Another Tournament Win

Marders tried to flank the Sextons....died.

Yes, I went to my 3rd tournament and won my 3rd one in a row.

Although I can take ZERO credit for it.

It was a 1250 doubles event.  I took Ersatz, with 2 Tigers, and 4 Marder III's.

Shawn was my partner again, and think he was ready to send me home, and play my army for me.

I played AWFUL.  I rolled like crap, my platoons couldn't do anything.  Especially my Marder III's.  Because they are one of my very favorite paint jobs, I had to use them.  Well they suck balls.   {not a kids show}

Dug in Hungarians and Ersatz.

Through 4 games my Marders failed ALL but 1 Stormtrooper move.  They died in 3 out of 4 battles.  In the 4 battle, 3 of them died, I made my motivation, and then just ran the last one off so we would get a 6-1 win.  AWFUL Marder III's.

They were the BEST looking vehicles there {even though I didn't win paint} but performed the worst out of anything there.  I don't know if I'll ever use them again.  They are just around to look good.  Kinda like my wife...right honey?  {shhhhh, I spent way to much money this tournament}

So, I'm sorry Shawn.  Thanx for carrying me through 4 games.  And besides all that I was really rusty.  I had a hard time deciding what to do.

Honestly my Ersatz did pretty well.  They did their job and held objectives.  really it was only the Marders that really sucked.

Defended onslaught of German Vets.

So, breaking it down out of 4 games I had 16 marders...15 of them were destroyed, and the last one ran home to momma.

But it worked out in the end.  Got a free JagdPanther Platoon with my winnings. 

Sorry don't have many pics.  My camera died at the start of game 3.

Rules Nazi Episode X - Assaults Part II:Tanks, Main Guns, Covering Fire...oh my!

FoW Version 3. 

Before I begin this episode I'd like to talk about version 3 a tiny bit, and the Turret BS.  Its been pretty much confirmed that Version 3 is coming in the spring.  And Red Bear and Grey Wolf have been "streamlined" to fit these new rules.

The very first thing I noticed is that they have "FIXED" Limited Vision and Slow Traverse.
They now measure from the turret instead of the Hull.....HOORAY!

Tanks and Main Guns in Assaults

I think my friends in Saskatoon need a new Rules Nazi episode on Assaulting.  I went to assault with My Tigers during this last tournament and I was told I couldn't because I shot my Main gun.  I could not fathom where that rule came from.  And every single one of them "knew" this was the rule.  Shawn and I were a little dumb founded by this.  But we scowered the rules anyway.  I'm not always right.  Especially at a tournament, where I don't have the befit of researching something before I say something stupid.

So, we asked them.  Where is this rule?  What they were doing was looking at the Rules summary in the back of the book.  Where it says;

Assaulting Tanks
-can't fire main guns.

They took this to mean that if a tank team fires its main gun it can't assault.  Which of course is incorrect.  What it really means is that Tanks can't fire their main guns during Assaults.  And since during an assault its a skill check, the only time that happens is during defensive fire. 

Covering Fire - For Taran

This section is totally useless.  Everyone talks covering fire.  THERE IS NO SUCH THING.  Its a complete waste of an entire page of confusion.

All this means is that if you shoot full ROF, you can't assault....that's it.  There is no "ACTUAL" Covering Fire. 

I just said the same thing in one sentence.  Even if you don't move and you want to assault, either don't shoot or shoot at a reduced rate of fire as if you had moved.

So, my tigers could have assaulted, because they shot at a reduced rate of fire.

Defensive Fire

Yes tanks can't shoot their main guns in defensive fire....UNLESS they are a ROF 4 Anti-Aircaft Gun.

This does not include the AA MG.  Remember these are different, if you've read Episode VII.  Even though they are AA with a ROF of 3, they are still an MG.  ROF 4 anti-aircraft guns are NOT MG's they are Main guns....confusing I know.

Just a quick side note on AA MG's, I found it amazing how many people at this tournament didn't know you can't fire the AA MG and Main gun at the same time.  So many Shermans firing their AA 50 cals along with their main guns.

Hopefully I didn't miss anything.  I don't have my books in front of me.  Lets see if I have this one correct from memory.

