Skirmish With the Kiddo

 My son and I played a quick game and had a bit of fun, still trying to teach him some of the basics.

My infantry and Hetzers charge forward at his lightly defended lines.

Luke moves his Panthers and infantry forward.

Panthers arrive to defend against my bold attack, and hold.

VetCon - 2022

NorCal Flames of War has dwindled down a bit these last few years, but one of our members wanted to start a new convention in Auburn, as he was soon moving out of state and wanted to celebrate a bit first.  I agreed to run a three-round Late War Bulge event, and ended up playing to make the numbers even.  I ran German Panzergrenadiers and in Round One I was matched up against Sam and his US Engineers.

Sam's Stuarts blunt my attempt to sneak my halftracks across the rails.

A series of assaults saw me make progress into the town, but his numbers held out.

I nearly had it early, but his engineers held long enough for the rest of his reserves to enter the town, and I just didn't have the numbers to push him out.  1-8 loss, as I could't quite break a second unit.

In Round Two I'd face Dave and his British Rifle Company supported by Archers and AMTRACS.

Open sights to engage the enemy!

My defensive line

I quickly was reminded that a single unit of heavy guns isn't enough as the Archers and Fireflys took out my Panzer IV/70s early.  It was only a matter of time before the flamethrowers and MG toting AMTRACS put a hurt on me. 1-8 loss, and we went to have beers!

Round Three I faced Russ and his British Armoured Cars in a bit of a wild one.

Most of the fighting took place in this small wood

Russ took the objective eventually, a solid win for him.

Another 1-8 loss saw me firmly in last place, and that was mostly due to my poor list design. Once the PanzerIV/70s were gone, I couldn't even stop armored cars, really.  Fun times all around though!

CarrierCon 2021 - USS Hornet

 NorCal hosted a small skirmish tournament aboard the USS Hornet in the ward room, and I brought a recon force with Pumas, backed by Hetzers. In Round One I played Chris and his British Armoured Cars.

Pumas supporting infantry as the approach the objective.

Hetzers managed to destroy all of the carriers and took the objective.

I won that first match with 7-2, and would play Mike and his Americans next.

Mike brought real tanks and they were scary!

My infantry held the woods vs. US Rifles.

Once my Hetzers arrived they engaged the Shermans, and I was able to claim the objective.

An 8-1 win in the second round put me in a tie for first going into the final match against Wyn and his US tanks.

The objective in the center had our attention, and we had quite a fight over it. 

Had my Pumas or Hetzers actually hit anything, I might have won the game, but as it stood, I took a 3-6 loss.  I still managed second place in the event, and had a great time!

Teaching the Game

 My 10-year-old son wanted to learn the game so we took the opportunity and put a few tanks on the table.  His Shermans won the day!

Missed enough side shots to matter!

Brief Game at Great Escape Games

 Played another quick game vs. Johnny the other day to try out a Grenadier list and quickly realized that poor quality Americans can bring a lot of firepower to the table.  It wasn't even close... Still fun though!

Looked about even until the reserves showed up

Mine never did! 

Skirmish at Game Kastle

 Russ and I got together to try out a 30 point skirmish format for Flames of War with a pair or recon armies.  Smaller table and cheaper units, quite a bit of fun!

British Armoured Cars vs. German Aufklarungs

Carriers try to assault the infantry...

But the Germans win the day!

Game Day at Ogre's Den

Six of us came to check out a newish shop (to us, anyways) and were able to get a few games of Flames of War in, 110 points of Late War.  I wanted to try out a Bagration Panzer IV list and Wyn had some US Armor.  We rolled up a Fighting Withdrawl with the Americans defending.  Nothing is painted yet, apologies!

Panzer IVs concentrate on the left side of the board, but it is heavily mined.

My Panzergrenadiers and some supporting units converge on the town, but the entry is mined as well.

The infantry manage to get into the town, but become Pinned Down for the next five turns! (They just wouldn't roll a 4+) and the attack stalls.  The 2cm Flak and some supporting artillery put tons of fire, into the Americans, but it isn't enough by itself.

Wyn's large platoon of 76mm-armed Shermans come from Ambush and deal some serious damage, but eventually the Panzer IVs get them.  The other Shermans nearby get the rest of my Panzers though!

Wyn was able to hold my attack off, though I feel like I had a chance.  I've never tried Late War armor before and thought it might be fun, and I wasn't disappointed! The game was pretty even, and if my troops could have unpinned I would have had a chance to capture the game.

Artillery Observation Vehicles

 I finally finished a Panzer III observer tank that I originally built and base-painted about 10 years ago.  I went ahead and painted a Sd. Kfz. 253 observer half-track too, just in case.  I'm not sure why anyone would take it instead of the tank though, since they're the same cost.

This is an old resin kit and needed to be converted.  I started with an old Panzer III E and modified the mantlet, adding a MG and false gun barrel.

Simple green line camo so I can easily use it for Mid War or Late.

This is also resin and received a basic dunkelgelb to match my Mid War Grossdeutchland force.

Late War Game With Ziv

 I got to play a game with my friend Ziv not too long ago, and I hadn't seen his since the Before Times.  We had a great game of Soviets vs. Germans, and we just played Free For All.

Our scene of battle

The Panthers finally seemed to have the upper hand against Soviet tanks!

Late War Event on USS Hornet

There was a Late War 105 point event on the USS Hornet last month, four rounds over two days so that we all had a chance to check out the museum.  I brought an Armored Panzergrenadier list and didn't expect much out of it, since I had only played once since the pandemic hit. 

Here's my list:

In Round One I faced a British force with six Churchill Crocodiles and a bunch of Achilles.

My opponent ran the Crocs up and sat in front of my troops and blasted flamethrowers at me until I died.  
I was able to destroy the Universal Carriers.

I tried to get flank shots, since nothing in my army could kill them, but it wasn't happening.  1-8 loss.

Crocodiles are never fun to face, and even less so when only your Panthers can kill them and they never arrive from reserve.  Round Two was against a Finnish all-infantry force.

Finns preparing for an assault.  1-8 loss, but I felt better about it.

I managed to hold out for a bit, but once they unpinned it was repeated assaults from multiple angles.  Again, my reserves failed arrive in time to matter.  Round Three saw me matched up against a very new player with US Rifles.

My infantry were aggressive, and I was able to do some damage against the Rifles in the center.

The Marders managed to keep the M10s busy from long range.

My opponent's main attack came at my artillery and PaKs, but I held them off.  Time was called as my reserves arrived, 2-2 draw.

If I had gotten more than four turns I feel like I could've gotten a win in this one, but it wasn't to be...

In Round Four I faced another Finnish army, this time with mostly tanks.

Panthers holding the center, while the infantry advance.

For the first time all weekend I didn't have reserves, and it showed.  The Panthers went to work, destroying T-34/85s at range, and T-26s up close as they tried to flank.  Casualties were high on both sides, but I finally got a win, 4-3.

The event was fantastic, and I never expected to do very well.  Panthers are overpriced in V4 and I only brought them because my Panzer IV/70s weren't painted yet, but the rest of the list did ok.  I learned that you need to have a good plan for reserves, and a plan for killing Crocs, but this game continues to feel like a giant Rock-Paper-Scissors match.