

So with work happening more and more in Southampton, and me not being able to get many games of anything in at the moment I started looking for a club to visit when i'm free and not busy in my hectic life and i came across this one!

The Wessex Wargames Society

They have a good website that gives all the information needed about the club here.

and a old forum for chatting where people responded to my requests for information within hours here!

and a newer forum also accessible from the main website above. Both forums seem to interact nicely with my android phone too so i could browse and organize games on the go!

The building the club meets at with really good parking and disabled access. Inside it's nice and airy and the club stocks a tuck shop for snacks and drinks over the day.

Panzerfaust v PIAT

Hello,

You know that weird place you end up in, when you sit looking at youTube videos for too long, you try to stop but you end up thinking "just one more."  This happened to me a while ago and I ended  up watching "Top 6 Weapons we wish we hadn't invented" or something like that.  What stood out in this video was that HEAT rounds were featured as one of the six.  I didn't know much about HEAT rounds, so during a quiet period at work I had a sneaky look at what they are and how they work.  I found some good resources,which explained it all and lead onto me reading about panzer fausts and PIATs.

With my interest peaked, I thought about the abstraction of these weapons into a stat line within our favourite wargame...so that's what I'm going to do now...compare the two with respect to their stats in FOW.

Concepts of Improvement

Hi there,

Adam here once again with my third article on getting better at FoW. I think I was going to talk about one paper I'd read when I initially came up with this idea, but other things have become more interesting so I've scrapped that idea.

Instead I'm going to look at my progression from a FoW novice to an 'expert' (or maybe less of a novice) and one reason I think this has happened.

Specialism vs Generalism

Hi all 

I'm back with my second article on improving at FoW and this time it's a more practical affair.

I said in my first article I think that I am a better FoW player than I was a year ago, yet I'm not completely sure about that! The reason for that being is that my 'best' army - my British para's I don't use as much now - and when I do use them, don't find them performing as well as I remember!