Post by mkcontra on Aug 19, 2009 20:40:33 GMT -5
A warning – this is a long one:
Saturday of Gencon saw the advent of the first ever AEWWII Competitive Campaign. Having talked friends Aaron (U.S. Army) and Marc (SD Germans) into playing, we settled in at a comfortable 8 players. The players were evenly divided among Axis and allies as follows:
Me – Soviets
Scott – U.S. Army
Aaron – U.S. Army
Chris – U.S. Army
Matt – ROA (bad Russians)
Marc – SD
Andrew – SS
Chuck – Wehrmacht
My list:
Soviet Reconnaissance Detachment
Veteran Psi Officer
Veteran Cossack Uryandnik (War Hero)
Regular AT-Rifle
Regular Soviet Guard
Regular Starshina (Criminal)
Green Chumans
Green (sacrificed for 2nd hero)
Green Criminals (free w/ Criminal hero)
Jeep w/ heavy MG
Now, I could’ve switched stuff up every game, but I didn’t want to bother - something about real men not needing sideboards or something.
The setting for the tournament was that the Germans had recently captured a hill – the Allies were intent on taking it back. We would be paired against a different opposing army each round with our points all totaled to determine the winning side for each round. Points were awarded for Primary Objectives (4), Secondary objectives which are random each game (2) and attrition (2/3rds of opponents models, also 2 pts).
Round one found the Allies trying to push the Axis out of the middle third of the table by the end of the game. I started off facing Marc. After seeing him deploy his MG 42 on his right flank, I then proceeded to deploy the rest of my forces in the middle or on his left flank. I methodically advanced my MG-toting jeep and Uryandnik, steadily eliminating his Krieghunds and basic soldats. Meanwhile, I had taken his Sniper out of the game via my special order “Stragglers” (he started to roll to see if he showed up on turn 2, needing a 1, then a 2 or a 1, etc etc). By the end, I had outflanked the temple his forces had taken position in in the center of the table and broken his forces pretty effectively. I ended up w/ all three objectives (secondary was “delaying action,” needing to extend the game to 6 turns) while Marc achieved NUTZING – an 8-0 victory for the allies. Other games in the round included Aaron losing to the SS, Chris’ U.S. losing to the Wehrmacht, and Scott’s motorized allies eeking out a win with an awesome last-minute shot by a GI eliminating a Beast of the Apocalypse (6 to hit, 6 to wound, Matt failing a 4+), giving him the primary AND secondary. All told, round 1 ended with the allies leading by 2 points.
The allies, having pushed back the Germans from the lower portion of the hill, now wanted to secure the hilltop itself. Both sides wanted to be the only one with models within 6 inches of the center point at the end of turn 6. I was matched up against Andrew’s SS, which included some nifty supernatural units (hellhost, krieghexe) and a Vrill technician (no vamps or werewolves though). Other games were Marc vs. Chris, Matt vs. Aaron and Scott vs. Chuck. Our game was very close. I initially ran my Chumans up behind the center temple where they hid the rest of the game so I could at least contest the objective. Meanwhile, his sniper (his gun enhanced by the technician) inflicted a couple of casualties on my criminals on the right flank. Determined not to skulk around pinned by his sniper and better ranged weapons all game, I decided to rush my Uryandnik up the left flank, taking position across a wall from some SS Soldats. Leveling his PPSH, he blasted one full in the face. However, the next turn saw the Sniper and remaining soldat taking two of his 3 wounds. Not wanting to lose him for almost nothing, I used all his actions to move into base contact with the Krieghexe (I was not positioned right to charge, unfortunately). Somewhat strangely, instead of blasting away into hand to hand, Andrew retaliated by moving his hellhost into hand to hand. If he had just said "Damn the Krieghexe" and fired into hth, I think he could've swung the tide of the game. As it was, my Uryandnik decisively won all the combats, but could not hurt the damn thing (good armor, invulnerable save). Anyways, the rest of my force advanced at this point, killing the rest of his force except for his Vrill tech and the 2 units in with the Uryandnik. Finally, on turn 5, the Uryandnik was able to act and mercilessly cut down the Krieghexe, earning me 2 points. Sadly, on turn 6, the Hellhost got lucky and was able to kill the Uryandnik, following up by moving in to be able to contest the primary (DAMNIT). Thus, I was only able to win 4-2 (secondary + attrition vs. secondary). Other games included Marc defeating Chris, Scott besting Chuck and Aaron working Matt over so badly in the first turn that Matt decided to voluntarily withdraw on turn 2, preventing Aaron from claiming attrition OR his secondary (classic!). All-in-all, the Americans increased their lead significantly.
