Battlecry 2013 Moderns Game Report

Introduction

This year (2013) we ran another WRG Moderns competition at the local Auckland convention called Battlecry, here in New Zealand. Last years theme was NATO vs WARPACT with a cutoff of 1983, so this year we opened it up with all armies and up to and including 1985. This allowed the use of MBTs like the Challenger and M1s but they weren't used a very much in peoples armies. Overall the armies were within the spirit of the tournament with no real "killer armies. Also we dropped the points down a little bit to help get a conclusion (from a N of 35000pts to 3000pts). This change didn't favour high tech armies though as it made some of the armies too small or fragile

There was a good variety of armies in use once again:-
West German mechanised Infantry
British Armoured with Challengers and Saxons
1 Soviet Tank - T-80BVs and BMP2s
1 Soviet Motor Rifle - T-72As, BTR60PBs and BMP1s
Finn Mechanised with T72, BMP1, and XA180
Israeli Golan Brigade with Merkava 2 and Zelda
US Marines
Belgian Mechanised

The tournament had 8 players and we used the WRG 1950-2000 rules and our figures were in 6mm scale (1/300th) scale. The competition was 4 rounds spread over 2 days and each round was 4 hours. We setup the tables at the beginning of the tournament and then rotated tables to save repositioning the terrain each time (although a few pieces were shuffled around after some obvious flaws were noticed).

Overall the competition was enjoyed by everyone with most players staying to the last round. We had a couple less players than last year and that was due to other competitions on offer at the same convention. No one was interested in the their results so we ended up having a lucky dip for the prizes (kindly donated by Eureka Miniatures in Australia).

There was a heated discussion the on the WRG Moderns yahoo group leading up to the convention (some of it was because people were preparing for the convention). It did highlight some issues with the rules and the lack of support from Phil Barker and made us think that we will have to look at rewriting these rules into an easier to read format. Also there are a few areas when history has shown certain weapons are less effective than previously thought, and other parts of the rules that could be simplified.

And finally a special thanks to the organisers for a well run convention and and Gavin some extra pictures.

The report has been divided into two parts, one showing the terrain and the second part some in action shots.

Click on the thumbnails to see the full sized image

Table One

If you saw last years battle report then you would recognise these. They were used in a slightly different configuration and the main change this year is the roads which were added (for details see the Terrain section of this site). This addition helped to give the boards more of a 20th century look from the dusty roads on the boards. I had planned to add new town sections but those weren't completed in time. The joins in the boards a are more visible in the photos but that is due to the terrain being put together in a hurry rather than them badly fitting.

The second photo shows a crash on the motorway which I setup for something different.

Table Two

Steves great terrain incldued some interesting new town pieces this year. He added some large buildings from Gamecraft and a whole BUA to go with it. His Mediterrean style buildings looked great and and also get positive comments.

Table Three

This table had a combination of everyones terrain with Steves great Timecast buildings, my airfield buildings and Simon and Mikes trees and roads.

Table Four

Once again Al's Desert terrain made and appearance and it looked very good. The port and the monorail really add some period flavour to the table

Misc table pictures

The first photo shows another screen shot of the Desert table. The second photo shows another view of Steves terrain and the third picture shows the custom box for Simons US Marine Corp army.

Part 2 of the battle report

These photos show some of the games in action. There was a total of 14 games played over the 2 days so this is only a a few of them which I managed to get photos of.

Apologies to the players whose armies and games I forgot to photograph or where the pictures didn't come out well enough to use

Soviets vs Finnish

Finnish and Soviet forces advancing towards each other. The T-80BV should have had a reasonable advantage over the Finish T-72G/Ms.

More Soviets vs Finnish

Finnish XA-180s (CNC VAB 6x6 models) advanicng along the road. Lots of burning tanks in these photos. The Soviets had some bad luck and the Finnish T-72s got on top of the T-80s causing a lot of damage and winning the game by breaking the Soviet morale.

West Germans vs Belgians

A close game between the West Germans and Belgians which I believe was decided by a LARSs strike, which swung the balance in the West Germans favour. M113s are advancing down the road in the picture on the outskirsts of a forest while the Jaguars provide long range AT support.

West Germans vs Belgians

Belgian units advancing into the town area. Steve's Belgians were proxied from a later army hence the paint schemes and Leopard 2A5 being used as Leopard 1A4s.

British vs Soviets

And some pictures of the opposing Soviets along with a common theme with the Soviet army - burning T-80s!.

Israelis vs West Germans

Dereks army consisted mostly of mechanised infantry in M113s with some Jaguars and Leopard IIs in support, and lot of very nasty offboard artillery like the LARS rocket launchers. A very effective combination as the German infantry is very well equipped with good quality AT weapons. The second picture shows German infantry dismounting from their M113s ready to advance on foot.

Israelis vs West Germans

Andrews very nicely painted Israelis under fire in the town from artillery (most likely Derek's LARS). The next photos shows a closeup of Andrews Merkava IIs and a Zelda.

US Marines vs Finnish

This was an Attack - Defence game with the US Marines, who were mostly infantry, defending. The US Marines all started in hidden positions and weren't revealed until they fired or moved, or were automatically acquired. The Finns suffered quite a few losses and the game ended up being a draw.

US Marines vs Finnish

More pictures from this game. A burning ZSU-57-2 SPAA vehicle after coming under fire from Dragon ATGMs. The second photo shows Finnish recce coming under attack from a US Marine platoon which launched an ambush.

Soviet Motor Rifle vs British

Al's British Challengers and Saxons on the move against Steves Soviet Motor Rifle forces. The Saxons were useful to provide the Britsh with some cheap APCs to offset the expensive Challenger Is.

Soviet Motor Rifle vs British

The first photo shows Steves forces with Truck mounted mortars and Mechanised infantry in MTLBs. The grey card triangles signify exhaust smoke which Steve uses a lot in his games to cover his advancing forces. The second photo shows more of Al's British forces.