Scandinavia in Flames FoW tournament report

David from our club went up to Stockholm to take part in the "Scandinavia in Flames" tournament. He brought his camera and was kind enough to provide both pictures and a quick report of the action which you can read below:

Scandinavia in Flames. Up and down again.

I took a trip to our fair nation’s capitol, Stockholm, to show the northerners how proper FoW is to be played. I took my newly painted Soviet Mixed Tankovy list.

10x T26
8x Mark 3 Lee´s with tank riders
5x KV1e
2 Katyushas with extra loading crew
3 dice I-153 biplane with rockets

The trip up was uneventful. 6 hours on a train reading, listening to music and munching on sandwiches. Well in town I head to some friends to impose and crash on their floor over the weekend. As I arrived I find a poker game in progress and dive right in and proceed to lose some of my travelling money on a badly executed bluff... never drink and play... damn that absinthe...

The tournament in itself started well. I managed to navigate the subway and commuter trains to suburbia and worm my way though small streets and a stroll though some wood. The tournament took place in a small communal building in Sollentuna north of Stockholm.

It was a cozy little building with a beautiful old cast iron stove I wanted to sneak home with me.

Game 1

My first game was against a local player fielding a Panzergrenadier force. The mission was cauldron and he deployed his infantry dug in to defend the objectives and his panzerwerfers ready to bomb my tanks. As fortune would have it I had luck with my deployment rolls and both my platoons (T26´s and KV1´s) started just outside his deployment zone and within spitting distance of an objective. The game really went downhill from there for my opponent as my tanks rolled over his infantry before his tanks had a chance to make an appearance to start pick of my tanks.

6-1 to me

Game 2 – Fighting withdrawal

Game to took place in the dark woods of eastern Europe against the San Marco marine infantry of the Italian navy (paraduchistis played as marines, some neat conversion works with sailor collars).

The game war very bloody and my tanks took heavy losses against dug in Italians with homemade bombs. I advanced over a wide front. M3´s swooping against a flank objective and my KV´s and T26´s against the other flank. In the end it turned bloody as M3´s and Italians almost killed each other off with the Italians going home and my fearless tanks contesting the objective. The rescue column of Italian tankettes being wiped out in a turn of lucky shooting by the Lees.

6-1 to me

Game 3

The third game was against a soviet militia force with more bases than Wong’s in a Chinese phonebook. In the end I played like an ass and managed to lose what should have been a easy victory. I advanced into close combat with Lee´s and KV´s with the T26´s protected their flanks against the horde of Russians on the other side of a railroad that split the table. I played aggressive and plowed into assault yet I always consolidated backwards for some reason. At the time i thought I wanted to avoid to be surrounded and to avoid flamer tanks. In retrospect I should have pushed on and pushed though his infantry (who could hardly harm my tanks) and surrounded his tanks and killed them. Instead it went tits up and i lost.

1-6 to me

Game 4

Game 4 was a nightmare. More Italians. An Italian defensive company with lots and lots of AT guns. I was convinced I would be squashed. In the end both me and my opponent was surprised. I pushed my light tanks towards one flank to hold half his platoons pinned down and remain in cover while I pushed the rest towards an objective in a wood on the other flank. My hope was to overwhelm his troops and swamp his guns in tanks. The plan worked halfway and after losing my commander and heavy tanks my mediums wiped out almost all resistance and contested the objective. A remnant of AT guns still remained pointed in the wrong way but still remained close enough to stop me from winning. By the time they died Italian reinforcements had rolled up and after a firefight finished off my mediums and loosing me the game. Very close game and very enjoyable.

3-4 to me

Game 5

Game 5 gave me a nightmare of a target. My last opponent fielded a German armor company with panzer 4´s and 3´s. And in the center of it all, a dreaded Tiger 1. The mission was breakthrough with me as the attacker. My plan was to flank with my light tanks and push through his mediums with my heavies and keep his tiger busy with my mediums. The plan worked till the tiger got bored with ranging armor plating and in combination with the Luftwaffe he killed off my mediums. It tok him the better part of the game though before my last little Lees went home.

On the north my KV´s rolled through all opposition crushing the panzer 4s in front of them but by the time they arrived at the objective it was too late. The Tiger was waiting for them.

My lights screwed up and either got lost or found the emergency vodka supply and turned up to late to facilitate my plan. When they came in they were greeted by panzer 3s lurking in a wood and a firefight erupted. A few of my brave tankers managed to contest the objective and kill of his recon but in the end they were killed off. The last falling to a tiger shell that made scrap metal of him.

3-4 to me.

In the end I placed 4th with which I’m very pleased for my first tournament playing with tanks.