I didn’t post during the last week because I
was on holiday for half-term, but a lot happened hobbywise.
My wife and I traveled to Glasgow to watch
the women’s team finals in the World Gymnastics Championships. The goal was the
watch the Romanians (her team) and the USA (my team) battle it out. However,
the Romanians failed to qualify for the finals for the first time in 40 years,
so it was all USA for us.
 |
| This is what the Romanian girls were doing instead of qualifying. |
If you've never seen gymnastics live, it is worth doing. This was my first time and I was blown away by the spectacle
and the talent. I’d only ever watched on TV during the Olympics but I'm for
sure going to go to more events.
Also, the USA blew out the competition
without a single fall or mistake to win their third straight world
championship. USA! USA! As a bonus, we got to watch Russia have an epic
collapse. Simone Biles, the American star, was awe inspiring. She was performing some of the most difficult combinations in the world but made it look as easy as walking down the street.
 |
| 3 time world champion all-around, 3 time team champion and first women every to win 10 World Gold Medals. Can't wait to see her tear up the Olympics! |
When I returned to London, it was time to
get my army ready for the tournament I had on Saturday.
The tournament was my first Flames of War
tournament since I was a sophomore in college (8 years ago). The tournament was
an 8 player, 3 game 1675 one-day tournament run held at the Ibuywargames store
in Woking. Fez, one of the Breakthroughassault guys, did a fantastic job
keeping the tournament moving quickly and smoothly. Great job Fez!
After debating army choices, I decided to
finish my American armor. I worked hard throughout the latter half of the week
to get the army done and by 11:30 on Friday night I was spraying matte varnish
on the force (and missing some spots, I've discovered).
 |
| Company commander and his 2ic |
I realized I didn't have enough 105mm Sherman
turrets to run my original list and had to switch a few things up.
Here is the list I took:
I think it may have been a little too much
list for the casual nature of the tournament, and I probably should have taken
air instead of Patton (Fez was sure to give me an well earned amount of grief
for taking such a strong list).
 |
| George C. Scott in all his glory |
The 8 lists taken were:
My Patton 7th armored
Panzer Lehr from Panzers to the Meuse
Tiger company with Otto Carius
7th armoured Cromwells
Desperate measures panzers with panthers,
tigers and Rudel
American paras with Guards Armored support
Hero Tankovy
31 T-34 Tankovy
There were lots of tanks. My 105s only shot at infantry once (Volksrockets in the first game) and were mainly relegated to flanking tanks. They did kill 2 SU-100s, 1 Panther and bailed 2 more!
 |
| These fellers missed every shot and bombardment in the game while fleeing from the only time they were shot at all day |
After 3 games, I ended up placing 2nd
with 42 battle points and a record of 2-1-0. The winner played the Otto Carius
tiger company and was able to earn 43 battle points. In third place came my
usual opponent (and third game opponent) Alex running his fiendishly fast Cromwell
tanks.
Marc from Breakthrough Assault was able to
capitalize on some bad tactics and rolling on my part of take the objective and
beat my 4-3 in the first game. He ran 4 Panthers, 4 Panzer IV, 2 units of 2
pumas, Volks rockets and an aufklarung platoon. I was able to pull off a first
turn assault to threaten the objective, but great shooting from his Panzer IVs
destroyed my unit on the objective and I couldn't hit the pumas who were
capturing the objective to save the game. Great guy to play against and I learned a lot during the
game.
In the second game, Fez’s Hero Tankovy
defended in Cauldron in what was basically a terrible matchup for him. He ran 2
IS-2s with bedspring and tankodesantniki, a unit of 4 T-34s with 2 T-34/85, 3
SU-100s, another unit of T-34/76, a unit of 3 T-34/76 and some heavy rockets.
He only had the IS-2s, SU-100s and the T-34/85 platoon. On turn one he forgot I
had detroits finest and doubled his T-34s. I was able to move 14 and kill most
of the unit. The IS-2s went down to flanking Easy-8s while the SU-100s got
taken out by the 105s on the flanks (after he failed 5 of 6 bogging checks over
2 turns). I believe I had one tank bailed during the entire game, but that was
more a factor of bad match up than anything I did.
 |
| These guys never fired a bombardment and only killed one stand of infantry. |
The last game was against my usual nemesis
Alex. The mission was fighting withdrawl and I thought it was going to be easy.
He had an objective hung out on the left flank with a train track keeping the
rest of his army from rescue. I ran my entire force to kill his one platoon and
capture the objective. My recon was able to block off all ambush positions on
that flank. However, awful dice meant I didn’t kill his platoon quickly, and
when I finally did, he made the 5+ morale to save the game. By the time I
killed all of his tanks and break him, I was down 2 platoons (one to air, one to
being foolish and letting him hit the 105s alone) for a 4-3.
 |
| The tank platoons (which need more matte varnish) |
The Tiger player who won needed a 6-1 in the final game to
win and unfortunately his opponent wasn't able to take anything out.
As my 2nd place prize, I won a “medium” box of FoW. Since I have too many armies right now waiting to get painted, I found another player who would swap the prize for an infinity box they had at the store. I was able to get some new Janissiaries for my Haqqislam. The models are so beautiful and what list doesn't benefit from an Akbar Doctor?
 |
| I can't wait to paint these. I think the missile launcher will become an HMG tho. |
I had a really fun time and enjoyed a low
pressure tournament environment. I did notice I got more competitive as the day
went on and that concerned me. I got out of the tournament game because I hated
how I felt competitive and it stopped being fun. I think if I keep the right
attitude, I could get back to loving tournaments.
Some of the guys were talking about the tournament at Warfare in Reading in mid-November. I've decided to play in that and bought my ticket yesterday. It is a 2 army tournament (one Axis, one Allies), so I will have another opportunity to finish a late-war army (this time Wiking SS).
