Fall In 2018 Event Coverage: Flames of War Tournament

By Dennis Campbell AKA Matt Varnish

Hey guys, what’s going on? Well, after a solid MONTH of painting nothing but Crusaders, I was ready for the Flames of War tournament portion of the No Dice No Glory Iron Man competition, at Fall In 2018 in Lancaster PA  (Apparently the locals make it rhyme with ‘kissed her’ not ‘Pastor’)    Anyways, while I would normally post my list and how I did, this time all I will say is, sometimes a good list in the wrong hands doesn’t perform well!   James Copeland and Chris Johnson helped me tweak out a Cavalry Crusader List, but I guess I’m not aggressive enough to field them correctly.     ‘Blah Blah Blah, let’s see pictures”  Alrighty!

I think this was Bill White’s US force.  I dig the captured Dingo objective 🙂

Game 1 I played against Tournament Organizer Kurt Reese.    He scared everyone with his really well-painted Maus model.  I thought it was repping a Tiger I. He ran German scout cars with Italian support out of Iron Cross

My army. Aus Div Cav formation with Universal Carriers, more Crusaders (max 6pdrs) backed up by 4x Free French M10s! (USA rules, relax)

We played on a board that had been used for Team Yankee the previous day.   Bridgehead, with me attacking either this mess plus ambushing Steilgranat’s..

..which did Ambush costing me a platoon of Crusaders..

Or I bumrush this objective, where 2 infantry stands are in the office buildings.   Couldnt kill either with MGs.   I would end up cheesing this win out on the following turn by assaulting the back of the building where guys were outside, and pushed Kurt off the objective.  A crummy way to win in the first ten minutes.  Kurt was able to snag another platoon, so at least made it 7-2 and not 8-1.   Again, sorry Kurt, I have a habit of getting the most BS things succeed on him (Ask him about losing 2x JagdTigers to one artillery template! on second thought, don’t ask!

My quick win (and only win) at least allowed me to take some good pics for you guys, before going off to buy un-necessary armies (early war french tanks) at the Vendor Hall!

British Bofors guns.   Mike Schwille’s army looked really great, and I made it the cover picture.   The fact he also ran Crusaders may or may not have influenced my decision!

Jim Best places an Arty template on Mike’s guns.

Ed Sales wonders how he will kill off all that Russian infantry

Not sure, but these Super Mario Ghost tokens… I guess are perfect for Ghost Panzers coming out soon???

Good spot to Range-In:   Infantry interlaced with ZIS-3 guns

Meanwhile, James Best’s Humbers square off against an Aufklarungs Schwadrone.   So, very similar to an Early War tank fight! (Bounce, Bail out, not many kills)

James Best’s Crusaders come in to support, and start mopping up with the better 2pdr guns

Scott Roach’s Italian Bersaglieri hold the line against Bill White’s Shermans. Lancia’s would take out Shermans while Semovente’s would clean out the Lee’s.

Diana’s in a .. well.. Target-Rich environment!

Good Old Fashioned Eastern Front board and grey panzers.  Captured BA-10s??

Mike’s Death or Glory Boys fighting against the Italians ( I think Chris’ Italians).

Caunter Honey’s.. the perfect camouflage????

These Italians were top-notch as well… these were probably the two best-painted armies fighting each other.  Shame about no painting requirement nor any prize or mention of Best Painted.

I mentioned to both Mike and Chris that this objective needs a map, so that the Officers can read it wrong, like the old British Army joke. Turns out, both Mike and Chris were Army Officers.  Oooooh, tough crowd!

Always a lot of burning tanks British vs Italians.

So I’d love to erase my 2nd game from memory, so let’s focus on my third game.  Vs Mike Schwille.   We started things off right by heading to the bar for a beer (Lancaster Strawberry Wheat!) after deployment.  I was already three Rye & Cokes in but wasn’t driving anywhere. Here are my M10s trying to cover a flank, but those dunes would stymie me for sure.

Our deployment.  His 17pdrs and 6pdrs meant I was too timid to bum-rush a flank (which is how my list needs to play)  I guess all those games playing DAK I was not in an aggressive enough frame of mind.  Which is weird because I played aggressively with my Italian Carri list at Cdn Nationals and did very well.

He got to go first and was able to pound three platoons to dust on turn 1. It went downhill after that.

This last pic brought up something interesting. My 6pdr-armed Crusaders (bottom left on the dune) are trying to kill off JUST the Crusader unit on the far right, not the Death or Glory HQ of mixed Crusader/Valentines. I shoot, and Mike mentions that he was going to mistaken target his shots from the Crusader unit to the Death or Glory unit.  I was like “Hmm not sure that’s how it works” and he immediately goes “I KNOW!! I played a guy in a previous game who was bouncing shots off his Marders to his nearby Scout Cars!”

We called upon Brian Sullivan from Battlefront who happened to be about (thanks so much for the support Brian!) who quickly agreed with us that despite what it says on pg58 about bouncing shots onto similar type Teams (so tank team to tank team) the part where it mentions ‘subject to the hit allocation on pg 57 still stands. So, for anyone out there, NO YOU CANNOT mistaken target hits across different units. Mike was a great guy, we had a good chat afterward also when my buddy Scott finished his game-of-misery… but more on that later.

Thanks again to Kurt for Organizing, Mitch and Ed for manning the scoring table, and for everyone who came out.  Also, since it was on Remembrance Day (Veterans day for you Americans) a big thanks to those who have served your country.

EDIT:   here is the video:  

Matt Varnish, AKA Dennis Campbell, plays Team Yankee, Flames of War, and Black Powder in the frozen wastes of Canadia. Check out my youtube channel for lots of :