FOW Regionals in Los Angeles

September 21, 2018 | Troy Hill | Flames of War

By Players at the tourney: Johnny Vasquez, Justin Rodriguez, Hyato Tukakosi, Scott Miller and Tom Richards 

Photos by: Hyato Tukakosi and Troy Hill

Compiled by Troy Hill (Edited to include Justin R’s comments).

I recently organized the Pacific South-West regionals, a two-day, five-round FOW MW Tourney held at . No Dice No Glory and  sponsored the tourney (along with the Team Yankee tourney the day before).

Since the tournament occurred one week after BattleFront’s new books for the Eastern Front, Iron Cross and Enemy at the Gates hit the shelves, I allowed lists from the new books in the event.

Afterwards, I asked players to send in their thoughts to several questions about how the new forces affected the games they played. Below are their responses. The only editing I have done is for spelling and grammar, as well as organizing their comments by category.

Final Standings: Surprisingly, the top player fielded a force from Armoured Fist – a Death or Glory list. Another Brit list took fourth. Soviet lists were second, third, tenth and fourteenth. Germans bunched in the middle of the pack at fifth through eighth place, with one at eleventh. The fourth Soviet player, Ramses, is a younger new player in his first season of playing Flames of War. Give him some time to learn both the game and his army, and he’ll climb the ranks.

What the players had to say about the new lists:

Johnny Vasquez (JV): (finished first overall) I ran a Death or Glory List out of Armored Fist. I chose the list because I like the idea of an aggressive tank list that can assault infantry reliably while being immune to smaller AT weapons.
Justin Rodriguez – American Player (JR): 

I brought an American force to this tournament because it would be something different. I assumed with the release of the new Eastern Front books that most players would bring a formation from one of the two new books Iron Cross and Enemy at the Gates. For my American Force, I chose two formations because I thought it would be stronger to have than a single formation. If I had to do it again I would make one strong formation instead of two weak formations for a lower point tournament.
For this tournament, I went for a defensive strategy. My game plan was to field the Tank Destroyer formation to mitigate the Russian and German armor that I was sure to face while the infantry company would hold objectives on my side of the table. The tank destroyers would race up to claim objectives near the end of the game if they survived. 74 points is tricky to fit in a significant amount of heavy equipment.
Hayato Tukakosi – Soviet Player (TK): From my experience, I think the M3 Lee is best all-around asset for the Soviet. It has MG and a cannon that does not suffer NO HE against infantry and gun teams and not overworked like all other Soviet tanks. FA 5 is good enough against assets with AT 9 or less, which most army can field. Although it is not as fast as a Stuart, its movement is still good. Most importantly, the Lee has the option to upgrade its tank gun to AT 10 for one point per tank, which will be more lethal against a tank with FA-6 or less. Plus its FP is 3+. As for the cost of the tank, its base price is one point cheaper than its American counterpart.
Hyato’s Soviet M3 Lee Formation for the tournament
Tom Richards – Soviet Player (TR): My list: Soviet mixed tank. Kv’s Val’s Stuart’s, hero platoon, 76mm and 120mm arty, dhsk, BA10 and cards to reposition ranged in after deployment.
Scott Miller – German Player (SM): My army list was DAK Germans and I was disappointed with my results. I picked this army because I had the troops and I enjoy their abilities.
Scott’s Germans
The German Forces
JV: The new German lists are good for players who like infantry and want a more solid platoon size. I ran into one person playing the new German list. The assault pioneers will be deadly if they are able to move in. Other than that, Marders and 88s proved to be my biggest enemy.
SM:  found that my list was outnumbered and I could not cover the entire table when needed, especially if I was defending. At the point level we played… the Germans were limited in what options they had… What I found is that compared to other nations German troops are expensive and their special (and expensive) abilities don’t always work since we still need to roll a dice to get them.
TR: Germans are somewhat underpowered in enemy at the gates. Too expensive vs the new Soviet options. I don’t think it’s balanced fairly, punch vs cost.
HT: Most of the new units to the book were gun units and heavy weapon units, which makes the German force more formidable. They now have more powerful anti-tank assets such as the 75mm AT gun (Pak40) and 37mm AT gun (Pak 36) with Stielgranate to destroy tanks. In addition, infantry gun units are finally back. They also have more options for artillery units that are cheaper than the 105 mm howitzer and the Lorraine Schlepper like 15 cm Nebelwerfer and 8 cm mortar.
JR: 

