Tournament Report: ACT GT - V4 MW

It seems that every competition in Australia at the moment is a GT, a Nationals, a Masters or a Championships of some kind. For my first visit to a FOW event in the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) outside of Cancon, I was lucky enough to attend the inaugural ACT GT.

I wanted to use my newly updated Desert Rats force. You will have seen that I have painted 10 Crusader Tanks, 4 6 Pound Anti-Tank Guns, some Bofors and (spoilers) a 17/25 pound gun. I wanted to use all these in the competition.

The weekend was a good opportunity to take the family down and spend a few days in Canberra being a tourist. We planned to visit the War Memorial, the Zoo and a few other attractions.

The event was held at the 3D6 store at Tuggeranong. The store is located in a small retail complex just off the main road in Tuggeranong. There is a large gaming area, a retail space and a bar! This was definitely a surprise.

The event itself was well publicized with both the store and Ken (the TO) spruiking the event.  21 players lined up for 5 games of 100 points MW V4 fun. Players could select any formation or formations from Fighting First, Desert Rats or Afrika Korps and include up to 10 points of cards. There were 10 German forces, 7 British Forces and 4 US lists.

The terrain was a mix of store tables and player supplied tables. The level of terrain overall was very high and the tables were well spread out with spare table space, all making for a very comfortable environment.

It was clear that the British lists dominated the weekend with 3 of the top 5 places being taken by the Desert Rats. The lists were different but they all had Crusaders with the Scout Tank card. I have said it before, I think this card is overpowered. I personally only ran 10 Crusaders but the lists at the top had full companies of Crusaders. For 1 point, the benefits provided to a whole force of hit on a 4+, skill check on a 4+ and GtG when moving and not shooting, far outweigh the reduction of tactical move of 2 inches. I believe the card should be either 1 point per unit or simply changed to be 10 points.

The event was well supported by 3D6 with generous prizes for the place getters and every player walked away with an objective marker. I think the store and the TO, Ken did a great job putting on an excellent weekend and tournament. Overall, I really enjoyed the event and hope there will be another event like it next year in a different location. Sadly the 3D6 store announced it was closing the doors shortly after the event. 

Here are the results from the event provided by Ken:

I hope you enjoyed this article.

AAR EW V4 Tankovy vs Lend Lease Tankovy

I headed down to the Panzer Angriff club at the Mega Games store in Penrith on Sunday a week or so back. Dave and I had another EW game planned. Unfortunately, that was all the pre-planning we had done prior to the day so we both turned up with a Tankovy. Fortunately they were different...

Dave had a T34 company with a unit of flame tanks, an I153, some scout tanks and some AA trucks. I had a Lend Lease company with Valentines, Matildas, T60s, Pioneers, a Sturmovik and some AT guns.

The mission was rear-guard and I defended.

Right Defense.

The objectives were spread widely forcing me to split my forces to cover both objectives. I dropped my three minefields in front of the left objective forcing Dave to choose between crossing the minefield and channeling his attack against my right objective. Dave chose the latter.

Battalion commander deployed.

I dropped my unit of Matildas on the left objective expecting to move them all or partially off depending on what Dave opposed this objective with. I set my pioneers on the right hand objective with the AT guns adjacent. The Valentines were in Ambush and the T60s were located centrally ready for a fire-fighting role.

The first of many successful raids by the I153

 The early turns were pretty uneventful with forces simply moving up. The flame tanks pushed down the right hand flank with the 5 T34s beside them. The AA also moved up against the unarmed pioneers in front of them. The Scout Tanks pushed up on the left to try to force my Matilda Company into staying there. The planes arrived and bagged an AT gun.

T60s

 I dashed my T60s to behind the forest on the right where my objective was. Thank you halftrack movement! The Matildas moved towards the right and were able to brew up a Scout vehicle.

Soviet Sentinel.

