Operation Sting 2017

So Operation Sting 2017 happened this past weekend.  I was originally planning a new army with a kick ass display board, but I never found the motivation to do so.  I switched back to my old army pretty much last minute and painted like 5 miniatures and a car to augment my list (see my previous post, that's pretty much all I did).  In all honesty, this was the least amount of work I've ever put into prepping for a tournament.  At first, I kind of felt bad about it, but then I was like "Meh..... I'm lazy".  My expectations for how well I'd do was pretty low.  In fact, I went into my first game with the expectation I was going to get last place (which comes with a prize btw), so I set the bar pretty low.  Lets take a look at my army....

The theme of this tournament was 1943, so I decided to go with Operation Citadel (Battle of Kursk) list.  My options were extremely limited so I decided on 4 smaller units of regular troops (one LMG, 3 Assault Rifles, 3-4 rifles per unit), a pioneer unit with a flame thrower, sniper team, medium mortar team, flame thrower team, MMG team, rifle team, kubelwagen, Sdz half-track, and Panzer 4.  I tried to max out on order dice while keeping the units small but effective.  I maxed out at 14 order dice out of a possible max of 15.  That's a lot of order dice for me as I usually only take 11 to 12.  My regular units had 14-15 shots per unit per turn at full strength which can devastate a un-expecting opponent.  The Panzer 4 in my opinion is the best tank for the cost in the German army.  Great firepower, decent defense, and cheap point cost for what you're getting.  I think it beats out all other tanks available to the German army.  The two flame throwers gave my opponents something to think about as they could easily destroy any unit of infantry.  I like the bringing a small veteran pioneer unit w/flame thrower as it can really cause chaos on boards where firing arcs are a problem.  I like to make a point of keeping my single flame thrower team and the Kubelwagen in reserve, ready to strike when a tasty target got too close.  All in all, I had a pretty decent army going in.

I didn't take a ton of pictures, but here are some of the armies I took pictures of.  This is not all of them as some pictures I had didn't turn out that well.

This army took top painting.  Definitely deserving of the award

And here are some of the tables we played on.....

Now I didn't get pictures of all the tables or all the armies.  Shit happens.  This is just a smattering of some of what was there.  So how did I do?  Did I go down in a burning wreck like I previously predicted?

Well......

So yeah..... that happened.  Don't ask me how it happened, but it did.  Apparently Operation Sting 2017 was not good day for the Axis as I ended up taking top Axis General.  The top 6 spots went to allied players while I squeaked ahead of the rest of the Axis pack by apparently taking 7th place.  I went 2-2-1 for my 5 games.  About a 50% average.  The two games I lost were both against the top general overall and the top allied general.  I was out-played, out-matched, and my dice abandoned me for both of those games.  However, even in defeat I managed to get max points by making sure my secret objectives were achieved.  I think that's what put me ahead for the Axis as I was able to secure 10 points even in defeat while achieving max points (25) in victory. 

My army performed pretty well overall.  I'd change a few things like taking out the rifle team (garbage) and maybe adding a medic.  I had a lot of trouble with other tanks as I had to commit my Panzer 4 to a tank battle instead of mowing units down and just causing general carnage to my opponents army.  I think adding some heavy artillery would counter this problem.  Air strikes were still a problem, so maybe some more flak would help to counter it.  Building an army for tournament play in general is difficult in the sense that you don't know what you're going to be playing against, so you have to build a one-size-fits-all kind of army.  It's pretty much like that in any game you play tournaments for.

So all in all, Operation Sting 2017 was a lot of fun.  Lots of highs, a few lows, and an unexpected trophy.

German Grenadiers

As the title above would suggest, I managed to take some pictures of my army I brought to Operation Sting this past weekend.  It's a small force, but with being done in under a month I'd say they look pretty good.  I apologize to any history buffs out there if my colors are off from how they really were.  I was following the box art as best I could.  Anyhew, here's what I managed to splatter paint on.

