Scottish Nationals – A Englanders view

Several of the team recently ventured into deepest darkest Scotland for the Scottish Nationals:Op SALTIRE II. Therefore we thought we would do a view reports from our different perspectives, and this time it’s Mark G.

The List:

Okay, hand up, yes I took Lees. It isn’t big and it isn’t clever but I wanted to know if all the fuss about them is true. Therefore I worked off a core formation of 3 platoons to produce 14 of the beasts with the natural inclusion of the 2 x core templates and recce. Suspecting KVs and Panthers I added a set of cheeky M10s and some infantry to help out with minefields and assaulting buildings, backed up by Arsenal of Democracy to help with reserves and lucky. A nice simple yet hopefully effective list.

Game 1 vs Laurence

With an Attack v Attack stance it was Encounter for Game 1 vs Italians tanks backed up by German 88s. With a very tricky table boxed into segments by the treelines I elected for a right and left flank push. Over several turns I started to whittle down the 88s with my templates on the right flank but the arrival of double reserves right on top of my flanking Lees stopped them cold, forcing me to pull back to protect my own obj , which now was at risk of being over run. I stabilised the situation but had lost the steam and numbers needed to break through his remaining Semoventes. On the left flank my other Lees suffered from a very lucky bombardment combined with some excellent shooting from the other Semoventes. This led to me rushing my reserve Lees and M10 support to stabilise the left flank. As is often the case, with time and my M10s I could have won but such is the nature of FOW that you cant have infinite turns. A well played draw.

Game 2 vs Morten

More italians but this time Paras with a few more German guns and more Semoventes. The mission rolled up was Cornered with me attacking.

I went for an aggressive start, getting off some good assaults, forcing his line back to the obj thanks to some his unlucky counter attacks and lack of a HQ re-roll. Disaster struck when my smoke failed to range in (there is a theme here as it failed at a key moment in Game 1!), allowing some effective return fire. Fortune did come back to me with some great M10 shooting (with no HE) and the Lees vs the 7.62 guns forcing them to flee.

Unfortunately by this stage he has 3 x Semoventee Longs and 5 x short supporting the obj with defensive fire. While the Lees and Italians duelled it out my aggressive rating vs cautious soon saw my Lees burning with it the chance of taking the obj. Another Draw.

Game 3 vs Andy C

Heading to a Desert table, I was naturally playing Finns(!) this time in Dust-up. Andy was running a T-26 company with 2 x KVs. In complete fairness to Andy, his list just couldn’t handle my good AT and FA5. T-26s are AT7 and plus 1 to hit on the move (same as me but ROF1 vs 2) and dont get a save vs AT9. With little cover I advanced strongly up the right flank while marshalling some forces on the left obj in case he got aggressive (ie buy time to win on the right). His arty was quickly knocked out, and his T-26s were soon burning around the obj. Meanwhile my other Lees hit his AA. He rushed inf across to the obj to help but they were mown down for a 8:1 win. I would like to say I had some clever tactics to earn that win but sometimes you just get a good match up on a good table.

Game 4 vs Peter

It was time to face my fear, Pak40s! Peter was running Hungarians with Pak40s and Pak38s supported by Panzer IV (Lates) and a load of infantry. I was attacking in Valley of Death.

I elected to go right flanking which would negate the field of fire of the Pak40s. I advanced under smoke towards the Pak38s which forced him to pull them back to avoid a nasty flanking assault. A couple failed their cross check allowing me to get around and between them. Sensing blood I went for the assault only for 1 Lee to fail its own cross check and the other to only get in with the use of the lucky card. Having failed to kill the gun (Green skilled tanks…sigh), Peter managed to counter attack and kill me!

I pushed onto the obj now facing his reserve PZIVs which arrived just where I didnt want them. The sheer inability of Peter to unpin saved me. Neither his Pak40s (now under bombardment) or his Pak38s managed to unpin all game. While this was bad enough neither did his infantry which were only just contesting one of the objectives from the palm trees. I managed to banish the PZIVs with sheer weight of fire, endue the AT guns and after a failed assault by his infantry to try and capture some bailed tanks, Peter ended up being pushed back too far away from the obj for a surprise 8:1 win to me!

One of the tightest games I have played in a long time.

Game 5 – Alex

By the luck of the dice I was once again attacking in Valley of Death. This time in against 9 x 7.62 guns (AT12) backed up by 4 Marders, 5 platoons of infantry and Stukas. Yikes, thats a lot of stuff.

I chose to spend the first 3 turns hanging back and bombarding the right flank 7.62s, enduring the enemy air which went after my artillery. With some lucky shooting I whittled the platoon to 1 gun and then burst out onto the right flank, bullying the hungarian infantry and using smoke to shield my advance to the obj.

His Marders arrived and I failed to range in my smoke (again), which really hurt my Lee mass, which was also being picked off by the other 7.62 guns. On turn 6 I managed to bail the KV with the M10s and with only 1 live Marder to provide defensive fire went for the assault on the Hungarians holding the obj. The Marder managed a single hit leaving the assault to successfully go in. Several rounds of combat followed with the Hungarians eventually being beaten back and ending up more than 4 from the obj to take a 7:2 win.

End of play

With the final scores in I was tied for 3rd place with Richard Hardy and the count back was on units lost. Richard soundly beat me here with his massive Tankovy platoons rarely bleeding points so I ended up in 4th, which is 1 place lower than last year, but this time against a much bigger and broader field of players.

As for the Lees, I am on the fence. My game vs Andy C was basically a gift due to the match up and frankly I was very lucky vs Peter and his failed unpinning rolls. What I did find is that the Lees struggle to assault, they are only confident and are green so dont kill much. The artillery is sub optimal as its green and can leave you very exposed when you need smoke. Smoke is a necessity as aggressive FA5 dies fast, plus they struggle to hit cautious troops on the move.

Now don’t get me wrong the Lees are good, there is a nasty mass of tanks there and the M10s (which did very little) but there are lots of lists they struggle with and people are really prepared for them.

If I was to run the list at a more standard 100pts I would drop the infantry to get a set of Priests. 1 platoon of aggressive infantry which is often in reserve does very little and dies fast. In comparison the Priests would provide some reliable artillery, a 3rd smoke template and a good answer to TA0. That said I think my next MW outing will be Axis for a change. Now where did I leave that Bunkerflak?