More Southcon Musings

I've been working on my Dark Ages Welsh and have completed the first two bases but still have a few to go. I'll post some pictures when they are all done.

I'm also still trying to figure out what to take to Southcon. I discovered last week that it is only 2 hr rounds which I find a bit short. Richaard believes that it will encourage players to play faster (as if not finishng games is a problem down here- it isn't). However, my concern is that it will have two major negative impacts:

1. It will make a stalemate even more likely in an infantry vs infantry match up in a Fair Fight mission.

2. It will swing the balance in Defensive Battles too far towards the defender- it willl be far easier for a defender to slow the game down and so win by timing out- that extra half hour to prepare an assault can be critical and gives the attacker a decent chance to win. In 2 hours the attacker will need to have a lot of mobility- infantry heavy forces could agains truggle but so too could armour vs well constructed defesivve positions as there may not be time to exploit that all important breakthorugh.

So, Nick, Poochie and I are all looking at now taking different forces to take into account the shorter time limits. There are to my mind two ways of doing this.

1. Take light, fast, mobile forces such as plenty of light tanks and try to win quickly by overwhelming the enemy before their reinforcements can interfere- this is a good argument for the 21x T70 list- but alas I'm going Germans.

2. A reasaonably solid defensive list that will be hard to break or be driven off an objective in 2 hrs but which is also capable for attacking and taking objectives should it be forced to- and to my mind no German force is better suited to that syle of play than the Fallschrimjager- I find them to be one of my more robust forces on attack or defence and they tend to perform well for me.

So given the time limits here are a few ideas I'm now considering:

Option 1: Hungarian Tanks

2x T38 G 125
4x T38 G 255
3x III N 330
4x Marder II (allies) 360
2x Nimrod 145
3x Toldi Is 130
7x Assault Pioneers-Rifles (CV) 155
1500

This is my latest idea- a light tank company to try to grab an objective quickly. I've never taken my Hungarians to a tournament so that would be a good reason to take them. The main reason to take this force is to field the very, very cool NIMRODS! Lots of tanks so not much mucking round each turn. The infantry are there as there could be fortifications and will definitely be a Not One Step Back table so they should be useful.

Option 2: Armoured PGs

Still my perferred force and am still looking at a few different options. However I am consideirng adding a platoon of luchs for a fast recon/objective grabbing element. One option I am seriously looking at is this:

2x HQ + P/Ks 80
7x Armoured PGs + P/K 235
7x Armoured PGs + P/K 235
3x Luchs 165
3x Marder II 270
2x Stugs 340
3x Panzerwerfers 175
1500

It should be able to attack quickly if required and has plenty of flexibility.

Option 3: Fallschrimjager

A new twist on an old favourtie- usually I field a tiger with them and nebelwerfers. The HS 129s act as a stick forcing enemy to engage my tiger- it usually works well. This time round I thought that 4x marders would be a fun support option. Not my preferred army but it does include all the things I rate highly in the German arsenal- marders, panzerwerfers and HS 129s.

HQ 55
2x Stummelwerfers, 1x ATR 80
10x FJ + P/K 270
10x FJ + P/K 270
3x Pak 38 135
4x Marder II 360
3x Panzerwerfers 175
HS 129s 155
1500

Craig