Hello there, boys and girls,
Fred here, closing my 2023-2024 FoW Season. As per every ending, this 4th quarter finishes strong with the ETC, where I had the privilege to serve under the banner of Team Switzerland.
In this rather long article (3 parts), I propose to provide you first (part 1) a behind the curtain view of the preparation to the event for us, what were our objectives, detailing the list I picked and how it interacts with the rest of the Team.
Next (part 2) I will give a debrief on our tournament, as well as give details on our race to the finish.
Eventually (part 3), I propose to open up the discussion with my feedback on the complete Season, thoughts about the ETC, and the game in general, as I think there is much to say on everything.
Heading to the high competition
Truth be told, I had a complicated gaming season. Real Life kicked hard, with lot of work, dealing with the family, arrival of my 2nd son, and eventually crossing France to move all the crew back in Paris. And while wargame is supposed to be entertaining, it wasn’t always. All in all, not much time to game, and a rather poor season in term of effective real FoW games played (less than 25, even with 3 GTs attended).
I previously detailed why and how I was hired in Team Switzerland for this edition. It is a privilege to serve a collective, especially as an external piece of the puzzle.
The objective of Team Switzerland in 2024 was podium.
Despite the high will of its core elements and their talents, they never reached a top 3 spot. This year more than ever they deeply wanted to get a medal, and put energy to it. But will is not everything, especially in an environment where everybody else wants the same. We will see how it went during the event; let’s spend some time explaining the road to the ETC…
Consultant – a new role
Considering the rollercoaster this season was, plus the fact I wasn’t a native Swiss, my role significantly evolved from past ETCs, where I was serving as Captain of Team France. For sure, you don’t erase a decade of service in a blink of an eye; but the position I was in for this 2024 edition was significantly different, and I had to adapt to a new role. I served as a consultant in Team Switzerland, with two missions :
– bringing expertise of the competition to the Team (France managed to secure all the 3 spots of the podium at ETC since 2012, experience matters in such competition)
– focusing on a single position, as a player (involving both bringing a complete overview of a certain positioning, filling a “maneuvering” role, and aiming at contributing to the overall score without worrying about the global picture)
The rest of the Team made tremendous efforts to fill the others roles, from building and painting superbly 6 armies to compete for Best Painted, also producing high quality shirts and goodies, to designing a solid metagame and pair up mechanics.
Not having to worry about who will be in the team, who will make it to the venue, how to handle hospitality and administrative, how to combine all the metagame possibilities, the pairs ups and match ups… there is a lot you do when you are Captain(s) and, despite the involvement in every step of the process, not having the responsibility for the Team is a huge burden off my shoulders, and clearly something way more in line with my current “non-hobby” life.
Filling in – or how to play like a Team and not individuals
ETC is a special event, because it’s not enough to add up talents, you also need them to work collectively. You just don’t pick the 6 best of your country, give them the 6 best armies of the global meta, and expect it will work 100%. You have to find a role for every player, considering their skills and abilities, in a global pattern, facing specific challenges, with lot of data to consider.
As per every Nation, Team Switzerland had their Community’s history, their players’ wishes, skills and desires. Regardless of where you come from, it is always hard to mix everything together and have everyone happy.
But that’s the beauty of team sport: making the group greater than the sum of its individualities.
The core team revolves around the leadership of Stefano (Rega), the competitiveness of Etienne (Duf) and the technology of Jeremie (JJ). The creative mind of the group (and most certainly kindest person on earth after Mother Theresa … oh, wait…) is Ben, with the last piece of the crew being the patron Raphael (Raf). A solid mix of personalities, each one of them contributing to the greater cause.
Last to join the group early 2024, I was selected to “just play Maneuver”, currently IMHO the toughest spot of FoW LW V4; you don’t own the tempo of the game as Attack, and you don’t secure it as Defend. You are in a mix situation where you need to have enough steam to Attack and to Defend, but not pushing hard enough in neither direction (which is precisely what you would need to do in high competition FoW nowadays). Moreover, with the match ups process of ETC, you are always in an intermediate situation, where you generally end up in a 40%-60% grey area, complex games with lot of uncertainties. Attack and Defend have much clearer gameplans. Forecasting scores is also harder with Maneuver.
As a former Captain myself, I believe it was a good decision from Team Captains. In essence, and considering the strong choice they made with their specific meta, for me it meant exploring the whole meta and find solutions against every possible combination, designing a Force that will be closed to perfectly balanced to always have a shot to Final Victory, regardless of opponent, until the end. Good use of resources.
I took my role wholly at heart. Not only because this is how I work (committing fully in things to try to achieve them perfectly or not doing them at all), but also because I was a side kick in the Team, hired to help them to take a step up.
The job done this season in exploring lengthy the meta and focusing in deep 3 Factions (US/GER/UK) helped significantly, and I believe I acquired a clear visibility on what can be played, how it is played, and how to counter it.
