CanconFOW - complete results

The full results of the Cancon FOW comps is at http://www.flamesofwar.com/Default.aspx?tabid=126&aff=14&aft=533537&afv=topic

The Team Tas results were :

Early War:
John came 7th of 42 with 4 wins from 8 & top marks for sportsmanship, history & modelling.
Generalship equal 11th.


Midwar:
Jim came 17th of 42 with 5 wins, top marks for sportsmanship & history, but low marks for modelling.  Generalship equal 13th.

Richard came 21st of 42 with 4 wins, top marks for sportsmanship & average marks for history & modelling.  Generalship equal 16th.

Leigh came 30th of 42 with 4 wins, top marks for sportsmanship, but low marks for history & modelling.  Generalship equal 13th.

Leigh scored a $50 voucher for 30th place.

Canberra War Museum Visit

The Canberra War Museum has some interesting stuff from wars from the Boers to Afganistan.  For example a cute Afrika Korps Kuberwaggon...but the best bit is the aircraft.











The WWII planes on display include Lancaster, Me109, Spitfire, Mustang, Mosquito, Zero, Me262 and more.

There is an impressive sound, light & archive film display very realistically depicting a bombing raid on Berlin.  The film is projected onto a giant screen next to the Lancaster & Me109 suspended from the ceiling (and with an 88 below).

That was pretty good,  but the WWI air exhibition is absolutely f%&$ing awesome.

The genuine Pfalz, SE5a, Albatross, DH4, & Sopwiths parked around the hall or hanging from the ceiling are impressive enough, but the huge wrap-around screen video has to be the best air film ever shot.

Peter Jackson the film director and others have a collection of planes in Masterton NZ which includes an RE8 and several each of SE5a's, Camels, Dr1's. Albatri & DVII's.  With a bit of techno help they put together a short movie:

It starts off with a Camel reving up, taking off and attacking an observation balloon with tracer.  The balloon goes down in spectacular flames after the poor bugger hanging from it bails out.  After some great footage of nine SE5a's firing up, taxi-ing out and taking off in formation, an RE8 gets attacked by a flock of Dr1's & Albatri with great close-ups of the rear gunner.  Then the 9 SE5a's show up & the Huns peel off to take them on.  A magnificent whirling dogfight ensues with planes of both sides going down until a flock of Fokkers (DVII's) join in as well!

And you watch this sitting under an SE5a hanging from the ceiling!   It really was gobbsmackingly good - we kept going back to see it again. Do not go to Canberra and miss it!

CANCON 2012

FOW Team Tasmania: John Mumford, Richard Taylor, Jim Gandy & Leigh Watson

With 100 FOW competitors, 550 other competitors in multiple other systems and thousands of visitors, buyers & sellers, Cancon is quite an event.  Mercifully, this year the weather was kind and conditions in the big shed were quite pleasant - not the oven we had heard of in past years.

There were 48 tables for FOW alone - for  the 40 players each of Midwar & early War and another 8 tables for a big Stalingrad campaign.
                       
There were also a heap of shop stalls selling all things wargames.

Demo games of interest included: 6mm Napoleonics (Borodino - see pic), Hail Caesar & Black Powder Pike & Shotte.

We were also given a preview of FOW V3 by Phil Yates himself - should be at A52 this week.

Flames Of War:  Team Tas Results:

John's British Armoured (EW): 4 wins, 4 losses, 31 VPs.
Leigh's Tankovy (MW): 4 wins, 4 losses, 29 VPs.
Richard's Finnish Infantry (MW): 4 wins, 4 losses, 27 VPs.
Jim's Hungarian Light Infantry (MW): 5 wins, 3 losses, 29 VPs.

In Midwar we all had a good variety of enemy armies, players and terrain.  John was a little less fortunate in Early War as his opponents were Panzer in every game.  We had opponents from Brisbane, Sydney, Albury/Wodonga, Melbourne & New Zealand.

The standard of play & table manners was generally very good and Team Tas all finished in a bunch near the middle of the field.  The Monday Knights from Melbourne and the two Kiwis were generally a class above both in the game and in drinking capacity.  One curious fact we discovered was that cm are used rather than inches only in Tasmania and Albury/Wodonga.

Detailed results for the team:

		John	Leigh	Richard	Jim
		EW	MW	MW	MW
		British Armour	Soviet Tankovy	Finnish Infantry	Hungarian Light Infantry
Round 1	Encounter	Panzer	Tiger	Strelk	Tankovy
		Win	Win	Win	Loss
		6	6	6	1
Round 2	No Retreat/HTL	Panzer	Fucilieri	Strelk	Strelk
		Win	Loss	Loss	Win
		6	1	1	4
Round 3	Breakout	Panzer	Fucilieri	Tankovy	Aust Armour
		Loss	Loss	Win	Win
		2	1	4	4
Round 4	Dust Up	Panzer	Strelk	Tankovy	Grenadiers
		Won	Loss	Loss	Loss
		6	3	2	2
Round 5	Witch's Cauldron	Panzer	US Para	Pioneer	Aust Infantry
		Loss	Win	Loss	Win
		2	5	3	5
Round 6	FFA	Panzer	Finn Armour	Grenadiers	Pioneers
		Win	Win	Win	Win
		4	6	4	6
Round 7	Breakthrough	Panzer	DAK Armour	Tankovy	Tankovy
		Loss	Loss	Loss	Loss
		2	1	1	2
Round 8	Fighting Withdrawal	Panzer	Grenadiers	Strelk	Strelk
		Loss	Win	Win	Win
		3	6	6	5
	Wins	4	4	4	5
	Vps	31	29	27	29

Greeks & Persians Hail Caesar

Jim & Richard's Greeks v. Steve & Mike's Persians

Both armies were 500 points in 4 divisions.  Army morale fail at: lose 2 infantry divisions, or lose 3 in total, or lose camp.  In the pics the Greeks are on the left.

In the foreground the small Greek cavalry division faces 2 Persian cavalry divisions.

In the centre the Persian foot advanced into bow range while the Spartans move up, eager to charge.

On the far side, 2 hoplite divs (Richard's own is in the far left) face mercenary hoplites.

In the foreground the Greek cavalry played for time, aided by Mike's poor command rolls.  On the far side, the hoplites slowly move towards each other in fit and starts.  In the centre the Spartans charge the Sparabara.

The Spartans on the right smash their way through, but their comrades on their left were held and the slow advance of the next division left them open to flank attack.  A confused fight resulted in the destruction of the whole Spartan division.  But the next hoplite division finally came up and the Persians were in turn attacked in flank and finished off.   So both sides lost their best division.

The Greek cavalry were finally overwhelmed in the LH corner, but they had done their job keeping the Persian cavalry out of the action.

The battle was decided on the far flank where Richard attacked the mercenaries with a bit of help from the hoplite div on his right.  The two hoplite lines took a while to slug it out, but the numerical advantage told for the Greeks in the end.  When the mercenaries broke that was army morale fail for the Persians.

Richard and his hoplites aquitted themselves well in their first battle.    The Persian's mistake was to have too much of their force on the wrong side of the woods.

Last Tango Before Cancon

Jim's Hungarian Light Inf v. Rich's Kiwi Rifles

1500 pts MW Breakout Mission, Hungarians defending.  The Hungarians deployed all their force at the start with none in reserve.  Kiwis had their 25 pdrs in one corner and infantry & HMGs in the other corner.

The Kiwi infnatry moved towards the village & their HMGs moved to the edge of the wood closest to the village.

The Hungarians started moving their infantry towards the objectives while their Paks & 38T's destroyed the HMGs.

The Kiwi's first reserve to arrive was their Shermans on the RHS.  They hid from the Paks behind the wood & tried to snipe at the 38T's around the corner.  They missed and the 38T's swarmed them.  A combination of side shots from the 38T's, artillery and a Pak move and fire disposed of the Shermans.

Meanwhile the Honeys had come on in the other corner.  They killed a few infantry before the Paks turned towards them causing them to scuttle behind the village.

The other 2 rifle platoons came on and assaulted the 38T's.  The 38T's withdrew after losing 2 and set up outside the wood to protect the Paks from the infantry.

The Kiwis then used smoke as cover and tried to attack the 38T's out of the woods.  Attack after attack was tried, each stopped by defensive fire, or failed tank terror as the infantry slowly melted away.   One rifle platoon was destroyed but the other finally charged home, drove back the 38T's and took out a Pak.  But the last 2 38T's passed morale and their counterattack finished off the 2nd rifle platoon.

