Rules Nazi Episode II - Rotating to Shoot

I was going to do a whole article on shooting but that turned out to be just to big of a task.  I figured I better break it down.  I will start with rotating to shoot.  Surprisingly this is rarely done.  The rule book says its all about the visual appeal of the game, but really it is an incredibly important rule.

Teams MUST rotate towards a team in the enemy platoon they are shooting at.  Artillery guns, since they don't shoot at a platoon, rotate towards their ranged in marker.  This can dramatically change their field of fire and gun shield facing for future turns.

Infantry teams don't matter much because they have a 360 degree field of fire.  I guess technically they should also rotate, but no one wants to stand there while you rotate a 100 Strelkovy stands.

I'll go through a few situations here.

First gun teams must turn towards a team in front of their 180 degree arc.  This could be as simple as turning towards the nearest team.

Where it gets complicated is if only some of the teams in the enemy platoon are in front of your 180 degree arc.  You need to remember this BEFORE you rotate them.  Because even though you can shoot at that platoon, you can only hit teams that were ORIGINALLY in front of your 180 degree arc.  This is something I will over in the next Nazi Rules Corner.  One thing a lot of people do is roll all their hits, but their opponent doesn't assign any.  They then roll all of their saves and then apply those to their units...this is a NO NO.

So you can see in the picture below that only one half-track is in front of the 180 degree arc for the 45mm guns.  That means even though when the guns turn, the rest of the half-tracks are in front of the 180 degree arc, they can still ONLY apply hits to that 1 half-track.

Only the 1 half track would take all hits from both guns

Even though all are in front after rotation

Assault guns are the same with the 180 arc, but tanks with turrets are a little different.  Turreted tanks can either choose to turn their hull at any team in front of their 180, or their turret toward any team.  However, in the same situation above they could shoot at teams behind them.  Except for their Hull MG only has a 180 degree arc.

Hull mounted guns the same as gun teams

Tank teams are different

Turn hull towards only team in front

Or, turn turret towards any team

The next issue I have is squishing teams together.  I've probably seen this more then anything else.  Teams rotate on their Center, and if they can't, they can't shoot.  The bases aren't square, so if you put all your teams side by side, they will not be able to rotate and shoot.

Even teams that are placed right beside a building.  They won't be able to rotate and shoot at all.  The building is in the way.  It is NOT ok to rotate them so they are sticking out a bit.  If you rotate them properly, on their center, they would end up half way into the building.  That means they can't shoot.  You can see in this picture that if teams rotate on their center then end up on top of each other, or partially into the building.  What I've seen is the 2nd picture where people just shift teams out a tiny bit.  You can't do that.  That would be movement, and immobile guns can't do that even in the movement step.

These guns cannot rotate and shoot in anyway.

Rotating just to fit...is a no no.

Rotating properly can affect what you can shoot at from turn to turn.  In the pic's below you can see that the artillery can range in on one side of the board one turn, but because they HAD to rotate, the now cannot rotate to get the IS-2 the next turn.  They would have to move first, and then shoot the next turn.

So, this should show you how important rotating teams is.  All to often I've played games where guys stick all their guns in the back, squished together, never rotate, and then just shoot at everything on the board. As I mentioned before, rotating is a big part of the game and how it all plays out.

Next i will do actually how to apply hits.  Its really hard to do this with pictures and text, I should almost do video's.       

Pet Terrain Project Part I

I've been thinking about trying to make my own terrain boards for a long time. Just something quick and cheap.

I've been thinking about using these big 2'x 9' sheets of I don't even know what at Home Depot. But they are like $20 a sheet for 1 of them and I think I would need 4 of them for what I want. Plus I would have to get them cut to the sizes I want.

Then I remembered Wal-Mart sells these kids mats in 2'x 2' sections. a pack of 4 of them is only $8 or something. So I bought a bunch and decided to see if these worked. If they did I could build modular boards with roads and stuff. The trick would be if the spray paint sticks to it without cracking.

The first thing I wanted to try was a 4' x 4' cityscape. I have a 4' x 6' board for FoW, but I have nothing to play cities on. I used a gray primer and then a textured spraypaint. As you can see it turned out pretty good. And I've been bending it to make sure the paint doesn't crack. It's holding up pretty good.

Even the texture of the mats gives it a cobblestone sort of look.

My buildings aren't painted, but you get the idea. The only problem is the spray paint costs more then the mats. It takes a lot to cover these things.

Next I will try to flock one of these bad boys...and then try to put roads on them.  If they don't work out I at least have my 4' x 4' city board.

