Tuesday, February 15, 2011

Early War Escalation League (5)

Saturday we had another session of out escalation league at Adler Hobby. This week we escalated to 1250 points, which required two combat platoons. See my earlier entry for photos of my second platoon of German pioneer infantry.

My opponent for this game was store owner Gordon. Gordon is pushing Polish cavalry with an armored train. Gordon is using a scratch built train he made by kit bashing some HO trains he had. With dazzle camouflage and gun turrets scuttled from 15mm tanks, Gordon's train looked every bit as good as it performed. As far as performance goes, the train proved to be unstoppable for my troops.  I deployed my one platoon of PaK36 AT guns on each side of the tracks in hopes of scoring an early knock-out of the train. Gordon survived round after round of hits with good armor saving rolls and rode the train's 14 MG dice and two main gun batteries to victory. Even my Stuka schwerpunkt didn't seem to be able to stop the train or Gordon's hordes of cavalry and infantry. The Poles seem to be a very nice choice for early war.

Gordon and I had a fun game both learning the train and scenario rules. I definitely made some mistakes in deployment near the train which I will learn from and try not to repeat. When dealing with the train I think treating it like one of the Ogres in Steve Jackson's science fiction board & miniatures game OGRE/GEV might be the way to go. Hit it hard, fast and often until you take it out. I think an all armor force will be less fearful of the train's many MG guns, but for infantry forces the train is a nightmare that has to be dealt with and FAST if you're going to win against it.


We had a good turnout with five players total enabling us to get a game running on each of the three tables Gordon set up. I think the appeal of the larger point totals brought people out for the day of gaming. Photos below are of Don (British Matilda company) and Matt's (German Medium Armor Company) game on the airfield table. And Matt and Jerry's (French Armor) game on the wheatfield table. Matt's Matilda company proved difficult to handle at this point total. I'm encouraged by this since I also have one in the works.

2 comments:

Alfrik said...

In the second photo, what ever is the screen thing on stilts over the train represent?

AJ (Allan) Wright said...

That's a smoke screen laid over the train by my 105 mm mortar platoon!

I make them wiht my laser. I like the legs because it allows you to put them over the figures without laying anything on the figures themselves which might damage the paint.