That left the Kiwis below half strength, but their CIC was alive and well in the village and they continued to pass coy morale tests.  One Hungarian infantry unit broke under Honey fire and the Kiwis launched a last desperate attack to take the objective before their morale luck ran out.  The Honeys destroyed the weapons platoon but was beaten off by the infantry.  The rifles in the village then attacked but they had been weakened by 105 fire and were finished off in a  counterattack.   The remaining Kiwis still passed coy morale, but we were well past the time limit and the Hungarians still held the objectives so were declared winners.

Hail Caesar 18/01/12

Jim & Renfrey's Greeks v. Steve & Mike's Persians

We tossed to see who was on which side using the same armies as last Sunday, but different players & different terrain.  The Greeks are on the left in the pics.

The Persians advanced their cavalry wings and sat back with their infantry centre.

The Greeks advanced their whole line as fast as they could.

On the far flank the two sides pretty well stalemated.  The Greeks were happy to hold the line & keep the Persians getting past into their rear, Persians got to support their centre with horse archers.

On the near flank the hoplites charged the medium cavalry and routed it.  But they lost a unit doing so and couldn't get to grips with the horse archers to finish off the division.

The centre was always going to be the decisive spot.  The peltast screen was driven back by massed bowfire, and the hoplite's advance hesitated at times, but two units charged home up the hill.  The LH one was resolved first.  The Greeks felt pretty good throwing 7 4+'s, but the dice gods give and the dice gods take away - the Persians threw 7 5+'s to hold on.

From there it was all downhill for the Greeks.

Not enough hoplite units made it up the hill and the two that did were beaten one by one.

Now it was just a matter of time before the Persian bows finished the Greeks off. The Greeks conceded (although no divisions of either side actually broken yet).

Sunday School at Barrie's 15/12/12

We played a FOW and a Hail Caesar side by side on one of Barrie's 12x6 tables.

Hail Caesar:  Marks' Greeks v. Barrie's Persians

Barrie deployed his big infantry division in a long line extending from the RH edge to the centre, his javelin armed cavalry on his left and his horse archers in front of the centre.  Mark deployed his division of 2 elite hoplites and 2 peltasts on his left and the other 2 divisions of 3 hoplites, skirmishers and 1 small cavalry each centre and right.

Barrie sent his horse archers forward to harrass the enemy centre and advanced his right to the creek line.  Mark tried to counter them with his few light troops, but they were soon destroyed leaving the archers free rein.

The Greeks advanced their left to be met with such a hail of arrows from across the creek that they lost their nerve and fell back.  In the centre and on the right the Greeks belatedly advanced, but the Persians fell back shooting.

The Greeks eventually charged the Persian centre, but their accumulated losses told and they failed to break it.

With most of their units shaken or nearly so, the Greeks could only stand around as the Persians peppered them.

The Greek right broke first, then the centre was outflanked.  Clearly doomed, the Greeks conceded the battle.










Leigh's Schutzenkompanie v. Richards British Armoured Regiment

1500 points Early War, Breakout Mission.   (Leigh's army was actually Jim's Cancon Midwar army with the Pak 40's changed for Pak 36's).

Leigh caused great execution on the thin skinned British tanks, but they over-ran an objective and just enough of them survived when the Germans tried to blast them back off it.

Hail Caesar

Jim's Romans v. Steve & Mike's Carthaginians

The pics are all taken from behind the Roman right.

The Republican Roman army wasn't quite Kosher to the book of lists as it had an allied Persian division, but the newly painted figs looked so good I had to use them.

The Romans deployed their 2 legionary divisions left of centre with the Persian division on their right and their cavalry division on their left.

The Carthos put their Citizen spearmen division in the centre with cavalry on their left and Gauls on their right.  Their 4th division of light troops and elephants was in front of and to the right of the spearmen.

The Gauls charged forward (as they do) and the Roman left advanced to meet them.  The Cartho left advanced swinging out on the flank and the Persians advanced cavalry and bowmen to meet them (their medium infantry stayed on the hill).

On the far flank the Romans made short work of the Gauls.  On the near flank the hail of Persian arrows took longer, but the Cartho cavalry were gradually melting away.

Meanwhile in the centre, the Cartho spearmen were slowly advancing while the Romans & Persian foot waited on the ridges.

After beating the Gauls, the Roman left turned on the Cartho flank.  The elephants tried to stop them, but there weren't enough of them.

