Soviet Tanks advance to Berlin & a Viking brawl.

1350 points, Late War. That was the challenge sent to me from Alex. 1350....nice and small point total so I thought I would put together a German Paratrooper force.

- HQ: Command with SMG Panzerfaust upgrades
- 1 x Panzershreck team
- Combat 1: Full Infantry Platoon with SMG boss Panzerfasut upgarde
- Combat 2: As above
- Full Pioneer FJ Platoon with SMG Faust command team upgrade.
- Light Mortar Platoon (x 4 Tubes) with you guessed it a Faust SMG upgrade
- Heavy Mortar Platoon x 4 tubes

Facing...
Lots and lots of Soviet Tanks.......Aaaaaaarrrrggghh!

Soviet Tank force 1350points Late War. Nice looking force.

We rolled up the Mission "Pincer". Basically it is No Retreat with a twist. Reserves arrive from sides rather than the rear.

Not much to say about this game really. I lost at the start of turn 5. You can probably see what went down in the pictures really. I didn't lose a platoon but neither did Alex. It was the Stuart Platoon that swept through a gap in my front line and kept on going til they reached the rear objective. They won the game. It boiled down to a punch up between them and an FJ Infantry platoon to decide the game. A tense but short moment. The FJ failed to get the numbers and the Stuarts passed every Bog check they required.
Game over.
Reserves (1 x Infantry (I made a Kampfegruppe platoon to get to 6 platoons), and the Mortar platoons) failed to appear.

Soviet tanks have advanced and the Pioneers deployed from ambush.
(I did consider delaying the ambush, perhaps I should have done so).

Stuarts sneak through and easily shoot away an attempted assault by the Pioneers.

Lessons learnt. Consider blocking movement with better deployment. Reserves don't always arrive when you need them. Take some decent AT shooters!! Reconsider deploying the ambush after Turn 1 (my first idea was correct. The Recce was busy lifting Gone to Ground so infantry ambush on the Stuarts may have kept the game going).  Having to rely on Fearless Vet Infantry to take on Tanks without smoke, bailing or any other combat helpers is a big gamble. It didn't work this time (too many tanks) so the Soviets continue to advance to Berlin as the remnants surrender and scatter. 

Warlords clash!

Bodyguard evaporates!

Afterwards Alex was happy to try out Saga (his first game). He faced Lochy and it was 4 points of Viking vs Viking. I helped out with the rules, sound effects and I loaned my figures. They didn't mind waiting 10 minutes as well while I went home to dig out the Rule book I had forgotten.

We used the first mission which is won or lost on the death of a Warlord. It went back and forth a number of times until eventually Alex's Warlord was victor but it was a high body count as followers threw themselves in front of respective Warlords to save them from fatal blows. A new comer to our club also hung out and enjoyed watching the game so hopefully it has created interest for more recruits. Alex already has plans for a Welsh force which is a faction I have not faced at our club so variety is all good. I grabbed one of my 4ground hovels that I had recently completed a little work on when I went home for the Saga rulebook. I used some German Panzer Grey heavily diluted to get some mouldy colour on the thatch and smoke stains around the chimney opening. This was after brushing the thatch with a white glue and water mix and letting it dry over night. It seemed to work well and helped add a bit more grubbyness to the building.

Cheers from Brendon (The Kiwi)