Monday, February 18, 2013

Showcase Comics 1780 LW Tournament


So this weekend I went up to Showcase Comics for a 1780 LW tournament. While I was originally planning to take some British Armored Cars, the tournament kinda fell out of my mind until a few days prior. So I posted up a poll on which army I should bring, and guess what won out!


So, a few things to note. Yup, that's the Polish Home Army Militia army. Pretty sweet, huh? And yep, that's a 1635 pt list for a 1780 tournament. I was planning on bringing some snipers with me, but I left them at home. And playing against mostly armor all day, they wouldn't have done much anyway. But, it's a bit outclassed at 1780. It struggles just to reach that point level even taking everything I can. Ideally, I'd have another AK platoon, and a HMG platoon, probably dropping the Panthers, but I haven't modelled them up yet, and my 3rd and 4th street barricades are still unpainted.

All in all, this was a poor decision. Now don't get me wrong - I do LOVE playing this list. Modelling it was a blast (it's made up of partisans, women, children, dogs, and other sweet things!), it looks super sweet, and it's not as awful as it looks on paper. But as much fun as I (and my opponents) have playing this list, when you're traveling six hours to a tournament, taking a list where you just get kicked in the balls for 2.5 hours a game was probably not the best use of a great tournament opportunity.

Round one I played Ed, who was playing some 11th Armored Brit Shermans. The mission was Fighting Withdrawl, and I was defending. I set up the big blob in the center, with a Kedyw platoon on each flank objective. Ed deployed his entire force on one flank, as to be expected. I did end up attempting to move the Kedyw platoon on the far flank over, but they never made it in time. I ambushed the Pak40s, but in hindsight, probably should have ambushed a Kedyw platoon. Ed won with a 5-2.

Some Kedyws on the far objective

Kedyws on the objective that was forced

AKs in the middle!

My lovely trained RoF1 panthers in the woods

Nothing subtle about this deployment


The Brits move up

"I think we saw something move behind that window, sir!"

First blood for the Polish!
 
"Hey, there's the Soviet reinforcements, right? Right? Guys?"

Pak40s pop their ambush, but only two guns, firing four shots, hitting on 5s...doesn't do a lot.

It's just piles and piles of brits swarming forward!

Trained RoF1 Panthers vs Vet AT 15 Fireflies. This was a poor decision.

A brave flamethrower takes out some armored cars - my only platoon kill of the entire tournament!

This is looking grim....

And so much for that fearless morale.
Round two I played Jim with his American boots. I was attacking (blagh!) in Breakthrough. I ended up reserving the AK platoon, Panthers, a Kedyw platoon, and the Pak40s. Jim had two batteries of 105s, and two batteries of mortars. The first two turns were an artillery firefight! Jim ended up winning 6-1.

My (conscript) artillery park.

Jim had more stands of veteran infantry than I did conscript infantry...

Some 105s.

Used the street barricades in no-mans land to slow his movement to the objectives

Some Kedyws taking the offensive!

My artillery takes a (Time on Target) beating. I guess when you range on on 2s you can count on that ToT.

Americans moving up


Kedyws and some Engineers exchange fire over some buildings

Reinforcements! It's a shame they have to bunch up so much.

Well, this is kinda how my infantry saves went all game. That's one bombardments worth...

The Poles are pretty close to pulling this off. In fact, they actually would have won if I didn't remind him to feed the objective with an infantry stand after he finished his movement!

You can do this little Panther! Ok, maybe you can't.
Round three I played Phil playing a Soviet Light SP Arty list. If I could design a list specifically for killing mine, this list would have been it down to every last unit. 30 breakthrough gun shots a turn flanked with some AA-HMGs and a blob of T34s. Needless to say, Phil won this 6-1, although if my panzerfausts were slightly more effective, I might have stole a VP or two! Mission was Free For All.

The board

It's not often you have a lane of fire that goes all the way across the board!

Kedyws move up to assault a far flank objective

Here's to hoping the street barricades actually do something!

Look at the enjoyment he gets from placing that 12x12 template. I know I have the same grin on my face whenever I get to place one of those!

