Panzerschreck 2011 Results Photos by John Murrie & Wayne Turner A note from Evan: Panzerschreck 2011 has been and gone once more. This year was a teeny bit special for us because it marked the 10th anniversary of 'the' first Flames of War tournament, ever! To show our appreciation for all who attended we provided a gratis 'thank you' BBQ for all the attendees, we may even add that as a new feature.

Every year there is a core of gamers who always seem to be there alongside a bunch of fresh new faces so it never gets stale and always has a positive atmosphere about it, there’s always something new and unusual that surprises us! And we do our best to throw in some surprises of our own. The standard of the armies in regards to painting and modelling also gets higher each year, it’s starting to make it kind of hard for the organisers to pick out the outstanding examples. But luckily there’s always something that little bit special that grabs our attention (and no, it’s not the $20 notes either!) Tom, Derek and myself would really like to thank all those who attended for their positive attitude and also all who helped out in the many and varied ways and a special thanks for Andrew Karl for the medals (hope you make it next year) and Battlefront for the generous prize support. We hope to see you all next year again and if you’re thinking of joining in for the first time then by all means do.

Chris' Panzerschreck Experience Panzerschreck is one of the most enjoyable events in the tournament calendar and whenever possible the team at Battlefront like to head down south to take part. Unfortunately this year due to sickness, a demonstration US vs. Canada Ice Hockey game, and finally a heavy workload only four of us made the long trek down.

Mike Haycock and I teamed whilst Wayne and Phil headed down to play in some of the demonstration games for something different. The event this year was built around a Late War Doubles Tournament, with each player taking a fully legitimate 1100 point force where you could trade up to 50 points with your teammate, played on 8' x 4'  tables. We teamed up with our King Tiger and Zrínyi companies, working to represent (broadly speaking) the actions of the 503. Schwere Panzerabteilung and their Hungarian Allies in the fighting around Budapest.

Team Budda Budda Army Lists

Mike's Schwere Panzerkompanie Company HQ   1x Konigstiger (Henschel) 350 points Schwere Panzer Platoon    1x Konigstiger (Henschel) 345 points Schwere Panzer Platoon   1x Konigstiger (Henschel) 345 points Light Anti-aircraft Platoon      2x 3.7cm FlaK43 gun 55 points Light Anti-aircraft Platoon     2x 3.7cm FlaK43 gun 55 points Total: 1150 points

Chris' Rohamágyús Üteg Company HQ   1x Zrínyi 75 points Rohamágyús Platoon   3x Zrínyi 225 points Rohamágyús Platoon   3x Zrínyi 225 points Rohamágyús Platoon   3x Zrínyi 225 points Armoured Car Platoon   3x Fiat-Ansaldo 35M 55 points Anti-aircraft Platoon   2x 40mm 36M guns 55 points Artillery Battery   4x 149mm 14/31M howitzers 180 points Total: 1040 points

I gave 50 points to Mike to ensure that we could hit ten platoons and more importantly that he would have four, making him a little harder to break. Our plan was that he could deal with any tank on the table, and with his high armour he could have slugging matches with enemy anti-tank guns and artillery that I could not handle. Once neutralised my assault guns could sweep the table and go head to head with medium tanks and soft targets. I could also supply some cheap recon and artillery to round out the force.

Round One: Bob Pearce & Mike Clements of Finnished Yet? To add some spice to the weekend Evan had arranged for some new missions that the writers have been working on over the last few months to be included in the weekends gaming, and the first round was one of them. Mike and I found ourselves attacking up the length of the table, Finns defending one end, with reserves set to sweep in behind us.

Obviously it was a little early in the morning as we headed up the table only to have a unit of pioneers arrive from reserve, flamethrower Mike's King Tiger and then start racing off for the objective. I continued my advance up the table, getting the objective but finding waves of Finnish pioneers coming out to contest it whilst Mikes Company HQ King Tiger headed back down the table. The game concluded with his King Tiger joining up with my now leaderless AA battery, launching an assault into a building and killing 1 or the 2 remaining Pioneers, only to bog down and be captured. Luckily for us Mike managed to fail his Sole Survivor test, handing us a 4-3. Bob & Mike were great and deserved the win, luckily the dice did not agree! Round Two: Damien Tyson & Andrew Shepherd of Dumbo Damien and Andrew brought a great game to the table with a lot of fun and hilarity... and Elephant hats with trunks and floppy ears.

They also brought some Elephants, Jagdpanthers, Recon and Infantry. The game itself flew by with a lot of laughter as we ran up the right flank and took the objective in turn one, remembering that it does not become active till turn six.... and by turn 6 finding that we (I) had driven my recon off the objective to avoid enemy fire. Mike's moment of forgetfulness came as a pair of Jagdpanthers came out of reserve and killed one of his three King Tigers. Final result 4-3.