Finally, the Cartho spearmen charged home on the Roman centre.  But the Persians weren't the pushover the Cartho's expected.  They put up a good fight as the legionaries hammered away at the Cartho's right flank.

The Cartho's light division was on the verge of breaking for some time, only holding on by good break dice under flank attacks, but it was the spear division that broke first to give the Romans victory.



 

Sunday School Class 2: Hail Caesar

Jim's Romans v. Renfrey's Seleucids.

This was Renfrey's introduction to Hail Caesar.  He deployed conventionally with his phalanx in the centre, cavalry on his left and his mixed division of elephants, light infantry and light cavalry on his left.  The Romans put their legion on their left and their two cavalry divisions (one Eastern allies, one Western allies) on their right.

Both sides advanced all along the line, though not evenly.  The eastern horse in the Roman centre went ahead to start peppering the phalanx with arrows.  This provoked Renfrey into attacking its flank with elephants.  They routed a cavalry unit, but paid for it when the legion hit them in flank.  On the far flank the two equal cavalry divisions slugged it out.  At first the Seleucids got on top, but the Romans fought back.

The legion attacked and gradually whittled away at the Seleucid right while the phalanx wheeled forward ponderously in the face of a hail of arrows.  Seeing his right crumbling Renfrey dropped a phalanx back to protect the camp.  (The Romans had a left a cohort behind to protect theirs).

The Seleucid right broke and part of the legion headed for the camp as the phalanx finally got to grips with their right flank and the eastern horse.  The right hand phalanx bounced off the flanking cohort and the eastern horse held on against the next one (by throwing 4 out of 4 5+ saves).  Then on the far flank the two opposing cavalry units finally broke each other.  This caused army morale failure for the Seleucids with 2 out of 3 divisions gone.  It could easily have been a draw with the Roman's Persian allies only just hanging on.

Cancon Sunday School

Team Tas for Cancon had a practice session at Camp Cromwell this afternoon...from left to right in the pic: Leigh Watson (MW Soviet Tank horde), Richard Taylor (MW Fin Infantry), Jim Gandy (MW Hungarian Infantry) & John Mumford (EW British Armour).

SteveJ's Panzers v. John's British Armour in FFA

The British cans charged forward (from the right in the pics) and the German's enjoyed a Turkey shoot.

Armoured Coys are not the sort of enemy John wants to meet at Cancon, though he should get his rocks off against infantry coys.






Jim's Hungarians v. Leigh's Tankovy in Dust Up

The Hungarians dug infantry in on the forward objective with Paks & Artillery in support.  The Soviets had 11 cans & 10 T34's on the table.

The T34's doubled around the Hungarian left hidden by town and ridge while the cans hid behind the line of trees.

That looked bad for the Hungarians.  Then it got worse - Leigh got his 10 Honeys on  from reserve on the first try.

31 tanks converged on 15 Hungarian infantry, their approach totally shielded from any anti-tank of artillery fire.

The PBI gave ground to the Honeys, were pushed back by the T34's, then anihalated by the cans.

The Hungarian guns finally got a shot at the horde. They destroyed the T34's but the cans still held the objective.  The Hungarian 38T's had come on in the far corner and were doubling for the objective, but this mission has no wait for turn 6 rule, the Soviets held an objective at the  start of their next turn & it was game over.

As Mark found out v. Byron in the Maharajah, this Mission is a tough ask for infantry v. armour.  In this case the terrain allowed the tanks to get up close without having to take any anti-tank or artillery fire.  But the way the T34's evaporated when they did get shot at shows that the Hungarians could have had a chance on better terrain.  With dissimilar coy types, so much depends on the Mission/Terrain mix.

Cancon Practice

Jim & Refrey's Hungarian light Inf v. Thomas & Rich's Strelkovy

1500 pts Midwar.  Breakout Mission, Soviets defending

The Soviets deployed in the far LH quarter of the table - Infantry, Honeys & Heavy Artillery on the table, 5 T34's to come on in near corner.

The Hungarians put their Paks on the LH side, 105's & infantry on the RHS.  Most of the heavy platoon was attached to the infantry on the table.  More ing antry and 5 38T's to come on as reserves.

The Hungarian infantry advanced to contest the objective near the cornfield with infantry.  The Soviet Honeys moved up to contest that objective while the Soviet infnatry occupied the village securing the other objective.