Round three I was faced against Chuck’s Wehrmacht (lots of guys including an MG, sniper and some panzerfausts). Having taken the hill, the allies now swarmed down the other side, assaulting some prepared Axis positions. Thus, all the axis players were provided with their very own armor 10 bunker (normal guy armor is 2 or 3, and average gun strength is 3-4, making anything in the bunker incredibly hard to kill from range). The primary objective was Last Man Standing. Chuck deployed his sniper and MG in the bunker with some other guys strung along in front to delay me. I straggled his only officer, hoping to cause some morale problems. I deployed my Chumans on my right, with them planning to feint forward and hid at the crest of a hill. My jeep and Cossack hero were on the left, looking to rapidly advance behind the cover of a hill to my left of the bunker (this terrain piece won me this game by allowing me to quickly outflank the bunker). The other stuff was set up in the middle and was tasked with drawing fire from the important stuff. The Criminals, lastly, were given the important job of camping the piece of terrain I needed to defend for my secondary objective. Chuck clearly saw the threat from the approaching Chumans, shifting most of his forces to face them. At the same time, my Cossack stormed over the hill, overrunning a Panzerfaust/Soldat squad threatening my Jeep. The jeep meanwhile sped forward spewing lead. By the end of turn 3, I was in position to strike. My Cossack had sprinted up next to the bunker (eliminating the inhabitants’ cover. His officer had also turned up and taken refuge in the armored shell) and my other shooting had begun to wear down Chuck’s drive. In a cool moment, Chuck announced his use of his special order “Momentum,” allowing him to automatically go first. His officer promptly eviscerated my Uryandnik with his MP-40. However, my Jeep then activated, sped up to the Bunker. The gunner swung the heavy MG into the view port and proceeded to unload, killing the officer and MG-42 squad, while the Psi-Officer riding shotgun fragged the sniper with his PPSH – it was a pretty cinematic event. At that point, the remainder of Chuck’s forces had had enough and routed, handing me another 8-0 victory. Aaron blew up Marc’s bunker w/some scouting engineers, but ended up only beating him marginally. Scott beat Andrew and Matt defeated Chris.
In conclusion, the allies won 58-38 (if I remember correctly), a pretty significant victory overall. All the allies won $10 in credit. Scott, with 3 8-0 victories, took “Best Overall” with the highest score. The Soviets (meaning me) took “Best Faction” with the highest average score from all faction players (Scott’s 24 was dragged down by Aaron’s average score and Chris’ hard-earned 2 - next year dude!), earning me $10. Finally, Marc took best painted with his Germans winning him $10 and a sweet Vallejo set of weathering paints.
The event was a success and we were stoked to get 8 people. Hopefully next year we’ll have an even better turn-out (and the Axis may even decide to show up
- kidding!).
Saturday of Gencon saw the advent of the first ever AEWWII Competitive Campaign. Having talked friends Aaron (U.S. Army) and Marc (SD Germans) into playing, we settled in at a comfortable 8 players. The players were evenly divided among Axis and allies as follows:
Me – Soviets
Scott – U.S. Army
Aaron – U.S. Army
Chris – U.S. Army
Matt – ROA (bad Russians)
Marc – SD
Andrew – SS
Chuck – Wehrmacht
My list:
Soviet Reconnaissance Detachment
Veteran Psi Officer
Veteran Cossack Uryandnik (War Hero)
Regular AT-Rifle
Regular Soviet Guard
Regular Starshina (Criminal)
Green Chumans
Green (sacrificed for 2nd hero)
Green Criminals (free w/ Criminal hero)
Jeep w/ heavy MG
Now, I could’ve switched stuff up every game, but I didn’t want to bother - something about real men not needing sideboards or something.
The setting for the tournament was that the Germans had recently captured a hill – the Allies were intent on taking it back. We would be paired against a different opposing army each round with our points all totaled to determine the winning side for each round. Points were awarded for Primary Objectives (4), Secondary objectives which are random each game (2) and attrition (2/3rds of opponents models, also 2 pts).
Round one found the Allies trying to push the Axis out of the middle third of the table by the end of the game. I started off facing Marc. After seeing him deploy his MG 42 on his right flank, I then proceeded to deploy the rest of my forces in the middle or on his left flank. I methodically advanced my MG-toting jeep and Uryandnik, steadily eliminating his Krieghunds and basic soldats. Meanwhile, I had taken his Sniper out of the game via my special order “Stragglers” (he started to roll to see if he showed up on turn 2, needing a 1, then a 2 or a 1, etc etc). By the end, I had outflanked the temple his forces had taken position in in the center of the table and broken his forces pretty effectively. I ended up w/ all three objectives (secondary was “delaying action,” needing to extend the game to 6 turns) while Marc achieved NUTZING – an 8-0 victory for the allies. Other games in the round included Aaron losing to the SS, Chris’ U.S. losing to the Wehrmacht, and Scott’s motorized allies eeking out a win with an awesome last-minute shot by a GI eliminating a Beast of the Apocalypse (6 to hit, 6 to wound, Matt failing a 4+), giving him the primary AND secondary. All told, round 1 ended with the allies leading by 2 points.
