Slightly disappointed at the turn out. 16 signed up, but only 7 showed. The TO was great and we all received a different cast of an unknown (to me) SSU female Hero. FFG provided all the terrain: 1 three story building, 3 hills, 2 tank trap areas , and 2 crate areas. There were some complaints of sparse terrain and you could only hide behind hills and the building.

The tournament rules are balanced, but I did notice that "Critical Positions" favors a turtle tactic with long range fire dominating the board. Fubar was a mess of a deployment condition to use. You have to very careful and claim as many terrain near corners as you can, because if you lose initiative your opponent can simply bring units in from each of the corners and deny entry to you of board units. Louis Gentile used this strategy against me and by the time I got my support on the board he chewed up half of my gorilla platoon to nothing. It was a close game, but securing entry onto the board left with an exposed corner and a Luther coming in on the first turn to harass my only available entry spot.

Louis played Richard (who is a member of this forum) in the final. Nice match up but I'm not sure what the scenario was.

If I recall Louis had the following:

Sturmpgrendiere Platoon

Kommandotrupp

Flak Grenadiers

Markus+Gorillas

Tank Killer

Luther

Flam Luther

Sturmgrenadiere Platoon

Manfred + BG

Flak Grenadiers

Snipers

Luther

My army was :

--- Heroes
Lara (29)………………………………………Attached to HFG

--- Sturmgrenadiere Platoon (174)
Upgrade: Implacable (15)
Command Section: Kommandotrupp (25)
1st Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
2nd Section: Axis Gorillas (24)
3rd Section: Battle Grenadiers (17)
Support: MPW II-A "Luther" (30)
Support: LPW I-C "Hans" (25)
Support: Sniper Grenadier Team (12)

--- Markus - Gorillas (96)
Command Section: Markus (24, Hero)
1st Section: Axis Gorillas (24)
2nd Section: Axis Gorillas (24)
3rd Section: Axis Gorillas (24)

I see you played the Hans. Did anyone think to ask Zach Tewalthomas if it's Grenatwerfer (Grenade Thrower) was supposed to get the, "Grenade" SA when they split, "Burst" and "Grenade" off from, "Spray?"

Thank you for the update. I look forward to hearing more about the event and maybe getting some more battle reports. Stinks about the turnout.

I have to say both lists are interesting. Markus and the Gorillas are pretty standard around here but I am shock Angela chilling with a sniper team wasn't in either of your lists. The Axis meta around here pretty much has Her and 2 Sniper Teams in every army.

Can you give us anymore info on what other armies played in the event? Was it mostly axis? Where there any SSU? Any Heavy Walkers make the field? I'd think a Fireball would be a likely section for any Allies army with assault elements.

Thank you for any info you can provide us.

-jay

HuronBH said:

I can tell you, one of our group played in it, that he was very disappointed in the terrain amount, didn't seem like the 25% that FFG recommends in their own ruleset. No SSU players showed up, and there were a lot of axis (though he was an allied player). I'm pretty disappointed that there were only 7 players. I can get 7 players on an off weekend, this is supposed to be one of the biggest tourneys of the year.

Yup, I am definitely disappointed in the Terrain too (both amount and quality). For a first tournament for a fairly new system 7 isn't terrible. That said, 16 were signed up. Also stinks there weren't any SSU, I wanted to see how they built their lists. I think the Dust Tournament at FF Weekend in Nov should have a better turnout, I am going to try to go.

-jay

thejughead said:

My actual army was…

--- Heroes

Markus (24)

--- Sturmgrenadiere Platoon (122)
Upgrade: Improved Command (5)
Command Section: Kommandotrupp (25)
1st Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
2nd Section: Axis Gorillas (24)
Support: MPW II-A "Luther" (30)
Support: Sniper Grenadier Team (12)

--- Sturmgrenadiere Platoon (153)
Upgrade: Defenses (5)
Command Section: Manfred (15, Hero) - Attached to Recon Grenadiers
1st Section: Heavy Flak Grenadiers (26)
2nd Section: Battle Grenadiers [upgrade] (20)
3rd Section: Recon Grenadiers (17)
Support: MPW II-A "Luther" (30)
Support: MPW III-D "Flamm-Luther" (Zv) (40)

Very close match, I was able to a flanking maneuver going from early on thejughead really kept me on my toes the entire match. I feel like my placement of my 2 Luthers was what decided the match as they kept thejughead's A2 squads off the field with the threat of thier flak cannons, and let my heavy infantry and flamm-luther concentrate on scoring points rather then defense.

