FOW Bat Rep: Fog Of War – with Leonid #2

By Benny Christiansen

After my initial tests with Leonid, the day had finally arrived. It’s been a while since I’ve been to any event other than the ones where I’m the TO, so I was eager to get going.

I had the good fortune of having my good friend Helge as “co-pilot” for the trip to Esbjerg. We were going to play three games, but we ended up playing 2½, as the last one (vs Helge) had to be done fast in order to get home to wife/kids.

My preparations

I have read the articles about the IPB by Chris Jackson (, ). I decided to try and do my best to take some notes before each battle and after, on a piece of paper in regards to my thoughts.

I had to adjust the points a little, as choosing where my objectives should be, could be a challenge in Fog Of War. But I have read somewhere that some part of the military in the US has a “motto” or “creed” (I mean no offense by not knowing, I’m simply not a military man) that goes down the line of Adapt, Adjust and overcome. So I have adapted the list a little.

I had also gone through the missions in detail. In games using Fog Of War, there are only two missions: Dust Up and Free For All. In my preparations, I had also chosen to think a lot about where I could deploy and how. Fog Of War is a game, where you really have to be mobile. You need to be able to take out the enemy platoon on one side of the table, as well as claiming the objective at the center while keeping your opponent from taking out your artillery unit with his Recon unit.

In my previous article, I had done some preparations also, but I had overlooked one vital part of the Dust Up mission. And I was determined not to overlook it again. The center of the table is also an area where you can use Spearhead move. I felt pretty confident that no one else from me had thought of this, and also realized how important it is in Fog Of War. As it turned out, I only ended up playing Free For All, so the Dust Up surprise is now spoiled for others to think about.

The List

We had started out with 100 pts lists, but somewhere along the way, it got changed to 90 pts. I had not noticed, so I had to make last minute adjustments to my list.

 

I removed one SU-76 simply because it did not arrive in time for me to glue it together and paint it. I decided to maximize the platoon that goes with Leonid. The Valentines are my favorite tank, but I had imagined that the Stuarts would be the ones to take home most points and/or most kills.

The Games

The two games, I will use for this article, was against two ETC players from the Danish ETC Team; Kristian Lynge and Morten Schmidt. Both are capable players with several years of experience and good knowledge of the game.

Kristian was a bit under the weather, but he has the spirit of a true “viking” so he and I decided to play. He was playing british infantry with two Rifle Platoons, a 6pdr Platoon, a UC platoon, four 25pdr guns, a Daimler platoon, a Humber platoon and three M10s as well as Hurricanes. He had given his infantry Piat CC and one platoon Indian Rifle Coy and a Lucky card. A great list for Fog Of War with durability and mobility as well as good guns.

Using Chris’ IPB for the first time, I tried to find avenues of approach for both him and I. I felt confident that he would try to get near the center via a forest on the right, so I made my forces strong on the right side, while leaving the left side “open” expecting Leonid to reinforce that either in my opponents deployment zone or on the hill/forest, depending on the situation.

I deployed with my guns to my right, able to fire at the center and at the right side of the table. I used my BA-10s to move a big infantry platoon up towards the center of the table. I kept Leonid in reserve with his infantry platoon. I deployed my SU-76 so they could cover the center of the table and/or fire artillery as support. The Valentines between the guns on the right and the SU in the center and the Stuarts a little to the left near a forest and hill, so I could shift them quickly towards the center when needed.

I looked at potential objectives:

• Spread Disorder – I want to disable his“safe points”
• Precise Attack Unit type/points
• Secure Minor Objective – force aggressive unit to stop
• Scout The Perimeter – BA10s at work
• Secure this position – let him use his Spread Disorder here
• Draw them Out – I have the center of the table, I can take it.

I saw the center of the table as his most dangerous Course of Action (COA) and I felt confident that I had denied that. A forest as well as fields and stone fences were key terrain features there, all providing him with cover if I had not denied him access. His most probable COA would be the flanks, where I had my gun teams+ Valentines on one flank and Leonid and Stuarts on the other.

During the game I had access to two of the potential objectives for me: Secure Minor Objective (2 times, one of which I scored) and Draw Them Out. Leonid had arrived in turn 2, sitting on an objective worth 3 points to Kristian, preventing him from taking it. Kristian then got the “Scout The Perimeter” objective and managed to get 4 points from 2 of the objectives before the game ended.

I sent my Stuarts up to the center of the table, and they either could die there, providing BP cover for infantry, or they could survive and hold the Draw Them Out objective and Secure Minor Objective. But we had to stop due to time, at the end of turn 3. It was frustrating as the center of the table was about to become important as I had hoped, and I think I had the best chance of winning, with infantry in BP cover at the center, and SU-76s supporting them. But theory is just theory and the game ended 4-3 in Kristians advantage.