German vs Soviets - 1500pt Mid War

I was unable to make it to the tournament this weekend, I decided to actually play a game.  I've been trying to convince my friend Andrew to buy his own army, so I invited him over to play.

I'm sick of Late war, and I love mid war, so we decided to play 1500pt Grenadiers against Strelkovy in mid war.  I don't play infantry as much as I'd like to becasue I'm so slow at painting them.  You can so a lot of our armies aren't painted...mostly all the infantry.

Scenario - Encounter

German Grenadiers - Andrew
Grenadier Platoon - 4 squads
Grenadier Platoon - 4 squads
Artillery Platoon - 4 - 10.5 cm guns
HMG platoon - 4 guns
Anti-tank Platoon - 3 - 7.5 pak 40's.
1 Tiger Tank. 

Soviet Strelkovy - Me
Strelkovy Company - full 3 platoons, HMG, 3 light mortars
Strelkovy Company - 2 platoons, HMG, 3 light mortars.
Artillery Company - 8 - 76mm, 4 - 122mm guns.
Tank Destruction Company - 4 - 57mm guns.
Tank Killer Company - 4 - SU85's.

I had to declare my reserves first, so I decided to start with my biggest strelkovy Company, and the Red God of War Company on the board.

Andrew has played this quit a bit, but is still inexperienced.  And he shows it by the platoons he chose.  It will come back to haunt him in the end.  He decides to start with both grenadiers platoons, and the Artillery.  I would have either attached the HMG's or start with the HMG platoon on the board.

Now ever time I play strelkovy, or play against strelkovy, i'm remineded that the board for FoW is way to small.  On a 6x4 table strelkovy can hardly ever make all their units fit on the table to start.  That is the only reason I choose encounter.  because half my units start off the board.  I couldn't even imagine playing hold the line with this army.

Anyway I pretty much had to start my Red God of War across the entire back of the board.  Its the only way they fit.  Remember my rules nazi...you can't stack them side by side or they can't rotate.
http://kagefow.blogspot.com/2011/05/rules-nazi-episode-ii-rotating-to-shoot.html


Then Andrew follows suit, and sets up his artillery.

Next I decide I'm going to go balls out, and just charge the hell out of my biggest strelkovy company.   So I line them all up right in front of his object that I placed in the open.  I love playing strelkovy becasue newer German players totally panic when they see Russians.

Andrew then places both his grenadiers in front of his objectives.

Andrew rolls for first turn.

he decides to dig in his Grens that are infront of my strelkovy and his guns.  he makes both rolls.
he then marches his other Grens forward, as nothing is protecting my right flank, except a couple of 76mm's.

Next, I double move my 32 stands of strelkovy, leaving the HMG behind to cover the objective and artillery.  I can literally see the Germans shaking in their boots.  Then I bombard the Grenadiers the moved into the open.  Again, new German players panic as I pull out the double wide template.   But what they don't realize is that Soviets are shitty.  they can't hit anything.  I managed to pin down the platoon but didn't kill anything.

2nd turn, Andrew gains some confidence.  He continues to move his Grenadiers towards my right flank.  He then opens up his artillery, and is extatic about how many stands he can fit under the template.  Yup Russians are good for fitting lots of guys under the small template.  What Andrew didn't know is that artillery and aircraft do not get double dice when a unit has moved at the double....good for me!  Andrew rolls a lot of hits, 8 or more I think.  As I said, he is gaining confidence....maybe these Russians aren't so tough...I just smile.  I rolled my 8 saves and rolled six 6's and 2 5's...no kills.  "What a waste of good rolls", I tell him.  But I'm pinned.  Luckily they are still more then 16" away from his dug in Gren's.

My Strelkovy start my 2nd turn pinned, and....of course I fail my motivation to unpin them.   But that's OK.  My local NKVD Officer was close at hand, and Comrade Stalin says not one step back.  The commissar shoots one of his own units, and this time the Strelkovy make it and they are back on the move.  But this time only a normal move.  A few are able to shoot but don't do much damage are the Gren's are really dug in.

