Road to Nationals Part Seven: End of the Road

It's been over a month and I finally have time to write up my Canadian Nationals experience. I want to thank the tournament organizers and staff for their hard work and an excellent job. If you want to check out my list you can find it here: http://taskchairgeneral.blogspot.com/2018/08/road-to-nationals-part-six-finalizing.html

My list worked mostly as intended with my T30's and recon patrols being the stars of the show. Most of the missions allowed me to use the double spearhead to great effect and the constant artillery pressure from the T30's was instrumental in a lot of games, whether is was from smoke barrages or from blasting support weapons. My P-40 warhawks proved very effective but not in the way I expected. In some games they did do their original job of blasting marders however what they really accomplished was killing guns which were not dug in. The infantry worked as intended, once major resistance was dealt with they moved in, mopped up and held their ground to dissuade counterattacks. The tanks were a mixed bag, the Lees did sometimes engage with other tanks successfully but in general they just ended up either dead very early or slinging shots at guns/infantry. My Stuarts were a useful swiss army knife, in some games they charged forward, in some they held a line as AT guns.

I apologize for not taking many pictures

My advance, Game 1

The first game, counterattack, suited my list perfectly. Rushing forward with everything I had, I got on the objective before my opponents reserves had a chance to show up and before his DAK rifles had a chance to rotate over. Using a smoke bombardment i made sure my advance wasn't going to get blasted by his PaK ambush. Unfortunately this did not cover one of my recon patrols and they were blown off the table. Marders eventually showed up along with the DAK rifles getting into position and they did a lot of damage but it wasn't enough to push me off the objective. I came out with a 6-3 win.

Axis positions, Game 1

Game 2 was a different beast entirely. I faced a tricked out Soviet Hero Rifle battalion including full Maxim company, PTRD company and 3 batteries of Zis-3's. Much different from the previous game of maneuver, this was bridgehead where I had to cut through swarms of soviets. I killed swaths of Russians but in the end I still couldn't get within 8", losing 3-6. I did better than I expected in that game but I just wasn't up to the grind.

Infantry Supported by Stuarts taking the objective.

The last game of the first day was more like what I had planned for. Again facing Russians, but of a different flavour, I was again able to put my mobility to use. My opponent had a much more stripped down hero rifle list but with a company of 7 Lee's in reserve. Again I rushed one of the flank objectives leaving one of the recon patrols to hold off an attack on my flank by one of his rifle companies and fix them in place rather than reinforce the objective I was attacking. My P-40's served a similar purpose, blasting the 45mm ATG platoon that was rotating over, losing their bullet proof cover from the rear. P-40's in this case were essentially an HMG teleporting behind the exposed guns.

Doughboys clearing the last Russians from the objective

Despite all my mobile firepower, this game really came down to the infantry man and his rifle. Supported by the stuarts, my rifles charged and took the building overlooking the objective. On my opponents turn, he threw me out and my initial rifle platoon was rendered pretty useless. I committed my second rifle platoon and they were able to definitely beat the now depleted Soviet rifles. Closing out the game before the Soviet Lee's arrived from reserves, I won an 8-1.

The first game of the second day was the most tense by far. Playing rearguard on a table with a river, gave my opponent a minefield for each of the river crossings. Facing off against a German armoured car list I had a difficult time killing anything. Spending a number of turns whittling away his ATG's and marders while his force was also thinned by withdrawals. When I could finally advance safely, time was running out. This was the only game where my Lee's played a pivotal role, charging the objective and taking it from the Panzer IV's which were guarding it on the very last turn before I would have lost. After long tense game I managed an 8-1.

Starting positions of Game 4

Game 5 was an absolute stomp. Fighting an Italian tank company, my hopes were high. This was the only game in which I wasn't attacking, I had plenty of AT and my opponents M14/41 list had no artillery or infantry to shift my infantry. It all went wrong very quickly. I thought I had my Lee's hidden from the Lancia's but they were able to blitz over and get a line on them, wiping them all out in one go. Without the Lee's, my right flank was in serious trouble. My Stuarts on the left were able to bail out a number of M14/41's but killed very few thanks to bad firepower rolls. Since Italians essentially ignore being bailed out, they were able to return fire and kill the stuarts in short order. By then most of my T30's and recon were dead, making my lee company flee, taking my P-40's with them. Instead of drawing out the game I surrendered, 1-8.

The last game was similarly short. Again fighting Italians I returned to the maneuver tactics that worked so well in previous games. While he pushed my objectives with a unit of 6 semoventes supported by some scout cars, my recon patrols fought for the objective on the opposite flank. My adversary only left a Lancia, his tank company HQ and his observer AB41 to hold the objective. The recon patrols weren't enough but they pushed the lancia out of its fire lane and allowed my lee's to advance safely once they arrived. My stuarts fought a losing battle against the semoventes but they just needed to buy me time. Now on the objective, my recon patrols still couldn't kill the Lancia but a lucky shot from my Lee's clinched the game ending the tournament on an 8-1.

My list excelled when I was able to fight a battle of maneuver. Fixing one front while pushing with everything I had in another won my victories and getting bogged down or being forced to defend spelt a loss for my fragile Americans. I feel vindicated in my list style, particularly glad I eschewed Shermans in favour of more recon and T30's. Shermans would not have solved any of the problems present in either of my loses and would have sapped points from the real attacking elements in the games which I won.