Owlcon AAR

David Stanaway

Thanks for the kind words Tom :) I feel the same about the Houston crowd (And the visitors from Austin and soon to be Chi-Town) a fine group of good sports, and an enjoyable 2.25 days of gaming, I got in 4 games.

Friday - Walter Eardley - Tac 51 - Strength through Unity - Since time was limited, we played this. Straight up infantry only scenario with Belgians needing to exit through the German defence if I recall. There was a lot of open ground to cross, and the Germans were able to defend in a position with fairly good routing lines. I made the mistake of splitting my force with a small group moving with the mtr up the left to try and give some covering fire for the force moving up the right, but they were cursed with a yahtzi k/ on an attack from the 8-1 led mmg on that side, and they never recovered. I lost as the Belgians, the scenario seems fairly balanced, but I am not sure I would replay it again.

Saturday morning - Zeb Doyle - CH TTF3 - Pebbles in the Stream - Zeb had some interesting short scenarios in the this CH pack which looked interesting. This one plays on one corner of it, and didn't really capture any of the character of the map (Could have easily been represented with some geoboards) and the Russians have to exit tank group off the other end of the board with infantry entering as riders. The Germans had a handy 75L ATG and I think some PzIVJs coming on as re-enforcements. These were quite potent against my 4 T34M43s and 2 T34/85s. I was able to exit a few of my tanks, but the infantry got bogged down, and was not able to make it to the exit by the end of the scenario.

I lost as the Russians, and would gladly replay again as either side.

Saturday afternoon - Stephane Graciet - J94 - Kempf at Melikhovo - Stephane picked this scenario from the latest Journal. It has some nice toys. The Germans had to take control of three buildings from a Russian defence with a 57LL ATG, and a re-enforcing KV- variant (I think KV-85), and a hipster with an ATR. Stephane set up a good defence, but was bitten with a string of bad luck that I was able to capitalize on with some good mobility of the tanks. Early on the big weapon for the germans, the PzIII(fl) with a TF30 was actually doing more damage with elimination FTR. I won as the Germans

Sunday Morning - Mike Reed - Tac 49 - Big Cats at Bay - The challenge was up. We couldn't let Zeb leave Houston will all the trophies, so we hunted through my scenario book for a fun looking scenario that with give Mike and I both a chance to beat Zeb's tank ace claim. This tactiques scenario fell out on top with a IS2 - T34/85 vs PzIVD / PzVIB match up with the russians having to beat up all the German tanks (The tigers came on 1/3 way through), or controll all multi hex buildings at game end. There was a pregame bombardment that spooked my setup with the Germans defending, and I miscalculated the Russian entry hexes and made an all-round botched up defence. I basically went 1 for 1 with the T34s with my Panthers, but mostly it was the bailed out panther crews Fausts that brewed the T34s. We ran out of time just after the big group of Russians came on with a large infantry force and the SP Assault guns (2 ISU152s and 2 SU100s), Mike was about to launch a massive human wave an sweep the town clean of the Germans that had been pounded by unrelenting 120mm OBA for several turns, and had not been well positioned due to being spooked by intel of the pending pre-game full board barage of the town, and had decided to come and take their posts. I pretty much overestimated the potency of the initial barage, and underestimated the punch of an off board directed 120mm OBA. Unfinished, but It would have been unlikely that I could have pulled off a win with my Germans. It was fun to see the cogs turning with Mike getting back into the game after a long break from playing, even if I was at the receiving end of the devious tricks :) This is one I would like to play again, as the Russians.

Thanks to Walter for making the event happen, and Ken and family for accommodating the pre-tourney play.

I didn't mind the gaming in the main play area. The noise didn't intrude too much. EG: There was a dealer next to us that every once in a while would bring out a power drill and coil a batch of wire onto a rod to make some more links for some chain mail creations he was hawking. And the crazed warhammer GMs in the distance calling out some momentous result. It was good to be able to have a walk around and see some of the historical minis in the next room, maybe next year they could put us in with them if the naval sciences building is again unavailable.

David Stanaway