Cool, thanks for setting us straight.

You have a very interesting list. Very little Schwer except for the Heavy Flakks and Battle Grenadiers which we don't see a lot of around here.

I'd love any insight you might have on using the FlammLuther, I haven't gotten around to picking one of these up yet. Do you play Allies too? Does it work similar to a Hotdog? (but with better armor)

-jay

Well the Flamm-Luther is closer to the fireball then the Hotdog, it has 2 flamers with 8" but it can combine shots to get up to 14" range but what really lets it shine is that the axis can give it a blitz order so it can move around much better then its 2 allied counterparts. also the armor is heavy enough that it can take serious punishment while it gets into range. Also I have yet to play as the allies in Warfare though I have the minis to field them if I so choose.

Dakkon426 said:

Blitz gives it 12" of movement and then a flamethrower shot outside of reaction range - sounds pretty sweet to me.

felkor said:

How does this work exactly? I see that the Flamm-Luther has Assault (which stops the enemy from attacking when you make a double move) and the Blitzkrieg Order gives you an extra 6" of movement without receiving a reaction maker. Is it just a Blitzkrieg Order followed by a normal movement an shot? Could work but to get this off to the best effect you'd need to do it when going first, which would give your opponent the ability to counter it as long as they had the orders to burn.

I have though about having it push up fast (using blitzkrieg and double move) to get right up in the enemies face and then unleashing hell as a reaction with the double flamers. The Armor 5 should help keep you alive too.

I will need to get my hands on one and try both tactics out. Thank you or the advice.

-jay

HuronBH said:

blkdymnd said:

I did not think it was bad, but you can be the judge:

Shadow4ce said:

The Grenatwerfer was played as the rule book states, so no burst or grenade.

Also, there were a few rulings from the TO:

1. Artillery will only affect the miniature that is within line of sight.

2. Charge does not allow a reaction.

3. During Fubar if none of your units on the board are not the command units you then have to spend your command nominating a new temporary command.

At least these came up in my games.

HuronBH said:

Jay,

You saw Louis' and my list, but the other armies were :

2nd place : Allies Airdrop army with Rhino and Hammers in the Fireball. (Major Malfunction)

3rd place : Dual Heinrichs Axis army.

5th : A Hans and Ludwig with Lara + HRG.

6th: Allies Dual light walkers (AA + Phasers) with Jump infantry (2 Death Dealers and Tankbusters)

I decided not to run Angela because I wanted Lara anti infantry support. The terrain was more open and her effectiveness would have been great for maybe 2 or 3 turns.

-Reggie

thejughead said:

That just seems so horribly sparce to what i'm used to and to what Warfare seems to promote. They went size over density, I would like to have seen more of a city look with places to hide and still fire. We are in Zverograd currently after all

Yay, people used my unit cards at the GenCon tournament! :-)

thejughead said:

Did anybody ask about the Grenatwerfer, or just played without asking? Sad either way.

Re: Charge do you mean no reaction allowed at end of movement before attack, or no reaction at all, even to the CC attack. Either way, FFG needs to publish errata on that one, because it's not written anywhere.

Hey, it was nice to meet you guys and put some faces on the names. Had a good time at the tournament and got to see some amazingly painted forces. Reggie's Ape army was awesome!

Usually I play Axis, but my son was also playing and he wanted the Germans, so I ran Allies. I'm glad I did, as there were mostly Axis armies! No SSU players at all, which very much surprised me.

The thing about the terrain is all of the pieces were big. Really big. They did cover about 25% of the table, it's just that there wasn't that many pieces. It seemed to me like this was a tradeoff to keep setup times down. The hills were actually fairly tall, and completely blocked LOS from Troops to Troops. Walkers still got LOS but gave up cover. All in all, I don't feel the terrain was a show stopper but would have liked to see one or two more pieces and a little more variety.