The allies, having pushed back the Germans from the lower portion of the hill, now wanted to secure the hilltop itself. Both sides wanted to be the only one with models within 6 inches of the center point at the end of turn 6. I was matched up against Andrew’s SS, which included some nifty supernatural units (hellhost, krieghexe) and a Vrill technician (no vamps or werewolves though). Other games were Marc vs. Chris, Matt vs. Aaron and Scott vs. Chuck. Our game was very close. I initially ran my Chumans up behind the center temple where they hid the rest of the game so I could at least contest the objective. Meanwhile, his sniper (his gun enhanced by the technician) inflicted a couple of casualties on my criminals on the right flank. Determined not to skulk around pinned by his sniper and better ranged weapons all game, I decided to rush my Uryandnik up the left flank, taking position across a wall from some SS Soldats. Leveling his PPSH, he blasted one full in the face. However, the next turn saw the Sniper and remaining soldat taking two of his 3 wounds. Not wanting to lose him for almost nothing, I used all his actions to move into base contact with the Krieghexe (I was not positioned right to charge, unfortunately). Somewhat strangely, instead of blasting away into hand to hand, Andrew retaliated by moving his hellhost into hand to hand. If he had just said "Damn the Krieghexe" and fired into hth, I think he could've swung the tide of the game. As it was, my Uryandnik decisively won all the combats, but could not hurt the damn thing (good armor, invulnerable save). Anyways, the rest of my force advanced at this point, killing the rest of his force except for his Vrill tech and the 2 units in with the Uryandnik. Finally, on turn 5, the Uryandnik was able to act and mercilessly cut down the Krieghexe, earning me 2 points. Sadly, on turn 6, the Hellhost got lucky and was able to kill the Uryandnik, following up by moving in to be able to contest the primary (DAMNIT). Thus, I was only able to win 4-2 (secondary + attrition vs. secondary). Other games included Marc defeating Chris, Scott besting Chuck and Aaron working Matt over so badly in the first turn that Matt decided to voluntarily withdraw on turn 2, preventing Aaron from claiming attrition OR his secondary (classic!). All-in-all, the Americans increased their lead significantly.
Round three I was faced against Chuck’s Wehrmacht (lots of guys including an MG, sniper and some panzerfausts). Having taken the hill, the allies now swarmed down the other side, assaulting some prepared Axis positions. Thus, all the axis players were provided with their very own armor 10 bunker (normal guy armor is 2 or 3, and average gun strength is 3-4, making anything in the bunker incredibly hard to kill from range). The primary objective was Last Man Standing. Chuck deployed his sniper and MG in the bunker with some other guys strung along in front to delay me. I straggled his only officer, hoping to cause some morale problems. I deployed my Chumans on my right, with them planning to feint forward and hid at the crest of a hill. My jeep and Cossack hero were on the left, looking to rapidly advance behind the cover of a hill to my left of the bunker (this terrain piece won me this game by allowing me to quickly outflank the bunker). The other stuff was set up in the middle and was tasked with drawing fire from the important stuff. The Criminals, lastly, were given the important job of camping the piece of terrain I needed to defend for my secondary objective. Chuck clearly saw the threat from the approaching Chumans, shifting most of his forces to face them. At the same time, my Cossack stormed over the hill, overrunning a Panzerfaust/Soldat squad threatening my Jeep. The jeep meanwhile sped forward spewing lead. By the end of turn 3, I was in position to strike. My Cossack had sprinted up next to the bunker (eliminating the inhabitants’ cover. His officer had also turned up and taken refuge in the armored shell) and my other shooting had begun to wear down Chuck’s drive. In a cool moment, Chuck announced his use of his special order “Momentum,” allowing him to automatically go first. His officer promptly eviscerated my Uryandnik with his MP-40. However, my Jeep then activated, sped up to the Bunker. The gunner swung the heavy MG into the view port and proceeded to unload, killing the officer and MG-42 squad, while the Psi-Officer riding shotgun fragged the sniper with his PPSH – it was a pretty cinematic event. At that point, the remainder of Chuck’s forces had had enough and routed, handing me another 8-0 victory. Aaron blew up Marc’s bunker w/some scouting engineers, but ended up only beating him marginally. Scott beat Andrew and Matt defeated Chris.
In conclusion, the allies won 58-38 (if I remember correctly), a pretty significant victory overall. All the allies won $10 in credit. Scott, with 3 8-0 victories, took “Best Overall” with the highest score. The Soviets (meaning me) took “Best Faction” with the highest average score from all faction players (Scott’s 24 was dragged down by Aaron’s average score and Chris’ hard-earned 2 - next year dude!), earning me $10. Finally, Marc took best painted with his Germans winning him $10 and a sweet Vallejo set of weathering paints.
The event was a success and we were stoked to get 8 people. Hopefully next year we’ll have an even better turn-out (and the Axis may even decide to show up
- kidding!).
