AAR : LW Dreamers Vault 95pt Dec 30th Tournament

By Tom Gall

This past Saturday December 30th the usual suspects in Minnesota gathered to play a 3-round tournament at DreamersVault in Minneapolis Minnesota. This time was a 95pt LW contest with 15 players gathered. A number of the crew are bound for LVO at the end of January so they were eager to try some lists out.

Were I in the same state of mind my list would have been trying to balance between something competitive with what can I fit on the airline. It’s extra hard especially if you’re playing both Team Yankee and Flames of War that week!

I ended up taking my Brigade Armoured Assault Company. It’s one of those lists where almost all the units are hit on 3s, most everything is reluctant 5 motivation and skill tends to be a 4 for most units. Those basics are not a solid set of fundamentals to build around, the list is trash and has all sorts of issues so …. hold my beer.

What makes this list interesting is the quality of weight of fire. If you roll lots of dice, it matters less that your average team is less than great. As the Russians put it, quantity has its own quality.

The triplings with either a rate of fire of 3 on the move or 5 stationary and an at5 with a 5 firepower can get some work done. If you think about it, rolling 30 dice for a unit of six teams is fairly scary, and while a 5 firepower isn’t great, you can take out dug in infantry, you can take out recon units, and other soft targets. And if someone brings air, you might have something to say about it!

The two units of Panzer IV/70s with their AT14 guns are great. They’re terrible at cross checks, so don’t! These are units that want to stand back and fire at range.

Mix in a unit of Brigade Panthers, that’s 9 tanks with AT 14, scary! You’re hit on 3 and you’re reluctant so remounting your bailed-out tank is hard and units that need to take a last stand generally won’t stick around, but … positive thoughts!

Tables

Looks like I took pictures of all but one table, whoops! The gang up in Minnesota set a good variety of tables, that are fun to play on. Have a look!

Lots of Battlefront Battlefield in a box, some JR / Novus design, and a bit of scratch build here and there but all in all nice set of solid tables.

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Round 1

I played Nathan Krahn in the first round, a “friendly” German on German match. I only took one picture of the match which is really too bad, it was a memorable game. Nathan’s list featured eight Luftwaffe 88s which could have torn my poor armor apart.

The mission was Hold the Pocket, I was on the attack and Nathan on the defense. I loaded up from the left side and pushed mostly through the woods and from the bottom of the picture. I kept enough armor around to keep an eye for reinforcements. Using a little smoke, artillery, and dumb luck I was able to snipe the 88s in the first few turns.

Nathan’s reinforcements of Tigers and more infantry were late, so this let me press my concentrated attack. Game ended up a 6-3 win.

Round 2

I played Keith Gilmour for round 2, on the winter wonderland table. Our mission was Valley of Death, and I was on the attack, Keith took Maneuver. Again only snapped one picture of the action which is really too bad as this was a very exciting one.

Keith spearheaded on the left and right to essentially shut down all but a couple inches of spearhead in the middle. I choose to have my infantry and two Panzer IV/70s off-table in immediate reserve. I received my reserves early turn 1, turn 2, which allowed me to press the attack.

A unit of six triplings moved up my left flank (bottom of the picture) to go after Keith’s artillery as well as his recon formation HQ. It didn’t work out as planned, the unit was down to two triplings by the end of the game and killed only the initial recon that had spearheaded. The matadors and their 3 frontal armor can bounce 15mm ammo pretty effectively.

In the center, I had to decide which objective to focus on. The one on my right was “easier” with a unit of kangaroos and wasps, but the left flank was under better visibility by my artillery with Keith’s other formation HQ and another platoon of kangaroos and infantry. You can just make out the objective behind the woods and just above the house in the picture.

Keith would bring on reserves of Shermans behind me from the top of the picture and combined with the Churchills they’d have plenty to shoot at. One round Keith hit all three of my brigade panthers from behind, but as luck would have it, AT10 Shermans and roll 5 and 6s to bounce, ended up bringing a crazy lucky set of saves for me.

My infantry moved up and with the Panthers, etc. I put in enough firepower to assault into the woods having to weather nine defensive fire shots with four hits, but got in. Keith failed his counterattack. That pushed him off the objective.

A fun 8-1 win where a few lucky die rolls and Keith would have blunted my force.

Round 3

Last round I played John Cedarburg and his SS Germans. It’s a match-up we’ve had before where our lists were slightly different.

The mission this time was Scouts Out, I made the roll to be the attacker as well as to go first. I decided to have both of my units of panzer IV/70s off the table along with my infantry.

I decided to put a little pressure on my left flank and keep the center solid. If John moved to press for an objective then I’d shift to address.

John put a unit of infantry and Tiger IIs in reserve.

My recon on my left flank, a unit of triplings wheel hub to wheel hub, then four stummels and another unit of triplings, then my brigade panthers, then the last unit of triplings.

John had a unit of six stummels, and six triplings which I decided needed to be my high priority targets.

On Turn 1, I pressed to eliminate what I could. With no artillery that turn, wasn’t able to do much to John’s stummels but the triplings were well mauled.

Here I’ve got my two units of Panzer IV/70s from reserves. John’s stummels are no more and his unit of tripling was down to one team, still with fearless SS, they just don’t run away.

I could see that with my artillery and Panzer IV/70s, the dug in infantry by the objective wouldn’t last long. John’s Tiger IIs would arrive soon so while I wanted to press even harder on the objective but decided I needed to be careful hanging back under cover in anticipation.

John’s Tiger IIs arrived as do his infantry. My infantry were mounted in half tracks rolling forward as fast as possible but they had a lot of ground to cover. I didn’t move them as aggressively as I could have. In the end, had they been there they’d have helped significantly.

In this picture, the Panthers essentially sacrifice themselves and the triplings blaze away to eliminate the fresh platoon of infantry.

At this point, John pulled up his remaining HQ and infantry and threw some panzerfausts very effectively into the mix.

Last picture, our game would time out, an epic match if there ever was one, a 3-3 tie. John pulled every stop out to contest the objective. Both of our formations were in tatters barely holding on, hard to say how this one would have turned out. The Tiger IIs and STuHs were something to be dealt with, however John’s core formation was very close to being gone.

My core formation was likewise at risk, two groups of Panzer IV/70s, the infantry, what was left of my triplings and my HQ was it.

Kudos to John for a very well-played game and a very fun match.

A total of 17 points on the day, and a 3-way tie for first place, due to strength of schedule scoring addition, I ended up on top.

Final thoughts

Nice to finish out the year with a tournament. The scene in Minnesota is very healthy with a good number of players that regularly gather. Our hosts, Dreamers Vault are wonderful and their stock of Flames of War, Team Yankee, Nam and Flames of War Great War is excellent.  It’s a great area to game, if you’re nearby, join in as we tend to have a couple of tournaments a month.