I was surprised to see two German armies sporting a tiger tank with the mobile light vehicle list. I believe they used an upgrade command card that lets them field a formation of scout vehicles. This was an interesting formation and fun to play against. Chad brought one of these armies and used the scout cars to move quickly up the flanks and machine gun the heck out of my entrenched riflemen protecting my objectives on my side of the table. Fortunately, my air support was able to do some damage to the lightly armored vehicles and I was lucky to receive air support in multiple turns.
Another German army that I played was fielded by Richard Aldrete. Like me he also went for a defensive strategy so this made for an interesting battle. I believe he was the attacker so he had to be aggressive with artillery units which was a big challenge to move on objectives across the board.
The Soviet Forces
JV:  The new Soviet options are really good and are hard to deal with. Mass armour will be difficult to deal with unless you specifically build a list to defeat it. That will leave you vulnerable against massed infantry, however. I knew my list wouldn’t have much trouble with the infantry as they can’t reliably deal with my list. I do feel that some sort of template will be needed otherwise you are in trouble. The tanks are easy to deal with but if you don’t bring options to deal with a KV-1 you will need to work really hard to destroy everything around them. Lastly, the 3+ last stand makes it extremely difficult to break them.
TR: Soviet points mean hordes, whether its tanks or inf. Look at Raymond’s list and Hyato’s list and my list. Only skilled players can thwart the rush. Igor almost lost attacking me, he ground [his force] down to almost nothing [during the game] and I still had the advantage with my remaining KVs and Val’s.
HT: The characteristic of the Soviet [force] is a mixed bag. The generic skill of the entire Soviet army is 5+, except for the Katyusha, which is 4+. Assault rating varies depending on the unit. All of the tank teams except for the BA-10 scout car are hit on 2+. Infantry and gun teams are hit on 3+. The motivation is average (4+), but tank teams, Commissar for regular infantry unit, Storm units, and Infantry Scout unit are 3+ for unit last stand.

HT: … I have heard complaints that the Soviet army is too powerful because they get too many teams in one unit at a cheap price. The statement is true to a certain degree…

HT: … However, the claim of fielding cheap unit is not true for these compulsory units that are either priced about the same or more than other armies. Three Soviet M3 Lee tanks cost 14 points compared to 15 points for three US M3 Lee or three Panzer III.

JR:  I played one Russian army fielded by Ramses. He brought a very interesting infantry formation with sniper support and Vasily Ziechzev special character card. The snipers were not too effective as we played on a desert themed table with not too much cover for them to hide and I was able to avoid area terrain that could hide snipers.

He had another interesting card that allowed him to roll for a single tank to arrive off the production lines for infantry support. He was able to bring one tank onto the table with this card. It was a fun themed army but not very competitive as it relied on too many variables. Regardless he held me at bay for a tied game.

The new lists in competition
JV: I brought my list because playing in a 5 game tournament is mentally taxing and having all armour makes it easier. I knew I had to force the issue every game and I attempted to do that. I used my single template to set up assaults and block off long range fire. My plane was there to blow up marders and other light vehicles. I also just really like the theme of Death or Glory with Valentines and Crusaders charging the guns.
German Armored Car Company. This is another formidable force. However, if the reserve rule is applied in the mission, the Tiger will be one of the reserve unit. The force becomes less threatening when the mighty Tiger is removed. – Hyato T.
HT: The challenge of playing a German army is how to win games with expensive assets. German tanks like the Panzer IV, Stug, and Tiger are still expensive compared to the Allied tanks. Panzer III is already outclassed against a tank with FA 5 or greater or possessing a gun with AT 9 or better. Upgrading three Panzer III tanks to AT 9 cost 24 points, which is the same as getting four M3 Lee tanks with AT10, three M10 Tank Destroyer with AT 12 or three Sherman tanks with FA 6 and AT 10. The AT gun teams are powerful, but some like the Pak40 cost the same as a Panzer III or M3 Lee tank. Assault Pioneers are deadly infantry in close quarter battle, but a large size unit cost 14 points!
This is one of the new German formation, Grenadier Company. Most of the points are spent on the deadly large Assault Pioneer (7 SMG teams & 2 Flamethrowers) and the Tiger. Even if the Tiger is in reserve, a single Flak 36 can still deliver a heavy blow against any tanks. However, it will be targeted by artillery unit. It can also be destroyed by large infantry or tank unit. – Hyato T

JR: The tournament was fun overall and a good learning experience. I am going to focus on making stronger single formations for future events. The mission matrix is something that I also need to study as holding large chunks of my army in reserve can be a challenge depending on the mission selected. My tank destroyers would come onboard too late sometimes to make a difference. I would also like to say that our group of Los Angeles area Flames of War players is a good group of guys and make games for the less experienced players fun and enjoyable. Hopefully, I can ascend to the upper ranks one day.

HT: Winning games with a German army is still possible, but players will need to be creative, use the terrain on the battlefield to their advantage, use every tactical ability like smoke bombardment, take risks, and most importantly they get the mission that suites the type of German army they are, i.e. mobile or static force.

Final Standings:
1-Johnny Vasquez – British – Best Painted
2-Raymond Loh – Soviet
3-Hyato Tukakosi – Soviet
4-Igor Torgeson – British
5-Christian Sorenson – German
6-Scott Miller -German (Travelled the furthest)
7-Malcolm Hee – German
8-Chad McElhiney – German
9-Kevin Morris – Italian – Favorite Opponent
10-Tom Richards – Soviet
11-Richard Aldrete – German – Best Table
12-John Harrel – British
13-Justin Rodriguez – American
14-Ramses Juarez – Soviet

9 thoughts on “FOW Regionals in Los Angeles”

  1. Any idea what the US player’s list was like?

    It’s disappointing that even with the new books the Germans are seen as a bit behind the curve. Hopefully as more battles happen we’ll see that they are better than they seem now.

  2. I did submit my thoughts for this article about Americans in this Tournamet but I guess it wasn’t good enough to make the cut…

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