Combat Cards League, Week 1

The Tactical Assault: Combat Cards league at Village Games in Anoka, MN officially kicked off on Tuesday.  7 players showed up and three games were played.  I would have liked to get some shots of the other games, but I got too engrossed in my own game.  I took very few meaningful pictures of my own!

I had the pleasure of playing Todd in a German training exercise (we were both running German armies.)

A shot of the table before deployment.  Each building counted as a covering template, with medium elevation if a unit was above the 1st floor.

Units Deployed.  My Germans took positions in town, and to the south and east of town.  Todd split his forces, approaching from the northeast and west sides.

My Stug III takes a position in the woods on the east side.  Todd had a Pz IV there a minute ago...

Two of my machine guns teams watch over the village.  Todd's Panzer tucks in behind a building to harass the MG's while avoiding the Tiger I on the south side of the table.

A view from the smoke.  After shrouding my Tiger in smoke, two more of Todd's armored units maneuver into position to destroy it as soon as the smoke clears.

Todd's units taking cover on the west side of the table.

One of my infiltrators standing in the open.  They had just eliminated another Panzer IV.

Todd moves a StuG III to assault the Tiger I.  These two units spent much of the last portion of the game confused.

My StuG III's begin pushing toward the west side of the map to support the beleaguered Tiger I.

Unable to clear the confusion on his StuG III, Todd braces for an assault from the Tiger I.  Do not fear; it survived the attack and almost caused the Tiger to flee the tabletop!

This was a great game that could have gone either way.  At the end I was ahead by 11 points, giving me only a marginal victory. 

More action to come next week!

Combat Cards 6/22/11

Tuesday we played a practice game of Tactical Assault: Combat Cards in anticipation for the league beginning 7/28/2011. 

I played Dan in a WWII Russians vs. Germans battle.  We each had 48 points to build our armies, and we played on a 4' x 6' table.  Very Long was 48" and the towns were treated as Covering Template terrain.

The battlefield.  At the crossroads is a small village.  Surrounding are fields and some stands of trees.

The church and fountain were considered impassible blocking terrain as both sides had too much reverence for these structures to attack them.

A shot of the table from the west end.  The Germans are taking up positions surrounding the city from the west to the south to the south east.  Russians are coming in from the north to northeast, and already occupy the city.

Russian armor rolls into town while a German MG 42 watches.

Aerial recon of the village.  Two German machine gun teams are on the move.

A Russian T-34/ 85 waits...

German Infiltrators pounce on Russian armor.  The fighting is furious, but the armor is victorious.

German infantry sneak up on a T-34.

Russian infiltrators suprise a German mortar team, but are chased off by another unit of German infiltrators.

Dogfight!  Sturmovics and Stukas mix it up.  One Stuka goes down in a fiery explosion.

A late game shot of the table.  The Germans push towards the center of town, their losses slowly building.  The Russians dig in, determined to stop the enemy.

The table from the east side.  A Tiger I has managed to flank a T-34.

A T-34/ 76 pounds away at a German mortar.

Surrounded!  The crew of this Russian 85 fight valiantly against the vicious German assault.  Their efforts are not in vain, as they survive the day!

A fun game, and a much needed re- orientation to the cards for me.  I'm really looking forward to the league!