My Red God of War, turns and fires at the Dug in Grenadiers and German Artillery.  Even with the double wide, the Germans are so well lead that I can only it 3 infantry teams and 1 gun.  I do no damage but both platoons end up pinned.

Turn 3, Andrew rolls for his reserves.  He is thinking he is going to need something soon.  He is right...but fails his roll.  However he does make both his rolls to unpin his artillery and Gren's.   He continues to move his Grenadiers down the right flank,  and I think he is able to get a few shots at the 76mm guns there, but the gun shields protect them. 

His artillery pins down the advancing strelkovy, and manage to kill a few.  And his dug in (and gone to ground) Gren's also shoot at the incoming hoard....this is a rookie mistake.  Although I think he also managed to kill a few, and they are pinned down again.

My 3rd turn, I also fail to bring on any reserves.  But that is ok, I believe the game will be over before I need them.  This time my strelkovy make their unpin roll on the first try.  And they continue to advance.  This time they are with in assault range.  But I need to pin them.  Because I moved and I only have a ROF of 1, I need 6's to hit.  If Andrew had not shot at me, I would have needed 7's, and I would not been able to pin him except for an artillery bombardment.  I shoot at him with my strelkovy, and I only manage to get 4 hits.  this time I will split my Artillery fire and direct fire because Soviets can do that.  I turn my 122's to fire a bombardment at the Germans on the right flank.  I hope this will slow them down enough for me to take the objective.  I get a few kills and pin them down.  Then I'm able to direct fire a few 76mm at the dug in Gren's.  I don't kill anyone, but I get that 5th hit that pins them down.

Now my strelkovy assault.  I believe I still had some 22 stands left at this point.  Now that they are pinned he is only able to muster 7 hits in defensive fire.  Enough to pin any other platoon in the game, but not Strelkovy...he needed 10.  Had he not shot at me during his turn, I may not have been able to pin him, and he would have had double the fire power.

After the first round of assaults Andrew decided to break off to protect his platoon.  This is another rookie mistake and the beginning of the end.  His only chance is to hope he gets his reserves.

Turn 4...he fails both reserve rolls.  I manage to hold off the right flank, and I take his objective.

In the end, when we were discussing his mistakes, i found out he didn't realize, there was no more defensive fire after the first round.  He was afraid I was going to get defensive fire with 22 stands of infantry.

I was also talking to my friend lance the other day, and he didn't realize there can be multiple rounds of assault in the same turn.  Maybe time for a new Rules Nazi Corner...on Assaults.

All in all it was a fun game.  I've been playing Germans far to much and neglecting my soviets.
I think if Andrew had started with his HMG's, and not shot until he had to, my strelkovy might have been slaughtered.  We didn't even see the Tiger tank, or my favorite guns in the whole game the 57mm's.

Between the 2 of us we had 6 platoons in reserve.  Only the Su-85's made it on in the last turn.

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.

1st Official Saskatchewan Flames of War Tournament

So, I made it to my first tournament on 4 hours of sleep.  I finally finished my 501st Schwere Panzer army at 1:30 am the night before.  Because the tournament was 2.5 hours away, I head to leave at 5:30 am.  I tell you, it was a lot of fun.  Met some great people...and Shawn.

Many of you know him as Shawn the Terrain Guy.  I've "known" him for some time...or rather known of him.  We've chatted on MSN, and facebook.  I've bought terrain from him.  But this was the first time we would met in person.

He wanted a 4 game format for this tournament.  After all he was driving 14 or so hours to come, who can blame the guy.  I was very very skeptical.  There wasn't much time to fit 4 games in.  But, I definitely have to tip my hat to Shawn.  He  basically organized it all.  I think it was his wife that actually made things run smoothly...but who knows.  Lol, thanx for all your effort Shawn, you pulled of the 4 games.  And I think everyone had a great time.

Believe it or not, out of 17 players, him and I both won!  Yes we tied for the win with 42 out of a possible 48 points.  And a special note goes out to Nik with his cheater fearless veteran Americans.  He finished 2nd, and spoiled my run at a clean sweep.  He was the only one to beat me.