Choosing time – hardest time
It was clear all through the season Germany (GER) will be a good meta choice. All through the season we discussed and test possible Builds that will fit our meta and answer the general meta. We removed several options from the equation, doing brainstorm, analysis, probabilities, lists building, where every single point matters.
We ended up with 3 final concepts:
– Berlin KG + Brigade Assault or Schnell (archetype : Wall of Bodies)
– Double Stummels (archetype : Mad Tracks)
– StuH or Panzer KG + Sturm or Berlin KG or Brigade Assault (archetype : Counter meta)
The choice was tremendously hard: those GER concepts offer so many possibilities it was a nightmare to choose. And same for the exact compo of the Lists! #SpoiledChill
Contrary to our Poland friends, we didn’t managed to convince each other to have a “united German front” of 2 Counter meta GER lists (which they did with StuH/Sturm and Panzer KG/Berlin KG, both relying on a 9 StuH core) … but let’s say we’ve got excuses.
When you don’t win with a Concept, it’s not that hard to abandon it.
But when you keep on winning with all of them, how can you choose?
In essence, Etienne was super satisfied with its Wall of Bodies, nobody found the key to break it through the whole season, only missing Finland GT top spot for an obscure story of Victory points calculation… but never defeated.
From my end, I love the Double Stummels since I was introduced to it in 2021, and rack up 1st (Italian GT) and 2nd (German GT) with it, still undefeated.
To add up to the complication, the StuH/Sturm I’ve worked on early season was fireproofed in 2023, and racked up in 2024 1st (Morges) and 2nd (Italian GT), undefeated.
Also, exploring FoW worldwide, we knew those Concepts were performing elsewhere.
So here we are, June 16th, on the road to Malpensa airport after Italian GT, with Etienne and me discussing what would be the 2 best between 3 super efficient concepts we managed to pilot well through months, that never failed us, that the world knows they are performing, and that we were convinced were all good for us (as players and team members).
Fear & Dead men
Having that in mind, the team meta, and the fact I would played Maneuver the whole event for the sake of the Team, we decided Etienne will pick GER Berlin KG / Brigade Assault and I will come to the ETC with GER Berlin Clausewitz Sturm / Ardennes PanzerGrenadier.
Although we were both 100% convinced the StuH/Sturm was THE Build of the season, providing an answer to everything in the meta, we did what players do: we follow our expertise, experience and instinct.
This is quite hard to transcript in writing: in short, we were convinced that the StuH/Sturm will perform extremely well most of the games, but will let us down (draw or lose) in games that matter. The Concept is a very strong force, very reliable… unless there is an unexpected grip. Technically, it’s a turn where you don’t hit as per the stats, or your opponent is luckier and succeed more save than expected, or stupid things like losing a 3 Tanks Units to 7+ shots. Having literally combined thousands of war games for decades under our belts, our guts told us that will happen.
So we went with more complex Builds, but ones that we trust will never let us down should we managed to play them decently. It’s a players’ game, right ?
This a Mad Tracks Concept, sub-Concept Double Stummels.
Over 80 teams, over 30 infantry/guns, almost 50 frames, around 250 shots stationary, around 200 moving/pinned down, with almost everything Careful, almost every Unit has AP and AT, and all Infantry are Faust-equipped. Solid.
Many things are Reluctant, and its an handicap to play with. As the Season has shown, this is a parameter to be integrated at every step of the game on what the troops can or can’t do. Same as with 3rd AD Sherman/FE Stuart combo, the addition of Confident troops do compensate on important areas, namely Reserves and Playmakers, keys in Mad Tracks Concept.
The trick with Double Stummels is, unless you want to play Aggressive, you must pay the troop tax to field it, something very few players actually risk (see Team Italia Livio’s GER for simpler (and efficient!) way to field the Mad Tracks concept). In our books, Careful was the way to go, because we wanted the list to be Maneuver as Battle Plan, thus the need to be quite hard to dislodge while in Defense and secure while approaching in Offense. Besides, Careful is a road where you count more on your skill and not opponents’, and diminish the randomness (= dice) factor.
Here, I thus add to pay for 3 units of PzGre, with their HQ, so 46 points sunk, that compensate a bit the lower price of other Units. This defined as well how the list behave: it doesn’t rely on Fully Armored Tank teams which are usually favored, notably for Reserves purpose (2 Super Soap KT, 2×3 Brigade IV/70…), and have to rely on what I call “dead men”, a pile of crap-but-not-that-crap stuff that are hard to chew on, until the fate of the game is defined by playmakers (expensive yet solid). The Build offers many in games opportunities, every time. This partially explains why one the most efficient Unit of LW, the StuH, were removed. A sacrifice, and a bet.
The more we worked on the Build, the more it matches the infamous Double 116th Greyhound of 2022. Comparing both, they are many similarities, from the 4 infantry Units with Faust to the triple small artilleries, passing by the no armor higher than 1 or 18 AT tanks with no armor or 8.8 in Reserves. Noting nobody found a solution in the 2021-2022 Season to it, we explored the same pattern for 2024, which proved both solid and complex to handle (with and against).
