Fun Tourneys, Hobby League and Motivation

Fun Tourneys, Hobby League and Motivation

Fun Tourneys, Hobby League and Motivation
With Adam Brooker
Last Sunday the 4th was the first of our local Late War events at Good Games Maitland, and the second of a series of events we are planning on having, to help increase the amount of new players locally and give the other veteran local players something to look forward to. I always find for me personally, an upcoming tournament really gets my arse into gear to finish those extra few units in your force, or gives you the enthusiasm to start that force that you always wanted to.

We had 11 players this time, which is almost double the previous event, with 3 being new players, and 2 players travelling for many hours to play on the day. For us it was a great turn out, and I would especially like to thank Good Games Maitland for letting us use their excellent gaming facilities and prize support and for Aetherworks for providing us with what I think was the last ‘Hit the Beach’ Box in Australia for prize support. All the players went into a raffle, and one jammy guy got to take it home! Congratulation David Geddes.

Equal 1st was Justin Lamborn (Soviet – Heavy Tank Regiment) and Matt Dixon (US-Sherman Tank Company), and 2nd was Craig Hunter (German-Mixed Panzer Company), Congratulations gents!

Fun Tourneys, Hobby League and Motivation

There was a good mix of factions, with 4 German Armies, 3 Soviet Armies, 2 US Armies, and 2 British Armies. It was mostly combined arms forces, with the odd tank only company, and one very brave Soviet Hero Rifle formation.

In the last battle of the day I handed the winner, Justin, his only loss; with Soviet Churchills/KVs vs British Churchills. My Churchill Squadron HQ held an objective for 2 turns on his own while waiting for Reserves to relieve him. One Churchill vs 3 T-34s and 6 Churchills, it was a classic display off my opponents dice were broken, and against all odds he held while knocking out 2 T-34s. His tank has now gained the name IMPENETRABLE, and with the tanks namesakes sense of stubborn defiance and fight, we held back the red tide. Two troops of Churchills turning up from reserve, behind the Soviet tanks threatening the objectives, finally broke their back and the British stubbornly held out for an unexpected victory! What did Napoleon say? “I know he is a good general, but is he lucky?”

Other miraculous feats of Battle, a German Grenadier force, quick marching and forcing their opponents off the objective in turn 2, and winning next turn. Three Tigers getting ambushed by bazooka wielding US riflemen and getting their asses handed to them. Absolute carnage of a US Tank Company and British Sherman Company fighting almost to the last man, with a mass of smoking Shermans fighting and dying around the central objective, and finally infantry crawling over the Shermans to fight for the objective, the battle coming down to a single last stand roll, with almost nothing left.

It was great fun and we plan to have another event in late November, this time including the new US and German D-Day books, and not just the Fortress Europe forces.

Fun Tourneys, Hobby League and Motivation

But another great thing that came out of the event was our commitment to all finishing our forces by that next late war one day tournament, there were 3 or 4 fully-painted forces, but with a lot of new players, and some players using this event as an ‘excuse’ to start a new force, there were some unfinished forces, mine included. Life got in the way and I just could not finish it all in time.

But luckily a few days before, I received our group's Hobby League Kit, and this is the perfect kit to motivate us to get our Forces finished by the time of the next event in November. I’m not sure if you have seen it yet but please check out the Hobby League Kit, this is the perfect kit to kick off your local gaming groups LW forces or to attract new players, it has some excellent rewards that you cannot get anywhere else, and it looks like a really fun way for your group to get motivated to finish your forces. I know I have some half-finished forces out there, that I have always been meaning to get back to, and I’m sure that there is a lot of guys out there in the same boat. 

Check out the Hobby League Landing Page here...

D-Day Hobby League

So the goal of the kit is to get you to complete a 100 pt force over a period of months. My Italy Churchill Squadron is just part of the forces I am planning for my LW British Forces, I am also looking at fleshing out a Sherman Company and also a Rifle Company. So I think I have enough unfinished forces aside to complete the 100 point challenge.

So of my 100 point list on the day, it was more than half painted.

Italy Churchill Tank Squadron

Churchill HQ

Churchill Troop (3)

Churchill Troop (3) – not painted

Sherman Troop with Firefly (4)

Stuart Troop (4)

Support

Daimler Armoured Car Troop (3)

Daimler Armoured Car Troop (3)

M10 SP Anti-tank Platoon (4)

25 pdr Field Troop (4) – not painted

Bofors Light AA Troop (3) – not painted

Kittyhawks (2)

So over 4 months, 25 points per month, we should have a 100 pt force completed by late November. Here is my planned schedule.

25pts - August

25 pdr Field Troop (4)

Churchill Troop (3)

50 pts – September

Bofors Light AA Troop (3)

HQ Churchills (2)

Churchill Troop (3)

75 pts – October

Rifle Platoon

Motor Platoon

Stuart Troop (4)

100 pts – November

Sherman HQ (2)

Sherman Troop (4)

This should be pretty achievable, I’m also setting myself a bonus objective of an extra Bofors troop to fill them out and some Universal carrier platoons in November, just to add that added pressure. I have always found that infantry take me ages to finish, so October will be the grind month for me. We will see how that goes, fingers crossed!!

So I’ll be posting on the D-Day Hobby League that Battlefront is running, so you can see how my progress is going and suitably chastise me if I’m not up to scratch. It would be great to see a lot of you guys and your forces there too.

It will feel great to have some completed forces on the board.
~Adam

You could also combine your Tank Destroyer Company with a Veteran Stuart Tank Company as they bring a ton of cheap mid range HE fire, heaps of MG dice and decent enough Assault options combined with many many very mobile hulls. This is a real Breakout force, you cant rely on being a big standup fighter, you need to duck and weave, always push for side shots, overwhelm weak parts of the enemy defences and pick on stragglers