Kingston Bunker Rats Flames of War Tournament 2018

The Kingston Bunker Rats Annual Flames of War Tournament was held at Area 52 this weekend.  Not having played FOW since last year, I was a bit wary of combat fatigue playing 5 rounds in two days & Chris didn't feel confident enough to play on his own.  But the Rats allow a slot to be shared if a player can't play all rounds, so Chris & I shared a slot.   I played rounds 1, 3 & 5 while Chris played rounds 2 & 4 (with me providing tactical advice).  The theme was "Market Garden" so of course Team Cromwell took a British Armoured Reece Coy with Cromwells (backed up with some armoured infantry & the inevitable 25 pdrs).

The Team Cromwell plan was to make it easy for ourselves by having a small fast moving veteran force with no complications, and to attack at all costs so we would either win or lose fast before our old brains got too tired.  We were amazed at how well that worked.  The dice gods were also kind to us when it really mattered & we had 5 very enjoyable games.

Game 1: Free For All:  We lost a tank platoon on turn 1, but stuck to the plan & kept going at the objective on our left flank.  The dice gods relented & the enemy couldn't stop us.  8 VPs.

Game 2: Fighting Withdrawal:  We were the defenders, but we counterattacked anyway.  We destroyed the enemy armour on one flank then used the Cromwells' speed to rush back across our rear to also counterattack on the other flank before it fell.  8 VPs.

Game 3: Hold the line, with us attacking.  We swarmed forward drawing the inevitable 4 Tiger ambush onto the tanks on our right flank.  Then we plastered the Tigers with smoke, converged to the left & took the objective on our left flank before the German reserves could intervene.  8 VPs.

Game 4: Breakthrough:  We had to attack a German infantry army.  Chris got lucky on turn 1, wiping out the 3 Pak 40's before they even got to shoot, but German infantry armed to the teeth with fausts & annoying special rules still got to the objective before us.  A series of bloody attacks by infantry, tanks, bugs & more tanks saw the last of our Cromwells grab the objective & then hold off a desperate counterattack just before our army could fall below half strength. 6 VPs.

Game 5: Dust Up:  This was a blue on blue v. a Canadian army with a frightening array of artillery.  Our initial death or glory charge directly at our objective on the left, which was defended by infantry & artillery, soon proved to be all death & no glory.  So this time we abandoned plan A & found a plan B.  We left a tank platoon burning in front of the enemy line & used our speed to move right to counterattack the enemy's attack on our right.  It was a desperate struggle with neither side able to take an objective.  Both sides were reduced to half strength struggling to find a way to finish off one more enemy platoon to win by army morale.  It was a matter of luck, but it was the Canadians that broke first.  6 VPs.

Team Cromwell won the Tournament by a big margin with 5 wins & 36 VPs.
Pat came 2nd & Nick Ridge 3rd, both with about 25 VPs.