 

And now for individual pieces.  Up first is my armor I managed to get done... the Puma and StuH 42.  These two were actually the first time I really got to use my airbrush for the bulk of the work.

Up next is all my grunt infantry men, taken in two sets.  Some of you might have seen these guys in an earlier post, but  think with proper lighting you should be actually able to see the details.

Next is my medium mortar crew and my spotter for them.

 

 

My sniper team is up next.

And my Lieutenant and Medic....

And as a special bonus, here is my objective marker that was required for the tournament.  I'm really pleased with the way he turned out.  I thought Warlord's paintjob didn't do the model justice.  He looks so much better in browns than he does in a blue and yellow.

So that's the army.  It's a bit small for 1000 points, but with the time constraints I didn't have a whole lot of options for a whole lot of list building and customization.  I basically whatever I could grab and paint in the army starter kit, plus two metal blister packs.  I also think having a lack of understanding the gaming mechanics when I was building the army limited my selection.  I'll get more into the gaming side of this army in a paragraph or two.

The painting was a lot of fun.  A bit grueling with having to speed up my usual pace and cut corners I wouldn't normally, but I think they turned out as a high table-top quality army which is what I was aiming for.  Again, this was my first time utilizing my Patriot 105 airbrush to do the bulk work of priming and basecoating.  It really made doing large surfaces such as the Puma and StuH a whole lot easier.  Getting the right consistency with your paint seems to be the trick along with learning proper trigger control.  It seems easy when you watch a demo video of professionals using an airbrush on youtube, but when it's in your hand, it's difficult to get the feel for it.  Also, switching between colors and cleaning up is a bit of a chore.  I think if I want to start detailing models with highlights and whatnot, the patriot 105 isn't going to cut it.  Painting camo was also pretty new for me.  After a bit of research mixed with a bit of trial and error, it pretty easy to get an effective result.  All in all I'd say it's a solid looking army.

When it comes to gaming, I came into it thinking my elite infantry would never die, or they'd be able to hold they're ground against multiple units at the same time.  I loaded them up with assault rifles, and could knock off 20 rounds in a single.  What I miscalculated is with Bolt Action you could have the most elite forces on the field, but once they're getting targeted by multiple enemies, they're effectiveness  goes down considerably.  Also, a lucky heavy mortar hit can turn your unit of 10 elites into cannon fodder as simply as if they were cheap inexperienced troops.  This actually happened to me twice in a single game, and it sucked.  With tournament play, you want a more balanced force with lots of order dice.  When you get an objective mission, your small elite forces are utterly useless as it only takes a unit or two to start stacking PIN's on them while your enemy sends one of his bargain bin units to scoop up all the objectives.

The Puma was either extremely effective, or got targeted and blown up the first or second turn.  Maybe it's because I tried to be overly aggressive with it?  Probably.  I spent most of my games during Operation Sting on defense which allowed my opponents to dictate the flow of the game.  This was mainly due to the low amount of order dice.

The only game I did managed to win was mainly due to table side and terrain.  It was one of those games where you have to defend your base in the corner of your side of the table while blowing up your opponents base by getting an infantry unit in touching range.  My opponent had to slog thru almost a foot and half of rough terrain while I was able to focus a good portion of my force behind cover and in front of the objective and just slow down his advance.  He defended his base with inexperienced troops, machine guns, and other specialty troops designed to set up a shield wall around his base.  Like I said, I managed to put the bulk of my force on defense, and used one of my elite infantry squads to skim over to his side, using the terrain on the way to block most of his shots.  I managed to take minimal damage getting within a striking range, assaulting his weak troops in hand to hand combat which utterly decimated them, followed by consolidating right next to the object.  It was a really fun game.

I think when Adepticon comes around, I'll be adding more bulk riflemen, a flame thrower, and switching my HE up a little to something that's more my suitable to my army.  I really do think quantity over quality would suit my play style.  Maybe something like 11-13 order dice would allow me to have some control over the flow of game.  It's something I'm going to ponder on in the up and coming weeks.

Anyway, I hope you all enjoy the pictures..