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Thursday, June 9, 2011

LW Escalation League - Game 1

Keith Miles is running a LW Escalation League at The Gamer's Armory. We had our first meeting last Saturday, June 4th. Here is a link to the rules of the league: rules

I chose to run a Fallschirmjager army.  I spent a lot of time working through which book to pull it from.  I finally settled on using the list from the soon to be released Cassino book.  Until June 11th, I haven't really taken anything that can't be found in the other FJ lists.  After June 11th, I'll start popping out some of the more interesting choices.  :)

The field of players runs the gamut of veterans to complete rookies.  Keith even managed to convince his mom and dad to participate!  That's awesome!  We also have about a 50-50 mix of tank companies and infantry companies.

For the first set of games we tried to pair up the rookies with a veteran.  I was paired up with Keith's mom, Jane.  She complimented me on my teaching skills and all I could say was that I'm glad I played her now because in a couple more weeks she's going to be a very formidable opponent!  She even hinted about a re-match when we are "allowed" to play each other again!

We both ended up bringing 600 point Fallschirmjager forces.  I'm not sure which book her's came from.  Talk about "Blue on Blue" games!  It actually turned out really good because it let us play the game and talk tactics and rules without having to deal with big differences in the armies.



Neal's Fallschirmjager

  • HQ + 3 8cm Mortars + 1 Panzershreck

  • 1 x Fallschirmjager Platoon

  • 1 x Gebirgsjager Platoon

  • Fallschirmjager AT Gun Platoon (2 Pak 40)


Jane's Fallschirmjager

  • HQ

  • 1x Fallschirmjager Platoon

  • Fallschirmjager Light Gun Platoon (2 LG40 guns)

  • Fallschirmjager MG Platoon (2 HMGs)

  • StuG Platoon (2 StuG G)






Again, I apologize for missing a lot of pics that I should have gotten!  The heat of battle keeps me from remembering to take the pics!

We started on a 4x3 board for the 600 point games.  The terrain was already setup by Keith.  We rolled up Breakthrough which I seem to play a lot and I think Jane had at least one Breakthrough game before. I ended up being the attacker.

Using the pic below, she chose to setup in the top left and bottom right quadrants.  Her StuGs, the light gun platoon, and the 2iC in the top left.  The FJ platoon, CiC and the HMG platoon in the bottom right quadrant.

Everytime I've played Breakthrough, the flank march is the deciding factor, so I thought I would put both infantry platoons (FJ and GebirgsJager) in the flank march and "defend" my sector with the 8cm mortars and the AT gun platoon.

We agreed that the bridge did not obstruct fire, but did give concealment.

The first two turns showed very little movement.  I was lucky to pick off her HMG platoon leader on my first shot with the Pak 40s.  I then was able to pick off an HMG stand eventually.  Her HMG platoon was hamstrung with the loss of the platoon leader so early and she wasn't able to reposition the stands to get the full effect on my Pak 40s.  She did a lot of hits on the platoon, but was never able to make the FP test to get past my gunshields.

My mortars spent a couple turns bombarding her light gun platoon.  I was able to get rid of one gun early on, but the other one hung around for the rest of the game.  Her StuGs maneuvered around the woods and house to where you see them in this pic.  They then started shooting up my mortars, which I forgot to dig-in...  Duh...


Hans?  Is that what I think it is?  StuGs!  Run!


A shot of Jane's very well painted FJ platoon.  I understand she did the camo and Keith helped with things like equipment and the like!  Very well done!  These guys ended up staying in cover as her reserve waiting for my flank march to show up.  A strong tactical move!


Where did those mortars get off to?!?!?! She killed two of them and the last mortar and 2iC moved into the brick house for protection!  That was the last time the mortars fired a round.


My FJ platoon makes it onto the table and tries to hide behind the wooded area.  I have the objective so she has to come to me now!


Jane moves her FJ platoon to the edge of the woods to be able to shoot at my FJ platoon.  I think she ended up plinking a team, but most of the fire didn't do much since we were both Vets in cover.


This pic shows my Gebirgsjager platoon coming on from the flank march.  I've also moved my FJ platoon into the woods and setup to defend the objective.  Jane has doubled her StuGs around to the middle of the board after killing the last mortar team, leaving only my 2iC (panzerknacker) in the brick building.  She's out of line of fire of my Pak 40s who continue, unsuccessfully, to kill off the remainder of the HMG platoon in the bottom middle of the picture.


My Gebirgsjager platoon continues to cautiously move up to the other objective wondering what to do next.  My FJ platoon sits still and goes to ground...  Remember the 2iC?  Well I ended up assaulting her StuGs.  I may have screwed up by not allowing her to defensive fire since I came up behind her.  I'm still not sure of the rule and I need to read it again!  Anyway, the 2iC took out one vehicle and forced her to breakoff towards the objective.


I did not take a picture of the final turn...  Ugh...

I had finally gotten rid of the last HMG team and Jane moved her 2iC and the light gun platoon to fire on the Gebirgsjager platoon.  I know they killed one Gebirgsjager team.

I told Jane that she would only be able get me off the other objective by assaulting me off since it would take too long to shoot me off the objective.  The StuG and the platoon fired everything they had and then  the FJ charged!  I was able to pin the assault and keep her from going in for the kill!

Turn 6 and the objectives went hot.  I got a 7-2 win out of this one.  What's that?  Very observant!  In the league you get an extra bonus point for having a fully painted army.  Cool!

We took about 3 hours for this game...  We spent a lot of time going over the rules and having her learn them.  We also talked about options she had during her turns.  What might work and what might not.  We talked about the risks of certain moves, etc.  Yes, I even mentioned that my 2iC had a way to kill a StuG and would be able to reach her vehicles in my turn.  She took the gutsy move anyway and it almost paid off.  This was time well invested for the future as we now have another interested player who is learning the game instead of just getting beat up on!  :)

Can't wait until the next game!

5 comments:

  1. Remember the 2iC? Well I ended up assaulting her StuGs. I may have screwed up by not allowing her to defensive fire since I came up behind her.
    If you truly started from behind the front of a hull-mounted weapon, then no, they do not get defensive fire. Note, however, that an independent team cannot assault by itself.

    Good report and the figures look good, as you say. Keep it up!

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  2. OK well I got that part right then.

    Him attacking to begin with was another side effect of me thinking that the mortars and him made a platoon and therefore he wasn't an independent team... If he had been a platoon, then I would have forgotten to do the sole survivor test anyway... :)

    I'm glad I've been reading the rules again lately....

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  3. great little battle, love the 600 pointers.

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  4. Loved the blog report on our game! I played Keith tonight and won! I remembered quite a lot from the game we played on Saturday. Yes, you are a wonderful teacher and I look forward to playing with you again soon! There is a lot to learn!

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  5. Very good batrep. Enjoyed reading it and the pictures supporting it were excellent. Keep up the good work!

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