Bane of War VI

Not quite back yet from Bane of War VI, but time to take a little time in my hotel room in Dallas to write it up and post pictures. Chuck and I travelled down all the way to Austin Texas to attend this “50” man 1675pt Mid-war tournament.

The location was in many ways perfect. It was held at Camp Mabry inside the Texas Military museum. Quite something to be but a few feet away from real WWII gear. Within their collection a Stuart, Sherman, Hetzer, 251, Kubelwagen, PaK 38 and lots of other items across various eras from the Texas War of Independence up to the modern day.

The tables were setup across two different spaces at opposite ends of the facility. There were about 15 tables in a sort of reception room lined with Texas regimental flags and pictures of various officers and printed histories of their service.

Out on the museum floor there another good 10+ tables and over the course of the two days it was great not to be stuck in just one room and get a little walking in between matches while viewing gorgeous period hardware on the floor.

The tables were a good mix of terrain and theatres, some a little sparse others rich and thick with challenges for the players. Both have their charms and equally test what you bring with you in your company.

I put together a German Schnellsquadron out of east front. It was a refined change of the list I had used for my first tournament. It features 2 four stand platoons of Rifle/MGs, 2 MG stands in the company HQ, 3 Marders, 2 StuGs, a KV-1, 2 BM-10s, a battery of 4 105s and last priority Hs129 support. The Marders I finished quite literally the day before I left.

The prize table was it’s own brand of awesome and those finishing in I’d say the top 15-20 had a heck of a set of things to choose from. Between F.A.T. maps, a Fretts box, Miniature Building Authority buildings, and army/platoon boxes from BF there was lots to be had for those that were above the pack. Still, for those down the list a bit, lots to choose from too!

The first game I played against Amreican armored infantry. It was a fun match which was generally open but with a number of ruined buildings and a town to break up the terrain. The scenario was a fighting withdrawal which features all your hardware starting on table with 1 platoon in ambush if you’re the defender which I was.

The hard part of fighting withdraw is how to defend against one side being over loaded for the bull rush. With 3 objectives on table, the attacker only needs to take one, but must do so before enough turns happen where the defenders removes one he is concentrating on while the defender is also retreating forces.

Here’s my initial setup with my HS129 warming up it’s engines….extra cannon ammo please!

Joe came at my right flank fairly hard. In my initial placement I keep my mobile stuff generally in the middle with fire lanes towards both sides and then my infantry to secure the flank objectives. Joe had to get in close to me as my Hs129 in my first defensive turn immediately started to produce results by brewing up a number of half tracks to take that platoon almost to it’s testing point.

In the course of turn 2 I sprung my marders to also shoot at half tracks, along with the air, and my artillery. This really blunted his attack and by turn 3-4 I’d caused one platoon to flee and a second platoon to be on the brink but with a recce platoon still in good enough shape to try for the close assault to take the objective. Thankfully it didn’t work out but Joe’s M-10s made quick work of my marders just in time for me to bring down air on them and make them have a bad day.

My StuGs meanwhile were dueling it out with some Scotts and Stuarts which they were able to survive with the help of my KV and recon.

When I had to remove my first platoon I took off my BM-10 recon which was down to one vehicle but by that point there was little left for Joe to do as his offensive force was worn down and it ended up being a 5-2 win for me.

The second game I was absolutely crushed 1-6 by an American armored infantry company. Andrew one of the Able Kompanie guys was the attacker in Cauldron. I went down crazy fast in 2 turns. Between a bad choice in initial forces and bad placement he deftly and rightfully took advantage of my mistakes.

He close assaulted from my right flank into my Marders and StuGs and they were completely helpless to do anything against the bazookas. Pulling my infantry would have no effect to contest the objective and that was that.

He dun some mighty powerful learnin’ on me and it was much appreciated.

The third game I played against British commandos in a night game using the Breakthrough mission. The night rules took quite a bit to get used to as if you want to fire, you roll a dice, see what range you can see and either get to execute the attack or not. If you fire, then you are open to be fired at. That was the first night game with Flames of War. Certain something to practice.

The Brits pretty much tried to stay out of possible night time range and wait for their reinforcements to then come in on my right flank.

With bad luck I couldn’t contest the objective effectively when I had suffered the loss of both of my StuGs. While the Recce, Marders and KV were on to help the platoon of infantry I had over on my right, they were being squeezed by British commandos that appeared on my right flank as reinforcements and the strong force that was shift towards my right.

As dawn broke my air started to get into play but just couldn’t quite land an effective attack. The flying tank factor on my HS129 was getting through the defensive fire ok, but the 4+ firepower rolls weren’t going my way as often as I liked.

With turn 6 coming up and trying to play for a point, I couldn’t bag a platoon nor contest the objectives. The third game slipped away with a 1-6 loss to British commandos in a night fight.

End of the day I was standing about 36th so was hopeful to see if I might turn that around a bit Sunday.

