FOW Late War Tourney

This past Saturday I was able to slip out of work long enough to get into a late war escalation tournament at Legions Games in Pittsburgh.  The tournament had 14 players and was superbly ran by my good friend Mike over at MG-42 Painting.  The format was 3 rounds (1250, 1500, 1750) and you couldn't downgrade any HQ or combat platoons throughout.

I debated on what army list to take for quite some time but finally decided to try my hand at American 3rd armor.  I had just finished painting up all my models for the force and was eager to get them on the table for some action.  It was quite a change of pace playing trained forces when I normally run fearless vets.  Unfortunately I forgot my camera so I was unable to get many pictures.  I do have some taken by Mike that I will post after the write-up.

Match 1 vs. Dana (2nd Household Cav)
Fighting Withdrawl

My first match-up was a slugfest right out of the gate.  I got matched up with Dana who is one of the best players at the club and rarely makes any tactical errors.  The game started out looking great until he popped his ambush and wrecked my 76mm Shermans.  I made a solid push on the right with my stuarts and and actually had the objective but those damn british guards got to reroll their forced to disengage and was just close enough to ruin my day.  After the 4th turn the game turned into an all out survival match on both sides and Dana was able to hold on for a 4-3 victory although it very easily could have been a 6-1 or 5-2 for either side.

Match 2 vs. Bill (T&T Brit Rifles)
Hasty Assault

Second match faced me off against a familiar opponent Bill.  He was able to defend and took some naval bombardment which was quite scary with the 1+ firepower.  I deployed my armored mortars, stuarts, and 76mm shermans while he deployed 1 rifle platoon, mortar platoon, and in immeadiate ambush had 4 six pounders.  I was able to get within assaulting range of his rifles first turn with my stuarts and made my assault knowing he only had 1 piat.  I pinned him down and was able to assault only to get 1 hit in combat and lost 1 tank to defensive fire from the piat then 1 more from the counter assault.  I failed my motivation to counter attack and was forced to fall back .  His next turn he ranged in with the naval guns and my stuarts were vaporized.  The next 3 turns just saw my 76's and his 6 pounders exchange fire with no damage done.  I finally get reserves and bring up my AR platoon and started to mow down his infantry with half-track fire while the infantry advanced.  I was able to hold him off long enough that my 76's pushed up to the objective and held it after knocking out the mortar platoon and 6 pounders.  It came down to the final reserve roll and he got on his wasp carriers and was able to get just close enough to contest the objective and hold on for a 4-3 win.

Match 3 vs Tyson (3rd SS armored)
Encounter

Tyson was my final opponent and is a hell of a guy and a player.  Not much to mention about this game other than missing no fewer than 20 side shots on the 3 panthers that decided to shred my entire army.  I made a great play to get the side-shots but the few that did hit got great saving rolls.  I wasn't completely familiar with this scenario and screwed up my objective placement and also my deployment and suffered greatly because of it.  He was able to decimate all 20 tanks in my force in record time and took it 6-1.

Overall I came in 7th out of 14 which is very acceptable for my first attempt at the army.  3rd Armor is a blast to play but 1 mistake can cost you dearly.  The best part about the tourney was getting alot of compliments on my army's paint job which really made my day knowing the hard work got noticed.  I should have some pics of my army in its glory in the next few days but until then have a look at some of the tourney pics.