Gale Force Nine - TANKS - USA Sherman Swarm

 

Carrying on with my 15mm TANKS, next up for you to appreciate is my USA Armoured force. This is made up of 4 x M4A2 Shermans which can be used either as 75mm or 76mm configuarations and 1 x M26 Pershing.

M26 Pershing

 

76mm Shermans

 75mm Shermans

Gale Force Nine - TANKS - Inaugural Tournament

To make the most of my newly painted British Tanks, I noticed that there was another small expo type show (Strategy) being held in Telford, Birmingham, last weekend. Questing Knight Games, Telford's local gaming shop were hosting a few small demo games along with an X-Wing and TANKS tournament.

 Not being too expensive and only attending for the Saturday, I signed up for TANKS.

Arriving a bit early on the Saturday morning I got speaking with Jeff the organizer of the tournament and was informed that unfortunately a few big names had pulled out of the show and it was not as successful as the organizers thought it would be. I must admit being there for the day, the place was half deserted and the show has a long way to go before it can complete with the like of the UK Games Expo or even a modest wargames show like Colours or Triples,

Again because of the lack of customers and attendees, unfortunately only four people had signed up to play in the TANKS tourney and three of these were local lads, two of which were members of the Telford Wargames Club STAGS. It meant that we would get three games, everyone playing each other once and everyone would at least get a prize. Bragging rights for the winner though.

As I had traveled the furthest to attend, Jeff very kindly gave me one of the new 3ftx3ft Hit the Beach mats that had just been released for the game.

Game 1 vs Roddy and his British

So four players and two of us had Brits and the other two had Germans. Funnily enough each force was quite similar. I drew Roddy to play first and every game was going to be the same scenario - King of the Hill. Basically an Objective was placed in the centre of the board and Victory points were scored after the first turn for each uncontested Tank within one measuring arrow. The game played for 6 turns and the first to a maximum 3 VP's won.

Roddy Started with 3 x Cromwells and a Firefly were I had 1 Cromwell, 1 Comet and a Firefly. Roddy won initiative being the Attacker. I started moving my Tanks straight towards a wood for cover and started hammering away at Roddys Tanks. He traversed around the buildings towards the central objective trading shots all the way. Most of the game remained a stalemate until I took out a couple of his Cromwells which allowed me to gain 1VP on the objective. Roddy managed to destroy my Cromwell and Firefly then I got some great dice and obliterated his Firefly. With only my Comet and one of his Cromwells left the game ended.

I won 1-0 on VP's and destroyed 76 of his 100 points with only 58 of my points lost.

Game 2 vs Jack and his Germans

Being the winner of Game 1 I swopped tables to player the loser of the other game. My next opponent was Jack who was one of the STAGS local lads. Rolling for initiative, I again lost with Jack being the attacker. Choosing to deploy on the most open side of this table, I thought it would give my Fast Tanks an advantage towards the objective, not having to navigate around the buildings and still having a central wooded area for me to pour fire onto Jacks Panzers.

I nearly made a fatal error right at the beginning and allowed Jacks Panzers to creep up onto the objective whilst I was still out of range of it and nearly lost in turn 2!!

Fortunately I realized this and quickly darted my Tanks up to contest it and managed to knock out a PZ IV. Jack tried to flank me as he outnumbered my forces but another of his Pz IV's ran straight into my Firefly which turned it into scrap. A Panther quickly succumbed to direct fire from my Comet and then his final Pz IV in a death or glory charge was quickly destroyed. However in its final moments a final shot hit my Firefly brewing it up.

A devestating game for the Germans with them being completely wiped out. I won 2-0 on VP's and destroyed all Jacks 100 points only losing 29 points.

Game 3 vs Anthony and his Germans 

Last game and up against another STAGS lad with Germans. Anthony had 2 x Panthers and 2 x Pz IV's up against my 3 Tanks. This time I finally won an initiative becoming the Attacker. Back on the first table I played one I started on the same side and moved straight towards the main woods for cover. Anthony swung his Panthers through the buildings to join up with his flanking PZ IV's.

Concentrating all the firepower from my 3 Tanks I let rip against one of his Panthers crippling it, but I couldnt destroy it. Anthony then with a devastating barrage crippled my Firefly, bailing out the crew. even with their liquid courage upgrade I couldnt remount then and finally the poor 17pdr Sherman was scrap.

Tacking revenge I darted my Cromwell around a stable block and rear shotted a Pz IV destroying it and finally managed to knock out a Panther. Unfotunately my positioning was off and I could not contest the objective.


I lost 2-0 on VP's and destroyed 50 of his 100 points and lost 29 points.

End of the tournament and both Anthony, Jack and I were on 3 VPs. Poor Roddy never got any. However I had destroyed the most and was declared overall winner.

Everyone got the same prize though due to the low numbers. We all got a very nice prize pack consisting of 1 Tank pack and the scenario items from the first two organised play packs.

In all it was a cracking day out and I had 3 great, fun games with some new people. In my opinion, it was well worth the 4 hour round trip and £10 entry fee.