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The first game on Sunday we played on a winter table, one that when I had first seen it was hopeful to get a chance to play on it. It was a German on German game tho taking on a German Panzer company in Blind Domination.

Domination is a fun mission as you’re playing several objectives and you have to be generally mobile. Gather up 8 points of objectives and it’s over. We had a 3 pt, 3 2pts and 3 1 point objectives.

My deployment was in two parts. On the left, 2 sets of infantry to come in via the woods with Marders in support and then on my right the heavy metal, Recce, StuGs and KV1 and  last artillery. I ended up going first but it wasn’t a big deal as my opponent had no recce. In domination recce and observers only come on in a preplotted location. This was a huge advantage, by turn 2 I had control of 6 points already.

Turn 2 you get to pull on 2 platoons and turn 3 you’re able to pull on the rest of your force. Again it’s all preplotted as far as where it comes on BEFORE the game starts without your opponents knowledge.

My opponent also had no anti-aircraft assets so my planes were able to come down and attempt to be effective. Unfortunately they were a little less lucky being able to do so save for taking out 2 of his 105 guns on turn 3 when they came on.

My left flank facing armor by itself was in a tight spot, but I was facing mostly Pz IIIs with just a 24″ range. Coupled with use of stormtrooper movement to hide the marders ended up chipping away at 1 Pz III platoon and then with the KV and StuGs the second. If figured if I took care of the Pz III platoons first, that would free up my infantry  to bull rush in while the last remaining StuG platoon of his would be more concerned with my armor.

About this point my opponent started to play for taking out platoons. Failing one of my stormtrooper movements with marders, he got his wish and brewed them up quickly with his StuGs. I didn’t manage to lose anything else tho and ecked out the 5-2 win and a majority of the domination points.

Towards the bottom of the picture is my KV-1 … it didn’t die all weekend and was very successful at thrusting out it’s chest in a “none-shall-pass” sort of way.

Out of the tournament games the last was the most fun I think. While it ended up in a loss and it was the 3rd time having to face American armored infantry it was a complete nail biter.

The table was a north Africa locale with lots of special terrain rules. The scenario was dust up and as fate would have it I was the attacker. I picked the quadrant I felt offered the best deal on defenses. It’s just on the right. Defender being on the far left.

With only 3 platoons to start, I picked 2 infantry platoons and my marders as I figured they would be key to the eventual armored attack coming at my flank. With my recce, KV, StuGs and artillery as the reinforcements that would appear on my opponent’s flank I felt if I could strike quick, I should sort of be at an advantage presuming my air could prep the area.

My flyboys got their wish and were looking at this glorious target for their first mission. It was time to dig out the smoke….

A good portion of the platoon was gone, but they were still on the table. My reserves (mobile, not delayed) would be showing up shortly.

Meanwhile on the opposite side of the table, 4 unescorted shermans would start to give me heartburn. Would one panzerknacker be enough? How about the air?

Thankfully the air did come down and take out two. He wasn’t quite close enough that I couldn’t pull back the two units of infantry so that the attack didn’t get waved off.

Unfortunately that’s when the security platoon / M10s would show up. Just as my Marders were moving into position…. critical error on my part. I SHOULD HAVE WAITED.

On the opposite side of the table, my recce and StuGs finished off the straightlegs that were hit by the air attack earlier. They didn’t move and failed to dig in so machine gun fire while having to deal with concealed and gone to ground, for 5+ to hit but no firepower rolls.

My recce attempting to win the game rushed just the two artillery stands in defense of the objective, an observer team and a staff team. I assaulted, and won and the staff team broke off. Next turn, with nothing else able to react to assault the unlikely of unlikely events happened, where my armored car was assaulted, hit,  with it’s zero top armor vs a tank assault of 2, just needed to not roll a 1 or 2 … and I roll a one. Dead recce, which bought just enough time for the infantry to fall back to a point where it could be in assault range… That’s what decided the game. My KV, StuGs just didn’t have enough time to pepper the infantry (with gobs of bazookas in their hands of course) to prep it for their own assault and therefore take another run at the objective because on the other side…

he would brew up my marders, and then assault into my infantry. My panzerknacker WOULD take out the Sherman platoon as the two that assaulted, one bogged going in and the second got knackered. Still with 4 M10s to then assault I just didn’t have enough to push that back.

Close and very fun 3-4 loss.

I ended up approx middle of the pack and brought home an early war Japanese tank to add to my early war Japanese.

The winner of Bane of War was Chris Fretts, he’s one of the Able Kompanie guys out of the Indianapolis area. They are a really talented bunch to which Chuck and I are aspiring to get our game up to that level of competitiveness.

Over all the American lists performed well. The German lists were down a bit in the standings. Only a small handful played Brits and the Russian players likewise didn’t seem to stand out either in the results.

Looking forward to Bane of War VII!