Louis played a good game in the finals, and I totally screwed up strategically by moving the mission to Critical Positions. I would have been better off with Eliminate. Once I realized my mistake, it was too late and I could not root him out of the @#$%! building he picked as his objective. A couple critical attack rolls failed and that was the game. Ah well, there's always next year.

My list, for anyone interested:

Dust Warfare - Force Builder
Faction: Allies ( 300 / 300 )

--- Heroes
Rhino (22)
Rosie (21)

--- Combat Platoon (114)
Command Section: "The Boss" Ranger Command Squad (25)
1st Section: "Grim Reapers" Heavy Ranger Attack Squad (30)
2nd Section: "The Gunners" Combat Ranger Squad (17)
Support: MCW M3-D "Rattler" (Zv) (30)
Support: "Crack Shots" Sniper Team (12)

--- Assault Platoon (143)
Upgrade: Air Drop (5)
Command Section: "Hell Boys" Ranger Attack Squad (25)
1st Section: "The Hammers" Heavy Ranger Assault Squad (28)
Support: HAW M6-B "Fireball" (85)

Well that pick is the best one I have seen, still not a lot of cover providers. I'm shocked there wasn't any trees.

The vid of the final game from the FFG day 3 (maybe 4) Vid showed the table with a huge open gap dead center on the table. I know when my group plays we tend to go heavy urban or a mix of buildings, walls/crates, Trees, and hills.

-jay

The main issue I have with the terrain is just how ugly it is.

I assume having tournaments at events like GenCon is primarily to stir up interest in the game, but it's not going to do it with terrain like that. I think investing in some good terrain would have spurred more interest from on-lookers, and that's good for FFG and for us players, who of course, want to bring in even more players.

I kind of have to agree. Some felt hills on a green felt mat is pretty lacking when you consider some of the setups I have seen from communiy members. I know a few people who would have glady sent their urban setups to Gencon to be used. In other games, all kinds of people bring terrain or the organizers make finding a good selection of terrain one of the first steps.

But Dust Warfare is still very new… but having poorly setup tables and the highest premium pricetags on everything probably did not help get prospective customers into Dust warfare. I know FFG is new to mini gaming but some stuff is just common sense, or, at the least, 5 minutes of research on the internet would tell you how to best promote your product at a con…. Just saying….

Oh well, as you say, Warfare is new, and FFG doesn't have a lot of experience with minis games. Hopefully they learn their lessons for next year.

And hopefully I can go next year! I just need to find some people in the area willing to go to GenCon with me.

One would expect a company which sells terrain for the game they are promoting would have used said terrain. I'm flabbergasted the tables weren't full of the modular buildings on the Premium Playmats DW side up.

felkor said:

I would also suggest they try and not compete with WM straight up. It seems many people were at other tournies and had advanced so they could not make it.

For the Flammluffen Axis mech,

My friend and I just started playing at Gencon, with both of us purchasing WAY to many units (Me allies, him axis).

He played with the mech in dual flammer mode one battle and having the 14 inch range worked very well, as he could stay outside of reaction range on the attack.

One question we had though, while it has dual flammers, on the unit description, it doesn't have a (2) next to it like other units with multiple weapons of the same type too.

Like the allied Honey light mech with the description dual phasers, but they are grouped together as a single attack. And the Allies heavy tank with its dual howizters, still is only a single attack.

We played that it was only a single attack, as the same amount of fuel would be expelled through 2 seperate firing mechanisms vs a single higher pressure one. The benefit of having 2 weapons for the Flammenluffen would be in the event of battle damage and it lost one weapon, it could still fire at normal ranges. Oh, and the heavy armor (armor 5, upgradeable to armor 6) is very nasty for a medium tank. Makes the allies armor 3 and 4 light/medium mechs look squishy.

-----------------------------

We did a playtest on Friday and really enjoyed it…then ended up buying near full armies on Saturday and playing all night in the hotel and then Sunday and monday nights back at my place. Hopefully we will be their at the Gencon tournaments next year!