Centurion Challenge – April – June 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!

Hey folks!
Wow what a busy few months I’ve had! Lots of games – it’s been very fun indeed! Want to see how I got on…?
At the end of my last update in March I was preparing my early war Germans for Art of War, however unfortunately my wife had suffered a fairly serious back injury just days before the event and was taken into hospital. Of course the toy soldiers had to be put on the backburner and as such I had to miss the event. Big thanks to Steve Charlton for his support and offering me free admission for next years comp following my drop out and also another big thankyou to all of you guys who have been so supportive over the past few weeks.

I did however manage to make the Bournemouth one dayer after Art of War. I went down for a couple of games with Ben at Entoyment the day before and as you might have heard from the podcast, my Brits gave his Tankovy quite the trouncing! I am in pretty good form against Adam and Ben actually, winning my last four against them – but then who’s keeping count.. Oh yes, I am. Literally!
I planned to use my British nightfighting heroes in the one dayer the next day and was in confident mood following my recent results. So who did I get in the first game?? It had to be KP didn’t it!

                                                  The grudge match!

This game is turning into quite the rivalry! KP certainly had a score to settle since my underdog victory a few weeks back against him at Breakthrough Assault and it showed! Both of us tore shreds out of each other’s armies… I threw everything at his Panzergrenadiers and my attack went well – taking out his Panther platoon (as well as some of the infantry). I was steadily breaking his army down, albeit slowly. Just when it felt like I had control of the game Ben calls for us the last half hour. 
I frantically start attacking again and again, but KP was able to get the most out of his infantry and was putting up a stubborn defence, costing me an infantry platoon. At the end of time I thought I had done enough to seal the win as I had my trusty Churchills sitting on the objective. For some reason I did not pay any attention to KP’s 2IC who was within 4″ of the objective and thus contesting giving him the defenders win. Grrr
Of course it was slightly disappointing to lose in the above manner, but I have to say it was a great game and very intense throughout. I’m just glad that I find myself in a position where I can give these heavy hitters a decent game to be honest and certainly have no shame in a 3-4 defeat. It felt like a boxing match at times, as it was so back and forth. On this occasion the silver fox master came out on top. I will get him next time though!

Overall I finished the event in mid table and so I was pleased with my overall performance. Big thanks to Ben and Entoyment for laying on yet another great one day event.

The next event was in May and involved a trip to Milton Keynes for the team based competition known as ‘Campaign’. I was in a fantastic team with friends Marc and Steve Hughes, under the name of ‘Team BABES’ (or – Breakthrough Assault B-team Emergency Squad)!  I’m sure most of you know the format of Campaign already, but just in case you don’t, each team member plays with an army from one of the three periods. The competition was in a league format, and teams overall scores are compiled together at the end of the weekend. So I played late war British and Marc and Steve played early and mid war Germans respectively…
I tried not to worry about my team mates results throughout the weekend and instead remained focused on my own performances solely. I knew that the list I had taken could pack quite the punch with the 5.5 artillery and Churchill tanks. I just needed to ensure that I attacked with a little more conviction than I did at the one dayer and to avoid those silly mistakes to get some points for my team. 
I have to say that gaming wise Im really starting to see some positive results from playing all of these games… I was in such good form that weekend and even won 4 out of my 5 games, with a narrow loss to Paul Cummins, so again no shame there against an experienced player. My most pleasing moment was coming back from certain defeat to pull out a 4-3 win out of nowhere against Daves Finns ……l 

Overall team BABES all played really well and managed to win our Division by 8 points, securing promotion into next years Division two and a fantastic trophy for each of us to take home! My last trophy was in a school chess competition way back in 1999, so it certainly felt good to get a taste of FOW success and to dust off the old trophy shelf!

It is also probable that another award could have easily been given out to certain individuals I should add… Namely to Steve and myself, due to the fact that we had to carry Marc throughout the entire competition! We did so in a calm, effective manner and did very well in achieving this, but sadly didn’t receive the extra medal we clearly deserved! Banter was at an all time high as you could can probably tell. Just kidding Marc, you did, ‘Really really well! Good boy! 😉
I will sign off with the breakdown of the games I played during this period:
Take care guys!
Matt