Shed Gaming aka Wargaming in the shed: Stockport Pick and Mix

This weekend saw me attend the Pick and Mix competition held at Marauder Games Northwest Gaming centre, Stockport, near Manchester (England for the guys in the states..lol and no not New England, the Old one.) which was run bu Hammy from MAWS. On the Saturday it was to be a FOW Mid war 1500 point comp and on the Sunday an Early War 1500 comp. There was also a FOG comp and I think a DBM comp.

The comp was to be three rounds with Hammys patented point system which was not too bad. I supplied the terrain and was there on hand to umpire and play if need be.

Saturday I took along my Mid war Tunisia Brits which I had used successfully previously. The only alteration made was I dropped 4 25 pdrs and took 2 17/25's (Which turned out to be a waste of points).

I set the tables up Saturday morning, 5 in all and they looked like this.

Table 1

table 2

Table 3

Table 4

Table 5

Saturday

My First game was against a German Panzer Grenadier in Break through with me defending on Table 3, I managed to pen the Germans in pretty tightly. Leaving 2 infantry platoons and the 6 Pdrs to advance on to the objectives. The 17/25's covered the German deployment area and the objectives and I sorely missed having HE rounds. A bitter battle took place with the Germans struggling to get out of there deployment area against an infantry platoon and my Bofor's which the later were pined for 3 turns before being wiped out failing a last man standing roll. The German reserves arrived only to be blatted by a cheeky ATR shot and 9 shots from the 6pdrs.

Sig 33 guns nearly cost me the Churchill's and made me double the 2iC over to appoint a new commander. The Sig's promptly died to the combined Churchill and 25pdr fire.

Game over: 5-2 to me.

Other players Game 1 photos:

DAK Armour Vs US Armour

Finish Infantry Vs Hungarian Armour

Game 2 pitched me against the Finish Infantry and I was attacking in No Retreat(Grrr) on Table 4. As I rarely attack with my Infantry, I forgot that they can attack at night (DOH!) and walked into the Finish Infantry loosing in a moment of Rashness my 2 carrier patrols and in a hard fought melee with Churchill's and Infantry to which I manged not to kill a platoon but contested an objective

Moving up

After two failed assaults.

Game Over: 6-1 Loss.

Other game 2 pics:

DAK Armour Vs DAK Panzer grens.

US Armour Vs Hungarian Armour, The Yellow Reindeer was the Objective.

Game 3 saw me against a US Armoured company in Fighting Withdrawal on Table 1. As the person I was playing only had played two games before and was still learning I took pity on them. Also the fact that I came to realise earlier that besides myself and the Finnish Army player every one else were novices with none to limited gaming experience. I decided not to walk over this person in turn one and explained why I had set up the way I did and how best to counter my set up. This cost me my 17/25's and it was then a slogging match with the Churchill's chasing the American Armour that walked into a gun line of 3 6pdrs.

At this point I was too tired and forgot to take pictures of the last games.

Game Over: 5-2 Win to me.

Joint Second Overall.
First place was to the Finnish Guy.

Not a bad day but I tired far too easily and this cost me and my over helpfulness in the last game cost me a valuable point, But sometimes it is more important to take stock of the level of players within a competition; rain your self in and take your game play down a notch or two, you already know what your army can do so its a case of be helpful and just be satisfied in the knowledge that you could have destroyed them Turn 1.

Sunday

I took along 2 armies, French armour and German Armour as I was a fill in player and could alternate the armies to face there historical enemy.

Game 1 saw my French Vs a German Infantry Company attacking in Cauldron on Table 3. Although the Germans was set up by a seasoned player it was controlled by marauder games owner Darren who was also advised by myself and another FOW player. The selection of the German force and its deployment along with the random deployment for my tanks left me with a very difficult game indeed and a after few calculations in my head I worked out that I was not going to win easily if at all. Several assaults later saw 2 tank platoons destroyed, a company test passed, reserves arrive and the CO and a platoon surrounded by AT weapons which were promptly destroyed with 3 105mm rounds and 15 Pak 36 shots needing 4's to hit, you do the math.

Well Plan A failed what next... I hate cauldron, it has no place in a competition.

Game Over: 5-2 Loss, Company Broken.

The Other Game:

British Matilda company Vs German Panzer Company..guess who won.

Game 2 saw me defending against a German Panzer Company on Table 4 and a Shiter (yes I know, but it is that bad) of a mission; I had 3 platoons to protect 3 objectives to which one disappears. Superior German Gunnery and being Veteran made short work of my 75mm battery and my Recce was forced to disengage 4 out of 5 turns. By turn 5 when my reserves arrived I had to drive straight up to the objective which was already held by 2 Panzer platoons and the One man turret really screwed me up. Drive up get shot to pieces bring on next platoon, Drive up get shot to pieces bring on next platoon, drive up get sh..well you can see where this is going. I eventually managed to kill a platoon of PzII's at the cost of a 76mm battery, 10 H-35's and 3 Panhards. Normally my French ain't that bad but it seems I was having a really bad day dice wise.

Ominous shadows make the French look skywards.

End of my Turn 4 just before the Germans rush the 75's

Game Over 5-2 Loss, Company Broken.

The Third game of the day saw me pitted against the now obvious Competition winner Dan. Win or Lose there was no way to prevent Dan from loosing 1st place. I was using a Pz38 Kompany and after a quick discussion we thought we would make the game more of a challenge for Dan and swapped out some 38T's for 2 88's. The mission was free for all on Table 5 and I had already worked out that I could win if Dan attacked as he could not protect both objectives and I could not actually hurt him with my tanks (hence the 88's). This game lasted 2 turns. Dan pulled his recce off table so they could not get chased down by my Tanks. I hid my units from his Matilda's and we called it a draw as Dan worked out there was a way to defend 2 objectives with one platoon and attack mine but it would take him 8 to 10 turns to get past the 88's and take the objective providing he killed every thing I put on the objective to hold it, It would have taken him at least another 8 to 9 turns to wipe out my defending armour.

Er..Wot now???!?..hide and no blinkin chance.

Game Over: Draw 1-1 (I think? or it may be 3-3, not too sure either way)

The other game was a bloody affair with German Panzers confronting the German infantry...OUCH! for the Panzers, I believe.

All in all it was an interesting weekend, with new experiences and rules learnt, better luck next time.

Last but not least Dans Tank company, seeing as Dan had to walk to the comp (or come by cab as he says) he left his BAR behind and brought with him what he could carry.