Conquested

Well I am back at home from a trip to Christchurch for Conquest. I would like to thank Tim from Comics Compulsion and Stephen Stout for running the Flames of War competition.

I took part in the Flames of War competition with my Late War New Zealand Rifle company. Overall I came 4^th equal only games I lost was to Craig and Chris the eventual 1^st and 2^nd placed players.

1^st game: Roadblock. I hate road block, I think its very biased towards the “attacker” who gets to defend the objectives on the road. The other player simply doesn’t get enough stuff to counter the amounts of reserve units the “attacker” gets. I player Adam with his Nisei and won 5-2.

2^nd game: No Retreat. After my victory in the first round I got to play Craig on his Cassino board. It was an excellent match up. I placed my objective on the right hand side and massed for force on the left hoping to force Craig to move his FJ platoon from the ruins so I can assault it a few teams at a time. It almost worked but due to night fighting  causing my staghounds to not see the Pak40 nest 8 inches away and my 2^nd rifle platoon staying pinned for 3 turns I didn’t have enough of my force left when I swept to the right to take the objective.

3^rd game: Witches Cauldron. Another Italy themed table, I was the defender vs Keiths Soviet Heavy assault guns. A combination of artillery, M10 fire and an infantry team assaulting a bailed out ISU122 saw Keith losing half his tanks. His ISU152 only killed 2 teams with their big guns while my infantry saw off his Urdany. Meanwhile my Shermans from reserve took out his scout platoon and killed his Battalion commander in an IS2. 5-2 to me.

4^th game: Not One Step back. I like to assume this was my company fighting through the ruins at casino but there was too many Soviet propaganda posters for that to be true. I played Josh with his horde of Panzer IV/L70’s. Its a city fight so his tanks were at a disadvantage with the rules for buildings and rubble slowing him down. My own armour was held back out of sight and I left the infantry to do their job. A M10 ambush took out 1 Panzer IV/L70 that allowed my rifle platoon to assault and destroy the platoon with their sticky bombs. Repeat with his next tank platoon and finally I survived to the last to take the room with the Objective with my lonely platoon commander.

5^th game: Breakthrough. I like breakthough and got to defend against Chris and his Guards infantry company. It was a close game with Poochie making all his Platoon Morale checks (with guards re-roll). I only killed the M10Cs to the last for another VP but it took too long and I had to commit a platoon of Shermans to help out my M10s when they were needed elsewhere. Good game, heaps of stuff died.

Overall I like the force and will take it to the Late War GT.

On arriving home I had this waiting for me:

Last painting done for Conquest

Finished up the platoon last night. Just need to pack it all away and catch my flight on Friday.

Kiwis vs Panzer Lehr in a Free for all

Bede came over for a game of Flames of War. My Kiwi force vs his Panzer Lehr force.

Table:

Deployment:

1^st turn: Bede moves his Panthers to behind the hill, repositions his Pumas to cover the Panthers. I move up my M10s to try to put some hurt on the Panthers and fail. Shermans fire at the Pak40s and kill 2.  2^nd group of Shermans now have no Pak40s to shoot at some smoke a Panther. Infantry advance to put pressure on the Germans.

Nicks thoughts: An average start. 2 Pak40s are dead which allows me to move my Shermans up the left flank. However the Panthers are free to do horrible things to my Trained M10s.

2^nd Turn:  Bede dismounts the Lehr platoon on my left and move forward with the Pumas. They combine with the panthers and kill heaps of the my M10s, the platoon commander flees. Nebs kill a 6pdr and pins the platoon. In my turn I Advance my Staghounds and infantry up the right flank, the infantry up the centre and double time the Shermans up the left flank. I fire and bail 2 Pumas forcing the last one to fall back.

Nicks thoughts: Artillery still isn’t doing much. Had a chance to kill a panther but failed the FP check. My infantry should put some pressure allowing my shermans to press home an attack up the left.

3^rd Turn: Bede kills a Sherman with a Pak40. The panthers MG up my infantry in the centre. Nebs hit my infantry on the right.  I turn on the WB on my camera so the colours start to look better.  My 105s smoke the panthers and I get an infantry assault off with my centre platoon. After a few back and forwards the centre platoon  is reduced below half but stays but I take 1 panther out. Shermans kills the Pumas.

Nicks thoughts: Pumas are gone! So 1 VP each so far. The infantry assault could off gone better.

 4^th & 5^th turns: The next few turns Bede is free to do nasty things. He destroys the centre infantry platoon, Pins down my infantry on the right. I try to unpin but fail and my staghounds dance up and down the road to keep his Lehr platoon honest. Shermans do finish off the Pak40s. My Shermans double down the left to reinforce my attack.

Nicks thoughts: Not looking good, my artillery still hasn’t killed anything yet. 3 Panthers is plenty to stop my Shermans. My infantry stay pinned for 2 turns stalling my attack on the right.

6^th & 7^th turns: Panthers kill my Shermans then start killing staghounds. The Lehr infantry move up and kill my rifle platoon. My Staghounds kill some half tracks to reduce MG fire but to little too late. Company breaks.

Nicks thoughts: If only my artillery could finished off a Panther or two. I have two really go Time on Target barrages but failed both FP checks. If successful that would be the Panthers reduced to 1 tank and testing Morale. If that happened them my Sherman attack on the left would of succeeded and my Staghounds would of been able to support the infantry attack on the right. All things considered I played the game how I normally do. Attack aggressively forcing my opponent to fight me where and when I want them to.

Kiwis for Conquest Part4: Shermans, 6pdrs and M10s Oh My!

First up is a platoon of Shermans. I haven't painted on unit markings yet but these will be 2nd troop, A company 19th NZ Armoured Regiment.

Staghounds are just a rebase from my existing collection.

These two teams will be pioneer teams from the Cassino list. They are HQ support weapons which I will attach to my rifle platoons. They fit into 1st platoons diorama just in front of the CnC as they are charging out across the pavement.

Company command team.

6pdrs.

M10s from 31 Anti-tank Battery, 7 Anti-tank Regiment. The Kiwis did not repaint their M10s in the typical camo scheme. They left them the standard Green colour that they arrived to them in. These will need unit markings.

Kiwis for Conquest Part3: Rebasing

I rebased my Shermans. The cobblestones will work in better with the rest of the force. Took some time as I had to cut off the tabs off the bottom of the infantry. I cut up 15 more figures for my Pioneer teams and some infantry for the Staghounds.

105mm of fun

Finished up by US 105mm battery for Conquest.