Playing with friends... FoW tournament (Vršac 2021.)

 

Too small to be a tournament, too long to be a gaming day  (30th of July - 1st of August 2021)

Back in the 2016, I have organized the first tournament in my hometown, Vršac, Serbia. Every year it was a great tournament with 20+ players that came from four countries. Even last year I have managed to organize a tournament with my friend, but due to corona, it had only eight participants, and many cancelled the day before the tournament.

Now, when the things are becoming much better with corona here, and with friends begging  for some organization, I have managed to make the event for only six participants. Simply, I could not find a larger place this time. But, those participants were willing to play for three days! That way we have managed to play Round-robin tournament, 5 games in three days, which brought us quality that has never been seen before.  Another thing, we have decided to test the new missions, and that was a great decision too. All armies were painted and most of the rosters  were relatively friendly. This time there were no prizes for the best player and for the best painted army as there were before. We had food and drinks nearby so it was less work for me this time (but more pleasure).

Our companionship started at Thursday, as always, with a pint of beer.

 

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This weekend  there were some R`N`R concerts at the city lake, so that was a side event of our tournament ahaha

 

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The next day, we have started arround 10 o`clock. Three tables, six players, Deka, Shuki, Sloba, Nemanja and me (Koba). Special thanks for Ivan from Zagreb, Croatia, who was willing to travel for 8 hours on almost 40°C, had a tire defect, and still managed to arrive on time.

 

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I was leading Hero T-34 Company. They were painted with great pleasure during lockdown but were never used in action. Last year, I took the best painted army prize for my Winter Germans, and this time I had freshly painted Winter Russians. 

 

My list:

 

--------------- GAME 1 (Day 1)
My first game on Friday was against Deka`s US Rifle. Oh boy, I don`t like to face them. There is only one roster that I fear more than US Rifle, and that is his US Armoured Rifle. I think we have played a Counterattack mission.

 

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I have decided to rush my Hero T-34 Tankovy directly on close objective. My greatest concern were the AT guns and M-10s in Ambush. 

 

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Oh boy that hurts. I had one platoon of T-34 wiped out. But that was a cost that I knew I had to pay. Luckily, on the second turn, I was able to get some revenge. I have managed to pacify most of his M-10s and the AT guns. 

 

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I kept going towards the objective. 

 

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After some 2-3 assaults, I have succeeded at taking over the objective and winning the game. Huge thanks to my opponent Deka, who actually guided me during the assault phase. After almost a decade of playing FoW, I still have difficulties with understanding the assaults.

 

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--------------- GAME 2 (Day 1)
New mission again: Spearpoint. I have played against Nemanja who had StuGs and Hotchkiss formations. I was a defender, and I have decided to put my SU-100s and Panters in Delayed Reserves. I decided to rush on the closest objective and use one single good thing about Hero T-34s:  Tactics order on 2+.

I must say that I had a lot of luck.
Coming from the forest, I was shooting, shooting and shooting, turn after turn. While Nemanja did not have luck with the dice, my T-34s were destroying any unit that came from his reserves. Russian losses were minor comparing to German losses, as shown on the picture.  While in other games I was mostly playing with SUs and Panters, this game I actually won while they were in the reserves. But, once again, Nemanja really had no luck with the dices.

 

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--------------- GAME 3 (Day 2)
The next day, my first game was with Sloba, who is my usual oponent. At least he was, before he decided to move to Belgrade and leave me here without a friend to play with... 

 

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The mission was new again: Encirclement, and Sloba decided to play defence. He had a British infantry with 2 platoons of AT guns and Crocodile tanks. 

I have decided to put 60% of my force on the left flank which is a maximum allowed by the mission. This time I was actually playing with Panters and SU-100s. 

 

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They had some losses, but my 1inC was with them allowing some valuable rerolls. At the end, I have succeded in taking the left objective. This time, the only purpose of two platoons of T-34s was to move around the central objective, not allowing Sloba to move his units from there. I think that Sloba made a mistake by releasing AT guns from ambush in front of his infantry. That made them more vulnerable to my assault. But, they were very dangerous anyway, and the final result could easily be quite different.

 

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--------------- Game 4 (Day 2)
Till this moment, it was definitely my best ever starting tournament. Three games, three wins. But then, I had to face Shuki, who had some German halftrucks and 5 Tigers. We both wanted to attack.
New mission again: Scouts out.

 

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Shuki was playing very cleverly. He was moving cautiously with his Tigers so that my Panters can be in his range, and then trying to shoot and scoot with them. 

 

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I have made a mistake by putting my Panters and Su-100 to be concealed in the forest. I should`ve hidden them totally and wait for my T-34s to come from the reserves, and to strike with all of them at once.

 

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However, I had a chance to do something on the third turn, when my T-34s came from the reserves (both platoons). I have managed to hit 2 Tigers, and they failed to get saved, but I could not get a 3+ Fire Power, so they remounted on 2+ next turn. After that, I was quite demoralized, and Shuki was able to kill all my tanks and take the objective. A real bummer for me...
At the end of the day, we went to a restaurant and had some great food.

 

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--------------- Game 5 (Day 3)
On the third day, we were supposed to play only one game. I had to play with Ivan, who had some really nicely painted Summer Russians, as opposite to my Winter Russians.

 

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The mission was a counterattack. Something that we should be familiar with.

 

 

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Ivan (the bad one ahahah) decided to play very aggressively with his infantry and some heavy tanks like SU-100 and IS-2. He managed to get to my central objective on turn two. But I had a chance until turn six to deny it. My reserves were actually dedicated to deny that objective, while my SU-100s, Panters and SU-76 should`ve defended my closer objective. Again, I was playing most of the game with SUs and Panters. (So, next time, I should either make a Panter or SU roster ahahah) 

 

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In a way it was mission impossible. What I have achieved was destroying his SU-100s and IS-2s and some other platoon, that way earning 3 small points. I have learned what means when you have infantry with RPGs... The hard way...
I have learned how oponent infantry can waste your time, by not allowing my tanks to pass them by...
I have learned that 3 Stuarts can kill 3 SU-100s if the dice are not rolling in your favor.
It was a bloody game and at the end I was totally wiped out from the table, while Ivan was on both objectives... I must say that Ivan made an enormous progress since the last time we have played. He had a good roster and knew how to use it. 

And the final results:
Player    Big points    Small points
Vladimir Šukalović (Shuki)    4    34
Dušan Kostić (Koba)    3    27
Ivan Milković (Milky)    3    23
Dejan Milinović (Deka)    1    15
Nemanja Konstantinović (Turchin)    1    13
Slobodan Tomić (Sloba)    1    12

The overall viner was Shuki! Congratulations!

I hope that next year I will be able to organize a tournament for more players, like I did in the good old days.

Dušan (Koba)