Tempest 2012- MW Tankovy- Game 1

This year Tempest was 1100 pts midwar, one day, 4x games- and played a couple of months earlier tan normal. 18 players turned up for the comp inclduing a few I'd not met before so was good tro see such a good turn out- people obviously liked the format. 

 I decided to ditch my old favourite SU 122s and try out 7x Valentines. These days we don’t play much FoW except for comps (too much Impetvs) so all playtesting would be done on the day- whcih is never ideal. My aim was to use the day to learn the V3 rules.

I haven’t run a MW tankovy in about 4 years or so, so this was going to be an interesting experiment.- the SU 122/T34/T70 has always been my main Tankovy force midwar and had been quite successful but for this comp I thought I swap the SU 122s with the Valentines. Going into it I thought I was a bit light on T34s and this is how it proved.

	Soviet MW Tankovy Batalon (FC)
	Eastern Front, p188
1x	T70/43	30
8x	T70/43	240
7x	Valentines	285
2x	6 pdr upgrades	20
6x	T34	430
2x	57mm upgrades	20
3x	Armoured Cars	75
		1100

Game 1 FFA vs Nathan Maynard

Nathan ran a MW Carri company (9x carri, AA, motorcycles, 1x lancia and 3x Panzer IIINs).

Lancia and Panzer IIIs defend vs my T34s and Valentines. T70s at the far end counter M14/41s.

 Valentines hug the edge of the world and double time. they manage to just be out of range of the Lancia (funny that). T34s hug the edge of the forest to avoid the same gun.

 M14/41 advance to engage my T70s and start whittling them down- so I retreat behind a hill and wait for reinforcements. 

 T34s double time to the left flank to assist the T70s- the Vals are doing the same but more slowly.

 The T34s manage to bail 3x carri! Yep, failed firepower tests.

 Here come the T34s- carri on the hill in the distance.  I really like the new cobblestone roads.

 In the top of the picture the panzer IIIs have moved into the field to engage the Vals and T34s.

 The Vales move too far forward and two are destroye d by the Lancia at extreme range which finally has a target.

 Meanwhile though the M41 are starting to burn due to the intervention of the T34s.

 Meanwhile the T70s continue to hide.

 Now the M41s are in trouble but Nathan charges the T34s to get side shots.

 This is the worst gun dual in history- the Valentines stuggle to hit the panzer IIs and when they do the (2 forward Val III) 6 pdr shots bounce off the front glasis- and they begin to wear down the Valentines so eventaully they pull back without causing any damage.

We bail the last 4 carri.

 And finally finish them off.

 The T70s are now looking brave- the objective is in the distance, protected by an AA platoon- we are down to 4x T34s and 4x T70s.

 The Italian tank commander pops over to lend a hand while the T34s make the most of wide tracks by going through the woods.

 A silly gun dual developed between T70s and the Italian carri commander- which lasts far too long as I keep missing the trained Italian- or he bounces 45mm AT shots. The commander holds us off long enough for the the panzer IIIs to arrrive (the Vals having backed as they were done to half strength).

  Nathan is not able to contest- the far T34s have the objective. A very hard fought 6-1 that did not reflect the way the game was played.

 A fun game, Nathan was up against it- I was always going to try and stay as far from the lancia as possible but my Vals and T34s were both at half strength (as were the T70s) when I finally took it so it was still a very close game. Well played Nathan- just too many FA 6 tanks for the Carri to handle.