Speed kills

I ran six miles this morning.  Just under 58 and a half minutes.  And that has nothing whatsoever to do with gaming or this blog, but I'm extremely proud of it and wanted to write it down.

Back on topic.  My FLGS hosted a Flames of War "speed tournament" yesterday, and I took my trusty Russians.  The rules were straightforward.  The players each brought a fixed 600-point list (at least an HQ and one combat platoon; no tanks with top armour of 2) and the idea was to get in as many games as possible.  All scenarios were modified Free For Alls (only one objective on each side, half-width tables).  Wins were worth 3 points, draws 2, and losses 1.  There was also a scoring bonus for having a high winning percentage.

I put my list together relatively quickly.  I went with:

• HQ:  T-34/85 (with cupola);
• Combat platoon:  Tankovy company (5 x T-34/85, 4 x T-34/76);
• Weapons platoon:  Motorised mortar company (3 stands of light mortars).

That comes to 600 points exactly.  It's close to the simplest possible 600-point list I can put together, given my current roster of painted models.  I considered and discarded a couple of other options before settling on the list above:

• The simplest possible thing I could have done would have been to drop the mortars and add the tenth tank to the tank company (and give them cupolas).  More tanks = good, so I gave this very serious consideration.  In the end, though, I thought that the mortars would turn out to be worth the  one tank.  I figured they might have a shot of knocking out an AT gun or two.  Plus, I really like having a template thrower when possible, for psychological reasons if nothing else.
• Alternatively, I could have dropped the mortars, changed up the tank company composition a bit, and added tankodesantniki.  Now, I love tank riders.  Thematically, they're one of my favorite elements of the game, and I run them a lot -- even though I'm not entirely convinced that (a) they are worth it and/or (b) that I'm doing it right.  In the end, I decided to leave them home yesterday, in part because I didn't relish the thought of explaining their rules over and over all day.

There was a pretty good turnout, with twelve guys showing up.  Over a fairly grueling 6.5 hours, I got six games in, and went four up and two down.  That put me right in the middle of the pack in the final standings, which was, frankly, a little disappointing.  Here's a brief rundown of my games, first the W's then the L's.

WIN vs. German tanks.  Andrew had a platoon of Pz IVs and an 88.  This was the first game of the day for both of us, and frankly, I may not have been completely awake.  Totally static tank fight on desert board.  I stood and shot, he stood and shot, and in the end I gave worse than I got.  My mortars knocked out the 88(!), so they justified their place in the list right off the bat.  I'm pretty sure Andrew would have played me differently if we'd had a re-match, but, as it happened, I was happy to kick the day off with a victory.

WIN vs.  US tanks.  We played this one on a heavily forested board with a road running across it.  Scott had five Shermans and an infantry platoon.  He played very aggressively and tried to get his tanks in my face -- which I was more than happy to see:  I stood still and blasted him.  Scott finished second overall in the tournament, so I am proud to have won this one.

WIN vs. US armored rifles.  Back to the desert for this one, but on a different board with more hills and a wadi.  Aaron brought five (-ish?) Stuarts and a huge infantry platoon.  He tried to do an objective rush with the tanks, but five Stewies vs. ten T-34s is not going to be a winning proposition.  After his tanks were gone, I turned my guns on his infantry, and I have never ever seen such bad luck on save rolls.  He couldn't buy a roll over a 2.

WIN vs. German Fallschirmjagers.  This turned out to be my last game of the day, on another hilly, forested board.  Jordan (whom I had not met before and who was a super nice guy to play against) brought a couple of FJ platoons supported by two StuGs.  He played hyper-aggressively, stormtroopering his StuGs around the woods on my right flank and toward my objective.  Much like I said above, two StuGs vs. 10 T-34s is practically hopeless.  After they were gone, he got pinned down while trying to assault my tanks, and that was that.

LOSS vs. Russian tanks.  Clint's list wasn't quite a mirror image of mine.  He built it on T-34s, but brought fewer than I did.  He spent the rest of his points on tank destroyers and some light AT guns.  This was another very static slugfest, and, honestly, I had a chance here, but I couldn't pull it out.  On what turned out to be my last turn, I failed two morale checks to re-mount bailed-out tanks (failing re-rolls on both) and I had a feeling that was going to end up being the ballgame.  Clint is a very strong player (and a super guy) and I've never beaten him (0-3).

LOSS vs. German engineers.  This game was a real eye-opener for me.  Boone fielded a platoon of engineers and 4 big AT guns (not 88s, though).  I thought I was in great shape when I killed two guns and their platoon commander and he failed the ensuing platoon morale check.  He decided to use his CO for a re-roll (which I absolutely would have done too), and he failed that too.  So, not only were his guns gone, his company commander had run off with him.  Now, it's just a matter of me mopping up, right?

Well, not so fast, my friend (to quote a great American).  He had a bunch (3? 4?) of flamethrowers, which he had definitely told me while we were setting up, yet somehow I had completely (and I mean completely) failed to process.  So I moved my tanks up closer to the woods to start machinegunning his infantry, which I did ineffectively (dug-in, gone to ground veterans in the woods -- a tough nut to crack).  Next turn, he jumps all over me with the FTs, bailing three of the five tanks I had left at that point.  Then in the assault step, the defensive fire from the remaining two wasn't enough to stop his pioneers from assaulting and, of course, they roflstomped me.

I've never had my head handed to me by infantry like that before.  Not coincidentally, it was also my first experience with massed flamethrowers.  I'd be perfectly happy for it to be my last, too.


I could have played better -- a lot better -- in some of my games, for sure.  But, when all was said and done, I had a pretty good time and won more than I lost.  I'll take that pretty much every time.