Being and officer in the Russian army
was never a glamorous experience however being one in a Shtraf Battalion even
less so, mused Captain Pavel Waechter as he surveyed the ground he was supposed
to advance through. Over the small river he could still make out the Italian
and Finnish forces digging in and preparing defensive positions at the base of
the small hill at the rear of the hamlet he and his men had been tasked with
capturing.
As he considered his options Captain
Steopa Haran climbed out of his command tank for a hurried tactical discussion.
“Any thoughts on how to tackle this
Captain” Steopa asked in that annoyingly eager and inexperienced way of his. I’m
sure the comrade Kommissar would approve Pavel thought.
“Yes, I do. It’s simple really, get
your armour through the river on the left, hold the centre with the Su100’s and
I will outflank and smash them with my company!” Pavel replied.
“Are you sure Captain?” Steopa asked, “My
tanks will get wet”.
“Yes I’m sure, just do it and think
how grateful mother Russia will be for the sacrifice of your soggy socks” Pavel
replied as he stomped away to prepare his penal troops. Why did they have to
send him someone so inexperienced!
A weekend
away playing wargames with someone else’s miniatures? What more could any self-respecting
wargames nerd ask for. Panzerschreck was here and I had very generously been
given a weekend pass by my family to attend, although this was really badly
timed as it coincided with moving into our new home and also the school
holidays, so there was a whole host of things that needed doing. However I had
already committed to partner up with Paul before we got our moving date so it
was agreed – I would play games all weekend with my friends and owe my wife and
kids BIG TIME!
So a nice
early start on a cold Saturday morning saw me flying up the highway to Pauls’
house so we could car pool with Scott and his son Chris up to Palmerston North.
I have to say I’m really glad Scott was driving as this was the middle of
winter and the sun was dazzlingly bright and shining directly in our eyes as we
drove north. Scott did an excellent job of not smashing us all into any
oncoming traffic, roadside ditches or sheep (this being New Zealand after all)
and we arrived on time at the venue, got registered and started mingling with
the rest of the players. If I remember rightly there were ten tables, therefore
20 teams so in total 40 players. Not a bad turn out for a country with a
population of about 200! (it certainly feels that way sometimes).
Now I was
going to do some kind of AAR, Batrep write up thingy however I didn’t take any
pictures, I didn’t make any particularly great decisions and I was pretty much
there for the socialising aspect and to help Paul out. However Paul did take
pictures and actually remembered some of the detail of the games, so to get an
idea of what actually happened head on over to Paul’s blog and enjoy his take
on things (and he actually makes me look OK rather than bloody awful). http://reddogofwar.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/panzerschreck-aar-day-one.html
Anyway what
were my highlights and what did I take away from this perfectly formed little
event?
Well let me see:
- Scott, Paul and Bryan are better at FoW than me…….but I learnt stuff so it was worth it.
- IS2’s are HUGEEEEEEEEE and very cool, I want some (in the same way I want more Panthers’)
- Don’t ever assault a Shtraf platoon, it’s very scary. Avoid them at all costs (unless they’re mine, but then I’d have to paint them and there’s flipping tons of the buggers!)
- Combined arms are the way to go. We had too many instances where our infantry were faced with Armour and couldn’t threaten them. Need more guns!
- Tournaments don’t have to be grumpy and confrontational. They can be fun.
- It’s easy to paint 15mm, its hard to paint it really well. However all the armies were painted well, and some were amazing. It should be a given that when you go to a tournament you bring something you are proud of.
- At Panzerschreck the Will Wheaton rule was evident. There were no Dicks!
- No-one has an encyclopaedic knowledge of the rules, not even the writers (there were plenty of Battlefront staff/writers playing).
- Battlefront staff were enjoying themselves, they actually like the game. Wow that makes a change, a hobby company run by hobbyists. Hmm that sounds familiar but I’m not sure where from?
- If you mimic a horse, clop your coconuts together and shout “for Sigmar!” you get a reroll (but you can’t use it in FoW!)
- I met Poppy, the official spokesperson(dog) of Pauls blog - reddogofwar.blogspot.co.nz
At the end of
the two days I was tired but happy, I had played five games of Flames of War
and enjoyed them all. I even came away from it wanting to paint more miniatures
which is unheard of for me after a tournament. I’m usually all burn out and
grumpy but I have to say that the way to tournie was run and the general
camaraderie of everyone involved made it a worthwhile experience.
There were
various prizes dished out (with generous prize support from Battlefront)
however the surprising thing (for them at least) was that both Bryan and Scott,
stalwarts of the Wellington/Kapiti gaming scene won 4th place.
Scott
who many of you will know has done a write up of their adventures over the
weekend on his blog so head on over to scottswargaming.blogspot.co.nz
for tales of derring do and ambushing halftrack craziness!
And for more
coverage of the weekend visit the Regiments blog - http://regimentnz.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/its-not-winning-that-matters-its.html?showComment=1436849254625#c9008134192654802367
Next year
Evan (the TO) has suggested early war so I’m now trying to decide what
strangeness I can pull together before then. Maybe an SAS patrol, Mathilda
company or some other equally useless brilliant idea. My plan being to
drag Ashley along to partner up with so he can pick up the slack and carry me
through……
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