Counter battery fire takes out some Katys.

Panthers start whittling away at the breakthrough guns.

Despite being gun in and gone to ground, these AK stands are being hit on 4s with no save.

Kedyw double-timed in to the woods, just because they can.

Taking out a few more Katys.

T34/85 takes out a panther!

Charge forward!

The perfect assault laid up, under cover of smoke, with all-panzerfaust  Kedyws ready to assault. Only to fail their tank terror.

And this is what happens when you fail said tank terror.


Whelp, there you have it. Polish went 2-5, 1-6, 1-6. I'm assuming that came in dead last =)

Monday, February 11, 2013

WWPD4Vets!


 
This is a shameless repost in case some of you folks don't follow WWPD. Mark your calendars for this if you can make it, and definitely consider donating if you can't. Locally, there will be some stuff going on a Huzzah Hobbies and Game Vault if you're interested!

You'll probably see me at either Huzzah with the SAGA charity tournament, or Game Vault playing copious amounts of Eclipse!






Monday, February 4, 2013

Templecon 2013!

Just got back from Templecon 2013. This was a BLAST. Definitely the most fun I've had in a nerd environment ever, and probably one of the funnest weekends of my life.


I went with the intention of playing a lot of board games, some DZC, and a FoW tournament. Well, I played no board games, demo'd a bunch of stuff, half-heartidly played the FoW tournament, and hung out with the Hawk Wargames guys probably way too much.

There's a TON of pictures in this post...this is my Templecon Photo Dump. I've split it up in to sections, and I'll write a little bit about each one as we come to it. Hopefully you should be able to scroll to and read the sections that interest you.
Click here to skip to Dropzone Commander content.
Click here to skip to Flames of War content.
Click here to skip to Warmachine/Hordes content.
Click here to skip to Other Gaming content.
Click here to skip to General Convention content.

Check out WWPD Outpost Zero tomorrow (Tuesday) for a special DZC Templecon treat!

Dropzone Commander

The studio armies. They are absolutely amazing in person. Just GORGEOUS. And Dave painted  (and designed and sculpted) them all HIMSELF.

The new Shaltari models, the Dreamsnare and Firedrake. The Firedrake is a gunship/medium gate combo, and the Dreamsnare is an anti-infantry walker with a shield projector.

Type 3 PHR walkers. One of them is a jump walker providing much needed PHR mobility.

Destroyers are new Scourge heavy infantry. Think 40k combi weapons...single shot powerful lasers, and multi use small arms fire. The Annihilator is a transformers style walker/flyer artillery launcher of death.  

The UCM drone launcher and Praetorian Sniper teams.

This is what the Hawk guys do with all the money we give them. FEED THE ADDICTION.


Drone carrier close up. Moving parts! The control tower raises and lowers, the runway ramp closes and folds up, and the missile launchers are magnetized to swivel.

Check out the sheer size of this thing.



A sneak peak of tomorrow's Outpost Zero treat =)

The Annihilator out of the case.



Not sure if Simon is smiling or not...

Praetorian snipers

Scourge destroyers.

Evan (Dvalin)'s PHR all magnetized in their dropships

Black lining. Steve will be proud.
The next couple pics are form a 1500 pt game Simon and Evan played.

Simon's Scourge all loaded up in to the dropships. I like that the Scourge dry fit into the dropships just fine. I never realized that they could, because I based mine on skimmer stands =(

Empty dropship parking lot?

This building is ours!

PHR moving on




Flames of War

I played in a two-day 1700 pt LW tournament. I took a 2nd Armored Cavalry list from Market Garden. 

CiC and 2iC Staghounds
2x Daimer 1s and 2x Dingos
2x Daimer 1s and 1x Dingo
2x Full Brit Paras platoons
2x Sherman/Firefly platoons

First, here's some of the armies laying around.
This is awesome.










Round one was against Al playing Panzerbums with Panthers. Mission was FFA. 2-5 loss for me.







