Conflict Central - FOW Vietnam Tournament

This past weekend, Nobby put on Conflict Central, a Mid War and Vietnam tournament. Only 6 players turned out for Vietnam, which gave us a three round tournament on Saturday and a multiplayer scenario game on Sunday.

Owen and I went down to represent Reluctant Conscripts, with his PAVN and my ANZACs.

The ICON Centre, Daventry

One of Will's objectives

Another of Will's objectives, its no surprise he always wins 'Best Objective marker'

The firebase table - disappointed I didn't play on this on Saturday, bit not disappointed for long

Game One - Owen Barnes

OK, so Owen and I play each other every week, but needs must. Game one was Search and Destroy, which I won 5-2. The Elephant Grass roll was a 2, which it has been every time we have played. I do wonder if for Vietnam competitions, if the Elephant Grass roll should either be rolled once for every table each round, or pre determined before the event, to level the playing field so to speak.

Slicks head straight to the LZ

Contact! They're PAVN!

Aussies (Cautious) movenent

1st platoon debus on an objective

Gunships arrive to deal with the pesky Northern forces

M113s dodge a minefield, and start to worry about what those villagers are going to do with those pigs

Booby trap!

Weight of fire deals with Owen's first infantry platoon

Recoiless rifles and AA reserves deal a blow to the M113s and take down a chopper

M67 teams evacuate an objective - just got to hold out till turn 6

This is Bob Davies - he helps makes these events some of the best in the country (obviously Reluctant Conscripts run the very best). In between running the events, Bob keeps himself entertained by finding which table I am on, and laughing heartily at the 'tactical' choices I have made.

Owen was warned that attempts to score more victory points would end badly for these villagers

Game Two - Dan Ibekwe

Dan was a new opponent for me, and another great guy. This was Blocking Force, and 'Charlie Owns the Night', so my ANZACs were defending. A 1 was rolled for Elephant Grass.

Free World deployment

Nationalist deployment

M113s arrive - on booby traps, well, its different to a minefield

Nobby and Owen's game two



The firebase table in use during round two

A Huey Hog gets shot down

Rocket artillery pins an infantry platoon

M113s sit back and watch

Local forces close in for an assault

Recoiless take pot shots at M113s...

...whilst AA down the other Hog

Can you make 6 infantry saves for me Dan?

Aussies bounce the Local Force assault

M113s are rubbish - there I said it....

Aussies move off the objective to engage the PAVN

Recoiless arrive from reserve. And stay in the same spot, pinned, for the rest of the game

Back to the Firebase...

And Nobby's defensive line

This platoon does a good job of holding off the PAVN

Reserves arrive behind the ANZACs, who have to move back and hold the objective

Eventually, we ran out of time, and the ANZACs held on, 4-3.

Game Three - Will Denham

Game three was against Will Denham. Yet again, another great guy. The mission was Contact! Contact! A 6 on the dice for Elephant Grass.

An underwhelming Ambuscade - Cautious Movement is great

The return fire for the ANZACs was more impressive. LZ objective in sight.

At this point, I leant my phone to Owen to make a phone call, and promptly forget to take any more pictures to the very end....

An infantry platoon contests the objective, until being wiped out to a man.

Recoilless rifles use beehive ammo to great effect, but it is not enough.

This game ended with the ANZACs wiped out to a man, and a 7-0 win for Mr Denham (8-3 on battle points, defender wins), in a great, hard fought game.

Approx. an hour before the end of the round, the game was tied at 3 battle points a piece, and I was aware I was unable to take an objective from Will in the time remaining, with the forces I had left. Had I backed out of 16" from an objective, I would have lost 4-3 instead of 7-0. I find that a very difficult situation as a player, as I both want my opponent to have a good game, and for myself to have as successful a tournament as possible.



Results

Nobby took home Best Free World, Will Denham got Best Nationalist, Mike Hummel got Best Painted and Owen got Best Sportsman.

Day two was a multiplayer game, 4 Nationalist players versus 3 Free World players, as we were joined by Matt Sulley - more on that later.

This was one of the most enjoyable events I have been to all year, and I am already looking forward to Storm over Saigon and Adolf Don't Surf in 2014.