Round Three: Steve Chambers & Dan Maguire of Byelorussian Coronas Dan and Steve are some seriously hard lads when it comes to the table top, so Mike and I knew that we were in for a very hard match. They had brought along Task Force A (from Turning Tide) and a Sherman Company (from Cobra), packing two platoons of Hellcats, two platoons of Shermans (one with 76s), two platoons of Priests, recon and Stuarts. Moving first the lads decided to take the game to us and moved straight up into close range and put a lot of fire into my Zrinyis (that were concealed along a ridgeline). Luck was definitely on my side and the majority of my assault guns survived the charge and the counter attack killed off one of Dan's Hellcat platoons. The rest of the game degenerated into a shooting match between Sherman 76s vs. a Zrinyi platoon and a King tiger, whilst the rest of the army played cat and mouse with the surviving Americans on the other half of the table. A bit of crack shooting (three 76s) by Mike resulted in Dan's second Hellcat platoon dying and removing the threat from the table, allowing the remaining Zrinyis to move across the table and clean out the remaining US forces. Final result 5-2.

Round Four: Alastair Jeffery & Brian Trott of The Guardsmen This game was a bit of a blur for me as my Zrinyis spent the entire game hiding in a cornfield (behind a farm) so as to not be destroyed by angry swarms of Churchills, M10s and Fireflies.... my contribution was the artillery fluking a pair of kills on Churchill VIIs, whilst Mike's King Tigers cleared the table.

A great game, but I think I managed to throw about nice dice over the course of it. Final result 6-1. With the final round looming and few teams all bunched up on battle points we started to mentally prepare ourselves up for a final battle against a pair of angry Scotts who had already shown a willingness to use psychological warfare before the start of the tournament!

Round Five: Rob Shirley & Phil Porter of The Ladies The Ladies brought along a massive Scots army packed with artillery (8 25pdrs and 8 5.5 howitzers), infantry platoons, AT platoons (6pdrs and 17pdrs), Universal Carriers and Wasps, and finally... Typhoons! Our final round was another new mission where the defender had a pair of objectives, one in the middle of their deployment area and one down the other end of the table. Mike and I realised that there was no way we could push across a table covered in hedge lines, artillery and ambushing 17pdrs, and instead sent my Zrinyis down the flank to take the far objective. Mike's contribution (due to many, many, many failed firepower tests) was the killing of about 4 or 5 gun teams over the course of the entire game, leaving the reliable Hungarian allies to kill off the Carriers, the Wasps and an infantry platoon on the way to capturing the far objective. Unfortunately my Fiat-Ansaldo 35Ms were hit pretty hard by a marauding platoon of Carriers and their .50cals before the Zrinyis could save them, and my AA platoon found itself in danger having to keep a rather keen infantry platoon from over-running one of Mikes King Tigers, this time the Sole Survivor test did not go our way and whilst we won, it was a hard fought 4-3.

Luckily for Mike and I our hard work (and by hard work I mean luck!) put us at the top of the table with the top generalship score and great sports. I'd definitely like to thank my opponents over the weekend, as it was great fun and (without doubt) the most enjoyable tournament experience I have had in a long time with some friendly but hard fought games. Also like to thank Tom and Evan for putting on a great weekend, and Phil and Wayne for an excellent road trip there and back - if only we could have recorded our conversations and edited them down, it would have been the BEST PODCAST EVER!

Final Results and Standings

Team Name Team Members Total Score Overall Victory Points Generalship (65%) Sporting (35%) Budda Budda Chris Townley & Mike Haycock 77.19 Best Overall 23 50.59 26.6 Der Schule Bede Bailey & David Greaves 73.79 Second Overall 23 49.29 24.5 The Ladies Rob Shirley & Phil Porter 72.38 Third Overall 22 47.88 24.5 Dumbo Damien Tyson & Andrew Shepherd 69.8 Best Sport 18 39 30.8 The Norsemen Stuart Drew & Dallas Eves 67.62 Best General 20 43.12 24.5 The Heavy Boys Paul Mounsey & John Hutton 67.05   18 38.35 28.7 KG Hastie Shaun Robinson & Steve Hill 64.91 Commended General 19 40.41 24.5 Fate Sealed Jono Seal & Derek Body 63.5   18 39 24.5 Byelorussian Coronas Steve Chambers & Dan Maguire 63.5 Best Allied General 18 39 24.5 The Guardsmen Alastair Jeffery & Brian Trott 62.85   18 38.35 24.5 Stantonescu Andrew & Mark Stanton 62.33 Commended Sport 15 31.53 30.8 The Goodwood Goodfellas Simon McBeth & Nick Garden 61.44   17 36.94 24.5 Going to Market Andre Jacobs & Brendon Johnston 60.83   16 34.23 26.6 Tom and Jerry Tom Leamy & Joe Kelly 58.82   14 30.12 28.7 M & M Alex & Matt Martin 56.07 Best Army 14 29.47 26.6 The Tanks Stu Mosen & Grant Marchant 55.78   13 28.06 27.72 Finnished Yet? Bob Pearce & Mike Clements 53.97   14 29.47 24.5 Hell's Belles Jeremy Grey & John Murrie 38.95 Dunkirk Award 6 12.35 26.6

A Grand Entrance Rob Shirley and Phil Porter are piped into the venue. Can you guess what army they were playing?