I moved these guys up to trade long range shots with Panthers. I figured we were both hitting on 6s, but I got to make SIF rerolls. Well, he wiped the entire squad with one round of 6 dice, 5 hits (on sixes).


The other flank of tanks didn't fare much better.


Maybe the armored cars can take out armor 0 things!

Well, they killed some.

At least they died on the road.






Round two I played James with a Pantherkompanie. Mission was Counterattack with me defending. was a 6-1 win for me.



Reinforcements race on!

Tank reinforcements taking out some panthers.

I need better direct fire smoke markers.



Armored car madness


Round three I played Dick in Surrounded. He was defending with a Pioneer company. Surrounded is an awful mission. 4-3 win to me, although I think if his pioneer supply trucks had dropped wire instead of minefields, I would lost.


Did I overload this flank too hard?


Big cats on the prowl.

Seemed like a good idea at first. Too bad he had double wide template panzerwerfers.





Round four I played Phillip in in Hold the Line. I was defending. I ambushed two sherman platoons, that never hit the board. Probably should have ambushed one sherman platoon and one para platoon in hindsight. The game ended on the second turn after a bit of a dispute. He assaulted, I rolled the five hits in defensive fire to push the assault back, but silly me picked up my dice once he started rolling saves, and he claimed I only had four hits. While I did get the five, I now had no way to prove it. I don't blame Phil or have any hard feelings though - I scooped my dice sooner than I should have, and if he only saw four hits, he only saw four hits. As a TO, I wouldn't want to deal with that, so I conceded the roll.The assault wiped the platoon and I took a company morale check and failed. (I later realized I didn't have to take company morale since my other platoons in ambush were technically there....but oh well).


Maybe I'll be safe here.

Recce panzerfaust schimmerwagons. nasty.

The last guy standing after the assault, failing is last man standing.

Round 5 I played Michael with Sperrvand in Dust Up. Another 1-6 loss for me that I was pretty proud of, cause it let me leave early and get home before midnight =) We did play the snow as open terrain. It would have really sucked if it was slow.



I see Battlefront likes Sarissa Precision buildings too!


Warmachine/Hordes

He just wants a hug!
I played a game of Warmachine (well, Hordes) against my buddy Eric for some Iron Arena points. Had to get my Convergence of Cyriss patch, which I'll happily give out to the first local reader who mentions this if they want it!


We played Circle vs Circle at 25 pts. My 25pt list was the Circle starter box plus an additional Warpwolf stalker and Lord of the Feast.






I managed to take down this stone construct thingy. I was pretty impressed.

Like my fury markers?

Then he make forests all over the place, teleported around, and 2-shot Kaya (well 3-shot...I transferred one hit).

Then Eric played this guy. I think these are Menoth and they look pretty cool.


Apparently there's a unicorn army out there that this guy ponied up.
 The Other Games

I got a demo of Endless Tactics. It was pretty sweet.

A Heavy Gear Blitz table

More HGB tables

I think this was setup for Dark Age demos? All sorts of light up and moving scenery parts.
I played some games of Hull Breach. They currently have a kickstarter active for a new edition. I had done some playtesting for this about a year ago and forgot how cool it was. It was originally planned to be a CCG, but appears to be going the LCG route now. It's kinda like Magic with spaceships.
Some propaganda posters for Hull Breach


Some guys playing Infinity. Here's a Marut.
I think this is a Mercs board, but not sure.

Another demo table possibly for Dark Age? Again, it lights up and all those pulley things move when powered on.

The Convention

Here's some random photos of various cosplayers and steampunkers and such.

The Warmachine hall midday on Friday.







o7o7o7o7


The only FoW army entered in the painting contest

More painting contest entries

More painting contest entries

More painting contest entries

More painting contest entries.


I really like these figures. I think they're for Wrath  of Kings which comes out later this year.



Some stuff from Teutonic craft studios


Even steampunkers gotta check those text messages








This dude wandered into the FoW room possibly by accident, but was happy to post for a photo


Some band rehearsing for a rock concert later that night
Uh, this is the WH hall at 1am. Still lots of insomniacs gaming.