German Half-tracks

Finished up some German half-tracks I had started way back before my Konigstigers.  I was originally going to take PanzerGren's instead of Pioneers.

The half-tracks resin isn't very smooth, so I thought I would use them as a test for some things.  I had practiced some camo with a new airbrush.

And these were the first units I tried a pin wash with.  And they actually turned out pretty good.

I also tend to use tank crews as tests for painting infantry.  I still just can't get a wash to work consistently with infantry.  Some times the creases are dark some times they are crystal clear.  I just don't know.  but  I will keep trying.  I think really improving my infantry is the next step in my painting evolution.  I'm back onto my soviet Strelkovy Battalion, so that should give me lots of practice.

Rules Nazi Episode 1 - Tank Riders

I was originally going to do the 1st episode on shooting, but this came up in a game with Shawn and Brian the other day.  This maybe a very short episode 1, because its pretty clear, and maybe isn't done enough because people don't think of it.  Brian thought only companies named Tank Riders could ride on tanks.

Other teams BESIDES Begleit and Tankodeseantniki CAN ride on tanks.  And they don't have to be named Soviet Tank Riders, which is just the name of a company. 

Tank teams can carry up to three infantry or man-packed gun teams as tank riders.

IS-2 and Nikis

If you are playing a game length wise like in No Retreat, infantry could take a long time to get to an objective.  Mount them on your tanks and move them up fast.  They are just more vulnerable on tanks then they would be on transports.  And more so then Tankodeseantniki or Begleit riders.

Every time the tank is hit, each passenger on the tank is also hit and must make a 5+ save.  Even if the shot doesn't penetrate the armour.  And they get no save if they are hit during an assault.
Tank riders CANNOT shoot from the tank.  Just like any other transport. 


This is different then Begleit or Niki teams.  They CAN shoot from the tank, in the shooting step and in the assault step.  And they make 3+ save when hit instead of the 5+ like regular tank riders.  And in assaults hits have to be applied to nikis before the tanks.  They are kind of like a human shield I guess.  They only get these  benefits if they are the only team mounted on the tank. 

T-34 and Nikis

You have to make sure you know the difference between a soviet Tank Rider Company and Niki's.  Soviet Tank Riders are a separate Company.  If they are destroyed, they make the same moral checks and count as being destroyed for Battalion moral checks.

Niki's are part of the Tank Company.  They are an option you take with the Tank Company.  And they DO NOT count towards how many teams are destroyed when determining if the company is below half strength.  This makes soviet tank companies with Niki's (NOT a tank rider Company) extremely dangerous in Assaults, since niki's don't count towards losses and take the first hits.

But as I stated in the beginning of this post, any infantry or man-packed teams can ride on a tank.  They don't have to be called tank riders to do this.  Doing this causes them to become tank riders.    

Radio Free Battlefront vs WWPD

In Radio Free Battlefront Latest Episode Mike poses a question back to the WWPD guys.

I thought it would be very interesting to answer these questions myself.

On a scale of 1 to 5 how would you rate the importance of Modeling, Historical, Gaming, and Social as it pertains to Flames of War.

Modeling - 5

The Last hand painted model I did.

As the Radio Free guys pointed out this could very easily be a 2 or a 5 depending on what you are painting at the time.  When you are painting 240 Strelkovy this number quickly drops by the end of  the project.

I'm trying to be a 5 all the time.  But I'm such a slow painter by the end of some projects I just want to get it done.

This is something that has to be important to me.  The FoW community has all but disappeared, with a few people here and there.  So I don't actually get to play much.  I've had to concentrate more on the modeling aspect.  And my stuff is getting better and better all the time.  Where as I think most people are happy with something simple to get theirs stuff on the table.

This is also why I've played the big cats lately.  I want to show off my newest work, but I'm so slow I have to play these armies that have very few models.

Historical - 5

Cool panthers, but no detail.

When I first started FoW I thought I was a 5.  I knew a lot about WWII.  I hadn't even scratched the surface.  So in my minds eye I thought i was a 5 when really i was a 2.

But now I am defiantly a 5.  I will not paint something because it looks good.  I've see some great paint jobs at the last 2 tournaments on individual tanks.  Brian's T-34's...their paint scheme was super cool, but not historical in anyway.

And this past weekend, another guys panthers were painted really cool, but also not historical.  Which is fine. To each their own.  But there is also no detail in them.  Maybe they weren't done?  I started out this way too.  But now I want my stuff historical.  Or at least as best as I can get it.  The research is one of my favorite parts of this hobby.

