So I finally got around to playing some FOW again after an absence of a few weeks. Last Tuesday the FOW players at our local gaming club made a special effort to all come down. We managed to get 13 players in total and it was great to get that club feel.
Above pictured most of the Fire for Effect podcast crew who joined in the gaming.
German infantry take on British paras.
I had arranged to play a 142o point game against a friend of mine and had decided to try out Tankovy at 1420 points and so had brought the following list.
Fairly solid. The only thing it really struggles against is heavy tanks. And yes you guessed it my opponent had brought a Panther company. Specifically one of the night fighting Panzerkamfgruppe from Nachtjager . This was 7 reluctant veteran panthers (in platoons of 2s) with a small Panzergrenadierkompamie platoon fully “fausted up”.
We rolled up a fair fight (Encounter) so at least I didn’t have to contend with night fighting against tanks with infrared. Nevertheless this was likely to be a very short game. Both of us had scattered delayed reserves. I kept on a Tankovy platoon and the SU100s and my opponent had 2 Panther platoons. I covered one objective with the SU s and one with the T34s.
I won’t go into a lot detail as the game doesn’t really warrant it. Essentially my opponent’s reserves arrived at the first time of asking and picked on and killed the SU100s (the only thing that can really hurt the Panthers frontally). This was always going to happen but I hastened their end by pushing two further forward than I should have done.
Over on my left flank I decided to try and rush the objective to get into the Panthers’ side armour but unfortunately the Panzergrenadiers turned up in the correct place to support the 3 panthers and cover the objective. I tried to machine the infantry before they got chance to dig in but good luck on my opponents behalf meant he didn’t lose any teams. Return fire from the Panthers decimated the T34s signalling the end of the game.
I think the lesson learned is 1420 points for Tankovy sounds great but if you come up against big cats and specifically panthers it really spells trouble. There are no points for air support and so the SU100s are the key but of course your opponent knows that. I think all in all I would hesitate to take my Tankovy list to a tournament. But probably I just need to play better. Any suggestions for dealing with this type of matchup greatly received.
Looking forward to playing some more FOW in the coming week…
The Curious Wargamer 