Guns of August Tournament

Greetings troops,

I was able to get my first tournament under my belt this past weekend.  I carpooled with Steve and his wife Lydia to Williamsburg,VA for the Guns of August tournament.  I had a blast and truly couldn't ask for a better experience.  HUGE thanks to Steve and Lydia for carpooling and such, it was an awesome time.

We arrived around 8 am and began to set up for the tournament.  We had 3 Italy boards and 4 desert boards to battle on.  Jon, a fellow player came and set up a beautiful board for demo games if anyone wished to play and learn.  

One, if only downside of the tournament was the no show of 6 players.  Unfortunately it hurt the axis to allies ratio as we had 8 allies and 4 axis.  I was able to get one game against axis forces and then had 1 british player and 1 american.  But I still had a great time.

 The first game I had was against Bob, running Axis forces.  The first mission was free for all.  Both side went to work and pushed forward.  I was able to bail his lone Tiger tank with my M10s.  The Tiger stayed out of action due to failed bail rolls for almost 80% of the game.  I wasn't able to take it out of action though I placed many holes and dents in it.  My Stuarts surged in the middle and was taken out by Panzers fairly quickly.  My infantry had tanks push them left and right along with rockets raining down on my head.  It was a good fight and Bob won 5-2

Next game was against Mike and his British playing Hold the Line (No Retreat).  I got the unlucky roll of being the attacker.  Mike had 8 platoons, 4 had to be in reserve, 2 had to be in ambush and the other 2 placed on the board.  I had to enter the small side of the board with tons of open land to get across to engage, with the knowledge that 2 ambushes were out there.  Mike had his 8 gun battery placed and a team of heavy mortars.  He also had air support as well.  NEEDLESS to say I was slaughtered getting across the open terrain.  His airplanes couldn't miss, his artillery was on fire and his mortars were on fire as well.  I had my Stuarts ambushed and lost 2.  By the time I was able to get anything within range I was able to take some units out but not anything platoon size.  I lost 6 - 1 ....

My last game was against Aaron and his Americans.  It was an awesome game.  We dealt each others numerous moral checks !  Aaron passed 3 in a row just for one unit.  I was able to take out his contesting Shermans with my M10s who came out of reserve to assist.  I also rolled a reserve roll and brought in my Stuarts to help assist in contesting an objective.  The game was a blood bath .... 4-3 loss to Aaron.

Considering myself  humble, I was awarded the Best Sportsman Award which was a section of M10s ! I thank all whom voted for me.  I had a blast and met some great people .... I am looking forward to the next tournament for sure.

Well keep painting ..... and rolling dice !

Joe

Homeland Book Review

Greetings Troops,



I just finished my latest book choice.  I picked it out of the bookshelf of books I have lined up to read.  Its sad that I have so many books but I store the ones I have read and place the ones I haven't on the book shelf.

Homeland by R.A. Salvatore is the first of three books in the The Dark Elf Trilogy.  The books follow Drizzt Do'Urden, introducing his beginning life stories before leading into his first book appearance, The Crystal Shard.

Homeland follows Drizzt's unique situation and somewhat confusing childhood as he learns of the dark elfs ways and at the same time does not seem to understand and act like his brothers.

I am currently going to continue with the series and then jump into his other books.  Good reading ....

Till the next post .......

Joe

Bring in the Support ....

Greetings troops,

I was able to sneak out the other morning and prime some of my models I assembled the last couple of days.  The heat has not been good for priming lately so I had to take advantage of the "dog" alarm clock.  I was able to prime 3 stands of snipers, M10 HQ/jeep, M10 Carbines/jeep and 2 M10 GMCs.

My glider/rifle company is coming along fast.  I should have them completed this week as far as paint goes.  Next will be the basing and matte'ing.  They should be coming along great for Guns of August.  Next up is the pioneer platoon and Sherman tank dozer to be assembled and primed.  And then of course EW FOW is coming out .... oh lord the hobby addiction.

Any one looking towards EW FOW ? If so ..... let me know which direction your leaning.  I am looking at the Germans so I can roll into Russian after France .....

Till the next update ....

Joe

Random bits ...

Hello Troops,

I would like to welcome our newest to the ranks.  Welcome Paintpig ..... take your spot on the firing line.

I also added "LIVE FROM LPG" as a different take on blog count and whom visits.  Check it out.

Model wise the heat has placed a strain on priming and matte'ing the finished stands before placing grass and bushes on them.  I need to get some pictures up so you guys can see em.  I am also going to take a leap and try out army builder primer paint to see how it speeds up or slows down production on vehicles for FOW.  I will have a use and review on it soon ....

I hope everyone is having a great summer and keep the hobbies rolling !

Joe

Cutting the chord, leaving the nest ....

Greetings Troops,

I was able to get to Steve's this week for a FOW game.  I was commanding a US detachment while Sean was leading a German detachment.

The title reflects the theme for the evening.  Steve was allowing Sean and I to run the game without him in the room, thus as you will "cutting the chord".  I am always been one to learn by doing.  Mistakes being made and running into "I don't know ... lets research it" examples have always been a good learning model for me.  There was some questions asked via "radio - aka asking out loud" but I feel Sean and I did really well.