Happy Tanker

Gale Force Nine - TANKS - The British are Coming

Three finished British Tanks for the smashing TANKS Skirmish Game by Gale Force 9. These are the same plastic tanks that Battlefront produce for Flames of War but come seperately packaged with stat and upgrade cards for the skirmish game.

Comet - 23rd Hussars, 11th Armoured Division

The Comet tank was a British Cruiser tank that first saw use near the end of the Second World War. It was designed as an improvement on the Earlier Cromwell tank, mounting a 77mm Hvy gun in a new lower profile and part-cast turret. This gun was effective against late war German tanks, including the Panther and, at most ranges, the Tiger. The Comet was widely respected as one of the best British tanks of the war.

Cromwell - 15th/19th Kings Royal Hussars, 11th Armoured Division

The Cromwell tank, was one of the most successful of the series of cruiser tanks fielded by Britain in the Second World War. Named after the English Civil War Leader Oliver Cromwell, the Cromwell was the first tank put into service by the British to combine a dual-purpose gun, high speed from the powerful and reliable Meteor engine and a reasonable armour in a balanced package. This design formed the basis of the later Comet tank.

Sherman Firefly - 27th Armoured Regiment (Canadian) Sherbrooke Fusileers

The Sherman Firefly was a tank used by the United Kingdom and some Commonwealth and Allied Armoured formations in the Second World War. It was based on the US M4 Sherman and fitted with the powerful 3 inch British 17-pounder anti-tank gun as its main weapon. Originally conceived as a stopgap unitl future British tanks designs came into service, the Sherman Firefly became the most common vehicle mounting the 17-pounder in the war.

The Sherman firefly actually shows the 4th Canadian Armoured Division symbol. This has now been repainted.

Infinity ITS Tournament - Northern Alliance Open: Number 6

Second Infinity ITS tournament in as many months and after the great introduction I had in Preston, this time it was the Northern Alliance Open No 6 held in Leeds.

Another 300pt event where you could bring two lists for your force, which I did do this time and again consisted of 3 games covering the following ITS Scenarios:

Supremacy

Rescue

Supplies

As I have no other faction available/painted etc I once again took my ALEPH - Steel Phalanx Sectorial force.

This time with two lists,My force consisted of:

List A:

Achilles

Myrmidon Officer

Myrmidon with a Spitfire

Myrmidon Hacker

Myrmidon with Combi Rifle

Agema Marksman with Mk 12

Thorokitai Forward Observer

Thorakitai Engineer

Thorakitai Paramedic

Zayin HMG Bot

Netrod

Netrod

List B:

Eudoros

Myrmidon Officer

Myrmidon with a Spitfire

Myrmidon Hacker

Myrmidon with Combi Rifle

Myrmidon with Combi Rifle

Myrmidon with Chain Rifle

Thorokitai Forward Observer

Thorakitai Engineer

Thorakitai Paramedic

Agema Marksman with Missile Launcher

Netrod

Zayin HMG Bot

Game 1 - Supremacy vs Tim and his Pan Oceania - Neoterra.

In my first ever ITS game I played this scenario and got absolutely battered, so with some lessons learnt I went with List B for this game. I was going second and deployed with practically everything hidden. Forgetting to strip Tim of two orders by using a Command Token, he quickly used this mistake to rush a Locust along my right flank and tried repeatedly to deploy dropbears and mines. I was fortunate that none of these caused any damage. In the centre and on the left Tim had a Total Reaction HMG that would cause me trouble all game and a Camouflaged Uhlan TAG!

I responded in my first turn with my Agema, shooting missile after missile at his HMG Bot only for him to shrug off any damage, then it was the turn of my Zayin. HMG vs HMG and although tons of lead was thrown around the battle field not much damage caused.

Moving up my dual Enomatarchos link teams turn 1 ended and we both had 2 quadrants, drawing points.

Second turn and Tim again using his Uhlan and Locust started causing casualties in my Steel Phalanx troops. My Myrmidon hacker managed to get to the console on the left and tapped in a controlling subroutine, claiming it for ALEPH. My Thorakites FO managed to gain Telemetry on a Neoterran downed Bot and Tim also managed to gain a Classified Objective.

Moving into the last turn and my Hacker was taken out along with a couple of other troops and the Neoterrans managed to gain control of two consoles on his side of the board. In a last ditch effort my Myrmidon’s and their Officer popped off some smoke and Nibus grenades and the Officer dived off the building she had been using for cover and pelted towards a nearby console. Just then A Neoterran Black Friar using MSV through the smoke loosed off a shot which hit the Officer square in the chest just as she was diving at the console. As the life drained out of her, her fingers slammed down on the consoles command pad making ALEPH its prime controller.

End of the game and all throughout we had drawn points for the quarters, with my last ditch order I had managed to gain two consoles, as had Tim and we both had claimed our classified objective.  Result Draw 6-6 objective points.