 Dave’s attack was developing. The flame tanks were still out of range and the AA and T34s couldn’t convert hits to casualties on the pioneers. The scout tanks skulked back to cover. The dreaded air arrived again and bagged another AT gun and bailed my commander.

Repositioning behind the minefield.

I withdrew my T60s early. Given the presence of T34s, their AT 5 wasn’t going to bring much to the fight and the other on-table units were needed. I dropped my Valentines from ambush behind the wood so they could shoot at the T26 flame and AA trucks tanks without being seen by the T34s. This worked, with 2 AA trucks dying to machine gun fire, 2 T26s succumbing to 2 pound fire and a further T26 being bailed out. Leaving a Matilda behind, the other 2 tanks moved further towards to the main fight on the right.

The dreaded biplane arrived three times from three in the early turns, it made short work of the AT platoon and kept the commander bailed as he remained in position to bolster the morale of the guns. The T34s redeployed and starting working on the Valentines. The remaining T26s moved up and delivered flaming death to more than a few pioneers.

Ruddy Biplane.

The game quickly developed into a stalemate on the left. The remaining Matilda couldn’t leave the objective and the scout tanks couldn’t leave their hiding hole for fear of losing another vehicle. The real action was all on the right. The pioneers spent turn after turn being whittled down and breaking off from assault from the flame tanks and the BT7s who had joined the fight. It was only their numbers that kept them in the fight. The T34s were table to fire with impunity easily bouncing shells from the Matildas and Valentines.

Valentine Ambush!

The game really heated up when one of the units the T34s boldly moved forward to take some side shots on the Matildas. They were unsuccessfully and eventually were lost to some knife fighting where some lucky 2 pound shots found weak points in the Soviet steel.

Brewed T34s

The fighting progressed in a circular motion around the wood with the pioneers in the thick of it and the BT7s and flamers chasing them. The objective, by now under severe pressure was reinforced with 2 Matildas who had finally arrived from the far flank and the commander Valentine. Sadly the unit of Valentines couldn’t continue to sustain turn after turn of T34 fire and were destroyed.

Destroyed Valentines

Rear-Guard is a timed mission with the defender winning in turn 9. The Lend Lease tanks were still barely alive at the end of the game. My forces had taken severe losses in what was a tightly contested game. The Valentines and AT guns were dead, the pioneers were down to 6 stands and the T60s and Sturmovik were withdrawn. Given that I didn’t have a huge unit count and taking fairly consist loses (AT guns, Valentines) I often picked up a counter rather than having to withdraw units. This kept me in the fight with my relatively robust units.

Time Gentlemen Please.

This was another good V4 game. Considered piece-meal, there are aspects of the game that stand out as different to V3. For example, the morale rules are certainly different and kept the pioneers in the game where they would have been testing earlier in V3. However the morale rules have also forced me to run Matildas in units of 3 rather than 2. This tied up a considerable amount of points in a single unit. Small units of 2 tanks can be testing after a single loss or bail in v4. Overall, I think that V4 is a fine game. Even with the old lists being used for the new version, the game is still fun.

I hope you enjoyed this article.

V4 MW Event at Rebel Outpost

I took a drive up the coast to the Rebel Outpost in Wyong. I hadn’t been to the store before and it is located in an industrial estate just a few minutes from the center of Wyong. It was a good 90 minute drive from home but what is 3 hours in the car compared with the prospect of a day of toy soldiers?

The store was offering a FOW Version 4 MW 80 point competition where players could bring an additional 10 points of cards. There are a few events popping up with this format but this is the first one I have played in. Cancon 2018 will have the same format.

I arrived early and had time to wonder around the store which is pretty well stocked. There is a good selection of a variety of Table top games. FOW and Bolt Action appeared to be most represented.

The store is well laid out. On the bottom floor is the shop with a separate dedicated table area. There was lots of terrain and lots of space for card games. A side from the FOW tables set up for the day was also an X wing table with games going all day. There is a quite role-play type space upstairs too.

