FoW - FRACAS 2012 Shannon.

Saturday I took part in Bob Pearce's 600 EW FoW tournament, 5 games over a single day, using Free for All and No Retreat  as alternating missions for the five games. It was the first time I have played in a formal FoW tournament....

I'd hoped to take some pictures of the games, but I was concentrating on the games, played at a fast pace, that I didnt have time to take any pictures, and didnt want to hold up my opponents doing so...

Anyway, a quick synopsis:

Companies were small 600 points and didn't have to be typically the minimum 2 platoons... so people were running some interesting things... eg an infantry company with one platoon but adding in tanks and armoured cars and guns etc...

Also the winner per game got a bonus point...

I just went with a normal 'legal' infantry company (not having any EW armoured assets); 2 platoons plus some mortars and an infantry gun platoon, that could deal with thin skinned tanks... I'd hopefully be OK against other infantry, but would struggle as more armoured elements showed up, having little true AT assets of my own...


Game1 vs Tim (a guy from Upper Hutt club I believe who's one of the BF play-testers?) with his small veteran British force; one small infantry platoon and a 25pdr platoon, in Free for All.

Lots of concealing terrain...

Basically I ran over Tim with my two infantry platoons... one attacked his infantry at one end of the board, my assault didn't go in very well but tied him up, he counter attacked but wiffed his dice, leaving that way fairly open, but my main assault against his gun platoon rocked and that was it.
7 - 1 to me...

Game2 vs Andrew Stanton in No retreat. He ran a Polish 'mixed' company (I cant recall whether it was infantry or armoured) ... I got to defend... He also had a funky flank ambush infantry platoon that could come on if it rolled a six, which he did on the first turn! He was right on top of me...

I managed to hold on and my reserves arrived in first turn to fight off this flanking force... I blunted his tank assault with my infantry guns, again long enough to slow his attack on the objective. And when his assault happened I beat it off.... Time was called. I thought I'd lost the game overall, as although I had hung on and he hadn't claimed an objective, he had killed one of my platoons whilst I had killed none of his. But it turned out defender auto wins if the attacker doesn't get an objective... so I got a win.
6 - 2 to me...

Game3 vs Simon Mcbeth and his British tank force with lorried portee guns, universal carriers and light tanks, in Free for All.

I defended gamely and hung on as best I could, I surprised him with mortars knocking out half his portee guns... I killed half his UC's as they assaulted me and hung on.

I knocked out some light tanks with AT rifle team and infantry gun on other flank...

But I was just holding on... I knew I couldn't stop him and no way I could get to attack my objective in his half of board, so I just tried to kill a platoon to get a point, which I did when I assaulted and killed his damaged tank platoon. Then he got the objective...
2 - 6 against... honestly I expected to lose this no matter what, as I knew my force would struggle against tanks... plus Simon is a very talented player anyway...

Game4 vs Damien (one of the guys from the Hutt club) with his French infantry, plus AT guns, Armoured cars and portee guns, in No Retreat.

Having learned from the 2nd game that as the defender all I have to do is hold on for a win, I had high hopes for this game... but despite Damien having a couple of armoured things, he was still classed as an infantry co. so we had to roll off to see who was the attacker, and didnt I damn well roll a 6... so I had to attack...

At first glance it looked good. I got an objective up the front and saw a way to get my infantry towards it through cover nearly all the way... But things started going wrong...

I realised I had misplaced my artillery template and went off trying to find it from the last game... (it turned out much later Simon had picked it up by mistake) thinking I had just lost a $17 piece of plastic I was a bit rattled, then I couldn't find my counters... concentration was now buggered...

Anyway I got close to the sole defending infantry platoon, but Damiens armoured cars and portees turned up almost immediately and covered the approach to the objective. I knocked one out with an infantry gun, but they got knocked out in turn and my infantry was now getting hit and taking casualties despite hiding behind a hedge about 6" from the objective. One infantry platoon broke, and took my CIC with them trying to keep them on the board... realizing I was down to one infantry platoon with which to attack, time was a factor and if I wasn't near an objective by a certain turn I'd lose anyway, and Damiens armoured cars could easily head me off if I tried to go to the other objective, plus they were now pressuring my mortars, I launched a suicidal death or glory charge, and got predictably murdered...
1- 7 against...

Game5 vs Tom from Upper Hutt club, in Free for All. Tom had a French Tank force led by quite thickly armoured tanks, backed by artillery guns, AT guns and armoured cars.

Again as against Simon in 2nd game, I knew this was going to be tough...

I could dig in and wait to die eventually, or I could try and make an interesting game of it, so I chose the latter...

I left infantry guns covering one objective and mortars on the other... infantry in middle so one could go in either direction at need and one to try and attack.

Tom had placed his artillery on one objective, and AT guns on the other...

I saw a chance against his AT guns as the approach was all through concealing terrain...

I pressed on here and got so far... whilst Tom moved up his armoured cars to head them off and pressed forward with his Tanks towards my infantry guns... these I tried to make life hard for with smoke from the mortars...

With a combination of fire I bailed out 2 of his armoured cars (with mortars and AT rifle I think). Tom failed to remount them, and spread the others out to get more shots on the approaching infantry.

Seeing a chance here, with new assault rules and ' 8" bubble ' I got the infantry up and attacked the bailed armoured cars. Tom countered by throwing in his observer. I managed to kill him and claim the 2 bailed armoured cars. Then I consolidated forward into the building the observer had come from. I was another step nearer the AT gun objective...

Tom now had a decision to make... bring the armoured cars back to cover his objective, or press on towards my mortars. He weighed it up and pushed forward.

His tanks were also now in a position to assault my infantry guns, which they started to do, and he claimed them and the objective.

I had nothing left to kill them really, other than trusting to good luck in an assault with infantry at AT2, and his armoured cars were about to attack my mortars. I was maybe a move away from attacking his AT gun objective...

Realising really the situation was lost I capitulated... I could have battled on throwing infantry teams in to try and contest the objective, which could have kept me in the game longer, by perhaps a turn or two if I managed to keep close to the objective, using moves and storm troopers to get near and then hope his tanks missed in either shooting or assault... which might have given me a slim chance to get to and take the AT gun objective... but it was the last game of the day, I was feeling a bit pooped and I think I'd had my fill of FoW for one day...
1 - 7 against

So...
Total for tournament = 17 points.

Not too bad I hope, most likely in the lower half of the table of 34 players, but I don't think I came last and thus avoided winning the wooden spoon ;-)

And it was great, getting some practice in for CTA in two weeks time, both in getting familiar with the rules, and trying to learn to play quick in the tournament setting. Good to catch up with some of the guys on the circuit I am slowly getting to know and meeting faces I haven't seen before.

Oh, Simon McBeth won best General by quite a margin, as did Bede Bailey for best painted.

Well done to all, especially Bob for organising, and many thanks to my opponents for their sporting gamesmanship, and sorry if I remembered any of the above events different to you and didn't mention anything pertinent...

Looking forward to Call to Arms.