Both side's reserves didn't arrive until turn 4.  The Hungarians were brought on on the left.  The T34's had to run the gauntlet of Paks to reach the critical area.  One bogged in the woods, but the others moved out to face the Paks.  Only 3 tanks able to fire at the paks, but that was enough to destroy them all (one had already been picked off by artillery).

The 38T's moved around the Soviet rear to enagage the Honeys, but with little success and when the artillery moved up into their rear, they  turned round to destroy them instead. 

The Soviet armour made a converging attack on the infantry in the cornfield and destroyed them.  The armour then turned on the 2nd Hungarian infantry & destroyed that.   The Hungarians then failed morale.

Once again this Hungarian list failed after the dice made it the attacker v. an infantry coy with superior armour.  Clearly this is not this coy's strong suit, but they were faced with Soviets with a sound plan (Thomas' not Rich's) and they lucked out at every critical event.  

Hail Caesar Breakthrough Mission

Jim's Republican Romans v. Steve's Seleucids & Mike's Galacians

We made up a Scenario based on the FOW Breakthrough Mission.  A dice off made the Romans the defenders and they deployed diagonally across two table quarters with their camp as the enemy objective in the middle of the table quarter behind them.  The Seleucids deployed 3 divisions in the 4th table quarter at least 18" from the enemy and the 4th division (elephants and supporting infantry) on flank march to arrive near the far corner on or after turn 3.

The pics are all taken from behind the Roman camp.  The Romans deployed their legionaries in the centre, their cavalry on left flank and their allied spearmen and supports right rear.  The Seleucids had their pahalanx in the centre with cavalry on their left and Galacians on the right.

The Romans moved their allies back to guard the camp and sent skirmishers forward to harrass th enemy.

The Seleucids sent their wings forward while the phalanx slowly sorted itself out and followed.  Their flanking force arrived on turn 4 and immediately charged the spearmen.  The elephants were stopped, pushed back and the division quickly routed.  But that was a side show, the real action was on the front line.

The Roman cavalry plan to just keep the cataphracts busy was fumoxed when their medium cavalry blundered forwards to be immediately ridden down by the cataphracts.

The attack of the Galacians was stopped by the legionaries, but they were too badly hurt to follow up and finish them off. 

The Roman's allies were too slow coming back from their victory to be any use as the phalanx and the cataphracts slammed in to the Roman line.   The legionaries actually beat off half the cataphracts, but they were overwhelmed and both legionary divisions broke to give the Seleucids victory.

Hail Caesar at Area 52

Jim's Republican Romans v. Steve's Seleucids

MarkW set up an interesting battlefield for a Hail Caesar demo battle.  The river, hills, camps & palm groves all counted as defenders uphill plus cavalry and long spear armed infantry disorganised, plus -3" move penalty.  Deployment was simultaneous (from sketch maps), defeat conditions:
1. Lose more than half divisions.
2. Lose your camp.
3. Seleucids lose their phalanx division.
4. Romans lose both legionary divisions.

The pics are all taken behind the Roman right.

The Romans deployed allied spearmen on the right of the river, peltasts as camp guards, 2 legionary divisions in the centre, cavalry on the far left.  The Seeucids deployed their Galacians (horse and foot) on their right, phalanx in the centre with elephants behind, cavalry on their left. 

Both sides advanced on their left and held back on their right. 

On the far side the Legion advanced quickly and smashed thru the Galacian foot.  The Roman cavalry took a while to get going, but eventually overcame the Galacian cavalry.

On the near side the Seleucid cavalry charged the allied spearmen.  The spearmen put up a stiff fight but were eventually defeated.

In the centre the two sides squared off on opposite sides of the river.

The Roman left redeployed to the right and both legionary divisions charged across the river.  The Romans generally pushed the enemy back.  They took the camp but the defenders bought enough time for a counterattack to be organised.  (You have to hold the camp until the end of the enemy's next turn).    A counterattack by elephants and peltasts drove the now shaken Romans back thru  the camp.

Meanwhile on the other side of the field, the Seleucid cavalry had reorganised and were attacking the Roman camp.  The Roman camp guard fought valiantly, but they were overwhelmed.  The Roamn camp fell with no hope of immediate relief to give the Seleucids victory.

The exercise was certainly a success.  There was a bit of interest shown by the passing A52 customers,   Mark set up terrain quite different to what we are used to which made for an interesting challenge for both sides, and it was fun to play in an new envoironment - we must do it again.