The View From New England – Tournament Play in the Northeast 2017-2018
There are many people who enjoy our hobby of miniature wargaming in different ways. Some love a great historical game, tailoring a board to match a particular battle, designing forces to match. Others like a cooperative aspect to it, playing on teams, or making huge games that bring in lots of players at once.
Chairborne in front of a UN APC. The basis for what will be a beautiful but losing army in a team Yankee tournament next year.Some are in it for the modelling and painting, designing elaborate bases, displays, or beautiful scenic pieces. Others participate to test their competitive meddle against the best competition they can. At any given point, some of us are in the hobby for all of these reasons. I enjoy all these things, but I love tournaments. At a tournament, I can get three or more games against diverse opponents, and I get to sharpen my skills at something I enjoy doing. I get to see new techniques for painting armies and meet people with the same passion for this as me. I’ve made some great friends since I got going with
Since I began playing in 2011, I have only managed to finish first in a tournament once. But I felt with practice and opportunity, I might be able to claw my way into the big dance at masters in Indianapolis this year. Last year I managed to climb as high as 22nd in the rankings. Maybe this year was my best opportunity. And so my travels began. As our tournament season closes and another one begins this October, I’ll show some pictures of my journey throughout the past year, some big wins, some big losses, and some lessons I learned along the way.
Grants perform well in a test game at my friend Shane’s gaming table.
Fall 2017 – The Season begins October 7th, – Nanuet NY 1750 pts – LW (British paratroopers)
I began my quest with my newly painted urban rubble paratroopers and a trackless list. The guys at Ordo Malleus (thanks Troy!) ran a tournament for LW, and I got my first taste of some of the issues LW v4 presents for the Tournament player. With a Brit list, I had spotters. and with a lot of gun platoons, I wound up with nearly 180 pts of redundant teams. Explaining it to my opponents was irritating. On the bright side, I continued a nearly unbroken streak of never being tabled, and not losing on a formation break with the airborne. They don’t run. Everything is core. Result – 3rd place of eight players
Winter 2018 – January and February
I used some hotel points to take a cold trip up to Lebanon NH to go see Joey Ladourete and Jeff Mayo, who always put on a good tournament at Black Moon Games. LW 1700’s pt range. A Market Garden themed tournament meant I was bringing paras again, and this time I pulled off a second place finish out of 10 players.
Good turnout, and a fun weekend. With 2 wins and a draw, again the trackless paratroopers proved to be a pain in the but for players accustomed to facing tanks. In February, I switched to midwar, and tried to make a crusader and Grant list work. The results were…not spectacular.
I have found the British Mid-War lists to consistently underperform compared to other lists. That could be just my terrible play, but I think their lacklustre last stand check and easily penetrated armour play a role.
This was the memorable tournament where Joey shot me off the table with his American Tank destroyers and bought me a beer afterwards. I should have brought Churchills…not my finest hour. 5th place of 13.
Joey Ladourete Considers his next move, while Bill White and his opponent check ranges in the background.
Spring 2018With many major conventions yet to hit, I was still in contention, hovering around 30th place. a few more good results might get me in the mix. With preparations for Historicon in full swing and the new books coming out, most tournaments turned their sights on Mid War.
In April I made the hike back out to Catskill and fought a losing battle with British mid war tanks yet again, managing only 7th out of 10.
A few players who hadn’t seen their armies hit the table got to show them off for the first time. New Italian armies proved better than I thought when sent toe to toe with the allies. Chris Johnson took the top spot, No British list cracked the top 4. I retooled and looked to go more infantry heavy for the Midwar lists, trying to find something I thought was versatile. I followed this tournament up with a five-and-a-half-hour trip to Maine for a one-day tournament in Portland. Despite finishing 2nd, the results were never sent to rankings, and so never recorded.
Summer 2018 – The home stretch
Historicon EW Nationals. Back to Lebanon NH followed by the Canadian National Tournament. I set an ambitious schedule for myself in July. I attended three tournaments on consecutive weekends and wrapped up my summer with a Canadian Nationals Appearance. Historicon’s Early War was a time period I was relatively unfamiliar with. I tried to ride my matildas to victory, and for two games I held on.
But Bill White’s masterfully built and played list tripped me up. His Flammenpanzer 2’s coordinated a textbook assault on my entrenched infantry and guns, and my tanks rode to the rescue one turn too late.