My First panther

Because of these, I'm actually thinking of doing a Pink Panther army.  Not historical, but it would be fun.  One can't be all business.  I may even field them in a tournament. 

But historical stuff is important to me.  I even have a few Panzer III's where the crew uniforms were painted field grey instead of black.  I just didn't know when I first started.  So, those will eventually go into the Simple Green, and repainted.

Historical is actually suppose to be part of your score, but I find most guys don't know whats historical.  They vote 1 to 5 based on how good it looks.  I also not sure guys really know what they are looking at half the time, or they just give everyone the same score.  Shawn's armies are insanely well painted.  One of my buddies even borrowed one of his.  5's across the board without question.  I could even understand the occasional 4.  But some schmuck gave one of his armies a 1, and another one a 3.  1 is unpainted for peat sakes.  "Did you even look?"   

Gaming - 3

One of the first...Time for Simple Green?

This is a hard one for me to score because I am very competitive.  But the difference between me and most other competitive people I know, speaking in FoW terms, I would rather lose 4-3 in a great battle then crush someone 6-1 in 2 rounds.  I love the stress of close games.  Its very exciting.

So, playing at home for fun with my buddies, I spend a lot of time teaching.  I don't care about winning.  I want that person to be a great player, so later we can have great games.  I know guys that are so competitive, they would rather get the win by someone not showing up then playing against a great opponent.  

But really because Flames of War has all but collapsed in my city, its forced me to concentrate more on the modeling then the gaming, as I mentioned before.

I'm slowly but surely trying to build up the Regina Community.  As the group in Regina grows this number will go up.  For now the gaming is just a great by-product of the modeling.

Social - 5

Isn't that the reason we play board games?  I've met some great new players at the tournaments in Saskatoon.  I'd really like to get a 2 day event going so we could go out for drinks one night.  Instead of everyone dispersing after the tournament is done.

I even thought of giving this a 3 or 4 because I do more modeling then playing.  But really, I still talk to a lot of other people in the FoW community.  Even asking for painting advice (which I do a lot) from the FoW forum is a social aspect of this hobby.  So it has to be a 5. 

Cool question, I look forward to hearing the WWPD guys answers.

My 2nd Tournament

Went to my 2nd tournament this past weekend. This time a pairs event. 1000 points each. My partner was none other then Shawn Morris. There were 16 players and 8 teams.

I was fielding Jagdpanthers, and he was fielding Panzer Lehr. We had very high expectations seeing how we tied for the win last tournament, and Shawn won the tournament before that. We had to be the odds on favorites to win.

They day could not have started off in a worse way. A 1 - 1 Draw. We went away from the game plan and were very cautious. I have no idea why. The plan might have worked, but the other team was so wishy washy in their strategy. Once we finally said screw this we gunned for the objective. But we ran out of time. If we would have 1, maybe 2, more turns, we would have taken the game with a 6-1 win.












Now we were under the gun. 2 other teams had finished with a 6-1 win. And it didn't look like we were going to get any where near the top. But the way it worked out we could play the bottom team because we would end up playing the same team again. So, we ended up playing one of the other teams that won 6-1.

This game was more of a cake walk then we expected. The scenario was break through, and Shawn and I were the attackers. First of all I find most players don't know how to defend breakthrough. And it showed at the tournament. No defenders won. Maybe an article for another day.

Second, the way our opponents deployed Shawn and I knew we would have a good chance. This was further hindered by their inability to bring on their armored reserves. Lance basically sat the whole game because he couldn't roll to bring his armour on.

Thirdly Shawn and I decided, no matter what, we would not sit back. We knew if we wanted to have any chance at winning we would need two 6-1 victories.

All this compounded into a 'SMASHING BREAKTHROUGH'. I think the game was over with over an hour to spare, and we had our 6-1 victory.










Now we would need some help. Lorne's team had won 6-1 again. We would definitely need a 6-1 victory and Lorne's team to loose.

Our 3rd and final game was a super fun game. And even though it inevitably turned out to be a 6-1 victory for us it was much closer then the score suggested. It was a very curious battle. We charged down the left flank, while they charged down our right flank.

We ended up taking the objective with the Jagdpanthers destroying their M10's, and Lehr PanzerGren's assaulting their infantry, and then a breakthrough assault against their dug-in Pioneers. We took the objective but this was at the same time they were taking our right flank objective.

It looked like we were going to win but couldn't afford to loose any platoons. They destroyed all the Lehr's Nebs, but the Neb commander managed to stay on. And during the way turn they desperately tried to remove our infantry from their objective. We were able to hold on, and won the game 6-1.

