Late War Tourney at Dropzone Games with tons of pics.

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Hey all! On the heels of my 2 win 3 loss drubbing at NOVA open a couple of weekends back I decided to pick my self up, dust myself off and head out to another tournament.

This time, joined by one of my partners in crime, Crazed Loon, we headed out to Dropzone Games a new "destination" store in the hinterlands between DC and Baltimore.

It's bigger than that. But here's the front room

It's a little shiny, but Ironheart Artisan's is
their own local goodness. 

Dropzone is set in the ashes of the old Games Workshop Battle Bunker, which was a huge store, so we figured it would be a large space but I have to tell you we were wow'd when we got there. In the front room alone there were at least 12 6x4 tables, and there were 2 other rooms in the back, one with 4 and one with 7 tables. And that wasn't all, there were at least two other large spaces they are planning to expand into. In other words,

this place had a ton of space. Enough, in fact, to accommodate not only our 18 man tournament, but a Kings of War tourney as well.

Even though they've been open about a month (I think) they had a ton of really quality terrain! Clearly the owners have put some epic work into the thing. Mad props to them (do kids still say "Props"?)

And wait, there's more. The guys actually do their own casting of bases, movement trays, and smoke markers (for us FOW folks!). And they do it in house. Check them out online at Ironheart Artisans

Needless to say, I was quite impressed. They've also got a ton of FOW stock and a good start on some Warlord Games stock.

If you get the chance, GO TO THIS STORE. It's worth the trip. In fact, I think it might be the location of the next Throck of War tournie, if they let me and I get my ass in gear.

But what about the tournament? To start, they had a cook out, which is awesome. Grilled meat and wargaming always go well together and props on them for thinking ahead on that.

The event was a 1650 Late War 3 round, 2 hours a round, tournament with 18 players. Luckily, the play field was much more diverse this time around, with plenty of German, Russian, American and Brit players to go around. This made me very happy indeed. However, the two hour round was a bit short I think.



I took my Panzer Lehr list from NOVA with a few adjustments (Dropped the mortars and Tigers, added Pumas, PaK 40's and a tricked out pioneer platoon).

 Round 1 was meeting engagement, I played against US Paratroopers from TT and I was pretty stupid on multiple levels here. First off, I let the guy move and dig in, which is of course clearly against the rules. He was newer than I and helped him out with the rules I knew, but my newness meant for some reason I didn't catch it the moving and digging. Second, I blithely sent my Puma's  to their death against Paratrooper gammon bombs. In the end it was a tie with him scoring more platoon kills, so a 2 - 3 loss to me. Paratroopers are just plain hard to kill, I must say.

Not so much winning, but hey, I'm not sucking!

Round 2 was breakthrough and I played against Feldherrenhalle with a ton of PZIV/70's and Zrini's. Against my Pio's, tank hunting lehr teams, 88's, PaK 40's and smoking rockets it just wasn't a solid match up. I quickly pulled out a 6 to 1 win. The guy was a great sport (Jesse I think) and a great player and from the beginning voiced his concern that it would be an uphill battle.

Round 3 was against a KG Piper, composed primarily of Panthers, Panhards, Mortar Tracks and one Squad of Grens. It was a long fight, I was on the defense and ended up only losing one platoon. Another great player (Steve Lee I think?) and we had a blast playing. In the end it went 5 - 2 to me.

Wait... Did I just win 2 out of 3 games at a tournament? Well, yes I did! 13 Victory points! I'm not going to win but it was one hell of a solid showing for a second time out. In fact, it was good enough to make me the top German player on the field (5th overall) and because two people above me have already qualified (including Crazed) for nats, I got the bid to go as well! WEWT!

Congrats to the winners, Chris Hecht (USSR), Ron Wismer (US), and Steve McLauchlan (US)

And now, the pics: