Chuck, Matt and I made the long haul down to Indy in order to participate in the Able Kompanie Christmas Tournament at Games to Die 4 in Indianapolis. It was a 1600 pt mid-war affair with limited list options. Everything had to come out of North Africa and on top of that none of the base Africa lists were open, you had to pick a the Sicily list. I very much love focused tournaments like that.
Here’s a couple of my STuH42s I started on Monday the week of the tournament. Yeah you do crazy stuff like that sometimes.
The wheel of doom that would decide rounds 2 and 3. They ended up changing what was on the wheel so the pickings were not this sparse!
The first round was advertised as a domination game so that influenced my list selection. For a 1600 point list usually I pitch recon and throw the extra points at improving or getting that good core platoon upgraded. No going with that idea. And since the Africa lists were off the table, no playing my Italians as the only Italian list of a fusilier list. Conscripts … err .. no. Just no.
I picked Panzergrenadiers, 4 stand platoons each. I picked up 4 Pz IV F1, as I figured I could use them in a dual role, indirect artillery (weak but functional) and then as something that can engage light tanks and infantry. Next I picked up STuH42s, 3 with their breakthrough guns. 2+ FP … yummy! Next I picked up a couple of 2cm AA guns on the Sd10s and last priority HS129b. The HS only has cannon but as a flying tank I figured it was effectively a once a turn artillery without having to worry about having it come on for the scenarios when you have to select what your reinforcements might be. 6 platoons all total.
First game I played against a formation of American Armor. Lots of Shermans and infantry in half tracks. It was a domination game where you’re playing for areas on the table and each of those areas has a point value. 12 points all total and the biggest value area was 4.
Turn 1, recon or akin comes on so I brought my 222/223 recon platoon on my left flank. I brought down my air and they managed to take out a recon platoon and the 2iC. Turn 2, stuarts and more infantry came on along with what was his command Shermans. I brought on both my Pz IVs and my StuH42s. I picked on and brewed up a couple of Stuarts. On my left flank a recon battle was brewing which I figured I would have an even chance of pushing the Americans back. Air came down yet again but nothing too interesting as far as results. Turn 3 I brought on my Infantry and he brought on his Shermans and artillery. I used my air to take out a Sherman. The recon battle wasn’t going too well but only had taken a bail out result. My STuHs I started to roll forward on my far right flank and my PzIVs just on the inside. My overall plan was to push into the middle, take the 4 pt position and use the STuHs to turn the flank where they could use their long 32″ range capability to snipe targets. On turn 4, artillery would come down on my Pz IVs, and as fate would have it, they would bugger out. That pretty much killed the game at that point. Likewise my recon cards and AA guns which was sort of holding down my left flank until one of my infantry platoons could get over there and deployed started to go badly. His recon broken behind my lines and then shot up my trucks full of infantry moving into position. Poop. O well 2-5 loss. The guy I played would go on to take 3rd.
Next game I would take on another group of US Armor, this time with a boatload of Stuarts, mobile artillery, recon and lots of half tracks. This time it was a XXXX game. With my mobile reserves as defender I set my Pz IVs up to cover my flank as my one vehicle option and then had my infantry start up without vehicles. Turn one I discovered my very critical misstep I had my PzIVs way too far forward. (Picture above from turn 1)
I should have put them back behind stone walls and make the stuarts move into me. I was too greedy using the concealment and gone to ground in cover. So as a result I was having to deal with Stuarts behind my lines. I should have had one turn with full rate of fire. Lesson learned. This opponent also had way more AA and effective AA so while I could come down my flying tank often would be turned away. There was lots of carnage but it was basically over in 3 turns, tho my STuHs did come on and start to take out some targets, but not enough…. 1-6 loss.
Game three was against another German player. The mission was Hold the Line. We rolled to see who was the attacker and I ended up winning. Probably the only thing I won all weekend :-). He choose to have his 88s in ambush, placed his one Tiger, dropped some nebelwerfers, way back in the middle, and set his warrior teams. I setup my Pz IVs and Recon on my left flank to run the side, the STuHs on the right to face / block off the Tiger and infantry in the middle with the idea of jumping building to building to ultimately get to the closer of the two objectives. In theory if my feign on the left worked out, it would draw out his ambush or it could get to the objective in the back but that was a long shot given the distance it all needed to cover with reinforcements coming. I tried repeatedly to bring down my air and use my STuHs to get in closer to the Tiger but only managed to bail it twice through the entire game.
On the left I did get the 88s to come out which put a stop on my forward rush towards an otherwise undefended objective. The 88s with their extra crews made quick work of what I had with the help of the rockets, and a little poor rolling on my part.
In the end my infantry was able to push up and take control of the house the tiger was next to but they weren’t in any shape to assault it. With the wave of German reinforcements I’d get pushed out of that building and without bailing the tiger getting the objective on the right wasn’t possible. Oddly the tiger ace skill was a 2+ on motivation rolls and as fate would have it for the bail results, my opponent did roll exactly a 2 each time. Without the skill I could very well have won.
While my overall tournament results stank, (worse showing ever for me) these aren’t the kinds of things that can let you down from a tournament experience. Gotta just pick yourself up and look forward to the next one.
The location was in theory going to be capped to 24 participants. I think they ended up with 18? Honestly given the size of the play area and how cramped we were, I’m not sure how in the heck they could have fit 24.
Would I drive 10 hours one way to take in a tournament? Umm yes, given the quality of play. Doing that kind of road trip I’m pretty selective tho. The Able Kompanie guys hold lots of the top spots in the nation and rightfully so. Look forward to seeing them again sometime.