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| Tournament Report; The Dukes big day out! | |
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| Topic Started: Oct 11 2009, 11:42 PM (42 Views) | |
| heavy_shift16 | Oct 11 2009, 11:42 PM Post #1 |
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So, as most of you probably know, I had my first Flames of War tournament this weekend. Four games, split over two days. I was really throwing myself in the deep end here, fully expecting to get my butt kicked and come dead last, because I've only been playing Flames of War for a matter of months, had hardly used the army I brought and hadn't played most of the scenarios that came up. In the end, I did better than expected, but still not fantastically. I'm pretty happy with the results. I brought a Canadian tank army (british with slightly different paint). Plenty of Shermans and Sherman Fireflys, some Bren Carriers, a platoon of infantry, a half-strength artillery battery and Typhoon air support. My first game was against a hardcore german tank company owned by a Monday Knights player named Ed. I rolled up as defender on the cauldron which put me in a pretty difficult situation. My inexperience showed and I deployed poorly, which cost me the games. I fought hard and dragged it out a few extra turns, doing a bit of damage with a last-ditch assault from my infantry across the river at a platoon of (terrifying) self-propelled heavy assault guns. 2-5 loss. If I'd been smarter with my air support targets I could have knocked off another stug platoon or two. Still would have lost, but would have gotten more points, maybe 3-4. Second game I got slaughtered by Django's King Tigers and Panthers. Again, my dumb-ass deployment cost me the game. Again, air support rocked, but it would have been more effective if I'd been smarter with targets. I destroyed a King Tiger with my air support, but it didn't count for anything because it was the company commander! If I'd targeted the other King Tiger, one inch to the left, and destroyed it instead, I could have at least got 2 points. As it was, I was thrashed. 1-6 in Django's favor. The second day started off with me facing the tournament organizer Micheal. Surprise surprise, I was up against my third german tank company. This game went for a long time, with us both skulking about in cover in the woods taking long range shots at one another. I was a bit smarter in this game, having learned a few lessons from the day before. I came within inches of winning; it would have been 4-3 in my favor, a close win but a win. Unfortunately, I failed an essential morale role at just the wrong moment, and a sherman platoon ran away after having one member destroyed and another bailed out. That put my whole company under half strength, and then at the start of my turn I failed the company morale test, and we retreated. I'd done some damage, though, so it wasn't a slaughter. At one point I was told it was a 3-4 result, 3 for me and 4 for Micheal, but then someone else said it was 2-5 against me, so I'm not sure which. In the final game I came up against Andrew "Silky"'s tank company, meaning that in the entire tournament, I didn't play with or against anything but tank companies. This one was where things finally clicked for me. I read the scenario, another mission that I'd never played before, like all the others. I looked at the table, saw what I needed to do, and did it. Without losing a single platoon. I lost one tank from 2nd Platoon, one tank from 4th Platoon, and an artillery observer that I didn't need, because my guns could see everything. Not a single platoon was lost, or even under half strength. In exchange, I wiped out two tank platoons. His reserves hadn't shown up, so that left him with just his artillery, and a platoon of tanks which may have turned up later. It didn't matter, though, cause his company left the field, allowing me to secure a 6-1 victory. Unfortunately, this was a rather unbalanced tournament. Almost everyone was playing German tanks this time around. The Overall winner was Ed, my first opponent. The trophy for Best Axis Player went to another gentlemen whom I'm ashamed to say I can't name, who had very prettily painted German infantry with a lot of Panthers in support, and who hardly gave up a point, to come in just barely lower-scored than Ed. There were only three Allied players, in a fairly small field of 11 or 12 players total. I think I came 6th overall, due to my fantastic last-minute win and the couple of points I managed to extract from opponents who beat me. I guess the other allied players really got slaughtered, though, because Best Allied Player went to me! I got a shiny medal and everything. So overall, it was a lot of fun. I'll happily take a very similar force to other Late-War tournaments in the future, as they turned out to be pretty competitive when their general isn't making stupid mistakes. I was particularly impressed with the Typhoons, who were good and would have been great if I'd used them better. The fireflys were, of course, indispensable. Django let me know that he is organizing a mid-war tournament for late January, so I'll have to polish off some soviet guards to take to that. This tournament thing turned out to be great fun! Edited by heavy_shift16, Oct 11 2009, 11:47 PM.
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| pAgan | Oct 12 2009, 07:44 AM Post #2 |
Lord Prox.
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sounded awesome, and a really good write up of the event. |
| "Come with US!, on journey through time & space with the Mighty Boosh!" | |
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| Storm Templar | Oct 12 2009, 09:45 AM Post #3 |
Sword Brethren
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A Monday Knights player first up in a tournament? ouch, they have a good reputation on various forums I'm a member of, and are reported to be tough players. Sounds like you had a tough time of it. Most importantly though, did you have fun? |
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Una salus victus nullam sperare salutem 'The one hope of the doomed is not to hope for safety' | |
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| Bigdobbo | Oct 12 2009, 12:14 PM Post #4 |
Caring Understanding Nurgle Type
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Great report and well done. I think i have to experience this tournament thing and enter a few 40k events |
| Ahoy matey's, May you all be touched by his Noodley Appendage. | |
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| mortislegion | Oct 12 2009, 02:26 PM Post #5 |
Administrator
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Well done! Sounds like you'd be crazy to take anything other than a german tank army, which to a degree is a shame. Perhaps it was a alternate history thing where there were only germans to fight and pockets of Canadians. |
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Vae Victus-Suffering to the Conquered. OMG, he's using his conflict list... Corner of the Attic | |
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| heavy_shift16 | Oct 13 2009, 12:55 PM Post #6 |
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At the 2000 points level, German tanks are regarded as an 'easy win'. At 1750 or 1500 points, Allies come even or sometimes dominate. People told me that allies do much better at those point levels, so the game may just be unbalanced higher than 1750 points. Seeing as the rulebook itself calls 1500 points a 'normal' game, that's not such a problem. If that's the case, I look forward to using the Canadians at a 1500 or 1750 point tournament where they'll stand on a more even footing. That said, Flames of War is pretty well-balanced. I should have won my third game, I just made a couple of stupid mistakes due to inexperience. Similarly, I might have won my second game, if I'd deployed and played smarter. The first game, I was in a bad situation. Tanks just hate defending on the Cauldron scenario, at any point level. On the other hand, if I'd brought a Canadian infantry company, the whole thing changes. I still would have defended on the first mission, but would have had the perfect force to defend with. I would have been much better off in the second mission, as well. I think it's a mistake to just declare that a certain army is unbeatable at a certain point level. In a King Tiger and Panther dominated force all it takes is one or two bad dice rolls to cripple you, even at 2000 points. With the amount of air support, anti-tank guns, artillery and sneaky Naughty Words filter like ambushing light anti-tank guns and Universal Carriers with PIAT launchers that I could take in a Canadian infantry company, I can make sure that you have to roll a lot of armor saves. You'll botch a few pretty quickly, if you have to roll 8-10 a turn. I'll just have to keep playing games, keep tweaking army lists and keep going to tournaments, and see if I can make my results improve. After all, if everyone says you can't win a tournament with a certain army, and then you do it, that's just gonna make victory all the sweeter. |
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8:14 PM Nov 25