There were 4 nice tables setup for the event with a mix of desert and European tables. I played on three different tables, each well thought out with different challenges presented to players.

The store is offering a slow grow league so there were a few pieces of unpainted kit and proxied figures on the tables as players build up their forces. This event was a bit of an introduction tournament organised around players learning V4.  

I packed by Crusaders for the event as I am currently enjoying playing them.  I am busy painting up a US force but that is not ready yet. The 80/10 format is interesting. I would like to play some more games before I can be sure if I like it or not. 10 points of cards can provide some pretty big changes to a list. Aside from the characters that buff a big portion of the list, there are lots of re-roll cards and opportunity cards. Mostly though, I think Scout Tank is the card I am most worried about. It continues to provide well more than a single point of value. For a full company of Crusaders of Stuarts, I think this card would still be good value at 10 points.

The day ran really well with a nice mix of fun games and some good chatter. I will defiantly come back to future events at the store. I rounded off a fun day buy buying a box-set for a future project for myself as a Christmas present. I highly recommend Rebel Outpost for a visit. It is a friendly, well stocked, well organised store.

 I hope you enjoyed this article.

Battlefront Matilda II

So with V4 being played in my group, I am starting to make some changes to existing armies to refresh them for the new version of the rules. One of the biggest changes in V4 is the morale rules. Tank units now take a last stand test when they have less than 2 active tanks. This means for a unit of 2 tanks, a single bail or kill means a test. In V3, the unit needed more destroyed than active tanks to test. So, my unit of 2 Soviet Matildas need reinforcing with a third AFV.

My 2 Matildas were only painted up this year. Strangely enough, they were painted with V4 in mind. It goes to show that I was still working out what V4 meant when I painted up just two. That article was more of a trash to treasure post than a proper review, so here is a review.

I am not covering any new ground here. The Matilda blister has been around for a while. You will see that I painted up mine up as a Lend Lease Soviet Vehicle but given that battlefront are currently releasing MW books for V4, I expect we might see Matildas featured in a future book. This is pure speculation based on historical usage. Will we use plastic Matildas from our friends at Battlefront? I hope so.

Review:

The blister contains a resin hull, 2 metal tracks, a CS and a 2 pound gun, two hatches and commander. This is my 5^th Matilda and I have not had a problem to date. Inspection of the pieces revealed no obvious issues. The distinctive tracks and sides are clean and without casting issues. The hull is nicely detailed including rivets. I particularly like that there is an option to have both turret hatches open. Finally the CS is a simple but well thought out inclusion.

 After a quick clean-up, dry fitting was a breeze and after just a few minutes, I had a fully assembled tank. Given that this is to be a 3^rd tank in a unit with an existing commander, I simply glued both hatches closed. I fitted the turret with a 2 pound gun barrel.

Unlike the recent Valentine I reviewed earlier, the Matilda hull is not recessed for a magnet. Not a big issue to add one, I chose not to.

Painting:

As I am matching an existing unit, I again painted up this tank in Green. You might recall in the original article I covered that the Soviets generally didn’t repaint lend lease tanks unless they were repaired. At the time, I painted my first 2 tanks up as repaired as I had literally dragged them from the spares pile and completed my own repairs on them prior to painting. I have simply followed the same scheme on this one. After putting this one away, I noticed that I had originally used VJ German Camo. Medium Brown on the exhausts of the first two. This one had the exhaust painted VJ Cavalry Brown with a highlight of VJ Red Leather.

I will add some decals as soon as I can find them.

Conclusion:

The Matilda is one of those great models that I keep coming back to. It was used in a number of theaters (Desert, Eastern Front, and Pacific) by a number of the allies. There is also an option for Germans to run a Beute Matilda! The model is nicely detailed, easy to put together and cuts a fine figure on the table. If Battlefront bring out a plastic model, I could well see myself to buying 20 or so more to run in Late War.

I hope you enjoyed this review.

On the Prowl in a recent game.