But I have to thank him for the tie because he faced shawn in the final round and forced a 4-3 game.  Going into the 4th round Nik and I were tied for 2nd and Shawn was 1st, ahead of us by 1 point.  I ended up getting a 5-2 game in my final victory.

Here was my force.

501st Schwere Panzer Abteilung
HQ - 1 Konigstiger
Platoon1 - 1 Konigstiger
Platoon2 - 1 Konigstiger
Support1 - PanzerPioneer's (6 teams, 3 optional flamethrowers)
Support2 - Armored Artillery (3 Wespe's)

sorry if I get anyone's name wrong, or I forget.  I'm horrible with names.

Painting
I was very happy with my painting.  I think mine was defiantly one of the best there.
I recieved 3 points for all games, and a lot of great things were said by everyone.

Sportsmanship
This is a bit of a moot point.  There were a lot of great guys there.  I don't know that anyone didn't get a 3 for sportsmanship.

Except that damn Nik.  I should have given him a 1 for using his cheater American force.

Game 1
Faced off against Chris and his US special forces in Encounter.  In all honesty this was my easiest game.  But not because of any great skill of mine.  He was very in experienced and made a few mistakes.  But greater still his rolls really let him down.

I"m sorry I don't know US forces at all.  But right of the bat my PIII op take has line of site to his huge AT guns on top of a hill.  I think they are the equivalent of German 88's or better?  no idea.  But my wespes wiped them out in one bombardment.  Not to mentioned he failed his moral check.

Then it went from bad to worse for Chris.  He has his special forces who normally should be able to knock out any tank...even Konigs,  began to make mistakes.  First he double moved to my wespes, to knock them out.  So, the wespes opened up with MG fire and slaughtered the US troops in the open.  But being fearless veterain an lot of them survived to assault the wespes who were actually holding an objective.

The way on the other side of the board his other platoon was trying to assault my HQ Konig.  I don't know what the chances if this are, but apparently this US force gets to reroll failed motivation tests to assault tanks.  He failed twice...so that is 4 rolls in a row where all he needed was a 3+.  By then my other cats came on the board and that force was slowly widdled down with MG fire.  And 1 Konigs rushed  to take an objective.

In the last turn Chris actually had a chance to make the game a draw, when he brought on some AT guns at the right time on the right side of the board.  But again it was not to be for chris.  His dice failed him and he was unable to even get a single hit on the KT's side armor.

So a 6-1 victory for the 501st.

Game 2
This game again came down to crappy dice rolls, but Bryan also left his objectives open.  This (I thought) was a perfect force for me. A tanks, no infantry, and the best he could do is force bail outs on the KT's.

Pretty much the entire game he had 2 of my KT's surrounded.  He had so many tanks it was only blind luck I didn't get 2 bailouts in the same turn.

But the real game was happening on the other side of the board.  He has some stupidly fast Stuarts.  They couldn't hurt me, so I had my KT block a bridge. to my objective.  Where my Pioneers had dug in to guard it.  He also had some kinda AT half tracks waiting to pounce on on the KT's side armor.  But I think Bryan forgot to move them a couple of times.

My kitty wasn't even damaging his stuarts believe it or not.  I couldn't roll a firepower test if my life depended on it.  But I think Bryan figured they wouldn't last like this forever.  So he began to pull them back behind a hill.  Knowing his objective was open, I "pretended" to move around the hill, towards his objective, to chase his Stuarts.  This left the bridge open, but I figured my Pioneers could hold the objective.  Boy was I wrong.

Forgetting that his Stuarts were so fast, he rushed across the bridge to assault my pioneers.  At first I was happy because we were closing in on the end of the game so I double moved my KT to his objective.  Meanwhile...his stuarts crushed my pioneers.  He assaulted the last team holding the objective, and just as I thought it was over something amazing happened.

Bryan had already 2 bailouts, and a few bogged down, but his last 3 charged in an assault and he rolled 3 1's on another bog check...all his stuarts bogged down, and Bryan gave the game to me with my KT sitting all alone at his objective.

Despite a 6 - 1 victory, this was a crazy stressful game.  All those T-34's he was getting a lot of dice.  I think on one attack I had to roll 12 dice.  If I had rolled two 1's, bye bye KT.