Steve allowed my units to total about 1700 points.  I am trying to find a combination of units for the Guns of August Tournament so I had a decent mix of infantry, artillery, recon and tank destroyers.  I was not able to take the engineers this game since they are point heavy.  Sean had approximately the same number of points of Germans.

Sean is a British player and a fellow NOOB so the game was a great learning experience for both of us.  The game was Free for All.  We both placed our objectives and units with little to no problem.  The board was Afrika terrain with a moderate sized village in the middle of the board, North from my side of the board.  I had hills on my East and West flanks.  East flank I had my artillery battery of 105s placed.  The West flank had a rifle company, mortar squad, a platoon of Stuarts.  The middle of deployment area had my platoon of M10 tank destroyers, rifle platoon and a recon platoon.  Sean had only tanks, all deployed outside of the village to my north.

The battle itself went fairly smooth as Sean and I had the basic down fairly well.  We had to look up some basic stats on vehicles to help with shooting and such ... no biggie.  We also researched at times transports and disembarking (my recon troops), assaults (especially tank assaults with infantry).  I was very happy with the overall game since we both seemed to have basic knowledge down smooth.  The rest will come with time.

Sean won 4-3, all objectives were either uncontested (no one in the area) or contested (I learned from my past loss with Jamie when I didn't push infantry to contest an objective).  Sean pulled the win due to his spanking of my Stuart platoon (4 out of 5 kills, remaining failed morale and fled).  My only kill was a Panzer N thanks to my artillery.  I did have numerous bails on his tanks but the hardcore Germans returned to their tanks and had revenge.

Things I learned or Contemplated ... 

My thoughts on the battle were pointed towards the future list I want for the Guns of August.  

My tank destroyers will stay in the list.  I like their Antitank and range.  My learning lesson was not to let them get in close with the Panzers.  The Side Armor of 2 is just too fragile for dirty work.  Sean's Panzer platoon was dancing hard with them but lit up 3 out of 4 in one round which made a mess of my antitank capabilities.

My artillery battery of 105s (which I love artillery) was not able to range in most of the game.  Although when it did I was able to bail a total of 2 tanks and killed one.  Not shabby .... they can stay.  I may look at different artillery options but they are a vital part of my playing style.

Recon was new to me.  Since all pieces were on the board, no ambushes were planned for them to find.  But with their awesome movement distance they are good at zipping to objectives or vital points and deploying troops to dig in.  I will have to work them more to decide how I will best use them.  In the game we played they were playing a cat and mouse game with a platoon of Tigers.  

My platoon of Stuarts were not too bad.  Good movement and plenty of "dancing" up close Sean's Panzers.  I was able to bail a couple of us tanks before getting smeared in the last couple of rounds.  The last tank failed his morale and ran.  Overall ..... not too expensive and decent unit.

The rifle infantry had a hard time.  One platoon was moving towards the village and had no contact.  One was in a tank assault hell on my eastt flank.  No results and 4 losses ..... pushed back. The third platoon was concealed in the woods near an objective, and moved assault launch stage in the last round.  This in turn allowed them to contest the objective that Sean was moving towards. I may look into adding more bazookas to the platoons for punch power.  We will see as I play them against more tanks and infantry.

Here are some pictures of the game .... enjoy.

Deployment of US forces viewing from Westt flank

West flank Infantry VS Tanks firefight

First victim of the evening

The beginning of the end for the Stuarts

Destruction the M10s

Have a great weekend all .....

Joe

Extend the fighting positions ....

Hello Troops,

You heard the order correctly .... extend the fighting position line to include 3rd squad of 1st platoon, Able company.  The three new stands have just completed 1st platoon.

As previously posted, I have changed up my production scheme to allow my painting to be more effective and time saving.  I am happy to say that my painting hasn't been effected and looks good.   I was able to get 2 colors to the models in one sitting. So I will keep the current SOG for assembling and painting production.

I would have pictures to post but the HOT weather we have had lately is not allowing me to get outside to matte the figures before placing grass and such on the stands.  I promise they are done though !

Next up ...

I have a M10 tank destroyer platoon in the building stage.  Also in the planning stage is an Engineer platoon and a recon platoon.  These will add some fantastic punching power to my glider troops.

It's all coming along.



On other gaming fronts, I have a Star Wars RPG game ready to roll.  The Spirit Nicole's crew has a tough rescue mission ahead of them.  We weren't able to meet Sunday so this will be the mission I had planned for them.  I am gonna get an Afrika game for FOW tonight, to get some ideas for lists for the Guns of August tournament in August.

I also added a building/painting que to the side bar.  Just a little something to show progress of my painting and building for you the reader.

This briefing is over.  Relax, stay cool and sound off through the chain of command if you need anything.

Joe

Happy Birthday America !

Greetings Troops,

Happy Birthday America ....

God bless those whom have given all for her freedom, those who served and those serving as we speak.

Have a happy holiday and be safe !

Joe