The FOW Centurion Challenge - March Update

In episode 22 of Beyond The Foxholes I set myself the rather bonkers New Years Resolution to play 100 games of Flames Of War in 2015! Follow and track my progress as I attempt to conquer the FOW Centurion Challenge!

Hello everyone,

March was relatively quiet on the gaming front by my recent standards - I only managed 8 games! This means that I have now completed 40 games of FOW so far this year and well on target to reach 100 before the years up. Given that there were no tournament games I set myself a mini objective to not lose 1-6 throughout the month. Here's how I got on...

So, trust Adam to spoil everything! He beat my Czech Panzers with his Panhards 6-1 and thus ruined my months objective! I was a little unlucky in this game that the defeat was as heavy as it was. I had some of his platoons wittled down quite a bit, but in the end I couldn't inflict enough damage. It was my first game against Adam actually and it was great to see how he plays. He is good at reading the game and seemed to have a highly effective reaction to everything I did! I got my revenge against his Kampfgruppe Piper list in the following games though - a highlight being a single Piat team sneaking up on his lone King Tiger in an assault and blowing it to smithereens!

Things are starting to 'click' actually. I am definetely feeling the benefits of playing so many games. It really lodges the rules into your head and has allowed me to iron out the usual, silly errors in my game. Before, I really didn't know how the assault phase worked and was relying on opponents knowing what to do largely. Now look at me... sneaking up on tanks and even assaulting abandoned positions. Crazy!

Above shows my British infantry night attack on Jon's German Grenadiers in a very fun game. My Rifle platoon (in the wood) assaulted his pioneers, supported by Churchills, Universal Carriers and a lot of guns in true combined arms style! Taking 9 platoons worked out well for me as it meant that I could afford to lose a platoon without it changing the score (if I win) something to remember, as the Wasps normally get killed before they can actually do anything and this was no exception!

Another particularly great game was against Richard. Rich is quickly turning into my Nemesis actually. He is very efficient with German Panzers in particular - you simply can't hurt his Stugs, no matter what your anti tank value might be, or how many shots - nothing works against them! It doesn't help that he has absolutely demon dice as well! In this game I was night attacking again against German infantry. In the end I won the game.. "BUT AT WHAT COST"! We were both on company morale tests at the end, but luckily I had a single tank on the objective that he could not remove. I passed my morale test and won the mission. Very bloody game!

                                                 My Art of War Army

Overall this has been a very fun month with relaxed, exciting games throughout and against great opponents! I am now set and ready for Art of War in April and decided to take German infantry. I have gone for an 'Infantrie Kompanie' from Barbarossa, instead of the 'Schutzen' as the platoons are bigger and I think that is going to be key if I come up against any Strelkovy nastiness. Wish me luck 

Thanks for reading

Matt