Game 3
Not much to say for this game.  I faced off against Nik and I got CRUSHED!
This was worst case scenario for my 501st.

Fearless Veteran American paratroopers dug in around objectives, where the onus was on me or I loose.
I just couldn't destroy him.  And he couldn't hurt me either.  except for one mistake I made.

There was so much cover that I doubled moved my Pioneers forward in my trucks.  What I forgot is that he had guys in ambush.  My pioneers were slaughtered except for one team.  Lucky for German mission tactics I was able to pull the one team back and keep him from being destroyed.

But in the end it didn't matter.  With almost no time left, I had to charge in my KT's.
They were absolutely decimated.  All 3 died.  But I would have lost 6 - 1 if I didn't do that anyway.

DAMN THAT CHEATING NIK!

Game 4
This game I almost lost because of my own ignorance.  James was my next opponent.  He sat there quietly all day.  So I thought to myself "Perfect, this guy probably doesn't know how to play, I will crush him"

Boy was I wrong.  Once again I faced Fearless Veteran Americans.
He quickly wiped out my Pioneers.  Which I took all three flame throwers this time.  but they didn't even get a chance.

Once again, I couldn't dig out the Americans, but playing withdrawal he started to pull his units off the board.
And once again, a player leaves the final objective wide open.

On the last turn I double moved my close KT to the last objective, and knowing his units can't come with in 2" of me I positioned the KT so that he would have to go around me and wouldn't be able to get close enough to the objective.

The only option for him was to assault the last KT for the win.
Once again it would come down to dice and the last turn.

And...once again American special forces failed to motivate to attack a tank.

Conclusion
This was super fun.

Thank you to Chris, James, Nik, and Bryan.  My 3 wins could have easily went another way.

Despite my success, I probably won't ever take a KT army again.  It was way to stressful.
When loosing one tank means disaster...to much.

Thank you one more time to Shawn.  I don't know if it would have been as successful with out you.
You are a credit to the hobby.  And not just for the crazy terrain you make.

This last picture is of his new smoke markers...They are fantastic as you can see.  But even better in person.
Here is Shawns new link to how to make these.

http://www.rankingshq.com/rhqtv/video.aspx?RhqTvVideoId=19

Tournament Primer

So, one day before my first official FoW tournament and I'm still not done painting.  I'm so close.  I'll be done the 501st Schwere, no problem.

But to gear up, I had a practice game with Sylvain.  He said he would build an army as if he were going to a tournament.  I had to use some proxies for this, but that was ok.  I used Marder III's instead of Wespes.

As he started pulling his Soviets out, I quickly realized he put together the worst possible army the KT's could face.  An Infantry Battalion with the God of War, and Priority Sturmoviks.

Rolling for one of the 4 scenario's we will play in this tournament we came up with fighting withdrawal.
So, again worst case scenario for the KT's as he had 2 SU-152's held in ambush.

The first two turns quickly made my worst fears come true.  The Sturmoviks killed 2 of the KT's including the Company Commander, and my Pioneers stayed pinned for 5 of the 8 turns.  Not to mention my Wespe's couldn't range in if their life depended on it.

Luckily for me things turned around.  He started pulling companies off the board, he's planes started to miss, my pioneers became unpinned.  There was one scary moment on the last KT where Soviet flame throwers tried to destroy it.  But they failed their FP test. 

I was able to move in close enough to attempt an assault with my remaining Pioneers and set the last KT up to assault right after them.  It literally was going to come down to the last turn.

And on the last turn it all went my way.  The Wespe's finally ranged in, and although they didn't kill anything they pinned down the last platoon.  The Pioneers began their assault.

We went through 3 turns of Assault.  No one wanted to back off.  Luckily for me the Soviet Sappers rolled all 1's and 2's on every dice in every assault round.  The German Pioneers wiped out the Soviet Sappers.  The final KT that survived (the one my son bought me for Christmas) didn't need to Assault.

Loosing only one platoon the German 501st Schwere Panzer Company wins a major victory getting 5 Vp's and the Soviets getting 2 Vp's

I'm looking forward to tomorrow.

