God Saves the Queen: my first FOW tournament

After one year of intense gaming on with my British BAOR army (of which and ), I decided to try the WW2 side of Battlefront rules. has lots in common with Team Yankee, so I basically had the same ruleset with much more variety in army lists.

I chose the British Mid-War army in the desert: partially because I already had some V1 pieces, but also since I planned to paint the US Army (the other army I’d like to paint) in the Late period for an internal campaign we’re going to have at our local club in early 2019. So I fast-painted the missing pieces and formed a list of Desert Rats. The first tournament at a stone’s throw was Hobby Model Expo on 30th September. Hobby Model is one of the most important shows in northern Italy: everything related to modelling hobbies is there, from miniatures to plastic models, from painting to lots of soldiers of any scale.

Italian Battlefront’s official importer, organized this tournament inside Hobby Model Expo – and offered the free entrance to this show, so how could I miss this opportunity to field my just finished Desert Rats army and waste some money buying models, paints and brushes?

My list

British tanks shoot very well, but they need to stay stationary. In movement, they lose ROF and also normally suffer the “overcrewed” stats, meaning they hit the enemy with a disappointing malus. However, FOW is a highly dynamic game, so you need to take the tanks where they can hit the enemy where it hurts.

I built my list on this idea: so the first formation is a card-based scout with four platoons, three of which have a couple of Daimlers with their small cousin Dingo. The Daimler’s cannon is exactly the same 2 PDF from the Valentine, so they move fast and hit really hard with an AP of 7. However, they need to count on their “scout” skill to avoid easy detection, otherwise, their poor armour can be penetrated by almost anything in FOW.

Since scouts are easily destroyed, for the second formation I needed something more stable. What better than the stubborn British Infantry? With their basic save of 3+ with seven bases, the Rifle Foot is the best Company you can get in the British list to anchor to a terrain and defend it indefinitely. To add some extra long range punch, I also got a full six bases of 3″ mortar platoon. They can’t worry enemy armoured vehicles with their poor AP of 1, but are very good to kill anything with a pure save, like infantry or cannons.

To support these two formations, I got a full 25 Pdr battery, good in barrages and indirect fire, three Bofors to protect my troops from unwanted attention from air as well versus other light ground vehicles, a full 17/25 battery to counter the extra-heavy tanks like Tigers and KV1s. Finally, a platoon of Valentine with a single, invaluable 6 Pdr AP 10, and a Crusader platoon, with a much poorer armour but stronger cannons with 9 AP. For this platoon, I selected the “scout” Card, that raises the “to hit” score to a more reliable 4+, and allows them the “scout” trait.

The basic tactic would be to use the batteries to kill everything in sight, the infantry to get and defend objectives, and tanks with scouts to move fast from cover to cover without shooting, keeping the “gone to ground” thanks to their “scout” trait. At least, this was the theory, but as any wargame player knows, no plan survives with contact with the enemy.

Rules for the Italian FOW Championship: in our Championship, we use the More Missions PDF. Each player chooses a “stance” (Defend, Manoeuvre, or Attack) and they reveal simultaneously. For the score, the winner gets a single “Big point”. Also, each player records the Battlefront ordinary score (8-1, 6-3, etc) and the number of platoons he killed. So a score for a game you won could be 1 big point, 6-3, 5 platoons killed. The most important score is the big points one, and for ties they compare the other two numbers. This way you can’t have easy ties.

First game, meet the Italians!

For the first clash, I met Luca Papisca with his Avanti list. I really think Italians got a huge upgrade in V4, and have a list that is really strong. A bit unhistorical for the morale, but good for game variety. Luca’s list was really interesting: a single formation of scout Armoured Car AB41, 5 platoons strong; two single Lancias to counter heavy tanks, 5 Semovente (any Italian list should have them), some batteries with 5 and 7.62 cm. On foot, a single 9-strong Bersaglieri infantry platoon.

The table had a city layout, with a huge plaza in the center and lots of buidings, but also straight roads with no cover. A  hell of setup for all my scouts.

Here is the photo just after the initial setup.

I decided to attack the Italians – lots of players with British army prefer to defend and use the skilled artillery to keep the enemy at bay, but I’m solid in the opinion the best defense is always to attack. Luca chose to Defend, and we ended up with a Bridgehead Scenario.

I placed an objective near enough to the ruins on my left, and the other close to the wood: safe harbours for my infantry. Luca had to keep 40% of his force in reserve and selected the medium tanks, the infantry and the Semoventi. This allowed him to place all his artillery and scouts on the table. He deployed the artillery and the two Lancias on the back kept the German 7.62 guns in ambush and placed scouts everywhere to keep the table. He also had 4 minefields he used to cover the right objective.

I placed my 25 on the left, in a position they could bombard all enemy deployment area, but also able to cover with direct fire the left flank. To support them, just a scout platoon. In the plaza I place the 17/25 in the best position to shoot on any defendant of the two objectives, the 3″ infantry mortars in central wood (they a short range, only 80 cm, so you can’t hide them too far in the back), and the two infantries in buildings on the sides. Valentines, Crusaders, and the rest of the scouts on the right, to assault the enemy position.

A simple design of the opening moves: British are in the lower part: from left to right I placed some scouts screening the 25 Pdr, the infantry ready to attack the ruins near the first objective, the 15 Pdr guarding the huge square at centre of the map, the other infantry pointing to the second objective, and all other scouts and tanks on the right to flank attack Luca right.
(all icons are from the video game from Slitherine, the company I work for)

Knowing the reinforcements would arrive from turn 3, I rushed to attack Luca on the right. The two infantries moved from building to building to enjoy a relatively safe (if they are behind solid ground, to kill them you need to roll firepower, so all handguns and machine guns are relatively useless since they have 6+). In the first two rounds I moved tanks and scouts to the right, clearing the scouts and the Lancia they met. Luca used his scouts to keep the control of the right objective: being in the wood, I could hit him only on 7+ at long range, so he avoided simply to be hit.

Turn fourth, some Italian reinforcements arrive from the left corner. Meanwhile, my tanks and scouts on the right destroy everything in sight. Italian armour is too weak for the British 2 Pdr.

At turn four, my infantry was close enough to contest both objectives, so when the reinforcements entered Luca had to worry about both two objectives, not only one. He sent the Semoventi to stop the left infantry, and the medium tanks to deal with the infantry menacing the right objective. This exposed his tanks to my 17/25, that cut them to pieces.

Instead of taking the objective, I destroyed the single Formation in Luca’s list. This caused the whole Italian army to collapse, conceding the field. 

Finally, my tanks arrived behind the line of wood and killed all scouts around: this caused the formation to collapse and all the army to demoralize and leave the battlefield, with a final score of 1 big point, 8-1 and 13 platoons destroyed. That’s what I call “a good start”!

Luca’s army had a single Achille’s Heel: with a single formation, you can’t afford to lose it. If they kill four platoons of your 5-unit force, including the HQ, they just leave the table.

Editor: Next week, part two