The list operates differently though, because it’s not the same meta, not the same Missions and Matrix, not the same role in the team, and the Double 116th was more aimed at being “Defend”. The Maneuver tag of this one implies to rely on the projectivity of the increase in vehicles, which also brought higher projective AP (= anti-personnel shots, notably moving). I would say this 2024 version is less reliable than the 2022 version, but better for the Team as it was designed.
To me, the list is 95% fitting the technical specifications.
For the remaining 5%… the debate would be on the Grille, a Unit nobody plays.
It is a long story, let’s summarized in :
– we spent weeks focused on many topics, including deciding which ones of the 3 Concepts we would take, with priority on the overall picture and not the details and granularity of the Builds
– by late June, we chose the Double Stummels, to play Maneuver, and had to fit everything needed to be balanced (notably a long debate on 4 8.8 which boost the list in certain configuration, notably against Armored Fist Concepts)
– we were short 3 points, and thus had to cut the excellent StuH, which provided a reliable source of artillery damages against Infantry and ATG. We needed to find replacement, and the only one that fit almost “like for like” where the 2 Grille for 5 points. That came last minute end of June, on the road from Marseille to Paris on June 28th
– I played a lot with the 3 Flak20mm as escort to my key 1iC from the Sturm, and this Unit was in my game plan from the start (both buying stuff and toying with it). I knew both my FlakTracks spots were taken, and I didn’t think enough about swapping them for more Triple as they would have filled a different role. Oversight from me
– eventually, we kept on debating fiercely how many FlakTracks were supposed to go in Etienne’s list up until literally the very last minute of June 30th(we even created a WhatsApp group called Triple 15 ! – for real). Being in a middle of house moving, I was not 100% operational and more preoccupied by being the consultant and providing ideas for trying to find the right combo for my partner (also having in mind we had just the exact number of FlakTracks we both needed!) instead of wondering how to better mine.
And… we forgot this option. Simple as that.
That is only 1 week after that we realized we could have gone with 6 additional Triple 15mm (and a mighty Lucky card – how great it would have been…) instead of 3 Flak20mm SP and 2 Grille. That would have solved many problems we were facing designing the list and playing it. But I guess we can’t always find super Builds for the Pantheon of Legends of FoW every time…
This shows how much energy players have to put in such competitive event, where every detail matters. This is also a consequence of how chaotic this season was for me. If I had more time to play, if I had more time to properly focus, if I had analyzed better… the Build would have been 100% good. It may look like a detail, but it shows the density of work and commitment needed to compete in such high stakes tournament.
Besides, it would have achieved what I think, to me, my Build missed, fear.
The psychological aspect of the game is one of the data to apprehend in competition. Striking fear is thus a good advantage. You don’t play the same against an opponent which you know for certain is a renowned player, or has a good season record, or plays a list that you don’t have solutions against or proposes so many threats you don’t know how to deal with them in game.
For the first part, I believe our Team players played this season decently, trying our best to be on the top spots of every competition we attend. I don’t know if we instigate fear, but respect for sure. This is a double edge sword because if you show up and miss, you bring confidence to your opponents. I think we mostly succeed, and being called “the dark horse” of the competition was a good achievement.
For the second part, I do not think my list is scarry. This is also due to the rest of the meta, many came at ETC with a Mad Tracks concept, mine takes a different path, with strong choices, and more complexities, stronger in essence, yet harder to apprehend.
This missed opportunity had run my mind for weeks before ETC. I made a mistake of overthinking the concept, construct it safer than what I should have, and missed command n°1 of wargame: play simple.
But as we say in France: “with IF, we put Paris in a bottle”.
Coming together
You would understand through this long digression that the choice of the list is not mine entirely: it’s a collective decision as it should be for a Team event. What everyone picks will impact the collective result, and thus adjustments are to be done. In essence, the performance is to match the players with the correct tools for the competition, on a global pattern.
Our meta and pair up strategy this year was designed to:
– protect Etienne and Jeremie, both Defense: they aim at being in games where they sit on the Objectives with not enough time for the Attacker to dislodge them (pure Wall of Bodies Concept). The pair up process was to be used to avoid games where they would have to move too much (such as Fair Fight).
– feed Ben and Raphael, both Attack, with easy-to-get games: both having speedy lists (Armored Fist Concept), there were to seize quickly the initiative to try to score without being dragged into an attrition battle they can’t win. The games were not expected to be easy, just the plan is straightforward, and battles don’t involve too many complexities their lists can’t withstand.
– use Stefano and me, both Maneuvre, as firefighters: we had different concepts (Stefano All Comers and me Mad Tracks), so not the same gameplay, yet the same role. We were here to insure the rest of the team will perform as expected by taking on hardcore games, where every actions matters.
That’s all for this (long) 1st part.
Next time, 2nd part will bring you the course of Team Switzerland in ETC.
Knowledge is power: share it widely!
Fred
Effectivement, je vois que le travail collectif est très important pour un ETC.
It’s what makes ETC so special and so difficult : while players are alone in their game, they are part of a greater system and need to think and run the event collectively.