But now we needed help. Lorne's team had to loose. And they were the last gaming going on. Lucky for us their game ended in a 2-2 draw.

We ended up with Lornes team in 1st by 1 point, and a 3 way tie for 2nd place. It would all come down to sportsmanship and Paint. Sportsman ship was pretty much a wash. Everyone was great as usual. All sportsmanship points with with in 1 or 2 points. So it would really come down to paint.

M10's go bye-bye

The reason Shawn and I partnered is because we know we both have the best paint by far. For those that don't know how FoW tournaments work, how well your army is painted counts for 20% of your overall score. We had a 'parade' at the beginning of the tournament where all players would give each army a paint score from 1-5. 1 being unpainted, and 5 being immaculate. And after adding these up everyone would get a score out of 20. Shawn and I ended up with almost 10 points then anyone else in paint. I think we had 17 points and the closest team to us had 12.

This was enough to push us into 1st place overall for the tournament. So my 2nd tournament and my 2nd win. This will do wonders for my RHQ ranking. It ended up being a very close tournament. Out of 100 points, we finished first place with 75. 2nd place was Lorne's team with 73, and 3rd place had 69...ha ha...I said 69.

I would like to thank Shawn for being my partner. I had a great time. It looked very bleak in the beginning, but in the end our paint saved us from our 1st game blunder. Which should have easily been a route and we would have easily walked away with this tournament.

I also like to thank Dragon's Den for hosting, pitching in some prize support, and having a sale on FoW stuff. Thank you Darren and The Dragons Den!

In the making of this article, no JagdPanther lost its life! And I now have a record of 5-1-1 in tournament play.

Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part VIII - Finished

In case you missed some:
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part I - Intro
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part II - Preperation
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part III - Airbrushing
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part IV - Detailing
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part V - Wash & Highlight
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part VI - Decal Tutorial
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part VII - Detailing...again? 
Schwere PanzerJagerKompanie Part VIII - Basing

Finally finished.

The final step for the gun teams and the next to last step for tank teams is Varnish.

As people get to know me around the Flames of War world they will here me say this may times.  I will NOT ever use an aerosol can on any of my models.

The formula for my final varnish, or dull coat as some call it, is;

• 3 parts Tamiya Clear (X-22)
• This gives it the greatest protection.  To thick to go through an airbrush by itself. 
• 2 parts Tamiya Flat Base (X-21)
• This makes the varnish matte.  This works better then any spray ever can. 
• 5 parts Future Floor Polish
• this gives it some more protection and makes it thinner to go through an airbrush with out using water or thinner. 

After a varnish, I will dirty the tanks up with some artist chalk.  I stopped doing this for a bit.  I used to do it before the varnish.  But the spray would make the 'dust' turn wet.  It wasn't as bad with the airbrush, but when I used to use aerosol can's it was really bad.  I wish for the life of me who told me this, could have been one of the WWPD guys, but I can't remember.  What he said was trying adding the 'dust' after the varnish.  I was always afraid of it coming off on your fingers, so I guess we'll see how that works out.

If you notice on the front of my BergePanther I put a chain.  In my head I thought this would be the coolest thing ever.  It turns out this was the biggest pain in my ass ever.  First I could get it to stay on.  It was impossible to paint all those little links.  I finally had to try and glut it a little, but then for some reason my glue turned totally white.  And in the end the glue still didn't keep it on.  I finally had to cover it up with some mud.  And the matte varnish helped tone it done some too.  Over all it didn't turn out to bad, but man it was a pain.  And it didn't turn out as well on the model as it did in my head.  Moding is not my strong suit that is for-sure.

The very last thing I do is put antenna's on.  I bought a broom head from the dollar store.
(ha ha...I said head!  I never said this was a family show).  You just snipe one off, cut it to the length you like and glue it on.  Then even curl really nicely if you don't like your antenna's straight.

The one thing I really have no idea about is how tall the antenna is suppose to be.  If anyone knows, I would love to hear from you.

There you go.  My army for the pairs tournament next week is finished.  Although...Shawn "the bastard", I mean "terrain guy" pointed out my list was wrong.  Not a good start for the Rules Nazi (episode 1 coming soon).  I originally was going to take Noaks panther and 2 jagedpanthers.  I had assumed (incorrectly) that noak replaced the HQ.  But as Shawn pointed out, Noak is a Battalion commander, and he is in addition to the Company Commander.  It doesn't really say that, but thinking about it, I think Shawn is correct.

Anyway, there you have it.  Enjoy.  Hope you enjoyed this and hope some people learned from it. I know I did. Always easier to learn from other peoples mistakes. I even learned a few things.

Always be Learning