Kampfgruppe Bäke First Showing

Took my Kampfgruppe Bäke to their first tournament this weekend.  I didn't take as many pics as I thought, but later tonight I will post some beter pics of the finished vehicles.

2 great things happened at this tournament.

I met a few people that I've been chatting with on the FoW Canada Forum.  Chris and Wayne.
Chris is a funny funny guy.  Seems to have the same sarcastic humour that I have.  I suggest not letting him talk to "those" Saskatoon guys, because they will just end up hatting him.
And Wayne, who was all worried about his non-Battlefront miniatures.  Ended up he had like one little no BF guy mounted on his tanks.  Couldn't even tell.  Although he finished 2nd, so maybe I should call foul?  Na, what a good guy.  Apparently everyone else thought so because he was the only one to get FULL sportsmanship marks. 

The 2nd great thing is that the tournament app had its first successful run.  Even tested groups out.  There were 3 groups that didn't want to play each other.  The app preformed great.  Chris even mentions it in his Blog Report.  He was worried he and his buddy were going to end up playing each other.  We had one little hiccup because a player left early but didn't really affect any of the logic in the app. 

On to the tournament.

Round 1 I played Duncan.  This was the buddy that came with Chris.  I believe that Duncan is a newish player.  He showed me that I don't play enough.  I was forgetting all kinds of rules.  Not the rules nazi's greatest moment that is for sure.  I did end up beating him thanx to some bad rolling by Duncan.  He also wasn't as aggressive as a soviet player needs to be.  But he will be a good player if he keeps at it.  A joy to play for sure.  Squeaked out a 5-2 win.  

Round 2 I played Chris.  Well talk about the worst army on the worst table in the worst mission.  No Retreat  on the most open table I've ever seen.  I know lots of people hate really open tables, and even though this was the worst situation for my army ever, I still like open tables.  Armies don't always get to decide where battles happen.  The thing is when I say I like open tables,  people seem to think I only like open tables.  No, I think at tournaments there should be a mixture of terrain heavy tables and more open tables.  Needless to say, because the table was so open, and because Chris had so much AT, instead of sitting back and getting picked off little by little, I decided to be super aggressive away from the Konigstiger.  I was pretty much wiped off the map.  I think the one main key for me is true to form I failed my first Stormtrooper move and my half-tracks blocked everyone else's stormtrooper move.  But Chris was still very fun to play and I can say the only person I lost to was the Champion.<

Now my 3rd game is funny as hell.  I played the tournament organizers son a few months back in a for fun game and he absolutely spanked me.  So, I've been playing up that I need my revenge game and that the  Kampfgruppe Bäke was built specifically defeat him.  Because of that a few accusations were thrown my way when Levi and I were matched up in round 3.

We played Hasty Assault and I ended up being a defender.  How often do a bunch of tigers and panthers have to defend?  Things did not start off well for me.  I started with 4 Panthers and my 3 armoured AA guns on the table.  He came flying down with his T-34's.  At one point he had all my panthers and 1 of my AA guns bailed out.  Lucky for me my AA guns kept his Sturmovik at bay for a few turns.  I failed my first reserves roll and these were the only units I had on the table for 4 turns.

I think it was the 4th turn Levi's dice turned against him.  He had 4 side shots one of my panthers and couldn't finish him off.  I don't think he rolled higher then a 3 the rest of the game.  My tigers came on in the 5th turn and I went on the offensive.  My panthers and tigers together were just too much for the Soviet armour.  I ended up with a 6-1 win.

All in all a very fun tournament except for the heat.  The owner told us he was turning the AC on, but I think he thinks AC means turn the one fan on upstairs.  There was no AC.

Chris ended up taking first overall.  Wayne was 2nd and took home Best Sportsmanship.  2 of the "Non-Ass" Saskatoon guys (Rob and Lorne) took 2nd and 3rd overall...which doesn't really mean 2nd and 3rd overall.  since Wayne took sports and I was 3rd and took Best Historical.

Funny story that I took as a compliment, when they announced that I won best paint, Rob rolled his eyes and said "Curtis wins paint, again!".

Lance did up some cool little trophies as well, and I was lucky enough to take one.