Here is Sylvain's version of the story.

http://wpggamegeeks.blogspot.com/2011/02/bad-kitties.html

Fallschirmjäger vs Cossacks

Figured I might as well try to start doing some game reports. Last night Sylvain and I played a fighting withdrawal with Fallschirmjäger defending (Curtis) and Cossacks (Sylvain) attacking.  I apologize if some of the picture aren't that great.  I'm still playing around with flash or no flash.  More on that later I suppose.

Anyway, to start there were so many cossacks Sylvain could barley fit them all on the board.  Definatly cause for increasing the offical board size in FoW with the new intelligence books.  You get way more for point costs now.  and the Russians always got a lot before.  I believe he had to leave the trucks off the board for his Anti-tank guns because they just wouldn't fit.  Good thing for me!

My Fallschirmjäger look pretty bare over there in comparison.  And their numbers would start to get smaller each turn.

This was a very strange but fun scenario.  Maybe the coolest one.  But I think we would need to play it a bunch and adjust tactics.  Its also a good fast one because its not to the death.  Basically the defenders will start loosing platoons on turn 3 as they start to withdraw.  But the Trick is on turn 6 the germans get to start removing objectives.  On turn 7 you remove a 2nd object leaving only 1.  And if the Attacker hasn't taken an object by turn 8, the defenders win.  

 Turn 1 not to much happened.  The Cossacks all charged into the ravine to prepare their assault the Fallschirmjäger defenses.  But 2 German StuG F/8's raced across the bridge to start harassing the german flank.

Turn 2 turned out to be the decisive turn.  The German mortars pinned the Cossacks in the ravine, and they failed to become unpinned.  Something to be said about Kommisars hey Sylvain?  Which he had none this game.  This delay prooved to be fatal in the end.

Turn 3 was more of the same, Cossacks stuck in the ravine while the StuG's continued to beat upon rear units.  Except this time 1 platoon was to leave the field of battle. The Fallschirmjäger decided to pull their front line combat platoon away from the barbed wire, leaving the door open.

Soviet Sturmoviks tried to take on the StuG's but there were just to many Soviet Troops, and the StuG's got near them too quickly.  So the aircraft were waived off.  Sylvain, seemed to think the Russians would be OK with their own troops getting in the way.  "We shoot our own troops all the time, why should aircraft be any different".  But I suppose Russian pilots or more sympathetic then Kommisars.

Turn 4 the Cossacks finally broke out of the ravine, and put them selves into position to launch an assault against dug in Fallschirmjäger.  The Fallschirmjäger continued their withdrawal and pulled out the mortars this time.

Turn 5 the Cossacks moved into position to take an objective and dismounted.  Mean while devastating bombardments continued to rain down.  but the guns were just not big enough to destroy the dug in paratroopers.  The Germans would continue to hold on, keeping their heads down and not attacking.  The StuG's completely obliterated the Soviet Heavy mortars, and moved on to destroy more cossacks in the ravine, and they were getting dangerously close to the front lines.  But this time there would be no withdrawing a platoon for the entrenched Fallschirmjäger.

Turn 6 would see the removal of the first objective.  Freeing up the Fallschirmjäger Pioneers to attack.  Realizing, they were running out of time, the Cossacks made a charge for the 2nd line of defenses.  Unfortunately for them German HMG's mowed them down and beat back the assault.  Feeling that they did enough damage, the Germans withdrew the StuG's.

This broke the cossacks back.  the 2nd objective was removed, and they made 1 last ditch effort for the 3rd objective, but it was to late.  The Fallschirmjäger successfully delayed the Cossack charge long enough for their armies to escape.

This was a very fun scenario.  But seeing how history and this article was written by the victor, I'm not sure Sylvain feels the same.  I would defiantly like to try this one several more times.  I think understanding the scenario a little better the out come might be a bit different.

I think my next article is going to be about my purposed rule changes to the fire arc.  My only pet peve for this game is the lack of usefullness of the turrets.  I know they want to keep things simple, but I'd don't care about simple when you have these beautiful figs to play with.  If you want simple play A&A minis'....that game is awful....sorry Matt.

here are the rest of the pics from our battle.