Against Morten I also had an interesting and challenging game. He was fielding an Italian list with 2 tank companies. One with 3*3 Semoventes and a M14/41 HQ, and a L6/40 Light Tank Coy with 17 L6/40’s. In support he had 3 AB41 and 2*1 Lancia and a battery of 25pdrs and an infantry platoon. Now I have to say this… This is one of my estimates at an optimal list. It can do almost anything. His only disadvantage was that we were playing on a primary city table.

My prefered COA would be at the center of the table again. I estimated that my infantry would have a decent chance of taking out opposition, once Leonid came in, by making a 2 front war against him. At the same time, the area with the most open space had very little to hide in, so I wanted my Valentines and SU-76s to focus on that area. I deployed my AT guns assuming they could see a lot, but I had forgotten that the Tree lines would block LOS so, they were deployed terribly wrong.

I had my Valentines and SUs at the top of the table on the picture above. At the bottom, I had my Stuarts, wanting to use them to support the infantry.

I was pretty sure I had control of the city but underestimated his L6/40s supported by infantry in the buildings. I could not get to assault him, as he had a constant of 3-4 vehicles able to provide defensive fire as well as infantry.

As previously, I had a list of objectives, I was hoping to get.

• Spread Disorder – I want to disable his“safe points”
• Precise Attack Unit type/points
• Secure Minor Objective – force aggressive unit to stop
• Scout The Perimeter – BA10s at work
• Secure this position – let him use his Spread Disorder here
• Draw them Out – I have the center of the table, I can take it.

The disadvantage of the normal Fog Of War game, is that you have absolutely no control over the objectives you get, and in this game, I would come face to face with the downside of this.

First turn I had objectives, I would get two of the kind where I place an objective 60cm from the center of the table, and my opponent does the same, and then one of us would have to control both objectives at once, to get points. Never going to happen.

So I took an “Take out enemy HQ” objective. I would get 3 points, once both his HQ choices were dead. Not an easy task. I ended up with another turn of getting objectives I could not use, and his forces kept me at bay for 3-4 turns where I could not get across the center of the table. At the end of the game, I could have taken 2 points by revealing a hidden objective.

I had one objective that required me to get across the table center, but Leonid arrived in turn 4 or 5, too late to do anything except take out the flank with his 25pdrs and a Lancia. But at that time, he had taken out my Valentines and SU’s and my AT guns were of little use. I killed 2 platoons, he took out 3. He had 2 points, I had 0.

Lessons with Leonid

Leonid costs 5 points. For these points you seem to get one thing, no matter what: The opponents deployment will almost without a doubt be different than if your forces would deploy normally. It is also my experience that the opponent tends to play a little less aggressive. I’m not sure if this is optimal or not. I think that you, playing with Leonid, have a huge challenge in making your list aggressive enough to attack on 2 fronts, as well as capable of defending if there is an all out assault on you.

On the plus side: He really can make a lot of mayhem in the opponent’s forces. If you let the HQ go in and assault, it is 2 teams that hit on 2+ in assault. The thing that new players tend to forget, is that you do not have to deploy the infantry platoon and the HQ together. In my game vs Kristian, I deployed the HQ near the center of the table to enable moral support for the unit in the center.

I think this is one of the potentially best uses of Leonid. The platoon can be deployed at the most aggressive place possible, while you take the HQ to be near your other forces for moral support. I found that lacking the HQ to reroll Rally etc is quite a hindrance, particularly if you do not have enough points to make one or more units into Guards.

Can Leonid counter the Elephant and Marder threat as you have talked about earlier?

Yes, I believe he can. It is fairly easy for him to take care of the Marders. The Elephant is less interesting, as it, alone, poses no real threat to almost any army from Red Banner or Enemy At The Gates. Your opponent will be unable to be completely aggressive as well as able to protect the Marder/Elephant combo and play effectively is my claim.

But as Austin and Ed have mentioned earlier, any player who knows his list very well has a good chance of winning – even if the list he is playing, in theory, is slightly less effective than the opponents. It is going to take a lot of practice to make the list work good in general, but the potential in this list, is clear to me. If the opponent ignores Leonid, he is in for a bashing that he will most likely never forget.

IPB experiences

In the Fog Of War game, it is hard to use it to its full potential, as it seems to me, there is a need to be able to foresee your opponents primary COA. This is probably not possible in the completely Random version, where you play with the entire deck. But in a normal game or in a Fog Of War with 10 card deck game, it will help me a great deal. It is hard to take the time in the beginning of the game to go through all points in your head, but it is well worth it. For myself I would add these questions at the end of the game:

• What was my greatest lesson in this game:
• What was my greatest success in this game, and why did it become a success?

I believe that even casual gamers can benefit from having focus on learning each game.

Have fun testing Leonid, and share your experiences in the forum!

Below: other pictures from the tables.