Early War 8th Panzer Regiment, 15th Panzer Division vs The BAR in Free for All

Flaming tanks everywhere! This was both my first game of early war and also the first game I've gotten to play in for the Dice Devils EW escalation league. Unfortunately I haven't had the chance to paint any new models so you may recognize the DAK Panzers from MW. The actual models are IV Es but for this game they were representing IV Ds. Bob and I agreed to play on a 3'x 4' table and the mission was Free for All.

8th Panzer Regiment, 15th Panzer Division DAK OC in IV D 3 x IV Ds

British Armoured Regiment OC in Crusader 2IC tiny light tank (if someone knows the right name let me know) 3 x Crusaders 2 x CS Crusaders 3 x Vickers Mark VI tanks

Early War Escalation League!

DAK AFV markings (thanks MV!)

 
Matt Varnish from the Dice Devils has started an Early War Escalation League, which is another great reason to finish painting up my Desert Germans!  I have created two lists one of Mech Infantry the other a Mittrer Panzer Company and now all I have to do is get them on the table.  The way the tiers work are month long periods starting at 600 pts and moving up in 300 point chuncks (ie 900, 1200 & 1500).  I wasn't able to get as many games as I would have liked at 600 points (only one) but I now have an EW game under my belt.  Stay tuned for the AAR from the game and WIP shots as I get more painted.   To help with some of my inspiration take a look at this video that Matt Varnish found while doing some research to help me out.

Tier 3 Total War 4500 pts aside!!!!

Soviet Armour being feed to the FSJ Pioneer Machine!

Last Friday we had the chance to play Tier 3's Total War of the Table Top Tacticians escalation league.  This game had 4500 pts on both sides and pitted the Axis played by Ca$h(Panzer Grenadiers), Pripyat (FSJ Pioneers) and I (Big Willie's Panzer Kompaine) against the Allies played by Matt Varnish (Brits Infantry), Lothlann (Soviet Armoured Kompany) and Joyous Oblivion (US Armoured Company).  Each player played a 1500 pt army that combined with the other forces.  I had not had the chance to finish painting everything I wanted to so I ended up taking a very point intensive force with only 2 platoons and priority Stuka bombing air support.  Here are the armies on parade. 

THERE ARE A LOT OF AWESOME PICTURES, YOU'VE BEEN WARNED!

PanzerKompaine vs 82nd Airborne in Breakthrough

A bad day for the Panzer crews...

Joyous Oblivion came over the other night a we got a chance to get in a game for Tier 3 of the Table Top Tacticians escalation league.  So this was a 1500 pt midwar game played with my limited scenery.  I was running my PanzerKompanie with

FNF 20 May 1500 pts Second Battle

Stukas swoop in to engage T34s from behind!

The second game was against Lothlann's Soviets and he was running Soviet Infantry (the trained sort) and we rolled up Breakthrough.  I was using the same list as the first battle and was on the opposite side of the board as last game.  Lothlann's list looked something like this:

FNF 20 May 1500 pts First Battle!

Vicious assaults and fire fights!

This was the first week that I could make it for Friday Night Fights at Tier 3 (1500 pts).  I have been agonizing of the decision to bring a Tiger or not (because they are soooo awesome!).  In the end I went another way.  Here's the list I was running.

Friday Night Fights 1000 pts Total war!

Total War!!!

This FNF's was the Total war game at the end of our 1000 pts tier for the Table Top Tacticians and it was an epic fight.  There was 4000 pts on each side with 7 people playing with 3 Allies players playing 2 Russian armoured Battalions (Lothlann), 1 Russian Infantry Battalion (Pripyat) and 1 US Para Company (Joyous_Oblivion) against 4 German players playing Infantry (Ca$h), Armoured Infantry (Ripsey), and 2 Panzers Companies (Diragi and myself, Big Willie).  We were playing Encounter with 2 defensive objectives and one offensive spread out over two 6 x 4 foot tables.  To speed the game up we decided to have each 1000 pt army deploy half their platoons and each 1000 pt army would roll for it's own reserves.  After talking with WWPD and learning how terrain is treated for Nationals we decided to adjust our playing to get us better prepared in the event we get the chance to play in those types of tournaments.  We played from around 7 pm to 1 am and then called it.  There was a lot going on in the game and a very large table so there are likely holes in the coverage, so for the guys who were there sort me out.

To Tiger or not to Tiger?

I know you want me.....

Final round at 1000 Pts

This friday I had the chance to head over to Rob's place for FNF's.  This is the final week to earn points at the 1000 pt, 2nd tier level.  I was running the same list as last week, a Panzer Kompaine from Sicily that consists of:

HQ

2 x Panzer III M's

Combat Platoons

3 x Panzer IV E's

3 x Panxer IV E's

Divisional Support

Priority Air Support (Stukas with bombs)

Air Power!!!!!

Stukas throw knock out punch(es) at Friday Night Fights!

I was able to attend Friday Night Fights this week at Pripyat's.  This was the first week of Tier 2 in the escalation league so it was 1000 pts of Mid-war.  My list for both games looked like this:

HQ

2 x Panzer III M's

Combat Platoons

3 x Panzer IV E's

3 x Panzer IV E's

Divisional Support

Priority Air support from Stuka's with bombs

A Stuka pilots dream.....

Tier 2 version 1 complete!

I managed to finish my entire Tier 2 army for the Table Top Tacticians (formerly the Druken Gamers) escalation league.  This is my 1000 pts of Mid-war Germans from the North Afrika book.  I have to have 1 HQ and 2 Combat platoons so I'm fairly limited in what I can take until we move to tier 3 at 1500 pts.  Version 2 of this list drops the Stukas in favour of 2 pair of 8-rads.  If your interested in how I painted these you can follow it step by step here.

OC and 2IC in Panzer III M's

OC and 2IC

2nd Panzer IV E platoon

Can.do Stuka with rare earth magnets for easy of use

Rare Earth Magnets are strong!

Stuka ready for it's first dive bomb

Complete 1000 pts assembled and ready for battle

I'm hopefully going to Friday night fights and will get some action shots tonight!  I just need to make sure I take out all that Arty that seems to be coming from everywhere.