Tank Ace Tourny at the Whiz.

Got in 5 great games at the Whiz in Westborough MA.  First up was Ben and Stalin's Mighty IS-122s

Starting at range I got a bail early and covered some of his big guns with smoke forcing him to move. I had bad luck with firepower in this one.

 One of his big boys was isolated so I treid a shot at it... and missed...

 Be Got my ace, but on the other flank I got to his side...

 and got in some telling blows

 Ben Maneuvers to get his lone remaining IS-122 into position as I try running and hiding in the woods.

 I bogged... but Ben missed he also forgot his Volley Fire special rule...

This works both ways I forgot my Easy 8 had wide tracks.. fortunately the game ended 5 points for me 1 for Ben. 

Next I had a fast and fun game against Chris, once more facing the Russian horde. 

 As you can see our set up lead to something of fur-ball in the woods. I got the first shot...

 But didn't do nearly enough damage killing only two T-34s.

 I bogged again!

 With only two tanks left I move for the position and try to event he odds but.. 

 I only got one tank Chris still has four and mine are isolated from each-other, and I am missing.

 Chris did not miss I lost this one 4 to 1.

Third game was with Ricardo. US 7th Armor vs. US 4th Armor. 

 Ricardo was on the down side of the bell cure while I was on the up.

Ricardo conceded after about 3 turn with both his E8s and a standard Sherman dead. I won this one 6 to 1. 

 With my game over I got to snap some pictures of Ben and Chris playing soviet on Soviet

  

While Nick and Gerry were playing German on German. In retrospect we had some odd draws in this round. 

 Tank Ace's was not the only game at the Whiz. Bob Mark, and another players (Sorry didn't catch his name)...

  had an interesting looking Battle of the Bulge Scenario going. 

Final battle was with Nick I did seem to get this table a lot, possibly giving me a bit of an edge. Nick was running a Hertz Company similar to my StuGs.

 Nick played a really good game using his numbers to force me to face attacks in multiple direction

 I tried to focus on this prong of his attack moving in with my M4 Sherman tanks while doing cover fire from my E8s.  Did fairly well but not good enough... I had to turn form this attack

 To face this one....

 Then got smoked from behind by tho two survivors and three more Hurtzs that were hiding in the woods. We timed out after several more turn of move battle. I got one more Hurtz and Nick got one more Sherman I lost this one 4 to 3.

 One more pictures has to be shown form Ben's game with Gerry. I am fairly sure doing this to a cat  is illegal in most states.  Gerry got the top place in our tournament, I took second round two is next Saturday if any one is interested.  Everyone starts at 0 points for the day though people who played Sunday get to keep their experience.

Tank Ace Trainng at the Whiz

When I got to the Whiz this past Sunday we found a very odd situation Seven players, 6 with Axis Armies and 1 Allied player.  Normally I carry both a US and a German Force but this Sunday I had decided to travel light and only brought my StuG battery list. So it was decided we would run Tank Ace games in preparation for the Tank Ace event at the Whiz next Sunday. 

Mark with German Infantry faced off against another player with an Indian list (Sorry sir forgot your name). The Germans won this little battle, (fairly handily from what I saw).

 Landon(in the picture above) and Jerry (not shown) faced off in a match up of Power against Power as both had a pair of King Tigers (we did 2 round tank aces with 700 points as we has set up full sized table)

 Bill and I had a different match up. He had a list of trained Panthers against my Veteran StuGs Backed by Nashorns. I drew First blood with a long range shot from an 88 that killed his Ace. 

 Bill was back on my fast taking out a StuG and a Nachorn

I managed to flank and kill another Panther.

 Bill has some bad luck and was down to one tank and trying to find a way out!  He didn't find one...

 Over all a good game on both sides I lost both Nachorns, and a StuG Bill lost 4 Panthers, I certainly had the better end of the deal.

 Ben next took me on with a Russian Assault gun(IS-122s?) force. These monsters had nasty AT 14 gun and a 9 for front armor. Being Russians they cannot shoot for beans.  I started the game by double bailing one with my Nachorns and driving it off board on turn 1.  We then moved into the woods were most of the action too place.

 I had really bad luck with my Bog test this particular Stug spent 5 of six turns here!

 Critics of Flames of war will hate/love these pictures, Ben and I kept turning in close proximity in the woods.  I needed flank shots, plus moving to the flanks meant Ben would need a six to hit me, and that was the only thing keeping me in the game as my luck was terrible

At the start of turn 7 (when the game ended) I had one Operational StuG let I got one of Ben's Assault guns (Is-122s?) and forced another to run away. My Nachorns flailed all but one Fire power check and my shooting was very bad.  Ben's dice were good if he had not needed a six to hit in most cases he would have shot all my StuGs out from under me.

Tank Ace Turn 3 game 1 and some "for fun" games

Most of the guys were playing Bolt Action, I have no interest in painting any more 28mm figures though I really do need to give that game a try at some point.

Bob, Ted, and Tim set up for Bolt Action.

Don and I set up a Tank ace game at 900 points with Luke as my able lieutenant. 

 Don set up for a fast and furious game with a T34 charge!

 We got lucky and killed Don's SU-152 (I think that was what the monster was) but then his tank ace jumped into a T-34 to continue the fight.

 He quickly killed bunch of my StuGs and sent the survivors running for the rear.I had just enough fire power to break his T-34s on the next turn giving me the win and Dumipfin is still scoreless!

Luke and I set up next with him using an American tank force form BG&G for the 4th Armor.

 Luke used a force of two Jumbos and two Easy 8 to pin my attintion to the front...

 While Flanking me with his other two Easy 8 tanks.

 Dumpfin's Ambush talents came to goo use here, but Luke was lucky to only loose one E8.

 I bailed one of the jumbos when my Nachorn's arrived and that was the turning point.

 The Nachorn's got one jumbo next turn and caused the other to run with a duble bail... tough with E8s pushing on each objective I was in trouble.

 I though Luke had me with this one (he killed the StuG) but I was able to get Dumipfin back though he still missed!

 in the end only one StuG and one Nachorn survived the battle

Luke and I then swapped armies and proceeded to school me with the Germans.  Refusing his left and attacking me on his right.

 Got to love looking down the barrel shots!

 I did manage to scare him with this push on his left (my right)

 But he used the ambushes to make up for a lack of fire power

 .

And held me while he killed the Tanks on my left and took the objective. Good game Luke.