summation: I won one and lost two, and I think half the reason I won the one I did was operating in such a spastic manner that I just threw the other guy off his rocker. So here's the run down, illustrated with pictures shamelessly stolen from Caesar.The basic setup: a few of us showed up the night before and set up tables. I brought out my standard modular stuff, configured for maximum nightmare potential since it was haloween. In other words, one massive mountain, dead center of the table.
I also rolled out the Urban Table Mat for its first outing, public or private, and I was fairly pleased with the results. I still need more buildings to give it that proper claustrophobic feeling, but since those take either time or money it will have to wait until I've got either. But the collection is slowly growing -- I picked up two more of the ruined foundations just for this event.
Caesar ran a great event, in his own inimitable style. Any rules he doesn't like go more or less out the window, as a good Games Master should. What that meant for us on the day was no army histories, bonus points for actual victory, and a costume contest to mark the holiday season. The mug shot:
Ya, I'm dressed up as a cop. That's the thing with costumes -- if you aren't a chick, you've got to dress counter to type. Nothing is further from me than a cop, so there. Anyway, we had folks from all over, a few different towns in Georgia and a cat from Mississippi, so it was all regional and stuff. So, on to the games.
But first, a few more table shots:
Kritikalfialure's Russian Thaw table:
and his scene of urban blight:
Shaun's Frenchy-French village:
And some of Caesar' s layouts, using his stuff, the stores stuff, and some of my stuff. Anything in these pics that looks like a refugee from a Warhammer game is probably mine, the hills are from Legion, and everything else, more or less, is Caesar:
GAME 1
Game 1 was against Wes and his Soviet amour, fought on my own nightmare mountain. Both sides pretty much just spun around the hill, coming for each other on opposite flanks. I didn't realize until it was too late how much my StuGs were making him nervous...
...if I had, my Pioneers would have been on the move a turn or two sooner, and would have been on my other objective soon enough to let the Panzer IVs have a decent shot at pealing his tanks off it.
Hell, two more inches and I could have hit him with my Goliath! As it were, it was a quick win, without too much blood on either side. One platoon down for each of us, for a 5-2 to him.
GAME 2
For Game 2 I faced off against Barry and more Soviet tanks on my city table. This time it was me and Barry, and by this point the coffee had started getting to me. I was getting so generally hyper that I had to give my gun to KritikalFailure so I wouldn't soot anybody.
This game was me defending in Hold the Line, and I actually set out a plan and stuck to it -- dig in, make him come to me, and use ambushing AT guns and reserve tanks to deal with his threats as they materialize. Also, make him go through the crappy part of town to get at you.
The mine field I threw in his path really seemed to give him the heeby-jeebies, and served to tunnel almost all his force into a single lane of advance, easily covered once he went for it. I think, between my annoying tactics and table-side antics (the coffee was really getting to me) I just broke his spirit. He was ready to just surrender at one point, but I talked him into at least trying to bloody my nose. Which he promptly did by trashing 3 Panzer IVs in a single volley. There weren't the 6-1, but a 5-2 will still carry the day. I did get to use my goliath in this one, but he shot it to bits with defensive fire.
GAME 3
Game 3 was me and Erin, and for some reason this one just got on my nerves. I made a stupid mistake right at the beginning, and paid for it until the end of the game. DO NOT rush your StuGs out in between two platoons of Shermans and Stuarts. They will all die, and you will spend the rest of the game on your heels reacting to what he does.
In this game we realized Goliaths do get a 0/0/0 amour save, but to no avail, as I again failed to get the little bugger within range. About all I managed to do was kill a platoon of Shermans, thereby denying my dastardly opponent the glory of a 6-1. He walked away with a 5-2, instead.
In all, I don't think I like playing Grenadiers very much. Sure, you save some points on halftracks, but you're just so damned slow! It unnerves me to sit and wait, I can't seem to do it without leaving my dick in the wind. I took what felt like a hobbled list, for two reasons -- I wanted to play with my wounded company of grenadiers, where everyone's a casualty, in honor of the holiday. I also wanted to give someone else a chance to win the painting prize. I mean, hell, these guys are all base coated, and the tanks had airbrushed camo, but only one platoon was 100% finished. Everything else was half done. And yet still I walk away with a painting prize. Which I guess is a compliment.
It was a good event and I had a great time. I just need to play the game more and learn to loose less.