The following game against James Best Jr, a mirror match of sorts, led to me assaulting more entrenched troops and a well-positioned defence. A well-sprung ambush, that I had forgotten entirely about, finished me off. And despite dealing a drubbing to some of Dave Griffin’s ringer Stuarts, it wasn’t enough for more than 10th of 30. I got to do a lot at the convention while I was there, and my carpool buddy Chris Johnson pulled out another Nationals win. We had talked lists before the tourney, but rather than taking his advice, I went with what I had. In retrospect, I probably should have listened too him. 🙂
James Best moves an artillery marker to be squarely on top of my poor men. Matildas charge gloriously to their deathsA week later, I made it down to Philly for an overnight Armies of LW tourney, but few showed (despite delicious ice cream being provided.) and the results weren’t recorded as of my writing. I love my comets, but they just don’t do the job against….well nearly anything. I wrapped up August with another trip to Lebanon (which I managed in 1 day up and back at around three hours up and down) for a 110pt midwar tourney.
Getting to bust out the bigger tanks and lists was fun, and it did show off the balanced nature of the midwar meta. My Churchills and infantry were no match for some of the other lists there, and I wound up in the middle after the dust had settled.
For four years, I have had attended weddings on Labor day weekend. And for four years, I haven’t managed to make the trip to Canada. But this was the year. I loaded up my truck with as many guys as would fit and carpooled across the Canadian Border. (I was the only one in need of a passport because NY has enhanced IDs now.) The all bearded contingent of Rob Riley, Chris Johnson, Tim Morrisey (my arch enemy) and Preston “Blue Ribbon” Jacob from War Gamers Anonymous joined me
The Canadians are excellent hosts. And Matt McKenzie, Dennis Campbell, Louis Santare and many others made the weekend a memorable one. Our contingent wasn’t alone, as Chris Fretts made the trip up too from the midwest.
I elected to bring a motor company supported by a crusader company (and 1 platoon of Grants) What I thought would be a balanced list turned out to be fragile in the extreme. The infantry always did their job, but the tanks weren’t around long enough to do much damage in the opening games.
In terms of overall performance, I suffered the worst drubbing I have in a long time, finishing Day One at 0-3 and a grand total of 5 points. The dice gods were not with me, and my list couldn’t fill the gaps. I had a good showing on Day Two and won 3 games, but all were bloodbaths, and it was enough to pull me to 20th place. Dinner, a great venue, and cars that actually stop at a crosswalk instead of trying to mow you down, were all highlights for this native NY and CT resident. I only regret I didn’t get to play against Matt Varnish and his Italian tanks.
Scott Roach’s award-winning best painted Italians. Although..the guns look vulnerable to sniper fire. Beware Snipers
I am glad Matt McKenzie had a chance for some payback after our last game, which, if memory serves, involved me chasing down his panthers with 5.5″ artillery shells (back in V3 when arty could kill tanks). The final highlight was a tour of the Military Museum. I got to see a ton of UN equipment, get inspired to paint more models, and see an actual picture of Matt Varnish’s dad that made it into the main display. I had a blast up there, and can’t want to come up next year.
Rob Riley gets inspired to follow in the footsteps of his soviet soldiers Cool nose cone art. The inside of a Sherman Tank Matt and his Dad, Expert pilot and part of a proud tradition of Canadian Airmen.
The Year closes out….
Unfortunately, my bad play and poor list construction caught up with me. No Masters for me this year. With new points, new books, and new models to paint, I’ll be back to give this whole thing a go next year. To those that made it to the big show, good luck, have fun and try your best to take some points off Chris Johnson. Lord knows it won’t be easy.
I am terribly lucky as a teacher to have the summer to myself. And I am doubly lucky to have a wife who puts up with this much travel. While I don’t see myself making as many trips in the coming year, there are too many fine TO’s and players that I like hanging out with not to make the ride a few times.
If you have a tournament coming up in New England, or elsewhere that folks hobby, please give us a heads up so we can get the word out here at NDNG. A shout out to the Able Company guys and Joe Lewis, for being willing to invest so much time and effort into logging all the data us competitive folks like checking ourselves against so much. Anything that grows our hobby should be encouraged. So find a friend, pop into a convention, run a game. I hope to see you there soon.
As Always, thanks for reading, and for God sake Tim, next time, paint your models before you get to the Canadian hotel.
Tom “Chairborne” Mullane