The US Snail delivered my Tigers yesterday. So after some quick (and very minimal) assembly, Farmpunk and I had a game down at the North Store after the D&D crowd left.
If we had really thought about the time we had to play in (2 hrs) and our own newb-ness, we probably would have tried a 1000 point game with just 2-3 Tigers versus a bunch of Shermans and some Wolverines. But no, I put down all 5 Tigers (1955 points), while Farmpunk decided to go with a big American paratrooper list using the models he borrowed from Spag.
Setup. I've got 2 platoons with 2 Tigers each and a command Tiger. Our objectives are the small green circle-counters. I've got one platoon on each objective with the Command Tank in the middle.
The Tiger box set came with some very nice extras. Like some dice that let you easily keep track of your Tiger-Ace skills. Every Tiger gets a random skill. This platoon got extra shots. Because I rolled well, the platoon commander also got a skill. He got to re-roll misses.
The Company Command Tank got re-rolls and the ability to pass moral checks on a 2+. In a 40K sense, this pretty much makes him un-stunnable.
The platoon I put down on my right rolled up the 2+ moral skill too.
Farmpunk put a ton of infantry over on his right. With some howitzers in the middle of the blob. He's also got some spotters up in the woods so that he can lay down smoke on me more easily.
Over on his left are the big guns. He's got 2 Wolverine tank destroyers in reserve.
I win the roll to go first, so I kill a howitzer with the main guns from my leftward platoon. My Company Command tank kills the spotter in the woods to the right of the rock that infantry is hiding behind.
I kill an infantry base and a spotter on my 2nd turn.
On Farmpunk's 2nd turn he gets one plane in, but he whiffs this one too. The Wolverines come in behind the trees and move to flank me, but he misses his shots.
And that's our two hours. Exciting eh?
I don't think, looking at this battle, that I could have done enough damage with the Tigers to push Farmpunk off of an objective. While Farmpunk just plain doesn't have many options for popping a Tiger. Planes and Artillery. That's pretty much it. His best tanks can only stun a Tiger from the front. While a side shot only gives him a 1 in 12 chance of a kill.
But, I think he could do well with some fast Stuarts to run past me and some Shermans for tying me up while they grab an objective.
I, on the other hand, need some artillery for killing troops and some infantry to hold objectives while I run my kitties across the table.
My ultimate goal though, is to run a proper North Africa list with PzIII's and PzIV's to do most of the work. With just one or two Tigers to lead the assaults. All-Tiger lists are from the Italian campaign, which is not the period I'm really interested in.
oh shit, they have Italian Campaign lists?? now you have got me interested.... damnit.
ReplyDeletethere is a free army list on the Flames of War site for the first tiger units in North Africa check the PDF on the Tunisian tigers page page:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=53&art_id=1629
Oh how I have been resisting the temptation..... The FOW stuff is very nice and plays well. But if a Panzer Grenadier company should show up I'll be sleeping with the dogs....;)
ReplyDelete@atreides - Italian Campaign Mid War lists are in the North Africa book. Italian Campaign late war lists are in Fortress Europe.
ReplyDeleteThen there's the entire Monte Cassino book, focusing specifically on that battle.
lots of Italian Campaign stuff.
@MCT - SandWyrm looked at it. It's similar enough to the straight North Africa Italian Tiger company. Being that SandWyrm only has 5 Tigers, and 2 Stugs, we're limited.
@Raghnall - Plastic Soldier Company http://theplasticsoldiercompany.co.uk/
a cheaper alternative. You can get your fix for not a lot of money.
so you might have to sell off a 40K army so you're still allowed in the house, you'll have so many cool little army men though!
@Atreides
ReplyDeleteThey also have an entire book on the Casino campaign. It's brand new.
@Ragnall
The Wife/Girlfriend can't complain if you sell some of your other dollies on eBay to pay for it. :)
Yeah, I'll be getting 5 PzIII's and 5 PzIV's for like $22 plus shipping through PSC. Not bad at all.
ReplyDelete@MCT
ReplyDeleteThanks for the list! But I'm going to need some PzIII's to make it legal. The Tigers in North Africa didn't run around unescorted. :)
Plastic soldier Company is the way forward ... but don't forget that (I'm told) infantry win battles, not tanks. Tigers are impressive, but struggle (with speed) to capture objectives, or kill everyone.
ReplyDeletePlus, although the Tiger is very impressive, it's the german artillery and tank hunters that you should fear ... and panzergrenadiers with mortars, and veterans in the assault ... and MP40's and ... well it's a good job they're pricey - cause they are damn tough!
Check out my blog for a full run down of the major UK plastic manufacturers ... Zvezda is awesome aswell ... tanks at £2.75 each - nice.
Are you guys doing late war, or just mid war. I was planning on building a late war British armor company before I stopped playing FoW.
ReplyDeleteWe're doing mid-war right now, since I want to do an AfrikaKorps force and Farmpunk was able to lend-lease some mid-war Americans.
ReplyDeleteBut... Farmpunk really wants to do early-war French at some point. While if I do late-war, it'll probably be Americans.
Um it sounds like you where killing Concealed, gone to ground veterans at over 40cms. Which is impossible. You need 4+ to hit veterans with +1 for GtG, +1 for Concealed and +1 for over 40cm; so 7's.
ReplyDeleteOther then that I can't really give list advice. I play American Paras in Late war, which has totally different books/lists.