Last year was Team Wales first time attending the ETC and surprisingly enough we managed to finish 9th overall with the best result of all the Commonwealth Nations. We were stunned and this year had a flood of offers for players for the team to pick from as a result. Even this became a nightmare as who you do and don’t take and not wanting to upset anybody. Still it was a matter of elimination and we came down to the final 6:
Infantry
Paul Frith – Red Banner Strelkovy.
Paul has the nickname “Digger” for a reason and really I should of had him in with an autodefend force but constraints of painting he opted for a solid Red Banner Strelkovy and trusting to the match up strategy to get him defending. It is true, I expect Paul to win the defensive mission, draw the fair fight games and panic in the mobile mission as he will actually have to move something!
Wins Expected 2 or 3
Tim Harris – German Gebirgsjager
There are plenty of German infantry forces at the ETC but only one Gebirgsjager. Will the mountaineer ability be any use, who knows but the quirk about the pack mules with the light artillery making them man packed could be useful. The Pioneers are also useful in that they have flamethrowers whereas the Barbarossa Pioneers do not. Tim is a reject from Team England and is more at home with Team Wales where the pressure to get result is not the same. The force is again better at defending than attacking but certainly can if need be.
Wins expected 3
Mechanised
Mark Goddard – German PanzerSchutzen Company
Mark is the youngest of the group but has shown great skill in Flames of War and had a baptism of fire last year on the team. Solid German force but with the quirk of the Flame Panzer IIs, this coupled with 3 units of anti tank guns means that hopefully it is good against either infantry or tank companies. Mark has nerves of steel and will hold fire until the critical moment in defence and quite happy to go hunting for the win when attacking.
Wins expected 3
Matt Haywood – Hungarian Cavalry Company
This is our ace up the sleeve, Matt is a superb player and could win more events if he did not have the admirable habit of taking quirky lists! Once again Matt has done it and we hope to catch people off guard with this force. I certainly have never played against anything like it. It’s big, certainly a nightmare to attack with 2 units of Pioneers with supply trucks and a wall of anti tank guns to defend with and has great flexibility for the mobile games as either the attacker or defender. Attacking on No Retreat and Fighting Withdrawal might not be so good though but again hopefully the match ups will favour us if we get it right.
Wins expected 4
Tank
Ian Crosby – Czech Panzer Company
Ian is the old man of the group and a bit of technophob. Good tactical player but has not taken part in any of the pre-event chatter as it has all taken place via email. Put him against an enemy and he will do the best he can with his tidy little Czech Panzer Company, again with our “secret weapon” the Flame Panzers to deal with those pesky dug in infantry. Will either win or lose in about an hour and a half which is good for the only smoker in the group who probably could not last any longer without a cigarette!
Wins expected 3
Roger Whittam (Captain) British Armoured Regiment (Captured Italian M13s)
I have been practising all year with my French Heavy Tanks but after an endless series of bad results I last minute had a change of heart and decided to go with a tank horde which is now painted with just 2 weeks to the event and only 4 practise games. The bane of my French Heavies was the number of Pak38s and 88s encountered and of course when the lists came out for the event not that many players had taken these and instead opted for extra Pak36s which my Brits wont like so maybe I should of stuck with them. Again a rapid kill force that cannot afford to hang around. Both our tank forces do not have any capability to deal with heavy tanks and have to avoid these like the plague.
Wins expected 3
As you can see, we do not expect to win the event but to have a good time against what has to be the greatest meeting of the Flames players in the year. 3 wins per player got us 9th last year and would be great if we could finish in the top ten yet again. It all hinges on getting the match ups right and no matter what I hope nobody thinks they will get an easy round if they play Team Wales!
No comments:
Post a Comment