Game 2 - Rescue vs Olly and his ALEPH - Steel Phalanx.

Rescue, I thought seemed a straight forward mission but proved to be extremely difficult. Both players had 4 Objective Civilians which were placed on the on opposition’s side of the board. Objective points were scored for rescued civvies in certain areas of your side of the board with the highest amount being awarded if you got a civvie back in your deployment area.

As we both had Steel Phalanx forces (Olly’s obviously being False ALEPH) it was going to be fun as both of us could cancel each other out. Olly had a hard link team including Phoenix and Machon as well as the amazing sniper Atalanta. I set up using my List A including Achilles this time round, hoping his speed and high armour would help.

First turn and Olly locked down my right hand side of the board successfully with a centrally deployed HMG Bot and Atalanta. Her first sniper shot took out my Thorakites Engineer through a window and quickly negated my HMG Bot as well. My Agema in this list only had a MK12 and tried to get into position to take down the Bot but even with his high shooting skill couldn’t manage it as it was quickly repaired by a remote engineer.

Thrasamedes on the other flank made an error in his movement and Achilles was on him straight away, gunning down the Chandra Spec Ops.

Olly moved Phoenix and Machon linked down the flank close to one of his civvie objective markers but suddenly found himself out of orders and under the guns of Achilles. A hail of Spitfire rounds later and Pheonix, Machon and an escorting Myrmidon were on the ground bleeding out. I then sent a lone Thorkites FO running as fast as he could towards a civvie objective.

The Thorakites managed to sync the civvie and dashed back towards cover but finally fell to a well placed shot from Atalanta. Atalanta also managed to down my Mymidon Hacker but she was quickly revived by a timely Thorakites Paramedic.

Olly was in loss of Lieutenant which seriously hindered him, plus having his link team decimated didn’t help. Fortunate for me this left his turn pretty ineffective and I entered my final turn.

I moved Achilles into position and gunned down the false ALEPH HMG Bot although he took a wound in reply. With the centre fire defence negated I dashed my Spitfire Myrmidon around the large building on the right, hugging cover and then managed to gun down Atalanta from behind.

Achilles now free to roam headed straight towards the civvie that had been escorted by the poor Thorakites and synced him. Using his fast speed and my remaining orders I got the civvie back in my deployment area.

End of game and I had killed his Lieutenant, killed more of his troops and claimed my classifieds to win the game 6-2.

Game 3 - Supplies vs Jake and his ALEPH – Steel Phalanx.

Next game and versus Steel Phalanx again! This time round it was for supplies. This mission entailed 3 Tech Coffins placed along the centre of the table and each Coffin contains one supply box. The owner of the most supply boxes at the end of the game gets the most objective points.

Back with List A which included Achilles (Jake had Achilles as well as a link team consisting of Phoenix and Machon-see the pattern here) I got to go first for a change. Straight away I used my Zayin HMG Bot to reduce his bot to complete scrap and my Agema happily gunned down his Agama, who was in cover but it did no good.

My Myrmidon link team ran straight towards the central tech coffin and the Hacker happily broke it open and dashed away with the supplies. On each flank I moved up a Thorakites specialist towards the remaining two tech coffins. Whilst Achilles loitered moodily, waiting for targets.

Jake responded immediately with his Hero heavy link team. Phoenix rocket launched to death my Agema and also downed my HMG bot. His link then moved closer to the Tech coffin and took out my lone Thorakites on that side of the board.

False Achilles moved next to the abandoned bus and set up in suppressive fire, over watching the other tech coffin.

My engineer crawled towards the Zayin and repaired it. The HMG bot opened up on Jakes link and caused some wounds but not enough that Machon couldn’t heal them. Phoenix’s reaction with his rocket launcher completely destroyed my Zayin and took the engineer down as well.

Not being able to get anywhere near the supplies controlled by the False Phoenix and his link I sent my Thorakites FO to snatch the remaining ones under cover of smoke from the friendly Myrmindon link. After grabbing the supplies the FO ran for his life but was pursued by the False Achilles who managed to kill him, leaving the supplies unguarded. The False Achilles was seriously wounded by my Achilles however during this exchange.

My last turn and I broke the Myrmidon link to send the Myrmidon with spitfire to the rear of False Achilles and with a double crit sent the pretender to his death.

The Myrmidon Officer dashed forward, grabbed the loose supply box and then used a Command Token, reformed enough Myrmidons into a link and headed towards a building to defend their hard won supplies.

With no chance of gaining anymore advantage Jake ended his turn after maliciously gunning down one of my Netrods.

At the end of the game I had killed his Achilles, controlled more supplies and had completed Classified Objectives. Jake managed right at the end to trade a Classified into a control HVT but I had won 6-3

My second Infinity ITS tournament done and I had Won 2 Drawn 1. Very Spooky I came 6th (the same as my first tournament) out of 22 and once again came away from the tournament extremely happy and had a great day meeting new people.

Just a few of the very nice tables we got to play on

 Most of the Awesome array of painted forces used on the day