Throck Of War Charity Tournie, AAR

Who put this shiny odd Roundel in the middle of a battlefield?

That was awesome. Yesterday we put on our first tournament and I gotta tell ya I think it went off awesomely. We had 12 players (just enough!) with one guy traveling all the way from Ohio. Whodathunk right? I made a little exception that the armies didn't have to be fully painted but the ones that were looked great all around. And most importantly, not only did we have a great time, we made about $150 worth of donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Surprisingly, at least to me, is that the Brits were very well represented with Orne Commandos, 50th Infantry, Canadians, and Lorried Rifles all representing on the day. Germans brought it with KG Peiper, Sturmkompanie and 150 Ersatz Skorzeny Craziniess. We had two Russian Players both with forward detachments and a couple of yank Armored Rifle Companies and a Yank Tank Co. from BG&G.

Many thanks to Eagle and Empire for hosting and providing the prize support.

A couple of things I found out from running my first tournament:

1) Not everyone knows the rules all that well, be prepared to make a lot of judgement calls and look up a ton of stuff. But this was great for me as it really helped my own rules comprehension.
2) Not everyone has been to a tournament before and may not understand how scenarios work. I understand at the larger tournies this may be less the case, but I was running a friendly local thing and some of the guys here didn't even understand how to score a round. Which leads to...
3) Always bring enough copies of the scenario rules for each player. They're going to be flipping through their rule books enough anyways looking up stuff, this will let them have a quick reference for the current scenario right on the table.
4) 2 hours seemed to be a good length for the rounds, although I can see how 2.5 would be better. For each of the scenarios except fighting withdrawal people finished close to the 2 hour mark and it felt a little bit rushed. FW actually ended early in all cases but one.
5) I'm not super in love with I-95 scenario we used. I like the idea of tie breaker/domination points, we used front line domination and I'm just not sure how solid it is. The one thing I did like most about it though was how it pretty much forced folks to start a knife fight from turn one.

But what you really want to know is who won? AMIRIGHT? Well, read on after the break for the topline results and a ton of pics!


Worst Dice: Nathan L (who got a free new set of dice, courtesy of yours truly)
Best Painted: Paul Delaney's Forward Detachment RB
Best Sportsman: Our Very Own RotnyVanya, Forward Detachment RB
Best Overall (top cume in Painting, Sports and VP): Paul Delaney
Second Best General (Nationals Bid): Todd K., Brit Rifle Co. (50th) TT
Best General (Nationals Bid): Ben Gobel, Commandos (Orne) TT

Army: Not Fully Painted. Camera: Not yet color corrected.

All terrain provided by the fine folks and Eagle and Empire from their stock terrain. 

We used poker chips as our objectives for the Frontline Domination mission, each color represented a different point value. 

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Home made mine field. 

E&E has this odd rubber terrain, it's great because it's light and durable, but I've never seen it before coming here.

"Little Stalingrad"

The whole tournament was just a walk in the park... *Facepalm*

Commandos Dig In, waiting for the baddies. 

Is it really a tournament without dead Russian T-34s?

Or, all british artillery ever made?

Don't Vorry Ve're Americans! Betty Boop!

I guess I'm supposed to look a priest? I mean, I don't even know. 

American Tanks, in the house. 

Our Canadian player Mitch, did a hell of a good job with his army. Those arty pieces looked fantastic. 

Something about this pic strikes me as awesome. 

Ahhh, a wave of russian infantry. Do they know their leader think's they're just statistics?

You know your troops are low quality when you have to lead them with flag signals. 

a PaK40, ready to give some Yanks the business. 

Mitch's Cap Patches, from World War 2 on the left is the Fort Carry Horse and the Right is the Royal Winnipeg Rifles, the two units modeled in his army. These he used as his objective markers.  

ME-262's as... Fighter Bombers? I still don't think that's strictly accurate. But we'll roll with it. 

Enough(?) Artillery.

Ahhh, the woodland tank, a rare breed.

Panthers Marsch, on the Objective

Dear Mr. Farm owner, this platoon would like to apologize for trampling on your very shiny grass. 

BEST PAINTED, Peredovoye Otryad by Paul Delaney